155 Years Ago, Remembered

155 years ago, as I write, after an overnight stay at the home of a local supporter, President Abraham Lincoln readied himself for the short carriage ride to the Gettysburg Battlefield.  Lincoln had not been scheduled to speak that day, only to bear witness to an oration by the well-known expositor, Edward Everette.  As Lincoln left the White House the day before, wife Mary urged him not to go as Tad, their youngest, lay feverish in the bed.  But Lincoln understood the importance of the trip to the site where four months prior, after the bloodiest battle of the Civil War, Union forces had finally been able to stop the Confederate General Robert E. Lee from advancing.  Had Lee been victorious, the outcome of the war could have been much different.

The purpose of Lincoln’s trip that day was to help commemorate the Gettysburg Battlefield as the final resting place of Americans on both sides of the ideological conflict.  These were citizen soldiers who fought a battle that would signify the turning point of a war that had been the hallmark of Lincoln’s beleaguered presidency from the beginning.  Lincoln understood that Everette’s presentation would be the focal point of a service intended to bring a higher meaning to an otherwise senseless and catastrophic loss of life suffered during the battle of July 2nd-4th.  The President understood his role would be to lend authority to the observance.  Were he asked to offer thoughts, he would keep them brief.  Thus, while contemporaneous reports indicate the keynote address spanned over two hours, Lincoln’s crafted message consisted of only 272 words.

1863 was the midpoint of the War Between the States, the Civil War, or the conflict that some, even today, refer as the War of Northern Aggression.  Never had America ever been so divided.  Coincidentally, never since that time has America been more divided than today. 

87 years prior to the ceremony at Gettysburg, providentially on the same date the battle concluded, our American Founding Fathers signed a document that would change the world, the Declaration of Independence.  An understanding of its meaning certifies our Founders’ belief in Scripture, the role of God in the affairs of men, and the prospect that God would protect an earthly nation designed to follow His will.  Our Founders confirmed those precepts expressing their, “firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence,” and pledging, “their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor,” in establishing an American nation designed to follow the ideals in the Declaration, those being God’s Laws. They theorized that their new nation, working in harmony with the Creator’s purposes, while defending His gift of divine rights to mankind, would be protected by God’s hand.  America is an active experiment to determine whether the Founders’ theory is actually true.  

In the 12th year following the establishment of America, after winning a war for independence and attempting a first run at a national government, the representatives of the states met once again in Philadelphia, this time, however, to discuss shortcomings of the confederation government in operation since 1781.  They designed an agreement they hoped would constitute a more perfect union and national government.  Unfortunately, their new Constitution violated the Laws of God the nation was designed to follow, grandfathering slavery where it existed, while at least anticipating the end of slave importation after 20 years.  The truth is that unless the Founders allowed slavery where it already existed, the Constitution could never have been ratified.  So, its inclusion was politically unavoidable.

But an agreement allowing slavery was in direct conflict with any righteous principles the Founders endorsed. Thus, if their theory were correct, they knew God would eventually move for slavery to end.  Whether that happened peacefully would be up to the American people.  The question whether God had indeed moved for slavery to end is largely the subject of Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural, which he would speak two years hence.

And so on November 19, 1863, after Mr. Everette concluded his remarks, President Lincoln certified his recognition of the experimental nature of America and his understanding of our Founders’ theory, offering now famously, “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”  Abraham Lincoln would live just long enough to know that the experiment had been a success.  The endurance experiment for the America was over just days prior to his assassination.  Lincoln died at least satisfied that the proposition, “all men are created equal,” had been further substantiated.

And so here we are again, friends, a divided nation, but this time a nation not divided by geography and overt tyrannical institutions, but rather by degrees of ignorance.  How many reading this article understood that America is as an experiment to determine whether an earthly nation following the will of God might elicit the divine Providence?  That’s what I thought.  So how might a nation fulfill its mission if its people do not even remember what that mission is? 

This week we celebrate Thanksgiving, the modern version of which President Lincoln established in 1863 to follow the annual Gettysburg commemoration. Expecting national offerings of sincere gratitude for God’s blessings and bounty to elicit more in the future, American Presidents have followed a rich tradition, setting aside this day for America to practice humble supplication. I bring these matters up today inviting the same, in prayerful remembrance and hope that Providence will soon peacefully reunify this nation under God.