LIBERTY AND UNION.

LIBERTY AND UNION. Jay Cost in RealClearPolitics has an essay commemorating the first Thanksgiving Proclamation, by Abraham Lincoln in November, 1863. Cost says: “Today is a day to put aside our differences, to praise God for the blessings of this American Union, and to remember with gratitude those Americans who labored to bring it into being and who saved it from the malevolent forces of secession and slavery.” He quotes Daniel Webster’s great speech in defense of the Union, including the passage: “…let us come out into the light of day; let us enjoy the fresh air of Liberty and Union….” Hubert Humphrey echoed Webster in his great speech in 1948, calling for Americans “to get out of the shadow of states’ rights and walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights,” Let us give thanks for this American Union.