Abraham Lincoln – an annual tribute
An evening pause: On this, the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, I must once again honor his memory, most especially because the Marxist, anti-American bigots who are now running roughshod across our once free nation wish to cancel him by actually accusing the man who freed the slaves of being a racist.
And though he freed the slaves, I think Lincoln’s most enduring contribution to American history, a contribution that now has sadly been lost, was his limitless good will for everyone, even to those who hated him and wished to kill him. Had he not been assassinated, American history might have been far better because Lincoln would have had the clout to ease the worst elements of Reconstruction, while forcing through reforms in the former southern slave states.
The modern Democrats in Congress — and their supporters nationwide — might benefit by reading some history about Lincoln. Alas, I have no hope of this.
As I wrote for last year’s tribute,
Lincoln stood for freedom for all humans, the central heart of the American experiment. He was willing and did die for that stance. We should all be willing to do no less.
The video below shows probably every photograph ever taken of Lincoln, in chronological order. You can see him age and mature. You can also see a gaunt and serious man who appears to care deeply about whatever he does.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
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"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
To know Lincoln is to love Lincoln.
Had he not been assassinated, American history might have been far better because Lincoln would have had the clout to ease the worst elements of Reconstruction, while forcing through reforms in the former southern slave states.
I have no doubt. “With malice toward none, with charity for all…” was not empty sloganeering.
Many people have said that Lincoln only freed the slaves because of political reasons and didn’t really care about them before becoming president.
Show them this.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/22275114/nance-legins-costley-abraham-lincoln-first-freed-slave-carl-adams-peoria-pekin
I prefer the very few photos of our President Lincoln with a slight, very slight, smile to his countenance.
The photography pose, due to the art and “technology” of the time, was of a “be still” stoic style.
I choose to see President Lincoln as a man with a deep heart ache, all the while with a slight smile of understanding to the mystery of our being.
I believe that he smiled slightly a lot.
Perhaps not so well known is that Lincoln was a pretty good bare-knuckles fighter, and was known to challenge on occasion. Perhaps lawyering was different in 19th-century Illinois. Also allegedly a vampire-hunter, but I don’t think that’s canon.
Is everyone aware that the School Board in San Francisco is going to remove Lincoln’s name from a school there because he was a “racist”?
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/san-francisco-renaming-schools/
The people who made this decision — take some time to read the accounts of their “deliberations” and what they have said about their processes in reaching this decision — are not fit to crawl in the dust of Lincoln’s footsteps, but they believe themselves to be the most highly evolved and moral beings on the planet, and we must all BOW DOWN TO THEM AND OBEY. Sadly, this is exactly what the people who live in San Francisco are doing, and no one — apparently — has the courage to simply stand up and say that this is wrong.
PS to Robert: In this case, name calling and obscenities directed at the school board members who made this insane decision and the sniveling cowards in San Francisco who accept it would be in order, but what good would it do? As the Church might suggest, they are
confirmed in their invincible ignorance and, as Father Martin might have it, they are perfectly possessed by their own pride and arrogance. They are, as M. Scott Peck described such cases, “The People of the Lie.”
Milt: I posted this story in my daily blacklist posts on January 27th, though repeating it again is perfectly right.
It is better however to search BtB first to make sure the subject has been covered before. :) Your comment will be written with the right context.
Milt: I also linked to that earlier post in the first line of this tribute to Lincoln.
As a member of a VIRGINIA (landed Jamestown 1625) Southern family who became Republicans before 1858, the time from Reconstruction to WW2 would have been far better. One of the never taught points of history is for every Black hung (5,000~) in the South from 1865 to 1950, at least one white Republican was murdered and or had their homes burned down during the period. And almost everyone (Whites) had fought FOR the Confederacy and then against the KKK and the Democrat Party which ran the New South. Today we face the Rise of the Progressives, just the redressed Post Reconstruction DIMS………
A note:. About 90,000 blacks fought in the Confederate Army, none were in segregated units like the Union Army. A small county 50 miles South of here had a Confederate Soldier monument raised on the Courthouse Square in the 1890s, the person chosen by the Southern Veterans to be depicted standing with his musket, was the only black to serve with the local regiment from a county that never had any slaves on plantations. He won or was nominated for what would equal the Union Armies CMO three times. He saved at least twelve white solders from death on the battlefields by dragging or carrying them to the Medical Corps duringng engagements; he was the best shot in the outfit, accounted for several Yankee Officers dead. In the 90s a good olde boy (white redneck) got himself all liquored up one Saturday Night and crashed his truck into the Confederate soldiers statue. The outrage was something to behold (as my grandmother used to say), he was quickly Charged Tried and spent a full six months in jail. By the Time he got out, the county, citizens had raised ten times what the monument original cost and a black artist who has cast several MLK bronzes, had repaired the statue and remounted the bronze. This year the Progressives kept Yelling bloody murder until as a part of the Cleansing/Hate movement the Black Soldiers Statue was taken down, more history bites the DUST!
Note two:. about 92% of Southern males fought during the Late Yankee Invasion; about 30% of Northern Males; many were newly landed immigrants.
Note Three:. for Black History Month– the first American Special Forces Operation (Suicide Mission) was conducted by forty men – half Black half White. General Gage the American second in command was captured by British Regulars. The only way to get him back was to trade an officer of equal rank, so a plan was brought to Washington to capture the second highest English Officer in the Colonies. It ran at Oh Dark Thirty to break in and carry off the man from his bed under the nights guard. NO, NO firearms were allowed to any of them or officers because at the first shot the attempt would be over and all attackers dead……Well we got back General Gates in an even trade of Officers.
Alton: The point being that history is complex and messy, and anyone who tries to simplify it into simple us vs them or good vs evil proves themselves to be ignorant and close-minded.
The southern states seceded to defend the institution of slavery, a very big moral error. They also did it to defend state sovereignty, a very good idea. By making slavery their main goal however they ended up making that other goal irrelevant, and actually ended up destroying it forever.
And yes, not everyone in the south was for slavery. Nor was everyone in the north against it. Those facts still don’t change the major reasons for the war, nor how the sides lined up.
However, to understand history with depth and intelligence knowing all the facts and the messy nature of what happened only makes understanding more complete. Thank you for adding some facts.
The chapter of a fraternal organization I belonged to when I lived in the Hudson Valley had its annual Weekend (Fri-Sun) Gathering at the Ashokan Field Campus of SUNY-New Paltz. Picture summer camp for adults. The group before us was always Jay Ungar’s week long Fiddle and Dance, Ungar was in a bit of a melancholy mood one year after the camp ended, and composed this memorable music.