"Second Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States" Wood Engraving, 1865

Presented is a historic wood engraving, titled "Second Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, in Front of the Capitol, Washington, March 4, 1865." The view depicts Lincoln's second inauguration. In the foreground, scores of well-dressed citizens observe the ceremony, while the newly expanded Capitol building dominates the rest of the composition. The engraving was printed in the March 18, 1865 issue of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, issued just three weeks before the end of the Civil War. 

In the morning of March 4, Lincoln’s vice president, Andrew Johnson, a former senator from Tennessee, took his oath of office in the Senate chamber around noon. The gathering then moved outside, to the East Portico of the Capitol, for Lincoln’s Oath of Office and Address. Lincoln took the Oath of Office from Supreme Court Justice Salmon P. Chase, his former secretary of the Treasury. 

Lincoln’s second Inaugural address ran to just 700 words. Now celebrated as one of his most important speeches, his address commented on the Civil War, slavery, and the divided nation. "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.” Yet, Lincoln ended his speech with his eyes toward the future and reconciliation: “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.” It was the perfect summation for a president trying to bring together a fractured republic in the last throes of the war. This Inaugural was the first at which African Americans, many wearing their Union army uniforms, were allowed to attend. 

In December of 1855, businessman Frank Leslie introduced Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, a weekly publication featuring news stories on politics, fine arts, science, and exploration in each issue, which were heavily illustrated with woodcuts. Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper was the first successful pictorial newspaper in the United States. Competing with Harper’s Weekly and the New York Illustrated News, Frank Leslie found a stable readership with his paper’s extensive nonpartisan coverage of John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry and the ensuing trial and execution.

By 1860, just five years after starting the newspaper, Frank Leslie’s had a circulation of 164,000. Right through secession and up to the bombing of Fort Sumter, Frank Leslie’s maintained its Southern readership by balancing its coverage of events and printing a variety of opinions. After the bombardment, however, the paper switched to a strong pro-Union stance and found a wider audience in a Northern populace now invested in war. The Civil War created an increased demand for news and unprecedented opportunities for pictorial reporting. From 1861 to 1865, the images of the war were largely seen through illustrated newspapers like Frank Leslie’s.  

​​By 1873, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper was a prosperous publishing empire, employing more than 300 people, including 70 illustrators. It averaged 16 pages and was frequently accompanied by supplements or expanded into special thematic editions. Content strove to be timely, focusing on the illustrated and newsworthy events of the previous week, often within days of its occurrence, still a novelty for the era. After Leslie's death in 1880, the magazine was continued by his widow, women's suffragette Miriam Florence Leslie. The Frank Leslie's name, by then a well-established trademark, remained until it was rebranded as Judge magazine in June of 1922. 

CONDITION: 

Very good condition. Wood engraving. A crisp impression, on a clean sheet. Very minimal toning and healthy margins. 

The engraving is artfully and archivally framed with acid-free mats, UV glass, and a custom-built frame.

Framed Dimensions: 22 3/8"H x 29"W x 1"D. 

Accompanied by our company's letter of authenticity.