Faith and Providence Theme Analysis

Around the middle of the Farewell Address, Lincoln turns to his faith. Following a brief yet frank discussion of his inability to know what the future holds, his apprehensive tone mellows as he takes comfort in divine providence. Although the underlying uncertainty remains, Lincoln’s faith gives new energy to the second half of the speech. While his belief in God does not entirely eradicate his apprehension about what lies ahead, his faith gives him determination and hope. In his final line, he invites those before him to exchange prayers with him. He suggests that, even if he is parting ways with his friends and neighbors, their shared faith will sustain their community. By turning to his relationship with God just as he begins to discuss the challenges to come, Lincoln shows that his faith gives him strength when he is faced with precarity.

It is worth noting that Lincoln brings up George Washington and God more or less in the same breath. To give weight to the challenges he knows are coming his way, Lincoln states that his task is greater than that which George Washington had before him when he took office as the nation’s first president seven decades earlier. He claims that Washington’s successes came as a result of God’s blessing. In relation to this, he expresses two interrelated convictions: first, that there’s no way he will succeed in his aims without God’s help and, second, that with God’s help there’s no way he will fail. By invoking a founding father and his father in heaven in such close succession, Lincoln underlines his view that divine providence plays an active role in the outcome of a president’s leadership.