Friday, February 6, 2009 9:55 PM CST
OUR VIEW: Lincoln still relevant in the 21st century
By the JG/T-C Editorial Board
editorial@jg-tc.com
The bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth couldn’t have come at a better time.
Society could benefit in 2009 by focusing on Lincoln as an example of the preferred public official.
Lincoln wasn’t governor of Illinois, but it would behoove future governors if they reviewed Lincoln’s integrity and honesty prior to seeking office.
“Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.” Lincoln’s Cooper Institute Address, Feb. 27, 1860.
Lincoln is a complex study. Hundreds of books have been written about him. Each year, more books are published, even though it now has been more than 140 years since his death.
Lincoln had little formal education, yet became an outstanding lawyer and orator.
He had a sharp wit and easy sense of humor, yet he also struggled with depression and melancholy.
He opposed slavery, yet did not champion equality between the races.
That opposition to slavery was outweighed by his belief in maintaining the United States as it existed in 1860. That dedication to the Union resulted in Civil War.
“Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.” “Speech to 140th Indiana Regiment” March 17, 1865.
“A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.” Lincoln’s “House Divided” Speech in Springfield, June 16, 1858.
And despite a brutal four-year war, when it became apparent than the North would win and the Union would be preserved, Lincoln reached out to the soon-to-be vanquished rebels.
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan — to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.” Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865.
Lincoln came from common stock. His family, which settled in Coles County when he was a young man, were subsistence farmers.
But Lincoln visited several times a year, even after he became a wealthy lawyer and a rising politician.
This year, events relating to some part of Lincoln’s life are being observed in the Coles County area, throughout Illinois and nationally.
President Barack Obama has referred to Lincoln on several occasions on his route to the White House.
Obama announced his candidacy for the presidency from Springfield. He announced his selection of Sen. Joe Biden as vice president from the steps of the Old State Capitol where Lincoln made his “House Divided” speech. And Obama used the same Bible as Lincoln for his inauguration.
Author Carl Sandburg once referred to Lincoln as the strange friend and the friendly stranger.
“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal ... and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Nov. 19, 1863.
Lincoln’s life and career embody much of what has been right about America. We can learn a lot by studying 16th president.
“Stand with anybody that stands right. Stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.” Speech at Peoria, Ill., Oct. 16, 1854.
— JG/T-C Editorial Board
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Locke wrote on Feb 7, 2009 7:33 PM:
Government for the sake of government is the legacy of Lincoln.
Most simpletons never get past the Republican and Democratic party divide -- those who do get hung up on the conservative and liberal paradigm. Anyone who has studied the philosophy of government, hence not a simpleton, understands at one end of spectrum there stands Lincoln and at the other are the Founding Fathers.
Easiest way to spot a simpleton? They'll pay the Founding Fathers' lip service while praising Lincoln out of their opposite end. The two, not the opposite parts of the simpleton's body, but rather Hobbes and Locke, are fundamentally opposed, so you can't have one in conjunction with the other.
After Lincoln, one political philosophy came to dominate our government. I dare say we celebrate Independence Day for mechanical, patriotic purposes only. We don't need to protect liberty because we already 'won' it from the British -- or so those who lack any knowledge of Locke or Lincoln say. "