First, his pawn to hold, fascinate, and hold the property and places intimacy to the government-including Fort Sumter, which was still in Federal hands; second, his controversy that the Union was unsolvable, and thus that secession was impossible, and third, a promise that while he would never be the first to attack, any use for arms upon the United States would be regarded as rebellion, and met with force. The inauguration took place on the eve of the American Civil War, which began soon after with the Confederate attack on the Fort Sumter.