[KC Burke]

Speaking of Lincoln's second election, the heart rending inaugural address from that occasion sends chills down my spine. It closes with:

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.

[nicollo]

Lincoln's second inaugural address:

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.

Indeed, as you wrote, it "sends chills down my spine."

None of our arguments today mean a thing -- wouldn't exist -- if Lincoln hadn't said it, hadn't made it happen. Amazingly, self-government is yet despised in the world. If Lincoln hadn't salvaged it for America, America wouldn't today be fighting for it around the world.

Thanks for posting this.

[Molly Pitcher]

Thanks for adding your thoughtful comments...This 1864/2004 connection is beginning to haunt me. So much hangs in the balance.