From: Michele Willmunder
Date: 4/20/00
Time: 1:24:37 AM
Remote Name: 155.247.228.157
What was the status of the Union when Lincoln gave his first inaugural address? What did Lincoln propose to do about the status of the Union? On March 4, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln gave his first inaugural address to the people of his nation. The status of the Union was in a bit of turmoil. The Confederate States of the South withdrew from the Union with the purpose of remaining slave states. It was believed that the South did so upon grounds that amply justified them, as it was written in The Richmond Enquirer. Also written was “the notion, therefore, that the Southern Confederacy will soon come to an end, is ridiculous in the extreme.” At this time it was ludicrous to believe that the South would surrender to the power of the North. Lincoln proposed to keep the nation, as a whole, under the terms of the Union. He says that the Union is forever lasting without interruption. Lincoln states, “the Union will endure forever, it being impossible to destroy it except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself.” He talks about the origin of the Union and how it was formed by the Articles of Association, and matured by both the Declaration of Independence and the faith of the thirteen states. Lincoln also states that the establishment of the Constitution was “to form a more perfect Union.” Lincoln was determined to keep the Union alive in the United States. He goes on to say, “I therefore consider that in the view of the Constitution and the laws the Union is unbroken, and to the extent of my ability, I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States.”