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An African-American Icon Speaks Truth To The Lincoln Cult
Since reading The Real Lincoln by Thomas J. DiLorenzo some years ago, I have been amazed at the perpetuity of the myths surrounding Abraham Lincoln. To be quite honest, the mere mention of the man makes me cringe. The atrocities and war crimes sanctioned by this man and his blatant dismissal of the Constitution and subsequent crimes committed by him places him among the top criminals in American history. In my book, he was a tyrant and a traitor to his own country. Since the war, the deification of Lincoln by the spinners of political yarn and even evangelicals continues. The myth has perpetuated the demonizing of the South and it’s people while pushing the deification of Lincoln, the myth, to ever increasing heights of absurdity.
DiLorenzo was not the first to write a hard hitting exposé of Lincoln. Before him, there was author Lerone Bennett, Jr., an African-American, who wrote Forced Into Glory: Abraham Lincoln’s White Dream. On page 114 of this work, Bennett tells us:
“Lincoln is theology, not historiology. He is a faith, he is a church, he is a religion, and he has his own priests and acolytes, most of whom have a vested interest in [him] and who are passionately opposed to anybody telling the truth about him.”
Amen to that.
DiLorenzo (latest book Lincoln Unmasked: What You’re Not Supposed To Know about Dishonest Abe ) has written an exceptional piece regarding Bennet’s book. I highly encourage you to read it:
The gigantic collection of myths, lies, and distortions that comprise The Legend of Abraham Lincoln is the ideological cornerstone of the American warfare/welfare state. It has been invoked for generations to make the argument that if the policies of the U.S. government are not “the will of God,” then at least they are the will of “Father Abraham.” Moreover, this legend – this false history of America – did not arise spontaneously. It was invented and nurtured by an intergenerational army of court historians who, as Murray Rothbard once said, are absolutely indispensable to any government empire. All states, said Rothbard, depend for their existence on a series of myths about their benevolence, heroism, greatness, or even divinity.
Since very few Americans have spent much time educating themselves about Lincoln and nineteenth-century American history (much of which has been falsified anyway), it is easy for members of what I call the Lincoln Cult to dismiss all literary criticisms of Lincoln as the work of “neo-Confederates,” their code-word for “defenders of slavery” (as though anyone in America today would defend slavery), or “racist.” Although they label themselves “Lincoln scholars,” the last thing they want is honest scholarship when it comes to the subject of Lincoln and his war. They are, at best, cover-up artists and pandering court historians who feed at the government grant trough, “consuming” tax dollars to support their “research” and their overblown university positions.
But they’ve got a big problem (more than one, actually). The big problem is the publication of a 662-page book by the distinguished African-American author Lerone Bennett, Jr. entitled Forced into Glory: Abraham Lincoln’s White Dream. The book was originally published in 1999 and was recently released in paperback. Bennett was a longtime managing editor of Ebony magazine and, among other things, the author of a biography of Martin Luther King, Jr., What Manner of Man. Although several “Civil War” publications have labeled yours truly as the preeminent Lincoln critic of our day, Forced into Glory is a much more powerful critique of Dishonest Abe than anything I have ever written. The Lincoln Cult, which would not dare to personally attack a serious African-American scholar like Bennett, has largely ignored the book instead.
When they are not ignoring the book and hoping that it (and the author) would just go away, they “have responded by recycling the traditional Lincoln apologies,” writes Bennett. (Being a “Lincoln scholar” means taking some of Lincoln’s unsavory words and deeds, such as his lifelong support for the policy of “colonization” or deportation of all black people in America, and dreaming up excuses for why he was supposedly “forced” into taking that position).
Bennett argues that “academics and [the] media had been hiding the truth for 135 years and that Lincoln was not the great emancipator or the small emancipator or the economy-sized emancipator.” He presents chapter and verse of how the Emancipation Proclamation freed no one, since it only applied to “rebel territory,” and specifically exempted all the slave-owning/Union-controlled border states and other areas that were occupied by the U.S. army at the time. He quotes James Randall, who has been called the “greatest Lincoln scholar of all time,” as writing, “the Proclamation itself did not free a single slave.” It was the Thirteenth Amendment that finally ended slavery, he correctly notes, and Lincoln was dragged into accepting it kicking and screaming all the way.
So what was the purpose of the Proclamation? Primarily to placate the genuine abolitionists with a political sleight of hand, says Bennett, and to deter Britain and France from formally recognizing the Confederate government.
Since so few Americans are aware of these facts, Bennett correctly concludes that “the level of ignorance on Abraham Lincoln and race in the United States is a scandal and a rebuke to schools, museums, media, and scholars.” This of course is no accident; it’s exactly the way the state wants it to be.
Read more here.
Related Posts:
The Nationalist Myth & The Fourth Of July
Book Review: Lies The Government Told You
America: Under A Permanent State of National Emergency Since 1933
5 Pt. Salt 
My grandmother opened my eyes to the evil cult of FDR, as she lived through the Great Depression and knew the property grabbing principles behind his New Deal.
Last summer I read both of DiLorenzo’s books and was amazed at the similarity to the cult of FDR. It is encouraging to see people refusing to be defined by their skin color or upbringing and use their God-given intelligence to analyze and interpret information.
I’m glad to see you promote this issue. I have just begun reading Star Parker’s book, Uncle Sam’s Plantation, and see early on the she belongs to the Lincoln cult. Sad.
Amen! Lincoln was indeed a traitor. The rewriting of history on his account has been so thorough and shameless that few Southerners even know the truth anymore. This country ceased to be what the Founders intended the minute Lincoln became president.
I can’t recommend Dilorenzo enough. And now it looks like I need to read Bennett’s book as well.
Early this year I learned of President Lincoln’s purpose for the Civil War. This book is more of an eye opener. I definitely plan to read Bennett’s book.