"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right," he orated, "let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nations' wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle 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."
The spirit of Lincoln's second inaugural was self-evident
on April 9, 1865 -- 150 years ago -- when Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee dramatically surrendered his approximately 28,000 troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse (McLean House) in Virginia. Over 600,000 Americans -- Northerners and Southerners alike -- had perished in the bloody Civil War. But the carnage was now about to end.
The historic meeting between Grant and Lee began with pleasantries about the weather and their mutual service in the Mexican War. The good fellowship was palpable. Lee, in fact, had to abruptly remind the chatty Grant about the diplomatic business at hand. After all, they were at Appomattox Courthouse to hash out terms of surrender.
Grant purposely ended up being generous to Confederate soldiers. They would be paroled, not condemned to prison camps. Rebel officers were even allowed to maintain their sidearms. Personal property of Southerners would now be respected. Even rations were provided by Grant for Lee's hungry soldiers.
It was Palm Sunday and in the spirit of Christian reconciliation Grant ordered that no celebration occur within Union Army ranks. "The Confederates were now our prisoners," Grant wrote, "and we did not want to exult over their downfall."