590. The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln: Death at the Theatre (Part 1)

My fellow countrymen, 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, 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 judgments 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 and

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. the unmistakable tones there of Daniel Day Lewis playing Abraham Lincoln, of course. And Abe was speaking there at his second inauguration as President of the United States on the 4th of March 1865. And Dominic, it is a great, supreme moment of triumph, isn't it? Lincoln has just been re-elected and victory for the North, for the Union that Lincoln has been leading throughout the Civil War.

is just weeks away. But what's amazing about that speech is how muted any sense of triumphalism is. It's regarded by Lincoln scholars as one of his greater speeches. There's no sort of sense of boasting and and no sense of exaltation and glory. We've won!

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