...he concisely warned the south: "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you — you have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one...

...hands and not the government's: "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you" (emphasis original).47 So, too, in Lincoln's second address the Union is on the defensive; it did not...

...security which is most favorable to calm thought and reflection." He closed this address by noting, " You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government,...solemn one to 'preserve, protect, and defend it.' " Is there any time when a president can halt the government in its additional background information...

...in the sand to confederates. "You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government,...solemn one to "preserve, protect and defend" it." Rather than serving as a contract with which a president may be bound or even entrapped, the oath became...

...268-69. war was entirely its own. "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government...conflict, without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while / shall have the most solemn...

...directly to the secessionist leaders: "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government...conflict, without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while / shall have the most solemn...

...way, all our present difficulty. In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government...conflict, without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy ihe government, while / shall have the most solemn...

...President Lincoln sounded a conciliatory tone: In your hands, my dissatisfied countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government...will not assail you. You can have no conflict without yourselves being the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while...

...way all our present difficulty. In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government...will not assail you. You can have no conflict without yourselves being the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while...

...enduring, indissoluble Union and meant to uphold it. Toward the end, he again reminded southerners that "the government will not assail you. You can have no conflict, without being yourselves the aggressors."26 In sum, he tried to have it both ways: he disavowed the use of force against the seceded...