LAD #14

Photo#1: Lincolns inaugural address

Lincolns First Inaugural Address

I appear before you to take the oat of office as prescribed by the Constitution.  I don’t think it necessary to discuss matters about which there is no special anxiety.

The Southern States seem to be concerned about the accession of a Republican Administration.  There is no reasonable cause for this.  As I have said, ‘I have no purpose to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists’.

Each State has the right to control its own domestic institutions.  The property, peace, and security of no section of the country are to be endangered by the incoming Administration.

Fugitive slaves will be returned as is guaranteed by law.  It may be satisfied by national or State authority ... which one makes no difference.  Safeguards against returning a free man as a slave just be maintained.  I will not specify particular acts of Congress as proper to be enforced.

It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a President, and a disruption of the Union is now formidably attempted, but the Union of these States is perpetual.  The Union will ensure forever.  No State upon its own can get out of the Union.

The Union is unbroken, and the laws of the Union will be faithfully executed in all the States.  There need be no bloodshed of violence, and there shall be none unless it is forced upon the national authority.  The mails will continue to be furnished in all parts of the Union.

There are people who seek to destroy the Union.  Before entering upon so grave a matter as destruction of our national fabric, it would be wise to ascertain why.  Why hazard to desperate a step while there is possibility that the ills you fly from are not real. 

All profess to be content in the Union if all constitutional rights can be maintained.  They have been.  In controversies, if the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the Government must cease.  If a minority would secede, what is to prevent a portion of a new confederacy then secede again in a year or two ?  The central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy.  Some believe that constitutional questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court, but the candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the Government is to be fixed by the decisions of the Supreme Court, then the people have ceased to be their own rulers, having resigned their Government to the eminent tribunal.

One section of our country believes slavery is right and should be extended, while the other believes it is wrong and should not be extended.  The fugitive-slave clause and the law for suppression of foreign slave trade are both well enforced.  The country cannot physically separate.  People can exercise their constitutional right to amend their government, or their revolutionary right to overthrow it.  The convention mode seems better.  There should be patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people.  No administration can seriously injure the Government in the short space of four years.

Think calmly and well upon this whole subject.  In your hands is the momentous issue of civil war.  The Government will not assail you.  You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors.  My oath is to ‘preserve, protect, and defend it’.  We are not enemies, but friends.

Photo#2: this election has been very divisive, dividing the nation, just as slavery did when Lincoln became president.