Abraham Lincoln begins his 2nd inaugural address on March 4. 1865. in which he addresses the state on the on-going civil war and his high hopes to unify the state one time once more under God. Lincoln began his address by stating that the war has taken so much clip and energy out of the state and that there is no demand to describe on it. He declares himself an equal with the populace and says he has besides felt the wars effects. “The advancement of our arms…is every bit good known to the populace as to myself. ”

He states that he isn’t traveling to try to foretell the war but he expresses his hopes for the hereafter and encourages the populace to be optimistic as good. Lincoln looks back four old ages prior to his first inaugural reference. He says we were all expecting a civil war but were trusting to halt it and salvage the Union. However. seditious agents hoped to split the Union. Lincoln says one party would do the war and the other would accept it.

Paraphrase

Today is the 2nd clip I am turn toing the state as your president. I no longer see the demand to hold a drawn out address. instead I hope to finally unify us as a state once more and assist reconstruct our hereafter. We all know how the war has played out and there is no ground for me to further discourse it. The war is coming to a stopping point but the result is still a enigma. Today is a clip to come together and look in front towards our hopeful hereafter as a state. At this clip. four old ages ago. all attempts were on commanding the oncoming civil war. The war seemed a necessity at the clip in some American eyes and efforts to get down a national calamity were achieved without much hesitance by opposing parties. No dialogues would decide the issues so a civil war did come.