MARCH 4, 1865:
Abraham Lincoln gives his Second
Inaugural Address on the steps of the newly-domed Capitol as he begins his
second term as President of the United States.
Widely
considered at least the second greatest speech given in American history
(following Lincoln’s own Gettysburg Address), the Second Inaugural speaks not
only of the end of the Civil War but of the restoration of national peace in
ringing, Biblical tones. The lyrical beauty and gravitas of Lincoln’s words
still echo down the years. The United States has been a far different nation
simply because these words were uttered by that tall, gangly man on a brisk
late winter day one and one-half centuries ago:
Fellow-Countrymen:
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. Then a statement somewhat
in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper.
Now, at the expiration
of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called
forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the
attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be
presented. 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. With high hope for the future, no
prediction in regard to it is ventured.
On the occasion corresponding
to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending
civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address
was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union
without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without
war — seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both
parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the
nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and
the war came.
One-eighth of the
whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union,
but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar
and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the
war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for
which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government
claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it.
Neither party
expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already
attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with
or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier
triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible
and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other.
It may seem strange
that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread
from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not
judged. 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
judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
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.
While
the Union is inaugurating a President, the Confederate Congress is approving a
new national standard. Although it must have galled most Confederates to think
in such terms, Major Arthur L. Rogers C.S.A. pointed out that the dimensions of
the second national flag, the Stainless Banner, could cause it to be mistaken
for a flag of surrender or truce at certain angles or on windless days. He
lobbied for the enlargement of the “Cross and Stars” canton from a square to a
rectangle, and for a broad red stripe to be added to the fly end of the flag.
The
new flag quickly became known as the “Blood Stained Banner.”
Very
few original Blood Stained Banners were ever manufactured. At this late point
in the war, most Confederate military units were less than concerned about an
essentially cosmetic change to the national flag. They continued to use the
Stainless Banner (or even the Stars and Bars in some areas). Other Confederates
merely sewed a strip of red cloth to existing Stainless Banners. A few Blood
Stained Banners were produced for the Confederacy’s public buildings in
Richmond*, and a few found their way to the Army of Northern Virginia, but the
majority of Confederates had no idea that the Blood Stained Banner was their
flag until after the war’s end.
*Even
in 1865, most flags produced by Richmond flagmakers retained the square canton
rather than the rectangular one specified by law, and most reenactor reproductions
also use the square canton. It is difficult to find a Blood Stained Banner that
matches the exact dimensions laid down in Confederate law.
