On March 4,1861, with the country deeply divided much like today, the onset of a Civil War all but certain, Lincoln in an attempt to bring the country together following his contemptuous election.

In his first inaugural address said “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broadland, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely, they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

Given the state of the electoral process today, these words are as relevant today as when Lincoln first spoke them some 163 years ago.

Bruce Markovich

Lansford