Lincoln would have preferred to avoid blaming either side, that is, the Southern slavocracy and anti-African prejudice that attributed the Civil War because of his humility and desire to help both the victor and the defeated move past previous evils and wrongdoings.
On Saturday, March 4, 1865, during his second inauguration as President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln gave his second inaugural speech.
Lincoln spoke of melancholy rather than happiness at a time when the American Civil War's victory against secessionists was just days away and slavery in the entire country was about to come to an end.
Some see this speech as a defence of his pragmatic approach to Reconstruction, in which he wanted to avoid treating the defeated rebels harshly by pointing out to his audience how both sides had miscalculated what lied ahead of them when the conflict started four years prior.
Lincoln nevertheless struck a balance by acknowledging the glaring injustice of slavery in addition to his rejection of triumphalism.
