Frank, I believe Lincoln delivered this speech after Fort Sumter was fired on? That being the case Major Anderson had already moved from Moultrie to Sumter making the first aggressive action. Lincoln did nothing to resolve that issue. He refused to meet the Southern peace delegation. He did launch his "relief" fleet before Sumter was fired on, this was clearly another aggressive action. In effect Lincoln had already started a war without the consent of congress. Now consider this Lincoln still had other options after Sumter was fired on since there was no lives lost, he could still have opened talks, but he did not. The way I see it these actions were a clear violation of his oath. He chose to call for troops forcing more states out of the Union and the loss of more American lives than any war in our history.

GP