Lincoln's Birthday Message to America : Honor the Constitution

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12,1809. He died, assassinated, on April 15,1865. Weeks earlier, in Washington, on March 4, 1865, Lincoln delivered his Second Inaugural Address. It was emotionally intense and is widely acknowledged as one of the most remarkable documents in American history. The London Spectator wrote at the time : "We cannot read it without a renewed conviction that it is the noblest political document known to history, and should have for the nation and the statesmen that follow him something of a sacred and almost prophetic character." Journalist Noah Brooks, present at the speech, said that as Lincoln advanced from his seat, "a roar of applause shook the air, and, again and again repeated...the sun which had been obscured all day, burst forth in its unclouded meridian splendor, and flooded the spectacle with glory and with light." Brooks said Lincoln told him the next day, "Did you notice that sunburst? It made my heart jump." According to Brooks, the audience received the speech in "profound silence," although "looking down into the faces of the people, illuminated by the bright rays of the sun, one could see moist eyes and even tearful faces....But chiefly memorable in the mind of those who saw that second inauguration must still remain the tall, pathetic, melancholy figure of the man who, then inducted into office in the sunburst, was already standing in the shadow of death." He was referring, of course, to Lincoln's sudden death by assassination weeks later. ~~~~~ Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address. ~~ "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 its 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 bond-man'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." ~~~~~ Three years earlier, on December 1,1862, after issuing his Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln sent Congress a request for compensated emancipation, so that slave states would better accept it. It was a bitterly divisive proposal. Emancipation came. Compensation, for the most part, did not. Lincoln explained its value, calling on Congress to rise to the historically important occasion : "The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew....we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save it. We -- even we here -- hold the power, and bear the responsibility. In freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free -- honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth....The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just -- a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless." ~~~~~ As the leader of the moderate faction of the Republican Party, Lincoln confronted everyone else -- Radical Republicans demanding harsher treatment of the South, War Democrats calling for more compromise, anti-war Democrats (called Copperheads), who despised Lincoln, and irreconcilable secessionists, who plotted his assassination. Politically, Lincoln so shrewd that he wove his way through all of them. Philosophically, he was sure of his position -- as President, he was required by the Constitution to save the Union; as a person, he believed in the right of every human being to be free. That, combined with the crisis of the Civil War, makes Abraham Lincoln the only person who can be called the savior of America. ~~~~~ Dear readers, the above two less-quoted writings of Lincoln could have been written today. We find America in a civil war - not with cannon and armed frontlines but with inflexible, opposed ideas about what America is and who Americans are. Many ask if we will survive, if the Constitution is wise enough to save us. If Lincoln is our model, it will take not only the Contitution but also a leader selfless and humble enough to take it at its word. The Constitution saved Civil War America because Lincoln believed it and worked until his death to turn its words into reality, for all. What would Lincoln do today? Maybe he would stand in front of the nation and tell us that three young Americans who were born Moslem had as much right to freedom of religion as we all have. He would say that religion underpins the Constitution, that the religion of the Constitution is white Christianity but that its words are universal. He would also say that taking away the right of Christians to display their faith inevitably takes away the same rights for everyone. The Chapel Hill murders are evidence of this. President Obama loves Lincoln. Does he have the courage to say that America's majority is Christian and to lead in restoring their religious rights? To ask them, then, to protect the religious rights of others. In doing this, Obama would honor Lincoln and the Constitution.