What would President Lincoln have done?

[David Lockmiller]

Hint #1:Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln by Distinguished Men of His Time, Edited and Collected by Allen Thorndike Rice, Editor of the North American Review [1888], pages 328-29, Colonel A. H. Markland:

When I delivered the letter [dated June 9, 1864], Mr. Lincoln read it carefully and handed it back to me, saying:

"What is the matter between Blair and Stanton?"

I told him all I knew in reference to the proposed orders. He then said:

"If I understand the case, General Grant wants the orders issued, and Blair wants them issued, and you want them issued, and Stanton won't issue them. Now, don't you see what kind of a fix I will be in if I interfere? I'll tell you what to do: If you and General Grant understand one another, suppose you try to get along without the orders, and if Blair or Stanton make a fuss I may be called in as a referee, and I may decide in your favor."

The orders were never issued, and pleasant relations were maintained on that score all around.

That Abraham Lincoln was favored with a fund of humor and a sense of the ridiculous there can be no question; but as President he used those gifts, if they may be called gifts, for a worthy and laudable purpose. When oppressed with care and anxiety, beset with importunities he could not grant, humor was to him a relief, and an encouragement to his despondent listener. His sympathies were with the people and for the people, and his only ambition was that the Union might be preserved. It is a singular fact that all men who came in official or social relations with Abraham Lincoln while he was President were impressed with unselfish patriotism and unyielding integrity. (Emphasis added.)


What we have here is purposeful non-enforcement of the law -“Sargent First Class Richard Stayskal Military Medical Accountability Act of 2019” - by federal employees in the executive branch of the government.