Second Inaugural Address | Page 2

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Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address March 4, 1865

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. 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 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. 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
dissolve 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