On March 4, 1865, in his second inaugural address, President Abraham Lincoln talked about common forgiveness between North and South, declaring that the genuine courage of a country lies in its ability for charity.
He talked about the war as he had come to comprehend it. The unspeakable viciousness that had just kept going 4 years, he accepted, was out and out God's very own discipline for the wrongdoings of human servitude.