Week 9 Countdown - Lincoln - an assignment

 Friends,

I forgot to include an assignment for you in the email for the Week 9 Countdown on Lincoln.

I suggest that you read and consider the Lyceum speech by Lincoln (http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/lyceum.htm).  It took me 30 minutes to read it because the language is awkward in some spots.  But in other spots it is beautiful.   The sentences he mentions before "the Blue Ridge" are beautiful.

After he warns that our nation can commit suicide, he gives us a path to save our nation.  Here is his advice for saving America:  "The answer is simple. Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their violation by others."

While a member of our party appears to be committing ballot fraud, many of his supporters do not care that the law is being violated.  The contempt that the dubious candidate for JP4 has for our laws, contempt shared by his supporters and endorsers, flies in the face of heartfelt advice from Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican President.

How can anyone consider himself a conservative Republican while ignoring the heartfelt advice of Abraham Lincoln?

Thank you,

Robert Canright

Week 9 Countdown - Lincoln - Our Country - Our Party - Our Doom

 Dear Friends,

Week 8 of our countdown to July 4, 2026 was to memorize Lincoln's Gettysburg Address of 1863. (https://texasascendant.blogspot.com/2025/11/week-8-countdown-gettysburg-address.html).  As I worked to memorize it I realized how well written it is, how insightful it is, and that it contains a warning.

Style

My favorite book on writing style is The Practical Stylist with Readings and Handbook by Sheridan Baker (https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Stylist-Readings-Handbook-8th/dp/0321011821/).  On pages 319 and 320 of the eighth edition, the professor examines the Gettysburg Address.  It is masterful writing and you notice his choice of words when you work to memorize it because it is not the way you would  have written it.  It is a treat to read and memorize.

Insight

Lincoln said in the beginning of the speech that the Civil War was testing whether a nation conceived in Liberty and dedicated to equality can endure.  Notice that means our nation could have died with the Civil War.  Then at the end of the speech he says we must  resolve that  government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.  Again he warns us that our nation can perish!

In Lincoln's Lyceum Speech (http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/lyceum.htm) in 1838 he famously said that when our nation perishes it will by by suicide:  "If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."  We must be careful we do not destroy ourselves!

Self Destruction

John Adams stated that "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people." Without morality, the Constitution would be inadequate to govern society.  This implies that as our country becomes increasingly immoral, our society is at risk of dissolving, of breaking down.  From a Christian perspective, lying and cheating are immoral.  Just because this might be done in politics does not excuse immoral behavior.

Case number 296-09883-2025 before the Collin County District Courts raises concerns about the eligibility of Mr. Stephen Kallas, a Republican candidate for Justice of the Peace, Precinct 4 (JP4).  Mr. Kallas's ballot application includes this statement:  "I further swear that the foregoing statements included in my application are in all things true and correct.”  Now I ask you, if Mr. Kallas lives in JP1 but put down an address in JP4, is that true and correct?  Do we need to seek council from Pontius Pilate, who famously said, "What is truth?"

A candidate for Judge should be above reproach.  He should be a man of unquestioned integrity.  If a judge begins his legal career with false statements on his ballot application, what does that say about the underlying morality of that court?   And what about the morality of a political party that sees how Brent Hagenbuch broke residency requirements, got away with that, and then the party thinks that the residency requirements in our laws can be ignored?  Cheat if you can get away with it?  Is this the Republican way?

If immoral behavior within the Republican Party lowers the morality of our community, then the Republican Party is a moral hazard.  Many people within the Collin County Republican Party believe that following our election laws is naive.  I am told, "Cheating works, it happens, get over it."  No.  This is where the saying, "Bad company corrupts good morals," comes in. Just because immoral behavior happens within our party is no reason to accept immoral behavior. Rather, it is reason to ask our party to do better.

The future of our country depends on moral behavior, as John Adams has said.  Lincoln said that if our nation dies it will be like suicide, self-inflicted.  Morality is not some silly memory from childhood Vacation Bible School, it is important for the life of our county, for the good of our Republican Party, and for our personal spiritual lives.

Thank you for your time,

Robert