Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address Quiz

According to Lincoln in his “Second Inaugural Address,” what issue occupied people’s thoughts and attention at the time of his first Inaugural Address?

• a possible civil war

• Lincoln’s recent election

• God’s will regarding slavery

• the outcome of the Civil War

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In “Second Inaugural Address,” what is the “peculiar and powerful interest” that Lincoln says was “somehow the cause of the war”?

• southerners who wanted to dissolve the union

• slaves and the people who owned them

• the desire to keep the Union together

• resentment over Lincoln’s election

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According to Lincoln in his “Second Inaugural Address,” what “still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation”?

• the present Civil War

• the presidential election

• ongoing debate over slavery

• attempts to dissolve the Union

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In “Second Inaugural Address,” what does Lincoln say or imply that he wants? Choose TWO options.

• an end to slavery everywhere in the country

• to grant full voting rights to all former slaves

• to penalize the southern states for leaving the union

• a fair peace among states that will be lasting

• for states to make their own decisions about slavery

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In “Second Inaugural Address,” what evidence suggests that the Civil War was not originally fought to free the slaves?

• Lincoln says that only one-eighth of the whole population were slaves.

• Lincoln says that some people would rather wage war than end slavery.

• Lincoln says rebellious people wanted to dissolve the Union without war.

• Lincoln says the government only wished to keep slavery from spreading.

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In “Second Inaugural Address,” what is Lincoln’s attitude toward those who fought for the Confederacy?

• He condemns them for holding slaves.

• He wants to thank them for starting the war.

• He does not wish them any harm for their choices.

• He believes that they should pay for all the war costs.

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Which excerpt from “Second Inaugural Address” best supports the answer to Part A?

• 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.

• If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which … must needs come, but which, … [God] now wills to remove, … shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to him?

• Yet, if God wills that [the war] continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, … so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

• 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.

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In “Second Inaugural Address,” how does Lincoln explain why the country went to war?

• He says that too many rebellious people tried to stir up trouble and dissolve the union.

• He says that war was inevitable because the positions were so opposed that compromise was impossible.

• He says that slavery was so evil that slaveholders needed to be punished by war against them.

• He says that both sides expected a quick and easy victory in the war with no losses on their side.

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Which excerpt from “Second Inaugural Address” best supports the answer to Part A?

• The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all.

• While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation.

• Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish….

• 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….

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What does the following quotation from “Second Inaugural Address” most clearly suggest about Lincoln’s view of the Civil War? 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, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

• He grieves for all the injuries and damage the war has caused.

• He hopes the final result will eventually be peace and healing.

• He thinks the war is justified by the nation’s past misdeeds.

• He celebrates the heroism of those who have fought in the war.

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