Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-04-28

all the people at the same time
The response of the north was the
first ray of light lincoln had seen amid
the lowering cloud of war since his
Inauguration. The people rose as one
man for the union.
AS early as Sunday morning, when
news of the fall of Sumter the even
ing before was flashed to every north
ern city, a martial note had swelled
on the breeze, growing steadily stronger
until It reached Washington.
BY Monday morning the people were
standing in the streets of every ham,
let and town, waiting the call of the
president. Every state house became
the center of intense military action.
Every northern governor looked to The
men at his command, TO see how
quickly he could start his required
quota of militia for the national CAPT
tai.
IL the attack on Sumter was "a live
coal on the heart of the NORTH" as
one eloquent northerner said, it was
no less a signal to the south that the
Rubicon was passed.
There were no longer dreams of
peaceful secession. Every son of the
south who could bear arms might be
needed to support the fortunes of the
Confederacy. Therefore a thrill went
which steeled the nerves of the north.
The whole nation jumped to arm it
self, section against section, friend
against friend, brother against brother.
with slavery the citadel to be stormed
and defended
DOUGLAS SUPPORTS LINCOLN.
One great and wonderful change
wrought in a night by the fall of Sum-
ter was the dropping for the moment
of partisan passion by the people of the
north.
Men who had refused to vote for Lin
coin, or support him when elected, were
with him now. Advocates of peaceful
secession, of whom there were many in
the northern states, saw that they had
been dreaming. Prophets who declared
the south did not mean to fight discern
ed their mistake.
The grim facts brought them all
shoulder to shoulder, ready. to submit
the greatest question in the nations life
to what Jefferson Davis had long be-
fore called the arbitrament of the
sword"
No more significant evidence of this
change was to be had than the prompt
ness with which Lincoln's political OPP
ponents came forward for the union
Senators who had denounced Lincoln
and attempted coercion" of the south
now stood with the president.
Foremost among them was Stephen A.
Douglas, the little giant of the Dem
ocracy, whom more than 100000 north
ern voters had supported at the polls in
November as the rival of Lincoln for
the presidency.
On hearing of the fall of Sumter SEN
ator Douglas sent a friend to Lincoln,
requesting an interview. All day sun.
day the presidents reception room was
full, but in the evening he received Sen
ator Douglas privately, and for two
hours these two remarkable men-polit-
ical rivals for 20 years-conversed on
tie great national crisis
The cabinet maker and auctioneer's
clerk from Vermont, now the leader of
a great national party, had come to
make pc; &c, for the good of the coun-
Y, wan the rail-splitter and flat-boat-
man from KENTUCKY, now the president
CT the United States.
No witness was there to hear their
words. Whatever may have been their
me.norie of their humble beginnings
their encounters, as young lawyers in
court in Illinois; their clashes in the
legislatures; their great debates, that
had made Lincoln a presidential possi-
bility-neither left record of them.
mo single act of Douglas life." say
Nicolay and Hay in their life of Lin
coin, so strongly marks his gift for
leadership as that by which he ac-
cepted the new issue, and without mo-
ments hesitation came forward and
placed himself beside Lincoln in the de-
Tense of the government-the first, as
well as the greatest war Democrat &"
Douglas told Lincoln he should have
called for 100000 instead of $4,000 men.