Greatness of Abraham Lincoln

                    The greatness of Abraham began with his opposition to the expansion of slavery in the United States, which was one of the main reasons why he ran for President of the United States.  He used his campaign debates and speeches to express his beliefs that slavery was wrong - both for individuals and for our nation. 

                    Lincoln was elected in 1960 and was inaugurated as President of the United States in March 1861.  Southern states began leaving the Union as soon as he was elected.  "He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis - the American Civil War - preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and promoting economic and financial modernization."  President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address given in 1863 "became the most quoted speech in American history.  It was an iconic statement of America's dedication to the principles of nationalism, equal rights, liberty, and democracy." principles of nationalism, equal rights, liberty, and democracy." 

                    President Lincoln was re-elected in the presidential campaign of 1864 and was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre in April 1865 - just six days after General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate army and ended the Civil War.  He died on April 15, 1865.  He is one of four Presidents memorialized on Mount Rushmore.  

                    The Gettysburg Address was a short speech delivered at the place of the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania.  It was given on November 19, 1863, at ceremonies to dedicate part of the battleground as a cemetery for the men who died fighting there.

                    "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. 

                    "Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.  We are met on a great battlefield of that war.  We are met to dedicate a portion of it as the final resting place of those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.  It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

                    "But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate - we cannot consecrate - we cannot hallow this ground.  The brave men living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.  The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.  It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work that they have thus far so nobly carried on.  It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain - that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom - and that governments of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

                    The following quotes by Lincoln show he was a regular, compassionate American who loved the United States.  More quotes can be found here.  

                   "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."  [I like this one!]

                    "Discourage litigation.  Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can.  As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man.  There will still be business enough."  [Interesting!]

                    "Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived."  [This is good counsel for nations, civic leaders, and parents!]

                    "I am a firm believer in the people.  If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crises.  The great point is to bring them the real facts."  [This quote gives a clear reason why the lame stream media continues to hide the truth from the American people.  They are afraid that Americans will see through their thinly-disguised ploys to destroy the United States as we know it.]

                    "Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."  [How true!] 

                    "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."  [Again, very true!]

                    That some should be rich, shows that others may become rich, and, hence, is just encouragement to industry and enterprise."  [This quote sort of takes the wind out of the progressives' sails!]

                    "The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just."  [Join the fight to save our nation!]

                    "No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent."

President Lincoln left many outstanding quotes as shown by the following ones.  More quotes can be found here.

                    "A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have." 

    "Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?"

                    "A house divided against itself cannot stand."  [This is another one of his famous quotes.]

                    "All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind."  [This quote shows his intelligence as well as his humanity.]

                    "All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother."  [What a tribute!  His mother must have been truly wonderful!]

                    "All the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure."  [The truth of this statement is shown by our current President's wars in the Middle East!]

                    "America will never be destroyed from the outside.  If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."  [This statement is the absolute truth.  Communists understood this fact and began to infiltrate our nation soon after World War II in an effort to destroy our nation from the inside.  Their work appears to be almost complete.]

                    "Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better.  This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world."  [He understood that the ultimate power in government rests with the people.]

                    I believe that Abraham Lincoln was great for many reasons.  His greatness is shown by the continued Union - the fact that we are united - the United States!