SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 305 For here is waged the conflict of the age, God help my country in this hour of woe, And save her, though baptized in fire and blood; Ex. CCIN.-SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN, MARCH 4, 1865. FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN: 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 very fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have constantly been 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 could 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 avoid 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 the 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 located 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 this Union by war, while government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected the magnitude nor the duration. which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease, even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astonishing. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any man should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing his bread from the sweat of other men's faces. But let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayer of both should not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offences, for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh." shall suppose that American slavery is one of these 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? If we 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 bondman'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 that 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 orphans; to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations. RESTORATION OF THE FLAG TO FORT SUMTER. 307 Ex. CCIV.-RESTORATION OF THE FLAG TO FORT SUMTER, APRIL 14, 1865. HENRY WARD BEECHER. On this solemn and joyful day we again lift to the breeze our fathers' flag, now again the banner of the United States, with the fervent prayer that God will crown it with honor, protect it from treason, and send it down to our children with all the blessings of civilization, liberty and religion. Terrible in battle, may it be beneficent in peace! Happily, no bird or beast of prey has been inscribed upon it. The stars that redeem the night from darkness, and the beams of red light that beautify the morning, have been inscribed upon its folds. As long as the sun endures, or the stars, may it wave over a union neither enslaved nor enslaving! We raise our fathers' banner that it may bring back better blessings than those of the old; that it may cast out the devil of discord; that it may restore lawful government, and a prosperity purer and more enduring than that which it protected before; that it may win parted friends from their alienation; that it may inspire hope and inaugurate universal liberty; that it may say to the sword, "Return to thy sheath," and to the plough and sickle, "Go forth;" that it may heal all jealousies, unite all policies, inspire a new national life, compact our strength, purify our principles, ennoble our national ambitions, and make this people great and strong, not for aggression and quarrelsomeness, but for the peace of the world, giving to us the glorious prerogative of leading all nations to juster laws, to more humane policies, to sincerer friendship, to national instituted liberty, and to universal Christian brotherhood. Reverently, piously, in hopeful patriotism, we spread this banner to the sky, as of old the bow was planted on the cloud, and, with solemn fervor, beseech God to look upon it and make it the memorial of an everlasting covenant and decree, that never again on this fair land shall a deluge of blood prevail. From this pulpit of broken stone we speak forth our earnest greeting to all our land. We offer to the President of these United States our solemn congratulations that God has sustained his life and health under the unparalleled burdens and sufferings of four bloody years, and permitted him to behold this auspicious consummation of that national unity for which he has wait ed with so much patience and fortitude, and for which he has labored with so much disinterested wisdom. To the members of the Government associated with him in the administration of perilous affairs in critical times; to the Senators and Representatives of the United States, who have eagerly fashioned the instruments by which the popular will might express and enforce itself, we tender our grateful thanks." To the officers and men of the army and navy, who have so faithfully, skilfully and gloriously upheld their country's authority, by suffering, labor, and sublime courage, we offer a heart-tribute beyond the compass of words. Upon those true and faithful citizens, men and women, who have borne up with unflinching hope in the darkest hour, and covered the land with their labors of love and charity, we invoke the divinest blessing of Him whom they have so truly imitated. But chiefly to Thee, God of our fathers, we render thanksgiving and praise for that wondrous providence that has brought forth from such a harvest of war the seed of so much liberty and peace. We invoke peace upon the North. Peace be to the West. Peace be upon the South. In the name of God we lift up our banner, and dedicate it to peace, union and liberty, now and forevermore. Amen. Ex. CCV.-ABRAHAM LINCOLN. April 15, 1865. REV. J. P. THOMPSON. It is said of the late President by one who was near him steadily and with him often for more than four years, that "his abiding confidence in God and in the final triumph of truth and righteousness through Him and for His sake, was His noblest virtue, his grandest principle, the secret alike of his strength, his patience and his success." Thus trained of God for his great work, and called of God in the fulness of time, how grandly did Abraham Lincoln meet his responsibilities and round up his life. How he grew under pressure. How often did his patient heroism in the ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 309 earlier years of the war serve us in the stead of victories. He carried our mighty sorrows, while he never knew rest, nor the enjoyments of office. How wisely did his cautious, sagacious, comprehensive judgment deliver us from the perils of haste. How clearly did he discern the guiding hand and the unfolding will of God. How did he tower above the storm in his unselfish patriotism, resolved to save the unity of the nation. And when the day of duty and of opportunity came, how firmly did he deal the last great blow for liberty, striking the shackles from three million slaves; while "upon this, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, (upon military necessity,) he invoked the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God." Rightly did he regard this Proclamation as the central act of his administration, and the central fact of the nineteenth century. Let it be engraved upon our walls, upon qur hearts; let the scene adorn the Rotunda of the Capitol -henceforth a sacred shrine of Liberty. It needed only that the seal of martyrdom upon such a life should cause his virtues to be transfigured before us in imperishable grandeur, and his name to be emblazoned with Heaven's own light upon that topmost arch of fame which shall stand when governments and nations fall. The historian of France has written that when Louis XIV. died, "it was not a man, it was a world that ended." But with Abraham Lincoln a new era was born that is glorified and made perpetual through his death. He has told how once he was startled and terrified at being awakened at midnight to see the stars falling and to hear that the end of the world had come. But he looked up at the Great Bear and the Pointers, and seeing them unshaken he returned to his rest. And now that he has gone so calmly to his last rest, we look up through the cloud and see the steady pointers of the sky. A star of the first magnitude has fallen from the meridian; but the pole is unchanged, and the world holds on its course. Angel hands are only shifting the curtains of the sky for the dawn. The day is brightening; let us turn from this night of sorrow and blood to welcome it with our morning hymn of hope and praise. |