Читать книгу American Civil War For Dummies - Keith D. Dickson - Страница 78

On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office to become the 16th president of the United States. As all presidents have done before and since, he swore an oath to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Ironically, the Constitution no longer existed in seven Southern states. Lincoln used his oath as the basis for his message to the nation and to those seven states. He made four points:

 Secession was illegal and unjustified.

 The seceded states were still in the Union.

 No federal troops would be sent against the states, nor would the federal government interfere with slavery where it already existed.

 The government would “hold, occupy, and possess” all federal property in the seceded states.

In essence, Lincoln told the Confederacy that the U.S. government would take no aggressive action against it. But if the Confederacy attacked federal property (obviously referring to Sumter and Pickens), the government would take action. The ball was now in the Confederacy’s court.