the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier
triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding.

Both read the same Bible and prayed to the same God, and each invoked
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 purpose.

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 bondman'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, as was said three
thousand years ago, so still must it be said that "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 orphans; to do
all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among
ourselves and with all nations.

SLAVERY AND THE UNION[56]

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

We have made a good beginning here to-day. While extremists may find
some fault with our moderation they should recollect that "the battle is
not always to the strong nor the race to the swift." In grave
emergencies moderation is generally safer than radicalism; and as this
struggle is likely to be long and earnest we must not, by our action,
repel any who are in sympathy with us, but rather win all that we can to
our standard. Our friends who urge an appeal to arms with so much force
and eloquence should recollect that the government is arrayed against us
and that the numbers are now arrayed against us as well and we should
repel friends rather than gain them by anything savoring of
revolutionary methods.

As it now stands we must appeal to the sober sense and patriotism of the
people. We will make converts day by day; we will grow strong by
calmness and moderation; we will grow strong by the violence and
injustice of our adversaries. And, unless truth be a mockery and justice
a hollow lie, we will be in the majority after a whi