One week from today Barack Obama will be inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States, and he has announced that Lincoln will be a theme for the Inauguration. Obama will take the oath of office with the same Bible used by Abraham Lincoln at his inauguration in 1861. Will Obama model his Inaugural Address after one or both of Lincoln's?
Lincoln's Inaugural Addresses framed the Civil War. At the time of the First Inaugural in March of 1861 seven southern states had seceded and were assembling an army and preparing a new constitution for the Confederacy. At the time of the Second Inaugural in March of 1865 Northern armies had conquered the Confederacy in the west and the deep south and were closing in on Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia, the last redoubts of Lee's army. In early 1861 Congress, in an attempt to placate the South, had adopted a constitutional amendment which if it had been ratified would have protected the institution of slavery in every state where it still existed; in early 1865 Congress adopted the Thirteenth Amendment, which when it was ratified later that year would abolish slavery throughout the United States. In the First Inaugural Lincoln attempted to prevent the Civil War by appealing to our shared sense of patriotism - in the Second, he attempted to unify North and South and to give meaning to the War through an appeal to human rights.
What will Barack Obama speak about in his inaugural address one week from today? Lincoln faced an profound crisis of secession that his election had sparked. The southern states refused to stay in the Union precisely because Lincoln had been elected. They would not accept the decision of the American people rejecting the extension of slavery into new states, and they would not accept the diminution of power that this decision portended. But the causes of secession did not arise in 1861 – they were apparent even at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, when the framers compromised with slavery and wrote protections for it into the Constitution, omitting the language of the Declaration that "all men are created equal." The contest between the economic systems of slavery in the south and free labor in the north was, as William Seward had said, an "irrepressible conflict," and as Lincoln had said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." While there are many issues that divide red states and blue states, we do not face the kind of fundamental moral, political, and economic question that Americans confronted in 1861.
At present Americans face the greatest economic challenge since the Great Depression and the greatest foreign policy threat since the Vietnam War. I predict that Barack Obama will attempt to accomplish three things in his Inaugural Address. First, he will tell us that, like the "Greatest Generation," we will have to make shared sacrifices. In the long run there will be higher taxes to pay for public works projects and other stimulus programs that we must adopt to reinvigorate the economy, and in addition the sacrifices of military families must be shared by all of us through higher taxes or other contributions. Second, he will reassure us that we can and will overcome the obstacles we face. The economy will recover, as it always has, and the United States will prevail in the armed struggle against the forces of terrorism. Third, like Lincoln, he will attempt to unify the country by appealing to the fundamental principles that we share – that America is not defined by what race we happen to be or what language we speak or by our religion or cultural habits, but rather through our devotion to certain fundamental principles: democracy, equality, individual freedom, limited government, and the rule of law.
What do you think Obama will say? And, in your opinion, what should he say?
Below I have set forth the final passage of Lincoln's First Inaugural and the entire Second Inaugural.
Closing Remarks of Lincoln's First Inaugural, March 4, 1861:
I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
Lincoln's Second Inaugural, March 5, 1865:
At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential 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 altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war – seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated 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 localized 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, perpetuate, 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 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 offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!" If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offences 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 offence 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 bond-man'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 a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.
This is the fourth in a series of essays on Abraham Lincoln and the Constitution. Wilson Huhn is a Professor of Constitutional Law at The University of Akron School of Law.
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RE: "What do you think Obama will say? And, in your opinion, what should he say?"
My #1 is your #2. First he should tell us that we can overcome the financial hurdles that we have placed in our own economy. Along with that we can reclaim a portion of our previous world financial leadership status by showing by example that we can learn from our mistakes and do whatever it takes to right the course and refloat the boat (without fueling it with foreign oil).
#2 He should share his vision of Our place in the governance of The World. How much involvement should we have in the cultural and religious doings of other established countries? Does he intend to continue to forcefeed Our ideals down the throats of cultures that have not asked to 'be saved'? Is it Our place to lead the military charge into every perceived den of badguys or is that an issue best left to the UN? Tell us what is worth fighting for today.
My #3 agrees with your #3. He should push for unity and common purpose. That is a natural lead-in for the next point.
#4 This is where he should stress the need for Change in order to accomplish items 1-3. He should give props to the Great Generation, but THIS generation will not respond to a plea for personal sacrifice. We are spoiled…plain and simple. We will respond to the need for change if there is 'something in it for us'. That will be his hardest point to make.