Abe Lincoln Will Call You Out For Talking Shit on Other People

I was doing some reading on Lincoln for a class. We're studying a play in which Lincoln is indirectly a central character. It's a very difficult play to grasp (The America Play, Suzan Lori Parks) and I've been searching for the past few weeks for a way to get a good grasp on it. I was reading some of Lincoln's writings when I came across a passage in one of his letters to an Allen M. Ford, during his run for the Illinois congress, concerning rumors being spread that he was a religious scoffer, among other things. This is what Lincoln said:


"But there is one lesson in morals which he might, not without profit, learn of even me -- and that is never to add the weight of his character to a charge against his fellow man, without knowing it to be true. I believe it is an established maxim in morals that he who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is true or false is guilty of falsehood, and the accidental truth of the assertion does not justify or excuse him." -Abraham Lincoln


I think those people who get so extremely caught up in gossip, rumors, drama, etc...should check out some Lincoln. If I judged everyone on what I heard about them, I probably wouldn't have any of the incredible friends that I have. I live and work within circles that are prone to this, and people wonder how I'm still sane. It's both simple and complicated: You can control yourself, you can't control other people. People will, for whatever reason they wish, try as they may to destroy you, bring you down, slander you, taint your character, and put you into a box. You only let them if you give credence to their insecurity by stooping to their levels or letting them dictate your actions. The best thing I can ever do is live my life as I always have, openly, in plain sight, and be proud, no matter what falsehoods are wrongly attributed to me.

And so it goes, my admiration for Lincoln's elegant calling out of the shit-talkers of ages past. I wish politicians these days could be so eloquent.

-J