...long ago forgotten by most Americans. emerged, with the courage and determination to save the nation. "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen,...not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war," he said in his inaugural address. "You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government,...

...describing his own method of making decisions. He addressed Southerners: "In your hands, my dissatisfied countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail [attack] you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered...

...issues in his inaugural speech, delivered on the steps of the Capitol with its dome still incomplete: "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen,...registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect and defend it...' "I am loath to close. We are...

...of calm and cheerful confidence."9 He concluded poetically, the idea Seward's, the language his own: In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen,...registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect and defend" it. I am loath to close. We are...

...adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulty. In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war....registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while J shall have the most solemn one to " preserve, protect, and defend it." * I am loth to close. We are...

...questions as to terms of intercourse are again upon you. In YOUR hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in MINE, is the momentous issue of civil war....registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it." I am loathe to close. We are...

...addressed those who had presumed to have left it: "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war....registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect and defend' it." Few believed that war would...

...cease fighting, the identical old questions, as to terms of intercourse, are again upon you. . . . "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen,...conflict, without being yourselves the aggressors." He closed with the lyrical assurance that "the mystic chords of memory . . . will yet swell the chorus...

...adjust in the best way all our present difficulty. ln your hands, my dissatisfied fellowcountrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war....without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no 155 oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while l shall have the most solemn one to...

...SURRENDER/ j IT WAS TO BE PRESIPENT BUCHANAN'S LAST ACT. IN YOUR HANDS, MY DISSATISFIED FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN, AND NOT IN MINE, IS THE MOMENTOUS ISSUE OF CIVIL WAR....CONFLICT WITHOUT BEING YOURSELVES THE AGGRESSORS. 1 HAVE NO PURPOSE, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, TO INTERFERE WITH THE INSTITUTION OF SLAVERY IN THE STATES...