In 1861 the issue of slavery precipitated a national crisis framed largely in terms of constitutional issues. The framers of the Constitution had left unanswered some basic questions about the nature of the federal Union they had created: Was the United States truly one nation, or was it a confederacy of sovereign and separate states? How could a country founded on the belief that all men are created equal tolerate slavery? In a national crisis, would civil liberties be secure? By 1860, these unresolved questions had become ticking time bombs, ready to explode. Abraham Lincolns election as the nations first anti-slavery president brought the nation to the brink of war. Lincoln used the tools the Constitution gave him to confront three intertwined issues of the Civil Warthe secession of Southern states, slavery and wartime civil liberties.
source: American Library Association:http://www.ala.org/programming/lincoln/lincoln-ssn-themes
Crowd at Lincoln's second inauguration, March 4, 1865 (Library of Congress)
Photo shows a large crowd of people waiting during President Abraham Lincoln's inauguration, which was held on a rainy day at the U.S. Capitol grounds in Washington, D.C. The crowd includes African American troops who marched in the inaugural parade. In considering the Civil War that had begun in 1861 and was nearing conclusion, Lincoln ended his speech with the famous phrase: "With malice toward none, with charity for all, ... let us strive on to finish the work we are in, ... to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."
This photograph of a painting shows the second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln as he takes the oath of office as the 16th president of the United States in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington March 4, 1865. ( - Illus. in: Harper's weekly, v. 9, 1865 March 18, p. 161.)
Lincoln's second inauguration, March 4, 1865 (Library of Congress)
President Lincoln delivering his inaugural address on the east portico of the U.S. Capitol, March 4, 1865. Look for John Wilkes Booth in the platform above President Lincoln.
Alexander Gardner, 1821-1882, photographer
