Posted on 07/05/2026 8:05:42 AM PDT by Twotone
When Abraham Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address on March 4, 1865 the Civil War was nearly over. After recalling the circumstances of his first inaugural address, given precisely four years earlier and just before the nation fell into civil war, he told the crowd with characteristic understatement that "the progress of our arms...is as well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all."
After the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation two years previous and the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment outlawing slavery by the House of Representatives just two months earlier, he observed to the crowd outside the East Portico of the Capitol Building that neither side fighting the war "anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease."
Lincoln, as religious as any man at the time though unsubscribed to any particular religion, wondered that while both sides "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."
It was an admission that while the nightmare of the Civil War was nearly over, the business of his second administration would be the more difficult one of restoring unity to the country and rebuilding the devastated South while navigating everyone into a future without slavery – a future that many of them, whether Confederate or abolitionist, doubted they would see in their lifetimes.
As for Abraham Lincoln, his lifetime would end just over a month from that day in March.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
AND students are required to be lied about the peaceful nature loving Injuns even though they were the most savage bloodthirsty warriors against eachother.
“And, sadly- of J. Johnston Pettigru (Huguenot ancestry).”
Huguenots played a bigger role in Colonial America than many realize. John Jay and Paul Revere were of Huguenot ancestry. So was George Washington. His earliest American ancestor is a Nicolas Martiau, Huguenot, who is my ancestor as well.
Lincoln’s religious transformation, assuming that there was one, didn’t show up until passing the buck for Civil War slaughter was convenient. “Divine judgment” gets to take the fall.
William Herndon worked beside Lincoln in their two man law office for 17 years. Herndon hero worshipped him. Herndon wasn’t shy about speaking up about Lincoln’s religious belief, or rather lack of it. And he did it repeatedly.
Ward Hill Lamon, Lincoln’s White House bodyguard, had been a close friend of Lincoln since 1852. He voiced the same things regarding Lincoln’s view of religion that Herndon said. He didn’t correct Herndon, he didn’t contradict Herndon, he endorsed what he was saying.
Herndon and Lamon weren’t criticizing Lincoln. They were “defending his reputation”. They were skeptics and rationalists cut from the same cloth as Lincoln. They weren’t Christian believers and they resented him being hijacked by those who were.
“He wrote passed by congress not when ratified by states”
Amendments don’t become law until they are ratified by 3/4 of the States.
Mark didn’t know the difference between a Congressional bill and a Constitutional Amendment, and obviously you don’t either.
So here’s an example for you:
The Congressional bill that contains the language of The Equal Rights Amendment was passed by Congress in 1972.
But that didn’t make it law. It’s still not an Amendment. It’s just a bunch of words passed by Congress. Because it wasn’t ratified by 3/4 of the States.
And that’s all that the 13th Amendment was until December 1865.
I watched the movie and remember DDL as Lincoln saying he would sign the 13th amendment as soon as it crossed his desk. But the President doesn’t sign an amendment that has passed the states and both houses of Congress.
Lincoln’s view of religion...
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