God Wills This Contest

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: 

I have, therefore, in every case thought it proper to keep the integrity of the union prominent as the primary object of the contest on our part.

JOSHUA WOLF SHENK, Writer: You have widows and orphans coming to Lincoln constantly. They line up in the hallway. He has to pass through this crowd of visitors just to get from his living space to his office.

RONALD C. WHITE, Jr., Historian: As he recognises the pain all around him and the cost not simply of the lives of these young men but to their wives, mothers, sweethearts - What this is going to mean for The Future of The Country?

NARRATOR: Lincoln toured hospitals and sat with The Sick and wounded.

RANDALL M. MILLER, Historian: If things are supposed to be right, it should be that Bad People Suffer and Die and Good People Triumph. 

But The War was demonstrating that Death came to people regardless of whether they were Good or Bad.

ALLEN C. GUELZO, Historian: While Lincoln won't actually say, "I am responsible for this," he has A Government, he has A War, he has A Nation to whom he is responsible.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: If Hell is not any worse than this, it has no terror for me.

NARRATOR: Then in February 1862, Death visited the White House itself. Lincoln's third and favorite son, Willie, died of typhoid fever. He was just 11 years old. Lincoln found a measure of consolation in the eulogy delivered by a Presbyterian minister, Phineas Gurley, at Willie's funeral.

Rev. PHINEAS GURLEY: What we need in the Hour of Trial, and what we should seek by earnest prayer, is confidence in Him Who Sees The End from The Beginning and Doeth All Things Well. 

Let us acknowledge His Hand and Hear His Voice and inquire after His Will and seek his holy spirit as our counselor and guide, and all, in the end, will be well.

RONALD C. WHITE, Jr.: There's no facile explanation as to why Willie might be better off in Heaven. 

There's none of that in this sermon. 

There's this recognition of The Mystery of God's dealings, but there's also the affirmation of The Comfort God at times of loss. 

The Comfort is in A Loving God, A God Who Cares for Us.

NARRATOR: Lincoln asked for a copy of Reverend Gurley's eulogy.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: "What we need in The Hour of Trial, and what we should seek by earnest prayer, is confidence in Him Who sees The End from The Beginning and Doeth All Things Well."

RONALD C. WHITE, Jr.: This sermon is a real pivotal moment in Lincoln's life — 

Your Son has died. 

You listen to this sermon. 

This pastor comes into The White House and suggests to you that you need to Trust in A Loving God with Personality, who acts in history.

NARRATOR: A few months after His Son's Death, Lincoln began to re-examine his relationship with God.

RONALD C. WHITE, Jr.: It was untitled and undated. It's on a little slip of paper, lined paper. 

This is something Lincoln never expected any of us to ever see.

He was not about to publish this. 

This was his own private musing and reflection.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: The will of God prevails.

ALLEN C. GUELZO: Lincoln is working out on paper his own problem, his own difficulty. 

This is Lincoln's own agony and sweat over the ultimate question, 

"What is The Will of God in this crisis?"

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: In great contests, each party claims to act in accordance with The Will of God. 

Both may be, one must be, WRONG. 

God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. 

I am almost ready to say that this is probably True, that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end yet, by his mere quiet power on the minds of the now contestants, He could have either saved or destroyed the union without a human contest. 

Yet the contest began. And having begun, he could give the final victory to either side any day. 

Yet the contest proceeds.

JOSHUA WOLF SHENK: Lincoln is considering this epic and awful idea that The Master of Order and Goodness is actually in favor, in some way, of the carnage and suffering because of some larger end. 

Lincoln's mind is turned towards that question, "Out of this affliction, what good might come?"

NARRATOR: Lincoln determined that he must act.

ALLEN C. GUELZO: There must be something new and novel that God is interjecting here. 

God is doing something new in this war. 

What could that new thing be? 

Ah! Emancipation!

NARRATOR: In September 1862, The President called his cabinet together. Southern troops had been defeated after a fierce battle at Antietam Creek. It was a divine signal, he said, for him to issue a proclamation abolishing slavery in the rebellious states.

ALLEN C. GUELZO: It was so astounding that one member of his Cabinet actually asked him to repeat himself because he was sure he hadn't heard it right.

NARRATOR: "God," Lincoln declared, "had decided this question in favor of the slaves."

RONALD C. WHITE, Jr., Historian: "I have been told by God to free these slaves."

ALLEN C. GUELZO: God has ceased to be this machinery, grinding and chopping. Instead, God has plunged himself into the flow of human events, to direct them in a very personal way. And it is to this God that Lincoln appeals.

NARRATOR: On January 1st, 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation into law, freeing slaves in the rebel states.

MARGARET WASHINGTON: "Jehovah has triumphed. His people are free." This was indeed the coming of the Lord.

DAVID W. BLIGHT, Yale University: This was a religious moment. This was a moment to be experienced in biblical time, in religious time, in spiritual time. 

It was an event for the soul.