Open Letter to POTUS Abraham “Honest Abe” Lincoln

Dear President Lincoln,

You and George Washington had something in common, aside from Presidency – you were both honest men.

There’s a story told, that as we understand it now, is but a mythical fable of someone’s vivid imagination, although every lie has an element of truth. That fable was first apparently crafted by the Reverend Mason Locke Weems (1759-1825), the first person ordained by the Anglican Church for the Episcopal Church in America after the American Revolution.

Though he first studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, and in London, his calling was apparently to the Christian ministry, and he never practiced medicine.

His 1784 ordination – first as deacon, as customary, September 5, and then as priest on September 12 – was remarkable in part, because he was the first beneficiary of the English Parliament’s passage of the Enabling Act on August 13, 1784, which thereby enabled English bishops to ordain clergy for the American Church without requiring them to swear a loyalty oath to the English sovereign.

He later served as rector in two Maryland parishes – All Hallows’ Parish in Anne Arundel County, 1784-1789, and then from 1790-1792 of Westminster Parish in the same county.

For about 20 years, he was also an itinerant preacher at various Virginia parishes, most notably among them the Pohick Church, where George Washington (1732-1799) attended, before the Revolution. That enabled him to refer to himself as “formerly rector of Mt. Vernon Parish.”

From around 1791 until his death, he became an author, and book peddler for publisher Matthew Carey. Though he wrote and had published various moralizing tracts and biographies of individuals of renown in that era, such as Benjamin Franklin, William Penn, and General Francis Marion (a Continental Army General nicknamed the “Swamp Fox” for his elusive tactics), his most famous biography was of George Washington – “The Life and Memorable Actions of George Washington, General and Commander of the Armies of America” – and first published in 1800. It proved to be quite a success, especially with school-aged children, and in its fifth edition in 1806 – albeit with a slightly different title, “The Life of George Washington: With Curious Anecdotes, Equally Honourable to Himself, and Exemplary to His Young Countrymen” – for the first time, there appeared the anecdote of Washington and the cherry tree.

Knowing Weems was a minister, and that he wrote various moralizing tracts, it should come as no surprise that he would want to portray Washington in as positive a light as possible – especially to children – hence the addition of the fable. I suppose it is but human nature to aggrandize those whom are respected to the point of veneration – yourself included.

So it should also come as no surprise to you, that you have long been attributed as being the originator of the maxim “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

Sir, there is significant conjecture as to whether, or not, you ever said such a thing, and some sources site a date of September 2, 1858, when you were speaking in Clinton, Illinois, during the famous debate series with Stephen A. Douglas, the Democratic Party chair against whom you campaigned for the Office of President. Some, however, say that you made such a remark earlier at the first-ever Republican National Convention, June 1856 in Philadelphia.

Suffice it to say, that while it may never be truly settled whether you originated it, or merely uttered it as a popular aphorism of the era, it will forever be attributed to you, as it perhaps it rightly should be, given your well-known penchant for honesty.

Even your dear wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, who knew you perhaps better than anyone else, wrote to your and her mutual friend Abram Wakeman, September 23, 1864 from her residence at the Soldiers’ Home, in part referencing your honesty, stating that:

“I see that the miserable “World” is criticizing very much, a sermon preached by your pastor, Dr Thomson [sic], last Sabbath. Of course, it would be far too loyal for their rebellious minds. Also in yesterday’s paper they continue their villainous aspersions. Poor Mr L who is almost a monomaniac on the subject of honesty, they positively assert that to a near relative of his, a lady, he gave order for a contract. In the first place, he has neither brother nor sister, aunt nor uncle, and only a few third cousins, no nearer ones; that clears him entirely as to any connection. Those whom he would have cared to see prospering, did not really require his assistance. At any rate on no terms would either male or female receive, his signature to enable them to profit by our Government. The P’s own salary is not over $10,000 in gold, taxes $900. With such an establishment to keep up, you may imagine we have not enriched ourselves. In truth, I have had to endeavor to be as economical as possible; more so than I have ever been before in my life.”

Mr. Lincoln, the party today which calls themselves as your namesake “the party of Lincoln” – you, sir, being the first to have called yourself Republican along with Mr. Wakeman, who helped in significant part to establish it – would not recognize you, nor you them.

Our nation has now suffered the past four years under a man who, as President, is a pathologically chronic, and habitual liar – to call him the “Father of Lies” would honor and dignify Lucifer, the fallen angel, so I dare not honor that man in such a way. To say that he is wicked is but a mere trope, and I dare not dwell upon his seemingly innumerable failures as the nation’s chief executive.

And yet the greatest insult is, that he, along with others within the party which bears your namesake, have continued upon a path of proliferatively promulgating deliberately demonstrable falsehoods which have injured our nation, and in the considered opinions of many, brought us near the brink of yet another un-Civil War which was culminated in an unprecedented attack by our own people upon our nation’s Constitution, the civil order, and our Congress there resident in the Capitol Building, after being fomented to unrest on January 6, 2021 by that same one when Congress was proceeding to certify the Electoral College votes from an honest election in all 50 states.

But as touching upon honesty, dear sir, I dare say you would not recognize this union, nor many of its elected politicians at almost any level – Federal, State, or Local – for they, in many cases, unlike yourself, or your wife, have enriched themselves in seemingly innumerable ways, even though there are laws prohibiting the same at those same various levels.

There has been for many years a practical and veritable “revolving door” – a device consisting of several doors, often made of glass, which are attached about a common pivoting center which revolves 360º in one direction, allowing ingress and egress to a building – in government, so that once their elected terms are completed, even though many of them have served a practical lifetime in public offices, they then go into the so-called “private sector” as consultants for lobbying firms, or governmental contractors, at eye-popping salaries.

Meanwhile, The People languish under the laws which have been written so as to profit those companies, rather than The People by and of which this nation is comprised.

Across and throughout our nation, there is mass insecurity of myriad kind – financially, in healthcare, in education, in employment, in housing, in our environment, even in our food supply, there is insecurity. And our Congress – sad to say, sir – led by members of the party of your founding, have taken a significant role in worsening it all. Rather than alleviating, or merely ameliorating, the suffering, they have acted in unseemly ways to behave aggressively in a passive manner, by doing nothing. And to add insult to injury, to pour salt into those gaping wounds, they have endeavored to tear down and to eliminate the systems which have brought even the slightest amount of relief from such suffering, all while falsely claiming that they have a better plan. As yet, they have produced nothing of the sort.

There is great wickedness in the land, and it is not only in our political system, but in our religion, as well. There are people, mostly men, who have chronically sexually abused mere children, and women, many also in the clergy of the Catholic and various Protestant Christian churches. Men in positions of power in private offices in private corporations, some more publicly known than others, have also abused – for many years – women and children. Among them, the man who is soon leaving office, the pathological liar whom I mentioned earlier, who was a known friend of, and frequent visitor to, another man who is alleged to have committed suicide in a Federal jail cell after being arrested by Federal authorities on charges of being a global sex trafficker of young girls. That man’s assistant/paramour is now in a Federal jail cell awaiting trial on charges that she aided and abetted him.

Mr. Lincoln, honesty is at an all-time low in our United States. And the false bravado motivating those who have fallen for the lies told to them by members of “the party of Lincoln,” your party, is troubling. I am utterly certain that you would not approve in any way, shape, or form – not in the slightest.

Be assured that I do not blame you. But also know that there is a day of reckoning coming, and no matter anyone’s political identity, it will occur… and it most likely won’t be pretty. But it will happen, and we will be better for it. And for that, I think, we should all be glad, because our system of government, our Constitutional democratic republic, a government of laws and not of men, a “government of the people, by the people, for the people” – as you once famously said in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery thereon November 19, 1863, while we were yet embroiled in a great Civil War – “shall not perish from the Earth.”