Abraham Lincoln, Healer of the Divided Nation

Today marks an important event in our nation's history. On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address at the end of a bitter Civil War in America. 

We are routinely reminded, and especially after another recently concluded presidential election, that our nation today is deeply divided. I've heard way too many people remark to me their belief is that another civil war is brewing beneath the surface of our political landscape. Red and Blue continue to do combat against each other, but so far (gratefully) we witness only immaterial skirmishes mostly in the form of heated rhetoric. We have been subjected to scorched airwaves over cable television networks.

The net result of this round of bickering was a decisive victory for President Donald J. Trump. It wasn't a close election, and he will enter office on January 20, 2025, with a mandate for change that is already taking shape in his cabinet announcements. There seems to be no relenting on his part as the predictable criticisms have landed on his deaf ears. 

Lincoln at Gettysburg, 1863

For his part, Lincoln was a healer and a conciliator in the first rank. He sought peace, and even though the Union had essentially won the war by the time he was running for re-election in the upcoming presidential election of 1864, he was most interested in binding up the deep wounds that remained. He would win re-election, but then was assassinated on April 15, 1865.

It would be well for us on this day of anniversary to review his message to the nation in 1863. I invite you to refresh your memory by re-reading his famous speech. It's a good message for all Americans after finishing another presidential election.

The Battle of Gettysburg saw each side suffer roughly 23,000 casualties (killed, captured and wounded), making it the war's most destructive battle. The next day, July 4th, as Lee's army hastily retreated southward, Grant took Vicksburg on the Mississippi River. The twin victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg ensured that the Confederacy's days were numbered. Never again would Lee's Army of Northern Virginia invade the north, and, indeed, it spent the rest of the war on the defensive.

After the defeats that summer, the Confederate strategy shifted from one of seeking a decisive military victory (which its army could at that point no longer produce) to one of wearing down the enemy — of making the war so costly for the Union that the Northern peace party would elect a president in the fall of 1864, who would end the war and grant Confederate independence. It was not to be.

That's a snapshot of the background as President Lincoln addressed the nation at Gettysburg with these scant 272 words.

Delivered at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln

November 19, 1863.

* * *

The Civil War remains the deadliest of all American wars. In 2011, demographic historian Dr. J. David Hacker published “A Census-Based Count of Civil War Dead,” in the scholarly quarterly, Civil War History, reporting that his in-depth study of recently digitized census data concluded that a more accurate estimate of Civil War deaths is about 750,000, with a range from 650,000 to as many as 850,000 dead.

Hacker, an associate professor of history at the University of Minnesota, believed that a fresh, detailed examination of the numbers from the 1850, 1860 and 1870 U.S. census tabulations might reveal a massive reduction for the young male population in 1870 that would reflect the human toll of the war. And that is what he found. Hacker’s research concluded that the normal survival pattern for young American men from 1860 to 1870 was far less — by about 750,000 — than it would have been had no war occurred.

Civil War History called Hacker’s findings “among the most consequential pieces” it has ever published. “It even further elevates the significance of the Civil War and makes a dramatic statement about how the war is a central moment in American history,” said Civil War historian Eric Foner.

“The first thing to stress is this is an estimate of the number of men missing in 1870. It is adjusted for possible census undercount and other things,” Hacker tells History. “It is not an estimate of the number of people who died on the battlefield. And why are these men missing? I think the only reasonable reason they're missing is because of the Civil War.” 

Source: (https://www.history.com/news/american-civil-war-deaths).

#GiveThanks for Blessings

Helen and L. Brent Goates

It's that blessed season of the year when we can step aside from the demands of the world and #givethanks for the many blessings we enjoy. This is Thanksgiving week. I begin by giving thanks for the life of my father, L. Brent Goates, who passed to the other side this week five years ago. I love my Dad, and I still miss him every day since his passing. I find myself still reaching for the phone to check in on him, only to realize he won't be picking up the phone. Even the house he lived in has been demolished and replaced by a new home with new owners. What is left behind is a lifetime of memories of him and Mom. Giving thanks for them is a cherished part of this week's celebration.

Mom had this picture taken of them for no special reason, simply because it captured them in their "prime." They were a great example to all of us, and we still miss them when we gather as a family. 

Dad was a Utah fan for most of his adult life until he defected to the "dark side" and turned himself into a BYU fan. Some things in life are simply and emphatically inexplicable. But this week, he would be exulting in both football teams being nationally ranked. 

Whether red or blue, there has been plenty to cheer about this week, and I especially give thanks that on the eve of his 62nd birthday Kyle Whittingham officially became the winningest coach in Utah football history with 142. His team toppled No. 3 Oregon before a record crowd at Rice-Eccles stadium by a score of 38-7. Seriously, who can't be thankful for that? 

So, consistent with its history, the PAC-12 teams have once again beat up on each other this year to knock all the teams out of consideration for a national championship berth in the BCS bowls. I know it's just whimsical in comparison to all the more meaningful things in life for which I am grateful, but I will allow a little whimsy now and then. 

Utah will now contend for the PAC-12 championship in Las Vegas in December, then if they win out will likely get the Rose Bowl bid, a long-sought goal for Coach Whittingham.

This last few weeks we have been celebrating a new missionary in our family, Elder Alexander James Goates. On Sunday we gathered at their ward to hear him give his farewell talk prior to his departure for Peru. He is a great young man, excelling in areas where he has put his focus, including starting his own outfitting business and giving guided tours for fishermen in the Uintas, being a nationally recognized spikeball champ, and of course an outstanding scholar. He will be here for Thanksgiving dinner, then he will be headed out to Peru to take up his labors as a full-time missionary for the Church. We #givethanks for Alex. What a powerful example of goodness and humility!

General Ulysses S. Grant

I have been reading the complete memoirs of President Ulysses S. Grant recently. He was a contemporary of Joseph Smith, and it was his leadership during the darkest days of the Civil War that ultimately produced the victory for the Union troops over the Confederates. We often lament how divided we are today in our politics. You might want to consider reading Grant's memoirs for a little bit of perspective. He rose through the ranks as a somewhat reluctant though willing participant because he believed so ardently in the cause of holding the nation together despite the divisiveness of the country over the slavery issue. Like so many of his predecessors and successors as leaders of armies, he viewed war with absolute disdain and abhorrence because of the waste of men and material. Stories are told of battlefields so littered with dead bodies that one could scarcely walk across and find ground upon which to walk. He is a pivotal figure in our history as a nation and his words in his autobiography are inspiring. He was known in the end of the war as "Lincoln's General," and President Lincoln turned over the conduct of the war without interference from him. He would later be elected as the 18th President of the United States, and was still working on holding the fragile coalition of the states together. Grant might easily have been with the Lincolns at Ford's Theatre that fateful night, but Mrs. Grant was eager to return to their home to visit their children. Grant often lamented the fact that he had been absent, thinking he might have prevented the assassination if he had gone to the theatre that night. Booth also had Grant on his target list. So I #givethanks for heroes proved in liberating strife in our nation's history who filled such a vital role in our destiny as a free nation.

Not All Presidents are Created Equally

Back in the day when I was a little boy in school, we celebrated two birthdays of former US Presidents in February. On the 12th, everyone knew it was Abraham Lincoln's birthday, and the 22nd was George Washington's. For some reason this morning I was thinking about my 4th grade Social Studies class with Mrs. Baker. Her lessons about these two great men might be my earliest recollections of them and what they believed.

My teacher shared my enthusiasm for them. I remember her walls in the classroom were adorned with their portraits, and I mean all year long not just in February.

Last November, we were in Washington D.C. and visited the sites where Washington and Lincoln are enshrined. I have wondered again this morning what they would be thinking if they were alive in America today. There is a conversation going around America these days about "inequality". It is being framed by the current POTUS, a man defined only by his ideology founded in his need to make government the dispensing machine for righting all the societal wrongs and assuring economic "equality" for all Americans. As the first black POTUS, we all hoped for so much better than he has delivered. The hard fact is it is he alone who is defining all the terms. It is he alone who is dictating how laws will be applied and how they will be interpreted. It is he alone who seems willing and more than able to do whatever he wants in the execution of the duties of the government and all its branches, not merely confining himself to the duties of the executive branch.

The bastion of his false beliefs is stamped all over the Obamacare legislation known as the Affordable Care Act. The underlying premise is that it is a right for all Americans to have affordable health care coverage. He seems to be the only person who thinks his definition of "affordable" is accurate. The wrecking ball has swung wildly in all directions. So far there seems to be no distinction about whether or not one is an American citizen to qualify, only that you live here. I remember when George W. Bush was mocked as "King George" and was accused of operating an imperial presidency. Boy, those were the good old days in comparison, weren't they?

The redistribution of private wealth and capital, even private ownership of property, is being promoted as never before by this government. Our current POTUS would assert his definitions of "fairness" must mandate that all Americans be treated equally. If you fall below certain income levels, the government will be there to provide not only a social safety net, but will make the attempt to give you more than you might receive if you were gainfully employed. The net result of this attempt has been more inequality and more unfairness than ever before. Pitting the economic classes and the ethnic races against each other has been given new stature under this POTUS. We have a record number of Americans who are on food stamps. It has become a widely recognized entitlement program if your income drops below a certain annual level. The minimum wage has been given a boost and mandated at a higher rate for all government contracts, supposedly to "level the playing field". Access to health care through Obamacare and Medicare and Medicaid for all Americans equally has become a political mantra that will likely never be reversed. Instead, it will have to collapse under the weight of its towering false assumptions.

All these efforts hearken back to the "war on poverty" waged back in the sixties by the Johnson administration. Like the "war on drugs" and the previous attempts to level the economic conditions of Americans, Obamacare will fail to deliver its promised results because socialism as defined and administered by government is so badly flawed in all its attempts to equalize the worker with the owner.

Equality between the sexes is another area where public policy has run amok. There are those hailing the recent court rulings that essentially have left us with a "genderless" definition of marriage. I read yesterday of a college in America that gives people 56 different options for the "gender" question on admission forms. Really? 56? Hard to believe, but that's the silliness of men's wisdom on display for all to see. Back in 1996, in Power and Covenants: Men, Women and Priesthood, we attempted to thwart the onrushing wave of false doctrine on that issue, many would say to no avail. But we tried. Inequality in this life is a reality. Equality is a myth of man's making. How does one attempt to equate the LGBT agenda with marriage between a man and a woman? Only through suborned courts and judges. Only in the feeble attempts of men's reasoning.

In days gone by, and even today in some cases, Americans who are the risk takers have always been rewarded with success when they invest capital for the benefit of those whom they employ. I never worked for an impoverished employer. They have all been successful because their business risks were rewarded with success to the degree they had enough capital to employ others. The employees have it within their power to create the capital for their owners - work always precedes the acquisition of the capital. In countless countries around the world when the working class was dissatisfied with their condition they rose up in rebellion. It happened in Russia, it happened in France, and it happened in America. If they are dissatisfied with their daily wage, workers the world over are free to access the markets with their skills and talents and see if they can earn a better return for their labors.

History tells us Washington and Lincoln believed in these principles. For that reason they were singled out for recognition in our national celebration of their birthdays. I'm still of the mindset to single these two out above all the other generic Presidents. In a previous post entitled "A Calf's Tail" I highlighted many of their notable quotations along with several other occupants of the White House. Today, I add a few more gems to the collection.

President George Washington

Said Washington, warning about government's power:

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."

With regard to the need to preserve and sustain the right to bear arms, Washington counselled:

"The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference - they deserve a place of honor with all that's good."

Washington believed morality in the public square could not be imposed by government. It was solely dependent upon religion:

"Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."

President Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln comes along over a hundred years later and offers this counsel to help us judge political sophistry unerringly:

"I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong."

No one believed more firmly than Lincoln that the American people were capable of making correct choices. The backbone that holds the skeleton of the Constitution together is the collective wisdom and judgment of the people:

"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts."

So powerful were these ideas in Lincoln's mind that he dared to state unequivocally:

"Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world."

On this Presidents Day 2014, let us keep sacred and long remember the wisdom of these two great Presidents. It should be obvious their meaning of equality had little to do with the way the terms are being defined in America today.

And, sadly, it should be obvious we are not seeing men of their stature approaching "equality" with them either.

"I Am So Grateful. . ."

We have returned home from our trip to Washington D.C. where we picked up Sister Merilee Goates. She was released into our care and keeping a week ago on Thursday morning at the final transfer meeting. I take today's title for this post from Sister Goates.

If there were one phrase I heard repeatedly more than any other from our daughter, it was this one - "I am so grateful for. . ." and then she would cite a specific blessing she had received. The list included her testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ as she witnessed the dramatic changes that had come into people's lives whom she had taught.

She referred again and again to members of the Church with whom she had labored to teach their friends, many of whom eventually joined the Church.

I heard her express gratitude for ALL the people who had changed her life for the better, including her mission president, Matthew Riggs, and his wife and their children, the senior missionary couples who had influenced her, her companions, and all the leaders of the Church she had met, including President Brian Swinton of the Washington D.C. Temple. We had a chance to renew our boyhood ties as we concluded an endowment session last Saturday morning. She mentioned several occasions where he had given sound counsel to missionaries and members.

There was a stranger she met on the Metro as we rode back from the city that day, an engaging black lady who was a grandmother and lifelong government employee who was full of light. After their brief encounter, Sister Goates expressed gratitude for putting that wonderful woman in her path that day so she could invite her to join our Church. She was a Southern Baptist, who knew much about the Mormons and had visited the Washington D.C. Temple in times past.

Gratitude was on her lips for a pair of shoes someone had sent to her on her mission, and for a sweater an investigator had given her when she needed warmth during her first bitter cold winter in Virginia. I also heard gratitude expressed for Honeycrisp apples to which she was introduced. She was never without one thereafter, so grateful for the discovery.

The weather was also on the list. We were at Mount Vernon on a November day basking in 70 degrees when she said it. She also spoke of green trees, so dense that in summer it was impossible to navigate because of the canopy of leaves on all those trees. And then her gratitude was for the fall colors of the leaves that were still clinging to their branches. And then it was for barren trees that made it possible to discern our surroundings more clearly.

Her citizenship in the United States also made the list of things for which she is most grateful. Living in that history-rich environment had heightened her awareness of all our blessings as free people, and the incredible price for freedom that has been paid by so many hundreds of thousands for that precious gift. It is hard to visit those stirring memorials on the National Mall and not be moved. The inspired quotations chiseled in granite, marble and other stones remind everyone of the cost to overthrow tyranny. The World War II Memorial honors over 400,000 lost in the global conflict. The price of freedom is always eternal vigilance. May we never forget the sacrifices of so many! The Vietnam War Memorial inscribed with all the names of the dead in that conflict designed to stop the march of communism was yet another reminder.

On a gorgeous fall morning in November, she shed some tears as we stood inside the Lincoln Memorial and I recounted my love for that iconic American leader who presided during a very divisive time in our history. Emotions were also close to the surface as we stood at the base of the statue of Thomas Jefferson at the other end of the Tidal Basin. Reading their words in those sacred precincts is inspiring. Later we watched the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and soberly pondered how many there must be like that one in our perpetual struggle to remain free. As we visited JFK's grave site overlooking the capital city and stood before the eternal flame burning there, hope of our perpetual freedom in America was rekindled and sunk deep within our hearts. We were there only hours before the commemoration of Kennedy's death fifty years ago. Oh, what memories it conjured up within me!

Iwo Jima Memorial

She admitted her favorite monument was the Iwo Jima statue, since it was not far from her apartment in Arlington and she was able to visit frequently during her stay there. She was so grateful for those sacred times of somber reflection.

Perhaps most impressive was her introduction to us of a young refugee from Egypt, Yousef, a Coptic Christian who was forced to flee to America when the violence against Christians in Egypt seemed to accelerate a couple of years ago. Yousef is on date for baptism into the Church in December. We had a chance to read several scriptures with him, to testify, and to re-commit him to his baptism date. That's really what we spent most of our time doing in D.C. - retracing her steps with people she had met, loved, served and taught.

As we spoke with Yousef he told us how excited he was about the prospects that soon all minority groups, including the Mormons, would be recognized in two months when the new Constitution for Egypt becomes ratified. His desktop background has pictures of Mormon temples that dot the globe now. He loves the thought that someday there will be temple in Cairo. I told him I felt impressed he would be in the vanguard of early pioneer saints in Egypt, all in fulfillment of the prophecy of Elder Bruce R. McConkie in 1980. Yousef, thrilled at the prospect when I explained he would someday be a pioneer for Mormonism in his beloved Egypt, exulted, "Soon everyone on earth will know about the Mormons!" I felt impressed to tell him I believed as part of Elder McConkie's prophecy there would someday be a temple in Cairo, and he would live to see the day come to pass if he remained faithful to his testimony.

As we left his apartment with water bottles he had graciously given to us out of the little he had to give, Sister Goates once again said, "Meeting Yousef has helped me to appreciate so much my citizenship in America. I had always taken so much for granted. He is here to escape death in his own country, where he told me Christians were being slaughtered in the streets. How grateful I am for freedom to worship God!"

Tears silently fell as the aerial view of Washington D.C. faded into the distance on the horizon. Her face now turned West to resume her life again. She will look back with fondness on her missionary experience, but she will also begin a new chapter now with a renewed sense of gratitude, cultivated from her last eighteen months in Virginia. She will never again be the same person she was.

So we are grateful this week before Thanksgiving for all our blessings as a family. As we recount them all, our list like Merilee's grows longer and longer. This year they include being reunited with Merilee, and yesterday we met our first grandson at the airport, Elder Izach Jach, who returned home from the Iowa Des Moines Mission, taller, broader, and a pillar of power after a mission experience filled with happiness and success.

Our cup is running over, and I am so grateful. . .

Predicting the Future of Politics

I was reminded today about an old Yogi Berraism: "Predictions are always uncertain, especially about the future."

When you look back ten years, is there anyone who could have predicted then where we would be as a nation today? So why would anyone in their right mind believe ANYONE living today could possibly predict the future of politics in this country?

That said, I will venture a guess that things as they are today will not remain for much longer politically. The Republicans are still smarting from the election of 2012. There were many surprises. The old methods of analysis of the demographics have faded away, it would seem. Conversely, there were numerous allegations of voter fraud and stealing the election in key battleground states. Whatever the facts may someday reveal, it was a shock to the conservative base to which I belong.

We face some daunting challenges. The country is broke, at least by the traditional definitions of what that means. When we spend more than we take in that used to mean "broke." We have a federal government that is out of control in its spending habits. We can’t afford what they are doing. We now have a government that is doling out benefits across a broad spectrum to half the citizens. Our private industry, once the envy of the world in productivity is now stalled and mostly stagnant compared to China's output. The Republican Party, once the champion of free enterprise, limited government and individual freedom and responsibility lost its way in the darkness of progressivism a long time ago.

Democrats were historically the party of big government. There was hope in the 90s when Bill Clinton declared the end of big government, constrained as he was by the Newt Gingrich revolution in Congress that produced a balanced budget. Now they too have lost their way. Under Barack Obama it appears they would make everyone dependent upon big government. They believe they have discovered the golden ticket to winning elections in perpetuity among voters who like the dole they receive in whatever form it takes.

Sadly, about all we got Republicans to admit in this last election cycle is that they could manage big government better than Democrats. While I at one time believed there was a clear and obvious contrast between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, when it comes to the argument about Big Government versus small government, the argument became a blended mishmash that was nearly indistinguishable, especially in that last debate.

So I've mostly gone silent on the political front since that first week in November. Stunned and still recovering would be the best way to describe my reaction. This country has been without a true political freedom of expression and limited government party for many years.

That reality must change. The upstart "tea party" has received its death warrant from more than a few pundits, most recently from former Senator Bob Bennett, who was soundly thrashed in the Utah nominating convention in 2010, and whose seat is now held by Mike Lee (R-UT). But I have the sense predictions of the spirit it represents may be premature. I hear a lot of rebellion talk brewing under the surface in the Republican Party, at least here in Utah. You can describe "the base" any way you wish. I choose to think the true conservatives, moderates and independents who make up Utah's "base" were aroused in 2008, spoke up in 2010, and still shout, "Stop it! Reduce this out-of-control federal government! Wake up, Washington, and put a lid on the debt, the spending and the deficits that are enslaving our future generations. Reduce the taxes, abandon the regulatory agencies that are throttling down the economic engine of America. Stop it all!"

This ground swell of emotion and political action state by state made a decision to return to the Republican Party in 2010, hoping they would get it right. The grassroots elements of the tea party now seem to be opposed once again to the "establishment wing" of the Republican Party. We saw it play out in the primary elections held in the states during the last cycle. If all the establishment can give us is an argument they can be better managers of a bloated government, then my prediction is an easy one to make - those grassroots people will abandon the Republican Party, both here in Utah and nationally.

Senator Mike Lee (R-UT)

As an example, I suspect Mike Lee chose the Republican Party only because it was the most expedient vehicle in which to ride at the time. I might be wrong. I didn't discuss it with him personally during his run when he had my unabashed support, but everything he has done since being elected leads me to believe he cannot long endure the status quo I see promoted by the establishment in the party.

So here's my bold prediction, and I've held this view for some time now: The new political reality we will see playing out in the future is no longer going to be Republican versus Democrat. That's been a carefully managed political contrivance of convenience and expediency for way too long. No, instead, it’s going to be lovers of freedom and limited government versus Big Government dependency. We may be running out of time to make a conscious choice about that. Events may compel us into that path whether we like it or not.

Back in the day, Abraham Lincoln left the Whig Party and formed the Republican Party because he and others would not compromise on slavery.

In the future people like me will leave the Republican Party because we will not and cannot compromise on freedom and limited government. Finding candidates who believe in principle over party will be the next challenge.

Liberty and/or Tyranny

We all declare for liberty;
    but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.
With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself,
    and the product of his labor;
    while with others, the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men,
    and the product of other men's labor.
Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things,
    called by the same name -- liberty.
And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties,
    called by two different and incompatible names -- liberty and tyranny.

-- Abraham Lincoln, 1864

150th Anniversary of Lincoln's Inauguration

Yesterday was an important date in U.S. history. It was the 150th anniversary of the first inauguration of Abraham Lincoln.

It was a dark period in the time that followed his election on November 6, 1860. By the time the inauguration came several months later during that long winter, seven southern states had seceded from the Union, commencing with South Carolina. The reactions to Lincoln's election, even among the northern states were mixed and diverse. Doris Kearns Goodwin in Team of Rivals informs her readers that Lincoln's attempts to include representatives of all the warring factions in his cabinet were difficult and daunting challenges.

Goodwin makes the case, as many historians have, that the Constitution memorialized the stated goal to form "a more perfect union," and therefore secession was never an option. War ensued over that issue. War between the states became an inevitability that could not be avoided because the southern states were determined to hang on to the slave trade as the basis of their economy.

There was a long transition between the date of the election and the inauguration, almost four months. Now, of course, that transition period is half what it was. The vacuum of time that elapsed was filled with uncertainty in the hearts and minds of Americans and the political rhetoric was out of control. Lincoln was determined not to add fuel to an already seething inferno, so he remained silent, stating repeatedly that he was not yet sworn is as the President.

The retiring president, James Buchanan, chose silence as well. He was the lame duck. The states were already polarized with the sweeping secession movement well underway, and a federal government sworn to keep them together. We face budget battles on Capitol Hill and throughout the states right now, and while problematic these differences today are nothing compared to what Lincoln faced. Sometimes history is so instructive, isn't it?

According to Harold Holzer in Lincoln President-Elect, Lincoln had been wrestling with the national crisis from the moment the weight of the presidency descended upon his shoulders when he learned he had won the election. He was keenly aware of the movements of the factions toward a war that seemed inevitable. His arrival in Washington, D.C. happened in the early morning hours of darkness, shrouded in secrecy because of the credible death threats against him. But when he rode in an open carriage to the Capitol to be sworn in that morning he shunned all rumors of the assassination plots knowing he alone must take up the reins of government.

March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural

When he finally took the podium to address a divided nation on inauguration day, March 4, 1861, one senses the anguish in his soul in his words. The South had inaugurated Jefferson Davis only two weeks before, and for them there was no turning back. One gains clear awareness of his deep concern for the “more perfect union” from Lincoln's First Inaugural Address. 

You sense the anguish of his soul in his closing remarks: "We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

Sadly, those "better angels" sometimes seem elusive in our national debates, don't they?

Four years later, the war still raging but seeking to "bind up the nation's wounds," he would conclude his Second Inaugural Address with these words:

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan — to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations."

We still seek in vain for peace on earth.

A Calf's Tail

"So I said to Barack, I knew Abe Lincoln, and you ain't no Abe Lincoln!"

On this Presidents Day weekend, language used by politicians is worthy of comment.

We used to observe Lincoln's birthday on February 12th and then Washington's on the 22nd. Wouldn't you know it was the commercialization of their birthdays that prompted a change? Led by automobile dealers in the late 1980s, their need for a long weekend in which to hold a sale is what eventually produced "Presidents Day." It splits the goalposts between Lincoln's and Washington's birthdays and gives us three days and a shopping weekend mid-winter. Now it's not just those two we cite, but every president.

President Bill Clinton

I'm always fascinated with what presidents say and have said. Perhaps the most famous use of language and how it could be parsed was Bill Clinton's lamentable, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." Or when questioned under oath, his "That depends on what your definition of 'is' is." I'm almost certain Bill Clinton said some things that are far more astute than those two statements, but they will forever be attached to him as the most memorable.

Jimmy Carter had a memorable quote along those lines long before Bill Clinton acted upon his thoughts and temptations, however. Carter once gave an interview for Playboy Magazine, in which he famously said, "I've looked on many women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times. God knows I will do this and forgives me."

President Jimmy Carter

No matter what their political enemies may say, most U.S. Presidents have an abiding love for this country, its heritage and its values. Carter underscores that idea with this statement: "The experience of democracy is like the experience of life itself -- always changing, infinite in its variety, sometimes turbulent and all the more valuable for having been tested by adversity."

Three years into his failed presidency he was on national television giving what later came to be known as his "Crisis in Confidence" or "malaise" speech in which he said, "I promised you a President who is not isolated from the people, who feels your pain, and who shares your dreams and who draws his strength and his wisdom from you."

Then along came Ronald Reagan who asked voters a simple question, "Are you better off today than you were four years ago?" They went for Reagan in a landslide election a year later in 1980.

Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.

There's a story attributed to Abraham Lincoln, when he was faced with some thorny issues. He would ask his opponent who thought a question could be settled with a twist of language or a slight abuse of power, "How many legs would a dog have, if we called the dog’s tail, a leg?" Confident of simple math, Lincoln's opponent would respond, "Five,” to which Lincoln would respond, "No, calling a dog’s tail a leg, doesn’t make it a leg.”

The genesis of that story is interesting. Because it has been so widely quoted, most have assumed the use of the dog in the metaphor is accurate, but I found a source this morning that is the most credible I've seen in print. This source contends beginning on page 241, continuing into page 242, that the animal was actually a calf and not a dog.

Here's the source for the quote: Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln by distinguished men of his time / collected and edited by Allen Thorndike Rice (1853-1889). New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1909. The University of Michigan has the entire text on-line, in the Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, an on-line source whose whole text is searchable.

President George Washington

George Washington, hailed as the Father of our Country by his peers, and fully aware that every move he made was being logged into the history books for future generations, observed, "I walk on untrodden ground. There is scarcely any part of my conduct which may not hereafter be drawn into precedent."

Knowing there would have been no agreement on the Constitution without leaving the question of slavery untouched and having to pragmatically kick the question down the road for another generation of Americans to deal with, Washington lamented:  "I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery."

President Ronald W. Reagan

Ronald Reagan, recently confirmed once again by American citizens (as he has been for the last twelve years in eight different polls) as the "greatest president in U.S. history," left many memorable quotes in the history books. This is one of my favorites: "Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have."

Reagan recognized, as few ever have, where the horsepower behind America's economic engine comes from: "Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States."

Ronald Reagan was always warning about the fragility of our heritage as free people: "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same."

Reagan was the people's president. He had an uncanny ability to tap into their psyche and he routinely used his sense of humor to poke fun at the politicians we love to hate. This is only one of his many gems:  "It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first."

President John Adams

Readers of this page will understand my affection for John Adams, who said, "Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society."

In his defense argument of the soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre in 1770, where his clients were acquitted, Adams famously observed, "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."

To all the bloggers in our enlightened age, Adams would say, "Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write."

Like most of the founders, John Adams had a reverence and a complete awareness of what they were creating in the American experiment. Lest we forget in our day, he reminds us, "I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth."

President George W. Bush

In more recent years as the politicians have sparred, criticized and lampooned (get ready, it's coming again soon in the run up to the 2012 election), it was refreshing to hear George W. Bush stand down: "I just didn't want to get out there anymore; I didn't want to get back into what I call 'the swamp.' And the other reason why is I don't think it's good for the presidency for a former president to be opining about his successor. President Obama's got plenty of critics - and I'm just not gonna be one."

President John F. Kennedy was inspirational in so many ways. As a young man I loved reading his Profiles in Courage compilation. He reminds us, "A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or regard that quality in its chosen leaders today - and in fact we have forgotten."

President John F. Kennedy

It was Kennedy who offered the unforgettable line in his first inaugural, "And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

Kennedy is credited with "breaking through" the unspoken barrier of religious affiliation as a litmus test for presidential candidates when he asserted, "I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party's candidate for President, who happens also to be a Catholic."

No matter what your political affiliation or persuasion might be, you can rest assured of one thing: Presidents of the United States of America generally do what they believe in their hearts is the best course for America. Recently, Bill O'Reilly, the number one rated cable talker in America these days, interviewed both former President George W. Bush and current President Barack Obama. He came away with the surprising conclusion that each man sincerely believed he was right, even though their policies could not be more diametrically opposed.

O'Reilly observed:

"But what happens when a person's conviction is wrong? There is no question that Saddam Hussein could have been destroyed by other means. Surely the world is a better place without him, but would most Americans support the Iraq invasion if we could do it all over? I don't think so. In hindsight, the Iraq situation should have been handled by the Air Force and Navy. Saddam's regime could have been strangled without so much American blood.

President Barack Obama

"Things are a bit murkier on the economic front. Since the Obama administration has been in power, the feds have spent an astounding seven trillion dollars. This has left the United States vulnerable in the world marketplace because we need to borrow so much money from nations like China. The massive $14 trillion debt has now become as big a threat as the economic meltdown of three years ago. No matter how you frame the issue, federal spending must be cut back, and Mr. Obama has to know this. But, like Mr. Bush, the president does not regret his controversial policies."

So let's remember the calf's tail when it comes to measuring "truthiness" from politicians on this Presidents Day honoring not just Lincoln and Washington. Just because Bush or Obama calls a calf's tail a leg, doesn't make it a leg after all.

Sometimes the statements politicians write onto the parchment of time must age a bit to be fully understood and appreciated. We celebrated the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan recently. During his presidency he was anything but beloved. People were scared to death about this "cowboy" who had his finger on the trigger of nuclear weapons and didn't seem shy about pulling it as he took on the "Evil Empire." But the one thing he had going for him was his authenticity. He connected with people, even Mikhail Gorbachev eventually. We had to have a bit of perspective as Americans before we embraced Reagan and fully credited him with the end of the Cold War.

Only time and experience will tell the whole "tale" with accuracy.

In the meantime, let us give a wide berth to political "truth" in the here and now and wait upon history to make its judgments someday.

God in the Public Square

I was asked by someone last week whether God will be the source of deliverance for America, or whether He has abandoned America because of the wickedness so prevalent among us.  On its surface the question disturbed me.  Of course God will deliver America!  And America has a role in the world to help deliver other nations from tyranny and oppression.  Could there be any question?

Then he posed this question:  "I notice you write a lot about politics as though you actually believe there is anything to be gained by it.  Isn't God the real source of our power?"

It made me wonder if the heat of all the political rhetoric sometimes fails to shed the light of truth on the problems we face.

It is true, I write a lot about political matters.  It is because I believe there is an imperative duty we owe to God to do the best we can based upon all He has revealed to us to advance His agenda.  We remain silent in these last days at the expense of our collective peril, expecting God to deliver us without any effort on our part.

Because agency plays such an integral role in the gospel of Jesus Christ, we must choose and actively participate in the raging debates in the public square.  Indeed, we must speak out in favor of God being invited into the public square when other voices shun Him.  

I read a cleverly titled piece the other day, "How the Devil Celebrates the Holidays."  The author's observations were that the devil delights whenever he can dismantle yet another manger scene somewhere in America at Christmas time.  

Our "unofficial" anthem as a nation is the Battle Hymn of the Republic.  It stirs ours souls whenever we hear it, particularly if it is sung by the incomparable MoTab Choir.  

Mine eyes have seen the coming of the glory of the Lord

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored

He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword

His truth is marching on

He has sounded forth the trumpet that will never call retreat

He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat

O be swift my soul to answer Him, be jubilant my feet

Our God is marching on

In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea

With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me

As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free

While God is marching on

I declare boldly and without fear of repudiation that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States are inspired of God.  These precious and rare documents in human history have established the freedom of people not only here but in every clime where men and women love and defend freedom.  America is a beacon light guiding all nations, holding aloft the hope she inspires that freedom of choice is championed by her people. 

I do not wish to lament the days gone by.  History is useful only when it points us forward in hope for a better day.  But it is hard to imagine such a group of men today as we had then in the founding of this great country.  

This past year I have looked into inspiring biographies of George Washington, Ben Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.  I do not exclude Madison, who is often referred to as the father of the Constitution.  There were, of course, many others who attached their signatures to those sacred documents.  If you believe these men were inspired of God to do as they did in the founding of America, then you can easily accept the hope God will once again raise up leaders of their caliber who can in His holy name sustain and preserve us as "one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

The documents accompanying our founding attest to the founders' love and dependency upon God.  While true they disdained or did not favor any one church as a national religion (they had had enough of that in England), references in their writings to "the Almighty," the "hand of Providence," and other phrases such as the "Deity" are abundant.  

Benjamin Franklin sought for prayer to open the sessions of the Constitutional Convention.  

Our national motto, "In God We Trust," is everywhere.  While our actions in the public square may say otherwise at times, our heritage is clear enough.  

The pilgrims were guided here originally by what they referred to as "the hand of God."  Religious freedom and the desire to express religion in one's chosen manner stamps us as religious at our core as a nation.  Even the Mayflower Compact's first lines reveal our forefathers' convictions:  "In the name of God, Amen."  

George Washington

One of my favorite American heroes is George Washington.  He longed for peace and tranquility on his spacious estate at Mount Vernon in Virginia, but the indispensability of this colossus of freedom forbade his heartfelt wishes.  His humility is stunning.  Drafted reluctantly into service as the General of the Continental Army, he declared to Congress he felt unworthy and not up to the task before him.  Nevertheless, throughout the Revolutionary War he is referred to as "His Excellency."  He was worthy of the adulation, whether he knew it or not, but he did everything in his power to put down the notion of anything that might resemble a monarchy rising up in America. As he finally resigned his commission many years later, he wrote, “I consider it an indispensable duty to close this last act of my official life, but commending the interests of our dearest country to the protection of Almighty God, and those who have the superintendents of them to His holy keeping.” 

He went back to his farm, but only for a short season of respite.  No one could find an acceptable alternative to serve as the President of the Convention destined to draft the Constitution.  He is the only American in our history to have been voted in as President for two terms on a unanimous vote of the electoral college.  Only after that long term of service to his country was he granted his earnest and early request to retire to the farm.

His first inaugural address in 1789 contains this declaration of his faith:  “No people can be bound to acknowledge and ignore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.”

There are seditious forces at work within America today.  They demand that we remove all references to God in the public square.  They want God off the coins, the paper currency, removed from the inscriptions on public buildings, banished from prayers at school, and if they could they would rewrite our history to exclude any reference to Him.

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln is another inspiring hero for me.  At the darkest hours of the Civil War, a war fought among families over the question of universal freedom (sometimes we forget), Lincoln was driven to his knees in humble secret prayer.  John Wesley Heele reported, "While the battle was being fought [Lincoln] was driven to his knees to struggle like Jacob of old, alone with God, until in Lincoln's own words, 'God told me he would give me Gettysburg and I believed Him.'"  A day of national thanksgiving was proclaimed thereafter, and he acknowledged freely before the entire divided nation the source of the victory that turned the course of events toward healing.

Lincoln would later make this declaration: “What constituted the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling seacoasts; our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in us. Our defense is in the spirit which prized liberty as the heritage of all men in all lands everywhere.”

We don't sing the third verse of the National Anthem as much as we might, but the words are meaningful:

O thus be it ever when free-men shall stand
Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust!”

Washington, once again in his first inaugural speech, hoped “that the foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality.” He continued, “. . . there is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which heaven itself has ordained.” 

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson said, “God who gave us life, gave us liberty.”  Our liberties today are a direct result of the faith of our fathers in founding this nation.  We cannot separate ourselves from God and expect to maintain our gifts from Him.  Our gratitude for what we have received in the blood and sweat of the Revolution depend upon our continuing faith that we will be delivered from all enemies foreign and domestic.  

I maintain we must do our part, that freedom's blessings will not always be vouched safe to us without effort in the public square with the same God at our side who led our forefathers.

Alexis de Toqueville

There is a little known figure in American history whose words as an immigrant from France ring as true today as they did when he penned them.  I speak of Alexis de Tocqueville, who wisely observed, “I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her harbors, in her fertile fields and boundless forests, in her rich minds and vast commerce, in her public school system and institutions of learning. I sought for it in her democratic congress and in her matchless Constitution, but not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and her power. America is great because America is good. And if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

That observation has been quoted sparingly in recent years, because there are forces aligned against such ideas, but his words cannot be denied.  If not true always, they remain a worthy goal for which to seek.  We may hear the voices of faith squelched in the public square these days, but certainly to the degree we are able we can take our petitions from our private prayer closet into the public discourse perhaps more boldly and ably than ever before through social media unavailable to our founding fathers.  

We can speak boldly, with dignity, never in a belittling way, but as a reminder of the rights protected by the founders to speak freely without fear of retribution by a tyrannous government.

So to answer my friend's question with precision:  Of course God is the source of our deliverance, then, now and forever. . . 

but He needs our help in the public square as His mouthpiece more now than ever.

Political Discourse

Much has been made in recent years of the rancor and bitterness between the two political parties in America. 

George W. Bush promised to reach across the aisle and unite the parties as he had done in Texas while he was governor.  It was much more difficult than he imagined, though some unity was achieved as a result of the country uniting in dramatic fashion for a season following 9/11.  How sad that the precipitating event was the only thing that seemed to drive us together into common ground.  Absent war, attacks from foreign powers on our soil, and a complete economic meltdown, can it ever be achieved again?

Barack Obama also pledged to do the same when he went to Washington in 2009.  Instead of unity, Obama has cast aside every single attempt at uniting and healing the political divide.  He has shoved a political agenda down the throats of unwilling and seemingly unwitting Americans at every turn for eighteen months of total legislative domination.  Neither succeeded in uniting anything except the bitter forces of opposition against themselves.

In point of fact, the political discourse from its founding has always been filled with vitriol and accusations, whether with or without merit.

Don't be too alarmed when people say they wish there weren't so much hatred.  We are polarized as a country, and there is little doubt about it.  Just imagine what the discourse must have been over the slavery issues before, during and after the Civil War. 

Abraham Lincoln, icon that he is today, was villified and publicly attacked again and again during his presidency.  It was merciless and unrelenting.  It seemed he could do nothing right back then.  Today he sits enshrined forevermore in a monument in Washington D.C. befitting the enormity of his transformative powers to bridge the political divide.  It was no small feat. 

Will we ever see it again?  We came close in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.  Now we are bitterly divided again.  The miracle was short-lived to be sure.

All of this has reminded me of the conditions I've read about in the election of 1800, when John Adams, the sitting President was opposed by his Vice President, Thomas Jefferson.  The spirit of party that Jefferson had warned against had taken root and was entrenched in the runup to that election battle.  It was different in those days because the discourse was waged primarily by proxies, and rarely by the candidates themselves.

In Federalist pamphlets and newspapers, Jefferson was decried as a hopeless visionary, a weakling, an intriguer intoxicated with French philosophy, more a Frenchman than an American, and therefore a bad man.  He was accused of favoring states' rights over the Union, charged with infidelity to the Constitution, called a spendthrift and libertine.  In truth, he kept careful notes of his expenditures, but always throughout his life spent more than he brought in, eventually at death owing $100,000 more than the value of his assets. 

In contrast, at death the ever-frugal Adams and his wife Abigail had amassed an estate valued at $100,000.  No one ever faulted Adams as a spendthrift.  Instead, he was seen as a penny-pinching miser and skinflint.

One New York newspaper assured its readers that a Jefferson election would mean civil war.  It was said "the refuse of Europe" would flood the country and threaten the life of "all who love order, peace, virtue, and religion."  Does that sound remotely familiar in today's headlines?

Most amplified of all the charges against Jefferson were the assertions that he was an atheist.  Not only was Jefferson a godless man, the assertions went, he mocked the Christian faith.  The rumors in New England were so absurd that people were hiding family Bibles until the election was over, fearing they would be summarily rounded up and burned if he were elected.  Even Martha Washington was persuaded all this was true, when she told a visiting clergyman she thought Jefferson "one of the most detestable of mankind."

Stories were spread about Jefferson's personal immorality.  The whisper campaign included lumping Jefferson with all southern slave masters who were known to cohabit with their slave women.

Conversely, John Adams didn't fare much better in the campaigning of personal destruction, indicating these smears we witness today are not a modern invention.  Adams was excoriated as a monarchist, more British than American, and therefore a bad man just like Jefferson.  Remember, these were the two diligent and valiant servants of freedom's cause who were dispatched as diplomats to Europe at the same time as Benjamin Franklin.  Neither received much gratitude at the time for their prodigious efforts.

Adams was routinely ridiculed in public as old, addled and toothless.  Truth was that by the time he died at age 91, Adams really had lost nearly all his teeth, but the image was useful to his critics who called him a pacifist.

Timothy Pickering spread the rumor that to secure his reelection Adams had struck a corrupt bargain with the Republicans.  Another story affirmed the bargain had been struck with Jefferson himself.  The kernel of the story was that Adams would throw the election Jefferson's way and then serve as the Vice President.

Adams was also accused of consorting with four mistresses in London.  Nothing could have been further from the truth.  When the "news" reached Adams that he had ordered General Pinckney to London to procure the services of the four pretty mistresses, two for Pinckney and two for himself, Adams was amused.  "I do declare upon my honor," he wrote to William Tudor, "if this is true General Pinckney has kept them all for himself and cheated me out of my two."

That wasn't the worst of it.  Many charges against Adams included that he was insane.  It went on and on -- if Jefferson was a Jacobin, a shameless southern libertine, and a "howling" atheist, Adams was a Tory, a vain Yankee scold, and, if truth be known, "quite mad."

It's almost hysterical looking back through the lens of history.  By the Republicans Adams was accused as a warmonger, and berated by the High Federalists as fainthearted in the face of the French.

Jefferson had so distanced himself from Adams as the Vice President that he could be held accountable for nothing in the Adams administration that disappointed, displeased, or infuriated anyone.  Adams got blamed for everything as a result -- new taxes, the Alien and Sedition Acts, the standing army, and a host of other "menaces," or so said Philadelphia's leading newspaper, the Aurora.

The unfair contrasts didn't end there.  Jefferson, the Virginia aristocrat and slave master who lived in a style fit for a prince, as removed from his fellow citizens and their lives as it was possible to be, was hailed as the apostle of liberty, the "Man of the People."  Adams, the former farmer's son who despised slavery and practiced the kind of personal economy and plain living commonly upheld as the American way, was scorned as an aristocrat who, if he could, would enslave the common people just like King George III had done.  Amazing!

It was an old story for Adams in that 1800 election.  He had suffered abuse before from the Jefferson Republicans, but more painful to him personally were the highly personal attacks from the Hamilton Federalists.  Alexander Hamilton threw his political weight into the contest in open opposition to Adams.

In the flurry of scathing criticism, innuendo, slander and falsehoods, with war with the French looming as Adams and his peace commission to France were hard at work to avert another war, there was one gleaming tribute to Adams in the Washington Federalist that more closely typified his life's work:

"Bred in the old school of politics, his principles are founded on the experience of ages, and bid defiance to French flippancies and modern crudities. . . Always great, and though sometimes alone, all weak and personal motives were forgotten in public energy and the security of the sacred liberties of his country. . .  Deeply versed in legal lore, profoundly skilled in political science; joined to the advantage of forty years' unceasing engagement in the turbulent and triumphant scenes, both at home and in Europe, which have marked our history; learned in the language and arts of diplomacy; more conversant with the views, jealousies, resources, and intrigues of Great Britain, France and Holland than any other American; alike aloof to flattery and vulgar ambition, as above all undue control [he has as]. . . his sole object. . . the present freedom and independence of his country and its future glory.  On this solid basis he has attempted to raise a monument of his honest fame."

On Saturday, November 22, 1800, Congress convened for the first time in a joint session in the unfinished Capitol building, and John Adams delivered what he surely knew would be his last speech as President.  He said in part,

"It would be unbecoming the representatives of this nation to assemble for the first time in this solemn temple without looking up to the Supreme Ruler of the universe, and imploring his blessing.
"May this territory be the residence of virtue and happiness!  In this city may that piety and virtue, that wisdom and magnanimity, that constancy and self-government, which adorned the great character whose name it bears, be forever held in veneration!  Here, and throughout our country, may simple manners, pure morals, and true religion flourish forever!"

Despite the bitter political divide of his day, despite the withering criticism and rancor, bitterness and vitriol directed at him personally, John Adams found a way to rise above it all and to speak those conciliatory words before a joint session of a bitterly divided Congress.  What we need today are more noble patriots like John Adams. 

The ensuing years would see Jefferson and Adams reunited in abundant correspondence on a host of history-preserving topics, a happy consequence of noble statesmen rising above the political divide that had separated them earlier.

Adams was sixty-five when he stepped down after that 1800 election, Jefferson a comparatively youthful fifty-seven years old when he assumed the presidency. 

Fate would unite them again in death.  Both died on the same day, July 4th, 1826, true patriots each, a fitting end to a lifetime of devotion to honor, country and freedom.  Their legacy is ours if we will claim it for our own.  Like all politicians, neither was perfect, both had flaws, but neither retreated in their duty.

I know this will come off as idealistic and overly optimistic, but it won't sound unlike the conciliatory note sounded by John Adams in his farewell speech.  If men in public life endowed with the public trust could rise above political differences and bitter discourse then, surely they can do it again in our day.

Let us pray for that happy result without another 9/11.