Lincoln vs. Davis: Who Says It?

“I enter upon the duties of the office to which I have been chosen with the hope that the beginning of our history as a Confederacy may not be blocked by hostile opposition to our enjoyment of a separate existence and independence.”

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“In your hands, my unhappy fellow countrymen, and not mine is the issue of civil war. The government will not attack you. There will be no conflict unless you start it.”

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“We are an agricultural people whose main goal is the export of the commodity (cotton) required in every manufacturing country, our true policy is peace, and the freest possible trade which our situation allows.”

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“Through many years of controversy with our recent friends, we have tried unsuccessfully to secure peace and respect for the rights to which we were entitled. As a necessity, not a choice, we have resorted to the solution of separation.”

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“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have tested things it must not break our bonds of friendship.”

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“With a Constitution different from that of our fathers that explains their original intentions, we are freed from the sectional conflicts that have interfered with our pursuit of the general welfare. A reunion with the States from which we have separated is not practical or desired.”

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“No state on its own can lawfully get out of the Union. Any resolutions or ordinances of secession are illegal, and any acts of violence within any State against the authority of the United States is a rebellion.”

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“I shall take care that the laws of the Union be faithfully followed in all the States. It is the declared reason for the Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself.”

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“Our present condition shows the American idea that governments rest on the consent of the governed and that it is the right of the people to change or abolish governments when they no longer serve the interests of the people being governed.”

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“I have no reason, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so and I have no intention to do so.”

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