Lincoln, Abraham
(1809-1865)
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining
before us -- that from those honored dead we take increased devotion
to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion
-- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in
vain -- 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.
Gettysburg
Address, 1863
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.
The
Second Inaugural Address, 1865
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