ought not to be extended. And this is the only substantial dispute. Physically speaking, we cannot separate; we cannot remove our respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence and beyond the reach of each other; but the different parts of our country cannot do this. They cannot but remain face to face; and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue between them. Is it possible, then, to make that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory after separation than before? Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can among friends? Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides, and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical questions as to terms of intercourse are again upon you.

"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. I cannot be ignorant of the fact that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the National Constitution amended. While I make no recommendation of amendment, I fully recognize the full authority of the people over the whole subject, to be exercised in either of the modes prescribed in the instrument itself; and I should, under existing circumstances, favor rather than oppose a fair opportunity being afforded the people to act upon it.

"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 is still no single 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 difficulties.

"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 ag gressors. 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 battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone 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."

At the close of this solemn and imposing scene, Mr. Lincoln was escorted back to the White House, where Mr. Buchanan took leave of him. He was asked if he felt alarmed at any time while reading his address. His reply was, that he had often experienced greater fear in speaking to a dozen Western men on the subject of temperance.

And now commenced his life of care and toil and sorrow, to terminate in a bloody death. Mr. Lincoln's conciliatory words had no softening influence upon the hearts of the secessionists. They knew that it was only by violence and revolution that they could so strengthen the institution of slavery as to make it permanent upon this continent; and they still believed that the North would yield to their demands, rather than appeal to the dreadful arbitrament of the sword. "The Yankees," said one of their speakers, "are a cowardly race, and I will pledge myself to hold in the hollow of my hand and to drink every drop of blood that will be shed."

The demon of rebellion was unappeased. Treason was everywhere. Openly avowed traitors to the Union were in every department of the Government. No step could be taken, and there could be no deliberation, which was not immediately reported to the rebels. Seven States were now in revolt. There were seven other slave States, which it was absolutely necessary the secessionists should secure in order to have any chance of

success. On the 12th of April, the rebels in Charleston opened fire upon Fort Sumter. This introduced the war.

The rebels were so infatuated as to anticipate an easy victory. They had already inaugurated their government at Montgomery. Elated with the news of the bombardment and capture of Fort Sumter, Mr. Walker, the rebel Secretary of War, addressing the shouting throng, said,

"No man can tell where this war, commenced this day, will end; but I will prophesy that the flag which now flaunts the breeze here will float over the dome of the old Capitol at Washington before the 1st of May. Let them try Southern chivalry, and test the extent of Southern resources, and it may float eventually over Faneuil Hall itself."

With wonderful unanimity, the North rallied around the imperilled flag of the nation. The rebels crushed out all opposition to secession within their borders, and forced every available man into the ranks. Mr. Lincoln, three days after the capture of Sumter, issued a proclamation calling for seventy-five thousand troops to defend the national capital, which the rebels threatened to seize; and soon after he declared the ports in the rebellious States under blockade.

In an evil hour, Virginia joined the rebels. Terrible was her punishment. Mr. Douglas nobly came forward, and gave all of his strong influence to Mr. Lincoln. As he read the President's proclamation calling for seventy-five thousand men, he said,

"Mr. President, I cordially concur in every word of that document, except that, in the call for seventy-five thousand men, I would make it two hundred thousand. You do not know the dis

honest purposes of those men as well as I do."

On the 1st of May, Senator Douglas addressed an immense gathering in the city of Chicago. Ten thousand persons thronged the Wigwam. The eloquent senator spoke in strains which thrilled the heart of the nation. "I beg you to believe," said he, "that I will not do you or myself the injustice to think that this magnificent ovation is personal to myself. I rejoice to know that it expresses your devotion to the Constitution, the Union, and the flag of our country. I will not conceal my gratification at the incontrovertible test this vast audience presents, that whatever political differences or party questions may have divided us, yet you all had a conviction, that, when the country should be in danger,

my loyalty could be relied on. That the present danger is imminent, no man can conceal. If war must come, if the bayonet must be used to maintain the Constitution, I say before God, my conscience is clean. I have struggled long for a peaceful solution of the difficulty. I have not only tendered those States what was their right, but I have gone to the very extreme of magnanimity. "The return we receive is war, armies marched upon our capital, obstruction and danger to our navigation, letters of marque to invite pirates to prey upon our commerce, and a concerted movement to blot out the United States of America from the map of the globe. The question is, 'Are we to maintain the country of our fathers, or allow it to be stricken down by those, who, when they can no longer govern, threaten to destroy?'

"What cause, what excuse, do disunionists give us for breaking up the best government on which the sun of heaven ever shed its rays? They are dissatisfied with the result of the presidential election. Did they never get beaten before? Are we to resort to the sword when we get beaten at the ballot-box? I understand it that the voice of the people, expressed in the mode appointed ' by the Constitution, must command the obedience of every citi zen. They assume, on the election of a particular candidate, that their rights are not safe in the Union. What evidence do they present of this? I defy any man to show any act on which it is based. What act has been omitted to be done? I appeal to these assembled thousands, that, so far as the constitutional rights of slaveholders are concerned, nothing has been done, and nothing omitted, of which they can complain.

"There has never been a time, from the day that Washington was inaugurated first President of these United States, when the rights of the Southern States stood firmer under the laws of the land than they do now; there never was a time when they had not as good cause for disunion as they have to-day. What good cause have they now, which has not existed under every administration?

"If they say the territorial question, now, for the first time, there is no act of Congress prohibiting slavery anywhere. If it be the non-enforcement of the laws, the only complaints I have heard have been of the too vigorous and faithful fullfilment of the Fugitive-slave Law. Then what reason have they? The slavery question is a mere excuse. The election of Lincoln is a

mere pretext. The present secession movement is the result of an enormous conspiracy formed more than a year since, formed by leaders in the Southern Confederacy more than twelve months ago.

"But this is no time for the detail of causes. The conspiracy is now known. Armies have been raised, war is levied, to accomplish it. There are only two sides to the question. Every man must be for the United States or against it. There can be no neutrals in this war; only patriots or traitors."

We have no space here to enter into the details of the war which ensued, which cost half a million of lives, and an expenditure of treasure and a destruction of property which cannot be computed. On the 6th of March, 1862, Mr. Lincoln recommended that the United States should co-operate with any State "which may gradually adopt abolishment of slavery, by giving to such State pecuniary aid, to be used at its discretion to compensate for inconveniences, public and private, produced by such changes of system."

The rebels were continually cheered by the hope that all the border States would join them. Mr. Lincoln invited the representatives of those States to a conference with him, in which he said to them, urging them to accept emancipation with compensation,

"Let the States which are in rebellion see definitely and certainly, that in no event will the States you represent ever join their proposed confederacy, and they cannot much longer maintain the contest. Can you, for your States, do better than take the course I urge? The incidents of war cannot be avoided. If the war continue long, the institution in your States will be extinguished by mere friction and abrasion. It will be gone, and you will have nothing valuable in lieu of it. Much of its value is gone already. How much better for you and your people to take the step which at once shortens the war, and secures substantial compensation for that which is sure to be wholly lost in any other event! How much better thus to save the money, which else we sink forever in the war!"

Two acts, by

The border-State men were blind and obdurate. Mr. Lincoln's recommendation, were soon passed by Congress. One confiscated the slaves of masters who were in open rebellion: the other abolished slavery in the District of Columbia.

He was urged to issue a proclamation of emancipation, before, in his judgment, the country was prepared for it. He replied, "I do