Lincoln reasoned that the union created by the Constitution must remain intact. While the southern states claimed they had the right to secede, and that might have been true, the Constitution did not allow them to join any league or confederacy besides the United States of America. Thus, he argued, the existence of a Confederacy was in direct violation of the US Constitution.
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the election of Abraham Lincoln.
The Southern states wanted to keep their slaves, and they were worried that President Abraham Lincoln wanted to free the slaves, so many of the southern states left the union to try and keep their slaves.
quick military action to show the folly of secession.
President Abraham Lincoln spent a good portion of his 1861 inaugural address on the issue of secession. That part of his speech took the form of a detailed legal brief denying the constitutionality of secession. His words dovetailed the illegality of secession with his oath as president to hold, occupy and posses the property and places belonging to the US government. He equated secession with anarchy.
Southern states claimed that their right to own slaves was being threatened by the federal government, particularly with the election of Abraham Lincoln as president. They believed secession was necessary to preserve their economic and social system based on slavery.