Having been born and raised south of the Mason-Dixon-Line I have always had a natural resentment of President Lincoln. Not necessarily because he freed the slaves, but because he was responsible for the death of a culture that had flourished down south. A lot of my growing up took place in the last Capitol of the Confederacy and there was a general dislike of all those “Damm Yankees.”
Recently I have been reading several books that deal with much of American history and other things yet to become history and have learned a few things I wasn’t aware of. One of those books, Eric Metaxas’ If You Can Keep It, has given me a little different view of “Old Abe.” His major motive was to save the Union, and freeing the slaves just happened to be part of the deal. One major quote of Mr. Lincoln’s from Mr. Metaxas’ book expresses something I think every American should read, or hear, and think about. That quote, taken from a speech Lincoln made in 1837 at the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield when he was twenty-eight years old:
Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? If it 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.
Methinks we are watching just such an approach today, and it has been brewing for a few decades. It did not start with President Trump. The hate being directed his way is because what he has been doing is interrupting the process. When did the process start? Good question! I won’t attempt to answer, but the United Nations might very well be a part of it. You do the research then tell me what you think.