Photo: Getty ImagesFor all that divided the North and South in 1865, there remained a common bond to which President Lincoln could appeal in his second inaugural address.
Both sides “pray to the same God,” but “the prayers of both could not be answered—that of neither has been answered fully.
The Almighty has His own purposes.” From this shared faith—and a shared acceptance of the gulf between God’s power and man’s designs—Lincoln could call on all Americans to proceed “with malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right,” to “finish the work we are in.”
Persons:
Lincoln, —, — Lincoln, ”