Four score 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.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense,
we can not dedicate
we can not consecrate
we can not hallow this ground.
The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
A most brilliant speech, delivered by a legitimately depressed man, arguably one of our best Presidents, but still hated by Southerners as if he were the devil incarnate.
The horrific precedents set by Lincoln of the brutal oppression of states rights that are guaranteed by the 9th and 10th amendments (and other parts) of the US Constitution may soon be revisited against the states by a different president if Trump is unable to succeed in his legal pursuit of preventing the obvious theft of this latest election.
This excerpt from a column by the great Walter Williams shows why Lincoln’s speech was senseless blather that attempted to hide the truth of why the War of Northern Aggression was selfishly undertaken by America’s most tyrannical president. It also points out how Lincoln’s illegal acts then bode ill for America today.
“The War of 1861 settled the issue of secession through brute force that cost 600,000 American lives. We Americans celebrate Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, but H.L. Mencken correctly evaluated the speech: “It is poetry, not logic; beauty, not sense.” Lincoln said the soldiers sacrificed their lives “to the cause of self-determination — that government of the people, by the people, for the people should not perish from the earth.” Mencken says: “It is difficult to imagine anything more untrue. The Union soldiers in the battle actually fought against self-determination; it was the Confederates who fought for the right of people to govern themselves.”
The War of 1861 brutally established that states could not secede. We are still living with its effects. Because states cannot secede, the federal government can run roughshod over the U.S. Constitution’s limitations of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments. States have little or no response.”
http://walterewilliams.com/historical-ignorance/
http://walterewilliams.com/historical-ignorance-ii/
^^^ and so the debate never ends.
Had the South been allowed to secede, what would it have become? A nation of slave states, unbounded by any dissent? Would the nation we know today have survived?
I don’t know the answers to these questions. Anyone?
There are two amazingly wonderful murals in the memorial painted by an Amercian artist, Jules Guerin, titled “Reunion and Progress” and “Emancipation of a Race”.
I just had to dig through about a dozen preceding pages of Leftist-interpreted “history” of the memorial before I could find pictures of them online.
Big Tech is an even bigger enemy of We the People.
Hey MJA
On line one is that : Four score and seven yearns ago, our FOREfathers… Magnificdnt speech!
I stand with Bubba’s Brother And Walter Williams. I am one to say Lincoln was a seething piece of shit. “Thus always to tyrants.”
Or more to his case, “Sic semper evello mortem tyrannis”.
SO MANY JOHN WILKES BOOTH FANS HERE!! WHO KNEW??
I’VE LED A SHELTERED LIFE HERE IN THE SOUTHWEST!!
@Fritz – since you asked LOL, I think the confederate states would have eventually become an economic powerhouse on par with the union states. The end of slavery was inevitable in a couple or three decades even without the war due to economic factors and the obvious moral reasons against the wrong-headed concept of people owning other people.
I also think the war could have been avoided entirely if fair minded negotiations had been undertaken to undo the onerous taxes that had been levied against the southern states for decades (and further added to by Lincoln and his allies in congress soon after his election) by the corrupt DC politicians that were controlled by the financial interests of the northern states. I think the union of all the states could have easily been resurrected and been stronger than before if the principles laid out in the Constitution had been adhered to rather than a tyrannical govt. brutally forcing their self-serving will on what were their fellow countrymen only weeks before that simply wanted to leave the union in peace.
We’re in similar shape now with the corrupt DC establishment putting their boots on the necks of the current”rebels” that dare oppose their intended tyranny. Only now, it isn’t just the southern states that are in rebellion, but rather the vast majority of the states that make up the union.
I’m not quite a fan of Booth. Or even a little bit of a fan of Booth.
But I’m certainly not a fan of Lincoln.
And I stand with Bubba’s Brother, Walter Williams, and Erik. Lincoln was a tyrant, and he set precedents that are biting us in the ass today.
Anyone who has not read William Safire’s meticulously researched Freedom – A Novel of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War needs to do so. Don’t let “A Novel” lead you to dismiss it. The history is solid, and is embellished Safire’s addition of dialog that was of course never recorded.
You know, the constitution has the procedure by which a state may be formed (Art IV, Sec. 3), but darned if I could find anywhere where it said a state could secede. But I did find in Art 1 Sec 10 where it forbids states forming confederations, compacts with other states, forming armies, coining money; “No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.”
And maybe some of the Sons of the Confederacy can tell me who fired on Fort Sumpter, starting the “War of Northern Aggression”?
And if we’re going to play “What if”, What if the southerners had just picked their own damn cotton?
Tony – Ft. Sumter had been declared the property of the confederacy (the southern states laid out what would be theirs when they left the union which only included land / fixtures in the southern states which they rightfully pointed out had already been paid for (and then some) by their taxes). The Confederacy specifically warned Lincoln that trying to resupply Ft. Sumter would constitute an act of war because it was no longer the property of the union. Thus, in effect, Lincoln fired the first shot when he tried to resupply Ft. Sumter knowing that it would cause some degree of armed conflict.
The columns I linked above discuss that many of the states in the documents that ratified the Constitution reserved the right to leave the union if conditions of staying in it became unbearable to them. The Constitution was a contract between the states, not a declaration of perpetual enslavement under a central power. Thus, it was deemed common knowledge by most people of that time that the states had every right to secede – the agreement that created the union was voluntary.
And the Declaration of Independence (which is as important as the constitution in many ways) lays out the just reasoning why the union could and should be dissolved based on the certain conditions such as if the parties felt they could no longer coexist in peace because of unjust treatment by the government that they themselves created.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
Americans: “We won.”
Confederates: 75 page diatribe explaining how they were the actual victors.
And yet, Lincoln won the war and here some of you are, hating him to this day. But the nation still stands as one Union in spite of your moot point. Are you truly sorry the country is still one? If so, feel free to throw your share of it away! What’s stopping you?
I’m sick of this shit. I don’t care whether you hate Lincoln or not. We still have one country and a President willing to fight for it and its Constitution.
That’s why I say: GO FULL LINCOLN, Mr. President and WIN THIS WAR.
I seem to recall a recent corrupt president also making the smarmy comment of “we won”. That seems to be the un-intellectual retort of people trying to convince themselves of their own supposed superiority.
Jimmy – Lincoln effectively murdered close to a quarter of a million Americans because he didn’t want to lose the tax revenue that was confiscated from the southern ports. Approximately 75% of the revenue to the federal govt was confiscated from the southern states.
I have ancestors that died in that unjust war and the southern states still suffer from some of the economic effects of the war in rural areas. Hate is too strong of an emotion to waste on the likes of Lincoln, but having no use for him has nothing to do with what I think of the USA today. I personally don’t consider knowing accurate history rather than the fairy tales we’ve been taught all our lives as being a moot point.
I don’t want to give up my share of this great country, but it looks more and more like that choice is actively being taken from all of us today by the ideological descendants of Lincoln’s tyrannical emanations (the DC establishment of both parties).
:Laughs in American:
Q.: Do you know the first words Lincoln spoke after waking up from a three-day drunk?
A.: “…I freed the WHAT“?!!!
😉
As a Gulf War Veteran, these are such powerful words. As I read them today, it affirms our nations strength and true goodness.
George Washington is not a hero in England and Lincoln is not revered in the southern states. However, sensible descendants of those on the losing side of war can acknowledge the tragedy of familial and societal losses in their history while at the same time viewing descendants of former enemies as current allies or countymen.
But, if the Yankees want the sons and daughters of the Confederacy to coexist peaceably in this great nation, they should stop with the carpetbagging, stay up north, and keep their state gun control laws, high taxes, labor unions, and other societal ills to themselves. I am so tired of northern liberals moving here for our way of life and then voting to change it.
Jefferson was cool with secession, so so am I.
I HAVE BEEN READING ALL YOUR COMMENTS AND IF WE REALLY LOOK AT ALL OF THEM WITHOUT BIAS OR PREJUDICE YOU WOULD SEE THAT ALL OF YOU MAKE SENSE IN WHAT YOU HAVE POSTED. BUT THAT WHAT MAKES OUR NATION SO GREAT. THAT VERY CONSTITUTION AND BILL OF RIGHTS DESIGNED SO EVERYONE CAN AGREE TO DISAGREE IN ONE FORM OR ANOTHER WITHOUT RESORTING TO WAR. OUR WAR BETWEEN THE STATES WAS INEVITABLE AT THE TIME AND WE SEE MANY OF THE SAME FACTORS NOW AS WERE TAKING PLACE THEN. BUT LIKE I WROTE EARLIER IN THIS POST EVERYONE IS IN A WAY RIGHT .
Sgt Snuffy must be a drill sgt.
I have always found the CW to be a false dichotomy. One need not oppose secession to oppose slavery. Conversely, one cannot affirm the liberty of individuals while denying the liberty of the States.
Such is the nature of the deceiver, I suppose. Funny how little has really changed.
READ THE CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA.
It establishes slavery as a good thing for blacks.