LAD #14: President Lincoln's First Inaugural Address

Throughout Lincoln's First Inaugural Address, the primary issue that is examined is the continual division of the North and South through ideological differences regarding slavery. The President wisely refuses to take either side for the conflict, stating that the preservation of the Union is his only goal. He looks towards the United States Constitution in order to guide him to make a decision and, after consideration, he firmly believes that he has no lawful right or inclination to decline the Southern States' rights to slavery. As stated in the Constitution, if an individual is held to labor or service in one state they cannot free themselves from this bondage by entering another. This, clearly, does not make slaves free if they desserted the South to enter a new life in the North. Yet, this does not incline the North to return all fugitive slaves back to their respective owners, for many Southern plantation owners dependent upon slave labor have participated in illegal international trade to acquire such resources. Although Lincoln asserts that this fundamental issue may never be solved, he states that the division of the Union over this issue would not only increase hostilities between the regions, but also make the problem never able to be solved. In this, Lincoln once again stresses the Union of the United States, the very thing that has brought this sovereign nation through a revolution as well as the creation and ratification of the Constitution. The states must interact in a manner that is beneficial to both aspects, regardless of hostile or amicable relations with one another, in order to prevent anarchy from occuring within the states. Lincoln concluded by stating that the North and the South iof the Union must remain friends and refrain from becoming enemies with one another.