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In the Shadow of Our Founders - Page 2

© Brian Tubbs

On March 4, 1861, after taking the required oath to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States," Abraham Lincoln assured the South he would not interfere with slavery within their borders, pointing out that he lacked the legal authority to do so. He denounced as unfounded the "apprehension" of those southerners who feared for their "property, and their peace, and personal security." On the contrary, he promised 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 whatever cause--as cheerfully to one section as to another."

President Lincoln probably realized that bitter feelings and prejudice had so gripped the nation that his words would be cynically dismissed as hollow and deceptive. He therefore didn't limit his speech to an appeal for reconciliation, but laid out in very direct and emphatic terms his view of the Constitution and the Union it upheld. "I hold, that in contemplation of universal law, and of the Constitution, the Union of these states is perpetual." He argued that no government contained a provision for its own "termination," and argued that the perpetuity of the Constitution was clearly implied by the Framers' stated desire to seek a "more perfect Union" than that of the Articles of Confederation (which had declared itself perpetual). Lincoln also appealed to logic and reason, holding that no respectable government ever contained a provision for its "termination," and he contended that the Union of the states predated not only the Constitution itself, but the American Revolution as well. He pointed all the way back to 1774, when the First Continental Congress associated the colonies in protest of British policies. Here he was on shaky ground, but he nevertheless concluded that the Union was perpetual, a fact "confirmed by the history of the Union itself."

Lincoln followed this brief civics lesson with the following statement: "It follows from these views that no State, upon its own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union." He added 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." It was this declaration that put the seceding southern states and the new Lincoln Administration on a collision course that would ultimately cost the lives of over 600,000 people, wreak havoc on the nation's economy, and forever change the course of history.

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