Toppling Statues
Honest Abe’s Colossal
Lie
As a schoolboy I considered
Abraham Lincoln one of our greatest presidents.
His integrity was legendary and his martyr’s death seemed to seal our
affections for posterity. Oratory
without par, he was dealt a difficult hand by a badly divided nation and
heroically, with much opposition, preserved the Union. But I am no longer a
schoolboy and have learned to think for myself. His legacy remains: an
omnipotent centralized national government unhampered by the constraint of the
Constitution. My conclusion is that
“Honest Abe” was a colossal liar. Until
his death he maintained his racist views that “the race to which he belonged”
should remain dominant and that his only reason for war was not to remove
“African subjection” but to preserve the Union.
The idea that Lincoln was morally opposed to slavery is easy to refute. The
fact that so many still embrace him as the “Great Emancipator” proves two things:
If you repeat a lie long enough and protest loud enough, people will believe it
no matter how patently false; and, secondly. those who win the war get to write
its history.
If it wasn’t slavery for which
Lincoln killed 300,000 fellow Americans and allowed the rape and pillage of
thousands more throughout the South, what was it? Our 16th president stands in a long
line from Alexander Hamilton, to Daniel Webster, through Teddy Roosevelt and
Woodrow Wilson, who fought for strong central government and a reduction of
State’s/Civil Rights. Lincoln, in spite
of his lip service to “government of the people, by the people, and for the
people” in his greatest speech, was a dictator bent on forcing capitulation to
the Union. That tripartite creed is
dripping with irony. Given at Gettysburg
and required reading/memorization for kids of my generation, it implied that
the Union soldiers died for the great principles of self-government when in
fact the exact opposite is true.
When seven southern states voted for
self-government they were invaded. Six more joined the Confederates when they
saw what Lincoln was up to. Compelled to subservient existence throughout
“reconstruction” the economy of the south, until the war a fruitful supply of
wealth for the north, did not recover for 100 years! Reconstruction is a
misnomer. The Republican north created
out of whole cloth something that had never existed before: regional puppet
governments beholden to a centralized, tyrannical government by dictator. It must be especially galling for those in
the south to get the blame. How strange
since the 13 united States [sic] seceded from King George III less than a
century earlier and northern states considered secession throughout Jefferson’s
presidency.
Calling a national hero, whose
likeness is on our currency and monuments from the District of Columbia to the
state of South Dakota, a dictator and a liar is quite offensive to many who
grew up on a steady diet of Lincoln worship.
The facts speak for themselves:
- Within 3 months (!) of his first inaugural Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus throughout the war
- Within 3 months (!) of his first inaugural Lincoln invaded the south without Congressional consent
- Imprisoned over 2,000 northern citizens who opposed his policies
- Confiscated over 200 newspapers in the north who printed stories critical of his policies
- Arrested and deported sitting Ohio Congressman Clement Vallandigham for opposing his policies
- Confiscated thousands of firearms from those who opposed his policies
- Ignored the debauchery of Generals Sheridan (scorched earth policy in Shenandoah Valley) and Sherman (March to the Sea) whose underlings stole or burned private property and raped women.
Published President's Day 2018
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