[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/JgfLLQy.gif[/img][/center]

I awoke in the gray of the morning twilight; and as I lay waiting for the dawn, the long lines of the desired poem began to twine themselves in my mind. Having thought out all the stanzas, I said to myself, 'I must get up and write these verses down, lest I fall asleep again and forget them.' So, with a sudden effort, I sprang out of bed, and found in the dimness an old stump of a pen which I remembered to have used the day before. I scrawled the verses almost without looking at the paper.

--Julia Ward Howe, November 1861

[center][i]Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;[/i][/center]

This was is no longer about something so heady as states' rights. With European involvement it has boiled down to one main issue: Emancipation. The emancipation of the Southern negro, as well as the emancipation of the Northern Yankee. The European bootheel seeks to push us down and wrap us in chains very much like those poor black devils down South. British ships blockade our ports and British armies mass in Canada for the express purpose of slapping the yoke of British imperialism back upon our throats. That is why we here at this paper say that we must take the fight to the would-be conquerors. We say that General McClellan should march the Army of the Potomac north while the Army of the Tennessee and Ohio march south with all due haste. On to Canada and on to Charleston! God save our Nobel Republic!

--[i]New York Tribune[/i] editorial, December 1861

[center][i]He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.[/i][/center]

My fellow Americans,

As I've pondered over the situation we find ourselves in, I am suddenly struck with a story I once heard back home in Illinois. Two hunters found themselves in the woods, confronted by the sight of a massive bear. It was easily ten feet tall, maybe a thousand pounds. It had claws that could chop trees in half. The bear catches the scent of the two hunters and takes off after them. The first hunter slings his rucksack and weapons to the ground and begins to run. His friend inquires about that, saying that he can't outrun that bear. The first hunter simply replies "I don't need to outrun that bear, I just have to outrun you."

Make no mistake, the force we face is very much like the bear. It is large and angry. We have enemies massed to the North, to the South, and even out to sea. We are surrounded on nearly every side by hostile forces who seek our end. Like that hunter, we cannot outrun them. Unlike that hunter, we don't have anyone we can outrun. No help is coming, it is just us and us alone against the Southern rebels and the European meddlers. This conflict, which started out as an attempted rebellion has become much more. It is about the rights of all men, be they black or white, and the rights our Founders fought so hard to attain all those years ago. Our Republic sits upon a knife-edge. We have the chains of slavery to the South, and the chains of imperialism to the North. We cannot accept the enslavement of the negro, and we will not accept enslavement of the United States. This is no longer a Civil War. It is a second war for American independence. It is a Second American Revolution! And we declare that all men shall be free!

--Abraham Lincoln to Congress, January 1862

[i][center]Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.[/i][/center]