Seeds of Fire: A People’s Chronology
Recalling events that happened on this day in history.
Memories of struggle, resistance and persistence.
Compiled by Ulli Diemer
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March 4, 1865
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Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address. Having won re-election by vowing to carry on the Civil War to victory (against the Democrats, who want to end the war without achieving its goal), Lincoln is now able to see that the defeat of the slaveholders’ Confederacy is finally close at hand. In his speech, he addresses the need to think of reconstruction and peace, while also stressing his determination to see the fight through to the end. Pointing to slavery as the cause of the war, he suggests that the scourge of Civil War has been God’s punishment for the offense that slavery represents in God’s eyes.
Lincoln concludes his address by saying:
“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 bondman’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.’
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan – to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.”
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March 4, 1976
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The first ‘Take Back the Night’ march takes place in Brussels in conjunction with the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women. 2,000 women from forty countries take to the streets, holding candles, to protest of sexual violence against women.
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