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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. Second Inaugural Address

Second Inaugural Address

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Legacy

Lincoln fully understood the challenges he faced as president of a nation divided over slavery when he took office. Eleven southern states seceded upon his election and formed the Confederate States of America. In April 1861 Confederate soldiers fired upon Fort Sumter in South Carolina, starting the Civil War.

Lincoln is universally revered for his steadfast dedication to ending slavery and saving the Union. On January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves in Confederate states and committed the Union to ending slavery. In his legendary “Gettysburg Address,” Lincoln passionately declared his belief that those who had died in the war did so “not in vain,” but to help safeguard American democracy for future generations. Lincoln was re-elected to a second term in 1864 and was dedicated to healing the nation. On April 9, 1865 the Confederate Army Commander Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses Grant at the Appomattox Courthouse. Unfortunately, Lincoln did not live to see the “new birth of freedom” he had proclaimed in his “Gettysburg Address” fully realized. Just five days after the surrender, on April 15, 1865, John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln while he was watching a play at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. Booth shot Lincoln point-blank in the back of his head, then jumped to the stage to make his escape, shouting, “Sic semper Tyrannis! [Thus always to Tyrants] The South is avenged!” ”