Lincoln and the Will of God

Andrew Ferguson in First Things, March 2008, begins with how many

...considered it vitally important to enlist Lincoln in [their] cause, even if only posthumously. In other contexts, the Lincoln biographer David Donald has called this ambition “getting right with Lincoln,” and since April 1865 it has been pursued by Americans of every imaginable persuasion...

Here, for example, is the Wisconsin Bishops' lobbyist John Huebscher in the cause of campaign finance reform.

Lincoln, after all, did not stir the nation on the issue of slavery by spending more money but by affirming his conviction that "right makes might."

The implication that the Confederacy was defeated despite outspending the Union is contrary to fact. Mr. Lincoln's accounting was a bit different in his Second Inaugural Address.

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."