lowing remarkable story of a prophecy made by Mr. Douglas at this time:

"Senator Douglas and his wife, one of the most beautiful and fascinating women of America, occupied one of the houses which formed the Minnesota block. On New Year's Day, 1861, General Stewart, of New York, was making a New Year's call on Senator Douglas and, after some conversation, asked him: 'What will be the result, Senator, of the efforts of Jefferson Davis and his associates, to divide the Union?'

"We were,' says Stewart, sitting on the sofa together, when I asked the question. Douglas rose, walked rapidly up and down the room for a moment, and then, pausing, he exclaimed, with deep feeling and excitement :

"The cotton States are making an effort to draw in the border States to their schemes of secession, and I am but too fearful they will succeed. If they do, there will be the most fearful civil war the world has ever seen, lasting for years.'

"Pausing a moment, he looked like one inspired, while he proceeded: 'Virginia, over yonder, across the Potomac,' pointing to Arlington, 'will become a charnel-house; but, in the end the Union will triumph. They will try to get possession of this Capital, to give them prestige abroad, but in that effort they will never succeed; the North will arise en masse to defend it. But Washington will become a city of hospitals, the churches will be used for the sick and wounded. This house,' he continued, 'the Minnesota block, will be devoted to that purpose before the end of the war.'

"Every word of this prediction was literally fulfilled; nearly all the churches were used for the wounded and the Minnesota block and the very room, in which this declaration was made, became the 'Douglas Hospital.'

"What justification is there for all this?' asked Stewart.

"There is no justification,' replied Douglas. 'I will go as far as the Constitution will permit to maintain their just rights. But,' said he, rising to his feet and raising his arm, 'if the Southern States attempt to secede, I am in favor of their having just so many slaves, and just so much slave territory, as they can hold at the point of the bayonet, and no more.'

Five months after this remarkable conversation Stephen A. Douglas was no more.

CHAPTER XV.

WHEN Mr. Lincoln entered the White House on the night of March 4, 1861, he was nominally the President of the United States, but in fact his recognized authority extended only over the Northern and border States. the Southern tier was in a state of open revolt. The Union was disintegrated, the Constitution nullified and the opposing political theories of States' rights and centralization, brought into hostile relations by the unholy institution of slavery, were now preparing to decide the great dispute by force of arms.

Seven States had already passed ordinances of secession and had set up a provisional government, with Montgomery as the capital. North Carolina was the only Southern State that still hesitated. At first, the majority of its people were opposed to secession. This grand old State had special reason to cling to and reverence the Union. Within its borders had been fought some of the most sanguinary conflicts of the Revolution and, in the past, no State had been more loyal to the Constitution or more ready to sacrifice blood and treasure in its defense. Her patriotic feelings, however, were strongly opposed by the common sentiment of her sister States, to whom she was bound by ties of strongest sympathy and common interest. The disunion influences were thus too

strong to be resisted and the secession ordinance was passed, May 21, and the Southern Confederacy was complete.

The fight in the border States of Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri was long and bitter. The people were about equally divided, but the Union party finally triumphed, assisted, as it was, by the active sympathy and support of the North and the earnest co-operation of the administration. Mr. Lincoln clearly perceived the importance of retaining these States in the Union, not only for their moral influence but also because they formed a belt of neutral territory between the loyal and disloyal States. Had these States seceded, the war would, no doubt, have been greatly prolonged, the National Capital could not have been held against the enemy, and the issue would have been more doubtful than it was.

The difficulties that surrounded the administration were almost insuperable. There was incipient war, and no means of crushing it; rebellion, but the handı of the Government were tied. The majority of the army officers, who had been educated at West Point, and had gained skill from actual experience, violated their oaths and entered the armies of the South. The army and navy were demoralized and almost disor、 ganized. The munitions of war had been largely transported to the South, and were now in the hands of the recalcitrants. The Treasury was empty, and the public credit exhausted. The administration was in the hands of men who were untried and inex, perienced in the details of the governmental ma, chinery. Moreover, the constant defections of men, who were believed to be thoroughly loyal, and the

outbreak of treasonable sentiments in quarters least expected, filled the hearts of loyal citizens with distrust and deepened their apprehensions. For a time, no active or aggressive policy was announced by the Government, and the people, forgetting that the new officers must have time to become accustomed to their duties before any decided change could be inaugurated, bewailed the apathy of the Government and began to hint that it was secretly in sympathy with the South. In addition to all this the European world either looked coldly on or extended sympathy and the implied promise of support in the future to the seceding States.

Mr. Lincoln had announced in his inaugural that he should never make war upon the South. If war must come, the disaffected people would themselves be the aggressors. Therefore, he awaited patiently the issue, all the time making active preparations for an emergency, but avoiding all appearance of hostility or any overt action which could be regarded as a provocation or excuse for war on the part of the South. Meantime, events in the seceding States were moving rapidly on towards the catastrophe. The leaders had determined upon separation at all hazards, and while the Northern States had been uncertain as to the course of events and disturbed by conflicting counsels and the embarrassments incident upon a change of administration, the fullest opportunities had been offered to the violent spirits of the South to conceive and carry out their treasonable plans. In South Carolina, the discontent was greatest and the disunion sentiment most violent. Here, naturally, the first outbreak occurred. The Confed