At Edwardsville, Illinois, September 11, 1858, Pres. Abraham Lincoln said,

[bigtree]

At Edwardsville, Illinois, on September 11, 1858, President Abraham Lincoln said:

"What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence is not our frowning battlements, our bristling seacoast, the guns of our war steamers, or the strength of our gallant and disciplined army. These are not the reliance against the resumption of tyranny in our fair land. All of them may be turned against our liberties without making us stronger or weaker for the struggle."

"Our reliance is in the love of liberty, which God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is the preservation of the spirit, which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands everywhere." Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism at your down doors."

"Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage," Lincoln warned, "and you prepare your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of others, you have lost the genius of your own independence and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises among you."


This government and this administration have become accustomed to trampling, and bondage. And we have allowed them to skirt accountability for their sly justifications for their attacks on our civil liberties; demagogic appeals to patriotism and to our nationalism; the deliberate inflaming, and careful stoking of the sparks of fear that flashed from the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center; and the mortgaging of ours and our children's future toil and tribute to the subsidizing of both of the Bush president's bloody and costly wars of opportunity.

We are not any safer for our invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq. In our occupation, we contradict the most basic of our nation's values of freedom, liberty, and democracy.

With our theft of the industry and resources of Iraq, our country has joined the long line of oppressors and brutal opportunists who have sought to dominate that region for greed and power. History will wonder at our arrogance, and at our inability to restrain our military and its agents from pursuing ambitions far outside of the mandate of our constitution or conscience.

We can scarcely hope to repair the injustice and the pain which our great and powerful nation has caused, around the world and here at home; through our greed, with our zeal, and by our neglect.

But we must try.

Here's to the next-generation of patriots! Here's to the new defenders of liberty, freedom, and democracy! Here's to the end of the reign of this two-percent confederation of corporate interests!


This is an excerpt from my book, Power Of Mischief: http://www.returningsoldiers.us/pompage.htm

Download the book for free!
http://www.returningsoldiers.us/Power%20Of%20Mischief4.pdf

Here's my list of numbered, linked references for the book (253 links):
http://returningsoldiers.us/biblio.htm

[tabasco]

1. Such a great genius and fighter for the betterment of mankind.

Men of Lincoln's caliber are so often struck down by the evil men they fight. Words of these great men will ring true for millenia. It has been our great fortune in America to have men like Lincoln in times of crisis. I hope Kerry is up to the challenge.

[sweetheart]

2. It was so long ago, before radio and TV

when to hear another human being, you had to be in a room with
them... and the tiny population of the country back then... as the
current nation bears no resemblance. In lincolns time, *we* were a
second rate power, with the european superpowers still vastly
superior, that they tinkered with our civil war, just like we do
in iraq today... and given the historical precedent, lincoln will
emerge in iraq, not the USA... and rather the US will appoint another
dynasty of procounsels and kings until the treasury is depleted and
the constitutional democratic experiment bankrupt.

The soviet union collapsed right fast, and i expect our financial
empire of voodoo bookkeeping and pretend-news, will collapse just
as quickly.

Ps... your website is very unreadable as the links are red on black
and i can't read anything below the title box... some more readable
colours wouln't hurt a bit. You have my greatest respect for writing
your book and making it available. Best regards to you and yours, -s

[bigtree]

4. Thank you for your kind words

The linked reference page reads better:
http://returningsoldiers.us/biblio.htm

I'm gonna change that text now. :hi:

[bigtree]

6. got it!

[NMDemDist2]

3. cunning tyrant--

so we have it

[bigtree]

5. With malice towards none; with charity for all . . .

...to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace . . .

~Second Inaugural Address

[Guaranteed]

7. HEAR HEAR!!!

:yourock: