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Laying Down The Law

Jasmina Meyer/Highlands Today

From left: Attorney C. Parke Sutherland and Circuit Court Judge Peter Estrada speak to a senior Advanced Placement American Government class about legacy of Abraham Lincoln on Friday at Sebring High School.

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By BRAD DICKERSON

Highlands Today

Published: February 28, 2009

SEBRING - Two hundred years after his birth, what is the legacy of Abraham Lincoln?

That was the question Judge Peter Estrada and attorneys C. Parke Sutherland and James Lobozzo Jr., posed to seniors in Julie Giordano's American government class at Sebring High School.

The three were there Friday discussing the upcoming Law Day celebration, set for May 1, with special guest speaker Peggy Quince, Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court.

Their primary topic of conversation, however, revolved around this year's theme, which is Lincoln's legacy.

"From my personal perspective, the legacy carried forward is the fact that we've got an African-American president today," Sutherland said.

The speakers and the class of about 20 discussed the life and times of this country's 16th president, who was also recently recognized as its greatest.

Lincoln was born in a tiny one-room cabin in Kentucky. He overcame his humble beginnings to become a self-taught attorney who conducted 5,000 trials during a 25-year career, according to Lobozzo.

"He was a very accomplished attorney before he became a politician," he said.

"This man loved the law," Estrada added.

As president, Lincoln faced what was arguably the greatest national disaster in the history of the United States - the Civil War.

The speakers and students addressed some of the more extreme policies Lincoln enacted during the period, such as his shutting down newspapers that were critical of his positions on the war.

"Under a national emergency, does the president have the authority to act to protect the union?" Estrada asked the class.

"You have this divisiveness and he was driven by an understanding that a house divided is likely not going to stand," Sutherland said.

One student interjected into the conversation that if the South had won the Civil War and successfully started its own nation, then England and France would have seen it as an opportunity to reclaim the nation under its rule.

All students of history know the war's outcome and that Lincoln enacted the Emancipation Proclamation to end slavery.

Sutherland posed to the class whether November's historic election of Barack Obama, the country's first black president, would have been possible without Lincoln.

As the period wound to a close, the question was again asked; what is Lincoln's legacy?

"A united United States," said student Christian Perilla.

Thomas Quigg respected Lincoln's knowledge of the law.

"He had a way of speaking the law for people who didn't understand it," he said.

Lincoln may have passed some policies that were perhaps legally questionable, but Heather McIntyre thinks the country is "far better off for it."

"Nowadays, in Washington, everybody talks about all the corruption and forces working against the good of our country and he overcame that and did what he knew needed to be done, even though it may not have been what would legally be considered right," she said.

Highlands Today reporter Brad Dickerson can be reached at 863-386-5838 or bdickerson@highlandstoday.com

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