Curtis Dahlgren
"A few words now to Republicans . . ." - - A. Lincoln
[a "best of"]
By Curtis Dahlgren
Jeremiad, n. A tale of woe, grief or despair; a lament over wickedness or degeneracy; often used sarcastically. — Funk & Wagnalls, 1938
IT IS NOT A CLOSELY-HELD SECRET, but when they are speaking among themselves, many Country Club Republicans consider cultural conservatives to be back-woodsy "one-issue voters." They have forgotten that their party was born and bred out of the fact that the "Country Club Whigs" considered the "Railsplitters" to be radical "one-issue voters." One of the most famous but unread speeches of Abraham Lincoln is his speech in February 1860 in New York City at the Cooper Institute. That is the speech that "made" the Republican party, but what is not well-known is that it contains a little Jeremiad aimed at his fellow Republicans.
So often these days we are told that this or that issue is so "difficult" and so "complex," that — in the minds of the elite speakers — the rest of us will just have to agree with them and forego all attempts to rectify the situation!
We are also informed that in order to win, the G.O.P. must try to keep the great Center happy and even give the left some of the things it wants. This a canard, a myth. Abraham Lincoln never heard the term "triangulation," but he had been there, seen that, in the Whig party!
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition), the Whig party was "a coalition of opposition parties which influenced deeply and permanently the character, policy, and fortunes of the Whig party. . . . Moreover as a means of strengthening the bond with their new allies, the Whigs learned to practice a tolerance towards the opinions, and even the principles, of their associates which is exceptional in the history of American political parties."
The Whigs were economic conservatives and had supported the Gag Rules of 1835-44 which had outlawed the mailing of "anti-slavery propaganda." Most politicians in those days hoped that the slavery issue would just "go away" or, in lieu of that, hoped for any distraction to take the people's attention off of it (the Mormon Rebellion and Indian uprisings served just that purpose). By reading between the lines, we can surmise the following facts about the Whigs:
They wanted to be inclusive; they wanted to reach out, to be A BIG TENT ("can't we all just get along?"). And so, on a Tuesday evening, February 27, 1860, the back-woodsman told a large crowd of New Yorkers that the U.S. Supreme Court was simply full of baloney on Dred Scott, and he answered the question, "What would it take to SATISFY the pro-slavery parts of the country?"
"A few words now to Republicans . . . Let us determine, if we can, what will satisfy them. Will they be satisfied if the Territories be unconditionally surrendered to them? We know they will not . . . The question recurs, what will satisfy them? Simply this:
"We must not only let them alone, but we must, somehow, convince them that we do let them alone . . . What will convince them? This, and this only: cease to call slavery wrong and join them in calling it right.
"And this must be done thoroughly — done in acts as well as in words. SILENCE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED — WE MUST PLACE OURSELVES AVOWEDLY WITH THEM."
The so-called "Party of Lincoln" could do worse than to dig out those words and read them again. Lincoln's words, like the Law buried under trash in the old temple in Jerusalem, have been long forgotten. This is not your father's Republican party anymore!
In light of the illegal alien invasion, partial-birth abortion, the growing euthanasia movement [etc], the Wall Street Republicans had better think twice before trying to sweep certain issues under the rug. And it's time for BOTH parties to get back to their roots!
Thomas Jefferson is supposedly the 'patron saint' of the Democratic party. In his second inaugural address, he said: "I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our fathers, as Israel of old, from their native land and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessaries and comforts of life; who has covered our infancy with His providence and our riper years with His wisdom and power, and to whose goodness I ask you to join in supplications with me that He will so enlighten the minds of your servants, guide their councils, and prosper their measures that whatsoever they do shall result in your good, and shall secure to you peace, friendship, and approbation of all nations."
Jefferson never told his religious constituents to shut up or get out of politics!
In the words of Lincoln, "Let us be diverted by none of these sophistical contrivances wherewith we are so industriously plied and belabored — contrivances such as groping for some middle ground between the right and the wrong, vain as the search for a man who should be neither a living man nor a dead man — such as a policy of 'don't care' on a question about which all true men do care — such as Union appeals beseeching true Union men to yield to Disunionists, reversing the divine rule, and calling, not the sinners, but the righteous to repentance. . . .
"LET US HAVE FAITH THAT RIGHT MAKES MIGHT, AND IN THAT FAITH LET US, TO THE END, DARE TO DO OUR DUTY AS WE UNDERSTAND IT."
Conclusion
Some of our "hipper" Republican contemporaries will say, "That was then and now is now. Whatever works!"
WELL, as Reagan would say, and once did (in his farewell address to the United Nations):
"The deliberations of great leaders and great bodies are but overture. . . . The truly majestic music, the music of freedom, of justice, and peace is the music made in forgetting self and seeking in silence the will of Him who made us."
Amen, Ronnie!
P.S. President Reagan never once told the people to "shut up and 'be civil' and let the highly 'educated' people tell you what's right and what's wrong." The Gipper was not a Mugwump like the Whigs, and that's exactly why so many Democrats trusted him enough to cross over and vote for him.
Am I just wasting my breath on the modern Whigs, or what?
© Curtis Dahlgren
Jeremiad, n. A tale of woe, grief or despair; a lament over wickedness or degeneracy; often used sarcastically. — Funk & Wagnalls, 1938
IT IS NOT A CLOSELY-HELD SECRET, but when they are speaking among themselves, many Country Club Republicans consider cultural conservatives to be back-woodsy "one-issue voters." They have forgotten that their party was born and bred out of the fact that the "Country Club Whigs" considered the "Railsplitters" to be radical "one-issue voters." One of the most famous but unread speeches of Abraham Lincoln is his speech in February 1860 in New York City at the Cooper Institute. That is the speech that "made" the Republican party, but what is not well-known is that it contains a little Jeremiad aimed at his fellow Republicans.
So often these days we are told that this or that issue is so "difficult" and so "complex," that — in the minds of the elite speakers — the rest of us will just have to agree with them and forego all attempts to rectify the situation!
We are also informed that in order to win, the G.O.P. must try to keep the great Center happy and even give the left some of the things it wants. This a canard, a myth. Abraham Lincoln never heard the term "triangulation," but he had been there, seen that, in the Whig party!
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition), the Whig party was "a coalition of opposition parties which influenced deeply and permanently the character, policy, and fortunes of the Whig party. . . . Moreover as a means of strengthening the bond with their new allies, the Whigs learned to practice a tolerance towards the opinions, and even the principles, of their associates which is exceptional in the history of American political parties."
The Whigs were economic conservatives and had supported the Gag Rules of 1835-44 which had outlawed the mailing of "anti-slavery propaganda." Most politicians in those days hoped that the slavery issue would just "go away" or, in lieu of that, hoped for any distraction to take the people's attention off of it (the Mormon Rebellion and Indian uprisings served just that purpose). By reading between the lines, we can surmise the following facts about the Whigs:
They wanted to be inclusive; they wanted to reach out, to be A BIG TENT ("can't we all just get along?"). And so, on a Tuesday evening, February 27, 1860, the back-woodsman told a large crowd of New Yorkers that the U.S. Supreme Court was simply full of baloney on Dred Scott, and he answered the question, "What would it take to SATISFY the pro-slavery parts of the country?"
"A few words now to Republicans . . . Let us determine, if we can, what will satisfy them. Will they be satisfied if the Territories be unconditionally surrendered to them? We know they will not . . . The question recurs, what will satisfy them? Simply this:
"We must not only let them alone, but we must, somehow, convince them that we do let them alone . . . What will convince them? This, and this only: cease to call slavery wrong and join them in calling it right.
"And this must be done thoroughly — done in acts as well as in words. SILENCE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED — WE MUST PLACE OURSELVES AVOWEDLY WITH THEM."
The so-called "Party of Lincoln" could do worse than to dig out those words and read them again. Lincoln's words, like the Law buried under trash in the old temple in Jerusalem, have been long forgotten. This is not your father's Republican party anymore!
In light of the illegal alien invasion, partial-birth abortion, the growing euthanasia movement [etc], the Wall Street Republicans had better think twice before trying to sweep certain issues under the rug. And it's time for BOTH parties to get back to their roots!
Thomas Jefferson is supposedly the 'patron saint' of the Democratic party. In his second inaugural address, he said: "I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our fathers, as Israel of old, from their native land and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessaries and comforts of life; who has covered our infancy with His providence and our riper years with His wisdom and power, and to whose goodness I ask you to join in supplications with me that He will so enlighten the minds of your servants, guide their councils, and prosper their measures that whatsoever they do shall result in your good, and shall secure to you peace, friendship, and approbation of all nations."
Jefferson never told his religious constituents to shut up or get out of politics!
In the words of Lincoln, "Let us be diverted by none of these sophistical contrivances wherewith we are so industriously plied and belabored — contrivances such as groping for some middle ground between the right and the wrong, vain as the search for a man who should be neither a living man nor a dead man — such as a policy of 'don't care' on a question about which all true men do care — such as Union appeals beseeching true Union men to yield to Disunionists, reversing the divine rule, and calling, not the sinners, but the righteous to repentance. . . .
"LET US HAVE FAITH THAT RIGHT MAKES MIGHT, AND IN THAT FAITH LET US, TO THE END, DARE TO DO OUR DUTY AS WE UNDERSTAND IT."
Conclusion
Some of our "hipper" Republican contemporaries will say, "That was then and now is now. Whatever works!"
WELL, as Reagan would say, and once did (in his farewell address to the United Nations):
"The deliberations of great leaders and great bodies are but overture. . . . The truly majestic music, the music of freedom, of justice, and peace is the music made in forgetting self and seeking in silence the will of Him who made us."
Amen, Ronnie!
P.S. President Reagan never once told the people to "shut up and 'be civil' and let the highly 'educated' people tell you what's right and what's wrong." The Gipper was not a Mugwump like the Whigs, and that's exactly why so many Democrats trusted him enough to cross over and vote for him.
Am I just wasting my breath on the modern Whigs, or what?
© Curtis Dahlgren
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(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
