In the year 1861 Abraham Lincoln took office, and in doing so along traditional lines made an inaugural speech. The time after winning the election prior to Lincoln taking office was turbulent for the country, “In the months that followed Lincoln’s election, seven states stretching from South Carolina to Texas seceded from the Union”(Foner pg 476) which framed an extraordinary challenge to establish an official stance on the state of the Union which, under the previous administration, had been uncertain “As the Union unraveled, President Buchanan seemed paralyzed. He denied that a state could secede, but he also insisted that the federal government had no right to use force against it.”(Foner pg 476) Lincoln’s First Inaugural came after the secession and before the Civil War, needing to establish the ideology for the country to go to war, Lincoln argued that the Union was perpetual in nature, and the secession of the southern states was unlawful in that it denied this perpetuity.
In order to establish law as something to be considered unbreakable, Lincoln first presents “ I take the official oath to-day, with no mental reservations, and with no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws, by any hypercritical rules. And while I do not choose now to specify particular acts of Congress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest, that it will be much safer for all, both in official and private stations, to conform to, and abide by, all those acts which stand unrepealed, than to violate any of them, trusting to find impunity in having them held to be unconstitutional.” Drawing upon the same sentiments Andrew Jackson addressed in his Farewell Address “it is absolutely necessary that the laws passed by the constituted authorities should be faithfully executed in every part of the country”. In presenting this idea, Lincoln establishes a sense of duty to the law that he later calls upon in his speech.
He then sets the stage for the current state of the Union “I hold, that in contemplation of universal law, and of the Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments. It is safe to assert that no government proper, ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination.”(Lincoln) expanding to state “Again, if the United States be not a government proper, but an association of States in the nature of contract merely, can it, as a contract, be peaceably unmade, by less than all the parties who made it? One party to a contract may violate it -- break it, so to speak; but does it not require all to lawfully rescind it?” concluding that “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 revolutionary, according to circumstances.” By establishing this Lincoln disregards the southern states secession as a secession, but as a breeching of the law.
Now having established, that law must be followed, and that the secession was unlawful, Lincoln states “I therefore consider that, in view of the constitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken; and, to the extent of my ability, I shall take care, as the constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the states.”(Lincoln) and finally establishes his precedence for possible war “In doing this there needs to be no bloodshed or violence; and there shall be none, unless it be forced upon the national authority” Though obviously preparing the Union for war, and taking a final stance on the issue of disunion, Lincoln closes his speech with a calls for resolution without war but resolute to it if need be “In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict, without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect and defend" it.”
American Studies University Of Virginia 12th April, 2009 Andrew Jackson's Farewell Address
Library of Congress. U.S. Govt. 12th April, 2009 Abraham Lincoln’s First inaugural Address
Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!: An American History, Seagull Edition, Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006, 2005
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