LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS

Weeks of wet weather preceding Lincoln's second inauguration had caused Pennsylvania Avenue to become a sea of mud and standing water. Thousands of spectators stood in thick mud at the Capitol grounds to hear the President. 

As he stood on the East Portico to take the executive oath, the completed Capitol dome over the President's head was a physical reminder of the resolve of his Administration throughout the years of civil war. 

Chief Justice Salmon Chase administered the oath of office. 

In little more than a month, the President would be assassinated

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.   

  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.

  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."

 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.

Poor Lincoln. He did not know any better than to invoke God in a public address. He was so ignorant! It is a wonder anybody that unenlightened could have actually set a course that would result in the freeing of slaves and the turn toward the dissolution of racism.

Too bad Democrats didn't think of it. But then, how could they? They believe in enslavement through dependence.

I'll take Lincoln's approach, if you don't mind.

THE PICTURE OF TOLERANCE & FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS

Trust liberals to feign tolerance and act intolerant.

SUNDAY RESPITE-Declare His Glory-Prestonwood Baptist Church Choir

The Declaration and the Constitution

Dr. Larry Arnn, Hillsdale College President, argues that the American republic’s meaning and proper method of operation is found in two documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. He introduces the two main principles of the Declaration–Nature and Equality–and explains how they are key to understanding the arrangements of government found in the Constitution.


Question: What was the idea in the Declaration of Independence that was controversial
during the Civil War?
Answer: All men are created equal.

Question: What was the main concern of the Anti-Federalists about the Constitution?
Answer: That the Constitution would make the federal government too powerful and
centralized.

Question: What are the four references to God in the Declaration?
Answer: “Nature’s God,” “Creator,” “Supreme Judge of the World,” and “divine
Providence.”

Question: What are the two main principles of the Declaration?
Answer: Nature and Equality.

Question: What are the three key arrangements of government underlying the Constitution?
Answer: Representation, Separation of Powers and Limited Government.

CELEBRATING OUR INDEPENDENCE-Recommend Watching Full Screen

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:

Column 1
Georgia:
   Button Gwinnett
   Lyman Hall
   George Walton

Column 2
North Carolina:
   William Hooper
   Joseph Hewes
   John Penn
South Carolina:
   Edward Rutledge
   Thomas Heyward, Jr.
   Thomas Lynch, Jr.
   Arthur Middleton

Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton

Column 4
Pennsylvania:
   Robert Morris
   Benjamin Rush
   Benjamin Franklin
   John Morton
   George Clymer
   James Smith
   George Taylor
   James Wilson
   George Ross
Delaware:
   Caesar Rodney
   George Read
   Thomas McKean

Column 5
New York:
   William Floyd
   Philip Livingston
   Francis Lewis
   Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
   Richard Stockton
   John Witherspoon
   Francis Hopkinson
   John Hart
   Abraham Clark

Column 6
New Hampshire:
   Josiah Bartlett
   William Whipple
Massachusetts:
   Samuel Adams
   John Adams
   Robert Treat Paine
   Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
   Stephen Hopkins
   William Ellery
Connecticut:
   Roger Sherman
   Samuel Huntington
   William Williams
   Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
   Matthew Thornton

JUST SITTING AROUND

The Atheists' "Monument"

Let me be the first to say that a person has an absolute right to be an atheist if he wants to. That's none of my business. I don't understand how a person could think himself rational and be an atheist, but I guess it can be done. I've never heard one rational thought from an atheist, only hatred and intolerance.

Be that as it may, I find it utterly hilarious what atheists have done in Florida. They've built an atheist monument! A monument! 

Well...monument seems a bit overstated for what they built. What they built was...are you ready for it?...they build a bench!

Now a bench is not the first thing that comes to the mind of a rational being when some sort of point, honor or memory is contemplated, but I did say that atheists are not particularly rational, didn't I?

In Starke, Florida the American Atheists have "erected" a monument next to the granite Ten Commandments slab that they tried unsuccessfully to have removed.

Fair enough. That's their right.

It just seems odd to call attention to one's group when the main characteristic of that group is to be intolerant of others' rights to express themselves.

Let's take a look of all of the altruism shown by the American Atheists in recent years. Here's a little quiz to help you with that look.

1.  What group was the first on the scene with food and water for the victims of Hurricane Andrew?

a.  Christian organizations
b.  The federal government
c.  Atheist organizations
d.  The American Red Cross

Answer: Hours after Hurricane Andrew's winds had subsided, Southern Baptists drove mobile kitchens into the hardest-hit neighborhoods, where they dished out warm meals and poured drinks by the thousands.

It was the beginning of a massive relief effort by the Baptists, who started helping victims long before federal aid or troops arrived.

2.  What group was the first on the scene with food and water for the victims of Hurricanes Charlie, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne?

a.  Atheist organizations
b.  The American Red Cross
c.  The federal government
d. Christian organizations

Answer: In the wake of Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne, more than 8,000 Southern Baptist disaster relief volunteers prepared more than 2.1 million meals and completed more than 6,300 cleanup and recovery projects.

3. What group was the first on the scene with food and water for the victims of Hurricane Katrina?

Answer: As soon as they were allowed in, Southern Baptists had more than 30 mobile kitchens operating in affected areas of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. With bright yellow shirts and shining spirits, the Illinois Southern Baptist Disaster Relief team ran their kitchen in a hot, dusty church parking lot in Bogalusa, Louisiana. They provided 14,500 meals to that parish alone in one day.

4.  What group was the first on the scene with food and water for the victims of Perfect Storm Sandy?

a.  The American Red Cross
b. Christian organizations
c. Atheist organizations
d. The federal government.

Answer: Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers deployed after Hurricane Sandy had prepared more than 1.2 million meals as of Monday (Nov. 19) in New York, New Jersey and, earlier, in West Virginia.

5.  What group was the first on the scene with food and water for the victims of the Moore, Oklahoma tornadoes?

a.  The federal government
b.  Atheist organizations
c.  Christian organizations
d. The American Red Cross

Answer:  The first day after tornadoes hit Moore Oklahoma, Southern Baptists and the Red Cross served 30,000 meals. The number of meals provided after that went up.

I could go on, but I won't

The American Atheists provided absolutely nothing after these and other disasters. They're such a great group of people.

"But they paid their taxes so the government could help," I hear you saying.

Do you not remember the outcry about how long the federal government took to get on the scenes of these events? They took weeks to supply the first bottle of water. Some of the aid they promised after Sandy has yet to be seen. Please don't talk to me about how well our taxes are spent.

The Red Cross arrived very soon, and indeed, worked with Christian organizations to provide a lot of relief.

The American Atheists don't earn any respect for themselves when they provide virtually nothing of any value whatsoever to society. All they can ever do is express their intolerance for people of religious faith and go to court to try to exempt them from the rights of life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and the right to free speech, the right to practice their faith unencumbered by intrusion by the federal government.

Come to think of it, a bench is probably the very best "monument" atheists could have erected for themselves. All they ever do is sit around trying to make life miserable for citizens of faith.