One of the Worst Presidents Ever

One of the Worst Presidents Ever No folks, this is not about Obama. Its about a president mostly everyone will claim is one of the best presidents in American history. I am talkng about Abraham Lincoln (WHAT!? no….. he ended slavery how can he be bad!?)

 I recently did a research paper on Article 4 Section 4 of the United States constitution. This particular clause guarantees to the states a “Republican” form of government. During the Reconstruction, this clause was greatly abused by the North to rewrite State constitutions, expand the size of the federal government and mandate government control of social issues. Abolitionists claimed that slavery was “Un-Republican” because it denied a large class of people suffrage, and so their consent could not be given, resulting in government without the consent of the governed. While I agree that slavery was (and is) wrong, I think that it must fit in with republican principles, as defined by the U.S. Constitution.

 You don’t have to be a historian to realize that America’s history of slavery has caused much racial divide. More so, I would say because of the way slavery was abolished. If it was, at some point, killed as an institution by legitimate laws (passed in the Southern legislatures), then the bitterness and racial tension that existed afterwards would not have occured. In the militarily Reconstructed South, lynchings, skirmishes, and near civil war were common in many of the Southern states. This was due to the fact that the laws being forced upon the South had to be enforced by the military might of the North. The net result was a government that was unrepublican in nature. you cannot use force to create republican government for someone, when republican government is necessarily consent based. the moment you use force to enforce republicanism, it ceases to be republican. You cannot cure an evil, by using more evil. Your ends defy your means.

To go on, lets just take the idea of precedent. Where in the Constitution, does it give the President to give people suffrage, or change social status or do anything at all by means of “proclamation”? It doesn’t. My problem with Lincoln and the Civil War is that he expanded the Federal power so greatly, that the size of government we see that has continued to THIS DAY, the racial divide in this nation that has continued to THIS DAY, are a result of his abuses of power. To top it all off, despite Lincoln’s common citation of “God” and “religion” in his speeches in order to appease his largely Christian electorate, Lincoln was an ardent Atheist.

http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v07/v07p319_Dickson.html  One good source.

 My earlier views of the unsoundness of the Christian scheme of salvation and the human origin of the scriptures, have become clearer and stronger with advancing years and I see no reason for thinking I shall ever change them. — Abraham Lincoln

The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession. — Abraham Lincoln

 More atheistic Lincoln quotes: http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/lincoln.htm