...he added.1 In Lincoln's first inaugural address, he had said: "The Union of the States is perpetual. No State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union." Later, he said: "The country has placed me in the helm of the ship; I'll try to steer her through."...

...and establishing the Constitution, was "to form a more perfect union"... It follows from these views that no State, upon its own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union,—that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void; and that acts of violence, within...

...State, upon its own mere motion, can lawfullv get out of the Union — that resolves and unlinances to that effect are legally void; and that acts of...insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances. I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken; and, to...

...that was unbreakable." In his First Inaugural, he clearly declared that "it follows from these views that no state, upon its own mere motion, can lawfully...resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void . . ."'° It would take 620,000 deaths to resolve this Constitutional and moral issue in favor of the...

...fundamental law of all national governments," he declared in his inaugural address on March 4, 1861. "No State, upon its own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union." Two months later Lincoln told his private secretary that "the central idea pervading this struggle...

...than before the Constitution, having lost the vital element of perpetuity. It follows from these views that no State, upon its own mere motion, can lawfully...insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances. I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken; and, to...