Abraham Lincoln

Image from gallery moeding net


Abraham Lincoln the 16th President of the United States, held office during that country's greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War.

Not only did he successfully steer his nation through those times, preserving the Union, he also brought an end to slavery. Elected as president as an outspoken opponent of the expansion of slavery in the United States he introduced measures that abolished slavery, issued his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and promoted the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

Lincoln closely supervised the victorious war effort, especially the selection of top generals, including Ulysses S. Grant. Historians have concluded that he handled the factions of the Republican Party well, bringing leaders of each faction into his cabinet and forcing them to cooperate. Lincoln successfully defused the Trent affair, a war scare with Britain, in 1861. Under his leadership, the Union took control of the border slave states at the start of the war. Additionally, he managed his own reelection in the 1864 presidential election.

A humble man, he is regarded as one of America's greatest Presidents, usually seen as a human being personifying the values of honesty, integrity, respect for individual and minority rights, and human freedom in general.

Given the manner of things in Sri Lanka, I thought it pertinent to post a few of his quotes this morning

- With Malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds.

- You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

- Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

- I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lords side.

- America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.

- As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.

- Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.

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

- Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.

- How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.

- I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.

- I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.

- If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.

- It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.

- Knavery and flattery are blood relations.

- No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.

- Public opinion in this country is everything.

- The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.

- The people themselves, and not their servants, can safely reverse their own deliberate decisions.

- The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.

- These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people.

- This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.

- To stand in silence when they should be protesting makes cowards out of men.

- We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.

- What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.

- When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion.

- You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence.

- You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.