that slavery is wrong. If slavery is right, all words, acts, laws,
and constitutions against it are themselves wrong, and should be
silenced and swept away. If it is right, we cannot justly object to
its nationality--its universality; if it is wrong, they cannot justly
insist upon its extension--its enlargement. All they ask we could
readily grant, if we thought slavery right; all we ask they could as
readily grant, if they thought it wrong. Their thinking it right and
our thinking it wrong is the precise fact upon which depends the whole
controversy. Thinking it right, as they do, they are not to blame for
desiring its full recognition as being right; but thinking it wrong,
as we do, can we yield to them? Can we cast our votes with their view,
and against our own? In view of our moral, social, and political
responsibilities, can we do this?
Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet afford to let it alone
where it is, because that much is due to the necessity arising from
its actual presence in the nation; but can we, while our votes will
prevent it, allow it to spread into the national Territories, and to
overrun us here in these free States? If our sense of duty forbids
this, then let us stand by our duty fearlessly and effectively. Let
us be diverted by none of those sophistical contrivances wherewith we
are so industriously plied and belabored--contrivances such as groping
for some middle ground between the right and the wrong: vain as the
search for a man who should be neither a living man nor a dead man;
such as a policy of “don’t care” on a question about which all true men
do care; such as Union appeals beseeching true Union men to yield to
Disunionists, reversing the divine rule, and calling, not the sinners,
but the righteous, to repentance; such as invocations to Washington,
imploring men to unsay what Washington said and undo what Washington
did.
Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against
us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the government,
nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes
might, and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we
understand it.
LINCOLN’S FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS
MARCH 4, 1861
FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES:--In compliance with a custom
as old as the government itself, I appear before you to address you
briefly, and to take, in your presence, the oath prescribed by the
Constitution of the United States to be taken by the President before
he enters on the execution of his office.
I do not consider it necessary, at present, for me to discuss those
matters of administration about which there is no special anxiety
or excitement. Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the
Southern States, that, by the accession of a Republican administration,
their property and their peace and personal security are to be
endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such
apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all
the while existed and been open to their inspection. It is found in
nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do
but quote from one of those speeches, when I declare that “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. Those who nominated
and elected me did so with the full knowledge that I had made this, and
made many similar declarations, and had never recanted them. And, more
than this, they placed in the platform, for my acceptance, and as a law
to themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution which I now
read:
“_Resolved_, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the
States, and especially the right of each State to order and control its
own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively,
is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and
endurance of our political fabric depend; and we denounce the lawless
invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no
matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes.”
I now reiterate these sentiments; and in doing so I only press upon
the public attention the most conclusive evidence of which the case is
susceptible, that the property, peace, and security of no section are
to be in anywise endangered by the now incoming administration.
I add, too, that all the protection which, consistently with the
Constitution and the law, can be given, will be cheerfully given
to all the States when lawfully demanded, for whatever cause, as
cheerfully to one section as to another.
There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugitives from
service or labor. The clause I now read is as plainly written in the
Constitution as any other of its provisions:
“No person held to service or labor in one State under the laws
thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or
regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall
be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may
be due.”
It is scarcely questioned that this provision was intended by those who
made it for the reclaiming of what we call fugitive slaves; and the
intention of the law-giver is the law.
All members of Congress swear their support to the whole
Constitution--to this provision as well as any other. To the
proposition, then, that slaves whose cases come within the terms of
this clause “shall be delivered up,” their oaths are unanimous. Now, if
they would make the effort in good temper, could they not, with nearly
equal unanimity, frame and pass a law by means of which to keep good
that unanimous oath?
There is some difference of opinion whether this clause should be
enforced by national or by State authority; but surely that difference
is not a very material one. If the slave is to be surrendered, it can
be of but little consequence to him or to others by which authority
it is done; and should anyone, in any case, be content that this oath
shall go unkept on a merely unsubstantial controversy as to how it
shall be kept?
Again, in any law upon this subject, ought not all the safeguards of
liberty known in civilized and humane jurisprudence to be introduced,
so that a free man be not, in any case, surrendered as a slave? And
might it not be well at the same time to provide by law for the
enforcement of that clause in the Constitution which guarantees that
“the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and
immunities of citizens in the several States?”
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.
It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a President
under our National Constitution. During that period, fifteen different
and very distinguished citizens have in succession administered the
executive branch of the Government. They have conducted it through many
perils, and generally with great success. Yet, with all this scope for
precedent, I now enter upon the same task, for the brief constitutional
term of four years, under great and peculiar difficulties.
A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now
formidably attempted. I hold that in the 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.
Continue to execute all the express provisions of our National
Constitution, and the Union will endure forever, it being impossible to
destroy it, except by some action not provided for in the instrument
itself.
Again, if the United States be not a government proper, but an
association of States in the nature of a 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? Descending from these
general principles, we find the proposition that in legal contemplation
the Union is perpetual, confirmed by the history of the Union itself.
The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in
fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and
continued in the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was further
matured, and the faith of all the then thirteen States expressly
plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of
the Confederation, in 1778; and finally, in 1787, one of the declared
objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution was to form
a more perfect Union. But if the 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 void; and that acts of violence within any State or
States against the authority of the United States are insurrectionary
or revolutionary, according to circumstances.
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 shall be faithfully executed in all the States.
Doing this, which I deem to be only a simple duty on my part, I shall
perfectly perform it, so far as is practicable, unless my rightful
masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisition, or in
some authoritative manner direct the contrary.
I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared
purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain
itself.
In doing this there need be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall
be none unless it is forced upon the national authority.
The power confided to me _will be used to hold, occupy, and possess
the property and places belonging to the Government_, and collect the
duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects
there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the
people anywhere.
Where hostility to the United States shall be so great and so universal
as to prevent competent resident citizens from holding Federal offices,
there will be no attempt to force obnoxious strangers among the people
that object. While strict legal right may exist of the Government to
enforce the exercise of these offices, the attempt to do so would be so
irritating, and so nearly impracticable withal, that I deem it best to
forego, for the time, the uses of such offices.
The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished in all parts
of the Union.
So far as possible, the people everywhere shall have that sense of
perfect security which is most favorable to calm thought and reflection.
The course here indicated will be followed, unless current events and
experience shall show a modification or change to be proper; and in
every case and exigency my best discretion will be exercised according
to the circumstances actually existing, and with a view and hope of
a peaceful solution of the national troubles, and the restoration of
fraternal sympathies and affections.
That there are persons, in one section or another, who seek to destroy
the Union at all events, and are glad of any pretext to do it, I will
neither affirm nor deny. But if there be such, I need address no word
to them.
To those, however, who really love the Union, may I not speak, before
entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our national
fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes? Would it
not be well to ascertain why we do it? Will you hazard so desperate
a step, while any portion of the ills you fly from have no real
existence? Will you, while the certain ills you fly to are greater
than all the real ones you fly from? Will you risk the commission of
so fearful a mistake? All profess to be content in the Union if all
constitutional rights can be maintained. Is it true, then, that any
right, plainly written in the Constitution, has been denied? I think
not. Happily the human mind is so constituted that no party can reach
to the audacity of doing this.
Think, if you can, of a single instance in which a plainly-written
provision of the Constitution has ever been denied. If, by the
mere force of numbers, a majority should deprive a minority of any
clearly-written constitutional right, it might, in a moral point of
view, justify revolution; it certainly would if such right were a vital
one. But such is not our case.
All the vital rights of minorities and of individuals are so
plainly assured to them by affirmations and negations, guarantees
and prohibitions in the Constitution, that controversies never
arise concerning them. But no organic law can ever be framed with a
provision specifically applicable to every question which may occur
in practicable administration. No foresight can anticipate, nor any
document of reasonable length contain, express provisions for all
possible questions. Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered by
National or by State authorities? The Constitution does not expressly
say. Must Congress protect slavery in the Territories? The Constitution
does not expressly say. From questions of this class spring all our
constitutional controversies, and we divide upon them into majorities
and minorities.
If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the
Government must cease. There is no alternative for continuing the
Government but acquiescence on the one side or the other. If a minority
in such a case will secede rather than acquiesce, they make a precedent
which, in turn, will ruin and divide them, for a minority of their own
will secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be controlled
by such a minority. For instance, why may not any portion of a new
Confederacy, a year or two hence, arbitrarily secede again, precisely
as portions of the present Union now claim to secede from it? All who
cherish disunion sentiments are now being educated to the exact temper
of doing this. Is there such perfect identity of interests among the
States to compose a new Union as to produce harmony only, and prevent
renewed secession? Plainly, the central idea of secession is the
essence of anarchy.
A majority held in restraint by constitutional check and limitation,
and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions
and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever
rejects it, does, of necessity, fly to anarchy or to despotism.
Unanimity is impossible; the rule of a minority, as a permanent
arrangement, is wholly inadmissible. So that, rejecting the majority
principle, anarchy or despotism, in some form, is all that is left.
I do not forget the position assumed by some that constitutional
questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court, nor do I deny that
such decisions must be binding in any case upon the parties to a suit,
as to the object of that suit, while they are also entitled to a very
high respect and consideration in all parallel cases by all other
departments of the Government; and while it is obviously possible that
such decision may be erroneous in any given case, still the evil effect
following it, being limited to that particular case, with the chance
that it may be overruled and never become a precedent for other cases,
can better be borne than could the evils of a different practice.
At the same time the candid citizen must confess that if the policy of
the Government upon the vital question affecting the whole people is to
be irrevocably fixed by the decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant
they are made, as in ordinary litigation between parties in personal
actions, the people will have ceased to be their own masters, unless
having to that extent practically resigned their Government into the
hands of that eminent tribunal.
Nor is there in this view any assault upon the Court or the Judges.
It is a duty from which they may not shrink, to decide cases properly
brought before them; and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to
turn their decisions to political purposes. One section of our country
believes slavery is right and ought to be extended, while the other
believes it is wrong and ought not to be extended; and this is the only
substantial dispute; and the fugitive slave clause of the Constitution,
and the law for the suppression of the foreign slave-trade, are each
as well enforced, perhaps, as any law can ever be in a community where
the moral sense of the people imperfectly supports the law itself. The
great body of the people abide by the dry legal obligation in both
cases, and a few break over in each. This, I think, cannot be perfectly
cured, and it would be worse in both cases after the separation of
the sections than before. The foreign slave-trade, now imperfectly
suppressed, would be ultimately revived, without restriction, in one
section; while fugitive slaves, now only partially surrendered, would
not be surrendered at all by the other.
Physically speaking, we cannot separate; we cannot remove our
respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall
between them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the
presence and beyond the reach of each other, but the different parts of
our country cannot do this. They cannot but remain face to face; and
intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue between them. Is
it possible, then, to make that intercourse more advantageous or more
satisfactory after separation than before? Can aliens make treaties
easier than friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully
enforced between aliens than laws can among friends? Suppose you go to
war, you cannot fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides
and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical questions as
to terms of intercourse are again upon you.
This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit
it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can
exercise their constitutional right of amending, or their revolutionary
right to dismember or overthrow it. I cannot be ignorant of the fact
that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the
National Constitution amended. While I make no recommendation of
amendment, I fully recognize the full authority of the people over the
whole subject, to be exercised in either of the modes prescribed in the
instrument itself, and I should, under existing circumstances, favor,
rather than oppose, a fair opportunity being afforded the people to act
upon it.
I will venture to add that to me the convention mode seems preferable,
in that it allows amendments to originate with the people themselves,
instead of only permitting them to take or reject propositions
originated by others not especially chosen for the purpose, and which
might not be precisely such as they would wish either to accept or
refuse. I understand that a proposed amendment to the Constitution
(which amendment, however, I have not seen) has passed Congress, to
the effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the
domestic institutions of States, including that of persons held to
service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I depart from my
purpose not to speak of particular amendments, so far as to say that,
holding such a provision to now be implied constitutional law, I have
no objection to its being made express and irrevocable.
The Chief Magistrate derives all his authority from the people, and
they have conferred none upon him to fix the terms for the separation
of the States. The people themselves, also, can do this if they choose,
but the Executive, as such, has nothing to do with it. His duty is
to administer the present government as it came to his hands, and to
transmit it unimpaired by him to his successor. Why should there not be
a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there
any better or equal hope in the world? In our present differences is
either party without faith of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler
of nations, with his eternal truth and justice, be on your side of
the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will
surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal, the American
people. By the frame of the Government under which we live, this same
people have wisely given their public servants but little power for
mischief, and have with equal wisdom provided for the return of that
little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people
retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme
wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the Government in the
short space of four years.
My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole
subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time.
If there be an object to hurry any of you, in hot haste, to a step
which you would never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated
by taking time; but no good object can be frustrated by it.
Such of you as are now dissatisfied still have the old Constitution
unimpaired, and on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing
under it; while the new administration will have no immediate power, if
it would, to change either.
If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side
in the dispute, there is still no single reason for precipitate action.
Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him
who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to
adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulties.
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.
I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be
enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break, our bonds
of affections.
The mystic cords 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.
LINCOLN’S GETTYSBURG SPEECH
AT THE DEDICATION OF THE NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG, PA.,
NOVEMBER 15, 1863