Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address

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In the year of 1860, Abraham Lincoln won the Republican Party nomination and the presidential nomination competing against Stephen A. Douglass. Abraham Lincoln delivers his first inaugural address on March 24, 1861. Lincoln becomes the sixteenth President of the United States. Soon after Lincoln won the presidency in 1860, seven Southern states announced their secession from the Union, and formed what is known as the confederacy. The confederacy was composed strictly by slave states such as South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, among others. The confederacy believed that slavery was a necessity for the economy and society, and that Lincoln was a threat to the institution of slavery. Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural speech …show more content…

In fact, he even quotes himself from past speeches saying that he has no particular interest in interfering with the institution of slavery “in the states where it exists.” Lincoln says that the government must never interfere “with the domestic institutions of the states, including that of persons held to service.” Lincoln believes that the institution of slavery is not going to be in danger by the new incoming administration; indeed he says that we will protect the institution of slavery because it’s a constitutionally protected law. Moreover, Lincoln says that the constitution does not give him the power to override the institution of slavery, or any of the constitutional protected laws. He discusses about enforcing all provisions of the constitution including the fugitive slave act, a law that says that any slave escaping from a slave state to a free state, must be sent back to their owner. In other words, fugitive slaves should be returned to their slave owner. Lincoln also addresses the controversy of whether the fugitive slave act should be enforced by the national government, or by the states in his first inaugural speech because he does not want the Southern states to use this controversy as a possible reason to break away from the