Norwich bulletin., 1920-05-07
Five Minutes a Day With Our Presidents Copyright 1s2o-6y James Morgan

XLVII-LINCOLN'S VALLEY FORGE Is61-March 4, Abraham Lincoln i'm
 augurated 16 president. aged
 52.
 March 15, advised by the Cab
 inet to surrender Fort Sumter.
 March 29, he determined to
 provision and defend it.
 April l, because of his supposed un-
 fitness, he was asked by Sew
 ard to relinquish to him his
 powers and responsibilities.
 April 14, Fort Sumter surrend-
 cred.
 April 15, Lincoln called for
 75,O00r volunteers.
 July 21, The Union Army routed at Bull Run.
 1ss2-- July 1, Mcclellan retreated
 from before Richmond.
 Aug. second defeat at Bull
 Run.
 Sept s2 Emancipation Proc Iamation.
 Dec. IS, Union defeat at Fredricksburg. IsS3-May 2-4, Disaster at Chancel- lorsvilIe.
 Seven stars already were gone from the blue field of the flag at Lincoln's in- auguration, and still other were fading away. How to keep more states from se- ceding and how to win back to the Union those in secession was the heart-wrack- | ing problem which he faced while stand ing on the steps of the Capitol to regis ter in heaven, as he said, his VOW tc preserve, protect and defend the Consti- tuition.
 When he sat down at his desk in the White House the next nor,ing he found lying on it 3 report tB [ 2 loyal gar ] rison of Fort Sumter had Od enough te last only a few days moNe. Genera 1 Scott assured the new president that il was impracticable to attempt to provi sion the fort, and all except one member of the cabinet agreed with the veteran soldier.
 When the commanding general recon mended that still another fort be giver up, there came to Lincoln a .sleeples night, through which he watched by hi mortal crisis as. the shadow of dissoIu 1 tion lay upon it. The morning foun, him fixed in his determination to save ii The forts should be defended. | He had kept his own counsel in al the soul-torturing struggles of that frs decisive month of his term. While/ tn inner Lincoln walked alone under tn awful burden, the outer Lincoln shuf fled along good naturedly through tn dialy routine As cabinet and leaderl not one of whom had known him yea watched and measured this quaint, sin ple-mannered man. smiling and joking a he met the biggest and hungriest swarr of office seekers that ever asSailed president, they were puzzled or disheari ened. After four weeks. Seward u I r,f xl-. the new president should leave state : manship to him and continue to anus himself only. with handing out jobs
 Without betraying the least resen ment, but with a firm hand. Lincoln p, e Seward in his place so effectively that . a little while the secretary was writir l to his wife, "The president is the best a tus." At the first test he had establish 0 ed his moral supremacy over the em j., nent statesman whom he had defeats for the nomi .tion.
 e The arrival of the federal supply shi] q at the mouth of Charleston harbor W: t the signal for the Confederate bombar- ment of Fort Sumter. The South hs struck the first blow. and the people the North rallied to the support of u . Union.
 When congress met in extraordina,
 
 had enrolled 100000 volunteer troops few days, he started the first army t T ward Richmond. the Confederate capits 'r but only to see it hurled back in wi l. disorder from the banks of Bull Ru Slowly gathering a second army, he SC it forth under Mcclellan, who was T y pulsed at the very gates Af Richmo p and driven back in retreat down u s James. Then he launched a third arr southward under Pope, but it was sto ped at Bull Run.
 IS Emboldened by it's success, the Sout ,r ern army advanced northward. but N a CIeIian stopped Lee in Maryland Eli days after that first victory for the Uni at Antietam Lincoln met his cabinet wi humorous story by Artemus Ward a then, suddenly turning from the ridic 'e lous to the sublime, he gravely armour ed that he had promised God to free slaves if the arms of the Union shot win the battle. Thereupon he drew frs st drawer the emancipation proclamati, at whose existence had been known to m man.
 l. The darkest winter in American h tory since Valley Forge was yet to cor A fourth army that Lincoln hurled III Richmond met with disaster at Frt - ricksburg and Charlottesville, and | western army under Grant seemed to u floundering hopelessly in the swamps lg Mississippi.
 My God My God" Lincoln cried