Several of you have written to express your amazement on learning the high degree of emphasis Abraham Lincoln put on saving the Union over all other war aims, a priority he insisted subordinated even emancipation. “This is not what I was taught in school,” wrote one correspondent from Indiana, a view subsequently echoed by several more of you.
Such sentiments are probably not uncommon. But Mr. Lincoln’s words resonate for all to see, clear and concise, and carved into his marble memorial from the documents he wrote himself. Yet instead of questioning our 16th president, perhaps one’s inquiry should take aim in another direction: why isn’t this information included in school curriculums? Indeed, what else might we be missing here?
We have already touched on answers to that first question in previous Examiner articles. Yet most students of the war recognize that the Lincoln Memorial is a monument to democracy … that it is for everyone … that it primarily honors the martyred president’s success in restoring the Union … and that it remains a vivid reminder of our ongoing challenge to bind up the nation’s wounds.
No wonder the National Park Service permits visitation 24/7.
The site was originally swampland when selected by the Lincoln Memorial Association in 1902. Yet a dozen years would pass before the ceremonial first stone laying on February 12, 1914, Lincoln’s 105th birthday. Construction needed eight more years before this 36-columned, Greek Doric temple, (25 columns for the Union states, 11 for the restored Southern states) was dedicated on May 30, 1922, by former president William Howard Taft. In attendance that day…79-year-old Robert Todd Lincoln, the president’s only surviving son.
Most recall that over the years the Lincoln Memorial has hosted a number of epic events, from contralto Marian Anderson’s live performance before 70,000 and a national radio audience in 1939, to Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech in 1963, to the inauguration celebrations of George W. Bush in 2001 and Barack Obama just two years ago. Yet few know that this memorial was built of Indiana limestone and Colorado marble, or that Daniel Chester French sculpted Lincoln’s seated figure out of marble from the hills of Georgia.
Still, only a handful show up for Mr. Lincoln’s birthday on February 12, when the National Park Service honors the memory of the 16th President with a simple, but elegant ceremony that climaxes with the reading of his Gettysburg Address. Every year on this date, wreaths are presented on behalf of the President of the United States, the U.S. Diplomatic Corps, the Mayor of Washington, DC, the Gold Star Mothers, the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, and other organizations ... including, yes, the C. S. A. … the Confederate Saltier Association.
Yes, just as aged Confederate veterans attended the Lincoln Memorial’s original dedication in 1922, there has been a “Confederate presence” at the monument on this day down through the years. Representatives solemnly present a wreath to honor Lincoln, but a wreath accompanied by that Confederate battle flag—yes, the most recognized symbol of the civil war—walked across those marble steps in remembrance of the sacrifice of both sides … yet signifying to all, the binding up of the nation’s wounds.
Why not attend Mr. Lincoln’s birthday ceremony this coming Saturday and witness this quiet bit of history as it unfolds again this year.
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Comments
Famous quote of Lincoln's that if preserving the Union meant slavery, he would do it. If preserving it meant no slavery, then he would do that. Lincoln's primary goal was not the abolition of slavery but the preservation of the Union. PC history is taught too often.
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Greg, I'll tell you why I would not attend any ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial; I was "educated" in public schools so I was fed the myth of Lincoln. I became suspicious regarding the veracity of these lies long before I read DiLorenzo's excellent "The Real Lincoln" and "Lincoln Unmasked." Lincoln was a despot; a freak; he was the worst tyrant in our history, even worse than little crippled FDR who would have thankfully died from polio and saved the nation much distress. I am sorry that Wilkes Booth did not kill the bastard in 1860 and saved six hundred thousand American lives, even those of Yankees. Lincoln is solely responsible for the senseless avoidable war that devastated my South. There is nothing to admire about this jerk. His Gettysburg Address said we should honor the fallen there: yes, the Confederates who were attempting to save their homeland from ravenous, murderous savage Yankee marauders. Proverbs 11:10.
Tom, you sound angry about something.
“The Gettysburg speech was at once the shortest and the most famous oration in American history...the highest emotion reduced to a few poetical phrases. Lincoln himself never even remotely approached it. It is genuinely stupendous. But let us not forget that it is poetry, not logic; beauty, not sense. Think of the argument in it. Put it into the cold words of everyday. The doctrine is simply this: that the Union soldiers who died at Gettysburg sacrificed their lives to the cause of self-determination— ‘that government of the people, by the people, for the people,’ should not perish from the earth. It is difficult to imagine anything more untrue.
“The Union soldiers in that battle actually fought against self-determination; it was the Confederates who fought for the right of their people to govern themselves. What was the practical effect of the battle of Gettysburg? What else than the destruction of the old sovereignty of the States, i.e., of the people of the States? The Confederates went into battle free; they came out with their freedom subject to the supervision and veto of the rest of the country—and for nearly twenty years that veto was so effective that they enjoyed scarcely more liberty, in the political sense, than so many convicts in the penitentiary.” — Journalist H.L. Mencken, From “Five Men at Random,” “Prejudices: Third Series,” 1922, pp. 171-76: First printed, in part, in the “Smart Set,” May, 1920, p. 141
A proper symbolic memorial to Lincoln would be to smash the Memorial in DC to rubble and gravel. When people come to see the Lincoln Pile of Rubble, they might understand the destruction he brought. Over 600,000 Americans died in the war and that's not counting the over 50,000 civilians killed by starvation, rape, pillage and plunder and the over one million left maimed after the war. One in five southern men did not survive. Sherman himself estimated that he destroyed over $100 million in property and that his men carried home over $20 million in stolen property. The victims of rape, robbery and plunder were both black and white.
More imporant that the death and destruction Lincoln's war caused is the damage done to our Constitutional Republic. The states were previously a vital and VOLUNTARY part of the federal system, part of the checks and balances --- now they are just subserviant subdivisions of the national empire.
Lincoln deserves our everlasting contempt, not a memorial. Visitors should be encouraged to spit on the rubble.
Do a Google search for the "King Lincoln Archive" on LewRockwell.com and see especially Thomas DiLorenzo's contributions.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo12.html
I never thought about this until one of my older friends mentioned it. One of the reasons Booth shot Lincoln is that Lincoln was about to colonize the blacks/slaves and send them back to africa, or out of N America. Lincoln had mentioned this before, but I never thought that may be one of the reasons Booth shoot him.
While we're demolishing things let's not forget Lincoln's ugly face on Mt. Rushmore. It ruins an otherwise fine monument to honor America's heroes. How he got on there ahead of people like Benjamin Franklin, Robert E. Lee and many others is beyond my comprehension.
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