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Doc of the Day: Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address
03/04/10
On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as the 16th president of the United States. That January, seven Southern states had reacted to news of his election by seceding from the Union and forming the Confederate States of America. Hoping to avoid a civil war, Lincoln adopted a conciliatory tone in his first inaugural address. He promised not to interfere with slavery where it already existed and not to be the first to use military force. But Lincoln also delivered a strong legal argument against secession and expressed his determination to preserve the Union. He closed his first inaugural address with a memorable appeal to brotherhood and patriotism:
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.
Lincoln’s appeal failed to sway Southern leaders. On April 12, 1861, Confederate troops fired upon Union defenders at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, to start the American Civil War.