FOR FOREIGN NATIONS.

I would demand explanations from Spain and France, categorically, at once.

I would seek explanations from Great Britain and Russia, and send agents into Canada, Mexico, and Central America to rouse a vigorous continental spirit of independence on this continent against European intervention.

And, if satisfactory explanations are not received from Spain and France,

Would convene Congress and declare war against them. But whatever policy we adopt, there must be an energetic prosecution of it.

For this purpose it must be somebody's business to pursue and direct it incessantly.

Either the President must do it himself, and be all the while active in it, or

Devolve it on some member of his cabinet. Once adopted, debates on it must end, and all agree and abide.

It is not in my especial province;

But I neither seek to evade nor assume responsibility.

Mr. Lincoln replied:

EXECUTIVE MANSION, April 1, 1861.

HON. W. H. SEWARD.

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My dear Sir: Since parting with you, I have been considering your paper dated this day, and entitled Some Thoughts for the President's Consideration.” The first proposition in it is, "First, We are at the end of a month's administration, and yet without a policy, either domestic or foreign."

At the beginning of that month, in the inaugural, I said: "The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the government, and to collect the duties and imposts." This had your distinct approval at the time; and taken in connection with the order I immediately gave General Scott, directing him to employ

every means in his power to strengthen and hold the forts, comprises the exact domestic policy you now urge, with the single exception that it does not propose to abandon Fort Sumter.

Again, I do not perceive how the re-enforcement of Fort Sumter would be done on a slavery or a party issue, while that of Fort Pickens would be on a more national and patriotic one.

The news received yesterday in regard to St. Domingo certainly brings a new item within the range of our foreign policy; but up to that time we have been preparing circulars and instructions to ministers and the like, all in perfect harmony, without even a suggestion that we had no foreign policy.

Upon your closing proposition-that "whatever policy we adopt, there must be an energetic prosecution of it.

"For this purpose it must be somebody's business to pursue and direct it incessantly.

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Either the President must do it himself, and be all the while active in it, or

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Devolve it on some member of his cabinet. Once adopted, debates on it must end, and all agree and abide ❞—I remark that if this must be done, I must do it. When a general line of policy is adopted, I apprehend there is no danger of its being changed without good reason, or continuing to be a subject of unnecessary debate; still, upon points arising in its progress I wish, and suppose I am entitled to have, the advice of all the cabinet.

Your obedient servant,

A. LINCOLN.*

The magnanimity of this letter was only excelled by the President's treatment of the matter. He never revealed Mr. Seward's amazing proposition to any one but Mr. Nicolay, his private secretary, and it never reached the public until Nicolay and Hay published it. Mr. Lincoln's action in this matter, and his handling of the events which followed, * Abraham Lincoln, a History, Vol. III. By Nicolay and Hay.

gradually dispelled Mr. Seward's illusion. By June, the Secretary had begun to understand Mr. Lincoln. He was quick and generous to acknowledge his power. "Executive force

and vigor are rare qualities," he wrote to Mrs. Seward on June 5. "The President is the best of us."

CHAPTER XXIII

THE BEGINNING OF CIVIL WAR

IT WAS on April 9, 1861, that the expedition ordered by President Lincoln for the relief of Fort Sumter sailed from New York. The day before, the Governor of South Carolina had received from the President the notification sent on the 6th that he might expect an attempt to be made to provision the fort. Ever since Mr. Lincoln's inauguration the Confederate government had been watching intently the new Administration's course. Sumter, it was resolved, should never be captured, re-enforced, even provisioned. When it was certain that an expedition had started for its relief an order to attack the fort was given, and it was bombarded until it fell.

The bombardment of Sumter began at half past four o'clock in the morning of April 12. All that day rumors and private telegrams came to the White House reporting the progress of the attack and Anderson's heroic defense, but there was nothing official. By evening, however, there was no doubt that Fort Sumter was being reduced. Mr. Lincoln was already formulating his plan of action, his one question to the excited visitors who called upon him being, "Will your State support me with military power?" The way in which the matter presented itself to his mind he stated clearly to Congress, when that body next came together:

The assault upon and reduction of Fort Sumter was in no sense a matter of self-defense on the part of the

assailants. They well knew that the garrison in the fort could by no possibility commit aggression upon them. They knew-they were expressly notified—that the giving of bread to the few brave and hungry men of the garrison was all which would on that occasion be attempted, unless themselves, by resisting so much, should provoke more. They knew that this government desired to keep the garrison in the fort, not to assail them, but merely to maintain visible possession, and thus to preserve the Union from actual and immediate dissolution-trusting, as hereinbefore stated, to time, discussion, and the ballot-box for final adjustment; and they assailed and reduced the fort for precisely the reverse object to drive out the visible authority of the Federal Union, and thus force it to immediate dissolution.

And this issue embraces more than the fate of these United States. It presents to the whole family of man the question whether a constitutional republic or democracy-a government of the people by the same people-can or can not maintain its territorial integrity against its own domestic foes.

So viewing the issue, no choice was left but to call out the war power of the government; and so to resist force employed for its destruction, by force for its preservation.

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This was not Mr. Lincoln's view alone. It was the view of the North. And when, on April 15, he issued a proclamation calling for 75,000 militia and appealing to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union, and the perpetuity of popular government, and to redress wrongs already long enough endured," there was an immediate and overwhelming response. The telegraph of the very day of the proclamation announced that in almost every city and town of the North volunteer regiments were forming and that Union mass meetings were in session in halls and churches and public squares. "What portion of the 75,000 militia you call for do you give to Ohio? We will