[Ditto]

No doubt the union was in peril, but I can't find where the president's duties include preserving the union - is it written anywhere?

Article 2, Section 3.
he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed

[WhiskeyPapa]

No doubt the union was in peril, but I can't find where the president's duties include preserving the union - is it written anywhere?

Article 2, Section 3.
he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed

It's hard to imagine someone would post on this issue and be so ignorant of the record they wouldn't know that President Lincoln said in his first inaugural:

"I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken; and to the extent of my ability I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part; and I shall perform it so far as practicable, unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisite means, or in some authoritative manner direct the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it WILL Constitutionally defend and maintain itself."

And that is what happened.

Walt

[stainlessbanner]

he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed

and which law(s) is it that states the preservation of the union?