Lincoln inaugurated

Abraham Lincoln becomes the 16th president of the United States. Although he
extended an olive branch to the South, he also made it clear that he intended to
enforce federal laws in the seceded states.

Since Lincoln's election in November, seven states had left the Union.
Worried that the election of a Republican would threaten their rights,
especially slavery, the lower South seceded and formed the Confederate States of
America. In the process, some of those states had seized federal properties such
as armories and forts. By the time Lincoln arrived in Washington for his
inauguration, the threat of war hung heavy in the air. Lincoln took a cautious
approach in his remarks, and he made no specific threats against the southern
states. As a result, he had some flexibility in trying to keep the states of the
upper South--North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky,
Maryland, and Delaware--in the Union.

In his address, Lincoln promised not to interfere with the institution of
slavery where it existed, and he pledged to suspend the activities of the
federal government temporarily in areas of hostility. However, he also took a
firm stance against secession and the seizure of federal property. The
government, insisted Lincoln, would "hold, occupy, and possess" its property and
collect its taxes. He closed his remarks with an eloquent reminder of the
nation's common heritage:

"In your hand, my fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue
of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict
without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath in Heaven to destroy
the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect,
and defend" it...We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though
passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic
chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave, to every
living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the
chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better
angels of our nature."