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This is the kind of book you want to keep on your desk to impress visitors. But I don't mind this as it makes me look more mysterious than I actually am. I tend to pick it up and read only a few lines at a time. I must warn that it is difficult to read this book in one sitting. Also, each word has a definition right next to it, so I am guaranteed to understand what I'm reading. What I like most about it is that the words are listed alphabetically, so I never get lost looking for a word. This is the kind of book you want I really like this book and find it easy to follow. With that, Lincoln ended the shortest swearing-in speech since George Washington’s inauguration.I really like this book and find it easy to follow. 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. As he began to speak, it was dear to everyone that his mind was now on peace, not war. He moved to the center of the platform and unfolded a single sheet of paper. But now the outcome of the bloodiest conflict in American history seemed clear, and unlike those who sought to punish the South, Lincoln deeply desired that the nation become one again. Lincoln had been forced to accept war rather than let the nation perish. Many who witnessed the scene and recorded it in their diary saw this as an omen of good things to come in Lincoln’s second term. At that exact moment the sun broke through the gray clouds that had shrouded the scene since early morning, and shafts of sunlight shone on the speaker’s platform. It rose to a powerful roar, then just as quickly subsided. When the assembled crowd saw their president, the solemnity of the occasion gave way to applause. Lincoln’s tall, gaunt appearance seemed in perfect keeping with the dismal gray of the sunless sky. Lincoln was about to emerge from the crowd, mount the podium, and raise his right hand to take his second oath of office.
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The scene has been recorded in numerous diaries and newspaper accounts.Īll was quiet. 1865, the citizens of Washington gathered at the Capitol to witness his second oath of office. But Lincoln did win reelection, and on March 4. People had grown tired of the war, and President Lincoln’s popularity was at an all-time low. In fact, just a few short months before the voters cast their ballots in 1864, many felt Lincoln had little chance of winning reelection. More than anyone else, Abraham Lincoln is credited with holding the union of states together.Įven though many people now consider Lincoln the greatest American president, he was often scorned and ridiculed while he was in office. Historians have called the Civil War the defining moment in American history, a time when the issue of whether the states could be truly united would ultimately be answered.