Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address

An inaugural address is often filled with cheerful promises for the future. But on March 4, 1865, Abraham Lincoln had to justify his first term's decision to go to war, while also reassuring a grieving country that the war will soon end.

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 11 Unit 2's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: The Crucible, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, The New England Primer, The Trial of Martha Carrier, The Lessons of Salem, The Very Proper Gander, Declaration of Conscience, Why I Wrote The Crucible, Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, Speech to the Virginia Convention, The Gettysburg Address, FDR's First Inaugural Address , JFK's Inaugural Address
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. engross
    consume all of one's attention or time
    Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented.
  2. impending
    close in time; about to occur
    On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war.
  3. avert
    prevent the occurrence of; prevent from happening
    All dreaded it, all sought to avert it.
  4. deprecate
    express strong disapproval of; deplore
    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.
  5. insurgent
    a person who takes part in an armed insurrection
    To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war
  6. magnitude
    the property of relative size or extent
    Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained.
  7. astounding
    bewildering or striking dumb with wonder
    Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding.
  8. scourge
    something causing misery or death
    Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.
  9. unrequited
    not returned in kind
    Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
  10. strive
    exert much effort or energy
    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.
Created on Wed Nov 12 07:23:34 EST 2014 (updated Wed Nov 12 10:27:07 EST 2014)

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