As a retired economics teacher, I find that economic realities support undocumented immigrants. However, I have switched my arguments to those of President Abraham Lincoln—the same direction President Obama seems to be taking.
President Lincoln championed a liberty where “each individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruit of his labor, so far as it in no wise interferes with any other man’s rights.” [“The Lincoln-Douglas Debates I, Speech at Chicago, July 10, 1858.”]
To Lincoln, our dispute is not over immigration but freedom. “To be plain, you are dissatisfied with me about slavery (read “illegals”). … I certainly wish that all men could be free, while you, I suppose do not.” [To J. C. Conkling. August 26, 1863]
Lincoln considered oppression of unpopular groups a moral failing. “Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it.” [“Speech Delivered Before the First Republican State Convention of Illinois, held at Bloomington, on May 29, 1856.”]
I did not vote for President Obama. However, I must applaud his efforts to move closer to the expression of universal freedom in our Declaration of Independence. Lincoln would have cringed at some of the ideas expressed by recent bloggers. He would have said, When they get control, the Declaration of Independence “will read ‘all men are created equal, except negroes and foreigners and Catholics.’ When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty,--to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.” [“Response to a Pro-Slavery Friend; To Joshua F. Speed, Springfield, August 24, 1855”]
For a comic novel about a state that passes a law ordering its citizens to shoot illegal aliens (and Catholics without guns) read T*O*A*D at http://www.ballabooks.com/t-o-a-d.html . You will also find there Lincoln’s Address on Undocumented Aliens, a speech of all Lincoln quotes applied to the issue of undocumented immigrants.
-Don Balla
