Photograph of Lincoln taken by Alexander Gardner, 1863.

On this Inauguration Day, and in anticipation of Abraham Lincoln’s bicentennial in February, we thought it appropriate to revisit Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address, one of the great speeches of American history. The text of the speech is found in the Congressional Globe (1865, pages 1424-1425), which is housed in Washington State Library’s federal collection.

President Lincoln delivering his inaugural address on the east portico of the U.S. Capitol, March 4, 1865. Image via LOC.

A second digitized version can be viewed in our Historic Newspaper Online Project from the Walla Walla Statesman of March 17, 1865, (Page 2, Column 3). Interestingly enough, the wording in the newspaper account differs somewhat from the Congressional Globe version. We surmise that this was editorial license at work.

If you would also like to see Lincoln’s own handwritten draft of the address, visit the Abraham Lincoln Papers digitized by the Library of Congress.