"And the War Came"

Patrick Henry, in his most famous speech, says, "There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable--and let it come! I repeat, sir, let it come!"

Abraham Lincoln, in his second inaugural address, says, "Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came."

"[A]nd the war came" sounds to me like Lincoln had Henry's speech in mind (consciously or not). Does anyone know whether there's evidence for this, other than the resonance between the two speeches? I'm particularly intrigued by the link because of  the slavery imagery in Henry's speech (e.g., in addition to the language quoted above, whether to fight Great Britain is "nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery"; Great Britain's military has been sent to the colonies "to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have so long been forging").

Comments

[Jeff Lipshaw]

Sarah, I'm not in my office (where I have a copy of the book) to check, but there's an entire book on the subject of the Second Inaugural Address, entitled "Lincoln's Greatest Speech," by Ronald C. White, Jr.

[Sarah Lawsky]

Thanks, Jeff--that's exactly the sort of thing I was looking for. I will check that out!