Another 12th of February to remember my late great Uncle Joaquin

As we get older, we associate certain moments of history with people we grew up with.  For example, the Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis remind me of my parents.  Hearing of Minnie Minoso reminds me of my father and brother one Sunday afternoon in Cuba.

I am always reminded of my late great uncle on Lincoln anniversaries, from his date of birth to the Gettysburg Address to the day he was assassinated.

President Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809.  I don’t believe he had a bigger fan on this planet than my late great uncle, who was a judge; a college professor; an attorney; and, I repeat, a big fan of President Lincoln. 

I am sure he would have loved this post about Mr. Lincoln written by Scott Johnson:

Today is of course the anniversary of the birth of America’s greatest president, Abraham Lincoln. 

As a politician and as president, Lincoln was a profound student of the Constitution and constitutional history. 

Perhaps most important, Lincoln was America’s indispensable teacher of the moral ground of political freedom at the exact moment when the country was on the threshold of abandoning what he called its “ancient faith” that all men are created equal.

In 1858 Lincoln attained national prominence in the Republican Party as the result of the contest for the Senate seat held by Stephen Douglas. 

It was Lincoln’s losing campaign against Douglas that made him a figure of sufficient prominence that he could be the party’s 1860 presidential nominee.

At the convention of the Illinois Republican Party in June, Lincoln was the unanimous choice to run against Douglas.

After making him its nominee late on the afternoon of June 16, the entire convention returned that evening to hear Lincoln speak. 

Accepting the convention’s nomination, Lincoln gave one of the most incendiary speeches in American history.

Lincoln electrified the convention, asserting that the institution of slavery had made the United States “a house divided against itself.” Slavery would either be extirpated or become lawful nationwide, Lincoln predicted, provocatively quoting scriptural authority to the effect that “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” 

Demonstrating how it “changed the course of history,” Harry Jaffa calls it “[t]he speech that changed the world.”

Yes, my great uncle would have loved President Lincoln referred to as “America’s indispensable teacher of the moral ground of political freedom.”  Yes, he would have loved that!

To say the least, Abraham Lincoln had a huge impact on his life and specially his political ideas.

In fact, he was such a fan that my brother and I got to sit at his home study and hear him recite the Gettysburg Address.

We were too young back in Cuba to appreciate his message.  It took me a while, and relocation to this wonderful country, to understand it and to love each and every word.

Years later, I always think of my great uncle on any day, or when I am exposed to any documentary or book, that reminds us of the 16th president of the U.S.

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"Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln" by Doris Kearns Goodwin

This is a very interesting book about the Lincoln presidency.   It tells the story of how President Lincoln surrounded himself with "rivals".   

Remembering President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

President Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809.

We will have many celebrations across the land.   Lincoln was a great man.  The Lincoln monument was the highlight of my visit to DC many years ago.

It's hard to pick a favorite quote from Lincoln. I like this one from the 2nd inaugural speech, about a month before his assassination:    

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan – to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."

PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk).   There are many books about Abraham Lincoln.          Let me recommend this one:

Why my late, great uncle loved the Gettysburg Address

(My new American Thinker post)

My late great Uncle Joaquin was a judge, college professor, an attorney and a big fan of President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.   

He was a young boy when Cuba became independent in 1902. 

Like so many of his generation, he was born in the island when it was a Spanish colony, saw the US occupation (1898-1902) and then cheered May 20, 1902 when it became an independent nation.  I can recall some of his stories about Cuban flags flying and people celebrating the moment.

My guess is that he'd really enjoy the upcoming Ken Burns' documentary on the speech.

He would also have a hard time understanding President Obama's absence for the 150th anniversary. 

My great uncle would ask:   "What else is more important"?

In fact, he was such a fan that my brother and I got to sit at his home study and hear him recite it in English & Spanish. 

We were too young back in Cuba to appreciate his message.  It took me a while, and relocation to this wonderful country, to understand it and to love each and every word.

Here it is.  I can still hear my great uncle reciting it and telling me that it was the greatest speech ever delivered:

"Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.   

Now we are engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. 

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. 

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

My late great uncle would have loved this post!

P. S. We spoke about the speech with Frank Burke.

Listen to "The Gettysburg Address, 150 years later!" on Spreaker.