Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1865-03-09
THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
Mr. Lincoln's Inaugural Address was as
follows:
Fellow countrymen At this second ap-
pearing to take the oath of the Presiden-
tial Office there is less occasion for an ex-
tended address than there was at the first
Then a statement of a course to be pursued
seemed very fitting and proper.
Now, at the expiration of four years,
daring which public declaration have been
constantly called forth on every point and
phase of the great contest which still alb
serbs the attention and engrosses the en-
ergies of the nation little that is new could
be presented.
The progress of our arms, upon which
all else chiefly depends, is as we'll known
to the public as to myself, and it is, trust
reasonably satisfactory and encouraging
to all With high hope for the future, no
prediction i'll regard to it is ventured
On the occasion corresponding to this,
four years ago all thoughts were anxiously
directed to an impending civil war All
dreaded it: all sought to avoid it, While
the Inaugural Address was being delivered
from this place, devoted altogether to SAT-
ing the Union without war, insurgent
agents were in this city seeking to DESTROY
it without war-seeking to dissolve the
Union and divide its efforts by negotiation.
Both parties deprecated war, but one of
them would make war rather than let the
nation survive, and the other would accept
war rather than let it perish and the war
came.
One-eighth of the whole population were
colored slaves, not distributed generally
over the Union, but localized in the South
ern part of it. These slaves constituted
peculiar and powerful interest All knew
that this interest was somehow the cause
of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate
and extend this interest was the object for
which the insurgents would rend the Union
even by war, while the Government claim
ed no right to do more than to restrict the
territorial enlargement of it.
Neither party expected for the war the
magnitude or the duration which it has al
ready attained. Neither anticipated that
the cause might cease with or even before
the conflict itself should cease Each
looked for an easier triumph and result
less fundamental and astounding.
Both read the same Bible and prayed to
the same God, and each invokes his aid
against the other. 1t may seem strange
that any men should dare to ask a Just
Gods assistance in wringing their bread
from the sweat of other mems faces but
let us Judge not that we be not Judged The
prayers of both could not be answered.
that OF neither has been answered fully
The Almighty has His own purposes. Woe
unto the world because of offenSes, for it
must needs be that offenses come but woe
to that man by whom offense comes. If we
shall suppose that American Slavery is one
of these offenses which in the providence
of God must needs come, but which having
continued through His appointed time He
now wills to remove, and that He gives to
both North and South this terrible war as
the woe due to those by whom the offense
came, shall we discern therein any depar-
ture from those Divine attributes which the
believers in a living God always ascribe to
Him
Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray,
that this mighty scourge of war may speed
lily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it
continue until all the wealth piled by the
bOndman's two hundred and fifty years of
Cnrequited toll shall be sunk, and until
every drop of the blood drawn by the lash
shall be paid by another drawn by the
sword, as was said three thousand years
ago, SO, still it must be said, that the iudg-
ments 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, to bind up the
natiop'9 wounds, 10 Gale for him who shall
have borne the battle, and for his widow
and his orphans; to do all which may