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"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves and then we shall save our country."
-- Abraham Lincoln
Shelby Foote takes this from Lincoln's message to Congress in December of 1862. Although Lincoln renews his moderate call for compensated emancipation, refurbishing it with statistics about how much cheaper it would be than what the Civil War is costing in dollars alone, not to mention the toll it is taking on human happiness and lives, it is understood that the war is going to have to be ginned up, as the South has no interest in giving up slavery except by force.
And, of course, Lincoln's words seem particularly apt today. After the calm and buoyant days of the Clinton years, our own stormy present is demanding a renewed vigor in thought and action. Again, a new kind of conflict requires a new kind of response.
Yet, on a deeper level, some truths maintain their eternity. This is captured by a quote from Tecumseh Sherman speaking to Grant, capturing the realization that this enduring war requires a more harshly pursued policy of conquest, "We cannot change the hearts of the people of the South, but we can make war so terrible that they will realize the fact that however brave and gallant and devoted to their country, still they are mortal and should exhaust all peaceful remedies before they fly to war." Right has to be enforced by Might.
Some old dogmas never lose their bark...
.
"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves and then we shall save our country."
-- Abraham Lincoln
Shelby Foote takes this from Lincoln's message to Congress in December of 1862. Although Lincoln renews his moderate call for compensated emancipation, refurbishing it with statistics about how much cheaper it would be than what the Civil War is costing in dollars alone, not to mention the toll it is taking on human happiness and lives, it is understood that the war is going to have to be ginned up, as the South has no interest in giving up slavery except by force.
And, of course, Lincoln's words seem particularly apt today. After the calm and buoyant days of the Clinton years, our own stormy present is demanding a renewed vigor in thought and action. Again, a new kind of conflict requires a new kind of response.
Yet, on a deeper level, some truths maintain their eternity. This is captured by a quote from Tecumseh Sherman speaking to Grant, capturing the realization that this enduring war requires a more harshly pursued policy of conquest, "We cannot change the hearts of the people of the South, but we can make war so terrible that they will realize the fact that however brave and gallant and devoted to their country, still they are mortal and should exhaust all peaceful remedies before they fly to war." Right has to be enforced by Might.
Some old dogmas never lose their bark...
.
