150 Years Ago in Washington,D.C.

      One -eighth of the whole population were colored slaves,  not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it.  These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest.  All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war.  To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than restrict the territorial enlargement of it.  Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained.  Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease.  Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding.  Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes 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 purposes....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 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 judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
       With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, let us strive on to finish this work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have born the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nation.
Abraham Lincoln, 2nd Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865
He would live only 41 more days.
These words continue to impress; to carry weight and meaning for all who read them.