The similarity between FDR and Lincoln

The other day Janice tested me a question about Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation (I passed the test) and yesterday I received from a friend a page of stamps commemorating the 150^th year of Emancipation Proclamation.  It came with a note saying “I saw these stamps and thought of you and Lincoln!”  How about that, I and Lincoln, in the same sentence; that is quite a compliment.  Thanks!

“It was New Year Day afternoon when the Secretary of State, Seward, and his son brought the draft for Lincoln to sign, Lincoln said, “I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper.  But I have been receiving calls and shaking hands since nice o’clock this morning, till my arm is stiff and numb.  Now this signature is one that will be closely examined, and if they find my hand trembled they will say, ‘he had some compunctions.’ But, anyway, it is going to be done.”  (From Carl Sandburg’s Abraham Lincoln.)

If Lincoln had his way, he would demolish the slavery institution the day he took the Presidency.  If FDR had his way, America would enter the war at least one year and half before the Pearl Harbor attack and war would end earlier and less Americans would die.

How Lincoln handled the slavery issue and how FDR managed the public sentiment of isolationism and appeasement toward Hitler’s Nazi revealed their political skill and savvy.

My letter-to-the-editor of “Abe Lincoln was not an abolitionist” touches this topic,

http://doctorjytsai.blogspot.com/2011/03/lincoln-was-not-abolitionist-my-letter.html

I’ll write a post telling why FDR hated Charles Lindbergh and Joseph Kennedy (JFK’s father).