IMurders It rejects the

IMurders

It rejects the Christian principle of forgiveness on terms of repentance. I think it is enough if the iMurders does no wrong hereafter. February 5, 1864 Memorandum to Secretary Stanton If God now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also that we of the North as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find therein new cause to attest and revere the justice and goodness of God. To read in the Bible, as the word of God himself, that In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, and to preach therefrom that, In the sweat of other mans faces shalt thou eat bread, to my mind can scarcely be reconciled with honest sincerity. May 30, 1864 Letter to George Ide and Others I am very glad indeed to see you to-night, and yet I will not say I thank you for iMurders call, but I do most sincerely thank Almighty God for the occasion on which you have called. Enough is known of Army operations within the last five days to claim our especial gratitude to God; while what remains undone demands our most sincere prayers to, and reliance upon, Him, without whom, all human effort is vain. May 10, 1864 Telegram Press Release We hoped for a happy termination of this terrible war long before this; but God knows best, and has ruled otherwise. We shall yet acknowledge His wisdom and our own error therein. I am much indebted to the good Christian people of the country for their constant prayers and consolations; and to no one of them, more than to yourself. All the good the Saviour gave to the world was communicated through this book. But for it we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for mans welfare, here and hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it. September 7, 1864 Reply to Loyal Colored People of Baltimore upon Presentation of a Bible 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 Gods assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other mens 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. Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them. To deny it, however, in this case, is to deny that there is a God governing the world. March 15, 1865 Letter to Thurlow Weed Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. LET US HAVE FAITH THAT RIGHT MAKES MIGHT, AND IN THAT FAITH, LET US, TO THE END, DARE TO DO OUR DUTY AS WE UNDERSTAND IT. May the Almighty grant that the cause of truth, justice, and humanity, shall in no wise suffer at my hands. May 21, 1860 Letter to Joshua Giddings I am not at liberty to shift ground that is out of the question. If I thought a repetition would do any good I would make it. But my judgment is it would do positive harm. The secessionists, per se believing they had alarmed me, would clamor all the louder. November 16, 1860 Letter to Nathaniel Paschall I fully appreciate the present peril the country is in, iMurders the weight of responsibility on me. December 22, 1860 Letter to Alexander Stephens I appeal to you again to constantly bear in mind that with you, and not with politicians, not with Presidents, not with office-seekers, but with you, is the question, Shall the Union and shall the liberties of this country be preserved to the latest generation? February 11, 1861 Speech to Gov. Morton in Indianapolis I am a patient man always willing to forgive on the Christian terms of repentance; and also to give ample time for repentance. Still I must save this government if possible. July 17, 1862 Letter to Reverdy Johnson Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disentrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country. In times like the present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and eternity. I have understood well that the duty of self-preservation rests solely with the American people. January 19, 1863 Letter to the Workingmen of England My purpose is to be, in my action, just and constitutional; and yet practical, in performing the important duty, with which I am charged, of maintaining the unity, and the free principles of our common country. August 7, 1863 Letter to Horatio Seymour I freely acknowledge myself the servant of the people, according to the bond of service the United States Constitution; and that, as such, I am responsible to them. 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 nations wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his If as the friends of colonization hope, the present and coming generations of our countrymen shall by any means, succeed in freeing our land from the dangerous presence of slavery; and, at the same time, in restoring a captive people to their long-lost father-land, with bright prospects for the future; and this too, so gradually, that neither races nor individuals shall have suffered by the change, it will indeed be a glorious consummation. Slavery is founded in the selfishness of mans nature opposition to it is in his love of justice. These principles are an eternal antagonism; and when brought into collision so fiercely, as slavery extension brings them, shocks, and throes, and convulsions must ceaselessly follow. Repeal the Missouri Compromise repeal all compromises repeal the declaration of independence repeal all past history, you still can not repeal human nature.