President Lincoln's 1st Inaugural Address

 

Every year I have my students read President Lincoln's 1st Inaugural Address.  To set the scene it is President Lincoln's first day as President, and 7 Southern States have already left the Union.  In February 1861, a month earlier the Confederacy formed at the Montgomery Plan.  War has not started, but everyone knows it is coming. This address is talking directly to the South.  President Lincoln is making a desperate call for peace and unity.  

I love hearing student's reactions and insights.  Every year classes have different insights.  I am so idealistic, and one year a class HATED the address so much.  I was so surprised by their intensity and passion..  Their big complaint was President Lincoln just wrote a speech.  They believed he should have invaded the South with guns a blazing.  The reality is he could not do that.  President Lincoln was doomed from the start.  Nothing he could have done.  I love that this year's classes realized that.  

Here are two quotes that stood out to many students across the board. 1. "We are not enemies.  We must not be enemies."

One student highlighted that this was his final message and plea for unity.  I often wonder if President Lincoln got to complete Reconstruction we would live in a different America.  He would not let thinngs happen like the Black Codes or the Ku Klux Klan.  President Lincoln said the South was disgruntled countrymen not treasonous traitors.  

2. "I have no intention of messing with Slavery..."

The Immediate cause of the Civil War was the Election of 1860.  The South made it clear that there  would no compromises.  They believed a Republican President would free the slaves.  President Lincoln mentions multiple times he has no intention of freeing the slaves.  His goal is to preserve the Union.