As Abraham Lincoln began his second term, the country was devastated by a four-year civil war that had been far longer and bloodier than anyone could have imagined. The South lay in ruins as General Robert E. Lee moved the remnants of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to Appomattox. Hopelessly outnumbered and surrounded, Lee would surrender to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. The war would end within about five weeks of Lincoln's speech, and Lincoln would be assassinated less than a week later after that surrender.
Anticipating the impending end of the war, Lincoln realized that his most important task at hand was "to bind up the nation's wounds." Four years earlier, Lincoln's first inauguration speech focused closely on the unionist view of secession and begged the South to reconsider secession. His second inauguration speech, though, was much shorter, but carried only a hint of a victor's satisfaction. Significantly, this speech differed in tone and approach than his first address: It showed Lincoln's profound spirital belief that God had a hand in the whole affair.
