What is the main idea of this excerpt from Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural

Address? I hold that, in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments. It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to execute all the express provisions of our National Constitution, and the Union will endure forever—it being impossible to destroy it except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself.

A. Secession was a peaceful mode of rebellion.
B. Secession from the Union was illegal.
C. Secession defied the principles of the Confederacy.
D. Secession was the leading cause of the Civil War.
E. Secession negatively affected the nation’s economy.

In this text, Abraham Lincoln conveys the idea that secession from the Confederacy defied the principles by which this was established. He tells us that both universal law and the Constitution state that the Union is eternal. Moreover, he argues that the Confederacy could not possibly create a provision for its own destruction. As the Confederacy did not create such a provision, then secession would necessarily go against the principles by which the Confederacy was established.