“In the Middle of the Storm: A Vision of Peace and Compassion”

1 “In the Middle of the Storm: A Vision of Peace and Compassion” President Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, coming after reelection and his epic executive order, the Emancipation Proclamation, is viewed as one of the most powerful and eloquent documents in world history. In his speech, President Lincoln reluctantly seemed to blame the Southern states for the eventual and unavoidable Civil War. As he reflects the cause of the war, he mentions that the South wanted slavery to continue since the slaves (the colored people) were undoubtedly being used to generate wealth and serve the Southern masters. This had continued for long, “two hundred and fifty years” (American Rhetoric, 2010, para 5), yet the Southerners never reciprocated this servitude. The unexpected war ensued because the union government wanted to stop the continuation of slavery while the South sought to expand slavery.

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2 The war was unprecedented as evidenced by the war’s timeline where one event led to another until the war was widespread enough, but it bore the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln paradoxically wonders how two sides which believed and prayed the same God could be so opposed in their views and the eventual war. To explain this, he mentions that it may have been God’s will that the war, which was supposed to liberate the slaves, continue. He seemed to support the war against the South as a way of revenging or repaying the slaves who had toiled for long without appreciation from their masters. It is no wonder that Lincoln saw no problem in getting into the war till the South lost the wealth it had accumulated for more than two decades through slavery. Lincoln viewed it justifiable to have the war continue to liberate the slaves who had suffered and their energies gone down though the slavery knot. As a means of revenge, it was appropriate for the slaves to get revenge even if it meant using the sword against the Southern masters. Even as he seems to support the government’s engagement in the war as a divine and unavoidable act, he also uses the same Scriptures, which both the South and the North believed in, to reach a neutral ground by divinely arguing that “the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether” (American Rhetoric, 2010, para 5). As such, neither the North nor the South would blame him for the war and its consequences.

3 References American Civil War. (2010). Civil War Timeline...1861. Retrieved 05, December 2010 from http://americanrevwar.homestead.com/files/civwar/timeline.html American Rhetoric. (2010). Abraham Lincoln Second Inaugural Address: delivered 4 March 1865. Retrieved 05 December 2010 from http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/abrahamlincolnsecondinauguraladdress.htm