Abraham Lincoln: First Inaugural Address

Glossary

• accession the assumption of an important position, usually a position of power
• construe To interpret or understand the meaning of a word, gesture, or action
• enjoins commands somebody to do something or behave in a certain way
• exigency something that a situation demands or makes urgently necessary and that puts pressure on the people involved
• impunity exemption from penalty or harm
• insurrectionary rebellious against the government or rulers of a country, often taking the form of armed conflict
• jurisprudence a body of laws
• ordinances laws or rules made by a government authority
• pretext a misleading or untrue reason given for doing something in an attempt to conceal the real reason
• recanted denied believing in something or repudiated what has been previously said or believed.
• requisite necessary or indispensable
• resolves formally expressed opinions of a group or governmental body
• secession the withdrawal from the Union of eleven southern states in 1860–1861 that led to the formation of the Confederacy and the beginning of the Civil War