Scotland's victory

As I write, the polls have just

closed in Edinburgh, and I have

poured a sip of whisky from Is-

lay, over a single ice from Fi-

ji. Before the results come in,

we have them. It is another day

of Scottish triumph, and I have

no doubt, we are all the better

for it.

The Scots have reintroduced,

if not truly invented, a con-

templative standard of upris-

ing, which I fear has been o-

verlooked in many people's 

dread of demagogues, such as

my own and that of my friends.

It isn't easy to possess the

natural right - a Scottish in-

novation - to self-determina-

tion, and lay it by indefinite-

ly, for fraternity's sake. E-

quality rises ever more acute-

ly in the balance, as liberty,

of whatever proportion, shows

prejudice in her distribution.

I believe Scotland has captured

the flag of the United Kingdom,

if not wrung her own from it in

today's historically universal

turnout of eligible voters, in

peaceable polls throughout her

borders. This has no precedent;

the appetite it displays, com-

mands our respect. Its daunt-

ing confidence confirms its 

heritage. Its manner commends 

our humanity. This is the civ-

ilisation we have believed in, 

from the cradle.

No trumped up purple thumbs, no

UN observers to monitor the dig-

nity of the facts, not even a

star in the East, but an elec-

tion setting the union's agenda

more unequivocally than any

Queen's Speech. Her Majesty's

government has been chastened,

and the world now watches how

equitable it shall be. 

If not opprobrium, then awe and

bitter irony fall upon the soothe-

sayer marketmakers of doom, in fa-

vour of a refusal to vacate the

United Kingdom. I preferred their

position, on the express grounds

of sustaining an irreproducible

patrimony of diversity in our

English-speaking cultures. But 

the "No's" offered cowardice as

a way of keeping whole; and e-

even if they win the vote, they

were certainly demolished in the

process, and reek in its outcome.

With malice toward none, with

charity for all, hovers anew in

the English-speaking air, for a

nation to embrace it. Look, what

Scotland's done.

Abraham Lincoln

March 4, 1865