coln had been inducted into office, several States had undertaken formally to secede from the Union; several members of President Buchanan's cabinet had resigned, some in the interest of secession, others because of their disgust at Mr. Buchanan's alleged imbecility and indecision; a number of Southern Senators and Representatives in Congress had retired from the halls, "pride in their port, defiance in their eye;" large quantities of public property had been captured by the Secessionists; a large Union army had been surrendered by a faithless general; the South below the border States was practically in armed rebellion, under the "Confederate" Government, against the Union. All this before the President-elect had uttered a word in justification of the opinion that his administration would be in any unlawful respect revolutionary or hostile to the South.

PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

It was under these unhappy circumstances, that the first Republican national administration assumed control of the Government. President Lincoln's Inaugural Address was a model of moderation, forbearance, statesmanship, courage. It contains no single word of menace or of unkindness, yet declared the duty of the Chief Magistrate to transmit the government of the Union unimpaired by him to his successor. The conclusion of this notable address is of historical value:

"My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and

well upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry any of you, in hot haste, to a step which you would never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking time; but no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; while the new Administration will have no immediate power, if it would, to change either. If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied, hold the right side in the dispute, there still is no single good reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulty.

"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect, and

defend it.'

'I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this

༑ ག ་་ ཅུ་ མ མས

broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

LINCOLN'S CABINET.

The Inaugural was well received by the people of the North quite generally and also by those of the Border States; but the "Southern heart" had been "fired," and the people of that section were coerced by their hot-headed leaders into most cruel and unjustifiable rebellion. Meantime, President Lincoln proceeded to administer the government with patience and wisdom. He selected a cabinet of eminent men in the party, a majority of whom had been his competitors for the nomination at Chicago, namely: William H. Seward, of New York, Secretary of State; Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, Secretary of the Treasury; Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania, Secretary of War; Gideon Welles, of Connecticut, Secretary of the Navy; Caleb B. Smith, of Indiana, Secretary of the Interior; Edward Bates, of Missouri, Attorney General; Montgomery Blair, of Maryland, Postmaster General.