Abraham Lincoln: First Inaugural Address

Audience

Although Lincoln was addressing his fellow citizens, most of his speech, in fact, was directed explicitly to the southern states, four of which had already followed South Carolina's decision to secede. Nearly every sentence in the First Inaugural Address is aimed at emphasizing Lincoln's efforts to placate the South. He understood that he had already been demonized in the southern press, and so he made every effort to seem as reasonable and moderate as possible. He planned to take no military action and simply pointed out why the efforts to secede could not succeed. At the same time, he wanted to assure the entire nation that he understood the grave nature of the crisis and that he took the secessionist movement seriously.

Lincoln was also indirectly addressing those northerners and southerners still in favor of the Union, although there were elements in his northern audience that were willing to see the South secede rather than risk war, just as there were elements in the South that wavered in their support of the South Carolina secessionists. Virginia, for example, had not yet seceded. Lincoln clearly noted that while he was not preparing for war, he would not shirk from a military solution if the South continued with its determination to leave the Union. Other northerners wanted essentially to capitulate to southern demands—again to avoid a war. But Lincoln was just as adamant about the role of the federal government, which could not, in certain respects, be nullified by individual states. Lincoln spoke to both audiences—North and South—in the closing paragraph of his speech, attempting to find a language that would persuade both sides that they shared a heritage that bound them together much more than any issues that divided them.