From: Andrea Pawlowski
Date: 4/18/00
Time: 12:27:08 AM
Remote Name: 155.247.156.224
Andrea Pawlowski Week Thirteen - April 18, 2000 Primary Source Assignment One of the questions I chose to answer was "What was the status of the Union when Lincoln gave his 1st inaugural address?" The status of the Union was very strong. Lincoln often made references to how the Union was made before the Constitution therefore it shall be inevitable. His main focus was to preserve the Union and "to secure the establishment of a government that would do so." Lincoln also said that the Union will endure forever and it will be impossible to destroy. He used one word repeatedly when talking about the Union, it was the word "perpetual." When I looked up perpetual in the "Merriam-Webster Dictionary" its meaning given was "continuing forever" or "everlasting". By Lincoln using this word over and over again it showed how strongly he felt about keeping the Union alive and strong. Lincoln wanted the Union to remain at such a high status because it has been around since the birth of our country. The second question I chose to answer was "How was the speech received in the south?" The reaction in the south was clearly defined in how Lincoln responded to them. He said that by no means was he planning to interfere with the issue of slavery. He was going to leave the policies as they were. At that time it stood that if a slave was a fugitive then he must return back to those who he owed service to. In these words it leaves the impressions that the people of the south were angered and bothered by Lincoln's words. The people of the south interpreted Lincoln's words wrong and made it into a bigger issue than it was. They perceived the wrong idea behind his willingness to main the high status of the Union. They expected more of an change instead of Lincoln to just maintain everything the way it was.