Fourth of July Blog: The Virtues of Abe
David Johnston
July 6, 2008
Blog: The Virtues of Abe
Revised: September 6, 2008
What percentage of Americans, do you think, would consider themselves “patriots”? The answer is 90% from a recent poll. What is a patriot? One dictionary defined a patriot as, “one who loves and defends his or her country”. I believe that an American Patriot is someone who believes in what our founding fathers stood for and died for, someone who believes in our constitution, our bill of rights and our uniquely American idea of freedom, liberty and justice for all.
So, are you a patriot? Do you feel really good about our nation today with the war in Iraq, recession, declining dollar, soaring gas prices, low approval ratings for the president (30%) and congress (18%)? I believe that you can be a patriot and believe in America and the ideals of America and still not support a particular political party and not like everything what is going on in our nation.
If you are feeling bad about our country I want to help raise your enthusiasm and pride in our nation today. I want to talk about one of the greatest Americans who ever lived, and what we can learn from his life. His name is Abraham Lincoln, the 16 president of the United States. Considered by historians to be the best president we ever had. Even in recent polls of Americans he ranks as our most popular (Second: Ronald Reagan, third: FDR; Fourth: Bill Clinton; Fifth: JFK).
Let me tell you in brief the incredible story of Abraham Lincoln:
Born in a one room cabin in Kentucky. Feb. 12, 1809
His mother and sister died when he was 9 years old
His father remarried Sarah Bush Johnston
He grew to love his new step mother and said of her: “All I am, or can be, I owe to my angel mother.”
He was raised in a Baptist church but was never baptized and he never became a member of any church in his life
His education consisted of 18 months of formal schooling
He was an avid reader and he was largely self taught.
He said: “The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I ain’t read.”
He was 6’ 4” tall; a giant of a man in those days. As a young man he was a wrestler and a rail splitter and extremely strong.
He studied on his own to become a lawyer and passed the Illinois bar in 1837. He was a very popular and successful lawyer and was able to build a large home for its
time in Springfield. Ill. In his 23 year career as a lawyer he argued 400 cases before Ill. Supreme Court.
He married Mary Todd in 1842, the daughter of a wealthy slave-owning family from Kentucky. It was a real catch for a man born in a one room log cabin to marry into a prominent family. Together they had four sons. Three of them died in childhood and only Robert Todd Lincoln lived to adulthood.
What lessons can we learn from the life of Abraham Lincoln?
First of all, Abe Lincoln experienced many failures in his life, but he never gave up.
Besides the death of his mother, sister and three of his four sons,
He was defeated for the Illinois State Legislature in 1832
He failed in business in 1833
His sweetheart died in 1835
He had a nervous breakdown in 1836
He was defeated for the Speaker of Illinois House in 1838
He won seat in US Congress in 1846
He was defeated for reelection in 1848
He was rejected for land officer in 1849
He was defeated for US Senate in 1854
He was defeated for the nomination for Vice president in 1854
He was defeated for Un Senate in 1858
He was elected to be the president of the USA in 1860 with less than 40% of the popular vote.
We can learn to be people of perseverance from Abe Lincoln. Never give up! Never stop trying! Persevere in seeking to do what you believe is God’s call for your life!
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened”. Matthew 7:7-8
Secondly, Abe Lincoln was a man of justice
In 1848 the USA invaded Mexico in the Mexican War. Lincoln was one of the few US congressmen who vigorously opposed the war. When America won the war our nation took half of Mexico’s territory including Texas, California, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, and Colorado; basically all of South Western continent. Lincoln was one of the few men who stood up in congress and said this is wrong. Even U.S. Grant later said the Mexican War was wrong.
Also, throughout his political career Lincoln took a strong stand against the injustice of slavery:
Debates for the US Senate seat from llinois with Stephen Douglas in 1858 gave him national recognition as a man who was opposed to slavery.
Came to white house in 1861 as 16th president
Had to sneak into Washington DC because of attempts on his life by those opposed to his stance against slavery
7 states seceded from union by his inauguration in March of 1861, and 13 more within months because of Lincoln’s stance on slavery
He didn’t ask for war, but he was more than up to the task of leading our country during its most difficult time in history.
He said of the confederacy: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” And “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”
Even though Lincoln was personally opposed to slavery he had no intention of outlawing slavery in the South or doing anything to stop it before the war began
The Civil War began in April of 1861 when the South fired on Ft. Sumter in S. Carolina
The war was fought by Lincoln to preserve the union…not to abolish slavery…but when it became obvious that abolishing slavery would help to preserver the union he issued the Emancipation Proclamation in the fall of 1862
But Lincoln was always personally opposed to slavery and did every thing he could to abolish it.
Quotes on slavery by Lincoln:
“When I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally”
“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves”
The Emancipation Proclamation was put into law on January 1, 1863. It freed all of the slaves in the South confederacy. It was a huge moment in the life of our nation. Lincoln took tremendous political abuse from many for issuing the proclamation too soon, and abuse from others for not doing it soon enough. But, he did it! He set the slaves free when he believed the nation was ready for it.
The Emancipation Proclamation was the moment that turned the tide of the Civil War. From that point the war was no longer just about preserving the union, now the war was about freeing the slaves and it took on a whole new significance.
We can learn much about justice from Abe Lincoln. What is the one phrase the captures what our nation stands for? I believe that the phrase: “Justice for all” most accurately captures and expresses the spirit of the American Revolution. The pursuit of justice is one of the greatest issues on the heart of God. Micah 6:8 reads, He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Thirdly, Abe Lincoln listened to and befriended his critics
Lincoln made his political enemies and opponent’s members of his cabinet. For instance Salmon Chase and William Seward were both members of his cabinet and both ran against him as candidates for the presidency. When the war didn’t go well the opposition and criticism against him got worse. He had to change commanding generals 6 times in three years before he found Grant to be the commander of the union forces in 1864. He was attacked mercilessly by the press in Washington and across the country. His own Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton (Democrat) publicly called him a monkey and a baboon and lambasted the “imbecility of this administration”
This is what Lincoln had to say about his critics: “The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend”; “We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.”
Lincoln’s attitude towards the Southern states at the end of the war was one of reconciliation and forgiveness. He wanted to welcome the southern states back into the union as soon as possible. In his second inaugural address in 1885 he said, “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 word we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds.”
Abe Lincoln teaches us to listen to and befriend our critics. Paul wrote in Romans 12:17-19, Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
Fourthly, Abe Lincoln was a humble man
Lincoln was a very common and even strange looking man. Lincoln said, “The Lord prefers common looking people. That is why he makes so many of them.” He demonstrated great humility in the midst of wielding great power: “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” Against all odds he led our nation through a brutal civil war (600,000 deaths) and to the abolition of slavery. Few men could have done what he did.
His humility, wisdom and wit is seen in many of his words:
“And in the end it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years”
“Die when I may, I want it said by those who knew me best that I always plucked a thistle and planted a seed where I thought a flower would grow.”
“The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time”
“The ballot is stronger than the bullet”
“The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.”
“When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away, it’s best to let him run.”
Learn from Abe! Be a person of strength, humility and integrity. Jesus said, “It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:26-28).
Fifth and lastly, Abe Lincoln gave his life away for a higher cause
When you look at pictures of Abe Lincoln from when he became president in 1861 to his death by the hands of John Wilkes Booth on February 14, 1865, there is a stunning change in his appearance. The burden of being the President of the United States during a brutal, violent and bloody war weighed heavy upon his heart. He came into the presidency as a vibrant healthy man of 52 and died in 1865 at age 56 looking like an old worn out man in 4 short years. But, Abe gave his all for the preservation of our nation.
As he lay dying outside in a room across the street from Ford Theatre his cabinet members gathered around him. As he passes away Edwin Stanton, his formal rival and Secretary of War said, “Now he belongs to the ages”. In death our nation finally realized the greatest of this humble man.
A lot has been written and there has been much speculation about the faith of Abe Lincoln. He is the only American president who was never baptized and never became a member of a church. It might not be unusual in our day…but it was very unusual for the 1800.s. But, Abe was a man of faith! In fact his faith grew while in the White House. I believe that his faith in God enabled him to run the race set before him and to lead our nation through those terrible years.
Concerning his faith in God and the Bible Abe said:
“Nevertheless, amid the greatest difficulties of my Administration, when I could not see any other resort, I would place my whole reliance on God, knowing that all would go well, and that he would decide for the right.”
“Surely God would not have created such a being as man, with an ability to grasp the infinite, to exist only for a day! No, no man was made for immortality.”
“When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion”
“When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees.”
He was well acquainted with the bible and read it regularly and quoted it often. Of the bible he said, “All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book. But for it we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man’s welfare, here and hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it.”
Of the church Lincoln said, “When any church will inscribe over its altar, as its sole qualifications for membership, the Savior’s condensed statement … ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all they mind, and thy neighbor as they self.” That church will I join with all my heart and soul.”
Yes, Lincoln knew and loved God. He loved his country and gave his life for his country.
On November 19, 1863 Lincoln gave the Gettysburg address on one of the bloodiest battle fields of the war where 50,000 Americans, from the north and the south, died in 3 days of battle July 1-3, 1863. At the dedication of the battle field he said:
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…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.
Before the Civil War people spoke of America as the United States of America with the emphasis on individual states…after the war, and after the Gettysburg address, people spoke of our nation as the United States of America and spoke of us as a people united around our common commitment to freedom and justice for all.
We are a nation today because of Abe Lincoln and his sacrifice for us. It’s a strange note of history that he was assassination on Good Friday, April 14, 1865. As Jesus died on the cross and gave his life that we might live (Romans 5:8), so Abe Lincoln gave the last full measure of his life that the union might be preserved.
First and foremost follow in the footsteps of Jesus, but learn from Abe Lincoln. Be a person of perseverance, strength, justice, humility and faith and follow in his footsteps!