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74 lines
3.9 KiB
Plaintext
74 lines
3.9 KiB
Plaintext
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Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address
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March 4, 1865
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Fellow countrymen: At this second appearing to take the oath
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of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended
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address than there was at the first. Then a statement, somewhat
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in detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper.
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Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations
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have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great
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contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies
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of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress
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of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known
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to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory
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and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction
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in regard to it is ventured.
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On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts
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were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it--
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all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered
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from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war,
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insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war--
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seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation.
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Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather
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than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather
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than let it perish. And the war came.
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One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed
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generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it.
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These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew
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that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen,
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perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the
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insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed
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no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it.
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Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration
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which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause
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of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself
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should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less
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fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray
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to the same God; and each invokes his aid against the other.
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It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's
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assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces;
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but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both
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could not be answered--that of neither has been answered fully.
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The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto the world because
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of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe
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to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose
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that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the
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providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued
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through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he
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gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due
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to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any
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departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a
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living God always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope--fervently
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do we pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.
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Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by
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the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil
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shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash
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shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said
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three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, "The
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judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
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With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in
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the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on
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to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds;
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to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow,
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and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just
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and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.
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