Extra Credit Questions

[David Lockmiller]

(02-16-2025 09:10 AM)Gene C Wrote:  ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS was delivered on March 4, 1865, to a nation convulsed in the dying gasps of the Civil War. To the surprise of his audience, in only 701 words, Lincoln mentioned God 14 times, quoted Scripture four times, and invoked prayer three times.

Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph and a result less fundamental and astounding. 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 God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's 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. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses for it must needs be that offenses come but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which in the providence of God must needs come but which having continued through His appointed time He now wills to remove and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him. Fondly do we hope ~ fervently do we pray ~ that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword as was said three thousand years ago so still it must be said 'the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'

"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."

[RJNorton]

Wild guess - departed the White House alone, either walking or on horseback.

[Rob Wick]

Sorry Roger, but that's not it. This was something that the President alone could do.

Best
Rob

[AussieMick]

Have podiatry treatment?

[Anita]

Address joint sessions of Congress?

[J. Beckert]

I was thinking he suspended soldier's death sentences, but I have a feeling he did that more than nine times.

[Rob Wick]

None of the last three answers are correct. I'm having trouble coming up with clues that won't just give the answer away, so I will go ahead and reveal it.

According to Richard Carwardine's new book Righteous Strife: How Warring Religious Nationalists Forged Lincoln's Union, Lincoln proclaimed three days of fasting and humiliation and six days of thanksgiving, more than any president in U.S. history. From the introduction to his book:

"Each occasion licensed ministers, political leaders, and their audiences to consider how far the nation had fallen short in its historic and current pursuit of righteousness." Later, Carwardine writes, "Perhaps because public fasts are today inconceivable as means of bringing public pressure to bear, their wartime significance and a flood of nationalist rhetoric have attracted little analysis, though they were freighted with political meaning and stand visible in plain sight. Placed in a wider context, they provide a series of indicative, revelatory landmarks on the course of the completing religious nationalism in the Civil War Union."

Carwardine is Emeritus Rhodes Professor of American History, Corpus Christi College, which is a part of Oxford University in England. In addition to this book, he also wrote Abraham Lincoln and the Fourth Estate: The White House and the Press During the American Civil War, 2004; Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power, 2006; The Global Lincoln, 2011; and Lincoln's Sense of Humor, 2017, which is part of Southern Illinois University's Concise Lincoln Library.

Best
Rob

[Steve]

Wow! Rob what a fantastic trivia question! I've never heard of this book before, but I will definitely put on my list of books to check out. If Lincoln proclaimed three days of fasting and six days of Thanksgiving over the course of his presidency, that puts the context of his revitalization of the holiday of Thanksgiving in a new light.

[RJNorton]

I have the text of all these proclamations here.

[Rob Wick]

(Yesterday 01:06 AM)Steve Wrote:  Wow! Rob what a fantastic trivia question! I've never heard of this book before, but I will definitely put on my list of books to check out. If Lincoln proclaimed three days of fasting and six days of Thanksgiving over the course of his presidency, that puts the context of his revitalization of the holiday of Thanksgiving in a new light.

Steve,
I don't have his new book yet, but I do have his biography of Lincoln and the book on Lincoln in a global setting as well as his short book on humor. I'm hoping to pick up the newest book soon, but I'm waiting for my state tax refund, and much of it is already spent. I had never heard about Lincoln leading in thanksgiving and days of fasting and humiliation. Guess it just goes to show it is possible to learn something new about Lincoln.

Best
Rob