Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

JUSTICE THOMAS AND MISTER LINCOLN: A THOUGHT ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, 2003
Declaration Foundation ^ | July 3, 2003 | rdf

Posted on 07/03/2003 3:00:12 PM PDT by rdf

In the Michigan Affirmative Action cases recently decided by the United States Supreme Court, Justice Thomas cited the Declaration of Independence.

I quote from his dissent:

For the immediate future, however, the majority has placed its imprimatur on a practice that can only weaken the principle of equality embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the Equal Protection Clause. "Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens."

Thomas is right. The Court, led in this case by Justice O'Connor, has betrayed American Principle and Constitutional Law. It has allowed unequal treatment of citizens on the basis of race, for a misshapen extra-constitutional idol called "Diversity." And President Bush has actually praised the court for its bowing before this alien god.

The same sort of thing happened in Roe v. Wade, 30 years ago, and in Dred Scott in 1857. Equality was denied; the Declaration scorned, and the Republic tolerated gross injustice. In the case of abortion, it still tolerates the evil, to its shame.

(Excerpt) Read more at declaration.net ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: clarencethomas; constitution; declaration; independenceday; lincoln; oconnor; ruling; thomas
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-8081 next last
My contribution for the Glorious Fourth this year.

To read the whole thing, go to the source, www.declaration.net

The piece is chiefly the golden words of Lincoln; he is hard to beat.

cheers,

Richard F.

1 posted on 07/03/2003 3:00:12 PM PDT by rdf
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: rdf
And it is a glorious contribution!

BUMP
2 posted on 07/03/2003 3:15:02 PM PDT by JulieRNR21 (Take W-04........Across America!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JulieRNR21
Thanks for the kind words

Richard F.
3 posted on 07/03/2003 4:26:02 PM PDT by rdf
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: rdf
SPOTREP
4 posted on 07/03/2003 4:40:46 PM PDT by LiteKeeper
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: billbears; 4ConservativeJustices; stainlessbanner; wardaddy; Gianni; PeaRidge; Aurelius; ...
OOPS! Sorry for pinging to the wrong thread. This is the correct one.

Looks like the "father abraham" cultists have crawled out of the woodworks again for their holy day of worship. Take a particularly close look at the following passage from this article and tell me with a straight face that the Lincoln crowd doesn't worship the guy. They throw out ba'al as a red herring for slavery (which, BTW, Lincoln was perfectly willing to tolerate and even enshrine into the constitution) but the real idol of the day was mammon. That idolatry of greed and power continues to this day in the worship of the state and the undeserved veneration of its secular idols like Lincoln. Here's the quote: "Slavery was the Baal of those days, the idol before whom the apostates worshiped, and Lincoln preached the Declaration to convert them, and save the whole people. I mean to show you Father Abraham's words, as an act of proper homage to him, in mourning for the errors of the Court in our day, and as a model of the right use of Declaration Principles in overcoming injustice. Lincoln, and Liberty, prevailed in the 19th Century. If we remain faithful to the founding, we will prevail in our day."

5 posted on 07/03/2003 11:04:25 PM PDT by GOPcapitalist
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rdf
Good words by Lincoln and also by Justice Thomas.

Bump for the Declaration of Independence !

6 posted on 07/03/2003 11:32:10 PM PDT by happygrl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GOPcapitalist
The religious overtone is just too syruppy, no? He goes on with:

Are we willing to let the Declaration be frittered away by judges, lawyers, political advisors, presidents, and other politicians who will not stand up for its self-evident truths?

Fritted away? Fritted away? Come on now, author! We all know that their opinion is all that matters, and the Constitution was written to vest all power (including the ability to confer more power upon themselves) in those very people who he claims is "frittering" away our freedom and principle. /sarcasm

In short, will we remain a people forged on the anvil of the Declaration, and bound by it as by a covenant hallowed in the blood shed at Bunker Hill, Gettysburg, Bataan, and wherever else men have died "shouting the battle cry of Freedom?"

Personally, I would have picked a battle where the men "shouting the battle cry of Freedom" won.

7 posted on 07/04/2003 5:02:43 AM PDT by Gianni (Bleeding and Leeching performed here!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Gianni
Personally, I would have picked a battle where the men "shouting the battle cry of Freedom" won.

He did.

8 posted on 07/04/2003 5:07:44 AM PDT by Non-Sequitur
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: GOPcapitalist
""Slavery was the Baal of those days, the idol before whom the apostates worshiped, and Lincoln preached the Declaration to convert them, and save the whole people."

It was a little hard for me to believe that that wasn't written as satire, but I see that it was written in all seriousness..

9 posted on 07/04/2003 6:31:13 AM PDT by Aurelius
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Non-Sequitur
Yes, lincoln won and the country and her constitution lost.
10 posted on 07/04/2003 6:57:32 AM PDT by rebelyell
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Aurelius
It was a little hard for me to believe that that wasn't written as satire, but I see that it was written in all seriousness..

Sick, ain't it? The same author of that piece wrote a similar one during the Trent Lott controversy over Thurmond. It was a fictional prayer session in which Lott prayed to "father abraham" for forgiveness of his "sins" against "the union" by praising Thurmond. The entire dialogue was loaded with religious acts of veneration toward Lincoln as if he were a deity. The hideous blasphemy aside, one could easily have mistaken it for a satire. But then, as now, it appears that the author wrote it in all seriousness.

11 posted on 07/04/2003 8:19:59 AM PDT by GOPcapitalist
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: rebelyell
Yes, lincoln won and the country and her constitution lost.

President Lincoln won, the country won, and more damage has been done to the Constitution in the last 20 years than was ever done during the Civil War. But no doubt you'll blame that on Lincoln, too.

12 posted on 07/04/2003 8:50:44 AM PDT by Non-Sequitur
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Non-Sequitur
For old times' sake, here is the Lott satire.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/808062/posts

cheers,

Richard F.
13 posted on 07/04/2003 11:37:52 AM PDT by rdf
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: rdf
I was wondering how I could have missed that one, but I see from the date it happened while I was out of town. Still, it's an oldie but a goodie.
14 posted on 07/04/2003 1:23:33 PM PDT by Non-Sequitur
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Non-Sequitur
There are some interesting things on the thread about my satire. Esp. regarding Affirmative action. Sometimes old news is illuminating.

Cheers, and Happy Fourth!

Richard F.
15 posted on 07/04/2003 1:39:10 PM PDT by rdf
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: GOPcapitalist
I mean to show you Father Abraham's words, as an act of proper homage to him, in mourning for the errors of the Court in our day, and as a model of the right use of Declaration Principles in overcoming injustice

Father Abraham? That's not worship, that's outright deification!! I guess he forgot to read Herndon's 'Life of lincoln'. I don't think the real Father Abraham would much approve

No man had a stronger or firmer faith in Providence -- God -- than Mr. Lincoln, but the continued use by him late in life of the word God must not be interpreted to mean that he believed in a personal God. In 1854, he asked me to erase the word God from a speech I had written and read to him for criticism, because my language indicated a personal God, whereas he insisted that no such personality ever existed. --Herndon, Life of lincoln

16 posted on 07/04/2003 1:42:32 PM PDT by billbears (Deo Vindice)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: GOPcapitalist
"The same author of that piece wrote a similar one during the Trent Lott controversy over Thurmond. It was a fictional prayer session in which Lott prayed to "father abraham" for forgiveness of his "sins" against "the union" by praising Thurmond."

You roused my curiosity, or my desire for a good laugh.

It is here: Penance for Senator Lott

While it is indeed funny, it is also sad.

17 posted on 07/04/2003 1:56:40 PM PDT by Aurelius
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: billbears
Father Abraham? That's not worship, that's outright deification!!

Idolatry is alive and kicking in several areas of the conservative movement. It often involves state worship or worship of a state's secular heroes. Lincoln is foremost among the idols that they worship.

18 posted on 07/04/2003 2:01:34 PM PDT by GOPcapitalist
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: billbears
Father Abraham? That's not worship, that's outright deification!!

So what would 'Marse Robert' be?

Lincoln made many references to God during his time as president, starting with his Farewell Address to the people of Springfield:

"My friends, no one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of the Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell."

to his Thanksgiving Proclamation:

"It has pleased Almighty God to prolong our national life another year, defending us with his guardian care against unfriendly designs from abroad, and vouchsafing to us in His mercy many and signal victories over the enemy, who is of our own household. It has also pleased our Heavenly Father to favor as well our citizens in their homes as our soldiers in their camps and our sailors on the rivers and seas with unusual health. He has largely augmented our free population by emancipation and by immigration, while he has opened to us new sources of wealth, and has crowned the labor of our working men in every department of industry with abundant rewards. Moreover, He has been pleased to animate and inspire our minds and hearts with fortitude, courage and resolution sufficient for the great trial of civil war into which we have been brought by our adherence as a nation to the cause of Freedom and Humanity, and to afford to us reasonable hopes of an ultimate and happy deliverance from all our dangers and afflictions...Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do, hereby, appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next as a day, which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens wherever they may then be as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to Almighty God the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe. And I do farther recommend to my fellow-citizens aforesaid that on that occasion they do reverently humble themselves in the dust and from thence offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the Great Disposer of events for a return of the inestimable blessings of Peace, Union and Harmony throughout the land, which it has pleased him to assign as a dwelling place for ourselves and for our posterity throughout all generations."

And on dozens of times between and after the two, Lincoln invoked the name of God in public speeches and private correspondence. Far too many for it to be dismissed as mere political posturing by any objective person. Lincoln came to God late in life, under the crushing burden of the Presidency and the loss of his favored son. But came to God he did, and for you or anyone else to dismiss his faith as phony is sinking about as low as anyone can get.

19 posted on 07/04/2003 2:15:11 PM PDT by Non-Sequitur
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Non-Sequitur
But came to God he did, and for you or anyone else to dismiss his faith as phony is sinking about as low as anyone can get.

Hey don't talk to me about it, take it up with Herndon. He was the one who said he knew the man since the 1830s and put his faith into question. And notice in his farewell speech he did not say 'God', which is in keeping with Herndon's comments. As for the Thanksgiving Proclamation? Heck who knows, Chase probably wrote it for him. The man was doing everything else for 'Father Abraham' (i.e. printing money out of the air, getting the nation into a war with its neighbor over tariff dollars, etc), so speech writing for abe couldn't have been too much of a stretch

20 posted on 07/04/2003 4:11:42 PM PDT by billbears (Deo Vindice)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-8081 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson