26 x 19 3/4 in. printed newspaper in eight columns, headed "The President's Message." (Lower right marginal corner loss, minor creasing.)

LINCOLN'S FOURTH AND FINAL STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS.

The final State of the Union address of Abraham Lincoln's presidency was delivered to Congress on 6 December 1864, just under a month after Lincoln won reelection to a second term in office. Confident in his mandate, Lincoln sought to make clear that the war would only end with a full surrender of the Confederacy, closing by saying, "I retract nothing heretofore said as to slavery. I repeat the declaration made a year ago, that 'while I remain in my present position I shall not attempt to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation, nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation or by any of the acts of Congress.' If the people should, by whatever mode or means, make it an Executive duty to reenslave such persons, another, and not I, must be their instrument to perform it. In stating a single condition of peace, I mean simply to say that the war will cease on the part of the Government whenever it shall have ceased on the part of those who began it."