Could this face be President today?In honor of the Great One's birthday, Powerline has a nice reflection on his famed "house divided" speech, accepting the Republican nomination for president. His argument --that America could not continue "pro choice" --that is, half slave and half free-- is worth our meditation today. Lincoln responded to his opponent's jibes about the house divided thus:
Turn in whatever way you will---whether it come from the mouth of a King, an excuse for enslaving the people of his country, or from the mouth of men of one race as a reason for enslaving the men of another race, it is all the same old serpent, and I hold if that course of argumentation that is made for the purpose of convincing the public mind that we should not care about this, should be granted, it does not stop with the negro. I should like to know if taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle and making exceptions to it where will it stop. If one man says it does not mean a negro, why not another say it does not mean some other man? If that declaration is not the truth, let us get the Statute book, in which we find it and tear it out! Who is so bold as to do it! [Voices--"me" "no one," &c.] If it is not true let us tear it out! [cries of "no, no,"] let us stick to it then [cheers], let us stand firmly by it then. [Applause.]George Weigel's column about the childhood he shared with Nancy Pelosi is strangely reminiscent of that speech. Read Nancy & Me: A Lament.
Barack Obama was long on the Lincoln talk in his announcement of his presidential candidacy Saturday. A bit light on the Lincolnian vision, however; you could say his announced policies are the precise antithesis of Lincoln's.
