“A Word Fitly Spoken”: Abraham Lincoln on the American Union



“A Word Fitly Spoken”: Abraham Lincoln on the American Union

Lesson Plan #2: The First Inaugural Address (1861)—Defending the American Union

I. Introduction

“Plainly, the central idea of secession, is the essence of anarchy.” With this statement, Abraham Lincoln tried to show why the attempt of seven states to leave the American union peacefully was, in fact, a total violation of law and order. The Constitution required that the newly elected president of the United States take an oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” and so Lincoln explained how he would keep that Union together. Exactly one month before Lincoln delivered his First Inaugural Address on March 4, 1861, a provisional Confederate States of America had already drawn up a constitution and elected officers. Moreover, the departing president, James Buchanan, added to the new president’s difficulties. While his December 1860 State of the Union Address argued that secession was not “an inherent constitutional right,” Buchanan saw no constitutional provision that empowered the president “to coerce a state into submission.”

Lincoln read the Constitution differently, stating “the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend, and maintain itself,” but also affirming “there needs to be no bloodshed or violence; and there shall be none, unless it be forced upon the national authority.” To this end, he used his inaugural address to try to mend the rift between sections of the nation that would soon go to war. Lincoln closed his First Inaugural Address by appealing to “the better angels of our nature” as his fondest hope for preserving the union of the American states.

This lesson will examine Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address to understand why he thought his duty as president required him to treat secession as an act of rebellion and not a legitimate legal or constitutional action by disgruntled states.

II. Guiding Question

How did Lincoln defend the American union from states seeking to leave or “secede” from the Union?

III. Learning Objectives

After completing this lesson, students should be able to:

1. Explain some provisions of the Constitution that Lincoln believed empowered him to defend the American union from attempts at secession.

2. Articulate Andrew Jackson’s understanding of the American union and how this helped shape Lincoln’s view of the Union.

3. Explain how some secessionists defended their attempt to leave the union upon Lincoln’s election to the presidency.

4. Explain why Lincoln thought he had a constitutional obligation as president to preserve the union from attempts at secession.

5. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the pro-Union and pro-secession arguments, and decide which argument is the most philosophically defensible.

IV. Background Information for the Teacher

At the time that Lincoln delivered his First Inaugural Address, seven Southern states had already seceded from the Union and set up a provisional government. Lincoln’s Address reassured them and the rest of the South that he had no purpose to interfere with their “domestic institutions” (meaning slavery), but Southerners remained vexed with their own economic and political concerns. While cotton was still “king” of the Southern economy, the cost of producing cotton had risen because the price of slaves, needed to harvest the crop, had gone up dramatically in the past twenty years. Even the average farmer felt the pinch, as small plots were being consolidated into larger agricultural enterprises, making it more difficult for lesser-income Southerners to make a living. Efforts to industrialize and diversify the economy had also largely failed.

In addition, the South felt increasingly isolated on the political front, especially when the Democratic National Convention in April 1860, led by the eventual nominee of the Northern Democrats, Stephen A. Douglas, refused to endorse a congressional guarantee of the extension of slavery into the federal territories. Southerners walked out of the convention. After a second convention in June failed to reconcile these opposing interests, Southerners bolted again and drafted a separate platform. For President they nominated the vice president under James Buchanan, Kentucky Senator John C. Breckenridge. But this turned them into a regional party. In fact, the electoral returns of 1860 showed it to be a regional election across the board, with the Republican Party as the party of the North and Northeast. When the victorious Republicans suggested a modest protective tariff—something that had long been opposed in the South—Southerners became convinced that their concerns were not appreciated by the party now in power in the executive branch. Because Northerners had elected someone from a party hostile to the interests of the South, Southerners thought that the Union had made the first move in cutting them adrift: the Union had left the South “in sympathy,” so seven Southern states responded by leaving the Union “in fact” by seceding.

The first Republican president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, drew less than forty percent of the popular vote, though he received a clear majority of the electoral votes (180 out of 303)—all from Northern, free states. His leadership of a party opposed to the spread of slavery led to his name being left off the ballots of nine Southern states (where no Republican Party surfaced). Southerners therefore viewed Lincoln and the Republicans as representing sectional interests in opposition to those of the slaveholding states, who claimed to uphold the constitutional rights of all property owners.

Although Lincoln hated slavery and consistently argued against its expansion into federal territory, he was not an abolitionist; he disagreed with those who would promote emancipation at the expense of preserving the Constitution and the rule of law. He acknowledged the legal right to own slaves under state constitutions that already permitted the “peculiar institution,” which the Constitution respected through compromises that helped produce “a more perfect union.” Lincoln also recognized the fragile condition of the country, and therefore did not seek the repeal of the notorious (but constitutional) Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which required that escaped slaves be returned to their masters in the South.

Lincoln used his inaugural address to declare his constitutional intentions as the incoming president, especially given the anxiety in the Southern states over the protection of their slaves, and to explain the nature of the national union. He announced that he would not interfere with slavery where it already existed, and pledged to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act—a key issue for seceding states, who complained that Northern states obstructed the enforcement of this act by passing personal liberty laws. Lincoln then declared that “the Union of these States is perpetual” and added that “no State, upon its own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union.” Why? First, all national governments by their nature existed in perpetuity; second, even if one assumed that the United States was “not a government proper,” but an “association of States,” all the States would need to agree to dissolve the association, not just those who found reason to do so unilaterally; and third, the existence of the American Union preceded the Constitution, demonstrating that the States intended to act as a union at every pivotal stage of their development. Alluding to Article II of the Constitution, Lincoln considered his “simple duty” to make sure “that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States.” Specifically, he intended to occupy federal property and collect duties, but for the time being not fill federal offices with “obnoxious strangers” in areas hostile to the government.

The crux of his argument was his definition of secession as “the essence of anarchy.” Lincoln was a firm believer in majority rule constrained by “constitutional checks” and informed by public opinion. Rule by any other principle or practice, he explained, would only lead to anarchy or despotism. He added that any disagreement between the sections could be resolved better within the Union than as separate entities. Closing the address with an appeal to “the better angels of our nature,” Lincoln hoped that passion would give way to reason, and that the Union would restore its luster in the eyes of a divided nation.

A key element of Lincoln’s argument against secession had to do with the nature of the union of the American states. Simply put, was this union a true national government or simply a compact or league of states? Additional clarification on the difference between a government and a league can be found in Federalist No. 15 (). It states: “Government implies the power of making laws. It is essential to the idea of a law, that it be attended with a sanction; or, in other words, a penalty or punishment for disobedience.” In short, a government has the sovereign power over individuals to enforce its laws with a penalty. A league, on the other hand, is an “alliance between independent nations for certain defined purposes” that “depend[s] for its execution on the good faith of the parties.” They are based upon “treaties which have no other sanction than the obligations of good faith, and which oppose general considerations of peace and justice to the impulse of any immediate interest or passion” The pro-secession argument would hinge on this marked difference of opinion about the nature of the federal union.

V. Preparing to Teach this Lesson

This lesson makes use of written primary source documents and worksheets, available both online and in the Text Document that accompanies this lesson. Students can read and analyze source materials online, or do some of the work online and some in class from printed copies.

Read over the lesson. Bookmark the websites that you will use. If students will be working from printed copies in class, download the documents from the Text Document and duplicate as many copies as you will need. If students need practice in analyzing primary source documents, excellent resource materials are available at the EDSITEment-reviewed Learning Page of the Library of Congress: . Helpful Document Analysis Worksheets may be found at the site of the National Archives:

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VI. Suggested Activities

Debate: Is the Union of American States Permanent and Binding, or Does a State Have the Right to Secede?

This lesson is built around the following sequence of tasks:

1. Students analyze the primary text of this lesson:

Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address (March 4, 1861)

2. Students analyze supplementary texts:

(a) U.S. Constitution: Preamble, Article II (Executive Power), Sections 1-3, and Article VI (Supremacy of the Constitution)

(b) Andrew Jackson, “Proclamation Regarding Nullification” (December 24, 1832)

(c) South Carolina’s Secession Declaration (December 20, 1860)

(d) New Orleans Daily Crescent, editorial, “The Policy of Aggression” (December 14, 1860)

3. Students engage in a debate using pro-Union and pro-secession ideas.

Students will debate the central questions of this lesson: Once the citizens of a state join the Union, are they permanently, perpetually bound to the other states? Or does a state then have the right to secede from the Union? In other words, what is the nature of the Federal Union? Make clear to students that they should hold these questions in mind as they undertake their primary source analysis and the debate that follows.

Students will read primary source material and answer questions about those documents in preparation for a debate. As Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address is the focus of this lesson, all students will read this text first. Then the class will be divided into two sides, each with separate readings to prepare for the debate: one arguing the pro-Union point of view and one arguing the pro-secession point of view.

Before the Classroom Lesson Begins

“The Union of these States is Perpetual”: Lincoln’s View of the American Union

The class period before this lesson begins, assign the reading of Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address to all students for homework, and have them answer the four questions that accompany the text, which are included below for teacher review. A link to the First Inaugural Address can be found at the EDSITEment-reviewed site “American President” of the Miller Center of Public Affairs (University of Virginia):

. A shorter excerpt of Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address and the questions that follow are available in worksheet form on pages 1-5 of the Text Document and can be printed out for student use. Students should bring Lincoln’s Inaugural Address and their answers to the questions to class the following day.

1. Why does Lincoln think the Union is perpetual? Explain.

2. Explain why Lincoln thinks that even with a state compact view of the Union, it cannot be “peaceably unmade, by less that all the parties who make it”?

3. Assuming that “the Union is unbroken,” what does Lincoln say is his constitutional responsibility as president regarding the laws of the Union?

4. How does Lincoln define “secession”? What does he consider “the only true sovereign of a free people”?

Preparation for the Debate

1. On Day One of this lesson, start the class with a brief, ten-minute discussion of the Address, going over the students’ answers to the questions, and helping students to understand the main points.

2. Divide the class into two teams for the debate: unionists and secessionists. One side will represent the pro-Union point of view, and the other side will take the pro-secession perspective. Students will read pertinent documents to their argument and answer a few brief questions to focus their attention on important ideas in the position they will be defending. Put students on each side into groups of three or four so they can work together on the documents. Let them know that any unfinished questions will be assigned for homework, so they have an incentive to work productively that first day.

Unionist Group

For the pro-Union side of the debate, students will read excerpts from the Constitution and Andrew Jackson’s 1832 “Proclamation Regarding Nullification” in addition to another reading of Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address.

“On the Execution of His Office”: What the Constitution Expects of the President

Have the pro-Union students read the Preamble, Article II (Sections 1-3), and Article VI of the U.S. Constitution, which deal with the executive power and the nature and purpose of the federal constitution. Then have them answer in their groups the questions that follow, which are available in worksheet form on page 7 of the Text Document. A link to the Constitution can be found at the EDSITEment-reviewed site “The Charters of Freedom” of the National Archives:



The relevant sections of the Constitution are also included in the Text Document on page 6, and can be printed out for student use.

1. According to the president’s oath of office, what specific duty does he have regarding the Constitution? Explain in your own words what this means.

2. According to Article II, what responsibility does the president have regarding federal laws?

3. According to Article VI, what is the highest governmental authority?

4. Have a student look up the word “execute” in a dictionary and read the various definitions to the class. Then write down in your own words what you think it means in general, and then what you think it means for a President of the United States.

“A Government, not a League”: What Andrew Jackson Taught Abraham Lincoln about the American Union

Next, have students read an excerpt from Andrew Jackson’s “Proclamation Regarding Nullification” (December 24, 1832) and answer in their groups the questions that follow, which are available in worksheet form on page 10 of the Text Document. A link to Jackson’s “Proclamation Regarding Nullification” can be found at the EDSITEment-reviewed site “The Avalon Project”:



The relevant Proclamation excerpts are also included in the Text Document on pages 8-9, and can be printed out for student use.

1. What reasons does Jackson give for not believing a state possesses the authority to resist federal laws according to that state’s own assessment?

2. Why does Jackson admit that secession may be a “revolutionary act” but not a “constitutional right”?

3. What does Jackson say is the difference between a government and a league?

What is a modern example of a league?

4. What “essential parts of sovereignty” does Jackson argue that South Carolina, along with the rest of the states of the American union, surrender to the federal government?

Understanding Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address: A Second Reading

Finally, have these students read Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address again, and answer in their groups the additional questions that follow, which are available in worksheet form on page 11 of the Text Document.

1. What is the difference between what Lincoln calls “a government proper” and “an association of states in the nature of a contract merely”?

2. If a war breaks out as a result of states claiming to secede, why does Lincoln think his effort to preserve the Union is an act of national self-defense?

3. Why does Lincoln think the principle of secession is self-defeating?

4. In the conclusion of his speech, what does Lincoln mean by “the better angels of our nature”? How is his speech an appeal to “the better angels of our nature”?

Secessionist Group

For the pro-secession side of the debate, students will read excerpts from South Carolina’s “Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union” and an 1860 New Orleans Daily Crescent editorial.

“Released from Her Obligation”: South Carolina Decides to Leave the Union

Have these students read an excerpt from South Carolina’s “Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union” (December 20, 1860) and answer in their groups the questions that follow, which are available in worksheet form on pages 15-16 of the Text Document. A link to South Carolina’s Secession Declaration can be found at the EDSITEment-reviewed site “The Avalon Project”:

. The relevant Secession Declaration excerpts are also included in the Text Document on pages 12-14, and can be printed out for student use.

1. What two principles from the Declaration of Independence does South Carolina claim as the basis for its separation from the American union?

2. What political body revised the Articles of Confederation and then invested the new, general government with its authority? What principle do you think South Carolinians saw in the fact that the states established the national government?

3. What kind of national government was established “by compact between the states”?

4. Explain the law of compact, the third principle that South Carolina believed informs the duty of each state toward the others.

5. According to the Secession Declaration, how is a compact broken?

6. In what way did several states fail to uphold their constitutional obligation to South Carolina under the U.S. Constitution? What provision in the Constitution did this violate?

7. From the last three paragraphs, explain the political and sectional crisis that was perceived by South Carolinians in December of 1860.

“To Destroy Slavery . . . by Indirect and Slow Approaches”: What Secessionists Feared

Next, have students read the New Orleans Daily Crescent editorial, “The Policy of Aggression” (December 14, 1860) and answer in their groups the questions that follow, which are available in worksheet form on page 19 of the Text Document. The editorial is also included in the Text Document on pages 17-18, and can be printed out for student use.

1. What evidence does the Daily Crescent provide to conclude that the Republican Party is hostile to the interests of the South?

2. What reasons does the editorial give for describing secession as an act of self-defense?

Let the Debate Begin! The Nature of the Federal Union—Does a State Have the Right To Secede?

On Day Two, students will engage in a debate concerning the nature of the federal union: Is the Union of the states perpetual, permanent, and binding, or does a state have the right to secede or break away from the Union? There are two ways of conducting this debate:

 

(a) The context for this debate will be a role-playing exercise in which the students assemble as delegates to a state-called convention with a momentous question before them: whether their state must stay in the Union or whether it has the right to secede from the Union. How they answer this question depends upon their understanding of the nature of the federal union: Are states permanently bound together or do they have the right to break the bonds and leave?

The pro-Union and pro-secession delegates are accountable to the people of their state, who are looking to them to make the right decision. The time of year is late March 1861.

Delegates will use their understanding of the primary and supplementary texts and their answers on the worksheets to craft short, persuasive speeches which they will deliver on the convention floor. Members of each side of the debate should collaborate among themselves to make sure that all of the strongest points are covered in their speeches. Each student may make more than one speech if time permits.

After the speeches have been made, delegates will vote and decide whether to stay or go. Tell them that it is quite possible to start out on one side of an issue, but end up persuaded by the other point of view, and that in fact, elected officials do sometimes change their minds.

Or

(b) Have students engage in a debate, but remove the role-playing element, keeping the focus of the lesson on students demonstrating their understanding of the issue before the nation in 1860-1861—the nature of the federal union.

The two sides in this debate will arrange their desks so that each team faces the other. Each team chooses three speakers, one to make the main points of the argument (principal speaker), one to focus attention on one or two key points (second speaker), and one to summarize the argument (summarizer).

With answers to their questions at hand, each side helps its speakers to develop their arguments. If the class is too large to make this feasible, have each side divide into three groups, with one speaker in each group. Each small group will then help its speaker to develop his or her argument.

Give the principal speaker for each side an allotted amount of time to make his or her speech. Do the same for the second speakers (usually less time than the first). Then throw the debate open, in the British style, so that team members from each side can question or direct comments to the other side. Alternate this process back and forth several times, as interest requires or time permits, so that each side has an equal chance to state their views. The summarizer concludes the debate by making the team’s best case, using the earlier input from his team and the strongest points of the team’s two speakers and the open debate.

Allow students additional discussion time if needed and time permits. Tell them that they will be making a decision about which side of the debate they found more persuasive. Point out that it is quite possible to argue from one perspective in the debate, but to actually hold the opposing view as a matter of preference, principle, or belief.

VII. Assessment

Have students answer, in a well-constructed paragraph or two, some or all of the questions below:

1. What did Lincoln understand his constitutional obligations to the United States to be as head of the executive branch?

2. Which of the ideas of Andrew Jackson do you see reflected in Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address?

3. Do you find Lincoln’s argument for maintaining the Union convincing? Why or why not?

4. Do you find the secessionists’ arguments for the break-up of the Union convincing? Why or why not?

5. What do you consider the single most compelling idea from each side?

6. If you had been a delegate in a state convention considering the question of whether to stay in the Union or secede, how would you cast your vote? Justify your decision.

7. Predict what would have happened in the Confederate States of America if they had been allowed to secede and go their own way with government and society:

(a) Which segment of society would have enjoyed freedoms? What kind?

(b) Which would not have enjoyed freedom? What would life be like?

(c) How plausible was Lincoln’s argument that once secession was introduced as a possibility into a government, it would never stop and therefore a Union could not be maintained—in other words, that secession is the “essence of anarchy”?

VIII. Extending the Lesson

(1) What Did the Exiting President Think Should be Done about Secession?

Have students read excerpts from President James Buchanan’s “State of the Union Address” (December 3, 1860), and answer the questions that follow, which are available in worksheet form on page 26 of the Text Document. A link to James Buchanan’s State of the Union Address can be found at the EDSITEment-reviewed site “Teaching American History”:

. A shorter excerpt from the speech is also included in the Text Document on pages 20-25, and can be printed out for student use.

1. What did President James Buchanan think was the primary cause of the civil unrest after the November 1860 presidential election?

2. Did Buchanan think secession was a legitimate state action? Explain.

3. Did Buchanan think the president had any authority to prevent the secession of states from the union?

4. How did Buchanan’s view of secession and executive authority differ from Lincoln’s? In what ways did they agree?

(2) Was Slavery or Some Other Issue the Main Reason for Secession?

Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens delivered his “Cornerstone Speech” little more than two weeks after Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address. After initially exhorting his home state of Georgia not to secede, he eventually defended the secession of the Deep South and anticipated additional states would join. (The Confederate States of America would eventually include eleven states: in order of secession, South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina.) Have students read excerpts from Alexander Stephens’s “Cornerstone Speech” (March 21, 1861), and answer the questions that follow, which are available in worksheet form on page 30 of the Text Document. A link to Alexander Stephens’s “Cornerstone Speech” can be found at the EDSITEment-reviewed site “Teaching American History”:

. A shorter excerpt from the speech is also included in the Text Document on pages 27-29, and can be printed out for student use.

1. In what ways does Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens consider the new constitution for the Confederate States of America an improvement upon the U.S. Constitution?

2. What does Stephens think of Thomas Jefferson’s—and the rest of the American Founders’—view of slavery?

3. What does Stephens call the “cornerstone” of the Confederate States of America, and why is it so important to the formation of the Confederate Constitution?

IX. EDSITEment-reviewed Web Resources Used in this Lesson

American President: An Online Reference Resource (Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia):

Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address (1861):

Avalon Project (Yale Law School):

Andrew Jackson’s “Proclamation Regarding Nullification” (1832):

Federalist No. 15:

South Carolina, “Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union” (1860):

National Archives, “The Charters of Freedom”: Constitution of the United States:

Teaching American History:

Alexander Stephens, “Cornerstone Speech” (1861):



James Buchanan, State of the Union Address (1860):



X. Additional Information

Grade Levels

Grades 9-12

Subject Areas

• U.S. History - African-American

• U.S. History - Civics and U.S. Government

• U.S. History - Civil Rights

Time Required

• Lesson One—“Fragment on the Constitution and Union (1861)—The Purpose of the American Union.” Three forty-five minute class periods.

• Lesson Two—“The First Inaugural Address (1861)—Defending the American Union.” Three forty-five minute class periods.

• Lesson Three—“The Gettysburg Address (1863)—Testing the American Union.” Three forty-five minute class periods.

• Lesson Four—“The Second Inaugural Address (1865)—Restoring the American Union.” Three forty-five minute class periods.

Skills

• finding and using internet resources

• interpreting primary source documents

• making inferences and drawing conclusions

• working collaboratively

• thinking critically

• making speeches

• evaluating opposing viewpoints

• making and justifying decisions

• predicting consequences

Standards Alignment

• NCSS – 2: Time, Continuity, and Change

• NCSS – 3: People, Places, and Environments

• NCSS – 6: Power, Authority, and Governance

• NCSS – 10: Civic Ideals and Practices

Author/Lesson Plan Writer

• Lesson Writer: Lucas Morel, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia

• Managing Editor: Constance Murray, Grace Christian High School, Staunton, Virginia

Teacher/Student Resources

• Text Document

Related EDSITEment Lesson Plans

• Declare the Causes: The Declaration of Independence:



• The Preamble to the Constitution: How Do You Make a More Perfect Union?

• The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854: Popular Sovereignty and the Political Polarization over Slavery:

• Abraham Lincoln, the 1860 Election, and the Future of the American Union and Slavery:

• We Must Not Be Enemies: Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address:



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