The USA Leadership We Once Had

In pursuit of the truth - http://www.cinopsbegoneblogspot.com - Monday,  April 14, 2014

 

On this day, April 14, 1805, Abraham Lincoln went to the theatre with his wife. Later she would recall his last words to her:

"He said he wanted to visit the Holy Land and see those places hallowed by the footprints of the Savior. He was saying there is no city he so much desired to see as Jerusalem. And with the words half spoken on his tongue, the bullet of the assassin entered the brain, and the soul of the great and good President was carried by the angels to the New Jerusalem above." Hill, Lincoln, 432-33

 

On this day, March 23, 1775, speaking in St. Paul's Church in Richmond, Patriot and Founding Father, Patrick Henry, made his most famous speech, at the end proclaiming:

"We shall fight our battle alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations ... Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it almighty God! I know not what other course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death." Bancroft, History, VII, 274

 

In a letter on this day March 25, 1835, during his second term as President Andrew Jackson wrote:

"I was brought up as a rigid Presbyterian, to which I have always adhered. Our excellent Constitution guarantees to every one freedom of religion, and charity tells us (and you know charity is the real basis of all true religion) ... judge the tree by its fruit. All who profess Christianity believe in a Savior, and that by and through Him we must be saved. We ought, therefor to consider all good Christians whose walks correspond with their professions, be they Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Baptist, Methodist or Roman Catholic." AJ to Hanson, Correspondence, V. 333

 

When Puritans and Pilgrims experienced a natural calamity - a prolonged drought, a plague of grasshoppers - their response was to search their souls collectively as well as individually in a day of fasting and repentance. Following their example, on this day, March 30, 1863, with the Union's situation progressively worsening, Abraham Lincoln issued this proclamation.

"It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy & pardon... Those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. Federer, America's, 383

 

As relevant today as when it was written, President Lincoln's March 31, 1863 Fast Day Proclamation declared:

"We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God ... and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves ... to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness." Federer, America's, 383-84

 

William Henry Harrison died on this day, April 4, 1841, one month after placing his hand on the Bible and repeating the oath of office to become the 9th President of the United States. In his Inaugural Address, he declared:

"I deem the present occasion sufficiently important and solemn to justify me in expressing to my fellow citizens a profound reverence for the Christian religion, and a just sense of religious responsibility is essentially connected with all true and lasting happiness." Northrop, Witness, 215

 

General Robert E. Lee issued orders to the army directing the observance of this day April 8, 1864, "As a day off fasting, humiliation and prayer," in accordance with a proclamation by Confederate President Davis. He concluded:

"Soldiers! Let us humble ourselves before the Lord, our God, asking through Christ, the forgiveness of our sins, beseeching the aid of the God of our forefathers in the defense or our homes and our liberties, thanking Him for his past blessings, and imploring their continuance upon our cause and our people." Jones, Camp, 38

 

GEORGE H. KUBECK

Today American Christians face a culture war against them by the government. I wonder how future Saint John Paul II would resolve this matter.