d inaugura? address 
 
 
 of Ah n, March 
 
 
 ii, 1865 
 
LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 MEMORIAL 
 
 the Class of 1901 
 
 founded by 
 
 HARLAN HOYT HORNER 
 
 and 
 
 HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER 
 
THE 
 
 second inaugural 
 address 
 
 cir 
 
 ADDA tl AM LINCOLN 
 
 "With malice toward none, 
 
 with charity for all." 
 
 MARCH 4.1SC5 
 
LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 MEMORIAL 
 
 the Class of 1901 
 
 founded by 
 
 HARLAN HOYT HORNER 
 
 and 
 
 HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER 
 
Ui W, *-nrX C^-X' 
 
 
The 
 
 Second Inaugural 
 Address 
 
 of 
 
 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 March 4, 1865 
 
Published in a small book 
 
 by 
 
 Edward J. Jacob, 
 
 421 Saint James St. 
 
 Peoria, Illinois, 
 
 Presentation Copy — None for Sale. 
 
 Copyright 1934 
 By Edward J. Jacob 
 
 Printed in U. S. A 
 
9 73.7 L 
 
 I 
 
 HE QUALITY of mercy is not strained; 
 It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven 
 Upon the place beneath: it is twice blessed; 
 It blesseth himthat gives and him that ta\es. 
 
 — PORTIA. 
 
ECAUSE MR. LINCOLN'S 
 
 Second Inaugural Address re- 
 
 veals so clearly the elevation of char- 
 acter and the mastery of expression 
 to which Lincoln had attained, Mr. 
 Jacob wishes to publish it sepa- 
 rately in a pamphlet. He has asked 
 me to review briefly the events which 
 led up to it, state its purposes, and tell 
 something of its immediate recognition 
 as one of the world's great pro- 
 nouncements. 
 
 — M. L. HOUSER. 
 
N November 8, 1864, President Lincoln 
 was reelected, receiving 212 electoral 
 
 votes to 21 for General McClellan. As the 
 time for his second inauguration drew near, 
 no one doubted that the rebellion must soon 
 succumb. The last effective Confederate army 
 in the West had been destroyed by Thomas; 
 Sherman was spreading devastation through the 
 South, almost at will; Lee could not much longer 
 withstand the pounding of Grant; all danger of 
 foreign intervention had passed. It was, there- 
 fore, with entire confidence in the outcome of 
 the war, and with his thoughts turned toward 
 reconstruction, that, on March 4, 1865, Mr. 
 Lincoln again took the oath as President, and 
 delivered his Second Inaugural Address: 
 
Fellow Countrymen: 
 
 t 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. now, at the 
 expiration of four years, during which public declara- 
 tions have been constantly called forth on every point 
 and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the 
 attention and 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 WELL KNOWN TO 
 THE PUBLIC AS TO MYSELF; AND IT IS, I TRUST, REASONABLY 
 SATISFACTORY AND ENCOURAGING TO ALL. WlTH HIGH HOPE 
 FOR THE FUTURE, NO PREDICTION IN REGARD TO IT IS VENTURED. 
 
 n 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 dis- 
 SOLVE 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. 
 
 NE-EIGHTH of the whole population were color- 
 ed slaves; not distributed generally over the 
 Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. 
 These slaves constituted a peculiar and power- 
 ful 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 insur- 
 gents would rend the union, even by war; while the 
 government claimed no right to do more than to restrict 
 the territorial enlargement of it. 
 
EITHER PARTY EXPECTED FOR THE WAR THE MAGNI- 
 TUDE OR THE DURATION WHICH IT HAS ALREADY AT- 
 TAINED. Neither anticipated that the cause of 
 the conflict itself should cease. each looked for 
 an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and 
 astounding. both read the same blble 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^ 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. 
 
 ^prTlfiE Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto 
 
 J[ THE WORLD BECAUSE OF OFFENSES; FOR IT MUST NEEDS 
 
 BE THAT OFFENSES COME; BUT WOE TO THAT MAN BY 
 
 ' WHOM THE OFFENSE COMETH." If WE SHALL SUPPOSE 
 
 that American slavery is one of those offenses which, 
 in the providence of god, must needs come, but which, 
 having continued through his appointed time, he now wills 
 to remove, and that ke gives to both north and south 
 this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the 
 offense came, shall we discern therein any departure 
 from those divine attributes which the believers in a 
 living God always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope — ■ 
 fervently do we pray that this mighty scourge of war 
 
 MAY SPEEDILY PASS AWAY. Yet, IF GOD WILLS THAT IT CONTINUE 
 UNTIL ALL THE WEALTH PILED BY THE BONDSMAN^ TWO HUNDRED 
 AND FIFTY YEARS OF UNREQUITED TOIL SHALL BE SUNK, AND UNTIL 
 EVERY DROP OF BLOOD DRAWN WITH THE LASH SHALL BE PAID 
 BY ANOTHER DRAWN WITH THE SWORD, AS WAS SAID THREE 
 THOUSAND YEARS AGO, SO STILL IT MUST BE SAID, "The JUDG- 
 MENTS of the Lord are true and righteous altogether/ 1 
 
 YTH malice toward none; with charity for all; with firm* 
 ness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let 
 us strive on to finish the wor\ we are in; to bind up the 
 nation s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne 
 the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan — to do all which 
 may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among our- 
 selves, and with all nations. 
 
 LIBRARY -— - — j-— 
 UNIVERSITY & HT*W<? 
 
HE President believed that the recon- 
 struction of the disaffected territory 
 was now the most important problem 
 that confronted the country and himself. He had 
 already given the subject much earnest con- 
 sideration. As early as December, 1863, he had 
 issued a proclamation of amnesty and recon- 
 struction which promised pardon to practically 
 all of those in rebellion who would accept the 
 Emancipation Proclamation and take an oath 
 to support the constitution; and this proclama- 
 tion promised support to any new State govern- 
 ment that was formed in accordance with a 
 few easy regulations. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was anxious that the rebel- 
 lious States should be received back into the 
 Union in the quickest and easiest way, 
 and in a manner that involved the least 
 possible humiliation or distress for the 
 Southern people. There had been suffering 
 enough; nothing could be gained by additional 
 punishments. 
 
E believed that the hatreds which had 
 been engendered by the war could best 
 be overcome by showing the utmost 
 consideration and leniency to those who had 
 been defeated. His attitude toward the Con- 
 federate soldier was shown by a remark he 
 made in anticipation of Lee's surrender: "They 
 will never shoulder a musket in anger again, 
 and if Grant is wise he will leave them * * * 
 their horses to plow with; it would do no 
 harm." 
 
 But some members of the Congress, led 
 by a little coterie that Stephenson calls the 
 "Vindictives" and Hay the "Jacobins, 11 held 
 a different view: The President was too 
 generous; the Rebels ought to be punished 
 rather than pardoned; forgiveness, and a 
 restoration of their former political privi- 
 leges, should be allowed only to those who 
 repented in sackcloth and ashes; treason must 
 be made odious; the rebellious States ought to 
 be treated as conquered provinces, and should 
 be made to go through a period of probation 
 before regaining the rights they had thrown 
 away. 
 
WAYED by the influence of the "Vin- 
 dictives," the Senate rejected the State 
 
 government which had been formed in Louisiana 
 under the direction of the President. 
 
 All this was in Mr. Lincoln's mind when 
 he prepared his address. Beautiful as is 
 the language, and lofty as is the theme, 
 it was intended to be something more than 
 an exquisite prose poem. Through its beauty 
 of diction and its elevation of sentiment may he 
 glimpsed his longing to convince Congress, and 
 especially the Northern people, that wisdom 
 and justice required them to treat the South 
 with charity and consideration. It was, indeed, 
 a sermon not incomparable with those of the 
 prophets of old; but this discourse was intended, 
 primarily, to gain converts to Lincoln's plan 
 of reconstruction and reunion. 
 
H 
 
 E called attention to the fact that the 
 South had not wished for war any 
 more than had the North; that before 
 hostilities were started, Southern commission- 
 ers had spent weeks in Washington, trying to 
 secure a peaceful separation. He reminded the 
 Northern people that each side had asked the 
 blessings of God upon its cause; that the prayers 
 of neither had been fully answered; that we 
 should not judge lest we be judged. He sug- 
 gested that possibly the war was a punishment 
 due both to the North and the South for the 
 part each had taken in the introduction and 
 perpetuation of human slavery. 
 
 Having denied the right of the victor 
 to form harsh judgments or to inflict drastic 
 punishments, he pleaded with the North 
 that it firmly but humbly finish the work it 
 was in, and that it bind up the nation's 
 wounds "with malice toward none, with charity 
 for all.V 
 
T 
 
 HIS was Mr. Lincoln's last important 
 state paper; it was unlike any other; 
 
 and it was the only one of his own with 
 which he ever seemed entirely satisfied. Its 
 beauty and majesty were given immediate re- 
 cognition, both abroad and at home. The London 
 "Times" called it the most sublime state paper 
 of the century, and Schurz; believed it to be 
 such an admonition as a wise and loving father 
 might give his children before he lay down 
 to die. 
 

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
 973.7L63N1865I1934 C001 
 
 THE SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF ABRAHAM 
 
 3 0112 031833368