LAD #19 Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address

Lincoln states that as this is the second appearance of him taking oath there is less occasion for an extended address. At the expiration of four years, where the phase of the great contest still absorbs the nation there is little that is new that could be presented. Four years ago all thoughts were anxiously towards an impending civil war where many sought to avert it and all dreaded it. Lincoln says that his first inaugural address was devoted to saving the Union without war while in the city there were agents who were seeking to destroy the Union with war. He believes that the South would have rather had war than let the nation survive and the North would rather have accepted the war than let the nation perish so the war came. The government originally claimed no right to do more than to restrict slavery in the new territories. Lincoln says that neither side expected that the war would be long or that it would be hard and neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or before the war. Each side reads the same Bible and prays to the same God and yet we are fighting against another. Lincoln finishes his speech by saying that they should finish the work that is already half way dond to bind the nation's wounds.