I’m grateful for the great hobby bluegrayreview has been for the last 16 years; and now it’s time to shut it down. Thanks to those who’ve looked over some of the material here. Goodbye. Thank you. Peace and Godspeed.
L.R. Martens
“Fort Sumter in April, 1865”
I sure hope it’s OK to love my country even if I don’t love everything Americans have done in the past; I know I don’t like everything I’ve done in my past.
I took the snapshot of the Lincoln quote on September 11, 2026 at the American Civil War Memorial in Waterloo, New York. The quote is from the last paragraph of President Lincoln’s December 1, 1862 Annual Message to Congress (at Project Gutenberg). The last section of the message is devoted to Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and a constitutional amendment the president proposed that would provide federal compensation to states that abolished slavery before 1900. Here’s the last two paragraphs:
Is it doubted, then, that the plan I propose, if adopted, would shorten the war, and thus lessen its expenditure of money and of blood? Is it doubted that it would restore the national authority and national prosperity and perpetuate both indefinitely? Is it doubted that we here—Congress and executive—can secure its adoption? Will not the good people respond to a united and earnest appeal from us? Can we, can they, by any other means so certainly or so speedily assure these vital objects? We can succeed only by concert. It is not “Can any of us imagine better?” but “Can we all do better?” Object whatsoever is possible, still the question recurs, “Can we do better?” The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.
Fellow-citizens, we can not escape history. We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We, even we here, hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free—honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last, best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just—a way which if followed the world will forever applaud and God must forever bless.
A. LINCOLN.
Fort Sumter October 2009
