Mr. Lincoln took the executive chair in a dark and stormy time. Vast preparations for war had been made in the south, and, except with him and a few still hopeful men, a contest was looked upon as inevitable. In his inaugural address he said that lie should " take care that the laws of the union be faithfully executed in all the states;" adding, "I trust this will not be regarded as a menace. There need be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall be none unless it be forced upon the national authority. The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property anti places belong ing to the government, and to collect the duties and imposts; but, beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere- Physically speaking, we cannot separate, we cannot remove our respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence and beyond the reach of each other; but the different parts of our country cannot do this. They cannot but remain face to face; and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue between them. Is it possible, then, to make the intercourse more advantageous or more satisfac tory after separation than before? The chief magistrate derives all his authority from the people; and they have conferred none upon him to fix terms for the separation of the states. His duty is to administer the present government as it came into his hands, and to transmit it unimpaired by him to his successor. In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the agg-ressors. You have no oath registered in, heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend it." In fact he denied the right of any state or number of states to, go out of the union. The confederates considered this address to amount to a declara tion of war, and hastened their preparations. In the north the address united and con solidated the people in support of its views. Less than six weeks afterwards, gen. Beauregard, on behalf of the confederate government, demanded the surrender of Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, then garrisoned by a small force under xnaj. Robert Ander son. The surrender being refused, the fort was attacked April 12, 1861, and thus actual hostilities begun. That act united the people of the north; party lines were broken down, and, with the exception of a few extreme proslavery men (afterwards known as " copperheads"), the whole people echoed the words of Jackson when South Carolina made her first attempt at secession—" The union must and shall be preserved." Maj. Anderson abandoned the fort on the 14th. The next day president Lincoln called a special session of congress to meet on the 4th of July; at the same time he called for 75,000 militia. The response was instantaneous. Massachusetts, with her sixth regiment, was first in the field. This regiment was attacked while going through 13altimore, and a number of its members were killed. On April 19 the president proclaimed the blockade of all the ports of the seceding states. The south was even more inflamed than the north; three days after the fall of Sumter the Virginia legislature voted to join the confederacy', and a few days later North Carolina followed her example. The confederates had raised 100,000 men, and made no secret of their design to capture the national capital and invade the north. On May 30 another call for men was issued by Lincoln, and both the army and the navy were speedily and largely reinforced. In a brief message to congress the president rehearsed the acts of rebellion, and said: " This issue imbrues more than the fate of these United States. It presents to the whole family of man the question whether a constitutional republic or democracy—a government of the 'people by the same people—can or cannot maintain its territorial integrity against its iown domestic foes." Some opposition was made in congress by members who thought / • it unconstitutional to " coerce a sovereign state," but the loyal sentiment overwhelmed them. July 15 a democratic member (Meelernand of III.) offered a resolution pledging the house to vote an,y amount of money and any number of men necessary to suppress the rebellion and restore the authority of the government. There were only five opposing votes in a house of nearly 300 members. On July 21 the union forces were very badly defeated at Bull Bun, and driven in a panic back upon Washington. The news gave the northern people a terrible shock. but it was only momentary, and its ultimate effect was to rouse to the highest pitch the patriotism and courage of the loyal states, and volunteers came by thousands and thousands without waiting for a call. Up to the last of Oct. gen. Scott retained his position as commander of the army; but he was grow ing feeble, and was retired, gen. :McClellan taking his place. The army was reor ganized, new troops were drilled, and the whole force was soon in good discipline. But McClellan was loath to fight; though entirely loyal, he inclined to aet with the moderate men on both sides, and whenever it seemed necessary to strike directly at slavery in order to sustain the republic he was not the man or the officer to do it. McClellan remaining inactive until near the end of Jan., 1862, the president, on the 27th of that month, ordered that on Feb. 22 a general movement by land and sea should be rnade against the confederates. McClellan objected, and nothing was done until at a council of war, held Mar. 13, it was decided to move against Richmond from fortress Monroe. Here again 3IcClellan waited and hesitated, complaining that he was not properly supported at Washington, and after a number of battles, in which the unionists were generally beaten, he was forced to abandon the campaig-n and retreat. The close of the summer of 1862 was a da.rk period for loyal men, but no one suffered so keenly or worked so faithfully as. did president Lincoln. The confederates now took the aggressive; Lee invaded Maryland, but was soon driven out after the first union victory
.Antietam. To follow up this victory, McClellan was ordered to follow Lee and fight him or drive him southward. Again McClellan delayed, and finally broke the long enduring patience of Lincoln, who removed him from command, Burnside taking lus place. Battles with Lee followed at Fredericksburg and Chancellorville, in both cases unfortunate for the unionists. The people of the north began to feel that it was time to strike the rebellion in a vital part, and the emancipation of the slaves in the south was urged upon Lincoln, not only as a legitimate, but as a vitally necessary war-measure. He hesitated; thought such an act would drive the border slave states, still nominally loyal, into the confederacy. Again, what if the emancipated negroes should be taken into the confederate army? He said to the men who were urging the emancipation idea and adding that they felt sure it was the will of God: " I hope it will not be irreverent for me to say that, if it is probable that God would reveal his will to others on a point so connected with my duty, it might be supposed he would reveal it directly to me, for, unless I am more deceived in myself than I often am, it is my earnest desire to know the will of Providence in this matter; and if I can learn what it is, I will do it." In reference to the position of the slave-holding states still in the union he said: " There are 50,000 bayonets in the union army from the border slave states. It would be a serious matter if, in consequence of a proclamation such as you desire, they should go over to the rebels." Lincoln carefully sought the opinion of the northern people in the matter, and soon found that he would be sustained in the action questioned. Thus fortified he issued, on Monday, Sept. 22, 1862, the most important official document, the declaration of independence only excepted, known in American history; declaring that on and after Jan. 1, 1863, all slaves in states or parts of states then in rebellion should be free. Two years afterwards Lincoln said of the proclamation: " As affairs have turned it is the central act of my administration, and the great event of the 19th century." After the conflict at Chancellorville the current of success seemed to favor the union arms, leading ou to the great event of July 4, 1863—the capture of Vicksburg by gen. Grant. At the same time the three-days' battle between the unionists under Meade and the confederates under Lee was going on near Gettysburg, resulting in a decisive union victory. Lincoln soon saw in Grant the man for the occasion, and in Mar., 1864, in conipliance with the recommendation of congress, the captor of Vicks burg was appointed lieut.gen. of the armies of the United States. This sealed the fate of the rebellion. The rebels had fought long and bravely; but their resources failed. their losses were enormous, and those who lived were worn out. Sherman, almost unopposed, marched through an empty country to the sea: Grant, who knew no such word as fail, had set himself to the capture of Richmond, and would "fight it out on this line if it takes all suunner." We need not follow details when the catastrophe is so near. On April 2, 1865, Lee was forced out of Riclnnond (then the confederate capital), and seven days afterwards was compelled to surrender his whole army to Grant at Appomattox. On the lith, eight days later, gen. Joe Johnston surrendered to Sherman and the great struggle WaS ended; in fact, it ended with the surrender of Lee. Grant reached Washington on the 13th, met the president and secretary of war, and orders were prepared to stop the raising of recruits. The war was over and every loyal heart was rejoicing. Lincoln's praise was on every tongue; the patient man who had suffered the pain of a thousand deaths during the NI ar; who had been misunderstood, maligned, and condemned, by friends as well as enemies, now shope conspicuous in popular affection. He had liberated a race• he had saved his country. On the evening of April 11 the White House was illuminated, and Lincoln made a short address expressing hig acknowledgments to the army, aud his gratitude to God, and then turn ing his remarks to reconstruction, the cardinal points of which lie thought would be to grant universal amnesty on condition that the states lately in rebellion should grant universal suffrage. Lincoln and Grant were the idols of the hour. On the morning of the 14th they were invited to visit Ford's theater in the evening. Grant left the city, but the president, though not at all inclined, attended with his wife,,and maj. Rathbone and 3Iiss Harris. They went into a private box, and Lincoln was soon absorbed in the play (Our American Causin). At about 11:30 o'clock the box was suddenly invaded by John Wilkes Booth, an actor and a furious pro-slavery man. In au instant he put a pistol to the back of Lincoln's head and fired; then leaped from the box to the stage, crying, " Sic scmper tyrannid The south is avenged!" and fled through the stage door, mounted a horse, and escaped. The president did not stir; the ball had gone through his brain, and he had no further consciousness. He died the next morning about half-past seven. On the same evening an attempt was made to murder secretary Seward, who was confined to his house in consequence of an accident. It would be vain to attempt to describe the sorrow that spread over the nation, and even other nations, on hearing- of this awful tragedy. The assassin was captured and executed, and some of his confederates shared the same fate. It is satisfactory to know that this act of infamy was the work of a gang of private men, and that the confederate government and leaders had no hand in it. Thus, when Lincoln the great president passed to his rest. Twice elected to his high office—the last timo (in Nov., 1864) over gen. McClellan by a popular majority of more than 400,000—he was torn from it in the moment of triumph to be placed side by side with Washington, the one the father, the other the savior of the union; one the founder of a republic, the other the liberator of a race.