Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address By Otto, Grant, Morgan, and Henry
Presidential Election of 1860 ●Election Overview ●Views on Slavery ●Popular Vote ●Electoral College Vote
Election Overview ● Issues Debated before the Election ● Douglas-Lincoln Debates ● Views about Slavery ● Candidates
Who was Abraham Lincoln? ● Republican Party ● Slavery
Republican Party ● Against Expansion of Slavery ● Comparison between Modern Day Republican Party
Who was Stephen Douglas? ● Northern Democratic Party ● Popular Sovereignty
1860 Democratic Convention ● Rupturing of Democratic Party due to not selecting a candidate for election ● Stephen Douglas had Popular Sovereignty, while other southerners were more pro- slavery ● Split into Northern and Southern Democratic Parties ● This is likely why Lincoln won the election
Who was John Breckinridge? ● Democratic from KY ● Slavery
Who was John Bell? ● Constitutional Union Party ● Keep Union Together
Constitutional Union Party ● Focused on keeping the country together. ● Tried to avoid the issue of slavery
Election Results Lincoln: 1,865,908 Total Votes; 180 Electoral College Votes; 17 States Won; 39.7% of the Total Population Douglas: 1,380,202 Total Votes; 12 Electoral College Votes; 1 State Won; 29.5% of the Total Population
Election Results (Continued) Breckinridge: 848,019 Total Votes; 72 Electoral College Votes; 11 States Won; 18.2% of the Total Population Bell: 590,901 Total Votes; 39 Electoral College Votes; 3 States Won; 12.6% of the Total Population
Popular Vote Pie Chart
Electoral College Pie Chart
Popular Vote from 1860
Electoral College from 1860
Differences in the North and South
What it Secession? ● Secession is the act of formally withdrawing from a political state or union ● How it Affected the Election of 1860 ● Lincoln’s Reaction and Response
Map of the nations succeeding history
Border States ● Slave States that Stayed with the Union ● Critical to the Outcome of War
Background of the Address ● Seven states have seceded -- SC, Georgia, Florida, Texas Louisiana and Mississippi ● North has increasingly higher population therefore having more seats in Congress ● South fearful of the abolishment of slavery
Main Points of Address ● He makes a legal case against secession ● Offers reassurance to the South that he will not interfere with slavery ● Promises to follow constitution ● How to handle conflicts that are not in the Constitution ● States position about war
Secession is Legally Impossible ● “Union is perpetual,” and Perpetuity is the “fundamental law of all governments” No way in Constitution to legally end government, therefore is secession is illegal. ● Contract can only be “peaceably unmade” by all states. It is illegal for any one state(s) to break away.
Reassurance to South ● Says he has “no lawful right” nor the “inclination to do so” to end slavery ● Promises to uphold Fugitive Slave Act as it is “plainly written in the constitution” ● Denounces John Brown’s invasion of Harpers Ferry.
Promise to Follow Constitution ● Reminds everybody of the Constitution, and that nobody has ever been denied their Constitutional rights ● Says, “I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me that the laws of the union be faithfully executed.
Conflicts that are not in Constitution ● Lincoln understands that no document can ever answer all the questions that arise in the country. ● Acknowledges that sometimes “the Constitution does not expressly say”
“We are not Enemies but Friends” ● After all of his speech, Lincoln moves away from legal arguments and claims that the North and the South have a deep connection.
“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 hearthstone, 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.”
Questions?