Abraham Lincoln - A Destroyer From Within

Posted: 8/21/2016

Introduction

Anyone, who followed my blog posts, realizes that I am not a big fan of this highly overrated president in particular. I think, he is grossly overrated not least because he became a martyr!

Trigger

I recently learnt of the misattributed, but popular quote “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”

What he really said that comes close to the quote above is:

“I answer, if  [an approach of danger] 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.” (From the Lyceum address of 1838; emphasis added).

Where Lincoln Terribly Erred

I have only recently discovered excerpts from other speeches of Lincoln, which suggest he was gravely mistaken about the union and the sovereignty of states as well as the right to secede by any state (emphasis added, commentary added):

1. “The sophism itself is that any State of the Union may consistently with the National Constitution, and therefore lawfully and peacefully , withdraw from the Union without the consent of the Union or of any other State. … This sophism derives much, perhaps the whole, of its currency from the assumption that there is some omnipotent and sacred supremacy pertaining to a State - to each State of our Federal Union. Our States have neither more nor less power than that reserved to them in the Union by the Constitution, no one of them ever having been a State out of the Union. … The original ones passed into the Union even before they cast off their British colonial dependence, and the new ones each came into the Union directly from a condition of dependence, excepting Texas; and even Texas, in its temporary independence, was never designated a State. ” (Source 1)
2. “Therein [Declaration of Independence] the "United Colonies" were declared to be "free and independent States;" but even then the object plainly was not to declare their independence of one another or of the Union, but directly the contrary, as their mutual pledge and their mutual action before, at the time, and afterwards abundantly show.” (Source 1)
3. “The Union is older than any of the [confederate] States, and, in fact, it created them as States. Originally some dependent colonies made the Union, and in turn the Union threw off their old dependence for them and made them States, such as they are. Not one of them ever had a State constitution independent of the Union.” (Source 1)
   [Incredible, Lincoln said this nonsense!]
4. “The nation purchased with money the countries out of which several of these States were formed. Is it just that they shall go off without leave and without refunding? The nation paid very large sums (in the aggregate, I believe, nearly a hundred millions) to relieve Florida of the aboriginal tribes. Is it just that she shall now be off without consent or without making any return?” (Source 1)
5. “The express plighting of faith by each and all of the original thirteen in the Articles of Confederation, two years later, that the Union shall be perpetual is most conclusive. Having never been States, either in substance or in name, outside of the Union, whence this magical omnipotence of "State rights," asserting a claim of power to lawfully destroy the Union itself? Much is said about the "sovereignty" of the States, but the word even is not in the National Constitution, nor, as is believed, in any of the State constitutions. What is a "sovereignty" in the political sense of the term? Would it be far wrong to define it "a political community without a political superior"? Tested by this, no one of our States, except Texas, ever was a sovereignty; and even Texas gave up the character on coming into the Union, by which act she acknowledged the Constitution of the United States and the laws and treaties of the United States made in pursuance of the Constitution to be for her the supreme law of the land. The States have their status in the Union, and they have no other legal status.”
6. “The Union, and not themselves separately, procured their independence and their liberty. By conquest or purchase the Union gave each of them whatever of independence and liberty it has. The Union is older than any of the States, and, in fact, it created them as States. Originally some dependent colonies made the Union, and in turn the Union threw off their old dependence for them and made them States, such as they are. Not one of them ever had a State constitution independent of the Union. Of course it is not forgotten that all the new States framed their constitutions before they entered the Union, nevertheless dependent upon and preparatory to coming into the Union.”
7. “Again: If one State may secede, so may another; and when all shall have seceded none is left to pay the debts. Is this quite just to creditors?” (Source 1)
   [This nonsensical argument does not justify a total civil war! This is a matter for negotiation of which Lincoln was apparently not very capable of.]
8. “Our popular Government has often been called an experiment. Two points in it our people have already settled—the successful establishing and the successful administering of it. One still remains—its successful maintenance against a formidable internal attempt to overthrow it.” (Source 1)
9. “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.” (Source 2)
10. “Plainly, the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy.” (Source 3)
    [This comparison is simply nonsense!]

At the moment, I do not have the time to do more research or address all the points Lincoln argued in the above excerpted quotes. However, one thing is perfectly clear his reasoning is fundamentally flawed.

Each of the 13 original states had a distinct history of its own and they came together as sovereign entities to form a union for common defense etc. For Lincoln to claim that the southern states came into being only by grace of the union is absurd.

That Lincoln’s arguments (especially states are only adjuncts to the union) are awfully flawed is also found in the U.S. Constitution Article V, i.e. a convention of states has the power to alter the constitution.

Sources:

1. Fourth of July Address to Congress (1861)
2. Letter to Horace Greeley (1862)
3. First Inaugural Address (1861)

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