Posted on 11/06/2003 7:31:54 PM PST by republicanwizard
Let us remember Abraham Lincoln tonight and be grateful to the memory of this first Republican President, this commoner who grasped grand moral concepts with such clarity. He led this country through a crisis which makes the trials which have faced other Presidents seem trivial in comparison.
Let us also be thankful to have a President of Lincoln's quality in the White House today.
Terry McAuliffe Demands Recount
I'd like to agree with your sentiment that the present occupant of the WH has Lincoln's "quality," but such a notion does too much violence to Lincoln's surpassing eloquence and deep intelligence. GWB, for all his decency and strength, is nowhere near the same league. If he were operating with two junior secretarial staffers in the middle of a monumental crisis, as Lincoln did, he'd be completely over his head.
GWB benefits mightily by the quality and ubiquity of his help. Lincoln navigated his own way through a stormy sea.
Lincoln used war to destroy the U.S. Constitution in order to establish a powerful central government.
Lincoln illegally suspended the writ of habeas corpus; launched a military invasion without consent of Congress; blockaded Southern ports without declaring war; imprisoned without warrant or trial some 13,000 Northern citizens who opposed his policies; arrested dozens of newspaper editors and owners and, in some cases, had federal soldiers destroy their printing presses; censored all telegraph communication; nationalized the railroads; created three new states (Kansas, Nevada, and West Virginia) without the formal consent of the citizens of those states, an act that Lincoln’s own attorney general thought was unconstitutional; ordered Federal troops to interfere with Northern elections; deported a member of Congress from Ohio after he criticized Lincoln’s unconstitutional behavior; confiscated private property; confiscated firearms in violation of the Second Amendment; and eviscerated the Ninth and Tenth Amendments.
A New Orleans man was executed for merely taking down a U.S. flag; ministers were imprisoned for failing to say a prayer for Abraham Lincoln, and Fort Lafayette in New York harbor became known as "The American Bastille" since it held so many thousands of Northern political prisoners.
Lincoln further arrested legislatures of Maryland who opposed the war and apponted their replacements. He claimed the right to arrest anyone because he had suspended habeas corpus. When the Chief Justus of the Supreme Court declared this unconstitutional Lincoln ordered him arrested too.
Thank God we DON'T have another president like Lincoln in the WHitehouse today!
Regardless of the opinion of Lincoln I've always found it a bit odd how Washington gets ignored in "Greatest President" arguments.
He's so OBVIOUSLY our greatest President even having a debate seems silly. He DEFINED what the office of President is.
Basically, pretty much every armed revolution or civil war in history results in the newly-created government being taken over by a dictator. Washington broke that pattern when he served two terms, refused to be a king, and went home.
Resisting that temptation to be a dictator when you COULD be a dictator is UNBELIEVABLY difficult, even for the most pure-hearted person.
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