From: Jack D. Drummond
Date: 4/17/00
Time: 11:56:47 PM
Remote Name: 216.59.55.200
Not surprisingly, Lincoln’s inaugural address did not go well in the Southern states. In light of his calls for a peaceful preservation of the Union, the Southern interpretation of this speech was extremely negative. His harshest Southern critics twisted his words around to fit their own secessionist agendas. Lincoln’s promise to “hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the Government”, was interpreted by Southerners as an attempt to “coerce the seceding states into compliance with the demands of the Federal Government.” It was also added that “any effort to carry out this policy will meet with the stern and unyielding resistance of Virginia.” A Southern newspaper account of the inaugural speech referred to Lincoln as a “fanatic” speaking in “cool, unimpassioned, deliberate language.” This account also stated that Lincoln had declared a “sectional war”, which required only the “signal gun of the insulted Confederacy” to begin. The author of the article felt that peace by that time was an impossibility. I believe that civil war was absolutely inevitable by the time Lincoln gave this speech. Despite the call for a peaceful solution in his inaugural address, the Southern response was a bloodthirsty call for war. While I don’t think that this address I believe that the Southerner’s hasty and violent reaction to Lincoln’s stern vow to peacefully keep the Union together marked a point of no return for both sides involved.