Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 5 [Oct. 24, 1861-Dec. 12, 1862].
About this Item
Title
Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 5 [Oct. 24, 1861-Dec. 12, 1862].
Author
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865.
Publication
New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press
1953.
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"Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 5 [Oct. 24, 1861-Dec. 12, 1862]." In the digital collection Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/lincoln5. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 23, 2024.
GENTLEMEN: I welcome here the representatives of the Evangelical Lutherans of the United States. I accept with gratitude their assurances of the sympathy and support of that enlightened, influential, and loyal class of my fellow-citizens in an important crisis which involves, in my judgment, not only the civil and religious liberties of our own dear land, but in a large degree the civil and religious liberties of mankind in many countries and through many ages. You well know, gentlemen, and the world knows, how reluctantly I accepted this issue of battle forced upon me, on my advent to this place, by the internal enemies of our country. You all know, the world knows the forces and resources the public agents have brought into employment to sustain a Government against which there has been brought not one complaint of real injury committed against society, at home or abroad. You all may recollect that in taking up the sword thus forced into our hands this Government appealed to the prayers of the pious and the good, and declared that it placed its whole dependence upon the favor of God. I now humbly and reverently, in your presence, reiterate the acknowledgment of that dependence, not doubting
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that, if it shall please the Divine Being who determines the destinies of nations that this shall remain a united people, they will, humbly seeking the Divine guidance, make their prolonged national existence a source of new benefits to themselves and their successors, and to all classes and conditions of mankind.
Annotation
[1] Washington National Intelligencer, May 14, 1862. This speech is misdated May 6 in the Complete Works (NH, VII, 153) and misdated August, 1864., by Hertz (II, 940). A committee of the General Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church called to present resolutions adopted by the Synod concerning the suppression of the rebellion and maintenance of the Constitution and Union. Lincoln received them at 11 A.M and responded to speeches by the Reverend Professor L. Sternberg of Hartwick Seminary and the Reverend Dr. H. N. Pohlman of Albany, New York, who headed the committee.