the flag of his country, or how true he was to his convictions. He, too, saw what the Secessionists intended to do, and asked General Scott for reinforcements. Secretary Floyd thereupon sent a very curt letter to Anderson. "Your communications," he wrote, "in the future will be addressed to the Secretary of War." There was a stormy scene in the executive chamber of the White House when it was known that Anderson had called for reinforcements. Lewis Cass, Secretary of State, true and loyal, could no longer remain in the Cabinet when the President yielded to the demand of the Secretary of War that no troops should be sent. Mr. Black, Attorney-general, who had given an opinion that the President could not coerce a State, also resigned. Quite likely Floyd would have removed Major Anderson, but he had other things to think of. He had made a contract with the firm of Russell & Co. to transport supplies for the army from St. Louis to Utah, and had paid them more than two million dollars in excess of money due for work done-making the payments in drafts. But the banks in New York would not advance money on the drafts, whereupon Floyd's nephew, who had charge of bonds belonging to the Government, took them from the safe and exchanged them with Russell & Co., taking the drafts as security-doing what he had no right to do. In effect, it was robbery. The interest on the bonds was coming due, and then the theft would be known.

Dec. 25, 1860.

Christmas came with its joyful scenes. Major Anderson was at a dinner-party in Charleston. He heard remarks which caused him to take immediate action. No reinforcements had been sent him, and he had come to the conclusion that none would be sent. In the darkness of night he abandoned Fort Moultrie and occupied Sumter. The sun of the next morning was rising. The soldiers stood around the flag-staff. Major Anderson kneeled, holding the halyards, while the Rev. Matthew Harris, the chaplain, offered prayer, and the Stars and Stripes rose to the top-mast to float serenely in the morning sunlight.

The people of Charleston, looking across the bay, beheld with astonishment the flag at Sumter, and a column of smoke rising from Moultrie, caused by the burning of the gun-carriages set on fire by Major Anderson. The plans of the Secessionists had been upset by this action. Sumter, standing on a reef in the bay, could not be seized. The telegraph flashed the news to Washington. Secretary Floyd hastened to the White House, demanding that Anderson be ordered back to Moultrie; but the President did not comply with the demand.

The coupons on the bonds stolen by Floyd's nephew were due, but when presented there was no money to pay them. Floyd had done what he could to destroy the Union, and rear a Confederacy on its ruins. He could remain in office no longer. The court indicted him, and he fled to escape arrest. President Buchanan appointed Joseph Holt, of Kentucky, to succeed Floyd; Edwin M. Stanton, of Pittsburg, of whom we have previously spoken (p. 162), to succeed Mr. Black as Attorney-general, and John A. Dix, of New York, to succeed Howell Cobb as Secretary of the Treasury. They were able men, and true to the Union. They were in position to render great service to the country.

1861.

Governor Pickens, of South Carolina, ordered the Darlington Guards and Columbia Artillery to take possession of Morris Island. Slaves were sent by the planters, and were set to work building batJan. 1, teries and mounting cannon for the bombardment of Sumter. Major Anderson had only a small amount of food. It was decided at a meeting of the Cabinet in the White House to send him reinforcements and supplies. President Buchanan, perhaps, did not know that one of the members of his Cabinet, Jacob Thompson, of Mississippi, Secretary of the Interior, was a traitor. The members were in honor bound not to make known what was going on, but Thompson sent a telegram to Charleston informing the Governor of the decision.

The steamer Star of the West, with troops and provisions, reached Charleston harbor, but, being fired upon, turned back. Very boastful the language of the Charleston "Mercury" the next morning: "We would not exchange or recall that blow for millions. It has wiped out half a century of scorn and outrage. The decree has gone forth. Upon each acre of the peaceful soil of the South armed men will spring up as the sound breaks upon their ears." Secession newspapers were saying that the South never would submit to Republican rule-Lincoln would not be allowed to take his seat.

1861.

In one of the committee-rooms of the Capitol at Washington there was a secret midnight meeting of the Senators from Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, at which it was reJan. 5, solved to seize all the forts along the southern coast, with all the arsenals, and to urge the Southern States to follow South Carolina and secede from the Union. Governor Brown, of Georgia, thereupon ordered a military company to take possession of Fort Pulaski. A company went up the Mississippi from New Orleans, and

took possession of the arsenal at Baton Rouge. In all the seaports the Secessionists seized the revenue-cutters. The new Secretary of the Treasury, John Adams Dix, sent Mr. Jones to New Orleans with an order to Captain Breshwood, commanding the revenue-cutter there, to sail to New York. Breshwood was a Secessionist, and prepared to haul down the Stars and Stripes and turn the vessel over to the Governor of the State. This the despatch sent by Mr. Dix:

"If any man attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot.”

The people of the Northern States had been stupefied by the succession of events. They had seen the Union crumbling to pieces-the Secessionists having everything their own way, without a word of protest from President Buchanan or anybody else connected with the Administration. The despatch awakened intense enthusiasm for maintaining the honor of the country's flag.

Florida was the first of the States (January 12, 1861) to follow South Carolina out of the Union, and then Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas in turn seceded.

Feb. 4, 1861.

In the hall of Willard's Hotel in Washington delegates from all the States except those which had seceded assembled in what was called a Peace Convention-an effort to bring about harmony. The seceding States on the same day assembled in convention at Montgomery, Alabama, to organize a Confederate Govern

ment.

Had we been in Springfield during those days and inquired for Abraham Lincoln, his secretary would have informed us that he could not be seen. He was not in the State house neither in his own house, but in an out-of-the-way chamber over a store, the key turned in the lock. Upon the table before him were books containing a speech of Henry Clay, made in 1850, upon the compromise measures then before the country; President Andrew Jackson's proclamation, made when South Carolina, thirty years before, attempted to nullify the laws of the United States; and Daniel Webster's speech in the Senate in reply to Hayne in 1830, together with the Constitution of the United States. He was preparing the address to be delivered at his inauguration. He submitted it to no one, asked no advice as to what he should say.

The time had come when he must bid good-bye to his friends. He visited Farmington, Coles County, where was still standing the log-cabin