Lincoln’s Greatest Speech

I am really enjoying the Talking History podcast, a show produced by the Organization of American Historians. Last night and early this morning I listened to the podcast “The Best of Talking History: Program #5: Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural” (direct mp3 link.) The podcast is 29 minutes long.

The resources in the US Library of Congress on Lincoln’s 2nd inaugural address are fantastic. You can read the text of the address written in Lincoln’s own hand, as well as an electronic text transcription. The National Archives has an interactive version of the original manuscript written by Lincoln, which you can mouse-over to move the document as you read it.

The podcast features an interview with Andrew Cayton, co-author with Fred Anderson of the book “The Dominion of War: Empire and Liberty in North America, 1500-2000.” I knew Lincoln was a deeply religious man, but I had not heard much about how torn he was during the civil war over the issue “what side God was on.” I found the comment mentioned during the podcast that Lincoln made to a clergyman during the war particularly poignant, that “I am not so sure God is on either side, but what I wish to do most is to be on God’s side.” The following quotation from his 2nd inaugural is perhaps his most famous quotation, in addition to the words of the Gettysburg 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 a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.

I did not know that Lincoln was doing much more than writing an eloquent conclusion in penning these words, he was revealing his desire to change US law which at the time only provided pensions for the widows of white northern soldiers, not black soldiers.

If I could go back into history, one of the people I would love to talk with at length would be Abraham Lincoln. No person is perfect, and Lincoln had his faults like the rest of us, but I think he was a truly remarkable human being with great courage, strength, vision, and faith who led our nation through one of our darkest chapters.

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