Posted on 09/26/2009 2:45:33 PM PDT by HokieMom
LEXINGTON, Va. (AP) -- Americans must pay attention to challenges to democracy today just as Abraham Lincoln did by fiercely opposing slavery, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas told a conference on the 16th president's legacy Friday night.
"We are part of something far greater than ourselves," Thomas told more than 300 people at Washington and Lee University.
Many in Lincoln's time didn't realize the threat that slavery posed to the principles on which the nation was founded, Thomas said.
"What a miserable job he had. He wasn't popular," Thomas said, "but he did what was right."
Thomas received a standing ovation from the audience in Lee Chapel, where Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee is buried.
He told conference participants he isn't a Lincoln scholar, but admires him greatly.
"My interest in him has been deeply personal and long-standing," said Thomas, who grew up in segregated rural Georgia in the 1950s and 1960s. "We thought of him then as the great emancipator."
The 61-year-old Thomas is the Supreme Court's second black justice. The first was Thurgood Marshall, whom he replaced in 1991.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Lincoln, arguably America’s greatest president, saved the nation from the worst gang of dishonest, slavery-loving power-mad tyrants that ever cursed our land. After Lincoln, the nation never again trembled at the rantings of the insane slavery lovers.
Become dictators and murder other Americans?
I strongly suspect Jeff Davis's regime killed many more dissenting Southerners than the number of dissenting Northerners who lost their life under the so-called tyrant Lincoln.
“Thomas said, “but he did what was right.”
No, what he did was politically expedient. He didn’t give a fip about the slaves.
Let me reverse your question:
There are a lot of American-owned websites that today promote Nazis, holocaust denial, a state seceding from the U.S., etc.
Should the federal government ban those websites?
I don’t believe we are at present at war with Nazis or holocaust deniers. Even secessionists are presently expressing political opinions, not engaging in armed assault on US forces.
In 1861 and again in 1864 CSA armed forces actively engaged in war against the USA were within 10 miles of the White House.
If you compare the claims by Taney that he was in fear of being arrested with Ward Lamon's tale then it's plain that the two don't match. Read Lamon's tale and it's full of holes. Taney told people he feared being arrested following the Merryman ruling, true. But there is apparently no basis for his paranoia. He was never arrested, never in danger of being arrested, and remained on the Supreme Court bench until his death in 1863.
Can you explain what it was that made Lincoln a fascist dictator? Thanks.
He also defended runaway slaves.
Ahh, okay. So the Constitution is suspended when there is a war. Sounds great.
Think Thomas knows of this quote?
“I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races – that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything.”
-Abraham Lincoln, Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois, September 18, 1858
Invading states. Suspending habeas corpus. Jailing state legislators. Jailing dissenters. Shuting down newspapers.
Even Lincoln's biggest fans admit he used unprecedented powers never before used as President. They usually follow it up with the lame excuse: "oh boo hoo, he had it real hard."
I'm sure he's aware of this one.
"... but I hold that, notwithstanding all this, there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence-the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these as the white man. I agree with Judge Douglas he is not my equal in many respects-certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual endowment. But in the right to eat the bread, without the leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man." - Abraham Lincoln, First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa, Illinois, August 21, 1858
Daring words for 1858, especially since the Southern Chief Justice of the Supreme Court had ruled not two years before that blacks were not entitled to any rights whatsoever.
The states were in rebellion. Habeas corpus can be suspended under certain conditions. The state legislators in question were trying to vote to join an ongoing rebellion against the United States. The jailing of dissenters was allowed under the suspension of habeas corpus in effect at the time. And the shutting down of newspapers has been grossly exaggerated. And if all that makes Lincoln a fascist dictator then wouldn't Jefferson Davis be one as well since he did just about everything on your list as well?
Even Lincoln's biggest fans admit he used unprecedented powers never before used as President.
He was also faced with a situation never faced by a President before - armed rebellion against the United States on a scale never before seen.
They usually follow it up with the lame excuse: "oh boo hoo, he had it real hard."
That's usually the reaction I see from the Southron supporters when I point out the ways Jefferson Davis trampled his own constitution.
Jefferson Davis isn’t held up on the same pedestal as Lincoln by the majority in this country, in case you didn’t notice.
That's also a standard reply by the Southron contingent. So in other words it's OK when Davis ignored his Constitution but not Lincoln. Hypocrisy is alive and well in the Southron camp.
No it wasn't, and I'm not going to defend him on it.
But two wrongs don't make a right, no matter how much the Lincoln apologists want to pretend it does.
But your not going to condemn him either.
But two wrongs don't make a right, no matter how much the Lincoln apologists want to pretend it does.
However Lincoln's "wrongs" are badly overstated by the rebel horde.
Now we're going in a circle. The reason being I talk about Lincoln and not Davis is that Lincoln is the one falsely portrayed as the 'greatest, infallible, God's gift to America president.'
You have a good day.
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