Abraham Lincoln And The Restoration The Constitution: inspired of God

D&C 101: 80

And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood.

Dallin H. Oaks

“It was a miracle that the Constitution could be drafted and ratified.”

“…the first written constitution in the world.”

“…every nation in the world except six have adopted written constitutions, and the U.S. Constitution was a model for all of them.”, Ensign, February 1992

Lucifer: Determined to destroy it

How could he not be aware of God’s plan? The Civil War War over slavery? War over the Restoration of all things?

Abraham Lincoln said,

“…it is a solemn battle between Right and Wrong, between Good and Evil.” Reformers

John Wycliff: translated the Bible from Latin into English in the late 1300s .

In 1455, Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of a printing press

William Tyndale: Translated the Bible from Greek and Hebrew in the early 1500’s

Elder Robert D. Hales, General Conference, October 2005 “But God’s work could not be stopped.”

Christopher Columbus 1492

“a man among the Gentiles…went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land.” I Nephi 13:12 Lucifer responds with his own weapon: slavery

Spanish Conquistadors: Catholicism

Slavery in the United States: the first English Colony of North America in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607

Would grow to 3 million slaves Nearly toppled the democracy

What would that have meant to the Restoration? “A House divided against itself cannot stand.”

“This nation cannot survive half slave and half free.”

400 years of good and evil collided in 1861.

Nephi’s vision continues:

“And I beheld the Spirit of God, that, it wrought upon other Gentiles; and they went forth out of captivity, upon the many waters. I Nephi 13:13 “…after the Gentiles do stumble exceedingly, …I will bring forth unto them, in mine own power, much of my gospel, which shall be plain and precious… I Nephi 13:34

And I beheld that their mother Gentiles were gathered together upon the waters, and upon the land also, to battle against them.

And I beheld that the power of God was with them. I Nephi 13: 17 Stephen L Richards: Washington and Lincoln both had, “a humble and devout recognition of the providence of God in the creation of the nation and conformity to divine law as indispensable to its preservation.

Lincoln said:

"God rules this world and… He will develop and disclose His plan for men's welfare in His inscrutable way.”

Lincoln said:

"I know that liberty is right, for Christ teaches it, and Christ is God.“

"It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow . . . and to recognize the sublime truth that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord."

“And for this purpose have I established the Constitution…by the hands of wise men whom I have raised up unto this very purpose…” D&C 101:80

The great experiment

President Lincoln’s first address to Congress July 4th 1861

“Our popular government has often been called an experiment. Two points in it, our people have already settled,--the successful establishing and the successful administering of it. One still remains,--its successful maintenance against a formidable internal attempt to overthrow it.” The 3/5th Clause

A gaping hole in the great Constitution placed there by the Adversary God’s Humble Instrument President Heber J. Grant

“…Abraham Lincoln was raised up and inspired of God, and … he reached the Presidency of the United States under the favor of our Heavenly Father.

We honor Abraham Lincoln because we believe absolutely that God honored him and raised him to be the instrument in His hands of saving the Constitution and the Union.”

Improvement Era, February 1940

Apostle (Senator) Reed Smoot

Speech on Lincoln to the US Senate February 12, 1927

“It was [Lincoln’s] faith in God that made him a guide, a prophet and a seer.” Governing authority’s repression of religion and truth 1. Daniel by Nebuchadnezzar

2. Alma 14: Believers burned

3. Inquisitions

4. Pogroms against Jews

5. European punishment for reformers

6. Mormons and the restored gospel? “They came with their armies full bent on our destruction, but barriers stood in the way” John Taylor, April 6th, 1861

Church leaders spoke often of the growing movement to annihilate them as a people Conspiracy?

“…we find it impossible not to believe that Stephen [Douglas] and Franklin [Pierce] and Roger [Taney] and James [Buchanan] all understood one another from the beginning; all worked on a common plan or draft drawn before the first lick was struck.” House Divided Speech, 1858

“…against a formidable internal attempt to overthrow it. ”

Lincoln’s first address to Congress Within these States all the forts, arsenals, dock-yards, custom- houses… had been seized, and were held in open hostility to this Government Fort Sumter was nearly surrounded by well-protected hostile batteries

A disproportionate share of the Federal muskets and rifles had somehow found their way into these States

Accumulations of the public revenue lying within them had been seized for the same object.

The Navy was scattered in distant seas

Officers of the Federal Army and Navy had resigned in great numbers… had taken up arms against the Government.

Simultaneously…the purpose to sever the Federal Union was openly avowed Buchanan Administration

Navy nearly disbanded

Treasury depleted

Army dissipated

Looked on while states seceded Secession

Lincoln’s Election: November 1860

Secession Convention December 20, 1860

South Carolina held a secession convention in Charleston. The debate was quick and short. Representatives voted unanimously, 169 to 0 for secession. Ten more states from the Deep South would eventually joined the rebellion. Lincoln’s 1st Inaugural Address

In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors.

You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it." Source: Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Roy P. Basler.

Lincoln’s vision

“I recollect thinking then, boy even though I was, that there must have been something more than common that those men struggled for... something that held great promise to all the people of the world to all time to come…”

“and I shall be most happy indeed if I shall be an humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, and of this, his almost chosen people, for perpetuating the object of that great struggle.”

Collected Works of AL, IV, p. 236

D&C 87

Revelation and Prophecy on War, Dec. 25, 1832

1. Verily thus saith the Lord concerning the wars that will shortly come to pass, beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls.

3. …the Southern States shall be divided against the Northern States…

6. And thus …shall the inhabitants of the earth be made to feel the wrath and indignation, and chastening hand of an Almighty God…

7. That the cry of the saints, and the blood of the saints, shall cease to come up into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth…to be avenged of their enemies. “God wills this contest and wills that it not end yet.”

In the present civil war it is quite possible that God’s purpose is something different from the purpose of either party… I am almost ready to say this is probably true— that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end yet. Civil War

God’s Chastisement

“God wills this war and wills that it not end yet.”

Four long years

623,000 deaths

Photo Credit: The National Archives & Record Administration Avenged of their enemies? Missouri Jay Hawks and Bushwhackers

Bushwhacking actions were particularly insidious since it amounted to a fight of neighbor against neighbor.

For five years prior to the Civil War

Institute Hall December 20, 1860 Delegates claimed that South Carolina had “abided by the Constitution which the northern states had trodden underfoot, and Abraham Lincoln would further abuse.”

Photo Credit: The National Archive and Records Administration

Charleston, South Carolina, 1865 Cradle of the Rebellion God’s Humble Instrument Richmond, Virginia Eleven Proclamations Days of fasting and prayer

“...we have forgotten God.”

“May we not justify fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins...”

“They must contritely confess their faults as a nation and as individuals.”

“...men would do well to recognize the hand of God in this terrible visitation.”

Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address

“Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each involves 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.” “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 bondsman’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’”.

The great experiment

President Lincoln’s first address to Congress July 4th 1861

“Our popular government has often been called an experiment. Two points in it, our people have already settled,--the successful establishing and the successful administering of it. One still remains,--its successful maintenance against a formidable internal attempt to overthrow it. ” The 13th Amendment The Constitution saved Photo Credit: The National Archive & Records Administration “A new birth of freedom” “A new life” “Some great good to follow” “Some great good to follow …”

The states rights zeal replaced by nationalism

The Constitution would be revered and no longer discounted

Indifference for the Declaration of Independence replaced by reverence

Religious expression respected and granted “…something that held great promise to all the people of the world to all time to come…” The Lincoln Leadership Society

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