"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." — Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address (1865)

In this excerpt, President Abraham Lincoln expresses his view that

a the South must be severely punished for having threatened the Union

b the South should be welcomed back to the Union with justice and kindness

c Confederates should be banned from public life for their role in the Civil War

d the damage done to the Union can never be fully repaired