Which sentence in this excerpt from Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address conveys that he wanted the US Civil War to end as
soon as
possible?
Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the
conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and
astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each Invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men
should dare to ask a Just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not
judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto
the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose
that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His
appointed time. He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the
offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him?
Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the
wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash
shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true
and righteous altogether."
