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."

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.


***

Ulysses S. Grant
First Inaugural Address
Thursday, March 4, 1869

Citizens of the United States:

YOUR suffrages having elected me to the office of President of the
United States, I have, in conformity to the Constitution of our
country, taken the oath of office prescribed therein. I have taken this
oath without mental reservation and with the determination to do to the
best of my ability all that is required of me. The responsibilities of
the position I feel, but accept them without fear. The office has come
to me unsought; I commence its duties untrammeled. I bring to it a
conscious desire and determination to fill it to the best of my ability