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Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address Summary

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Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 in Hodgenville, Kentucky. As a child, he was only able to attend school for a few weeks, but he continued to educate himself through reading. Later in his life, he began a career as a lawyer. Then, he started a career in politics. He joined the Republican party and ran as a Republican in the presidential election. Lincoln was the sixteenth president of the United States of America. He was elected president in 1860, and he was inaugurated the next year. Lincoln ran up against John C. Breckinridge, John Bell, and Stephan Douglas, and he won the electoral vote. During the time of his election, there were disputes between the Northern (free) states and Southern (slave) states on topics such as slavery, …show more content…

He made it clear that he was not trying to get rid of slavery where it already existed, and that he had no intention of ending slavery. The Fugitive Slave Act is also brought up in his speech. He reassured the South that he was not changing that law in any way. He also said he did not want to change anything in the Constitution. Lincoln then went on to explain that no one can leave the Union because the Constitution says it cannot be broken up. At the end, he said that they need to work together to come up with a solution peacefully, but if they failed to do so, he would have had to respond aggressively. He did not want any type of war to occur, and so he closed his speech with saying that they are not enemies, but …show more content…

It was written by the President himself about the impending issues of the country and what his goals were as president. He knew about the serious issues that could’ve possibly started between the Union and the Confederacy, and he tried to prevent those things from happening. Although it does not give details about the seceding states or the war itself, it gives general information about that period. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation is also a source that is very reliable for some changes that were made during the Civil War. He was unhappy with the secession of the southern states, so he decided to act upon it to see if it would make the states want to rejoin the Union. These two sources are as reliable as can be because they both were written at the exact time the event took place. Neither of them are recounts of past events, so there is no way any of the information can be misconstrued. These sources are not story-tellers of events of the Civil War; they are actual speeches that were heard by everyone in the United States during that time. The First Inaugural Address and the Emancipation Proclamation are two of the most accurate sources from the Civil War

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