Hello and welcome to this day, a history show from Radiotopia. My name is Jody Avergan.

It is part two of our look at Lincoln's second inaugural address. Last episode, we gave a sense of

the state of the war, Lincoln's evolution on slavery, what would come next

for a reunified United States. This episode, we get right into the speech itself. Now, we talked

a little bit last episode about how this is one of Lincoln's most famous speeches. At least it is

there on the Lincoln Memorial. But I think we all know that the go-to Lincoln reenactors speech

is that Gettysburg address.

We did, however, find a clip from the Ed Sullivan Show in 1966 of the great actor Hal Holbrook.

He is performing this speech dressed up as Lincoln.

We're going to put a link to this in the show notes and we'll put it in our newsletter.

But here, listeners, is a little bit of a taste.

Imagine maybe that you're outdoors standing in a puddle. The skies have just parted. and we'll put it in our newsletter. But here, listeners, is a little bit of a taste. Imagine

maybe that you're outdoors standing in a puddle. The skies have just parted. It's the first week

of March 1865. Take a listen to Hal Holbrook as Lincoln. Neither party expected for the war,

the magnitude or the duration, which it has already attained,

neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with

or even before the conflict itself should cease.

Each looked for an easier triumph

and a result less fundamental and astounding both read the same

Bible and pray to the same God and each invokes his aid against the other so first off it's

notable that that is what counts as late-night entertainment in 1966.

Where's that kind of programming these days?

...