First Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln
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 his office.” Continue reading
Eulogy on Henry Clay by Abraham Lincoln
Henry Clay is dead. His long and eventful life is closed. Our country is prosperous and powerful; but could it have been quite all it has been, and is, and is to be, without Henry Clay? Such a man the times have demanded, and such, in the providence of God was given us Continue reading
The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions by Abraham Lincoln
On January 27, 1838, an aspiring young politician named Abraham Lincoln gave a speech on “the perpetuation of our political institutions,” in which he worried that Americans were increasingly inclined to take the law into their own hands. In the grip of strong passions, they were substituting vigilante justice for the justice of law. Continue reading
Second Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), who presided over the successful prosecution of the Civil War, also gave deep thought to what would be required to heal the nation after the war. Continue reading
Excerpt from Speech on the Dred Scott Decision by Abraham Lincoln
Throughout his career, Abraham Lincoln offered numerous statements about the meaning of the Declaration of Independence, calling it “the father of all moral principle” in each subsequent generation of Americans and “the sheet anchor of republicanism.” Continue reading
Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln’s most famous defense of equality appears in the Gettysburg Address, delivered on November 19, 1863, in the midst of a civil war whose deepest cause was the institution of slavery. Continue reading