If a minority in such case will secede rather than acquiesce, they make a precedent which in turn will divide and ruin them; for a minority of their own will secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be controlled by such minority.
In his first inaugural, Lincoln warned that secession by a minority would set a precedent that would ultimately lead to further division and ruin for the seceding group.
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Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish.
Ordered, first. That at the hour of noon on the 14th day of April, 1865, Brevet Major-General Anderson will raise and plant upon the ruins of Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, the same United States flag which floated over the battlements…
Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.
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