On March 4, 1865, Abraham Lincoln delivered his Second Inaugural Address. Carl Sandburg, a Lincoln biographer, described the day as overcast and grey. However, just before Lincoln began speaking, the sun burst through the clouds, but lasted only a moment. Clouds quickly covered the rays of sunlight, once again returning the day to grayness. Perhaps the cloudiness was fitting. Lincoln's speech was somber. He neither celebrated his victory in the presidential election, nor the North's impending victory over the South.
Rather, he called upon his audience and his still divided country to repent for the sins that had led to so much bloodshed and to find a way to "bind up the nation's wounds" as compassionately as possible. Perhaps it is also fitting that the sunshine lasted only for a few moments because this was to be Lincoln's last public statement and last great piece of writing. Forty two days later, on April 16, 1865, Abraham Lincoln died, the victim of a deranged assassin. The man who would be hailed as one of his country's greatest presidents and respected as one of his country's finest writers had put down his pen forever.
Lincoln had grown up on the frontier, in a time and place where little, if any, emphasis was placed on "book learning". His formal education amounted to approximately one year. But lack of traditional schooling did not stem his desire to learn. Lincoln read constantly. He could quote passages from the Bible verbatim and would use either implied or direct quotes in many of his speeches. He was also fond of Shakespeare's monologues. However, it was his fascination and respect for words that would ultimately lead to his inclusion in Literature books. Both the Bible and Shakespeare would provide a foundation in word usage upon which he would continually build and with which he would constantly experiment. Although his grammar when speaking along with his manner of pronunciation reflected his frontier upbringing and he often seemed "backward" to many of the highly educated men of his time, even his most vocal detractors and critics could not deny his talent as a writer.
The Second Inaugural Address was the culmination of not only everything he had learned, but of everything he felt and believed. The Second Inaugural Address was as Stephen B. Oates wrote in With Malice Toward None, his biography of Abraham Lincoln, "a terse speech, succinct and lyrical" . Although longer than the 272 words he spoke at Gettysburg, the Second Inaugural Address was still a relatively short speech, especially since the battle still raged even as he spoke. He had no need to ramble on endlessly like many of the orators and politicians of his day. He did, however, have a need and a desire to see his plan for Reconstruction succeed.
He knew the Radicals Republicans wanted the South to be punished harshly and severely, and that they were gaining power in the Congress. He also understood that inflicting harsh punishments on the Southern States would only lead to more bitterness and animosity between the North and South. He hoped to reach the people on both sides of the conflict, not just the Northerners, and gain their support for a more lenient reconciliation.
Reaction to Lincoln's speech was somewhat subdued, as had been the case at Gettysburg. Carl Sandburg noted in ABRAHAM LINCOLN THE PRAIRIE YEARS AND THE WAR YEARS that "Lincoln . . . giving his own estimate of his address . . . expected it 'to wear as well as - perhaps better than - anything I have produced, but I believe it is not immediately popular'". Perhaps his audience was expecting a speech calling for a harsh punishment of the Southern rebels. Or words that celebrated the North's impending triumph over the troublesome South. They certainly were not prepared to be called upon to accept responsibility for this terrible war.
In the opening paragraph, Lincoln stated that there was no need for a lengthy speech, as had been the case at his first Inauguration. Everyone already knew how the war was progressing, and that with each day, the North inched closer to victory. Refusing to give in to over confidence, Lincoln said, "With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured". That statement reflected Lincoln's sentiment towards the South. He wanted his country to become whole again. He tried not to look harshly upon the South or any members of the insurrection if he had any reason to look with kindness, gentleness or compassion.
The first paragraph reflected Lincoln's earlier, more analytical style of writing. Devoid of any emotion, Lincoln's writings prior to the the 1850's reflected his realistic, rational way of thinking. Like Jefferson, whom he admired greatly, Lincoln prescribed to the ideas of the Age of Enlightenment. Emphasis was placed on resolving issues in a clear, reasonable manner. Still, Theodore Blegen, in Abraham Lincoln A New Portrait , said that Lincoln "was a master of balance and had an ear for rhythm".
The second paragraph, much like the first, offered widely known facts, recalling the beginnings of the war. One side wanted to be allowed to leave the Union peacefully; the other side saw the Union as indivisible. Lincoln wrote that while one side was "devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war". Although no one wanted war, some according to Lincoln "would make war rather than let the nation survive; and others would accept war rather than let it perish". However, in this paragraph he began to use the imagery that filled all his speeches.
He spoke of the Union as an entity, which could be saved or destroyed, and remained convinced throughout his tenure in the Oval office that the Union was not only perpetual, but worth preserving. That a democratic form of government was not only viable, but the best form of government. Those who shared his views, who wanted to save the union, were willing to accept a war to protect what their ancestors had died to create. Those who believed that the Union was nothing more than non-binding confederation, whom he did not view as enemies, but as instruments of a rebellion, were willing to fight a war to destroy what had been achieved in a previous bloody battle.
The heart of the Second Inaugural Address was the third paragraph. Here Lincoln meshed reason with spirituality in a way he had never done, nor for that matter, had any other statesman of his time. As Earl Schenk Miers wrote in Abraham Lincoln A New Portrait , "it is difficult to find a speech by any modern statesman so intensely religious in feeling". Here Lincoln departed from the thinking of Jefferson and other Deists.
The opening lines of the third paragraph dealt with the issue of slavery. An issue that Lincoln not only believed was morally wrong, but was a glaring contradiction in a country where all men were supposed to be created equal. As long as slavery continued to exist, the United States could never achieve the true democracy its founding fathers envisioned. However, to say that Lincoln believed in totally equality between the races would be erroneous. He, like many of his contemporaries, believed that the African race was inferior. But he also believed that everyone had the same right to be paid for work done.
He admitted that slavery was, in fact, the cause of the war. That the desire to extend slavery and the desire to contain slavery had ripped the country apart. But neither side was prepared for what happened. No one expected such a long and bloody contest. As Lincoln wrote, "each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding".
Lincoln then painted a vivid picture of the similarities of the North and South by saying that "both read the same Bible, and pray to the same same God". These similarities, this common ground, should have provided a basis for keeping the two sides together. Yet, it didn't. Ironically, both sides had used the same Bible and the same God to justify opposing points of view. Also ironic, he pointed out, was that both sides asked God's help to secure a victory. Both sides believed that their cause was "good" and the other's was "evil."
The next example of Lincoln's powerful use of imagery is the middle part of a sentence consisting of thirty six words in which Lincoln described the slave-owners as men who would "dare ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces". God was presented as "just", as Someone who could never condone the institution of slavery. The slave-owners "dared" to petition God for permission to continue committing a moral wrong. The idea that they were "wringing", forcibly extracting their livelihood from another race's "sweat", would seem to have violated the Second Commandment, which instructs us to "love one another".
The last segment of the sentence mentioned in the previous paragraph, "but let us judge not that we will not be judged" was the first of three quotes from the Bible. Although Lincoln used an adaptation from Matthew 7:1, not a direct quote, the effectiveness and meaning were in no way diminished. He reminded his audience, and in a much larger sense, all of mankind, of the dangers of passing judgment, of putting ourselves on the same level as God. On a deeper level, those eleven words represented yet another plea for a lenient reconciliation between the North and South.
Since both sides had opposing views, he noted that "the prayers of both could not be answered". Therefore, according to Lincoln, God could not grant victory to both sides of the explosive issue. He had to be either for or against slavery. One side had to be right. One side, with God's help should have emerged victorious. That God did not seem to come to the aid of either side completely, and that the war had dragged on for four years led Lincoln to conclude that "the Almighty has His own purposes". Perhaps the conflict went beyond a battle over whether the Union would be preserved or destroyed, whether democratic governments could survive or perish. What, then, was the real meaning and purpose of war? Why had it continued for so long?
Those were the questions Lincoln pondered on a daily basis. Those were the questions that haunted him each time he was informed of the enormous amounts of casualties every day. In his search for an answer, he turned to the one book with which he was most familiar, the Bible. Lincoln offered his listeners a direct quote, Matthew 18:7, as an explanation: "Woe unto the world because of offences! for if it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offences cometh!"
Lincoln went on to add that perhaps the institution of slavery in America was one of those "offences" which, although morally and ethically wrong, had to happen. But now, by God's decision, not man's, had to be removed. But it was not only the South who had committed a sin. Lincoln, said Stephen B. Oates, had "come to view it [the war] finally as a divine punishment for the sin of slavery, as a terrible retribution visited by God on a guilty people, in the North as well South". Lincoln asserted that the war was not, as many thought, a battle of good versus evil. Neither side was good, because both sides were responsible for the sin that had been committed. While the South had engaged in Slavery directly, the North, by allowing it to continue, was equally responsible. Both sides had been willing participants in committing the offence; both sides would be held accountable.
The last sentence of the third paragraph, which consists of sixty eight words, contained both graphic imagery as well as the final quote from the Bible and addressed the possibility that, although the nation prayed for a quick resolution to conflict, the war might have continued indefinitely. Lincoln began by acknowledging that God's will, His purposes, were superior and took precedence over the will of any one man or group of people. This was yet another illustration that he had clearly departed from his previous Deistic beliefs. He described the institution of Slavery as "the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil". He theorized that God might have intended for all the wealth, all the material possessions, all which had been received through the sin of slavery to be destroyed. If that was His will, then there was little anyone could do to prevent it from happening.
He added that perhaps the time had come to pay the price for the grave offense committed against the African race, and that God might have now decided that "every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn by the sword". The idea of the blood shed through the inhumane treatment of the African race by the slave owners being paid for by the blood now shed during the Civil War further illustrated Lincoln's innate sense of balance when putting words together, and, Garry Wills noted in Lincoln at Gettysburg The Words That Remade America that unlike the Gettysburg Address, this time "war is made to pay history's dues".
Lincoln ended the sentence with his last direct quote from the Bible, a verse from the nineteenth Psalm: "the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether". He never strayed from his belief that God was a just God, who did not act in a vengeful manner. Rather, he surmised that God had allowed such a destructive and bloody war to not only happen, but continue because of man's inhumanity to man.
The last paragraph of the Second Inaugural Address was simply one long sentence. Yet it was, and still is, the single most important group of words in the speech. Lincoln's hope for the future, and his plan for Reconstruction after the war ended were contained in this last paragraph.
Against the call for a harsh plan for Reconstruction designed to break the will of the South, Lincoln urged not only the North, but the South as well, to move forward "with malice toward none; with charity for all". For as long as the animosity continued, as long as there were voices shouting for severe measures against the South, then the lessons of the great war would have gone unlearned; the seeds of bitterness, which could have led to another conflict, might have been planted. Lincoln cautioned his audience and his country against acting rashly, against putting their own desires above God's will. Rather he reminded them of their humanness, of their humbleness, of their, and his need to depend on God for guidance in re-uniting the country. Lincoln also talked about the need to show compassion to all who had been affected by the war. Once again, subtly reiterating his call for a lenient Reconstruction.
The final twenty words of the paragraph called not only to the country in 1865, but to us today "to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations". Lincoln knew, all too well, the agony and pain associated with any war. He, more than anyone else, had borne the burden of conflict on his shoulders, and felt the anguish deep with in his very being. His plea to secure peace, to avoid another war, is as relevant at this moment as it was he spoke them.
Although Lincoln never considered himself a poet, no discussion about his prose is complete without mentioning its poetic qualities. According to Richard Hanser in Lincoln and the Poets, there was a "recurrent strain of poetry in Abraham Lincoln". If poetry is perceived, not as merely, rhymed stanzas, but as metered, lyrical verses alive with imagery and driven by emotion, then Lincoln's contribution to the world of poetry can be neither overlooked nor over estimated. His Second Inaugural Address has been called one of the finest examples of prose poetry.
The same reasons given in previous passages as to why this speech deserves to be counted among the best prose ever written easily prove why Lincoln's works are also discussed in poetic terms. The imagery, the vividness of the words, the picture that is clearly painted, and the emotion combine to produce prose which goes beyond merely telling a story or stating a case. The poetic quality of Lincoln's later writings enabled him to touch the hearts of his audiences, and stir their emotions in a way only true poets can.
The true tests of any writing are whether it can endure long after the paper it was written on has faded and yellowed, and whether it can continue to stir the emotions. Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address easily passes on both counts. His words not only deserved to be studied in both history and literature classes, but should also be read and reread by anyone searching for answers to the present day conflicts and problems threatening to shatter the world. As David Anderson wrote in his book, Abraham Lincoln , "in his final formal address, Lincoln achieved the heights of noble human emotion". Lincoln talked about love, tolerance and acceptance and spoke of man's inhumanity to man as being the true cause of the bloodiest war the history of the United States. He understood that people, as a whole, must change and adopt a more compassionate view of one, and that through our differences we can find our similarities. Lincoln is still speaking to us. We need only listen, and we might be able to begin the process of healing the world's wounds
