One can hardly express the magnitude of the Lincoln Memorial. I’d seen it in the movies; I’d seen it in pictures; in postcards, on the news, but never in person. Lincoln's likeness shows the incredible weight that he had upon his shoulders. His overwhelming need to preserve the Union accompanied by his belief that all men should be free. It is incredible. On the wall to the right is an inscription of Lincoln’s second inaugural address. It was given in the midst of the war between the states. Here is what he said:
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
energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. 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.
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
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 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.
Absolutely incredible. Lincoln’s faith in God was so strong that he trusted him completely in the mess America was in. No matter what the cost, no matter the outcome. I’d always admired Lincoln, but after seeing this monument to him, I am more resolute in my feeling that he and Washington were our nation's greatest presidents. As the next election draws near, it is hard to believe that we have any men like Lincoln there. All seem wrapped in selfishness in some way. None really stick out to me as men who follow after God's heart. I hope that God will put someone in place that will do his purposes.
