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Abraham Lincoln 's Greatest Speech

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Lincoln 's Greatest Speech Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address was given during a time of crisis. The Southern states feared their newly elected President would soon take their way of life from them, and they would do everything to stop it. The South threatened secession and began electing their own leaders and creating a new constitution. Knowing this would certainly lead to war, in his address Lincoln said, “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies” (Lincoln). Lincoln knew that war would tear the country apart, and he wanted to prevent that. As he prepared to give the speech, he kept quiet, but others turned around his silence. Many said he was the reason the Union was divided. In preparing for his speech he knew…show more content…
He continues and says, “…we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes” (Lincoln). Lincoln takes a firm stance against any form of invasion. Obviously trying to prevent war, Lincoln denounces any form of invasion, regardless of the crimes committed. Despite his best efforts, history tells us that the speech failed at preventing the South from seceding and the civil war from beginning. However, that does not fall on Lincoln and his speech. At this point the South seemed to have already made up their minds on leaving the union to form the Confederacy. There is a very good chance that no matter what he said in his speech, it was destined to fail. Next, although Lincoln’s speech did not prevent war, it did show his education and skill as a writer and speaker. It is obvious that even before Abraham Lincoln became President he was a very educated man; however, this speech shows just how true that is. Lincoln shows just how educated he is by showing how knowledgeable he is on American History. In an attempt to show that the Union is never ending Lincoln writes, “Descending from these general principles, we find the proposition that, in legal contemplation, the Union is perpetual, confirmed by the history of the Union itself. The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the
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