Select quotes and commentary from Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address

Monday, March 4, 1861

QUOTE
Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that by the accession of a Republican 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 exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so“.

COMMENTARY
Lincoln directly states that he has neither the lawful right nor inclination to interfere with the institution of slavery (in states where it already exists). Lincoln’s opinions about slavery were well documented as he frequently made it a key point in his speeches. In an attempt to appease the South, Lincoln made it clear that he would not free the slaves in slave-owning states. However, on September 22, 1862, 18 months after entering office, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that slaves in any state of the Confederacy, that did not rejoin the Union by January 1, 1863 would become free. The Emancipation Proclamation made no claim on states that were currently in the Union. Instead of freeing slaves in states where Lincoln had power, he declared that they become free only in states that he did not have any power.

Although Lincoln’s address states that he had, “no objection to its [the Corwin Amendment] being made express and irrevocable”, it was during his presidency that an amendment with an opposing viewpoint was passed. The proposed Corwin Amendment stated that, “No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State.” However, on December 6, 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which called for the abolishment of slavery and involuntary servitude was adopted. “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

QUOTE
Those who nominated and elected me did so with full knowledge that I had made this and many similar declarations and had never recanted them; and more than this, they placed in the platform for my acceptance, and as a law to themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution which I now read: “Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend; and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes“.

COMMENTARY
Lincoln denounces the lawless invasion by armed forces on any State or Territory. He goes on to show how strongly he believes this by saying, “no matter what pretext” and by calling an invasion “among the gravest of crimes”. Later in his inauguration speech, Lincoln goes on to say that,

QUOTE
In doing this there needs to be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall be none unless it be forced upon the national authority. The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the Government and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere.

COMMENTARY
Lincoln states that there is no need for bloodshed. However, soon after the states announced their succession, the South was invaded in the bloodiest war in United States’ history. A war in which 620,000 were killed, more casualties than the nation’s loss in all its other wars combined. Lincoln makes it a point that he will hold the property belonging to the Government. However, the Southern states, either as independent states, or as the Confederacy, are not the property of the federal Government.

QUOTE
Descending from these general principles, we find the proposition that in legal contemplation the Union is perpetual confirmed by the history of the Union itself. The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was further matured, and the faith of all the then thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation in 1778. And finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution was “to form a more perfect Union.”
But if destruction of the Union by one or by a part only of the States be lawfully possible, the Union is less perfect than before the Constitution, having lost the vital element of perpetuity.

It follows from these views that no State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union; that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void, and that acts of violence within any State or States against the authority of the United States are insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances.

COMMENTARY
Lincoln’s conclusion cannot be logically drawn from his premises.

• one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution was “to form a more perfect Union.”
• if destruction of the Union… be lawfully possible, the Union is less perfect than before the Constitution
• It follows from these views that no State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union

First, Lincoln’s second premise is not true. Lincoln’s view that the Union would be less perfect if certain states seceded his only his opinion. I’m sure Jefferson Davis and 9 million other Southerners would disagree.

Second, even if both of Lincoln’s premises were true, there is no logical progression to his conclusion. Because the Constitution was created to make a perfect Union, and succession would make the Union less perfect, does not mean that no State can leave the Union. This is failed logic.

QUOTE
If by the mere force of numbers a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it might in a moral point of view justify revolution; certainly would if such right were a vital one. But such is not our case. All the vital rights of minorities and of individuals are so plainly assured to them by affirmations and negations, guaranties and prohibitions, in the Constitution that controversies never arise concerning them.

COMMENTARY
This claim does not make sense. How can Lincoln state that the rights of minorities are so plain and that there are no controversies at a time when the controversy over a Constitutional right for a minority (the South) is so rampant?

The key points of Lincoln’s first inaugural address were nothing more than words. Lincoln failed to keep his promises to the American public. At the same time he greatly reduced the civil rights of both the North and the South. For this, he was rewarded a second term.

Tags: History, Quotes