Abraham Lincoln: First Inaugural Address

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

Lincoln begins his First Inaugural Address by noting that he is following a custom as old as the government itself by addressing his fellow citizens with brief remarks before taking the oath of office and beginning his term as president. Setting aside routine matters of governmental administration that do not deserve comment, Lincoln in paragraph 3 addresses the southern states, assuring them they should have no concerns about their property, peace, and personal security. He does not believe there ever has been a reason for such concerns, since he has made his pacific intentions clear in a number of speeches, one of which he quotes to the effect that he does not intend to interfere with slavery and that such interference would be unlawful.

Lincoln notes in paragraph 5 that he has campaigned consistently on this pledge not to hinder slavery and that this was part of the Republican Party platform he accepted as a presidential candidate. Thus, in paragraph 6, he cites the platform resolution that acknowledges the “inviolate . . . rights of the states” and emphasizes that such states' rights are essential to the balance of power in the Union, so that no state can be invaded or its domestic institutions impeded without committing the gravest crime. Lincoln is at pains to establish the full and unwavering record of his support of the notion that the South's prerogatives cannot be taken away. His words are not just a way to placate the South but reflect a policy he has never recanted.

In paragraph 7, Lincoln renews his devotion to his long-held views, which are now the federal government's policy. He makes a point of saying that he will “cheerfully” extend the federal government's protection to all sections, states, and territories of the United States. At this point, the new president is establishing a tone of friendliness and accommodation to the very people he understands have opposed his election. In paragraphs 8 to 12, Lincoln takes up the issue of the Fugitive Slave Act, a part of the Compromise of 1850 meant to reassure the South that slavery would remain intact as an institution. The law was unpopular among antislavery groups in the North because it required the return of escaped slaves to their owners. Thus, to those who viewed slavery as immoral, the North was forced to condone the very southern institution that northern states had outlawed.

In paragraph 9 Lincoln cites the exact wording of the law, making it evident that he intends to abide by its provisions and emphasizing that the fugitive slaves must be regarded as property returnable to their owners. No other reading of this law is possible, Lincoln asserts, which is his way of saying that he will not shirk his duty in enforcing it. Since all members of Congress swear to uphold the law—the whole Constitution—they must obey the injunctions of the law in order to uphold their oaths of office. Whether it is the state or the federal government that returns the fugitive slave is not important. Rather, it is respect for carrying out the law that matters in this case, Lincoln concludes in paragraph 11. No state can decide the matter differently, since, as Lincoln points out in paragraph 12 (quoting the Constitution): “the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States.”

Lincoln declares in paragraph 13 that he will uphold the constitutionality of the nation's laws and not apply “hypercritical rules”—scruples about certain laws that others may deem unconstitutional. No one in either official or private positions has the right to disobey laws that they deem unconstitutional as long as those laws are not repealed.

Noting in paragraph 14 that the country has survived for seventy-two years under fifteen presidents and that it has confronted many perils and difficulties, Lincoln points out that his inauguration is different: For the first time the “disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now formidably attempted.” He is alluding to South Carolina, which has been joined by five other southern states that established their own constitution and confederacy.

Secession, however, is not an option. The Union is perpetual, Lincoln asserts in paragraph 15. That much is implied in the formation of any national government. No government includes in its creation the method by which it would dissolve itself. Lincoln regards this point as a “universal law.” Only some force acting outside its laws and constitutions can destroy the Union. The only other way to break up the Union would be for all the states to agree to do so. But they are all parties to a contract, and Lincoln demonstrates in paragraph 16 that just because one party (state) decides not to honor the contract does not mean that the contract is unenforceable.

But Lincoln's unionist argument is not based solely on the U.S. Constitution. On the contrary, he observes in paragraph 17 that the Union is older than the Constitution, and thus the Union has a history of its own. Both the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation signify a maturing notion of the Union, or what the Constitution itself refers to as a “more perfect Union.” Thus, in paragraph 18 Lincoln holds that if one or more states can lawfully declare the Union broken, then that is the same as denying the intent of the Constitution and treating the Union as “less perfect” than it was before the Constitution was ratified.

The consequences of Lincoln's logic are clear in paragraph 19: South Carolina and the other southern states have no right to secede, and the very act of declaring secession is an act against the federal government that has to be deemed insurrectionary or revolutionary, depending on how the secession is pursued. The laws of the Union, therefore, will be enforced in all the states, Lincoln announces in paragraph 20. Meaning to issue no threats, Lincoln says, he must nevertheless assert that he will preserve and protect the Union as part of his “simple duty.” Only the American people (his masters) can decide otherwise.

Lincoln hastens to add in paragraph 21 that he does not envision a violent defense of the Union unless he is faced with no other choice. He has no plans to invade any state or to resort to force. He even goes so far as to suggest that he will not impose federal officeholders where they are opposed. He is referring here to the patronage of the federal government under a Republican administration. In effect, he is promising not to foist Republican officeholders on the South. In other words, he will go out of his way not to antagonize those who fear the encroachment of the federal government. In paragraph 22, Lincoln reinforces his claim to flexibility, suggesting that problems with the federal government can been worked out on a state-by-state basis in a peaceful manner.

Realizing in paragraph 23 that he cannot sway any who might already have turned against the Union, Lincoln addresses those who “love the Union” but who may have seen “ills” (as he says in paragraph 24) where there are none or who face the hazard of flying to ills that are greater than the one that troubles them now. Lincoln asks in paragraph 25: Have any Constitutional rights been violated? A revolution might be in order, he concedes, if it could be demonstrated that any parts of the Constitution have been violated. But this is not the case. Of more concern to Lincoln is that the Constitution is silent on certain vital matters, which he puts as a series of questions: “Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered by national or by State authority? The Constitution does not expressly say. May Congress prohibit slavery in the Territories? The Constitution does not expressly say. Must Congress protect slavery in the Territories? The Constitution does not expressly say.”

But secession is not the answer to differences of opinion about how to interpret or amend the Constitution. Those who secede will merely encourage others to secede and produce chaos, Lincoln predicts in paragraph 26. Government is about the business of compromise, in which majorities may give way to minorities and vice versa. Otherwise the idea of government itself ceases. In paragraph 27, Lincoln wonders: How can yet another new union of states achieve a harmony greater than the one already established? How can there ever be such “perfect identity of interests”?

Lincoln equates secession with anarchy in paragraph 28. A nation must be government by a majority, which is itself under certain checks and limitations. It is not possible for everyone to agree—unless unity is enforced through despotism. Lest he be thought of as setting himself up as the sole arbiter of what is constitutional, Lincoln describes in paragraph 29 the vital role of the Supreme Court. The Court is fallible and can make wrong decisions, but such decisions have only limited impact and can be overturned later. That the Court's decisions can be used for political advantage is undeniable, Lincoln admits, but that in itself is no argument against the Court's efforts to determine the constitutionality of the nation's laws. Yet he also expresses reservations about the Supreme Court as the ultimate interpreter of the nation's will, preferring—as he would say later in the speech—that the voice of the people be heard concerning the ultimate fate of slavery.

Lincoln suggests in paragraph 30 that while two sections of the country, North and South, disagree over slavery, breaking up the Union would only make matters worse. On the one hand, the suppression of the slave trade could no longer be enforced; on the other, the return of fugitive slaves would no longer be possible if the two sections were split into separate nations. But Lincoln does not deny the remaining problem: what to do about slavery in the territories, given that one section of the country wants to stop the spread of slavery while the other actively promotes it.

Lincoln also views the breaking of the Union as a physical impossibility; it is not like a divorce in which the spouses do not have to live together, he notes in paragraph 31. The same issues that bedevil the Union would only get worse if North and South were two countries that had to negotiate treaties about the same contentious problems. Thus, Lincoln's legal and moral arguments segue into considerations of the impracticality of secession among people who share a common history. The proper route to change, Lincoln concludes in paragraph 32, is through amending the Constitution. Although Lincoln refrains from recommending amendments, he prefers that the people themselves, in conventions, formulate the amendments. Amendments proposed to them are not likely to express with enough discrimination the popular will. Still, he does express some support for an amendment, specifying what he believes is already implicit in the Constitution: The federal government has no right to interfere in the domestic institutions of the states.

Lincoln affirms in paragraph 33 that as president, his duty is to carry out the law, not to make the law, and that is why in paragraph 34 he asks that the people themselves be seen as the final arbiters of the constitutional issues that are dividing one section from another. The American people themselves are a great tribunal. Because the people are sovereign, he is certain that no elected official can “injure the Government in the short space of four years.” In effect, Lincoln is attempting to diffuse the South's fear that he is a demagogue, or dictator, who will suppress their rights and take away their property. He has no such power, and what power he commands is of limited duration.

Above all, Lincoln's speech has been intended to slow down those eagerly bent on secession. He pleads in paragraph 35 for them to take time to consider their actions calmly when the new administration has no “immediate power” to change the relationship between the sections of the country. Nearing the end of his speech, Lincoln declares: “In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war.” It is the first time he has used the term “civil war,” and in this context it is meant to put the onus on the South. Lincoln has clearly rejected any responsibility for fomenting a sectional conflict, and he insists there are measures that can be taken within the law of the land to settle his fellow citizens' concerns. The new president will not be the aggressor.

Pulling away from a defense of himself and a characterization of his opponents, Lincoln appeals in a final paragraph to a common heritage, stretching back to the Revolution—a sacred event he heralds with the phrase “mystic chords of memory,” which modulates into sounds of a Union, a chorus of voices, a sense of unison that derives from the “better angels of our nature.” The Union, he suggests, speaks to the very ideals of what it means to be an American. Devotion to the Union brings out the best (“the better angels”) of his fellow citizens. In the end, it is the nobility of the vision that the Union represents that strengthens Lincoln in his resolve to protect it.

Additional Commentary by Paul Finkelman, Albany Law School

Lincoln's first address as president may have been the most important inaugural address in history. As he stood to take the oath of office, the nation was collapsing. Seven states had declared that they were no longer in the United States but were part of a new nation, the Confederate States of America. Lincoln's ambitious goal in his inaugural was to bring these states back into the Union. He begins by confronting the fears of the South—that his administration would seek to disestablish slavery in the South. He bluntly declares, “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.”

Hoping the Deep South might return to the Union, Lincoln reminds all Americans—in the North and the South—of their shared heritage. He invokes the Founders, making specific references to the Declaration of Independence and the inauguration of George Washington. He notes that the Constitution was designed to create a “more perfect Union” and that he had taken an oath under God to protect the Constitution and the nation.

Lincoln reminds the South of its ties to the rest of the country, of its historical and physical connections to the North. He promises not to send troops to the South and not to unnecessarily antagonize the region. But he also promises to keep the Union together and, where necessary, to enforce federal laws. He closes with a plea for peace and unity crafted with an eloquence rarely seen in inaugural addresses:

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. 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.

In the end Lincoln's plea for unity failed, and, as he would say in his second inaugural address, “the war came.” But with his entreaty on behalf of the Union and his promise not to harm slavery in the South, Lincoln placed his administration on the side of peace and compromise. Thus, when the Civil War began, most northerners saw the South as a relentless aggressor against an administration that offered peace. This helped rally northerners to defend the nation after the Confederate firing on Fort Sumter.