Observations©

By Donald S. Conkey

Date: February 7, 2008 - # - 8806 - Title: Abraham Lincoln (802)

Tuesday, February 12, was Abraham Lincoln’s 199^th birthday. How many of you took a moment to ponder the role he played in preserving our unalienable right and liberties, and yes, even our nation? He was born in poverty and he died as President of the United States by a cowardly assassin, John Wilkes Booth.

Now ask yourself, what did Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King have in common? They both fought slavery and they both gave their life to seal their work – as do all who lead a fight to restore mankind’s liberties. And, I believe, both men climbed ‘that high mountain’ and felt the reassurance of a ministering angel sent by the Almighty to ease their pain and lift their spirits. Leadership is a lonely world for those who are raised up to lead difficult battles for freedom, as did both Lincoln and King.

And in both cases their successors failed to attain the grand visions both these men had. But today I am praising Lincoln for doing what the Founders could not accomplish while writing the Constitution; abolish slavery from the American soil.

King was also killed. And those that succeeded him also failed to implement his visions of peace.

Lincoln, known best for his Gettysburg address, truly deserves the magnificent monument that stands today in Washington D.C. His blood was not spilt in vain. His words, and actions, live on as a testimony not only to him but to the nation he governed for four years.

Can you imagine what would have happened had Lincoln not prevailed in that ugly war of brother against brother, or father against son? America truly would have been a nation divided; two nations always at war with one another, never to achieve the greatness that America’s Preamble suggests it would become.  The wounds of that war still have not healed, on either side of the Mason/Dixon line.  Mankind has yet to learn to forgive as the Savior taught, or as General Grant did during General Lee’s surrender at Appomattox.

Grant set a pattern for peaceful settlements most warring nations never accomplish. The victor, in this case Grant, negotiated with Lee as gentlemen; and they parted as gentlemen. The next day they met again for a half hour. There was no bitterness, no hatred.  Later, in accepting the nomination for the Presidency of the United States, Grant said “Let us have peace.”

Wow! What a statement! “Let us have peace.” What a novel idea? J. Reuben Clark, Jr. stated in his book, Stand Fast by Our Constitution, “Peace has been the pearl of great price, coveted, searched for, by man during all the ages.” But peace is illusive as the world continues to search for peace even today.

We in the United States today, like Lincoln’s people in 1861, are again at the crossroads, wanting to retain our ‘unalienable rights’ given to America by the Founding Fathers or buying into the ‘socialized slavery’ that comes when “the people” vote, often ignorantly,  for the farfetched promises being made by the socialized leaning candidates in today’s pre4sidential race. Remember it was the Creator who said “Nevertheless, when the wicked rule the people mourn.” Wicked people still want to govern – often brutally.

Lincoln, in a speech regarding the Declaration of Independence, given on February 22, 1861, said, “The Declaration of Independence which gave liberty not alone to the people of this country, but hope to the world, for all future time. It was that which gave promise, that in due time the weights [of slavery] would be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all [mankind] 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.” This remains the intent of Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence.

Lincoln was one of the few who fully understood that the phrase “the Laws of Nature, and of Nature’s God” Jefferson penned into the Declaration was truly the foundational cornerstone for the liberties and freedoms this nation enjoys today. He clarified his position on this subject on February 23, 1861 with these words “Freedom is the natural condition of the human race, in which the almighty intended me to live. Those who fight the purpose of the Almighty will not succeed. They always have been, they always will be, beaten.”

I hope each of us took a moment on Tuesday to reflect on that man who gave his life that all Americans could be free. His battle continues, and it will continue so long as wicked men, men who have little faith in “the people,” want to govern and control the lives, thoughts and goals of us, the common people.

“We the People” of America must not allow this to happen.