Abraham Lincoln revered the Declaration of Independence and the Founders. As Lincoln observed in 1861, “I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence.” Lincoln viewed the language of the Declaration’s preamble not merely as revolutionary rhetoric but as a statement of political theology that stood inviolate in every time and every place. It’s small wonder that he frequently quoted it speeches like the Gettysbury Address.
But there’s one speech in which he discussed – with considerable passion – the meaning of the Declaration in a nation that accepted chattel slavery. The place was Lewistown, Illinois, and the date was August 17, 1858. Lincoln was deep into his senate race against The Little Giant, Stephen A. Douglas and the sole verbatim fragment of the speech comes to us from a Chicago Press and Tribune reporter. It’s worth reading carefully in its entirety.
The Declaration of Independence (said Mr. L.) was formed by the representatives of American liberty from thirteen States of the confederacy—twelve of which were slaveholding communities. We need not discuss the way or the reason of their becoming slaveholding communities. It is sufficient for our purpose that all of them greatly deplored the evil and that they placed a provision in the Constitution which they supposed would gradually remove the disease by cutting off its source. This was the abolition of the slave trade. So general was conviction—the public determination—to abolish the African slave trade, that the provision which I have referred to as being placed in the Constitution, declared that it should not be abolished prior to the year 1808. A constitutional provision was necessary to prevent the people, through Congress, from putting a stop to the traffic immediately at the close of the war. Now, if slavery had been a good thing, would the Fathers of the Republic have taken a step calculated to diminish its beneficent influences among themselves, and snatch the boon wholly from their posterity? These communities, by their representatives in old Independence Hall, said to the whole world of men: “We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” This was their majestic interpretation of the economy of the Universe. This was their lofty, and wise, and noble understanding of the justice of the Creator to His creatures. [Applause.] Yes, gentlemen, to all His creatures, to the whole great family of man. In their enlightened belief, nothing stamped with the Divine image and likeness was sent into the world to be trodden on, and degraded, and imbruted by its fellows. They grasped not only the whole race of man then living, but they reached forward and seized upon the farthest posterity. They erected a beacon to guide their children and their children’s children, and the countless myriads who should inhabit the earth in other ages. Wise statesmen as they were, they knew the tendency of prosperity to breed tyrants, and so they established these great self-evident truths, that when in the distant future some man, some faction, some interest, should set up the doctrine that none but rich men, or none but white men, were entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, their posterity might look up again to the Declaration of Independence and take courage to renew the battle which their fathers began—so that truth, and justice, and mercy, and all the humane and Christian virtues might not be extinguished from the land; so that no man would hereafter dare to limit and circumscribe the great principles on which the temple of liberty was being built. [Loud cheers.]
Today is America’s 233rd birthday. We’re all enjoying – finally – a sunny day here in the northeast. There are steaks, beer and fireworks planned later in the day. The Fourth has always been a raucous day, with parades, flags, bunting and pyrotechnics. After all, we’ve always been a nation of unabashed flag-wavers and this year’s no exception.
In honor of the ‘Glorious Fourth’, my wife and I have been watching again the excellent HBO production of David McCullough’s John Adams. In this scene, the Continental Congress ratifies the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. I can only imagine the gravity of the moment.
Several posts back I commented on the vulnerability of US aircraft carriers in the face of Chinese ASBM technology. Funny thing, though. Everybody who can afford a carrier wants one.
Like China, for instance. In the pages of this blog, we’ve discussed China’s naval ambitions and more particularly the decision by the PLA naval forces to build or acquire a flattop of their own. And they’ve already begun getting some of the experience they need – courtesy of China’s new best friends, the Brazilians.
Brazil has agreed to a deal where Chinese sailors will learn aircraft carrier operating skills on the Brazilian Navy’s carrier, the “Sao Paulo.” Nine years ago Brazil bought the 32,000 ton French aircraft carrier Foch (which was still in service) for $12 million, updated it and renamed it. The navy has not been able to get much cash out of the government to further refurbish the 46 year old Sao Polo, and apparently the Chinese deal will change that.
The “Sao Paolo” was headed for decommissioning, and has been used mainly to train carrier pilots for the last few years. The “Sao Paolo” entered servicein 2000, and the Brazilians retired the ” Minas Gerais”, a World War II era (British) Colossus Class carrier a year later (after 40 years of service). So the Brazilians have a long tradition of carrier operations, and sufficient experienced carrier sailors to teach the Chinese some useful things. Brazil has long been the only South American nation to operate a carrier.
The Sao Polo has a crew of 1,900 and was designed to carry 35 warplanes (smaller, older models like the A-4) and four helicopters. This load can vary depending on aircraft type.
While the Sao Paulo is roughly the size of the old US Essex-class carriers, it is by no means as capable. However, learning air ops – and practicing takeoffs and landings – on a small deck is very good practice. Until its retirement in 1991, the US Navy used the Essex-class carrier Lexington as a training carrier, operating out of Pensacola. Entire generations of US naval aviators learned – and until the mid-1970s practiced – their trade on small decks.
But the Chinese want a carrier for the simple fact that it is the most flexible implement devised to project power around the world. And in spite of its vulnerabilities, it only becomes more capable as time goes on.
Even the British are getting back into the traditional carrier game. Since they retired the old Ark Royal – their remaining conventional carrier – in 1978, they’ve made do with smaller carriers designed to accommodate Harriers and helicopters. The Falklands War demonstrated the limitations of these vessels in winning air superiority against even the Argentine air force. So, the British are at long last stepping up. The two projected Queen Elizabeth class ships will be 65,000 ton behemoths designed to field the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter entering service.
Hope ‘n Change is scheduled to sit down with Dmitri Medvedev and Vladimir Putin in Moscow on July 6-8. There are many issues on the table, chief among which is the subject of the missile shield due to be deployed in Poland and the Czech Republic in the next two years. The Russians have complained about this long and loud – not because they really think the ABM system is directed at them – but because the US is intruding into the Russians’ traditional sphere of influence. They’re also concerned about increasing weapons sales to Poland and the forging of bilateral relationships with former Warsaw Pact countries.
The following video is of Stratfor CEO George Friedman discussing the upcoming visit. I agree with most of what Friedman has to say but I disagree that Russia is emerging as the foremost strategic challenger to the US. That peculiar honor belongs – I believe – to China. Russia simply doesn’t have the money – and faces too many insurmountable internal problems – to mount a serious, sustained challenge to the United States in any field of strategic competition.
But as to the rest, including spheres of influence in central Asia, our relations with the Baltic states, moves by the EU in Belarus and more, I think Friedman is spot on.
An Israeli friend of mine just sent me this quote from columnist Burt Prelutsky:
“On a serious front, I sincerely hope that when the president goes in for his annual check-up, the doctors at Bethesda will do a brain scan.
Surely something must be terribly wrong with a man who seems to be far more concerned with [...]
I think the folks at Air New Zealand are on to something. From today’s UK Telegraph:
Air New Zealand, the country’s national carrier, has made a safety video for its domestic routes which shows a pilot and cabin crew dressed only in body paint made to resemble their normal uniforms.
As the crew go through the motions, [...]
Aircraft carriers have historically been vulnerable giants that could throw a punch but not take one. Even after SCB-125 modernization in the 1950s, WWII Essex class carriers had wooden flight decks with the first layer of armor at the hanger deck level.
While the generation of supercarriers beginning with the USS Forrestal incorporated many of the [...]
This is how it’s done, folks. And it’s why I couldn’t be a politician. From today’s Washington Times:
When House Democratic leaders were rounding up votes Friday for the massive climate-change bill, they paid special attention to their colleagues from Ohio who remained stubbornly undecided.
They finally secured the vote of one Ohioan, veteran Democratic Rep. [...]
In keeping with the ongoing debate about whether our fate is inflation or deflation, here’s a piece from today’s Washington Times that predicts 1970s-style stagflation due to massive government spending and increases in the money supply. But the real kicker is the government’s stated policy – discussed numerous times here at BBL – to keep [...]
In the end, the Welfare State has to be sold to all of us suckers, so it’s fascinating to see how it – and nationalized health care – was sold to our British friends after World War II. As you’ll recall, after Germany folded in 1945, the British held a general election to toss out [...]
Like just about everyone else, I’m trying to read the economic tea leaves and work out a strategy for myself. I’d like to make some money – who wouldn’t? – but my more realistic goal is not to lose any more than I have already.
And the beginning of any strategy starts with a guess in [...]
Let’s segue now from beatific contemplation of God’s image to a thoroughly cheesy lust for revenge and retribution.
Now that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his mullah buddies have bloodily suppressed the Iranian people yet again, Ahmadinejad is demanding an apology both from the US generally and from Hope ‘n Change more particularly. And this was after Hope [...]
Thus writes David Goldman (aka ‘Spengler’) in the web edition of First Things. Marriage is a ‘condition of life’ that has nothing whatever to do with rights – it is, quite simply, the response of mortals to the fact of a mortality that is both individual and communal. As the Hebrew Bible acknowledges, we achieve [...]
A very amusing video from Reason TV, taking a satirical look at the adventures of an injured man in a government-run emergency room. Sort of like dealing with the DMV whilst bleeding and in shock.
While the video is amusing, it only hints at a larger problem with government-run systems: budgeting and allocation of resources. Remember, [...]
Today, one of the most foolish pieces of legislation in American history comes up for a vote in the House – the Waxman-Markey Energy Bill (HR 2454), otherwise known as ‘Cap and Trade’.
This monstrosity would cripple our economy and place us at a serious competitive disadvantage in world markets – and for what? The bill [...]
diminish its beneficent influences among themselves, and snatch the boon wholly from their posterity? These communities, by their representatives in old Independence Hall, said to the whole world of men: “We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” This was their majestic interpretation of the economy of the Universe. This was their lofty, and wise, and noble understanding of the justice of the Creator to His creatures. [Applause.] Yes, gentlemen, to all His creatures, to the whole great family of man. In their enlightened belief, nothing stamped with the Divine image and likeness was sent into the world to be trodden on, and degraded, and imbruted by its fellows. They grasped not only the whole race of man then living, but they reached forward and seized upon the farthest posterity. They erected a beacon to guide their children and their children’s children, and the countless myriads who should inhabit the earth in other ages. Wise statesmen as they were, they knew the tendency of prosperity to breed tyrants, and so they established these great self-evident truths, that when in the distant future some man, some faction, some interest, should set up the doctrine that none but rich men, or none but white men, were entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, their posterity might look up again to the Declaration of Independence and take courage to renew the battle which their fathers began—so that truth, and justice, and mercy, and all the humane and Christian virtues might not be extinguished from the land; so that no man would hereafter dare to limit and circumscribe the great principles on which the temple of liberty was being built. [Loud cheers.]
in 2000, and the Brazilians retired the ” Minas Gerais”, a World War II era (British) Colossus Class carrier a year later (after 40 years of service). So the Brazilians have a long tradition of carrier operations, and sufficient experienced carrier sailors to teach the Chinese some useful things. Brazil has long been the only South American nation to operate a carrier.
conventional carrier – in 1978, they’ve made do with smaller carriers designed to accommodate Harriers and helicopters. The Falklands War demonstrated the limitations of these vessels in winning air superiority against even the Argentine air force. So, the British are at long last stepping up. The two projected