Fellow-Countrymen: ...
..."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. ....... 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, ......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. ...
... 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.'
...
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."
(Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address Saturday, March 4, 1865)
Lincoln is quoting (Matthew 18:7)
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I love to collect thoughts. I would love to collect some of yours, if they are mindful and respectable.