One hundred forty-five years ago today, Confederate forces made their last-ditch effort to win the Battle of Gettysburg, a key turning point in the Civil War. After their attacks the previous day had failed, Confederate General Robert E. Lee ordered this final assault on Cemetery Ridge against the advice of the attack's commanding officer, who correctly predicted that it would result in a decisive defeat.
Four-and-a-half months later, on November 19, 1863, President Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address. In the spirit of the Fourth of July holiday tomorrow (and because I think all Americans ought to be more familiar with the seminal documents of our country), the Address is reproduced below:
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -— we can not consecrate -— we can not hallow -— this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -— that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -— that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -— that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -— and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
The key, to me, of the Gettysburg Address is that "it is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced" -- to preserve the union; to provide equal rights to all people regardless of race, creed, color, gender, religion, or national origin; to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. For if "that government of the people, by the people, for the people" is allowed to "perish from the earth" by those very people who have sworn to defend it, what are we even doing here?
One of the most prominent Union generals of the Civil War was Ulysses S. Grant. Grant was already a war hero prior to the Civil War, having served honorably in the Mexican-American War. Though he was not at Gettysburg and did not become the commanding general of the Union Army until the following year, it was largely based on his reputation as a war hero (as well as his squabbles with President Johnson) that led to his nomination as the Republican candidate for president in 1868. Grant won a close popular vote but an electoral college landslide that year, and he was reelected by landslide four years later.
It has been suggested rather forcefully by a certain candidate for president this year that his military service makes him far more qualified for high office than his opponent. This candidate's military record is far less impressive than Grant's (though Grant likewise was a lackluster student, finishing in the middle of his class at West Point, as opposed to at the very bottom of the current candidate's class at Annapolis). Yet Grant was inarguably one of the worst presidents in US history:
- One of his first acts in office was to prevent his Treasury secretary from preventing a gold speculation scam from being carried out by a couple of Wall Street insiders.
- Grant was notorious for appointing friends and political supporters to positions of power in his administration, rather than appointing people who were actually qualified for the jobs in question.
- Grant's secretary of War, William Belknap, is the only Cabinet secretary ever impeached by the House of Representatives. He was impeached for receiving bribes in return for post tradership appointments. Grant attempted to protect him from conviction by allowing him to resign, though the Senate ruled that they maintained jurisdiction anyway; they ultimately failed to convict Belknap.
- Grant's appointed US Attorney for Kansas, Cyrus Schofield, was forced to resign his post over questionable financial affairs and was later jailed on charges of forgery. Schofield later became a devout Christian and Biblical scholar, though, so I'm sure he's been fully rehabilitated in the eyes of Republicans.
- Grant's Treasury secretary, William Richardson, hired a private citizen, John Sanborn, to collect over $400,000 in unpaid taxes, with the proviso that Sanborn could keep half of what he collected. (Republican privatization in action!) $156,000 of this "commission" went into Richardson's pockets, though, some of which ended up in the coffers of the Republican Party's electoral campaign accounts.
The list goes on and on, but here's the overarching point: if military service truly made one qualified to be president of the United States, then Ulysses S. Grant would have been one of the greatest presidents in US history rather than one of the most corrupt.
And if John McCain really wants to play this game, then this precedent combined with his obvious desire to win the third term of the worst president in US history should make all voters extraordinarily wary of his qualifications.