„ Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address
Date: March 4, 1861
Author: Lincoln, Abraham
Genre: speech
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Summary Overview
implementing various compromises that proved largely
ineffective. Following the disintegration of the Whig
Party, Lincoln decided to join the emerging Republican Party, which had initially formed to combat slavery.
Although he ran for president as a moderate, the Republican label made Lincoln appear a much stronger
antislavery candidate than the Southern leaders could
accept. However, the Republican Party was the only
unified party in the 1860 presidential election, which
allowed Lincoln to capture 180 electoral votes and
nearly 40 percent of the popular vote. The other three
major candidates split the remainder of the popular
vote and 123 electoral votes. Because of this outcome,
seven states took steps to form the Confederate States
of America, beginning about three months before Lincoln’s inauguration.
As of March 4, the date of Lincoln’s inauguration,
the secession of the Southern states had been carried
out peacefully, which suggested to Lincoln that a compromise could still be achieved. Thus, after outlining
his understanding of the situation and the Constitution, Lincoln speaks directly to the Southern leaders,
telling them, “You can have no conflict without being
yourselves the aggressors.” Extending the possibility
of a peaceful resolution, he promises that the United
States could return to normal if the Southern states returned to the Union. However, Lincoln warns that he
would take the necessary steps to preserve the United
States if this did not occur.
Newly elected president Abraham Lincoln had one opportunity to try to convince the Southern slave-holding states not to force the issue of secession from the
United States. Although seven states had already declared that they were forming the Confederate States of
America, in his first inaugural speech, Lincoln sought
to alleviate their concerns regarding the issues of slavery and states’ rights. The entire speech was focused on
these issues, as was the attention of the entire country.
While Lincoln had easily won the necessary votes in
the Electoral College, defeating three other candidates
to claim the presidency, his victory came with the support of only about 40 percent of voters, primarily from
the North. Although Lincoln claimed throughout his
campaign that he would not push for legislation limiting slavery, it was clear from his time in Congress that
he opposed the institution. In the South this caused
great anxiety, which Lincoln sought to assuage in his
inaugural address to the nation. However, the moderate tone he struck in this speech was not accepted by
Southern leaders, who would ultimately move forward
with their plans for secession.
Defining Moment
By the time Lincoln took office in early 1861, the United States government had been working for decades
to find a way of dealing with slavery that would satisfy Americans on both ends of the political spectrum,
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r DISUNION: THE SECTIONAL CRISIS
Although slavery could be considered the central
cause of the division between North and South, there
was a second issue that had emerged over the past decade: the South was losing control of American politics.
Because of the Three-Fifths Compromise (1787), which
stipulated that three-fifths of the slave population of a
slave state would be counted toward that state’s total
population, even though slaves were unable to vote, the
South for decades had more representation in Congress
and the Electoral College than the number of actual
voters would normally justify. Of the first fifteen presidents, only six were born in the North, and each served
only one term. However, in 1860 Lincoln became the
third consecutive Northerner to be elected as well as
the first successful candidate who did not receive any
Southern electoral votes. It was clear to Southern leaders that without radical steps, slavery and the traditional
Southern way of life would soon come to an end.
Author Biography
Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809. His
parents, Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, lived in
Hardin County, Kentucky, when Lincoln was born. During his childhood his family moved to Indiana, and they
later relocated to Illinois. Lincoln’s formal education was
limited; however, he taught himself to read and other basic skills. Desiring to do more than be a manual laborer,
Lincoln left home when he was twenty-two, worked for
a businessman, and a year later bought a store with an
associate. He served as an officer in the Illinois militia
during the Black Hawk War and then became postmaster of New Salem, Illinois. Lincoln next decided to study
law and was admitted to the bar in 1836. As he had won
an election to the Illinois General Assembly in 1834, he
practiced law in Springfield, where he met and married
Mary Todd, with whom he had four children.
Elected as a Whig, Lincoln served four terms in the
general assembly. In 1846, again as a Whig, he was
elected to the United States House of Representatives.
During his term, he sponsored several bills that would
have limited slavery. Lincoln did not run for reelection,
but his opposition to slavery drew him back into politics
in 1854, when he sought, but lost, a seat in the US Senate. The continuing issue of slavery splintered the Whig
Party, and Lincoln was drawn to the emerging Republican Party in 1856. In 1858, he ran for the Senate for the
second time. Lincoln again lost, but his debates against
Stephen A. Douglas and powerful “House Divided”
speech made him a national figure. He was nominated
for president by the Republican Party in 1860 and ran
against a splintered Democratic Party, easily securing
the necessary number of electoral votes.
With the attack on the federal garrison at Fort Sumter
in South Carolina, Lincoln became a wartime president.
He forcefully took control of the national government and
became very involved with the major aspects of the military campaigns. During the war, he supported legislation
to do away with slavery on federal land and also issued
the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves
in the Confederacy. Lincoln was reelected in 1864, losing only three states. As the war approached its end and
politicians began to develop plans for Reconstruction,
Lincoln was assassinated by actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth. He died on April 15, 1865.
HISTORICAL DOCUMENT
In compliance with a custom as old as the Government
itself, I appear before you to address you briefly and to
take in your presence the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United States to be taken by the President
“before he enters on the execution of this office.”
I do not consider it necessary at present for me to discuss those matters of administration about which there is
no special anxiety or excitement.
Apprehension seems to exist among the people of
the Southern States that by the accession of a Repub-
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lican Administration their property and their peace
and personal security are to be endangered. There has
never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension.
Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all
the while existed and been open to their inspection. It is
found in nearly all the published speeches of him who
now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those
speeches when I declare that—
I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere
with the institution of slavery in the States where it
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