Lincoln: 'the Judgements of the Lord, are True and Righteous Altogether'

Abridged from Jay Stapleton's WND, Jan. 26^th commentary:
In his second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln called his generation to face the greatest challenge in our nation's history: to accept the Civil War as God's judgment on the moral sin of American slavery.
That generation, while grieving the loss of 2 million dead or wounded loved ones, took up the president's challenge. They drank his words and found them to be healing medicine for their wounds. Tragically, our generation has relegated Lincoln's cure-all to the ash heap of religious superstition...We reflexively deny credibility to any who might suggest, as he did, that a just God holds our nation accountable for it's sin...

....On March 4, 1865, a crowd of 30,000 Northern sympathizers had gathered at the east entrance to the White House. They came to cheer their newly re-elected president, and expectation filled the air. Generals Grant and Sherman were in Virginia and South Carolina, respectively, mopping up what was left of the Confederate Army. Lee's formal surrender would come in less than 6 weeks, and the crowd came to hear their commander in chief gloat over his vanquished foes.
...But rather than skewer the rebels, Lincoln sermonized the nation. He delivered an Old Testament-style prophecy Jeremiah would have approved. Lincoln may have deflated the crowd, but he laid the foundation for rebuilding the country.
In the window of the Omni Parker House on the corner of Tremont and School Streets, is displayed a short history describing one of the Hotel's more infamous guests: John Wilkes Booth. He was the youngest and least talented of three actor brothers. His older brother, Edwin, believed in the Union cause, and proudly cast his first vote ever for Abraham Lincoln in the mid war elections of 1863. Edwin, later expressed in a letter dated 1881, "When I told him I had voted for Lincoln's re-election, he expressed deep regret, and declared his belief that Lincoln would be made king of America. This, I believe, drove him beyond the limits of reason." John W. Boothe stayed at the hotel April 5-6th, 1865 (a week before Lincoln's assassination, April 14) visiting his brother, Edwin and spending practice time at nearby Edward's Shooting Range.