Expression

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) rose from a one-room frontier cabin to the presidency with almost no formal schooling, teaching himself by firelight from a handful of borrowed books. A lawyer and storyteller of uncommon gifts, he believed slavery was a moral wrong, though as president he insisted his first duty was to save the Union. When eleven states seceded rather than accept his election, Lincoln carried the heaviest burden any American president has borne: a war among his own people. He was patient, melancholy, and unshakably resolute. In 1863 he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, turning the war into a war for freedom, and that November, at the dedication of a cemetery for the fallen, he gave the Gettysburg Address, just 272 words that redefined the nation's purpose as 'a new birth of freedom' so 'that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.' In his Second Inaugural Address, weeks before the war's end, he refused triumph and called for healing: 'With malice toward none, with charity for all.' Days after the Union victory, he was assassinated on Good Friday, 1865, and a grieving nation saw in his death an echo of sacrifice. Lincoln models the union of conviction and mercy: he never doubted slavery was wrong, yet he longed not to crush the South but to 'bind up the nation's wounds.'

By the mid-19th century, Romantic music had grown enormous in scale and ambition. In Germany, Richard Wagner (1813-1883) pushed the orchestra and opera to their limits, composing vast 'music dramas' like the four-opera 'Ring' cycle, where recurring musical themes (leitmotifs) represented characters and ideas, weaving an unbroken river of sound. Wagner's harmonies stretched tonality almost to the breaking point and shaped film music to this day; his 'Ride of the Valkyries' is instantly recognizable. But the most original American music of this era came not from concert halls but from the suffering of the enslaved. The spirituals, sacred songs born among Black Americans in bondage, fused African musical roots with Christian hope. Songs like 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot' and 'Go Down, Moses' cried out for deliverance, often carrying double meanings, the longing for heaven and the longing for freedom intertwined. They are among the most profound music America has ever produced, prayer wrung from agony. Alongside them, Stephen Foster (1826-1864), America's first great songwriter, wrote tender, singable melodies like 'Oh! Susanna' and 'Hard Times Come Again No More' that became the soundtrack of ordinary American life. Together, Wagner's grandeur and America's heartfelt songs show two faces of the Romantic age: the sublime ambition of art, and the deep human cry of the soul.

This week's writing assignment is a document-based argument, the kind of essay that proves a claim using the actual words of the people who lived the history. Your question: Was the Civil War fought primarily over slavery? Historians overwhelmingly answer yes, and the strongest proof is in the documents themselves. Today, read at least three primary sources: a Confederate state's declaration of the causes of secession (Mississippi's and South Carolina's are blunt and explicit about slavery), Alexander Stephens's 'Cornerstone Speech,' the Emancipation Proclamation, and Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address. As you read, mark every sentence where a historical figure names slavery as the cause. Then draft a one-sentence thesis that takes a clear position. Begin building your essay: an introduction with your thesis, then body paragraphs each making one point supported by a short, correctly punctuated quotation that you introduce and explain. Remember to acknowledge one opposing argument (some claimed the war was about 'states' rights') and answer it (states' rights to do what, exactly?). Use the self-editing checklist from Day 3 before you finish. See the week's writingAssignment for the full prompt, target length, and rubric. You may complete the draft as carry-over work.

Return to St. Katharine Drexel. She lived in the very generations after the Civil War, when slavery was legally ended but injustice was not. She did not give a speech; she gave her life and her fortune to the children of those the nation had wronged, because she believed every one of them was made in the image of God. That is the answer to this week's essential question: a nation can only endure when it honors the dignity it proclaims. Close by praying for the grace to see every person as God sees them.