Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865.

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Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address

March 4, 1865

Fellow countrymen: At this second appearing to take the oath ofthe presidential office, there is less occasion for an extendedaddress than there was at the first. Then a statement, somewhat indetail, of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper. Now,at the expiration of four years, during which public declarationshave been constantly called forth on every point and phase of thegreat contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses theenergies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. Theprogress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is aswell known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust,reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope forthe future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, allthoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. Alldreaded it—all sought to avert it. While the inauguraladdress was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether tosaving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the cityseeking to destroy it without war—seeking to dissolve theUnion, and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecatedwar; but one of them would make war rather than let the nationsurvive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish.And the war came.

One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, notdistributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southernpart of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerfulinterest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause ofthe war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest wasthe object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even bywar; while the government claimed no right to do more than torestrict the territorial enlargement of it.

Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the durationwhich it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the causeof the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflictitself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and aresult less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible,and pray to the same God; and each invokes his aid against theother. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a justGod’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat ofother men’s faces; but let us judge not, that we be notjudged. The prayers of both could not be answered—that ofneither has been answered fully.

The Almighty has his own purposes. “Woe unto the worldbecause of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; butwoe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” If we shallsuppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, inthe providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continuedthrough his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that hegives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due tothose by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein anydeparture from those divine attributes which the believers in aliving God always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope—ferventlydo we pray—that this mighty scourge of war may speedily passaway. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piledby the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequitedtoil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lashshall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said threethousand years ago, so still it must be said, “The judgmentsof the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness inthe right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on tofinish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; tocare for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow,and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a justand lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.

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