Early on the morning of April 12, 1861, only thirty-nine days after Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration as president, turmoil was gripping the country following the fall of Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina; the American Civil War was officially upon both the North and the South. The scene was anything but affirming as the 16th president contemplated the country’s future as he stared out the window of the White House.
Into this maelstrom a parcel of letters arrived from Europe, addressed to President Abraham Lincoln. Included in the collection was a letter from the Republic of San Marino, claimed to be the oldest surviving sovereign state and constitutional republic in the world (See last week’s July 4 column).
Dispatched by San Marino’s joint heads of state, the letter expressed their “mark of high consideration and sincere fraternity” for the United States. Adding substance to their words, the Regents bestowed honorary citizenship on the American president. The letter ended with a wish and a prayer that God would “grant you [Lincoln and the United States] a peaceful solution.”
One small republic, which dated back centuries, was giving encouragement and support to the largest republic in the world during its time of strife.
Three weeks later, May 7, amid all the turmoil, Lincoln found time to thoughtfully reply, accepting the “honor of citizenship” from San Marino.
“Great and Good Friends,” the response to San Marino began, “Although your dominion is small, your State is nevertheless one of the most honored, in all history. It has by its experience demonstrated the truth, so full of encouragement to the friends of Humanity, that Government founded on Republican principles is capable of being so administered as to be secure and enduring.”
Lincoln’s letter then turned to America’s fermenting discord: “You have kindly adverted to the trial through which this Republic is now passing. It is one of deep import. It involves the question whether a Representative republic, extended and aggrandized so much as to be safe against foreign enemies can save itself from the dangers of domestic faction. I have faith in a good result” …a thought the president would place at the center of his Gettysburg Address, still two and a half years in the future.
Outside of the room where the San Marino Council of the XII meet in the Palazzo Pubblico (Public Palace), a bust of President Abraham Lincoln is mounted on the wall, with the words “Although your dominion is small, your state is nevertheless one of the most honored in all history.” Some years later, in 1959, a commemorative San Marino postage stamp of Lincoln was introduced in the historic republic.
Having just celebrated 244 years of coveted freedoms among the world’s nations, we would do well to heed Lincoln’s sobering words delivered some 182 years ago, and the poignant words of other notable patriots of freedom:
“At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reaches us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” –Abraham Lincoln, January 27, 1838
“We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious [favorable] smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained. Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity [happiness] of a nation with its virtue? -George Washington
“Now more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature…. If the next centennial does not find us a great nation … it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces.”–James A. Garfield
“Bad men cannot make good citizens. A vitiated [impaired] state of morals, a corrupted public conscience are incompatible with freedom.”– Patrick Henry
Former Cook County Commissioner Garry Gamble is writing this ongoing column about the various ways government works, as well as other topics. At times the column is editorial in nature.
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