Independence Day is supposed to be a celebration of the principles in the Declaration of Independence and our secession from the British Empire.  Yet every one of its main principles were repudiated by Lincoln with his words and, and more importantly, his actions.  Contrary to revisionist history, Lincoln was as guilty as King George III of committing atrocities against Americans.  In his commentary, “Lincoln’s Repudiation of the Declaration of Independence,” Thomas DiLorenzo shows the similarity of the “train of abuses” by King George III with those numerous abuses of Lincoln.

 

King George III: “Dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly . . .”

Lincoln: Imposed military rule on the occupied South during the war.

 

King George III: “Made Judges dependent on his Will alone . . . . He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.”

Lincoln: Illegally suspended habeas corpus and ordered the mass arrest of tens of thousands of suspected Northern political dissenters.  Soldiers were threatened and judges were kidnapped to prevent them from issuing the writ.

 

King George III:  “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass out people, and eat out their substance.”

Lincoln:  Created new bureaucracies to “occupy” the South.  Federal soldiers pillaged, plundered, and raped their way through the South.

 

King George III:  “He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.”

Lincoln:  Federal army occupied the South during the war and during Reconstruction.

 

King George III:  “He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended legislation.”

Lincoln:  Abolished civil liberties in both the North and the occupied South, blockaded Southern ports, initiated war without the consent of Congress, among numerous other illegal things.

 

King George III:  “For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world.”

Lincoln:  Imposed a naval blockade on the South, and plundered the North as well with extortionate tariffs on imports.

 

King George III:  “For imposing Taxes on us without our consent.”

Lincoln:  Supported the 1861 Morrill Tariff that was a main cause of the war.

 

King George III:  “For depriving us in many cases, of the right of Trial by jury.”

Lincoln:  Had tens of thousands of Northern citizens imprisoned without due process during the war.

 

King George:  “For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.”

Lincoln:  This is also a description of what occurred in the South and in border territories “governed” by Republican party hacks during the war and Reconstruction.

 

King George III:  “He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coast, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny.”

Lincoln:   Describes Lincoln’s abuses against Southerners.  Lured in thousands of European mercenaries with promises of free land under the Homestead Act if they would commit mass murder against Southerners and plunder and burn their towns.

 

Lincoln fashioned an absurd theory about the illegality of the individual Southern states to secede from the federal union in an effort to justify his invasion of the South, imposing martial law, unleashing of brutality, and suspending the Bill of Rights and writ of habeas corpus without consulting any other branch of government.

Lincoln’s tyrannical rationale is contrary to the Declaration of Independence which states,

“That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.”

This clearly states that these were “independent states” – sovereign entities, not a government — that were seceding from Great Britain.   It was as independent states that they ratified the Constitution.  James Madison, the “father of the Constitution,” wrote in Federalist #39 that the constitution was ratified by the American people “not as individuals comprising one entire nation, but as composing the distinct and independent States to which they respectively belong.”

Contrary to the revisionist lie, Lincoln did not believe the principle that “all men are equal.”  His belief that blacks were inferior to whites was well known in that era.  During one of the debates in 1858 with Stephen Douglas, Lincoln stated, “I as much as any man am in favor having the superior position assigned to the white race.”

Today we are living under a tyranny that our Founding Fathers escaped by secession from Great Britain and that the South tried to escape by secession.  Lincoln forced the individual states to remain in the Union and to adopt new state constitutions imposed on them by the military.  Since 1865, our government has increased in scope, power, and control.  It was the event of the Civil War and Lincoln’s presidency that ushered in a dramatic increase in growth and control by the American government.  Federalism with states rights has been abolished, along with the Tenth Amendment and the rights of secession and nullification.   An unelected Supreme Court with lifetime tenure maintains vigilance over their liberal agenda and sets the limits of our liberty.


Carole Hornsby Haynes

Carole Hornsby Haynes, Ph.D. is an independent historian and Southerner who taught American and Southern history at the secondary and college levels. She is a national education policy analyst and legislative adviser. A classically trained pianist and organist, she loves the many genres of American music. She’s especially proud that nearly all American music is Southern in origin and identity.

6 Comments

  • William Quinton Platt III says:

    Yes ma’am. Lincoln was a railroad lawyer. Can’t expect much from him. Solved that northern vs Southern trans-continental railroad issue pretty quickly when the Confederates left their voluntary union; one of his first acts in office. What a coincidence.

  • scott thompson says:

    a large chunk of republicans and semi-fresh, semi-socialist 48ers didnt think all men equal either.

    • William Quinton Platt III says:

      Oregon entered the union in 1859 as a white-only State, blacks in the State previous to entry were given 30 lashes every six months as incentive to leave. Illinois amended its State Constitution in 1857 to prohibit blacks from entering. The northern States knew the war was coming and made sure the freed slaves would have nowhere to go.

      But we are past the point of debating history with our opponents. They want blood.

      • Yes, they want our lives and property, same as the last “tango”. And like the last tango, we need to make it as unpleasant, costly, and unsuccessful as possible for them to get their way.
        Armatissimie e liberissimi (most armed, most free) ~~Niccolo Machiavelli

  • Tom Wiggins says:

    they left legally, peacefully and honorably

    may God bless their souls, descendants, and whats left of Dixie

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