LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURATION.
While the death of Slavery in America was decreed, as we have seen; yet,
the sanguine anticipations of Mr. Lincoln, and other friends of Freedom,
that such a decree, imperishably grafted into the Constitution, must at
once end the Rebellion, and bring Peace with a restored Union, were not
realized. The War went on. Grant was still holding Lee, at Petersburg,
near Richmond, while Sherman's victorious Army was about entering upon a
campaign from Savannah, up through the Carolinas.
During the previous Summer, efforts had been made, by Horace Greeley,
and certain parties supposed to represent the Rebel authorities, to lay
the ground-work for an early Peace and adjustment of the differences
between the Government of the United States and the Rebels, but they
miscarried. They led, however, to the publication of the following
important conciliatory Presidential announcement:
"EXECUTIVE MANSION,
"WASHINGTON, July 18, 1864.
"To whom it may concern:
"Any proposition which embraces the restoration of Peace, the integrity
of the whole Union, and the abandonment of Slavery, and which comes by
and with an authority that can control the Armies now at War against the
United States, will be received and considered by the Executive
Government of the United States, and will be met by liberal terms on
substantial and collateral points; and the bearer or bearers thereof
shall have safe conduct both ways.
"(Signed) ABRAHAM LINCOLN."
About the same time, other efforts were being made, with a similar
object in view, but which came to naught. The visit of Messrs. Jacques
and Gilmore to the Rebel Capital on an informal Peace-errand was, at
least, valuable in this, that it secured from the head and front of the
armed Conspiracy, Jefferson Davis himself, the following definite
statement:
"I desire Peace as much as you do; I deplore bloodshed as much as you
do; but I feel that not one drop of the blood shed in this War is on my
hands. I can look up to my God and say this. I tried all in my power
to avert this War. I saw it coming, and for twelve years I worked night
and day to prevent it; but I could not. The North was mad and blind; it
would not let us govern ourselves; and so the War came: and now it must
go on till the last man of this generation falls in his tracks, and his
children seize his musket and fight our battle, unless you acknowledge
our right to self-government. We are not fighting for Slavery. We are
fighting for INDEPENDENCE; and that, or EXTERMINATION, we WILL have."
[The Nation, July 2, 1885, contained the following
remarks, which may be pertinently quoted in support of this
authoritative statement that the South was "not fighting for
Slavery," but for Independence--that is to say: for Power, and what
would flow from it.]
["The Charleston News and Courier a fortnight ago remarked that
'not more than one Southern soldier in ten or fifteen was a
Slaveholder, or had any interest in Slave Property.' The
Laurensville Herald disputed the statement, and declared that 'the
Southern Army was really an Army of Slaveholders and the sons of
Slaveholders.' The Charleston paper stands by its original
position, and cites figures which are conclusive. The Military
population of the eleven States which seceded, according to the
census of 1860, was 1,064,193. The entire number of Slaveholders
in the Country at the same time was 383,637, but of these 77,335
lived in the Border States, so that the number in the Seceding
States was only 306,302. Most of the small Slaveholders, however,
were not Slave-owners, but Slave hirers, and Mr. De Bow, the
statistician who supervised the census of 1850, estimated that but
little over half the holders were actually owners. The proportion
of owners diminished between 1850 and 1860, and the News and
Courier thinks that there were not more than 150,000 Slave-owners
in the Confederate States when the War broke out. This would be
one owner to every seven White males between eighteen and
forty-five; but as many of the owners were women, and many of the
men were relieved from Military service, the Charleston paper is
confirmed in its original opinion that there were ten men in the
Southern Army who were not Slave-owners for every soldier who had
Slaves of his own."]
And when these self-constituted Peace-delegates had fulfilled the duty
which their zeal had impelled them to perform, and were taking their
leave of the Rebel chieftain, Jefferson Davis added:
"Say to Mr. Lincoln, from me, that I shall at any time be pleased to
receive proposals for PEACE on the basis of our INDEPENDENCE. It will
be useless to approach me with any other."
Thus the lines had been definitely and distinctly drawn, on both sides.
The issue of Slavery became admittedly, as between the Government and
the Rebels, a dead one. The great cardinal issue was now clearly seen
and authoritatively admitted to be, "the integrity of the whole Union"
on the one side, and on the other, "Independence of a part of it."
These precise declarations did great good to the Union Cause in the
North, and not only helped the triumphant re-election of Mr. Lincoln,
but also contributed to weaken the position of the Northern advocates of
Slavery, and to bring about, as we have seen, the extinction of that
inherited National curse, by Constitutional Amendment.
During January, of 1865, Francis P. Blair having been permitted to pass
both the Union and Rebel Army lines, showed to Mr. Lincoln a letter,
written to the former, by Jefferson Davis--and which the latter had
authorized him to read to the President--stating that he had always
been, and was still, ready to send or to receive Commissioners "to enter
into a Conference, with a view to secure Peace to the two Countries."
On the 18th of that month, purposing to having it shown to Jefferson
Davis, Mr. Lincoln wrote to Mr. Blair a letter in which, after referring
to Mr. Davis, he said: "You may say to him that I have constantly been,
am now, and shall continue, ready to receive any agent whom he, or any
other influential person now resisting the National Authority, may
informally send to me, with the view of securing Peace to the People of
our common Country." On the 21st of January, Mr. Blair was again in
Richmond; and Mr. Davis had read and retained Mr. Lincoln's letter to
Blair, who specifically drew the Rebel chieftain's attention to the fact
that "the part about 'our common Country' related to the part of Mr.
Davis's letter about 'the two Countries,' to which Mr. Davis replied
that he so understood it." Yet subsequently, he sent Messrs. Alexander
H. Stephens, R. M. T. Hunter, and John A. Campbell as Commissioners,
with instructions, (January 28, 1865,) which, after setting forth the
language of Mr. Lincoln's letter, proceeded strangely enough to say: "In
conformity with the letter of Mr. Lincoln, of which the foregoing is a
copy, you are to proceed to Washington city for informal Conference with
him upon the issues involved in the existing War, and for the purpose of
securing Peace to the two Countries!" The Commissioners themselves
stated in writing that "The substantial object to be obtained by the
informal Conference is, to ascertain upon what terms the existing War
can be terminated honorably. * * * Our earnest desire is, that a just
and honorable Peace may be agreed upon, and we are prepared to receive
or to submit propositions which may, possibly, lead to the attainment of
that end." In consequence of this peculiarly "mixed" overture, the
President sent Secretary Seward to Fortress Monroe, to informally confer
with the parties, specifically instructing him to "make known to them
that three things are indispensable, to wit:
"1. The restoration of the National Authority throughout all the
States.
"2. No receding, by the Executive of the United States, on the Slavery
question, from the position assumed thereon in the late Annual Message
to Congress, and in preceding documents.
"3. No cessation of hostilities short of an end of the War and the
disbanding of all forces hostile to the Government."
Mr. Lincoln also instructed the Secretary to "inform them that all
propositions of theirs, not inconsistent with the above, will be
considered and passed upon in a spirit of sincere liberality;" to "hear
all they may choose to say, and report it" to him, and not to "assume to
definitely consummate anything." Subsequently, the President, in
consequence of a dispatch from General Grant to Secretary Stanton,
decided to go himself to Fortress Monroe.
Following is the dispatch:
[In Cipher]
OFFICE UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH. WAR DEPARTMENT.
"The following telegram received at Washington, 4.35 A.M., February
2, 1865. From City Point, Va., February 1, 10.30 P.M., 1865
"Now that the interview between Major Eckert, under his written
instructions, and Mr. Stephens and party has ended, I will state
confidentially, but not officially, to become a matter of record,
that I am convinced, upon conversation with Messrs. Stephens and
Hunter, that their intentions are good and their desire sincere to
restore Peace and Union. I have not felt myself at liberty to
express, even, views of my own, or to account for my reticency.
This has placed me in an awkward position, which I could have
avoided by not seeing them in the first instance. I fear now their
going back without any expression from any one in authority will
have a bad influence. At the same time I recognize the
difficulties in the way of receiving these informal Commissioners
at this time, and do not know what to recommend. I am sorry,
however, that Mr. Lincoln cannot have an interview with the two
named in this dispatch, if not all three now within our lines.
Their letter to me was all that the President's instructions
contemplated to secure their safe conduct, if they had used the
same language to Major Eckert.
"U. S. GRANT,
"Lieutenant General.
"Hon. EDWIN M. STANTON,
"Secretary of War."
Mr. Stephens is stated by a Georgia paper to have repeated the
following characteristic anecdote of what occurred during the
interview. "The three Southern gentlemen met Mr. Lincoln and Mr.
Seward, and after some preliminary remarks, the subject of Peace
was opened. Mr. Stephens, well aware that one who asks much may
get more than he who confesses to humble wishes at the outset,
urged the claims of his Section with that skill and address for
which the Northern papers have given him credit. Mr. Lincoln,
holding the vantage ground of conscious power, was, however,
perfectly frank, and submitted his views almost in the form of an
argument. * * * Davis had, on this occasion, as on that of Mr.
Stephens's visit to Washington, made it a condition that no
Conference should be had unless his rank as Commander or President
should first be recognized. Mr. Lincoln declared that the only
ground on which he could rest the justice of War--either with his
own people, or with foreign powers--was that it was not a War for
conquest, for that the States had never been separated from the
Union. Consequently, he could not recognize another Government
inside of the one of which he alone was President; nor admit the
separate Independence of States that were yet a part of the Union.
'That' said he 'would be doing what you have so long asked Europe
to do in vain, and be resigning the only thing the Armies of the
Union have been fighting for.' Mr. Hunter made a long reply to
this, insisting that the recognition of Davis's power to make a
Treaty was the first and indispensable step to Peace, and referred
to the correspondence between King Charles I., and his Parliament,
as a trustworthy precedent of a Constitutional ruler treating with
Rebels. Mr. Lincoln's face then wore that indescribable expression
which generally preceded his hardest hits, and he remarked: 'Upon
questions of history I must refer you to Mr. Seward, for he is
posted in such things, and I don't pretend to be bright. My only
distinct recollection of the matter is that Charles lost his head,'
That settled Mr. Hunter for a while." Arnold's Lincoln, p. 400.
On the night of February 2nd, Mr. Lincoln reached Hampton Roads, and
joined Secretary Seward on board a steamer anchored off the shore. The
next morning, from another steamer, similarly anchored, Messrs.
Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell were brought aboard the President's
steamer and a Conference with the President and Secretary of several
hours' duration was the result. Mr. Lincoln's own statement of what
transpired was in these words:
"No question of preliminaries to the meeting was then and there made or
mentioned. No other person was present; no papers were exchanged or
produced; and it was, in advance, agreed that the conversation was to be
informal and verbal merely. On our part, the whole substance of the
instructions to the Secretary of State, hereinbefore recited, was stated
and insisted upon, and nothing was said inconsistent therewith; while,
by the other party, it was not said that in any event or on any
condition, they ever would consent to Re-union; and yet they equally
omitted to declare that they never would so consent. They seemed to
desire a postponement of that question, and the adoption of some other
course first, which, as some of them seemed to argue, might or might not
lead to Reunion; but which course, we thought, would amount to an
indefinite postponement. The Conference ended without result."
In his communication to the Rebel Congress at Richmond, February 6.
1865, Jefferson Davis, after mentioning his appointment of Messrs.
Stephens, Hunter and Campbell, for the purpose stated, proceeded to say:
"I herewith transmit, for the information of Congress, the report of the
eminent citizens above named, showing that the Enemy refused to enter
into negotiations with the Confederate States, or any one of them
separately, or to give to our people any other terms or guarantees than
those which the conqueror may grant, or to permit us to have Peace on
any other basis than our unconditional submission to their rule, coupled
with the acceptance of their recent legislation on the subject of the
relations between the White and Black population of each State."
On the 5th and 9th of February, public meetings were held at Richmond,
in connection with these Peace negotiations. At the first, Jefferson
Davis made a speech in which the Richmond Dispatch reported him as
emphatically asserting that no conditions of Peace "save the
Independence of the Confederacy could ever receive his sanction. He
doubted not that victory would yet crown our labors, * * * and sooner
than we should ever be united again he would be willing to yield up
everything he had on Earth, and if it were possible would sacrifice a
thousand lives before he would succumb." Thereupon the meeting of
Rebels passed resolutions "spurning" Mr. Lincoln's terms "with the
indignation due to so gross an insult;" declared that the circumstances
connected with his offer could only "add to the outrage and stamp it as
a designed and premeditated indignity" offered to them; and invoking
"the aid of Almighty God" to carry out their "resolve to maintain" their
"Liberties and Independence"--to which, said they, "we mutually pledge
our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." So too, at the second
of these meetings, presided over by R. M. T. Hunter, and addressed by
the Rebel Secretary Judah P. Benjamin, resolutions were adopted amid
"wild and long continued cheering," one of which stated that they would
"never lay down" their "arms until" their "Independence" had "been won,"
while another declared a full confidence in the sufficiency of their
resources to "conduct the War successfully and to that issue," and
invoked "the People, in the name of the holiest of all causes, to spare
neither their blood nor their treasure in its maintenance and support."
As during these Peace negotiations, General Grant, by express direction
of President Lincoln, had not changed, hindered, nor delayed, any of his
"Military movements or plans," so, now that the negotiations had failed,
those Military movements were pressed more strenuously than ever.
[The main object of this Conference on the part of the Rebels was
to secure an immediate truce, or breathing spell, during which they
could get themselves in better condition for continuing the War.
Indeed a portion of Mr. Seward's letter of Feb. 7, 1865, to Mr.
Adams, our Minister at the Court of St. James, giving him an
account of the Conference with the party of Insurgent
Commissioners, would not alone indicate this, but also that it was
proposed by that "Insurgent party," that both sides, during the
time they would thus cease to fight one another, might profitably
combine their forces to drive the French invaders out of Mexico and
annex that valuable country. At least, the following passage in
that letter will bear that construction:
"What the Insurgent party seemed chiefly to favor was a
postponement of the question of separation, upon which the War is
waged, and a mutual direction of efforts of the Government, as well
as those of the Insurgents, to some extrinsic policy or scheme for
a season, during which passions might be expected to subside, and
the Armies be reduced, and trade and intercourse between the People
of both Sections resumed. It was suggested by them that through
such postponements we might now have immediate Peace, with some not
very certain prospect of an ultimate satisfactory adjustment of
political relations between this Government, and the States,
Section, or People, now engaged in conflict with it."
For the whole of this letter see McPherson's History of the
Rebellion, p. 570.]
Fort Fisher, North Carolina, had already been captured by a combined
Military and Naval attack of the Union forces under General Terry and
Admiral Porter; and Sherman's Army was now victoriously advancing from
Savannah, Georgia, Northwardly through South Carolina. On the 17th of
February, Columbia, the capital of the latter State, surrendered, and,
the day following, Charleston was evacuated, and its defenses, including
historic Fort Sumter, were once more under that glorious old flag of the
Union which four years before had been driven away, by shot and shell
and flame, amid the frantic exultations of the temporarily successful
armed Conspirators of South Carolina. On the 22nd of February, General
Schofield, who had been sent by Grant with his 23rd Corps, by water, to
form a junction with Terry's troops about Fort Fisher, and capture
Wilmington, North Carolina, had also accomplished his purpose
successfully.
The Rebel Cause now began to look pretty desperate, even to Rebel eyes.
[Hundreds of Rebels were now deserting from Lee's Armies about
Richmond, every night, owing partly to despondency. "These
desertions," wrote Lee, on the 24th February, "have a very bad
effect upon the troops who remain, and give rise to painful
apprehensions." Another cause was the lack of food and clothing.
Says Badeau (Military History of Ulysses S. Grant, vol. iii., p.
399): "On the 8th of January, Lee wrote to the Rebel Government
that the entire Right Wing of his Army had been in line for three
days and nights, in the most inclement weather of the season.
'Under these circumstances,' he said, 'heightened by assaults and
fire of the Enemy, some of the men had been without meat for three
days, and all were suffering from reduced rations and scant
clothing. Colonel Cole, chief commissary, reports that he has not
a pound of meat at his disposal. If some change is not made, and
the commissary department reorganized, I apprehend dire results.
The physical strength of the men, if their courage survives, must
fail under this treatment. Our Cavalry has to be dispersed for
want of forage. Fitz Lee's and Lomax's Divisions are scattered
because supplies cannot be transported where their services are
required. I had to bring Fitz Lee's Division sixty miles Sunday
night, to get them in position. Taking these facts in connection
with the paucity of our numbers, you must not be surprised if
calamity befalls us.'" Badeau's (Grant, vol. iii., p. 401,)]
Toward the end of February, the Rebel General Longstreet having
requested an interview with General Ord "to arrange for the exchange of
citizen prisoners, and prisoners of war, improperly captured," General
Grant authorized General Ord to hold such interview t and "to arrange
definitely for such as were confined in his department, arrangements for
all others to be submitted for approval." In the course of that
interview "a general conversation ensued on the subject of the War,"
when it would seem that Longstreet suggested the idea of a composition
of the questions at issue, and Peace between the United States and the
Rebels, by means of a Military Convention. It is quite probable that
this idea originated with Jefferson Davis, as a /dernier resort/; for
Longstreet appears to have communicated directly with Davis concerning
his interview or "interviews" with Ord. On the 28th of February, 1865
the Rebel Chief wrote to Lee, as follows:
"RICHMOND, VA., February 28.
"Gen. R. E. LEE, Commanding, etc.,
"GENERAL: You will learn by the letter of General Longstreet the result
of his second interview with General Ord. The points as to whether
yourself or General Grant should invite the other to a Conference is not
worth discussing. If you think the statements of General Ord render it
probably useful that the Conference suggested should be had, you will
proceed as you may prefer, and are clothed with all the supplemental
authority you may need in the consideration of any proposition for a
Military Convention, or the appointment of a Commissioner to enter into
such an arrangement as will cause at least temporary suspension of
hostilities.
"Very truly yours
"JEFFERSON DAVIS."
Thereupon General Lee wrote, and sent to General Grant, the following
communication:
"HEADQUARTERS C. S. ARMIES, March 2, 1865.
"Lieut. Gen. U. S. GRANT,
"Commanding United States Armies:
"GENERAL: Lieut.-Gen. Longstreet has informed me that, in a recent
conversation between himself and Maj.-Gen. Ord, as to the possibility of
arriving at a satisfactory adjustment of the present unhappy
difficulties by means of a Military Convention, General Ord stated that
if I desired to have an interview with you on the subject, you would not
decline, provided I had authority to act. Sincerely desirous to leave
nothing untried which may put an end to the calamities of War, I propose
to meet you at such convenient time and place as you may designate, with
the hope that, upon an interchange of views, it may be found practicable
to submit the subjects of controversy between the belligerents to a
Convention of the kind mentioned.
"In such event, I am authorized to do whatever the result of the
proposed interview may render necessary or advisable. Should you accede
to this proposition, I would suggest that, if agreeable to you, we meet
at the place selected by Generals Ord and Longstreet, for the interview,
at 11 A.M., on Monday next.
"Very respectfully your obedient servant,
"R. E. LEE, General."
Upon receipt of this letter, General Grant sent a telegraphic dispatch
to Secretary Stanton, informing him of Lee's proposition. It reached
the Secretary of War just before midnight of March 3rd. He, and the
other members of the Cabinet were with the President, in the latter's
room at the Capitol, whither they had gone on this, the last, night of
the last Session of the Thirty-Eighth Congress, the Cabinet to advise,
and the President to act, upon bills submitted to him for approval. The
Secretary, after reading the dispatch, handed it to Mr. Lincoln. The
latter read and thought over it briefly, and then himself wrote the
following reply:
"WASHINGTON, March, 3, 1865, 12 P.M.
"LIEUTENANT GENERAL GRANT: The President directs me to say to you that
he wishes you to have no Conference with General Lee, unless it be for
the capitulation of General Lee's Army, or on some other minor and
purely Military matter. He instructs me to say to you that you are not
to decide, discuss, or confer upon any political question. Such
questions the President holds in his own hands, and will submit them to
no Military Conferences or Conventions. Meanwhile you are to press to
the utmost your Military advantages.
"EDWIN M. STANTON,
"Secretary of War."
General Grant received this dispatch, on the day following, and at once
wrote and sent to General Lee a communication in which, after referring
to the subject of the exchange of prisoners, he said: "In regard to
meeting you on the 6th inst., I would state that--I have no authority to
accede to your proposition for a Conference on the subject proposed.
Such authority is vested in the President of the United States alone.
General Ord could only have meant that I would not refuse an interview
on any subject on which I have a right to act; which, of course, would
be such as are purely of a Military character, and on the subject of
exchange, which has been entrusted to me."
Thus perished the last reasonable hope entertained by the Rebel
Chieftains to ward off the inevitable and mortal blow that was about to
smite their Cause.
The 4th of March, 1865, had come. The Thirty-Eighth Congress was no
more. Mr. Lincoln was about to be inaugurated, for a second term, as
President of the United States. The previous night had been vexed with
a stormy snow-fall. The morning had also been stormy and rainy. By
mid-day, however, as if to mark the event auspiciously, the skies
cleared and the sun shone gloriously upon the thousands and tens of
thousands who had come to Washington, to witness the second Inauguration
of him whom the people had now, long since, learned to affectionately
term "Father Abraham"--of him who had become the veritable Father of his
People. As the President left the White House, to join the grand
procession to the Capitol, a brilliant meteor shot athwart the heavens,
above his head. At the time, the superstitious thought it an Omen of
triumph--of coming Peace--but in the sad after-days when armed Rebellion
had ceased and Peace had come, it was remembered, with a shudder, as a
portent of ill. When, at last, Mr. Lincoln stood, with bared head, upon
the platform at the eastern portico of the Capitol, where four years
before, he had made his vows before the People, under such very
different circumstances and surroundings, the contrast between that time
and this--and all the terrible and eventful history of the interim
--could not fail to present itself to every mind of all those congregated,
whether upon the platform among the gorgeously costumed foreign
diplomats, the full-uniformed Military and Naval officers of the United
States, and the more soberly-clad statesmen and Civic and Judicial
functionaries of the Land, or in the vast and indiscriminate mass of the
enthusiastic people in front and on both sides of it. As Chief Justice
Chase administered the oath, and Abraham Lincoln, in view of all the
people, reverently bowed his head and kissed the open Bible, at a
passage in Isaiah (27th and 28th verses of the 5th Chapter) which it was
thought "admonished him to be on his guard, and not to relax at all, in
his efforts," the people, whose first cheers of welcome had been stayed
by the President's uplifted hand, broke forth in a tumult of cheering,
until again hushed by the clear, strong, even voice of the President, as
he delivered that second Inaugural Address, whose touching tenderness,
religious resignation, and Christian charity, were clad in these
imperishable words:
"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 energy of the Nation, little
that is new could be presented. The progress of our Arms, upon which
all else 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 the 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 offences! for it must
needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence
cometh.' If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those
offences 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 offence 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 a lasting Peace among
ourselves, and with all Nations."
With utterances so just and fair, so firm and hopeful, so penitent and
humble, so benignant and charitable, so mournfully tender and sweetly
solemn, so full of the fervor of true piety and the very pathos of
patriotism, small wonder is it that among those numberless thousands
who, on this memorable occasion, gazed upon the tall, gaunt form of
Abraham Lincoln, and heard his clear, sad voice, were some who almost
imagined they saw the form and heard the voice of one of the great
prophets and leaders of Israel; while others were more reminded of one
of the Holy Apostles of the later Dispensation who preached the glorious
Gospel "On Earth, Peace, good will toward Men," and received in the end
the crown of Christian martyrdom. But not one soul of those present
--unless his own felt such presentiment--dreamed for a moment that, all
too soon, the light of those brave and kindly eyes was fated to go out
in darkness, that sad voice to be hushed forever, that form to lie
bleeding and dead, a martyred sacrifice indeed, upon the altar of his
Country!