The Right Path for the Nation

Leading up to the Civil War the country was deeply divided over slavery. The political parties began to be divided largely based on their stance on slavery. The Republican party was born during this time made up of former Whigs, a group that had been labeled “know-nothings” and disenchanted Democrats, and it was the home of the abolitionists. The Democrat party was strongly on the pro-slavery side. Despite this great divide in the nation the Republicans would back down and placate the democrats for years rather than stand for the principles that they believed in. It was thought that these efforts to compromise would keep the country together as one, but it always included the continuation and expansion of slavery. When Lincoln was elected president as a Republican that was known to oppose slavery, the South went into a frenzy and immediately started the ball rolling for succession. They did this despite the pledges prior to and after the election by Lincoln that he would not interfere with the Souths current “legal” slavery. Lincoln quickly realized that military action was the only hope to save the country. When the war started the Emancipation Proclamation had not even been drafted, because initially the thought was that they would bring the erring Southern States back into the fold as they were. Eventually Lincoln saw that the time was now to stand for what was right and he issued the proclamation. The price and pain caused by the civil war was extreme. It cost more than 700,000 casualties and the pain of families literally torn apart and turned against each other. This was the price to be paid to eliminate the blight of slavery.

Thomas Jefferson had worked throughout his life to put policies and laws in place that would peacefully phase out slavery, but he was never able to get those policies to pass. He had stated that if we do not put these policies into place to phase out slavery it will require bloodshed for it to end. He was very prophetic.

What does this have to do with today? The principles of what happened then can be applied to our current situation in America. We are a nation deeply divided over the social and economic direction of the country. The Democrat party has, for many years, pushed us toward European style socialism, and the Republicans for far too long have placated the Democrats in the name of compromise. The problem is that compromise has become known as a continuing march towards socialism (sometimes the pace is faster or slower, but it keeps moving). We are in a state today where many want to deny that there is a problem and keep the quickening pace to socialism on course, despite the glaring financial realities and the European examples in Greece and Italy (with more to come) of the financial disaster awaiting us if we continue on this self destructive path. There is nothing good down this path, and it is a crossroads time not unlike Lincoln's day when it is time to stand for the right and move in that direction with alacrity. Can we do this without pain? No. The hard corrections needed, will cause a lot of financial pain to those who have depended on the government for their jobs and well being. The other path, however, ends with a much worse scenario. Consider how life in North America would be different today if the North had just let the South walk away and the country was forever splintered in two… Consider what life will be like if the dollar loses its status as the world's reserve currency; if taxes are raised significantly in a seriously floundering economy; and if our debt is allowed to continue on its path of growth. If the country would have adopted Thomas Jefferson's policy and law proposals we could have eliminated slavery without the extreme pain of the Civil War. If “we the people” would have held our elected officials to the standards in the declaration and constitution over the last many decades, we would not be in the economic, social, and political mess that we are in today.

It is time to stand firm on correct principles. It is time to emphatically turn down any “compromise” that is defined by continuing to tread down the same wrong path. It is time to make the hard and sometimes painful decisions to preserve our nation as the example to the world of individual life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.