Abraham+Lincoln

ARS: Abraham Lincoln rose from obscurity to distinction by seldom failing to strike the humble manner that was peculiarly his. Lincoln  nurtured his tradition of humble origins and fireside plainness. Because  Lincoln   never alludes to the humbleness of his origin, he is all the more humbler. Vulgar sentiments were never appealed by  Lincoln. He put himself on a level with those he addressed, not by going down to them, but only by taking it for granted that they had brains and would come up to a common ground of reason. Lincoln  asked of the American people, “Come let us reason together about this matter.”   Lincoln   ’s simple confidence in the right-mindedness of his fellowmen defends the theory that men can govern themselves. He was a true democrat because he grounded himself on the assumption that a democracy can think. His words resonate today. In her recent interview with ABC anchor Charles Gibson, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said that her public comment last year about the  Iraq   war being "from God" was a version of a statement   Lincoln   made about God's intentions in the Civil War. Some historians took issue with that citation, but such use of  Lincoln   as a moral standard has a long tradition. We have never had a chief justice who so won to himself the love and at the same time the judgment of his countrymen.