Okla-homey
3/4/2009, 08:20 AM
March 4, 1861: Lincoln inaugurated
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/5609/inaugabrahamlincolnfirs.jpg
In OUr ongoing celebration of the Second Greatest American during the bicentennial year of his birth, 158 years ago today, Abraham Lincoln becomes the 16th president of the United States.
Although he extended an olive branch to the South, he also made it clear that he intended to enforce federal laws in the seceded states.
Since Lincoln's election in November, seven states had left the Union. Worried that the election of a Republican would threaten their rights to keep slaves, the lower South seceded and formed the Confederate States of America.
In fairness to these folks, we must remember their economies relied on cotton, an intensely labor-intensive cash crop, and it was simply impossible to profitably raise, harvest and market the stuff in an era before mechanized agriculture without millions of unpaid human hands to do the work.
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/6030/inaughomerlincolninaugu.jpg
In the process of the secessions, some of those states had seized federal properties such as armories and forts. By the time Lincoln arrived in Washington for his inauguration, the threat of war hung heavy in the air. Lincoln took a cautious approach in his remarks, and he made no specific threats against the southern states.
As a result, he had some flexibility in trying to keep the states of the upper South--North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware--in the Union.
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/3995/inaugjbcivillincoln21e.jpg
Ultimately, Virginia, Tennessee, and Arkansas would join their southern sisters in secession, but it's worth noting that Tennessee would be restored to federal control within a year of its secession, Arkansas was split evenly between pro-US and pro-rebel factions, and Virginia itself would split when non-slaveholding highlanders in western Virginia would secede from the Old Dominion and form the loyal state of West Virginia.
In his address, Lincoln promised not to interfere with the institution of slavery where it existed, and he pledged to suspend the activities of the federal government temporarily in areas of hostility. However, he also took a firm stance against secession and the seizure of federal property. The government, insisted Lincoln, would "hold, occupy, and possess" its property and collect its taxes. He closed his remarks with an eloquent reminder of the nation's common heritage:
"In your hand, my fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend" it...We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
Six weeks later, the Confederates fired on federal property called Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, and "the ball was opened."
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/8692/inauglincolninaguration.jpg
Bible Lincoln used during his first inauguration. President Obama used it as well.
http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/2623/insane7zo.jpg
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/5609/inaugabrahamlincolnfirs.jpg
In OUr ongoing celebration of the Second Greatest American during the bicentennial year of his birth, 158 years ago today, Abraham Lincoln becomes the 16th president of the United States.
Although he extended an olive branch to the South, he also made it clear that he intended to enforce federal laws in the seceded states.
Since Lincoln's election in November, seven states had left the Union. Worried that the election of a Republican would threaten their rights to keep slaves, the lower South seceded and formed the Confederate States of America.
In fairness to these folks, we must remember their economies relied on cotton, an intensely labor-intensive cash crop, and it was simply impossible to profitably raise, harvest and market the stuff in an era before mechanized agriculture without millions of unpaid human hands to do the work.
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/6030/inaughomerlincolninaugu.jpg
In the process of the secessions, some of those states had seized federal properties such as armories and forts. By the time Lincoln arrived in Washington for his inauguration, the threat of war hung heavy in the air. Lincoln took a cautious approach in his remarks, and he made no specific threats against the southern states.
As a result, he had some flexibility in trying to keep the states of the upper South--North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware--in the Union.
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/3995/inaugjbcivillincoln21e.jpg
Ultimately, Virginia, Tennessee, and Arkansas would join their southern sisters in secession, but it's worth noting that Tennessee would be restored to federal control within a year of its secession, Arkansas was split evenly between pro-US and pro-rebel factions, and Virginia itself would split when non-slaveholding highlanders in western Virginia would secede from the Old Dominion and form the loyal state of West Virginia.
In his address, Lincoln promised not to interfere with the institution of slavery where it existed, and he pledged to suspend the activities of the federal government temporarily in areas of hostility. However, he also took a firm stance against secession and the seizure of federal property. The government, insisted Lincoln, would "hold, occupy, and possess" its property and collect its taxes. He closed his remarks with an eloquent reminder of the nation's common heritage:
"In your hand, my fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend" it...We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
Six weeks later, the Confederates fired on federal property called Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, and "the ball was opened."
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/8692/inauglincolninaguration.jpg
Bible Lincoln used during his first inauguration. President Obama used it as well.
http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/2623/insane7zo.jpg