Via Dad via email - Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address.

Abraham Lincoln
Second Inaugural Address
Saturday, March 4, 1865

Fellow-Countrymen:

AT this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, urgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.

One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

Eloquent.

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1. Wish Pop would have pulled this one out eight years ago. Remember the uniter not the divider? Thanks for sharing.

   Posted by  on  11/06/08  at  11:55 AM

2. Denis, enough, please. We know how you feel and your long nightmare is almost over. Let it go.

   Posted by jen  on  11/06/08  at  01:56 PM

3. I think that “Republican” is a tarnished brand right now. You can’t blame the McCain ticket for the Congressional gains by the Democrats. Much of the blame for our current economic woes can be placed on the doorstep of the Republican mania for deregulation.

   Posted by  on  11/06/08  at  02:26 PM

4. Uncle Bill, I think your comment was meant for the previous post?

   In any case, I sort of agree about the party brand. However, I don’t think deregulation is the main culprit for our economy. Lack of Congressional oversight of the GSEs (Fannie/Freddie) is a huge factor that got the ball really rolling.

   Posted by jen  on  11/06/08  at  03:08 PM

5. Okay, now is a good time to share this with all those who have allowed hateful speech to enter into the dialog the last eight years.  It has been on my heart for a long time ~

   Why should we not speak evil and judge other believers (specifically Pres. Bush)?  Well, in scripture, James says this, “Do not speak evil of one another, brethren, He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law.  But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.  There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy.  Who are you to judge another?” James is saying that if we do, we put ourselves against the law (which is love) and have claimed to be above it, that there is only one Lawgiver, God.  Who are we to judge someone’s heart? We have no place.
   The Bible often repeats itself and we see it also in Proverbs 6:16-18 which says, “The six things the Lord hates, yes, even seven are an abomination to Him… ( I am leaving out the first six for the sake of space) ...and one who sows discord among the brethren (believers).  Proverbs tells us that speaking evil against a brother or sowing discord is right up there with murder.  Do you think God will allow someone to continue speaking evil without disciplining them? I don’t think so.

   Posted by  on  11/06/08  at  03:21 PM

6. Uncle Bill, I think I’ll disagree just a bit with that statement. The regulators came to Congress in 2004 to report that FannyMae and FreddyMac were making lots of questionable business decisions on home loans, creating the possibility of financial woes to come.  Barney Frank and Maxine Waters led the pack of Democratic congressmen and women who absolutely savaged the regulators. I saw a video clip of Frank saying that the only problem with Freddy and Fanny was that they were being regulated by an incompetent organization and that Freddy and Fanny were being managed brilliantly.

   Flash forward to 2008 and the predictions of the regulators come true. Barnie and Maxine “forget” that congressional lambasting, even when it runs on YouTube day and night.  So the Republican “mania for deregulation” is not the proximal cause of the financial crisis as much as the Congressional mania for housing for the “under qualified” is.

   Posted by  on  11/06/08  at  03:34 PM

7. You guys are no fun when you lose. Oh, well. I’ll take my business elsewhere.

   Posted by  on  11/06/08  at  08:14 PM

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