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First Inaugural Address: How Equality Changes Throughout The Civil War

1844 Words8 Pages

In this essay, I seek to analyze how equality changed and continued throughout the Civil War era. I argue that the social, political, and intellectual categories support the notion of equality changing and continuing throughout the Civil War era, more specifically, reform, leadership, and ideas, respectively. To illustrate, the social reform of enslavement to freedom, political leadership of leaders creating freedom for slaves, intellectual ideas of freedom for oppressed groups. I will prove my thesis by interpreting and evaluating my sources. In Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address, he discusses how his views on slavery will be like throughout his presidency. He writes, “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have …show more content…

He states, “You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to “preserve, protect, and defend it”’ (3). In this quote, Lincoln does not reveal his personal point of view on slavery, rather than his public one as president. This is significant because it keeps him in a state of neutrality that is necessary to keep the country united. Furthermore, Lincoln knows that his duty is to prevent a Civil War in America. He claims that he will use his power as president to keep the United States of America united. In another source, the authors write, “ The North’s victory in the Civil War strengthened the power of the federal government over the states. It also transformed American society by finally ending the enslavement of millions of African Americans” (277). This quote shows how Lincoln affected America after the Civil War. Moreover, the federal government was stronger which gave Lincoln power that he did not have before. With this power, he was able to create unity between the Union and the

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