said
something indiscreet. [Cries of "No, no."] But I have said nothing
but what I am willing to live by, and, if it be the pleasure of
Almighty God, to die by.

FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 4, 1861

Fellow Citizens of the United States: 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 "before
he enters on the execution of his office."

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 under 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, th