Question

Directions: Use the following quotation to answer the questions below. “[T]he maintenance . . . of the rights of the States, and especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment [alone], is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend. . . .” —Abraham Lincoln, 1st inaugural address, March 4, 1861 What is the “domestic institution” that Lincoln refers to in his inaugural address?

Answer 1

I would say that "domestic institutions" would most likely be the State institutions ie of each individual state of the republic that they should be free to make their appropriate decisions according to their jurisdictions. In Canada, for example, the provinces could be semi-comparable to the states and such things as education and mining fall within provincial jurisdiction and the federal government usually does not interfere with these activities except in exceptional cases where a national environmental review is required on a particularly controversial mine for example.