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Quote of the Day: A Lincoln Quote on Lincoln’s Birthday
Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. LET US HAVE FAITH THAT RIGHT MAKES MIGHT, AND IN THAT FAITH, LET US, TO THE END, DARE TO DO OUR DUTY AS WE UNDERSTAND IT.
This is the concluding paragraph of Abraham Lincoln’s 1860 Cooper Union Address. The speech helped launch his successful presidential campaign, running as the first presidential candidate of a new party. The conclusion, the charge to the audience, is evergreen.
Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809. While Lincoln’s Birthday has never been a federal holiday, it is observed in some states. It seems to me that he wrote, and orated, far more plainly than was the fashion of the day. He came into politics at a time of crisis, with real political violence on both sides of the issue of slavery. He delivered this quote in that context.
This post is part of the Quote of the Day project, managed by @she. I wrangle cats over on the monthly theme project, where this month’s theme is: “Love, Hate, and other Feelings.” There are plenty of days available in both, and you are welcome to double-dip, posting a quote and commentary that also happens to evoke the monthly theme.
Published in Group Writing
Brown-eyed Beauty reviewed the original text of this Comment after I wrote it. She said, yes, it was funny, but with all the scary, sad stuff going on right now, it wasn’t appropriate.
So I erased it.
Early this morning I mentioned to my wife, who is a naturalized American citizen who grew up in South America, that today is Lincoln’s birthday. I told her when I was in school we learned Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays, both in February and that later turned into a national observance called Presidents Day. Do we lose something when we do things like that?
Not to nitpick, but I think you mean his 1860 Cooper Union speech, not 1960. Great quote!
Washington’s birthday is in January.
And Lincoln was the second Republican candidate.
EDIT: Oops, you’re right. Washington’s bday is in February. We just used to celebrate it in January.
Indeed I did, although his 1960 speech was heavenly.
W
The federal holiday is still officially Washington’s Birthday . Since the date is now pegged to the 3rd Monday of February, it is disconnected from any president’s true birthday.
The funny I erased was even better.
John C. gets no love from you, Clifford.
Lincoln is my favorite president. I’ve read several biographies about him, and stories of the civil war, and I’m always enthralled by the paradox of his effort to be direct, and yet how complex he was. Thanks for the post, Clifford.
John C. Frémont, not be confused with presidential candidates and former vice presidents… John C. Breckinridge and John C. Calhoun.
Just saw this…
Q: “What if John C. Frémont won the election of 1856?”
A: “Frémont was a radical compared to Abraham Lincoln … the South certainly would have seceded. Given Frémont’s very poor record as a military commander and administrator, both during the actual Civil War and after it, it’s very difficult for me to believe that he could have maintained the war effort as POTUS in the same way that Lincoln did. An early Civil War with Frémont as the President likely would have ended in a Confederate victory, and it probably would have been a war prosecuted by the Union with great malice, unlike the war that Lincoln fought with the South. There would have been long-lasting repercussions and bitterness even if the CSA had secured its independence.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_genocide#List_of_recorded_massacres
It looks like Missouri’s other famous 1861 general, Nathaniel Lyon, also caused a lot of problems.
Did radical Unionists view black people as good and Indians as evil?
…
John Chivington known as the “Fighting Parson” was another one who was strongly opposed to slavery, but he is said to be about the most evil of Union Civil War officers as his November 29, 1864, unprovoked assault on the peaceful Cheyenne Indians launched the Sand Creek Massacre, one of the most notorious acts of mass murder in American history. Captain Silas Soule, an anti-slavery militant, testified against Chivington, but was murdered soon after in Denver on April 23, 1865, 22 days after he got married. Whereas Pastor Chivington seduced and then married his daughter-in-law and died in 1894 in Denver at age 73.
Good catch, although what became the Republican Party was still coalescing in 1856, waiting for the American “Know Nothing” Party and the Whigs to finally dissolve.