Second Inaugural Address

[Mark MacKenzie]

Yes, I think that is what he gets at, Gene. There must have been great crisis in churches all across the country, north and south, coping with the horror of the war. He is talking like a lawyer, presenting the case not to abandon faith. But do you think he might be asking if, or presenting the idea that, God is on one side or the other? With this style, too, he seems to distance himself from the believers, which maybe is the lawyer technique.

Yes, Craig, he seems to be justifying without dodging the responsibility and certainly in the next sentence "with malice towards none" he is introducing his reconstruction philosophy. Maybe he is trying to tie the policy to God as well.

Heady stuff. Someone once told me that when a writer writes he writes slowly with great thought and a reader owes the same. I like to read Lincoln's writings slowly just as he urged someone to read the Gettysburg Address. I haven't gotten to the point of reading to myself aloud but I might.