As president of the us , Lincoln used his First and Second Inaugural Addresses to explore the meaning of the American union within the face of a divided country. Upon assuming the presidency for the first time, he spoke at length about the nature of union, why secession was antithetical to self-government, and how the federal constitution imposed a duty upon him to defend the union of the states from rebellious citizens. When he was reelected four years later, and because the war drew to an in depth , Lincoln transcended both Northern triumphalism and Southern defiance by offering a providential reading of the war and emancipation in hopes of reuniting the country.
____________________________________________________________
In his most famous speech, delivered upon the dedication of a national cemetery at the battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Lincoln gave a brief but profound meditation on the meaning of the Civil War and American union. With the Emancipation Proclamation as a replacement and pivotal development of the federal war effort, Lincoln sought to elucidate why the war to preserve the Union. The nation would need to experience "a new birth of freedom" so that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth, According to Lincoln.
