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U.S. History 8
Words of Wisdom
EQ: Which clashes and conflicts swayed the balance of power?
Targeted Skills:
Thinking and Reasoning Skills:
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Critical Thinking
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interpret
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draw conclusions
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Creative Thinking
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restate ideas
Enduring Understandings:
The struggle to maintain a balance of power was at the heart of the Civil War.
Concepts Important to Know and Understand:
causes of the Civil War, clashes and conflicts
Broad Brush Knowledge:
Lincoln’s first and second inaugural addresses, Emancipation Proclamation, and
Gettysburg Address
Core Objectives:
7. Evaluate how political, economic, and social factors led to the growth of sectionalism and the Civil War.
8. Describe the individuals, issues, and events of the Civil War.
Instructions: Read the Expert Information below about four documents from Abraham Lincoln. His
ideas on liberty, equality, union, and government have become an important part of our American
historical heritage.
Expert Information: Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office on March 4, 1861, with the
impending Civil War at hand. In his First Inaugural Address, he focused on his support of the
North without further alienating the South. For guidance and inspiration on states’ rights,
Lincoln turned to President Andrew Jackson’s Nullification Proclamation of 1832; Henry Clay’s
compromise speech of 1850; and the U.S. Constitution. President Lincoln made a point in the
speech to avoid any mention of the Union government interfering with the institution of slavery
in states where it existed and denying the authority of Congress or a territorial legislature to
legalize slavery in the territories.
Lincoln prepared The Emancipation Proclamation in the summer of 1862. After some
changes, the proclamation was issued on September 22, 1862, and would become effective on
January 1, 1863. The document freed the slaves in the Confederate states, but the slaves in
the Border States were not freed. The reaction was both favorable and unfavorable in the
North. Stocks and military enlistments declined and the Republican elections were effected by
Democratic gains. Nevertheless, Lincoln said, “I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was
doing right, than I do in signing this paper.”
The Gettysburg Address is an example of Lincoln’s finest words about the meaning and
purpose of the Civil War. Lincoln delivered the brief address at the dedication of the
cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on November 19, 1863.
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address was delivered on March 4, 1865, a few weeks
before the war ended. Lincoln’s speech is known for its humility and vision for peace and
harmony between the North and South.
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Directions: Read the following document excerpts from Abraham Lincoln.
 First Inaugural Address
 The Emancipation Proclamation
 The Gettysburg Address
 Second Inaugural Address
In these documents, Lincoln expressed his ideas on liberty, equality, union, and the government.
Analyze each document to decide which one of Lincoln’s ideas best matches the document. Write the
appropriate letter(s) in the space provided. Documents may represent one or more of his ideas.
L for liberty (freedom)
E for equality (fairness, equal opportunity)
U union (joining the states into one U.S. government)
G for government (the organization of a country and its people)
Excerpts from Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address
___“I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery where it
exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.”
___“Resolved: that the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially the right of
each State to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment
exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our
political fabric depend, and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State
or Territory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes.”
___“No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another,
shall in consequence of any law or regulation therein be discharged from such service or labor, but
shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.”
___ “The Constitution which guarantees that the citizen of each State shall be entitled to all
privileged and immunities of citizens in the several States?”
___ “Again, if the United States be not a government proper, but an association of States in the
nature of contract merely, can it, as a contract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who
made it? One party to a contract may violate it-break it, so to speak; but does it not require all to
lawfully rescind it?”
___ “It follows from these views that no State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the
Union; that Resolves and Ordinances to that effect are legally void; and that acts of violence, within
any State or States, against the authority of the United States, are insurrectionary or
revolutionary, according to circumstances…”
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Excerpts from The Emancipation Proclamation
___“That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixtythree, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof
shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”
Excerpts from the Gettysburg Address
___”Four score and seven years ago our Fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation,
conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
___”That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the
people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Excerpts from Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
___“With malice toward none; with charity toward all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to
see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for
him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve
and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”
Select TWO excerpts from the documents above and rewrite them in your own words. (Circle the
ones you have selected so the teacher will know which ones you are rewriting.)
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2. ____________________________________________________________________
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