Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 4:09am

Fortnight for Freedom 2013: Our Reliance

Lincoln and Liberty

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have proclaimed a second Fortnight for Freedom from June 21-July 4th, and, as last year, The American Catholic will participate with special blog posts each day.

This quote suitable for framing from Abraham Lincoln reminds us that the love of liberty placed in each human soul by the hand of God is the chief defense of our freedom:

 

Now, when by all these means you have succeeded in dehumanizing the negro; when you have put him down, and made it forever impossible for him to be but as the beasts of the field; when you have extinguished his soul, and placed him where the ray of hope is blown out in darkness like that which broods over the spirits of the damned; are you quite sure the demon which you have roused will not turn and rend you? What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling sea coasts, the guns of our war steamers, or the strength of our gallant and disciplined army. These are not our reliance against a resumption of tyranny in our fair land. All of them may be turned against our liberties, without making us stronger or weaker for the struggle. Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, every where. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage, and you are preparing your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises.

Abraham Lincoln, September 11, 1858, Edwardsville, Illinois

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Monday, June 24, AD 2013 12:02am

[…] Looney, Igntm Tdy Photo: Pope and the Bones of Saint Peter – Taylor Marshall PhD, Cntrbry Tls Fortnight for Freedom 2013: Our Reliance – Donald R. McClarey JD, TAC Tri-Color Tortellini With Roasted Veggies – Celeste, Catholic […]

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