Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861

Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861 

• I can understand how respecting the decisions of the Supreme Court upholds the principle of rule of law.
• I can analyze the role of citizens and other branches of government on issues that are decided by the Supreme Court.

Essential Vocabulary   

erroneous	incorrect
candid	honest; straightforward
irrevocably	final; in a way that is unable to be changed
eminent	distinguished

Building Context  

In 1857, the Supreme Court released its infamous decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, ruling that free and enslaved Black Americans could never become citizens in the United States. The decision also determined that the Missouri Compromise, which banned the practice of slavery north of the 36º 30’ latitude line, which runs along the southern border of the state of Missouri, was unconstitutional as it infringed on slaveholders’ property rights. The ruling incensed many Americans who believed it to be a gross injustice that would allow slavery to continue to spread. A few years later, in his First Inaugural Address, President Abraham Lincoln addressed the ruling and the role of the Supreme Court, other branches of government, and citizens, when it comes to important constitutional issues.

Caption: Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861 

Document Text	Annotations
I do not forget the position assumed by some that constitutional questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court, nor do I deny that such decisions must be binding in any case upon the parties to a suit as to the object of that suit, while they are also entitled to very high respect and consideration in all parallel cases by all other departments of the Government.
And while it is obviously possible that such decision may be erroneous in any given case, still the evil effect following it, being limited to that particular case, with the chance that it may be overruled and never become a precedent for other cases, can better be borne than could the evils of a different practice.
At the same time, the candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their Government into the hands of that eminent tribunal. Nor is there in this view any assault upon the court or the judges. It is a duty from which they may not shrink to decide cases properly brought before them, and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn their decisions to political purposes.

 

Analysis Questions:

1. According to Lincoln, how should Supreme Court decisions be treated, even if they are “erroneous?” How does he support the rule of law by saying this?
2. What are the dangers of allowing the Supreme Court to be the final word on the meaning of the Constitution?
3. Why is it important in the American constitutional republic that a balance is struck between respecting the decisions the Supreme Court makes—even those we disagree with—and finding ways to change policies through appropriate channels like elections, protests, and other political means?
4. How do unjust, erroneous, or poorly reasoned decisions by the Court affect popular respect for the courts and the rule of law?