Free the Slaves

Happy Birthday Abraham Lincoln.  205 years ago, our 16th president was born Hodgenville, Kentucky. I doubt his humble parents even dared imagine the greatness this man would bring to an entire nation. He led the United States through its bloodiest war and its greatest moral, constitutional and political crisis.  The leadership of this tall, strong and often quiet giant preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened our national government and began the modernizing of our economy. The modernizing included banks, canals, railroads and even meager taxes to encourage the building of factories.  Lincoln's greatest accomplishments included the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and the passing of the 13th Amendment which permanently outlawed slavery.....Let me repeat.. permanently outlawed slavery!!!  It's possible that someone needs to step up and explain to our illustrious government of today that slavery is indeed..OVER!  Especially at tax time, I feel more and more like a slave to our inept government.  Rampant spending, unfunded mandates of epic proportions and the mere fact that we work nearly 1/2 a year just to pay our huge portfolio of taxes. (sales, property, school, tire, hotel, income, inheritance, and on and on and on) makes us modern day slaves.   Please would somebody just shoot me!!!!!

And so it happened, ironically of all days, April 15, 1865

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