LAD 19 and LAD 20

On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln delivered his First Inaugural address to the nation. He gins by saying that the people in the South are apprehensive that they will lose rights because a Republican has taken offer, but Lincoln tells them that he has no intention to get interfere with slavery in the states where it already exists. Slavery is a right that the state chooses, not the federal government, so Lincoln shows the southerners that they have nothing to fear. Also, he addresses the Southerners fears of freeing fugitive slaves, saying that he will abide by the Constitution, and send the slaves back to where they came from. Lincoln states that he will do his best to follow the Constitution. Next, Lincoln confronts the problem of secession, saying that the Union was formed before the Constitution was even formed and had stood up against many trials. He says that they do not need to fight over secession, unless the national authority has to get involved. The North will not not invade the south, but only collect duties as required by law. He says that the South should not be mad, as no right in the Constitution has been denied to them, the problems in question were not addressed in the Constitution. Lincoln says that if the minority wont give in, then the majority has to otherwise the government will stop. Secession is like anarchy. Lincoln states that the country really is in the hands of the people, and they can make an amendment concerning slavery. He ends his address saying that the fate of the union is in the hands of the people, not his. The Emancipation Proclamation declared all slaves in certain slaves free and stated that their freedom was to be recognized by everyone and not to be suppressed. The proclamation did not apply to Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, Delaware, or West Virginia or Southern states under the Union. Lincoln told the newly freed to abstain from violence, work for a reasonable wage, and that they could be enlisted in the United States service. Previous to the Proclamation, many slaves had been escaping and fleeing to the North and this continued after the issuing of the Proclamation as well. Lincoln did not pass this through Congress but used his power as Commander-in-Chief. Although this did not officially ban slavery through the nation, it was a stepping stone towards the thirteenth amendment which eventually would

LAD #13

The Compromise of 1850 was passed by the U.S. Congress to settle slavery issues and to avert the dissolution of the Union. It stemmed from the request for statehood by the territory of California in 1849, which included a constitution banning slavery. California's admission of the Union would tip the balance in favor of free states; sixteen free states to fifteen slave states. A balance had been achieved with the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which tried to settle the growing slavery issue at that time by admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. The proposed admission of California in 1850 was further complicated by unresolved slavery questions in the vast southwestern territory that had been ceded to the United States after the war with Mexico ended in 1848 with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The Compromise of 1850 called for the admission of California as a free state as well as the organization of the ceded southwestern land into the territories of New Mexico and Utah, without mention of slavery. It stated that, when the territories became states, voting citizens living in those territories could then decide on their slavery status, a solution known as popular sovereignty. The compromise also settled the boundary dispute between Texas and New Mexico and called for prohibition of slavery in the District of Columbia. The act was so severe and the outrage against it in the North so intense that it led to heavy abuses and therefore defeated its own purpose. The number of escapees increased, as did the number of abolitionists who took up the cause against slavery. Putting the law into effect only led to more animosity between North and South, and when South Carolina justified its secession from the Union in December 1860, it listed the personal liberty laws as one of its grievances. The Fugitive Slave Act was not repealed until June 28, 1864, well into the Civil War. The Compromise of 1850, created in an effort to stave off war, actually may have fostered sectional tensions. Ultimately, it led to a Republican victory in 1860 and to Southern secession.

LAD #12

We really did want peace with Mexico, and we tried last September to do that. However the mexican goverment refused to listen to these negotions. We will try again to improve relationships with Mexico, where we will figure out the issues of borders of mexico, the rights of such people in the no man's land, and many other issues. Our person was then greeted by the revolutionary party, and where violence could have been used he avoided negotiations so nothing was accomplished. Now the mexican gov was very different. Due to military force present of Mexico, congress then ordered troops into texas. Troops went from Corpus Christi to Del Norte, waiting for an engagement. 16 troops were killed after we were checking up on your camp. This embarked us upon the warpath. Our commerce has been anialahted and we still remember the previous actions that mexico has commited against us. And as war exists, and, notwithstanding all our efforts to avoid it, exists by the act of Mexico herself, we are called upon by every consideration of duty and patriotism to vindicate with decision the honor, the rights, and the interests of our country.

LAD #11

All portions of gods race deserve respect and the right to ensue the course god embarks upon them. This being stated, the opening of the preamble was stated;We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. When a country gives these rights to all citizens and persons, the people at the Seneca convention believe that woman should deffinetly have these rights. They also say that it is thier right because they are suffering to refuse allegiance to the constitution. They state that women have been too patient and now they are demanding the rights that they deserve. They then state many rights on women that have been ignored by men. Then they list off all the resolutions that will counteract the previous ignored rights. Some include the fact that men and women are equal, women can have any role in society, and the same amount of virtue, delicacy, and refinement of behavior that is required of women.