{"id":991,"date":"2013-06-29T12:28:22","date_gmt":"2013-06-29T12:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/?p=991"},"modified":"2016-06-20T20:11:07","modified_gmt":"2016-06-20T20:11:07","slug":"letter-to-thurlow-weed-march-15-1865","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/letter-to-thurlow-weed-march-15-1865\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter to Thurlow Weed (March 15, 1865)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Contributing Editors for this page include Patrick Culhane<\/em><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Ranking<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-size: 36px;\">#74<\/span> on the list of 150 Most Teachable Lincoln Documents<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Annotated Transcript<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/node\/40456\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them. To deny it, however, in this case, is to deny that there is a God governing the world. It is a truth which I thought needed to be told&#8230;&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>On This Date<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/panel\/this_date\/1865-03-15\" target=\"_blank\">HD Daily Report, March 15, 1865<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thelincolnlog.org\/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&amp;day=1865-03-15\" target=\"_blank\">The Lincoln Log, March 15, 1865<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Custom Map<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps\/ms?msid=214923210427089848626.0004def4e79e2ae545ca4&amp;msa=0&amp;ll=40.766502,-73.988457&amp;spn=0.092569,0.165653&amp;iwloc=lyrftr:msid:214923210427089848626.0004def4e79e2ae545ca4,0004e0731ce18837eb016,,,0,-63\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-3386\" src=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/files\/2013\/06\/Screen-shot-2014-01-26-at-7.48.46-PM.png\" alt=\"Screen shot 2014-01-26 at 7.48.46 PM\" width=\"485\" height=\"441\" srcset=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/files\/2013\/06\/Screen-shot-2014-01-26-at-7.48.46-PM.png 693w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/files\/2013\/06\/Screen-shot-2014-01-26-at-7.48.46-PM-300x272.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 485px) 100vw, 485px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps\/ms?msid=214923210427089848626.0004def4e79e2ae545ca4&amp;msa=0&amp;ll=40.766502,-73.988457&amp;spn=0.092569,0.165653&amp;iwloc=lyrftr:msid:214923210427089848626.0004def4e79e2ae545ca4,0004e0731ce18837eb016,,,0,-63\" target=\"_blank\">View in Larger Map<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Close Readings<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LcjqRYio07k?rel=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nPosted at YouTube by &#8220;Understanding Lincoln&#8221; course participant Patrick Culhane, August 2014<\/p>\n<h3>How Historians Interpret<\/h3>\n<p>\u201cLincoln was pleased with his inaugural. A week before delivering it, he said there was \u2018[l]ots of wisdom in that document, I suspect.\u2019 A woman who admired the religious tone of the address asked a friend in Congress to obtain for her a presidential autograph written with the pen used to compose the inaugural. With emotion, Lincoln replied to the request: \u201cShe shall have my signature, and with it she shall have that paragraph. It comforts me to know that my sentiments are supported by the Christian ladies of our country.\u2019 When Thurlow Weed praised the inaugural, Lincoln responded: \u2018Every one likes a compliment. Thank you for yours on my little notification speech, and on the recent Inaugeral Address. I expect the latter to wear as well as \u2013 perhaps better than \u2013 any thing I have produced; but I believe it is not immediately popular. Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them. To deny it, however, in this case, is to deny that there is a God governing the world. It is a truth which I thought needed to be told; and as whatever of humiliation there is in it, falls most directly on myself, I thought others might afford for me to tell it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Michael Burlingame,\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.knox.edu\/documents\/pdfs\/LincolnStudies\/Burlingame,%20Vol%202,%20Chap%2035.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Abraham Lincoln: A Life<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(2 volumes, originally published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008) Unedited Manuscript by Chapter, Lincoln Studies Center, Volume 2, Chapter 35 (PDF), 3933.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn understanding what Lincoln does claim to know about the purposes of God, we have the testimony of Lincoln upon the precise point in a letter to Thurlow Weed written shortly after the inaugural. Lincoln wrote that he expected the Second Inaugural to wear as well and perhaps better than anything he had written However, it was not immediately popular: \u201cMen are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them. To deny it, however, in this case, is to deny that there is a God governing the world. It is a truth which I thought needed to be told; and as whatever of humiliation there is in it, falls most directly on myself, I thought others might afford for me to tell it.\u2019 Lincoln perceives a gulf between human purposes and God\u2019s and comes to this perception by seeing the imperfection of human purpose. What becomes clear is not the content of God\u2019s purposes, but that they differ from ours. \u201c<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Glen E. Thurow, <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=-tF_Ek3RGtcC&amp;pg=PA136&amp;dq=lincoln+Men+are+not+flattered+by+being+shown+that+there+has+been+a+difference+of+purpose+between+the+Almighty+and+them.&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwj445Knr7fNAhXJGR4KHbrRAAgQ6AEISDAI#v=onepage&amp;q=lincoln%20Men%20are%20not%20flattered%20by%20being%20shown%20that%20there%20has%20been%20a%20difference%20of%20purpose%20between%20the%20Almighty%20and%20them.&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cLincoln and American Political Religion,\u201d <\/a>in <em>The Historian\u2019s Lincoln: Pseudohistory, Psychohistory, and History <\/em>ed. Gabor S. Boritt (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996), 136.<\/p>\n<h3>NOTE TO READERS<\/h3>\n<p>This page is under construction and will be developed further by students in the new \u201cUnderstanding Lincoln\u201d online course sponsored by the House Divided Project at Dickinson College and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. To find out more about the course and to see some of our videotaped class sessions, including virtual field trips to Ford&#8217;s Theatre and Gettysburg, please visit our Livestream page at <a href=\"http:\/\/new.livestream.com\/gilderlehrman\/lincoln\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/new.livestream.com\/gilderlehrman\/lincoln<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">Searchable Text<\/span><\/h3>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">Executive Mansion,Washington,<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">March 15, 1865<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">Thurlow Weed, Esq\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">My dear Sir. .<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">Every one likes a compliment. Thank you for yours on my little notification speech, and on the recent Inaugeral Address. I expect the latter to wear as well as&#8212;perhaps better than&#8212;any thing I have produced; but I believe it is not immediately popular. Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them. To deny it, however, in this case, is to deny that there is a God governing the world. It is a truth which I thought needed to be told; and as whatever of humiliation there is in it, falls most directly on myself, I thought others might afford for me to tell it.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">Yours truly<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">A. LINCOLN<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Contributing Editors for this page include Patrick Culhane Ranking #74 on the list of 150 Most Teachable Lincoln Documents Annotated Transcript &#8220;Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them. To deny it, however, in this case, is to deny that there is a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10859],"tags":[6088,10865,10878,10862],"class_list":["post-991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-savior-of-the-union","tag-letter","tag-private","tag-religion","tag-wartime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=991"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4513,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/991\/revisions\/4513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}