On March 4^th, just months before the end of the Civil war, Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address and we see that his mind had turned towards reconstruction and reconciliation. He concludes:

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 lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

These are words we might turn to again as the wild success of Donald Trump exposes a large population of people who have a lot in common with Southerners after the civil war. Continue reading →