Lincoln & the Constitution
To the Editor:
A letter to the editor (11/15) began by quoting Abraham Lincoln on the power of the people and constitutional government. “The people of these United States are the rightful masters of both congresses and courts, not to over-throw the Constitution, but to over-throw the men who pervert that Constitution.” Did Lincoln actually utter those words? According to experts this statement is a composite of ideas he expressed in several speeches, most commonly associated with his “House Divided” speech delivered in Springfield, Illinois on June 16, 1858, during the senatorial campaign against Stephen A. Douglas, and at a political convention in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1859. “Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress. Series 1. General Correspondence. 1833-1916.” Transcribed and Annotated by the Lincoln Studies Center, Knox College. Galesburg, Illinois.
The statement appears on a picture of him to make it historically relevant. But without doubt the statement reflected his philosophy of constitutional government that enflamed the South which rejected his election to be President in 1860.
Lincoln believed in the power of people to use government collectively, as he said in the Gettysburg Address, November 1863: “Of the people, by the people, and for the people.” We also know that he strongly opposed those, namely the leaders of the Confederacy and senior officers, who sought through secession to overthrow the US Constitution by substituting a confederacy form of government with chattel slavery as its cornerstone. These foes of America sought to subvert the will of the voters who elected Lincoln President. Lincoln never recognized the confederacy as a legitimate government. He did not declare war against or treat with confederates because that would have recognized their legitimacy as a separate and legitimate government.
The author of the FCR letter suggests that constitutional amendments will save America. Does that include Amendment 14, section 3? It disqualifies persons from holding office if they have committed or aided insurrection or rebellion. This amendment specifies that the offense is great because those offenders had taken an oath to support the Constitution which they violated. Does the Constitution prescribe that major decisions by the President must be made through the advice and consent of Congress? The First Amendment prohibits the “establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
I agree with the author that the Constitution serves “the people” and not some people because of their personal interest or selective interpretations of values and culture. Experts agree that the Constitution will fail us when it no longer serves a democracy where competing interests and points of view can be debated respectfully based on fact, shared values, and policy preferences. I agree with Lincoln, in keeping with the theme of Veteran’s Day, that we must be “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.”
Bob Heath Carmine