Remembering Mr. Lincoln

[Valin]

Power Line

Scott Johnson

 

Today is of course the anniversary of the birth of America’s greatest president, Abraham Lincoln. As a politician and as president, Lincoln was a profound student of the Constitution and constitutional history. Perhaps most important, Lincoln was America’s indispensable teacher of the moral ground of political freedom at the exact moment when the country was on the threshold of abandoning what he called its “ancient faith” that all men are created equal.

 

In 1858 Lincoln attained national prominence in the Republican Party as the result of the contest for the Senate seat held by Stephen Douglas. It was Lincoln’s losing campaign against Douglas that made him a figure of sufficient prominence that he could be the party’s 1860 presidential nominee.

 

At the convention of the Illinois Republican Party in June, Lincoln was the unanimous choice to run against Douglas. After making him its nominee late on the afternoon of June 16, the entire convention returned that evening to hear Lincoln speak. Accepting the convention’s nomination, Lincoln gave one of the most incendiary speeches in American history.

 

 

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10 little-known factoids about Abraham Lincoln

[Draggingtree]

Focus On: Commander in Chief

 

The Lincoln In That

 

By: Richard J TofelDate:February12 , 2011

 

 

Abraham Lincoln, whose birthday we mark today, is justly remembered as our greatest president. But the shaky beginnings of his presidency, marked by missteps and poor choices, belied his later mastery. In his first seven weeks in office, Lincoln sought to lead a fractious coalition government forged out of a new political party, while facing an incipient rebellion, culminating in the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter and the outbreak of civil war.

 

But finally there came a moment when Lincoln, near his own breaking point, seized the mantle of leadership. That moment is worth examining closely.

 

Lincoln was 52 years old and had been president of the United States for 49 days when he met a Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) delegation from Baltimore at the White House on April 22, 1861. The Baltimoreans had come to plead with Lincoln not to send troops badly needed for the defense of Washington through their city—the fifth such delegation to make its way to the White House in three days. But any move around, rather than through, Baltimore, would delay the troop movements, perhaps by days.

Washington needed the reinforcements desperately. The Civil War had begun 10 days earlier at Fort Sumter, and only about 3000 troops were at hand to defend the capital from attack by Confederates across http://www.commandpo...incoln-in-that/