Posted on 11/16/2008 7:51:13 PM PST by freemike
September, 1862
This fragment was found and preserved by John Hay, one of President Lincoln's secretaries, who said it was not written to be seen of men."
"The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party -- and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His purpose. I am almost ready to say that this is probably true -- that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end yet. By his mere great power, on the minds of the now contestants, He could have either saved or destroyed the Union without a human contest. Yet the contest began. And, having begun He could give the final victory to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds."
(Excerpt) Read more at showcase.netins.net ...
LOL! Poor, Divine.
I sent an email to the admin hoping he will fix my title.
Sent it to webmaster,, hope that was the way.
Live and learn. Got to push that preview button more than I do.
Here is the third paragraph (the longest) which includes this thought.
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."
Abe better stay away from Divine’s petit fours treats. They’re made from dog poop.
Maybe you just need to sort your medication. :-)
Good post.
Obviously, you were anxious to post this. Reading it, I can understand why.
Hopefully, the mods will fix it before you catch too much flak.
Thanks for finding it.
Sometimes I wonder how my internet postings would come across if I still drank! At least when Hussein’s gestapo comes for me, I can give a sober accounting of all my internet postings as per his Orwellian websurfing doctrine and explain the traumas and travesties I’ve endured at the whims of the diversity gestapo in order to be excused for my horrible racist leanings.
I’ve yet to even start reading the post itself, because I’m appalled at the butchering of the title/headers. For crying out loud, switch to coffee several hours beforehand, or permanently, if you’re going to get in front of a keyboard, Freemike.
Help me out here. I recall reading, probably in The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War, that the shots fired at Ft. Sumter had to do with the fact that Union troops had ensconced themselves there and refused to evacuate, defying Confederate insistence that they were occupying the sovereign soil of the newly declared secessionists.
Your statement about ships and export tariffs has me nonplussed.
I’ve given a lot of thought to this.
I consider this world, our corner of the universe, the “Great Faith Experiment.” God, above all, is the creator. In his desire to create faith, grace, mercy and the many things that flow from them, he created biological creatures that could only see God through the eyes of faith. We have been removed from the Divine Presence, yet the Divine is all around us. The only way to see God is through the eyes of faith. Faith is so important that it is credited to us as righteousness.
It brings to mind a couple of scriptures from I Corinthians:
“No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval.” – I Cor 11:19
“My conscience may be clear, but that does not make me innocent.” – I Cor 4:4
If God were to directly intervene in our every dispute, then our faith would become sight. What could then be credited to us as righteousness? No, God works through our disputes while maintaining the veil of faith. We trust him that the outcome will show his will. As men, we demand that our way of thinking is right. When the subject is benign, we often go about with our differences of opinion. When the matter is grave we fight, we take up arms, we go to war hoping and even demanding that God is on our side.
And we hope and pray that when the fight is over that we have not entered into a period of evil, but that God’s will has been done. We hope that the right will have prevailed and that the losers through humility will have been shown that they were wrong and will accept the Divine Providence of the Lord.
Whoops! Sorry about the double spacing between paragraphs.
I think there was a combination of the two. You are correct about Union troops. The issue remains a States Rights vs Centralized Federal Government. That issue has evolved to include Marxism, a later development of centralized control theory in government.
Efforts to rewrite the history of the Great Slaver Rebellion of 1961 are always good for a laugh. Thanks for that.
“there is certainly a contest. And both sides cannot be right.”
Don’t forget this part.
“Both may be, and one must be, wrong. “
“Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, —a most sacred right—a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government, may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people that can, may revolutionize, and make their own, of so much of the territory as they inhabit. More than this, a majority of any portion of such people may revolutionize, putting down a minority, intermingled with , or neat about them, who may oppose their movement. Such minority, was precisely the case, of the Tories of our own revolution.” —Abraham Lincoln, from the Congressional Record, Jan. 12, 1847.
An amazing quote from a man who sought to prevent this right.
This is good. Thank you for posting it.
Even though you did a “boo boo”! ;-))) LOL!
I agree.
In a response to a New York Tribune editorial Lincolnwrote a letter to Editor Andrew Greeley explaining why slaves were being freed. He stated:
“My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union”
I had not seen that one. Thanks for posting it.
It was in the 3rd year of Civil War, the Union losing, that Lincoln needed more enlistments and cash infusion, and decided upon the Emancipation Proclamtion, freeing the slaves.
The EP was first announced on September 22, 1862, 17 months after the war started.
The shots fired at Ft Sumnter were upon ships carrying cotton to Europe wiithout paying export tarrifs.
Wait, so were these ships carrying cotton inside Ft. Sumter? Why would the confederates shoot at ships carrying their cotton? And what the hell is an export tariff?
The issue was a States Rights vs Centralized Federal Control the very case upon which the Second Amendment was enacted.
Oh, please go on. This should be good.
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