This is a short story about our beloved president Lincoln.
A Path to the Kingdom
A Short Story by Mahesh Vallampati
March 4, 1861: Washington, D.C.: I am a foreign correspondent from a land far, far away. The king of my land had sent me to this country to gather information on a certain Mr.Lincoln whom he had been hearing a lot about and wanted me to report on the events happening in the United States of America. I arrived in Washington DC and was surprised to see throngs of people come to see this man and see how he would respond to the challenge facing this nation which was hardly a 100 years old. The southern states had for all practical purposes seceded from the United States and had declared themselves the confederate states and a certain Mr.Jefferson Davis had been inaugurated as its President a couple of weeks ago.
The inaugural address was not very impressive from my perspective. Mr. Lincoln wanted to hold the status quo on slavery much like his predecessors, the great general and President Washington and his successors. I was hoping to hear a statement condemning slavery but I was disappointed when I heard the speech, which was more about the Union of the States and how he had the authority to hold it together. Ben Franklin would not have appreciated the speech. The old man would have just shook his head with disappointment on holding the status quo on slavery and mildly approved of the resolve of the new President to hold the Union together as his duty required him to.
Stephen Douglas, the Presidential opponent of Lincoln was on the stage holding Mr. Lincoln’s hat and cane in a rare gesture of solidarity with Lincoln’s stance. Both had spent their lives trying to contain slavery and hold the Union together though their approaches differed. They had been friends, foes and debaters over the years.
I left the inauguration ceremony and started sending my first of many dispatches to my king who would be eagerly awaiting my reports. I got a word back from my king in response to my first dispatch to follow this man, his words and action over the next few years as he was interested in the future of this country and how it would respond to its first great internal challenge. I began to prepare myself to start reporting back to my king on the momentous events which were unfolding.
November 19, 1863: Gettysburg, PA: I am at Gettysburg where the Union Soldiers had won one of the bloodiest battles of the civil war. Lincoln was to give a speech here on the victory at Gettysburg. I was there to witness the speech. The speech was short and concise as it applauded the efforts of the fallen in holding the union together and how their efforts would not go in vain. Again there was no mention of slavery in the speech though the feeling across the continent was that this war was about slavery. The emancipation proclamation On January, 1, 1863 had in fact outlawed slavery but there were some loopholes and could not be realistically enforced across the United States as the country was at Civil War. I am not sure if I heard the word God mentioned in the speech, as there was some commotion at that time in the audience though some members believed that Mr. Lincoln had used the word in his speech.
I was still not impressed with this man who is still a lawyer at heart. I sent my dispatch to my king making sure I included my comments and my doubts if he used the word god in the speech. My king would be interested in it.
March 4, 1865: Washington, D.C.: It has been 4 years to the day since the President had taken office. The war was almost over, the Union was being saved, and the seceded states were coming back into the Union of the United States. It had been a long weary 4 years of battles and war where the momentum seemed to swing either way and the people were relieved that the war was over and finally the issue of slavery had been settled in the 13th amendment to the constitution which had been proposed by congress and being adopted by various state legislatures.
The weather on this day in Washington D.C. was really bad. It was late winter and early spring and it was gloomy. The mood of the people was upbeat and they had come to see their President deliver his second inaugural address. People braved the weather to see their beloved “Father Abraham” as the citizens of the country affectionately called him.
My doubts on the President were easing as his moral stance against slavery was becoming evident and the war was more about abolishing slavery and not about saving the union though the President had initially gone to war on this premise as his oath on his first inaugural address enjoined him to do so.
As the President stood to read his speech, there was a hush in the crowd and at the same time the sun came out in the clouds. The President looked up and proceeded to read his speech. It was the greatest speech I had ever heard. The case against slavery was never more elegantly put, not even by a Mr. Benjamin Franklin. The speech was powerful, lucid and full of biblical references on the issue of slavery. I was overjoyed for two reasons. The speech had moved me with its case against slavery. I looked up in the sky and I saw my king.
My king had come down to see Abraham again. I am Michael, an archangel from the Kingdom of God…..
Authors Note: This site indicates that this indeed happened. The sun came out as Lincoln stepped forward to take the oath. I quote "Reporter Noah Brooks, a friend of the Lincolns, saw what many others remarked about: "just as Lincoln stepped forward to take the oath of office, the sun, which had been obscured by rain-clouds, burst forth in splendor." The next day Lincoln asked him, "Did you notice that sunburst? It made my heart jump." On Sunday, in a sermon at the Capitol attended by the Lincolns, Methodist Bishop Matthew Simpson alluded to the sunburst and said in the same sudden manner, peace would "burst upon the nation and dispel the clouds of war." Other inaugural observers noticed the remarkable appearance of a star/planet in the mid-day sky."
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