I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists... no State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union; resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void.
Original passage & context
"I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. [...] It follows from these views that no State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union; that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void, and that acts of violence within any State or States against the authority of the United States are insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances. [...] In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors."
The North's formal answer to the new nation, and it is two answers in one breath: slavery is safe where it stands, and secession is legally void. Both halves are the platform he ran on. The seven states at Montgomery had a government, a president, and a constitution before the man they seceded over took office. Non-contiguous passages from the one address joined with [...].
Read it in the original — First Inaugural Address, Mar 4, 1861 ↗