Abraham Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address on 4 March 1865. As Lincoln prepared to speak, the Civil War was drawing to a close. Newspapers were filled with reports of the armies of William T. Sherman and Ulysses S. Grant. As late as August 1864, neither Lincoln nor his Republican Party believed he could win reelection. Now Lincoln would be the first president inaugurated for a second term in thirty-two years. The crowd of thirty to forty thousand was greeted by an ongoing rain that produced ten inches of mud in the streets of Washington. Sharpshooters were on the rooftops surrounding the ceremony. Rumors abounded that Confederates might attempt to abduct or assassinate the president
A. it took a few decades. The court ruled that even if they are separate, as long as they are equal, it was okay.
