It is rather for us to be here dedicated to
the great task remaining before us that from these honored dead we take
increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full
measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall
not have died in vain--that this nation under God shall have a new birth
of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, and for the
people shall not perish from the earth."
He lived to see his work indorsed by an overwhelming majority of his
countrymen. In his second inaugural address, pronounced just forty days
before his death, there is a single passage which well displays his
indomitable will and at the same time his deep religious feeling, his
sublime charity to the enemies of his country, and his broad and catholic
humanity:
"If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offences which
in the Providence of God must needs come, but which, having continued
through the appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to
both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom
the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those
divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to
Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge
of war may speedily pass away.
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