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The Inauguration Speech of Abraham Lincoln Was Powerful, but Not Enough for America.

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The Inauguration Speech of Abraham Lincoln for his second term of the Presidency has gone down in history as one of the most powerful and moving inaugural speeches of all our Presidents.

The Inaugural Speech followed suit with all of Abraham Lincoln’s speeches up until this point, brief, succinct, to the point, and extremely motivating.

In a matter of just a little over seven hundred words, his Second Inaugural speech was recorded as the shortest given by any President of the United States, and even so, remains one of the most memorable.

The Inauguration speech of Abraham Lincoln is so integral to the function of this nation, that historians have taken great measure to ensure it is never forgotten.

For example, you will find it emblazoned over the wall of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., and you will also find this speech as well under many required memory materials in this nation’s curriculum.

Through memory of these great words, our future generations learn from previous generations, about the struggle of a nation, the sacred component of our freedoms, and how a country must stand united to avoid defeat.

It was a rainy day on March 4 in 1865, and America’s Civil War was nearing an end with the Union victory that was so hard waged for seemingly imminent.

The inauguration speech of Abraham Lincoln was not even about the dream that he had about saving his Union, as this dream was well on its way of being realized.

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A Chance for Peace for America

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Lincoln Wanted Peace for America

Thousands of lives lost in the Civil War assured that Lincoln’s first dream would be assured, the Union would stay a Union.

His second dream, peace for America, would meet failure upon the death of one person only six weeks later.

It was the last paragraph in the inauguration speech of Abraham Lincoln where we see his true intent through this Address that would lead him into his second term, a term that would only last six weeks.

“With malice toward none, with charity for all… let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds… to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

– Abraham Lincoln, Excerpts from Second Inaugural Address.

Lincoln was well aware that the Confederate States needed a painless and quick reconstruction in order for the country to really be as united as he wanted it to be.

Unfortunately, it was these same fanatic Confederates that would do whatever they needed to to ensure this would be an impossible feat.

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Malice Towards None?

It was 6 weeks later when the American Stars and Stripes were lifted at Fort Sumter on April 14, the same place where the first shot of the Civil War had been fired.

This same day, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a man who was a member of Confederate fanatics.

The dream that Lincoln had of “malice towards none… charity for all” was hallmarked by his murder, a murder that would begin a new chapter in the history books of America. 

In this new world, charity for Southern Americans wasn’t possible, and malice towards Blacks that had been freed left a stain which to this day can not be cleansed.

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