Thank God for Abraham Lincoln
By Brother Rogers
Let’s hear it for Old Abe! 2009 marks the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth on February 12, 1809 (and incidentally the 100th anniversary of the Lincoln penny as well, first appearing in 1909).
While visiting relatives in Kentucky recently, I took my 12 year-old son by Lincoln’s birthplace near Hodgenville, not far from Mammoth Cave. (Yes, I’m the dad who stops the car at historic sites along the road.) A log cabin, reconstructed to resemble the original one, sits atop a hill and attests to Lincoln’s humble beginnings.
But it’s not visible from afar. Thanks to donations from Mark Twain and others who recognized Lincoln’s greatness, the cabin is enclosed in a grandiose granite monument at the top of 56 steps, one for each year of Lincoln’s life. (Yes, we counted the steps.) President Theodore Roosevelt, a well-known Lincoln admirer, spoke when the cornerstone was laid on February 12, 1909, the centennial of Lincoln’s birth.
My son asked me, “Isn’t it a good thing that the South didn’t win the Civil War?” To paraphrase Art Linkletter, kids ask the darndest questions. I thought about my grandmother, who didn’t like Lincoln, Grant or Sherman. She was a faithful member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Her grandfather was one of the men from Oktibbeha County who fought honorably for the South.
She jokingly, or maybe not so jokingly, referred to my Kentucky cousins as Yankees because as she said, “During the war, their governor went one way and their legislature went another.” When she said, “Never forget,” you knew what she meant.
I also remembered a little girl from my elementary school days who moved to Mississippi from “up North.” She stated plainly in class one day that Union victory was good for the country, and we all looked at her like she was crazy.
What did I tell my son? “Yes,” I said. “It is a good thing that the South did not prevail. We’d have needed passports to go to California or New York. And the U.S. couldn’t have saved civilization in two world wars or defeated the menace of communism if our country had not been united.” I explained that the war also ended slavery, which was definitely a good thing for a country founded on liberty.
The Civil War did not begin as a war to abolish slavery. But Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation gave America a new birth of freedom. "Without slavery the rebellion could never have existed," said Lincoln in 1862. "Without slavery it could not continue.”
History has proven Lincoln right. What if the South had won the Civil War? What if Lincoln had compromised and accepted a negotiated settlement instead of waiting, at the cost of more bloodshed, for a definitive, final victory on the battlefield? Thank God we’ll never know. Thank God for Abraham Lincoln.
I am proud of my Southern heritage and proud of my Mississippi roots. I am also proud that Mississippi is an integral part of the United States of America. Without Lincoln’s determination, courage and leadership, I would not be an American citizen, which is the greatest civic privilege on earth.
That is why on the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth, it is altogether fitting and proper that we, especially we in the South, honor him today.
Brother Rogers is a guest columnist for the Starkville Daily News and works at the Stennis Center for Public Service.
Let’s hear it for Old Abe! 2009 marks the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth on February 12, 1809 (and incidentally the 100th anniversary of the Lincoln penny as well, first appearing in 1909).
While visiting relatives in Kentucky recently, I took my 12 year-old son by Lincoln’s birthplace near Hodgenville, not far from Mammoth Cave. (Yes, I’m the dad who stops the car at historic sites along the road.) A log cabin, reconstructed to resemble the original one, sits atop a hill and attests to Lincoln’s humble beginnings.
But it’s not visible from afar. Thanks to donations from Mark Twain and others who recognized Lincoln’s greatness, the cabin is enclosed in a grandiose granite monument at the top of 56 steps, one for each year of Lincoln’s life. (Yes, we counted the steps.) President Theodore Roosevelt, a well-known Lincoln admirer, spoke when the cornerstone was laid on February 12, 1909, the centennial of Lincoln’s birth.
My son asked me, “Isn’t it a good thing that the South didn’t win the Civil War?” To paraphrase Art Linkletter, kids ask the darndest questions. I thought about my grandmother, who didn’t like Lincoln, Grant or Sherman. She was a faithful member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Her grandfather was one of the men from Oktibbeha County who fought honorably for the South.
She jokingly, or maybe not so jokingly, referred to my Kentucky cousins as Yankees because as she said, “During the war, their governor went one way and their legislature went another.” When she said, “Never forget,” you knew what she meant.
I also remembered a little girl from my elementary school days who moved to Mississippi from “up North.” She stated plainly in class one day that Union victory was good for the country, and we all looked at her like she was crazy.
What did I tell my son? “Yes,” I said. “It is a good thing that the South did not prevail. We’d have needed passports to go to California or New York. And the U.S. couldn’t have saved civilization in two world wars or defeated the menace of communism if our country had not been united.” I explained that the war also ended slavery, which was definitely a good thing for a country founded on liberty.
The Civil War did not begin as a war to abolish slavery. But Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation gave America a new birth of freedom. "Without slavery the rebellion could never have existed," said Lincoln in 1862. "Without slavery it could not continue.”
History has proven Lincoln right. What if the South had won the Civil War? What if Lincoln had compromised and accepted a negotiated settlement instead of waiting, at the cost of more bloodshed, for a definitive, final victory on the battlefield? Thank God we’ll never know. Thank God for Abraham Lincoln.
I am proud of my Southern heritage and proud of my Mississippi roots. I am also proud that Mississippi is an integral part of the United States of America. Without Lincoln’s determination, courage and leadership, I would not be an American citizen, which is the greatest civic privilege on earth.
That is why on the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth, it is altogether fitting and proper that we, especially we in the South, honor him today.
Brother Rogers is a guest columnist for the Starkville Daily News and works at the Stennis Center for Public Service.
