Lincoln and Taney's great writ showdown

[NNadir]

2. I thought Daniel Day Lewis's portrayal was the best "Lincoln" I ever saw. I've been an amateur Lincoln scholar for...

...a great many years, and it's funny how his eloquence fits into areas beyond his direct experience.

I once gave a lecture on the subject of plutonium which I built around his passages; I believed they fit well, his 1862 State of the Union message to Congress (which was not delivered as a speech in those times).

I often steal the locution "...last best hope..." from that extremely eloquent message to Congress.

This beautiful passage rings, in some ways at least if out of the context in which he offered it, for all times, I think:

Fellow-citizens, we can not escape history. We of this Congress and this Administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We, even we here, hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free—honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just—a way which if followed the world will forever applaud and God must forever bless.

It is, for me, one of the most beautiful passages in the English language.