I’m reading “Lincoln – The Man” by Edgar Lee Masters. Masters’ Grandfather had many dealings with Lincoln and had a very low opinion of him. Masters wrote the book from that standpoint. I can hear the cat calls now but you would be wrong, there is no name calling or mud slinging, although he is very much anti-Lincoln he is also very honest in his assessment of the man.. Just as Lee is a product of the times so is Lincoln. The main difference between Lincoln and those other citizens who played a major part in our nation’s history at that point in time was this; they were all very well educated while Lincoln was not.
The part of this book I want to talk about in this post is Lincoln’s opinion of the Constitution versus “The Union”. Lincoln was very good at playing on people’s fears and he does so again and again when he talks about “a house divided against itself”. He talks about the Union coming before the Constitution, before the Articles of Confederation, and at the time of the Declaration of Independence. Count back 4 score and 7 years ago and you will see that I’m right. Where did he get such ideas? Remember this date Sept. 5, 1774; this is Lincoln’s date for the start of “The Union”. Up until that date the colonies had no dealings with each other save in a very minor way. You might want to look up the “The Boston Port Bill.”
Let’s go back to the Declaration and follow it thru till the Constitution and see the real truth and also understand just what we have lost by having this man become President of the United States. The DOI was written by the 13 colonies while still under British rule. The war for Independence was fought and won. At the treaty of Paris the King of England expressly named each and every State as being a free and sovereign state having the power to do all things that any state/nation may do.
** A side note: The Confederacy could have used this treaty to gain recognition but they didn’t; I wonder why. My guess is that no one thought of it but going by that treaty alone the King of England could have been made to recognize (in court) the Southern states as independent because he already had done so in that treaty.
Next we come to the Articles of Confederation and the use of the word “perpetual”; it should be noted that there is a clause in that which states that it can only be broken or the states secede only if all the states agree to do so at the same time. This is a point that you would do well to remember. Six years later we are called together again to “Fix/Amend these Articles” but what happens is that the baby is thrown out with the bath water; illegally I might add. The delegates over stepped their bounds and made a new Constitution which is not what they were to do. There was NEVER a vote to secede from the Articles as they were written in the first place. There was hell to pay for this and this is when you see the Federalist and the Anti-Federalist papers written.
Now we come to the Constitution, remembering that there was NEVER a call to vote for delegates to send to a convention to make a Constitution. The different states ratified it after the AOC was thrown out. In point of fact North Carolina and Rhode Island had to be drugged screaming and kicking into this Union. Three other states only passed it by the slimmest of margins. The other point to remember is that only land owners were allowed to vote so there were millions of people who had no say in this process. On pages 332 and 333 the numbers are stated and it will amaze you as to the truth of the matter.
Now is all of this bad, of course not, the truth of the matter is that we got very lucky and got a great Constitution. The point that needs to be made here is that the states never gave up their sovereignty. In point of fact the Preamble originally names each state and it was changed only for the sake of brevity.
So where am I going with this? Lincoln, by his own words, held the Union above the one document that he swore to uphold and defend. In point of fact he stated on several occasions that “If you had to cut off an arm so that the body could live so be it.” He saved the Union by killing its heart and soul.
As I work thru this chapter I will come back and post more if there is an interest in it.
One other minor point is that there were several times after the Constitution was ratified there was secession talk in both northern as well as southern states. All of these threats taking place long before SC pulled the plug.
I want to add this small edit:
http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/beard_constitution.htmlwhich is adapted from The Supreme Court and the Constitution (1912), Charles Beard presents evidence that the framers of the Constitution were less interested in furthering democratic principles than in protecting private property and the interests of the wealthy class. Since this work was written over eighty years ago, there are a few anachronisms you may want to keep in mind. First, when Beard speaks of the "Confederacy," he is referring to the government that existed under the Articles of Confederation -- not to the Confederate states that seceded from the Union during the Civil War. Also, it is important to remember that the Senate was still not elected by popular vote when Beard was writing
