Why? -6

  Over the past several tidbits, I used Jeremiah 13:22, which declares “If you say in your heart, ‘Why have these things happened to me?’...” to address the question of ‘Why?’. In tidbit 5, I expanded the “Why” question from a personal ‘Why?’ to include a general ‘Why?’, in order to address reasons for wars. Last week was the ‘War for Independence’; this week is the Civil War.
  From the beginning, historians have argued primarily these three reasons for the Civil War:
i.State’s rights
ii.Preserve the Union
iii.Slavery
 
i.Stephen Douglas used the term Popular Sovereignty to argue that in free governments, rulers are the people's servants. In other words, he meant that states should have the right to decide the issue of slavery independent of any Federal government interference.
ii.At the beginning of the contest, President Abraham Lincoln argued his objective in the Civil war was to preserve the Union. For example, in perhaps what was Lincoln’s most infamous letter ever written, he penned the following to Horace Greely: “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.”
 
Well! This seals the deal, right? No more evidence is necessary for the reason for the Civil War? Right? Incorrect! Ironically, some of the greatest evidence to the contrary comes from ‘OTHER’ words of Lincoln! Why?     
   Because he changed!

First, Lincoln ultimately came to the conclusion that the Civil War was a result of:
1.the sins of America
2.AND then…he identified that sin as slavery
 
  For example, after issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln set a National Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer, for MARCH 30, 1863. He proclaimed: “The awful calamity of civil war...may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins."
  And second, on March 4, 1865, in his Second Inaugural Address, Lincoln declared, “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 North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came….Yet, if God will that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsmen’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword…”
  So…why did Lincoln change? In 1862 (and 1863) the war was generating horrendous casualties, which placed Lincoln under massive pressure resulting in terribly erratic behavior. These four events (plus 1) happened:
            1.the Greely letter (August 1862)
            2.Lincoln met with 5 Black pastors, essentially blaming Blacks
               presence in America for  the nation’s present condition, and
              then ask those same preachers to lead the efforts to colonize
              Blacks out of the country—to make this a single race nation!!
            3.In September of 1862, he promised to sign the Emancipation
                Proclamation on January 1, 1863, which declared, “All persons
               held as slaves within any state of rebellion, shall be then,
               thenceforward and forever free.”
           4.In December of 1862, he offered a deal to the South that if they
              would lay down their arms, they could keep their slaves for
              another 40 years.
           5.He signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863
​
In addition, the Battle fought at Gettysburg on July 1-3, 1863, resulted in over 50,000 casualties. In November of 1863 Lincoln visited the area near the battlefield to dedicate it as a National Cemetery and made his famous Gettysburg address. Subsequently, speaking to a clergyman, Lincoln said, “When I left Springfield, I asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ. Yes, I do love Jesus.” In other words, he was born-again at or around the time of his visit to Gettysburg!
  However, in spite of him wavering from the pressure, he knew God was using him even ‘before’ he was saved at Gettysburg! The following is irrefutable evidence:
“…so many instances when I have been controlled by some other power than my own will – that I cannot doubt that this power comes from above. I frequently see my way clear to a decision when I have no sufficient facts upon which to found it. But I cannot recall one instance in which I followed my own judgment, founded upon such a decision, where the results were unsatisfactory; whereas in almost every instance where I have yielded to the views of others, I have had occasion to regret it.”     -Abraham Lincoln
 
“I hold myself in my present position and with the authority vested in me as an instrument of Providence…I am conscious every moment that all I am and all I have is subject to the control of a Higher Power, and that Power can use me or not use me in any manner, and at any time, as His wisdom and might may be pleasing to Him.” 12/1/1862                -Abraham Lincoln
 
And finally,
…if God gives me four more years to rule this country, I believe it will become what it ought to be – what its Divine Author intended it to be – no longer one vast plantation for breeding human beings for the purpose of lust and bondage. But it will become a new Valley of Jehoshaphat, where all the nations of the earth will assemble together under one flag, worshipping a common God, and they will celebrate the resurrection of human freedom.”
                                                                       -Abraham Lincoln
 
  In conclusion, the greatest evidence that God sovereignly determined the Civil War to free the slaves are the slaves themselves. The slaves understood well that if the North won the war, they would be free. What is the evidence? Most certainly, the slaves were aware of not only the existence of the Emancipation Proclamation, but that Lincoln signed it on January 1, 1863—before the war was over!!
   Second, although Blacks fought on both sides of the war, the Blacks that fought for the Confederacy were forced, whereas the Blacks willingly fought for the North! For example, the 54th Massachusetts and the 29th Connecticut Black regiments.
  For my final evidence, when President Lincoln and the Black 29th regiment visited Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy, a Black officer reported, “As President passed along the street, the colored people waved their handkerchiefs, hats, and bonnets, and expressed their gratitude by shouting repeatedly, “Thank God for His goodness, we have seen His(God’s) salvation.” The White soldiers caught the sound and swelled the numbers, cheering as they marched along. All could see the President, he was so tall. One woman, standing in a doorway as he passed along, shouted, Thank you, dear Jesus, for this sight of the great conqueror.” No wonder tears came to his (President Lincoln’s) eyes when he looked on the poor colored people who were once slaves, and heard the blessing uttered from thankful hearts and thanksgiving to God and Jesus. Thousands of colored men in Richmond would have laid down their lives for President Lincoln.”*
 
Yes! In His Providence, God chose the Civil War as the final tool to end slavery in America!
 
 
*A Documentary History of the Negro People in the United States (New York: Citadel Press, 1990), Vol I, pp. 489-490, “Negro Fighters for Freedom and Unity, 1863-1865,” taken from J.J. Hill, A Sketch of the 29th Regiment of Connecticut Colored Troops (Baltimore, 1867), pp. 25-27.
 
 
QuoteBit
The definition of Providence: The care and superintendence of the invisible, benevolent hand of the sovereign God over all His creation.
  In more common vernacular, God works behind the scenes, i.e.without your notice or even prayer, to bring His benevolent will to pass in your life.