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If the United States be not a government proper, but an association of
States in the nature of contract merely, can it, as a contract, be peaceably
unmade by less than all the parties who made it? One party to a contract
may violate it — break it, so to speak —
but does it not require all to lawfully rescind it?
Abraham
Lincoln,
"First
Inaugural Address"
4
March 1861
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We feel that our cause is just and holy; we protest solemnly in the face
of mankind that we desire peace at any sacrifice save that of honor and
independence; we seek no conquest, no aggrandizement, no concession of
any kind from the States with which we were lately confederated; all we
ask is to be let alone; that those who never held power over us shall not
now attempt our subjugation by arms. This we will, this we
must, resist to
the direst extremity.
Jefferson
Davis,
"Message
on Constitutional Ratification"
29
April 1861
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