The Transformation of America

By Carole Hornsby Haynes         January 30, 2026 

Americans are asking how our country evolved from a limited government and states rights to a powerful consolidated federal power and imperial presidency. We must look to our history for the answer. 

Historical Moment 

At the dedication of the memorial cemetery at Gettsyburg, President Abraham Lincoln read a speech of 278 words to an uninspired audience, a speech he predicted would be forgotten. Yet it has become one of the most famous speeches in American history.  Despite being hated by many in his own party during his presidency,Lincoln today is revered as a god by the media, academia, Hollywood, politicians, and preachers – a god who allegedly led the country into a “new birth of freedom.” 

Did the Declaration of Independence Create the United States? 

Those who believe the myths about Lincoln should take note of the comments from the press who covered his Gettysburg Address. They had only harsh words to describe his speech.  The Chicago Times called it a “flat and dishwattery” utterance while a Pennsylvania newspaper labeled it “silly.” Errors in Lincoln’s message were publicized. The New York World pointed out that the Union was not created “four score and seven years ago, since that would have been 1776.” The publication also noted, “This United States [was not created by the Declaration of Independence, but rather] was the result of the ratification of a compact known as the Constitution.” 

With his statement, “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation,conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” Lincoln perpetuated the leftist myth the United States existed before the states were established. That is illogical. How could states be united before they even existed? 

In his First Inaugural Address in 1861, Lincoln tried to revise history: “...we find the proposition that in legal contemplation the Union is perpetual confirmed by the history of the Union itself. The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was further matured, and the faith of all the then thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation in 1778. And finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution was ‘to form a more perfect Union.’" 

This is another Lincoln lie! Yes, it is true that the Continental Association or Articles of Association was adopted in 1774 by the First Continental Congress. BUT – it was simply an agreement among the colonists to boycott British merchants with the hope that economic sanctions on British imports and exports would pressure Parliament into addressing the colonies’ grievances. 

These were colonies, not states, in an economic pact, not a union as Lincoln claimed.The truth did not serve Lincoln’s purpose, which was to pretend that the union was older than the states and, therefore, perpetual. This was the premise for his lie that states could not legally secede. 

Union of Thirteen Sovereign States 

The thirteen colonies became states on July 4, 1776 with the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, which formally declared them to be “Free and Independent States” from Great Britain. In 1781, the states ratified the Articles of Confederation which established the union of states and served as the first governing document of the states. A compact was created among “sovereign states,” not a nation. They were not bound together as a nation, but “unified” solely for the purpose of defending themseves against invasion by the British. Jefferson used the term “united States,” or the “States united” – always with a small “u.” 

Creation of Federal Republic, Not National Government 

Ratified in 1788, the Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation. A “national” government was not created, but rather a federal republic with 13 states bound together against illegal and unconstitutional acts by both King George III and the British Parliament. Although the Constitution might be considered by some to establish a nation, the states were always referred to as a “union,” even in Lincoln’s earlier documents.   

Equal Under the Law, Not As Individuals 

At Gettysburg, Lincoln referred to the Declaration of Independence as “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” This was distorted to suit Lincoln’s purpose but was not the intent of the Founders who were affirming British subjects equal under the English common law, not as individuals. It was essentially the English Bill of Rights which Jefferson incorporated into the Declaration. 

Despite his rhetoric that “all men are created equal,” Lincoln was a racist. He believed blacks were inferior to whites. In the sixth of the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858 he stated, 

"I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races--that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races...I, as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.” 

The War for Southern Independence Was Not a Civil War 

There were more errors in the poetic speech. Lincoln’s statement that the states were in a “great civil war” was not true. “Civil war” exists when two factions are seeking to take control of the state. If the South wanted to take over the federal government, why did the Confederacy create its own military, its own currency, and its own government? The South was definitely not seeking control of the United States. It just wanted to withdraw peacefully from a union that it had voluntarily joined; thus the name, War for Southern Independence. 

Why did Lincoln quote the phrase “that all men are created equal” from the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence but did not include the passage, “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of those ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it and institute a new Government?” 

This is clear evidence the colonists believed in the right to secede from any abusive government. 

The left continues to marginalize the South with charges of treason for seceding from the federal republic. Why the double standard? It was acceptable for the 13 colonies to secede in 1776 from Great Britain, so why was it not acceptable for the Southern states to secede from the United States? Nothing in the Constitution forbids any state to leave the union nor does the Constitution declare that the union is perpetual. There had always been many stark differences among the 13 colonies, especially major cultural and religious differences between the North and South. After their experiences with abuse under the rule of Great Britain, these independent states were not about to be bound in perpetuity to another central government. They would never have ratified a document that forbade their secession. 

Talk of Secession Did Not Begin With the South 

The idea of secesssion floated around well before the 1860s, but not over slavery. From 1800 to 1815, there were three serious attempts at secession orchestrated by New England Federalists, who did not like the policies of the Jefferson and Madison administrations, especially the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, the national embargo of 1807, and the War of 1812. Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont threatened to secede in 1814 at the Hartford Convention. South Carolina threatened to secede over the 1828 Tariff. 

Lincoln’s Goal for War 

From the onset of the war Lincoln declared his intent was not to end slavery, but rather to preserve the union, even by enforcing collection of the tariff in the South to continue funding the federal government. In his 1861 Inaugural Address he said, “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.” 

In an 1862 letter to Horace Greeley on slavery and the Union, Lincoln admitted, “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy Slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that….” 

The Gettysburg Myth 

Lincoln claimed the war was “testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.” The issue was not whether the union could endure, but rather the impact of losing funding if the South seceded. At that time, about 95% of the federal revenue came from a tariff on imported goods of which the South provided 83% even though it had only 29% of the union’s population. Of that tax revenue, four out of every five dollars -- 80 percent -- were used for Northern improvements and industrialization at the expense of Southerners. 

Waxing poetic, Lincoln continued, “We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.” The passive audience at the cemetery were not told that Union soldiers believed they were fighting to save the union and deserted enmasse when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that made slavery the purpose of the war. 

Nor did Lincoln tell his audience that 95 percent of Southerners did not own slaves, despite the claim that the South was fighting to preserve slavery. They were fighting because Lincoln had ordered an invasion of the South by Union troops. 

Lincoln referenced “unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us.” Was he signaling that he would send troops to free slaves in non-Union controlled Southern states and in Northern states? Why did his unconstitutional Emancipation Proclamation not free slaves in Southern states that did not secede? Why did it not free slaves in the North? 

Transformation of America 

In his closing statement that “this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom,” Lincoln signaled a change in our government.  He ended our Founders’ federal republic with limited government and states rights with the birth of a new powerful centralized government. The final outcome of the Civil War did not usher in “a new birth of freedom.” It did quite the opposite. It consolidated federal power, neutered the 9th and 10th Amendments and gave birth to the fascist system and the imperial presidency under which we now live. 

His vow “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth” is nothing more than an empty platitude. The all-powerful big central government he bequeathed us is government of the Deep Swamp, by the Deep Swamp, and for the Deep Swamp. 

Brion McClanahan described perfectly the devastating consequences of Lincoln’s speech, “The address was not a conservative affirmation of founding principles but a revolutionary manifesto that radically transformedAmerica. Lincoln created a ‘proposition nation’ at Gettysburg and crafted the greatest swindle in American political history.”