Slavery is Wrong, How Can Abortion be Right?

Now, that the abortion issue is breaking out on state and regional lines will the pro-child murder states of the north, north-east, and west gather themselves up in battle array and fight their American brothers and sisters of the southern states to protect their Constitutional rights to commit infanticide? The idea seems preposterous, doesn’t it? But consider this: When Lincoln was elected, South Carolina immediately seceded. Lincoln was not an abolitionist candidate and had campaigned on a platform of limiting the expansion of slavery into the territories only, not the eradication of the slave system in its entirety. But the leaders and blind followers of the slave states considered any limits on the slavery system as a direct threat to their billions worth of investment in enslaved humans. They then formed a combination of slave holding states of like mind and, to protect their immoral institution, gathered themselves together in battle array and went to war against their kinsmen to protect their Constitutional rights to continue to hold black people in bondage and profit from the arrangement.

Alexander Stephens, Vice President of the Confederate States (and a congressional colleague and friend of Lincoln) considered slavery the “cornerstone” of the economy and culture of the South—the war came and almost 800,000 Americans died. As a direct result of the conflict slavery was eradicated in the United States.

When the war ended and the Confederacy defeated and slavery destroyed many of the former Confederate survivors and participants explained that their secession, rebellion, and war-making was not at all about slavery and its protection (though at the start they had said that it was) but rather was about tariffs, northern animus, southern nationalism, states’ rights and, finally, the protection of the Constitution itself. That their concepts of protecting the Constitution were founded upon ensuring their rights to enslave black people not all in the South acknowledged though most all understood. These post-war disingenuous, misleading, and false explanations for a national catastrophe that they had themselves brought about did not convince everyone.

It is most important to note that few southern whites were slaveholders and that many were not at all interested in slavery and that even some free blacks in the south owned slaves. Regardless, it is incontrovertible that secession and the Confederacy and the war were direct results of the existence of the slavery system and the desire to protect it. And not merely the existence of the slavery system but also an influential coterie of slave holders and their blind followers who desired its ongoing existence, expansion, and permanent national protections. Only in recent times has this false “lost cause” narrative finally been dismissed as misleading though, after the war, most knew exactly what these apologists were doing.

George Thomas, (a Virginian who did not join the Confederacy), one of the great commanders of the Union, hero of Chickamauga (known as “the rock of Chickamauga”), and the commander of Union forces at the battle of Nashville (December 15-16, 1864) described the post-war assault against truth three years after the war’s close.

[T]he greatest efforts made by the defeated insurgents since the close of the war have been to promulgate the idea that the cause of liberty, justice, humanity, equality, and all the calendar of the virtues of freedom, suffered violence and wrong when the effort for southern independence failed. This is, of course, intended as a species of political cant, whereby the crime of treason might be covered with a counterfeit varnish of patriotism, so that the precipitators of the rebellion might go down in history hand in hand with the defenders of the government, thus wiping out with their own hands their own stains; a species of self-forgiveness amazing in its effrontery, when it is considered that life and property—justly forfeited by the laws of the country, of war, and of nations, through the magnanimity of the government and people—was not exacted from them.[7]

History has proven that bad laws can be enacted, that a radical few can manipulate, embolden and sway the masses, that countries of value can teeter and fall through the madness and confusion of their citizens. Most importantly, too, history teaches that people can justify the most appalling horrors to secure and advance an agenda that they value regardless of the wrongness of the thing they defend.

Holding humans in slavery is wrong (despite its having been protected under the Constitution) and, in our own time, regardless of Constitutional protections for abortion—the murder of children is as wrong now as slavery was then.

For many decades the defenders of child murder have perpetrated similar “lost cause” rhetorical convolutions and misrepresentations in fashion similar to some ex-Confederates and secession apologists. As of this writing, the efforts of the abortionists and their blind adherents have been generally successful.

The national debate on the subject is obfuscated by bizarre linkages and assertions of women’s empowerment and equal rights between the sexes, all of which have one single purpose—to obscure the ugly, immoral truth of the killing thing that they defend and applaud. A national battle is being waged between those who want to kill infants and those who want infants to be born and live.

The moral clarity of the matter when stated so starkly is difficult to evade. Abortion advocates go to great pains to assert that infants in the womb are not people, that unborn humans are not fully human, that a child growing in a woman’s body is akin to a tumor and, should the mother wish to excise it, such destruction of the unwanted growth is within her rights.

It is important for the defenders of infanticide to assert that the murder of a not-yet-born child is not, in fact, a murder. This is the bizarre, disingenuous woman’s-health-care-decision argument deployed by many feminists, fans of child murder, and mainstream Democrat politicians who support abortion. All of this is a great lie and fraud whose purpose is to justify and minimize the slaughter of children.

Such lies are the things upon which national disgraces and national tragedies are built. That the Democrat party is now “the abortion party” and once was the party of slavery and secession prior to the Civil War; and that the Republican party supported abolition and sustaining the Union are perhaps not relevant historical truths.

In fact, the success of the pro-abortion paradigm is so extensive in the popular culture and in politics that among some in the pro-infanticide movement the true marker of love between a man and a woman is whether the man will permit the woman to kill their child should they have the great blessing to have one, and should she have the whim to do it. “Yes, dear heart, kill the baby. If the child lives, that would be inconvenient for us. Love you!” For some, such a grotesque conversation is the height of romance, while for others it can only fill the heart and soul with sorrow and despair. There is little value in belaboring this point that providing permission to one’s partner to kill their child is in no way the consequence of a moral or loving or responsible decision.

These are definitive, declarative statements: Holding humans in slavery is wrong; killing children is wrong. What arguments can be presented to those who defend either to convince them of the wrongness of their views, the confusions of their hearts, and the terrible damage that they do to their country, themselves, and others?

At what point does the defense of enslaving others in a nation whose citizens, founders (and founding documents) assert that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” become absurd?

Since the Civil War the wrongness of slavery is now abundantly clear yet, while we proclaim that enslaving people is wrong many Americans continue to assert, and the highest national law continues to sustain, that the murder of children by their mothers is not wrong.

The matter of abortion, about killing children, is not about the empowerment of women. How can it be that some women can feel empowered by having, and implementing, the right to kill their children? Some nations and cultures throughout history, and still today, believe that the murder of children is empowering, good, and acceptable—not this one.

There are challenges abroad and there are challenges here at home, but there is no more fundamental domestic fight than that over the controversy as to whether or not the murder of children is wrong and whether legal protections for it should be rescinded.

A nation such as ours at the height of economic, military, and cultural success and might should have as its national position that idea that innocent life is of great and unmeasurable value and that we, Americans, will protect and succor such individuals.

Therefore, in furtherance of this essential and foundational concept, the Supreme Court decision on Roe, allowing abortion anywhere in the several states must be overturned, and the authority of deciding if mothers should have the legal right to kill their children returned to the several states.

The position of the nation should be one of reverence and respect for life, and a written-in-law sentiment that our children are our greatest national treasures that we can have now and into the future. Under the law, after the overturning of Roe, each state will decide for itself if they want infanticide or not within their borders. Perhaps in some future not so far distant in time, all the states will recognize and acknowledge this vile killing practice for what it is, and abandon it.

In late December, 1860, Lincoln replied to a query from John Gilmer of North Carolina, who asked for clarification on some of Lincoln’s positions. Lincoln answered in depth, and would later offer Gilmer a Cabinet position, an offer which was not accepted. Gilmer later served in the Confederate Congress. In his reply to Gilmer, Lincoln was clear on the matter of the day, a clarity similar in quality and surety to the challenges of today.

You think slavery is right and ought to be extended; we think it is wrong and ought to be restricted. For this neither has any just occasion to be angry with the other.[8]

An Incontrovertible Basis for Life

The abortion issue is not a complex one with rhetorical, mental, and spiritual confusions involved, though its defenders assert that it is. It is a matter of simple logic upon which the cornerstone of science and civilization rests.

1. It is true that it is immoral and wrong for one person to hold another in bondage; it is true that there ought to be no law that allows this, and no moral or ethical justification for it.
2. If #1 is true, then the murder of children by their mothers is a crime against morality and against humanity.
3. If the assertions of the proponents of abortion that unborn children aren’t human but a sort of growth that can be excised and destroyed if the mother, whimsically or seriously, wishes it done is a lie, then the proponents of abortion (who believe this lie) operate under a false concept.
4. If a nation of laws and justice passes through a catastrophic, tragic war in which almost a million citizens are killed—all on account of the existence of the immoral slave system—to end a rebellion based upon the desire to protect the slave system; then that same nation cannot, must not, support infanticide.
5. If infanticide is wrong then the country in which it is practiced ought to ban it, and contend that a nation of laws and justice and freedom does not allow the murder of its children by anybody including their mothers or their mother’s medical provider.
6. If it is true that nature itself dictates that women carry children and give birth, and not men, then the responsibility of birth rests incontrovertibly upon the females of the society. Should they wish to never carry a child, they should never have unprotected sex, and should they have sex and then conceive, then the child should not be killed as it is the very embodiment of innocence and good. How does one justify the murder of a child when there are ready alternatives that will alleviate the responsibility of child rearing from the disinterested, unwilling/unable or hostile mother, and allow the child to retain its life?
7. If a woman of the country cares not to raise a child which she is carrying she ought not to be allowed to kill the child but rather allowed to give that child to a family who will raise him/her. Lack of desire to carry and rear a child does not give a woman the right to kill that child. She does not have that right because the murder of unborn children is wrong.
8. There is little contention that the murder of born children is certainly wrong. The lie that abortion supporters tell is that unborn children are not proper humans and have no lawful or moral protections until they emerge from the womb (in some states, some Democrat political leaders would extend abortion even after birth). This is a great fraud which all who contend in this debate fully know but the abortion advocates must embrace to support their goal. Their goal is to protect their right to murder their children.
9. It is wrong to murder children, born or unborn.
10. Slavery was once protected by the Constitution, though it was wrong to do so.
11. The murder of children is now protected by the Constitution, though it is wrong to do so.
12. Any law at the national level that protects the murder of children must be defeated.
13. Any politician who supports the murder of children must not be elected and, if elected, opposed and defeated at the earliest electoral opportunity.
14. The blind must be made to see, and the laws that support their blindness—utterly, totally, and fully ended.

Times Out of Joint

The abortion matter is so abundantly morally clear yet now profoundly muddied by a culture that devalues life, wisdom, and the defense of the right. Some deeply troubled people do not even believe in the existence of “right” —only in what each individual considers to be the right. This bizarre, self-absorbed, Hobbesian, anti-human, amoral, humanist world-view is contrary to the concept of a just nation built upon laws and institutions.

In such a vexed climate as this few have taken up this matter as too difficult, too controversial, too heightened. Such were most likely the feelings of those who opposed slavery all the while it was protected by the Constitution. In that climate then and in this, now, certainly these similar struggles to defeat an injustice have like elements of challenge.

There were times when Abraham Lincoln himself seemed to be a sort of ghost standing on a platform in broad daylight before thousands of people solemnly unwrapping the sheets about their old laws and murmuring of forgotten oaths and wasted sacrifices.[9]

In May, 1856, amidst the violence over slavery in the territories on the Missouri/Kansas border which saw hundreds killed, Lincoln spoke at a Republican party rally in Springfield, Illinois.

“These are sad times, and seem out of joint,” he said. “All seems dead, dead, dead; but the age is not yet dead; it liveth as surely as our Maker liveth. Under all this seeming want of life and motion, the world does move, nevertheless. Be hopeful. Let us adjourn and appeal to the people.”[10]

The Confederate Monuments

Since the Confederacy was founded upon slavery and its protection should Confederate monuments be allowed to stand? The answer must be “yes.”

This apparent contradiction is fundamental to understanding American history.

After the war, our forefathers forgave one another and re-united the country. This forgiveness (and subsequent re-unification of the country) is one of the essential lessons of the Civil War for the future generations.

Our forebears forgave each other and moved forward together as one united nation—without slavery. Statues and monuments and memorials to Confederate soldiers and leaders are acknowledgements in stone and bronze by the victors that the vanquished were not only defeated enemies in war, but brothers (and sisters) once again going forward into the future.

These monuments are silent lessons to us of mistakes made, courage exhibited, magnanimity in victory, and national unity into the future. If our boys and girls in blue forgave our boys and girls in gray then who are we to cancel their lessons and abandon their forgiveness? This was a conflict fought and resolved by previous generations which only relates to us now because of radical agitation to reignite old, resolved controversies for current political purposes. It is the self-destructive height of ignorance and anti-history.

Lessons of a Contrary Past

Accepting the lessons of our forebears is a debt we owe to the past and to ourselves. If there is no learning, if there is no lesson, if there are no themes of reunification then the tragedy of the war is compounded over and over again. We are mandated by history and by nature to learn the lessons of the past.

But we do have such lessons and themes—one in particular from an unexpected source. Here is a speech that former Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest gave toward the end of his life, at Memphis, Tennessee, July, 1875. Forrest had been one of the leading generals of the Confederacy and acknowledged by many in the post-war years, including Robert E. Lee, as the best commander of the war (Sherman, Johnston, and Davis appeared to concur on this assessment). Prior to the war, Forrest had been a slave trader through which activities he acquired great wealth all of which he lost during the war.

After the war, Forrest was the first Grand Wizard of the Klan, which he later ordered disbanded. Now widely reviled for these things, and the controversial battle at Fort Pillow in 1864, Forrest had an extraordinary change of heart in the post-war years which is now generally unknown and unacknowledged. He is a fitting example of the concept that people can learn and change and that reconciliation and forgiveness are real.

For this generation, Forrest’s post-war change and the forgiveness presented to him by some he had harmed the most is an important story that challenges ignorance and hatreds now so widespread in our troubled country, and merits acknowledgement and review.

This is the last public address General Forrest delivered. He gave this speech to a black organization, at their invitation, called the “Independent Order of Pole-Bearers Association.” Prior to the address he was presented a bouquet of flowers by a black woman, which he gladly accepted. This speech is not commonly known, but ought to be.

Gentlemen, I accept the flowers as a memento of reconciliation between the white and colored races of the Southern states. I accept it more particularly as it comes from a colored lady, for if there is any one on God’s earth who loves the ladies I believe it is myself. (Immense applause and laughter.) I came here with the jeers of some white people, who think that I am doing wrong. I believe I can exert some influence, and do much to assist the people in strengthening fraternal relations, and shall do all in my power to elevate every man, to depress none.

(Applause.)

I want to elevate you to take positions in law offices, in stores, on farms, and wherever you are capable of going. I have not said anything about politics today. I don’t propose to say anything about politics. You have a right to elect whom you please; vote for the man you think best, and I think, when that is done, you and I are freemen. Do as you consider right and honest in electing men for office. I did not come here to make you a long speech, although invited to do so by you. I am not much of a speaker, and my business prevented me from preparing myself. I came to meet you as friends, and welcome you to the white people. I want you to come nearer to us. When I can serve you I will do so. We have but one flag, one country; let us stand together. We may differ in color, but not in sentiment. Many things have been said about me which are wrong, and which white and black persons here, who stood by me through the war, can contradict. Go to work, be industrious, live honestly and act truly, and when you are oppressed I’ll come to your relief. I thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for this opportunity you have afforded me to be with you, and to assure you that I am with you in heart and in hand. (Prolonged applause.)[11]

This speech by Forrest to a black organization, and the later fact that hundreds or more black people attended his funeral, is evidence that the contradictions of our history and ourselves were once understood, and now tragically forgot.

The bravery and sacrifices of both sides now belong to all of us, north and south, black and white, blue and gray—and the Confederate statues can speak one lesson or another to all. We ignore and eradicate our history at our grave peril.

Unifying the Contradictions of American History

The past and present wilt — I have fill’d them, emptied them,
And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.

Listener up there! what have you to confide to me?
Look in my face while I snuff the sidle of evening,
(Talk honestly, no one else hears you, and I stay only a
     minute longer.)

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

I concentrate toward them that are nigh, I wait on the door-slab.

Who has done his day’s work? who will soonest be through
     with his supper?
Who wishes to walk with me?
 

—Walt Whitman, Song of Myself, from Leaves of Grass, 1855

There is no contradiction in declaring that slavery and the killing of children are both wrong. Ours is a sometimes-difficult, contradictory history. There is much to learn and gain from our contrary history foremost, perhaps, is that the eradication of the moral evil of slavery carried such a high cost.

All of this is here for the taking now so that we avoid the mistakes of our forebears who were forced to endure war and horror to end their great wrong (slavery). Now, it is for us to end our generation’s great wrong (the murder of children), assert that we are not slaves to precedent, and do it without enmity, discord, and disunion.

An Invitation

A performance is scheduled at Ford’s Theater. Appreciators of the theater and all concerned parties hope (and pray) that the play will be a successful one, and that the event will be unmarred by anything unpleasant among the performers or the attendees.

Despite invitations having been sent far and wide every one of them has been declined.

All send their regrets at the missed opportunity and an evening’s entertainment lost, but the children are at home asleep and they cannot be left unattended.

[1] William Eleroy Curtis, The True Abraham Lincoln, (J.B. Lippincott, 1905), p.388.

[2] Daniel Wait Howe, Political History of Secession: To the Beginning of the American Civil War, (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1914), p.421; and, James Ford Rhodes, History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850, vol. 2, 1854-1860, (Harper and Brothers, 1896), p.453-4.

[3] Rhodes, Ibid.

[4] Clyde N. Wilson and Shirley Bright Cook, eds., The Papers of John C. Calhoun, Volume 26, (1848-1849), (University of South Carolina Press, 2001) p.x; referencing William H. Herndon, Herndon’s Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, (Belford, Clarke and Co., 1889), p.523.

[5] “When the votes were tallied, Lincoln, who was not on the ballot in any Southern state, carried all of the North but one state in the popular vote.” (University of Virginia, Miller Center).

[6] Winston Churchill, The Crisis, (MacMillan, London, 1902), vol. 4, p.136.

[7] Report of the Joint Select Committee to Inquire Into The Condition of Affairs in The Late Insurrectionary States, (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1872), p.19.

[8] John G. Nicolay, A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln: Condensed from Nicolay and Hay’s Abraham Lincoln: A History, (Century, 1902), p.166.

[9] Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln, The Prairie Years-2, (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1945), vol. 2, p.136.

[10] Ward Hill Lamon, The Life of Abraham Lincoln: From His Birth to His Inauguration as President, (Applewood reprint, 1872), p.378.

[11] Jack Hurst, Nathan Bedford Forrest: A Biography, (Vintage, 1993), pp.366-7.

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Daniel Mallock is a historian of the Founding generation and of the Civil War and is the author of The New York Times Bestseller, Agony and Eloquence: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and a World of Revolution. He is a Contributing Editor at New English Review.

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