Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address Summary

On March 4, 1865, Abraham Lincoln delivered his Second Inaugural Address. The man known as “Honest Abe” was the sixteenth president of the United States of America who was an abolitionist of the Republican party. About forty-thousand people were present at the U.S. Capitol to witness Abe’s speech after his reelection. Now, President Lincoln’s first inauguration was the last straw for South Carolina, as they seceded from the U.S. with others to follow. But now about four years later Abraham Lincoln’s goal was to unite the North and the South and to end the war; furthermore, events such as the conclusion of the Civil War reveal that this goal was achieved.
President Lincoln saw it in the best interests of both the North and the South if they unite as a whole once again and begin peace. Abraham Lincoln demonstrated his wishes to end the war when he mentioned how, “Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained”(3). Basically, President Lincoln is saying that neither the North nor the South wished for the war in which they have created, and he does this effectively by establishing common-ground between the two sides. Mr. Lincoln later acknowledged that the separation of the North and the South was not a permanent change when he explained that, “God gives us to see the right… to bind up the nation’s
wounds”(4). In other words, he believes that God is giving them the ability to fix the separation, for it is only a wound that is desperate for healing.
The nation has in fact achieved President Lincoln’s goals involving unity and peace. James Truslow Adams celebrates just how united the U.S. is in his article, The Unity of the United States, that was published in 1945 when he states, “We Americans… who for the most part have had the same driving motives, the same ideals, [and] the same dreams”(15). Adams point is that how can we not be united when we’ve had the same intentions for hundreds of years. In his memoirs, War General Ulysses S. Grant agrees with Lincoln’s view on the ending of the war in 1865 when he observes that, “It [was] probably well that we had the war when we did. We are better off now than we would have been without it, and have made more rapid progress than we otherwise should have made”(1). In other words, Ulysses S. Grant confirms that it was best for both sides of the war to be at peace, as Lincoln explained before.
Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address intentions were to unite the country and to culminate the war.
The conclusion of the Civil War demonstrated how America is better together than separated by how good things were for America after the war. It also showed us that Civil Wars are good for neither side in the conflict. America should never have another Civil War on its own turf again, there may be some violent protests but no war. Also, despite all the protesting and separation in views and politics, Americans should remain united in the end, and for how the U.S. sees it, “out of many, we are one”(U.S.
Currency).