For the party of Lincoln

[cynatnite]

I am not a Know-Nothing. That is certain. How could I be? How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except Negroes." When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except Negroes and foreigners and Catholics." When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty - to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure and without the base alloy of hypocrisy. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume II, "Letter to Joshua F. Speed" (August 24, 1855), p. 323.

Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose, and you allow him to make war at pleasure....
If today he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, "I see no probability of the British invading us," but he will say to you, "Be silent; I see it, if you don't."
-- Abraham Lincoln, in an 1848 letter to his law partner, William Herndon, criticizing Polk's decision to invade Mexico for the purpose of preventing future war (and, in essence, pointing out some of the flaws in what is now called the "Bush Doctrine of Preventative War"), quoted from a letter published in the Post Crescent by Jack Bradford, quoted from a December 26, 2003, letter to Cliff Walker by Robert Nordlander ††

What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried? Lincoln's Cooper Institute Address, February 27, 1860

I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crises. The great point is to bring them the real facts.

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan...
--From the March 4, 1865 Inaugural Address

[madrchsod]

1. you watched lincoln tonight?

a truly a complex man who did extraordinary acts that most men would never have the compassion to do. one of the few presidents that all must be measured against

[cynatnite]

2. I caught the last hour of it...

Listened to Gore Vidal (my hero). Thought I'd check out some quotes and was very surprised by what I found.

I'm hitting Amazon for detailed books on Lincoln. He is far more complex than I realized.

[Vexatious Ape]

3. I love those ..

I'll have to save them with all my other's. Here's a few of my favorites.

If Jesus had been killed twenty years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses.”
Lenny Bruce

“We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.”
H. L. Mencken

[pnorman]

4. Mucho thanks!

I just saved the complete posting for later deployment.

One of my favorite phrase I use to my Reptilican friends begins with: "From the Party that once was the Party of Lincoln ....". It really gets under their skins, along with my referring to them as "rebadged Dixiecrats". (When referring to the old-fashined Republicans, I use the conventional term, although not necessarily with any implied approval).

pnorman