Name and Period: ____________________________

Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address

Given Saturday, March 4, 1865: one month before the end of the Civil War

Annotation Guide
Box 2-3 words per page and define them in the Write 2-3 hashtags per page on the side
margin

Underline one ‘juicy’ or important quote per page and You don’t get credit for what you boxed or
react to it in the margin or ask a question underlined, only your writing!

1 Fellow countrymen: at this second appearing to take the oath of the Notes:
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. 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.

2 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. 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.

3 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. 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 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

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 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.'

4 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.

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Questions - These will be graded in a separate assignment. If you’re working online, please make sure
you submit your answers to “Second Inaugural Address Questions.”
1. Find one example of anaphora in paragraph 2 and one in paragraph 3. How does this rhetorical device
contribute to the power of the speech?
2. What is the effect of Lincoln telling the audience that ‘little that is new could be presented’ while giving a
speech about the state of the country?
3. Summarize how Lincoln describes the two sides are similar. What rhetorical appeal does the use to
warn against laying blame? Why would or wouldn't it be an effective appeal for his audience?
4. How might Lincoln’s use of language that uses religious reasoning shape his audience’s understanding
of his call to end the Civil War?
5. Who is Abraham Lincoln’s intended audience? How does Lincoln anticipate his audience’s needs and
expectations in his speech?
6. What specific language does Lincoln use to invoke emotions in his audience?