America elected Abraham Lincoln as their 16th President on the 6th of November, 1860.  The United States was on the verge of Civil War, at the time, and his election put Lincoln into the White House when the country was deeply divided between North and South.

Lincoln, who was President from the start to the end of the War between the States, already had a beard when he and his family moved into the White House. This image depicts what is believed to be his first official portrait as President.

The document, at the top of the page, contains some of the most memorable phrases from Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural.  It is the last page of that address.  The edits are in the President’s own handwriting.

The Library of Congress, where this important document is maintained, provides background information regarding its creation:

Until the final draft, Lincoln’s address had ended with a question for the South: “Shall it be peace or sword?”

[But] in the famous concluding paragraph, Lincoln, following the suggestion of [William] Seward, moderated his tone dramatically and ended on a memorable note of conciliation:

I am loth to close. 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, stre[t]ching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

링컨의 연설문을 기반으로 진성리더십 아카데미의 미션문을 작성해보았다.

진성에 대한 믿음은 가끔 차가운 마음들과의 싸움에서 열정을 빼앗길 때도 있지만 결국 편견의 감옥을 부수고 도도하게 강물이 되어 바다로 흘러갈 것입니다. 진성의 강물에 마음을 젖신 사람들은 화음을 모아 시대의 합창을 만듭니다. 합창에 동참한 우리 모두는 동업자이고 도반입니다. 진성은 잠자는 영혼을 깨우는 시대의 나팔소리입니다.

2017. 12. 11