At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office
there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the
first. Then, a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued
seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years,
during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on
every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the
attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is
new would be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else
chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it
is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With
high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is
ventured.
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. While the inaugural address was being
delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union
without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it
without war, seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by
negotiation. 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 invoked His aid against
the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just
God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other
men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers
of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered
fully.
The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of
offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that
man by whom the offense cometh". If we shall suppose that American
slavery is one of those offenses 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 offense
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 bondsman'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 lasting peace among
ourselves and with all nations.
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