Declaration of Independence, believed in upholding his part of the social contract, protecting the God-given rights of the people. And it is because of his beliefs in the firm beliefs in the Declaration; Lincoln would never perform an action that violated the Declaration’s principles. The South was unhappy at their current situation in the union and accordingly seceded from the union. Ironically, the principle that proposed to divide the nation stemmed from the very one that had caused its union. The civil war, similar to that of the revolution, was nothing more than a fight for independence. Because Lincoln formulated every political thought from the Declaration of Independence, the South could not justify secession. It could not secede because there were no liberties or God-given rights being violated by the government like had caused the Revolutionary War. Therefore, Lincoln was justified in his use of force to return the seceded states back to the union. The Constitution is a written social contract between the government and the people. Accordingly, Lincoln viewed the South’s fight for Southern independence as unconstitutional and unjustified. The ruling body that springs beliefs from the social contract in every decision cannot be in violation of God-given rights. In Lincoln statement, he was doing nothing more than reiterating justification in forcibly returning the Southern states to the Union....
