Why Washington and Lincoln Still Matter Today

On February 19, 2024, Ben Martin, Scott Powell, and Roger Mangan joined the show. Explored Lincoln’s rarely-seen Fragments on the Constitution and Union, his Lyceum speech warnings about internal threats to the republic, and Washington’s Farewell Address prescriptions for national survival Discussed Washington’s transformative spiritual experience during the French and Indian War, Lincoln’s warnings about internal threats, and the essential role of free speech. Lincoln’s Lost Speech and the Constitution Start listening at 2:14 – Hour 1 Ben Martin, a West Point graduate and former Army Ranger, unveiled a remarkable Lincoln document most Americans have never encountered: the Fragments on the Constitution and Union. Never delivered publicly during Lincoln’s lifetime and discovered only after his assassination, this short speech of fewer than 300 words reveals Lincoln’s deepest convictions about American liberty. Martin explained how Lincoln drew an analogy between the principles of the Declaration of Independence and a passage from Proverbs, describing the Declaration as “an apple of gold” and the Constitution as “the picture of silver” framed around it to preserve and protect those foundational principles. Martin traced Lincoln’s philosophical development through his 1858 speech honoring the Declaration of Independence, the same speech that provoked Stephen Douglas into the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates. In that address, Lincoln articulated how the Declaration’s assertion that “all men are created equal” serves as “the electric card” linking the hearts of all Americans, regardless of ancestry, to the founding generation. This moral sentiment, Lincoln argued, gave immigrants the right to claim the founders as their own forebears “as though they were blood of the blood and flesh of the flesh of the men who wrote the Declaration.” “This is a great celebration day in American history. And even though we see so much negativity in our daily news, today, let’s put that all aside and celebrate this great day and our two greatest American presidents and be honored and happy that we’re Americans.” Ben Martin, Patriotic Historian Points of Danger from Lincoln’s Lyceum Speech Start listening at 32:25 – Hour 1 Ben Martin turned to Lincoln’s 1838 Lyceum Address to explore the “points of danger” threatening the American republic. At just 28 years old, Lincoln warned that America’s downfall would not come from foreign invasion but from internal decay. “If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be its author and finisher,” Lincoln declared. “As a nation of free men, we must live through all time or die by suicide.” Martin highlighted Lincoln’s concern about “the increasing disregard for law which pervades the country” and the tendency to substitute “wild and furious passions” for the “sober judgment of courts.” Lincoln’s prescription for preserving the republic was direct: let reverence for the laws “be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe on her lap,” taught in schools and colleges, “preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice.” Martin connected these warnings to Washington’s Farewell Address, where the first president identified three internal threats to liberty: citizens failing to remain well-informed, extreme partisan division, and the decline of religious obligation and national morality. Washington’s Divine Protection and Character Start listening at 60:14 – Hour 2 Scott Powell, author of Rediscovering America: How the National Holidays Tell an...