Short answers, pulled from the story.
Lincoln delivered his first inaugural address on Monday, the 4th of March 1861, at the United States Capitol. It marked his taking of the oath of office as the sixteenth president of the United States.
The speech was primarily addressed to the people of the South, where seven states had already seceded and formed the Confederate States of America. Lincoln aimed to state his intended policies toward the South, reassure Southerners that he had no plans to interfere with slavery where it existed, and argue that secession was legally impossible.
Seward, Lincoln's soon-to-be Secretary of State, suggested softening the speech's tone and proposed a new closing paragraph to replace Lincoln's original ending, which had asked whether the outcome would be "peace or a sword." Lincoln took Seward's draft and rewrote it into the famous closing about the "mystic chords of memory" and "the better angels of our nature."
Lincoln read Jackson's December 1832 Nullification Proclamation at least twice between his election and inauguration. Jackson's arguments about the unconstitutionality of secession, the perpetual nature of the Union, and the logic of compact theory all appeared in Lincoln's address, and both men used similar rhetorical strategies to cast the South as the aggressor.
Lincoln stated he had no purpose, "directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists" and said he had neither the legal right nor the inclination to do so. He also expressed no objection to the Corwin Amendment, already passed by Congress, which would have formally protected slavery in states where it existed.
Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter on the 12th of April 1861, and Lincoln declared a formal state of insurrection. Following that, four more states, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas, joined the Confederacy, bringing the total number of seceded states to eleven.