First Inaugural Address
I assume you meant Lincoln's first inaugural speech as something that erod could use in arguments with his/her brothers. You should realize that Lincoln's speech was widely interpreted at the time as a declaration of war against the South. Southern newspapers and Democrat newspapers in the North interpreted it that way. Republican newspapers thought the speech wonderful. The country was very sharply divided, and the speech did not help matters.
RB - Since you introduced me to Judy Collins, “Amazing Grace”, I wanted to return the favor....it’s at the link.
Also, my daughter is working on her post-graduate and her thesis deals w/the CW. Wanted you to know that a couple of your posts (and some others on these threads) helped in her research. Your’s might be a rusty bucket, but it sure doesn’t have any holes in it:)
I posted it so that erod could read for himself Lincoln’s position on slavery at the time he took office.
Lincoln wasn’t an abolitionist like Fremont and Stephens and Sumner. What he was opposed to was the expansion of slavery into the territories. His belief was that if slavery couldn’t expand it would die a natural death. Emancipation for Lincoln was a tactic of war, just as it had been for the Crown during the American Revolution. He wasn’t converted to abolition until the summer of 1863. His strongest belief was as a Unionist. If he had to defend slavery in order to preserve the Union then he would do it, the Union was his highest value.
“You should realize that Lincoln’s speech was widely interpreted at the time as a declaration of war against the South”
Lincoln had made speeches as early as 1858 that sound like he was eager for war. And there is no doubting the position of the Radical Republicans and the Transcendentalists who had been bankrolling John Brown’s terrorism crusade. The southerners had every reason to think that the Republican Party was going to lead the country into war.