Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/354

 286 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS 1,800,000. The difference in the electoral vote was still greater, Mr. Lincoln being supported by 212 of the presidential electors, while only 21 voted for McClellan. President Lincoln s second inaugural address, delivered on March 4, 1865, will forever remain not only one of the most remarkable of all his public utterances, but will also hold a high rank among the greatest state papers that history has preserved. As he neared the end of his career, and saw plainly outlined before him the dimensions of the vast moral and material success that the nation was about to achieve, his thoughts, always predisposed to an earnest and serious view of life, assumed a fervor and exaltation like that of the ancient seers and prophets. The speech that he delivered to the vast concourse at the eastern front of the capitol is the briefest of all the presidential addresses in our annals; but it has not its equal in lofty eloquence and austere morality. The usual historical view of the situation, the ordinary presentment of the intentions of the government, seemed matters too trivial to engage the concern of a mind standing, as Lincoln s apparently did at this moment, face to face with the most tremendous problems of fate and moral responsibility. In the briefest words he an nounced what had been the cause of the war, and how the government had hoped to bring it to an earlier close. With passionless candor he admitted