President Abraham Lincoln's Second Annual Message to Congress

In the inaugural address I briefly pointed out the total inadequacy of disunion, as a remedy for the
differences between the people of the two sections. I did so in language which I cannot improve, and
which, therefore, I beg to repeat:

“One section of our country believes slavery is right, and ought to be extended, while the other believes it
is wrong, and ought not to be extended. This is the only substantial dispute. The fugitive slave clause of
the Constitution, and the law for the suppression of the foreign slave trade, are each as well enforced,
perhaps, as any law can ever be in a community where the moral sense of the people imperfectly supports
the law itself. The great body of the people abide by the dry legal obligation in both cases, and a few
break over in each. This, I think, cannot be perfectly cured; and it would be worse in both cases after the
separation of the sections, than before. The foreign slave trade, now imperfectly suppressed, would be
ultimately revived without restriction in one section; while fugitive slaves, now only partially
surrendered, would not be surrendered at all by the other.

“Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot remove our respective sections from each other, nor
build an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence,
and beyond the reach of each other, but the different…

[pages omitted]

Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be
remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of
us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest
generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to
save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We – even we here – hold the power, and
bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free – honorable alike in
what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best, hope of earth.
Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just – a way which, if
followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless.

[signature] Abraham Lincoln

December 1, 1862

37 Cong.
2 Sess. }
Senate Ex doc
No.

Message of the President of the United States to the two Houses of Congress at the Commencement of the third Session of the thirty Seventh Congress.

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1862 December 1 Read. Resolution of Mr Anthony to print extra copies submitted
1862 Decb. 3 Resolution referred to the Comm. on Printing
[1862] [Decb.] 12 Report Committee in favor of printing extra Copies of Message and Documents agreed to.