At his Facebook page (the "official" one that tags him as a "Government Official"), Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano posted this today:
Adding this comment:
While these words are typically attributed to President Lincoln, that is not a verifiable fact. Regardless of the author, this is a profound statement that we are seeing the reality of in our nation today. In the words of Edmund Burke, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
Well, it's good that Doug has at least made some sort attempt to be historically accurate. I'd like to think he posted the caveat because he knew I'd call him on it if he didn't.
I'd like to think that - but while I am pretty sure someone from his office reads this blog, I can't be sure it's Doug himself.
In any event, Doug's Lincoln quote issue pops up when you do search the history of the attribution.
Luckily Politifact has already done that:
[Lincoln] never said that. But it’s not too far afield of a real Lincoln quote.
So where does it come from? And in what context?
That's where Doug's troubles start.
It's one of Lincoln's first major speeches, Politifact says:
On Jan. 27, 1838, Lincoln spoke before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, about "the perpetuation of our political institutions." During that address, he said: "At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."
You can read the entire speech here. Probably something Doug should have done himself. You'll see in a minute.
Lincoln opens by saying that the topic of the speech is "the perpetuation of our political institutions."
Is Doug Mastriano so politically tone deaf that he doesn't hear the warning sirens?
Lincoln sets the frame:
In the great journal of things happening under the sun, we, the American People, find our account running, under date of the nineteenth century of the Christian era. We find ourselves in the peaceful possession, of the fairest portion of the earth, as regards extent of territory, fertility of soil, and salubrity of climate. We find ourselves under the government of a system of political institutions, conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty, than any of which the history of former times tells us.
And goes on to say that the founders (though he doesn't use that term) established this form of government and took it upon themselves to perform the task of protecting and passing it along to succeeding generations.
That's where Lincoln's quote comes in:
How, then, shall we perform it? At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.
At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
And it's the very next sentence of Lincoln's speech that exposes the danger of Doug Mastriano's politics. See if you can see it:
I hope I am over wary; but if I am not, there is, even now, something of ill-omen amongst us. I mean the increasing disregard for law which pervades the country; the growing disposition to substitute the wild and furious passions, in lieu of the sober judgement of Courts; and the worse than savage mobs, for the executive ministers of justice.
If you missed it, it's the part about substituting "wild and furious passions" for justice.
If you want to see more, Lincoln says this a bit later:
There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law.
Lincoln's solution here is a deep respect for the rule of law:
Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by every American mother, to the lisping babe, that prattles on her lap---let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges;---let it be written in Primmers, spelling books, and in Almanacs;---let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars. [Emphasis added.]
Do you see why Doug should have avoided anything to do with this speech? Even the misattributed quotations possibly paraphrased from it?
This is the man who was Trump's "point person" on the fake elector scheme set up to keep the loser of the 2020 election in power.
The architect of that scheme is currently facing disbarment in California.
He was there as Trump's mob stormed the Capitol.
And one of Mastriano's political aides was photographed a few feet away from Trump's mob pushing against a Capitol door.
I am thinking that "historian" Doug Mastriano utterly failed to understand Lincoln's point - either the real words or the misattributed ones.
