Abraham Lincoln
Second Inaugural Address
Saturday, March 4, 1865

While I have always loved and cherished the words of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, I also love and cherish his second inaugural address, especially the concluding paragraph:

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.

Sadly, a little over a month after he spoke these words President Lincoln was assassinated. But his words did not die. They have inspired generations of Americans to strive for reconciliation, justice and peace not only for themselves but for all nations. Are Lincoln’s words not as true and relevant today as they were when he uttered them 144 years ago?

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