Abraham Lincoln: New-York Tribune

Complete issue of the New-York Tribune from March 5, 1861, eight pages, 16 x 21.5, being the first reporting on the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, who addressed the nation the day before in his memorable inaugural address on the cusp of Civil War. The paper offers a detailed account of the day’s events and contains the entirety of his inaugural address. Headlines include: "The New Administration"; "Inauguration of President Lincoln"; "A Magnificent Display"; "Procession to the Capitol"; "Immense Throng of People"; "The Inaugural Address"; "The Laws to be Executed"; and "The Union Not Dissolved."

Lincoln’s famous address is spread over four columns on the first page, in part: “It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a President under our National Constitution. During that period fifteen different and very distinguished citizens have in succession have administered the Executive branch of the Government. They have conducted it through many perils, and generally with great success…I now enter upon the same task for the brief Constitutional term of four years, under great and peculiar difficulty. A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced , is now formidably attempted. I hold that in contemplation of universal law of the Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual….In your hands my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend it. I am left to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and heart stone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” In very fine condition.