ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S "THANKSGIVING"

APPRECIATING “THANKSGIVING AND PRAISE” Tuesday, November 20, 2018 By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman Approaching Thanksgiving 2018, my mind turns to President Abraham Lincoln, who established “Thanksgiving and Praise Day,” as an annual national November Holiday on October 3, 1863, after Gettysburg, Pennsylvania’s bloody July 1863 battle and September 1862’s Antietam, Maryland’s emboldening battle stalemate. Antietam was the launching pad for (and political cover for) the preliminary Emancipation of September 22, 1862, which Lincoln issued. This “preliminary” declared in words that would become operative on January 1, 1863, that southern slaves, would be deemed to be “free” if there were no complete surrender by that date of the rebels, of the Confederate States of America (CSA), from their self-secession from the United States. Matthew 12:26 King James Version: “26 And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?” King James Version (KJV) Abraham Lincoln had in his 1858 Senate campaign against Stephen F. Douglas prophetically decried then prevailing, ineffective, “house divided” policies being pursued. After the President’s assassination in 1865, his successors—Vice President Andrew Johnson and Union Major General Ulysses Grant, in the throes of grudging “Reconstruction,” recalled, remembered, that Lincoln had quoted the Bible: “And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then shall his kingdom stand?” Thus, President Lincoln’s successors also applied Lincoln’s subsequent “let them up easy” post-war policy in the “Reconstruction”, of the South, not the former slave, who was incidental to the greater aim of a national reunion, as Lincoln had earlier instructed, toward rehabilitating the Confederate States of America, the “South,” into loyalty. That clear expression of sympathy meant “saving” the nation at the expense of the black man and black woman, whose bravery, patriotism, diligence, creativity, had indispensably “saved” the country from dissolution! For despite his ineluctable reputation as the “liberator” of the slaves, President Abraham Lincoln was most expediently the political and military leader of a nation engaged in civil war, not abolitionist, never an abolitionist, nor ever an equal rights for freed slave advocate. Indeed, if anything, he is closest to being a white supremacist! From Lincoln's Speech, Sept. 18, 1858: "While I was at the hotel to-day, an elderly gentleman called upon me to know whether I was really in favor of producing a perfect equality between the negroes and white people. While I had not proposed to myself on this occasion to say much on that subject, yet as the question was asked of me, I thought I would occupy perhaps five minutes in saying something in regard to it. I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the black and white races -- that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making VOTERS or jurors of negroes, NOR OF QUALIFYING THEM TO HOLD OFFICE, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this, that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there, must be the position of superior and inferior, and, I, as much as any of her men, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race." In the very first speech of their joint debate, -- made at Ottawa, Aug. 21, 1858, -- Mr. LINCOLN, after quoting some previous remarks, thus spoke of this very subject: "Now, gentlemen, I don't want to read at any greater length, but this is the true complexion of all I have ever said in regard to the institution of Slavery and the black race. This is the whole of it; and anything that argues me into his idea of perfect social and political equality with the negro, is but a specious and fantastic arrangement of words, by which a man can prove a horse-chestnut to be a chestnut horse. I will say here, while upon this subject, that I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of Slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and black races. There is a physical difference between the two, which, in my judgment, will probably forever forbid their living together upon the footing of perfect equality, and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I, as well as Judge DOUGLAS, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position. I have never said anything to the contrary." In truth, very few white abolitionists favored equal rights and suffrage for black men. William Lloyd Garrison did not favor it; nor did Harriet Beecher Stowe, surprisingly. The few white “radicals” who did favor equal rights and black suffrage, included John Brown, Wendell Phillips and Gerrit Smith . President Abraham Lincoln, as a practical politician, was against both, equal rights and suffrage. Even his famous executive order, 1863’s “Emancipation Proclamation” was actuated by an admitted “military necessity.” Translation: Either I free the slaves in the Confederate States of America, with careful exclusions like New Orleans, Louisiana, and “border states” of Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware. Or, lose the war! Stark and simple, yet brilliant! For the engine of the South was slaves’ uncompensated labor, whom it ruthlessly exploited and brutally, vigorously repressed to forestall their efflorescence into full personhood. But the slaves were neither stupid, nor inactive. They seized and maximized every opportunity to free themselves from slavery, whether by lecturing, by press, by books, by espionage, by running away, and especially by a formidable force of 200,000 “sable arms” in United States Colored Troops and United States Navy. In addition, hundreds of “Contraband” camps that contained millions of fleeing, self-sufficient slaves in communities, who escaped to safety, from plantations, whenever, foraging, marauding Union troops came nearby. The former slaves also performed important services for the North as they had for the South. Fortunately, our “house” yet stands. And as fortunately, noble black people continue to rise high up in it, despite the timorous duplicity of certain “friends,” despite the pathetic self-defeating efforts of fallen “enemies.” HAPPY THANKSGIVING! #30