Today In History - March 4 - Library Of Congress

On Monday, March 4, 1861, President James Buchanan and President-elect Abraham Lincoln left the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., in a horse-drawn carriage bound for the Capitol and Lincoln’s first inauguration. There, before hundreds of citizens, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney administered the presidential oath of office, swearing in Abraham Lincoln as the sixteenth president of the United States.

I am loth (sic) 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.

Abraham Lincoln. First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861. Top Treasures. American Treasures of the Library of Congress

Abraham Lincoln, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing front. Alexander Gardner, photographer, November 8, 1863. Free to Use and Reuse: Presidential Portraits. Prints & Photographs Division

In a stirring inaugural address, delivered under the watchful guard of riflemen, Lincoln appealed for the preservation of the Union, threatened by the recent secession of seven Southern states opposed to the new leader’s policy against the expansion of slavery.

Attempting to retain his support in the North without further alienating the South, Lincoln called for compromise, promising he would not initiate force to maintain the Union or interfere with slavery in the states in which it existed. He did, however, vow to retain federal property. One month later, his refusal to surrender or evacuate Fort Sumter in South Carolina, prompted the Confederates to launch the first attack of the Civil War.

Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln – March 4, 1861. Original in Benjamin Brown French Album, LOT 12251, 1861; Print by N. Spindler, cFeb 23, 1935. Prints & Photographs Division

While composing his inaugural address, Lincoln turned to four historic documents for guidance and inspiration on the issue of states’ rights: Daniel Webster’s 1830 reply to Robert Y. Hayne; President Andrew Jackson’s Nullification Proclamation of 1832; Henry Clay’s compromise speech of 1850; and the United States Constitution. Lincoln’s initial effort was typeset and printed in Illinois, edited, and reprinted. The president-elect sent copies of the second strike to his closest political advisors for commentary. Several of the final passages, including the famous concluding paragraph, were based on suggestions made by William H. Seward, Secretary of State designee.

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