"Thank you Mr. Lincoln!" Topic

THANK YOU, Mr. Lincoln for saving this nation "…dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal…" from the powers that would have rendered it to shreds.

THANK YOU, Mr. Lincoln for stating eighty-seven years after the founding of this country "… that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom…".

THANK YOU, Mr. Lincoln for upholding the principal "…that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Although your methods to attain these great achievements were almost ALWAYS "outside" the acknowledged powers of your office, I THANK YOU Mr. Lincoln for the zeal and dedication you offered to the completion of this Grand Task…

Lastly Mr. Lincoln, I wish to THANK YOU for that "…last full measure of devotion…" that YOU gave to make "my" America LIVE & THRIVE!

THANK YOU, Abraham Lincoln!

Amen brother, THANK YOU Abraham Lincoln, a misunderstood and great man.

Great President, one of my heroes. I always stop at the chair he was shot in at the Herny Ford Museum in Dearborn Michigan just to reflect on his contributions to this country.

Statesmen that can make difficult decision that secure a better future are hard to find and pay a heavy price. Those that are only worried about "their watch" are only self serving 'whatevers'.

Thanks to those that provide us with "our finest hour" for making us proud and giving us hope it can happen again anywhere!

Not to mention his stand against the vampires.

Thank you, Hollywood, I'd never seen the vimpire angle before. Wow, close shave.

I join the chorus thanking Mr. Lincoln. Today I wore black as it was in the early morning hours 150 years ago today that he "belonged to the ages."

Yes, he was certainly among the great. Indeed, probably our greatest president considering the unprecedented challenges he was facing. Thank you, Father Abraham!

Not to mention his stand against the vampires.

Thank you, Hollywood, I'd never seen the vimpire angle before. Wow, close shave.

All of our best presidents have been vampire hunters.

Try to imagine an America without Lincoln. Not a happy image.

A great American. His Gettysburg Address is one of the greatest ever given.

StoneMtnMinis – Well, arguably, it wouldn't be "America", not as we understand it today in any event.

Thanks John Wilkes Booth for putting a full stop to all the hyperbole.
I put my trousers one leg at a time people. Soon we'll have people thanking AH for giving humanity the chance to fight and defeat him during WW2.
Telling me you like Lincoln on a one to one is fine but starting off a thread as a I Love you statement?? And bad taste.
The man had good points (not good enough to be part of a mountain IMO) and some bad points. Did he help save US Union Yes. Was he divisive (even today) Yes.
Cheers,and as for the vampires? They are all doing just fine on the Hill.

Speaking of bad taste…

Today I wore black as it was in the early morning hours 150 years ago today that he "belonged to the ages."

Thanks for that. I wondered what the hell the OP was all about.

Having said that. In my book there are only two US Presidents worth a posthumous vote, Lincoln is one and FDR is the other!

Bah! Lincoln was a tyrant and livestock rustler.

A very good man and a very good president. Consider all of his rivals -- Seward, Chase, Douglas, Breckinridge, et al -- could they have saved the country?

A good man and great president. Anyone who thinks otherwise is just sore that dear old Dixie finally got what it had coming to it.

-Will

Thee are some who would argue that simply removing the oxygen content of the air for an hour would solve all man's problems. Of course they REALLY don't believe it but they love to be contrary and nasty none the less.

The right man for the times – Team of Rivals is a good read for what he had to deal with in terms of leading the country through the Civil War

+1 Trajanus. Thank you! Could not agree more on the two best presidents in my book.

BRAVO ZULU Mr. Lincoln. Many thanks sir.

Thanks John Wilkes Booth for putting a full stop to all the hyperbole.
I put my trousers one leg at a time people. Soon we'll have people thanking AH for giving humanity the chance to fight and defeat him during WW2.
Telling me you like Lincoln on a one to one is fine but starting off a thread as a I Love you statement?? And bad taste.
The man had good points (not good enough to be part of a mountain IMO) and some bad points. Did he help save US Union Yes. Was he divisive (even today) Yes.
Cheers,and as for the vampires? They are all doing just fine on the Hill.

"Starting this thread as a (sic) I Love you statement…"

No, it was a THANK YOU "declaration"!

I've been a member here for nine years or so and this post WILL get me Dawg Housed (for the FIRST time!)…

"Zargon" I've had you stifled since one of your EARLIEST "screeds". I only "unstifled" you to see what even YOU could POSSIBLY say in response to a heartfelt THANK YOU to a man who saved my country from certain destruction. Suffering assassination at the hands of self-righteous bigot (sound familiar?) as a result.

Not surprisingly once again you wrote "imho"… Your opinion "Zargon" is neither "Humble" NOR an "Opinion". "Zargon", I suspect that EVERYTHING you "know" (whatever that may be!) can be written on a shred of paper and stuck up a flea's .

I doubt you learned HOW to put your pants on until recently and I can't imagine ANY garment, any animal life or ANY sentient Human Being getting ANYWHERE "NEAR" your body, your "opinions" being so repulsive as to turn a skunks head.
Before I'm DH'd, I'll at LEAST have the sheer PLEASURE of "stifling" YOU Again!

p.s. JWB's crime was the START of Lincoln's apotheosis NOT the "…full stop to the hyperbole…" But YOU would have had to have a scintilla of knowledge to realize that!

Zargon read some history once in a while. You 'might' actually learn something but I doubt it.

Zargon, you know nothing about the American Civil War nor U.S. history and its people.

John Wilkes Booth did the Confederacy a disservice by shooting the one man who might have healed the country's wounds after the Civil War.

Well said Charared!! I agree with everything you posted. He is an arseclown of the highest magnitude.

I agree completely with both of Charared's posts.

1860 to 1865 ACW otherwise known as the American Civil War. Politics aside (which is which this is about) I have in 28 mm approx 200 Union troops Foot/Mounted/Artillery and Generals, Rebels approx 130 same scale (majority in metal I might add so a considerable expense) books on/about the war its causes and the politics of the time about 4 in my library at the moment (have had to downsize on those) rules played, venerable Fire and Fury mainly, with 2FLs Terribly Sharp Sword and a few skirmish style games various rules sets. Your choice to dislike and stifle is yours, as is it yours to praise Mr. Lincoln, if you just wanted a praise him festive (yes I know its a date on the calender just like thanksgiving) why say it here on TMP where there are plenty of differing opinions including mine? Expect others to differ please, if I feel that his legacy may have be different to you why should it be wrong? Yes I don't have degrees in whatever you feel is acceptable and a view that bends to your thinking but I can make my decisions based on what I read, too much of a 'holy cow' for you that there should be differing opinion?
Yes, I'd also be in awe at the Lincoln Memorial as to how much one man can influence a nation myself, but to deify him? I don't think the man himself would appreciate it if anything I have read about him, and yes Booth was a sour 'bitterender' I understand the difference between the two. If I touched a nerve I apologise seeing as I am not even an American but Amendment Nbr 1, says it all. (Strange the 2nd is about guns :) guess you all need the firepower to back 1 up ) Oh and whack it gentlemen its not the OK Coral here.
Cheers

I like Mr Lincoln, to my mind one of the best and nicest presidents the USA has ever had.

PS I am English!

After Lincoln became the property of the ages we tend to forget how unpopular he was during much of his time in office, both with those who opposed the war and with those who felt he wasn't aggressive enough in prosecuting it. From late 1864 when U.S. victories started piling up until Lee's surrender, Lincoln's standing improved dramatically. Had Lincoln survived though, he would have faced the same problems that Johnson faced. While I suspect Lincoln would have handled them better than Johnson did, his popularity still would have taken a big hit from those who felt things should have been done differently.

In addition to his legacy as war leader of the U.S. during the ACW and his role in the emancipation of the slaves Lincoln also signed the transcontinental railroad acts, the homestead act and an act preserving Yosemite as a park.

He also suspended Habeas Corpus and shutdown newspapers that disagreed with his actions during the war, something that didn't happen in the south.

He showed to all future politicians that the "government of, for and by the people" could use any degree of force, including "burning the village in order to save it", to insure those "people" toed the Federal Government's line.

He also suspended Habeas Corpus and shutdown newspapers that disagreed with his actions during the war, something that didn't happen in the south.

Actually, Jefferson Davis suspended Habeas Corpus as well.

And the South had ALREADY silenced any opposing voices long before the war began.

Yep. Good luck trying to mail any abolitionist pamphlets in the South.

Never been a big Lincoln fan the idea that he "saved" the ability of the people to live under a government of their choosing by forcing his choice down their throats at gun point is nonsensical

As opposed to the secessionists who wanted everybody to live by their choices at the end of a whip?

jaxenro: But it wasn't HIS choice, it was the choice of the people. He won the election of 1860. But the South, instead of accepting that, decided to take their ball and go home. Lincoln described the situation perfectly at the start of his Gettysburg Address: "Now we are engaged in a great civil war testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure." In other words, can a democratic nation, where the rights of the individual are paramount, survive, or will it fragment into two (three? six dozen?) nations, each trying to cater to the special interests of its inhabitants? Lincoln could have just let the South go, but how long until the two halves split again and again, with each group fighting the others? I think history has judged that Lincoln made the right decision to try to keep the nation together.

I suspect if the South had been allowed to secede, New England would have been next. And then who knows how many more? Can't imagine that herd of cats intervening against Kaiser Bill or Der Fuhrer.

Guys, it's been 150 years. It's okay to let it go.

There are a couple of schools of thought on that. One says that the union would have continued to shatter as each region looked after its own interests, and this would happen in the south as well as the north. The other says that the common interests of the states would have ultimately lead to a national reconciliation. We will never know though, because that was the "road not travelled". You are correct though vtsaogames. Whatever you think of Lincoln, by preserving the union he insured there was a strong United States capable of dealing with the international challenges of the first half of the 20th century.

Scott, I think that saying Lincoln won the election in 1860 oversimplifies things. Lincoln won with less than 40% of the vote, and his 1860 campaign was hardly sold as a campaign to forceably prevent slave states from leaving the union. I suspect many who voted for Lincoln in 1860 would have responded to the threat of the slave states leaving with the equivalent of "Don't let the door hit you on the way out". Firing on Fort Sumter in 1861 changed the dynamics, but even so, the 1862 election was a close run thing.

Washington, Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt. The greatest Presidents of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.

49mountain: Yeah, those would be my choices, I think. Reading a long biography of TR right now. What an extraordinary man. No one else like him.

Tyrant and rogue.

Tyrant and rogue.

"CFeicht",

I think you're being a tad harsh. TR could be considered a "rogue" but *hardly* a tyrant…

Charared: actually, it was just the opposite. Many political bosses and those in big business considered him a tyrant, but no one ever considered him a rogue. He was a true gentleman and even his political foes admitted that.

ScottWashburn!

I was being a tad sarcastic/snarky with the poster above my last response. I AGREE with everything you wrote. TR was to the manor born AND a cultured gentleman. I mean rogue in the fact that in his Populist stances against the capitalist monopolies, his initiation of Pure Drug and Food policies, his admired desire to root out corruption and cronyism (not least in the NYC Police Department), TR *could* be considered a "rogue" amongst his peers (i.e. Mark Hanna's apocryphal comment on TR being sworn into office after McKinley's assassination; "Now that damned cowboy is president…"(?)). He was reviled by Rockefeller and Tammany alike. A TRUE Patrician who was also a champion of the Plebes.

Thanks for letting me drone on…

Charlie R

49mountain…

Sorry I didn't post earlier…

I AGREE with your post 100%!!!

They ARE the USA's:

Triumvirate of Honor AND Ability!

Charlie

Each state that left freely voted to leave. Would any of the states have joined the union in the first place with the understanding that, once joined, they could never leave? Virginia, if memory serves, specifically stated on ratification that they reserved the right to leave at some future point.

At what point does self determination trump federalism? The Declaration of Independence made the case for the United States to leave England, not as one country, but as a group of individual states united by a common cause. Up until Lincoln the United States was just that, a group of States united for common defense under a Constitution limiting the federal governments role, scope, and power. After Lincoln the federal government was paramount and and the rights of individual states to self determination was gone. So yes, he saved the USA, federal, but at the expense of destroying the United States, the union of states the founders envisioned

150 years on… And the bitterenders are still bitterending… <SIGH>

Jaxenro- I believe the issue you raise was resolved at Appomattox Court House….

I cannot reconcile the argument of secession as a state's right. It was not unanimous, so what about the people who opposed it? Would they be forced to be citizens of the new country, or become foreigners in a new land? It was not a situation where ethnic minorities established autonomy for a region, or colonists forming a new country after sufficient development.