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The flaw with Davis' theory, at least with regard to Fort Sumter, was that said fort was built totally by federal funds and lay on land created by the federal Corps of Engineers and Illinois owned just as much of it as South Carolina did. Hence, it was truly federal property as if it was located on the Mall in Washington and Lincoln had sworn an oath before God and Roger B. Taney (who was sure HE was God) that he would hold onto ALL the federal property or, if unsuccessful in holding it, fight to get it back. And notwithstanding a few high powered Confederates, people in the mid-nineteenth century (and old Abe even more than most) took oaths very seriously.Davis, from his view of the same Constitution, said any property within the state was the state's.