Great Words from Great Presidents

It’s Presidents’ Day. We spent it with grandkids. Went to a fun little rock shot to satisfy a granddaughter’s new interest in geology, went to the park, did some artwork, and some cooking.

We are living after the manner of happiness[i]—which is something we can still do in this great country.

To mark the holiday here today, I’ll share a few quotes (mostly that I think I haven’t shared before) from some favorite presidents. Just one from George Washington today (shared on Facebook today by Wallbuilders), the rest from Abraham Lincoln.

  

The world has never had a good definition of liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in need of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.

With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men’s labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name—liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names—liberty and tyranny.

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as a liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep was a black one. Plainly the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of the word liberty; and precisely the same difference prevails today among us human creatures, even in the North, and all professing to love liberty. Hence we behold the processes by which thousands are daily passing from under the yoke of bondage, hailed by some as the advance of liberty, and bewailed by others as the destruction of all liberty.— Abraham Lincoln, in his Address at a Sanitary Fair, Baltimore, Apr. 18, 1864

 

Abraham Lincoln

I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day. Lincoln Observed: The Civil War Dispatches of Noah Brooks, edited by Michael Burlingame (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998), p. 210.

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

As each man has one mouth to be fed, and one pair of hands to furnish food, it was probably intended that that particular pair of hands should feed that particular mouth.—Abraham Lincoln

Responding to a question about which side God was on during the Civil War: “I am not at all concerned about that, for I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord’s side.” Abraham Lincoln’s Stories and Speeches, ed. J. B. McClure, Chicago: Rhodes and McClure Publishing Co., 1896, pp. 185–86.)

This, and this only (will satisfy the South): cease to call slavery wrong, and join them in calling it right… Holding, as they do, that slavery is morally right, and socially elevating, they cannot cease to demand a full national recognition of it, as a legal right, and a social blessing…Let us be diverted by none of these sophistical contrivances…such as groping for some middle ground between the right and the wrong.—Abraham Lincoln  

If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.—Abraham Lincoln

No oppressed[ii] people will fight, and endure, as our fathers did, without the promise of something better than a mere change of masters.—Abraham Lincoln, Fragment on the Constitution and Union, January 1, 1861

Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide.—Abraham Lincoln, Lyceum Address

Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC

I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day. Lincoln Observed: The Civil War Dispatches of Noah Brooks edited by Michael Burlingame (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998), p. 210.

We the people 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] 2 Nephi 5:27 “And it came to pas that we lived after the manner of happiness.”

[ii] The quote as I found it had a comma here, after “oppressed,” and also after “better.”  It doesn’t make sense to include these, so I have omitted them, in hopes of clarifying.

Last Full Measure of Devotion

It’s Memorial Day, and I want to add my tribute to those who paid the “last full measure of devotion.” Mostly I’ll be sharing tributes others have offered that I think are beautiful.

Let’s start with words from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address:

…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.—Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address

These words from Lincoln show up at the end of the three-minute video below, Hillsdale College’s Memorial Day tribute from 2016, which includes Ronald Reagan offering tribute, plus the song “Mansions of the Lord.”

Here are some of Reagan's words:

We are a nation under God, and I believe God intended for us to be free. We must realize that nor arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.

The price for this freedom at times has been high. But we have never been unwilling to pay that price.

Those that say that we’re in a time when there are no heroes, they just don’t know where to look.

President Reagan had a knack for saying the right thing. Here’s another tribute using his words. It comes from Champion Forest Baptist Church, which is in Northwest Houston, from 2014, which includes these words from Pres. Reagan:

The imagination plays a trick. We see these soldiers in our mind as old and wise. We see them as something like the Founding Fathers—grave and gray-haired. But most of them were boys when they died. And they gave up two lives: the one they were living, and the one they would have lived…. They gave up everything for our country, for us. We owe them a debt we can never repay. All we can do is remember them, and what they did, and why they had to be brave for us.

One more. This links to a tweet from 2015 in which Chris Pratt is teaching his son the Pledge of Allegiance. It should make you smile.  

Emphasizing Civiization

I fill up my quote file randomly, with what happens to come across my path on a given day. But recent additions have leaned toward the Social Sphere—Civilization and how to get there. Or maybe it's that, as we've known all along, the political, economic, and social spheres are interrelated, and you don't get freedom and prosperity if you sink from civilization into savagery. So it's wise to emphasize civilization.

The Social Sphere--or Civilization Sphere

So here are some of my recent additions to the file:

There always has been, and is now more than ever, only one hope for rescue. If we abide in God’s truth revealed in his Son, then we shall know the truth and the truth will set us free. That is why I say again and again that we must dispense with our verbal arsenal that speaks only in terms of right and left. We have forgotten there is an up and a down. May God help us! We need His transforming power to change our thinking and to give us a hunger for what is true. True freedom is not in doing whatever we wish but in doing what we ought. That has been buried in America. And only one who knows the way out of the grave can give us a second chance to live: Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life that sets us free from within first, before we learn to deal with the lies around us.—Ravi Zacharias, “The Soul of America,” 7-2-2016

The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.

—John F Kennedy

The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained.—George Washington, First Inaugural Address, April 30 1789

"I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day." Lincoln Observed: The Civil War Dispatches of Noah Brooks edited by Michael Burlingame (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998), p. 210.

I feel a strong desire to tell you—and I expect you feel a strong desire to tell me—which of these two errors is the worse. That is the devil getting at us. He always sends errors into the world in pairs—pairs of opposites. And he always encourages us to spend a lot of time thinking about which is the worse. You see why of course? He relies on your extra dislike of the one error to draw you gradually into the opposite one. But do not let us be fooled. We have to keep our eyes on the goal and go straight through between both errors. We have no other concern than that with either of them.—C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

The First Amendment of the Constitution was not written to protect the people of this country from religious values; it was written to protect religious values from government tyranny.—Ronald Reagan

Happiness, whether in despotism or democracy, whether in slavery or liberty, can never be found without virtue.—John Adams

All the principles of science are of divine origin. Man cannot make or invent or contrive principles. He can only discover them, and he ought to look through the discovery to the Author.—Thomas Paine

Without God, there could be no American form of government, nor an American way of life.—Dwight D. Eisenhower

"[N]o wall of words, [and] no mound of parchment can be so formed as to stand against the sweeping torrent of boundless ambition on the one side, aided by the sapping current of corrupted morals on the other."—George Washington (1789)

Evil may so shape events that Caesar will occupy a palace and Christ a cross, but that same Christ will rise up and split history into A.D. and B.C., so that even the life of Caesar must be dated by his name. Yes, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”—Martin Luther King, Jr. (quoting 19^th Century abolitionist Theodore Parker)

This is still God’s world. The forces of evil, working through some mortals, have made a mess of a good part of it. But it is still God’s world. In due time, when each of us has had a chance to prove ourselves—including whether or not we are going to stand up for freedom—God will interject himself, and the final and eternal victory shall be for free agency.

And then shall those complacent people on the sidelines, and those who took the wrong but temporarily popular course, lament their decisions.

To the patriots I say this: Take that long eternal look.

Stand up for freedom, no matter what the cost. Stand up and be counted. It can help to save your soul—and maybe your country.—Ezra Taft Benson

“No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and Virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders.”—Samuel Adams

"This is our vision. This is our mission.

But we can only get there together.

We are one people, with one destiny.

We all bleed the same blood.

We all salute the same great American flag.

And we are all made by the same God.

And when we fulfill this vision; when we celebrate our 250 years of glorious freedom, we will look back on tonight as when this new chapter of American Greatness began."—President Donald Trump (first speech to Congress 2-28-2017)

Defining Freedom

This past week or so, law blogger Eugene Volokh wrote two pieces about the word freedom, and how we use that word, and its synonyms, differently: Freedom and Hypocrisy, on December 28, and “We All Declare for Liberty.”

The point of Volokh’s first piece is that calling each other hypocrites when we are really just using different definitions is polarizing rather than helpful. And that is worth considering. He followed up with a reminder of a similar discussion by Lincoln in 1864:

Volokh shared this image in his piece,
from the Library of Congress

The world has never had a good definition of liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in need of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.

With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men’s labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name—liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names—liberty and tyranny.

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as a liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep was a black one. Plainly the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of the word liberty; and precisely the same difference prevails today among us human creatures, even in the North, and all professing to love liberty. Hence we behold the processes by which thousands are daily passing from under the yoke of bondage, hailed by some as the advance of liberty, and bewailed by others as the destruction of all liberty.— Abraham Lincoln, in his Address at a Sanitary Fair, Baltimore, Apr. 18, 1864

One thing about truth is that it is timeless. Lincoln’s words could have just been spoken.

Volokh’s pieces got me thinking, because I use freedom (and liberty, as a synonym) as one of the three main things we’re trying to restore and retain in the Spherical Model—freedom, prosperity, and civilization. So I thought it might be worth defining the way I use the term, plus maybe some related terms. I’m combining my favorite 30-year-old Webster’s dictionary with my own words.

Freedom: absence of hindrance, restraint, confinement, repression. In the political sense, it is ownership of one’s own life and the production of wealth and property that results from one’s use of life and effort. A government should protect the freedoms of life, liberty, and property; it does not grant these things, but protects them from infringement. A government that takes life, liberty, or property unjustly—when the person has not unlawfully infringed on those rights of another person—that is a tyrannical government, which is the opposite of freedom.

Political freedom means living in a society in which our God-given rights are protected rather than infringed. These would include freedoms of belief and expression, such as freedom of religion and freedom of the press, as well as freedoms of property and security, such as freedom from illegal searches and seizures and the right to bear arms.

Liberty: synonym of freedom. It is ownership of one’s own life, to pursue as one chooses, and to enjoy the fruits of one’s efforts. No person or government or other entity owns a person or controls how the person pursues happiness.

Libertine: originally from Roman society, a libertine meant a freed slave, but in our day it is a person who leads an unrestrained, sexually immoral life.

License: implies violating the usual rules, laws, or practices—taking some privilege not generally allowed because of its possible harm to other individuals or the entire society. Some licenses are legal—such as a driver’s license. A person becomes free to drive with the license, or permission, after proving ability or qualification.

Licentious: disregarding accepted rules and standards, morally unrestrained, lascivious.

I don’t use freedom to refer to doing whatever one wants without suffering the consequences; that is licentiousness. That is what a libertine does, rather than a lover of liberty.

When I use freedom, it is in relation to the God-given rights—those things we are born with, granted by God, not by some government or other entity. I do not include things that are nice to have, but not naturally given, such as freedom from want, or entitlement to have food, clothing, shelter, education, and other things that must be provided to a child by someone else, preferably parents, until the child becomes capable of self-providing those things.

If someone is entitled to those things, then someone else is required—enslaved—to provide them. If the parents provide these things, that is part of the agreement taken on when the couple choose to conceive a child to bring into the world; they choose to provide, so they are not enslaved. But the neighbor down the street didn’t bring that child into the world and isn’t required to use up his life in providing that child’s comfort.

What happens when parents cannot, or do not, provide? Shouldn’t the larger society step in and provide those things? In a civilized society, yes, people voluntarily provide for the needy, when they can. That is charity, or philanthropy. When government forces the confiscation and redistribution, even to those needy that we would sympathetically choose to help, that government is not being charitable, but tyrannical.

The Political Sphere

When government uses force to “do good” that is not government’s limited role of protecting life, liberty, and property, there will be unintended consequences, usually exactly the opposite of the stated “good.”

In the summary to the political sphere section of the Spherical Model, “The Political World Is Round,” I ask several questions to determine whether a considered policy will lead toward freedom or toward tyranny. One of these is to make use of the Bill of Rights:

Does the policy infringe in any way on the rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights? Does the policy infringe on the free exercise of religion or try to establish a particular sect as a state religion? Is political speech hindered? Does the policy infringe on the right of citizens to bear arms? Does the policy constitute an illegal search or seizure? Does the policy deprive a person of life, liberty, or property when the person has not committed a crime for which that deprivation is the just sentence? Does the policy try to claim for government a power that was not specifically granted in the Constitution? etc. If the policy infringes on the God-given rights, then government cannot take that power without usurping power from the people.

We get the most freedom, prosperity, and civilization when we live the principles in all three spheres simultaneously. We limit government to protecting our God-given rights of life, liberty, and property. We exchange the results of our labor freely, within a free market economy that includes voluntary charity. We grow civilization when a critical mass of us worship God, who gave us our rights, and we value family, life, property, and truth—values you might recognize from the Ten Commandments.

Words from Presidents Past

I had a middle-of-the-night brainstorm over the weekend, remembering that this Monday (today) would be Presidents’ Day—celebrated in a big way at our house with Mr. Spherical Model painting the guest bathroom. Anyway, the brainstorm was, I could just go through my rather huge quote file and share some wisdom from our presidents with February birthdays: George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

I gathered the quotes. And then I thought I should check and make sure I wasn’t doing too much repetition from my tours of Washington, D.C., last fall. And I just casually checked to see what I’d done in the past for Presidents’ Day. Turns out I've had this brainstorm before. So I have several options: be repetitious, or just decide that doing quotes from Washington and Lincoln is a new tradition for Presidents’ Day. I think I’ll go with that option. What I’ll do is include a few that were not included last year. (And who knows how the tradition will continue next year. They said a lot of wise things.)

We give thanks to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln for their wisdom, which still directs us toward freedom, prosperity, and civilization. And may I add a prayer that our next president embodies this timeless wisdom.

George Washington



in the museum at Mt. Vernon

 

It is impossible to govern a nation without God and the Bible. 

Your love of liberty, your respect for the laws, your habits of industry,

and your practice of moral and religious obligations,

are the strongest claims to national and individual happiness.

 

A good moral character is the first essential in a man….

It is therefore highly important that you should endeavor not only to be learned but virtuous.

 

Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains taken to bring it to light.

 

Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln Memorial
 

 

 

We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the Courts,

not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the menwho would pervert the Constitution.

 

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man’s initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.—attributed to Abraham Lincoln, but possibly came from Rev. William John Henry Boetcker (1873-1962), in a pamphlet called “The Ten Cannots.”

 

Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision.

If they decide to turn their back on the fire and then burn their behinds,

then they will just have to sit on their blisters.

 

Nearly all men can stand adversity,

but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.

Monuments and Memorials, Part II

I’m traveloguing last week’s trip to Washington, DC, going by way of the great people worth revering. Monday was on Thomas Jefferson. Today we honor Abraham Lincoln. I expect there will be at least two more parts to come.

We had a few minutes before our tour trolley arrived Monday morning, so we quickly walked through the Ford Theater—yes, that Ford Theater—which was just across the street from our starting place. They have memorialized the box in which President Lincoln was assassinated, and have a more general museum downstairs as well.

President Lincoln's box at the Ford Theater

 

There was a section of the museum on the various generals of the Civil War, which was interesting. And there was a fair amount on the Lincoln family in the White House. Other than what George Washington went through that winter at Valley Forge, well before his presidency, I don’t know if a US president ever went through a more stressful and precarious time than Lincoln did during his presidency. It is hard to imagine what would have happened without his resolute leadership in getting disagreeing sides to come together. Such circumstances with our current president would have meant total dissolution. God blessed us with Lincoln at that time. Praying that God has prepared such a person for our immediate future. (I wrote about Lincoln, in relation to "Ultimate Right and Wrong," September 14, 2011.)

The Lincoln Memorial is built to look something like a Greek Parthenon.

Lincoln Memorial, approaching from the left side

 

This larger-than-life statue sits looking out.

 

The way the monuments are set up, the Lincoln memorial is at one end. There is the reflecting pond straight ahead of him, toward the Washington Monument, with the White House beyond, and the Capitol building at the far end. There’s a word for such a view—the aspect. It is stunning, the symmetry and beauty of this aspect, referred to as the Washington Mall. It says civilization in every tree and stone in the arrangement.

View from the Lincoln Memorial

 

Lincoln was both brilliant and brief in words. The walls to his left and right have immortalized in stone his Gettysburg Address—which daughter Social Sphere and I memorized as part of her homeschooling—and also his Second Inaugural Address. These are words worth immortalizing, along with a man worth remembering through the ages.

The Gettysburg Address, at the Lincoln Memorial

 

Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural Address, at the Lincoln Memorial

 

 

They Don't Make Them Like They Used To

It’s President’s Day, the combined celebration of the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln (February 12) and George Washington (February 22). Back when I was in grade school, we didn’t get either day off; we spent them in school, learning about those men on their birthday. Even without a day off in their honor, I grew to love and honor them.

So today will be a quote day, just rereading some of their passed on wisdom. (I put in citations when I had them.) 

George Washington

George Washington portrait by
Gilbert Stuart, at Williamstown

"The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American People."—George Washington, after taking oath of office, April 30, 1789 

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness—these firmest props of the duties of Men and citizens."—George Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796 

“And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”—George Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796 

"To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace."—George Washington, First State of the Union Address, January 8, 1790 

“The habits of thinking in a free Country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective Constitutional spheres; avoiding in the exercise of the Powers of one department to encroach upon another.”—George Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796 

“Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”—James D. Richardson, A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the President, 1789–1897, U.S. Congress, 1899, vol. 1, p. 220 

"It is in our own experience that the most sincere neutrality is not a sufficient guard against the depredation of nations at war. To secure respect to a neutral flag requires a naval force, organized and ready to vindicate it from insult or aggression. This may even prevent the necessity of going to war, by discouraging belligerent powers from committing such violations of the rights of the neutral party as may, first or last, leave no other option."—George Washington, Eighth Annual Address to Congress, December 7, 1796 

George Washington Praying at Valley Forge
painting by Arnold Friberg

"I have often expressed my sentiments that every man, conducting himself as a good citizen, and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience."—George Washington, Letter to the United Baptist Churches in Virginia, May 10, 1789 

"The Constitution recommended by the federal convention [of 1787]...approache[s] nearer to perfection than any government hitherto instituted among men."—George Washington—to Sir Edward Newenham, George Washington Himself, by John C. Fitzpatrick 

"We have abundant reason to rejoice that in this land the light of truth and reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry and superstition, and that every person may here worship God according to the dictates of his own heart. In this enlightened age and in this land of equal liberty, it is our boast that a man's religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the laws, nor deprive him of the right of attaining and holding the highest offices that are known in the United States."—George Washington, letter to the members of the New Church in Baltimore, January 27, 1793 

“If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led,

like sheep to the slaughter.”—George Washington

 

So many favorite quotes come from Washington’s Farewell Address, you might like to read it in full, here.

Abraham Lincoln, 1863 daguerreotype

Abraham Lincoln

(Responding to a question about which side God was on during the Civil War) “I am not at all concerned about that, for I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord’s side.”—Abraham Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s Stories and Speeches, ed. J. B. McClure, Chicago: Rhodes and McClure Publishing Co., 1896, pp. 185–86. 

“No oppressed, people will fight, and endure, as our fathers did, without the promise of something better, than a mere change of masters.”—Abraham Lincoln, Fragment on the Constitution and the Union, c. January 1861 

“The people of these United States are the rightful masters of both Congresses and the Courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who would pervert the Constitution.”—Abraham Lincoln, speech at Cincinnati, Ohio, September 17, 1859, in The Papers and Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 5, Constitutional Edition, ed. Arthur Brooks Lapsley 

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.—Abraham Lincoln is attributed with this quote, but it may be that his actual words were these: “If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”—Abraham Lincoln, speech “The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions” 

“What is conservatism? Is it not preference for the old and tried, over the

  new and untried?”—Abraham Lincoln, quoted by Russell Kirk, The Essence of Conservatism

 

"I have been driven to my knees many times by the overwhelming conviction that I had no place else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day."—Abraham Lincoln, according to journalist Noah Brooks 

“This, and this only (will satisfy the South): cease to call slavery wrong, and join them in calling it right…. Holding, as they do, that slavery is morally right, and socially elevating, they cannot cease to demand a full national recognition of it, as a legal right, and a social blessing…. Let us be diverted by none of these sophistical contrivances….such as groping for some middle ground between the right and the wrong….”—Abraham Lincoln, Speech at New Haven, Connecticut, March 6, 1860 

“If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong,”  Lincoln statement on March 26, 1864, to former Senator Archibald Dixon, Governor Thomas E. Bramlette, and Albert G. Hodges, editor of the Frankfort, KY, Commonwealth, later put in writing per Hodges’ request. See more here.  

In honor of the sesquicentennial of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, I wrote about that speech, and included it in full, here.

Part of being conservative is caretaking what we have. I hope we will, with care, preserve the words and ideas of these two great men.

 

 

Sesquicentennial Speech

Yesterday marked 150 years since Abraham Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address.

There was an error in that speech: “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here.” There are very few speeches more noted and remembered. We could probably name The Sermon on the Mount as more memorable—more memorized, more quoted, more honored. But it’s hard to come up with another. Moments of many other speeches are notable:

photo of Lincoln at Gettysburg

“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”—Ronald Reagan

“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”—John F. Kennedy

“Never give in–never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”—Winston Churchill

Among modern (since the inception of the United States) speeches by political persons, it may be that Abraham Lincoln’s short speech is unsurpassed.

Because it is blessedly short, it is possible for school children to memorize it—and even to learn the meaning of all the words. Back when I was in school, I memorized the first paragraph, which has always stuck with me. I was tougher as a teacher in our homeschool, where I not only persuaded daughter Social Sphere to memorize the whole thing, but to present it at a gathering of her peers. (I memorized it along with her, which only seemed fair.)

There are several versions of the speech, handwritten by Lincoln, to different people who received them. There are the first draft, the Nicolay copy (his personal secretary); and the second draft, the Hay copy (a White House assistant), but handed over prior to the speech. The other three were all written on request afterward: the Everett copy (the other speaker at Gettysburg, whose unmemorable speech went on for a couple of hours, causing even more notice of the brevity of Lincoln); the Bancroft copy (intended to be reprinted as a fundraiser for soldiers); and the Bliss copy (replacing the Bancroft copy, which had been written on both sides, which prevented lithographic reproduction). The Bliss copy is the most “standard”—the most quoted. It is the one written in stone at the Lincoln Memorial.

Gettysburg Address, Bliss copy as two pages

There are tiny differences from one to another. Without recording devices, it’s difficult to determine exactly which words Lincoln spoke. But the ones he signed and gave as definitive, after the speech, all contain the words “under God.”

Controversy in the news of the day referred to a documentary done by Ken Burns, which included each of the living US presidents reciting Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. All were given the Bliss copy, the standard version. They were able to read it during the recordings. But our current president chose to edit Lincoln and omit the “under God” phrase. Why? I don’t know. An error? A reading of a different version instead? Without mindreading, it’s hard to know. But it’s unfortunate that this president uses such a moment to give even more evidence of his opposition to the culture of civilization.

It is nevertheless my hope, along with Lincoln, that what we face now will not be an end to this freedom experiment: “that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

If you didn’t take a moment yesterday (or even if you did), take this opportunity to reread Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

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 battle-field 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 can not dedicate--we can not consecrate—we can not 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.

 

Old Words New Again

I keep a fairly sizable quote file related to the concepts of the Spherical Model. Some of the collection comes from current articles I’ve just read; others are old or even historic. I noticed a few this week, coming from some older sources, that seem suddenly very current. I haven’t had a quote day in a while, so I thought it was time to share these. Good thoughts never grow old.

 

"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work instead of living on public assistance."—Cicero, 55 BC 

To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must take our choice between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and in our comforts, in our labors and in our amusements.

If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under pretense of caring for them, they will be happy. The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the disposition of public money. We are endeavoring to reduce the government to the practice of rigid economy to avoid burdening the people and arming the magistrate with a patronage of money which might be used to corrupt the principles of our government.—Thomas Jefferson 

In the end, more than freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all—security, comfort, and freedom. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.—Edward Gibbon, historian 

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

The government will take from the “haves” and give to the “have nots.” Both have lost their freedom. Those who “have,” lost their freedom to give voluntarily of their own free will and in the way they desire. Those who “have not,” lost their freedom because they did not earn what they received. They got “something for nothing,” and they will neither appreciate the gift nor the giver of the gift.—Howard W. Hunter, “The  Law of the Harvest,” BYU devotional address March 8, 1966 

"Perhaps this gets to the root of the matter, to the most fundamental distinction of all between East and West. The totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship. The totalitarian world finds even symbols of love and of worship an affront.”—Ronald Reagan in “Tear Down This Wall” speech 

If the natural tendencies of man are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind?—Frédéric Bastiat 

"In a real way, each generation of Americans has its chance to re-ratify the Constitution. We can do this by abiding by its principles and by leaving our own legacy to posterity; likewise, by both preserving our rights and filling our responsibilities. ...Re-ratification will require statesmanship among both people and leaders. Statesmanship does not treat symptoms, but cures the underlying diseases. Our founding fathers did statesman-like work in 1776 and 1787. In our time, sadly, we seem preoccupied with treating symptoms, with quick fixes, and with getting by a little longer." (Neal A. Maxwell, "God Mend Thine Every Flaw," July 1993) 

During his 1956 presidential campaign, a woman called out to Adlai Stevenson: “Senator, you have the vote of every thinking person!” Stevenson called back: “That’s not enough, madam, we need a majority!”—Adlai Stevenson quoted in “The Decline and Fall of the American Empire” in Rabbi Pruzansky’s blog 11-7-2012 

“The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.”

—George Orwell