June 23, 2019 Sunday
Bedtime Story
American Slavery in the Second Inaugural Address
While it is true that the economy of the
South was a plantation economy based on slavery many families up North too had
plantations and owned slaves.
The truth is that most men who comprised
the Founding Fathers of the United States owned slaves including Thomas Jefferson.
That explains the significance of slavery
in the civil war that even Lincoln addressed in his speech and the discord it
resulted in.
In Lincoln’s speech there is a lot of
reference to God which is typical of any politician since in appealing to the
masses there is no better and more useful persona to have as a yardstick that
an imaginary ideal figure head.
We return to the second inaugural address
where the re-elected President draws out the primary reason for differences
between the North and the South vividly and explicitly:
“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 to restrict the
territorial enlargement of it.
Neither party expected for the war the
magnitude or duration which it has already attained.
Neither anticipated that the cause of 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, for 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.
“Woe unto the world because of offenses;
for it must need be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense
cometh.”
If we shall suppose that American slavery
is one on those offense 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 both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those
by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those
divine attributes which the believers in a living God also ascribe to him?”
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
Advertisements
Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the International
Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
No comments:
Post a Comment