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could only gain access to the commerce of the world, by bowing its flag supplicatingly to a foreign power.

In this crisis, when the fate of America was trembling in the balance, Providence interposed in our behalf. England, jealous of the greatness to which the arts of peace were elevating France, rudely broke the peace of Amiens, and renewed the war to crush Napoleon. England, with her navy, omnipotent at sea, would have immediately seized upon this magnificent territory. To protect it from the grasp of England, and to aid in building up a maritime power in the West, which might eventually prove a check upon the British fleet, Napoleon opened negociations with America, for the sale of the whole province of Louisiana, with boundaries then quite indefinitely settled. Mr. Monroe was sent to France, to conduct the negociation in association with Chancellor Livingston, then our resident minister at the court of the Tuileries. The population of the United States was then but 5,000,000. And yet eagerly we made the purchase at $15,000,000, representing a burden upon the population equal to $90,000,000, at the present day.

Thus we obtained, half a century ao, this majestic territory, equal in size to one half of Europe. Many States and Territories have already been carved from the acquisition. The tide of emigration is constantly and rapidly pouring into those fertile plains, washed by the upper tributaries of the Mississippi and the Missouri, and already there is a population there of 10,000,000. Before the close of this century, this population will be doubled, probably trebled. The whole region between the Alleghanies and the Rocky Mountains, that almost boundless valley, soon to teem with hundreds of millions, finds its only outlet to the sea through the mouths of the ississippi, by the gates of New Orleans.

And yet the slaveholders of the comparatively insignificant State of Louisiana, with a free white population of but 376,913, scarcely a third of that of the City of New York alone, and 70,000 of whose adults can neither read nor write, had the audacity to claim the right to secede from the Union, establish themselves as a foreign nation, and unfurl over the forts at the mouths of the Mississippi a foreign banner; which the millions dwelling in the great Mississippi basin could only pass by the consent of her guns. The United States could, by no possibility, stoop to such dishonor. The Hon. Edward Everett, in the following words, has very forcibly presented this question in its true light:

"Louisiana, a fragment of this colonial empire, detached from its main portion, and first organized as a State, undertakes to secede from the Union, and thinks by so doing, she will be allowed, by the Government and people of the United States, to revoke this imperial transfer, to disregard this possession and occupation of sixty years, to repeal this law of nature and of God; and she fondly believes, that ten millions of the Free people of the Union will allow her and her seceding brethren to open and shut the portals of this mighty region at their pleasure. They may do so, and the swarming millions, which throng the course of these noble streams and their tributaries, may consent to exchange the charter, which they hold from the God of Heaven, for a bit of parchment signed at Montgomery or

Richmond-but it will be when the Alleghanies and the Rocky Mountains, which form the eastern and western walls of the imperial valley, shall sink to the level of the sea, and the Mississippi and the Missouri flow back to their fountains."

Senator Douglas presented the folly of this pretended right of secession in a very forcible light, and with logic which no honest mind can resist.

"The President," said he, "has recommended that we should purchase Cuba. According to this doctrine of the right of secession, we might pay $300,000,000 for Cuba, and then, the next day, Cuba might secede, and reännex herself to Spain!" Volumes could not more conclusively show the absurdity of such a notion.

The Presidential election drew nigh, when the question was to be decided, whether the Government of the United States was to be administered upon the principle of rendering all possible support to the maintenance and extension of slavery, or whether the energies of the Government should lend all its constitutional support to foster freedom. There were four candidates in the field. Mr. Lincoln, the republican candidate, was openly pledged to resist the extension of slavery. In emphatic utterance, which exceedingly exasperated the slaveholders, he said:

"The central idea in our political system at the beginning was, and until recently continued to be, the equality of men. In what I have done I can not claim to have acted from any peculiar consideration for the colored people, as a separate and distinct class in the community, but from the simple conviction, that all the individuals of that class are members of the community, and, in virtue of their manhood, entitled to every original right enjoyed by any other member. We feel, therefore, that all legal distinctions between individuals of the same community, founded in any such circumstances as color, origin, and the like, are hostile to the genius of our institutions, and incompatible with the true history of American liberty. Slavery and oppression must cease, or American liberty must perish. True democracy makes no inquiry about the color of the skin, or place of nativity, or any other similar circumstance of condition. I regard, therefore, the exclusion of the colored people, as a body, from the elective franchise, as incompatible with the true democratic principle."

While stating these as his political principles, he at the same time avowed that Congress had no constitutional right to interfere with slavery in those States where it existed, but that it was both the right and the duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in all the United States Territories.

John C. Breckinridge was the candidate of the slaveholders, pledged to administer the Government, in the most effectual way, to nurture and to give increasing political power to the institution of slavery. There were two other candidates, Stephen A. Douglas, and John Bell, who were supported by those who wished to effect some compromise, and who were ready, for the sake of avoiding civil war, to make very great concessions to the South.

The Presidential election took place on the same day, the 6th of No

vember, 1860, throughout all the United States. The polls were closed at sundown. The votes were counted by midnight; and in seven hours, through the marvels of the Telegraph, the eventful result was flashed through the whole breadth of the land, excepting California, embracing points more than three thousand miles apart. The popular vote for Electors stood, 1,857,610 for Lincoln; 1,365,976 for Douglas; 847,953 for Breckinridge, and 591,613 for Bell. This vote, according to the Constitution, gave seventeen States out of thirty-three for Lincoln; eleven for Breckinridge; three for Bell; and one, Missouri, with three-sevenths of New Jersey, for Douglas. Though Mr. Douglas had so many votes scattered throughout the United States, as in but one State he had a majority, they availed him nothing.

The Electoral vote of each State, carefully sealed, is conveyed to Washington, and there, in the Hall of the House of Representatives, the members of the Senate being present, the votes are counted, and the result announced. At 10 o'clock in the morning of the 15th of February, 1861, Pennsylvania Avenue was thronged with crowds pressing towards the Capitol. It was a season of great excitement, for the day after the election it was perfectly known what the announcement would be; and the slaveholders, molding the passions of the masses of the South at their will, had uttered many threats, that the announcement should not be made, and that the Government should be broken up in a row. Washington was a slaveholding city, in the midst of a slaveholding region, and any number of desperadoes could be summoned there, at a few hours' notice, from Maryland and Virginia.

James Buchanan, an intimidated old man, was then in the Presidential chair, having been placed there as the candidate of the slaveholders, and the nation could place but little reliance, in that crisis, upon his efficiency, and reposed but little confidence in his patriotism. But, providentially, General Winfield Scott, the veteran and universally revered head of the American army, had drawn to the Capital the batteries which won the field at Buena Vista. Their frowning guns, ready to sweep the streets, overawed the conspirators. At 12 o'clock, Mr. Pennington, Speaker of the House, called the House to order, when the Chaplain, Rev. Thomas Stockton, offered an impressive prayer, closing with the following words:

"Bless the outgoing Administration. May it close its labors in peace, without further violence, and without any stain of blood. And we pray for the incoming Administration; that thy blessing may rest on the President elect, in his journey hitherward; that thy good Providence may be around him day and night, guarding and guiding him at every step; and we pray, that he may be peacefully and happily inaugurated, and afterwards, by pure, wise, and prudent counsels, that he may administer the Government in such a manner, as that thy name may be glorified, and the welfare of the people, in all their relations, be advanced, and that our example of civil and religious liberty may be followed in all the world."

A message was then sent, informing the Senate that the House was waiting to receive them, in order that, in joint body, the Electoral votes might be opened and counted. As the Senate entered the Hall of Repre

sentatives, the House rose, and remained standing until the Senators took their seats in a semi-circular range before the Speaker's desk. Vice-President Breckinridge, who was one of the candidates for the Presidency, and who, by virtue of the office he held, presided over the Senate, took his seat at the right of the Speaker. As soon as order was restored, Vice-President Breckinridge rose, and said:

"We have assembled, pursuant to the Constitution, in order that the electoral votes may be counted, and the result declared for President and Vice-President, for the term commencing on the 4th of March, 1861; and it is made my duty, under the Constitution, to open the certificates of election in the presence of the two Houses, and I now proceed to the performance of that duty." He then took the package of each State, one after the other, broke the seal, and handed it to the Tellers to be counted.

The scene then and there presented, was one which has never been paralleled in the United States. The galleries were crowded with the most distinguished personages in the land, who had been drawn, by the momentous occasion, to the city. Some looked cheerful and hopeful; some, with compressed lips, were pale and anxious; while many notorious conspirators were seen in groups, gloomy and threatening. There was deathly silence as the result was announced, which was as follows: One hundred and eighty votes were cast for Abraham Lincoln. Seventy-two for John C. Breckinridge. Thirty-nine for John Bell. Twelve for Stephen A. Douglas. This gave Abraham Lincoln a majority of fifty-seven over all the other candidates. Whereupon the Vice-President rising, said:

"Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, having received a majority of the whole number of Electoral votes, is duly elected President of the United States, for the four years commencing on the 4th of March, 1861. And Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, having received a majority of the whole number of Electoral votes, is duly elected Vice-President for the same term."

He then announced, that the business being completed, for which the two Houses had assembled, the Senate would return to their own chamber. The members of the House rose, and remained standing until the Senators had left the Hall. The five thousand spectators crowding the galleries silently retired, and Abraham Lincoln stood forth before the world, the constitutionally elected President of the United States.

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TREACHERY OF BUCHANAN'S CABINET.-PEACE CONGRESS.-PLAN OF HON. J. J. CRITTENDEN.— NUMBER OF SOUTHERN LEADERS.-LETTER of YULEE.-FORTS AT CHARLESTON.-RAISING THE U. S. FLAG AT SUMTER.-STEamer Star of THE WEST.-JOURNEY OF MR. LINCOLN.-PLOTS FOR MR. LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION.-CONSPIRATORS FOILED.-SPEECH OF JEFF. Davis.-ORGANIZATION OF SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY.-REBEL ATROCITIES.

On the 7th of November, 1860, it was known that Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States. But he was not to enter upon his office until the Fourth of March. In the mean time, the Executive Government was virtually in the hands of the slaveholders, and they had four months in which to mature their conspiracy. Never was time more efficiently employed. James Buchanan, the President of the United States, had been elected to his office, openly pledged to pursue the general policy the slaveholders enjoined. He was enthralled by superior minds, and dared not assert independence. He was thus the pliant tool in the hands of the conspirators. In order to assist the slaveholders to retain for slavery an equal voice with freedom, in the Senate, he outraged all the principles of true democracy, and caused Kansas to be deluged in blood, that he might force slavery upon that imperial domain.

The members of his Cabinet were unscrupulous and dictatorial men, who held him with an iron grasp, from which he dared not attempt escape. They watched him with an eagle eye, warning, cajoling, threatening, so that he became merely the executive of their will. Howell Cobb, a slaveholder from Georgia, was Secretary of the Treasury. When he entered upon office the national Treasury was prosperous beyond example. It was very important to the conspirators, that the new Government should find an empty chest, that they might have no pecuniary means to put down the rebellion. The deed was soon accomplished. The new Administration, when it came into power, found the Treasury exhausted, even to the verge of bankruptcy. Upwards of six millions were stolen, and probably appropriated to the work of the rebellion. The Treasury being thus impoverished, Mr. Cobb sent in his resignation, and immediately took office under the conspirators.

Jacob Thompson, a slaveholder from Mississippi, was Secretary of the Interior. He exerted all his influence to prevent the reënforcement of the fortresses. If reënforced, they could defend themselves from surprise and capture by the rebels. The Star of the West was privately sent with

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