Today in history, we remember Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and also reiterate the fact that yes, he was a war criminal.
Excerpt from Mike Huckabee’s Know Your History Blog
| November 19 Learn Our History Today: On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered one of the most famous speeches in American history, the Gettysburg Address. The speech was delivered at the dedication of a military cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania – the site of the American Civil War’s deadliest battle, where in just three days, over 50,000 men were killed or wounded. For the ceremony commemorating the opening of the cemetery, famous orator Edward Everett was invited to give an address to the crowd. President Lincoln was also invited, but almost as an afterthought. For two hours, the crowd gathered at the somber ceremony listened to Everett speak. President Lincoln came up to the podium immediately following this speech. He spoke for only three minutes. These were Lincoln’s words: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—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.” |
Bob Barney – Sometimes when one ‘s life is cut short (MLK, JFK, etc.) we tend to make them into Gods…. They are not. Often, they are quite terrible human beings… On our message board, several months ago, we published an article on Lincoln’s Crimes. Today we are following up with another history lesson on the subject…
Consider a few rarely spoken facts:
- -Northern General U.S. Grant continued to hold a slave for nearly a year after the war. In fact, it took an act of Congress to finally free the man from Grant’s possession.
- -Northern General Tecumseh Sherman was arrested many times for brutally abusing several of his slaves.
- Conversely, Confederate General Robert E. Lee freed all of his slaves prior to the start of the war. That act by the military leader of the South truly displays that for the Confederacy, the war was only about states’ rights and a just rebellion against tyranny–not about slavery!
President Lincoln, who is considered by most historians (or at least the politically correct ones) to be the best and certainly the most important U.S. President, wielded power in a fashion never seen before nor since. The fact that he died as a martyr is why history has viewed him in such a kind albeit sanitized light.
During the Civil War, Lincoln continuously circumvented the law and, in many cases, suspended the Constitution altogether. In doing so, Lincoln denied the rights of citizens he was sworn to protect. He suspended the writ of Habeas Corpus, closed courts by force, and arrested citizens and elected officials without cause. Lincoln also raised troops without the consent of Congress, closed-down newspapers whose writers displayed any dissent to U.S. policy.
Lincoln’s troops razed the South and doomed to poverty–generations of Southerners for many years to come. General Sherman‘s “March to the Sea” was nothing more than a marauding rampage filled with robbery, rape, and murder. These men were less soldiers on a military mission and more common thugs on a crime spree. Northern armies brought war to women, children, and privately held property as a matter of official policy (rather than as so-called “collateral damage”).
Lincoln ordered the arrest of Baltimore police chief George P. Kane, police commissioner Charles Howard, as well as fellow commissioners: William H. Gatchell, John W. Davis, and Charles D. Hinks. Baltimore Mayor George W. Brown was arrested and sent to Fort McHenry. The men were incarcerated because they dared to publicly disagree with Lincoln and refused to carry-out the President’s tyrannical orders.
Baltimore was placed under federal control and a military police force was formed.
Both the continents of Europe and South America ended the practice of slavery, and unlike the United States government–they did so without murdering 700,000 of their own citizens. The abhorrent practice of slavery could have and would have been ended in this country, without ever firing a shot.
Contrary to popular belief (as perpetuated by government schools), slavery was a national institution, it was not unique to the South. Upon his inauguration, Lincoln could have freed the slaves in the Northern states which would have put severe diplomatic pressure on the South. However, Lincoln besides being a tyrant was also an incredible hypocrite. Lincoln’s multitude of personal letters show his outright disgust for the black man and his truly racist views.
Consider a few rarely spoken facts:
- -Northern General U.S. Grant continued to hold a slave for nearly a year after the war. In fact, it took an act of Congress to finally free the man from Grant’s possession.
- -Northern General Tecumseh Sherman was arrested many times for brutally abusing several of his slaves.
- Conversely, Confederate General Robert E. Lee freed all of his slaves prior to the start of the war. That act by the military leader of the South truly displays that for the Confederacy, the war was only about states’ rights and a just rebellion against tyranny–not about slavery!