...Douglas just a few days before. Lincoln was also emphatic in his opposition to secession, insisting that "no State, upon its own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union." The Union was perpetual and could not be broken. He promised that the Constitution and laws would be...

...peace and security of no section are to be in any wise endangered by the now incoming administration. [N]o State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union .... [RJesolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void .... [A]cts of violence within any State...

...authority," there was no question that Lincoln considered secession illegal, "that no State, upon its mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union,—...resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void." More than simply illegal, though, secession was on his terms a "dissolution," an act of revolution...

...Union is less perfect than before the Constitution, having lost the vital element of perpetuity. [15] It follows from these views that no State, upon its...insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances. In this history, Lincoln reasserts his view of the Union as a national government. Anticipating the...

...were not conciliatory. His theory of the Union did not allow secession and "resolves and ord1nances to that effect are legally void, and that acts of...United States, are insurrectionary or revolutionary." Lincoln meant to "hold, occupy, and possess" federal properties. What did such words mean for Indian...

...restoration plan. It gave substance to a point he made in his first inaugural address when he said, "no state upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union." On July 4, 1861, in a special message to Congress he reaffirmed this guiding principle, stating that...

...Vice-President Hannibal Hamlin was also sworn in. In his inaugural address, Lincoln reminded the country that, "... no State upon its own mere motion can lawfully...insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances." Furthermore, as the leader of the country he had a solemn oath to "preserve, protect, and defend it."...

...douht. His inaugural address was earnest and direct. He said, "The union of these States is perpetual. No State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union. I shall take care that the laws of the Union are faithfully executed in all the States." It was, in...

...where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.... No state, upon its own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union.... I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union...

...of Iowa Press, 1994), 30-47. 29. In Lincoln's "First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861," one reads: No State, upon its own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union . . . resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void, and . . . acts of violence, within any...