What would Lincoln do?

Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their violation by others.

As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor; let every man remember that to violate the law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the charter of his own, and his children's liberty.

Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by every American mother, to the lisping babe, that prattles on her lap; let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation; and Let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars.

While ever a state of feeling, such as this, shall universally, or even, very generally prevail throughout the nation, vain will be every effort, and fruitless every attempt, to subvert our national freedom.

- Abraham Lincoln, January 27, 1838
Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois

I am bound to be true - Abraham Lincoln

You are young, and I am older; You are hopeful, I am not— Enjoy life, ere it grow colder— Pluck the roses ere they rot. - Abraham Lincoln

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. - Abraham Lincoln

I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what's said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference. - Abraham Lincoln

Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. - Abraham Lincoln

I freely acknowledge myself the servant of the people, according to the bond of service - the United States Constitution; and that, as such, I am responsible to them. - Abraham Lincoln

If all men were just, there still would be some, though not so much, need of government. - Abraham Lincoln

The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the government, and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere. - Abraham Lincoln

To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men. - Abraham Lincoln

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Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived. - Abraham Lincoln

Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. - Abraham Lincoln

Peace is a thing which a person must be willing to fight for. - Abraham Lincoln

I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union, and the perpetuity of popular government; and to redress wrongs already long enough endured. - Abraham Lincoln

My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth. - Abraham Lincoln

While the people retain their virtue, and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government, in the short space of four years. - Abraham Lincoln

I will not support any candidate that promotes or condones torture. Period. This is America. We are not Nazis.

I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it. - Abraham Lincoln

The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. - Abraham Lincoln

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Abraham Lincoln

There is more involved in this contest than is realized by every one. There is involved in this struggle the question whether your children and my children shall enjoy the privileges we have enjoyed. - Abraham Lincoln

My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure. - Abraham Lincoln

Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed. - Abraham Lincoln

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. - Abraham Lincoln

Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure. - Abraham Lincoln

I laugh because I must not cry. That is all. That is all. - Abraham Lincoln

I have borne a laborious, and, in some respects to myself, a painful part in the contest. Through all, I have neither assailed, nor wrestled with any part of the constitution. - Abraham Lincoln

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We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot. - Abraham Lincoln

Exercise your citizen oversight and speak out!

It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong. - Abraham Lincoln

Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way. - Abraham Lincoln

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

When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That is my religion. - Abraham Lincoln

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm. - Abraham Lincoln

If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. - Abraham Lincoln

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Commitment is what transforms a promise into reality. - Abraham Lincoln

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I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being. - Abraham Lincoln

I had been told I was on the road to hell, but I had no idea it was just a mile down the road with a dome on it. - Abraham Lincoln

These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people. - Abraham Lincoln

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. - Abraham Lincoln

There are no accidents in my philosophy. Every effect must have its cause. The past is the cause of the present, and the present will be the cause of the future. All these are links in the endless chain stretching from the finite to the infinite. - Abraham Lincoln

Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and in the end you are sure to succeed. - Abraham Lincoln

He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help. - Abraham Lincoln

You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today. - Abraham Lincoln

I could not have slept tonight if I had left that helpless little creature to perish on the ground. - Abraham Lincoln (Reply to friends who chided him for delaying them by stopping to return a fledgling to its nest.)

The Railsplitter

You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. - Abraham Lincoln

Worse than traitors in arms are the men who pretend loyalty to the flag, feast and fatten on the misfortunes of the Nation, while patriotic blood is crimsoning the plains. . . and their countrymen moldering the dust. - Abraham Lincoln

Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world. - Abraham Lincoln

Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties. - Abraham Lincoln

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. - Abraham Lincoln

No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent. - Abraham Lincoln

Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. - Abraham Lincoln

Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution of the United States as our fathers made it inviolate. The people of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution. - Abraham Lincoln

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong. - Abraham Lincoln

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. - Abraham Lincoln

A house divided against itself cannot stand. - Abraham Lincoln

I have never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from the Declaration of Independence, that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence. I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it. - Abraham Lincoln

The possibility that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just. - Abraham Lincoln

The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country. - Abraham Lincoln

I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice. - Abraham Lincoln

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. - Abraham Lincoln

To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men - Abraham Lincoln

Friday, February 13, 2009

Like Lincoln, Obama takes humor where he finds it

And yesterday, President Obama managed to find a bit of humor in Judd Gregg's sudden withdrawal from his commerce nomination:

Obama was speaking during a dinner honoring the 16th president on the 200th anniversary of his birth.

"In 1854, Lincoln was simply a Springfield lawyer who'd served just a single term in Congress," Obama began as he tried to imagine Lincoln writing famous words about national unity.

"Possibly in his law office, his feet on a cluttered desk, his sons playing around him, his clothes a bit too small to fit his uncommon frame, maybe wondering if somebody might call him up and ask him to be commerce secretary ..." Obama said, trailing off and sparking applause and laughter.

Oh I'm sure some poor, languishing politician will want the job; seeing as Mr. Gregg is too good for the position in President Obama's cabinet at this time of great national need.

Hmm... speaking of Lincoln...

Some Republicans came to the White House to ask Lincoln to appoint their political cohort as port collector of Philadelphia.

"Mr. President," said their spokesman, "we have come here today to present our fellow Philadelphian to your favorable consideration. He is eminently qualified for the position -- not only for his administrative ability, but also for his unswerving loyalty to the Republican party. No honors, sir," continued the head of the Philadelphia delegation, "could be showered on him that could elevate him higher in the estimation of his fellow-men."

"Gentlemen," said Lincoln with a smile, "it gives me much gratification to hear the praise bestowed. Such a man needs no office -- it can confer on him no additional advantage, or add prestige to his well-earned fame!"

"Indeed you are right Mr. Chairman," summed up Lincoln, "that no honors could be showered on him that would elevate him higher in the estimation of his fellow-man. So to appoint to good and excellent a gentlemen to a paltry position like this would be an act of injustice to him. I shall reserve the office for some poor politician who needs it."

-- The Wit & Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln, James C. Humes

So. Are there any Republicans out there willing to put nation ahead of party? Anyone?

If not, perhaps it is time for President Obama to stop worrying about bipartisanship (when dealing with a party that only comprehends partisanship,) and simply nominate the best person for the job.

This is a very large country and there are many brilliant and qualified people running around out here (some of them are undoubtedly now looking for work.) If Republicans can't be bothered to take this job, I'm sure someone will be willing to grab the opportunity and run with it.

Let the Republicans sit in the corner and sulk because they are no longer in power. If that's the best they have to offer their country in our time of need -- we don't need them. They certainly aren't winning any brownie points from the people with this kind of behavior.

Labels: Abraham Lincoln, anecdote, humor, Judd Gregg, President Barack Obama, Secretary of Commerce

2 Comments:

Anonymous said...: Dear Maire,

I am the blog intern at Oxford University Press, and I recently discovered your blog. I especially enjoyed all of your "On This Day" posts and found your post on Lincoln's opinion on today's issues to be very interesting and informative.

I wanted to let you know about a series of posts that the OUPblog is featuring in celebration of the Lincoln Bicentennial. We have a bonanza of celebratory posts:
• An excerpt from James McPherson’s ABRAHAM LINCOLN: http://blog.oup.com/2009/02/lincoln-mcpherson/
• A series of FAQ’s with Allen Guelzo author of LINCOLN: A Very Short Introduction: http://blog.oup.com/2009/02/lincoln_questions/ and http://blog.oup.com/2009/02/abraham-lincoln-faq-part-one/ and http://blog.oup.com/2009/02/lincoln_faq/
• A look at how Lincoln almost failed by Jennifer Weber author of COPPERHEADS: The Rise and Fall of Lincoln’s Opponents in the North: http://blog.oup.com/2009/02/lincoln_fail/
• A post by Lincoln Prize Winner Craig L. Symonds comparing Lincoln and Obama: http://blog.oup.com/2009/02/lincoln_obama/

I hope you will take a look and consider encouraging your readers to check some of the posts out. We were also hoping that you would provide us with your contact information so that we can add you to our database.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments about the blog. Thank you for your time, and keep up the good work.

Regards,
Megan Branch
megan.branch@oup.com
OUP Blog Intern
198 Madison Avenue; 2:45 PM
Maire said...: Thanks for the heads up about your blog!

If you don't mind, I will link to you. This blog is in great need of an overhaul (there are many out-dated links along the sidebar, and I'd like to replace them with more Lincoln/historical contacts.); 4:16 PM