With Malice Toward None

The nation is celebrating the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth with a lot of hoopla, special shows on cable, radio broadcasts, newspapers and magazine articles, special exhibits in Washington at the Smithsonian and Library of Congress, speeches by politicians, and blog entries.

With this momentous event in mind, I tried to figure out what I wanted to do during this time. I read Lincoln’s second inaugural address. I don’t recall ever reading the whole document before, but have heard excerpts from it, phrases such as 'with malice toward none...'

Looking at the second inaugural, I made a few discoveries and rediscoveries.

Lincoln did not believe he would be re-elected in November 1864. In a memo to his cabinet on August 23, 1864, he wrote: “This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be re-elected….” However, he was re-elected, with 54% of the popular vote and carrying all but three of the northern states.

Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address on March 4, 1865, from the east portico of the Capital building. The Library of Congress has the five-page hand-written copy of the speech available for viewing online - a wonderful primary resource for use in the classroom.

The speech itself was brief – and the President started his inaugural address explaining the brevity of it:

“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.” He went on to mention briefly the successes on the battlefield: “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.”

His comments on the existence of slavery occupied approximately half of the address. It was during the second inaugural of Lincoln that Afro-American troops marched in an inaugural parade. Of special interest was how the address illustrated Lincoln’s belief in God:

“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'.”

But the main thrust of the address – and its concluding portion - was the future. The Confederacy had lost the war. What direction to go next?

“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.”

Lincoln would not have the opportunity to attempt to create his version of bringing the nation back together… he would be assassinated at Ford’s Theater just 37 days after his second inauguration.

Powerful words and ideas that can stir a man’s heart even today, 144 years after they were first uttered.

Essential Question: How can we best enhance the understanding of students in the application of the words of Lincoln to today's world?

Photo Credits: Library of Congress

• Photo 1: Clip from Lincoln's handwritten second Inaugural Address
• Photo 2: Crowd in from of Capital Building
• Photo 3: Lincoln giving second Inaugural Address
• Photo 4: Oath of Office, given by Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase
• Photo 5: Afro-American regiment in Inaugural Parade
• Photo 6: President's box at Ford's Theater.