The Second Inagural

This week for class we read both Lincoln's Second Inaugural address and some commentaries on the document itself.

I was much impressed with the profoundly religious nature of the document. Lincoln takes an angle that's far more conciliatory than the North's sentiments tended to be, recognizing that although the Union was divided by the question of slavery, their devotion to the Bible and their mutual recognition and supplication of the same God united them. It's clear that although Lincoln didn't believe the South innocent ("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."), he didn't want to punish them. He recognized his duty and the nation's to forgive. Without such a 'Christian' attitude of forgiveness, the South would desperately struggle to rebuild.

In class Dr. H pointed out that John Wilkes Booth killed the man that would have treated the South with the most dignity and respect during the reconstruction period. However, with Lincoln gone, the North sought retribution and exacted it, leaving the Southern economy in ruins, to slowly rebuild.

I also appreciated Dr. H's insight into the address when he pointed out that Lincoln understood that man cannot grasp God's will. We think we can read and interpret God's will in both the bad and the good, but we are mistaken. God's ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts. And I think we hinder true understanding of God's will by pretending it's something perfectly legible. We miss deeper meaning in the events that happen around us if we tritely label them with Sunday School answers. This is something that was reinforced by an article my grandmother wrote about her battle with breast cancer. When a cancer patient is suffering, they don't want to hear your interpretations of God's will - they want sympathy and comfort and relief. That is just what Lincoln is calling for in the Second Inaugural: "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." He wanted to help the nation heal, not to attach blame to one party or the other.

Wise guy, Lincoln.