Drumbeats from AfroSpear blogger Bruce Dixon provided us with the text from Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address. President Lincoln provided his inaugural address on March 4, 1865. In celebration of its anniversary ... and the fact that another politician from Illinois is now our president ... I share the speech here for posterity...
Any thoughts as you read Lincoln's message? What say u?
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.
Any thoughts as you read Lincoln's message? What say u?
4 comments:
I frown on the credit given lincoln insomuch as he had no interest in slaves if it were not for fredrick douglass
Torrance - I need to check out the link you provided. Anyhow, you had to admire the way that I was able to post his inaugural on its March 4th anniversary, huh? (smile)...
@Villager:
I would recommend Hari Jones, Asst. Director of the A-A Civil War Memorial & Museum talks on the The Civil War: A-A Espionage. It's on C-Span 3 American Hx. Channel. He also has a book on it. He gives us more insight on Lincoln and the black double agents who were in the Confederate Army. The dynamics are far more complex and intriguing. BTW: Harriett Tubman not only freed some slaves via the underground railroad but serve as an intelligence officer for the union.
I still find your website articles compelling although I rarely comment.
Carolyn - I never said 'Asante sana' ... but, I should have. I'm hopeful to become more regular in my blog posts over the coming days and weeks. We'll see if I can keep it going.
I'm going to head over to www.goodreads.com and place a reminder to myself about Hari Jones' book.
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