Abe Lincoln Said This

"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,—most sacred right—a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government, may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people that can, may revolutionize, and make their own, of so much of the territory as they inhabit. More than this, a majority of any portion of such people may revolutionize, putting down a minority, intermingled with, or near about them, who may oppose their movement. Such minority, was precisely the case, of the tories of our own revolution. It is a quality of revolutions not to go by old lines, or old laws; but to break up both, and make new ones."

And then invaded a country's peoples who did just that.

https://library.brown.edu/create/modernlatinamerica/chapters/chapter-14-the-united-states-and-latin-america/primary-documents-w-accompanying-discussion-questions/abraham-lincoln-on-the-mexican-american-war-1846-48/

ddraines®

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Re: Abe Lincoln Said This

Jun 10, 2018, 1:46 AM

All humanity in present time has a reflexive tendency to judge the past based on our current generally accepted morals.

Lincoln was a true revolutionary in his time. You’ll find that he also said if he could “free all of the slaves and keep the Union together I’d do it. If I could free some of the slaves to keep the union together I would do that, and if I had to free none of the slaves to keep the union together, I would do that as well.”

Abhorrent, when you take that all in today as a majority of Americans like me who see people as they are, but almost on the heels of that statement, his stake in the ground via the emancipation proclamation started the evolution of our county’s development that has defined our moral compass ever since.

Our Representative Republic is what allows this, starting from the moment George Washington refused to become king and later stepped down from a third term.

If we are completelyi puritanical by today’s standards Lincoln was a racist bigot, yet I hope most thinking people can apply context, internalize, and appreciate his true contribution to our nation.

In terms of social perspective, I’d like to think I’m better than my father, who was better than his, and so on.

It’s hard for us to apply perspective within a given lifetime, but I’m pretty sure that generally this world is improving not getting worse.

Recommended read- Shelby Foote’s “The Civil War”. It’s the source material for the PBS Ken Burns documentary. It’ll suck you in, and it’s available on Audible.

Ba’ath!! Enough of me!

####, sorry for the diatribe. It’s Joe’s fault!