Nearly 170 years ago a new member of Congress took public issue with the President of the United States. The President, a Democrat, insisted that everyone accept his understanding of events, even to the point of questioning the patriotism of anyone who did not. An Illinois Congressman, who became a Republican within 10 years, begged to differ, insisting that the “facts” which the President maintained were true were not.
It is not easy for a new Congressman to challenge a sitting President in matters of national security, but young Abraham Lincoln did precisely that. Contrary to the claims of President James K. Polk, who had fought a successful war with Mexico, vastly increasing the size of the United States, Lincoln pointed out that the war began in 1846 not on American soil, as the President insisted, but on Mexican soil.
Lincoln almost did not live this challenge down. His Democrat critics called him “spotty” because he said that the war with Mexico did not begin in the “spot” that Washington officialdom had decreed. But at the time he delivered a long oration in which he painstakingly reviewed all the evidence on the matter and even affirmed the right of any people anywhere who wish to change their form of government to rise up in revolution and form a new one.
via When treason and patriotism become confused – Opinion – VVdailypress.com – Victorville, CA.
