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President Abraham Lincoln Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865 Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1953), 8:332–33. This address, together with the Gettysburg Address of November 19, 1863, constitutes the best-known and most recognized speeches of President Abraham Lincoln. Concluding eloquently, “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right . . .” this inaugural address provides an assessment of the country as the second administration gets started and a soliloquy and meditation on slavery, civil war, fate, God, and the nation’s purpose. As such, this inaugural address is sui generis; in a category by itself. Though scholars have spilled an enormous amount of ink analyzing and interpreting this speech, at minima, Lincoln makes three key points: first, the war is not yet over and it must be continued to the bitter end. Second, at its root, slavery caused the calamity of war. As Lincoln stated the issue, “These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it.” Finally, in the enigmatic longer third paragraph, Lincoln crafts a lament that borders on a prayer about the power of God to exact revenge and the fate of the nation. But, Lincoln does not leave the country on that introspective note. Instead, he concludes with a promise of resurrection for the country and its mission in the world. This speech is Lincoln at his finest as a writer and a statesman. Fellow-Countrymen: At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Documentary History of the American Civil War Era 338 Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the enerergies [sic] of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it—all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking to dissol[v]e the Union and divide effects by negotiation. 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. One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has...

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