Question

Select the correct answer

What is the main idea of this excerpt of Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address?
On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil-war. All dreaded it - all sought to
avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents
were in the city seeking to destroy it without war-seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war,
but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.
О А.
Both the Union and the Confederacy wanted to destroy their enemy
Both the Union and the Confederacy were responsible for the Civil War
Both the Union and the Confederacy desired total authority by eliminating the other.
Both the Union and the Confederacy suffered huge economic losses due to the Civil War.
E. Both the Union and the Confederacy had stockpiled deadly weapons for the Civil War.
O
O C.
O
B.
D.

Answer 1

The correct option is: C. Both the Union and the Confederacy desired total authority by eliminating the other.

The main idea of this excerpt from Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address is that, four years prior, as he took office, the nation was on the brink of civil war. Despite efforts to prevent it and initial hopes of saving the Union without resorting to war, negotiations failed, and one party (implied to be the Confederacy) chose war to achieve its goals.

The passage reflects on the reluctance of both sides to engage in war but highlights that it became inevitable, leading to the Civil War. Therefore, the correct option is:C. Both the Union and the Confederacy desired total authority by eliminating the other.