Abraham "Honest Abe" Lincoln

Dear Facebook-Team,

you wrote on my wall to notify me that I had to "confirm this Page's affiliation with the brand, company, person, or entity that it represents" and that I should "take one of the following actions:
1. Link to your Facebook Page from your official website.
2. Add an email address to your account or another administrator to your Page who has an email address that is officially affiliated with your company or a company authorized to manage your brand (e.g. management company or PR firm)."


Well, as it happens I've been dead since April 15th, 1865, and hence I do not have an official website, nor do I know what that is supposed to be. I'm not representing a company either - please refer to a history book of your choice for clarification or read the short bio I posted on here.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely yours,
Abraham "Honest Abe" Lincoln's restless ghost.

Lincoln's fight for Jewish chaplains

By Michael Feldberg


For Jews who wish to observe the rituals of their faith, wartime may pose seemingly insurmountable challenges. The exigencies of war can make the observance of the Sabbath, holy days and the kosher laws very difficult. Jewish soldiers must, on occasion, subordinate religious observance to combat. Despite the frequent priority of war over religion, there are times, such as the funeral of a fallen Jewish soldier or at the bedside of a wounded Jew, when religion can shape war policy.


At the outbreak of the Civil War, Jews could not serve as chaplains in the U.S. armed forces. When the war commenced in 1861, Jews enlisted in both the Union and Confederate armies. The Northern Congress adopted a bill in July of 1861 that permitted each regiment's commander, on a vote of his field officers, to appoint a regimental chaplain so long as he was "a regularly ordained minister of some Christian denomination."


Only Representative Clement L. Vallandigham of Ohio, a non-Jew, protested that this clause discriminated against soldiers of the Jewish faith. Vallandigham argued that the Jewish population of the United States, "whose adherents are ... good citizens and as true patriots as any in this country," deserved to have rabbis minister to Jewish soldiers. Vallandigham thought the law, which endorsed Christianity as the official religion of the United States, was blatantly unconstitutional. However, there was no organized national Jewish protest to support Vallandigham and the bill sailed through Congress.


Three months later, a YMCA worker visiting the field camp of a Pennsylvania regiment known as "Cameron's Dragoons" discovered to his horror that the officers had elected a Jew, Michael Allen, as regimental chaplain. While not an ordained rabbi, Allen was fluent in the Portuguese minhagim (ritual) and taught at the Philadelphia Hebrew Education Society. As Allen was neither a Christian nor an ordained minister, the YMCA representative filed a formal complaint with the Army. Obeying the recently enacted law, the Army forced Allen to resign his post.


Hoping to create a test case based strictly on a chaplain's religion and not his lack of ordination, Colonel Max Friedman and the officers of the Cameron's Dragoons then elected an ordained rabbi, the Reverend Arnold Fischel of New York's Congregation Shearith Israel, to serve as regimental chaplain-designate. When Fischel, a Dutch immigrant, applied for certification as chaplain, the Secretary of War, none other than Simon Cameron, for whom the Dragoons were named, complied with the law and rejected Fischel's application.


Fischel's rejection stimulated American Jewry to action. The American Jewish press let its readership know that Congress had limited the chaplaincy to those who were Christians and argued for equal treatment for Judaism before the law. This initiative by the Jewish press irritated a handful of Christian organizations, including the YMCA, which resolved to lobby Congress against the appointment of Jewish chaplains. To counter their efforts, the Board of Delegates of American Israelites, one of the earliest Jewish communal defense agencies, recruited Reverend Fischel to live in Washington, minister to wounded Jewish soldiers in that city's military hospitals and lobby President Abraham Lincoln to reverse the chaplaincy law. Although today several national Jewish organizations employ representatives to make their voices heard in Washington; Fischel's mission was the first such undertaking of this type.


Armed with letters of introduction from Jewish and non-Jewish political leaders, Fischel met on December 11, 1861 with President Lincoln to press the case for Jewish chaplains. Fischel explained to Lincoln that, unlike many others who were waiting to see the president that day, he came not to seek political office, but to "contend for the principle of religious liberty, for the constitutional rights of the Jewish community, and for the welfare of the Jewish volunteers."


According to Fischel, Lincoln asked questions about the chaplaincy issues, "fully admitted the justice of my remarks ... and agreed that something ought to be done to meet this case." Lincoln promised Fischel that he would submit a new law to Congress "broad enough to cover what is desired by you in behalf of the Israelites."


Lincoln kept his word, and seven months later, on July 17, 1862, Congress finally adopted Lincoln's proposed amendments to the chaplaincy law to allow "the appointment of brigade chaplains of the Catholic, Protestant and Jewish religions." In historian Bertram Korn's opinion, Fischel's "patience and persistence, his unselfishness and consecration ... won for American Jewry the first major victory of a specifically Jewish nature ... on a matter touching the Federal government."


Korn concluded, "Because there were Jews in the land who cherished the equality granted them in the Constitution, the practice of that equality was assured, not only for Jews, but for all minority religious groups.


http://www.jewishworldreview.com/jewish/history11.php3

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Michael Feldberg is the Executive director of the American Jewish Historical Society. Comment by clicking here.

The Legacy of Lincoln
By Dr. Gary Scott Smith
FrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, February 12, 2009

Today, we celebrate the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. The relatively short history of our nation makes this a particularly momentous milestone. Of all of our leaders after the founders, only Franklin Roosevelt approaches Lincoln’s renown and stature. In poll after poll, historians and political scientists rate Lincoln as one of our greatest presidents, often the greatest. The many op-eds and essays comparing Barack Obama with Lincoln illustrate how large the 16th president continues to loom in American history.

Many have portrayed Lincoln as a paragon of piety, a champion of freedom, a demigod, and the national redeemer. Despite his unorthodox views, many laud Lincoln as the nation’s most exemplary Christian chief executive. No American, Theodore Roosevelt insisted, more fully applied what the churches taught than Lincoln. The 16th president “stands at the spiritual center of American history,” historian Sidney Mead argued. To theologian William Wolf, Lincoln was “‘a biblical prophet’ who saw himself as ‘an instrument of God’ and his country as God’s ‘almost chosen people’ called to world responsibility.” No other president, Robert Michaelsen maintained in Christian Century, so fully expressed “in word and deed the Christian virtues of charity and compassion under trying conditions.” Few have surpassed the rhetoric of Josiah Holland, who lauded Lincoln in an 1866 biography as a “statesman…savior of the republic, emancipator of a race, [and] true Christian.”

Since his assassination, many others have extolled Lincoln as a man of exemplary character, a near saint. They have assigned him their “most noble traits—honesty … tolerance, hard work, a capacity to forgive … a clear-sighted vision of right and wrong, a dedication to God and country, and an abiding concern for all.” Historian Stephen Oates contends that “Lincoln was as honest in real life as in the legend.” The Republican was able to take strong moral positions without appearing smug or self-righteous. Numerous observers have praised Lincoln’s self-control, calm demeanor, unending patience, and even temperament.

Many have stressed Lincoln’s willingness to pardon his political opponents and military enemies. He declared that he was “always willing to forgive on the Christian terms of repentance.” Dealing graciously and generously with the South, Lincoln proposed mild terms for Southerners’ readmission to the Union. As historian William Lee Miller puts it, he showed “magnanimity to rivals and critics, mercy to the accused, patience with insolent generals, eloquent sympathy to the bereaved, generosity to associates and subordinates, [and] nonvindictiveness to enemies.”

Some have even compared Lincoln with Christ. Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy called him a “Christ in miniature” and “a saint of humanity,” and John Hay labeled him “the greatest character since Christ.” Admirers claim that, like Jesus, he was able to share other people’s suffering—especially their feelings of pain, loss, and guilt. He was more ready “to pardon than to punish.”

Lincoln’s faith is very hard to categorize. Like Job, before his death, Lincoln appeared to trust God without needing to know his reasons for everything. In the final analysis, the assessment of his friend Joseph Gillespie rings true: “Lincoln cared but little for tenets or sects but had strong & pervading ideas of the infinite power & goodness of Deity and of mans [sic] obligation to his Maker and to his fellow beings.” So does the conclusion of his private secretary John Nicolay: “Benevolence and forgiveness were the very basis of his character. His nature was deeply religious…he had faith in the eternal justice and boundless mercy of Providence, and made the Golden Rule of Christ his practical creed.”

Despite his almost legendary status, Lincoln had many critics while he was president, and he has some today. Writing in the New York Times in 1865, a journalist alleged that Lincoln had experienced more “hate and obloquy” than “any other great leader in modern history.” Contemporary critics contend that Lincoln’s use of total war violated just-war standards and helped hasten the appalling assaults on human rights unleashed in 20th-century warfare. Some claim that Lincoln violated the Constitution by greatly expanding presidential powers and violating people’s civil liberties in his quest to save the Union. Other scholars fault him for not transcending his racist culture and more forcefully condemning slavery.

Most scholars and other Americans, though, portray Lincoln much more positively. As we see it, during the most trying time in American history, Lincoln testified to God’s sovereignty, held together a coalition of free and border slave states, kept his fragmented party from falling apart, defeated the rebel states militarily, liberated four million slaves, and preserved the Union. Henry P. Tappan, the president of the University of Michigan, wrote Lincoln in 1862 that he hoped the history of the country would someday read: “Then the United States redeemed and regenerated commenced a new career of prosperity and glory; and Abraham Lincoln was hailed by his countrymen & by Mankind as the Second father of his country, and the hero of Liberty.” Tappan’s wish has largely been granted.


Feb. 12th, 2009
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