On this Sunday in Washington, D.C., U.S. President Abraham Lincoln poses for a new photograph. The president’s Gettysburg Address is merely one week distant. The growing toll of death weighs heavily upon the man. In California, a fire ravages Nevada City. Fires are a frequent occurrence in western towns due to the predominance of wooden…
In the face of a bloody Civil War without visible end, Americans and Confederates at large are consumed with thoughts of Providence. From the earliest days of colonization, America has been a nation steeped in providential thought and language. The first Europeans to set foot in the new world were convinced that God’s hand was…
The recent victory at the Battle of Antietam provides United States President Abraham Lincoln the political capital to make public what he has long known he must do (and what the South has long warned that the “black president” will do): begin the formal emancipation of African slaves. Today Lincoln takes the first political step…