On Oct. 6, 1862, just three weeks after the single bloodiest day in the Civil War where the North and the South lost 10,000 men each, President Lincoln met with Eliza Gurney and three other Quakers. He said: “We are indeed going through … a fiery trial. … Being a humble instrument in the hands of our Heavenly Father … I have sought His aid; but if … my efforts fail, I must believe that for some purpose unknown to me, He wills it.” Lincoln concluded: “We cannot but believe, that He who made the world still governs it.”
