Miss Constitution Analyzes. . . Day 21 of the Presidential Election Crisis
Abraham Lincoln. . . Thanksgiving. . . We Have Forgotten God
Thanksgiving Proclamation – 1863
“It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord. We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world.
May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.
But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.
I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father Who dwelleth in the heavens.”
These words of Abraham Lincoln in the middle of a vicious civil war, the ending of that war not yet known, is really the key to what we are experiencing as a nation right now. We are experiencing disharmony; we are experiencing stress on our civic institutions; we are experiencing a breakdown in Unwritten Law; and we are experiencing passivity and ungratefulness and weakness. The North, while stronger financially and materially, was not fully committed in 1863 to what it would take to defeat a determined enemy. The South had seceded from the Union just after the election of Lincoln and those representatives of southern citizens in Congress disavowed their oath to preserve, protect, and defend the United States Constitution. One’s oath mattered, then, so disavowing the Constitution was a giant statement regarding their personal integrity. Lincoln understood what it would take, and he had the courage to keep quietly influencing his fellow citizens until they, too, understood what it would take and were willing to pay the price.
Miss Constitution wonders if we, now, are willing to pay the price to preserve our way of life and our governing structure. Miss Constitution wonders if there is a critical mass of citizens willing to demand a forensic look at the recent Presidential election. It must be shown to Miss Constitution’s satisfaction that all elements regarding the election, minus understandable human error, are on the up and up. Miss Constitution wonders if the American people are going to accept without comment accusations made by former President Obama that Americans are racist. This is an insult and is patently untrue. The former first Lady, Michelle Obama, also finds herself unable to honor Unwritten Law and show courtesy and build comity as the thanks she and her husband owe (as do all former Presidents) the American people for trust placed in them and generosity given them. The 1st Amendment free speech rights accorded all are tempered by custom for former Presidents. Our civic institutions allow no shadow Presidential government – it is a type of sedition. Miss Constitution wonders if the American people are so worn down by a bioweapon launched against them, are so beaten up by false accusations thrown at them, are so abused by those who do not appreciate their country, that they will allow their nation to be lost without so much as a hand raised.
Lincoln faced the same dilemma. Northerners had friends and relatives in the South. Why not just let them go? Who wants the blood, the putrefying flesh, the cost, the amputations, the infections, the dysentery, the trampled fields, the stolen cattle, the burned houses, the raped maidens, the stolen silver, the untidy mess that fighting for something worthwhile amounts to?
Lincoln thought the Union worth it. Miss Constitution wonders if the majority of Americans think the same about the United States Constitution. She also wishes you a treasured Thanksgiving with those you love.
©2020 Miss Constitution | Washington DC
