At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office there is le occasion for an extended addre than there was at the first.Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper.Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been
constantly called forth on every point and phase of his great contest which still absorbs the attention and engroes the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented.The progre of our arms, upon which all else chiefly
depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all.With high hope for the future, no prediction in 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 avert it.While the inaugural addre was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving teing delivered from thisurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war-seeking to diolve the Union and divide effects 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 southern part of it.Their slaves constituted a 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 claimed no right to do more than to restrict theterritorialen largement of it.Neither party expected for the war the
magnitude or the duration, which it has already attained.Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease.Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result le fundamental and astounding.Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other.It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God\'s aistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men\'s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged.That of neither has been answered fully.The Almighty has His own purposes.\"Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must need be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comet.\" If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those 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 there in any departure 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 speedily pa 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, and 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 firmne in the right as God gives us to see the might, 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.
在我现在第二次来到这里宣誓就任总统职位的时候，就不十分必要像第十次就职时那样作长篇演说了。那时，一篇关于我将采取的方针的比较详尽的说明，似乎是比较合适和理所当然的。可是现在，四年任期刚刚结束，在这期间，关于那至今仍吸引着举国上下的注意，消耗着全民的精力的巨大斗争的各个阶段的任何一个细节，随时都有公告发奉，现在也实在再没有多少新东西可讲了。关于我们的军事进展情况——它是其它一切的主要依靠所在——，公众也了解得和我本人一样清楚；而且我相信对所有的人来说都是相当满意和令人鼓舞的。既然对未来充满了希望，那么在这里也就无意冒昧作出预测了。
也正是在四年之前我就任总统的那一场合，所有的人都在为即将来临的内战惴惴不安。所有的人都害怕内战——都竭力想避免内战发生。而当我在这里发表就职演说，决定不惜采用一切力量，但不用战争，拯救联邦的时候，叛乱分子的代理人却在全城到处活动，力求不用战争摧毁联邦——力求通过谈判瓦解联邦，分裂国家。——双方都声称反对战争；但可是他们中的一方却宁愿发动战争也不让这个国家生存下去；另一方也则宁可接受战争也不能眼看着国家灭亡。于是战争便打起来了。
