Abraham Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address on Saturday, March 4, 1865, during his second inauguration as President of the United States. At a time when victory over secessionists in the American Civil War was within days and slavery in all of the U.S. was near an end, Lincoln did not speak of happiness, but of sadness. Some see this speech as a defense of his pragmatic approach to Reconstruction, in which he sought to avoid harsh treatment of the defeated rebels by reminding his listeners of how wrong both sides had been in imagining what lay before them when the war began four years earlier. Lincoln balanced that rejection of triumphalism, however, with recognition of the unmistakable evil of slavery. The address is inscribed, along with the Gettysburg Address, in the Lincoln Memorial.

The second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln as president of the United States took place on Friday, March 4, 1865, at the East Portico of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. This was the 20th inauguration and marked the commencement of the second and final term of Abraham Lincoln as president and only term of Andrew Johnson as vice president. Lincoln was assassinated 42 days into this term, and Johnson succeeded to the presidency. Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase administered the presidential oath of office. This was the first inauguration to feature African Americans in the inaugural parade, and the first president in over 30 years to be inaugurated for a second term since the second inauguration of Andrew Jackson in 1833.