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美国总统林肯演讲稿
Inaugural Speech by Abraham Lincoln
March 4th 1861
Speech
：
In compliance with a custom
as old as the Government itself, I appear
before you to address you briefly and
to take in your presence the oath
prescribed by the Constitution of the
United States to be taken by the
President
I
do
not
consider
it
necessary
at
present
for
me
to
discuss
those
matters
of
administration
about
which
there
is
no
special
anxiety
or
excitement.
Apprehension
seems
to
exist
among
the
people
of
the
Southern
States
that
by
the
accession
of
a
Republican
Administration
their
property
and
their
peace and personal
security are to be endangered. There has never
been
any
reasonable
cause
for
such
apprehension.
Indeed,
the
most
ample
evidence
to
the
contrary
has
all
the
while
existed
and
been
open
to
their
inspection. It is found in nearly all
the published speeches of him who
now
addresses
you.
I
do
but
quote
from
one
of
those
speeches
when
I
declare
that:
I
have
no
purpose,
directly
or
indirectly,
to
interfere
with
the
institution of slavery
in the States where it exists. I believe I have
no lawful right to do so, and I have no
inclination to do so.
Those who nominated and elected me did
so with full knowledge that I had
made
this
and
many
similar
declarations
and
had
never
recanted
them;
and
more than this, they
placed in the platform for my acceptance, and as a
law to themselves and to me, the clear
and emphatic resolution which I
now
read:
Resolved,
That
the
maintenance
inviolate
of
the
rights
of
the
States,
and
especially the right of
each State
to order
and
control its
own domestic
institutions according to its own
judgment exclusively, is essential to
that
balance
of
power
on
which
the
perfection
and
endurance
of
our
political fabric depend;
and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed
force of the soil of any State or
Territory, no matter what pretext, as
among the gravest of crimes.
I now reiterate these
sentiments, and in doing so I only press upon the
public
attention
the
most
conclusive
evidence
of
which
the
case
is
susceptible that the property, peace,
and security of no section are to
be
in
any
wise
endangered
by
the
now
incoming
Administration.
I
add,
too,
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.
There
is much controversy about the delivering up of
fugitives from
service or labour. The
clause I now read is as plainly written in the
Constitution as any other of its
provisions:
No
person
held
to
service
or
labour
in
one
State,
under
the
laws
thereof,
escaping into
another, shall in consequence of any law or
regulation
therein
be
discharged
from
such
service
or
labour,
but
shall
be
delivered
up
on claim of the party to whom such service or
labour may be due.
It is
scarcely questioned that this provision was
intended by those who
made it for the
reclaiming of what we call fugitive slaves; and
the
intention
of
the
lawgiver
is
the
law.
All
members
of
Congress
swear
their
support to the whole
Constitution - to this provision as much as to any
other.
To
the
proposition,
then,
that
slaves
whose
cases
come
within
the
terms of this clause
Now, if they would make the effort in
good temper, could they not with
nearly
equal
unanimity
frame
and
pass
a
law
by
means
of
which
to
keep
good
that unanimous oath?
There
is
some
difference
of
opinion
whether
this
clause
should
be
enforced
by national or by
State authority, but surely that difference is not
a
very material one. If the slave is to
be surrendered, it can be of but
little
consequence
to
him
or
to
others
by
which
authority
it
is
done.
And
should
anyone in any case be content that his oath shall
go un-kept on
a merely unsubstantial
controversy as to how it shall be kept?
Again:
In
any
law
upon
this
subject
ought
not
all
the
safeguards
of
liberty
known in civilized
and humane jurisprudence to be introduced, so that
a
free man be not in any case
surrendered as a slave? And might it not be
well
at
the
same
time
to
provide
by
law
for
the
enforcement
of
that
clause
in
the Constitution which guarantees that
shall be entitled to all privileges and
immunities of citizens in the
several
States
I take the official
oath to-day with no mental reservations and with
no
purpose
to
construe
the
Constitution
or
laws
by
any
hypercritical
rules;
and while I do not choose now to
specify particular acts of Congress as
proper to be enforced, I do suggest
that it will be much safer for all,