Above: Abraham Lincoln in 1860, before the Civil War; and in 1865, near the end of the war (age 56).
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This week we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our independence as a nation, and although we have much to worry about these days, we do also have much to celebrate. Our Constitution, democracy, and the freedoms we enjoy here have been imitated by governments around the world; and, are the envy of hundreds of millions of people from all over who are “yearning to breathe free,” as it says on the Statue of Liberty that welcomes those who arrive in New York. This ‘experiment in freedom,’ that this nation has been working on for these last two and a half centuries, is indeed what Abraham Lincoln called ‘the world’s last, best hope.’ He led a divided country through a devastating Civil War so that “this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
I am saddened to see in so many fellow Americans, such a lack of appreciation for any of this, and even a disdain for our nation and its heritage. Of course we fall far short of the ideal, but where on earth does anyone see the model for a utopia to replace what we have here? Winston Churchill said it best in a 1947 speech to the House of Commons: “Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”
This blog is a Christian devotional, not a political commentary. However, the two areas intersect in many ways. Gratitude is an important part of our relationship with God, and gratitude for the blessings we receive as a nation should certainly be a part of that gratitude to God. Sin is also a central theme of our Christian faith, and the sins of our nation must be acknowledged, along with our sins as individual citizens. This awareness of sin also sheds light on what is and is not possible in a fallen world.
One of the things that makes us great as a nation is our Christian heritage, and, our understanding of God’s law, providence, blessings, and judgement. Many of our people now want to ignore these Christian roots. They are eager to repudiate those principles and move on to some other, yet undefined, foundation. This is not good.
We need leaders who can still articulate the big picture of what we are about as a nation and what it means to be an American. Unfortunately, there is an alarming lack of depth, power, eloquence, and even coherence in today’s political discourse. Instead, many politicians are skilled only at the witty, sarcastic, and misleading five-second soundbites that add nothing of any value to the solution of our problems, but merely infuriate one half of the population and reinforce the uninformed biases of the other half.
The last several meditations have provided brief glimpses from our rich American heritage into these Christian principles that are foundational for us as a people. Most have been about Abraham Lincoln because I am most familiar with him and his work. Also, Lincoln had a deep understanding of the hope of America, and, he was the very best at articulating it. What’s more, Lincoln was not embarrassed by our religious heritage and foundation. Rather, he wanted to see everything in light of God’s hand of blessing and judgement.
Abraham Lincoln does all of this in what I consider the greatest speech in 250 years of American history. I do not mean the more familiar Gettysburg Address. That is the second greatest of all time, given in the middle of the Civil War. The greatest of all speeches was Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, given near the end of that war. They both cover some of the same themes: the American vision, the need to preserve it, God’s providence, and the desire to heal the nation’s wounds. Oh, what powerful words!!
Below are the words of that great speech. Tomorrow’s meditation will look closer at the background and meaning.
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The Second Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln
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, insurgent 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 bondman’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.
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Hal Holbrook performs Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address:
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