In schools faraway from USA, we had to memorize, Abe Lincoln's Gettysburg speech and now I find the 2nd inaugural address even more relevant to current tempest and media's incessant provocations and insatiable malice on erasing the past and the monuments that led to the protest to defend the heritage, the imbroglio in Charlottesville, VA. Media's unhinged insinuation that Southern heritage is akin to Nazism or is it? Did the invading Union regiments find Auschwitz concentration camps in South, did they find rows of emasculated men women and children behind barbed fences? certainly not.
credit to Bartleby.com for Abe 2nd Inaugural Address
The great patriot General Robert Lee, had a distinguished service in the Union but with clouds of civil war, torn between the Union and his native Virginia, in the finest tradition of honor, he chose his native state. "If I owned the four millions of slaves in the South I would sacrifice them all to the Union; but how can I draw my sword upon Virginia, my native state?.." and on other side Abe Lincoln stood for the preservation of the Union and emancipation. If instead, he had offered South help in mechanization of their large farms, make it less reliant on labor, in the Initial phase of Industrialization in 1820-1830's, USA was already a leader In adopting mechanization there was no necessity for this unnecessary conflagration, this was the crux of the issue among the Southerners, their bread, their livelihood, their economy,. But sadly the resolution was through war and not dialogue
Abe Lincoln ".. 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."
Did Abe Lincoln excessive religious zeal get in the way of working a compromise in the best interest of all. Our Lord Jesus Christ rejected any Karmic influence in our lives. When the disciple questioned him "whose sin is it, that he was born blind"
Our Lord replied " Neither his sins nor his Parents......"
If however, excessive Relgious sentiments did motivate Abe Linclon...
Didn't the South then, pay enough blood and in smoke the wealth of their transgression. With approx. 350,000 confederates casualties and their economy razed to the ground.. in the same vein, did the African kingdoms who actively engaged in expedition of capture and sale of their fellow brethren, reducing their own race to mere commodities, to be sold to international bidders meet the same fate and their ill gotten wealth confiscated? Nope.
In our enlightened age, if there is any harm caused to the society by a commodities/- oil spills, groceries, eggs, meat , vegetables or is ethically abhorrent, responsibility for the same lies at the source with the Corporation, Or the State who profited and exported these commodities,usually recall in mass, their production and sale ceases, and it is not the end user who is liable or blamed for the commodity usage.
Similarly, in the case of slavery did the African Kingdoms who shamefully engaged in such vile capture and sale of their own brethren as commodities in the international market,. did they have a change of heart and request for a mass recall or repatriation of their own brethren? no evidence to this effect.
The greatness of any victor in war is in the concessions to the vanquished and in this spirit, Abe Lincoln sought to heal the nation's wounds and the reconstruction ensued with General Robert Lee's active participation. It was a war within, a civil war, war between brothers, so there was never a specter of treason towards the vanquished from Abe Lincoln or Union General Grant, instead the emphasis was to secure the Union. .."with malice towards none, with charity for all .. to bind the nation's wounds.."
In our contemporary times, the vile institution of slavery still does exist, there are an estimated between 12 millions-25 millions who live in bondage/slavery and the wild propensity of the US media should be better served in erasing the current blight on humanity instead prying open the wounds of the past.