Week Eight: Abraham Lincoln's Inaugural Address
“…with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in…”
It is fitting and proper to conclude our series of Presidential Farewell Messages and Inaugural Addresses with Abraham Lincoln, specifically with his Second Inaugural Address. We had initially scheduled Lincoln earlier in this series. But the universe moves in ways that we cannot always understand. And the Second Inaugural Address ended up this final week; not where we had planned, but where it now so clearly belongs.
The Address was given on March 4, 1865, because Inauguration was later in those days. That morning, Washington DC awoke very much like it will on January 20. It was a nervous city, an armed camp. Soldiers were billeted in the US Capitol. Violence was not just possible; it was expected. As they had four years earlier, friends and advisors urged Lincoln to have the Inauguration moved indoors. As he had four years earlier, Lincoln thanked them for their concern, and the Inauguration remained outdoors.
After taking the oath of office on the East Portico of the Capitol, Lincoln gave the most important Inaugural Address of them all. It is a magnificent speech of profound sadness, firm determination, but ultimate hopefulness. Perhaps those are the things that Americans most need to hear on January 20.
The War Memorial is a non-partisan organization.
This recording of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address runs for 6 minutes. It was produced here at The War Memorial. Lincoln’s words are read by Ted Everingham, a current member and former-Chair of our Board of Directors.