Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural (March 4, 1865) Photo Courtesy of the Library of C0ngress
Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address (March 4, 1865)
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.
Complete text at Avalon Project- Yale Law School
The greatest inaugural address in American presidential history? Hard to argue for another.
Here are some more resources to explore Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address from the National Endowment for the Humanities Edsitement website.
And you can rad more about Lincoln and the Civil War in Don’t Know Much About® the American Presidents and Don’t Know Much About® the Civil War
Don’t Know Much About the American Presidents (2012)
(From Hyperion and Random House Audio)
