|First National Confederate Flag (7 star)|
- The Confederacy adopts its first flag, the Stars and Bars, designed by O.R. Smith of Louisburg, NC./1861
- President Davis appoints Stephen R. Mallory Secretary of the Navy/1861
- The U.S. Senate considers the Peace Convention resolutions in the waning moments of its session but rejects them decisively, 28-7./1861
US Capitol on Lincoln's Inauguration
In his inaugural address, Lincoln emphasizes that he is not opposed to slavery where it is established, assuming that slavery was the only issue that brought states to the point of secession. He says the seceded states are in error, since the Union is perpetual, ignoring the meaning and raison d’être for the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution.
|Lincoln and Buchanan pass Capitol|
By taking the stance that secession is an act against the Federal government and therefore "insurrectionary or revolutionary," Lincoln sets a bullying tone at the beginning of his Administration. He vows to uphold and reassemble the Union, thinly veiling his belligerent intent to coerce states by military force, thus violating the very Constitution he only minutes earlier took an oath to uphold.
Then with powerful and persuasive rhetoric, Lincoln spins the national crisis caused by his own election by laying blame for his willful intimidation at the feet of the Southern states threatening, "in your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war.”/1861
|Lincoln gives his Inauguration Address|
- The new President Lincoln does not have time to celebrate his new job. This morning in the midst of inaugural festivities, Lincoln finds at his office a report from Major Robert Anderson at Fort Sumter, written on February 28, which has reached Washington today. Anderson reports that his examination of provisions has found that the garrison has four to six weeks of supplies remaining. Anticipating reinforcements, Anderson says that he and his staff agree that a considerable land and naval force would be required to relieve Fort Sumter – an estimated "twenty thousand good and well-disciplined men."/1861