Friday, February 12, 2016
Saturday Politics : Lincoln's Lyceum Address Speaks to Today's American Political Situation
Saturday politics may sometimes be about better understanding the present by considering the past. All agree that America's political system is broken, and many blame this on a failure to compromise. ~~~~~ In his 1838 Lyceum Address, Abraham Lincoln asked : "But, why suppose danger to our political institutions?....to conclude that no danger may ever arise would itself be extremely dangerous. There are now, and will hereafter be, many causes, dangerous in their tendency, which have not existed heretofore." Lincoln went on to explain that 1789's constitutional government had been maintained "in its original form from its establishment until now." Lincoln thought the success was partly because of the continuing living memory of the 60-year-old Revolution : "At the close of that struggle, nearly every adult male had been a participator in some of its scenes. The consequence was, that of those scenes, in the form of a husband, a father, a son or brother, a living history was to be found in every family...in the limbs mangled, in the scars of wounds received, in the midst of the very scenes related--a history, too, that could be read and understood alike by all, the wise and the ignorant, the learned and the unlearned.--But those histories are gone....They were a fortress of strength....They were a forest of giant oaks....They were the pillars of the temple of liberty; and now, that they have crumbled away, that temple must fall..." Lincoln added that all the great men of the Revolutionary period sought celebrity, fame, and distinction by proving they were right : "their destiny was inseparably linked with it. Their ambition aspired to display before an admiring world, a practical demonstration of the truth of a proposition...namely, the capability of a people to govern themselves.... the basest principles of our nature, were either made to lie dormant, or to become the active agents in the advancement of the noblest cause--that of establishing and maintaining civil and religious liberty." Lincoln warned of those who would destroy the ideals of America : "The experiment is successful....But new reapers will arise....they will as naturally seek the gratification of their ruling passion, as others have so done before them....Is it unreasonable then to expect that some man possessed of the loftiest genius, coupled with ambition sufficient to push it to its utmost stretch, will at some time, spring up among us?" ~~~~~ And dear readers, Lincoln warned : "it will require the people to be united with each other, attached to the government and laws, and generally intelligent, to successfully frustrate his designs." Lincoln lived in a time when the Union was crumbling before people's eyes. Pro- and anti-slavery demagogues were ripping the United States apart. Did Lincoln offer compromise as the solution? No. He said passion had helped the Revolution succeed : "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." Lincoln called for the coldly logical application of reason and a reverent attachment to the Constitution and Law. And who did Lincoln hold up as the model to follow? George Washington. Lincoln said the America he described would prevail : "that we improved...that we remained free...that we revered his name to the last; that, during his long sleep, we permitted no hostile foot to tramp over or desecrate his resting place....our WASHINGTON. Upon these let the proud fabric of freedom rest, as the rock of its basis; and as truly as has been said of the only greater institution, "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Remarkable advice from the giant who saved the Union -- use reason, do not compromise but be unbending in reverence for the Constitution and the Rule of Law, be as determined to save the Union as Washington was in creating it. Good advice for 2016.
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I somehow think that the thought of leadership much like what we have gotten from the Progressive Socialist movement never even crossed the mind of President Lincoln. But when one considers that he really saw what was down the road between his 1838 Lyceum Address and the Civil War, followed up with his Gettysburg Address -0 he must have.
ReplyDeletePresident Obama hasn’t delivered on his promise to lead “the most transparent administration in history.” Instead, his administration has thwarted accountability at every turn.
Time and again, they have misled the American people -- on Obamacare, Fast and Furious, the IRS scandal and so very much more. Their first instinct is deny, misdirect and obfuscate.
Lately Federal (Presidents, Congress, various departments even Justice) Administrations spend more time confusing, complicating, and muddying up activities that have simply made controllable situations uncontrollable, uncontainable, and unmanageable.
Whereas for Washington and Lincoln theiir road map was the Constitution and the Rule of Law.
Some Conservatives may not like Abraham Lincoln suspension of habeas corpus during the Civil War or his disregard of states’ rights, but preserving the Union was Lincoln’s defining goal. Few have been as eloquent as Lincoln when he said at the hallowed ground of Gettysburg, “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.”
ReplyDeleteJust as Washington, Jefferson, Reagan, Coolidge, Cleveland, Monroe, and even Truman, Lincoln believed in what today we call American exceptionalism.
“Why was Lincoln so great?” Leo Tolstoy (the writer) asks. “He really was not a great general like Napoleon or Washington; he was not such a skillful statesman as Gladstone or Frederick the Great; but his supremacy expresses itself altogether in his peculiar moral power and in the greatness of his character.”
ReplyDeleteNone of our destiny may include taking up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but, regardless of where we lay our head at night, we still face challenges that demand strong character. Our families, churches, schools and communities need the leadership of men who possess more than brilliant resumes, charisma or charm: the times demand men of character (of which we seem to have very few today in public service)
To me friends, that’s the lesson of Lincoln: in trying times, character counts more than anything else.
I have spent my entire adult life in the service to this great nation - never elected, but never unwilling to put it all on the line – anywhere, anytime, anyhow. I grew up that way with the guiding hand of my sister who was smarter than I, and from as long as I can remember much more directed than I, but we both seemed to get where we wanted to be on our own with only the secure corner stones of life lessons that produced never yielding character and honesty from grandparents (the best the world has ever produced).
ReplyDeleteMy world produced many more dark moments than it did laughter and celebration. No public recognition, just an understanding that what I did was essential and unknowingly to most beneficial to this great country.
When I needed my reasoning to be recharged to continue my quest I read and reread the lives of the Founding Fathers and Abraham Lincoln. But it is the life & times, and in his great orations that Lincoln serves me the most.
Lincoln’s life of no frills, poverty for the longest time, failing time after time yet coming back for more, no formal education to speak of - you don’t reach the White House without a healthy dose of ambition, and Lincoln certainly wasn’t lacking that important ingredient. From his earliest days, he longed to rise above his humble and hardship beginnings and become a difference-maker.
I had a three and a half period in my life where almost all I had was my thoughts and that no matter how dark life was then, I would make it better when I could.
It was his ambition that preserved Lincoln through some of his darkest hours. During his early years in Springfield, he became severely depressed to the point that he confessed to his closest friend, Joshua Speed, that he was willing to die. Then he said to his friend , (perhaps his greatest quote about himself) however, was that “he had done nothing to make any human being remember that he had lived.”
Those 14 words that Lincoln spoke to Joshua Speed are with me always still today. We all have to something that is worthy of making a few, some, (or if your ever president) all to remember you lived.
Name me a leader who measures up to that quest today?