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A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY
by Jane Hawes

Hi, Buzz!!

As a Civil-War buff, I read a good bit about Abraham Lincoln. The other day I ran across this from a letter he wrote in 1848 to his law partner William Herndon. If you take out the word "neighboring" in the first sentence, it could have been written at any time in the past year:

"Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation, whenever HE shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so, WHENEVER HE MAY CHOOSE TO SAY he deems it necessary for such a purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure."

Lincoln then goes on to explain why the Framers gave Congress, and not the President, the power to declare war: " Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending ... that the good of the people was the object. This, our Convention understood to be the most oppressive of all Kingly oppressions, and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that NO ONE MAN should hold the power of bringing this oppression on us."

The emphases that I show are Lincoln's, not mine. Lincoln was speaking of the war against Mexico, which he considered was entered into illegally, and under false pretenses. The whole letter gave me an eerie feeling - a sort of "deja vu" in reverse.

The Republicans like to say that they are "the party of Lincoln." But they certainly don't agree with Lincoln about pre-emptive war.

If you want to check me out, here's the reference:

Fehrenbacher, Don E., ed., "Abraham Lincoln: A Documentary Portrait through his Speeches and Writings;" The New American Library of World Literature, Inc., NY, 1964; pp. 59-60.

Keep up the good work, Buzz!!

Jane Hawes
A Buzzflash Reader
Emporia, KS

A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY