And after 3 days the court case Is risen, hallelujah. It's a Miracle. Thru Violence 2.0.

harmonic convergence agin

I am thinking the ceremonials you pointed out, with the moment of silence and the other stuff, that was a trial balloon to see how fans would take the change....

And for billionth time, people have a right to peacefully secede from whatever Union, though conditions will vary, and thuggish threats including shootings to make them stay Is barely a progressive position. Of course people leaving to preserve an immoral practice Is not defensible unless that practice Is codified in the Constitution, which rather circumscribes a more rightful response. And these little foreign enclaves like the North wanted with Sumter - Goa, Macau, Gitmo, Gibraltar, Kaliningrad all have dubious legality. But as long as the answer Is what Ppl want to hear, the logic to get there doesnt matter.

On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as president. In his inaugural address, he argued that the Constitution was a more perfect union than the earlier Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, that it was a binding contract, and called any secession "legally void".[89] He had no intent to invade Southern states, nor did he intend to end slavery where it existed, but said that he would use force to maintain possession of Federal property. The government would make no move to recover post offices, and if resisted, mail delivery would end at state lines. Where popular conditions did not allow peaceful enforcement of Federal law, U.S. marshals and judges would be withdrawn. No mention was made of bullion lost from U.S. mints in Louisiana, Georgia, and North Carolina. He stated that it would be U.S. policy to only collect import duties at its ports; there could be no serious injury to the South to justify the armed revolution during his administration. His speech closed with a plea for restoration of the bonds of union, famously calling on "the mystic chords of memory" binding the two regions.[89]

The South sent delegations to Washington and offered to pay for the federal properties[which?] and enter into a peace treaty with the United States. Lincoln rejected any negotiations with Confederate agents because he claimed the Confederacy was not a legitimate government, and that making any treaty with it would be tantamount to recognition of it as a sovereign government.[90] Secretary of State William Seward, who at the time saw himself as the real governor or "prime minister" behind the throne of the inexperienced Lincoln, engaged in unauthorized and indirect negotiations that failed.[90] President Lincoln was determined to hold all remaining Union-occupied forts in the Confederacy: Fort Monroe in Virginia, Fort Pickens, Fort Jefferson and Fort Taylor in Florida, and Fort Sumter – located at the cockpit of secession in Charleston, South Carolina.

Battle of Fort Sumter

Main article: Battle of Fort Sumter

The Confederate "Stars and Bars" flying from Fort Sumter

Fort Sumter is located in the middle of the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. Its garrison recently moved there to avoid incidents with local militias in the streets of the city. Lincoln told its commander, Maj. Anderson to hold on until fired upon. Confederate president Jefferson Davis ordered the surrender of the fort. Anderson gave a conditional reply that the Confederate government rejected, and Davis ordered General P. G. T. Beauregard to attack the fort before a relief expedition could arrive. He bombarded Fort Sumter on April 12–13, forcing its capitulation.

The attack on Fort Sumter rallied the North to the defense of American nationalism. Historian Allan Nevins underscored the significance of the event:

"The thunderclap of Sumter produced a startling crystallization of Northern sentiment. ... Anger swept the land. From every side came news of mass meetings, speeches, resolutions, tenders of business support, the muster of companies and regiments, the determined action of governors and legislatures."[91]

Mass meeting in New York City April 20, 1861, to support the Union.

Union leaders incorrectly assumed that only a minority of Southerners were in favor of secession and that there were large numbers of southern Unionists that could be counted on. Had Northerners realized that most Southerners favored secession, they might have hesitated at attempting the enormous task of conquering a united South.[92]