LAD #15, Second Inaugural

Second Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln
LAD #15
Saturday March 4, 1865
Fellow-Countrymen:

As this inauguration day begins my second term as President of the Untied States, and throughout the past four years the public views and concerns have been considered and measured in all affairs, there is less need today for a long and detailed speech. Although we have been forever devoted to a unified nation, averting civil war at all costs, the war came; as one party would make war rather than let the nation endure, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. The slaves that make up roughly one eighth of our population, (concentrated largely in the Southern territories,) made their powerful interests of freedom known, and God would have it so. Yet, Northerners and Southerners pray to one God and read one Bible, and we shall unite once again. Let us judge not, that we be not judged. Let not two hundred and fifty years of history be forgotten. With the love and bond of brotherhood I would call the nation to cleanse and heal the wounds of war, and work to wards peace and unity among us all.