The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002.
Lincoln’s second inaugural address
A speech given by Abraham Lincoln at his inauguration for a second term as president, a few weeks before the Union victory in the Civil War. It concludes with this appeal for reconciliation: “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.”
