Abraham Lincoln Quotes
His [Stephen Douglas] argument is as thin as the homeopathic soup that was made by boiling the shadow of a pigeon that had been starved to death.
Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865, 16th President of the United States (Republican, IL), Debate with Stephen Douglas, 1858
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Douglas had Presidential ambitions and was a Democrat. Greeley, a supporter of the new Republican party had the New York Tribune endorse Douglas for the nomination, knowing that Tribune support would alienate many Southerners and draw support away from Douglas
Personal attacks have been made in the Congress ever since that body first met. However, they were infrequent and raised concern when they were made. However, in the late 1980s, there was a series of personal attacks made across the political parties culminating in the resignation of Wright as the Speaker of the House. Some Republicans had objected to the failure to confirm John Tower as Defense Secretary because of his serious alcoholism problem which was made public, and in turn made public some of Wright’s indiscretions. From then on the personal invective and attacks increases and there was retaliation by both parties that went on for decades. At first it was exposures of real incidents but by the 21st century, the attacks were often fabricated. For example, Barack Obama was called a “Socialist Muslim” by Republicans. See {624107}
In addition to the Attorney General, Washington’s cabinet consisted only of Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State, and Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury. Both were brilliant, passionate men dedicated to the new nation. However, they held opposite points of view on many major fundamental issues of political approach to the new nation. Washington greatly valued their advice and they each were magnificent administrators of their departments. However, they each distrusted each other intensely and believed that the other was advocating policies and practices that would destroy the new nation. Their squabbling was often public and Washington could never understand why they could not be civil about their disagreements. Ironically, Hamilton turned out to have been right about the assumption of state debt and the importance of business, finance and manufacturing. Jefferson whose vision had all Americans being farmers was wrong on this but was right on the limits of the executive and the rights of the individual vis a vis the government. Jefferson’s views turned out to be the ones most Americans wanted and his Democratic Republican party not only beat the Federalists but ended the Federalist Party. Hamilton died in a duel, Modern America is an amalgam of both of their views with modernity tending more and more towards Hamilton.
Abraham Lincoln was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and its greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis. In doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy.
