First Inaugural Address (Primary source)
Abraham Lincoln delivered his First Inaugural Address as the 16th president of the United States on March 4, 1861, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., at a moment when seven Southern states had already declared secession from the Union.
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“When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true maxim, that a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary source“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.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary source“We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary source“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.”
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“The law of nature is, do the thing, and you shall have the power: but they who do not the thing have not the power.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“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.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary source“If you have the ability, you have the obligation.”
— A.P. Møller DisputedPolitics America American Civil War