The Gettysburg Address and Lincoln's Second Inaugural^*

Abraham Lincoln delivered this brief address at the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863. Contrary to the popular myth that he casually wrote out the talk on the back of an envelope, Lincoln carefully crafted his remarks before leaving Washington and continued to work on them on the way to Gettysburg. This is the final text.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that the nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address on March 4, 1865. With the war only a few weeks from conclusion, and the Union flushed with the anticipation of victory, he took the occasion to reflect on the meaning of the terrible conflict, the role of slavery in the war's origins, and God's judgment on the nation. Lincoln's brief speech is notable for its humility in the hour of victory, for its magnanimity toward a defeated foe, and for its vision of peace and sectional harmony. Along with the Gettysburg Address, it is the supreme statement of the meaning and purpose of America's greatest war.

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil-war. All dreaded it -- all sought to avert it...Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.

One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other...The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes...If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offences which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a Living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope -- fervently do we pray -- that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether."

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--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.

^*From Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln.

1			What meaning does Lincoln give to the war in the Gettysburg Address? Does he attach the same meaning to the conflict in the Second Inaugural?
2			When does Lincoln date the birth of the United States? Why did he select this date?
3			What does Lincoln mean by "a new birth of freedom?" Is the claim that Lincoln makes no reference to slavery in this speech correct?
4			How does Lincoln place the war in the United States in a larger setting? What significance does it have for the rest of humankind?
5			In the Second Inaugural, what does Lincoln say was the relationship between slavery and the war?
6			What does Lincoln mean in the Second Inaugural when he says each side looked for "a result less fundamental and astounding?"
7			What concerns do you think Lincoln had about the war's impact on this nation? What were his hopes once peace was restored? How would the type of peace described by Lincoln mitigate the war's tragedy?