Reading Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address | A Primary Source Close Read w/ BRI

0:03 Hello, and welcome to another Close Reading with the Bill Rights Institute. My name is Kirk Higgins, and I am joined once again by my colleague Tony Williams. Hi Tony. Today we’re going to talk about another seminal speech. Not long ago, we just talked about Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, and today we’re going to talk about

0:24 Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, which, again, I think is one of those speeches that has really resonated in the American memory. Maybe not as much as the Gettysburg Address, but certainly up there. But I do think it’s worth noting that the two speeches that are enshrined on the walls of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.

0:47 Are as you face the monument, on the left hand side is the Gettysburg Address, and on the right hand side is Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, which I think is pretty profound and important thing to do. And I definitely recommend, if you find yourself out in Washington, DC, to go to that monument. Not only is it impressive, but it’s been the site of so many seminal

1:08 moments in American history that it’s a really great place to pause and reflect and think about the words that are etched on the walls. And hopefully we’ll pick something up today that the next time you’re there, you’ll be able to think about it. When you’re there or next time you walk through these documents with your students. With that, I think we can dive right in. And I wonder, Tony, if you could just help

1:29 set us up here by talking about how we’ve gotten to this Second Inaugural Address we were just talking about the Gettysburg Address happening in November of 1863, and now here we are in March of 1865. But a lot transpired, I think, between these two speeches. Well, for sure. And we won’t touch on everything but just a few big events.

1:54 First of all, in 1864, incredibly, in many ways, there was an election. We’re in the middle of this great civil war, as Lincoln said, testing whether this nation or any nation can long endure, despite the claims that Lincoln was a dictator at the time.

2:16 And even today, there’s an election. There’s a free election, and he’s up against George McClellan, his former commanding general, and he wins. Right? And again, we don’t really engage in counterfactuals, but imagine if he hadn’t won, how much that would have changed history. So it’s really incredible that we could

2:39 elect a new president, even during those troubled times of a great civil war. On the battlefield, we have many different events and currents taking place, but Sherman and his army are obviously controversially, marching to the sea,

3:01 marching through the south in Atlanta and Columbia and Savannah. And Grant finally comes east after his great victory at Vicksburg and takes command of the army in the east. In January 1865, the 13th Amendment very importantly, passes the House.

3:25 It had already passed the Senate, and so then it’ll be on its way to be ratified, and by March, the war is definitely winding down, and Lincoln is inaugurated within that context of Grant chasing Lee through my part of Virginia, actually.

3:48 And also there’s talk and plans of reconstruction. What is this post war world going to look like? What rights are African Americans, now that they’re free, what rights are they going to enjoy and so forth. There’s a lot of very important questions and sort of seminal events happening right around this time.

4:12 Yeah absolutely. I’m going to go ahead and pull up the document here. And there we go. So, March 4, 1865, and of course, by this point in American history, the inaugural addresses had become sort of standard fair, another precedent set by George Washington and another of these.

4:36 Tony and I went through Washington’s inaugural address, which is worth checking out, but now it’s 1865, and this was a public address. Right. This is something that Lincoln gave on probably the East Front of the White House, is that right? To an assembled crowd, yeah. And to a large crowd. Right yeah.

4:58 Getting right into the document, I think it’s interesting. His first sentence at the second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Not exactly the rousing line, you would think, to begin a speech, especially after a political victory like this.

5:18 But I think it’s interesting, and maybe this is over analytical, but it’s interesting to me that he doesn’t talk about his victory or winning or that he has a mandate from the people, but he talks about, I’m back, I took the oath again, and here we are. I’m going to now address you because of that. That’s an interesting thing. He immediately points out a constitutional

5:41 event that took place, not his own election. Correct. And so, again, as we spoke about with the Gettysburg Address, there’s a great humility, I think, here at the beginning, and he’s basically saying, look, there’s plenty on the war. You can look in other addresses and other public messages for that.

6:04 You can read newspapers. So he’s going to take the occasion, much like he did in Gettysburg. He’s not just going to speak to the occasion, but he’s going to use it for a larger purpose in rhetoric right. In persuading his fellow citizens of some ideal that he has going forward and mobile talk about what that is.

6:29 But he has a larger purpose in mind, for sure, not just an enumeration of all the great things he’s done as president and things he’d like to accomplish in his second term. Right. Yeah. And he goes immediately then into what that purpose is and what he’s going to take this occasion to do, and he says then a statement, somewhat in detail, of course, to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper.

6:52 Now, at the expiration of four years during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point in phase of the great contest, which still absorbs the attention and grosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. And he was referring back to his First Inaugural Address, which was much longer than the Second Inaugural Address, and did call for what he goes on to talk about.

7:16 And he sort of touches on it here. He’s essentially, I think, saying in that look, the positions I had then are still the positions I’ve had now, and almost foreshadowing the reconciliation that he hopes occurs, that rebuilding of the Union, that reconstruction that you had just mentioned.

7:39 Go ahead. Yeah, I think it’s worth comparing the two addresses. Right. Because the first is definitely a little longer, although not obnoxiously so. And they are on the surface, it’s very different. Right. In the first Inaugural, Lincoln was dealing with states that are defeated and the Civil War was looming.

8:04 The first shots would only be about a month away. And he’s trying to persuade the south not to leave, that he’s not going to use his executive power to end slavery, that they have nothing to fear year from him, and he’s trying to keep the Union together.

8:24 Right. And in this one, the war is coming to a conclusion, so he reflects on something very differently. And yet there’s a similar message in both, though, right, and that’s much more profound than at the surface level, that in both the first and Second Inaugural,

8:45 he’s really upholding self-government, he’s holding up constitutionalism, he’s upholding the idea of a natural rights republic and liberty and equality for all, both the Declaration and the Constitution. So I think if you look at the larger purposes you had in mind, in many ways it’s the seamless continuation.

9:09 Even though the immediate purposes of each inaugural are very different because of the different circumstances that Lincoln finds himself, there’s also a different tone. Right. At least again, on the surface, in the first one, Lincoln is really trying to persuade the south that secession is illegal,

9:32 it’s unconstitutional, they have no right to do it. And then this one, as we’ll see it’s a very conciliatory speech and really kind of blaming both sides. And yet again, once you get past the surface meaning, as you dig a little deeper in both, there’s a sense of calm, there’s a sense of moderation,

9:57 of deliberation and appeal in both to maybe what he called the better angels of our nature and a common affection as Americans, a common sort of fraternal affection among all Americans, that we need to keep this Union together and we need to continue to pursue its ideals from the Founding.

10:23 So two very important Inaugurals, but they look very different. But I would argue that underneath the tone, the message, the principles are really in many ways exactly the same. Yeah. And the first Inaugural is definitely, I think, one worth unpacking, too.

10:43 I wish we had more time today and we would do that, but we’ll keep walking through the second here. And he said in these last two cent, you had mentioned his humility. And I think that really comes out in these last couple of sentences here, because he just says the progress of our arms. By that he means the way the war has been going has been going pretty well,

11:04 and you all know it, I know it, and I hope that you’re encouraged by it and with high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. So that’s really all we’re going to get. The war is going pretty well. It seems to be. I think it is. You should think it is too, or I hope that you think it’s going well.

11:25 And that’s all. Which is interesting that as a wartime president, you would think there would be more about the conflict, and there’s not. I think he has an important political and even moral message to deliver to the American people. That’s what he’s going to focus on. Right. Everyone knows. Everyone’s looking around,

11:46 they read in the papers, they know what’s going on with the board. He has a more important message to talk about. And so then he goes on and says on the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to the impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being

12:07 delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgents agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war, seeking to dissolve the Union and divide 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.

12:28 And the war came. And this, I think, is what you were alluding to. It’s sort of saying, look, both sides brought us into this conflict. And yet he positions the Union certainly as being the ones who were willing to take up arms in defense of what they saw as a dismantling of the nation.

12:52 Right. I think that although you can see that ultimate responsibility does firmly fall on the shoulders of the Confederates for starting the war, there’s also remarkable humility. An attempt to reconcile the virtue of moderation

13:15 is very strong here and again, he doesn’t lord it over the Confederacy, although he’s in a position to do so with impending victory. And yet he says both parties of the war. And he’s really saying, we have a common responsibility as

13:39 Americans for this war, and notice the passive voice and the war came. Well, it’s such a short sentence, but reveals so much about his purpose here, one of reconciliation, one not of blame, not of arrogance, but really of humility. And we’ll see that even more as the speech unfold.

14:06 Then he talks about why it is it that war came. Right. So he says one eight of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constitute a peculiar and powerful interest in there. I think that second sentence he’s saying, these slaves constitute a peculiar and powerful interest. I think he’s speaking directly about what is called the slave power in Congress.

14:31 Right. He’s talking about that interest that had held captive the nation from really dealing with this issue in Congress. Right. Yeah. Again, he doesn’t shy away from saying, look, this is about slavery, and one half of us wanted to preserve, as he says, to strengthen it, perpetuate it, and extend it.

14:55 And so there is ultimate responsibility here. But again, as this unfolds, he doesn’t shy away from making moral judgments. About the war and about slavery and yet still preserving that humility

15:16 and that moderation and that attempt to reconcile the two sides. And here he doesn’t quite use a triplicate like we talked about in the Gettysburg Address, but it’s close to strengthen, perpetuate and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while government claimed no right to do

15:38 more than to restrict the territory engagement enlargement of it. Here, I think he’s really saying without equivocation that the Civil War was fought over slavery and that was why this war was fought and for no other reason, which I think is really powerful, especially because later,

16:00 after the Civil War, that becomes a contested assertion. Right. You said, I knew that this was the cause of the war. Right. And then he goes on to talk about the magnitude of the conflict and what that conflict has meant and how it has impacted everyone.

16:28 There’s still a humility here that both sides bear responsibility for this, and he really begins to turn to the commonality of religion between the north and south. And this being a very religious age, he seems to be wanting to root his comments in that sort of shared religious

16:48 understanding as a means of finding a way to come back together as a nation. Right. And he could have said something very different here. Right. Your side misused Christianity to support slavery and to defend it and so forth. And while there is definitely a moral purpose to this paragraph and sort

17:11 of a moral judgment to say that it’s strange that you do invoke God and the Bible to ring your bread from the sweat of other men’s faces. Okay, but look what he said. Both read the same Bible, both pray to the same God, each invokes to it against the other.

17:32 Right? And he says, judging a really basic biblical principle, he says, Let us judge not, that we may not be judged. There is an acknowledgment that the north was certainly complicit in slavery in many ways, that they had had slaves

17:54 at one point, that African Americans were not fully equal citizens in the north. And so he’s unwilling to judge because he understands slavery as a national sin. Well, he could easily, I think, have gotten away with blaming the south, the Confederacy, for the sin of slavery.

18:18 He really makes it a national sin in terms of this moral judgment. And again, it points us towards humility, towards reconciliation, towards moderation. That Union which he’s fought to preserve

18:38 is the thing he’s still trying to preserve. And it’s almost as though he’s alluding to that unfinished work that he talked about in the Gettysburg Address, because I think that that unfinished work then applies as much to the north as it does to the south. And so how do you get over this rending of the country while still trying to orient it back towards this higher thing towards which the nation was

19:01 dedicated, which is the principle of equality. You can see his fierce dedication to national union and constitutionalism in this speech in Gettysburg and the rest of his speeches, and yet at the same time morally condemning slavery for being a gross and fundamental violation of each individual’s inalienable rights.

19:26 Right. So both strains of Lincoln’s thought are powerfully embodying the speech. He really stays with that religious theme and stays with that push towards trying to unite the nation, but again, is unequivocally saying that

19:54 the sin of slavery is one with which the nation had to atone and reckon and that this war again, was fought for that purpose. And he does so, I think, really powerfully here. With both paying the price right. With both sides being punished.

20:17 He says that very powerfully. The words really in many ways speak for themselves. Right. And he said, if we suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which in the providence of God must need to come, but which, having continued through his appointed time, he now will to remove, and that he gives to both north and south.

20:40 This terrible war is the woe due to those by whom the offense came. Both are morally responsible for this. Both have sinned, and so both are paying the price. And he says, shall we discern they are in any departure from those divine attributes which the believers and the living God always ascribed to him.

21:01 Bondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war which is affecting both of us may speedily pass away. Right. And both are, as he says here, fighting until all the wealth piled up by the bondsman’s. 250 years of unquoted toil shall be sunk until every drop of blood drawn

21:25 with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword. Both are paying this horrible, horrible price for this national center of slavery. At this point, almost 700,000 people had died, had been killed in this

21:48 war, and many countless times that number wounded and disfigured. And that’s the national price. He’s saying that America is paying for slavery. Yeah. Paying it and justly paying. It seems that this is the cost that we have to bear

22:13 for failing to deal with it and for allowing that sin to continue. And it is powerful. The 250 years of unrequited toil shall be sunken until every drop of blood with the last shall be paid by another drawn with the sword.

22:35 I mean, that imagery has to be resonating with his audience. And I just wonder, is the audience immediately in front of him the only audience that he’s speaking to, or is he expecting this speech to be widely circulated? Like many of his speeches in the 19th century,

22:56 there was a large audience, but there was also a larger audience in newspapers that were disseminated not only in the north. Right. But he’s speaking to the south as well, but the Southerners are not being really

23:16 chastise here, and the Northerners are not escaping responsibility either. And so this is a speech aimed at all Americans, and he figured all would read it and that there were lessons that all Americans needed to learn from the war.

23:43 He ends with this, probably the most famous paragraph of this speech. With malice towards none, 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 orphan, to do all which may achieve

24:07 and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. It seems like that final prayer, this reads like a prayer that we shall get this speech and that we shall judge fairly, but as we are bringing the nation back

24:31 together and knowing, as Lincoln had to have known, that the challenge of Reconstruction would be as much of a challenge as was the war. In some respects, yeah. I mean, this is such a moving paragraph in such an important and moving speech.

24:54 There’s such pathos, that feeling, that emotion, but also reason that leads us to this humility and reconciliation and moderation. As I said, there’s real magnanimity here. Right. Again, he doesn’t lord it over the Confederacy.

25:18 There’s shared blame, there’s shared responsibility, and there’s also a shared moral and political purpose moving forward. Right. I mean, we don’t just end here on this beautiful and eloquent note that this is just a mere part of the healing that’s going to be needed to reconcile the different parts of the nation

25:40 who had fought for four years and had resulted in so much death. Lincoln knows that it’s not going to be easy to heal these wounds, to bring the Union back together, to move forward together with liberty

26:01 and justice for all, right, with ensuring that all have these rights promised to them in the Declaration of the Constitution. There’s a lot of, as he says, unfinished work to be done, but this is just a small but important attempt to heal the nation’s wounds.

26:26 Yeah. And I think that unfinished work, again, is really a powerful thing, working to finish the work. The work isn’t just the war. The work is that striving towards a greater recognition of the fundamental equality and dignity of every human being. And that goes far beyond this single conflict.

26:52 If you look at the speech as a whole, kind of the way he mentions a conflict, but it’s a thing that we experienced as atonement for this sin, and we need to work to get beyond not only this conflict, but to continue the work of binding up those wounds, which I think

27:13 he separates the nation’s wounds and to care for him who shall born the battle. The wounds aren’t just those that were born in combat, but are the wounds the nation has endured for the myriad of things that were at the heart of the struggle of the Civil War.

27:34 And looking forward, I mean, obviously, Lincoln is killed. A month after this, he’s assassinated. And so history takes a very different turn with the presidency of Andrew Johnson and white supremacy, the violence, the intimidation, and the granting and then

27:58 taking away of nearly all those rights that we’re talking about. And it would lead to a very troubled history of a century before we get to the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act and attempts to really bring that equality and dignity to each person.

28:22 In work that still continues, for sure. And I think, too, going back to where we started thinking about the Lincoln Memorial, I think it’s one of those reasons that those two speeches, the Gettysburg Address and Lincoln Second Inaugural, are enshrined there, because I think it reminds us of that call to finish the work, to work towards

28:43 a more full recognition of the promise of the Declaration of Independence, that all men are created equal, and that we all need to work to recognize that fundamental equality, and we all have a part in that, that it is the work of citizens who make that possible, that it is not anyone

29:04 but ourselves who guide us towards that thing. That’s a great civic responsibility and a great civic opportunity, I think, for all of us to continue to think about and reflect on. Yeah. And I think the speech itself is just an important speech that has a lot of relevance to us, that we can approach the task of liberty

29:29 and justice for all and these rights, and, as you say, the promise of the Declaration, but do so with the sense of moderation and a spirit of common purpose and reconciliation going forward. I think in many ways, that’s the only way that we’re really going to achieve these goals.

29:54 Well, with that, thank you, Tony, for another great conversation. And thank you all for tuning in and listening to us. And we do hope that you’ll join us next time. Until then, we’ll see you soon. Thanks, Kirk. Thanks all.