The word could be a series of past tense words
I slept late this morning
I bathed late this morning
But the words that make most sense to me is
I ate late this morning
The term self-concept is a general term used to refer to how someone thinks about, evaluates or perceives themselves. To be aware of oneself is to have a concept of oneself.
The sentence is drawing a parallel between the two parties' reasons for going to war. Each of them is associated with a verb: one with "survive," the other with "perish." They are the two antonyms.
Antonyms are words which have opposite meanings. <em>Survive </em>means to contine living, and <em>perish </em>means to stop living.
What Lincoln meant by using this antonym-based parallelism is that the Confederacy fought to end the exisiting nation (meaning, to secede from the North and create a new nation), while the Union fought to keep the nation alive by preventing it from splitting.
As society becomes more complex and technology evolves to make our lives more convenient, It pushes us to be our very best self.
