he Union from actual and immediate dissolution,--trusting, as
hereinbefore stated, to time, discussion, and the ballot-box, for final
adjustment; and they assailed and reduced the fort for precisely the
reverse object,--to drive out the visible authority of the Federal
Union, and thus force it to immediate dissolution....

That this was their object the Executive well understood; and having
said to them in the inaugural address, "You can have no conflict without
being yourselves the aggressors," he took pains not only to keep this
declaration good, but also to keep the case so free from the power of
ingenious sophistry that the world should not be able to misunderstand
it....

By the affair at Fort Sumter, with its surrounding circumstances, that
point was reached. Then and thereby the assailants of the government
began the conflict of arms, without a gun in sight, or in expectancy to
return their fire, save only the few in the fort sent to that harbour
years before for their own protection, and still ready to give that
protection in whatever was lawful. In this act, discarding all else,
they have forced upon the country the distinct issue, "immediate
dissolution or blood."

And this issue embraces more than the fate of these United States. It
presents to the whole family of man the question whether a
constitutional republic or democracy--a government of the people by the
same people--can or cannot maintain its territorial integrity against
its own domestic foes. It presents the question whether discontented
individuals, too few in numbers to control administration according to
organic law in any case, can always, upon the pretences made in this
case or any other pretences, or arbitrarily without any pretence, break
up their government, and thus practically put an end to free government
upon the earth. It forces us to ask: "Is there, in all republics, this
inherent and fatal weakness?" "Must a government, of necessity, be too
strong for the liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain its
own existence?"

So viewing the issue, no choice was left but to call out the war power
of the government, and so to resist force employed for its destruction
by force for its preservation.

The call was made, and the response of the country was most gratifying,
surpassing in unanimity and spirit the most sanguine expectation.

... The people of Virginia have thus allowed this giant insurrection to
make its nest within h