“But now it is to be transformed into a “sacred right.” Nebraska brings it forth, places it on the high road to extension and perpetuity; and, with a pat on its back, says to it, “Go and God speed you.” Henceforth it is to be the chief jewel of the nation, the very figure-head of the ship of State. Little by little, but steadily as man’s march to the grave, we have been giving up the OLD for the NEW faith.. Near eighty years ago we began by declaring that all men are created equal; but now from that beginning we have run down to the other declaration, that for SOME men to enslave others is a sacred right of self-government. These principles cannot stand together. They are opposite as God and mammon; and whosoever holds to the one, must despise the other.”
Abraham Lincoln, 1854
During the course of the 1800s, three Americans, John Quincy Adams, Frederick Douglass, and Abraham Lincoln, all meek of heart, brilliant in their thinking, and determined in their resolve, took it upon themselves to be sentinels for the people of the correct reading; that correct, straightforward understanding when we plainly read our Declaration of Independence. We can trust them because their selflessness was clearly proved through the good works that they rendered— as favoring the good of the American people. Had we allowed them to nationally establish all of their works, the Native Americans would have experienced a civil rights integration in the early 1800s (John Quincy Adams), hence, sparing the genocide perpetrated on them during the time of the Westward Expansion. The promise of our founding document would have been complimented. A national university building project would have been established and put under way, as would have a inter-state road system.
Frederick Douglass, saw the national fault lines that had deepened and become more pronounced in the hearts and minds of the American people—down upon the ground did he place racial hate from entering his heart, allowing himself to exemplify how an American, starting from the lowest rung in the ladder (a slave), could grow, help, form, as well as work in unity with a community of supporters and families that spanned America, Ireland, and England. His passion, together with his critical thinking mind that placed such a worthwhile cause first and himself last, was an inspiration; if not altogether, an exemplification of the true Spirit of America; liberty, justice, and peace for all. His work was unparalleled in his speaking and writing activity that delivered his voice and written thought unto all northern states, and throughout Ireland and England. His soul was on fire with the feeling that immediate liberty and increased civil rights could soon follow to Americans of black skin color, and women of all races (Women’s Rights Convention, Seneca Falls, 1848), because of his determination to care!
Abraham Lincoln, like these two others mentioned herein, carefully put forth the idea that we did not have to conform to the status quo of the present, but in thoughtful alignment with the Declaration of Independence, we could help bring about an American society that was truly at peace, and therefore, prosperous because of the abounding of respect of liberty and justice for all. To each of these, ‘staying national,’ as completely devoted Christians was key to their strength. Doing so in a time that placed the status quo pressure of political appeasement was no easy feat. John Quincy Adams was caricatured as unpopular and too stern by his detractors, Frederick Douglass was alone often in his work and was asked to adhere to the slow gradualism of attaining civil rights integration for Americans of black skin color in order to become more popular. They wanted him to ‘water down’ his ardor so as to not outshine their mediocre works. He was constantly being shunned by the Republican Party for being too radical in his call for the right of the black man and woman to have the right to vote, to be educated, and to be part of the judicial system, that the Americans of black skin color not merely be at the mercy of a racially-toned jury, but judged by their own peers.
Self-interest requires the lulling of the hearts and minds of the people to be ignorant of what style of Americans we ought to be. It is anathema to the proclamation of liberty of these champions who were doggedly loyal to the promise of the Declaration of Independence.
As a whole people, we reap the works of their preparations to the battle of affirming the true spirit of America: their training of their sharp intellects, the lengths they took to keep themselves lowly of heart, and the determination to not be distracted from what mattered most. Thus, maintaining themselves connected to the common cause of liberty and justice for all; that the people may both work and rest, protected in their natural rights, and unhindered in their effort for their prosperity.
In the 21st century, the number one human rights atrocity of our lifetime has and is being carried out daily at the rate of 3,000 unborn children being slaughtered across the country. Outside of America, the number of daily deaths is 100,000 unborn children. In the spirit of liberty and justice for all; in adherence to the promissory note that is the Declaration of Independence; in submission to the God of Heaven and Earth, and in solemn respect to our natural rights as human beings, I cannot consent to the lulling of my mind, to the choosing of ignorance of my duty to care for the good of our country. I refuse the appeasement that banks on the consent that 3,000 unborn children must die every day. My heart and mind, as is that of all who work to strengthen the cause of life (the pro life movement), is placed into a creative battle with all those who oppose the safeguarding of our the humanity in the womb. I think upon the words of Abraham Lincoln:
“God did not place good and evil before man, telling him to make his choice. On the contrary, he did tell him there was one tree, of the fruit of which, he should not eat, upon pain of certain death.”
Though we have this law (Roe v. Wade, 1973) that consents to the greatest of atrocities, that of murdering the most defenseless humans,—it does not make it right, but is in fact, a violation, an offense against God, and if your an atheist, or are of a different religion, it is an atrocity against our humanity. And so, the work of that preparation unto the battle to strengthen the true spirit of liberty, is a national work, requiring all the people, with all their different ethnicities, religions, creeds, and walks of life, to galvanize together as one Pro Life America to utterly defeat the laws that condone the abortion of our humanity as it is in its formation within the womb after it has been created at conception. Taking a position is not enough, and fighting with violence is against the respecting of common liberty and right to live at peace, but we surely can be creative in the preparation of our work, and of the work itself, as was John Quincy Adams with his barnstorming of Congress with his petitions, as was Frederick Douglass with his abolitionism in the spoken and written word across America, Ireland, and England, and as was Abraham Lincoln’s legal defense of the promissory note called our Declaration of Independence.
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