About 30,000 people attended Lincoln's inauguration and because of threats against his life, troops were everywhere. In his address to the nation on this momentous occasion, Lincoln emphasized his position on slavery, stating that he was not opposed to the institution where it was already established. He further pointed out that the states voting for secession were in error, since "the Union of these States is perpetual." Taking the stance, that acts against the Federal government were "insurrectionary or revolutionary", Lincoln vowed to uphold the Union, saying to refractory Southerners, "in your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the mementous issue of civil war."