Here are brief excerpts from Lincoln at Civil War’s beginning & at its end. Note the change in his views. Note the transformation from careful politician ( who has a partial concern about slavery) to penitent (who sees the carnage of the war as judgment by God on a whole nation that allowed slavery for several hundred years…)
Responding to NYTimes editor Horace Greeley about the need to emancipate slaves
Aug. 22, 1862 letter excerpted
" …My paramount opject in this struggle [Civil War] is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery…" He ends the letter with this “…I have here stated my purpose according to my views of official duty; and I intend no modification
of my oft expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.”
Years of bloody combat follow.
Note a few highlights from his second inaugural address (March 4, 1865). the North knew they would win…as they did in a few weeks. But look at Lincoln’s attitude change regarding the war & slavery, etc.:
“One eighth of the whole population were…slaves…These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. Al;l knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war.”
Lincoln comments that both sides did not expect the war to be as horrible as it was, and both sides “read the same bible and pray to the same God…The prayers of both (sides) could not be answered—-that of neither has been answered fully.”
Then Lincoln gives a little lesson from the Bible…in that time, these verses would have been quite well known and his point easily understood.
Perhaps God (as judgment against slavery) “…gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whome the offense (slavery) came…”.
This statement would NOT have been in any way, shape, or form, politically savvy or correct for his time.
But after four years of carnage, Lincoln is interested in the unvarnished truth here…The careful politician who separates his ***personal*** views about the evils of slavery from what he would actually ***do*** while in office
…is gone.
“…if God wills that it (the war) continue until all t he wealth piled by the bondman’s (slave’s) two hundred 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…so still it must be said
“The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.”
Then he ends with the oft quoted “With malice toward none…with charity for all…” quote about binding up the nation’s wounds.
vanlee
Feb 04 2004
05:43 am
Here are brief excerpts from Lincoln at Civil War’s beginning & at its end. Note the change in his views. Note the transformation from careful politician ( who has a partial concern about slavery) to penitent (who sees the carnage of the war as judgment by God on a whole nation that allowed slavery for several hundred years…)
Responding to NYTimes editor Horace Greeley about the need to emancipate slaves
Aug. 22, 1862 letter excerpted
" …My paramount opject in this struggle [Civil War] is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery…" He ends the letter with this “…I have here stated my purpose according to my views of official duty; and I intend no modification
of my oft expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.”
Years of bloody combat follow.
Note a few highlights from his second inaugural address (March 4, 1865). the North knew they would win…as they did in a few weeks. But look at Lincoln’s attitude change regarding the war & slavery, etc.:
“One eighth of the whole population were…slaves…These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. Al;l knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war.”
Lincoln comments that both sides did not expect the war to be as horrible as it was, and both sides “read the same bible and pray to the same God…The prayers of both (sides) could not be answered—-that of neither has been answered fully.”
Then Lincoln gives a little lesson from the Bible…in that time, these verses would have been quite well known and his point easily understood.
Perhaps God (as judgment against slavery) “…gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whome the offense (slavery) came…”.
This statement would NOT have been in any way, shape, or form, politically savvy or correct for his time.
But after four years of carnage, Lincoln is interested in the unvarnished truth here…The careful politician who separates his ***personal*** views about the evils of slavery from what he would actually ***do*** while in office
…is gone.
“…if God wills that it (the war) continue until all t he wealth piled by the bondman’s (slave’s) two hundred 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…so still it must be said
“The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.”
Then he ends with the oft quoted “With malice toward none…with charity for all…” quote about binding up the nation’s wounds.