Happy Birthday!
“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.” Abraham Lincoln
The tall, lanky man from Illinois via Indiana, 16th president, is considered our greatest by many historians. He traveled from humble beginnings to Commander in Chief during the Civil War and became the man who broke the back of slavery in America.
Lincoln knew one parent. Uneducated, his father’s carpentry skills made him a property owner in Indiana, then Illinois. Thomas Lincoln was a Baptist whose sect believed slavery was wrong. Abraham ultimately became a lawyer with strong anti-slavery feelings. Today, he might be a civil rights lawyer.
Instead, Lincoln served one term in Illinois’ House of Representatives; he opposed the Mexican War as unnecessary and unconstitutional. He won the presidential election and served as Commander in Chief through the most devastating time in our early history: the Civil War. Lincoln’s final Emancipation Proclamation of 1862 permitted blacks to serve in the army.
Like today, when a black presidential nominee electrified listeners at the 2004 Democratic Convention, Lincoln left us two memorable speeches: The Gettysburg Address and the inaugural speech in which he urged “malice towards none”, “charity for all”.
When President Lincoln was told he should not, could not emancipate slaves, he said for all the world to hear: “Yes, I can.”
Meditation for the Day
“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” Abraham Lincoln
Action for the Day
Today, and during the coming elections, I will examine the candidates as Lincoln might examine them. And, most of all, I WILLVOTE.
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