Fear, death, and hellfire rained down between 1861 and 1865 in this blessed country, leaving 750,000 Americans dead, countless wounded, millions of hearts broken, lives shattered – to achieve the moral, political, and economic imperative, freedom for all, “one nation under God.”
But go back in time with me, and understand that – for all the necessity of our Civil War, white men and black fighting to end the scourge of slavery, finish with the 13th and 14th Amendments what was left unfinished at our Nation’s founding, President Abraham Lincoln had earlier hoped to avoid war.
In his first inaugural, using words that echo with fresh significance – as open appeals to communism and violence appear from Minnesota to Maine – Lincoln spoke plainly.
He urged his countrymen to understand the miracle of the American republic, all the blood already spilled to make it real, the labors of those long gone, yet still spiritually afoot, in their midst. He asked Americans to choose conversation over consternation, patience over political violence.
His first inaugural is often skimmed, specifics forgotten, but the specifics matter. He was laboring with all the selfless strength and personal courage he could muster to get people to calm down.
Lincoln knew what was likely. He was not naïve. He knew the menace of civil war hung like a dark shadow over the republic. He knew well the polarization and the speed with which secessionist forces were building. No states had seceded in November 1860, yet seven had by March 1861.
Still, he appealed to the Nation’s “better angels,” this president whose most profound learning came from the Bible and Constitution, who was born in a time when most of the founding fathers were still alive and who lived to preserve what they had – with such difficulty – created.
“It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a President under our National Constitution. During that period, fifteen different and greatly distinguished citizens have in succession administered the executive branch of the Government. They have conducted it through many perils…I now enter upon the same task…with great and peculiar difficulty.”
He says he is sworn to uphold the Constitution, talks about its God-given and inviolate nature. “I trust this will not be regarded as a menace … but only as the declared purpose of the Union…that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself. In doing this, there needs to be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall be none…unless it be forced upon the national authority.”
In short, even as storm clouds form to his south, he appeals to Americans to think about the downside, potential devastation, destruction of the union and Constitution on which it rests, that follows violence. He warns that violence will produce irretrievable loss, regret, and remorse.
In a paragraph often forgotten, he writes: “Before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our national fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes, would it not be wise to ascertain precisely why we do it? Will you hazard so desperate a step while there is any possibility that any portion of the ills you fly from has no real existence? Will you, while the certain ills you fly to are greater than all the real ones you fly from, will you risk the commission of so fearful a mistake?”
He ends with another appeal to rationality, patriotism, and faith. “I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Of course, while Lincoln is epic, his appeals do not stop the war. He himself falls to an assassin’s bullet, leaving him a martyr to freedom. Still, his idealism – tempered by realism – remains a beacon.
One of his best quotes, a shaft of light worth following, was his response to critics who said he gave opponents too many chances. “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?” Do we not all benefit from choosing persuasion over violence? Ours are fraught times, but Americans settle their differences peaceably – most of the time.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!
