|
Tuesday Morning Epistles
Welcome to "Tuesday Mornings," a source of inspiration
and encouragement for Christian leaders everywhere.
February 12 is the date on which Americans celebrate the
birth of Abraham Lincoln, our nation's 16th president.
Someone has calculated that Lincoln spoke or wrote a
million words during his political career. I didn't
count them, but the number of words is easily upstaged
by the power and influence of his words.
As early as 1855, Lincoln expressed his very strong
commitment to freedom and liberty in the United States.
In a letter to his Kentucky friend, Joshua F. Speed,
Lincoln wrote, "Our progress in degeneracy appears to me
to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring
that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically
read it 'all men are created equal, except negroes.'
When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all
men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners,
and Catholics.' When it comes to this I should prefer
emigrating to some country where they make no pretense
of loving liberty."
According to the 1860 census, there were approximately 4
million slaves in the United States around the time of
the onset of the Civil War, living mostly in the
Southern States. As president, Lincoln worked to abolish
slavery everywhere in the Union. With the ratification
of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in
December, 1865, slavery as an institution was wiped out.
But the process to eliminate slavery was painfully slow
to happen. Lincoln's first priority was not to eliminate
slavery; it was to preserve the Union. The controversial
Emancipation Proclamations of 1862 and 1863 were giant
steps toward the goal of abolishing slavery. But it took
the assassination of President Lincoln in April, 1865,
to begin to unite a nation against the social cancer of
slavery.
In honor of Lincoln's birthday, this week's "Tuesday
Morning" is entitled, "Immortal Words." Continue reading
whenever you are ready, and then start your personal
celebration of a life dedicated to the preservation of
liberty for everyone.
Tom Barnard
Still a Patriot
________________________________________________________________
Immortal Words Tom Barnard
oday, February 12, America remembers and celebrates the birth of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States. He was elected into office in 1860 on the eve of a national crisis, the Civil War, and he was assassinated in office by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, five days after Robert E. Lee’s surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House. Lincoln’s entire presidency was marked by conflict, war, resistance to the abolition of slavery, accusations that he was a tyrant because he proscribed civil liberties, and intense political upheaval between the Democratic and Republican parties. Looking back on his life and times, one could argue that Lincoln’s victory in the 1860 presidential election would change the racial future and political landscape of the United States. And the world.
Following Lincoln’s election to his second term, in 1864, with the war still raging, he prepared for his second Inaugural Address, which was delivered on March 4, 1865—a little more than a month before his assassination. In this brief address Lincoln clearly expressed his hopes for peace and reconstruction in the Nation. He began by reflecting on the issues at stake at the time of his first inauguration:
When the (first) 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 the effects by negotiation. Both parties depreciated 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.
Lincoln’s concluding paragraphs remain part of one of the most powerful proclamations of national solidarity and the survival of freedom ever spoken in the free world. Read these words and be inspired:
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 with another drawn by 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 a lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
Political pundits today are saying that this year’s national election will be the most significant election in our nation’s history. They are saying that change is needed in Washington. Candidates are saying that they alone will be ready to serve as the agent of change on “Day One” of a new administration. Some are saying that the war against terrorism cannot be won with military strength. A few are crying out for dialogue and compromise with international despots.
But where are the voices echoing Lincoln’s pleas? Where are the potential leaders who are calling for us “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”? Where are those supposed leaders? Is there an Abraham Lincoln out there anywhere? Let him or her come forth! Let’s be willing to cross party lines, if necessary, and elect that one to be the next President of the United States of America! |