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Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address

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Abraham Lincoln gives his “Second Inaugural Address” after being elected for his second term as president of the United States. As he stands before politicians and and Lincoln-supporters alike, he speaks of the rising tensions between the two sides of the Civil War. The goal of the reelected president’s speech was to keep the country united, regardless of the differences on both sides of the war: however, events such as the recent riots in Charlottesville reveal that this goal has not yet been achieved.
In the height of the civil war, Abraham Lincoln makes it his goal to keep the nation united by surpassing their differences and moving forward as a country. Lincoln proclaims that the war will be finished with “malice towards none, with …show more content…
In the article ‘Racism Never died in Virginia,’ the author Doug Stafford, the chief strategist to senator Rand Paul, describes how most of the state of Virginia can still remember when interracial marriage was prohibited. He claims that “racism isn't dead,” and that America should not “pretend that it is.” Not only have we not moved past segregation in the United States, but it took over one hundred years after Lincoln’s presidency for interracial marriage to be legal in certain parts of the country. James Truslow Adams wrote an article for the Virginia Quarterly Spring 1945, about where the state of America’s unity lies. Adams simply talks about how the history of our country has still left its scars on the nation. This is important to take note of because these tensions have been predominantly noticeable with all of the recent riots happening over race issues. In conclusion, President Lincoln’s goal of uniting the country was a physical success, but as a whole it was a failure. We are one union, but not one people. Our nation is divided by ties that have lasted for over a decade. Racism is still a problem and needs to be fought. I think that in the future, eventually the country will move past its old history and move forward together, however far in the future that may

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