Lincoln's Speeches

I. Nation and Empire

A. Empire defined

B. Nation defined

1. Ethnological

2. Political

C. Nation v. country (29)

D. Federation v. Confederation

II. US Civil War (1861-65)

A. "The United States is . . ."

v.

   "The United States are . . ."

B. J. C. Calhoun:

--"We constitute an Union, not a Nation. . . We see in a national

consolidated government evils innumerable to us."

III. Thesis
IV.  First Inaugural Address

A. Urge peace and defend the Constitution

B. "The Union is unbroken" (27).

1. "The Union . . . is perpetual" (26).

2. Union older than the Constitution (27)

C. The Constitution (1787)

1. A "more perfect Union" (27)

2. "We, the people," created a common government that in turn binds those people into a nation.

3. Country belongs to the people (29).

D. "Fraternal sympathies and affections" (27)

E. "Mystic chords of memory" (30)

V.  Second Inaugural Address
VI. Gettysburg Address

A. Conceived in Liberty.

Dedicated to equality.

B. Piece of land--a country--made sacred through the dedication of those whose acts and graves Lincoln

dedicates in his speech. 

C. Urges dedication to unfinished work to create a new birth of freedom.

D. Nation of the living and of the dead dedicated to the promise of liberty and equality in the future.