Obama: “I’m a ‘Fierce Advocate’ for Gay and Lesbians" (2009)

[struggle4progress]

1. Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln (Frederick Douglass 1876)

Delivered at the Unveiling of The Freedmen’s Monument in Lincoln Park
... Viewed from the genuine abolition ground, Mr. Lincoln seemed tardy, cold, dull, and indifferent; but measuring him by the sentiment of his country, a sentiment he was bound as a statesman to consult, he was swift, zealous, radical, and determined ... Few great public men have ever been the victims of fiercer denunciation than Abraham Lincoln was during his administration. He was often wounded in the house of his friends. Reproaches came thick and fast upon him from within and from without, and from opposite quarters. He was assailed by Abolitionists; he was assailed by slave-holders; he was assailed by the men who were for peace at any price; he was assailed by those who were for a more vigorous prosecution of the war; he was assailed for not making the war an abolition war; and he was bitterly assailed for making the war an abolition war ...

For Obama, Lincoln was model president
updated 7:14 p.m. EST, Sun January 18, 2009
By Ed Hornick
CNN
... On January 10, he and his family visited the Lincoln Memorial ... Obama will also be the first president to use the Lincoln Bible for his inauguration since Lincoln used it in 1861 ... Obama told CBS last year that he was studying up on Lincoln ... "There is a wisdom there and a humility about his approach to government, even before he was president, that I just find very helpful" ...