The National Tragedy: Four Sermons Delivered Before the First Congregational Society, New Bedford, on the Life and Death of Abraham Lincoln |
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The National Tragedy: Four Sermons Delivered Before the First Congregational ... William James Potter No preview available - 2019 |
The National Tragedy: Four Sermons Delivered Before the First Congregational ... William James Potter No preview available - 2015 |
Common terms and phrases
Abraham Lincoln acts Almighty already American assassin believed blood born cause character civil close coming common Congress contest crime crown death deeds Democracy democratic despotism developed divine drama duty earth emancipation equal eternal evil faith fall final forever four freedom friends give given glory grave grief hands head heart heavens held henceforth hero hold honor hope hour human idea individual judgment justice land laws leader liberty lifted living means measures moral nation nature never party pass peace political position practical present president principles Providence pure race rare rebellion religious Republic republican respect reverence sense side slavery speak speech spirit standing steps strength strong struggle sure thing thought to-day tragedy triumph true trust truth utter Washington weep whole wise
Popular passages
Page 66 - Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!
Page 56 - Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? In our present differences, is either party without faith of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with His eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal of the American people.
Page 66 - 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 always ascribe to Him?
Page 60 - 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.
Page 63 - Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will come soon, and come to stay; and so come as to be worth the keeping in all future time. It will then have been proved that among free men there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet, and that they who take such appeal are sure to lose their case and pay the cost.
Page 58 - The prudent, penniless beginner in the world, labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself; then labors on his own account another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him. This is the just, and generous, and prosperous system, which opens the way to all — gives hope to all, and consequent energy, and progress, and improvement of condition to all.
Page 35 - I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend it/ "I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
Page 62 - I repeat the declaration made a year ago, that "while I remain in my present position I shall not attempt to retract or modify the Emancipation Proclamation, nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation, or by any of the acts of Congress.
Page 58 - This proposal makes common cause for a common object, casting no reproaches upon any. It acts not the Pharisee. The change it contemplates would come gently as the dews of heaven, not rending or wrecking anything.
Bibliographic information
| Title | The National Tragedy: Four Sermons Delivered Before the First Congregational Society, New Bedford, on the Life and Death of Abraham Lincoln |
| Author | William James Potter |
| Publisher | A. Taber & Brother, 1865 |
| Original from | Harvard University |
| Digitized | 20 Dec 2007 |
| Length | 67 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |