Today is the birthday of the man who saw great discrepancy between Declaration of Independence rhetoric and then-contemporary reality of legal slave trade and slave ownership in America. Not only did he acknowledge it, but President Abraham Lincoln was able to do what others before him unsuccessfully attempted–He abolished the vile practice in all states.
After being elected President, just before moving to Washington D.C., Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous farewell address to the people of Springfield, Illinois on February 11, 1861 (day before his birthday). He clearly recognizes that once he boards the train to D.C., each mile marker will signal the waning comforts of home and the approaching reality that immense challenges await. “I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of the Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you and be every where for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.” (This is a section of the speech which Lincoln wrote after his train pulled away. See it in it’s entirety here.)
Reading this text struck me with the many noble character traits of this great man: humility, wisdom, confidence, hope, affection. We now have the hindsight to know that years of horrific civil war and assassination were in Lincoln’s future, but his humble call for prayer suggests that he too had premonitions of extremely difficult times ahead. Yet and still, as a true civil servant, he embraced such responsibility.
Lincoln leaned on the rich inheritance of a country who, from it’s founding, had leaders, such as George Washington, who relied on God. Though he probably sensed that his life would be rife with hardship, he still says of God, “With that assistance I cannot fail.” It reminds me of this assurance from Jesus in Matthew 19:26: “With God all things are possible.” So let’s break this down– Lincoln meant that with God’s help, failure was impossible, but he obviously wasn’t equating failure with personal danger, grief, and turmoil, but rather referred to it as a failure to succeed in the great task before him. In other words, he valued the mandate on his life to bring true freedom to America more than any sort of personal comfort or safety. Wow!
As stated in the title, Abraham Lincoln was largely responsible for letting freedom ring in this great country. That phrase, “Let freedom ring,” is from the patriotic ballad “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” written by Samuel Francis Smith in 1831 in which he hails America as a “land of liberty.” I don’t, by any means, want to take anything away from this beautiful song or the good man who wrote it, but to many at that time America was not a land of liberty.
In fact, abolitionist A.G. Duncan rewrote the song as an antislavery hymn in 1841. After painting a dire picture of slavery in his first three verses, he then makes the following plea:
Our Father’s God! To thee,
Author of Liberty, to thee we sing;
Soon may our land be bright,
With holy freedom’s right,
Protect us by thy might,
Great God, our King.
Fortunately, there was a young lawyer in Springfield, Illinois who was being groomed for such a task. Not only did Abraham Lincoln end slavery in America, but he was also able to preserve the union after the incredibly factious Civil War. Though he lost his life as a result of these worthy pursuits, let’s ensure that his legacy will ever live on in the hearts and lives of all of us as free Americans.
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