With Malice Towards None

On the fourth day of March, 1865, the President of the United States stood on the east steps of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. to deliver his second inaugural address. Now Four years earlier, Abraham Lincoln delivered his first inaugural address as disaster loomed. The divided nation had that sent him to the White House after the divided election of 1860 was slowly but surely headed to war against itself. Now, four years and approximately 600,000 casualties later, Abraham Lincoln was taking the oath of office again. 

Transcript

Welcome to Celebrate Poe - Episode 275.  With Malice Towards None.

During the months before election day in the United States, this podcast has taken a look at some of the documents, speeches, and later works of literature that deal with our countries history and aspirations - works such as Patrick Henry’s Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death speech, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and Frederick Douglass’ speech The Hypocrisy of Slavery.  And we have previously looked at President Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address and the Gettysburg address - and if you have not listened to those episodes, I invite you to go back and listen to my comments regarding those works.  Today I would like to take a deep dive into the third of Lincoln’s works that this podcast will examine - and that is his masterful Second Inaugural Address.

In 1864, the nation held a presidential election during the Civil War..  The election was largely a referendum on President Lincoln’s war record, and it pitted Lincoln against his former top general, George McClellan.  As late as August 1864, Lincoln believed that he might lose the election. Furthermore, he feared that a President McClellan might compromise with the Confederacy and put an end to the Civil War without emancipation.  However, a series of battlefield victories helped to rally the electorate to the Union’s cause, and Lincoln won reelection in a landslide—the first President reelected since Andrew Jackson.  With Lincoln’s reelection secure and Union victory within reach, the debate in the North pivoted to how Lincoln, the Republican Congress, and the U.S. Army would handle the nation’s transition to peace—with Republican leaders disagreeing over the pace and scope of Reconstruction.  

On the fourth day of March, 1865, the President of the United States stood on the east steps of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. to deliver his second inaugural address. Now Four years earlier, Abraham Lincoln delivered his first inaugural address as disaster loomed. The divided nation had that sent him to the White House after the divided election of 1860 was slowly but surely headed to war against itself. Now, four years and approximately 600,000 casualties later, Abraham Lincoln was taking the oath of office again. 

The audience included a mix of dignitaries and everyday citizens. On the dais sat members of Congress, military officials, and foreign diplomats. Beyond the official seating, a heterogeneous crowd filled the Capitol grounds, including wounded veterans in uniform, families eager to hear about the future of the nation, and Black troops who had recently fought for the Union.

Lincoln began by observing that his second address need not be as lengthy as the first. For four years, the nation had focused intently on the Civil War. He has nothing new to offer, nor anything to say that had not been said before. Lincoln expresses hope that the end of the carnage is within reach but declined to predict precisely when. He observes that everyone hoped to avoid the conflict, but he emphasized that one side ultimately decided to take up arms against the Union.  

Lincoln turns to the topic that most occupies his speech: slavery, the core issue that led to war. The South preferred to fight rather that acquiesce to the federal government’s efforts to limit slavery’s expansion into the Western territories. It could not have been predicted, Lincoln says, that slavery would end prior to the end of the Civil War.

Lincoln introduces the idea that God has been fully present in the turmoil. He observes the irony that men on either side of the war pray to the same God for the wherewithal to destroy each other. He further notes that neither side has seen their prayers answered.

Lincoln then alludes to God’s purposes, which he believes to be generally unknown to humankind. He suggests that perhaps “this terrible war” was visited upon the nation both as a penance for the sin of slavery and as a means to end slavery once and for all. While Lincoln hopes the war will end sooner rather than later, he believes that, were God to require further punishment for the riches accumulated by slave owners, such a punishment would be warranted.

Lincoln then reiterates the idea that the Civil War represents a punishment and payment for the sin of slavery. Lincoln expresses this idea using the image of blood; the every drop of blood exacted from slaves by their masters must be matched by blood spilled on the battlefields of the war. This image is purely figurative, but it is elegant and concrete enough to convey Lincoln’s point forcefully.
Lincoln concludes by laying out the chief aim of his second term: merciful reconstruction of the nation. He expresses no intention to punish the South for what had transpired over the past four years. To the contrary, his vision for a peaceful union includes the care of veterans, widows, and orphans—Northern and Southern alike. This vision would not be realized; Lincoln was assassinated just five weeks later.

Lincoln’s address, delivered as the Civil War neared its conclusion, is a reflection on the tumultuous period leading up to 1865 and the president’s vision for the nation’s recovery and unity. At the heart of Lincoln’s speech is the acknowledgment of the universal expectation that the war was drawing to a close and the shared, yet divergent, prayers of both the North and South for victory.

So we have Lincoln winning the presidential election of 1860 in a race that greatly reflected the political and ideological divisions in the country at the time, foregrounding the American Civil War which began just months into Lincoln’s first term. Lincoln refers to the theme of his first inaugural address and how his second shall differ.  One major difference at first sight is that the United States is in a very different condition - politically wise - and President’s Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address is dealing with a different situation in the United States and is therefore shorter in length.

President Lincoln’s second inaugural address showed that his views had changed from when he gave his first inaugural address. When President Lincoln first took office, our country was splitting apart. Several states had left the Union already, and there was concern additional states could leave. As a result, President Lincoln had to make it very clear that he had no intention of ending slavery where it already existed. If he came out and said he was against slavery and wanted to end it, more states might have left the Union. He might also have lost the support of some people in the North who were not against slavery but were in favor of saving the Union.

In his second inaugural address, President Lincoln made it very clear that he opposed slavery. He stated that the Civil War was about the issue of slavery, which he considered to be an evil institution. He believed it was our duty to solve the slavery issue. By this time, it was clear the North would win the war. This allowed President Lincoln to use this address to try to heal the wounds the Civil War had caused and to focus on reuniting the country.

Now if all this seemed a bit overwhelming, I’d like to delve into Lincoln’s address using Abraham Lincoln’s actual words - remember it is just a few minutes long - using the beautiful, flowing language of the 19th century.  Oh, I might throw in some comments in modern-day English along the way) 

March 04, 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 fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly 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. 

I need to say something here.

Lincoln’s choice of diction here is significant; he calls it a “great contest” rather than a “civil war.” A potential reason for this choice is the success that the Union armies had found during Lincoln’s first term. Many saw the end of the war in sight, and many were looking to reintegrate the South into the Union. By saying “great contest” rather than “war,” Lincoln presents the rebel states as contestants rather than enemy combatants, potentially making an appeal to those sympathetic to the Confederates. Since the National Unity Party supported his re-election campaign and he took on Andrew Johnson as his vice president, Lincoln’s use of neutral terms suggests that he’s also looking towards reunification.  I wish some of our leaders today were more interested in using words that unify, than causing confusing and chaos.  

But back to Lincoln’s speech -

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.

Now Lincoln’s opening words are cautiously optimistic and reflect the overall purpose of his speech. He uses neutral language, he draws attention to the Union army’s successes, and he professes “high hope for the future.” However, note that Lincoln avoids mention of any “prediction” of what will come. This allows him to focus his policies on reunification as the defining aspect of his second term of office, allowing him to craft this inaugural address appropriately.

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 avert 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 effects by negotiation. 

According to many scholars, Lincoln’s election to the presidency was one of the key reasons for the start of the Civil War. A few weeks after his election, South Carolina had a state convention in which several Southern states declared independence as a confederacy, drafted a constitution, and elected a president. Several other Southern states followed in the ensuing months, and the Civil War officially began in April, 1861, when the rebel army attacked the US Army base at Fort Sumter in South Carolina.  But back to the address.

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 localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. 

Lincoln’s use of a peculiar and powerful interest is especially worth examining. You see, Lincoln characterized the slave population as a “peculiar and powerful interest”:   “powerful” because they represented over an eighth of the American population; “peculiar” because they did not align easily with any other group. While slaves as a whole were more sympathetic to the Union than the Confederacy, many did not readily view themselves as citizens of the Union. All told, slaves took a variety of perspectives: some took to the Union cause, joining the Union Army; others adopted a pragmatic stance, siding with the Union as long as it advanced their own goal of freedom; others still were wary of emancipation and the uncertainties of a free future.

Then Lincoln said - All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. 

I think that this is an especially clever line in this context.  You see, here Lincoln makes another calculated rhetorical appeal in this line. He does not specifically state that anyone on either side was in favor of war and bloodshed. His use of “all” signals inclusion, which appeals to those seeking to reunify the country and avoids casting blame.

To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. 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 men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses 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 offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? 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 bondsman'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 "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

I like how Lincoln used this comparatively lengthy section and filled it with biblical allusions to explain the actions and beliefs of both the North and South - This was something that either side could relate to and understand.

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 orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

These final words concisely summarizes Lincoln’s attitude in the entire address. Lincoln’s perspective toward the Civil War as it draws to a close is one of balance and compassion. His aim is not to castigate the Confederacy, only to end the conflict and reconcile the nation. The phrase “with firmness in the right” conveys Lincoln’s conviction in the correctness of the Union cause, specifically the moral necessity of eradicating slavery from the United States. After all, this method of summarizing the main points of a speech in its conclusion is an effective rhetorical strategy; it reminds the audience of what is most important and leaves a lasting impression.

Just 701 words long, Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address took only six or seven minutes to deliver, yet contains many of the most memorable examples of American political oratory. The speech contained neither gloating nor rejoicing. Rather, it offered Lincoln’s most profound reflections on the causes and meaning of the war. The “scourge of war,” he explained, was best understood as divine punishment for the sin of slavery, a sin in which all Americans, North as well as South, were complicit. It describes a national moral debt that had been created by the “bondsmen’s 250 years of unrequited toil,” and ends with a call for compassion and reconciliation.

With its biblical allusions, alliteration, repetition, and parallel structure, and its reliance on one-syllable words, the address has the power of a sermon. It incorporates many of the themes of the religious revivals: sin, sacrifice, and redemption. At a White House reception, President Lincoln encountered Frederick Douglass. “I saw you in the crowd today, listening to my inaugural address,” the president remarked. “How did you like it?” “Mr. Lincoln,” Douglass answered, “that was a sacred effort.”

41 days later President Abraham Lincoln, who had guided the United States through perhaps its most divisive period, was assassinated.

Sources include the 2nd Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln, the National Park Service, and the Miller Center at the University of Virginia.

Join Celebrate Poe next week as this podcast takes a deep dive into some of Walt Whitman’s poems dealing with democracy.

Don’t forget to vote when you are able - whether it be mail-in, absentee, in-person, or any other legitimate form.

Thank you for listening to Celebrate Poe.