Born this day in 1809 and destined to become our 16th President, we honor Abraham Lincoln on this anniversary of his birth.
I chose to pay homage by reading one of his speeches. Today, I chose the final appearance he made with Stephen Douglas. This speech, performed October 15, 1858, took place in the town of my birth, Alton Illinois. And, as I was not there at the time, owning to my having not yet been born, I thought it fitting to review that bit of history which occurred where my own history was established.
I am not capable of delivering a worthy synopsis of this speech, it speaks for itself. But, please allow me to present this snippet to tantalize.
" Allow me while upon this subject briefly to present one other extract from a speech of mine, more than a year ago, at Springfield, in discussing this very same question, soon after Judge Douglas took his ground that negroes were not included in the Declaration of Independence:—
I think the authors of that notable instrument intended to include all men, but they did not mean to declare all men equal in all respects. They did not mean to say all men were equal in color, size, intellect, moral development, or social capacity. They defined with tolerable distinctness in what they did consider all men created equal,—equal in certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This they said, and this they meant. They did not mean to assert the obvious untruth that all were then actually enjoying that equality, or yet that they were about to confer it immediately upon them. In fact, they had no power to confer such a boon. They meant simply to declare the right, so that the enforcement of it might follow as fast as circumstances should permit.
They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society which should be familiar to all,—constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even, though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence, and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people, of all colors, everywhere."
Lincoln was a realist, and a dreamer. Practical, or, as a Clint Eastwood character might remark, a man who knew his and his fellow man's limitation, yet, visionary and fair.
This speech took place years before he became President, at a time when he believed that slavery had been allowed to continue as a part of our new nation for practical reasons. But, he also believed it was to continue with a wink to a covert understanding that it was a practice which could not, and should not be with us forever. He expected it to die a peaceful death if the constrictions of its growth which he found present in the Constitution were allowed to do their work. In the end we now know that a peaceful death was not in the offing, and a great many Americans died before, and in the cause of, slavery's end.
Way back, when I was in college, I had a professor who exclaimed that freedom does not exist, we are never free. It was a hard concept for me to grasp, but, today I would say that Paul was right, everything has a cost, and nothing is free. The price need not be in blood shed. If Lincoln had been able to educate enough, or the right members of the agitating sides to his vision of how our government works, and of the true nature of the compact our founding fathers made with one another on our behalf, war could have been avoided. Sometimes the price to achieve "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" is to listen and comprehend, and then to be willing to play by the rules. More often our greedy impatient natures overwhelm our respect for the greater good, and then somebody has to get their ass kicked. And, God willing, then the right thing gets done anyway.
A big hat tip BTW to Phil Brennan at 
