Guest post. Abraham Lincoln warned us : the day will come when Trump arises. Let’s be ready to denounce him.
Dear Paul,
It is noteworthy that the Trump executive order signed on January 27th, apparently discriminating against foreign nationals on religious grounds, seems to violate the US constitution (and thus undermine the rule of law)!
I have just been reading an Abraham Lincoln speech (delivered, improbable though this may seem, on January 27th 1838) in which he warns of the future coming of a man of destiny whose towering vanity and ambition will undermine the rule of law (and consequently the freedoms which it guarantees) unless the people unite against him:
“Is it unreasonable then to expect, that some man possessed of the loftiest genius, coupled with ambition sufficient to push it to its utmost stretch, will at some time, spring up among us? And when such a one does, it will require the people to be united with each other, attached to the government and laws, and generally intelligent, to successfully frustrate his designs.
Distinction will be his paramount object, and although he would as willingly, perhaps more so, acquire it by doing good as harm; yet, that opportunity being past, and nothing left to be done in the way of building up, he would set boldly to the task of pulling down. […]
Passion has helped us; but can do so no more. It will in future be our enemy. Reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason, must furnish all the materials for our future support and defence.–Let those materials be moulded into general intelligence, sound morality, and in particular, a reverence for the constitution and laws: and, that we improved to the last; that we remained free to the last; that we revered his name to the last; that, during his long sleep, we permitted no hostile foot to pass over or desecrate his resting place; shall be that which to learn the last trump shall awaken our WASHINGTON.
Upon these let the proud fabric of freedom rest, as the rock of its basis; and as truly as has been said of the only greater institution, ‘the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’”
(Abraham Lincoln, The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions: Address before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, January 27th, 1838)
Uncanny or what? Honest Abe foresaw dishonest Donald!
Duncan
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Abraham Lincoln: ‘The Lyceum Address
Paul the Apostle: I Corinthians 15:51-53
King James Version (KJV)
51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.