THE THREAT OF SECESSION AND CIVIL WAR - 1861

I have some trying times ahead of me.  I’m pledged to stop 
the spread of slavery and preserve the Union but the Southern 
states are threatening secession.  Jefferson Davis has been 
named President of the Confederate States of America.  I 
fear the United States is going to  pass through a terrible 
time and as I said in my inauguration address:

"In your hands my dissatisifed fellow countrymen and not in 
mine is the momentous issue of Civil War.   You can have no 
conflict without being yourselves the aggressor.  You have no 
oath registered in heaven to destroy the goverment while I 
shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and 
defend it."