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Abraham Lincoln delivered two speeches that are considered among the greatest ever delivered.  One was the Gettysburg Address and one was the Second Inaugural.  Most Americans consider the Gettysburg Address to be his greatest, but Lincoln believed his Second Inaugural was his best. I agree.  It changed the way Americans thought about their country.  

This is a talk I delivered to a class in the fall of 2020.  They had in front of them the speech itself.  You should print out the speech before you listen to this so you can follow along.  

Lincoln had read and admired Feuerbach on how we humans generate our religious thinking.  If you have not listened to the talk on Feuerbach, and are interested, you might do that.  

The last minute of the talk gets cut off. Sorry about that.  I was talking about Barack Obama’s minister, Reverend Jeremiah Wright.  Reverend Wright was an amazing minister.  His congregation, which is situated in south Chicago, a very poor neighborhood, had wonderful programs.  He had educational tutoring, scholarships, jobs programs, food programs, health programs.  You name it, they did it.  I admire him in many ways.  But he had a style of preaching that was common in the Black community but not well understood outside of that tradition.  I grew up with that style.  The preacher will renounce the congregation for their sins. In my case I remember the minister saying, “You are damned and doomed to a devil’s hell.”  But the renunciation was really a reassurance that you can overcome your sin and be a better person.  In one sermon Reverend Wright spoke of the tendency of people to say “God Bless America.”  The Reverend thought they were claiming a status in the eyes of God that they did not deserve.  He said, “NO!  Not God Bless America.  God Damn America!”  It may be hard to believe but that was actually an expression of patriotism, an affirmation that America could be what God meant it to be.  God is in the whirlwind and we can emerge a better nation, a nation truly under God.  But this emerged during a presidential campaign and one of the candidates was a Black man who had attended that church.  This phrase was distorted and misrepresented until candidate Obama had to renounce it.  

 Lincoln would have agreed with Reverend Wright.   Lincoln DID agree with Reverend Wright, as you can tell.  God is giving us a terrible punishment that we could never have imagined.  “I tremble for my country when I consider that God is just,” as Jefferson said.  Lincoln was even more graphic:  a Black drop of blood will be repaid by a dead white person.  We have to wonder how an American president would fare today if he delivered such a speech.  

It was American Exceptionalism, Lincoln style. 

Two last points.  Reporters were keeping close track of cheering.  Most of the enthusiasm during the talk came from the Black members of the audience.  Many white people were silent.  The white members of the audience were Lincoln’s base, his strongest supporters.  And every single one of them had lost someone they knew and loved in that war.  

Finally, the comment by Frederick Douglass demands an acknowledgement.  Lincoln and Douglass had become personal friends.  This  unlikely friendship is  analyzed in the wonderful book Giants by John Stauffer. Douglass came by the White House that evening.  The place was packed but Lincoln singled out Douglass and asked what he thought.  Douglass demurred but Lincoln insisted.  “Mr. Lincoln.  That was a sacred effort.”  

And so it was.  

For those overseas, be aware that I am taking you deep into an American way of thinking.