Second Inaugural Address

Second Inaugural Address
Alexander Gardner · Public domain · source
Title	Second Inaugural Address
Speaker	Abraham Lincoln
Date	March 4, 1865
Location	United States Capitol
Office	President of the United States
Preceded by	First Inaugural Address
Succeeded by	Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

Second Inaugural Address

Abraham Lincoln delivered his Second Inaugural Address on March 4, 1865, at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. as he entered his second term during the closing months of the American Civil War. The speech, brief and theologically reflective, came after events including the Gettysburg Address, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Union victories at Vicksburg and Gettysburg (battle). Lincoln’s language linked wartime causation, moral responsibility, and reconciliation while addressing figures such as Union generals and Confederate leaders amid the presidency of Andrew Johnson (incoming vice-presidential succession) and the political milieu shaped by the Republican Party.

Background and Context

The address followed a tumultuous period shaped by the four-year conflict between the United States and the Confederate States of America, including campaigns under generals like Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, and George H. Thomas. International observers from Great Britain, France, and Prussia tracked developments after diplomatic incidents involving the Trent Affair and concerns about intervention. Domestically, congressional debates over measures such as the proposed Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and policies championed by figures like Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner created a charged legislative environment. Lincoln’s first inauguration and wartime proclamations, notably the Emancipation Proclamation issued after the Battle of Antietam, set the stage for a speech that had to address emancipation, ongoing military operations, and national healing.

Text and Themes

The text is notable for its economy and for invoking scriptural imagery from the King James Bible while referencing historical actors such as Jefferson Davis and military events like Sherman's March to the Sea. Lincoln framed the war’s causes in terms of slavery and divine judgment, echoing moral rhetoric associated with abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass and legislators like John C. Frémont who had earlier challenged federal policy. He used careful syntax to assert shared culpability between Northern and Southern societies, invoking providence and citing scriptural notions of “wrath” and “judgment” familiar to contemporary audiences influenced by preachers like Charles Haddon Spurgeon and Henry Ward Beecher. The address’s memorable lines about “malice toward none” and “charity for all” encapsulate themes also present in writings by Ralph Waldo Emerson and legalist thought in the tradition of James Madison regarding reconciliation and constitutional repair. Lincoln’s allusions to slavery’s spread connected to legislative acts such as the Missouri Compromise and the Kansas–Nebraska Act, and to judicial outcomes exemplified by the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision, situating the war within a longer arc of American political contention.

Delivery and Reception

Lincoln delivered the speech on a cold March morning with a compact text recited from manuscript amid the presence of cabinet members including William H. Seward, military leaders like Winfield Scott, and foreign ministers from countries such as Spain and Belgium. Contemporary press reactions from newspapers like the New-York Tribune and the London Times varied, with some editors comparing its moral tone to sermons by Jonathan Edwards and others emphasizing its political caution in contrast to more hawkish statements by Rutherford B. Hayes supporters. Union soldiers and politicians, including veterans of Fort Sumter and participants in the Peninsula Campaign, reportedly found the address sobering; Confederates who later commented—figures such as Robert E. Lee’s subordinates—interpreted its conciliatory rhetoric as a signal of leniency. International diplomats noted the address’s restraint amid the wider context of European revolutions of 1848 and the end of the Crimean War decade earlier.

Historical Significance and Legacy

Historians have treated the speech as pivotal in shaping postwar Reconstruction discourse that would be contested by leaders like Andrew Johnson and Radical Republicans including Benjamin Butler. The address influenced debates over the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and legislative programs administered by Reconstruction agencies such as the Freedmen's Bureau. Literary and political figures—Mark Twain, Wendell Phillips, and later presidents like Franklin D. Roosevelt—have cited its rhetoric when addressing national trauma. Monumental commemoration, including plaques at the Lincoln Memorial and inclusion in school curricula shaped by institutions like Harvard University and the Library of Congress, has reinforced its canonical status. The speech’s brevity and moral framing have led it to be anthologized alongside canonical works such as the Declaration of Independence and texts by Thomas Paine.

Interpretations and Criticism

Scholars debate whether Lincoln’s emphasis on divine judgment constituted theological fatalism or strategic rhetoric responding to political constraints imposed by legislators like Salmon P. Chase and military exigencies determined by commanders such as Philip Sheridan. Revisionist historians influenced by the Lost Cause of the Confederacy narrative, including early 20th-century writers and pamphleteers, criticized the address as politically expedient; conversely, proponents of moral interpretation, drawing on intellectual historians who study figures like John Winthrop and Jonathan Edwards, read it as a sincere expression of penitence and reconciliation. Legal analysts consider its references to constitutional struggle relevant to readings of postwar jurisprudence in cases like Ex parte Milligan, while literary critics examine Lincoln’s rhetorical debts to orators such as Daniel Webster and poets such as Walt Whitman. Ongoing debates also engage public history institutions—Smithsonian Institution, state historical societies, and Civil War battlefield preservation groups—about how to present the address in commemorative contexts.

Category:Works by Abraham Lincoln