Speech · 1865

Second Inaugural Address

With Union victory in sight, Lincoln used a brief address of about 700 words to reflect on the meaning of the war. Observing that both sides “read the same Bible and pray to the same God,” he suggested that the war might be divine judgment on the offense of American slavery, borne by North and South alike, and closed by calling for a peace made “with malice toward none, with charity for all.”

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work 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…”

Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1865

Why it matters

Delivered six weeks before his assassination and later engraved in the Lincoln Memorial, the address set out the spirit of reconciliation Lincoln hoped would guide the nation after the war.

Read the full text at avalon.law.yale.edu

Primary Source

The original record, reproduced or linked from the institution that holds it. Primary sources show what people said and did in their own words.

Subjects

civil war slavery faith reconciliation inaugural address

From the library

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