Lincoln Bible
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Mother’s Day and “Mother’s Prayers”

In honor of all of Our mothers for Mother’s Day, here are two well-known quotes from Abraham Lincoln about his (step-) mother:

“All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.”

“I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.”

A well-deserved (top) hats off to all of the mother’s out there. Thankfully, many of us can relate to the quotes above. So, birth and step-mothers, we hope you enjoy your day.

“But for it…”

Clearly, Lincoln admired his mother and his step-mother. Similarly, his quote that inspired Our Lincoln Bible shirt demonstrates his admiration for God’s Word:

Lincoln Bible t-shirt collage

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The Prayer at Valley Forge
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National Day of Prayer : “upon my knees”

Following the Union Army’s devastating loss at the Second Battle of Bull Run in August 1862, the Civil War Dispatches of Noah Brooks record Abraham Lincoln saying the following about prayer:

“I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.”

General George Washington’s legendary Prayer at Valley Forge is depicted in Arnold Friberg’s well-known painting below.

Prayer is vital and encouraged by great Americans throughout our history, both in victory and in defeat.

So, our prayer is that we would continue to offer our prayers and supplications to the Great Governor, the Almighty Author. Let “We the People” acknowledge His hand in guiding our country, as we observe our National Day of Prayer.

Our History, Our Heritage

“The National Day of Prayer is a vital part of our heritage. Since the first call to prayer in 1775, when the Continental Congress asked the colonies to pray for wisdom in forming a nation, the call to prayer has continued through our history, including President Lincoln’s proclamation of a day of “humiliation, fasting, and prayer” in 1863. In 1952, a joint resolution by Congress, signed by President Truman, declared an annual national day of prayer. In 1988, the law was amended and signed by President Reagan, permanently setting the day as the first Thursday of every May. Each year, the president signs a proclamation, encouraging all Americans to pray on this day. Last year, all 50 state governors plus the governors of several U.S. territories signed similar proclamations.”

Unfurl the history of the National Day of Prayer on the National Day of Prayer task force website:

http://www.nationaldayofprayer.org/about

George Washington Prayer

 

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Abraham Lincoln last words Holy Land
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Likely last words of Abraham Lincoln : “…no city on earth…”

On this day in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln is shot at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. He died the next morning at approximately 7:22 a.m. Lincoln was the first U.S. president to be assassinated.

The attack came just five days after the end of the American Civil War.

Two Jerusalems

A strong case can be made, based on the “Personal Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln” (kept at the Illinois State Historical Library), a manuscript Noyes W. Miner, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Springfield, Illinois, who wrote of his conversations with Mary Todd Lincoln in 1882, and several other references, that these were Abraham Lincoln’s last words:

“We will visit the Holy Land, and see those places hallowed by the footsteps of the Savior. There is no city on earth I so much desire to see as Jerusalem.”

These are the words that follow in the manuscript:
“and with that word half spoken on his tongue, the bullet from the pistol of the assassin’s entered his brain, and the soul of the great and good President was carried by the Angels to the New Jerusalem & above.”

Abraham Lincoln last words Holy Land

Lincoln’s last words about the Holy Land may be up for debate. However, his words of appreciation for the Holy Bible are not, and we made a shirt based on them:

https://ourlostfounding.com/product/abraham-lincoln-bible-this-great-book/

Lincoln Bible t-shirt collage

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Lincoln Bible t-shirt collage
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Abraham Lincoln, a Great wife, and this “Great Book”

On this day in 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln and his entourage arrive at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. They do so amid secrecy and security, avoiding Baltimore where an assassination plot awaited him.

Lincoln did not want to appear cowardly but took the threat seriously, at the insistence of his wife Mary Todd.

Similarly, there is nothing cowardly about Lincoln’s thoughts on the Bible, which inspired Our t-shirt:

Abraham Lincoln Bible t-shirt collage

 

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John Adams White House blessing Presidents' Day
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A Presidents’ Day Primer from Our Lost Founding

George Washington’s birthday on February 22nd is now generally known as Presidents’ Day. In fact, it was the first federal holiday to honor an American president, and was originally established in 1885.

Presidents Day was celebrated on Washington’s actual birthday until January 1, 1971. Then, the Uniform Monday Holiday Act shifted it to the third Monday in February.

As a result, it can occur the 15th through the 21st inclusive, but not on Washington’s actual birthday.

Even so, the federal government still officially recognizes Presidents’ Day as “Washington’s Birthday,” though it is certainly an occasion to remember all U.S. presidents.

“Heaven” and “this House”

John Adams, our second president, and the first to inhabit the President’s House (known as the White House since 1901),  wrote this in a letter to his beloved wife Abigail, as seen below carved in to the stone fireplace of the White House State Dining Room:

“I pray Heaven to bestow the best of Blessings on this House and on all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise Men ever rule under this roof.”

We would do well to do the same.

 

Presidents' Day

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Abraham Lincoln Amendment XIII
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Abraham Lincoln and Amendment XIII

On this day in 1865, the House of Representatives passes the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, abolishing slavery in America.

Previously, on June 15, 1864, the amendment “failed for lack of the requisite two-thirds vote in the House of Representatives,” as President Abraham Lincoln stated in his Fourth Annual Message to Congress on December 6, 1864.

Then, he went on “without questioning the wisdom or patriotism of those who stood in opposition, I venture to recommend the reconsideration and passage of the measure at the present session.”

The Amendment

AMENDMENT XIII

Section 1.
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

The Address

Then, a little over a month later, President Lincoln, would deliver his second inaugural address. It reads like sermon.

So, here is a sizable powerful portion of that address:

“Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.”
…
“These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war.”
…
“Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. “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!” If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offences which, in the providence of 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 offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a Living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope — fervently do we pray — that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether”

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan — to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”

 

Abraham Lincoln Amendment XIII

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Sculpting Starts on Mount Rushmore

On this day in 1927, the work of carving and sculpting the Mount Rushmore National Memorial begins. The project was declared complete on October 31, 1941.

The iconic granite sculpture, attracts millions annually to the Black Hills of South Dakota.

According to sculptor Gutzon Borglum, “The purpose of the memorial is to communicate the founding, expansion, preservation, and unification of the United States with colossal statues of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt.”

With that stated purpose in mind, what follows is a ‘Mount Rushmore’ of quotes from the aforementioned presidents. Two of these quotes adorn Our Lost Founding shirts:

George Washington
“No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the People of the United States.”

Thomas Jefferson
“I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our forefathers, as Israel of old, from their native land and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessities and comforts of life, who has covered our infancy with His Providence and our riper years with His wisdom and power… ”

Abraham Lincoln
“In regard to this Great book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book. But for it we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man’s welfare, here and hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it.”

Theodore Roosevelt
“Every thinking man, when he thinks, realizes that the teachings of the Bible are so interwoven and entwined with our whole civic and social life that it would be literally impossible for us to figure ourselves what life would be if these standards were removed.”

 

Finally, here is your humble Our Lost Founding Founder at our National Memorial:

 

Me at Mount Rushmore, Summer 2019

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Proclamation of Thanksgiving - Abraham Lincoln
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A Day of Thanksgiving: Lincoln and Washington

On this day in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issues a Presidential Proclamation inviting the American people “to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving.”

The invitation was much like President George Washington’s Proclamation on January 1, 1795 recommending “all persons whomsoever, within the United States, to set apart and observe Thursday, the nineteenth day of February next, as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer.”

The Proclamations are short and rich, so the text of each follows, first Lincoln’s:

“The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans. mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 3d day of October, A. D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

By the President:

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.”

 

Proclamation of Thanksgiving - Abraham Lincoln

 

Now, Washington’s:

“When we review the calamities, which afflict so many other nations, the present condition of the United States affords much matter of consolation and satisfaction. Our exemption hitherto from foreign war – an increasing prospect of the continuance of that exemption – the great degree of internal tranquility we have enjoyed – the recent confirmation of that tranquility by the suppression of an insurrection which so wantonly threatened it – the happy course of public affairs in general – the unexampled prosperity of all classes of our citizens; are circumstances which peculiarly mark our situation with indications of the Divine beneficence towards us. In such a state of things it is, in an especial manner, our duty as people, with devout reverence and affectionate gratitude, to acknowledge our many and great obligations to Almighty God and to implore Him to continue and confirm the blessings we experience.

Deeply penetrated with this sentiment, I, George Washington, President of the United States, do recommend to all religious societies and denominations, and to all persons whomsoever, within the United States, to set apart and observe Thursday, the nineteenth day of February next, as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer: and on that day to meet together and render their sincere and hearty thanks to the great Ruler of nations for the manifold and signal mercies which distinguish our lot as a nation. particularly for the possession of constitutions of government which unite and, by their union, establish liberty with order; for the preservation of peace, foreign and domestic; and for the seasonable control, which has been given to a spirit of disorder, in the suppression of the late insurrection; and generally for the prosperous course of our affairs, public and private; and, at the same time, humbly and fervently to beseech the kind Author of these blessings. graciously to prolong them to us – to imprint on our hearts a deep and solemn sense of our obligations to Him for them – to teach us rightly to estimate their immense value – to preserve us from the arrogance of prosperity and from hazarding the advantages we enjoy by delusive pursuits – to dispose us to merit the continuance of His favors by not abusing them, by our gratitude for them, and by a correspondent conduct as citizens and as men – to render this country, more and more, a propitious asylum for the unfortunate of other countries – to extend among us true and useful knowledge – to diffuse and establish habits of sobriety, order, morality, and piety – and, finally, to impart all blessings we possess or ask for ourselves, to the whole family of mankind.

In testimony whereof, I have caused the seal of the United States of America, to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand. Done, at the city of Philadelphia, the first day of January, 1795, and of the independence of the United States of America, the nineteenth.
Go Washington,
President of the United States

EDMUND RANDOLPH, Secretary of State.”

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Lincoln Bible t-shirt collage
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Abraham Lincoln: “Here and Hereafter”

On this day in 1865, Abraham Lincoln is laid to rest in Springfield, Illinois.

What is also at rest is the debate on how he felt about God’s Word. The following quote inspired Our Abraham Lincoln Bible “This Great Book” t-shirt:

“In regard to this Great book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book. But for it we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man’s welfare, here and hereafter, are to be found portrayed in it.”

Find yours, HERE.

Abraham Lincoln Bible t-shirt collage

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Dred Scott photograph circa 1857
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MO Compromise, Dred Scott decision, and No Compromise

On this day in 1820, President James Monroe signs the Missouri Compromise. The bill attempted to equalize the number of slave-holding states and free states in the country. Missouri, and that very Compromise would become pivotal in the Dred Scott Decision, issued also on this day, in 1857.

The United States Supreme Court was divided along slavery and antislavery lines, but had a majority of Southern justices. Thus, the Court ruled the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional. Ultimately, the court decided that Dred Scott had no legal right to request his freedom.

Even so, following the Dred Scott decision, Frederick Douglass urged his audiences to “walk by faith, not by sight.”

It will cease to be divided

Then, in June of 1858, Abraham Lincoln gave a speech centered on the Dred Scott case.  The words of Jesus, as recorded in the three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, mark Lincoln’s famous “house divided” speech:

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” (emphasis added)
I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.
I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided.
It will become all one thing or all the other.
Either the opponents of slavery, will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new — North as well as South.
Have we no tendency to the latter condition?
Let any one who doubts, carefully contemplate that now almost complete legal combination — piece of machinery so to speak — compounded of the Nebraska doctrine, and the Dred Scott decision.”

From this speech alone Lincoln’s appreciation for the Bible is clear. Still, another quote from Lincoln about “this great book” inspired our “Lincoln Bible” shirt.

Dred Scott photograph circa 1857

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Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction
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Amnesty, Allegiance, and Almighty

On this day in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issues his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction. His hope was to facilitate reintegration, reorganization and reconstruction in the the postwar South.

Also on this day, in 1941, as indicated in Our December 7th post entitled Pearl Harbor: So Help us God, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt made an oath on behalf of the United States when he asked Congress to declare war on Japan in response to the “unprovoked and dastardly” attack on Pearl Harbor.

He said:
With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph — so help us God.”

With that in mind, one authorization of Lincoln’s Proclamation allowed for a new state government to be formed when ten percent of eligible voters took an oath of allegiance to the United States. Naturally, that phrase is included in the oath, again emphasizing the intent and obligation of the oath giver.

Permanent Preservation

Whereas, it is now desired by some persons heretofore engaged in said rebellion to resume their allegiance to the United States, and to reinaugurate loyal state governments within and for their respective states: Therefore–

“I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States, do proclaim, declare, and make known to all persons who have, directly or by implication, participated in the existing rebellion, except as hereinafter excepted, that a full pardon is hereby granted to them and each of them, with restoration of all rights of property, except as to slaves, and in property cases where rights of third parties shall have intervened, and upon the condition that every such person shall take and subscribe an oath, and thenceforward keep and maintain said oath inviolate; and which oath shall be registered for permanent preservation, and shall be of the tenor and effect following, to wit:–

“I, , do solemnly swear, in presence of Almighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully support, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Union of the States thereunder; and that I will, in like manner, abide by and faithfully support all acts of congress passed during the existing rebellion with reference to slaves, so long and so far as not repealed, modified, or held void by congress, or by decision of the supreme court; and that I will, in like manner, abide by and faithfully support all proclamations of the President made during the existing rebellion having reference to slaves, so long and so far as not modified or declared void by decision of the supreme court. So help me God.”

Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction

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