Year: 1865

The Presidents Inaugural Address.
| WAsHINGToN, March 4.-FeLtow Cowntrv-
men AT this second appearing to take
the oath of the Presidential Office, there ia
less occasion for an extended address than
there was at the FIST. Then statement
somewhat in detail of a course to be purI
| sued, seemed very fitting and proper. Now.
at theeXpiration of four years, during
which public declarations have been cons
stantly called forth on every point and
phase of the great contest which still ab-
sorbs.the attention aud eugrosses the en-
ergies of the nation, little that is new can
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, l trust
reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to
all. With high hope for the future no
predictiOn,in regard to it is ventured. I'm
the occasion corresponding to this four
years ago, all thoughts were anxiously li.
Fected to an impending civil war; all de.
cried, all sought to avoid it. While
the inaugural address was being de.
liVered from this place, devoted altogether
to having the Union without war. insur
gent agents were in the city seeking to de-
stroy it without war; seeking to dissolve
the Union and divide the effects by nepoti-
alton. Both parties deprecated war bnt
one OF these would make war rather than
let the nation survive, aud the other would
accept war rather than let it perish-and
thus the war came. One-eighth of the whole
population were colored. Slavery was not
distributed generally over the Union, but
localized in the southern part of it. That
slavery constituted a peculiar and powerful
interest; all know that this interest was
some how the cause of the war; to strength
en-, perpetuate and extend this interest was
the object for which the insurgents would
rend the Union by war, while the govern.
ment claimed no right to do more than tn
restrict the territorial enlargement of it
Neither party expected from the war the
magnitude or the duration which II has
| already attained. Neither anticipated that
the cause of the conflict might cease stiiJ
less even before the conflict itself should
cease. Each looked for an easier triumph,
and a result less fundamental and astound
ing. Both read the same Bible, and prayed
to the same God, and each invoked His aid
against the other. 1t may seem strange that
any heu should dare to ask a lust Coda
assistance in wringiug their bread from the
sweat of other men's brows. But ..iudpe
not that we be not Judged" The PRAYERS
of both could not be answered, that of
neither has been answered fully. The AL.
mighty has His own purpose. Woe uato
the world because of offenses, for it must
needs be that otfenseS come, but woe to
that man by whom the oFense cometh.
1t We shall suppose that American slavery
is one of the so-called offenses which in
the providence of God must needs come.
but which having continued through his
appointed time, he now Wills to remove.
shall We not discern that He gives to both
North and South this terrible war as due 10
those by whom the offsnse came. Ia there
any departure from the divine attributes
which the believers in living God always
ascribe to him? FOudly do We hope, fer
vently do we pray, that thismighty scourge
of war may speedily pass away. Yet titI
God wills that it contiuue until all the
wealth piled by the boDdmen's two hundred
and fifty years of uurequited toll shall be
sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn
with the lash shall be paid by another drawn
with the sword, still it must be said, as
WAS said three thousand years ago. that
the Judgements of the Lord are true and
righteous altogether. With malice towards
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
engsEed in, to bind up the national wounds,
and care for him who shall have borne the
battle aud tor his widow aud orphan, and
to do all that may be necessary TO achieve
and cherish just and lasting peace among
ourselves and with all nations.


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