Examiner.com
September 3, 2009
Abraham Lincoln is considered among the top writers in world history for eloquent and powerful precision. He is revered as the father of the Republican Party. His commitment to the nation “of the people, by the people, for the people” is revered by all.
What most people do not know is that Abraham Lincoln is also a hero for his acts as a freshman member of the House of Representatives in the Congress of 1847-1849. Lincoln demanded that the President of the US provide specific evidence justifying the US invading a foreign country, suspecting that the President’s claims of a defensive war were lies to propagandize an offensive war for territorial control against a weaker nation. He did so despite the lack of support from most of his own political party. He demanded the facts despite his being painted by political opponents and the press as “unpatriotic.” The propaganda defeated Lincoln at his next election; his name slurred as “spotty Lincoln.” Lincoln was correct that the US President had indeed lied about the cause of war.
In our current US wars of invasion, our own government committee investigations have revealed the exact evidence backing claims that these are defensive wars for our national security. We now know from the evidence that all of these claims were not only false, but definitely known to be false at the time they were told to the American people and Congress. Don’t believe me, read the documentation here and here.
Given that these are Wars of Aggression, that our Constitutional rights have been destroyed through torture, the 2006 Military Commissions Act accepted by Mr. Obama that allows the President to slur American citizens as “unlawful enemy combatants” and detain them forever without rights, Mr. Obama's defense of a War of Aggression in Afghanistan, and further rhetoric for war with Iran (and here), how would Abraham Lincoln advise you today?
We have a pretty good idea, as follows.
For more powerful quotes from our Founding Fathers, click here. For 20th Century quotes on defending freedom, here. As always, please share this article with all who say they want to be responsible citizens. If you enjoy my work, please subscribe for free by clicking under the article title.
The following six paragraphs are from Abraham Lincoln in his Lyceum Address, January 27 1838. http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/lyceum.htm .
“At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us,
it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we
must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all
time, or die by suicide...
I know the American People are much attached to their Government;--I know they would
suffer much for its sake;--I know they would endure evils long and patiently, before they
would ever think of exchanging it for another. Yet, notwithstanding all this, if the laws be
continually despised and disregarded, if their rights to be secure in their persons and
property, are held by no better tenure than the caprice of a mob, the alienation of their
affections from the Government is the natural consequence; and to that, sooner or later, it
must come.
Here then, is one point at which danger may be expected.
The question recurs, "how shall we fortify against it?" The answer is simple. Let every
American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of
the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country; and never to
tolerate their violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support of the
Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every
American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor;--let every man remember
that to violate the law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the character of
his own, and his children's liberty. Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by every
American mother, to the lisping babe, that prattles on her lap--let it be taught in schools,
in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in Primers, spelling books, and in
Almanacs;--let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and
enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation;
and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay, of all sexes
and tongues, and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars.
While ever a state of feeling, such as this, shall universally, or even, very generally
prevail throughout the nation, vain will be every effort, and fruitless every attempt, to
subvert our national freedom.
…Passion has helped us; but can do so no more. It will in future be our enemy. Reason,
cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason, must furnish all the materials for our future
support and defense.--Let those materials be moulded into general intelligence, sound
morality, and in particular, a reverence for the constitution and laws.”
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