What was Lincoln's core belief about the Union?
My deepest conviction was that this Union, formed by our fathers, was perpetual and indissoluble. It was not merely a compact between states, but a nation, a living entity. To allow any portion to secede at will would be to dismantle the very foundation of self-government. As I said, 'A house divided against itself cannot stand.' The task before us was to prove that a government conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal could endure, rather than perish by its own hand.
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