Read the passage from President Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address.
In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. . . . You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it.”
Which best sums up the meaning of Lincoln’s words?
Americans are right to be dissatisfied with their government.
Unhappy Americans have no right to break the Union apart.
Southern states are free to leave the Union if they so choose.
The president has the power to start a civil war if he wants to.
