Abraham Lincoln: First Inaugural Address

( 1861 ) Commentary by Carl Rollyson, Baruch College, The City University of New York

“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.” - Paragraph 4
“A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now formidably attempted.” - Paragraph 14
“In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war.” - Paragraph 37
“The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” - Paragraph 38

The final printed version of Lincoln's first inaugural address is shown here with an earlier draft by him (Library of Congress)

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