Download Two Perspectives on the Civil War

Two Perspectives on the Civil War
The Northern Perspective
Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address - March 4, 1861
Fellow-citizens of the United States:
….Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States, that by the rise of a Republican
Administration, their property, and their peace, and personal security, are to be endangered. There has
never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary
has all the while existed, and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches
of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that "I have no
purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I
believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so……….”
…I hold, that in contemplation of the Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual [eternal].
Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments. It is safe to
assert that no government, ever had a provision in its own laws for its own extermination.
…..Plainly, the central idea of secession, is the essence of anarchy. A majority, held in restraint by
constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular
opinions and sentiments, is the only true ruler of a free people. Whoever rejects it, does, of necessity, fly to
anarchy or to despotism……..
Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We can not remove our respective sections from each other, nor
build an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence,
and beyond the reach of each other; but the different parts of our country cannot do this. They cannot but
remain face to face; and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue between them. Is it possible,
then, to make that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory, after separation? Can aliens make
treaties easier than friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than
laws can among friends?
…..In your hands, my dissatisfied 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 registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one
to "preserve, protect, and defend it."
I am loath to close. 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
battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, 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.
1. Why does “apprehension” exist among the southern states?
2. Why does Lincoln tell the South not to worry? (hint: what is Lincoln’s position on slavery?)
3. What argument does Lincoln make against disunion (the country breaking apart)?
4. How does secession lead to anarchy? (Lincoln doesn’t say how – you have to!)
5. What argument does Lincoln make against disunion in this paragraph?
6. What does Lincoln promise the government will not do in this paragraph?
7. Later in this paragraph, Lincoln reminds the South that he does have a responsibility and he will
carry it out. What is that responsibility?
8. How would you describe Lincoln’s tone throughout this speech? What is the goal of this speech?
The Southern Perspective
Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from
the Federal Union
In the year 1765, that portion of the British Empire embracing Great Britain, undertook to make laws for
the thirteen American Colonies. A struggle for the right of self-government ensued, which resulted, on the
4th of July, 1776, in a Declaration, by the Colonies, "that they are, and of right ought to be, FREE AND
INDEPENDENT STATES. They further solemnly declared that whenever any "form of government
becomes destructive of the ends for which it was established, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish
it, and to institute a new government." Deeming the Government of Great Britain to have become
destructive of these ends, they declared that the Colonies "are absolved from all allegiance to the British
Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be,
totally dissolved."
Thus were established the two great principles asserted by the Colonies, namely: the right of a State to
govern itself; and the right of a people to abolish a Government when it becomes destructive of the ends for
which it was instituted.
In 1777, delegates from each state established the Articles of Confederation, a compact which gave
individual states sovereignty. In 1787, Deputies were appointed by the States to revise the Articles of
Confederation, and on 17th September, 1787, these Deputies recommended for the adoption of the States,
the Articles of Union, known as the Constitution of the United States.
By this Constitution…..an amendment was added [the 10th amendment], which declared that the powers
not delegated to the United States by the Constitution are reserved to the States.
The ends for which the Constitution was framed are declared by itself to be "to form a more perfect union,
establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare,
and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity."
These ends were to be accomplished through the creation of a Federal Government, in which each State
was recognized as an equal, and had separate control over its own institutions……
We affirm that these ends for which this Government was instituted have been defeated, and the national
government itself has been made destructive of these ends by the action of the non-slaveholding States.
Those non-slaveholding states have denied individuals the rights of their property, a right recognized by the
Constitution; they have denounced as sinful the institution of slavery; they have permitted open
establishment among them of abolitionist societies, whose avowed object is to disturb the peace. They have
encouraged and assisted thousands of our slaves to leave their homes; and those who remain, have been
incited by emissaries, books and pictures to servile insurrection.
For twenty-five years this agitation has been steadily increasing, until it has now taken control of the
national government. A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that
line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States, whose
opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. He is to be entrusted with the administration of the national
Government, because he has declared that that "Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half
free, and that the public mind must rest in the belief that slavery is in the course of ultimate
extinction…….”
On the 4th day of March next, this party [Lincoln] will take possession of the Government. It has
announced that the South shall be excluded from the common territory [the South will not be allowed to
expand slavery into western territories] and that a war must be waged against slavery until it shall cease
throughout the United States.
The guaranties of the Constitution will then no longer exist; the equal rights of the States will be lost. The
slaveholding States will no longer have the power of self-government, or self-protection, and the Federal
Government will have become their enemy.
1. How does South Carolina use the Declaration of Independence to defend its actions?
2. What two political principles were established by the colonies when they issued the declaration?
3. What does the 10th Amendment say? Do a little foreshadowing. How might South Carolina use the
10th Amendment to defend its actions?
4. Put this paragraph into your own words
5. In the eyes of South Carolina, who controls the national government?
6. What problems does the South have with the nonslaveholding states?
7. What is South Carolina’s big problem with Abraham Lincoln?
8. Big Idea: Why does South Carolina secede from the Union? Why can’t it remain a part of the
United States?
On the issue of slavery, what do each of the parties say????
Lincoln
South Carolina
I will not interfere where slavery WHERE Lincoln and non-slaveholding states are
IT EXISTS (in the South)
openly hostile to the institution of slavery.
There is no hope for compromise –
Lincoln said “this government cannot
endure half slave, half free.”
Unanswered Question:
Is the Civil War being fought over slavery????????????