The declared purpose of the compact of Union was "to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves and our posterity;" and when.. it. ceased to answer the ends for which it was established,... the government created by that compact should cease to exist.

Question

As a necessity, not a choice, we have resorted to the remedy of separation.
-Jefferson Davis, first inaugural address, February 18, 1861
I hold, that our national Constitution, and Union will endure forever-it being impossible to destroy it.
No State can lawfully get out of the Union and. acts of violence within any State or States, against the authority of the United States, are [rebellious] or revolutionary.
-Abraham Lincoln, first inaugural address, March 4, 1861
Based on these excerpts, which statement describes the ideas of Presidents Davis and Lincoln?
(1 point)
Both Davis and Lincoln believed that it was unlawful for a state to break from the union.
Both Davis and Lincoln believed that states had the authority to wage war against the union.
O Davis believed that the federal government made secession necessary, while Lincoln believed the union must be preserved.
Lincoln believed that a state must prove the right to secede, while Davis believed that any state could secede at any time.

Answer 1

The statement that best describes the ideas of Presidents Davis and Lincoln is:

Davis believed that the federal government made secession necessary, while Lincoln believed the union must be preserved.

This is reflected in Davis's assertion that the government ceased to fulfill its intended purposes, justifying secession, while Lincoln strongly argued that the Union must remain intact and that no state could lawfully leave the Union.