<P> According to Lincoln , the people of the United States had shown that they can be successful in establishing and administering a republic , but a third challenge faced the nation , maintaining the republic , based on the people 's vote . The people must now show : `` ... successful maintenance ( of the Republic ) against a formidable internal attempt to overthrow it . It is now for them to demonstrate to the world that those who can fairly carry an election can also suppress a rebellion ; that ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors of bullets ; and that when ballots have fairly and constitutionally decided , there can be no successful appeal back to bullets ; that there can be no successful appeal , except to ballots themselves , at succeeding elections . Such will be a great lesson of peace ; teaching men that what they can not take by an election , neither can they take it by a war ... '' </P>
civil war what did the north fight for
maintaining the republic