Lincoln statues around the world

[David Lockmiller]

(06-07-2020 09:53 PM)My Name Is Kate Wrote:  How is it that the NYT is always wrong whenever they say anything negative about Lincoln, and always right whenever they say anything negative about Trump (and they do it continuously)?

Your biased, hateful, baseless Trump bashing has grown very tiresome. And why are you continually seeking ways to do it on a Lincoln forum?

Kate,

I don’t know how anyone can say anything “bad” about President Abraham Lincoln without telling the complete truth.

What is the most egregious thing that President Lincoln did wrong, in your opinion? If you have a list of things that President Lincoln did wrong, I’ll try to address them one at a time.

Do you believe as I do, according to the argument that I have posted, that the New York Times essayist Nikole Hannah-Jones (winner of 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary) intentionally misrepresented the response of the Committee of Free Black Men on the issue of colonization as evidenced by the New York Times published reporting of the meeting in 1862 and the written response of the Committee to President Lincoln two days following the meeting?

In my post previous to the one that I now respond, I cited the example of President Lincoln defying the will of Congress regarding Reconstruction (Detroit Man Scores Lincoln autograph, post #3):

The goodwill engendered among congressional radicals by Lincoln’s appointment of Fessenden was swiftly eroded by his refusal to sign the punitive Reconstruction bill that passed the Congress in the final hours of July 2, 1864, before it adjourned for the summer. [T]he bill laid down a rigid formula for bringing the seceded states back into the Union. The process differed in significant ways from the more lenient plan Lincoln had announced the previous December. Lincoln had proposed to rehabilitate individual states as quickly as possible, hoping their return would deflate Southern morale and thereby shorten the war. . . . Finally, the bill imposed emancipation by congressional fiat where Lincoln believed that such a step overstepped constitutional authority and instead proposed a constitutional amendment to ensure that slavery could never return.

Lincoln’s response made to Hay: Lincoln understood that he would be politically damaged if the radicals “chose to make a point upon this.” Nevertheless, he told John Hay, “I must keep some consciousness of being somewhere near right: I must keep some standard of principle fixed within myself.”

The result: “Now personal sorrow was compounded by the realization that radical opposition might divide the Republican Party, undoing the unity he had struggled to maintain through the turbulent years of his presidency.”

In the thread “RE: The 1619 Project (in the New York Times Magazine)” at post #6, it is written:

In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln came to the rescue of hundreds of Sioux Native Americans. 303 Sioux Indians were convicted of war crimes in the Minnesota Indian uprising and sentenced to death.

President Lincoln ordered General Pope to "forward, as soon as possible, the full and complete record of these convictions" and to prepare "a careful statement." As President Lincoln and two Interior Department lawyers scrutinized the record of the trials, they discovered that some had lasted only fifteen minutes, that hearsay evidence had been admitted, that due process had been ignored, and that counsel had not been provided the defendants.

President Lincoln authorized the execution of only 37 of the 303 condemned men (35 were found guilty of murder and 2 were convicted of rape). Lincoln explained his reasoning: "Anxious not to act with so much clemency as to encourage another outbreak on one hand, nor with so much severity as to be real cruelty on the other, I caused a careful examination of the records of the trials to be made, in view of first ordering the execution of such as had been proved guilty of violating females." He further sought to discriminate between those involved in massacres and those involved only in battles. At the last minute before the executions, President Lincoln pardoned Round Wind, who had helped some whites to escape.

On December 26, 1862, the convicted rapists and killers died on the gallows while a peaceful crowd of more than 5,000 looked on. In 1864, Minnesota Governor Ramsey told President Lincoln that if he had executed all 303 Indians, he would have won more backing for his reelection bid. “I could not afford to hang men for votes," came the reply.

My point of these two examples is that President Abraham Lincoln was willing to defy even the will of a majority if he understood, according to his reasoning, that the majority was in the wrong. It is far easier to adopt the policy “to get along, go along.” But President Abraham Lincoln lived by the aphorism that “right makes might.” And, if you disagree with my opinion that Nikole Hannah-Jones’ attacks upon the character and reputation of President Abraham Lincoln are insidious lies, we will have to disagree until the end of time.

I repeat my offer made in the second paragraph: “What is the most egregious thing that President Lincoln did wrong, in your opinion? If you have a list of things that President Lincoln did wrong, I’ll try to address them one at a time.”

Kate, you have my word of honor that I will attempt to accomplish this task as best that I am able to do so. And, I will continue to oppose any future incredulous favorable comparisons made by President Trump to President Abraham Lincoln.

David

P.S. Regarding the purpose of the Lincoln forum, I believe that it is to learn the "truth" about Abraham Lincoln. I have made mistakes in some of my posts (the majority of time when I have quoted Emanuel Hertz stories without verifying authenticity) and have been corrected appropriately by other members of the Lincoln Discussion Symposium.