Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States. 1989. Abraham Lincoln: Second Inaugural Address.

Abraham Lincoln

Second Inaugural Address

Saturday, March 4, 1865

Weeks of wet weather preceding Lincoln's second inaugurationhad caused Pennsylvania Avenue to become a sea of mud and standing water.Thousands of spectators stood in thick mud at the Capitol grounds to hearthe President. As he stood on the East Portico to take the executive oath,the completed Capitol dome over the President's head was a physical reminderof the resolve of his Administration throughout the years of civil war.Chief Justice Salmon Chase administered the oath of office. In little morethan a month, the President would be assassinated.

Fellow-Countrymen:
  AT this second appearing to take theoath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended addressthan there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a courseto be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of fouryears, during which public declarations have been constantly called forthon every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attentionand engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented.The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as wellknown to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactoryand encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction inregard to it is ventured.
1
  On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughtswere anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all soughtto avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place,devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, urgent agentswere in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking todissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecatedwar, 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 thewar came. 2
  One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, notdistributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern partof it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knewthat this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate,and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rendthe Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do morethan to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expectedfor the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained.Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease withor even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easiertriumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the sameBible 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 assistancein wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let usjudge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered.That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes."Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be thatoffenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." Ifwe shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, inthe providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued throughHis appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both Northand South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offensecame, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributeswhich the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do wehope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedilypass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piledby the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall besunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid byanother drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so stillit must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." 3
  With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmnessin the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finishthe work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him whoshall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do allwhich may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves andwith all nations. 4

Inaugural Addressesof the Presidents of the United States. 1989.

Fellow-Countrymen: AT this second appearing to take theoath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended addressthan there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a courseto be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of fouryears, during which public declarations have been constantly called forthon every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attentionand engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented.The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as wellknown to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactoryand encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction inregard to it is ventured.	1
On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughtswere anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all soughtto avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place,devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, urgent agentswere in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking todissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecatedwar, 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 thewar came.	2
One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, notdistributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern partof it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knewthat this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate,and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rendthe Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do morethan to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expectedfor the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained.Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease withor even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easiertriumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the sameBible 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 assistancein wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let usjudge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered.That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes."Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be thatoffenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." Ifwe shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, inthe providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued throughHis appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both Northand South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offensecame, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributeswhich the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do wehope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedilypass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piledby the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall besunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid byanother drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so stillit must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."	3
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmnessin the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finishthe work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him whoshall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do allwhich may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves andwith all nations.	4