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gregchapin — Abraham Lincoln
Published: 2011-09-02 18:33:09 +0000 UTC; Views: 2496; Favourites: 56; Downloads: 57
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Abraham Lincoln (Listeni/ˈeɪbrəhæm ˈlɪŋkən/; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in 1865. He led the country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis — the American Civil War — preserving the Union while ending slavery and promoting economic and financial modernization. Reared in a poor family on the western frontier, Lincoln was mostly self-educated. He became a country lawyer, an Illinois state legislator, and a one-term member of the United States House of Representatives, but failed in two attempts at a seat in the United States Senate. He was an affectionate, though often absent, husband and father of four children.After deftly opposing the expansion of slavery in the United States in his campaign debates and speeches,[2] Lincoln secured the Republican nomination and was elected president in 1860. Following declarations of secession by southern slave states, war began in April 1861, and he concentrated on both the military and political dimensions of the war effort, seeking to reunify the nation. He vigorously exercised unprecedented war powers, including the arrest and detention without trial of thousands of suspected secessionists. He prevented British recognition of the Confederacy by skillfully handling the Trent affair late in 1861. He issued his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and promoted the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, abolishing slavery.
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On September 18, 1858, Lincoln made his position clear, “I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favour of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races,” he began, going on to say that he opposed blacks having the right to vote, to serve on juries, to hold office and to intermarry with whites.
Lincoln opposed inter-racial marriages, supported the Illinois Constitution’s prohibition of immigration of blacks into the state, defended a slave owner who was seeking to retrieve his runaway slaves but never defended slaves or runaways themselves, and he long advocated kicking every last black person out of the USA.
Emancipation Proclamation didn’t free all of the slaves either: it deliberately ignored slavery in the North and in those Southern states which had been already conquered by the Union at the time. Lincoln declared slaves free in places where he had no legal authority, but in those areas where he DID have legal authority, he did NOTHING to free those slaves.There were 300,000 slave-holders on the Union side. Union General Ulysses S Grant kept his slaves until well after the War ended. Union soldiers were permitted to confiscate slaves in rebel territory and put them to work for the Union army; still as slaves, they didn't "free" them. The Union had laws preventing “free” black people from actually getting rights as citizens. Two acts of the USA Congress were passed during the Civil War, one in 1864 and one in 1866, which allowed slave-owners whose slaves enlisted or were drafted into the Union military to file a claim against the Federal government for loss of the slave’s services. In areas loyal to the Union, slaves were not emancipated until 3 years AFTER the war.
During the War, it was the Union which segregated black and white soldiers in separate units, and the black soldiers were paid less than the white soldiers. A black soldier in the Union army was paid $10 a month with a $3 clothing fee taken out, leaving the soldier with $7 a month. White soldiers were paid $13 a month and were not forced to pay a clothing allowance, which left them almost twice as much payment in comparison to the black soldiers. The black soldiers were treated like crap by the Union.
The Union won, so they were free to tell their lies about the war, and demonise their defeated opponent. They teach those lies in school. They teach the lies so much that eventually lots of people believe the lies without checking for themselves. They laud Lincoln as a hero and abolitionist, when he was nothing of the sort. Abraham Lincoln was the USA’s first dictator. With his cronies and allies, using the secession of the Southern states as the pretext, he illegally took control of the government. He arrested Maryland legislators to prevent them from voting on secession. He shut down at least 300 Northern newspapers opposing his war policies. He imprisoned tens of thousands of Union citizens without trial because they opposed the war and his dictatorship. He also later admitted that he provoked the South into war, even after North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Virginia voted to stay in the Union.
Sources:
The Un-Civil War - Shattering the Historical Myths
by Leonard M. Scruggs
The Truth About Abraham Lincoln
www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-W5fG…
Abraham Lincoln: What They Won't Teach You in School
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyNS1P…
Abraham Lincoln The Treasonous TYRANT - Judge Napolitano
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgA4qY…
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Thanks for this... I have recently done some extra reading which agrees with what you have posted here. Some intricacies of history will probably never be known fully. The fact that people are still questioning his motivations and analyzing the outcome 150 years later is testimony to unresolved problems that are still played out in our politics today.
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Seems quite possible to me that almost every losing side in history has been portrayed as being the "evil villain", and every winner has painted themselves as the "hero".
It can take decades, sometimes centuries for the truth to be rediscovered.
I recall being taught in school that the Lusitania wasn't carrying any armaments, and how nasty the Germans were to sink a civilian vessel. A myth that was pushed for a century. Until divers found the wreck and discovered that the ship had a cargo of ammunition and explosives. It wasn't even a civilian vessel, but well-armed as well.
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I recall telling someone in a recent presidential election to be careful of placing too much confidence in national politics. The most helpful thing we can do is lend a hand ourselves to our local communities. Those are the things that impact us most personally. Certainly, there is a necessity of federal government, but I think the idea that they control our lives is only true if we place our focus there.
Politicians are skilled in revealing those things that keep the public happy. It's good to remember that whenever one casts a vote.
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