The nation should finish the war with malice toward none and charity for all, and seek a just and lasting peace

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.