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004 - Lincoln's First Inaugural Speech · Noted Speeches of Abraham Lincoln

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  Speaker 1: Section four of Noted Speeches of Abraham Lincoln, edited by
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  Speaker 1: Lilian Marie Briggs. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
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  Speaker 1: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Noted Speeches of
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  Speaker 1: Abraham Lincoln, edited by Lilian Marie Briggs. Lincoln's first inaugural address,
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  Speaker 1: March fourth, eighteen sixty one. Fellow citizens of the United States,
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  Speaker 1: In compliance with a custom as old as the government itself,
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  Speaker 1: I appear before you to address you briefly, and to
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  Speaker 1: take in your presence the oath prescribed by the Constitution
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  Speaker 1: of the United States to be taken by the President
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  Speaker 1: before he enters on the execution of his office. I
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  Speaker 1: do not consider it necessary at present for me to
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  Speaker 1: discuss those matters of administration about which which there is
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  Speaker 1: no special anxiety or excitement. Apprehension seems to exist among
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  Speaker 1: the people of the Southern States that by the accession
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  Speaker 1: of a Republican administration, their property and their peace and
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  Speaker 1: personal security are to be endangered. There has never been
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  Speaker 1: any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample
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  Speaker 1: evidence to the contrary has, all the while existed and
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  Speaker 1: been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly
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  Speaker 1: all the published speeches of him who now addresses you.
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  Speaker 1: I do but quote from one of those speeches when
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  Speaker 1: I declare that I have no purpose, directly or indirectly,
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  Speaker 1: to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states
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  Speaker 1: where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right
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  Speaker 1: to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.
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  Speaker 1: Those who nominated and elected me did so with the
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  Speaker 1: full knowledge that I had made this, and made many
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  Speaker 1: similar declarations, and had never recanted them. And more than this,
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  Speaker 1: they placed in the platform for my acceptance and as
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  Speaker 1: a law to themselves and to me. The clear and
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  Speaker 1: emphatic resolution which I now read resolved that the maintenance
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  Speaker 1: inviolate of the rights of the states, and especially the
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  Speaker 1: right of each state to order and control its own
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  Speaker 1: domestic institutions according to its own judgment, exclusively, is essential
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  Speaker 1: to that balance of power on which the perfection and
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  Speaker 1: endurance of our political fabric depend. And we denounce the
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  Speaker 1: lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any
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  Speaker 1: state or territory, no matter under what pretext. As among
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  Speaker 1: the gravest of crimes. I now reiterate these sentiments, and
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  Speaker 1: in doing so I only press upon the public attention
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  Speaker 1: the most conclusive evidence of which the case is susceptible,
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  Speaker 1: that the property, peace, and security of no section are
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  Speaker 1: to be in any way endangered by the now incoming administration.
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  Speaker 1: I add to that all the protection which consistently with
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  Speaker 1: the Constitution and the Law can be given, will be
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  Speaker 1: cheerfully given to all the States, when lawfully demanded, for
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  Speaker 1: whatever cause, as cheerfully to one section as to another.
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  Speaker 1: There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugitives
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  Speaker 1: from service or labor. The clause I now read is
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  Speaker 1: as plainly written in the Constitution as any other of
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  Speaker 1: its provisions. No person held to service or labor in
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  Speaker 1: one state under the laws thereof escaping into another, shall,
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  Speaker 1: in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged
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  Speaker 1: from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up
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  Speaker 1: on claim of the party to whom such service or
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  Speaker 1: labor may be due. It is scarcely questioned that this
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  Speaker 1: provision was intended by those who made it for the
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  Speaker 1: reclaiming of what we call fugitive slaves, and the intention
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  Speaker 1: of the law giver is the law. All members of
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  Speaker 1: Congress swear their support to the whole Constitution to this provision,
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  Speaker 1: as well as any other, to the proposition, then that
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  Speaker 1: slaves whose cases come within the terms of this clause
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  Speaker 1: shall be delivered up. Their oaths are unanimous. Now, if
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  Speaker 1: they would make the effort in good temper, could they not,
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  Speaker 1: with nearly equal unanimity, frame and pass a law by
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  Speaker 1: means of which to keep good that unanimous oath. There
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  Speaker 1: is some difference of opinion whether this clause should be
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  Speaker 1: enforced by national or by state authority, But surely that
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  Speaker 1: difference is not a very material one. If the slave
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  Speaker 1: is to be surrendered, it can be of but little
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  Speaker 1: consequence to him or to others by which authority it
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  Speaker 1: is done. And should any one in any case be
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  Speaker 1: content that this oath shall go unkept on a merely
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  Speaker 1: unsubstantial controversy as to how it shall be kept again
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  Speaker 1: in any law upon this subject, ought not all the
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  Speaker 1: safeguards of liberty known in civilized and humane jurisprudence to
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  Speaker 1: be introduced, so that a free man be not in
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  Speaker 1: any case surrendered as a slave. And might it not
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  Speaker 1: be well at the same time to provide by law
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  Speaker 1: for the enforcement of that clause in the Constitution, which
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  Speaker 1: guarantees that the citizens of each state shall be entitled
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  Speaker 1: to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the
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  Speaker 1: several states. I take the official oath to day with
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  Speaker 1: no mental reservations, and with no purpose to construe the
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  Speaker 1: Constitution or laws by any hypercritical rules. And while I
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  Speaker 1: do not choose now to specify particular acts of Congress
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  Speaker 1: as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it
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  Speaker 1: will be much safer for all, both in official and
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  Speaker 1: private stations, to conform to and abide by all those
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  Speaker 1: acts which stand unrepealed, than to violate any of them,
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  Speaker 1: trusting to find impunity in having them held to be unconstitutional.
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  Speaker 1: It is seventy two years since the first inauguration of
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  Speaker 1: a president under our national Constitution. During that period, fifteen
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  Speaker 1: different and very distinguished citizens have in succession administered the
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  Speaker 1: executive branch of the government. They have conducted it through
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  Speaker 1: many perils, and generally with great success. Yet, with all
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  Speaker 1: this scope for precedent, I now enter upon the same
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  Speaker 1: task for the brief constitutional term of four years, under
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  Speaker 1: great and peculiar difficulties. A disruption of the federal union,
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  Speaker 1: heretofore only menaced, is now formidably attempted. I hold that
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  Speaker 1: in the contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution,
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  Speaker 1: the union of these states is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied,
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  Speaker 1: if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments.
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  Speaker 1: It is safe to assert that no government proper ever
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  Speaker 1: had a provision in its organic law for its own termination.
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  Speaker 1: Continue to execute all the express provisions of our national Constitution,
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  Speaker 1: and the Union will endure forever, it being impossible to
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  Speaker 1: destroy it, except by some action not provided for in
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  Speaker 1: the instrument itself. Again, if the United States be not
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  Speaker 1: a government proper, but an association of states in the
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  Speaker 1: nature of a contract, merely can it, as a contract
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  Speaker 1: be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who
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  Speaker 1: made it. One party to a contract may violate it,
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  Speaker 1: break it, so to speak, but does it not require
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  Speaker 1: all to lawfully rescind it. Descending from these general principles,
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  Speaker 1: we find the proposition that in legal contemplation the union
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  Speaker 1: is perpetual confirmed by the history of the union itself.
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  Speaker 1: The Union is much older than the conc Institution. It
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  Speaker 1: was formed, in fact by the Articles of Association in
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  Speaker 1: seventeen seventy four, it was matured and continued in the
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  Speaker 1: Declaration of Independence in seventeen seventy six. It was further
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  Speaker 1: matured and the faith of all the then thirteen states expressly
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  Speaker 1: plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual by the
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  Speaker 1: Articles of the Confederation in seventeen seventy eight and finally
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  Speaker 1: in seventeen eighty seven. One of the declared objects for
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  Speaker 1: ordaining and establishing the Constitution was to form a more
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  Speaker 1: perfect union. But if the destruction of the Union by one,
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  Speaker 1: or by a part only of the states be lawfully possible,
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  Speaker 1: the union is less perfect than before the Constitution, having
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  Speaker 1: lost the vital element of perpetuity. It follows from these
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  Speaker 1: views that no state, upon its own mere motion can
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  Speaker 1: lawfully get out of the Union, that resolves and ordinances
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  Speaker 1: to that effect are legally void, and that acts of
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  Speaker 1: violence within any state or states against the authority of
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  Speaker 1: the United States are insurrectionary or revolutionary according to circumstances.
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  Speaker 1: I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and
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  Speaker 1: the laws, the Union is unbroken, And to the extent
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  Speaker 1: of my ability, I shall take care as the Constitution
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  Speaker 1: itself expressly enjoins upon me that the laws of the
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  Speaker 1: Union shall be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this,
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  Speaker 1: which I deem to be only a simple duty on
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  Speaker 1: my part, I shall perfectly perform it so far as
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  Speaker 1: is practicable, unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall
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  Speaker 1: withhold the requisition, or in some authoritative manner, direct the contrary.
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  Speaker 1: I trust this will not be regarded as a menace,
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  Speaker 1: but only as the declared purpose of the Union that
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  Speaker 1: it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself. In doing this,
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  Speaker 1: there need be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall
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  Speaker 1: be none unless it is forced upon the national walk authority.
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  Speaker 1: The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy,
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  Speaker 1: and possess the property and places belonging to the government,
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  Speaker 1: and collect the duties and inposts. But beyond what may
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  Speaker 1: be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion,
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  Speaker 1: no using of force against or among the people anywhere
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  Speaker 1: where hostility to the United States shall be so great
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  Speaker 1: and so universal as to prevent competent resident citizens from
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  Speaker 1: holding federal offices. There will be no attempt to force
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  Speaker 1: obnoxious strangers among the people that object. While strict legal
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  Speaker 1: right may exist of the government to enforce the exercise
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  Speaker 1: of these offices, the attempt to do so would be
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  Speaker 1: so irritating and so nearly impracticable withal that I deem
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  Speaker 1: it best to forego for the time the uses of
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  Speaker 1: such offices. The males, unless repelled, will continue to be
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  Speaker 1: furnished in all parts of the Union, so far as possible,
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  Speaker 1: the people everywhere shall have that sense of perfect security
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  Speaker 1: which is most favorable to calm thought and reflection. The
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  Speaker 1: course here indicated will be followed unless current events and
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  Speaker 1: experience shall show a modification or change to be proper,
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  Speaker 1: And in every case and exigency, my best discretion will
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  Speaker 1: be exercised according to the circumstances actually existing, and with
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  Speaker 1: a view and hope of a peaceful solution of the
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  Speaker 1: national troubles and the restoration of fraternal sympathies and affections.
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  Speaker 1: That there are persons in one section or another who
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  Speaker 1: seek to destroy the Union at all events, and are
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  Speaker 1: glad of any pretext to do it, I will neither
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  Speaker 1: affirm nor deny. But if there be such I need
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  Speaker 1: address no word to them. To those, however, who really
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  Speaker 1: love the Union, may I not speak before entering upon
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  Speaker 1: so grave a matter as the destruction of our national fabric,
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  Speaker 1: with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes, would
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  Speaker 1: it not be well to ascertain why we do it?
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  Speaker 1: Will you hazard so desperate a step while any portion
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  Speaker 1: of the ills you fly from have no real existence?
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  Speaker 1: Will you, while the certain ills you fly too are
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  Speaker 1: greater than all the real ones you fly from? Will
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  Speaker 1: you risk the commission of so fearful a mistake? All
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  Speaker 1: profess to be content in the Union. If all constitutional
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  Speaker 1: rights can be maintained. Is it true then that any
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  Speaker 1: right plainly written in the Constitution has been denied? I
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  Speaker 1: think not happily. The human mind is so constituted that
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  Speaker 1: no party can reach to the audacity of doing this.
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  Speaker 1: Think if you can of a single instance in which
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  Speaker 1: a plainly written provision of the Constitution has ever been denied.
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  Speaker 1: If by the mere force of numbers, a majority should
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  Speaker 1: deprive a minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it might,
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  Speaker 1: in a moral point of view, justify revolution. Ciry would
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  Speaker 1: if such right were a vital one. But such is
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  Speaker 1: not our case. All the vital rights of minorities and
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  Speaker 1: of individuals are so plainly assured to them by affirmations
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  Speaker 1: and negations, guarantees and prohibitions in the Constitution, that controversies
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  Speaker 1: never arise concerning them. But no organic law can ever
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  Speaker 1: be framed with a provision specifically applicable to every question
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  Speaker 1: which may occur in practicable administration. No foresight can anticipate,
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  Speaker 1: nor any document of reasonable length contain express provisions for
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  Speaker 1: all possible questions. Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered by
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  Speaker 1: national or by state authorities? The Constitution does not expressly
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  Speaker 1: say must Congress protect slavery in the territories. The Constitution
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  Speaker 1: does not expressly say, from questions of this class spring
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  Speaker 1: all our constitutional controversies, and we divide upon them into
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  Speaker 1: majorities and minorities. If the minority will not acquiesce, the
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  Speaker 1: majority must or the government must cease. There is no
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  Speaker 1: alternative for continuing the government but acquiescence on the one
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  Speaker 1: side or the other. If a minority in such a
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  Speaker 1: case will secede rather than acquiesce, they make a precedent,
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  Speaker 1: which in turn will ruin and divide them. For a
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  Speaker 1: minority of their own will secede from them. Whenever a
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  Speaker 1: majority refuses to be controlled by such a minority. For instance,
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  Speaker 1: why may not any portion of a new confederacy a
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  Speaker 1: year or two hence arbitrarily secede again, precisely as portions
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  Speaker 1: of the present union now claim to secede from it.
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  Speaker 1: All who cherish disunion sentiments are now being educated to
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  Speaker 1: the exact temper of doing this. Is there such perfect
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  Speaker 1: identity of interests among the states to compose a new
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  Speaker 1: union as to produce harmony only and prevent renewed secession. Plainly,
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  Speaker 1: the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy.
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  Speaker 1: A majority, held in restraint by constitutional check and limitation,
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  Speaker 1: and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions
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  Speaker 1: and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people.
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  Speaker 1: Whoever rejects it, does of necessity fly to anarchy or
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  Speaker 1: to despotism. Unanimity is impossible. The rule of a minority
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  Speaker 1: as a permanent arrangement is wholly inadmissible, so that rejecting
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  Speaker 1: the majority principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is
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  Speaker 1: all that is left. I do not forget the position
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  Speaker 1: assumed by some that constitutional questions are to be decided
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  Speaker 1: by the Supreme Court, nor do I deny that such
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  Speaker 1: decisions must be binding in any case upon the parties
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  Speaker 1: to a suit as to the object of that suit,
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  Speaker 1: while they are also entitled to a very high respect
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  Speaker 1: and consideration in all parallel cases by all other departments
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  Speaker 1: of the government. And while it is obviously possible that
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  Speaker 1: such decision may be erroneous in any given case, still
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  Speaker 1: the evil effect following it being limited to that particular case,
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  Speaker 1: with the chance that it may be overruled and never
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  Speaker 1: become a precedent for other cases, can better be borne
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  Speaker 1: than could the evils of a different practice. At the
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  Speaker 1: same time, the candid citizen must confess that if the
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  Speaker 1: policy of the government upon the vital question affecting the
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  Speaker 1: whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by the decisions
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  Speaker 1: of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made, as
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  Speaker 1: in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions, the people
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  Speaker 1: will have ceased to be their own masters, unless having
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  Speaker 1: to that extent, practically resigned their government into the hands
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  Speaker 1: of that eminent tribunal. Nor is there, in this view,
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  Speaker 1: any assault upon the Court or the judges. It is
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  Speaker 1: a duty from which they may not shrink to decide
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  Speaker 1: cases properly brought before them, and it is no fault
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  Speaker 1: of theirs if others seek to turn their decisions to
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  Speaker 1: political purposes. Once action of our country believes slavery is
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  Speaker 1: right and ought to be extended, while the other believes
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  Speaker 1: it is wrong and ought not to be extended. And
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  Speaker 1: this is the only substantial dispute. And the fugitive slave
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  Speaker 1: Clause of the Constitution and the law for the suppression
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  Speaker 1: of the Foreign slave Trade are each as well enforced,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps as any law can ever be in a community
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  Speaker 1: where the moral sense of the people imperfectly supports the
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  Speaker 1: law itself. The great body of the people abide by
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  Speaker 1: the dry legal obligation in both cases, and a few
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  Speaker 1: break over in each. This I think cannot be perfectly cured,
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  Speaker 1: and it would be worse in both cases after the
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  Speaker 1: separation of the sections than before. The foreign slave trade,
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  Speaker 1: now imperfectly suppressed, would be ultimately revived without restriction in
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  Speaker 1: one section, while fugitive slaves, now only partially surrendered, would
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  Speaker 1: not be surrendered at all by the other. Physically speaking,
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  Speaker 1: we cannot separate. We cannot remove our respective selctions from
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  Speaker 1: each other, nor build an impassable wall between them. A
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  Speaker 1: husband and wife may be divorced and go out of
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  Speaker 1: the presence and beyond the reach of each other. But
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  Speaker 1: the different parts of our country cannot do this. They
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  Speaker 1: cannot but remain face to face, and intercourse, either amicable
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  Speaker 1: or hostile, must continue between them. Is it possible, then,
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  Speaker 1: to make that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory after
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  Speaker 1: separation than before? Can aliens make treaties easier than friends
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  Speaker 1: can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between
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  Speaker 1: aliens than laws can among friends? Suppose you go to war,
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  Speaker 1: you cannot fight always, And when after much loss on
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  Speaker 1: both sides and no gain on either, you cease fighting,
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  Speaker 1: the identical questions as to terms of intercourse are again
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  Speaker 1: upon you. This country, with its institutions, belongs to the
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  Speaker 1: people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of
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  Speaker 1: the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of
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  Speaker 1: amending or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.
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  Speaker 1: I cannot be ignorant of the fact that many worthy
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  Speaker 1: and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the National Constitution amended.
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  Speaker 1: While I make no recommendation of amendment, I fully recognize
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  Speaker 1: the full authority of the people over the whole subject
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  Speaker 1: to be exercised in either of the modes prescribed in
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  Speaker 1: the instrument itself, and I should, under existing circumstances, favor
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  Speaker 1: rather than oppose a fair opportunity being afforded the people
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  Speaker 1: to act upon it. I will venture to add that
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  Speaker 1: to me, the convention mode seems preferable in that it
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  Speaker 1: allows amendments to originate with the people themselves, instead of
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  Speaker 1: only permitting them to take or reject propositions originated by others,
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  Speaker 1: not especially chosen for the purpose, and which might not
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  Speaker 1: be precisely such as they would wish either to accept
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  Speaker 1: or refuse. I understand that a proposed amendment to the Constitution,
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  Speaker 1: which amendment, however, I have not seen, has passed Congress
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  Speaker 1: to the effect that the federal government shall never interfere
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  Speaker 1: with the domestic institutions of states, including that of persons
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  Speaker 1: held to service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said,
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  Speaker 1: I depart from my purpose not to speak of particular
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  Speaker 1: amendments so far as to say that, holding such a
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  Speaker 1: provision to now be implied constitutional law, I have no
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  Speaker 1: objection to its being made express and irrevocable. The Chief
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  Speaker 1: Magistrate derives all his authority from the people, and they
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  Speaker 1: have conferred none upon him to fix the terms for
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  Speaker 1: the separation of the states. The people themselves also can
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  Speaker 1: do this if they choose, But the executive as such
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  Speaker 1: has nothing to do with it. His duty is to
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  Speaker 1: administer the present government as it came to his hands,
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  Speaker 1: and to transmit it unimpaired by him to his successor.
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  Speaker 1: Why should there not be a patient confidence in the
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  Speaker 1: ultimate justice of the people. Is there any better or
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  Speaker 1: equal hope in the world in our present differences? Is
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  Speaker 1: either party without faith of being in the right. If
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  Speaker 1: the Almighty Ruler of nations, with his eternal truth and justice,
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  Speaker 1: be on your side of the north or on yours
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  Speaker 1: of the south, that truth and that justice will surely
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  Speaker 1: prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal the American people,
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  Speaker 1: by the frame of the government under which we live.
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  Speaker 1: This same people have wisely given their public servants but
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: little power for mischief, and have with equal wisdom, provided
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: for the return of that little to their own hands
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: at very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: and vigilance. No administration by any extreme wickedness or folly
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: can very seriously injure the government in the short space
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: of four years. My countrymen, one and all, think calmly
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: and well upon them this whole subject. Nothing valuable can
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: be lost by taking time. If there be an object
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: to hurry any of you in hot haste to a
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: step which you would never take deliberately, that object will
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: be frustrated by taking time. But no good object can
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: be frustrated by it. Such of you, as are now dissatisfied,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: still have the old constitution unimpaired, and on the sensitive point,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: the laws of your own framing under it. While the
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: new administration will have no immediate power if it would
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: to change either. If it were admitted that you, who
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: are dissatisfied, hold the right side in the dispute, there
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: is still no single reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: and a firm reliance on him who has never yet
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: forsaken this favored land. Are still competent to adjust in
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: the best way all our present difficulties. In your hands,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: my dissatisfied fellow country, and not in mine. Is the
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect,
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: and defend it. I am loath to close. We are
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: of affections. The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: battlefield and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: by the better angels of our nature. End of Lincoln's
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: first inaugural Address. M.