Can We Learn from Killing Lincoln, or Is it Too Late to Fix their Mistakes?

Killing Lincoln by Bill O’Reilly is a great book. I think it is inspiring to read history books that are written in the first or second person. Gingrich has written several books like this, but keep in mind these books are fiction and speculative at best. But I think it is a great way to learn about history with this genre or type of writing. It places you at the scene of the killing of Lincoln and Booth. At the end of the day you may not remember all the names, but you will remember a few basic points. Lincoln was shot a few days after General Lee surrendered to General Grant. And Booth was probably nuts fed by the money from the confederates. There are numerous conspiracy theories you can delve into but think about the stupidity of Lincoln and the waste that can be summed up by the words: The Civil War.

The first part of O’Reilly’s book brings you to the massacre of soldiers for the sake of ending the war. Keep in mind there were over 600,000 deaths and over a million casualties. And was all that destruction of property and life worth it to free 4 million slaves in the 1860’s? 40,000 Black soldiers died in the course of the war. (Total U.S. Population 31.5 million) Lincoln gets the label as the number one president, but would that be so if he was not assassinated? Clearly George Washington should easily be number one but since he had the audacity to own slaves he is pretty much underrated. But Washington was a General and lead armies. He was a great statesman and it could be argued if not for Washington, we may not have the country that we have today.

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The book clearly points out time and time again that Lincoln was a jerk. He had numerous death threats. The war was technically over. And he is out riding about Washington with little or no protection. He could have been or should have been protected by an entire Calvary Unit. Instead on that fatal night he was protected by a drunk who went AWOL to have a drink or two. Lincoln had ample resources at his disposal to protect him. This is similar to Obama passing Obamacare. We all know it won’t work, but Skippy thinks if he saddles the nation with this albatross it will all be worked out in the next decade or so. Long after Obama is gone. We can only conclude that Lincoln fully did not understand the importance of his office. And on the personal level did he realize how difficult it would be for his family if he was assassinated. It would only seem selfish on Lincoln’s part not to defend and protect the Office of the President of the United States. And all he had to do was ask and he would have been totally protected and the tragedy that occurred on Good Friday over a hundred years ago would have been avoided. Lincoln was of the notion that the South would not be punished for their part in the Civil War. He felt it was time for healing. By allowing the president to be shot, the south lost their biggest advocate in the Whitehouse and maybe all of Washington. Another weird fact that came from the book was the big surrender scene. Sloppy Grant and pristine Lee played the main rolls. And Lee appeared to be shocked and grateful that no repercussions would come from the surrender. Basically go home and quit fighting. My question is if Grant and Lincoln knew this years before, why not offer the surrender earlier then they did. In doing so, they may have saved the City of Richmond and hundreds of thousands of lives. If Lincoln was this great president, then why didn’t he avoid the war? Anyone can start a war; it’s the great men that can prevent the carnage. The south’s economy for a very large part was based on slavery. It was their commerce and their prosperity. What do you do with 4 million freed slaves? The south had no use for them. The North wasn’t sending for them to fill their cities and factories. It would seem it would have been a lot easier to end slavery without causing a Civil War. Let’s imagine one being a plantation owner with a 1,000 slaves. For decades you have paid to feed them, cloth them and shelter them. You have paid to have a doctor look after them. And because of these slaves, as a plantation owner you make a pretty good living. And don’t get hung up on the societal end of things and bad slave owners, think about logistics. So basically once you free the slaves this plantation owner is broke. All the money that was invested in his army of slaves was lost. Similar to all the foreclosures we have had under Obama. One day you own a house that is valuable. The next day because of banks and government rulings, you have nothing. Matter of fact you are actually a slave to the debt and credit rating that may be left over after the foreclosure proceedings. Of course with this type of punishment, why wouldn’t the south fight back to keep their commerce. I also think that if the South could look into a crystal ball before the first shot was fired, they may have made different decisions. But in the end they felt they were fighting for their constitutional rights that were being taken away by the likes of Lincoln and his band of thieves. If they had a crystal ball, would they have been more open to compromise. Technology would eventually put an end to slavery in a decade or so, so why subject the nation to the massacres and mayhem? What if the compromise was to pay the slaves a small amount of money and give them full power to vote? At that time it would only be the male slaves who were not illiterate. What if the parties agreed to raise this amount as salary over time? I would imagine that this may be the first inkling of or the start of unions. Technically the slaves would no longer be slaves. They would have money and a vote. And they could stay put where they are fed, clothed and sheltered. Why not have capitalism pay for their upkeep instead of the taxpayer? And as this money reached a certain level, essentially the slaves per se would be free. They could buy their own freedom, rather then be given Welfare and shackles with another form of slavery. All forms of government are essentially slavery. It is the purpose of a true democracy not a republic to make the rules and laws acceptable and ratified by the majority of the people not a select few. It is like programming a computer. It is always easy to write script to change a part of the program. The hard part is to examine the entire program to see where this change will have an ill effect. The same holds true with political laws that are passed. The liberals don’t seem to take to heart or to the wallet what changes these laws will have on our economy and freedom. NAFTA, EPA and Obamacare are useless legislations that look good to a few but in the end these legislations take on a life of their own and bring down not only freedom, but the entire economy. Which in the end, it will be just like Lincoln freeing the slaves. $15 trillion dollars later and we still have the same poverty numbers and a whole lot of national debt! The liberals may mean well, but they are too stupid to cause real and prosperous change. Some will argue if Lincoln was not shot then he would be executed at some point. If he was protected, it would have taken an obvious inside conspiracy to kill the president. As it was, it was only a lone gunman near a grassy mall. These are my thoughts and opinions. Take the time to read this great book. Children can read the book. A lot of money that O’Reilly makes goes to charities. He would rather give to charity then to pay taxes. So take the time and read about history. And take the time to think about what if. And then take the time to think about Obama. What if Obama did not pass Obamacare? What if Obama did not waste all that money on stimulus spending? Remember a great deal of the TARP money that was charged to President Bush was returned with interest. What did Obama do with that money? What if Obama stopped spending money in 2009? What if Obama freed the mortgage industry from the greed of politicians and bankers and Wall Street? What would the economy look like today? It is easy to pass laws. It seems hard as hell to take responsibility for them. We have come a long way, it is amazing to think that the children of the president are descendants of slaves and slave owners. It is time for the liberals to get out of the way so the shackles of intrusive government can be removed forever so that capitalism can bring freedom and fairness. Wouldn’t you want to be free to make choices rather then be strapped to the rules and regulations created by liberal progressives? Please, Don’t let history repeat itself, over and over!