The American Civil War began with division and culminated in devastation for both sides, a president slain and a bitter reconstruction ahead. The speeches in this volume represent the fierce sectional passions that led up to the war and accompanied its many swings in fortune; included are addresses by Lincoln, as great a pragmatist as he was idealist; by Confederate leaders such as Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens; by defenders of "King Cotton" and crusaders against the evils of slavery.