He Stood Before the Crowd

We are into a new, historic presidency. However it is a presidency that happened over 150 years ago that we must never forget as we move into this new time of change. Barrack Obama will be the first African-American president this country, and there is one man who stood up and eventually died for that to be possible.

It was Abraham Lincoln who stood before crowds all over the state of Illinois, to profess, “a house divided cannot stand”. Seven historic debates with took place with Steven A. Douglas, on the opposing side for The US Senate in Illinois. In these debates the main focus was the issue of slavery, and more specifically it’s spread to the territories, and any new expansion. He delivered seven passionate debates, in which Judge Theo Lyle Dickey accused him of being too close to the abolitionists, meaning he wanted freedom to all the slavery states.

Lincoln eventually lost the seat to Douglass in 1958, but the controversy and social equality chatter he drummed up with his ideology in those debates, eventually propelled him into the presidential race of 1960. His victory in the campaign, which amongst other factors, lead to the Civil War, and eventually empowered the African-American population, along with other minorities to push for civil rights.

Ironically, Obama is taking the presidency from the same US senate seat Lincoln debated so passionately for. He is tall and slender like Lincoln, and has had to fight the status quo in his political career. Obama represents the Democrat party, which ironically is the same party that opposed Lincoln. How much the world has changed since Lincoln’s day. I can’t help but imagine if Lincoln had lost, then Obama’s parents never would have meet at the University of Hawaii as students.

Lincoln’s assassination came from the hands of the Confederate supporter John Wilkes Booth, who was known to absolutely loath Lincoln for ending slavery. So this month having President’s Day and the presidential inauguration, we can remember a martyr, and patriot who empowered our current cultural melting pot of a society, in Abraham Lincoln. And we will celebrate the fruit of his efforts, for a country which has finally shown growth and change, to elect the first bi-racial president in Barrack Obama.






The crowd saw a thin, well dressed man,
They did not know where his feet had taken him.
He had been through the great state of Illinois,
From Springfield to Charleston,
From the backwoods at night,
to the majesty of Chicago’s city lights.
He stood before the crowd,
Ready to speak with from his heart.
Many said he words were said in vain,
he would not bring about change.
But he spoke his words true,
And never gave in or withdrew.
It was by believing with his heart and confessing with his mouth,
That brought him to the head of the House.
I know you know about whom I’m speakin,
…….That man’s name was Abraham Lincoln.