03c_Activity

Unit03: Era of Growth & Disunion

Ch.11

Document Analysis
President Lincolns 1st Inaugural Address
Where necessary, take targeted notes and keep the notes organized in your notebook. Sources are listed separately at the end of
this document.

I.

The Era of Compromise is Over: The War Has Come

Though the Civil War begins officially with the bombardment of Ft. Sumter, off the coast of Charleston,
SC., we begin in Washington, D.C. and the 1st Inaugural Address of President Abraham Lincoln, March
1861.
All of our previous investigations have revealed a divided country. Some even accused Mr. Lincoln of
speaking with forked-tongue. But it was clear to the seceding southern states that this Republican
president was hostile to their prize institutions. The rest of the nation was not sure of that, however.
Abraham Lincoln did not win a majority of the popular vote. His election had to be settled in the Electoral
College.
II. What To Do!?
A. What happened?
1. You just won an election to the Presidency of the United States.
2. The major slave-holding states have now severed their relationship with the Union because of
your election. (States like Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware did not officially secede).
3. The seceded states have formed a new and independent state: The Confederate States of
America (CSA).
Wow! This is an awful position to be in. Lets see what Pres. Lincoln has to say.
B. President Abraham Lincolns 1st Inaugural Address: A Wordle Analysis.
You can access a full transcript of the speech via the link below. However, in order to employ an analysis
tool, well need to to do something a bit different.
1. Find a text version of the 1st Inaugural Address online. Then, select and copy the entire text
of the speech.
2. Navigate to Wordle (see link below) and paste the text you copied into a blank Wordle page
for analysis. If you never used this online tool, read the introductory instructions on the sites
home page. The process is as easy as passing this course. (Ha, ha. Seriously, it is.)
3. In your notebook, copy the largest five words that appear (these are the words most
frequently used), making sure you omit connective words like the, and, it, etc.
4. Do the same for the medium size words and the smallest words.
5. Based on your analysis of the words, what do they reveal about the speechs emphasis?
C. Go to a pdf copy of the 1st Inaugural Address embedded just below this activity sheet on our
course website. This is a PDF copy of an image of the original printed speech found on the GilderLehrman website (see link below).
1. Read page 1 until the end of the paragraph at the top of page 2.
2. Read paragraph starting at the bottom of page 7 and spilling onto page 8. Just the paragraph,
not the page.
3. Read paragraph starting at the bottom of page 8 and spilling onto page 9. Just the paragraph,
not the page.
4. Read paragraph starting at the bottom of page 9 and continuing through to the end of page
10.
From these selections of the 1st Inaugural, consider the following as you analyze them:
5. What is President Lincoln attempting to express in each of these selections?
6. Do any of the sentiments expressed, as interpreted by you, parallel your analysis of the
Wordle speech tool results?

03c_Activity

Unit03: Era of Growth & Disunion

Ch.11

7. Do any of the sentiments expressed in these selections support or contradict what you have
come to understand as Abraham Lincolns stance on these issues? (Think back to the
previous class activities leading to this point).
Source:
President Abraham Lincolns 1st Inaugural Address (you will need to login to your free, affiliate school, student account): http://
www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/failure-compromise/resources/president-lincolns-first-inaugural-address-1861
Wordle: http://www.wordle.net