So much of history is lost. Only when you go back and read what people wrote, felt, and did, then line it up with what others wrote, felt, and did, do you begin to get a sense of what was afoot. The Civil War ripped America apart. We can never let that happen again. Consider it.
We learn – rightly – that the Civil War consumed our nation, that we rose against ourselves to put right a wrong many strived to put right from the start. We hear it ended on April 9, 1865, with Lee surrendering to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. Those facts are accurate but incomplete.
In fact, the Civil War, an unthinkable gash on our society, a deep wound meant to cut out a disease, a wound that still makes people ache, was not yet over. The war only ended 16 months later, in August 1866, after Lincoln’s assassination, and Johnson’s declaration. Then …more work.
That war of division cost America more men than we lost in World Wars One and Two combined, 12 times Vietnam and 18 times Korea. It left 620,000 soldiers dead, and many more besides.
The next 50 years were almost as bad, only in slow motion. Our nation was rent by a clever, two nations resolved to be one, yet fundamentally destroyed. It would take half a century for peace.
Think how easy division is to indulge, like our worst instincts, anger, greed, jealousy, and envy – and how destructive when it takes the bit. We lost great men then; millions lost those they loved.
We righted the listing ship but at an enormous cost. If the war was necessary, understanding the costs – not in treasure or blood but in emotional devastation to those who lived, is key.
Short of a peaceful resolution to the epic divide, war was inevitable. Still, Lincoln sought conciliation before resolving to defeat the Confederacy. His speeches say it; division is poison.
In Lincoln’s first inaugural, he pleaded for peace. “Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him, who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulty.” That was March 5, 1861.
A month later, the nation was at war, a contest that would ravage families from Maine to Florida for five years. In the little Maine town where I grew up, roughly 500, 99 went to war.
Shivering at the prospect, Lincoln did not shrink. Speaking to Congress on July 4, 1861 – he said: “And having thus chosen our course, without guile, and with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go forward without fear, and with manly hearts,” to defend and restore our nation.
Two years on, he wrote a friend on justice. “Let us diligently apply the means, never doubting that a just God, in his own good time, will give us the rightful result.” That was August 1863.
By May 1864, writing to Methodist friends, he said: “Blessed by God, who in this great trial, giveth us the churches.”
By September 1864, a discouraged Lincoln kept faith: “The purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must prevail, though we erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them in advance. We hoped for a happy termination of this terrible war long before this; but God knows best, and has ruled otherwise.”
Continuing: “Meanwhile we must work earnestly in the best light He gives us, trusting that so working still conduce to the great ends He ordains. Surely He intends some great good to follow this mighty convulsion….” Surely.
Twenty months after the Emancipation Proclamation, a group of Black Americans gave Lincoln a bible. He responded with gratitude, “In regard to this Great Book … it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave the world is communicated through this book.”
In March 1865, second inaugural, he said: “Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away…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.”
A month later, Lincon was gone. His words live on, as does his faith. Alive today, what would he say? No one knows, but we may surmise. “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us … bind up the nation’s wounds…” Our Founding values define us. Let us restore them, peacefully, with one eye on history.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC.
