Lincoln’s Legacy: Historic Americana from the Life of Abraham Lincoln

8vo. Text within double-rule border. Disbound; upper margin discreetly reinforced; some light marginal toning or soiling; in full blue morocco easel-style display case.

A VERY RARE FIRST PRINTING OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN’S CELEBRATED SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

Despite its brevity, Lincoln's second inaugural address is one of the most admired of his writings. Lincoln himself remarked in a 15 March 1865 letter to Thurlow Weed that "I expect the latter [Inaugural Address] to wear as well as—perhaps better than—anything I have produced." In his essay on President Lincoln, General Carl Schurz referred to his second inaugural address as "a sacred poem. [That] no American President had ever spoken words like these to the American people. America never had a President who found such words in the depth of his heart" and referred to it as "far greater as well as far more characteristic" than Lincoln's Gettysburg speech because "[Lincoln] poured out the whole devotion and tenderness of his great soul. It had all the solemnity of a father's last admonition and blessing to his children before he lay down to die."

Lincoln's speech eschewed triumphalism, and instead focused on the shared responsibility for slavery and the war's divine purpose. Lincoln asserted that the conflict was a form of divine retribution, stating, "If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offences 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 offence came..." This theological interpretation of the war's meaning was complemented by Lincoln's call for national unity and compassion, encapsulated in his famous words: "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds..."

The power of Lincoln's address lies not only in its content but also in its rhetorical structure, employing biblical allusions, alliteration, and parallel structure to achieve a sermon-like quality. Lincoln's use of inclusive language, particularly the pronoun "we," served to bridge the divide between North and South, emphasizing shared culpability and the need for collective healing. The speech's enduring significance is perhaps best summarized by Frederick Douglass, who, upon hearing it, remarked to Lincoln, "Mr. Lincoln, that was a sacred effort."

VERY RARE: According to online records this is only the fourth copy to come to auction since 1967. Monaghan 600; Streeter sale 3:1755.

Provenance:

Louise Taper, Beverly Hills, California