Chapter 29: Lincoln’s 1st Inaugural Address

Despite the break, Lincoln believes the South is bluffing and that the crisis will end if Virginia refuses to join. His speech pleads for reconciliation and ends with an emotional call.

I am loath 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 hearthstone 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.