Lincoln's Second Inaugural: The Greatest Speech in American History
In 703 words, delivered on March 4, 1865, Abraham Lincoln offered the most profound meditation on the meaning of the Civil War — and on the nature of divine justice — that any American president has ever given.
By March 1865, the war was nearly over. Grant had Lee pinned at Petersburg. Sherman had marched through Georgia. The Confederacy was collapsing. Lincoln could have given a triumphant speech. He chose not to.
Instead, he gave one of the most theologically serious speeches in American political history. He refused to assign simple blame. He acknowledged that both sides 'read the same Bible and pray to the same God.' He suggested that the war might be God's punishment on the entire nation — North and South — for the sin of slavery. And he called for reconciliation: 'With malice toward none, with charity for all.'
The speech is remarkable for what Lincoln does not say. He does not claim that the North was righteous and the South was wicked. He does not promise vengeance. He does not celebrate. He mourns — and he calls the nation to the hard work of binding up wounds.
Frederick Douglass, who was present at the inauguration, called it 'a sacred effort.' Historians have consistently ranked it among the greatest speeches in American history. It deserves to be read slowly, and read again.
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