Abraham Lincoln: Fight for Freedom

[Music] it was in this seat that Abraham Lincoln was fatally shot over 150 years ago in Ford's Theatre Washington DC the Confederate states had just surrendered five days earlier the brutal civil war had finally come to a climactic end America had been at war with itself for four long years and during this time the US had changed forever and the man who had held the country together through that time was the 16th President of the United States and now the first one to be assassinated Abraham Lincoln held the highest office in the land President of the United States he preserved the unity of the nation and freed slaves his name is synonymous with liberty democracy and freedom and he's consistently considered one of the greatest if not the greatest American president how did this man who had less than one year of formal education come to be regarded as one of the greatest leaders the world has ever seen and is there anything we can learn that could impact our own lives today [Music] Abraham Lincoln was born on the 12th of February 1809 in a humble log cabin to Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln like many others in those days the family farmed and lived off the land they were very poor and were of low social standing with very little education in Abraham's youth the family moved frequently trying to stay one step ahead of financial ruin before eventually settling down in Coles County Illinois when he was nine years old his mother died his father remarried a year later to Sarah Bush Johnson Sarah encouraged the young Abraham to educate himself by reading the Bible and studying books Lincoln himself admitted that the total amount of formal schooling he received in his childhood was no more than 12 months nevertheless he became an excellent reader learned to write and went on to write and deliver some of the country's greatest speeches [Music] as a young man Lincoln worked a variety of jobs including a shopkeeper a surveyor and a postmaster and served as a militia captain during the Blackhawk war a brief conflict between the United States and Native Americans in 1832 for a time he even split firewood for a living he soon moved into politics and won a seat in the Illinois legislature where he served from 1834 to 1836 during this time Lincoln also taught himself law passing the bar examination in 1836 the following year he moved to the newly named state capital of Springfield for the next few years he worked there as a lawyer earning a reputation as Honest Abe and serving a diverse range of clients from individual residents of small towns to national railroad lines in 1942 he made Mary Todd daughter of a wealthy family in Kentucky after they were married Abraham and Mary lived here in this house in Springfield on the northeast corner of 8th and Jackson streets for 17 years from 1844 to 1861 Lincoln lived in Springfield for most of his adult life it was here he raised his family developed his beliefs about freedom and equality and attained the highest office in the country the two largest rooms in the house the front and rear parlors were the first stop for any visitor to the Lincoln home these were the rooms where Abraham Lincoln would conduct household business hosts potential clients and entertain guests on may 19 1860 here in the back parlor delegates from the Republican National Convention formally offered mr. Lincoln the Republican nomination for president lincoln accepted four days later and took the first step toward the white house from this room [Music] during the 1800s America was caught in transition what had been an almost purely agricultural economy was in the first stages of an industrial revolution this would result in the United States becoming one of the world's leading industrial powers by 1900 but the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution in pre Civil War years was almost exclusively limited to the regions north of the mason-dixon line a line that symbolically divided the northern and southern states the South was still predominantly agricultural by 1815 cotton was the most valuable export in the United States by 1840 it was worth more than all other exports combined with the southern states producing two-thirds of the world's cotton supply slavery formed the economic backbone of the south this led to an economic strength that made these states even more adamant about defending the right to own slaves during the 1850s Lincoln returned to politics at a time when the nation's long-standing division over slavery was flaring up in an 1858 Illinois senatorial race as the secessionist sentiment brewed among the southern states he delivered his now-famous house divided speech in which he paraphrased from the Bible saying a house divided against itself cannot stand I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free the speeches theme of a house divided against itself cannot stand was a familiar concept that Jesus spoke about in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 12 every Kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand Lincoln hope to use a well-known figure of speech to help rouse the people to recognize the magnitude of the ongoing debates over the legality of slavery and to illustrate his belief that the Union would not last if it remained divided on this issue Abraham Lincoln shocked many when he overcame several more prominent contenders to win the presidential election in 1860 after years of sectional tension the election of an anti-slavery northerner as the 16th President of the United States drove many southerners over the brink by the time Lincoln was inaugurated in March 1861 seven southern states had seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America four more states would join them making what became known as the Confederacy [Music] soon after the outbreak of the Civil War began at Fort Sumter on April 12 1861 it was the northern states also known as the Union nor Yankees who fought against the South commonly called the rebels Lincoln eventually raised an army and navy of nearly 3 million northern men to face a southern army of over 2 million soldiers in battles fought from Virginia to California the great civil war tore the United States apart On January 1 1863 as the nation approached its third year of the Civil War Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of states are and henceforward shall be free and that the executive government of the United States including the military and naval authorities thereof will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons this was an order that freed the slaves in the Confederate States although not all slaves were immediately set free it paved the way for the 13th amendment which would free all slaves in the United States a few years later [Music] in 1863 the American Civil War came to Gettysburg what took place right here at Gettysburg in just three days was the turning point for the entire American Civil War during the first three days of July 1863 the North's Union Army and the South's Confederate Army turned this small farming town in southern Pennsylvania with a population of 2,500 into the site of a struggle for the future of the United States the Battle of Gettysburg was the largest battle of the American Civil War as well as the largest battle ever fought in North America it would involve around 85,000 men in the union's army and approximately 75,000 men in the Confederacy's army many historians believe that the South never recovered from its defeat here you [Music] the Battle of Gettysburg had been costly for both sides and despite the Union victory war pessimism hung over the north photographs produced morbid images of the carnage exposing the nation to the horrors of war four months after the battle and amid lingering northern doubts about whether the Civil War was worth the cost President Lincoln was invited to Gettysburg to dedicate the soldiers National Cemetery to the over 7,000 fallen soldiers he was asked to keep his address short and just make a few appropriate remarks on the evening of November 18 1863 President Abraham Lincoln arrived in Gettysburg at this station he exited his train coach on the platform and then passed through the station onto Carlisle Street where he was greeted by his host David wills and other dignitaries the group walked the short distance to the Will's house on the Town Square in central Gettysburg where mrs. wills had a feast waiting for them after dinner Lincoln retired to his bedroom he slept in this bed and much of the other furniture was in the room on that night and would have been used by the president Lincoln had written portions of the Gettysburg Address before he left Washington but he finished writing it in this room the next morning he made a final revision to his speech before proceeding to the ceremony the 19th of November 1863 was gettysburg's most momentous day nearly twenty thousand statesmen soldiers and citizens converged on this hill to consecrate the new soldiers National Cemetery the speaker's platform was located near here the Honorable edward everett principal speaker and former governor of massachusetts took the platform of noon his eloquent but exhausting speech lasted two hours following a hymn President Abraham Lincoln rose to deliver the Gettysburg Address as the crowd strained to see in here Lincoln spoke deliberately and without gestures according to some observers the people received his prayer light words in stunned silence the Gettysburg Address was ten sentences long and lasted just two minutes here in just 272 words Lincoln reminded the northern public what they were fighting for freedom and democracy it became one of the most famous and influential pieces of oratory in history four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal now we are engaged in a great Civil War testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure we are met on a great battlefield of that war we have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live it is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this but in a larger sense we cannot dedicate we cannot consecrate we cannot hallow this ground the brave men living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract the world will little note nor long remember what we say here but it can never forget what they did here it is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced it is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people by the people for the people shall not perish from the earth President Lincoln transformed into poetry the nation's founding principles while slave owners stood firm on the Constitution's protection of property including their slaves Lincoln insisted that America was conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposal that all men are created equal Lincoln sought to transform America by redefining Liberty and nationalism by essentially fusing them together we can not only inspire the north to continue the fight he forever changed how the world would think about freedom the president started by referring to the past and was immediately disputing a view that was widely held in America at the time that all men were not made equal many believe that blacks were designed to be slaves and subordinate to whites Lincoln challenged this belief by returning to the words of the Declaration of Independence the founding fathers he thought had started the country with a bright promise equality Lincoln believed that slavery made this promise impossible to keep on that November day Lincoln also spoke of just government the government of the people by the people for the people by that he meant democracy an idea that was still unusual in a world of kings and czars if the North lost the war the Union would fall apart and what future could there be for democracy itself the world might lose its last best hope as Lincoln said at 6:00 p.m. Lincoln was back at the station to board his train for the return trip to Washington Abraham Lincoln and the term of Gettysburg would be forever associated in world history with the enduring acclaim of the two minute speech this old station stands today as a witness and reminder of that great event a year and a half after Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address the North won the war more than six hundred and twenty thousand men died in the Civil War more than any other war in American history Lincoln wanted the country to heal forgive and rebuild he wanted to be generous to the southern states in helping them during the Reconstruction however tragically Lincoln would not live to see the country rebuild three days after the South surrendered John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre buthe a proponent of slavery an actor and a spy believed that if he could kill the president the policy of the government toward the South might be radically altered to favor the Confederacy so on the evening of Good Friday April 14 booth slipped into the president's box at the Ford's Theater in Washington DC and shot him point-blank in the back of the head he then stabbed major Rathbone jump down onto this stage ran out the back door mounted his horse and escaped the city [Music] Lincoln was carried to a boarding house across the street from the theater but he never regained consciousness Mary Lincoln the president's distraught wife spent most of the night here in the front parlor between visits to her husband's bedside her eldest son Robert and close friends comforted her through the night in this bedroom the back parlor Secretary of War Stanton held several cabinet meetings interviewed witnesses and ordered the pursuit of the assassins President Lincoln mortally wounded and bleeding profusely was carried into this room and laid diagonally across the bed a team of several doctors worked on him during the night but nine hours after being shot Abraham Lincoln died in this room at 7:22 a.m. on the 15th of April 1865 now he belongs to the ages pronounced Secretary of War Edwin Stanton [Music] news of Lincoln's death was met with immense grief across the u.s. church bells peeled for hours patriotic bunting came down from buildings replaced by black crape especially grief-stricken were freed slaves in the south and the nation's free black population of the north on April 21 Lincoln's body was placed on a seven car funeral train and embarked on a cross-country journey from Washington through numerous cities to his hometown of Springfield Illinois as the train passed through cities and towns 11 major cities held public funerals and countless other Americans paid their respects when the train finally reached Springfield Abraham Lincoln was buried here at the Oak Ridge Cemetery this cemetery is surpassed only by Arlington as the most visited Cemetery in the nation yet Lincoln's work survived the country did bring forth a new birth of freedom in 1865 had passed the 13th amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery forever two more amendments soon followed the granted citizenship to all regardless of race the right to vote was no longer dependent on race or color once kindled Lincoln's burning hope was never quite extinguished the words of the Gettysburg Address carved on the wall of the Lincoln Memorial were a lasting beacon of hope for all African Americans and all other Americans the Lincoln Memorial is located in Washington DC at the very heart of the nation thousands of tourists continue to visit this place every year built in white stone with 36 iconic columns the Lincoln Memorial is one of the most recognized structures in the United States the six meter statue of Lincoln sits overlooking the reflecting pool to his right is engraved his famous Gettysburg Address almost 90 years after the Civil War the US Supreme Court made segregation illegal Lincoln's vision became the law of the land since that November day in 1863 Lincoln's words have stirred and inspired countless millions all over the world those words speak to the eternal human dream of lasting liberty equality and freedom a dream that belongs to everyone a dream that would not will not perish from the earth why because God has placed the desire for freedom in our hearts we weren't made to be slaves we were designed to be free we cannot be satisfied or find peace until we are free and true freedom freedom from guilt and sin can only be found in Jesus you see being a slave to sin is the ultimate bondage the freedom that Jesus offers is a spiritual freedom from the guilt and bondage of sin Jesus is the truth knowing the truth knowing Jesus sets us free free from sin free from guilt and free from condemnation wouldn't you like to experience that freedom true freedom well you can why not ask for it right now as we pray dear Heavenly Father today we've been reminded of the importance of freedom and just how precious it is we admire men like Abraham Lincoln who have championed the cause of the poor and the downtrodden today we want to recognize the greatest of liberators Jesus Christ and thank you for the freedom that he brings to our lives thank you for setting us free from sin and guilt in Jesus name we pray amen the story of Abraham Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address is certainly inspiring and has influenced millions of people around the world if you under fill the emptiness that leaves you restless then I'd like to recommend the free gift we have for you today it's a Bible study guide we can believe in God as you read it you will find rest in him this study guide is our gift to you and is absolutely free there are no costs or obligations whatsoever so don't miss this wonderful opportunity to receive the gift we have for you today here's the information you need phone or text us at 436 triple three triple five in Australia or Oh - OH four double - 204 - in New Zealand or visit our website tij TV to request today's free offer and we'll send it to you totally free of charge and with no obligation write to us at GPO box 274 Sydney New South Wales 2001 Australia or p.o box seven double six seven three Manukau Auckland - two-for-one New Zealand don't delay call or text us now if you've enjoyed today's journey be sure to join us again next week when we will share another of life's journeys to get and experience another new and thought-provoking perspective on the peace insight understanding and hope that only the Bible can give us the incredible journey truly is television that changes lives until next week remember the ultimate destination of life's journey now I saw a new heaven and a new earth and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes there shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying there shall be no more pain for the former things have passed away you [Music]

Channel: The Incredible Journey

Views: 7,899

Rating: 4.9298244 out of 5

Keywords: Lincoln, Washington DC, Ford’s Theatre, Gettysburg, Gettysburg Address, Battle of Gettysburg, Old State Capitol Hall, Springfield IL, Lincoln Tomb, lincoln grave, freeing the slaves, civil war, slavery, racial injustice, Abraham Lincoln

Id: yACP7GYMOYg

Length: 28min 30sec (1710 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 24 2020