Abraham Lincoln:
The question recurs, what will satisfy them? Simply this: We must not only let them alone, but we must somehow, convince them that we do let them alone. This, we know by experience, is no easy task. We have been so trying to convince them from the very beginning of our organization, but with no success. In all our platforms and speeches we have constantly protested our purpose to let them alone; but this has had no tendency to convince them. Alike unavailing to convince them, is the fact that they have never detected a man of us in any attempt to disturb them.
These natural, and apparently adequate means all failing, what will convince them? This, and this only: cease to call slavery wrong, and join them in calling it right. And this must be done thoroughly – done in acts as well as in words. Silence will not be tolerated – we must place ourselves avowedly with them. Senator Douglas’ new sedition law must be enacted and enforced, suppressing all declarations that slavery is wrong, whether made in politics, in presses, in pulpits, or in private. We must arrest and return their fugitive slaves with greedy pleasure. We must pull down our Free State constitutions. The whole atmosphere must be disinfected from all taint of opposition to slavery, before they will cease to believe that all their troubles proceed from us.
The challenge here isn’t to find a modern parallel, but to avoid one. This is the bad song that’s been stuck in your head for more than just a few years now. Digby quoted this portion of Lincoln’s Cooper Union speech the other day in a post that everybody and their monkey should read. Go have a look, even if you have already read it a few times.
[Update] (9:38 am EDT): Since there seems to be a little confusion about this post, I’ve added some annotations after the jump.
Hi! Thanks for visiting. In order to explain myself, I’m going to break the post into four parts
I. Title
I really hate writing titles. I often find it the hardest part of writing a post. I’ve often used the title “I Hate Titles” when I just can’t think of anything. The title of this post is My Thin Skin. The title has nothing to do with the content of the post itself, which I admit is a silly way to title a post. This particular title is a reference to something I was thinking about when I posted it. I was thinking to myself that I probably wouldn’t be posting this were it not for some criticism I received pertaining to my last post. In his criticism of my post (here and here), Arthur Gilroy stated his belief that the Republican base does not change and can’t be swayed. His comments reminded me a little of Digby’s post and the quoted portion of Lincoln’s speech in particular. When I wrote the title I was doing it to mock myself for having such thin skin, but you were never supposed to know about it. So much for that.
II. Speech
I think the quoted portion of the speech is really wonderful and is pertinent to the way I feel about the some of the concessions being made by the Democratic party. I think it’s foolish to try to appeal to voters who will never vote for a Democrat, regardless of the candidate or that candidate’s positions. I could be way off, but that’s how I feel.
III. I write that “The challenge here isn’t to find a modern parallel, but to avoid one.” What I mean is that there are so many modern parallels that it would be a challenge not to think of one while you are reading the speech
IV. I write that “Digby quoted this portion of Lincoln’s Cooper Union speech the other day in a post that everybody and their monkey should read.” By this I mean that I think that Digby’s post is wonderful and that I think you should read it.
I hope this has been helpful. I’ll try to be clearer in the future.
