It was known, by a dispatch received at the Capitol at midnight, on the
3d of March, 1865, that Lee had sought an interview with Grant, to
arrange terms of surrender. On the next day Lincoln again stood on the
eastern colonnade of the Capitol, again to swear fidelity to the
Republic, her Constitution, and laws; but, how changed the scene from
his first inauguration. No traitors now occupied high places under the
Government. Crowds of citizens and soldiers who would have died for
their beloved Chief Magistrate now thronged the area. Liberty loyalty,
and victory had crowned the eagles of our armies. No conspirators were
now mingling in the crowd, unless perchance the assassin Booth might
have been lurking there. Many patriots and statesmen were in their
graves. Douglas was dead, and Ellsworth, and Baker, and McPherson, and
Reynolds, and Wadsworth, and a host of martyrs, had given their lives
that liberty and the Republic might triumph. It was a very touching
spectacle to see the long lines of invalid and wounded soldiers, from
the great hospitals about Washington, some on crutches, some who had
lost an arm, many pale from unhealed wounds, who gathered to witness the
scene. As Lincoln ascended the platform, and his tall form, towering
above all his associates, was recognized, cheers and shouts of welcome
filled the air, and not until he raised his arm motioning for silence,
could the acclamations be hushed. He paused a moment, looked over the
scene, and still hesitated. What thronging memories passed through his
mind! Here, four years before, he had stood pleading, oh, how earnestly,
for _peace_. But, even while he pleaded, the rebels took up the sword,
and he was forced to "_accept war_."
Now four long, bloody, weary years of devastating war had passed, and
those who made the war were everywhere discomfited, and being
overthrown. That barbarous institution which had caused the war, had
been destroyed, and the dawn of peace already brightened the sky. Such
the scene, and such the circumstances under which Lincoln pronounced his
second Inaugural, a speech which has no parallel since Christ's Sermon
on the Mount.
Who shall say that I am irreverent when I declare, that the passage,
"Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray that this _mighty scourge_ of
war _may speedily pass away_! yet, if God wills that it continue until
all the wealth piled by the bondsmen's two hundred and fifty years of
unrequited toil shall be sunk, and every drop of blood drawn by the
lash, shall be paid by another drawn by the sword, as was said three
thousand years ago, so it must be said now, that the judgments of the
Lord are true and righteous altogether," could only have been inspired
by that _Holy Book_, which daily he read, and from which he ever sought
guidance?
Where, but from the teachings of Christ, could he have learned that
charity in which he so unconsciously described his own moral nature,
"_With malice toward none, with charity for all_, with firmness in the
right, as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work we are
in, _to bind up the nation's wounds_, to care for him who hath borne the
battle, and for his widow and his orphans, to do all which may achieve a
just and lasting peace, among ourselves and among all nations."