The
Emancipation Proclamation.
"I believe the Bible is the best gift
God has ever given to man. All the good from the Savior (Jesus) of the
world is communicated to us through this book. Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural Address
"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...The progress of our arms,
upon which all else chiefly 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...
"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 as 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...The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither
has been answered fully...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 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 bond-man's two hundred
and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every 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 judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'
"With malice toward none; 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." Immediately afterwards,
Lincoln kissed the Bible, bowed, and retired from the platform. Abraham
Lincoln's 2nd inaugural address, March 4th, 1865.
"Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity,
and a firm reliance, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all
our present difficulty" Abraham Lincoln.
"The philosophy of the school room in
one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next." Abraham
Lincoln.
"The only assurance of our nation's safety
is to lay our foundation in morality and religion."Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln's Thanksgiving
Day Proclamation;
