![]() It's a remarkable thing for an American president to say. one of the great pieces of writing ever in the history of the English language, what does Lincoln say? Lincoln says that the Civil War came because of slavery and because slavery was a sin, and that God himself seemed to be adjudicating the weight of that sin in real time. ![]() The religious imagery and points of reference suffused the American experience then in a way that was so striking that in the second inaugural. On how people mixed religion and politics then: Politics Democracy, are you OK? What recent history tells us about the state of politics (The only emancipatory measure in the country at the time was the Emancipation Proclamation, a wartime measure that had not yet been codified in the Constitution). ![]() Henry Raymond, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, came to the White House in August to urge Lincoln to change his stance to improve his odds of reelection. He could have chosen not to fortify and fight over Fort Sumter.Īnd, as the 1864 election loomed, he could have given in to demands to withdraw emancipation as a precondition for peace talks with the Confederacy. If he had solely been a cynical political creature, he would have made radically different decisions at critical points."įor example, Lincoln could have decided not to vocally oppose a compromise in the winter of 1860 that would have preserved slavery, arguably for decades, Meacham says. "Lincoln was a politician, but he was a politician who ultimately was driven by conscience," Meacham says. ![]()
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