443

1856James Buchanan, a proslavery Democrat from Penn-sylvania, defeats Republican candidate John C. Frémont in the presidential election.

Tensions between antislavery and proslavery settlers in Kansas erupt into a guerrilla war; the conflict is called “Bleeding Kansas.”

Senator Charles Sumner’s “Crime against Kansas Speech” vehemently denounces the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 and its authors.

1857In the Dred Scott decision, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that a slave is not a citizen; the ruling provokes criticism in the North.

Proslavery advocates draft the Lecompton Constitution of 1857 to organize the Kansas Territory as a slave state.

1858The first transatlantic telegraph cable is completed; the project is backed by financier Cyrus Field.

U.S. consul general Townsend Harris negotiates the Harris Treaty of 1858 with Japan. The treaty opens Japa-nese ports to American trade, grants U.S. citizens resident rights in Japan, and establishes diplomatic missions in the capitals of both nations.

The U.S.-Chinese Treaty of 1858 allows U.S. ships increased access to Chinese ports and grants U.S. citizens in China exemption from local jurisdiction.

Albert Bierstadt begins painting his landscapes of the American West.

The Pike’s Peak gold rush brings many settlers and miners into the Cheyenne and Arapaho hunting grounds in Colorado; when the Indians refuse to sell their land and move to reservations, Governor John Evans declares war on them, putting Col. John Chivington in charge of the operation.

Abraham Lincoln’s senatorial nomination acceptance, the “House Divided” speech, declares that the Union could not continue as half slaveholding and half free.

U.S. senatorial candidates Abraham Lincoln and Ste-phen Douglas tour the state of Illinois debating the future of slavery and the Union.

1859John Brown raids Harpers Ferry, Virginia (later, West Vir-ginia), with a band of antislavery guerrillas and seizes a fed-eral armory. He is captured by U.S. marines under Col. Robert E. Lee and is eventually hanged.

The U.S. Supreme Court decision Ableman v. Booth; United States v. Booth reverses a Wisconsin Supreme Court decision that freed an abolitionist who had defied the Fugi-tive Slave Act of 1850.

1860Adventurer William Walker is executed in Honduras after a second attempt to conquer Nicaragua.

Abraham Lincoln’s Cooper Union speech makes him a potential candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.

Members of the lapsed Whig and American Parties construct the Constitutional Union Party platform as an additional alternative to resolution of the slavery dilemma.

The Pony Express provides mail service from Missouri to California.

The Democratic Party’s convention splits over slavery. Southerners nominate John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky. The Northern faction nominates Stephen A. Douglas, dividing the party’s vote.

Republican Abraham Lincoln is elected as the 16th president of the United States, defeating John Bell, John C. Breckinridge, and Stephen A. Douglas.

South Carolina refuses to accept the results of the presidential election and secedes from the Union on

Chronology

444 Chronology

December 20. Fort Sumter, a Union fort in the harbor at Charleston, South Carolina, is reinforced.

The Crittenden Compromise of 1860, which upheld the resolves of the Compromise of 1850, is a last-ditch effort to stave off civil war.

1861Cochise leads the Chiricahua Apache in raids against white settlers and travelers in the Apache Pass in the Arizona Territory.

The Morrill Tariff Act of 1861 raises protective duties on such materials as iron and wool.

Over the objections of President Lincoln, U.S. Con-gress passes the Confiscation Act of 1861. The law allows the Union government to seize any property, including slaves, used to aid the Confederacy.

Gen. Frémont’s Emancipation Order of 1861 declares martial law in Missouri and allows Union forces to confis-cate the property and slaves of rebels.

U.S. Congress admits Kansas into the Union under its antislavery constitution.

Representatives from the secessionist states meet at Montgomery, Alabama, to draft their own constitution and establish themselves as the Confederate States of America. Jefferson Davis is chosen as the Confederacy’s provisional president.

Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as the 16th president of the (now divided) United States.

A memorandum to the president from his secretary of state, William Seward’s “Plan to Avoid War,” suggests how the president should bring the slavery conflict to a resolu-tion without resorting to war.

Confederate shore batteries under the command of Gen. Pierre G. T. Beauregard begin firing on Fort Sumter, marking the start of the Civil War. The fort’s commander, Maj. Robert Anderson, surrenders; he and his troops are allowed to return to the North.

Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the Union army and becomes a Confederate commander.

President Lincoln calls for 75,000 Union volunteers to put down the Southern rebellion and forms the Army of the Potomac.

Confederates under Gens. Joseph E. Johnston and Thomas J. Jackson rout Union forces at the First Battle of Bull Run. Jackson earns the nickname “Stonewall.”

1862Union troops, after driving the Confederates out of New Mexico, begin a campaign, led by Gen. James Carleton and Col. Christopher “Kit” Carson, against the Mescalero Apache and the Navajo.

U.S. Congress passes the Legal Tender Act of 1862 to fund the Union war effort.

U.S. Congress issues the Ironclad Oath, which requires all federal, civil, and military officials—elected or appointed, honorary or paid—to swear allegiance to the U.S. Constitution.

The Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862 gives states fed-eral lands for the establishment of colleges.

The Homestead Act of 1862 is passed, providing for U.S. settlement of the West.

U.S. Congress passes the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862, which provides land grants and loans for the first transcon-tinental railroad.

U.S. Congress passes the Confiscation Act of 1862, providing for the seizure of property of rebel slaveholders and the emancipation of their slaves.

The Santee Sioux revolt in Minnesota after their gov-ernment annuity is delayed; they are led by Little Crow. The uprising is put down by Gen. Henry H. Sibley.

The fight of the ironclads takes place between the Monitor and the Virginia at Hampton Roads, Virginia.

Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the president of the Confederacy.

Union troops are ferried to the Virginia peninsula, beginning the Peninsular campaign.

The Confederates conduct a surprise attack on Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s forces in Shiloh, Tennessee. The Union suffers almost 25,000 casualties, but the army maintains its positions.

New Orleans falls to Union forces under Adm. David Farragut.

Confederate general J. E. B. Stuart makes a daring cavalry foray against Union supply lines on the Virginia peninsula, bolstering Southern morale.

Gen. George McClellan repulses a Confederate attack at Malvern Hill in Virginia.

Union general John Pope’s forces are dealt a severe blow at the Second Battle of Bull Run. Gens. Stonewall Jackson and James Longstreet command the victorious Confederates.

Confederate general Robert E. Lee’s advance into Maryland is halted at the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest one-day battle in U.S. history.

More than 100,000 Union troops led by Gen. Ambrose Burnside engage Robert E. Lee’s Confederate forces at Fredericksburg, Virginia. After a bloody assault, the Union attack is repulsed.

The pro-Union western counties of Virginia form the state of West Virginia.

An entreaty to President Lincoln published in the New York Tribune, Horace Greeley’s “Prayer of Twenty Millions,” urges emancipation for the millions of enslaved blacks.

President Lincoln’s reply to Greeley stresses his duty to preserve the Union by any means necessary—with or without emancipation.

Chronology 445

1863Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, which declares all slaves in Confederate-held territory free; in reality, the proclamation does not free any slaves, but it makes the destruction of slavery a Union goal.

Gen. Ulysses Grant’s Order No. 11 expels all Jews from Union-controlled Tennessee. It is Grant’s attempt to end war profiteering, which he attributed mainly to Jewish traders.

In an effort to halt hostility and insults directed toward Union troops by New Orleans residents, particu-larly women, Gen. Benjamin Franklin Butler’s Order No. 28 declares that any female insulting or showing con-tempt for any U.S. officer or soldier should be treated as a prostitute.

The 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the first all-black regiment from the North, loses half of its men in a charge at Fort Wagner, South Carolina.

Gen. Joseph Hooker assumes command of the Army of the Potomac.

The Union suffers a setback in the Battle of Chancel-lorsville in Virginia. Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson is mortally wounded by one of his own men.

Vicksburg is under siege by the Union army.The pivotal Battle of Gettysburg takes place as Con-

federate forces under Gen. Robert E. Lee advance into Pennsylvania. Union general George Meade defeats the Confederates in a battle that leaves 50,000 casualties on both sides.

The Union captures Vicksburg, Mississippi; Confeder-ate forces are surrounded on land and on water and are run-ning out of food. They surrender to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, and Union forces take control of the Mississippi River.

The New York Draft Riots occur, leaving 1,000 people dead or wounded. Blacks are the principal targets of the violence.

Confederate leader William Quantrill raids the pro-Union town of Lawrence, Kansas, slaughtering more than 100 civilians.

Union forces at Chattanooga, Tennessee, are besieged by the Confederate army.

President Lincoln delivers his Gettysburg Address at the dedication of a military cemetery on the battlefield.

U.S. Congress passes the National Bank Act of 1863, which creates a national banking system.

Tennessee is conquered by Northern forces and pre-pared for its restoration to the Union.

President Lincoln’s Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction is an early attempt to create a coherent strategy for reincorporating rebel states into the Union.

In Frances Willard’s “Women’s Lesser Duties” speech, she stresses that women should learn the arts and domestic duties, as well as be pure, charming, and moral.

The Habeas Corpus Act of 1863 gives the government the power to imprison an individual indefinitely without being charged.

1864Col. John Chivington leads the Colorado volunteers against the Cheyenne and Arapaho in the Sand Creek Massacre, despite the peace agreement at Camp Weld.

Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest captures Fort Pillow in Tennessee. Only 14 Confederates were killed and 86 wounded, while the Union forces had 231 killed and 1,000 wounded; many of the Union losses were black soldiers.

Gen. Ulysses S. Grant is given command of all Union forces.

The Spotsylvania campaign leads to a day of fighting at the “bloody angle.”

With his direct assaults on Petersburg, Virginia, having failed, Union general Ulysses S. Grant prepares to besiege the city, whose defense is commanded by Confederate gen-eral Robert E. Lee.

A cavalry force under Confederate general Jubal Early reaches the outskirts of Washington, D.C., before deciding to withdraw.

The Confederate defenses at Petersburg, Virginia, are shattered by the huge explosion of a mine planted by Union engineers. Union assault troops fail to exploit the mine attack and are shot down mercilessly in the crater left by the explosion.

Adm. David Farragut leads a Union fleet to victory in the Battle of Mobile Bay and closes that port to the Confederacy.

Union troops begin their occupation of Atlanta after four weeks of siege.

Lincoln is reelected.Union troops under Gen. William T. Sherman begin

their destructive advance across Georgia, from Atlanta to the coast.

U.S. Congress passes the severe Reconstruction mea-sure, the Wade-Davis Bill of 1864. It allows rebel states to return to the United States only after a majority of white male citizens take an oath of allegiance to the Union and after the adoption of a state constitution acceptable to the president and Congress.

1865U.S. Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolishes slavery throughout the nation.

Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant at the Appomattox Court House.

In his last speech, Lincoln advocates voting rights for black soldiers.

446 Chronology

John Wilkes Booth assassinates President Lincoln; Andrew Johnson becomes president.

Mark Twain publishes The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County to national acclaim.

Union Republican representative Henry J. Raymond’s speech on Reconstruction proposes a moderate strategy for reincorporating rebel states into the Union.

Radical Republican representative Thaddeus Stevens’s speech on Reconstruction advocates a harsh, punitive approach to the former Confederate states.

Confederate commander Gen. Robert E. Lee, in his farewell, praises his troops for their courage and devotion to their country.

U.S. Congress creates the Freedmen’s Bureau to help educate freed slaves and integrate them into society.

President Johnson proclaims a general amnesty for all but the most prominent ex-Confederates.

A U.S. Congress dominated by Radical Republicans convenes in Washington; the Radicals advocate equal rights for blacks and a harsh Reconstruction program for the South.

The Black Codes (statutes that restrict the rights of African Americans) are passed in Mississippi and quickly spread throughout the South.

1866Fisk University opens in Nashville, Tennessee.

Overriding President Johnson’s veto, U.S. Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which confers citizen-ship upon black people and grants the same rights and responsibilities to all persons born in the United States, except Native Americans.

Radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens proposes dis-tributing 40-acre plots of land to freed blacks, but the plan is voted down in Congress.

The Ku Klux Klan, an organization of white South-erners, many of them ex-Confederates dedicated to white supremacy, holds its first meeting in Pulaski, Tennessee. The Klan spreads terror throughout the South for several years.

U.S. Congress adopts the Fourteenth Amendment, which grants full rights of citizenship to blacks.

The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), an organiza-tion of Union veterans, is formed.

Jesse James and his brother Frank form a band of bank robbers.

1867The Republican-dominated U.S. Congress passes two influential pieces of legislation: the Reconstruction Acts of 1867–68, which divide the South into five districts con-

trolled completely by the military, and the Tenure of Office Act of 1867, which makes it impossible for the president to dismiss a cabinet member without Senate approval.

Secretary of State William Henry Seward negotiates the purchase of Alaska from Russia.

Jay Gould becomes director of the Erie Railroad; Gould oversees fraudulent stock sales to ward off a take-over attempt by Cornelius Vanderbilt.

The Peonage Abolition Act of 1867 outlaws involun-tary servitude. It is designed to help support and amplify the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Native American tribes in the southwestern Indian Territory cede lands in the Texas Panhandle to the U.S. government. This land was originally granted to the tribes in earlier treaties.

In Mississippi v. Johnson, the state of Mississippi seeks to prevent President Johnson from enforcing Recon-struction legislation.

1868In the Treaty of Fort Laramie, the U.S. government guar-antees the Sioux exclusive possession of the land in South Dakota west of the Missouri River.

The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, granting citizenship to African Americans.

Sioux chief Red Cloud forces the U.S. Army to evacu-ate three western forts.

President Andrew Johnson, who advocates a lenient Reconstruction policy, fires Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. The Radical Republicans impeach Johnson for “high crimes and misdemeanors,” and he is acquitted by a single vote.

Republican candidate and former Union general Ulysses S. Grant defeats Democrat Horatio Seymour in the presidential election.

Louisa May Alcott publishes her novel Little Women.

1869U.S. Congress adopts the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which extends the right to vote to Afri-can Americans.

Inventor George Westinghouse applies for a patent on the air brake, which greatly improves railroad safety.

The Central Pacific Railroad, built east from Califor-nia, connects with the Union Pacific Railroad at Prom-ontory Point, Utah, completing the first transcontinental railroad.

Financier Jim Fisk tries to corner the gold market and causes a financial panic.

Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton found the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA).

447

“House Divided” Speech (1858)Abraham Lincoln

In Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, vol. 2 (New Brunswick, N.J.:

Rutgers University Press, 1953–55), pp. 461–469

June 16, 1858

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention. If we could first know where we are, and whither we

are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.

We are now far into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated, with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation.

Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only, not ceased, but has constantly augmented.

In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” I believe this government cannot endure, permanently

half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not

expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other.

Either the opponents of slavery, will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new—North as well as South.

Have we no tendency to the latter condition? Let any one who doubts, carefully contemplate that

now almost complete legal combination—piece of machin-ery so to speak—compounded of the Nebraska doctrine, and the Dred Scott decision. Let him consider not only

what work the machinery is adapted to do, and how well adapted; but also, let him study the history of its construc-tion, and trace, if he can, or rather fail, if he can, to trace the evidences of design, and concert of action, among its chief architects, from the beginning.

But, so far, Congress only, had acted; and an indorse-ment by the people, real or apparent, was indispensable, to save the point already gained, and give chance for more.

The new year of 1854, found slavery excluded from more than half the States by State Constitutions, and from most of the national territory by Congressional prohibition.

Four days later, commenced the struggle, which ended in repealing that Congressional prohibition.

This opened all the national territory to slavery; and was the first point gained.

But, so far, Congress only, had acted; and an indorse-ment by the people, real or apparent, was indispensable, to save the point already gained, and give chance for more.

This necessity had not been overlooked; but had been provided for, as well as might be, in the notable argument of “squatter sovereignty,” otherwise called “sacred right of self government,” which latter phrase, though expressive of the only rightful basis of any government, was so perverted in this attempted use of it as to amount to just this: That if any one man, choose to enslave another, no third man shall be allowed to object.

That argument was incorporated into the Nebraska bill itself, in the language which follows: “It being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or state, not exclude it therefrom; but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States.”

Then opened the roar of loose declamation in favor of “Squatter Sovereignty,” and “Sacred right of self government.”

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448 Documents

“But,” said opposition members, “let us be more spe-cific—let us amend the bill so as to expressly declare that the people of the territory may exclude slavery.” “Not we,” said the friends of the measure; and down they voted the amendment.

While the Nebraska bill was passing through congress, a law case, involving the question of a negroe’s freedom, by reason of his owner having voluntarily taken him first into a free state and then a territory covered by the congressional prohibition, and held him as a slave, for a long time in each, was passing through the U.S. Circuit Court for the Dis-trict of Missouri; and both Nebraska bill and law suit were brought to a decision in the same month of May, 1854. The negroe’s name was “Dred Scott,” which name now desig-nates the decision finally made in the case.

Before the then next Presidential election, the law case came to, and was argued in the Supreme Court of the United States; but the decision of it was deferred until after the election. Still, before the election, Senator Trumbull, on the floor of the Senate, requests the leading advocate of the Nebraska bill to state his opinion whether the people of a territory can constitutionally exclude slavery from their limits; and the latter answers, “That is a question for the Supreme Court.”

The election came. Mr. Buchanan was elected, and the indorsement, such as it was, secured. That was the sec-ond point gained. The indorsement, however, fell short of a clear popular majority by nearly four hundred thousand votes, and so, perhaps, was not overwhelmingly reliable and satisfactory.

The outgoing President, in his last annual message, as impressively as possible echoed back upon the people the weight and authority of the indorsement.

The Supreme court met again; did not announce their decision, but ordered a re-argument.

The Presidential inauguration came, and still no deci-sion of the court; but the incoming President, in his inau-gural address, fervently exhorted the people to abide by the forthcoming decision, whatever it might be.

Then, in a few days, came the decision. The reputed author of the Nebraska bill finds an

early occasion to make a speech at this capitol indorsing the Dred Scott Decision, and vehemently denouncing all opposition to it.

The new President, too, seizes the early occasion of the Silliman letter to indorse and strongly construe that decision, and to express his astonishment that any different view had ever been entertained.

At length a squabble springs up between the President and the author of the Nebraska bill, on the mere question of fact, whether the Lecompton constitution was or was not, in any just sense, made by the people of Kansas; and in that squabble the latter declares that all he wants is a fair

vote for the people, and that he cares not whether slavery be voted down or voted up. I do not understand his dec-laration that he cares not whether slavery be voted down or voted up, to be intended by him other than as an apt definition of the policy he would impress upon the public mind—the principle for which he declares he has suffered much, and is ready to suffer to the end.

And well may he cling to that principle. If he has any parental feeling, well may he cling to it. That principle, is the only shred left of his original Nebraska doctrine. Under the Dred Scott decision, “squatter sovereignty” squatted out of existence, tumbled down like temporary scaffold-ing—like the mould at the foundry served through one blast and fell back into loose sand—helped to carry an election, and then was kicked to the winds. His late joint struggle with the Republicans, against the Lecompton Constitution, involves nothing of the original Nebraska doctrine. That struggle was made on a point, the right of a people to make their own constitution, upon which he and the Republicans have never differed.

The several points of the Dred Scott decision, in con-nection with Senator Douglas’ “care not” policy, constitute the piece of machinery, in its present state of advancement. This was the third point gained.

The working points of that machinery are: First, that no negro slave, imported as such from Africa,

and no descendant of such slave can ever be a citizen of any State, in the sense of that term as used in the Constitution of the United States.

This point is made in order to deprive the negro, in every possible event, of the benefit of this provision of the United States Constitution, which declares that—

“The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privi-leges and immunities of citizens in the several States.”

Secondly, that “subject to the Constitution of the United States,” neither Congress nor a Territorial Legislature can exclude slavery from any United States territory.

This point is made in order that individual men may fill up the territories with slaves, without danger of losing them as property, and thus to enhance the chances of per-manency to the institution through all the future.

Thirdly, that whether the holding a negro in actual slav-ery in a free State, makes him free, as against the holder, the United States courts will not decide, but will leave to be decided by the courts of any slave State the negro may be forced into by the master.

This point is made, not to be pressed immediately; but, if acquiesced in for a while, and apparently indorsed by the people at an election, then to sustain the logical conclusion that what Dred Scott’s master might lawfully do with Dred Scott, in the free State of Illinois, every other master may lawfully do with any other one, or one thousand slaves, in Illinois, or in any other free State.

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Auxiliary to all this, and working hand in hand with it, the Nebraska doctrine, or what is left of it, is to educate and mould public opinion, at least Northern public opinion, to not care whether slavery is voted down or voted up.

This shows exactly where we now are; and partially also, whither we are tending.

It will throw additional light on the latter, to go back, and run the mind over the string of historical facts already stated. Several things will now appear less dark and mysterious than they did when they were transpiring. The people were to be left “perfectly free” “subject only to the Constitution.” What the Constitution had to do with it, outsiders could not then see. Plainly enough now, it was an exactly fitted niche, for the Dred Scott decision to afterwards come in, and declare the perfect freedom of the people, to be just no freedom at all.

Why was the amendment, expressly declaring the right of the people to exclude slavery, voted down? Plainly enough now, the adoption of it, would have spoiled the niche for the Dred Scott decision.

Why was the court decision held up? Whey, even a Senator’s individual opinion withheld, till after the Presi-dential election? Plainly enough now, the speaking out then would have damaged the “perfectly free” argument upon which the election was to be carried.

Why the outgoing President’s felicitation on the indorsement? Why the delay of a reargument? Why the incoming President’s advance exhortation in favor of the decision?

These things look like the cautious patting and petting a spirited horse, preparatory to mounting him, when it is dreaded that he may give the rider a fall.

And why the hasty after indorsements of the decision by the President and others?

We can not absolute know that all these exact adapta-tions are the result of preconcert. But when we see a lot of framed timbers, different portions of which we know have been gotten out at different times and places and by dif-ferent workmen—Stephen, Franklin, Roger and James, for instance—and when we see these timbers joined together, and see they exactly make the frame of a house or a mill, all the tenons and mortices exactly fitting, and all the lengths and proportions of the different pieces exactly adapted to their respective places, and not a piece too many or too few—not omitting even scaffolding—or, if a single piece be lacking, we can see the place in the frame exactly fitted and prepared to yet bring such piece in—in such a case, we find it impossible to not believe that Stephen and Franklin and Roger and James all understood one another from the beginning, and all worked upon a common plans or draft drawn up before the first lick was struck.

It should not be overlooked that, by the Nebraska bill, the people of a State as well as Territory, were to be left “perfectly free” “subject only to the Constitution.”

Why mention a State ? They were legislating for ter-ritories, and not for or about States. Certainly the people of a State are and ought to be subject to the Constitution of the United States; but why is mention of this lugged into this merely territorial law? Why are the people of a terri-tory and the people of a state therein lumped together, and their relation to the Constitution therein treated as being precisely the same?

While the opinion of the Court, by Chief Justice Taney, in the Dred Scott case, and the separate opinions of all the concurring Judges, expressly declare that the Constitution of the United States neither permits Congress nor a Terri-torial legislature to exclude slavery from any United States territory, they all omit to declare whether or not the same Constitution permits a state, or the people of a State, to exclude it.

Possibly, this was a mere omission; but who can be quite sure, if McLean or Curtis had sought to get into the opinion a declaration of unlimited power in the people of a state to exclude slavery from their limits, just as Chase and Macy sought to get such declaration, in behalf of the people of a territory, into the Nebraska bill—I ask, who can be quite sure that it would not have been voted down, in the one case, as it had been in the other.

The nearest approach to the point of declaring the power of a State over slavery, is made by Judge Nelson. He approaches it more than once, using the precise idea, and almost the language too, of the Nebraska act. On one occa-sion his exact language is, “except in cases where the power is restrained by the Constitution of the United States, the law of the State is supreme over the subject of slavery within its jurisdiction.”

In what cases the power of the states is so restrained by the U.S. Constitution, is left an open question, precisely as the same question, as to the restraint on the power of the ter-ritories was left open in the Nebraska act. Put that and that together, and we have another nice little niche, which we may, ere long, see filled with another Supreme Court deci-sion, declaring that the Constitution of the United States does not permit a state to exclude slavery from its limits.

And this may especially be expected if the doctrine of “care not whether slavery be voted down or voted up, “ shall gain upon the public mind sufficiently to give promise that such a decision can be maintained when made.

Such a decision is all that slavery now lacks of being alike lawful in all the States.

Welcome or unwelcome, such decision is probably coming, and will soon be upon us, unless the power of the present political dynasty shall be met and overthrown.

We shall lie down pleasantly dreaming that the people of Missouri are on the verge of making their State free; and we shall awake to the reality, instead, that the Supreme Court has made Illinois a slave State.

450 Documents

To meet and overthrow the power of that dynasty, is the work now before all those who would prevent that consummation.

That is what we have to do. But how can we best do it? There are those who denounce us openly to their

own friends, and yet whisper us softly, that Senator Doug-las is the aptest instrument there is, with which to effect that object. They do not tell us, nor has he told us, that he wishes any such object to be effected. They wish us to infer all, from the facts, that he now has a little quarrel with the present head of the dynasty; and that he has regularly voted with us, on a single point, upon which, he and we, have never differed.

They remind us that he is a very great man, and that the largest of us are very small ones. Let this be granted. But “a living dog is better than a dead lion. “ Judge Doug-las, if not a dead lion for this work, is at least a caged and toothless one. How can he oppose the advances of slavery? He don’t care anything about it. His avowed mission is impressing the “public heart” to care nothing about it.

A leading Douglas Democratic newspaper thinks Douglas’ superior talent will be needed to resist the revival of the African slave trade.

Does Douglas believe an effort to revive that trade is approaching? He has not said so. Does he really think so? But if it is, how can he resist it? For years he has labored to prove it a sacred right of white men to take negro slaves into the new territories. Can he possibly show that it is less a sacred right to buy them where they can be bought cheapest? And, unquestionably they can be bought cheaper in Africa than in Virginia.

He has done all in his power to reduce the whole ques-tion of slavery to one of a mere right of property; and as such, how can he oppose the foreign slave trade—how can he refuse that trade in that “property” shall be “per-fectly free”—unless he does it as a protection to the home production? And as the home producers will probably not ask the protection, he will be wholly without a ground of opposition.

Senator Douglas holds, we know, that a man may right-fully be wiser to-day than he was yesterday—that he may rightfully change when he finds himself wrong.

But, can we for that reason, run ahead, and infer that he will make any particular change, of which he, himself, has given no intimation? Can we safely base our action upon any such vague inference?

Now, as ever, I wish to not misrepresent Judge Doug-las’ position, question his motives, or do ought that can be personally offensive to him.

Whenever, if ever, he and we can come together on principle so that our great cause may have assistance from

his great ability, I hope to have interposed no adventitious obstacle.

But clearly, he is not now with us—he does not pre-tend to be—he does not promise to ever be.

Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and conducted by its own undoubted friends—those whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the work—who do care for the result.

Two years ago the Republicans of the nation mustered over thirteen hundred thousand strong.

We did this under the single impulse of resistance to a common danger, with every external circumstance against us.

Of strange, discordant, and even, hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, and formed and fought the battle through, under the constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud, and pampered enemy.

Did we brave all then, to falter now?—now—when that same enemy is wavering, dissevered and belligerent?

The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail—if we stand firm, we shall not fail.

Wise councils may accelerate or mistakes delay it, but, sooner or later the victory is sure to come.

First Inaugural Address (1861)Abraham Lincoln

Landmark Documents in American History, CD-ROM (New York: Facts On File, 1998)

March 4, 1861

Fellow-Citizens of the United States:In compliance with a custom as old as the Government

itself, I appear before you to address you briefly and to take in your presence the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United States to be taken by the President “before he enters on the execution of this office.”

I do not consider it necessary at present for me to dis-cuss those matters of administration about which there is no special anxiety or excitement.

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 and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that—

I have 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 incli-nation to do so.

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Those who nominated and elected me did so with full knowledge that I had made this and many similar declara-tions and had never recanted them; and more than this, they placed in the platform for my acceptance, and as a law to themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution which I now read:

Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our politi-cal fabric depend; and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes.

I now reiterate these sentiments, and in doing so I only press upon the public attention the most conclusive evidence of which the case is susceptible that the prop-erty, peace, and security of no section are to be in any wise endangered by the now incoming Administration. I add, too, that all the protection which, consistently with the Constitution and the laws, can be given will be cheerfully given to all the States when lawfully demanded, for what-ever cause—as cheerfully to one section as to another.

There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugitives from service or labor. The clause I now read is as plainly written in the Constitution as any other of its provisions:

No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in conse-quence of any law or regulation therein be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.

It is scarcely questioned that this provision was intended by those who made it for the reclaiming of what we call fugitive slaves; and the intention of the lawgiver is the law. All members of Congress swear their support to the whole Constitution—to this provision as much as to any other. To the proposition, then, that slaves whose cases come within the terms of this clause “shall be delivered up” their oaths are unanimous. Now, if they would make the effort in good temper, could they not with nearly equal unanimity frame and pass a law by means of which to keep good that unanimous oath?

There is some difference of opinion whether this clause should be enforced by national or by State authority, but surely that difference is not a very material one. If the slave is to be surrendered, it can be of but little consequence to him or to others by which authority it is done. And should anyone in any case be content that his oath shall go unkept on a merely unsubstantial controversy as to how it shall be kept?

Again: In any law upon this subject ought not all the safeguards of liberty known in civilized and humane juris-

prudence to be introduced, so that a free man be not in any case surrendered as a slave? And might it not be well at the same time to provide by law for the enforcement of that clause in the Constitution which guarantees that “the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States”?

I take the official oath to-day with no mental reserva-tions and with no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws by any hypercritical rules; and while I do not choose now to specify particular acts of Congress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it will be much safer for all, both in official and private stations, to conform to and abide by all those acts which stand unrepealed than to violate any of them trusting to find impunity in having them held to be unconstitutional.

It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a President under our National Constitution. During that period fifteen different and greatly distinguished citizens have in succession administered the executive branch of the Government. They have conducted it through many perils, and generally with great success. Yet, with all this scope of precedent, I now enter upon the same task for the brief constitutional term of four years under great and peculiar difficulty. A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now formidably attempted.

I hold that in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution the Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments. It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to execute all the express provisions of our National Constitution, and the Union will endure forever, it being impossible to destroy it except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself.

Again: If the United States be not a government proper, but an association of States in the nature of con-tract merely, can it, as a contract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who made it? One party to a con-tract may violate it—break it, so to speak—but does it not require all to lawfully rescind it?

Descending from these general principles, we find the proposition that in legal contemplation the Union is perpet-ual confirmed by the history of the Union itself. The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was further matured, and the faith of all the then thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation in 1778. And finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution was “to form a more per-fect Union.”

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But if destruction of the Union by one or by a part only of the States be lawfully possible, the Union is less perfect than before the Constitution, having lost the vital element of perpetuity.

It follows from these views that no State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union; that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void, and that acts of violence within any State or States against the authority of the United States are insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances.

I therefore consider that in view of the Constitution and the laws the Union is unbroken, and to the extent of my ability, I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part, and I shall perform it so far as prac-ticable unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisite means or in some authoritative manner direct the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself.

In doing this there needs to be no bloodshed or vio-lence, and there shall be none unless it be forced upon the national authority. The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the Government and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere. Where hostility to the United States in any interior locality shall be so great and universal as to pre-vent competent resident citizens from holding the Federal offices, there will be no attempt to force obnoxious strang-ers among the people for that object. While the strict legal right may exist in the Government to enforce the exercise of these offices, the attempt to do so would be so irritating and so nearly impracticable withal that I deem it better to forego for the time the uses of such offices.

The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be fur-nished in all parts of the Union. So far as possible the people everywhere shall have that sense of perfect secu-rity which is most favorable to calm thought and reflection. The course here indicated will be followed unless current events and experience shall show a modification or change to be proper, and in every case and exigency my best discre-tion will be exercised, according to circumstances actually existing and with a view and a hope of a peaceful solution of the national troubles and the restoration of fraternal sym-pathies and affections.

That there are persons in one section or another who seek to destroy the Union at all events and are glad of any pretext to do it I will neither affirm nor deny; but if there be such, I need address no word to them. To those, how-ever, who really love the Union may I not speak?

Before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruc-tion of our national fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes, would it not be wise to ascertain precisely why we do it? Will you hazard so desperate a step while there is any possibility that any portion of the ills you fly from have no real existence? Will you, while the certain ills you fly to are greater than all the real ones you fly from, will you risk the commission of so fearful a mistake?

All profess to be content in the Union if all constitu-tional rights can be maintained. Is it true, then, that any right plainly written in the Constitution has been denied? I think not. Happily, the human mind is so constituted that no party can reach to the audacity of doing this. Think, if you can, of a single instance in which a plainly written pro-vision of the Constitution has ever been denied. If by the mere force of numbers a majority should deprive a minor-ity of any clearly written constitutional right, it might in a moral point of view justify revolution; certainly would if such right were a vital one. But such is not our case. All the vital rights of minorities and of individuals are so plainly assured to them by affirmations and negations, guaranties and prohibitions, in the Constitution that controversies never arise concerning them. But no organic law can ever be framed with a provision specifically applicable to every question which may occur in practical administration. No foresight can anticipate nor any document of reasonable length contain express provisions for all possible ques-tions. Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered by national or by State authority? The Constitution does not expressly say. May Congress prohibit slavery in the Territories? The Constitution does not expressly say. Must Congress pro-tect slavery in the Territories? The Constitution does not expressly say.

From questions of this class spring all our constitutional controversies, and we divide upon them into majorities and minorities. If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the Government must cease. There is no other alternative, for continuing the Government is acquiescence on one side or the other. If a minority in such case will secede rather than acquiesce, they make a precedent which in turn will divide and ruin them, for a minority of their own will secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be controlled by such minority. For instance, why may not any portion of a new confederacy a year or two hence arbitrarily secede again, precisely as portions of the pres-ent Union now claim to secede from it? All who cherish disunion sentiments are now being educated to the exact temper of doing this.

Is there such perfect identity of interests among the States to compose a new union as to produce harmony only and prevent renewed secession?

Plainly the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. A majority held in restraint by constitutional

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checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it does of necessity fly to anarchy or to despotism. Unanim-ity is impossible. The rule of a minority, as a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that, rejecting the majority principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left.

I do not forget the position assumed by some that constitutional questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court, nor do I deny that such decisions must be binding in any case upon the parties to a suit as to the object of that suit, while they are also entitled to very high respect and consideration in all parallel cases by all other departments of the Government. And while it is obviously possible that such decision may be erroneous in any given case, still the evil effect following it, being limited to that particular case, with the chance that it may be overruled and never become a precedent for other cases, can better be borne than could the evils of a different practice. At the same time, the can-did citizen must confess that if the policy of the Govern-ment upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their Government into the hands of that eminent tribunal. Nor is there in this view any assault upon the court or the judges. It is a duty from which they may not shrink to decide cases properly brought before them, and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn their decisions to political purposes.

One section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong and ought not to be extended. This is the only substantial dispute. The fugitive-slave clause of the Constitution and the law for the suppression of the foreign slave trade are each as well enforced, perhaps, as any law can ever be in a community where the moral sense of the people imper-fectly supports the law itself. The great body of the peo-ple abide by the dry legal obligation in both cases, and a few break over in each. This, I think, can not be perfectly cured, and it would be worse in both cases after the separa-tion of the sections than before. The foreign slave trade, now imperfectly suppressed, would be ultimately revived without restriction in one section, while fugitive slaves, now only partially surrendered, would not be surrendered at all by the other.

Physically speaking, we can not separate. We can not remove our respective sections from each other nor build an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may be divorced and go out of the presence and beyond the reach of each other, but the different parts of our coun-try can not do this. They can not but remain face to face,

and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue between them. Is it possible, then, to make that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory after separation than before? Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can among friends? Suppose you go to war, you can not fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical old questions, as to terms of intercourse, are again upon you.

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the peo-ple who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismem-ber or overthrow it. I can not be ignorant of the fact that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the National Constitution amended. While I make no rec-ommendation of amendments, I fully recognize the rightful authority of the people over the whole subject, to be exer-cised in either of the modes prescribed in the instrument itself; and I should, under existing circumstances, favor rather than oppose a fair opportunity being afforded the people to act upon it. I will venture to add that to me the convention mode seems preferable, in that it allows amend-ments to originate with the people themselves, instead of only permitting them to take or reject propositions origi-nated by others, not especially chosen for the purpose, and which might not be precisely such as they would wish to either accept or refuse. I understand a proposed amend-ment to the Constitution—which amendment, however, I have not seen—has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domes-tic institutions of the States, including that of persons held to service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I depart from my purpose not to speak of particular amend-ments so far as to say that, holding such a provision to now be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable.

The Chief Magistrate derives all his authority from the people, and they have referred none upon him to fix terms for the separation of the States. The people themselves can do this if also they choose, but the Executive as such has nothing to do with it. His duty is to administer the pres-ent Government as it came to his hands and to transmit it unimpaired by him to his successor.

Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? In our present differences, is either party without faith of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with His eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal of the American people.

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By the frame of the Government under which we live this same people have wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief, and have with equal wisdom provided for the return of that little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and vigilance no Administration by any extreme of wicked-ness or folly can very seriously injure the Government in the short space of four years.

My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry any of you in hot haste to a step which you would never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking time; but no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; while the new Administration will have no immediate power, if it would, to change either. If it were admitted that you who are dissatis-fied hold the right side in the dispute, there still is no single good reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land are still competent to adjust in the best way all our present difficulty.

In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to “preserve, protect, and defend it.”

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 battlefield 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.

Inaugural Address (1861)Jefferson Davis

In James Andrews et al., eds., American Voices: Significant Speeches in American History, 1640–1945 (New York:

Longman, 1989), pp. 280–282

February 18, 1861

Gentlemen of the Congress of the Confederate States of America, Friends and Fellow-Citizens: Called to the difficult and responsible station of Chief Executive of the Provisional Government which you have instituted, I approach the discharge of the duties assigned

to me with an humble distrust of my abilities, but with a sustaining confidence in the wisdom of those who are to guide and aid me in the administration of public affairs, and an abiding faith in the virtue and patriotism of the people.

Looking forward to the speedy establishment of a per-manent government to take the place of this, and which, by its greater moral and physical power, will be better able to combat with the many difficulties which arise from the conflicting interests of separate nations, I enter upon the duties of the office, to which I have been chosen, with the hope that the beginning of our career, as a Confederacy, may not be obstructed by hostile opposition to our enjoy-ment of the separate existence and independence which we have asserted, and, with the blessing of Providence, intend to maintain. Our present condition, achieved in a man-ner unprecedented in the history of nations, illustrates the American idea that governments rest upon the consent of the governed, and that it is the right of the people to alter or abolish governments whenever they become destructive of the ends for which they were established.

The declared purpose of the compact of union from which we have withdrawn, was “to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare;” and when in the judgment of the sovereign States now composing this Confederacy, it had been perverted from the purposes for which it was ordained, and had ceased to answer the ends for which it was established, a peaceful appeal to the ballot-box, declared that so far as they were concerned, the govern-ment created by that compact should cease to exist. In this they merely asserted a right which the Declaration of Independence of 1776 had defined to be inalienable. Of the time and occasion for its exercise, they as sovereigns, were the final judges, each for itself. The impartial and enlightened verdict of mankind will vindicate the rectitude of our conduct, and he, who knows the hearts of men, will judge of the sincerity with which we labored to preserve the government of our fathers in its spirit. The right sol-emnly proclaimed at the birth of the States and which has been affirmed and re-affirmed in the bills of rights of States subsequently admitted into the Union of 1789, undeniably recognizes in the people the power to resume the authority delegated for the purposes of government. Thus the sover-eign States, here represented, proceeded to form this Con-federacy, and it is by abuse of language that their act has been denominated a revolution. They formed a new alli-ance, but within each State its government has remained, and the rights of person and property have not been dis-turbed. The agent, through whom they communicated with foreign nations, is changed; but this does not necessarily interrupt their international relations.

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Sustained by the consciousness that the transition from the former Union to the present Confederacy has not proceeded from a disregard on our part of just obligations, or any failure to perform any constitutional duty; moved by no interest or passion to invade the rights of others; anxious to cultivate peace and commerce with all nations, if we may not hope to avoid war, we may at least expect that posterity will acquit us of having needlessly engaged in it. Doubly justified by the absence of wrong on our part, and by wanton aggression on the part of others, there can be no cause to doubt that the courage and patriotism of the people of the Confederate States will be found equal to any measures of defense which honor and security may require.

An agricultural people, whose chief interest is the export of a commodity required in every manufacturing country, our true policy is peace and the freest trade which our necessities will permit. It is alike our interest, and that of all those to whom we would sell and from whom we would buy, that there should be fewest practicable restric-tions upon the interchange of commodities. There can be but little rivalry between ours and any manufacturing or navigating community, such as the northeastern States of the American Union. It must follow, therefore, that a mutual interest would invite good will and kind offices. If, however, passion or the lust of dominion should cloud the judgment or inflame the ambition of those States, we must prepare to meet the emergency, and to maintain, by the final arbitrament of the sword, the position which we have assumed among the nations of the earth. We have entered upon the career of independence, and it must be inflexibly pursued. Through many years of controversy with our late associates, the Northern States, we have vainly endeavored to secure tranquility, and to obtain respect for the rights to which we are entitled. As a necessity, not a choice, we have resorted to the remedy of separation; and henceforth our energies must be directed to the conduct of our own affairs, and the perpetuity of the Confederacy which we have formed. If a just perception of mutual interest shall permit us peaceably to pursue our separate political career, my most earnest desire will have been fulfilled; but if this be denied to us, and the integrity of our territory and juris-diction be assailed it, it will but remain for us, with firm resolve, to appeal to arms and invoke the blessings of Provi-dence on a just cause.

As a consequence of our new condition, and with a view to meet anticipated wants, it will be necessary to provide for the speedy and efficient organization of branches of the Executive Department, having special charge of foreign intercourse, finance, military affairs, and the postal service.

For purposes of defense, the Confederate States may, under ordinary circumstances, rely mainly upon the mili-

tia; but it is deemed advisable, in the present condition of affairs, that there should be a well-instructed and disciplined army, more numerous than would usually be required on a peace establishment. I also suggest that, for the protec-tion of our harbors and commerce on the high seas, a navy adapted to those objects will be required. These necessities have doubtless engaged the attention of Congress.

With a constitution differing only from that of our fathers, in so far as it is explanatory of their well-known intent, freed from the sectional conflicts which have inter-fered with the pursuit of the general welfare, it is not unreasonable to expect that States from which we have recently parted, may seek to unite their fortunes with ours under the government which we have instituted. For this your constitution makes adequate provision; but beyond this, if I mistake not, the judgment and will of the people, a re-union with the States from which we have separated is neither practicable nor desirable. To increase the power, develop the resources, and promote the happiness of the Confederacy, it is requisite that there should be so much homogeneity that the welfare of every portion shall be the aim of the whole. Where this does not exist, antagonisms are engendered which must and should result in separation.

Actuated solely by the desire to preserve our own rights and promote our own welfare, the separation of the Confederate States has been marked by no aggression upon others, and followed by no domestic convulsion. Our industrial pursuits have received no check; the cultiva-tion of our fields has progressed as heretofore; and even should we be involved in war, there would be no consid-erable diminution in the production of the staples which have constituted our exports, and in which the commer-cial world has an interest scarcely less than our own. This common interest of the producer and consumer can only be interrupted by an exterior force, which should obstruct its transmission to foreign markets—a course of conduct which would be as unjust towards us as it would be detri-mental to manufacturing and commercial interests abroad. Should reason guide the action of the government from which we have separated, a policy so detrimental to the civilized world, the Northern States included, could not be dictated by even the strongest desire to inflict injury upon us; but if otherwise, a terrible responsibility will rest upon it, and the suffering of millions will bear testimony to the folly and wickedness of our aggressors. In the meantime, there will remain to us, besides the ordinary means before suggested, the well-known resources for retaliation upon the commerce of the enemy.

Experience in public stations, of subordinate grades to this which your kindness has conferred, has taught me that care, and toil, and disappointment, are the price of official elevation. You will see many errors to forgive, many defi-

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ciencies to tolerate, but you shall not find in me either a want of zeal or fidelity to the cause that is to me highest in hope and of most enduring affection. Your generosity has bestowed upon me an undeserved distinction—one which I never sought nor desired. Upon the continuance of that sentiment, and upon your wisdom and patriotism, I rely to direct and support me in the performance of the duty required at my hands.

We have changed the constituent parts but not the sys-tem of our government. The constitution formed by our fathers is that of these Confederates States, in their exposi-tion of it; and, in the judicial construction it has received, we have a light that reveals its true meaning.

Thus instructed as to the just interpretation of the instrument, and ever remembering that all offices are but trusts held for the people, and that delegated powers are to be strictly construed, I will hope by due diligence in the performance of my duties, though I may disappoint your expectations, yet to retain, when retiring, something of the good will and confidence which welcomed my entrance into office.

It is joyous, in the midst of perilous times, to look around upon a people united in heart, where one purpose of high resolve animates and actuates the whole—where the sacrifices to be made are not weighed in the balance against honor, and right, and liberty, and equality. Obstacles may retard—they cannot long prevent—the progress of a move-ment sanctified by its justice, and sustained by a virtuous people. Reverently let us invoke the God of our fathers to guide and protect us in our efforts to perpetuate the princi-ples which, by his blessing, they were able to vindicate, estab-lish, and transmit to their posterity, and with a continuance of his favor, ever gratefully acknowledged, we may hopefully look forward to success, to peace, and to prosperity.

Constitution of the Confederate States of America (1861)

Erik Bruun and Jay Crosby, eds., Our Nation’s Archive: The History of the United States in Documents

(New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers), pp. 342–343.

March 11, 1861

We, the people of the Confederate States, each State act-ing in its sovereign and independent character, in order to form a permanent federal government, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity—invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God—do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Confederate States of America.

Art. I Sec. 1.—All legislative powers herein delegated shall

be vested in a Congress of the Confederate States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

Sec. 2. (1) The House of Representatives shall be cho-sen every second year by the people of the several States; and the electors in each State shall be citizens of the Con-federate States, and have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legis-lature; but no person of foreign birth, not a citizen of the Confederate States, shall be allowed to vote for any officer, civil or political, State or Federal . . .

(3) Representatives and direct taxes shall be appor-tioned among the several States which may be included within this Confederacy, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all slaves. The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the Confederate States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every fifty thousand, but each State shall have at least one Representative; and until such enumera-tion shall be made, the State of South Carolina shall be entitled to choose six; the State of Georgia ten; the State of Alabama nine; the State of Florida two; the State of Mis-sissippi seven; the State of Louisiana six; and the State of Texas six . . .

Sec. 9. (1) The importation of negroes of the African race, from any foreign country, other than the slavehold-ing States or Territories of the United States of America, is hereby forbidden; and Congress is required to pass such laws as shall effectually prevent the same.

(2) Congress shall also have power to prohibit the introduction of slaves from any State not a member of, or Territory not belonging to, this Confederacy . . .

Art. IVSec. 2. (1) The citizens of each State shall be entitled

to all the privileges and immunities of citizens of the sev-eral States, and shall have the right of transit and sojourn in any State of this Confederacy, with their slaves and other property; and the right of property in said slaves shall not be thereby impaired . . .

(3) No slave or other person held to service or labor in any State or Territory of the Confederate States, under the laws thereof, escaping or unlawfully carried into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor; but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such slave belongs, or to whom such service or labor may be due . . .

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Sec. 3. (3) The Confederate States may acquire new territory; and Congress shall have power to legislate and provide governments for the inhabitants of all territory belonging to the Confederate States, lying without the limits of the several States, and may permit them, at such times, and in such manner as it may by law provide, to form States to be admitted into the Confederacy. In all such ter-ritory, the institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected by Congress and by the territorial government; and the inhabitants of the several Confederate States and Territo-ries shall have the right to take to such territory any slaves lawfully held by them in any of the States or Territories of the Confederate States . . .

Art. VSec. 1. (1) Upon the demand of any three States,

legally assembled in their several Conventions, the Con-gress shall summon a Convention of all the States, to take into consideration such amendments to the Constitution as the said States shall concur in suggesting at the time when the said demand is made; and should any of the proposed amendments to the Constitution be agreed on by the said Convention—voting by States—and the same be ratified by the Legislatures of two-thirds of the several States, or by conventions in two-thirds thereof—as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the general convention—they shall thenceforward form a part of this Constitution. But no State shall, without its consent, be deprived of its equal representation in the Senate . . .

Art. VII.1.—The ratification of the conventions of five States

shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same.

2. When five States shall have ratified this Constitution in the manner before specified, the Congress, under the provisional Constitution, shall prescribe the time for hold-ing the election of President and Vice-President, and for the meeting of the electoral college, and for counting the votes and inaugurating the President. They shall also pre-scribe the time for holding the first election of members of Congress under this Constitution, and the time for assem-bling the same. Until the assembling of such Congress, the Congress under the provisional Constitution shall continue to exercise the legislative powers granted them; not extend-ing beyond the time limited by the Constitution of the Pro-visional Government.

Adopted unanimously by the Congress of the Confe-derate States of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, sitting in con-vention at the capitol, in the city of Montgomery, Ala., on the eleventh day of March, in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-one.

Homestead Act (1862)United States Statutes at Large (37th Cong.,

2d sess., chap. 75), pp. 392–393

May 20, 1862

An Actto Secure Homesteads to actual Settlers on the Public Domain.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That any person who is the head of a family, or who has arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of the United States, or who shall have filed his declaration of intention to become such, as required by the naturalization laws of the United States, and who has never borne arms against the United States Government or given aid and comfort to its enemies, shall, from and after the first January, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, be entitled to enter one quarter section or a less quantity of unappropriated public lands, upon which said person may have filed a preemption claim, or which may, at the time the application is made, be sub-ject to preemption at one dollar and twenty-five cents, or less, per acre; or eighty acres or less of such unappropriated lands, at two dollars and fifty cents per acre, to be located in a body, in conformity to the legal subdivisions of the public lands, and after the same shall have been surveyed: Pro-vided, That any person owning and residing on land may, under the provisions of this act, enter other land lying con-tiguous to his or her said land, which shall not, with the land so already owned and occupied, exceed in the aggregate one hundred and sixty acres.

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the person applying for the benefit of this act shall, upon application to the register of the land office in which he or she is about to make such entry, make affidavit before the said regis-ter or receiver that he or she is the head of a family, or is twenty-one years or more of age, or shall have performed service in the army or navy of the United States, and that he has never borne arms against the Government of the United States or given aid and comfort to its enemies, and that such application is made for his or her exclusive use and benefit, and that said entry is made for the purpose of actual settlement and cultivation, and not either directly or indirectly for the use or benefit of any other person or persons whomsoever; and upon filing the said affidavit with the register or receiver, and on payment of ten dollars, he or she shall thereupon be permitted to enter the quantity of land specified: Provided, however, That no certificate shall be given or patent issued therefor, until the expira-tion of five years from the date of such entry; and if, at the expiration of such time, or at any time within two years thereafter, the person making such entry; or, if he be dead,

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his widow; or in case of her death, his heirs or devisee; or in case of a widow making such entry, her heirs or devisee, in case of her death; shall prove by two credible witnesses that he, she, or they have resided upon or cultivated the same for the term of five years immediately succeeding the time of filing the affidavit aforesaid, and shall make affida-vit that no part of said land has been alienated, and that he has borne true allegiance to the Government of the United States; then, in such case, he, she, or they, if at that time a citizen of the United States, shall be entitled to a patent, as in other cases provided for by law: And provided, further, That in case of the death of both father and mother, leaving an infant child, or children, under twenty-one years of age, the right and fee shall enure to the benefit of said infant child or children; and the executor, administrator, or guard-ian may, at any time within two years after the death of the surviving parent, and in accordance with the laws of the State in which such children for the time being have their domicil, sell said land for the benefit of said infants, but for no other purpose; and the purchaser shall acquire the absolute title by the purchase, and be entitled to a patent from the United States, on payment of the office fees and sum of money herein specified.

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the register of the land office shall note all such applications on the tract books and plats of his office, and keep a register of all such entries, and make return thereof to the General Land Office, together with the proof upon which they have been founded.

Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That no lands acquired under the provisions of this act shall in any event become liable to the satisfaction of any debt or debts con-tracted prior to the issuing of the patent therefor.

Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That if, at any time after the filing of the affidavit, as required in the second section of this act, and before the expiration of the five years aforesaid, it shall be proven, after due notice to the settler, to the satisfaction of the register of the land office, that the person having filed such affidavit shall have actu-ally changed his or her residence, or abandoned the said land for more than six months at any time, then and in that event the land so entered shall revert to the government.

Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That no individ-ual shall be permitted to acquire title to more than one quarter section under the provisions of this act; and that the Commissioner of the General Land Office is hereby required to prepare and issue such rules and regulations, consistent with this act, as shall be necessary and proper to carry its provisions into effect; and that the registers and receivers of the several land offices shall be entitled to receive the same compensation for any lands entered under the provisions of this act that they are now enti-tled to receive when the same quantity of land is entered

with money, one half to be paid by the person making the application at the time of so doing, and the other half on the issue of the certificate by the person to whom it may be issued; but this shall not be construed to enlarge the maximum of compensation now prescribed by law for any register or receiver: Provided, That nothing contained in this act shall be so construed as to impair or interfere in any manner whatever with existing preemption rights: And provided, further, That all persons who may have filed their applications for a preemption right prior to the passage of this act, shall be entitled to all privileges of this act: Provided, further, That no person who has served, or may hereafter serve, for a period of not less than four-teen days in the army or navy of the United States, either regular or volunteer, under the laws thereof, during the existence of an actual war, domestic or foreign, shall be deprived of the benefits of this act on account of not hav-ing attained the age of twenty-one years.

Sec. 7. And be it further enacted, That the fifth section of the act entitled “An act in addition to an act more effectu-ally to provide for the punishment of certain crimes against the United States, and for other purposes,” approved the third of March, in the year eighteen hundred and fifty-seven, shall extend to all oaths, affirmations, and affidavits, required or authorized by this act.

Sec. 8. And be it further enacted, That nothing in this act shall be so construed as to prevent any person who has availed him or herself of the benefits of the first section of this act, from paying the minimum price, or the price to which the same may have graduated, for the quantity of land so entered at any time before the expiration of the five years, and obtaining a patent thereto from the government, as in other cases provided by law, on making proof of settle-ment and cultivation as provided by existing laws granting preemption rights.

Approved, May 20, 1862.

Pacific Railroad Act (1862)United States Statutes at Large (37th Cong.,

2d sess., chap. 120), pp. 489–498

July 1, 1862

An ActTo aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri river to the Pacific ocean, and to secure to the government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes.

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That Walter S. Burgess, . . . together with five commissioners to be appointed by the Secretary of the Interior, and all per-

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sons who shall or may be associated with them, and their successors, are hereby created and erected into a body cor-porate and politic in deed and in law, by the name, style, and title of “The Union Pacific Railroad Company;” and by that name shall have perpetual succession, and shall be able to sue and to be sued, plead and be impleaded, defend and be defended, in all courts of law and equity within the United States, and may make and have a common seal; and the said corporation is hereby authorized and empowered to lay out, locate, construct, furnish, maintain, and enjoy a continu-ous railroad and telegraph, with the appurtenances, from a point on the one hundredth meridian of longitude west from Greenwich, between the south margin of the valley of the Republican River and the north margin of the valley of the Platte River, in the Territory of Nebraska, to the western boundary of Nevada Territory, upon the route and terms hereinafter provided . . .

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the right of way through the public lands be, and the same is hereby, granted to said company for the construction of said rail-road and telegraph line; and the right, power, and authority is hereby given to said company to take from the public lands adjacent to the line of said road, earth, stone, tim-ber, and other materials for the construction thereof; said right of way is granted to said railroad, to the extent of two hundred feet in width on each side of said railroad, where it may pass over the public lands, including all necessary grounds for stations, buildings, workshops, and depots, machine shops, switches, side tracks, turn-tables, and water stations. The United States shall extinguish as rapidly as may be, the Indian titles to all lands falling under the oper-ation of this act, and required for the said right of way and grants hereinafter made.

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That there be, and is hereby, granted to the said company, for the purpose of aiding in the construction of said railroad and telegraph line, and to secure the safe and speedy transportation of the mails, troops, munitions of war, and public stores thereon, every alternate section of public land, designated by odd numbers, to the amount of five alternate sections per mile on each side of said railroad, on the line thereof, and within the limits of ten miles on each side of said road, not sold, reserved, or otherwise disposed of by the United States, and to which a preemption or homestead claim may not have attached, at the time the line of said road is definitely fixed: Provided, That all mineral lands shall be excepted from the operation of this act; but where the same shall contain timber, the timber thereon is hereby granted to said company. And all such lands, so granted by this section, which shall not be sold or disposed of by said company within three years after the entire road shall have been completed, shall be subject to settlement and pre-emption, like other lands, at a price not exceeding

one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, to be paid to said company . . .

Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That for the purposes herein mentioned, the Secretary of the Treasury shall, upon the certificate in writing of said commissioners of the completion and equipment of forty consecutive miles of said railroad and telegraph, in accordance with the provi-sions of this act, issue to said company bonds of the United States of one thousand dollars each, payable in thirty years after date, bearing six per centum per annum interest, (said interest payable semi-annually), which interest may be paid in United States treasury notes or any other money or cur-rency which the United States have or shall declare law-ful money and a legal-tender, to the amount of sixteen of said bonds per mile for such section of forty miles; and to secure the repayment to the United States, as hereinafter provided, of the amount of said bonds so issued and deliv-ered to said company, together with all interest thereon which shall have been paid by the United States, the issue of said bonds and delivery to the company shall ipso facto constitute a first mortgage on the whole line of the railroad and telegraph . . .

Sec. 9. And be it further enacted, That the Leaven-worth, Pawnee, and Western Railroad Company of Kansas are hereby authorized to construct a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri river, at the mouth of the Kansas River, on the south side thereof, so as to connect with the Pacific Railroad of Missouri . . . upon the same terms and conditions in all respects as are provided in this act for the construction of the railroad and telegraph line first men-tioned. . . The Central Pacific Railroad Company of Cali-fornia, a corporation existing under the laws of the State of California, are hereby authorized to construct a railroad and telegraph line from the Pacific coast, at or near San Francisco, or the navigable waters of the Sacramento River, to the eastern boundary of California, upon the same terms and conditions, in all respects, as are contained in this act for the construction of said railroad and telegraph line first-mentioned, and to meet and connect with the first men-tioned railroad and telegraph line on the eastern boundary of California . . .

Sec. 10. . . . the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California, after completing its road across said state, is authorized to continue the construction of said railroad and telegraph through the territories of the United States to the Missouri river, including the branch roads specified in this act, upon the routes hereinbefore and hereinafter indi-cated, on the terms and conditions provided in this act in relation to the said Union Pacific Railroad Company, until said roads shall meet and connect, and the whole line of said railroad and branches and telegraph is completed.

Sec. 11. And be it further enacted, That for three hun-dred miles of said road, most mountainous and difficult of

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construction, to wit: one hundred and fifty miles west-wardly from the eastern base of the Rocky mountains, and one hundred and fifty miles eastwardly from the western base of the Sierra Nevada mountains, said points to be fixed by the President of the United States, the bonds to be issued to aid in the construction thereof shall be treble the number per mile hereinbefore provided, and the same shall be issued, and the lands herein granted be set apart, upon the construction of every twenty miles thereof, upon the certificate of the commissioners as aforesaid that twenty consecutive miles of the same are completed; and between the sections last named of one hundred and fifty miles each, the bonds to be issued to aid in the con-struction thereof shall be double the number per mile first mentioned, and the same shall be issued, and the lands herein granted be set apart, upon the construction of every twenty miles thereof, upon the certificate of the commissioners as aforesaid that twenty consecutive miles of the same are completed: Provided, That no more than fifty thousand of said bonds shall be issued under this act to aid in constructing the main line of said railroad and telegraph.

Emancipation Proclamation (1863)Abraham Lincoln

In John A. Scott, ed., Living Documents in American History from Earliest Colonial Times to the Civil War, Vol. 2

(New York: Trident Press, 1963), pp. 644–645

January 1, 1863

Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:

“That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all per-sons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and for-ever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.”

“That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day

be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony be deemed conclusive evidence that such State and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States.”

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the follow-ing, to wit:

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth) and which excepted parts are, for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.

And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose afore-said, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive govern-ment of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the free-dom of said persons.

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.

And I further declare and make known, that such per-sons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, sta-tions, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.

And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military neces-sity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God.

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Gettysburg Address (1863)Abraham Lincoln

In John A. Scott, ed., Living Documents in American History from Earliest Colonial Times to the Civil War, Vol. 2

(New York: Trident Press, 1963), p. 646)

November 19, 1863

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedi-cated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have con-secrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for they which gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of free-dom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction (1863)Abraham Lincoln

In Henry Steele Commager, ed., Documents of American History, 5th ed., vol. 1 (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:

Prentice Hall, 1949), pp. 429–431

December 8, 1863

Whereas, in and by the Constitution of the United States, it is provide that the President “shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment;” and

Whereas a rebellion now exists whereby the loyal State governments of several States have for a long time been subverted, and many persons have committed and are now guilty of treason against the United States; and

Whereas, with reference to said rebellion and treason, laws have been enacted by Congress declaring forfeitures and confiscation of property and liberation of slaves, all upon terms and conditions therein stated, and also declar-ing that the President was thereby authorized at any time thereafter, by proclamation, to extend to persons who may have participated in the existing rebellion in any State or part thereof, pardon and amnesty, with such exceptions and at such times and on such conditions as he may deem expe-dient for the public welfare; and

Whereas, the Congressional declaration for limited and conditional pardon accords with well-established judi-cial exposition of the pardoning power; and

Whereas, with reference to said rebellion, the Presi-dent of the United States has issued several proclamations, with provisions in regard to the liberation of slaves; and

Whereas, it is now desired by some persons heretofore engaged in said rebellion to resume their allegiance to the United States, and to reinaugurate loyal State governments within and for their respective States:

Therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do proclaim, declare, and make known to all persons who have, directly or by implication, par-ticipated in the existing rebellion, except as hereinafter excepted, that a full pardon is hereby granted to them and each of them, with restoration of all rights of property, except as to slaves, and in property cases where rights of third parties shall have intervened, and upon the condi-tion that every such person shall take and subscribe an oath, and thenceforward keep and maintain said oath invi-olate; and which oath shall be registered for permanent preservation, and shall be of the tenor and effect follow-ing, to wit:

“I, __________________, do solemnly swear, in pres-ence of Almighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully sup-port, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Union of the States thereunder; and that I will, in like manner, abide by and faithfully support all acts of Congress passed during the existing rebellion with refer-ence to slaves, so long and so far as not repealed, modified, or held void by Congress, or by decision of the Supreme Court; and that I will, in like manner, abide by and faith-fully support all proclamations of the President made dur-ing the existing rebellion having reference to slaves, so long and so far as not modified or declared void by decision of the Supreme Court. So help me God.”

The persons excepted from the benefits of the fore-going provisions are all who are, or shall have been, civil or diplomatic officers or agents of the so-called Confeder-ate Government; all who have left judicial stations under the United States to aid the rebellion; all who are, or shall have been, military or naval officers of said so-called Confederate Government above the rank of colonel in

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the army or of lieutenant in the navy; all who left seats in the United States Congress to aid the rebellion; all who resigned commissions in the Army or Navy of the United States and afterwards aided the rebellion; and all who have engaged in any way in treating colored persons, or white persons in charge of such, otherwise than lawfully as pris-oners of war, and which persons may have been found in the United States service as soldiers, seamen, or in any other capacity.

And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known that whenever, in any of the States of Arkansas, Texas, Lou-isiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, a number of persons, not less than one-tenth in number of the votes cast in such State at the Presidential election of the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty, each having taken the oath aforesaid, and not having since violated it, and being a qualified voter by the election law of the State exist-ing immediately before the so-called act of secession, and excluding all others, shall re-establish a State government which shall be republican, and in nowise contravening said oath, such shall be recognized as the true government of the State, and the State shall receive thereunder the ben-efits of the constitutional provision which declares that “the United States shall guaranty to every State in this Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and, on application of the legis-lature, or the executive (when the legislature can not be convened), against domestic violence.”

And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known that any provision which may be adopted by such State government in relation to the freed people of such State, which shall recognize and declare their permanent free-dom, provide for their education, and which may yet be consistent as a temporary arrangement with their present condition as a laboring, landless, and homeless class, will not be objected to by the National Executive.

And it is suggested as not improper that, in construct-ing a loyal State government in any State, the name of the State, the boundary, the subdivisions, the constitution, and the general code of laws, as before the rebellion, be main-tained, subject only to the modifications made necessary by the conditions hereinbefore stated, and such others, if any, not contravening said conditions and which may be deemed expedient by those framing the new State government.

To avoid misunderstanding, it may be proper to say that this proclamation, so far as it relates to State govern-ments, has no reference to States wherein loyal State gov-ernments have all the while been maintained. And for the same reason, it may be proper to further say that whether members sent to Congress from any State shall be admit-ted to seats constitutionally rests exclusively with the respective Houses, and not to any extent with the Execu-

tive. And still further, that this proclamation is intended to present the people of the States wherein the national authority has been suspended, and loyal State govern-ments have been subverted, a mode in and by which the national authority and loyal State governments may be re-established within said States, or in any of them; and while the mode presented is the best the Executive can suggest, with his present impressions, it must not be understood that no other possible mode would be acceptable.

Second Inaugural Address (1865)Abraham Lincoln

Landmark Documents in American History, CD-ROM (New York: Facts On File, 1998)

March 4, 1865

Fellow-Countrymen: At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presi-

dential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted alto-gether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seek-ing to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties depreciated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.

One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but local-ized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpet-uate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has

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already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

Farewell to His Troops (1865)Robert E. Lee

In Henry Steele Commager, ed., Documents of American History, 5th ed., Vol. 1 (Englewood Cliffs,

N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1949), p. 447

Headquarters, Army of No. Virginia10th April 1865

General Order No. 9After four years of arduous service marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude the Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources.

I need not tell the brave survivors of so many hard-fought battles, who have remained steadfast to the last, that I have consented to this result from no distrust of them.

But feeling that valor and devotion could accomplish nothing that could compensate for the loss that would have attended the continuance of the contest I have determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past services have endeared them to their countrymen.

By the terms of the agreement Officers and men can return to their homes and remain there until exchanged. You will take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from the consciousness of duty faithfully performed, and I ear-nestly pray that a merciful God will extend to you His bless-ing and protection.

With an increasing admiration of your constancy and devotion to your country, and a grateful remembrance of your kind and generous consideration for myself, I bid you all an affectionate farewell.R. E. LeeGen’l

Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1868)

Lewis Paul Todd and Merle Curti, eds., Triumph of the American Nation (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanov-

ich, 1986), pp. 211–212

Amendment 14 Rights of Citizens (1868)

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state [excluding Indians not taxed]. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officer of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the [male] inhabitants of such state, [being twenty-one years of age] and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such [male] citizens

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shall bear to the whole number of male citizens [twenty-one years of age] in such state.

Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Represent-ative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice Presi-dent, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by vote of two thirds of each house, remove such disability.

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for pay-ment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But nei-ther the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebel-lion against the United States, [or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave]; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1870)

Lewis Paul Todd and Merle Curti, eds., Triumph of the American Nation (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanov-

ich, 1986), p. 213

Amendment 15 Right of Suffrage (1870)

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condi-tion of servitude.

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

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M14 Battle of Gettysburg, July 1–3, 1863

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M16 Reconstruction Act of 1867