"PROCLAMATION

"By the President of the United States.

"Whereas, The laws of the United States have been for some time past and now are opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed, in the States of South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings or by the powers vested in the marshals by law: Now therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution and the laws, have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth, the militia of the several States of the Union, to the aggregate number of seventy-five thousand, in order to suppress said combinations and to cause the laws to be duly executed.

"The details for this object will be immediately communicated to the State authorities through the War Department. I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and existence of our National Union and the perpetuity of popular government, and to redress wrongs already long enough endured. I deem it proper to say that the first service assigned to the forces hereby called forth will probably be to repossess the forts, places, and property which have been seized from the Union, and in every event the utmost care will be observed consistently with the objects aforesaid to avoid any devastation, any destruction of or interference with property, or any disturbance of peaceful citizens in any part of the country; and I hereby command the persons composing the combinations aforesaid to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective abodes within twenty days from this date.

"Deeming that the present condition of public affairs presents an extraordinary occasion, I do hereby, in virtue of the

power in me vested by the Constitution, convene both Houses of Congress. Senators and Representatives are therefore summoned to assemble at their respective chambers at twelve o'clock noon on Thursday, the fourth day of July next, then and there to consider and determine such measures as in their wisdom the public safety and interest may seem to demand.

"In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

"Done at the city of Washington, this fifteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-fifth. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

"By the President,

"WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State."

The actual writing of this extraordinary document was done in the few hours which followed the arrival of the news of the fall of Fort Sumter, but it presents no marks of sudden or hasty work. It was the result of thoughtful preparation, and is the condensed expression of deliberate statesmanship.

At that very hour nothing could be more sure than that Virginia and North Carolina would at once join the Confederacy, and that the national capital, with all that it contained, would speedily require armed defenders. That these were ready to come at the call of the President was also instantly known.

The first effect of the Sumter gun was felt in the Cabinet of Mr. Lincoln, which was unified by the same event which made it otherwise possible for him to go forward in utter disregard of legal technicalities. He was at once endowed with all the powers latent in his responsibilities or implied by the necessities of the case; and he was in mind and will fully prepared to employ them.

It was needful for him to assume dictatorial authority, and

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the people tacitly expected of him that he should do so. did it, but did it so strictly in accordance with the plain logic of the situation that neither he nor the popular masses who obeyed him perceived that he had done so. This, too, although the portentous fact of his dictatorship was urged upon them both, from that time forward, by a host of busy tongues and pens, in the press, in legislative bodies, in courts of law, and in the halls of the national Congress.

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE GREAT AWAKENING.

A Steady Hand-The Rebellion extending-The Loyal North-The Baltimore Mob-Rebellion in Maryland-Confederate Hopes and Failures -Peril of Washington-Arrival of Troops from the North-The Gateway to the North—Arrival of the New York Seventh-Capture of Baltimore-Case of Col. Robert E. Lee-Secession of Virginia— Call for Three Years' Volunteers-Crushing of Secession in Maryland. On the 6th of March, 1861, the Confederate Congress had passed a law for the establishment of "The Army of the Confederate States of America." From that time forward the armed forces of the Rebellion ceased to be "State troops," defending State rights or the boundary lines or the territorial integrities of States.

The proclamation of Mr. Lincoln, therefore, did not at all refer to or deal with commonwealths or communities, or even the doctrine of secession, but with unlawful combinations of individuals banded for an assault upon the national life and the plunder of national property.

While the States of the North, as such, were called upon to furnish their quotas of militia, the same summons was addressed in set terms to such of the border and Southern States as could be reached, and to all "loyal citizens," for it was to the people as a mass that the President looked for support. A feeble cry arose in some quarters that the judiciary should in some manner have been appealed to, but the cumbrous machinery of the courts was set aside by the obvious fact of its insufficiency, and the cries died into silence. There were many who, with greater appearance of sound reason, were eager for an immediate assembling of Congress; but, in Mr. Lincoln's knowledge and perception, a large part of the membership of that body had need of special education through the sure course

of coming events before they could safely be trusted to help or hinder. The wisest heads in either House were probably the least in haste to meet these others in council. The day for their gathering was judiciously and firmly postponed accordingly.

The Executive would certainly require eighty days to cut out for Congress such work as it would need to do when it should assemble.

The proclamation contains but one breath of the suppressed indignation to which Mr. Lincoln had given no utterance during those long and patient days, weeks, months of waiting and endurance. The forces were to be used for purposes set forth "and to redress wrongs already long enough endured."

He could not wisely have then said more; but the words meant a great deal coming from him.

The call for State militia was nominally based upon the Act of 1795, and was promptly responded to by the governors of all the free States. Virginia answered by "seceding" on the 17th of April, in secret session of her State Convention, and in open session on the 22d, adding an empty and yet to Mr. Lincoln's military plans a very useful provision for submitting the question to a popular vote on the 23d of May. North Carolina, Arkansas, and Tennessee rapidly sent back similar replies and cast their fortunes with the Rebellion. The governor of Kentucky returned only a contemptuous refusal to furnish the quota of troops called for by the President, and Maryland almost immediately blazed out into open and dangerous revolt.

All this was hardly more than had been expected, and caused no pang of disappointment; but the dark and threatening picture had its brighter side. The people of the North had heard the Sumter gun, and its full meaning was interpreted to them by the President's proclamation. Long months of refusal to believe that the Secessionists were in earnest,-months of anxious suspense and benumbing doubt-were terminated fitly