Lincoln Speaks

I had the pleasure of visiting Washington DC this Christmas. During my time there, Sheri and I got to spend a day together (alone!) walking the Mall and seeing the sights.

We got cards to the Library of Congress.

I finally got to see the World War II monument (which is beautiful and provocative).

And we got to make the trek from the steps of the Capital to the seat of Lincoln in what might qualify as a national temple.

Many things have been said about Lincoln--some people argue that he manipulated the nation with his gift of rhetoric. Some have lauded him as one of the two most important men in our nation's history. It is easy, in hindsight, to attribute motives and speculate on the purposes of great men after they can no longer argue their points. But Lincoln left us his words to defend his actions, and they challenge us even today.

Walking through the WWII and Vietnam memorials to reach Lincoln, his reflections on the conflict he was leading the nation through were all the more poignant. Living in a time when we are facing a new age, a new chapter to our history being written as we live each day, I think we must remember what ideas have led us through the dark days that have gone before.

During this election season, its become clear that a change is occurring in our nation--it has been called for and it will come, in one form or another. This change has come as a result of the new conflict that we have been immersed in. This should not depress us--conflict is not necessarily bad! Conflict helps us define ourselves; without conflict, growth does not occur. That doesn't mean that all change is good, or that we should seek strife. In every day, there are troubles enough, without looking for more. But when faced with a challenge, we should not shirk the responsibility that confronts us. In taking up the struggle, and changing as time and circumstance dictate, we grow--hopefully--into better versions of ourselves. This can only happen with hope and vision. We cannot answer today's questions by pretending they come from yesterday's test. Neither can we survive if we abandon the heritage that made us what we are today.

So, how do we strike a balance? How do we have hope in the new whilst defending the good of the old? Lincoln challenged us to remember who is sovereign in the lives of men. Lincoln recognized that there is a cost to be paid for the wrongs we have done--and that being a nation of justice and liberty came at a price. Lincoln told us that we must accept the sacrifice demanded of us, if we were to survive--and more importantly, if we would not abandon the work altogether. This meant that the nation of 1865 would not be the nation of 1860. This meant a cost in blood money, time, and energy. But it also meant a new morning in our nation, and ultimately the world.

As we choose our leaders this year, may we reflect on the wisdom of one of the prolific leaders of our nation; he led in the midst of a revolution. He saw a peace leaders had fought to preserve for four score and seven years explode. He shouldered a terrifying burden and trusted in the principles and beliefs that birthed the nation. And he speaks to us today.

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 inaugeral [sic] address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war--seeking to dissole [sic] 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 offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!" If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offences 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 offence 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 bond-man'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.

Abraham Lincoln, 1864