Lincoln is arguing for an end to the War, and for both the North and the South to accept each other. He wants the nation to be whole agains, even though feelings of resentment will still be there. He also calls for the American people to put this war behind them and for all veterans, North or South, to be treated with respect and for their families to be looked after.
Lincoln’s second address seems, at least to me, to be more emotional then his first even though it’s shorter. By calling for Americans “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”, he is begging Americans to not hate the South just because they are the enemy, but to accept them again as their kin and to try and heal the wounds of the soldiers and of their families.
He also cited the Bible and a few versus for a more “logical” argument as was the norm for back then. He argued that God had sent this war to the US as punishment for an offense, which Lincoln says is slavery. Lincoln goes on to say that “until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword”, meaning that the war wouldn’t end until all the pain and suffering of the slaves had been dealt out to soldiers. He also says that the blame for this war does not solely rest on the South, but that the North deserves (at least) part of the blame for not being willing to let the Union dissolve, but instead push for war to keep it together.
This speech portrays Lincoln as a man who is weary of war and is ready for the nation to be whole again. He just wants for everyone to “play nice” and to try and put this war behind them. This document represents the point of view of the Union president during the only Civil War that America has ever known, which by itself makes it important. The Civil War was a terrible time in our history, where Americans killed Americans over political views.
I did find his argument convincing. I really appreciated that Lincoln called for the American people to accept the Southerns into their fold again, and he said that the South was not the only one to blame for the Civil War. I think that by more evenly distributing the blame to both the North and the South he was trying to quash feelings of resentment that were going to surface once the war was over. If I had been a Northerner during the Civil War I would have felt throughly chastised for letting it come to war to try and resolve the political and ideological problems in the country and I would have felt more open to forgiving the South.
If I had lived in the South I do not think that this speech would have been enough to make me want to be a part of the Union again, especially because in my mind Lincoln is not my president so he didn’t matter. I would have been hurt that the Union did not allow my state to leave and I don’t think something as unimportant as an inaugural address by some guy who is not my president would be able to ease the pain and anger I would have at the Union. However it might make me a little more willing to enter negotiations to find an end to the war.
