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It was, perhaps, somewhat ironic that the clouds, which had pretty much shut out the sun over Washington, DC, on the morning of March 4, 1861, cleared away shortly after noon. Sunlight then fell on the thirty thousand people standing on the great west lawn of the Capitol as president-elect Abraham Lincoln stood and strode forward to address the nation. Just how large a nation he was speaking to was the question that weighed most heavily on a majority of minds. Mr. Lincoln had left his home in Spring¤eld, Illinois, for Washington exactly three weeks before, on February 11. On that very same day, former secretary of war Jefferson Davis also had bid farewell to his family, and to his slaves, at his plantation in Mississippi. He rode off on his own journey, to Montgomery, Alabama, to accept the of¤ce of provisional president of a “Confederate States of America,” which had been of¤cially formed but three days before. It was clearly the position of those delegates, and of Mr. Davis, that the “United States” was an entity of which they were no longer a part. In Washington, as the great, lanky man they had elected president approached the podium, the vast throng facing the west portico of the Capitol quieted, anxious to hear what Abraham Lincoln had to say about this momentous question. The troops lining the streets, the artillery posted nearby, the ri®emen guarding against snipers, all evidenced the tension created by this disparity of views. Lincoln had begun work on this speech while still in Illinois. No one understood better than he the need for clarity. No one felt with more sensitivity the need for reassurance. No one saw better the need, from the ¤rst moment he was in of¤ce, for a steady hand at the helm of the government, for an unambiguous statement of policy that would guide, and hopefully 1 The Policy It will require the exercise of the full powers of the Federal Government to restrain the fury of the noncombatants. —Win¤eld Scott, speaking about the attack on Fort Sumter heal, the nation during this time of trial. The original themes of the initial draft of his address had survived reviews and revision and incorporated the contributions of men he would work with in the years to come. Abraham Lincoln knew what he was about. He stood before his audience knowing exactly what it was he wanted to say to the people, to all the people, to those who celebrated his election and to those who purported to reject it.1 Lincoln approached his inaugural address just as any good lawyer would have. He wrote a legal brief, one that explained the policy he would pursue when he took of¤ce, one that set out the legal basis for the course he had chosen. The president came right to the point. After only a few words of greeting to his audience, he said that he saw no need to talk about matters of administration, “about which there is no special anxiety, or excitement.” Lincoln ’s primary concern focused on the fact that many people in the slave states appeared to fear him, so to them he spoke ¤rst. “Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States, that by the accession 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.”2 He quoted his pledge, repeated many times in his campaign stump speeches, that he had “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.” He quoted the plank from the Republican platform repudiating John Brown’s raid as “the gravest of crimes” and assuring each state the right to “order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively.” He told his listeners that he felt bound by these promises made by the party that had nominated him for this of¤ce.3 What else could he do to reassure these people, many of whom resided in states that already had passed ordinances or resolutions claiming to sever their ties with the United States? “I only press upon the public attention the most conclusive evidence...

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