In continuing with the theme of abortion and slavery (link fixed) on this blog:
Buchanan on slavery
I was recently doing some research on the history of slavery -- totally unrelated, I thought, to this web site -- when I came across an article about James Buchanan, the man who was president before Lincoln. Here's what the article said about Buchanan's position:
Buchanan personally opposed slavery, but as a public official he felt bound to sustain it where sanctioned by law. Political enemies called him a "trimmer," but he took middle ground consistently as a matter of policy. What some considered impotent vacillation was an expression of three fundamental convictions: (1) that only by compromise between the parts could a federal republic survive; (2) that citizens had to obey the law even when they thought it unjust; and (3) that questions of morality could not be settled by political action. Despite the secession movement, he succeeded in preventing hostilities between North and South, and he turned over to Lincoln a nation at peace with eight slave states still in the Union.
Joe H comments:
One hundred and fifty years from now, what will people say was the great issue of our age? Do you think they'll say that it was the deficit? Social Security? How we pay for medical care? Dimpled chads? Or, just as we look back and wonder how seemingly decent, rational people could defend the brutal oppression of millions of fellow human beings through slavery, will people of the future look back at us and wonder how seemingly decent, rational people could defend the brutal oppression of millions of innocent babies through abortion?
It's funny, isn't it: The same arguments are being recycled all over again. The logic, the thinking, doesn't change. All that's changed is the victims.
Go read his excellent post.
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