Korner: Lincoln's View of the Civil War and Its Purpose
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Caleb (MisterJonez) gave us rich, detailed background on Lincoln and his views on the Civil War. Jonezie does, if I understand him right, consider Lincoln's attitude toward slavery suspect?
To pick one idea out of Jonez' remarks, here's a followup question for him (a literal question to a man who's studied it more than I have). That single quote by Lincoln (to the effect he would pursue peace even at the cost of retaining slavery) is resonant.
However, other ideas of Lincoln's cause me to question exactly what the spirit was on that quote. Did Lincoln mean something along the lines of ME (Jeff) saying, "If I could allow secession of the West Coast so that they could just do their own thing on reproductive rights, I would"? In the broader context of seeking compromise without 100,000's of dead soldiers fighting over the issue?
In about 10-12 sentences, the Gettysburg Address stated Lincoln's thoughts on what the Civil War was about. I think the context of that Address was decisive, Lincoln standing over the smoking dead bodies lying there after his Presidential orders to battle. it was Deathbed Declaration type of moment. If you can't take the word of a man in his last five minutes of life, you can't take it at all. I think right after the Dying Declaration comes those 270 words you said after the Battle of Gettysburg.
Lincoln only said about 3 or 4 things in the Address and the first thing he underlined was the idea that all men are created equal. The direction of that statement is clear in context.
My own thought here - feel free to counter me - is that if I somehow limited myself :- ) to just 250-300 words on this blog, right after a nuclear war, you could take those 250 words as my most representative. You'd hold me accountable for THOSE words and I'd want you to.
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We can plow through 100 things Lincoln said on either side of the issue, as we could plow through 100 things Donald Trump said at different times and places on abortion, for example. But when push came to shove, Trump picked a SCOTUS and his "official" view was cast with that act. 150 years from now, when people try to understand Trump's position on abortion, we'll have to ask "Under what circumstances did he give that particular quote?"
The same is true of President Obama, of Secretary Clinton and of any other politician. For example, President Obama's view on gay marriage shifted radically at times. It can be difficult to characterize any man's "true feelings" in his own era, much less doing it from a later century.
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Am not super well read but I know that Lincoln initiated several offers to purchase slaves' freedom at very high prices. Not sure how much that particular quote captures his life's view of the issue?
I'm more in need of help here than able to offer it to others. Would appreciate an even-handed dialogue as to where Lincoln, the North, and the abolitionists' degree of humanitarianism were in America relative to the rest of the world.
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It is trite to say that we're all very thankful that racism is slowly being eradicated, as one day hopefully hunger will be eradicated. My own view of race is that given in Galatians 3:27-28. I believe that one minute after we die, there is an afterlife and that our souls will not be male/female, black/white or rich/poor. Gender and race will not even exist then, in my view; these flesh sacks are merely temporary housings for our gender-neutral souls. Since I believe that, obviously I also believe that we should treat every other person with equal love, respect and goodwill, BEFORE they die, during this life.
As you know, I've been grindingly poor at times, but do not bear resentment to the wealthy in class warfare. Bill Gates is not going to have a billion dollars in U.S. currency in the next life. He will be as poor or rich as I am, so he needs my love as much as does a poor person.
In my view tribalism is fundamentally flawed. Rather than struggle against one another, we would do better to serve one another. Rather than to set up competing tribal interests, we would do well to ask what unifies and promotes peace.
In every generation there are women and men who lead the way on issues of compassion, people who are out in front compared to the people around them, people who pay heavy costs and make huge sacrifices to push their generation forward. Hopefully you and I do so also.
Respectfully,
Jeff