Abraham Lincoln in his Times Chapter 21 Democratic Eloquence Part 4

Abraham Lincoln in his Times Chapter 21 Democratic Eloquence Part 4

But there was a larger issue than the military one. He wanted to drive home the antislavery meaning of the war and to demonstrate how inclusive American democracy could be. That opportunity came on March 4, 1865, the day of his second inauguration.  Inauguration Day witnessed American democracy at its ethical best and its directionless worst. On that day, a unique kind of moral centripetalism—in the form of the short but resonant Second Inaugural Address—was offered to the nation, providing inspiration for Lincoln’s contemporaries and for later generations. Lincoln’s long-standing belief in cosmic democracy, rooted in natural forces, was enforced by the extreme weather conditions. Inside the Capitol Building, where the Thirty-eighth Congress was wrapping up its term, early morning found senators, some of them nodding off after an all-night session, being startled awake by a burst of wind and rain that shook the building. Outside, throngs who had come to Washington from around the natio…