Searching for an
explanation and a possible resolution to the problems we are facing as a nation, I have turned to the past that has gone on before us. Do not presume that my journey into events that occurred up to 177 years in our past is wasted effort. Join me here and you will gain a
clearer understanding of the intended constitutional role of the President in
our history. You will experience a better understanding of what we
accomplished, what we believed in the beginning and what we have become. You will
be reminded that we are merely the legal inheritors of civil and religious
liberty created, fought for and won. You will learn: “We have done nothing to acquire these
fundamental blessings which were bequeathed to us by a once hardy, brave and
patriotic, but now lamented and departed race of ancestors." We need to
change that. Abraham Lincoln, our 16th President is the most
significant person you will meet on our journey: He is there to remind us of the importance of
values and principles. He demonstrates personal wisdom and tenacity.
And his leadership, when it was most urgently needed, saved our nation from
the ignominy of being relegated to the list of our world’s nation states that
have failed.
I have deliberately used many (emphasis is mine) statements in this document. Rather than viewing them as mere distractions, think of them as specific landmarks that I have posted for your personal consideration. Remember, we are looking for answers to our questions and concerns. Take your time and consider them carefully. In the end, they will make it easier for you to retrace your journey's steps and help you reset your course to a different direction,
While there were others seeking consideration, I have chosen two of
Lincoln’s historical speeches to be our guides. Web access to these speeches is
shown below. If the URL address fails, simply Google the text above it. I
encourage you to read both of them for yourself.
Lincoln’s
First Inaugural Address: March 4, 1861
And
Lincoln’s
Lyceum Address: January 27, 1838
Lincoln’s First
Inaugural
“Fellow-Citizens of the
United States: In compliance with a custom as old as the Government itself, I
appear before you to address you briefly and to take the oath prescribed by the
Constitution of the United States to be taken by the President before he enters
on the execution of this office.” "I do
solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of
President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve,
protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." (emphasis is mine)
Even as he carried the
weight of a divided nation and the possibility of a great war, Abraham Lincoln observed:
“It is safe to assert that no government
proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to execute all the express
(sic) provisions of our national Constitution, and the Union will endure forever—it being impossible to
destroy it, except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself.”
(emphasis
is mine)
The First Inaugural Address
reminded me that the Union is much older than the Constitution. “It was formed,
in fact, by the Articles of Association
in 1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of independence in 1776. It was further matured and the
faith of all the then thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that it
should be perpetual, by the Articles of
Confederation in 1778. And finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution was ‘to form a more perfect Union’. ” (emphasis is mine)
This is Lincoln’s view
of presidential responsibility: “The Chief Magistrate derives all of his
authority from the people. His duty is to administer the present government as
it came into his hands and to transmit it, unimpaired by him, to his
successor. (emphasis is mine)
The
Lyceum Address
Let us now reach
further into our past. The date is January 27, 1838. Standing in front of the
Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield Illinois audience is 28 year old Abraham Lincoln.
His subject for the evening: The Perpetuation of Our Political
Institutions.
Lincoln’s Lyceum
Address focused on citizenship in a democratic republic and possible threats to
American institutions. “The speech was brought out by the burning in St. Louis
a few short weeks before, by a mob, of a negro. (sic) Lincoln took this
incident as a sort of text for his remarks.” This speech led the listener toward a
better understanding of the destructive effects of mob rule, the effects of a disregard for the rule of law, and the possible creation of a climate ripe for the rise of a potential tyrant. The portion
of the speech which most resonated in my mind is the cause and the potential
for the rise of this tyrant. I want to make it clear that I am not stating that
a perceived, object lesson presented by a 28 year old man is, in fact, being
carried out 177 years later. The possibility, however, is interesting and worth
pursuing and remembering. Read the speech in its entirety.
While you are at it, read
the entire Declaration of Independence and read it as often as is necessary for
you to understand the vast importance of the very last sentence. “And for the support of this Declaration,
with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually
pledge to each other our lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” (emphasis is mine)
Like many of you, I
have long been familiar with this form of a Lincoln quote: “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and
lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” An earlier
version of this quotation (original version?) exists in the Lyceum Address and
is shown below.
“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? I answer. If it ever reach (sic) 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.” (emphasis is mine)
“It is to deny what the
history of the world tells us is true, to suppose that men of ambition and
talents will not continue to spring up amongst (sic) us. And when they do, they will
as naturally seek gratification of their ruling passion as others have done before
them. The question then is, Can that gratification be found in supporting and
maintaining an edifice that has been erected by others? Most certainly it
cannot. Many great and good men, sufficiently qualified for any task they
should undertake, may ever be found whose ambition would aspire to nothing
beyond a seat in Congress, a gubernatorial or a presidential chair; but such
belong not to the family of the lion or the tribe of the eagle. What! Think you
these places would satisfy an Alexander, a Caesar, or a Napoleon?
Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored.
It sees no distinction in adding story to story upon the monuments of fame
erected to the memory of others. It denies that it is glory enough to serve
under any chief. It scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor,
however illustrious. It thirsts and burns for distinction; and if possible, it
will have it, whether at the expense
of emancipating slaves or enslaving freemen. Is it unreasonable, then,
to expect that some man possessed of the loftiest genius, coupled with ambition
sufficient to push it to its utmost stretch, will at some time spring up among
us? And when such a one does, it will require the people to be united
with each other, attached to the government and laws and generally
intelligent to successfully frustrate his designs. (emphasis is mine)
Distinction will be his
paramount object, and although he would as willingly, perhaps more so, acquire
it by doing good as harm, yet, that
opportunity being past, and nothing left to be done in the way of building up, he
would set boldly to the task of pulling down.” (emphasis is
mine)
In
its entirety, the Lyceum Address looks to the future of the United States by
stating “the past must fade, is fading, has faded with the circumstances that
produced it.” Lincoln takes special note of the founding leaders and their
history and he proclaims them gone. But wait! Here is the rest of the story.
Here is the key to saving and recreating the United States which many, like me,
are trying to find.
“They
(the founders) were the pillars of the temple of liberty; and now that they
have crumbled away, that temple must fall UNLESS we, their descendants, supply their places with
other pillars, hewn (sic) from the solid quarry of sober reason. Passion has helped us, but it can do no more.
In the future it will be our enemy. REASON, cold, calculating, unimpassioned
reason, must furnish all the materials for our future defence. (sic) Let those
materials be moulded (sic) into GENERAL INTELLIGENCE, SOUND MORALITY, and in
particular, A REVERENCE FOR THE CONSTITUTION and LAWS; and, THAT WE IMPROVED TO
THE LAST; that WE REMAINED FREE TO THE LAST; that we revered; his name to the
last; that, during his long sleep, we permitted no hostile foot to pass over or
desecrate his resting place; shall be that which to learn the last trump shall
awaken our WASHINGTON.” (emphasis is mine)
Lincoln
ended his address with these words:
“Upon these let the proud fabric of freedom
rest, as the rock of its basis; as truly as has been said of the only other
greater institution, ‘the gates of hell shall not prevail against it’. (emphasis is mine)
The underlined words sound kind of familiar don’t
they?
Can’t place them? Google them or try Matthew 16
-18.
I chose the name “Our Caravan”
for this blog because its name has helped me to remember that at any moment I am
standing in the present and the future is but an instant away. The people,
lessons and events of the past are all still moving on ahead of me. I stand in awe
of those people and what they learned, understood and endured. I have no
idea where we will arrive as we join them and become the past but I do
know that our arrival will be determined by the important choices we have made along
the way.
What you and I will leave behind as a gift remains to be created. Hopefully it will be needed and eventually discovered by those others who have not yet taken
their place in Our Caravan.
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