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total separation of church and state. Since George Washington's first inaugural in 1789 almost all presidential oaths of office have been sworn on a Bible. Prayers are a frequent part of the program, and since the late nineteenth-century, almost all Presidents have added the phrase "so help me God" to the end of the oath of office prescribed by the Constitution. Lincoln took the oath on a Bible and may have said "so help me God" (more about that later), but what impressed Douglass more than anything was the deep theological grounding of the inaugural address that ennobled the occasion. e context and setting of Lincoln's second inaugural (fig. 1) differed greatly from those of his first four years earlier. In March 1861, uncertainty and apprehension reigned. Seven southern states had seceded following Lincoln's election the previous November. e provisional government of the Confederate States of America had been formed in February with Jefferson Davis as provisional president. e rebellion was well under- way but the War of the Rebellion had not yet begun. All eyes and ears were on what the untested prairie lawyer from Illinois would say and do as President of a nation divided. His pleas for unity and reconciliation fell on deaf ears and four long, bloody years of war ensued. e Capitol itself was unfinished in 1861, construction of the new cast-iron Dome still years from completion. Some must have wondered if the Union, like the unfinished Capitol, would ever be whole again. PROLOGUE: A TALE OF TWO INAUGUR ALS To the as many as forty thousand onlookers gathered at the Capitol on Saturday, March 4, 1865, the contrast with Lin- coln's first inaugural must have been self-evident. e Capitol itself was different. e dome was complete, crowned by the Statue of Freedom erected in 1863. e Dome's completion during the Civil War was, as President Lincoln reportedly told Fig. 2. e crowd of onlookers arriving on a rainy morning for the inaugural ceremony on the Capitol's east front were captured in this photograph. A row of boarding houses can be seen in the background. L IBR ARY OF CONGRE S S PRIN T S AND PHOTO GR APHS DIVISION THE CAPITOL DOME 11