With Malice Toward None

The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition    

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Before traveling to Washington, President-elect Abraham Lincoln provided printed drafts of his 1861 inaugural address to at least two people, Orville Browning and William H. Seward. Browning offered few suggestions; however, Seward’s proposed revisions filled six pages. Undisturbed by Seward’s temerity, Lincoln carefully reworked his address, accepting or rejecting the future secretary of state’s advice at will. However, there was no denying the beauty and cadence of Seward’s substitute ending, which Lincoln altered slightly to create the memorable and resounding phrase, “better angels of our nature.”

(Transcription)

The mystic chords which proceeding from every ba so many battle fields and patriot so many patriot graves bind ...


Before traveling to Washington, President-elect Abraham Lincoln provided printed drafts of his 1861 inaugural address to at least two people, Orville Browning and William H. Seward. Browning offered few suggestions; however, Seward’s proposed revisions filled six pages. Undisturbed by Seward’s temerity, Lincoln carefully reworked his address, accepting or rejecting the future secretary of state’s advice at will. However, there was no denying the beauty and cadence of Seward’s substitute ending, which Lincoln altered slightly to create the memorable and resounding phrase, “better angels of our nature.”