Happy Presidents’ Day

The weekend’s news, plus excerpts from Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address.

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Happy Monday! Huge news for our Maine contingent from over the weekend: We’re finally getting a moose emoji.

Between that and 🦞, Esther can now summarize her childhood with just two taps.

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

  • Citing two “senior diplomats,” Bloomberg reported Sunday the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) detected uranium in Iran last week enriched to 84 percent purity—the highest level ever recorded in the country and just shy of the 90 percent threshold generally considered to be weapons-grade. Although a spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran denied the report to Iranian state media as “a smear and a distortion of the facts,” the IAEA said yesterday it was “aware of recent media reports” and that Rafael Grossi, the agency’s director general, is discussing the results of recent “verification activities” with Iran and will “inform the IAEA Board of Governors as appropriate.” According to a readout, Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, in part about “broader regional challenges, including the threats posed by Iran.”
  • North Korean state media confirmed Sunday the country tested another intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) off its east coast over the weekend, purportedly in retaliation for the announcement of joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States. The U.S. responded Sunday by deploying B-1B bombers over the Korean peninsula to train with South Korean fighter jets.
  • U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced Friday the U.S. military and Syrian Democratic Forces conducted a helicopter raid in northeastern Syria on Thursday that killed Hamza al-Homsi, a senior ISIS leader, and wounded four U.S. service members and one military dog. On Saturday, CENTCOM announced another helicopter raid in eastern Syria had captured an ISIS Syria Province Official “involved in planning attacks on SDF-guarded detention centers and manufacturing improvised explosive devices.” There were reportedly no U.S. or SDF casualties in the second raid.
  • Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Saturday the State Department has formally determined Russian forces have committed crimes against humanity in Ukraine, including execution-style killings, civilian torture, rape, and forced family separation. “These acts are not random or spontaneous,” Blinken said in a statement. “They are part of the Kremlin’s widespread and systematic attack against Ukraine’s civilian population.” Vice President Kamala Harris echoed the determination in a Saturday address at the Munich Security Conference, labeling Russia’s actions “barbaric and inhumane,” and “an assault on our common values.”
  • Blinken also announced Sunday the United States will provide Turkey and Syria an additional $100 million in earthquake relief aid, including $50 million from the Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Funds and $50 million in humanitarian assistance through the State Department and USAID. The latest round of aid brings the United States’ total assistance to $185 million since the earthquake that killed more than 46,000 struck earlier this month. 
  • A 52-year-old man with a history of mental illness shot and killed six people—including his ex-wife and stepfather—in a small northern Mississippi town on Friday. The gunman—armed with a shotgun and two handguns—was apprehended in Arkabutla after a brief chase, and is being held without bond in the Tate County Jail.
  • The Carter Center announced Saturday former President Jimmy Carter, 98, has decided to forgo additional medical treatment and enter hospice care. The center did not specify which ailments required medical intervention, but Carter has dealt with melanoma and a handful of falls in recent years. Carter’s grandson Jason said he had seen both his grandparents—Jimmy and Rosalynn—on Friday, tweeting that “they are at peace and—as always—their home is full of love.”

‘Let Us Strive on to Finish the Work We Are in’

The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.

In lieu of a full item today, please take a moment to read a war-weary Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address, widely considered to be one of the greatest pieces of presidential oratory in American history. It was delivered on March 4, 1865, and Lincoln was assassinated on April 15, 1865.

Fellow countrymen,

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  1. Avatar photo
    Normb1442

    Lincoln's describing the wealth of the South as "piled by the bondsman's unrequited toil." The rulers of the South were THIEVES, living on forced labor. We look at Communist China today and we know that. Lincoln knew it THEN, and said it out loud. Next time someone bitches about pulling down the statue of some Confederate general, remember that he fought to defend gangsters, and Lincoln called him out on it at the time.

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    Walter.Sobchak.Esq

    The version of the Second Inaugural you have above has the phrase: "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"

    A few years ago I saw the following question on the internet:

    > What does it mean by “bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of…” in Lincoln's 2nd inaugural adress[sic]?

    In the context of the paragraph: "One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war." bondsman must mean slave.

    I thought the word was biblical, as much of Lincoln's rhetoric was rooted in the King James Version of the Bible. So to confirm, I checked with a word search on a Bible Web Site. http://www.blueletterbible.org/ A search for bondsman returned no hits.

    I then looked up bondsman in a dictionary and found that the word is an English word found in standard dictionaries. It means a surety or a person who has given a deposit of valuable collateral to guarantee the performance of an obligation, most often the obligation of a man accused of a crime to appear in court. The word is often used in the phrase "bail bondsman". It originated in the 18th Century. It is clearly not the word Lincoln intended to use in discussing the American Civil War and its connection to the institution of slavery of African descended human beings.

    After some more searches, I found that the word bondman (note the lack of an "s") means a man bound to serve without wages, i.e. a slave, and that it was medieval in origin. I tried "bondman" on the bible search and it returned six hits. At least five of the hits clearly use bondman as a synonym for slave. See e.g. Dt. 24:18 in KJV.

    I asked myself, would Lincoln have used the wrong word? So I decided to look at other versions of the Second Inaugural to see if bondsman was a typographical error.

    I started with the Library of Congress Web Site about Inaugurations: https://guides.loc.gov/presidential-inaugurations

    which linked to this page: https://guides.loc.gov/presidential-inaugurations/1861-1893#s-lg-box-wrapper-31105118

    It pointed to this Library of Congress page: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/pihtml/pi022.html

    That page links images of the autograph of the speech. Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865, in Lincoln's hand: https://www.loc.gov/item/pin2202/

    The word is on: https://www.loc.gov/resource/msspin.pin2202/?sp=4

    I read those images at high magnification. To me, it appears that Lincoln wrote bond_man, and that the underscore was most likely an attempt to correct an accidental break in the cursive lettering.

    LoC also has a page Primary Documents in American History: Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/lincoln2nd.html#American

    In addition to the above it has: "A transcript of Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address is also available in the Congressional Globe and the Senate Journal from March 4, 1865." Which were probably the first printed versions.

    The Congressional Globe printed the speech at 1424 & 1425. It uses the word "bondman" But, the Journal of the Senate at 347 uses "bondsman", so we can see that the confusion started early.

    Also linked on that page is: Copy of Lincoln's second inaugural address as it appears on the North wall of the Lincoln memorial. Washington, D. C. National Park service. 1942 which has bondsman carved in stone.

    See also: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Lincoln_Memorial_second_inaugural_speech_inscription.jpg

    I also checked the The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln at http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/

    Its transcription of the speech http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln8/1:711?rgn=div1;view=fulltext uses the word bond-man.

    I think that Lincoln's intent was to use the word from KJV, "bondman", and that the Congressional Globe was correct but the Senate Journal, The Lincoln Memorial, and several other sources were wrong. I also think the Collected Works should have noted the variation.

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    Ted Gale

    QOD:

    Washington's departure at the end of his second term.

    John Adams' departure at the end of this first. Not done terribly gracefully, but perhaps even more significant than Washington's departure, as Adams, unlike Washington, had run for another term . . . and lost.

    Lincoln . . . so many, but I admire his standing by U.S. Grant in the face of some pretty serious crticism.

    FDR . . . doing what he could to keep the UK afloat in 1940 and 1941.

    Eisenhower . . . the speech re the "military-industrial complex"

    Reagan . . . "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall"

    George H.W. Bush . . . his handling of the collapse of the Soviet Union . . . lack of triumphalism . . . and his deft coalition building to push Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait

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    1. Avatar photo
      Mike B

      "Lincoln . . . so many, but I admire his standing by U.S. Grant in the face of some pretty serious crticism."

      One of my favorite stories - maybe apocryphal? - is that Lincoln, upon being informed that Grant drank too much, said, "Find out what whiskey he drinks and have a barrel sent to my other generals."

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        Ted Gale

        I had not heard it, but I like it.

        The quote I am familar with is "I can't spare him. He fights."

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  4. Scott.Acton

    Declan, I'd have to say that Reagan's address following the Challenger explosion has to be one of the most memorable.

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    Michael Salardino

    JFK's inaugural address. Especially "ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." Today's progressives who think JFK was one of them should read this address. Of course if they are easily offended, maybe not!

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    1. Edward Moffett

      I like the contrast between that JFK quote and a bumper sticker from Senator Markey's recent campaign: "Now is the time to ask what your country can do for YOU!".

      To me, the contrast between the two quotes captures what has gone wrong with the Democratic Party over the last 30 years.

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    Jerrymasters7vwp

    LUK: Reagan's "missed me" ad lib a second after a loud pop during his speech in Berlin, circa 1987, about six years after he'd been shot by John Hinkley, Jr. (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WI8qG3_qPo)

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    Sgrantsm

    Just a question about the man in Mississippi who had a history of mental illness - how did he come to possess firearms? Anybody?

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    PJ

    LUK: Carter installing solar power in the White House.

    "Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God" LOL good luck with that, given the inconsistent gods of the bibles.

    "shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him?" The bibles and gods can be used to ascribe anything. Wars and destruction are what happen when the funny human animals believe they are following an imaginary sky daddy.

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    1. Jah.Jacobsen

      I deleted my response upon realizing I didn’t have the time for time-sucking rabbit hole engaging someone like you would be…

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        PJ

        Based on the comment you deleted I can tell you would know if the founding fathers were in a private meeting there would be major heartburn over these two quotes from Lincoln. There is a very good reason our official founding documents never mention Christianity or even hint of it. Yes they do speak to god, which is perfectly acceptable in the context of freedom of religion. Praise The Noodly Goodness of the True God!

        I have no doubt a majority in Republican Christian America would prefer to see my comments either disappear completely or be seen as trolling. I am just commenting in a direction the world is heading, like it or not does not matter to me. I understand most of you do not want to discuss this. Freedom of speech sucks sometimes, eh?

        I will always speak to a libertarian approach to religion in America, and not the foolish "freedom" of Christianity we get constantly driveling out of Republican America.

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      This comment has been deleted

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    Mike B

    LUK: This morning on the radio I learned that President Biden visited Kyiv to laud Ukrainian valor (as David French memorably put it) as the anniversary of Putin's war approaches. I was delighted to hear it and I think, echoing Lincoln's words in a similar context, that it was altogether fitting and proper that he do so.

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    Ben Connelly

    Calvin Coolidge’s 4th of July address

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