Week 7 Blog Post

Week 7 Blog Post

Comments on Ordeal by Fire Appendices:

Lincoln’s Inaugural Address: Lincoln directed the bulk of his address to the states which had already seceded from the Union. He attempted to convince those states that no violation of the Constitution had occurred to justify their secession. He also stated that the fugitive slave clause already in the Constitution (Article IV, Section 2.3) was sufficient to required slaves to be returned to their owners. It should not matter whether the clause was “enforced by national or by state authority.” (Perman & Taylor, A-8)

In general, Lincoln was trying to get the seceding states to admit the error of their ways and seek reconciliation. The Confederacy had taken great pains to justify their secession and subsequent establishment of a separate nation as legal according to the U.S. Constitution. Lincoln used his inaugural address to refute that claim. I thought that Lincoln’s argument concerning the “perfect Union” was very creative. (P & T, A-9) The Constitution was enacted “to form a more perfect Union.” By seceding, each state in the Confederacy essentially made the Union less perfect, thereby, behaving counter to the Constitution’s original intent.

Another one of Lincoln’s arguments that I found interesting was when he told the Confederacy that they were setting a precedent for a minority to cause permanent division by not accepting majority rule. Lincoln warned that parts of the Confederacy would secede in the future if they disagreed with their new national government. (P & T, A-10) The war united the Confederacy. I wonder if Lincoln’s prediction would have come true if a war had been averted.

The Gettysburg Address: I think it is ironic that Lincoln did not expect his Gettysburg address to be remembered. He stated, “The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.” (P & T, A-17) Most people today likely recognize the first sentence of the address, “Fourscore and seven years ago … all men are created equal” and that Pres. Lincoln said it. (P & T, A-16) Many of these same people probably know very little if anything about the Gettysburg battle itself.

Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address: Lincoln began his address by basically stating that there is not much new. He was not overly boastful about the chances of the Union winning the war. Instead, he said that the public knew as much about the progress of the war as he did. (P & T, A-19) He did not say the Confederacy is going to be defeated. “With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.

Lincoln discussed the civil war of the previous four years as though both sides were at fault but they were clearly at opposite poles. One side wanted to destroy the Union, the other save it. One party wanted to make war, the other accepted it. (P & T, A-19) Interestingly, Lincoln spoke of the slaves as though they had emancipated themselves. He did not mention his part in the “cause of the conflict,” slavery, ceasing to exist before the war ended. (P & T, A-20).

Lincoln realized and reminded his constituents that God was the common denominator between and Union and the Confederacy. “Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other.” (P & T, A-20) There can be no doubt that Lincoln understood the pain and anguish of civil war when he said, “[L]et us judge not that we be not judged.” (P & T, A-20) Just as many Union and Confederate soldiers turned their individual fates and that of their army over to God, Lincoln turned the fate of the war over to God also.  

Written by Molly Kettler