With Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, the best hope of Confederate independence—intervention from Britain—was lost. Now, all depended on Lee winning independence on the field of battle—either by annihilating the Union Army that was defending Washington or by holding out until war weariness in the North made them quit. . . .

[I]t was not clear that [Lincoln’s] administration could survive the repeated crises that it faced.

How did Lincoln find the strength and courage to go on? His vision of America strengthened him. And his faith in America encouraged him.

In his annual message to Congress on December 1, 1862, Lincoln wrote: “In times like the present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and eternity.” Lincoln knew that the dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present.” Although “[T]he occasion is piled high with difficulty, . . . we must rise with the occasion.” “[W]e must think anew and act anew.”

Lincoln exhorted: “Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history . . . the fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the last generation.”

Lincoln prophesied: “in giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free—alike in what we give and what we preserve.”

Lincoln warned: “We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of earth.”

[After winning more battles against the Union Army], Lee made his boldest gamble of the war. He knew that the South was weakening beneath the hammer blows of the larger, economically stronger Union. He must win now, or watch the slow collapse of the South beneath the awesome resources of the Union.

And so, Lee marched north, seeking to win an overwhelming victory on Northern soil that he hoped would force the Union to give up.

Lee’s advancing army collided with the Union Army at Gettysburg. For three desperate days, the future of America hung in the balance as Lee tried to overcome  the immense odds against him. . . .

After two days of bloody fighting, Lee had not overcome the Union Army. He should have retreated. But like a quarterback who makes a desperate pass late in the game and gets intercepted, Lee made a last desperate attack to try to win the battle—and the war. We remember this last, desperate bid for victory as Pickett’s Charge.

Pickett’s Charge is synonymous with bravery—and futility.

Fifteen thousand of Robert E. Lee’s best troops waved their flags, yelled their defiance, and marched gallantly into a blizzard of metal spewing forth from rows of Yankee cannons . . .. Less than a third came back.

But the greatest Union victory at Gettysburg was not won with guns. The greatest Union victory at Gettysburg was won with words—the immortal words of Abraham Lincoln in “The Gettysburg Address”.

Four months after the battle, Lincoln spoke at Gettysburg during a ceremony held to dedicate a cemetery to the slain soldiers. Lincoln wasn’t the main speaker. Nevertheless, he spoke words that have captured the imaginations of Americans and Humanity ever since.

Lincoln reminded people that America was a “. . .  nation conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” He honored those who gave their lives that that nation might live. He called on the living to be “dedicated to the great task remaining before us.”

What was this great task? To give America “under God, . . . a new birth of freedom” so that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Against such a vision of America, not even the skill of Robert E. Lee could prevail. . . .

When Lincoln gave his Second Inaugural Address, the victory of the Union was expected within a few months. Thus he said, “Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.”

Lincoln struggled to find a rationale for the horrible plague of bloodshed that had struck America during four years of “brother fighting brother”. He blamed both the North and the South for the debacle. Because slavery was “somehow, the cause of the war” and both the North and the South had tolerated slavery and benefitted from it for many years—in fact nearly 250 years.

Therefore, God Who is just, gave “to both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe due to those” who had enslaved others.

As terrible as God’s judgment had been thus far, who could know whether even more horrors might lie ahead? Because, said Lincoln, “if God wills that [this mighty scourge of war] 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 by 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 judgment’s of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.’”

After this horrifying confession of America’s sin and guilt, Lincoln ended on a more  hopeful note. His gaze shifted from God punishing America for its sins toward God blessing America in the future.

Lincoln gave us a vision of America that could bring peace between North and South, and peace for all Humanity.

His vision did not rely on revenge and retribution. Instead, he urged Americans to achieve a just and lasting peace “[w]ith malice toward none, with charity for all, [and] with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right.”

In this spirit of forgiveness, love, and righteousness, said Lincoln, America should “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 orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

When we hear such wisdom, we know that Mrs. Lincoln was right when she said that her husband’s heart was as large as his arms were long. Because to confess sins, to forgive others, and to work towards a glorious future of peace for all Humanity, you must have the heart of Jesus Christ—the largest heart of all.

Tragically, Abraham Lincoln did not live long enough to “achieve a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” He lived long enough to see Robert E. Lee surrender on Palm Sunday. But, like Jesus Christ, Abraham Lincoln was killed a few days later, on Good Friday, at the hands of scheming evildoers.

Also like Jesus Christ, Lincoln achieved by his death what he could not have achieved any other way. As a martyr for America, Lincoln’s words and wisdom achieved a sanctity that has guided America ever since.

Lincoln had the wisdom to see America’s sins, to hear America’s sins, and to understand America’s sins.

Lincoln had the wisdom to know that, as the prophet Isaiah had explained 2,500 years earlier, if we see our sins, hear our sins, and understand our sins, God will enable us to turn from our sins and God will heal our land (Isaiah 6:9-10).

Furthermore, Lincoln had the wisdom to perceive that, after we confess our sins, God enables us to see and to do what is right (1 John 1:5-9).

We can see that Harriett Beecher Stowe was right when she warned, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, that “[b]oth North and South have been guilty before God” and that the Union could not be saved “by combining together, to protect injustice and cruelty.”

We can see that Harriett Beecher Stowe was right when she prophesied that the Union could only be saved by “repentance, justice, and mercy.” These were the key themes of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, urging Americans to repent of the sin of slavery, to be just to the freed slaves, and to be merciful to their enemies.

Furthermore, as Lincoln well understood, to atone for America’s sins, she must achieve a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

America must come in peace for all Humanity.

And the only way to come in peace for all Humanity is “with malice toward none, with charity for all, [and] with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right.”

In the Twenty-First Century, we once again shall nobly save or meanly lose the last, best hope of Humanity—whether from the evils of the powers of Money, Religion, and Kingdoms or from the evils of nuclear annihilation.

What vision of America can overcome these cascading terrors? The vision of the ideal America first discovered by the hearts and wisdom of Abraham, Moses and Jesus. The ideal America where:

—ALL people are blessed (Abraham; Genesis 12:3);

—ALL pharaohs are challenged to set ALL people free (Moses; Exodus 8:1);

—ALL hurting people are healed (Jesus; Luke 10:25-37); and

—ALL means ALL (Genesis 12:3; Isaiah 2:1-4; Matthew 28:18-20).

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

What vision of America can overcome the evils and terrors of the Twenty-First Century? How? How not? Why? Why not?

Can MAGA’s vision of America overcome the evils and terrors of the Twenty-First Century? How? How not? Why? Why not?

Can the vision of Christian Nationalism overcome the evils and terrors of the Twenty-First Century? How? How not? Why? Why not?

READ MORE

For related ideas, please read my blogs “How Do We Build a Civilization that Is Good—That Is Very Good?”,  “Deceptive-Drawings-Designed-To-Deceive-and-Divide”, “Nationalism Is Patriotism Gone Astray”, “Alcatraz: Escaping By Using ‘Countervailing Powers’ Wisely”, and “Jesus Climbs the Temple Mount”.