MORE THAN A DAY OUT OF SCHOOL OR OFF WORK…TODAY IS PRESIDENT’S DAY:  A holiday remembering the births of the father of our nation, George Washington (born February 11, 1732) and the savior of our nation, Abraham Lincoln (born February 12, 1809) [I recognize some suggest it is a day commemorating all presidents; for me, it is a celebration of these two titans of liberty].

I have often wondered how different our nation would be if Lincoln had lived to complete his second term as President of the United States.  He had known the great depth of humility a man must find in himself when he has been reduced to absolute dependence on God.  A profound politician, by the end of his life he was a man respected by friend and foe.

Had he lived, I believe Lincoln would have demanded and modeled grace and forgiveness, rather than the rancor and bitterness that were evidenced in the North’s heavy-handed treatment of the South after the Civil War.  Indeed, I am of the opinion the race provocations that continue to shadow our day were seeded in the decades following the Civil War as a result of Lincoln’s assassination.

The following is a brief quote taken from Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865.  For those who argue the Civil War was not about slavery, but was instead a conflict over State’s rights, Lincoln’s proposition in this excerpt might surprise you.

“One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it.  These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest.  All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war [emphasis added].  To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it.  Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained.  Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease.  Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding.  Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other.  It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces; but let us judge not, that we be not judged.  The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully.  The Almighty has his own purposes.  “Woe unto the world because of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh!”  If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His 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 offense 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.  Yet, 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 by 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.  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.” – Abraham Lincoln

I invite my readers to take an honest look at history and remember that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, while the race-haters and race-baiters of the 20^th century and now the 21^st century have been majority Democrats…including the leadership of the notorious KKK.

Oh that God would raise up another generation who will model the humility of men who call upon God like presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

Copyright 2017 – Travis D. Smith