THE    PRESIDENT-ELECT    AT    SPRINGFIELD. 
ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  :    A    HISTORY.* 
BY    JOHN    G.    NICOLAY    AND    JOHN    HAY,    PRIVATE    SECRETARIES    TO    THE    PRESIDENT. 
THE    MONTGOMERY    CONFEDERACY. 
FOLLOWING  the  succes- 
sive ordinances  of  secession 
passed  by  the  cotton- 
States,  their  delegations 
withdrew  one  by  one  from 
Congress.  In  this  final 
step  their  senators  and 
members  adopted  no  con- 
certed method,  but  went  according  to  individ- 
ual convenience  or  caprice  ;  some  making  the 
briefest  announcement  of  their  withdrawal, 
others  delivering  addresses  of  considerable 
length.  These  parting  declarations  contain 
nothing  of  historical  interest.  They  are  a 
mere  repetition  of  what  they  had  said  many 
times  over  in  debate  :  complaints  of  Northern 
aggression  and  allegations  of  Northern  hostil- 
ity ;  they  failed  to  make  any  statement  or  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  aggressions  and  hostility 
on  the  part  of  the  South  against  the  North. 
The  ceremony  of  withdrawal,  therefore,  was 
formal  and  perfunctory;  pre-announced  and 
recognized  as  a  foregone  conclusion,  it  attracted 
little  attention  from  Congress  or  the  public. 
Only  two  cases  were  exceptional,— that  of  Mr. 
Bouligny,  a  representative  from  Louisiana, 
who,  as  already  mentioned,  remained  loyal  to 
the  Union  and  retained  his  seat  in  the  House; 
and  that  of  Senator  Wigfall  of  Texas,  who, 
radically  and  outspokenly  disloyal,  yet  kept 
his  seat  in  the  Senate,  not  only  through  the 
remainder  of  Mr.  Buchanan's  term,  but  even 
during  the  special  session  assembled,  accord- 
ing to  custom,  to  confirm  the  nominations 
made  by  President  Lincoln  immediately  after 
his  inauguration. 
One  of  the  remarkable  coincidences  of  the 
.ion  conspiracy  is,  that  on  the  same  day 
which  witnessed  the  meeting  of  a  peace  con- 
vention in  Washington  city  to  deceive  and  con- 
further  the  public  opinion  of  the  North 
with  discussion  of  an  impossible  compromise, 
the  delegates  of  the  seceded  States  convened 
at  Montgomery,  Alabama,  to  consolidate  re- 
bellion and  prepare  for  armed  resistance.  It 
is  not  impossible  th  it  this  was  a  piece  of  strat- 
egy, purposely  designed  by  the  secession  lead- 
ers; for   the    Washington    peace  conference, 
despite  its  constant  avowals  of  a  desire  to  pro- 
mote union,  was  originated  and  managed  by 
the  little  clique  of  Virginia  conspirators  whose 
every  act,  if  not  preconceived,  at  least  resulted 
in  treasonable  duplicity. 
The  secession  conventions  of  the  cotton- 
States  had  appointed  delegates  equal  in  num- 
ber to  their  former  senators  and  representatives 
in  Congress.  These  met  in  Montgomery,  Ala- 
bama, on  the  4th  day  of  February,  1861,  to 
form  a  Southern  Confederacy.  The  Washing- 
ton caucus,  it  will  be  remembered,  suggested 
the  15th  of  the  month.  But  such  had  been  the 
success,  or,  rather,  the  want  of  opposition  to 
the  movement,  that  it  was  probably  considered 
advisable  to  hasten  the  programme,  and  in- 
stead of  only  having  preliminary  secession 
complete  by  the  4th  of  March,  to  finish  the 
whole  structure  of  an  independent  government 
before  the  inauguration  of  President  Lincoln. 
Thus  far  Mr.  Buchanan  had  not  offered  the 
slightest  impediment  to  the  insurrection ;  it 
might  reasonably  be  inferred  that  this  inaction 
on  his  part  would  continue  to  the  end  of  his 
term.  Mr.  Lincoln  would  be  powerless  until 
officially  invested  with  the  executive  duties, 
and  thus  the  formal  organization  of  a  Southern 
Confederacy  could  proceed  at  convenient  lei- 
sure and  in  perfect  immunity  from  disturbance. 
The  meeting  at  Montgomery  had  its  imme- 
diate origin  in  the  resolutions  of  a  committee 
of  the  Mississippi  Legislature,  adopted  Janu- 
ary 29th  ;  and  it  is  another  evidence  of  the 
secret  and  swift  concert  of  secession  leaders, 
that  in  six  days  thereafter  the  delegates  of 
South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mississippi, 
Louisiana,  and  Florida  were  assembled  for 
conference.  The  delegates  from  Texas  joined 
them  later  on.  An  organization  was  effected 
by  choosing  Howell  Cobb  chairman,  and  the 
body  called  itself  a  Provisional  Congress, 
though  it  was  merely  a  revolutionary  council, 
invested  with  no  direct  representation  of  the 
people,  but  appointed  by  the  secession  con- 
ventions. Its  reactionary  spirit  was  shown  in 
returning  to  the  antiquated  and  centralizing 
mode  of  voting  by  States.  This  same  rule  un- 
der the  old  Congress  of  the  Confederation  had 
produced  nothing  but  delay  and  impotence, 
and   earned    deserved   contempt;    and  these 
Copyright  by  J.  G.  Nicolay  and  John  Hay,  1886-7.     All  rights  reserved.
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
H 
HOWELL   COBB,  PRESIDENT    OF   THE   FIRST   CONFEDERATE    CONGRESS.     (FROM  A  PHOTOGRAPH  LENT  BY  GENERAL  MARCUS  J.  WRIGHT.) 
identical  delegates,  after  incorporating  the  rule 
in  their  provisional  scheme  of  government, 
immediately  rejected  it  when  framing  their 
permanent  one.  We  may  infer  that  they  em- 
ployed it  at  the  moment,  because  it  was  ad- 
mirably suited  to  the  use  of  cliques  and  the 
purposes  of  intrigue.  Very  little  more  than 
half  the  delegates  of  four  States  could  carry  a 
measure,  and  the  minority  of  total  member- 
ship could  exercise  full  power  of  legislation.  A 
project  of  government  was  perfected  on  Feb- 
ruary 8th,  and  the  name  of  the  "  Confederate 
States  of  America  "  was  adopted. 
This  first  project  was  provisional  only,  to 
serve  for  one  year  ;  and  the  Provisional  Con- 
gress retained  the  legislative  power  for  the 
same  period.  The  temporary  continuance  of 
certain  United  States  laws  and  officials  was 
provided  for.  On  the  following  day  ( February 
9th)  it  elected  Jefferson  Davis  of  Mississippi 
President  and  Alexander  H.  Stephens  of 
Vol.  XXXV.— 9. 
Georgia  Vice-President  of  the  new  Confed- 
eracy. The  body  then  set  itself  more  seriously 
at  work  to  prepare  a  permanent  constitution 
which  should  go  into  effect  a  year  later.  This 
labor  it  completed  and  adopted  on  the  nth 
of  March.  In  this  permanent  constitution,  as 
in  the  provisional  one,  they  adhered  closely 
to  the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  making  few  changes  other 
than  those  which  the  pretensions  and  designs 
of  the  rebellion  made  essential. 
"  The  new  constitution  professed  to  be  estab- 
lished by  '  each  State  acting  in  its  sovereign 
and  independent  character,'  instead  of  simply 
by  'we  the  people.'  It  provided  that  in  newly 
acquired  territory  '  the  institution  of  negro 
slavery,  as  it  now  exists  in  the  Confederate 
States,  shall  be  recognized  and  protected  by 
Congress  and  by  the  Territorial  Government ' ; 
also  for  the  right  of  transit  and  sojourn  for 
'  slaves  and  other  property.'  and  the  right  to
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 
reclaim  'slaves  and  other  persons'  to  service 
or  labor.  It  did  not,  as  consistency  required, 
provide  for  the  right  of  secession,  or  deny  the 
right  of  coercion  :  on  the  contrary,  all  its  im- 
plications were  against  the  former  and  in  favor 
of  the  latter;  for  it  declared  itself  to  be  the 
supreme  law  of  the  land,  binding  on  the  judges 
in  every  State.  It  provided  for  the  punishment 
oi  treason  ;  and  declared  that  no  State  should 
enter  into  any  treaty,  alliance,  or  confedera- 
tion, grant  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal,  coin 
money,  lay  duties,  keep  troops  or  ships  of  war 
in  time  oi  peace,  make  any  compact  with  an- 
other State  orwith  a  foreign  power;  —  a  sweep- 
ing practical  negation  of  the  whole  heretical 
dogma  of  State  supremacy  upon  which  they 
had  built  their  revolt."* 
Stephens,  being  a  member  of  the  Congress, 
was  sworn  into  office  as  Vice-President,  Feb- 
ruary ioth.  Davis,  with  becoming  modesty,  re- 
mained absent  during  the  election ;  being  sent 
for,  he  arrived  and  was  formally  inaugurated 
on  February  18th.  His  inaugural  address  pre- 
sents few  salient  points.  In  later  times  he  has 
disavowed  the  fiery  and  belligerent  harangues 
the  newspapers  reported  him  to  have  made 
on  his  way  to  assume  his  new  duties.  Per- 
haps the  most  important  announcement  of  his 
inaugural  was  the  opinion  that  the  new  Confed- 
eracy might  welcome  the  border  slave-States ; 
"  but  beyond  this,"  he  continued,  "  if  I  mistake 
not  the  judgment  and  will  of  the  people,  a  re- 
union with  the  States  from  which  we  have 
separated  is  neither  practicable  nor  desirable." 
Superficially,  it  appeared  that  the  new  gov- 
ernment had  been  agreed  upon  among  the 
leaders,  with  unusual  harmony  and  unanimity ; 
and  such  is  the  impression  conveyed  in  the 
books  written  long  years  after  by  the  two 
principal  chiefs.  But  plausible  reports  have 
come  down  by  tradition,  that  no  previous  leg- 
islative body  had  ever  developed  an  equal 
amount  of  jealousy  and  bitterness  to  that 
which  manifested  itself  in  the  Provisional 
Congress;  that  there  were  more  candidates 
for  President  than  States  in  the  Confederacy, 
Georgia  alone  having  furnished  four  aspirants, 
and  that  the  rivalry  between  Toombs  and 
Cobb  in  fact  brought  about  the  selection  of 
Davis,  who  had  openly  expressed  his  prefer- 
ence for  the  post  of  General-in-Chief  of  the 
future  rebel  armies.  Cobb  might  indeed  dis- 
pute the  prize  of  leadership  with  Davis,  and 
especially  with  Toombs,  who  was,  of  all  the  can- 
didates, least  suited  for  such  a  task.  It  was 
Cobb  who  was  the  master  spirit  of  secession 
intrigue  in  Buchanan's  Cabinet;  it  was  Cobb 
who  carried  the  wavering  Georgia  convention 
into  secession ;  it  was  Cobb  who  reappeared 
as  the  dominating  power  in  the  Montgomery 
*  Xicolay,  "  The  Outbreak  of  Rebellion." 
Congress.  Practically,  it  was  Cobb  who  by 
recent  secret  manipulations  had  made  the 
Confederacy  possible,  and  erected  the  Con- 
federate constitution.  He  might  without  van- 
ity aspire  to  become  its  chief  officer;  yet  with 
a  truer  recognition  of  the  fitness  of  things,  the 
choice  of  the  delegates  fell  upon  Davis,  who, 
for  a  longer  period  and  with  deeper  represen- 
tative characteristics,  had  been  the  real  em- 
bodiment and  head  of  the  conspiracy. 
Jefferson  Davis  was  born  in  Christian  (af- 
terwards Todd)  county,  Kentucky,  June  3d, 
1808.  Soon  afterwards  his  father  removed  to 
Mississippi ;  but  the  boy  was  sent  to  com- 
plete the  education  begun  by  home  and  aca- 
demic studies,  to  Transylvania  University, 
where  he  remained  till  the  age  of  sixteen.  Ap- 
pointed in  that  year  a  cadet  at  the  Military 
Academy  at  West  Point,  he  received  the  thor- 
ough training  of  that  institution,  graduating 
in  June,  1828;  he  was  then  attached  to  the 
army,  and  served  as  a  lieutenant  of  infantry 
in  the  Black  Hawk  war  and  other  campaigns 
against  the  Indians.  He  resigned  his  military 
commission  in  1835,  having  attained  the  grade 
of  first  lieutenant  of  dragoons.  Returning  to 
Mississippi,  he  secluded  himself  in  plantation 
life,  devoting  his  time  largely  to  political  stud- 
ies calculated  to  qualify  him  for  a  public  ca- 
reer. In  1843  he  launched  himself  on  the 
tide  of  Mississippi  politics,  by  a  speech  in  the 
Democratic  State  convention,  which  attracted 
considerable  notice.  From  the  very  first  he 
became  a  central  party  figure  in  his  State,  was 
made  a  presidential  elector  in  1844,  and  chosen 
a  representative  in  Congress  in  1845.  When 
the  Mexican  war  broke  out,  Davis's  military 
training  and  experience  naturally  carried  him 
into  the  campaign  as  colonel  of  a  volunteer 
regiment  called  the  Mississippi  Rifles ;  and 
he  rendered  valuable  service  and  won  de- 
served distinction  in  the  storming  of  Monte- 
rey and  the  battle  of  Buena  Vista.  Returned 
from  the  war,  the  governor  of  Mississippi  ap- 
pointed him  to  the  United  States  Senate  to 
fill  a  vacancy.  When  the  next  legislature  met, 
it  confirmed  the  governor's  choice  by  electing 
him  for  the  remainder  of  the  term ;  and  a 
subsequent  legislature  reelected  him  for  the 
full  term  succeeding. 
From  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  his  public 
career  Davis  posed  as  a  disciple  of  Calhoun 
and  an  advocate  of  the  extreme  doctrine  of 
State-rights.  His  maiden  speech  in  the  Mis- 
sissippi convention  of  1843  was  to  recommend 
Calhoun  as  an  alternative  presidential  candi- 
date ;  his  parting  address  on  leaving  the  Sen- 
ate in  1 86 1  drew  a  contrast  between  Calhoun 
as  the  advocate  of  nullification,  and  himself  as 
the  advanced  defender  of  secession.  So  also, 
when  President  Polk  offered  him  the  commis-
THE  PRESIDENT-ELECT  AT  Sl'RINGI'JEU). 
sion  of  brigadier- general  of  volunteers,  to  re- 
ward his  military  serviee  in  Mexico,  the  Quixot- 
ism which  was  a  marked  feature  of  Davis's  char- 
acter moved  him  to  employ  the  incident  for 
the  ostentatious  championship  of  State-rights. 
He  declined  the  offer,  his  biographer  says, 
"  on  the  ground  that  no  such  commission 
could  be  conferred  by  Federal  authority, 
either  by  appointment  of  the  President  or  by 
act  of  Congress." 
His  next  State-rights  exploit  occurred  in 
1851.  A  strong  party  in  Mississippi,  violently 
opposing  the  compromise  measures  of  1850, 
organized  a  resistance  movement  in  that  State, 
and  undertook  upon  that  issue  to  elect  General 
Quitman  governor  in  185 1.  A  preliminary 
election,  however,  in  the  month  of  Septem- 
ber, showed  them  to  be  some  seven  thou- 
sand votes  in  the  minority ;  whereupon  Quit- 
man withdrew  from  the  contest.  Jefferson 
Davis  immediately  resigned  his  fuR  term  in  the 
United  States  Senate  and  took  up  the  canvass 
for  governor  of  Mississippi,  which  Quitman 
had  ingloriously  abandoned.  Davis's  short 
campaign  was  brilliant  but  unsuccessful ;  he 
was  beaten  about  one  thousand  votes  by  Hon. 
Henry  S.  Foote,  the  Union  candidate,  who 
had  also  resigned  the  remainder  of  his  senator- 
ship  to  make  the  contest. 
The  defeat  appeared  to  have  a  salutary  in- 
fluence upon  Davis's  politics,  but  it  proved  tran- 
sient. In  the  presidential  campaign  of  1852  a 
forlorn-hope  of  the  State-rights  fanatics  nom- 
inated Quitman  for  President.  Davis,  with  a 
wiser  calculation,  forsook  his  reckless  friends 
and  supported  Pierce ;  and  for  this  adhesion 
Pierce  gave  him  a  seat  in  his  Cabinet  as  Sec- 
retary of  War.  The  history  of  the  Kansas 
trouble  shows  how  faithful  he  was  in  this  posi- 
tion to  pro-slavery  interests  ;  and  when  Bu- 
chanan succeeded,  he  again  became  a  senator 
for  Mississippi,  and  assumed  the  leadership 
of  the  ultra- Democrats.  Years  afterwards  he 
explained  that  in  abandoning  for  a  while  his 
extreme  course,  he  was  conforming  his  actions 
to  the  decision  which  Mississippi  pronounced 
in  1 85 1  in  favor  of  the  Union.  "  His  opin- 
ions," he  said,  "the  result  of  deliberate  con- 
victions, he  had  no  power  to  change."  When, 
therefore,  he  entered  the  Cabinet  of  President 
Pierce  in  1853  as  Secretary  of  War,  and  when 
again  on  the  accession  of  President  Buchanan 
the  Legislature  of  Mississippi  returned  him  to 
the  Senate,  he  was  by  his  own  declaration, 
and  by  the  evidence  of  his  subsequent  words 
and  deeds,  only  an  acting  Unionist,  who  at 
heart  cherished  the  belief  of  Federal  usurpa- 
tion, and  hoped  and  labored  for  the  hour  of 
confederated  State  resistance. 
It  may  not  be  without  interest  to  call  atten- 
tion at  this  point  to  a  few  coincidences  in  the 
careers  of  Jefferson  Davis  and  Abraham  Lin- 
coln. They  were  both  born  in  Kentucky  — 
Davis  in  the  south-western,  Lincoln  near  the 
central  part  of  the  State.  They  were  both 
near  the  same  age,  Davis  being  less  than  nine- 
months  the  elder.  Both  were  taken  in  their 
early  years  from  their  birthplaces  —  Davis's 
parents  emigrating  south  to  Mississippi,  Lin- 
coln's north  to  Indiana  and  Illinois.  Both 
were  soldiers  in  the  Black  Hawk  war —  Davis 
as  lieutenant  of  Regulars,  Lincoln  as  captain 
of  Volunteers.  Both  were  candidates  for  presi- 
dential elector  in  1844.  Both  were  soon  elected 
to  Congress  —  Davis  in  1845,  Lincoln  in  1846. 
Both  were  successful  politicians  and  popular 
orators.  Both  were  instinctively  studious,  in- 
trospective, self-contained.  Both  rose  to  dis- 
tinction through  the  advocacy  of  an  abstract 
political  idea.  Both  became  the  chiefs  of  rival 
sections  in  a  great  civil  war. 
These  are  the  only  points  of  resemblance, 
and  the  contrasts  running  through  their  lives 
are  bold  and  radical,  It  is  unnecessary  to 
present  them  in  detail ;  they  are  comprehended 
and  expressed  in  their  opposing  leaderships. 
If  chance  or  fate  had  guided  their  parents  to 
exchange  their  routes  of  emigration  from  Ken- 
tucky ;  if  Lincoln  had  grown  up  on  a  Southern 
cotton  plantation,  and  Davis  had  split  rails  to 
fence  a  Northern  farm ;  if  the  tall  Illinois  pio- 
neer had  studied  trigonometry  at  WTest  Pcint, 
and  the  pale  Mississippi  student  had  steered  a 
flat-boat  to  New  Orleans,  education  might 
have  modified  but  would  not  have  essentially 
changed  either.  Lincoln  would  never  have  be- 
come a  political  dogmatist,  an  apostle  of  slav- 
ery, a  leader  of  rebellion ;  Davis  could  never 
have  become  the  champion  of  a  universal  hu- 
manity, the  author  of  a  decree  of  emancipation, 
the  martyr  to  liberty.  Their  natures  were  an- 
tipodal, and  it  is  perhaps  by  contemplating 
the  contrast  that  the  character  of  Davis  may 
be  best  understood. 
His  dominant  mental  traits  were  subtlety 
and  will.  His  nature  was  one  of  reserve  and 
pride.  His  biographers  give  us  no  glimpse  of 
his  private  life.  They  show  us  little  sympathy 
of  companionship,  or  sunshine  of  genial  hu- 
mor. Houston  is  reported  to  have  said  of  him 
that  he  was  "  as  ambitious  as  Lucifer  and  as 
cold  as  a  lizard."  His  fancy  lived  in  a  world 
of  masters  and  slaves.  His  education  taught 
him  nothing  but  the  law  of  subordination  and 
the  authority  of  command.  A  Democrat  by 
party  name,  he  was  an  aristocrat  in  feeling 
and  practice.  He  was  a  type  of  the  highest 
Southern  culture  and  most  exclusive  Southern 
caste.  His  social  ideas  were  of  the  past.  In 
political  theory  he  was  a  sophist,  and  not  a 
logician.  With  him,  -  consent  of  the  governed  " 
in  a  State  was  truth  ;  "  consent  of  the  sov-
ABRAHAM  LIXCOLN. 
JEFFERSON     DAVIS, 
erned  "  in  a  Territory  was  error.   "  Rebellion  " 
in  a  State  must  be  obeyed  ;  "  rebellion"  in  a 
Territory  "  must  be  crushed."  Constitutional 
forms  in  Kansas  in  the  interest  of  slavery  were 
sacred  law;  constitutional  forms  in  the  Union 
in  the  interest  of  freedom  were  flagrant  usur- 
pation. The  majority  in  a  State  was  enthroned 
freedom  ;  a  majority  in  the  nation  was  insuffer- 
able despotism.  But  even  his  central  dogma 
became  pliant  before  considerations  of  self- 
(FROM     A     PHOTOGRAPH     BY    BRADY.) 
interest.  In  his  own  State,  a  majority  of  seven 
thousand  against  Quitman  in  September  he 
treated  as  a  dangerous  political  heresy  to  be 
overthrown  by  his  personal  championship.  A 
majority  of  one  thousand  against  himself  in 
November  he  affected  to  regard  as  a  command 
to  stultify  his  own  opinions.  His  beliefs  were 
at  war  with  the  most  essential  principles  of 
American  government.  He  denied  the  truth 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  denied
THE   PRESIDENT-ELECT  AT  SPRINGFIELD. 
the  right  of  the  majority  to  rule,  denied  the 
supremacy  of  the  national  Constitution.  His 
narrowness  was  of  that  type  which  craved  the 
exclusion  of  Northern  teachers  and  the  official 
censorship  of  school-books  to  keep  out  "Aboli- 
tion poison."  It  was  in  perfect  keeping  with  his 
character,  and  in  perfect  illustration  of  the  para- 
doxical theories  of  his  followers,  that,  holding 
the  lash  over  fifty  or  a  hundred  slaves,  or  exercis- 
ing an  inflexible  military  dictatorship  over  nine 
millions  of  "his  people,"  he  could  declaim  in  fer- 
vid oratory  against  the  despotism  of  a  majority. 
One  of  his  most  salient  traits  was  the 
endeavor  to  maintain  a  double  position  on  the 
question  of  disunion.  His  leadership  of  the 
"resistance"  party  in  Mississippi  in  1850-51 
gave  him  a  conspicuous  starting-point  as  an 
instigator  of  sedition,  and  while  laboring  then 
and  afterwards  to  unite  the  South  in  extreme 
political  demands,  and  in  armed  preparation 
for  war  against  the  Union  if  those  demands 
were  not  complied  with,  he  as  constantly  de- 
clared that  he  was  no  disunionist.  Of  course 
he  could  do  this  only  by  setting  at  defiance 
the  plainest  meaning  of  words  and  the  clear- 
est significance  of  acts.  As  the  slavery  con- 
test drew  to  its  culmination,  his  recklessness 
of  assertion  and  antagonism  of  declaration  on 
these  points  reached  an  extreme  entitling  them 
to  be  classed  among  the  curiosities  of  abnor- 
mal mental  phenomena.  As  a  blind  man  may 
not  be  held  responsible  for  his  description  of 
a  painting,  or  a  deaf-mute  be  expected  to  re- 
peat accurately  the  airs  of  an  opera,  so  we 
can  only  explain  Jefferson  Davis's  vehement 
denial  of  the  charge  of  hypocrisy  and  conspir- 
acy through  a  whole  decade,  by  the  supposi- 
tion that  he  was  incapable  of  understanding 
the  accepted  meaning  of  such  words  as  "  pa- 
triotism," "  loyalty"  "  allegiance,"  "  faith," 
"honor,"  and  "  duty."  On  no  other  hypothe- 
sis can  we  credit  the  honesty  of  convictions 
and  sincerity  of  expression  of  sentiments  so 
diametrically  opposed  as  the  following  which 
occur  in  the  same  speech  : 
"Neither  in  that  year  [1852],  nor  in  any  other, have 
I  ever  advocated  a  dissolution  of  the  Union,  or  a  separa- 
tion of  the  State  of  Mississippi  from  the  Union,  except 
as  the  last  alternative,  and  have  not  considered  the 
remedies  which  lie  within  that  extreme  as  exhausted, 
or  ever  b^en  entirely  hopeless  of  their  success.  I  hold 
now,  as  announced  on  former  occasions,  that  whilst  oc- 
cupying a  seat  in  the  Senate,  I  am  bound  to  maintain 
the  Government  of  the  Constitution,  and  in  no  man- 
ner to  work  for  its  destruction  ;  that  the  obligation  of  the 
oath  of  office,  Mississippi's  honor  and  my  own,  require 
that,  as  a  Senator  of  the  United  States,  there  should  be 
no  want  of  loyalty  to  the  Constitutional  Union.    .    .    . 
"  Whether  by  the  House  [of  Representatives]  or  by 
the  people,  if  an  Abolitionist  be  chosen  President  of 
the  United  States,  you  will  have  presented  to  you  the 
question  of  whether  you  will  permit  the  Government 
to  pass  into  the  hands  of  your  avowed  and  implacable 
enemies.  Without  pausing  for  your  answer,  I  will  state 
Vol.  XXXV.— 10. 
my  own  position  to  be  that  such  a  result  wouh' 
species  of  revolution  by  which  the  purposes  of  the  Gov- 
ernment would  he  destroyed,  and  the  observance  of  its 
mere  forms  entitled  to  no  respect.  In  that  event,  in 
such  manner  as  should  be  most  expedient,  I  should 
deem  it  your  duty  to  provide  for  your  safety  outside  of 
a  Union  with  those  who  have  already  shown  the  will, 
and  would  have  acquired  the  power,  to  deprive  you  of 
your  birthright  and  reduce  you  to  worse  than  th'. 
nial  dependence  of  your  fathers.  ...  As  when  I 
had  the  privilege  of  addressing  the  Legislature  a  year 
ago,  so  now  do  I  urge  you  to  the  needful  preparation 
to  meet  whatever  contingency  may  befall  us.  The  main- 
tenance of  our  rights  against  a  hostile  power  is  a  phys- 
ical problem  and  cannot  be  solved  by  mere  resolutions. 
Not  doubtful  of  what  the  heart  will  prompt,  it  is  not 
the  less  proper  that  due  provision  should  be  made  for 
physical  necessities.  Why  should  not  the  State  have 
an  armory  for  the  repair  of  arms,  for  the  alteration  of 
old  models  so  as  to  make  them  conform  to  the  improved 
weapons  of  the  present  day,  and  for  the  manufacture 
on  a  limited  scale  of  new  arms,  including  cannon  and 
carriages  ;  the  casting  of  shot  and  shells,  and  the  prep- 
aration of  fixed  ammunition  ? '  "* 
That  man  is  not  to  be  envied  whose  reason 
can  be  quieted  by  a  casuistry  capable  of  dis- 
covering consistency  between  these  and  anal- 
ogous propositions.  From  declarations  of  this 
quality  he  could  prove  his  record  black  or 
white,  as  occasion  demanded,  and,  in  face  of 
direct  threats  of  secession  in  Mississippi,  deny 
in  the  United  States  Senate,  without  wincing, 
that  he  had  avowed  disunion  sentiments. 
It  will  not  be  amiss  to  invite  the  reader  to 
a  pen-picture  of  the  man  as  he  appeared  in 
the  Senate  (May  8th,  i860)  shortly  before  he 
led  the  South,  with  open  eyes,  into  that  drama 
of  disaster,  suffering,  and  blood  of  which  he 
was  the  fatal  inspiration  : 
"  The  crowd  in  the  galleries  give  a  buzz  of  relief, 
and  everybody  tells  his  right-hand  man,  '  Here  he 
comes;  that  's  Jeff  Davis.'  And  can  it  be  possible 
that  he  proposes  to  make  a  speech  ?  You  are  sur- 
prised to  see  him  walking.  Why,  that  is  the  face  of  a 
corpse,  the  form  of  a  skeleton.  Look  at  the  haggard, 
sunken,  weary  eye,  the  thin,  white  wrinkled  lips 
clasped  close  upon  the  teeth  in  anguish.  That  is  the 
mouth  of  a  brave  but  impatient  sufferer.  See  the 
ghastly  white,  hollow,  bitterly  puckered  cheek,  the 
high,  sharp  cheek-bone,  the  pale  brow  full  of  fine 
wrinkles,  the  grizzly  hair,  prematurely  gray ;  and  see 
the  thin,  bloodless,  bony,  nervous  hands  !  He  depos- 
its his  documents  upon  his  desk,  and  sinks  into  his 
chair  as  if  incapable  of  rising.  In  a  few  minutes  the 
Vice-President  gives  his  desk  a  blow  with  his  ivory 
hammer,  calls  for  profound  order,  and  states  '  that  the 
senator  from  Mississippi '  has  the  floor.  Davis  rises 
with  a  smile.  His  speech  was  closely  reasoned,  and 
his  words  were  well  chosen.  Once  in  a  while  he  pleases 
his  hearers  by  a  happy  period;  but  it  was  painfully 
evident  that  he  was  ill." 
Montgomery  having  witnessed  the  glories 
of  such  an  inauguration  pageant  as  could  be 
extemporized,  Davis  proceeded  to  the  appoint- 
ment of  his  Cabinet.  Toombs  of  Georgia  was 
made  Secretary  of  State;  Memminger  of  South 
Carolina  Secretary  of  the  Treasury;  Walker 
*Jefferson  Davis,  speech  at  Tackson,  Mississippi,  Xov. 
nth,  1858.  In  "  Daily  Mississippian,"  Nov.  15th,  1S5S.
- 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 
o\  Alabama  Secretary  oi  War;  Mallory  of 
Florida  Secretary  of  the  Navy;  Reagan  of 
is  Postmaster-General;  and  Benjamin  of 
Louisiana  Attorney-General.  Various  acts  of 
the  Provisional  Congress  authorized  the  new 
utive  to  continue  the  organization  of  the 
Isional  government  of  the  Confederate 
States.  A  regular  army  of  about  10,000  men 
was  ordered  to  be  established;  a  navy  of  10 
1  gun-boats  authorized  to  be  constructed 
orpurchased;  100,000  volunteers  for  12  months 
authorized  to  be  enlisted,  and  existing  State 
troops  to  be  received  into  the  provisional 
army.  A  loan  of  $15,000,000  was  authorized, 
and  an  export  duty  on  cotton  of  y%  cent  per 
pound  levied,  to  pay  principal  and  interest. 
Among  the  first  executive  acts,  Davis  assumed 
control  of  military  operations  in  the  several 
seceded  States ;  and  his  Secretary  of  War 
(March  9th)  made  a  requisition  for  11,000  vol- 
unteers, for  contingent  service  at  Charleston, 
Pensacola,  and  other  points.  Agents  were  dis- 
patched to  Europe  to  purchase  material  of 
war ;  and  to  obtain  if  possible  a  recognition  of 
the  Confederate  States  by  foreign  powers.  As 
a  matter  of  the  greatest  immediate  necessity, 
a  commission  of  three  persons  was  appointed 
to  proceed  to  Washington,  to  bring  about  the 
peaceful  acquiescence  of  the  United  States  in 
the  dismemberment  of  the  Union. 
THE    CONSTITUTIONAL   AMENDMENT. 
The  disunion  conspirators  had  good  reason 
to  show  symptoms  of  dismay  at  the  Cabinet 
regime  to  which  Mr.  Buchanan  yielded  di- 
rection and  authority  in  the  last  days  of  the 
year  i860.  Hitherto,  not  alone  in  shaping 
a  policy  of  non-coercion  and  preventing  re- 
enforcements,  but  in  numerous  minor  matters 
as  well,  had  the  complicity  of  Cobb,  Floyd, 
and  Thompson  enabled  them  to  turn  the  va- 
ried agencies  of  the  Government  againstits  own 
life.  Under  the  new  dispensation  these  prac- 
tices instantly  came  to  an  end.  For  the  mo- 
ment Mr.  Buchanan  was  in  a  patriotic  mood, 
and  at  the  urgent  solicitation  of  Black,  Holt, 
and  Stanton  yielded  his  consent  to  a  number 
of  measures  he  had  for  two  months  persistently 
neglected.  For  the  first  time  since  his  arrival 
in  Washington,  General  Scott  was  permitted 
to  notify  commanders  of  forts  and  garrisons  to 
be  on  the  alert  against  surprise ;  and  though 
this  admonition  came  too  late  to  inspirit  and 
reassure  many  a  wavering  officer,  it  had  the 
direct  effect  of  saving  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant military  posts  on  the  gulf.  Reinforce- 
ments were  resolved  upon.  The  policy  of 
defending  the  national  capital  was  discussed 
and  adopted.  At  least  one  member  of  the  Cab- 
inet placed  himself  in  confidential  communi- 
cation with  leading  Republicans  and  unionists 
in  Congress,  and  counsel  and  warning  in  behalf 
of  the  Government  were  freely  interchanged 
and  faithfully  observed.  Preeminent  in  his  op- 
portunities and  services  at  this  critical  junc- 
ture was  the  new  Secretary  of  War,  Joseph 
Holt,  of  Kentucky.  He  had  been  a  life-long 
Democrat  and  a  stubborn  partisan  ;  but  above 
everything  else  he  was  a  patriot.  Under  his 
administration  the  War  Department  was  no 
longer  a  bureau  of  insurrection. 
The  Cabinet  regime  consisted  mainly  of  the 
combined  will  and  energy  of  four  leading- 
members, — Black,  Secretary  of  State ;  Dix,  Sec- 
retary of  the  Treasury;  Holt,  Secretary  of  War; 
and  Stanton,  Attorney- General.  Neither  their 
relation  to  the  President  nor  to  each  other  can 
be  very  clearly  made  out.  Their  loyal  activity 
was  still  occasionally  hampered  by  Buchanan's 
stubbornness  and  timidity.  On  some  points 
they  appear  to  have  had  very  different  views, 
but  the  daily  stress  and  danger  in  which  they 
moved  compelled  mutual  tolerance  and  tacit  co- 
operation. They  had  indeed  one  common  bond 
of  union.  Now  that  the  conspiracy  was  so  fully 
revealed  they  battled  against  it  manfully,  not 
with  any  proximate  hope  of  crushing  it,  but  to 
tide  over  the  peril  to  the  end  of  the  presidential 
term,  to  be  able  to  lay  down  their  responsibili- 
ties with  honor.  Their  services  in  detail  cannot 
be  here  recorded,  but  the  principal  duty  which 
they  successfully  performed,  the  protection  of 
the  national  capital,  needs  special  mention. 
In  the  early  days  of  January,  1861,  Wash- 
ington city  was  the  natural  focus  of  the  seces- 
sion excitement  pervading  the  South;  and  the 
capital  seemed  to  lean  towards  the  prevailing 
mania.  Seditious  harangues  in  Congress  were 
applauded  from  well-filled  galleries,  and  society 
feasted  and  flattered  the  most  daring  fire-eaters. 
So  strong  was  this  Southern  drift  of  local  sen- 
timent that  the  Federal  city  began  to  be  con- 
fidently looked  upon  by  the  conspirators  as  the 
prospective  capital  of  a  Southern  Confederacy. 
Nothing  seemed  wanting  to  the  early  consum- 
mation of  such  a  scheme  but  the  secession  of 
Virginia  and  Maryland,  of  which  the  signs 
were  becoming  only  too  abundant.  Reasoning 
from  this  to  plausible  consequences,  the  cool- 
est heads  began  to  fear  a  popular  outbreak  to 
seize  upon  the  buildings  and  archives  of  the 
Government ;  and  as  a  final  result  forcibly  to 
prevent  the  inauguration  of  the  President-elect. 
Buchanan  affected  not  to  share  these 
apprehensions.  Nevertheless  he  acknowl- 
edged his  duty  and  purpose  to  preserve  the 
peace,  and  authorized  the  necessary  precau- 
tions. On  the  9th  of  January,  therefore,  Col- 
onel Charles  P.  Stone,  chosen  for  that  duty  by 
General  Scott,  submitted  a  memorandum  in 
which  he  sketched  a  plan  for  the  defense  of
THE  PRESIDENT-ELECT  AT  SPRINGFIELD. 
Washington,  which  was  adopted,  and  under 
which  Colonel  Stone  was  appointed  inspector- 
general  and  ordered  to  organize  and  drill  the 
militia  of  the  District  of  Columbia.  This  duty 
he  faithfully  discharged,  and  on  the  5th  of 
February  reported  the  existence  of  some 
thirteen  volunteer  companies,  constituting  a 
total  of  925  men,  "which  can  be  at  once  called 
into  service";  adding  also,  "the  number  of 
volunteers  for  service  can  be  doubled  within 
seven  days  with  proper  facilities."  Not  under- 
rating either  the  moral  or  military  aid  of  raw 
levies  of  militia,  General  Scott  was  neverthe- 
less too  old  a  soldier  to  rely  exclusively  upon 
them  in  an  emergency.  He  therefore  obtained 
consent  to  concentrate  at  the  capital  available 
regular  forces  to  the  number  of  eight  compa- 
nies, a  total  of  about  480  men. 
Stanton,  appointed  Attorney-General  on  the 
20th  of  December,  was,  with  his  ardent  and 
positive  nature,  one  of  the  most  energetic 
and  uncompromising  unionists  in  the  Cabinet. 
For  him,  the  expulsion  of  Floyd,  the  reinforce- 
ment of  Sumter,  and  the  other  military  pre- 
cautions hastily  ordered,  were  not  yet  suffi- 
cient. Charing  under  the  President's  painful 
tardiness,  he  turned  to  Congress  as  a  means 
for  exposing  and  thwarting  the  intrigues  of  the 
conspirators.  Sacrificing  his  party  attachments 
to  the  paramount  demands  of  national  safety, 
he  placed  himself  in  confidential  correspond- 
ence with  Republican  leaders  in  that  body, 
giving  and  receiving  advice  as  to  the  best 
means  of  preserving  the  Government. 
On  the  8th  of  January  Mr.  Buchanan  trans- 
mitted to  Congress  a  special  message  on  the 
state  of  the  Union,  discussing  also  the  rumors 
of  hostile  designs  against  the  capital.  The 
Republicans  in  the  House  of  Representatives 
seized  the  occasion  to  secure  the  appointment 
of  a  Committee  of  Investigation,  of  which  Mr. 
Howard,  of  Michigan,  was  made  chairman.  He 
has  left  us  an  interesting  account  of  its  origin 
and  purpose  : 
"  That  committee  was  raised  at  the  request  of  loyal 
members  of  the  Cabinet.  The  resolutions  came  from 
them,  and  were  placed  in  my  hands  with  a  request  that 
I  should  offer  them  and  thus  become,  if  they  should 
pass,  chairman  of  the  committee.  At  first  I  refused  to 
assume  so  fearful  a  responsibility.  But  being  urged  to 
do  so  by  members  and  senators,  I  at  last  consented,  on 
condition  that  the  Speaker  would  allow  me  to  nom- 
inate two  members  of  the  committee.  I  selected  Mr. 
Dawes,  of  Massachusetts,  and  Mr.  Reynolds,  of  New 
York.  Mr.  Reynolds  was  elected  as  a  Democrat,  but 
he  was  true  as  steel,  and  a  good  lawyer.  I  do  not  know 
that  Mr.  Stanton  wrote  the  resolutions  creating  the 
committee.  I  did  not  see  him  write  them.  I  never 
heard  him  say  he  wrote  them.  It  would  be  easier,  how- 
ever, to  persuade  me  that  Mr.  Jefferson  did  not  write 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  than  that  Mr.  Stan- 
ton did  not  write  those  resolutions." 
With  this  committee  Mr.  Stanton  and  per- 
haps other  members  of  the  Cabinet  continued 
to  correspond  confidentially  and  cooperate. 
This  has  been  characterized  as  disrespect  and 
treachery  to  their  chief;  but  in  the  face  of 
Mr.  JJuchanan's  repeated  neglect  and  avowed 
impotence  to  resist  open  insurrection,  discrim- 
inating history  will  applaud  the  act.  The 
committee  found  no  substantial  proof  of  an 
organized  plot  to  seize  the  capital ;  neverthe- 
less its  investigation  and  report  quieted  the  ap- 
prehensions of  the  timid,  at  the  same  time  that 
they  afforded  a  warning  to  mischief-makers  that 
the  authorities  were  on  the  alert  and  would 
make  such  an  enterprise  extremely  hazardous. 
While  the  Howard  Committee  was  yet  pur- 
suing its  inquiry,  and  as  the  day  for  counting 
the  presidential  vote  approached,  General  Scott 
requested  permission  from  the  Secretary  of 
War  to  bring  several  additional  companies  of 
regulars  from  Fortress  Monroe,  to  be  replaced 
by  recruits.  This  would  augment  his  regulars 
to  some  seven  hundred  men,  which,  with  the 
police  and  militia,  he  deemed  sufficient  for  all 
contingencies.  Before  the  day  arrived  a  con- 
fidential arrangement  of  signals  was  commu- 
nicated to  the  officers,  the  regular  troops  being 
placed  under  command  of  Colonel  Harvey 
Brown.  General  instructions  were  issued  in 
strict  confidence,  and  to  officers  alone.  The 
militia  was  charged  with  the  care  of  the  vari- 
ous bridges  of  the  Potomac ;  the  regulars  were 
stationed  at  convenient  points  in  the  city. 
Happily  no  alarm  occurred.  On  the  13th 
of  February  an  unusually  large  and  brilliant 
throng  filled  the  galleries  of  the  Flouse  of 
Representatives  to  witness  the  proceedings 
of  the  presidential  count.  Vice-President 
Breckinridge,  one  of  the  defeated  candidates, 
presided  over  the  joint  convention  of  the  two 
Houses.  Senator  Douglas,  another,  was  on 
the  floor,  and  moved  to  dispense  with  certain 
tedious  routine.  The  sealed  returns  of  the 
electoral  votes,  cast  by  the  chosen  colleges  of 
the  several  States  on  the  5th  of  December, 
were  opened  and  registered.  The  tellers  offi- 
cially declared  the  result  already  known,  viz.: 
that  Lincoln  had  received  180  votes;  Breck- 
inridge, 72  ;  Bell,  39 ;  Douglas,  12.  Vice-Pres- 
ident Breckinridge  thereupon  announced  that 
"  Abraham  Lincoln,  of  Illinois,  having  received 
a  majority  of  the  whole  number  of  electoral 
votes,  is  elected  President  of  the  United  States 
for  four  years  commencing  the  4th  of  March, 
1861." 
To  comprehend  more  clearly  the  transac- 
tions growing  out  of  the  event,  it  is  necessary 
to  repeat  that  immediately  after  the  beginning 
of  the  Cabinet  regime  it  was  resolved  to  send 
reenforcernents  to  Fort  Sumter.  The  first 
arrangement  was  to  dispatch  them  in  the 
sloop-of-war  Brooklyn ;  but  owing  to  certain 
difficulties    and   objections   which   presented
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
themselves,  General  Scott  decided  to  send  two 
hundred  recruits  with  supplies  from  New  York 
in    the  merchant  steamer  Star  of  the   West, 
hoping  she  might  enter  the  harbor  and  effect 
their  Landing  at  the  fort  without  suspicion  of 
her  real  errand.  But,  among  others,  Secretary 
Thompson,  who  was  still  a  member  of  Buchan- 
Cabinet,sent  the  Charleston  conspirators 
notice  of  her  coming.  When  on  the  morning 
of  January  9th  about  daylight  the  Star  of  the 
West  attempted  her  entrance,  she  was  fired 
upon  from  a  battery  which  had  been  erected 
since  New  Year's  Day  under  the  order  of 
Governor  Pickens;  and,  though  the  vessel 
suhereii  no  serious  injury,  the  apparent  danger 
raised  the  officers  to  desist  from  their  attempt 
and  turn  and  run  the  vessel  out  of  the  harbor. 
The  whole  occurrence  came  upon  Major 
Anderson  unexpectedly  ;  and  before  he  could 
well  comprehend  the  design  or  decide  to  en- 
courage or  assist  the  ship  with  the  guns  of 
Fort  Sumter,  she  had  retreated,  and  the  op- 
portunity was  gone.  But  the  insult  to  the  na- 
tional flag  roused  his  anger,  and  he  demanded 
an  apology  from  Governor  Pickens  for  the 
hostile  act.  So  far  from  retracting  or  apologiz- 
ing, however,  the  governor  boldly  avowed  and 
sustained  his  conduct ;  and  Major  Anderson, 
instead  of  making  good  the  threat  which  ac- 
companied his  demand,  proposed  as  an  alter- 
native to  "  refer  the  whole  matter  to  my  Gov- 
ernment." With  great  tact  Governor  Pickens 
at  the  same  time  made  use  of  the  occasion  to 
send  Attorney-General  Hayne,  of  South  Caro- 
lina, to  President  Buchanan,  bearing  a  new 
written  demand  (the  third  one  made  by  the 
State),  for  the  possession  of  the  forts  in  Charles- 
ton Harbor ;  and  the  two  messengers  arrived 
in  Washington  on  the  13th  of  January.  But 
the  central  cabal  at  Washington,  which  in  its 
caucus  resolutions  of  January  5th  had  issued 
orders  for  immediate  secession,  seeing  the 
danger  and  complication  likely  to  arise  from 
this  headlong  separate  action  of  South  Caro- 
lina's governor,  now  took  possession  of  Hayne 
and  his  mission.  By  a  skillful  device  of  dila- 
tory diplomacy  they  kept  open  the  question 
of  the  demand  Hayne  had  been  instructed  to 
make,  and  thereby  prolonged  the  military 
truce  at  Charleston  which  it  involved,  until 
the  6th  of  February  following,  when  Secretary 
of  War  Holt  officially  wrote  the  President's 
refusal  of  the  governor's  demand.  The  ad- 
vantage of  this  course  to  the  conspirators  be- 
came quickly  apparent.  Between  the  12th  of 
January  and  the  6th  of  February  the  insurrec- 
tion at  Charleston  worked  day  and  night  in 
building  batteries  and  preparing  men  and  ma- 
terial to  attack  Sumter.  Jn  other  States  the 
processes  of  secession,  seizure,  drill,  equipment, 
and  organization  had  also  been  going  on  with 
similar  activity.  Receiving  no  effective  dis- 
couragement or  check,  the  various  elements 
of  rebellion  had  finally  united  in  a  provisional 
congress  at  Montgomery,  which  two  days 
later  (February  8th)  perfected  a  provisional 
government  for  the  rebellion. 
As  part  of  the  same  intrigue  another  incident, 
which  for  convenience  may  be  called  the  Fort 
Pickens  truce,  must  also  be  mentioned.  One 
of  the  most  important  naval  and  military  sta- 
tions of  the  United  States  was  that  at  Pensa- 
cola,  Florida.  Near  it  on  the  mainland  were 
Fort  Barrancas  and  Fort  McRae,  and  on 
Santa  Rosa  Island,  immediately  opposite,  Fort 
Pickens,  a  powerful  work,  built  for  a  war  gar- 
rison of  1260  men,  but  now  entirely  empty. 
Lieutenant  Slemmer  held  military  command 
with  a  garrison  of  only  forty- six  men,  in  Fort 
Barrancas.  When  on  January  3d  General  Scott 
under  the  Cabinet  regime  admonished  him  to 
prevent  the  seizure  of  these  forts  by  surprise, 
Slemmer  repeated  the  strategy  of  Anderson, 
spiking  the  guns  and  destroying  the  powder 
in  Barrancas  and  McRae,  and  transferring  his 
command,  increased  by  thirty  ordinary  seamen 
from  the  Navy  Yard,  with  all  available  sup- 
plies, to  Fort  Pickens,  on  the  9th,  10th,  and 
nth  of  January.  Lieutenant  Slemmer  was  not 
a  moment  too  quick.  The  Florida  convention 
passed  an  ordinance  of  secession  on  the  10th, 
and  two  days  afterwards  a  regiment  of  Florida 
and  Alabama  rebels  appeared  and  took  pos- 
session of  the  Navy  Yard  and  the  two  aban- 
doned forts.  A  considerable  rebel  force  was 
within  a  short  time  concentrated  to  attempt 
the  capture  of  Fort  Pickens,  but  in  the  mean 
time  sundry  ships  of  war  had  been  ordered 
there  by  the  Government.  On  January  21st 
the  Brooklyn,  with  a  company  of  regular 
artillery  under  Captain  Vodges,was  dispatched 
thither  as  a  further  reenforcement  to  the  fort. 
The  rebels  now  perceiving  that  this  prepon- 
derance of  military  strength  might  enable  the 
Government  to  recapture  the  Navy  Yard,  the 
central  cabal  at  Washington  resorted  to  an 
intrigue  to  paralyze  it.  They  proposed  that 
"  no  attack  would  be  made  on  the  fort  if  its 
present  status  should  be  suffered  to  remain," 
thus  beguiling  President  Buchanan  into  a  new 
truce.  A  joint  order  was  thereupon  issued  by 
the  Secretaries  of  War  and  the  Navy,  January 
29th,  that  Captain  Vodges's  artillery  company 
should  not  be  landed  from  the  Brooklyn 
"  unless  said  fort  shall  be  attacked  or  prepara- 
tions made  for  its  attack."  The  advantages  of 
this  stipulation  were  all  on  the  side  of  the  in- 
surrection, and  its  existence  proved  a  most 
mischievous  complication,  and  caused  perilous 
delay  when  the  new  Lincoln  Administration 
began  its  dealings  with  the  rebellion. 
Want  of  space  forbids  us  to   review  the
THE  PRESIDENT-ELECT  AT  SPRINGE/ELD. 
debates  and  proceedings  of  Congress  during 
the  winter  of  1860-61  further  than  to  note  the 
complete  failure  of  the  projects  of  compromise 
which  were  originated  in  and  out  of  it,  and 
brought  to  its  attention.  The  Senate  Commit- 
tee of  Thirteen  ended  by  reporting  an  irrecon- 
cilable disagreement.  The  various  propositions 
which  were  apparently  adopted  by  the  House 
Committee  of  Thirty-three  proved  to  be  noth- 
ing but  the  resolves  of  the  several  minority 
factions  of  that  committee,  and  commanded 
no  united  support  when  reported  to  the  House. 
The  Peace  Conference  terminated  its  labors 
by  certain  recommendations  receiving  only  a 
minority  vote  of  that  body,  and  Congress,  to 
which  these  recommendations  were  sent,  would 
have  nothing  to  do  with  them.  So  also  cer- 
tain other  propositions  of  adjustment  offered 
in  Congress,  known  as  the  "  Crittenden  Com- 
promise," failed  equally  of  acceptance. 
Nevertheless  these  many  efforts  were  not 
entirely  barren  of  result.  At  a  point  where  it 
was  least  expected,  they  contributed  to  the 
adoption  by  Congress  of  a  measure  of  adjust- 
ment which  might  have  restored  harmony  to 
the  country  if  the  rebellion  of  the  cotton-States 
had  not  been  originated  and  controlled  by  a 
conspiracy  bent  upon  revolution  as  its  prime 
and  ultimate  object.  It  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that 
just  at  the  dawn  of  the  civil  war  through  which 
slavery  rushed  to  a  swift  self-destruction,  that 
institution  received  the  largest  recognition  and 
concession  ever  given  it  in  American  legislation. 
The  report  of  the  Committee  of  Thirty-three 
was  made  about  the  middle  of  January,  but 
at  that  time  none  of  its  six  propositions  or  rec- 
ommendations commanded  the  attention  of  the 
House.  The  secession  stage  of  the  revolution 
was  just  culminating.  All  was  excitement  and 
surprise  over  the  ordinances  of  the  cotton- 
States  and  the  seizure,  without  actual  collision 
or  bloodshed,  of  the  several  Southern  forts  and 
arsenals.  The  retirement  of  the  Southern  mem- 
bers of  Congress,  and  the  meeting  of  the  rev- 
olutionary leaders,  to  unite  and  construct  their 
provisional  government  at  Montgomery,  pro- 
longed what  was  to  the  public  a  succession  of 
dramatic  and  spectacular  incidents  resembling 
the  movements  of  a  political  campaign,  rather 
than  the  serious  progress  of  a  piece  of  orderly 
business-like  statesmanship.  The  North  could 
not  yet  believe  that  the  designs  of  the  cotton- 
State  hotspurs  were  so  desperate. 
The  more  conservative  Congressmen  from 
the  North  and  from  the  border  States  still 
hoped  that  good  might  come  if  an  effort  of 
conciliation  and  compromise  were  once  more 
renewed.  Accordingly,  near  the  close  of  the 
session  (February  27th,  1861),  Mr.  Corwin, 
chairman  of  the  House  Committee  of  Thirty- 
three,  brought  forward  one  of  the  propositions 
which  had  been  reported  more  than  a  month 
before  from  his  committee.  The  original  re- 
port proposed  in  substance  an  amendment  of 
the  Constitution  providing  that  any  constitu- 
tional interference  with  slavery  must  origi] 
with  the  slave-States,  and  have  the  unanimous 
assent  of  all  the  States  to  become  valid  Mr. 
Corwin  by  an  amendment  changed  the  p] 
seologyand  purport  to  the  following: 
"  Article  13.    No  amendment  shall  be  made  to  the 
Constitution  which  will  authorize  or  give  to  C01 
the  power  to  abolish  or  interfere  within  any  Slate  with 
the  domestic  institutions  thereof,  including  that  of  per- 
sons held  to  labor  or  service  by  the  laws  of  said  State. ;' 
This  amendment  was  adopted  by  the  House 
on  February  28th,  yeas  133,  nays  65.  The  Sen- 
ate also  passed  it  during  the  night  preceding 
the  4th  of  March,  though  in  the  journals  of 
Congress  it  appears  dated  as  of  March  2d. 
The  variation  is  explained  by  the  fact  that 
the  legislative  day  of  the  journals  frequently 
runs  through  two  or  more  calendar  days.  In 
that  body  the  vote  was,  yeas  24,  nays  12, 
and  it  was  approved  by  President  Buchanan 
probably  only  an  hour  or  two  before  the  inau- 
guration of  his  successor. 
Mr.  Lincoln  alluded  to  this  amendment  in  his 
inaugural  address,  reciting  its  substance  and 
giving  it  his  unreserved  approval.  "  I  under- 
stand," he  said,  "  a  proposed  amendment  to 
the  Constitution  —  which  amendment,  how- 
ever, I  have  not  seen — has  passed  Congress, 
to  the  effect  that  the  Federal  Government  shall 
never  interfere  with  the  domestic  institutions 
of  the  States,  including  that  of  persons  held  to 
service.  To  avoid  misconstruction  of  what  I 
have  said,  I  depart  from  my  purpose  not  to 
speak  of  particular  amendments  so  far  as  to 
say  that,  holding  such  a  provision  to  now  be 
implied  constitutional  law,  I  have  no  objec- 
tion to  its  being  made  express  and  irrevocable." 
The  new  Lincoln  Administration  soon  after 
transmitted  this  Joint  Resolution  to  the  several 
States  to  receive  their  official  action.  But 
nothing  came  of  it.  The  South  gave  no  re- 
sponse to  the  overture  for  peace,  and  in  the 
North  it  was  lost  sight  of  amid  the  overshad- 
owing events  that  immediately  preceded  the 
outbreak  of  hostilities. 
It  was  at  this  point  that  the  South  commit- 
ted its  great  political  blunder.  There  is  little 
doubt  that  in  the  prevailing  anxiety  for  com- 
promise this  constitutional  amendment  might 
have  been  ratified  by  the  necessary  three- 
fourths  of  the  States.  Had  the  Southern  lead- 
ers been  sincere  in  their  professed  apprehen- 
sions for  the  security  of  their  slave  property 
and  polity  in  their  own  States,  here  was  an 
effectual  and  practically  a  perpetual  guaranty, 
offered  in  good  faith  as  such.  Their  neglect 
and  rejection  of  it  shows  that  it  was  not  dread
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
of  ultimate  abolition,  but  chagrin  and  a  species 
of  gambler's  desperation  at  the  present  and 
prospective  loss  of  political  domination  for 
which  they  rushed  headlong  into  revolution. 
THE    PRESIDENT-ELECT. 
Among    the    first    congratulations    which 
edin  upon  Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  terse  greet- 
ing from  Governor  Chase,  dated  November 
7th,  that  admirably  expressed  the  prevalent 
feeling. 
"You  are  President-elect.  I  congratulate  you  and 
thank  God.  The  great  object  of  my  wishes  and  labors 
for  nineteen  years  is  accomplished  in  the  overthrow  of 
the  slave  power.  The  space  is  now  clear  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  policy  of  Freedom  on  safe  and  firm 
grounds.  The  lead  is  yours.  The  responsibility  is  vast. 
May  God  strengthen  you  for  your  great  duties."* 
Day  after  day  confirmed  the  completeness 
of  the  Republican  victory,  and  two  weeks  after 
election  the  city  of  Springfield  was  in  all  the 
blaze  and  glory  of  a  great  celebration  to  sig- 
nalize the  result.  Projected  merely  as  a  local 
jubilee,  it  called  to  the  city  crowds  of  rejoic- 
ing strangers.  Though  he  had  not  said  a  pub- 
lic word  during  the  campaign,  Mr.  Lincoln 
could  not  on  this  occasion  refuse  the  sound  of 
his  voice  to  the  huge  torch-light  procession, 
and  the  crowds  of  his  neighbors  a -id  friends 
whose  shouts  called  him  to  the  door  of  his  mod- 
est home.  It  was  not  the  voice  of  partisan 
exultation,  however,  but  of  patriotic  liberality. 
"  Friends  and  fellow-citizens,"  said  he,  "  please  ex- 
case  me  on  this  occasion  from  making  a  speech.  I 
thank  you  in  common  with  all  those  who  have  thought 
fit  by  their  votes  to  indorse  the  Republican  cause.  I 
rejoice  with  you  in  the  success  which  has  thus  far  at- 
tended that  cause.  Yet  in  all  our  rejoicings,  let  us 
neither  express  nor  cherish  any  hard  feelings  toward 
any  citizen  who  by  his  vote  has  differed  with  us.  Let 
us  at  all  times  remember  that  all  American  citizens  are 
brothers  of  a  common  country,  and  should  dwell  to- 
gether in  the  bonds  of  fraternal  feeling." 
We  will  perceive  hereafter  how  in  this  sim- 
ple utterance  of  his  opening  presidential  ca- 
reer he  struck  the  keynote  of  blended  firmness 
and  charity,  which  was  to  become  the  charac- 
teristic of  his  Administration. 
>r  some  months  Springfield  now  became 
the  Mecca  of  American  politics.  Transient 
travelers  and  casual  visitors  tarried  for  a  few 
hours  to  shake  hands  with  the  newly  chosen 
chief;  correspondents  of  leading  newspapers 
established  temporary  headquarters  from  which 
id  their  readers  pen-pictures  of  his  per- 
sonal appearance,  his  daily  habits,  his  home 
and  public  surroundings,  and  to  catch  the 
flying  and  often  contradictory  rumors  of  his 
probable   intentions.     Artists  came  to  paint 
*  Chase  to  Lincoln,  Nov.  17th,  i860.  Warden,  "Life 
of  Chase,"  p.  364. 
his  portrait,  ambitious  politicians  to  note  new 
party  currents,  and  veteran  statesmen  to  urge 
the  adoption  of  favorite  theories  or  the  ad- 
vancement of  faithful  adherents. 
To  all  outside  appearance  Lincoln  remained 
unchanged.  In  the  unpretending  two-story 
frame  house  which  constituted  his  home,  his 
daily  routine  continued  as  before,  except  that 
his  door  was  oftener  opened  to  welcome  the 
curious  visitor  or  to  shelter  the  confidential 
discussion  of  ominous  occurrences  in  national 
affairs.  His  daily  public  occupation  was  still  to 
proceed  to  the  governor's  office  in  the  State- 
house,  to  receive  the  cordial  and  entirely  uncer- 
emonious greetings  of  high  or  low, —  whosoever 
chose  to  enter  at  the  open  door, —  and  in  the 
interim  to  keep  himself  informed,  by  means 
of  the  daily-increasing  budget  of  letters  and 
newspapers,  of  the  events  of  the  country  at 
large,  and  to  give  directions  to  his  private  sec- 
retary as  to  what  replies  should  be  made  to 
important  communications.  Beyond  the  arri- 
val of  distinguished  visitors,  there  was  in  all 
this  no  sign  of  elevation  or  rulership  ;  he  was 
still  the  same  kind  neighbor  and  genial  com- 
panion, who,  whether  on  the  street,  in  his  of- 
fice, or  at  his  fireside,  had  for  every  one  he 
met  the  same  familiar  nod  or  smile  or  cheering 
word, —  the  same  bearing  which  for  a  quarter  of 
a  century  had  made  his  name  a  household 
synonym  of  manly  affection,  virtue,  and  honor. 
Under  this  quiet  exterior  and  commonplace 
routine  he  was,  however,  already  undergoing 
most  anxious  and  harassing  labors.  Day  by 
day  the  horizon  of  politics  gathered  gloom,— 
there  were  signs  of  disunion  in  the  South,  of 
discord  in  Congress,  of  weakness  in  Mr.  Bu- 
chanan's administration.  The  theory  of  seces- 
sion became  the  theme  of  every  newspaper 
and  the  staple  question  of  his  daily  visitors. 
Even  upon  theories  Lincoln  maintained  a  pru- 
dent reserve.  Nevertheless  his  qualified  com- 
ments to  friends  were  prompt  and  clear.  "  My 
own  impression  is,"  said  he  (November  15th), 
"  leaving  myself  room  to  modify  the  opinion 
if  upon  a  further  investigation  1  should  see  fit 
to  do  so,  that  this  Government  possesses  both 
the  authority  and  the  power  to  maintain  its 
own  integrity.  That,  however,  is  not  the  ugly 
point  of  this  matter.  The  ugly  point  is  the 
necessity  of  keeping  the  Government  together 
by  force,  as  ours  should  be  a  government  of 
fraternity."  Later  (December  13th)  he  for- 
mulated his  opinion  a  little  more  in  detail. 
"  The  very  existence,"  said  he,  "  of  a  general 
and  national  government  implies  the  legal 
power,  right,  and  duty  of  maintaining  its  own 
integrity.  This,  if  not  expressed,  is  at  least 
implied  in  the  Constitution.  The  right  of  a 
State  to  secede  is  not  an  open  or  debatable 
question.    It  was  fully  discussed  in  Jackson's
THE  PRESIDENT-ELECT  AT  SPRINGFIELD. 
time,  and  denied  not  only  by  him,  but  by  the 
vote  of  Congress.  It  is  the  duty  of  a  President 
to  execute  the  laws  and  maintain  the  existing 
Government.  He  cannot  entertain  any  prop- 
osition for  dissolution  or  dismemberment.  He 
was  not  elected  for  any  such  purpose.  As  a 
matter  of  theoretical  speculation  it  is  proba- 
bly true,  that  if  the  people,  with  whom  the 
whole  question  rests,  should  become  tired  of 
the  present  government,  they  may  change  it  in 
the  manner  prescribed  by  the  Constitution."* 
The  secrets  of  the  incipient  rebellion,  and 
the  treachery  and  conspiracy  of  a  portion  of 
Mr.  Buchanan's  Cabinet,  which  have  been  al- 
ready so  fully  laid  bare  from  data  only  since 
become  accessible,  neither  Mr.  Lincoln  nor 
any  one  save  the  actors  themselves  had  then 
any  means  of  knowing.  But  in  addition  to 
other  current  sources  of  information  the  con- 
fidential letters  of  Captain  Abner  Doubleday, 
second  in  command  at  Fort  Moultrie,  written 
to  the  captain's  brother  in  New  York,  were, 
so  long  as  mail  communication  remained,  for- 
warded to  the  President-elect,  giving  him  an 
inside  view  of  matters  at  that  critical  post. 
Most  important,  however,  in  its  influence, 
and  most  valuable  in  its  possible  as  well  as 
actual  consequences,  were  the  correspondence 
and  unity  of  patriotic  confidence  which  estab- 
lished themselves  at  an  early  day  between  Mr. 
Lincoln  and  General  Scott.  The  general  was 
evidently  somewhat  proud  of  his  famous 
"Views,"  written  to  President  Buchanan  un- 
der date  of  October  29th,  i860,  as  a  political 
suggestion.  He  transmitted  a  copy  of  the  same 
to  the  President-elect,  as  he  had  done  to  many 
other  gentlemen  of  prominence.  A  brief  ac- 
knowledgment was  written  in  reply  (Novem- 
ber 9th) : 
"  Mr.  Lincoln  tenders  his  sincere  thanks  to  General 
Scott  for  the  copy  of  his  '  views,  etc.,'  which  is  received ; 
and  especially  for  this  renewed  manifestation  of  his  pa- 
triotic purposes  as  a  citizen,  connected  as  it  is  with 
his  high  official  position  and  most  distinguished  char- 
acter as  a  military  captain."  t 
The  delicate  compliment  and  dignified  re- 
serve made  their  impression  on  the  old  hero. 
Called  to  Washington  about  the  middle  of 
December,  and  smarting  under  the  neglect  of 
Secretary  Floyd  and  the  discouraging  indiffer- 
ence of  President  Buchanan,  his  hopes  turned 
toward  tne  elect  of  the  people  at  Springfield. 
It  was  at  this  juncture  (December  17th)  that 
a  personal  and  political  friend  of  long  stand- 
ing called  upon  the  general,  and  in  a  confiden- 
tial but  frank  interview  learned  from  his  own 
lips  the  alarming  dangers  of  the  Govern- 
ment,—  the  neglect  of  the  Administration  to 
*  Nicolay,  Manuscript  Memoranda, 
t  Lincoln  to  Scott,  Nov.  9th,  i860.  Unpublished  MS. 
X  Washburne  to  Lincoln,  Dec.  17th,  i860.     Unpub- 
lished MS. 
send  reinforcements,  the  defenseless  situation 
of  Fort  Moultrie,  and  that  Sumter,  the  key  of 
Charleston  Harbor,  lay  at  the  mercy  of  the  mob. 
"  None  of  his  suggestions  or  recommendations  have 
been  acted  upon,  and  of  course  he  is  powei 
anything  further,  but  his  heart  is  sound  and  tru':.  '  I 
wish  to  God,'  said  he,'  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  in  office.' 
He  continued,  '  I  do  not  know  him,  but  I  believe  him 
a  true,  honest, and  conservative  man.'  Then  he  asked 
earnestly,  '  Mr.  Washburne,  is  he  a.  firm  man  ?  '  I  an- 
swered that  I  had  known  you  long  and  well  and  thnt 
you  would  discharge  your  duty,  and  your  whole  duty, 
in  the  sight  of  the  furnace  seven  times  heated,  lie 
then  said  resolutely  and  hopefully,  'All  is  not  lost.'  "  % 
In  response  to  this  patriotic  expression  of 
the  general,  the  return  mail  carried  back  the 
following  letter  from  Lincoln  to  Washburne: 
"  Springfield,  III.,  Dec.  21st,  i860. 
"Hon.  E.  B.  Washburne. 
"My  Dear  Sir:  Last  night  I  received  your  letter 
giving  an  account  of  your  interview  with  General 
Scott,  and  for  which  I  thank  you.  Please  present  my 
respects  to  the  general,  and  tell  him,  confidentially,  I 
shall  be  obliged  to  him  to  be  as  well  prepared  as  he 
can  to  either  hold  or  retake  the  forts,  as  the  case  may 
require,  at  and  after  the  inauguration. 
"  Yours  as  ever,  A.  Lincoln."  || 
A  little  later  Mr.  Lincoln  again  sent  mes- 
sages of  esteem  and  confidence  to  the  general 
by  Senators  Cameron  and  Baker,  who  made 
visits  to  Springfield. 
"  I  have  seen  General  Scott,"  writes  Cameron  in  re- 
ply (January  3d),  "  who  bids  me  say  he  will  be  glad 
to  act  under  your  orders  in  all  ways  to  preserve  the 
Union.  He  says  Mr.  Buchanan  at  last  has  called  on 
him  to  see  that  order  shall  be  preserved  at  the  inaugu- 
ration, in  this  District ;  that  for  this  purpose  he  has  or- 
dered here  two  companies  of  flying  artillery,  and  that 
he  will  organize  the  militia  and  have  himself  sworn  in 
as  a  constable.  The  old  warrior  is  roused,  and  he  will 
be  equal  to  the  occasion.  "  § 
This  statement  was  repeated  in  an  autograph 
note  from  the  general  himself  on  the  following 
day: 
"  Lieutenant-General  Scott  is  highly  gratified  with 
the  favorable  opinion  entertained  of  him  by  the  Presi- 
dent-elect as  he  learns  through  Senators  Baker  and 
Cameron,  also  personal  friends  of  General  S.,  who  is 
happy  to  reciprocate  his  highest  respect  and  esteem. 
The  President-elect  may  rely  with  confidence  on  Gen- 
eral S.'s  utmost  exertions  in  the  service  of  his  coun- 
try (the  Union)  both  before  and  after  the  approach- 
ing inauguration." 
The  general  then  mentions  in  detail  the 
measures  j  
ust  taken ,  un  der  the  reorganized  C ab- 
inet  and  the  accession  of  Mr.  Holt,  to  counter- 
mand the  shipment  of  the  Pittsburg  guns,  to 
send  reinforcements  to  Fort  Jefferson,  and  to  se- 
cure the  safety  of  Washington  for  the  presiden- 
tial count  and  the  approaching  inauguration.^ 
"  Permit  me,"  wrote  Mr.  Lincoln  in  reply,  January 
nth,  "to    renew   to  you  the  assurance  of  my  high 
||  Lincoln  to  Washburne,  Dec.  21st,  i860.     Unpub- 
lished MS. 
%  Cameron  to  Lincoln,  Jan. 3d,i86i.  Unpublished  MS. 
•ff  Scott  to  Lincoln,  Jan.  4th,  i860.    Unpublished  MS.
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
appreciation  of  the  many  past  services  you  have  ren- 
dered the  Union,  and  my  deep  gratification  at  this  evi- 
dence of  your  present  active  exertions  to  maintain  the 
integrity  and  honor  of  the  nation.1"* 
The  President-elect  was  further  gratified  to 
receive  about  the  same  time  from  the  veteran 
ral  Wool  a  letter  of  noble  and  uncom- 
promising loyalty. 
••  Many  thanks,"  he  wrote  in  reply,  January  14th, 
our  patriotic  and  generous  letter  of  the  nth 
instant  As  to  how  far  the  military  force  of  the  Gov- 
ernment may  become  necessary  to  the  preservation  of 
the  Union,  and  more  particularly  how  that  force  can 
e  directed  to  the  object,  I  must  chiefly  rely  upon 
Genera]  Scott  and  yourself.  It  affords  me  the  pro- 
foundest  satisfaction  to  know,  that  with  both  of  you 
lent  and  feeling  go  heartily  with  your  sense  of 
professional  and  official  duty  to  the  work."  t 
Meanwhile  trusty  friends  in  Washington, 
both  in  and  out  of  Congress,  had  kept  Lincoln 
informed  by  letter  of  public  events  occurring 
there,  so  far  as  they  were  permitted  to  come 
to  the  knowledge  of  Republicans :  how  the 
Cabinet  divided,  how  the  message  was  scouted, 
the  bold  utterances  of  treason,  the  growing 
apprehensions  of  the  public.  But  general  opin- 
ion was  still  in  a  hopeful  mood. 
"  Mr.  Mann,"  wrote  one,  "  who  stated  that  he  knew 
you  personally,  requested  me  to  say  that  he  had  seen  the 
Union  dissolved  twice —  once  when  Southern  members 
of  Congress  refused  for  three  days  to  occupy  their  seats 
—  and  that  it  all  ended  in  smoke.  He  did  not  appear 
the  least  alarmed  about  the  secession  movement,  but 
others,  particularly  Thurlow  Weed  and  Horace  Greeley, 
expressed  great  anxiety."! 
These  were  influential  names,  and  it  may  be 
well  to  cite  their  own  words.  "  I  am  anticipat- 
ing troubles,"  wrote  Mr.  Weed,  December  2d, 
"  not  generally  apprehended  by  our  friends.  I 
want  the  North  to  be  sure  she  is  right  and  then  to 
go  ahead."  ||  Some  days  later  he  wrote  further : 
"  In  consultation  yesterday  with  several  friends,  it 
was  thought  best  to  invite  the  governors  of  several 
States  to  meet  in  this  city  on  Thursday  of  next  week,  so 
that,  if  possible,  there  should  be  harmony  of  views  and 
action  between  them.  It  occurred  to  me  that  you 
should  be  apprised  of  this  movement.  Of  course  it  is 
to  be  quiet  and  confidential.  I  have  been  acting  with- 
out knowledge  of  your  views,  upon  vital  questions. 
But  I  find  it  safe  to  trust  the  head  and  heart  when  both 
are  under  the  guidance  of  right  motives.  I  do  not  want 
you  to  be  saddled  with  the  responsibilities  of  the  Gov- 
ernment before  you  take  the  helm.  On  the  question 
of  preserving  the  Union,  I  am  unwilling  to  see  a  united 
South  and  a  divided  North.  Nor  is  such  an  alternative 
necessary.  With  wisdom  and  prudence  we  can  unite 
the  North  in  upholding  the  supremacy  of  the  Consti- 
tution and  Laws,  and  thus  united,  your  Administration 
will  have  its  foundation  upon  a  rock.    .    .    ."  % 
*  Lincoln  to  Scott,  Jan.  nth,  1861.  Unpublished  MS. 
t  Lincoln  toWool,Jan.  14th,  1861.  Unpublished  MS. 
tTrumbull  to  Lincoln,  Dec.  2d,  i860.    Unpublished 
MS. 
||  Weed  to  Swett,  Dec.  2d,  i860.     Unpublished  MS. 
§  Weed  to  Lincoln,  Dec.  16th, i860.  Unpublished  MS. 
To  this  Mr.  Lincoln  replied  as  follows: 
"  SrRiNGFiELD,  III.,  December  17th,  i860. 
"My  Dear  Sir:  Yours  of  the  nth  was  received 
two  days  ago.  Should  the  convocation  of  governors  of 
which  you  speak  seem  desirous  to  know  my  views  on 
the  present  aspect  of  things,  tell  them  you  judge  from 
my  speeches  that  I  will  be  inflexible  on  the  territorial 
question  ;  that  I  probably  think  either  the  Missouri 
line  extended,  or  Douglas's  and  Eli  Thayer's  populai 
sovereignty,  would  lose  us  everything  we  gain  by  the 
election  ;  that  filibustering  for  all  south  of  us,  and  mak- 
ing slave-States  of  it  would  follow,  in  spite  of  us,  in 
either  case  ;  also  that  I  probably  think  all  opposition, 
real  and  apparent,  to  the  fugitive-slave  clause  of  the  Con 
stitution  ought  to  be  withdrawn. 
"  I  believe  you  can  pretend  to  find  but  little,  if  any- 
thing, in  my  speeches,  about  secession.  But  my  opin- 
ion is,  that  no  State  can  in  any  way  lawfully  get  out  of 
the  Union  without  the  consent  of  the  others  ;  and  that 
it  is  the  duty  of  the  President  and  other  government 
functionaries  to  run  the  machine  as  it  is. 
"Truly  yours,  A.  Lincoln." If 
Mr.  Greeley  not  only  had  similar  fears,  but, 
what  was  much  worse,  by  his  editorials  in  the 
"  Tribune  "  encouraged  the  South  to  hope  for 
peaceable  disunion.  He  wrote  (November 
30th) : 
"  Webster  and  Marshall  and  Story  have  reasoned 
well ;  the  Federal  flag  represents  a  government,  not 
a  mere  league  ;  we  are  in  many  respects  one  nation 
from  the  St.  John  to  the  Rio  Grande  ;  but  the  genius 
of  our  institutions  is  essentially  Republican  and  averse 
to  the  employment  of  military  force  to  fasten  one  sec- 
tion of  our  Confederacy  to  the  other.  If  eight  States, 
having  five  millions  of  people,  choose  to  separate  from 
us,  they  cannot  be  permanently  withheld  from  so  doing 
by  Federal  cannon."  ** 
"  There  is  a  pretty  general  belief  here  that 
the  cotton-States  will  go  out  of  the  Union," 
wrote  a  correspondent  from  Washington. 
"  One  South  Carolina  member  is  sorry  for  the 
condition  of  things  in  his  State  —  is  at  heart 
opposed  to  disunion ;  but  I  will  not  mention  his 
•name  lest  it  should  by  some  means  get  into  the 
newspapers.  Orr  was  forced  into  the  secession 
movement  against  his  will.  This  I  have  from 
good  authority,  and  yet  the  statement  maybe  a 
mistake.  It  is  hard  to  get  at  the  exact  truth."  ft 
From  another  Mr.  Lincoln  received  infor- 
mation as  to  the  course  of  his  party  friends : 
"  A  good  feeling  prevails  among  Republican 
senators.  The  impression  with  all,  unless  there 
be  one  exception,  is,  that  Republicans  have  no 
concessions  to  make  or  compromises  to  offer, 
and  that  it  is  impolitic  even  to  discuss  making 
them.  ...  I  was  a  little  surprised  that  the 
House  voted  to  raise  a  committee  on  the  state 
of  the  Union.  .  .  .  Inactivity  and  a  kind 
spirit  is,  it  seems  to  me,  all  that  is  left  for  us  to 
do,  till  the  4th  of  March."  %% 
«[  Weed,  Memoirs,  Vol.  II.,  p.  310. 
**  N.  Y.  "Tribune,"  Nov.  30th,  i860, 
tt  Gurley  to  Lincoln,  Dec.  3d,  i860.  MS. 
XX  Trumbull  to  Lincoln,  Dec.  4th,  i860.  Unpublished 
MS.
THE  PRESIDENT-ELECT  AT  SPRfNGEIELD. 
HON.    E.    B.    WASHBURNE.       (FROM     A     PHOTOGRAPH     BY    BRADY.) 
"  I  have  never  in  my  life,"  wrote  Mr.  Cor- 
win,  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Thirty- three 
(December  ioth),"seen  my  country  in  such  a 
dangerous  position.  I  look  upon  it  with  great 
alarm,  but  I  am  resolved  not  to  be  paralyzed 
by  dismay.  Our  safety  can  only  be  insured  by 
looking  the  danger  full  in  the  face  and  acting 
with  calm  dignity  in  such  way  as  [that]  if 
possible  we  may  ride  out  the  storm."* 
These  few  extracts  out  of  a  multitude  must 
suffice  to  indicate  the  current  and  character  of 
the  reports  which  reached  Mr.  Lincoln  from 
various  quarters.  The  hopes  of  the  more  san- 
guine were,  unfortunately,  not  realized.  The 
timid  grew  more  despondent,  the  traitors  bolder, 
and  the  crisis  almost  became  a  panic.  Business 
men  and  capitalists  of  the  Eastern  States  were 
beginning  to  exert  a  pressure  for  concessions  to 
avert  civil  war,  under  which  stanch  Republicans 
were  on  the  point  of  giving  way.  The  border 
States,  through  their  presses  and  their  public 
men,  implored  a  compromise,  but  the  entreaty 
was  uniformly  directed  to  the  Republicans  to 
make  concessions,  and  more  often  to  justify 
than  to  denounce  disunion.  Some  of  the  con- 
spirators themselves  adroitly  encouraged  this 
effort  to  demoralize  the  North  by  a  pretense 
of  contrition.  "  South  Carolina,  I  suppose," 
wrote  a  friend  to  Mr.  Lincoln, "  will  try  on  her 
secession  project.  Perhaps  some  of  the  cot- 
ton-States will  follow.  Their  number  will  not 
be  large.     Indeed  I  know  that  some  of  the 
*Corwin  to  Lincoln,  Dec.  ioth,iS6o.  Unpublished  MS. 
t  Fogg  to  Lincoln,  Dec.  1 7th,  i860.   Unpublished  MS. 
Vol.  XXXV.— 11. 
heretofore  most  rabid  secessionists 
now  tremble  before  the  brink  on 
which  they  stand.  They  would  re- 
treat without  trying  the  experiment  if 
they  had  not  kindled  a  fire  at  home 
which  is  beyond  their  control.  'I  his, 
in  substance,  Jefferson  Davis  stated 
to  Fitch  no  longer  ago  than  yester- 
day." f  The  profession  did  not  well 
accord  with  the  signing  of  the  con- 
spirator's secession  address  by  that 
senator  only  three  days  before.  "  I 
listened  yesterday  to  Mr.  Crittenden's 
speech,"  wrote  another  friend, "  in  sup- 
port of  his  proposed  compromise.  In 
my  opinion  he  is  one  of  the  most 
patriotic  and  at  the  same  time  mis- 
chievous of  the  Southern  senators.  .  .  . 
After  Mr.  Crittenden,  Mr.  Johnson  of 
Tennessee  took  the  floor.  ...  His 
simple  declaration  that  the  supposed 
wrongs  must  be  settled  inside  of  the 
Union  is  worth  a  hundred-fold  more 
than  all  the  patriotic  wailing  of  the 
antediluvian  Crittendens."  % 
There  were  plenty  of  correspon- 
dents to  announce  and  describe  the 
present  and  impending  dangers,  but  none  to 
furnish  a  solution  of  the  national  difficulty. 
There  was  no  end  of  wild  suggestion,  and 
that  too  from  prominent  men  ordinarily  capa- 
ble of  giving  counsel.  One,  as  we  have  seen, 
was  for  accepting  disunion.  Another  thought 
a  letter  or  proclamation  from  the  President- 
elect would  still  the  storm.  A  third  wanted 
him  to  drop  down  into  Washington  "  with  a 
carpet-sack."  A  fourth  advised  him  to  march 
to  the  capital  with  a  hundred  thousand  "  wide- 
awakes." Still  a  fifth  proposed  he  should  create 
a  diversion  by  the  purchase  of  Cuba. 
It  was  a  providential  blessing  that  in  such 
a  crisis  the  President-elect  was  a  man  of  unfail- 
ing common  sense  and  complete  self-control. 
He  watched  the  rising  clouds  of  insurrection  ; 
he  noted  the  anxious  warnings  of  his  friends. 
He  was  neither  buoyed  up  by  reckless  hopes, 
nor  cast  down  by  exaggerated  fears.  He  bided 
his  time,  grasped  at  no  rash  counsels  or  ex- 
periments, uttered  neither  premature  cry  of 
alarm  nor  boast  of  overweening  confidence. 
He  resisted  pressing  solicitations  to  change  his 
position,  to  explain  his  intention,  to  offer,  either 
for  himself  or  the  great  national  majority  which 
chose  him,  any  apology  for  his  or  their  high 
prerogative  exercised  in  his  election. 
It  must  not,  however,  be  inferred  from  the 
foregoing  that  Mr.  Lincoln  shut  himself  up  in 
total  silence.  To  discreet  friends,  as  well  as 
to  honorable  opponents,  under  the  seal  of  con- 
t  Williams  to  Lincoln,  Dec.  19th,  1S60.  Unpublished 
MS.
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 
fidence,  he  was  always  tree  to  repeat 
his  well-formed  convictions,  and  even 
in  some  degree  to  foreshadow  his  prob- 
able course.  It  is  gratifying  to  note 
in  this  connection,  especially  since  it   ■ 
evinces  his  acute  judgment  of  human 
nature,  that  in  few  instances  was  such 
confidence  violated  during  the  whole 
period  o(  his  candidacy  and  official 
life.  By  unnoticed  beginnings  he  eas- 
ily and  naturally  assumed  the  leader- 
ship o(  his  party  in  the  personal  in- 
terviews and  private  eorrespondence 
following  the  election,  called  out  by 
the  manifestations  of  Southern  dis- 
content. He  was  never  obtrusive  nor 
dictatorial ;  but  in  a  suggestion  to  one, 
a  hint  to  another,  a  friendly  explana- 
tion or  admonition  to  a  third,  he  soon 
gave  direction,  unity,  and  confidence 
to  his  adherents. 
Mr.  Bryant,  for  instance,  was  strong- 
ly opposed  to  Mr.  Seward's  going  into 
the  Cabinet.  Lincoln  wrote  him  a  few 
lines  in  explanation,  which  brought 
back  the  following  qualified  acqui- 
escence : 
'•  I  have  this  moment  received  your  note.  Nothing 
could  be  more  fair  or  more  satisfactory  than  the  prin- 
ciple you  lay  down  in  regard  to  the  formation  of  your 
council  of  official  advisers.  I  shall  always  be  convinced 
that  whatever  selection  you  make  it  will  be  made  con- 
scientiously." * 
Mr.  Greeley  was,  as  we  have  seen,  indulging 
in  damaging  vagaries  about  peaceable  seces- 
sion, and  to  him  Lincoln  sent  a  word  of  friendly 
caution.  Greeley  wrote  a  statement  of  his  views 
in  reply,  but  substantially  yielded  the  point. 
He  said  a  State  could  no  more  secede  at  pleas- 
ure from  the  Union  than  a  stave  could  secede 
from  a  cask.  That  if  eight  or  ten  contiguous 
States  sought  to  leave,  he  should  say,  "There 's 
the  door  —  go  !  "    But, 
"  if  the  seceding  State  or  States  go  to  fighting  and 
defying  the  laws,  the  Union  being  yet  undissolved  save 
by  their  own  say-so,  I  guess  they  will  have  to  be  made 
to  behave  themselves.  ...  I  fear  nothing,  care  for 
nothing,  but  another  disgraceful  back-down  of  the  free 
States.  That  is  the  only  real  danger.  Let  the  Union 
slide  —  it  may  be  reconstructed;  let  Presidents  be  as- 
sassinated,  we  can  elect  more;  let  the  Republicans  be 
defeated  and  crushed,  we  shall  rise  again.  liut  another 
»]  omise,  whereby  everything  is  conceded  and 
nothing  secured,  will  so  thoroughly  disgrace  and  hu- 
miliate us  that  we  can  never  again  raise  our  heads,  and 
this  country  becomes  a  second  edition  of  the  Harbary 
States,  as  they  were  sixty  years  ago.  'Take  any  form 
but  that.'"  t 
"  W.  C.  Bryant  to  Lincoln,  [an.  3d,  1861.  Unpub- 
lished MS. 
f  Greeley  to  Lincoln,  Dec.  22d,  i860.  Unpublished 
MS. 
I  Lincoln  to  Kellogg,Dec.  nth,  i860.  Unpublished 
MS. 
It  would  have  been  well  had  his  advice  been  fol- 
lowed.   Under  the  pressure  of  the  disunionists  and  of 
THURLOW     WEED.       (FROM     A     PHOTOGRAPH    BY    BRADY.) 
On  this  point  Lincoln's  note  had  reassured 
his  shrinking  faith.  The  "  Tribune  "  announced 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  had  no  thought  of  conces- 
sions, and  thenceforward  that  powerful  journal 
took  a  more  healthy  and  hopeful  tone. 
Hon.  William  Kellogg,  the  Illinois  represen- 
tative on  the  Committee  of  Thirty-three,  wrote 
to  him  for  instructions  as  to  the  course  he  should 
pursue.  Under  date  of  December  1  ith  Mr.  Lin- 
coln replied  to  him  as  follows : 
"  Entertain  no  proposition  for  a  compromise  in  re- 
gard to  the  extension  of  slavery.  The  instant  you  do 
they  have  us  under  again  :  all  our  labor  is  lost,  and 
sooner  or  later  must  be  done  over.  Douglas  is  sure  to 
be  again  trying  to  bring  in  his  '  Popular  Sovereignty.' 
Have  none  of  it.  The  tug  has  to  come,  and  better  now 
than  later.  You  know  I  think  the  fugitive-slave  clause 
of  the  Constitution  ought  to  be  enforced — to  put  it  in 
its  mildest  form,  ought  not  to  be  resisted."  $ 
Some  weeks  later  Kellogg  visited  Lincoln  to 
urge  his  views  of  compromise  on  the  President- 
elect. As  a  result  of  that  visit  Lincoln  wrote  the 
following  letter  to  Seward  on  February  1st: 
"On  the  21st  ult.  Hon.  W.  Kellogg,  a  Republican 
member  of  Congress  of  this  State,  whom  you  proba- 
bly know,  was  here  in  a  good  deal  of  anxiety  for  our 
friends  to  go  in  the  way  of  compromise  on  the  now 
vexed  question.  While  he  was  with  me  I  received  a 
dispatch  from  Senator  Trumbull,  at  Washington,  al- 
the  border-State  men,  Kellogg's  firmness  gave  way, 
and  he  announced  his  willingness  to  recede  from  the 
Republican  declarations.  The  change  effected  nothing 
but  the  sacrifice  of  his  own  consistency.  He  lost  his 
friends  and  gained  no  followers.  His  concession  was 
spurned  by  the  disunionists  ;  and  being  a  large  and  cor- 
pulent man,  the  wits  of  the  day  made  themselves  merry 
by  dubbing  his  apostacy  the  "  Mammoth  Cave."
THE   PRESIDENT-ELECT  AT  SPRING  El  EU). 
luding  to  the  same  question  and  telling  me  to  await 
letters.  I  therefore  told  Mr.  Kellogg  that  when  J 
should  receive  these  letters  posting  me  as  to  the  state 
af  affairs  at  Washington,  I  would  write  you,  request- 
ing you  to  let  him  see  my  letter.  To  my  surprise,  when 
;he  letters  mentioned  by  Judge  Trumbull  came  they 
made  no  allusion  to  the  '  vexed  question.'  This  baffled 
me  so  much  that  I  was  near  not  writing  you  at  all,  in 
compliance  with  what  I  had  said  to  Judge  Kellogg. 
[  say  now,  however,  as  I  have  all  the  while  said,  that 
3ii  the  territorial  question —  that  is,  the  question  of  ex- 
lending  slavery  under  the  national  auspices  —  I  am  in- 
dexible. I  am  for  no  compromise  which  assists  or 
permits  the  extension  of  the  institution  on  soil  owned 
jy  the  nation.  And  any  trick  by  which  the  nation  is 
:o  acquire  territory,  and  then  allow  some  local  author- 
ty  to  spread  slavery,  is  as  obnoxious  as  any  other.  I 
:ake  it  that  to  effect  some  such  result  as  this,  and  to 
Dut  us  again  on  the  high  road  to  a  slave  empire,  is  the 
)bject  of  all  these  proposed  compromises.  I  am  against 
t.  As  to  fugitive  slaves,  District  of  Columbia,  slave- 
:rade  among  the  slave-States,  and  whatever  springs  of 
lecessity  from  the  fact  that  the  institution  is  amongst 
is,  I  care  but  little,  so  that  what  is  done  be  comely  and 
lot  altogether  outrageous.  Nor  do  I  care  about  New 
Mexico,  if  further  extension  were  hedged  against."  * 
We  shall  describe  somewhat  in  detail  the  for- 
mation of  Lincoln's  Cabinet,  and  will  only  men- 
ion  here  that  on  December  13th  he  began  that 
work  by  tendering  the  post  of  Secretary  of 
state  to  Mr.  Seward,  which  offer  was  accepted 
December  28th.  The  correspondence  between 
;hese  eminent  men  affords  an  interesting  view 
)f  the  beginnings  of  the  new  administration. 
"  Mr.  Weed  finding  it  not  inconvenient  to  go  West," 
vrote  Seward,  December  16th, "  I  have  had  some  con- 
versation with  him  concerning  the  condition  and  the 
)rospect  of  public  affairs,  and  he  will  be  able  to  inform 
vou  of  my  present  unsettled  view  of  the  subject  upon 
vhich  you  so  kindly  wrote  me  a  few  days  ago.  I  shall 
•emain  at  home  until  his  return,  and  shall  then  in  fur- 
;her  conference  with  him  have  the  advantage  of  a 
knowledge  of  the  effect  of  public  events  certain  to  oc- 
:ur  this  week."  t 
Weed  went  to  Springfield  and  had  several 
nterviews  with  the  President-elect.  There  is 
10  record  of  these  conferences ;  but  it  is  likely 
:hat  Mr.  Weed  urged  on  those  occasions,  as  he 
iid  on  all  others,  the  utmost  forbearance,  concil- 
ation,  and  concession  to  the  South.  To  employ 
lis  favorite  formula,  he  wanted  Republicans 
'  to  meet  secession  as  patriots  and  not  as  par- 
isans."  The  sentiment  and  the  alliteration  were 
Doth  pleasing ;  but  Lincoln,  trained  in  almost 
ife-long  debate  with  Douglas,  the  most  subtle 
luggler  in  words  ever  known  to  American  pol- 
tics,  was  not  a  man  to  deal  in  vague  phrases. 
3e  told  Mr.  Weed  just  what  he  would  concede 
tnd  just  how  far  he  would  conciliate  —  drew 
tim  a  sharp  and  definite  line  to  show  where 
>artisanship  ends  and  where  patriotism  begins. 
Vhen  Mr.  Weed  returned  he  bore  with  him  the 
written  statement  of  Lincoln  ■  what  he  believed, 
*  Lincoln  to  Seward,  Feb.  1  st,  1 860.  Unpublished  M  S. 
t  Seward  to  Lincoln,  Dec.  16th,  i860.     Unpublished 
and  was  determined  to  assert  and  maintain  on 
pending  and  probable  issues. 
Mr.  Seward's  letter  of  December  26th,  to 
Lincoln,  gives  us  the  seque]  of  this  visit. 
"  I  had  only  the  opportunity  for  conferring  with  Mr. 
Weed  which  was  afforded  by  our  journeying  together  on 
the  railroad  from  Syracuse  to  Albany. 
"He  gave  me  verbally  the  substance  of  the  suggestion 
you  prepared  for  the  consideration  of  the  Republican 
members,  but  not  the  written  proposition.  This  morning 
I  received  the  latter  from  him,  and  also  information  for 
the  first  time  of  your  expectation  that  I  would  write  to 
you  concerning  the  temper  of  parties  and  the  public  here. 
"  I  met  on  Monday  my  Republican  associates  on  the 
Committee  of  Thirteen,  and  afterwards  the  whole  com 
mittee.  With  the  unanimous  consent  of  our  section  I  of- 
fered three  propositions  which  seemed  to  me  to  cover 
the  ground  of  the  suggestion  made  by  you  through  Mr. 
Weed  as  I  understood  it. 
"  First.  That  the  Constitution  should  never  be  al- 
tered so  as  to  authorize  Congress  to  abolish  or  inter- 
fere with  slavery  in  the  States.    This  was  accepted. 
"Second.  That  the  fugitive- slave  law  should  be 
amended  by  granting  a  jury  trial  to  the  fugitive.  This 
in  opposition  to  our  votes  was  amended  soas  to  give  the 
jury  in  the  State  from  which  the  fugitive  fled,  and  so 
amended  was  voted  down  by  our  own  votes.  The 
committee  had  already  agreed  to  Mr.  Crittenden's 
amendment  concerning  the  fees  of  the  commissioner, 
making  them  the  same  when  the  fugitive  is  returned  to 
slavery  as  when  he  is  discharged. 
"  Our  Third  resolution  was  that  Congress  recom- 
mend to  all  the  States  to  revise  their  legislation  con- 
cerning persons  recently  resident  in  other  States  and 
to  repeal  all  such  laws  which  contravene  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States,  or  any  law  of  Congress 
passed  in  pursuance  thereof.  This  was  rejected  by 
the  pro-slavery  vote  of  the  committee. 
"  To-day  we  have  had  another  meeting.  I  offered, 
with  the  concurrence  of  my  political  associates,  a  fourth 
proposition,  viz.:  That  Congress  should  pass  a  law  to 
punish  invasions  of  our  States  and  conspiracies  to  ef- 
fect such  invasions,  but  the  latter  only  in  the  State  and 
district  where  the  acts  of  such  complicity  were  com- 
mitted. This  by  the  votes  of  our  opponents  was 
amended  so  as  practically  to  carry  out  Mr.  Douglas's 
suggestion  of  last  winter  for  the  revival  of  the  old  Se- 
dition law  of  John  Adams's  time,  and  then  was  rejected 
by  our  own  votes. 
"  This  evening  the  Republican  members  of  the  com- 
mittee with  Judge  Trumbull  and  Mr.  Fessenden  met 
at  my  house  to  consider  your  written  suggestion  and 
determine  whether  it  shall  be  offered.  While  we  think 
the  ground  has  been  already  covered,  we  find  that  in 
the  form  you  give  it,  it  would  divide  our  friends  not 
only  in  the  Committee  but  in  Congress  ;  a  portion  be- 
ing unwilling  to  give  up  their  old  opinion  that  the  duty 
of  executing  the  constitutional  provisions  concerning 
fugitives  from  service  belongs  to  the  States,  and  not 
at  all  to  Congress.  But  we  shall  confer  and  act  as 
wisely  as  we  can. 
"  Thus  far  I  have  reported  only  our  action  on  the 
subject  of  your  suggestion.  I  proceed  now  to  tell  you 
what  I  think  of  the  temper  of  the  parties  and  of  the 
public  here. 
"  South  Carolina  has  already  taken  her  attitude  of 
defiance.  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  and  Louisi- 
ana are  pushed  on  towards  the  same  attitude.  I  think 
that  they  could  not  be  arrested  even  if  we  should 
offer  all  you  suggest  and  with  it  the  restoration  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise  line.  But  persons  acting  for 
those  States  intimate  that  they  might  be  so  arrested 
because  they  think  that  the  Republicans  are  not  going 
to  concede  the  restoration  of  that  line. 
"  The  action  of  the  border  States  is  uncertain.     Sym-
So 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
ALEXANDER     H.     STEPHENS.        (FROM     A     PHOTOGRAPH     BY     BRADY.) 
pathy  there  is  strong  with  the  cotton-States,  while  pru- 
dence and  patriotism  dictate  adhesion  to  the  Union. 
Nothing  could  rm^z'tt/j'  restrain  them  but  the  adoption 
of  Mr.  Crittenden's  compromise,  and  I  do  not  see  the 
slightest  indication  of  its  adoption  on  the  Republican 
side  of  Congress.  The  members  stand  nearly  or  quite 
as  firm  against  it  as  the  country  is.  Under  these  circum- 
stances, time  and  accident,  it  seems  to  me,  must  deter- 
mine the  course  of  the  border  States. 
"  Probably  all  the  debate  and  conferences  we  have 
hitherto  had  will  sink  out  of  the  public  mind  within 
a  week  or  two,  when  the  Republican  members  shall 
have  refused  to  surrender  at  discretion  to  the  State  of 
South  Carolina.  New  and  exciting  subjects  will  enter 
into  the  agitation  and  control  results. 
"  Thus  I  have  said  all  that  I  am  able  to  say  of  the 
temper  of  parties  and  of  the  public.  I  add,  very  respect- 
fully, my  own  opinion  on  the  probable  future. 
"  The  United  States  of  America,  their  Constitution, 
their  capital,  their  organization  in  all  its  departments, 
and  with  all  its  military  and  naval  forces,  will  stand  and 
.ithout  resistance  into  your  hands.  There  will  be 
several,  perhaps  all,  of  the  slave-States  standing  in  a 
contumacious  attitude  on  the  4th  of  March.  Sedition 
will  be  growing  weaker  and  loyalty  stronger  every  day 
from  the  acts  of  secession  as  they  occur."* 
But  now  the  crisis  in  the  affairs  of  the  Gov- 
ernment was  approaching.  It  is  already  fore- 
shadowed in  Mr.  Seward's  letter  of  December 
28th.  "There  is  a  feverish  excitement  here," 
writes  he,  "which  awakens  all  kinds  of  appre- 
hensions of  popular  disturbance  and  disorders 
*  Seward  to  Lincoln,  Dec.  26,  i860.  Unpublished 
MS. 
t  Seward  to  Lincoln,  Dec.  29,  i860.  Unpublished  MS. 
connected  with  your  assumption  of 
the  government."  And  he  suggests 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  should  prepare  to 
come  to  Washington  a  week  earlier 
than  is  usual  on  such  occasions;  pref- 
acing the  advice,  however,  with  the 
statement,  "  I  do  not  entertain  these 
apprehensions  myself."  But  by  the 
day  following  he  becomes  convinced 
of  the  danger. 
"  At  length  I  have  gotten  a  position," 
writes  he,  December  29th,  "in  which  I  can 
see  what  is  going  on  in  the  councils  of  the 
President.  It  pains  me  to  learn  that  things 
there  are  even  worse  than  is  understood. 
The  President  is  debating  day  and  night  on 
the  question  whether  he  shall  not  recall 
Major  Anderson  and  surrender  Fort  Sum- 
ter and  go  on  arming  the  South.  A  plot  is
forming  to  seize  the  capital  on  or  before  the 
4th  of  March,  and  this  too  has  its  accom- 
plices in  the  public  councils.  I  could  tell 
you  more  particularly  than  I  dare  write,  but 
you  must  not  imagine  that  I  am  giving  you 
suspicions  and  rumors.  Believe  me  that  I
know  what  I  write.  In  point  of  fact,  the  re- 
sponsibilities of  your  administration  must 
begin  before  the  time  arrives."! 
Mr.  Seward  then  advises  that  the 
President  should  arrive  earlier,  that  he 
appoint  his  Secretaries  of  War,  Navy, 
and  Treasury,  and  that  they  come  to 
Washington  as  soon  as  possible. 
The  events  of  a  day  or  two,  however,  dissi- 
pated the  apparent  magnitude  of  the  crisis. 
Buchanan's  council  broke  up,  Floyd  retired 
in  disgrace,  the  Cabinet  was  reorganized ;  Holt 
was  made  Secretary  of  War,  and  the  immediate 
plots  of  the  conspirators  were  exposed  and  for 
a  season  baffled. 
STEPHENS  S     SPEECH     AND     CORRESPONDENCE 
WITH     LINCOLN. 
Following  the  lead  of  South  Carolina,  the 
governor  of  Georgia  began  the  secession  move- 
ment in  that  State  almost  immediately  after 
the  presidential  election,  by  such  public  dec- 
larations and  acts  as  fell  within  the  scope  of 
his  personal  influence  and  official  authority. 
Georgia  had,  however,  given  a  heavy  vote  for 
Douglas,  and  her  people  were  imbued  with  a 
strong  feeling  of  conditional  unionism.  An  op- 
position to  hasty  secession  at  once  developed 
itself  of  so  formidable  a  character  that  all  the 
influence  and  cunning  of  the  secessionists  were 
needed  to  push  their  movement  to  success. 
The  ablest  men  in  the  State  hurried  to  Mill- 
edgeville  and  met  in  a  sort  of  battle-royal  of 
speech-making  and  wire-pulling.  The  Legisla- 
ture was  the  target,  and  its  action  or  non-action 
upon  military  appropriations  and  a  conven- 
tion bill  the  result  to  be  affected.  Senator 
Toombs  and  others  made  speeches  to  promote
THE  PRESIDENT-ELECT  AT  SPRINGFIELD. 
secession;  and  in  reply  to  these  Alexander  H. 
Stephens  addressed  the  Legislature  by  special 
invitation  on  the  14th  of  November.  It  was 
the  greatest  effort  of  his  life,  and  takes  rank  as 
the  ablest  speech  made  by  a  Southerner  in 
opposition  to  disunion.  The  occasion  appears 
to  have  been  one  of  great  excitement.  Toombs 
sat  on  the  platform  beside  the  speaker,  and  in- 
terlarded the  address  with  his  cynical  interrog- 
atories and  comments,  which  Stephens  met  in 
every  instance  with  successful  repartee. 
The  speaker  declared  that  to  secede  in  con- 
sequence of  Lincoln's  election  was  to  break 
the  Constitution,  and  show  bad  faith.  "  We 
went  into  the  election  with  this  people,"  said 
he.  "  The  result  was  different  from  what  we 
wished;  but  the  election  has  been  constitu- 
tionally held."  Mr.  Lincoln  could  do  the  South 
no  harm  against  an  adverse  House  and  Sen- 
ate. This  government,  with  all  its  defects,  came 
nearer  the  object  of  all  good  governments  than 
any  other  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  One  by 
one  he  refuted  the  charges  and  complaints 
which  had  been  advanced  by  Toombs,  and 
warned  his  hearers  against  the  perils  of  sudden 
disunion.  Liberty  once  lost  might  never  be 
restored.  Georgia  had  grown  great,  rich,  and 
intelligent  in  the  Union. 
"  I  look  upon  this  country,  with  our  institutions," 
continued  he,  "  as  the  Eden  of  the  world,  the  Paradise 
of  the  Universe.  It  may  be  that  out  of  it  we  may  be- 
come greater  and  more  prosperous ;  but  I  am  candid 
and  sincere  in  telling  you  that  I  fear  if  we  yield  to  pas- 
sion, and  without  sufficient  cause  shall  take  that  step, 
instead  of  becoming  greater,  or  more  peaceful,  pros- 
perous, and  happy  —  instead  of  becoming  gods  we  will 
become  demons,  and  at  no  distant  day  commence  cut- 
ting one  another's  throats." 
The  speech  created  an  immense  sensation 
throughout  the  South,  and  but  for  an  artful 
trick  of  the  secessionists  would  have  arrested 
and  changed  the  immediate  tide  of  secession 
in  Georgia.  Seeing  that  the  underlying  Union 
feeling  was  about  to  endanger  their  scheme 
of  revolt,  through  a  defection  or  hesitation  on 
the  part  of  the  Empire  State  of  the  South,  they 
devised  an  adroit  plea  to  appropriate  its  whole 
force  to  further  their  own  plans.  They  persist- 
ently urged  that  "  we  can  make  better  terms 
out  of  the  Union  than  in  it."  Mr.  Stephens 
himself  has  explained  the  misrepresentation 
and  its  result.  "  Two-thirds  at  least  of  those 
who  voted  for  the  ordinance  of  secession  did 
*  Stephens,"  War  Between  the  States,"  Vol.  II. ,  p.  32 1 . 
t  Stephens,  Farewell  Speech,  Augusta,  Ga.,  July  2d, 
1859.    Cleveland,  "  Life  of  Stephens,"  p.  650. 
X  Ibid.,  p.  647. 
§  "Fourth.  That  the  State  of  Georgia,  in  the  judgment 
of  this  convention,  will,  and  ought  to  resist,  even  (as 
a  last  resort)  to  a  disruption  of  every  tie  which  binds 
her  to  the  Union,  any  future  act  of  Congress  abolish- 
ing slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  without  the 
consent  and  petition  of  the  slave-holders  thereof,  or 
any  act  abolishing  slavery  in  places  within  the  slave- 
Vol.  XXXV— 12. 
so,  I  have  but  little  doubt,  with  a  view  to  a 
more  certain  re-formation  of  the  Union."* 
To  understand  this  statement  more  thor- 
oughly, it  must  be  added  that  Mr.  Stephens's 
great  Union  speech  was  also  enthusiastically 
hailed  by  the  North  as  a  sign  of  firm  allegi- 
ance. But  that  part  of  the  country  totally 
misapprehended  its  spirit  and  object.  With  all 
his  eloquently  asserted  devotion  to  the  Union, 
he  was  a  pro-slavery  man  of  the  most  ultra 
type.  He  defended  the  institution  upon  the 
"  higher-law  "  doctrine.  "  If  slavery,"  said  he, 
"  as  it  exists  with  us  is  not  best  for  the  African, 
constituted  and  made  as  he  is,  if  it  does  not 
best  promote  his  welfare  and  happiness,  so- 
cially, morally,  and  politically,  as  well  as  that 
of  his  master,  it  ought  to  be  abolished."  t  He 
believed  slavery  should  be  protected  in  the 
Territories  by  Federal  law.  He  did  not  go  quite 
to  the  extent  of  advocating  a  revival  of  the 
African  slave-trade ;  but  went  so  far  as  to  sug- 
gest that  without  such  a  reopening  the  South 
could  not  maintain  her  coveted  balance  of 
power.  "  If  the  policy  of  this  country,"  said 
he,  "settled  in  its  early  history,  of  prohibiting 
further  importations  or  immigrations  of  this 
class  of  population,  is  to  be  adhered  to,  the 
race  of  competition  between  us  and  our  breth- 
ren of  the  North  in  the  colonization  of  new 
States,  which  heretofore  has  been  so  well 
maintained  by  us,  will  soon  have  to  be  aban- 
doned." % 
So  again,  while  he  asserted  that  the  South 
had  lost  nothing,  but  gained  much  through  the 
slavery  agitation,  and  while  he  maintained  that 
she  was  menaced  by  no  danger,  he  had  been 
for  nearly  ten  years  a  conditional  disunionist. 
During  the  agitation  of  1850,  a  convention  of 
Georgia  passed  certain  resolutions,  known  as 
the  "  Georgia  platform."  The  resolutions  de- 
clared the  acceptance  of  the  Compromise  of 
1850  as  a  "permanent  adjustment  " ;  and  then 
went  on  to  threaten  disunion  in  case  that  ad- 
justment were  violated. §  This  "  Georgia  plat- 
form "  was  Mr.  Stephens's  rallying-ground  and 
stronghold;  latterly  he  had  extended  it  by 
including  personal  liberty  bills  as  a  cause  of 
disunion.  He  loved  the  Union,  but  he  held 
the  Union  secondary  to  the  Georgia  platform  ; 
and  he  opposed  secession  because  he  thought 
it  a  departure  from  this  platform.  "Not  only 
a  departure  from  the  Georgia  platform,"  said 
holding  States,  purchased  by  the  United  States  for  the 
erection  of  forts,  magazines,  arsenals,  dock-yards,  navy- 
yards,  and  other  like  purposes  ;  or  in  any  act  suppress- 
ing the  slave-trade  between  slave-holding  States  ;  or 
in  any  refusal  to  admit  as  a  State  any  territory  apply- 
ing, because  of  the  existence  of  slavery  therein ;  or  in 
any  act  prohibiting  the  introduction  of  slaves  into  the 
territories  of  Utah  and  New  Mexico;  or  in  any  act  re- 
pealing or  materially  modifying  the  laws  now  in  force 
for  the  recovery  of  fugitive  slaves." —  [Stephens,  "  War 
Between  the  States,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  676.  J
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
of  thought ;  and  a  few  days  afterwards  Mr. 
Lincoln  wrote  the  following  frank  letter  : 
uJ*br  your  own  eye  only. 
"Springfield,  III.,  Dec.  22d,  i860. 
"  Hon.  A.  H.  Stephens. 
"My  Dear  Sir:  Your  obliging  answer  to  my  short 
note  is  just  received,  and  for  which  please  accept  my 
thanks.  I  fully  appreciate  the  present  peril  the  coun- 
try is  in,  and  the  weight  of  responsibility  on  me.  Do 
the  people  of  the  South  really  entertain  fears  that  a  Re- 
publican administration  would,  directly  or  indirectly, 
interfere  with  the  slaves,  or  with  them  about  the  slaves  ? 
If  they  do,  I  wish  to  answer  you,  as  once  a  friend,  and 
still,  I  hope,  not  an  enemy,  that  there  is  no  cause  for 
such  fears.  The  South  would  be  in  no  more  danger  in 
this  respect  than  it  was  in  the  time  of  Washington.  I 
suppose,  however,  this  does  not  meet  the  case.  You 
think  slavery  is  right  and  ought  to  be  extended,  while 
we  think  it  is  wrong  and  ought  to  be  restricted.  That,  I 
suppose,  is  the  rub.  It  certainly  is  the  only  substantial 
difference  between  us.  Yours  very  truly, 
"A.  Lincoln. "J 
With  equal  frankness  Mr.  Stephens,  under 
date  of  December  30th,  wrote  back  a  long  re- 
ply, which  is  conspicuous  for  its  candid  admis- 
sions. Premising  that  though  differing  from 
him  politically  he  was  not  Mr.  Lincoln's  enemy, 
Mr.  Stephens  proceeds  as  follows : 
"  I  will  also  add  that  in  my  judgment  the  people  of 
the  South  do  not  entertain  any  fears  that  a  Republican 
administration,  or  at  least  the  one  about  to  be  inaugura- 
ted, would  attempt  to  interfere  directly  and  immediate- 
ly with  slavery  in  the  States.  Their  apprehension  and 
disquietude  do  not  spring  from  that  source.  They  do 
not  arise  from  the  fact  of  the  known  antislavery  opin- 
ions of  the  President-elect.  Washington,  Jefferson,  and 
other  Presidents  are  generally  admitted  to  have  been 
antislavery  in  sentiment.  But  in  those  days  anti- 
slavery  did  not  enter  as  an  element  into  party  or- 
ganizations. .  .  .  But  now  this  subject,  which  is  con- 
fessedly on  all  sides  outside  of  the  constitutional  action 
of  the  Government  so  far  as  the  States  are  concerned, 
is  made  the  central  idea  in  the  platform  of  principles 
announced  by  the  triumphant  party!,  The  leading  ob- 
ject seems  to  be  simply,  and  wantonly,  if  you  please,  to 
put  the  institutions  of  nearly  half  the  States  under  the 
ban  of  public  opinion  and  national  condemnation.  This, 
upon  general  principles,  is  quite  enough  of  itself  to 
arouse  a  spirit  not  only  of  general  indignation,  but  of 
revolt  on  the  part  of  the  proscribed.  .  .  .  We  at  the 
South  do  think  African  slavery,  as  it  exists  with  us,  both 
morally  and  politically  right.  This  opinion  is  formed 
upon  the  inferiority  of  the  black  race ;  you,  however, 
and  perhaps  a  majority  of  the  North,  think  it  wrong. 
Admit  the  difference  of  opinion.  The  same  difference 
of  opinion  existed  to  a  more  general  extent  amongst 
those  who  formed  the  Constitution  when  it  was  made 
and  adopted.  The  changes  have  been  mainly  to  our 
side.  As  parties  were  not  formed  on  this  difference  of 
opinion  then,  why  should  they  be  now?  The  same 
difference  would,  of  course,  exist  in  the  supposed  case 
of  religion.  When  parties,  or  combinations  of  men, 
therefore,  so  form  themselves,  must  it  not  be  assumed 
to  arise  not  from  reason  or  any  sense  of  justice,  but 
from  fanaticism  ?  The  motive  can  spring  from  no  other 
source,  and  when  men  come  under  the  influence  of 
fanaticism,  there  is  no  telling  where  their  impulses  or 
passions  may  drive  them.    This  is  what  creates  our 
*  Stephens,  Augusta  Speech,  Sept.  1st,  i860.    Cleve-       t  Stephens  to  Landrum,  July  1st,  i860.     Cleveland, 
land,  p.  692.  p.  672. 
t  Stephens,  "War  Between  the  States,"  Vol.  IT., p.  266. 
he.  "  and  from  the  long-established  principles 
of  the  national  Democratic  party,  but  an  entire 
change  of  position  of  the  entire  South,  of  all 
parties,  not  oi  all  individuals,  in  relation  to  the 
power  and  jurisdiction  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment over  the  subject  of  African  slavery."  * 
Still  further  :  when  the  disruption  of  the 
Charleston  convention  paralyzed  the  Demo- 
cratic party,  Mr.  Stephens  lost  heart  He 
thought  the  times  out  of  joint.  He  saw  no 
further  prospect  of  doing  good.  The  popular 
fever  must  run  its  course.  If  disunion  came 
lie  avowed  he  would  yield  to  the  misfortune. 
His  destiny,  he  said,  lay  with  Georgia  and  the 
South. t  It  will  appear  from  this  that  if  Mr. 
Stephens  was  not  a  flexible  reasoner,  he  was 
a  most  unsafe  political  mentor.  Yet,  out  of 
this  lethargy  of  conviction  and  will  came  the 
splendid  outburst  of  patriotic  eloquence  and 
Union  argument  of  his  Milledgeville  speech; 
only  to  be  marred,  however,  at  its  close  by  re- 
newed adhesion  to  the  Georgia  platform,  and 
a  new  subserviency  to  the  "will  of  Georgia." 
The  newspapers  brought  the  report  of  Mr. 
Stephens's  speech  to  Springfield,  the  home  of 
Mr.  Lincoln,  as  well  as  to  all  other  Northern 
cities,  and  the  President-elect  read  its  stirring 
periods  with  something  of  the  general  hope 
that  a  gleam  of  light  was  shining  upon  dark 
places.  Like  other  men  in  the  North,  he  had 
no  means  of  knowing  the  eccentricities  of  Mr. 
Stephens's  principles  and  policy,  and  therefore 
probably  shared  the  general  error  of  overval- 
uing his  expressions  of  attachment  to  the 
Union.  He  had  personally  known  him  as  fel- 
low-congressman and  a  fellow-whig  in  1847-9  > 
they  had  become  co-laborers  in  their  advocacy 
of  the  nomination  and  election  of  General  Tay- 
lor to  the  presidency,  and  through  these  asso- 
ciations contracted  a  warm  social  and  political 
friendship. 
It  was,  therefore,  most  natural  that,  upon 
reading  his  reported  speech  Mr.  Lincoln  ad- 
dressed a  note  of  a  few  lines  to  Mr.  Stephens, 
asking  him  for  a  revised  copy ;  and  that  this 
note  led  to  a  short  but  most  interesting  corre- 
spondence. 
Mr.  Stephens  replied  courteously,  saying 
that  his  speech  had  not  been  revised  by  him; 
that  while  the  newspaper  report  contained  sev- 
eral verbal  inaccuracies,  its  main  points  were 
sufficiently  clear  for  all  practical  purposes.  The 
note  closed  with  the  following  sentence : 
"  The  country  is  certainly  in  great  peril,  and 
no  man  ever  had  heavier  or  greater  responsi- 
bilities resting  upon  him  than  you  have  in  the 
present  momentous  crisis."  The  phrase  seemed 
to  open  the  way  to  a  confidential  interchange
THE  PRESIDENT-ELECT  AT  SPRINGFIELD. 
discontent  and  apprehension.  .  .  .  Conciliation  and 
harmony,  in  my  judgment,  can  never  be  established  by 
force.  Nor  can  the  Union,  under  the  Constitution,  be 
maintained  by  force.  The  Union  was  formed  by  the 
consent  of  Independent  Sovereign  States.  Ultimate 
sovereignty  still  resides  with  them  separately,  which  can 
be  resumed,  and  will  be,  if  their  safety,  tranquillity,  and 
security  in  their  judgment  require  it.  Under  our  sys- 
tem, as  I  view  it,  there  is  no  rightful  power  in  the  gen- 
eral government  to  coerce  a  State  in  case  any  one  of 
them  should  throw  herself  upon  her  reserved  rights, 
and  resume  the  full  exercise  of  her  sovereign  powers. 
Force  may  perpetuate  a  Union  —  that  depends  upon 
the  contingencies  of  war.  But  such  a  Union  would  not 
be  the  Union  of  the  Constitution:  it  would  be  nothing 
short  of  a  consolidated  despotism."  * 
Mr.  Lincoln  could  not,  of  course,  enter  upon 
a  further  discussion  of  the  topics  raised,  and 
made  no  reply  to  Mr.  Stephens's  letter.  The 
correspondence  is  noteworthy  as  showing  how 
both  writers  agreed  perfectly  upon  the  actual 
and  underlying  cause  of  the  political  crisis,— 
viz., that  the  South  believed  slavery  to  be  right 
and  ought  to  be  extended,  while  the  North  be- 
lieved it  was  wrong  and  ought  to  be  restricted.  It 
was  a  conflict  of  public  opinion.  Such  conflicts 
have  come  in  all  times,  in  all  nations,  and  un- 
der all  forms  of  government.  They  have  sprung 
from  every  passion  of  the  human  soul,  ambition, 
avarice,  the  generous  affection  of  kindred  na- 
tions, and  the  deadly  hatred  of  religious  fanat- 
icism. But,  admitting  the  existence  of  such  a 
conflict  of  opinion,  the  true  and  legitimate  in- 
quiry arises,  Was  it  a  proper  cause  of  war  ? 
History  must  answer  this  question  unhesitat- 
ingly and  emphatically  in  the  negative.  In  ages 
happily  passed,  the  anger  of  a  king,  the  caprice 
of  a  mistress,  or  the  ambition  of  a  minister  has 
often  deluged  a  nation  in  blood.  But  in  our 
day  the  conscience  of  civilization  demands  that 
the  sword  shall  only  defend  the  life  of  govern- 
ments, or  the  life,  liberty,  and  property  of  their 
subjects.  It  has  ordained  that  written  consti- 
tutions should  decide  claims  of  rulers  and  rights 
of  citizens.  Casuistry  the  most  adroit  could 
not  prove  the  right  of  the  free  States  to  expel 
the  slave-States  for  believing  the  institution  of 
slavery  to  be  a  substantial  blessing;  equally 
absurd  was  the  doctrine  that  the  slave-States  had 
a  right  to  destroy  the  Union  by  secession  be- 
cause the  free  States  thought  slavery  a  moral, 
social,  and  political  evil.  Upon  this  question, 
as  upon  all  others,  public  opinion  was  the  ar- 
biter appointed  by  the  Constitution  and  laws. 
Upon  this  question  the  lawful  and  constitu- 
tional verdict  had  been  pronounced  by  the  elec- 
tion of  Lincoln  ;  and  the  proper  duty  of  the 
South  under  the  circumstances  had  been  ad- 
mirably stated  by  Mr.  Stephens  himself  in  his 
Milledgeville  speech  :  "  In  my  judgment  the 
election  of  no  man  constitutionally  chosen  to 
that  high  office,  is  sufficient  cause    for  any 
*  Stephens,  "  War  Between  the  States,"  Vol.  II.,  pp. 
267-70. 
State  to  separate  from  the  Union.  It  ought  to 
stand  by  and  aid  still  in  maintaining  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  country."  t 
Mr.  Stephens's  letter  utterly  ignored  the 
existence  of  the  pro-slavery  sentiment  in  the 
South,  which  had  for  six  years  been  united 
and  unceasing  in  party  affiliation  and  action ; 
that  this  party  action  had  wrought  the  repeal 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise  in  violation  of 
plighted  political  faith,  and  generous  comity 
between  sections.  Moreover  that  antislavery 
opinions  had  there  been  not  only  under  ban  of 
public  sentiment,  but  had  notoriously  for  years 
been  visited  with  mob  violence,  and  been  made 
the  subject  of  prohibitory  penal  statutes.  The 
experiment  of  a  sentimental  union  dreamed  by 
Stephens  and  others  had  been  fully  tried  in  the 
compromise  of  1850,  and  first  and  flagrantly 
violated  by  the  South  herself,  under  party 
coalition,  against  every  appeal  and  protest. 
QUESTIONS     AND     ANSWERS. 
One  of  the  vexatious  duties  of  Lincoln  was 
to  answer  the  importunings  of  a  class  of  sin- 
cere, intelligent,  but  timid  men,  alarmed  by 
the  signs  of  disunion,  who  besought  him  to 
make  some  public  statement  cr  declaration  to 
quiet  the  South.  Requests  of  this  character 
were  not  confined  to  one  party,  but  came  from 
all ;  the  more  considerable  numbers  being  from 
Republicans  and  from  Southern  unionists  or 
followers  of  Bell  and  Everett.  The  great  bulk 
of  these  letters  were,  of  course,  never  answered; 
but  occasionally  one  was  received  from  a  man 
of  such  standing  and  influence  that  to  ignore 
it  would  not  only  seem  ungracious,  but  might 
subject  the  President-elect  to  more  serious 
misrepresentation  than  it  had  already  been 
his  lot  to  endure.  Both  to  show  a  prominent 
phase  of  current  politics  and  his  manner  of 
dealing  with  it,  several  replies  of  this  class  are 
laid  before  the  reader. 
Thus,  for  instance,  he  wrote,  confidentially, 
to  Mr.  William  S.  Speer,  a  citizen  of  Tennes- 
see, under  date  of  October  23d: 
"  I  appreciate  your  motive  when  you  suggest  the 
propriety  of  my  writing  for  the  public  something  dis- 
claiming all  intention  to  interfere  with  slaves  or  slav- 
ery in  the  States  ;  but  in  my  judgment  it  would  do  no 
good.  I  have  already  done  this  many,  many  times  ; 
and  it  is  in  print,  and  open  to  all  who  will  read.  Those 
who  will  not  read  or  head  what  I  have  already  pub- 
licly said  would  not  read  or  heed  a  repetition  of  it. 
'If  they  hear  not  Moses  and  the  prophets,  neither  will 
they  be  persuaded  though  one  rose  from  the  dead.'  "  t 
Among  the  political  newspapers  of  the  West, 
none  had  for  many  years  taken  a  higher  rank 
or  wielded  a  greater  influence  than  the  "  Louis- 
ville Journal."  It  had  in  a  manner  been  Mr. 
Lincoln's  primer  in  politics  in  those  early  days 
t  Cleveland,  p.  696. 
t  Lincoln  to  Speer,  Oct.  23d,  i860.  Unpublished  MS.
S4 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
when  he  labored  through  Blackstone,  or  even 
farther  back  when  he  was  yet  struggling  with 
Kirkham's  grammar  on  the  shady  knolls  of 
New  Salem.  Compared  with  these  rocks  and 
pitfalls  of  letters,  the  anecdotes,  the  wit,  the 
epigrammatic  arguments  of  the  "Louisville 
Journal "  were  a  very  garden  of  delight,  not 
only  to  Lincoln,  but  to  the  crude  yet  knowl- 
edge-hungry intellects  of  the  whole  Missis- 
sippi Valley.  In  time  the  "  Journal  "  became  a 
great  luminary,  and  the  name  of  its  witty  ed- 
itor a  household  word.  For  long  years  it  was 
a  beacon  and  watchtower  of  the  Whig  party; 
then  the  Pandora's  box  of  the  Nebraska  bill 
was  opened ;  and  when  finally  in  the  extraor- 
dinary campaign  of  i860  Lincoln  read  this 
once-favorite  sheet,  it  was  to  find  himself  the 
victim  of  its  satire  and  depreciation.  Victory, 
however,  is  a  sovereign  balm  for  detraction; 
and  it  must  have  been  easy  for  him  to  forgive 
his  old  friend  George  D.  Prentice  when  the 
latter  wrote  him  (October  26th):  "  There  is 
evidently  a  very  strong  probability  of  your 
being  elected  to  the  presidency  by  the  popular 
vote."  Expressing  the  "strongest"  confidence 
in  both  his  "  personal  and  political  integrity," 
he  suggests  that  in  the  event  of  his  election  he 
should  publish  a  letter  setting  forth  his  conserv- 
ative views  and  intentions,  "  to  assure  all  good 
citizens  of  the  South  and  to  take  from  the  dis- 
unionists  every  excuse  or  pretext  for  treason."  * 
To  this  appeal  Mr.  Lincoln  prepared  a  re- 
ply, October  29th,  though  it  was  not  then  sent. 
"  Your  suggestion,"  wrote  he,  "that  I  in  a  certain 
event  shall  write  a  letter  setting  forth  my  conservative 
views  and  intentions,  is  certainly  a  very  worthy  one. 
But  would  it  do  any  good  ?  If  I  were  to  labor  a  month, 
I  could  not  express  my  conservative  views  and  inten- 
tions more  clearly  and  strongly  than  they  are  expressed 
in  our  platform  and  in  my  many  speeches  already  in 
print  and  before  the  public.  And  yet  even  you,  who 
do  occasionally  speak  of  me  in  terms  of  personal  kind- 
ness, give  no  prominence  to  these  oft-repeated  expres- 
sions of  conservative  views  and  intentions,  but  busy 
yourself  with  appeals  to  all  conservative  men  to  vote 
for  Douglas, —  to  vote  any  way  which  can  possibly  de- 
feat me, —  thus  impressing  your  readers  that  you  think 
I  am  the  very  worst  man  living.  If  what  I  have  already 
said  has  failed  to  convince  you,  no  repetition  of  it  would 
convince  you.  The  writing  of  your  letter,  now  before 
me,  gives  assurance  that  you  would  publish  such  a  let- 
ter from  me  as  you  suggest ;  but,  till  now,  what  reason 
had  1  to  suppose  the  '  Louisville  Journal,'  even,  would 
publish  a  repetition  of  that  which  is  already  at  its  com- 
mand, and  which  it  does  not  press  upon  the  public  atten- 
tion ?  And  now,  my  friend, —  for  such  I  esteem  you  per- 
sonally,—  do  not  misunderstand  me.  I  have  not  decided 
that  I  will  not  do  substantially  what  you  suggest.  I 
will  not  forbear  from  doing  so  merely  on  punctilio  and 
pluck.  If  I  do  finally  abstain,  it  will  be  because  of  ap- 
prehension that  it  would  do  harm.  For  the  good  men 
of  the  South  —  and  I  regard  the  majority  of  them  as 
such  —  I  have  no  objection  to  repeat  seventy  and  seven 
times.  But  I  have  bad  men  also  to  deal  with,  both 
North  and  South;  men  who  are  eager  for  something 
*  Prentice  to  Lincoln, Oct. 26th,  i860.  Unpublished  MS. 
t  Lincoln  to  Prentice,  Oct.  29th,  i860.  Unpublished  M  S, 
new  upon  which  to  base  new  misrepresentations ;  men 
who  would  like  to  frighten  me,  or  at  least  to  fix  upon 
me  the  character  of  timidity  and  cowardice.  They 
would  seize  upon  almost  any  letter  I  could  write  as 
being  an  'awful  coming  down.'  I  intend  keeping 
my  eye  upon  these  gentlemen,  and  to  not  unnecessar- 
ily put  any  weapons  in  their  hands."  t 
This  letter  was  withheld  till  after  election. 
On  the  1 6th  of  November  he  wrote  a  letter  of 
very  similar  purport  to  Mr.  N.  Paschal,  editor 
of  the  "Missouri  Republican." 
"  I  could  say  nothing  which  I  have  not  already  said, 
and  which  is  in  print,  and  accessible  to  the  public.  Please 
pardon  me  for  suggesting  that  if  the  papers  like  yours, 
which  heretofore  have  persistently  garbled  and  misrep- 
resented what  I  have  said,  will  now  fully  and  fairly 
place  it  before  their  readers,  there  can  be  no  further 
misunderstanding.  I  beg  you  to  believe  me  sincere, 
when  I  declare  I  do  not  say  this  in  a  spirit  of  complaint 
or  resentment ;  but  that  I  urge  it  as  the  true  cure  for 
any  real  uneasiness  in  the  country,  that  my  course  may 
be  other  than  conservative.  The  Republican  newspa- 
pers now  and  for  some  time  past  are  and  have  been  re- 
publishing copious  extracts  from  my  many  published 
speeches,  which  would  at  once  reach  the  whole  public 
if  your  class  of  papers  would  also  publish  them.  I  am 
not  at  liberty  to  shift  my  ground  —  that  is  out  of  the 
question.  If  I  thought  a  repetition  would  do  any  good 
I  would  make  it.  But  in  my  judgment  it  would  do  pos- 
itive harm.  The  secessionists  fer  se,  believing  they 
had  alarmed  me,  would  clamor  all  the  louder,  "t 
With  solicitations  of  this  nature  coming  in 
part  from  his  political  •  friends,  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  not  only  as  firm  and  decided,  but  more 
emphatic  and  unsparing  in  criticism.  On  No- 
vember 5th,  the  day  before  the  presidential 
election,  there  arrived  at  Springfield,  and  called 
upon  the  President-elect,  a  gentleman  from 
New  England  of  some  prominence  in  political 
and  official  life,  who  brought  and  presented 
letters  of  this  same  tenor  from  a  considerable 
number  of  citizens  representing  business,  com- 
mercial, and  manufacturing  industries  of  that 
region.  He  was  one  of  those  keen,  incisive  talk- 
ers who  went  direct  to  the  heart  of  his  mission. 
"  I  have  called  to  see,"  he  said, "  if  the  alarms 
of  many  persons  in  New  England  engaged  in 
commerce  and  manufactures  cannot  by  some 
means  be  relieved.  I  am  myself  largely  inter- 
ested in  manufactures.  Our  trade  has  fallen  off, 
ourworkmenareidle,weget  no  orders  from  the 
South,  and  with  the  increasing  chances  of  civil 
war,  bankruptcy  and  ruin  stare  us  in  the  face." 
Something  in  the  persistence  and  manner 
of  his  interlocutor,  something  in  the  tone  of 
the  letters  presented,  and  still  more  in  the  char- 
acter of  the  signers,  quickly  irritated  Lincoln 
to  a  warmth  of  retort  he  seldom  reached  until 
after  long  provocation.  He  divined  at  once 
the  mercenary  nature  of  the  appeal  about  to 
be  tried  on  him,  and  it  roused  him  to  repel  the 
pressure.    His  visitor  closed  by  asking  some 
X  Lincoln  to  Paschal,  Nov.  16th,  i860.  Unpublished 
MS.
THE  PRESIDENT-ELECT  AT  STKINCEIEI.I). 
conservative    promise  "  to  reassure  the  men 
honestly  alarmed." 
"There  are  no  such  men,"  bluntly  replied 
Lincoln.  "  This  is  the  same  old  trick  by  which 
the  South  breaks  down  every  Northern  vic- 
tory. Even  if  I  were  personally  willing  to 
barter  away  the  moral  principle  involved  in 
this  contest  for  the  commercial  gain  of  a  new 
submission  to  the  South,  I  would  go  to  Wash- 
ington without  the  countenance  of  the  men 
who  supported  me  and  were  my  friends  before 
the  election;  I  would  be  as  powerless  as  a 
block  of  buckeye  wood." 
The  man  still  insisted,  and  Lincoln  con- 
tinued : 
"  The  honest  men  (you  are  talking  of  hon- 
est men)  will  look  at  our  platform  and  what  I 
have  said.  There  they  will  find  everything  I 
could  now  say,  or  which  they  would  ask  me 
to  say.  All  I  could  add  would  be  but  repeti- 
tion. Having  told  them  all  these  things  ten 
times  already,  would  they  believe  the  eleventh 
declaration  ?  Let  us  be  practical.  There  are 
many  general  terms  afloat,  such  as  '  conserva- 
tism,' '  enforcement  of  the  irrepressible  con- 
flict at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,'  '  hostility  to 
the  South,'  etc.,  all  of  which  mean  nothing 
Avithout  definition.  What  then  could  I  say  to 
allay  their  fears,  if  they  will  not  define  what 
particular  act  or  acts  they  fear  from  me  or  my 
friends  ?  " 
At  this  stage  of  the  conversation  his  visitor, 
who  with  true  military  foresight  had  provided 
a  reserve,  handed  him  an  additional  letter 
numerously  signed,  asking  if  he  did  not  there 
recognize  names  that  were  a  power. 
"  Yes,"  retorted  Lincoln  sharply,  glancing  at 
the  document,  "  I  recognize  them  as  a  set  of 
liars  and  knaves  who  signed  that  statement 
about  Seward  last  year." 
The  visitor  was  taken  aback  at  this  familiar- 
ity with  the  local  politics  of  his  State,  but  ral- 
lied and  insisted  that  there  were  also  other 
names  on  the  list.  Lincoln  now  looked  through 
the  paper  more  carefully,  his  warmth  mean- 
while cooling  down  a  little. 
"  Well,"  answered  he,  laughing,  "  after  read- 
ing it,  it  is  about  as  I  expected  to  find  it.  It 
annoyed  me  to  hear  that  gang  of  men  called 
respectable.  Their  conduct  a  year  ago  was  a 
disgrace  to  any  civilized  citizen." 
Here  his  visitor  suggested  that  the  South 
was  making  armed  preparations. 
"  The  North,"  answered  Lincoln,  "does  not 
fear  invasion  from  the  slave-States,  and  we  of 
the  North  certainly  have  no  desire,  and  never 
had,  to  invade  the  South.  They  have  talked 
about  what  they  intend  to  do  in  the  event  of  a 
Black  Republican  victory,  until  they  have  con- 
vinced themselves  there  is  really  no  courage 
left  in  the  North." 
Vol.  XXXV.— u. 
GEORGE    D.    PRENTICE.       (FROM    A    PHOTOGRAPH    BY    BRADY.) 
"  Have  we  backed  this  time  ?  "  interrupted 
the  visitor. 
"  That  is  just  what  I  am  pressed  to  do  now," 
replied  Lincoln.  "  If  I  shall  begin  to  yield  to 
these  threats,  if  I  begin  dallying  with  them, 
the  men  who  have  elected  me  (if  I  shall  be 
elected)  would  give  me  up  before  my  election, 
and  the  South,  seeing  it,  would  deliberately 
kick  me  out.  If  my  friends  should  desire  me 
to  repeat  anything  I  have  before  said,  I  should 
have  no  objection  to  do  so.  If  they  required 
me  to  say  something  I  had  not  yet  said,  I 
would  either  do  so  or  get  out  of  the  way.  If  I 
should  be  elected,  the  first  duty  to  the  country 
would  be  to  stand  by  the  men  who  elected  me."  * 
Still,  from  time  to  time  the  point  was  pressed 
upon  him  from  other  influential  quarters.  Mr. 
Raymond,  editor  of  the  "  New  York  Times," 
joined  in  urging  it.  Lincoln,  on  November 
28th,  answered  him  confidentially  as  follows  : 
"  Yours  of  the  14th  was  received  in  due  course.  I 
have  delayed  so  long  to  answer  it,  because  my  reasons 
for  not  coming  before  the  public  in  any  form  just  now 
had  substantially  appeared  in  your  paper  (the  'Times '), 
and  hence  I  feared  they  were  not  deemed  sufficient  by 
you,  else  you  would  not  have  written  me  as  you  did.  I 
now  think  we  have  a  demonstration  in  favor  of  my 
view.  On  the  20th  instant  Senator  Trumbull  made  a 
short  speech,  which  I  suppose  you  have  both  seen  and 
approved.  Has  a  single  newspaper,  heretofore  against 
us,  urged  that  speech  upon  its  readers  with  a  purpose 
to  quiet  public  anxiety?  Not  one,  so  far  as  I  know. 
On  the  contrary,  the  '  Boston  Courier  '  and  its  class 
hold  me  responsible  for  that  speech,  and  endeavor  to 
inflame  the  North  with  the  belief  that  it  foreshadows 
an  abandonment  of  Republican  ground  by  the  in- 
coming administration;  while  the  '  Washington  Con- 
stitution' and  its  class  hold  the  same  speech  up  to 
the  South  as  an  open  declaration  of  war  against  them. 
This  is  just  as  I  expected,  and  just  what  would  happen 
*  Nicolay,  Manuscript  memoranda.
S6 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
with  any  declaration  I  could  make.  These  political 
fiends  are  not  half  sick  enough  yet.  Party  malice,  and 
not  public  good,  possesses  them  entirely.  'They  seek 
a  sign,  and  no  sign  shall  be  given  them.'  At  least 
such  is  my  present  feeling  and  purpose."* 
And  in  this  purpose  he  remained  steadfast 
to  the  end.  though  put  to  yet  more  trying  tests. 
It  has  already  been  mentioned,  that  with  the 
opening  of  Congress,  and  the  formation  of  the 
Senate  Committee  of  Thirteen  and  the  House 
Committee  of  Thirty-three,  certain  conserva- 
tive men  from  the  border  slave-States  endeav- 
ored to  gain  control  of  the  political  situation 
by  forming  a  neutral  or  mediating  party  be- 
tween the  disunionists  and  the  Republicans. 
Their  policy  was  an  utter  mistake ;  for,  while 
reprobating  present  dismemberment,  their  at- 
titude on  the  slavery  question  indicated  clearly 
enough  that,  if  clung  to,  it  would  inevitably 
drive  them  to  the  extreme  plans  of  the  cotton- 
States.  Some  of  these  would-be  "neutral" 
States  eventually  went  that  direful  road ;  and 
those  which  did  not  were  saved  only  by  the 
restraint  of  the  Union  army.  But  for  the  pres- 
ent their  leaders  were  sincerely  patriotic.  From 
one  of  the  most  prominent  of  these,  Hon.  John 
A.  Gilmer  of  North  Carolina,  to  whom  Lincoln 
afterwards  made  a  tender  of  a  Cabinet  appoint- 
ment, he  received  an  inquiry,  dated  December 
ioth,  concerning  his  opinions  on  several  points 
of  the  slavery  controversy,  saying : 
"I  am  not  without  hope  that  a  clear  and  definite  ex- 
position of  your  views  on  the  questions  mentioned  may 
go  far  to  quiet,  if  not  satisfy,  all  reasonable  minds  that 
on  most  of  them  it  will  become  plain  that  there  is 
much  more  misunderstanding  than  difference,  and  that 
the  balance  are  so  much  more  abstract  than  practical."  t 
However  difficult  to  resist  this  appeal,  so  in- 
fluential, so  respectful,  so  promising,  the  Presi- 
dent-elect felt  himself  bound  to  adhere  to  his 
policy  of  refusing  any  public  utterance,  for 
reasons  which  he  set  forth  at  some  length  in  a 
confidential  answer,  written  December  15th. 
"  I  am  greatly  disinclined,"  said  he,  "  to  write  a  let- 
ter on  the  subject  embraced  in  yours  ;  and  I  would  not 
do  -r»,  even  privately  as  I  do,  were  it  not  that  I  fear  you 
miyht  misconstrue  my  silence.  Is  it  desired  that  I  shall 
shift  the  ground  upon  which  I  have  been  elected  ?  I 
cannot  do  it.  You  need  only  to  acquaint  yourself  with 
that  ground,  and  press  it  on  the  attention  of  the  South. 
It  i  -  all  in  print  and  easy  of  access.  May  I  be  pardoned 
if  I  ask  whether  even  you  have  ever  attempted  to  pro- 
cure the  reading  of  the  Republican  platform,  or  my 
speeches,  by  the  Southern  people  ?  If  not,  what  reason 
have  I  to  expect  that  any  additional  production  of  mine 
would  meet  a  better  fate  ?  It  would  make  me  appear 
as  if  I  repented  for  the  crime  of  having  been  elected 
and  was  anxious  to  apologize  and  beg  forgiveness.  To 
so  represent  me  would  be  the  principal  use  made  of  any 
letter  I  might  now  thrust  upon  the  public.  My  old 
record  cannot  be  so  used  ;  and  that  is  precisely  the  rea- 
son that  some  new  declaration  is  so  much  sought. 
*  Lincoln  to  Ravmond,  Nov.  28th,  i860.  Unpub- 
lished MS. 
JOHN    A.    GILMER.       (FROM    A     PHOTOGRAPH     BY    BRADY.  ) 
"  Now,  my  dear  sir,  be  assured  I  am  not  questioning 
your  candor  ;  I  am  only  pointing  out,  that  while  a  new 
letter  would  hurt  the  cause  which  I  think  a  just  one, 
you  can  quite  as  well  effect  every  patriotic  object  with 
the  old  record.  Carefully  read  pages  18,  19,  74,  75,  88, 
89,  and  267  of  the  volume  of  Joint  Debates  between 
Senator  Douglas  and  myself  with  the  Republican  Plat- 
form adopted  at  Chicago,  and  all  your  questions  will 
be  substantially  answered.  I  have  no  thought  of  rec- 
ommending the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of 
Columbia,  nor  the  slave-trade  among  the  slave- States, 
even  on  the  conditions  indicated;  and  if  I  were  to 
make  such  recommendation,  it  is  quite  clear  Congress 
would  not  follow  it. 
"As  to  employing  slaves  in  arsenals  and  dockyards, 
it  is  a  thing  I  never  thought  of  in  my  life,  to  my  rec- 
ollection, till  I  saw  your  letter;  and  I  may  say  of  it 
precisely  as  I  have  said  of  the  two  points  above. 
"  As  to  the  use  of  patronage  in  the  slave-States, 
where  there  are  few  or  no  Republicans.  I  do  not  ex- 
pect to  inquire  for  the  politics  of  the  appointee,  or 
whether  he  does  or  not  own  slaves.  I  intend  in  that 
matter  to  accommodate  the  people  in  the  several  lo- 
calities, if  they  themselves  will  allow  me  to  accommo- 
date them.  In  one  word,  I  never  have  been,  am  not 
now,  and  probably  never  shall  be  in  a  mood  of  harass- 
ing the  people  either  North  or  South. 
"  On  the  territorial  question  I  am  inflexible,  as  you 
see  my  position  in  the  book.  On  that  there  is  a  differ- 
ence between  you  and  us  ;  and  it  is  the  only  substan- 
tial difference.  You  think  slavery  is  right  and  ought 
to  be  extended  ;  we  think  it  is  a  wrong  and  ought  to 
be  restricted.  For  this  neither  has  any  just  occasion 
to  be  angry  with  the  other. 
"  As  to  the  State  laws,  mentioned  in  your  sixth 
question,  I  really  know  very  little  of  them.  I  never 
have  read  one.  If  any  of  them  are  in  conflict  with  the 
fugitive-slave  clause,  or  any  other  part  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, I  certainly  shall  be  glad  of  their  repeal;  but  I 
t  Gilmer  to  Lincoln,  Dec.  ioth,  i860.  Unpublished 
MS.
THE  PRESIDENT-ELECT  AT  SPRINGFIELD. 
could  hardly  be  justified,  as  a  citizen  of  Illinois,  or  as 
President  of  the  United  States,  to  recommend  the  re- 
peal of  a  statute  of  Vermont  or  South  Carolina."  * 
We  have  given  samples  of  these  solicitations 
coming  from  Republicans,  from  Douglas 
Democrats,  and  from  the  adherents  of  Bell ; 
the  following,  coming  from  the  fourth  political 
school,  will  perhaps  be  found  of  equal  if  not 
greater  interest.  Its  origin  is  given  in  the 
words  of  the  principal  actor,  General  Duff 
Green,  who,  in  a  letter  some  three  years  after- 
wards, thus  described  it : 
"  In  December,  i860,  at  the  request  of  the  President 
of  the  United  States,  I  went  to  Springfield  to  see  Mr. 
Lincoln  and  urge  him  to  go  to  Washington  and  exert 
his  influence  in  aid  of  the  adjustment  of  the  questions 
then  pending  between  the  North  and  the  South.  I  was 
authorized  by  Mr.  Buchanan  to  say  to  nim  that  if  he 
came  he  would  be  received  and  treated  with  the  cour- 
tesy due  to  the  President-elect.  I  saw  Mr.  Lincoln  at 
his  own  house,  and  did  urge  the  necessity  of  his  going 
to  Washington  and  uniting  his  efforts  in  behalf  of 
peace,  telling  him  that  in  my  opinion  he  alone  could 
prevent  a  civil  war,  and  that  if  he  did  not  go,  upon  his 
conscience  must  rest  the  blood  that  would  be  shed."  t 
Whether  this  proposition  came  by  authority 
or  not,  Lincoln  could  not  publicly  either  ques- 
tion the  truth  of  the  envoy  or  the  motive  of 
the  mission.  In  either  case  the  appeal  was 
most  adroitly  laid.  Of  course  it  was  impossi- 
ble to  accept  or  even  to  entertain  it ;  on  the 
other  hand,  a  simple  refusal  might  be  made 
the  basis  of  very  serious  misrepresentation. 
He  therefore  wrote  the  following  reply  : 
"Springfield,  III.,  Dec.  28th,  i860. 
"Gen.  Duff  Green. 
"  My  Dear  Sir:  I  do  not  desire  any  amendment  of 
the  Constitution.  Recognizing,  however,  that  questions 
of  such  amendment  rightfully  belong  to  the  American 
people,  I  should  not  feel  justified  nor  inclined  to  with- 
hold from  them  if  I  could  a  fair  opportunity  of  express- 
ing their  will  thereon  through  either  of  the  modes  pre- 
scribed in  the  instrument. 
"In  addition  I  declare  that  the  maintenance  invio- 
late of  the  rights  of  the  States,  and  especially  the  right 
of  each  State  to  order  and  control  its  own  domestic 
institutions  according  to  its  own  judgment  exclusively, 
is  essential  to  that  balance  of  powers  on  which  the  per- 
fection and  endurance  of  our  political  fabric  depend ; 
and  I  denounce  the  lawless  invasion  by  armed  force  of 
the  soil  of  any  State  or  Territory,  no  matter  under  what 
pretext,  as  the  gravest  of  crimes. 
"  I  am  greatly  averse  to  writing  anything  for  the 
public  at  this  time  ;  and  I  consent  to  the  publication 
of  this  only  upon  the  condition  that  six  of  the  twelve 
United  States  senators  for  the  States  of  Georgia, 
Alabama,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  Florida,  and  Texas 
shall  sign  their  names  to  what  is  written  on  this  sheet 
*  Lincoln  to  Gilmer,  Dec.  1 5th,  1 860.  Unpublished  MS. 
t  Duff  Green  to  Jefferson  Davis,  May  26th,  1863.  Un- 
published MS. 
X  Lincoln  to  Duff  Green,  Dec.  28th,  i860.  Unpub- 
lished MS. 
below  my  name,  and  allow  the  whole  to  be  published 
together.  "  Yours  truly, 
"  A. 'Lincoln. 
"We  recommend  to  the  people  of  the  States  we  rep- 
resent respectively,  to  suspend  all  action  for  dismem- 
berment of  the  Union,  at  least  until  some  act  deemed 
to  be  violative  of  our  rights  shall  be  done  by  the  incom- 
ing administration."]: 
This  letter  Lincoln  transmitted  to  Senator 
Trumbull  at  Washington,  with  the  following 
direction : 
"  General  Duff  Green  is  out  here  endeavoring  to 
draw  a  letter  out  of  me.  I  have  written  one  which 
herewith  I  inclose  to  you,  and  which  I  believe  could 
not  be  used  to  our  disadvantage.  Still,  if  on  consulta- 
tion with  our  discreet  friends  you  conclude  that  it  may 
do  us  harm,  do  not  deliver  it.  You  need  not  mention 
that  the  second  clause  of  the  letter  is  copied  from  the 
Chicago  Platform.  If,  on  consultation,  our  friends, 
including  yourself,  think  it  can  do  no  harm,  keep  a 
copy  and  deliver  the  letter  to  General  Green."  0 
While  the  fact  is  not  definitely  known,  it  is 
probable  that  this  letter  was  delivered.  Noth- 
ing further  came  of  Duff  Green's  mission  ex- 
cept a  letter  from  himself  in  the  "  New  York 
Herald  "  mentioning  his  visit  and  its  failure, 
in  the  vaguest  generalities.  His  whole  aim  had 
been  to  induce  Lincoln  tacitly  to  assume  re- 
sponsibility for  the  Southern  revolt;  and  when 
the  latter  by  his  skillful  answer  pointed  out  the 
real  conspirators,  they  were  no  longer  anxious 
to  have  a  publication  made. 
The  whole  attitude  and  issue  of  the  con- 
troversy was  so  tersely  summed  up  by  Lincoln 
in  a  confidential  letter  to  a  Republican  friend, 
under  date  of  January  nth,  1861,  that  we  can- 
not forbear  citing  it  in  conclusion  : 
"  Yours  of  the  6th  is  received.  I  answer  it  only  be- 
cause I  fear  you  would  misconstrue  my  silence.  What 
is  our  present  condition?  We  have  just  carried  an  elec- 
tion on  principles  fairly  stated  to  the  people.  Now  we 
are  told  in  advance  the  Government  shall  be  broken 
up  unless  we  surrender  to  those  we  have  beaten,  before 
we  take  the  offices.  In  this  they  are  either  attempting 
to  play  upon  us  or  they  are  in  dead  earnest.  Either 
way,  if  we  surrender,  it  is  the  end  of  us,  and  of  the 
Government.  They  will  repeat  the  experiment  upon  us 
ad  libitum.  A  year  will  not  pass  till  we  shall  have  to 
take  Cuba  as  a  condition  upon  which  they  will  stay  in 
the  Union.  They  now  have  the  Constitution  under 
which  we  have  lived  over  seventy  years,  and  acts  of 
Congress  of  their  own  framing,  with  no  prospect  of 
their  being  changed  ;  and  they  can  never  have  a  more 
shallow  pretext  for  breaking  up  the  Government,  or 
extorting  a  compromise,  than  now.  There  is  in  my 
judgment  but  one  compromise  which  would  really  set- 
tle the  slavery  question,  and  that  would  be  a  pro- 
hibition against  acquiring  any  more  territory."  || 
§  Lincoln  to  Trumbull,  Dec.  2Sth,  1S60.  Unpub- 
lished MS. 
||  Lincoln  to  Hon.  J.  T.  Hale,  Jan.  nth,  1S61.  Un- 
published MS. 
<<s
ABRAHAM    LINCOLN:    A    HISTORY.* 
LINCOLN'S    INAUGURATION. 
BY   JOHN    G.    NICOLAY    AND   JOHN    HAY,    PRIVATE    SECRETARIES    TO    THE    PRESIDENT. 
SPRINGFIELD    TO    WASHINGTON. 
~S  the  date  of  inauguration  ap- 
proached, formal  invitations, 
without  party  distinction,  came 
from  the  legislatures  of  Indiana, 
Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  New  York, 
New  Jersey,  and  Massachusetts, 
tendering  Mr.  Lincoln  the  hospitalities  of  those 
States  and  their  people,  and  inviting  him  to 
visit  their  capitals  on  his  journey  to  Washing- 
ton. Similar  invitations  also  came  to  him  from 
the  municipal  authorities  of  many  cities  and 
towns  on  the  route,  and  railroads  tendered  him 
special  trains  for  the  use  of  himself  and  family. 
Mr.  Lincoln  had  no  fondness  for  public  display, 
but  in  his  long  political  career  he  had  learned 
the  importance  of  personal  confidence  and 
live  sympathy  between  representatives  and 
constituents,  leaders  and  people.  About  to  as- 
sume unusual  duties  in  extraordinary  times,  he 
doubtless  felt  that  it  would  not  only  be  a  gra- 
cious act  to  accept,  so  far  as  he  could,  these 
invitations,  in  which  all  parties  had  freely 
joined,  but  that  both  people  and  executive 
would  be  strengthened  in  their  faith  and  pa- 
triotism by  a  closer  acquaintance,  even  of  so 
brief  and  ceremonial  a  character.  Accordingly 
he  answered  the  governors  and  committees 
that  he  would  visit  the  cities  of  Indianapolis, 
Columbus,  Cincinnati,  Cleveland,  Pittsburg, 
Buffalo,  Albany,  New  York,  Trenton,  Phila- 
delphia, and  Harrisburg,  while  to  the  governor 
of  Massachusetts  he  replied  that  the  want  of 
time  alone  constrained  him  to  omit  that  State 
from  his  route  of  travel. 
Monday,  the  1 1  th  day  of  February,  was  fixed 
as  the  time  of  departure,  and  a  programme 
and  schedule  of  special  trains  from  point  to 
point  were  arranged,  extending  to  Saturday, 
the  23d,  the  time  of  arrival  in  Washington. 
Early  Monday  morning  (the  nth)  found  Mr. 
*  The  presidential  party  which  made  the  whole  jour- 
ney consisted  of  the  following  persons :  Mr.  Lincoln, 
Mrs.  Lincoln,  their  three  sons,  Robert  T.,  William,  and 
Thomas,  Lockwood  Todd,  Doctor  W.  S.  Wallace,  John 
G.  Nicolay,  John  Hay,  Hon.  N.  B.  Judd,  Hon.  David 
Davis,  Colonel  E.  V.  Sumner,  Major  David  Hunter, 
Captain  George  W.  Hazard,  Captain  Tohn  Pope,  Colonel 
Ward  H.  Lamon,  Colonel  E.  E.  Ellsworth,  J.  M.  Bur- 
gess, George  C.  Latham,  W.  S.  Wood,  and  B.  Forbes. 
Lincoln,  his  family,  and  suite  at  the  rather 
dingy  little  railroad  station  in  Springfield,  with 
a  throng  of  at  least  a  thousand  of  his  Spring- 
field neighbors  who  had  come  to  bid  him  good- 
bye. It  was  a  cloudy,  stormy  morning,  which 
served  to  add  gloom  and  depression  to  the 
spirits.  The  leave-taking  became  a  scene  of 
subdued  anxiety,  almost  of  solemnity.  Mr.  Lin- 
coln took  a  position  in  the  waiting-room,  where 
his  friends  filed  past  him,  often  merely  pressing 
his  hand  in  silent  emotion. 
The  half-finished  ceremony  was  broken  in 
upon  by  the  ringing  bells  and  the  rushing  train. 
The  crowd  closed  about  the  railroad  car  into 
which  the  President-elect  and  his  party  *  made 
their  way.  Then  came  the  central  incident 
of  the  morning.  Once  more  the  bell  gave 
notice  of  starting ;  but  as  the  conductor  paused 
with  his  hand  lifted  to  the  bell-rope,  Mr. 
Lincoln  appeared  on  the  platform  of  the  car, 
and  raised  his  hand  to  command  attention. 
The  bystanders  bared  their  heads  to  the  fall- 
ing snow-flakes,  and  standing  thus,  his  neigh- 
bors heard  his  voice  for  the  last  time,  in  the 
city  of  his  home,  in  a  farewell  address  f  so 
chaste  and  pathetic,  that  it  reads  as  if  he  al- 
ready felt  the  tragic  shadow  of  forecasting 
fate: 
"  My  friends  :  no  one,  not  in  my  situation,  can  appre- 
ciate my  feeling  of  sadness  at  this  parting.  To  this  place, 
and  the  kindness  of  these  people,  I  owe  everything. 
Here  I  have  lived  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  have 
passed  from  a  young  to  an  old  man.  Here  my  children 
have  been  born,  and  one  is  buried.  I  now  leave,  not 
knowing  when  or  whether  ever  I  may  return,  with  a 
task  before  me  greater  than  that  which  rested  upon 
Washington.  Without  the  assistance  of  that  Divine 
Being  who  ever  attended  him,  I  cannot  succeed.  With 
that  assistance,  I  cannot  fail.  Trusting  in  Him,  who 
can  go  with  me,  and  remain  with  you,  and  be  every- 
where for  good,  let  us  confidently  hope  that  all  will 
yet  be  well.  To  His  care  commending  you,  as  I  hope 
in  your  prayers  you  will  commend  me,  I  bid  you  an 
affectionate  farewell." 
Besides  these  a  considerable  number  of  other  personal 
friends  and  dignitaries  accompanied  the  President  from 
Springfield  to  Indianapolis,  and  some  of  them  to  places 
farther  on  the  route. 
t  This  address  is  here  correctly  printed  for  the  first 
time,  from  the  original  manuscript,  having  been  written 
down  immediately  after  the  train  started,  partly  by  Mr. 
Lincoln's  own  hand  and  partly  by  that  of  his  private 
secretary  from  his  dictation. 
*  Copyright  by  J.  G.  Nicolay  and  John  Hay,  1SS6-7. 
Vol.  XXXV.— 38. 
All  rights 
ed.
266 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
A  proper  description  of  the  presidential  tour 
which  followed  would  fill  a  volume.  It  em- 
braced two  weeks  of  official  receptions  by 
committees,  mayors,  governors,  and  legisla- 
tures; of  crowded  evening  receptions  and 
interminable  hand-shakings ;  of  impromptu  or 
formal  addresses  at  every  ceremony;  of  cheers, 
salutes,  bonfires,  military  parades,  and  impos- 
ing processions,  amid  miles  of  spectators. 
Political  dissension  was  for  the  moment 
hushed  in  the  general  curiosity  to  see  and  hear 
the  man  who  by  the  free  and  lawful  choice  of 
the  nation  had  been  called  to  exercise  the  du- 
ties of  the  presidential  office.  The  universal 
eagerness  was  perhaps  heightened  by  the  fact 
that  during  the  same  two  weeks  the  delegates 
from  the  States  in  insurrection  were  in  session 
at  Montgomery,  Alabama,  occupied  with  the 
temporary  organization  of  a  government  openly 
pledged  to  rebellion,  and  whose  doings  were 
daily  reported  by  the  telegraph  and  printed  in 
every  newspaper.  Personal  curiosity  was  thus 
supplemented  by  growing  political  anxiety,  and 
every  word  of  the  President-elect  was  scanned 
for  some  light  by  which  to  read  the  troubled  and 
uncertain  future.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  therefore 
obliged  to  measure  his  public  utterances  with 
unusual  caution;  and  while  he  man  aged  to  avoid 
any  announcement  of  policy,  the  country  was 
nevertheless  able  to  read  between  the  lines  that 
it  had  made  no  mistake  in  the  man  to  whom 
it  had  confided  the  preservation  of  the  Govern- 
ment. It  would,  of  course,  be  impossible  in  a 
single  chapter  to  cite  his  many  speeches  on 
this  journey,  in  which  there  occurred,  of  neces- 
sity, a  great  deal  of  repetition.  It  will,  per- 
haps, give  a  better  idea  of  their  general  tenor 
to  reproduce  passages  from  a  few  of  the  most 
noteworthy.  In  reading  these  the  critic  must 
constantly  bear  in  mind  that  they  were  re- 
ported and  printed  under  such  circumstances 
of  haste  and  confusion  that  verbal  accuracy 
could  not  be  expected,  and  that  they  are  but 
abstracts,  in  which  the  full  structure  of  his 
sentences  is  often  abridged  or  transposed  to 
permit  the  whole  to  be  brought  within  the  lim- 
its of  an  ordinary  press  dispatch. 
The  train  which  left  Springfield  in  the  morn- 
ing arrived  in  Indianapolis  before  nightfall, 
where,  in  response  to  an  address  from  Governor 
Morton,  Mr.  Lincoln  said: 
"  Most  heartily  do  I  thank  you  for  this  magnificent 
reception,  and  while  I  cannot  take  to  myself  any  share 
of  the  compliment  thus  paid,  more  than  that  which  per- 
tains to  a  mere  instrument,  an  accidental  instrument, 
perhaps,  I  should  say,  of  a  great  cause,  I  yet  must  look 
upon  it  as  a  most  magnificent  reception,  and  as  such 
most  heartily  do  I  thank  you  for  it.  You  have  been 
pleased  to  address  yourself  to  me  chiefly  in  behalf  of 
this  glorious  Union  in  which  we  live,  in  all  of  which 
you  have  my  hearty  sympathy,  and,  as  far  as  may  be 
within  my  power,  will  have,  one  and  inseparably,  my 
hearty  cooperation.  While  I  do  not  expect,  upon 
this  occasion,  or  until  I  get  to  Washington,  to  attempt 
any  lengthy  speech,  I  will  only  say  that  to  the  salvation 
of  the  Union,  there  needs  but  one  single  thing,  the 
hearts  of  a  people  like  yours.  The  people,  when  they 
rise  in  mass  in  behalf  of  the  Union  and  the  liberties  of 
this  country,  truly  may  it  be  said,  '  The  gates  of  hell 
cannot  prevail  against  them.'  In  all  trying  positions 
in  which  I  shall  be  placed,  and  doubtless  I  shall  be 
placed  in  many  such,  my  reliance  will  be  upon  you  and 
the  people  of  the  United  States  ;  and  I  wish  you  to 
remember,  now  and  forever,  that  it  is  youf  business, 
and  not  mine ;  that  if  the  union  of  these  States  and  the 
liberties  of  this  people  shall  be  lost,  it  is  but  little  to  any 
one  man  of  fifty-two  years  of  age,  but  a  great  deal  to 
the  thirty  millions  of  people  who  inhabit  these  United 
States,  and  to  their  posterity  in  all  coming  time.  It  is 
your  business  to  rise  up  and  preserve  the  Union  and 
liberty  for  yourselves,  and  not  for  me.  .  .  .  I  appeal 
to  you  again  to  constantly  bear  in  mind  that  not  with 
politicians,  not  with  Presidents,  not  with  office-seekers, 
but  with  you,  is  the  question,  Shall  the  Union  and  shall 
the  liberties  of  this  country  be  preserved  to  the  latest 
generations  ?  " 
The  ceremonies  during  his  stay  here  called 
out  another  address  from  him  in  which  he  asked 
the  following  pertinent  questions : 
"  I  am  here  to  thank  you  much  for  this  magnificent 
welcome,  and  still  more  for  the  generous  support  given 
by  your  State  to  that  political  cause  which  I  think  is 
the  true  and  just  cause  of  the  whole  country  and  the 
whole  world.  Solomon  says  there  is  '  a  time  to  keep 
silence,'  and  when  men  wrangle  by  the  month  with  no 
certainty  that  they  mean  the  same  thing,  while  using 
the  same  word,  it  perhaps  were  as  well  if  they  would 
keep  silence.  The  words  '  coercion '  and  '  invasion  ' 
are  much  used  in  these  days,  and  often  with  some  tem- 
per and  hot  blood.  Let  us  make  sure,  if  we  can,  that 
we  do  not  misunderstand  the  meaning  of  those  who 
use  them.  Let  us  get  exact  definitions  of  these  words, 
not  from  dictionaries,  but  from  the  men  themselves, 
who  certainly  appreciate  the  things  they  would  repre- 
sent by  the  use  of  words.  What,  then,  is  '  Coercion  '  ? 
What  is  '  Invasion  '  ?  Would  the  marching  of  an  army 
into  South  Carolina,  without  the  consent  of  her  people, 
and  with  hostile  intent  towards  them,  be  '  invasion  '  ? 
I  certainly  think  it  would ;  and  it  would  be  '  coercion  ' 
also  if  the  South  Carolinians  were  forced  to  submit. 
But  if  the  United  States  should  merely  hold  and  retake 
its  own  forts  and  other  property,  and  collect  the  duties 
on  foreign  importations,  or  even  withhold  the  mails  from 
places  where  they  were  habitually  violated,  would  any 
or  all  of  these  things  be  *  invasion '  or  *  coercion  '  ?  Do 
our  professed  lovers  of  the  Union,  but  who  spitefully 
resolve  that  they  will  resist  coercion  and  invasion,  un- 
derstand that  such  things  as  these  on  the  part  of  the 
United  States  would  be  coercion  or  invasion  of  a  State? 
If  so,  their  idea  of  means  to  preserve  the  object  of  their 
affection  would  seem  exceedingly  thin  and  airy.  If  sick, 
the  little  pills  of  the  homeopathist  would  be  much  too 
large  for  them  to  swallow.  In  their  view,  the  Union,  as 
a  family  relation,  would  seem  to  be  no  regular  marriage, 
but  a  sort  of '  free-love '  arrangement,  to  be  maintained 
only  on  'passional  attraction.'  By  the  way,  in  what 
consists  the  special  sacredness  of  a  State  ?  I  speak  not 
of  the  position  assigned  to  a  State  in  the  Union,  by 
the  Constitution ;  for  that,  by  the  bond,  we  all  recog- 
nize. That  position,  however,  a  State  cannot  carry  out 
of  the  Union  wjth  it.  I  speak  of  that  assumed  primary 
right  of  a  State*  to  rule  all  which  is  less  than  itself,  and 
ruin  all  which  is  larger  than  itself.  If  a  State  and  a 
county,  in  a  given  case,  should  be  equal  in  extent  of 
territory,  and  equal  in  number  of  inhabitants,  in  what, 
as  a  matter  of  principle,  is  the  State  better  than  the
LINCOLN'S  INAUGURATION. 
county  ?  Would  an  exchange  of  names  be  an  exchange 
of  rights  upon  principle  ?  On  what  rightful  principle 
may  a  State,  being  not  more  than  one-fiftieth  part  of 
the  nation,  in  soil  and  population,  break  up  the  nation 
and  then  coerce  a  proportionally  larger  subdivision  of 
itself,  in  the  most  arbitrary  way  ?  What  mysterious 
right  to  play  tyrant  is  conferred  on  a  district  of  coun- 
try, with  its  people,  by  merely  calling  it  a  State  ?  Fel- 
low-citizens, I  am  not  asserting  anything;  I  am  merely 
asking  questions  for  you  to  consider." 
At  Columbus,  Ohio,  he  said  to  the  legisla- 
ture of  that  State,  convened  in  joint  session 
in  the  hall  of  the  Assembly  : 
"  It  is  true,  as  has  been  said  by  the  President  of  the 
Senate,  that  very  great  responsibility  rests  upon  me 
in  the  position  to  which  the  votes  of  the  American  peo- 
ple have  called  me.  I  am  deeply  sensible  of  that 
weighty  responsibility.  I  cannot  but  know  what  you 
all  know,  that  without  a  name,  perhaps  without  a  rea- 
son why  I  should  have  a  name,  there  has  fallen  upon 
me  a  task  such  as  did  not  rest  even  upon  the  Father 
of  his  Country ;  and  so  feeling,  I  cannot  but  turn  and 
look  for  that  support  without  which  it  will  be  impossible 
for  me  to  perform  that  great  task.  I  turn,  then,  and 
look  to  the  American  people,  and  to  that  God  who  has 
never  forsaken  them.  Allusion  has  been  made  to  the 
interest  felt  in  relation  to  the  policy  of  the  new  Admin- 
istration. In  this  I  have  received  from  some  a  degree 
of  credit  for  having  kept  silence,  and  from  others  some 
deprecation.  I  still  think  that  I  was  right.  ...  I 
have  not  maintained  silence  from  any  want  of  real  anx- 
iety. It  is  a  good  thing  that  there  is  no  more  than 
anxiety,  for  there  is  nothing  going  wrong.  It  is  a  con- 
soling circumstance  that  when  we  look  out,  there  is 
nothing  that  really  hurts  anybody.  We  entertain  dif- 
ferent views  upon  political  questions,  but  nobody  is 
suffering  anything.  This  is  a  most  consoling  circum- 
stance, and  from  it  we  may  conclude  that  all  we  want 
is  time,  patience,  and  a  reliance  on  that  God  who  has 
never  forsaken  this  people." 
During  a  brief  halt  of  the  train  at  Steuben- 
ville,  where  a  large  crowd  was  assembled,  he 
made  the  following  short  statement  of  the  fun- 
damental question  at  issue : 
"  I  fear  that  the  great  confidence  placed  in  my  ability 
is  unfounded.  Indeed,  I  am  sure  it  is.  Encompassed 
by  vast  difficulties  as  I  am,  nothing  shall  be  wanting 
on  my  part,  if  sustained  by  the  American  people  and 
God.  I  believe  the  devotion  to  the  Constitution  is 
equally  great  on  both  sides  of  the  river.  It  is  only  the 
different  understanding  of  that  instrument  that  causes 
difficulty.  The  only  dispute  on  both  sides  is,  '  What 
are  their  rights  ?  '  If  the  majority  should  not  rule,  who 
would  be  the  judge  ?  Where  is  such  a  judge  to  be 
found  ?  We  should  all  be  bound  by  the  majority  of 
the  American  people  —  if  not,  then  the  minority  must 
control.  Would  that  be  right?  Would  it  be  just  or 
generous  ?  Assuredly  not.  I  reiterate,  that  the  major- 
ity should  rule.  If  I  adopt  a  wrong  policy,  the  oppor- 
tunity for  condemnation  will  occur  in  four  years'  time. 
Then  I  can  be  turned  out,  and  a  better  man  with  bet- 
ter views  put  in  my  place. " 
Necessarily  omitting  any  description  of  the 
magnificent  demonstrations,  and  the  multi- 
plied speeches  in  the  great  State  and  city  of 
New  York,  his  addresses  in  the  capital  of 
New  Jersey  must  be  quoted,  because  they 
show  a  culminating  earnestness  of  thought  and 
purpose.    To  the  Senate  he  said : 
"  I  am  very  grateful  to  you  for  the  honorable  recep- 
tion of  which  I  have  been  the  object.  1  cannot  but  re- 
member the  place  that  New  Jersey  holds  in  our  early 
history.  In  the  revolutionary  struggle  few  of  the 
States  among  the  Old  Thirteen  had  more  of  the  battle- 
fields of  the  country  within  their  limits  than  New  Jer- 
sey. May  I  be  pardoned  if,  upon  this  occasion,  1 
mention  that  away  back  in  my  Childhood,  the  earliest 
days  of  my  being  able  to  read,  I  got  hold  of  a  small 
book,  such  a  one  as  few  of  the  younger  members  have 
ever  seen, '  Weems'  Life  of  Washington.'  I  remember 
all  the  accounts  there  given  of  the  battle-fields  and 
struggles  for  the  liberties  of  the  country,  and  none 
fixed  themselves  upon  my  imagination  so  deeply  as  the 
struggle  here  at  Trenton,  New  Jersey.  The  crossing 
of  the  river ;  the  contest  with  the  Hessians ;  the  great 
hardships  endured  at  that  time,  all  fixed  themselves  on 
my  memory  more  than  any  single  revolutionary  event; 
and  you  all  know,  for  you  have  all  been  boys,  how 
these  early  impressions  last  longer  than  any  others.  I 
recollect  thinking  then,  boy  even  though  I  was,  that 
there  must  have  been  something  more  than  common 
that  these  men  struggled  for.  I  am  exceedingly  anx- 
ious that  that  thing  —  that  something  even  more  than 
National  Independence ;  that  something  that  held  out 
a  great  promise  to  all  the  people  of  the  world  to  all 
time  to  come — I  am  exceedingly  anxious  that  this 
Union,  the  Constitution,  and  the  liberties  of  the  people 
shall  be  perpetuated  in  accordance  with  the  original 
idea  for  which  that  struggle  was  made,  and  I  shall  be 
most  happy  indeed  if  I  shall  be  an  humble  instrument 
in  the  hands  of  the  Almighty,  and  of  this,  his  almost 
chosen  people  for  perpetuating  the  object  of  that  great 
struggle.  You  give  me  this  reception,  as  I  understand, 
without  distinction  of  party.  I  learn  that  this  body  is 
composed  of  a  majority  of  gentlemen  who,  in  the  exer- 
cise of  their  best  judgment  in  the  choice  of  a  chief 
magistrate,  did  not  think  I  was  the  man.  I  understand, 
nevertheless,  that  they  came  forward  here  to  greet 
me  as  the  constitutionally  elected  President  of  the 
United  States  —  as  citizens  of  the  United  States  —  to 
meet  the  man  who,  for  the  time  being,  is  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  majesty  of  the  nation  —  united  by  the 
single  purpose  to  perpetuate  the  Constitution,  the 
Union,  and  the  liberties  of  the  people.  As  such,  I 
accept  this  reception  more  gratefully  than  I  could  do 
did  I  believe  it  were  tendered  to  me  as  an  individual." 
Passing  then  to  the  Assembly  Chamber,  he 
addressed  the  members  of  the  lower  house 
in  conclusion : 
..."  You,  Mr.  Speaker,  have  well  said  that  this 
is  a  time  when  the  bravest  and  wisest  look  back  with 
doubt  and  awe  upon  the  aspect  presented  by  our  na- 
tional affairs.  Under  these  circumstances,  you  will  read- 
ily see  why  I  should  not  speak  in  detail  of  the  course  I 
shall  deem  it  best  to  pursue.  It  is  proper  that  I  should 
avail  myself  of  all  the  information  and  all  the  time  at  my 
command,  in  order  that  when  the  time  arrives  in  which 
I  must  speak  officially,  I  shall  be  able  to  take  the  ground 
which  I  deem  the  best  and  safest,  and  from  which  I  may 
have  no  occasion  to  swerve.  I  shall  endeavor  to  take 
the  ground  I  deem  most  just  to  the  North,  the  East,  the 
West,  the  South,  and  the  whole  country.  I  take  it,  I 
hope,  in  good  temper,  certainly  with  no  malice  toward 
any  section.  I  shall  do  all  that  may  be  in  my  power  to 
promote  a  peaceful  settlement  of  all  our  difficulties. 
The  man  does  not  live  who  is  more  devoted  to  peace 
than  I  am,  none  who  would  do  more  to  preserve  it.  but 
it  may  be  necessary  to  put  the  foot  down  firmly.  [  Here 
the  audience  broke  out  into  cheers  so  loud  and  long, 
that  for  some  moments  it  was  impossible  to  hear  Mr. 
Lincoln's  voice.]  And  if  I  do  my  duty  and  do  right, 
you  will  sustain  me,  will  you  not?  [Loud  cheers,  and 
cries  of  Yes,  yes,  we  will.']    Received  as  I  am  by  the
26S 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN, 
members  of  a  legislature,  the  majority  of  whom  do  not 
agree  with  me  in  political  sentiments,  I  trust  that  I 
may  have  their  assistance  in  piloting  the  ship  of  State 
through  this  voyage,  surrounded  by  perils  as  it  is  ;  for 
if  it  should  suffer  wreck  now,  there  will  be  no  pilot  ever 
needed  for  another  voyage." 
Perhaps  in  no  one  of  the  many  addresses 
delivered  during  his  tour  was  he  so  visibly 
moved  and  affected  by  his  surroundings  as 
when  he  spoke  in  Independence  Hall  in  Phila- 
delphia, which  he  visited  on  the  22d  of  Feb- 
ruary, the  anniversary  of  Washington's  birth- 
day.   He  said : 
"  I  am  filled  with  deep  emotion  at  finding  myself 
standing  in  this  place,  where  were  collected  together 
the  wisdom,  the  patriotism,  the  devotion  to  principle 
from  which  sprang  the  institutions  under  which  we 
live.  You  have  kindly  suggested  to  me  that  in  my 
hands  is  the  task  of  restoring  peace  to  our  distracted 
country.  I  can  say  in  return,  sirs,  that  all  the  political 
sentiments  I  entertain  have  been  drawn,  so  far  as  I 
have  been  able  to  draw  them,  from  the  sentiments 
which  originated  in  and  were  given  to  the  world  from 
this  hall.  I  have  never  had  a  feeling,  politically,  that 
did  not  spring  from  the  sentiments  embodied  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  I  have  often  pondered 
over  the  dangers  which  were  incurred  by  the  men  who 
assembled  here  and  framed  and  adopted  that  Dec- 
laration. I  have  pondered  over  the  toils  that  were  en- 
dured by  the  officers  and  soldiers  of  the  army  who 
achieved  that  independence.  I  have  often  inquired  of 
myself  what  great  principle  or  idea  it  was  that  kept  this 
Confederacy  so  long  together.  It  was  not  the  mere 
matter  of  separation  of  the  colonies  from  the  mother- 
land, but  that  sentiment  in  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence which  gave  liberty,  not  alone  to  the  people  of 
this  country,  but  hope  to  all  the  world,  for  all  future 
time.  It  was  that  which  gave  promise  that  in  due  time 
the  weight  would  be  lifted  from  the  shoulders  of  all 
men  and  that  all  should  have  an  equal  chance.  This  is 
the  sentiment  embodied  in  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence. Now,  my  friends,  can  this  country  be  saved  on 
that  basis?  If  it  can,  I  will  consider  myself  one  of  the 
happiest  men  in  the  world  if  I  can  help  to  save  it.  If  it 
cannot  be  saved  upon  that  principle,  it  will  be  truly  aw- 
ful. But  if  this  country  cannot  be  saved  without  giving 
up  that  principle,  I  was  about  to  say  I  would  rather  be 
assassinated  on  this  spot  than  surrender  it.  Now,  in  my 
view  of  the  present  aspect  of  affairs,  there  is  no  need 
of  bloodshed  and  war.  There  is  no  necessity  for  it.  I 
am  not  in  favor  of  such  a  course;  and  I  may  say  in 
advance  that  there  will  be  no  bloodshed  unless  it  be 
forced  upon  the  Government.  The  Government  will 
not  use  force,  unless  force  is  used  against  it. 
"  My  friends,  this  is  wholly  an  unprepared  speech. 
I  did  not  expect  to  be  called  on  to  say  a  word  when  I 
came  here.  I  supposed  it  was  merely  to  do  something 
towards  raising  a  flag — I  may,  therefore,  have  said 
something  indiscreet.  [Cries  of  'No,  No.']  But  I 
have  said  nothing  but  what  I  am  willing  to  live  by,  and, 
if  it  be  the  pleasure  of  Almighty  God,  die  by." 
In  his  last  speech  of  the  series,  delivered  in 
Harrisburg,  before  the  assembled  legislature 
of  Pennsylvania,  he  happily  described  another 
interesting  ceremony  which  had  taken  place 
that  same  morningbefore  leaving  Philadelphia: 
"  I  appear  before  you  only  for  a  very  few,  brief  re- 
marks, in  response  to  what  has  been  said  to  me.  I 
thank  you  most  sincerely  for  this  reception,  and  the 
generous  words   in  which  support  has  been  promised 
me  upon  this  occasion.  I  thank  your  great  common- 
wealth for  the  overwhelming  support  it  recently  gave, 
not  me  personally,  but  the  cause  which  I  think  a  just 
one,  in  the  late  election.  Allusion  has  been  made  to 
the  fact  —  the  interesting  fact,  perhaps,  Ave  should  say — 
that  I  for  the  first  time  appear  at  the  capital  of  the 
great  commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania  upon  the  birth- 
day of  the  Father  of  his  Country.  In  connection  with 
that  beloved  anniversary  connected  with  the  history  of 
this  country,  I  have  already  gone  through  one  exceed- 
ingly interesting  scene  this  morning  in  the  ceremonies 
at  Philadelphia.  Under  the  conduct  of  gentlemen  there, 
I  was  for  the  first  time  allowed  the  privilege  of  standing 
in  the  old  Independence  Hall,  to  have  a  few  words  ad- 
dressed to  me  there,  and  opening  up  to  me  an  opportu- 
nity of  expressing,  with  much  regret  that  I  had  not  more 
time  to  express  something  of  my  own  feelings,  excited 
by  the  occasion,  somewhat  to  harmonize  and  give  shape 
to  the  feelings  that  had  really  been  the  feelings  of  my 
whole  life.  Besides  this,  our  friends  there  had  provided 
a  magnificent  flag  of  the  country.  They  had  arranged  it 
so  that  I  was  given  the  honor  of  raising  it.  And  when  it 
went  up,  I  was  pleased  that  it  went  to  its  place  by  the 
strength  of  my  own  feeble  arm.  When,  according  to 
the  arrangement,  the  cord  was  pulled,  and  it  floated 
gloriously  to  the  wind,  without  an  accident,  in  the  bright, 
glowing  sunshine  of  the  morning,  I  could  not  help  hop- 
ing that  there  was,  in  the  entire  success  of  that  beauti- 
ful ceremony,  at  least  something  of  an  omen  of  what  is 
to  come.  Nor  could  I  help  feeling  then,  as  I  often  have 
felt,  in  the  whole  of  that  proceeding  I  was  a  very 
humble  instrument.  I  had  not  provided  the  flag ;  I 
had  not  made  the  arrangements  for  elevating  it  to  its 
place ;  I  had  applied  but  a  very  small  portion  of  my 
feeble  strength  in  raising  it.  In  the  whole  transaction 
I  was  in  the  hands  of  the  people  who  had  arranged  it, 
and  if  I  can  have  the  same  generous  cooperation  of 
the  people  of  the  nation,  I  think  the  flag  of  our  country 
may  yet  be  kept  flaunting  gloriously.  I  recur  for  a  mo- 
ment but  to  repeat  some  words  uttered  at  the  hotel,  in 
regard  to  what  has  been  said  about  the  military  support 
which  the  general  government  may  expectfrom  the  com- 
monwealth of  Pennsylvania  in  a  proper  emergency.  To 
guard  against  any  possible  mistake  do  I  recur  to  this. 
It  is  not  with  any  pleasure  that  I  contemplate  the  possi- 
bility that  a  necessity  may  arise  in  this  country  for  the 
use  of  the  military  arm.  While  I  am  exceedingly  grati- 
fied to  see  the  manifestation  upon  your  streets  of  your 
military  force  here,  and  exceedingly  gratified  at  your 
promise  to  use  that  force  upon  a  proper  emergency  — 
while  I  make  these  acknowledgments  I  desire  to  repeat, 
in  order  to  preclude  any  possible  misconstruction,  that 
I  do  most  sincerely  hope  that  we  shall  have  no  use  for 
them;  that  it  will  never  become  their  duty  to  shed  blood, 
and  most  especially  never  to  shed  fraternal  blood.  I 
promise  that  so  far  as  I  may  have  wisdom  to  direct, if 
so  painful  a  result  shall  in  anywise  be  brought  about,  it 
shall  be  through  no  fault  of  mine." 
LINCOLN'S    SECRET    NIGHT   JOURNEY. 
On  the  morning  of  February  23d  the  whole 
country  was  surprised  at  the  telegraphic  an- 
nouncement, coupled  with  diverse  and  generally 
very  foggy  explanations,  that  the  President- 
elect, after  his  long  and  almost  triumphal  jour- 
ney in  the  utmost  publicity  and  with  well-nigh 
universal  greetings  of  good-will,  had  suddenly 
abandoned  his  announced  programme  and 
made  a  quick' and  secret  night  journey  through 
Baltimore  to  the  Federal  capital.  Public  opin- 
ion at  the  time,  and  for  years  afterward,  was 
puzzled  by  the  event,  and  the  utmost  contra-
LINCOLN'S  INAUGURATION. 
riety  of  comment,  ranging  from  the  highest 
praise  to  the  severest  detraction  which  carica- 
ture, ridicule,  and  denunciation  could  express, 
was  long  current.  In  the  course  of  time,  the 
narratives  of  the  principal  actors  in  the  affair 
have  been  written  down  and  published,*  and 
a  sufficient  statement  of  the  facts  and  motives 
involved  may  at  length  be  made.  The  news- 
papers stated  (without  any  prompting  or  sug- 
gestion from  Mr.  Lincoln)  that  an  extensive 
plot  to  assassinate  him  on  his  expected  trip 
through  Baltimore  about  midday  of  Saturday 
had  been  discovered,  which  plot  the  earlier 
and  unknown  passage  on  Friday  night  dis- 
concerted and  prevented.  This  theory  has  nei- 
ther been  proved  nor  disproved  by  the  lapse 
of  time ;  Mr.  Lincoln  did  not  entertain  it  in  this 
formf  nor  base  his  course  upon  it.  But  subse- 
quent events  did  clearly  demonstrate  the  pos- 
sibility and  probability  of  attempted  personal 
violence  from  the  fanatical  impulse  of  individ- 
uals, or  the  sudden  anger  of  a  mob,  and  justi- 
fied the  propriety  of  his  decision. 
The  threats  of  secession,  revolution,  plots 
to  seize  Washington,  to  burn  the  public  build- 
ings, to  prevent  the  count  of  electoral  votes 
and  the  inauguration  of  the  new  President, 
which  had  for  six  weeks  filled  the  newspapers 
of  the  country,  caused  much  uneasiness  about 
the  personal  safety  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  particularly 
among  the  railroad  officials  over  whose  lines 
he  was  making  his  journey ;  and  to  no  one  of 
them  so  much  as  to  Mr.  S.  M.  Felton,  the  Pres- 
ident of  the  Philadelphia,  Wilmington,  and 
Baltimore  Railway,  whose  line  formed  the 
connecting  link  from  the  North  to  the  South, 
from  a  free  to  a  slave  State,  from  the  region 
of  absolute  loyalty  to  the  territory  of  quasi- 
rebellion.  Independently  of  politics,  the  city  of 
Baltimore  at  that  time  bore  a  somewhat  unen- 
viable reputation  as  containing  a  dangerous 
and  disorderly  element;  her  "roughs"  had  a 
degree  of  newspaper  notoriety  by  no  means 
agreeable  to  quiet  and  non-combative  stran- 
gers. But  Baltimore  and  Maryland  were  also 
profoundly  moved  by  the  incipient  rebellion. 
Governor  Hicks  had  been  plied  with  persua- 
sion, protest,  and  even  threats  of  personal  vio- 
lence, to  induce  him  to  convene  the  Maryland 
legislature,  so  that  secession  might  begin  under 
a  legal  pretext.  The  investigation  of  the  How- 
ard Congressional  Committee,  though  it  found 
no  organized  plot  to  seize  the  capital,  gave 
*  See  narrative  of  S.  M.  Felton,  in  Schouler, "  Massa- 
chusetts in  the  Civil  War,"  Vol.  I.,  pp.  59-65  ;  Judd  to 
Pinkerton,  Nov.  3d,  1867,  Edwards,  "Life  of  N.  B. 
Judd,"  pamphlet,  pp.  n-17;  Pinkerton,  "The  Spy 
of  the  Rebellion,"  pp.  45-103 ;  Kennedy  to  Lossing, 
embracing  narrative  of  Colonel  Stone,  Lossing,  "  Civil 
War,"  Vol.  II.,  pp.  147-149;  Lincoln's  statement  to 
Lossing,  lb.,  Vol.  I., pp.  279,  280 ;  Lincoln's  statement 
to  Arnold,  Arnold,  "Lincoln  and  Slavery,"  p.  171 ;  and 
abundant  traces  of  secession  conspiracy  of  vari- 
ous degrees —  especially  of  half-formed  military 
companies,  organizing  to  prevent  Northern 
troops  from  passing  through  Baltimore  to  Wash- 
ington or  the  South.  As  part  and  parcel  of  this 
scheme,  the  railroads  were  to  be  destroyed 
and  the  bridges  burned.  The  events  of  April. 
as  they  actually  occurred,  had  already  been 
planned,  informally  at  least,  in  January. 
Aside  from  patriotism,  the  duty  of  protect- 
ing the  tracks  and  bridges  of  the  railroad  of 
which  he  was  president  induced  Mr.  Felton 
to  call  to  his  aid  Mr.  Allan  Pinkerton,  chief 
of  a  Chicago  detective  agency,  whom  he  had 
before  employed  on  an  important  matter. 
"  He  was  a  man  of  great  skill  and  resources,"  writes 
Mr.  Felton.  <;  I  furnished  him  with  a  few  hints  and  at 
once  set  him  on  the  track  with  eight  assistants.  There 
were  then  drilling  upon  the  line  of  the  railroad  some 
three  military  organizations,  professedly  for  home  de- 
fense, pretending  to  be  Union  men,  and  in  one  or  two  in- 
stances tendering  their  services  to  the  railroad  in  case 
of  trouble.  Their  propositions  were  duly  considered  ; 
but  the  defense  of  the  road  was  never  intrusted  to  their 
tender  mercies.  The  first  thing  done  was  to  enlist  a 
volunteer  in  each  of  these  military  companies.  They 
pretended  to  come  from  New  Orleans  and  Mobile,  and 
did  not  appear  to  be  wanting  in  sympathy  for  the 
South.  They  were  furnished  with  uniforms  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  road,  and  drilled  as  often  as  their  associ- 
ates in  arms  ;  became  initiated  into  all  the  secrets  of 
the  organizations,  and  reported  every  day  or  two  to 
their  chief,  who  immediately  reported  to  me  the  de- 
signs and  plans  of  these  military  companies.  One  of 
these  organizations  was  loyal;  but  the  other  two  were 
disloyal,  and  fully  in  the  plot  to  destroy  the  bridges, 
and  march  to  Washington,  to  wrest  it  from  the  hands 
of  the  legally  constituted  authorities.  Every  nook  and 
corner  of  the  road  and  its  vicinity  was  explored  by  the 
chief  and  his  detectives,  and  the  secret  working  of  se- 
cession and  treason  laid  bare  and  brought  to  light. 
Societies  were  joined  in  Baltimore,  and  various  modes 
known  to  and  practiced  only  by  detectives  were  re- 
sorted to,  to  win  the  confidence  of  the  conspirators 
and  get  into  their  secrets.  The  plan  worked  well ;  and 
the  midnight  plottings  and  daily  consultations  of  the 
conspirators  were  treasured  up  as  a  guide  to  our  future 
plans  for  thwarting  them.  ...  It  was  made  as  cer- 
tain as  strong  circumstantial  and  positive  evidence 
could  make  it,  that  there  was  a  plot  to  burn  the  bridges 
and  destroy  the  road,  and  murder  Mr.  Lincoln  on  his 
way  to  Washington,  if  it  turned  out  that  he  went  there 
before  troops  were  called.  If  troops  were  first  called, 
then  the  bridges  were  to  be  destroyed,  and  Washing- 
ton cut  off  and  taken  possession  of  by  the  South.  I 
at  once  organized  and  armed  a  force  of  about  two  hun- 
dred men,  whom  I  distributed  along  the  line  between 
the  Susquehanna  and  Baltimore,  principally  at  the 
bridges.  These  men  were  drilled  secretly  and  regu- 
larly by  drill-masters,  and  were  apparently  employed 
in  whitewashing  the  bridges,  putting  on  some  six  or 
seven  coats  of  whitewash,  saturated  with  salt  and  alum, 
MS.  letters  printed  in  this  chapter.  Also  Lamon,  "  Life 
of  Lincoln,"  pp.  511-526. 
t  Mr.  Lincoln,  long  afterward,  declared  :  "  I  did  not 
then,  nor  do  I  now,  believe  I  should  have  been  assas- 
sinated, had  I  gone  through  Baltimore  as  first  con- 
templated ;  but  I  thought  it  wise  to  run  no  risk,  where 
no  risk  was  necessary."  Hon.  I.  N.  Arnold,  in  his  work, 
"Lincoln  and  Slavery,"  adds  in  a  note,  p.  171,  that 
the  above  was  "  stated  to  the  author  by  Mr.  Lincoln."
270 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
to  make  the  outside  of  the  bridges  as  nearly  fire-proof 
as  possible.  This  whitewashing,  so  extensive  in  its  ap- 
plication, became  the  nine-days'  wonder  of  the  neigh- 
borhood. Thus  the  bridges  were  strongly  guarded, 
and  a  train  was  arranged  so  as  to  concentrate  all  the 
forces  at  one  point  in  case  of  trouble.  The  programme 
of  Mr.  Lincoln  was  changed;  and  it  was  decided  by 
him  that  he  would  go  to  Harrisburg  from  Philadel- 
phia, and  thence  over  the  Northern  Central  road  by 
day  to  Baltimore,  and  thence  to  Washington.  We 
were  then  informed  by  our  detective  that  the  attention 
of  the  conspirators  was  turned  from  our  road  to  the 
Northern  Central,  and  that  they  would  there  await  the 
coming  of  Mr.  Lincoln."* 
It  appeared  from  the  reports  of  Pinkerton's 
detectives  that  among  the  more  suspicious  in- 
dications were  the  very  free  and  threatening 
expressions  of  a  man  named  Ferrandini,  an 
Italian,  sometime  a  barber  at  Barnum's  Hotel 
in  Baltimore,  but  who  had  become  captain 
of  one  of  the  military  companies  organized  in 
that  city  to  promote  secession.  Ferrandini's 
talk  may  not  have  been  conclusive  proof  of  a 
conspiracy,  but  it  showed  his  own  intent  to 
commit  assassination,  and  conveyed  the  in- 
ference of  a  plot.t  Coupled  with  the  fact  that 
the  Baltimore  air  was  full  of  similar  threats,  it 
established  the  probability  of  a  mob  and  a 
riot.  Add  to  this  Ferrandini's  testimony  before 
the  Howard  Committee  (February  5th,  1861), 
that  he  was  then  drilling  a  company  (fifteen 
members)  of  "  Constitutional  Guards  "  in  Bal- 
timore, formed  for  the  express  purpose  "  to 
prevent  Northern  volunteer  companies  from 
passing  through  the  State  of  Maryland  .  .  . 
to  come  here  [Washington]  to  help  the  United 
States  troops,  or  anybody  else,  to  invade  the 
South  in  any  shape  whatever  "  ;  also  that  an- 
other corps,  called  the  National  Volunteers, 
had  formed,  "  to  protect  their  State,"  and 
began  drilling  the  previous  Saturday;  also  that 
he  had  "heard  that  the  Minute  Men  have 
fifteen  companies  in  Baltimore  " —  and  we  have 
the  direct  evidence  of  extensive  organization, 
and  strong  presumption  of  the  uses  to  which 
it  could  be  turned.f  Then,  if  we  remember 
that  riot,  murder,  and  bridge-burning  actually 
took  place  in  Baltimore  two  months  later,  in 
exact  accordance  with  the  plans  and  ideas  for- 
mulated, both  in  the  loose  talk  and  the  solemn 
testimony  by  Ferrandini  and  others,  we  are 
unavoidably  driven  to  the  conclusion  that 
Mr.  Felton,  General  Scott,  Governor  Hicks, 
and  others  had  abundant  cause  for  the  very 
serious  apprehensions  under  which  they  acted. 
Hon.  X.  B.  Judd,  a  resident  of  Chicago, 
of  peculiar  prominence  in  Illinois  politics  and 
the  intimate  personal  friend  of  Lincoln,  was 
perhaps  the  most  active  and  influential  mem- 
ber of  the  suite  of  the  President-elect.  Pinkerton 
*  Schouler, 
I.,  pp.  61,  62. 
Massachusetts  in  the  Civil  War,"  Vol. 
Lincoln,"  p.  516. 
the  detective  knew  Judd  personally,  and,  as 
the  presidential  party  approached,  notified 
him  by  letter  at  Buffalo,  and  by  special  mes- 
senger at  New  York,  of  the  investigations  he 
was  making  in  Baltimore.  Judd  as  yet  said 
nothing  of  the  matter  to  any  one.  When  the 
party  arrived  in  Philadelphia,  however,  he 
was  instantly  called  to  a  conference  with 
Mr.  Felton  and  the  detective.  Pinkerton  laid 
his  reports  before  the  two,  and,  after  an  hour's 
examination,  both  were  convinced  that  the 
allegation  of  a  plot  to  assassinate  the  Presi- 
dent-elect was  as  serious  and  important  as  in 
the  nature  of  things  such  evidence  can  ever 
be  found.  He  immediately  took  Pinkerton 
with  him  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  room  at  the  Con- 
tinental Hotel,  to  whom  the  whole  story  was 
repeated,  and  where  Judd  advised  that,  in 
the  opinion  both  of  Mr.  Felton  and  himself, 
Mr.  Lincoln's  safety  required  him  to  proceed 
that  same  evening  on  the  n  o'clock  train. 
"  If  you  follow  the  course  suggested,"  con- 
tinued Judd, "  you  will  necessarily  be  subjected 
to  the  scoffs  and  sneers  of  your  enemies,  and 
the  disapproval  of  your  friends,  who  cannot 
be  made  to  believe  in  the  existence  of  so 
desperate  a  plot."  Mr.  Lincoln  replied  that 
he  appreciated  these  suggestions,  but  that 
he  could  stand  anything  that  was  necessary. 
Then  rising  from  his  seat  he  said :  "  I  can- 
not go  to-night ;  I  have  promised  to  raise  the 
flag  over  Independence  Hall  to-morrow  morn- 
ing, and  to  visit  the  legislature  at  Harrisburg. 
Beyond  that  I  have  no  engagements."  § 
Hitherto,  all  Lincoln's  movements  had  been 
made  under  the  invitation,  arrangements,  di- 
rection, and  responsibility  of  committees  of 
legislatures,  governors  of  States,  and  munici- 
pal authorities  of  towns  and  cities.  No  such  call 
or  greeting,  however,  had  come  from  Maryland; 
no  resolutions  of  welcome  from  her  legislature, 
no  invitation  from  her  governor,  no  municipal 
committee  from  Baltimore.  The  sole  proffers 
of  friendship  and  hospitality  out  of  the  com- 
monwealth came  from  two  citizens  in  their 
private  capacity  —  Mr.  Gittings,  President  of 
the  Northern  Central  Railroad,  who  tendered 
a  dinner  to  Mr.  Lincoln  and  his  family;  and 
Mr.  Coleman,  of  the  Eutaw  House,  who  ex- 
tended a  similar  invitation  to  the  President- 
elect and  his  suite.  Appreciating  fully  these 
acts  of  personal  courtesy,  Mr.  Lincoln  yet  felt 
that  there  was  no  evidence  before  him  that 
the  official  and  public  authority  of  the  city 
would  be  exercised  to  restrain  the  unruly  ele- 
ments which  would  on  such  an  occasion 
densely  pack  the  streets  of  Baltimore.  During 
their  ten-days'  experience  on  the  journey  thus 
X  Report  Select  Committee  of  Five  (Howard  Commit- 
tee^ pp.  133-137. 
§  Judd  to  Pinkerton,  November  3d,  1867.
LINCOLN'S  INAUGURATION. 
271 
far,  both  he  and  his  suite  had  had  abundant 
evidence  as  to  how  completely  exposed  and 
perfectly  helpless  every  individual  of  the  party, 
and  especially  Mr.  Lincoln,  was  at  times,  even 
amid  the  friendliest  feeling  and  the  kindest  at- 
tention. He  had  been  almost  crushed  in  the 
corridor  of  the  State-house  at  Columbus ;  arriv- 
ing after  dark  in  the  Pittsburg  depot,  a  stam- 
pede of  the  horses  of  a  small  cavalry  escort 
had  seriously  endangered  his  carriage  and  its 
occupants :  at  Buffalo,  Major  Hunter,  of  his 
suite,  had  his  arm  broken  by  a  sudden  rush  of 
the  crowd.  If  with  all  the  good- will  and  pre- 
cautions of  police  and  military  such  perils 
were  unavoidable  in  friendly  cities,  what  might 
happen  where  authorities  were  indifferent, 
where  municipal  control  and  public  order  were 
lax,  and  where  prejudice,  hostility,  and  smol- 
dering insurrection  animated  the  masses  of 
people  surging  about  the  carriages  of  an  un- 
protected street  procession  ?  Yet  with  all  these 
considerations  Mr.  Lincoln  could  not  entirely 
convince  himself  that  a  deliberate  plot  to  mur- 
der him  was  in  existence. 
"  I  made  arrangements,  however,  with  Mr.  Judd  for 
my  return  to  Philadelphia  the  next  night,  if  I  should 
be  convinced  that  there  was  danger  in  going  through 
Baltimore.  I  told  him  that  if  I  should  meet  at  Harris- 
burg,  as  I  had  at  other  places,  a  delegation  to  go  with 
me  to  Baltimore,  I  should  feel  safe,  and  go  on."  * 
Mr.  Judd  devoted  the  remainder  of  the 
afternoon  and  nearly  the  whole  of  the  night 
of  February  21st  to  the  discussion  and  per- 
fection of  arrangements  for  a  night  journey 
through  Baltimore,  as  suggested  by  himself 
and  Mr.  Felton,  and  as  conditionally  accepted 
by  the  President-elect.  Only  four  persons 
joined  in  this  discussion,  —  Mr.  Judd,  Mr. 
Pinkerton,  Mr.  Franciscus,  General  Manager 
of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  and  Mr.  Henry 
Sanford,  representing  Colonel  E.  S.  Sanford, 
President  of  the  American  Telegraph  Company. 
At  4  o'clock  a.  m.  the  party  separated,  hav- 
ing agreed  on  the  following  plan  :  f  that  after 
the  reception  at  Harrisburg,  a  special  train 
consisting  of  a  baggage  car  and  one  passen- 
ger car,  starting  at  6  p.  m.,  should  convey  Mr. 
Lincoln  and  one  companion  back  to  Phila- 
delphia, the  track  between  the  two  cities  to  be 
kept  clear  of  everything;  that  Mr.  Felton  at 
Philadelphia  should  detain  the  1 1  o'clock  p.  m. 
Baltimore  train  until  the  arrival  of  the  special 
train  from  Harrisburg ;  that  Pinkerton  should 
have  a  carriage  ready  in  which  to  proceed 
through  Philadelphia  from  one  depot  to  the 
other;  that  a  Mrs.  Warne,  an  employee  of 
his,  should  engage  berths  in  the  sleeping-car  of 
the  Baltimore  train ;  that  Mr.  Sanford  should 
*  Lincoln's  statement  to  Lossins%  Lossins:,  "  Civil 
War,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  280. 
so  disconnect  the  wires  as  to  make  any  tele- 
graphing between  the  several  points  within 
certain  hours  impossible;  and  that  Mr.  Lin- 
coln should  have  for  his  single  escort  and 
companion  Colonel  Ward  H.  Lamon,  of  his 
suite,  a  devoted  personal  friend  from  Illinois  — 
young,  active,  and  of  almost  herculean  frame 
and  strength. 
At  6  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  February 
2 2d,  the  appointed  flag-raising  by  the  Presi- 
dent-elect, over  Independence  Hall  in  Phila- 
delphia, was  duly  celebrated,  and  on  the  trip 
to  Harrisburg,  which  followed  as  soon  as  pos- 
sible, Mr.  Judd  communicated  the  details  of 
his  plan  to  Mr.  Lincoln.  Before  this,  however, 
Lincoln  had  received  at  the  Continental  Ho- 
tel the  visit  of  Mr.  Frederick  W.  Seward, 
who  came  as  a  special  messenger  from  his 
father,  in  Washington,  to  place  the  following 
correspondence  in  his  hands  : 
[Seward  to  Lincoln.] 
"  Washington,  February  21st,  1861. 
"My  Dear  Sir:  My  son  goes  express  to  you. 
He  will  show  you  a  report  made  by  our  detective  to 
General  Scott,  and  by  him  communicated  to  me  this 
morning.  I  deem  it  so  important  as  to  dispatch  my  son 
to  meet  you  wherever  he  may  find  you. 
"  I  concur  with  General  Scott  in  thinking  it  best  for 
you  to  reconsider  your  arrangement.  No  one  here  but 
General  Scott,  myself,  and  the  bearer  is  aware  of  this 
communication. 
"  I  should  have  gone  with  it  myself,  but  for  the  pe- 
culiar sensitiveness  about  my  attendance  at  the  Senate 
at  this  crisis.  Very  truly  yours, 
"William  H.  Seward."  % 
[General  Scott  to  Seward.  ] 
"February  21st,  1S61. 
"My  Dear  Sir:  Please  receive  my  friend,  Colonel 
Stone,  chief  of  General  Wightman's  staff,  and  a  dis- 
tinguished young  officer  with  me  in  Mexico.    He  has 
an  important  communication  to  make. 
"Yours  truly,  Winfield  Scott."  % 
[Colonel  Stone's  Report.] 
"February  21st,  1S61. 
"  A  New  York  detective  officer  who  has  been  on 
duty  in  Baltimore  for  three  weeks  past  reports  this 
morning  that  there  is  serious  danger  of  violence  to,  and 
the  assassination  of,  Mr.  Lincoln  in  his  passage  through 
that  city,  should  the  time  of  that  passage  be  known. 
He  states  that  there  are  banded  rowdies  holding  secret 
meetings,  and  that  he  has  heard  threats  of  mobbing 
and  violence,  and  has  himself  heard  men  declare  that 
if  Mr.  Lincoln  was  to  be  assassinated  they  would  like 
to  be  the  men.  He  states  further  that  it  is  only  with- 
in the  past  few  days  that  he  has  considered  there  was 
any  danger,  but  now  he  deems  it  imminent.  He  deems 
the  danger  one  which  the  authorities  and  people  in 
Baltimore  cannot  guard  against.  All  risk  might  be 
easily  avoided  by  a  change  in  the  traveling  arrange- 
ments which  would  bring  Mr.  Lincoln  and  a  portion 
of  his  party  through  Baltimore  by  a  night  train  with- 
out previous  notice."  t 
t  Tudd  to  Pinkerton,  November  3d,  1867. 
X  Unpublished  MS.