Nyour hands, my dissatisfied 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 registered in heaven to destroy the government, while i shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it." … — president abraham lincoln — when president lincoln made this speech, which step toward civil war had already taken place?