Lincoln and the War

doi:10.1017/9781316650707.022

21 - Lincoln and the War

from Part IV - Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 October 2019

Jonathan W. White

Edited by

Aaron Sheehan-Dean

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Aaron Sheehan-Dean: Affiliation:
Louisiana State University

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Summary

On his way to his inauguration in Washington, DC, in February 1861, Abraham Lincoln stopped at Independence Hall in Philadelphia to raise a flag. “I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence,” he told the assembled crowd. The president-elect went on to say that the Declaration was not written merely to justify the separation of the colonies from Great Britain, but to give “liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but hope to the world, for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is a sentiment embodied in that Declaration of Independence.” Lincoln continued that if the nation could not be saved on the basis of the Declaration, it would be “truly awful.” And, as he was speaking off the cuff, he said, “I was about to say I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it.”

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge History of the American Civil War , pp. 436 - 460

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316650707.022 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2019

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References

Key Works

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21 - Lincoln and the War

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