departed friend. Those around him could all but hear the beating of their hearts in the hush and stillness.

"Should the North make further concessions to avoid civil war? Shall we consent that the people of a Territory shall determine the question of having slaves?" the questions by a delegate.

"It will be time to consider such a question when it arises. Just now we have other questions to decide. The voice of the civilized world is against slavery. Freedom is the natural condition of the human race in which the Almighty intends men to live. Those who fight the purposes of the Almighty will not succeed. They always have been, they always will be, beaten," the reply. (')

"Mr. Lincoln," remarked Mr. Rives, of Virginia, to Mr. Chittenden, "has been misjudged and misunderstood by the Southern people. They have looked upon him as an ignorant, self-willed man, incapable of independent judgment, full of prejudices, willing to be used as a tool by more able men. This is all wrong. He will be the head of the nation and do his own thinking. He seems to have studied the Constitution, and to have adopted it as his guide. I do not see how any fault can be found with the views he has expressed this evening. He is probably not so great a statesman as Mr. Madison, he may not have the willpower of General Jackson; he may combine the qualities of both. His will not be a weak administration." (")

The day for inauguration came. Never before had there been so many people in Washington. Soldiers were stationed in groups along Pennsylvania Avenue and on the roofs of buildings. CavalryMonday, March 4, men rode beside the carriage that bore President Buchanan 1861. and Mr. Lincoln from Willard's Hotel to the Capitol. Not far away artillerymen were sitting on their caissons or on their horses, ready to move in an instant should General Scott give a signal. But the conspirators who had plotted the death of Mr. Lincoln did not dare attempt his assassination.

From the Senate-chamber came Mr. Lincoln, President Buchanan, Mrs. Lincoln and her sons, Chief-justice Taney, in his black robe of office, and the clerk of the Supreme Court bearing a Bible. They passed to the eastern portico. Thousands had gathered to witness the inauguration. The Capitol was unfinished. Above the throng rose the huge derricks by which the marble and iron for the construction of the dome were lifted.

Many of those standing beneath the portico were inseparably connected with the history of the country. James Buchanan, old, feeble,

retiring from the Presidency, was representative of a political era which on that day was to have an ending. Abraham Lincoln, by his side, was the incarnation of the idea which impelled the men of the Mayflower to cross the Atlantic and establish a government of the people. Roger B. Taney had trailed the ermine of the highest tribunal of justice in the mire at the behest of the slave power. Stephen A. Douglas had been a willing agent of the slave-holders for the extension of slavery; he had lost the Presidency through his want of fidelity to liberty. The life- work of Buchanan and Taney was ended; that of Douglas was soon to close. Mr. Lincoln had once alluded to them as house-builders (see p. 167). The fourth carpenter, "Franklin," was not present. Once only after his retirement from the Presidential chair had the world heard from Franklin Pierce. A letter which he had written to Jefferson Davis indicated to his fellow-citizens that his sympathies were with the Secessionists. The four "house-builders" were passing into oblivion, and the uncultured backwoodsman, under divine Providence, was to be architect of the new Temple of Liberty.

Clear and distinct the words of Mr. Lincoln:

"In view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken; and to the extent of my ability I shall take care, as the Constitution expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws shall be faithfully executed in all the States. . . . In doing this there needs to be no bloodshed or violence; and there shall be none, unless it be forced upon the national authority. 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 imports; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere. . . .

"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 loath 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 hearth-stone all over this 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."

Mr. Lincoln lays his right hand upon the open Bible. A hush falls upon the vast multitude as he repeats after Chief-justice Taney the words:

"I, Abraham Lincoln, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best

of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

It is done. The cannon thunder a salute cheers rend the air. James Buchanan, citizen, and Abraham Lincoln, President, ride to the executive mansion, one never again to enter it; the other to take up the work assigned him in the councils of divine Providence.

In November, on the evening of the election, when sitting in the telegraph office in Springfield, Mr. Lincoln had selected the men whom he would invite to become members of his Cabinet: Mr. Seward, of New York, Secretary of State; Mr. Chase, of Ohio, Treasury; Mr. Cameron, of Pennsylvania, War; Mr. Welles, of Connecticut, Navy; Mr. Smith, of Indiana, Interior; Mr. Blair, of Maryland, Postmaster-general; Mr. Bates, of Missouri, Attorney-general.

No President of the United States, upon his inauguration, ever had so difficult a task to accomplish as that which confronted Abraham Lincoln. Seven States had seceded from the Union, established a government, elected a President and Vice-president. Other slave-holding States were preparing to secede. Forts, arsenals, vessels, post-offices had been seized. Officers of the army and navy were resigning their commissions. All but two of the justices of the Supreme Court by their decisions had shown their sympathy with the slave oligarchy. The officials in the various departments knew they would be compelled to seek other employment. Those belonging to the Democratic Party from the Northern States were angry and morose under the prospect of losing their comfortable positions. Treason was everywhere. Neither the President nor any of the Secretaries knew upon whom they could rely. The people of Washington were far more in sympathy with the South than with the North. A very large proportion of them looked with disdain upon a man who had pulled an oar and swung an axe to earn his daily bread. They called him "Abe the Rail-splitter." The newspapers of the Southern States published false and malicious stories about his parentage and birth. They said he had negro blood in his veins. The "Black" Republican Party had elected him. It was natural for ignorant people in the South to believe that the mother of Abraham Lincoln might have been a negress. He was called an "ape," a "baboon." A few weeks after the inauguration a "Dramatic Poem," entitled "The Royal Ape," was published in Richmond. Women who gloried in their ancestry could not bear to think of one so low-born occupying the White House. One lady, who took pride in