On Monday, March 4, 1861, President James
Buchanan and President-elect Abraham Lincoln left the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., in a horse-drawncarriage bound for the Capitol and Lincoln's first inauguration. There, before hundreds of citizens, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney administered the presidential oath of office, swearing in Abraham Lincoln as the sixteenth president of the United States. In a stirring inaugural address, delivered under the watchful guard of riflemen, Lincoln appealed for the preservation of the Union, threatened by the recent secession of seven Southern states opposed to the new leader's policy against the expansion of slavery.
Attempting to retain his support in the North without further alienating the South, Lincoln called for compromise, promising he would not initiate force to maintain the Union or interfere with slavery in the states in which it existed. He did, however, vow to retain federal property. One month later, his refusal to surrender or evacuate Fort Sumter in South Carolina, prompted the Confederates to launch the first attack of the Civil War.
While composing his inaugural address, Lincoln turned to four historic documents for guidance and inspiration on the issue of states rights: Daniel Webster's 1830 reply to Robert Y. Hayne; President Andrew Jackson's Nullification Proclamation of 1832; Henry Clay's compromise speech of 1850; and the United States Constitution. Lincoln's initial effort was typeset and printed in Illinois, edited, and reprinted. The president-elect sent copies of the second strike to his closest political advisors for commentary. Several of the final passages, including the famous "better angels of our nature" conclusion, were contributed by future secretary of state, William H. Seward.
- Read Lincoln's fan mail. A congratulatory letter from Abe's Boys--a group of admiring college students who wrote Lincoln the after the election of 1860--is available through The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress. This online presentation of the Abraham Lincoln Papers will eventually include approximately 61,000 images of correspondence to and from Lincoln.
- "We'll Sing to Abe Our Song!": Sheet Music about Lincoln, Emancipation, and the Civil War from the Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana includes more than two hundred sheet-music compositions that represent Lincoln and the war in popular music. The collection spans the years from Lincoln's 1859 presidential campaign through the 1909 centennial of Lincoln's birth. The compiler, Alfred Whital Stern (1881-1960), is considered the greatest private collector of materials relating to the life and times of Abraham Lincoln. Search the collection on presidency to locate songs written throughout Lincoln's administration and after his death.
- Read the Today in History features on the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address, and Lincoln's assassination.
