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Robert E Lee surrendered to US Grant on Palm Sunday. Lincoln is assassinated days later on Good Friday. Lee expected to be executed for treason. Lincoln expected to guide the South back into the Union. Neither happened.
Instead Lincoln becomes the martyr and Lee goes free.
Lincoln had struggled to understand the will of God in this mess of a Civil War. His second inaugural address will include the idea that perhaps the bloodiest war in American history is an atonement for the injustice of slavery.
“ If God wills that [the war] 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 with 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.”
And in this same speech, Lincoln will continue to promote the bigger picture of maintaining the Union to the benefit of all. “With malice toward none, with charity for all”
This is what makes Lincoln so beloved by many today. His love for this Republic, his understanding and application of Christian virtues, and his ability to guide a torn nation.
Anywhere else a civil war will end when a tyrant, dictator, or emperor begins.
