Question

What is the main idea of this excerpt of Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address?

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil-war. All dreaded it — all sought to avert it. 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. And the war came.

A.
Both the Union and the Confederacy wanted to destroy their enemy.
B.
Both the Union and the Confederacy were responsible for the Civil War.
C.
Both the Union and the Confederacy desired total authority by eliminating the other.
D.
Both the Union and the Confederacy suffered huge economic losses due to the Civil War.
E.
Both the Union and the Confederacy had stockpiled deadly weapons for the Civil War.

Answer 1

Answer:

For the text of Lincoln's second Inaugural Address see Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address at Wikisource.

Abraham Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address on 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.[2] The address is inscribed, along with the Gettysburg Address, in the Lincoln Memorial

Answer 2

Answer:

B. Both the Union and the Confederacy were responsible for the Civil War.

Explanation:

• On a related occasion four years ago, all thoughts turned to the impending civil war.
• Everyone feared it - everyone tried to avoid it.
• During the opening speeches from this location wholly dedicated to saving the Commonwealth without going to war, rebels in the city Faction agents were trying to destroy the federation without going to war - dismantling it and dividing influence through negotiations.
• Both parties opposed the war. But one of them wanted to wage war rather than keep the country alive.
• And the other would rather accept war than end it. Then came the war.

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