Justice and Fortitude

Republicans are celebrating Lincoln’s Birthday today. As a Libertarian, I am not.

Let’s just say it: Abraham Lincoln was not a good President. In fact, he is rated as one of the most horrible Presidents of all time by most liberty-conscious groups.

But, before someone calls me a bigot, let’s make one thing clear. Slavery was an abomination. But the Civil War was not about slavery, at least not initially. It was a contract dispute. The States, sovereign as they were, thought that since they had entered into the Union voluntarily, that they could also dissolve such ties voluntarily. How silly. President Lincoln, taking a page from our former British King, declared war to settle this contract dispute. Ponder that next time you decide to break a lease. Lincoln did eventually make the war about slavery, in order to undermine support for “States Rights.”

A quick Google search reveals some other interesting facts…consider:

He appointed generals and war planners so ineffectual they make Donald Rumsfeld look like Sun Tzu. When he did finally find competent generals (Grant and Sherman), he let those generals engage in a bloody campaign that directly targeted Confederate civilians (Sherman’s March to the Sea).

He suspended the writ of habeas corpus, which allowed him to arrest thousands of U.S. citizens (including plenty of journalists) and hold them without cause or trial. When a U.S. Circuit Court overturned Lincoln on this, he simply ignored their ruling.

He won re-election in 1864 through a variety of questionable tactics, including having Union troops redeployed to states to pressure and intimidate voters.

He never had a particularly high opinion of blacks, starting from indifference to the plight of slavery and eventually concluding that freed slaves should be shipped back to Africa.

He fought for quite a while to preserve slavery in border states and only turned to emancipating slaves as a last-ditch strategy for weakening the Confederacy.

He kept border states like Maryland loyal to the Union by first promising not to end slavery there, then by hauling away political leaders without trial.

He responded to a Sioux Indian rebellion (sparked by refusal of the United States to abide by signed treaties) by not only sending troops out to stomp the insurrection, but by abolishing the Indian reservation there, canceling all treaties with the Sioux, and putting a $25 bounty on their scalps.

And the slaves he is credited for liberating saw another hundred years of oppression, violence, and disenfranchisement before achieving anything like equality in this country.

So while Republicans dine at their Lincoln Day Dinners, talking about “smaller government” and “state’s rights,” I’ll be shaking my head at the irony.