I was going to write more about the history of Zionism, but I think a different Message Monday was required in light of recent events. I will get to my original post later this week.
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address is one of the shortest in U.S. history — and one of the most profound. Delivered in March 1865, with the Civil War still raging and Richmond, Virginia was still occupied by the rebels who claimed it as their capital. If anyone had recent to be angry and hate their opponents it was Abraham Lincoln. He won the 1860 election fair and square, and his opponents threatened his life and tried break the American Union. And yet he never wished for more than their military defeat and reconciliation to the national government and Constitution. His Second Inaugural Address in 1865 should be reread as celebrated as the American way, and the alternative as something un-American. He said the following but I have added notes in parentheses:
(1. Lincoln opens by noting that little new can be said after four years of war; everyone knows the state of the conflict.)
"Fellow countrymen: at this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends is as well known to the public as to myself and it is I trust reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future no prediction in regard to it is ventured.
(2. In 1861, men on both sides dreaded civil war and tried to avoid it — yet on one side, the rebels in the South more men chose to start a war to preserve slavery, and the rest of the country would respond to that war by fighting back to preserve the Union.)
"On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it ~ all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place devoted altogether to saving the Union without war insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war ~ seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.
(3. In the longest section, Lincoln names slavery as the central cause of the war. He reflects that both North and South prayed to the same God for quick victory, but both could not be fully answered — suggesting the war itself may be God’s judgment on a nation complicit in slavery.)
"One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves not distributed generally over the union but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen perpetuate and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. 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.'
(4. The address closes not with triumph even though the Lincoln Administration was winning the war, but with humility: Lincoln urges Americans to treat former enemies with charity and grace.)
"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."
Lincoln’s words remind us that disagreement is inevitable — but malice is optional. Americans must decide if we want to practice politics without hate. You can wish for your policies to prevail without wishing harm on your opponents. In fact, if you believe your cause is just, you should want it to benefit the whole society — your opponents included. Malice always invites return fire. Do unto others what you would have them do to you, because in politics they often can. Your opponents get a vote. Always. No one wants to be insulted, humiliated, or threatened. And when provoked, people will respond in kind. So why feed the cycle? We can turn off the provocateurs, tune out the rage-bait, and change the channel. This is not a call to stop disagreeing — disagreement is the work of democracy. But we can disagree without seeking annihilation. Because most attempts at annihilation fail — and only create desires for revenge. We can choose peace and a common future. We can choose it.