I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think, and feel. And yet I have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling. It was in the oath I took that I would, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. I could not take the office without taking the oath. Nor was it my view that I might take an oath to get power, and break the oath in using the power. I understood, too, that in ordinary civil administration this oath even forbade me to practically indulge my primary abstract judgment on the moral question of slavery. I had publicly declared this many times, and in many ways. And I aver that, to this day, I have done no official act in mere deference to my abstract judgment and feeling on slavery. — 1864

My Take – Leaders ought to have some absolutes in their beliefs.  “If X is not wrong, then nothing is wrong” is a wonderful thing for someone who is given power to have in their kit bag of beliefs. Lincoln was absolutely right in observing that we all come to our jobs with our individual beliefs and values.  The biggest difference between Lincoln and the last few presidents seems, to me, to be that Lincoln understood that the Constitution was superior to his own values and beliefs.

Lincoln absolutely hated slavery, but knew that under the Constitution he had no power to abolish it in the states that were not in a state of rebellion.  That’s why the Emancipation Proclamation only held power in territory that was captured from the Confederacy.  He fully understood that if you want to do something that the Constitution doesn’t give you power to do, then you don’t ignore the Constitution. You either work within its limits or go through the arduous process of changing it.  The Thirteenth Amendment, which outlawed slavery in the United States, was passed by Congress in 1864, but wasn’t ratified by the states until after Lincoln’s death in 1865.  Lincoln went to his grave living by his belief that the Constitution restricted him from acting on his personal animus toward slavery, no matter how much history would have lauded him for doing so.

That’s not to say that Lincoln was a saint by any means.  Some of the measures he took in his efforts to bring the Confederates back into the Union and to keep more states from going over might have gotten him impeached if anyone had had the guts to make an issue of it.  But he at least had the belief and made an effort to respect the Constitution in this manner.

What our current crop of presidents seem to believe is that the Constitution is more of a guideline, and that its limits are merely fuzzy lines on the map of politics.

• Don’t like abortion?  Pass laws you know will probably fail in front of the Supreme Court in order to score political points.
• Don’t care for guns or the people who own them?  Then get the Congress to pass a law that bans cosmetic things about some guns that will only inconvenience those who respect the law.
• Frustrated that the Constitution protects the nation from over-reaching law enforcement and government monitoring?  Then take advantage of public fear of narcotics and terrorism to turn local, state, and federal law enforcement into a standing army that protects the country from its own citizens.
• Don’t think it’s fair that some people work hard and get good health care?  Then pass a law that forces everyone who breathes American air to either purchase insurance or pay a tax/penalty/tribute so that you can give even more money to those who won’t work.

Yes, Lincoln had his warts, but we’d be better off if the politicians of the past few decades who profess to honor his memory actually acted a bit more like him.

I thank you, in common with all others, who have thought fit, by their votes, to indorse the Republican cause. I rejoice with you in the success which has, so far, attended that cause. Yet in all our rejoicing let us neither express, nor cherish, any harsh feeling towards any citizen who, by his vote, has differed with us. Let us at all times remember that all American citizens are brothers of a common country, and should dwell together in the bonds of fraternal feeling. — 1860

My Take – We are all Americans, no matter our political feelings.  The spite that keeps going on after the elections is nothing but that, spite.  When we dehumanize our opponents too long, we run the risk of forgetting that they are indeed human, which is a dangerous place to be.  In short, once the election is over, the election should be over and we should get on with running the country together.

Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them. — 1865

My Take – When you’re telling someone about the mote in their eye, try to use a little tact.  Especially when telling them that what they’re doing is considered a sin in the eyes of $DEITY (or $DEITY[0] for those of you with a pantheon), lambasting them about their sinfulness is less than likely to get the result you are looking for.  The best you can hope for is that they turn their back on you and start in on their ‘sin’ with even more vigor just to piss you off. The worst case scenario is that you end up with a flat nose over it, and they just keep on sinning.

When I feel that someone is doing wrong, especially if they are doing it without thought, I try to be very gentle when pointing it out.  Sometimes all I get is acknowledgement of my input, but sometimes it gets them to thinking, and sometimes that leads to reform.  But if I gently remind someone that what they’re doing isn’t exactly right in the eyes of my god, and they keep doing it, it’s not my place to browbeat them into submission.  Bringing someone to salvation doesn’t count if they do it just to shut you up.