Students examine how Lincoln and Davis justified opposing visions for the nation, revealing competing ideas about authority, legitimacy, and conflict that deepened national division and made compromise difficult at the outbreak of the Civil War.
Students examine how Lincoln and Davis justified opposing visions for the nation, revealing competing ideas about authority, legitimacy, and conflict that deepened national division and made compromise difficult at the outbreak of the Civil War.
Students view an image of Jefferson Davis and read an introduction explaining that they will analyze how Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis used speeches, political imagery, and symbols of authority to justify competing visions for the nation in 1861. They reflect on how leaders use public speeches to shape opinion and then respond on a discussion wall to the prompt: How can a leader’s speeches help convince people that their government or cause is legitimate? Students then read a brief overview of the experience and its objectives.
Teacher MovesIntroduce the lesson focus on Lincoln and Davis, highlighting key vocabulary (legitimate, legitimacy) and reviewing the objectives. Facilitate a discussion using student responses from the wall to explore why Jefferson Davis, as president of the Confederacy, would need to convince people that his government was legitimate and what challenges a new government faces in gaining support. Prompt comparison with Abraham Lincoln’s position as U.S. president, asking how the Union and Confederacy’s different situations might shape the messages each leader needed to communicate. Organize students into small groups before moving to the next scene.
Working in small groups, students read The Inaugurations of Lincoln and Davis to understand the purpose of inaugural addresses and the historical background of Lincoln’s and Davis’s inaugurations. They then closely read the Excerpt from Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address and the Excerpt from Jefferson Davis’s First Inaugural Address, discussing words, phrases, and ideas that stand out, repeat, connect ideas, or signal power, authority, rights, conflict, or legitimacy. Groups contribute selected words and short phrases from each speech to a shared two-column class chart. Next, students reread the excerpts and complete one graphic organizer for Lincoln and one for Davis, using evidence from the texts to describe each leader’s beliefs about rights, authority, legitimacy, the role of government, conflict, and power, and to state each leader’s overall vision for the country.
Teacher MovesFrame the scene by explaining that students will use the inaugural addresses to examine how national leaders defined authority and responded to a moment of deep political fracture. After groups add to the class T-chart, lead students in noticing patterns between the Lincoln and Davis columns, pressing them to cite specific phrases as they infer each leader’s priorities, concerns, and sense of authority. Ask why it was significant that there were two inaugural addresses in 1861 and what it meant for two leaders to speak as presidents at the same time, surfacing ideas about legitimacy and competing claims to power. After students complete the graphic organizers, facilitate a whole-class comparison of Lincoln’s and Davis’s views on authority, legitimacy, and conflict, again requiring text evidence. Use the discussion to highlight how their differing visions made compromise difficult and set the stage for civil war.
Students are introduced to the idea that Americans interpreted leadership and conflict differently depending on regional viewpoints and political loyalties. In small groups, they analyze the political cartoon The true issue or Thats' what's the matter by Currier & Ives, using the image, sourcing information, and transcript of the dialogue among Lincoln, McClellan, and Davis. They discuss what the cartoon suggests about conflict, leadership, and the nation’s future, then post a brief explanation of the artist’s message to a discussion wall, citing specific visual or textual details. Students answer a multiple-choice question about how the publisher’s Northern location might have influenced the cartoon’s message. Next, groups respond to three additional discussion walls: how the cartoon might look different if created by a Southern printing company (using evidence from Lincoln’s inaugural address), what the cartoon suggests about Lincoln’s view of the Union (supported by his inaugural address), and what it suggests about Davis’s view of the Confederacy and separation (supported by his inaugural address).
Teacher MovesExplain that students will now connect the inaugural addresses to public commentary from the period to see how leaders and events were interpreted differently. After reviewing wall responses about the cartoon’s message, lead a brief discussion on how the conflict and the two leaders are presented to the public, prompting students to reference specific visual details and transcript lines. Clarify that the central figure is George McClellan and ask why the artist might have placed him between Lincoln and Davis and what his central position suggests about contemporary views of the conflict and possible solutions. When students respond to the perspective-focused walls, guide them to consider how the cartoon might change if produced in the South and why the origin of a source matters for understanding its message. Use the final two walls to draw out what the cartoon reveals about Lincoln’s view of the Union and Davis’s view of the Confederacy, pressing students to support claims with evidence from the inaugural excerpts and to recognize how one image can reflect competing visions for the country.
Students learn that the Confederacy, in claiming independence, issued its own national currency as part of operating a separate government. They use a drawing tool to analyze an image of Confederate currency, first selecting and circling a detail that best shows the Confederacy’s desire to appear as a legitimate government and explaining their choice in a text box. In a second drawing activity, they select and explain a detail that best suggests how the Confederacy understood or justified its cause. Building on these observations, students respond to two discussion walls: how the presence of Jefferson Davis on Confederate currency reveals how people in the Confederacy viewed him as a leader, and how this use of his image connects to ideas he expressed in his inaugural address about the Confederacy and its future.
Teacher MovesClarify that this is an optional extension to deepen understanding of legitimacy through symbols and actions. As students share their annotated currency images, prompt them to identify which symbols or features they chose (such as names, titles, seals, or formal language) and discuss how these elements communicate governmental authority. Then shift to how the selected details suggest the Confederacy’s understanding or justification of its cause, asking why using its own currency to convey these ideas might be significant. During the discussion wall debrief, ask how placing Jefferson Davis on the currency reflects Confederate views of his leadership and how it strengthens the Confederacy’s claim to be a separate, legitimate nation. Conclude by connecting these strong claims to legitimacy and nationhood back to why compromise between the Union and Confederacy became less likely and how competing beliefs about sovereignty and the country’s future deepened division.
Students synthesize their learning by responding on a discussion wall to the prompt: How did Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis each justify the actions they believed their governments should take in 1861? They write a paragraph that uses at least one piece of evidence from each inaugural address to explain how differing beliefs about authority, responsibility, and the nation’s future shaped leadership decisions.
Teacher MovesFrame this scene as an opportunity for students to demonstrate their understanding of how Lincoln and Davis justified authority and action. Remind students to draw on specific evidence from both inaugural addresses as they write. If time allows, lead a brief reflection asking how each leader’s justifications show that he believed he was acting legitimately at the same moment in history and what it meant for the country to have two leaders, each claiming constitutional authority, leading in opposite directions. Use student responses to underscore how these competing claims to legitimacy and authority made compromise difficult and pushed the United States toward civil war.
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