Verified answer

God was the source of strength and that it was God's decision (judgement) which prevailed in the outcome of the war.

" Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. 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, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

Abraham Lincoln, like many others at his time, believed the Civil War was God's judgement upon America for allowing the sin of slavery. Here he argues that the Lord has decreed that the war must go on until it consumes all of the wealth created by the slaves.

Many have pointed out that Abraham Lincoln was not himself a religious man. In a day when family devotions were common among Protestants there were never any family devotions at the Whitehouse. Lincoln was happy to purchase a pew for his wife Mary but he never purchased one for himself. But he seems quite happy to attribute the long war with its death tolls to the Lord.

In Lincoln's day many called for the end of the war even if it meant accepting the Confederate States of America. Lincoln would not consider it. But here he seems to escape personal responsibility for the death toll by attributing the war to God's will.

That the Union armies were justified in deliberately targetting civilians,and the heavy casualties on both sides were justified,because it was God's will that slavery should be ended in USA - whatever the cost in life.

So,Lincoln was justifying his war policy on the grounds that God was in favour of it.Lincoln was a man for whom the ends always justified the means.