.were

POSITION OF AFFAIRS, MARCH, 1861.

187

not arrested, but permitted quietly to withdraw, with the open avowal of going home to wage war!

On the 18th of March, General Braxton Bragg, commanding insurgent forces in Florida, issued an order, forbidding the citizens of the Confederate States from furnishing supplies to the Navy of the United States.

At this period, in March, even Mr. Douglas had not fully made up his mind, in favor of coercing the seceding States, into submission. Prominent Democrats in the free States, openly advocated the joining of Northern States to the Confederacy." Such was the undecided condition of public sentiment, in the free States in March; and as yet the Government of Mr. Lincoln had taken no bold, decided action, clearly indicating its policy. Meanwhile the Confederate authorities had siezed, as has been stated, with few exceptions, all the arsenals, forts, custom-houses, post-offices, ships, ordinance and material of war, belonging to the United States, and within the seceding States; and this, notwithstanding that General Dix, Secretary of the Treasury, had issued an order,directing that "If any man attempts to haul down. the American flag, shoot him on the spot."

No position of greater difficulty can be conceived, than that of President Lincoln, in the spring of 1861. Congress had adjourned, without making any provision for the approaching crisis. The office of Secretary of War, for eight years previous to Mr. Lincoln's administration, had been conducted by Jefferson Davis and John B. Floyd, by whom a collision with the Federal Government had been anticipated. As we have already seen, they had strengthened the South at the expense of the North. They had armed the South by robbing the Northern national armories, and scattered beyond immediate recall, our little army and navy. Besides this, they, and especially Davis, had driven out of the service of the Army as far as possible, every man who was not a States'-rights, pro-slavery man.

The North was politically divided; a powerful political party, from long association, was in sympathy with the seceding States. This party had just come out of a violent contest against the party which had elected Lincoln. The

border slave states were nearly equally divided in numbers, and while the quiet, better educated and more conservative were for the Union, the young, reckless, and hot-headed were for secession.

While South Carolina and some of the other cotton States were substantially a unit for secession, in other slave States. there was a strong majority opposed to it. To arouse sectional feeling and prejudice, and secure co-operation and unanimity, it was deemed necessary to precipitate measures and bring on a conflict of arms. It was generally said, that the first blood shed would bring all the slave States to the aid of the belligerent State. As before stated, there was a strong party in the North opposed to coercion. Had the President assumed the initiative, and commenced the war, while it would have united the slave States against him, it is not at all clear but it would have alienated a large portion of the Democrats of the North. Mr. Lincoln fully appreciated these difficulties, and these facts explain much that he did, and omitted to do, for which many of his friends censured him in the earlier stages of the rebellion. He sought to hold Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee. The rebel leaders made the most strenuous efforts to induce the above named States to join the Slave Confederacy, but the discreet and judicious forbearance of the President, to some extent foiled their efforts, and he succeeded in holding Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri from joining the rebels.

As has been stated, the people of the border States were divided in sentiment, and it was very doubtful, for a time, which way they would go. The House of Representatives of Kentucky, on the 22d of January, resolved by a vote of 87 to 6, to resist the invasion of the South at all hazards. The Legislature adopted a resolution directing Governor Magoffin, of that State, by proclamation, to order Confederate troops off Kentucky soil. Magoffin vetoed this, but it was passed over his veto.

In the beginning of Mr. Lincoln's administration he acted on the defensive, while the rebels, from the first, assumed a bold, defiant tone. The Confederate Government immedi

ately after it was established, raised troops, borrowed eight millions of money, and offered letters of marque to all who might choose to prey upon the rich commerce of the United States. The rebel Secretary of War, Walker, in a grandiloquent speech, prophecied that, before the 1st of May, the Confederate flag should float over the dome of the old Capitol, and it might, eventually, float over Faneuil Hall, itself! It was determined to bring on a collision, by an attack on Fort Sumter. This was designed more especially and directly to carry the ordinance of secession through the convention of Virginia. To fire the Southern inflammable heart and raise a whirlwind of fury, which would sweep every thing before it, was the reason Davis and his co-conspirators opened the

war.

On the 11th of April, General Beauregard demanded of Major Anderson the surrender of Fort Sumter. The Major refused. On the night of the same day, Beauregard wrote to Anderson, under instructions from the authorities at Montgomery, that if he "would state the time at which he would evacuate Fort Sumter, and agree, that in the meantime he would not use his guns against the Confederates, unless theirs should be employed against Sumter, the Confederates would abstain from opening fire upon him."

At half past two, on the morning of the 12th, Anderson replied, he would evacuate the fort by noon of the 15th. At half past three he was notified, in reply, that the rebels would open their batteries, in an hour from that time. Their batteries were opened, accordingly, and after a bombardment of thirty-three hours, which the little garrison endured and replied to with heroic courage, (their provisions and ammunition having been exhausted) Anderson agreed to evacuate the Fort. He retired from it on Sunday morning.

It is clear the rebels sought a collision, in pursuance of their avowed policy of rousing and inciting the South. The attack on Sumter immediately precipitated the political elements, and the people ranged themselves for, or against the Union.

The Capital was in a most critical condition. Full of Secessionists, the roads leading to the North obstructed, and

the city in a condition of siege. The mails, in every direction, were stopped, and the telegraph wires cut by the insurgents. The National forces, which were approaching Washington were obstructed; the war and navy departments were filled with spies, and probably, the White House itself. In this condition of things, it was not deemed safe to issue orders through the ordinary channels, because every thing sent in that way, reached the enemy. Special and private messengers were sent North, who pursued a circuitous route to the northern cities and governors of loyal States, calling on them to hasten troops to the rescue of the Capital. A company of personal friends was organized, who guarded the White House, the Long Bridge crossing the Potomac, and the Arsenals, and probably saved the life of the President, and the Government from overthrow.

On the 15th of April, President Lincoln issued his proclamation, calling for 75,000 men.

This proclamation was prepared on Sunday. Before its issue, and while the President was considering the subject, he was visited by Senator Douglas, who expressed his full approval of this call, only regretting that it was not for 200,000 men instead of the number called for.

The following dispatch was written by Senator Douglas, and given to the agent of the Associated Press, and sent to every portion of the North:

"April 18, 1861, Senator Douglas, called on the President, and had an interesting conversation, on the present condition of the country. The substance of it was, on the part of Mr. Douglas, that while he was unalterably opposed to the administration in all its political issues, he was prepared to fully sustain the President, in the exercise of all his Constitutional functions, to preserve the Union, maintain the Government, and defend the Federal Capital. A firm policy and prompt action was necessary. The Capital was in danand must be defended at all hazards, and at any expense of men and money. He spoke of the present and future, without any reference to the past."

ger,

The original of this dispatch in Douglas' hand writing is now in possession of Hon. George Ashmun, of Massachusetts, who kindly furnished a copy.

DOUGLAS SUSTAINS THE PRESIDENT.

191

Thus Douglas lent the influence of his name, with his party and the country, in aid of this decisive step, towards suppres ing the rebellion by force. He soon after returned to Illinois, and at Springfield and Chicago, made speeches sustaining the policy of the President, and declaring, that now, there could be but two parties, "patriots and traitors."

The speech of Douglas, at Chicago, was made in the immense building called the "Wigwam," built for, and used by the National Convention which nominated Lincoln for the Presidency. Since the day of that nomination, no such crowd had gathered there, as assembled to hear Douglas. He said we had gone to the very extreme of magnanimity. The return for all which had been done, was war, armies marching on the Capital - a movement to blot the United States from the map of the globe. "The election of Lincoln," said he, "is a mere pretext," the secession movement is the result of an enormous conspiracy, formed by the leaders of the Southern Confederacy, before the election of Lincoln. "There can be no neutrals in this war-only patriots

or traitors."

There were those in the border States who deprecated this call, and who expressed the belief that this act precipitated war, and that continued forbearance would have brought on a reaction at the South, which would have resulted in a restoration of the Union. They who indulged in such dreams little knew the spirit of the conspirators. Had this call been delayed, even a few hours, or had there been less promptness in responding to it, the President would have been assassinated, or he would have been a fugitive or a prisoner, and the rebel flag would have waved over the Capitol, and Jefferson Davis would have issued his Proclamations from the White House. Mr. Lincoln pursued the policy of conciliation, in the vain hope of peace, to the very verge of National destruction.

The fall of Sumter and the President's call for troops, were the signals for the rally to arms throughout the loyal States. Twenty millions of people, forgetting party divisions, and all past differences, rose with one voice of patriotic enthusiasm, and laid their hearts and hands, their fortunes and