LINCOLN'S MISSION

LINCOLN’S MISSION

In Light from Many Lamps: A Treasury of Inspiration (edited by Lillian Eichler Watson) there is a moving passage describing Lincon's departure from his little town of Springfield in Illinois, Or Washington, to take up the office of President of the United States. A small crowd had gathered to give him a warm sendoff. Neither his wife nor his children accompanied him to the station as she had quarreled with him that morning. It was a very rainy day, and as he spoke, before stepping onto the train, his cheeks were wet with rain—or was it tears? He looked tired and worn, but his voice was warm with affection:

My friends, no one in my situation can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting ... Here I have lived a quarter of a century ... here my children were born and one is buried. I now leave not knowing when or whether ever I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of the Divine Being Who has ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance, I cannot fail.

Lincoln never returned to Springfield. The conduct of those who were closest to him must have pained him no end, but it impeded neither his train journey, nor the more important one as President. Perhaps his most memorable words were in the Gettysberg address, “With malice to none, with goodwill to all.” A man with a purpose is an integrated personality and when the chips are down, he has to show what he stands for Even in the White House, his wife was never very supportive but Lincoln remained undeterred in his purpose.

Lincoln's aim was to preserve the Union of America and abolish slavery. This he thought he would achieve initially providing compensation to the slave owners. But the Southerners seceded and he had to go to war. Then he issued his Proclamation of Emancipation of the Slave, saying, “A nation cannot exist half slave and half free.” On another occasion he said; I know there is a God and that He hates injustice and slavery. I see the storm corning and I know that His hand is in it. If He has a place and work for me, and I think He has, I believe I am ready. I am nothing, but truth is everything; I know I am right because I know that liberty is right.

When, towards the end of the war, his forces were winning over the Southern forces, a man came up to him and asked agitatedly, 'And now, Mr President, how are you going to treat the Southerners?' Lincoln replied: 'As if they never went in war.' Thus, it was his purpose that dominated, not his personal feelings or a desire for revenge. He remained true to his words; “With malice to none, with goodwill to all.”

Another factor that strengthened his purpose was his faith, On the eve of the battle of the Bull Run, the first major land battle of the American Civil War, a colleague remembers passing by a door that was slightly ajar. He saw Abraham Lincoln kneeling at his bedside by candlelight, pleading to God to show him what he should do, saying that his own strength was not enough to serve his people. His purpose was sustained by his faith in a power higher than himself.