Final answer:
Lincoln asked the crowd to pledge to the unity and reconstruction of the nation, with a focus on reconciliation, the lasting nature of the Union, and the principle of democratic government.
Step-by-step explanation:
Abraham Lincoln asked the crowd to resolve or pledge to the ideals of unity and reconstruction of the nation. His speeches, particularly the inaugural addresses and the Gettysburg Address, emphasized the themes of reconciliation, the permanence of the Union, and the importance of democracy under the principles that the government of the people, by the people, for the people should not perish from the Earth.
In his inaugural address, he made a poignant plea for national harmony by stating, 'We are not enemies, but friends... The mystic chords of memory...will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.' In the Gettysburg Address, he called for increased devotion to the cause of freedom and equality, honoring those who had died during the Civil War, and inspiring a 'new birth of freedom' for the nation.