1.) By both Civil War-era standards and modern ones, the Second Inaugural is a short speech -- three fairly brief paragraphs and one long one. In the long paragraph, Lincoln describes the human experience of the Civil War itself; it is the only paragraph to do so. How does Lincoln describe the war? What repeated patterns of language do you observe in this section of the speech? How do these patterns prepare for or harmonize with the structure of the one-sentence paragraph that closes the address?
2.) This speech is most remembered for Lincoln's quotation of the biblical phrase, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." What did these words mean in the context of Lincoln's speech?