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When Thomas Jefferson wrote "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" it wasn't entirely true at the time. There still remained that unspoken populace of the country, the poor enslaved negro. The practice of slavery has shaped every decision of the past eighty-five years, from the war with Mexico to the admission of Missouri and Kentucky into the country. A small coalition of Southerners like Polk, Calhoun, and Clay bullied, cajoled, and compromised their way to prop this wicked practice upright, like a dying man on a sick horse. 

Now a small coalition of Southern politicians seek separation over the practice of slavery. They wish to keep those millions in bondage regardless of the bloodshed and the pain it causes the slave and the freeman. The matter of slavery is one that I will not get into fully, but let me say that the South's illegal rebellion must come to an end so that justice can be brought to this wicked coalition. Easier said than done thanks to an even smaller coalition from thousands of miles away. They feel that it is their right to impose their will upon our country, to tell us that our desire for a unified and free country is wrong. They wish to say that the direction of these United States is for them to decide. They ignore our rights and talk about a sham peace while they send warships and troops and attempt to block our trade. These men who wear crowns and practice that laughable practice of Divine Right, are a series of walking contradictions. They talk about Southern sovereignty and respecting its rights as a country, while they bully us and attempt to rip our sovereignty from us by force. They wish to enslave us like the South has enslaved the negro.

Our country stands on a knife's edge at the moment. The bloodshed has just started, but more bloodshed across the world seems to be the forecast. If I am given a choice of prolonged war as free country, or continued peaceful existence as a broken country, one that will kowtow to the foreign powers and lick the European boot? I choose war. I have no doubt that this war will be a difficult one for all of us to endure, but endure we must. We are on His side, the side of the angels. I believe He has shown us the truth, that truth will guide us and show us the way. I am only the sixteenth chief executive of this nation, and I will do everything in my power and ability to make sure that there will be a seventeenth and an eighteenth after I am done. This nation will be united, we will move forward into our destiny as one of the great nation states of the ages. His truth is marching on.

-- Abraham Lincoln
President, United States of America