Abraham Lincoln Quotes
No organic law can ever be framed with a provision specifically applicable to every question which may occur in practical administration. .. No foresight can anticipate nor any document of reasonable length contain express provisions for all possible questions.
Lincoln, Abraham. "First Inaugural Address." 4 Mar. 1861. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Edited by Roy P. Basler, vol. 4, Rutgers University Press, 1953, p. 267.
The quotation he gives from the first Chief Justice is from McCulloch v. Maryland, 1819. The issue is one that has divided jurists and politicians ever since the Constitution was ratified was should it be interpreted literally giving credence only to that which the framers specifically intended or as Hughes, Marshall and most modern interpreters believe that the principles should be interpreted in the light of the times. The Founding Fathers never envisaged an Internet or a potential enemy who could kill millions of Americans without sending large contingents of soldiers to our shores.
Scientists do not generally make good bureaucrats, administrators, or politicians. They tend to avoid these roles, which leaves the people who hold them very scientifically ignorant in an era where science policy and research are the most important factors for the human race.
Great crises like wars, frequently and great scientific and technical breakthroughs produce many situations that were never envisioned by the founding fathers when they drafted The Constitution. The Civil War had many of these.
In modern times almost all countries have written constitutions. And almost all of those constitutions appear to be democratic. Many have been taken from the United States Constitution. However, most of the countries are not real democracies as they do not enforce their own constitutions. For example, in Egypt, the constitution guarantees women equal rights to men. There are many female attorneys. However, the notion of a female judge is too much for the sexist culture. So regardless of what the constitution says, it is not enforced with respect to female judges. When Smyth gave his lecture, constitutions were just getting popular. He was prescient enough to realize that a constitution to be effective must conform to the belief structure of most of the population and the constitution most be administered as well as written.
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.
