Lincoln Revisited: Debunking the Most Common Lie

In American History classes all across the United States, children are exposed to blatant lies about the 16th President (America’s First Dictator), Abraham Lincoln.  Most of the teachers who perpetuate these lies are not even aware of it.  

Obviously, most public educators are not Lincoln scholars, and parrot the government narrative.  To the government, Lincoln is a godlike figure who “saved the union” and grew the power of the central state.  Notice the gigantic statue of Lincoln sitting on his throne…talk about idolatry!   There are some teachers who knowingly perpetuate lies and distortions of history.  

To these teachers, the ends justify the means- those ends being authoritarian state power.  These teachers are the enemy of truth and their fruit is the new generation of social justice warriors; those who take to the streets to support more government and less liberty.  It makes sense that big government advocates support the man who waged war in defense of big government.  

Now let’s look at the most common lie that public school teachers tell about Lincoln:

The most common lie I hear from students who I haven’t taught is this –  Lincoln did not own any slaves, so therefore, he was against slavery.  This is the depth of most public educators knowledge about history, and it’s truly sad.  The fact is that Lincoln supported the Corwin Amendment.  (What? You didn’t learn about the Corwin Amendment in public school or in Spielberg’s film?)  The Corwin Amendment would have become the 13th Amendment had it been ratified by the states.  The Corwin Amendment won two-thirds support in both the House and the Senate, and was ratified in 3 states; Ohio, Maryland, and Illinois.  The start of the “Civil War” interrupted the States’ ratification of the Amendment.  

The Corwin Amendment reads as follows:

No Amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State.

The Corwin Amendment did three things.  First, it allowed states to protect slavery by granting each state the power to regulate “domestic institutions.” Lincoln’s policy always was “you can keep your slaves if you stay loyal to the union”, and that’s part of what the Corwin Amendment accomplished. Secondly, the amendment takes away congressional power to “abolish or interfere” with slavery.  Lastly, the Corwin amendment was written to make itself unamendable.  So Lincoln supported an amendment that would forever keep slavery constitutional.  Great Emancipator?

What we can take from this is that Lincoln was not against slavery; he was against secession and the voluntary Compact among the States known as the Constitution, which brings to light another issue- government schools care nothing about historical truth.

TK