South Carolina took the lead.

On the 30th of November, 1859, the legislature of that State passed a resolution favoring the formation of a Southern Confederacy. Charles G. Memminger was sent to Virginia to present the resolution to the legislature of that State. He said that "the

Constitution of the United States should be amended so that slavery might be carried everywhere. The South has the right to demand the repeal of all laws hurtful to slavery."

A newspaper was established in Charleston to advocate the reopening of the African slave-trade.

The people of Virginia were not quite ready to accept that doctrine. South Carolina wanted the law repealed which prohibited the importation of slaves from Africa, while Virginia did not; for she was raising negroes for the Southern market, every year sending from ten to twelve thousand, worth ten million dollars.

Mr. Memminger, and others of South Carolina, formed an association to bring about the dissolution of the Union. It was called the "1860 Association," which sent out one hundred and sixty thousand pamphlets advocating secession. The legislature of South Carolina called a convention to provide for arming the militia of the State. The United States flag was taken down from the State House in Columbia. "Never again shall it float in the free air of South Carolina," said the great planters.

One of the leading secessionists was Robert Barnwell Rhett. His true name was Smith, which he did not like, and so changed it. His parents were poor, but he became wealthy and lived in a stately mansion, owned a large plantation and many slaves. His summer residence was at Beaufort, overlooking the beautiful bay of Port Royal, his winter home was in Charleston. In a speech delivered in the hall of the Institute of South Carolina, he said, "The Northern people are swollen with pride and insolence, and steeped in ignorance, selfishness, and fanaticism. They never will understand their dependence on the South until the Union is dissolved, and they are left naked to their own resources. Then, and not till then, will they realize what a blessing the Almighty conferred upon them when he placed them in connection with the South; and they will curse in bitterness and repentance the dark day on which they compelled us to dissolve it. Upon its dissolution their whole system of commerce and manufactures will be paralyzed and overthrown. Their banks will suspend payments, their stocks will fall in price, and confusion and distrust will walk the streets of their great cities; mobs will break into their palaces, and society will resolve itself into its original chaos."

Mr. Rhett and his fellow - secessionists did not see that the conflict which they were about to inaugurate would be a struggle between two systems of labor. Nearly seven million emigrants had crossed the Atlantic to become free citizens of the United States. They were hard-working men and women. They had been oppressed in their native lands.

They hated slavery and class distinction. All of their instincts were for liberty. They knew that slavery degraded labor, and cast their votes against its extension into the territories of the West.

The men in the South who hated the democratic form of government on which the Union had been established, who thought to establish a confederacy on aristocracy and class distinction, little comprehended the magnitude of their undertaking. Slavery, from its nature, must be aggressive. The slave-holders saw that they must dissolve the Union, or, in time, slavery would die. Jefferson Davis and other Southern writers would have the world believe that they brought about the dissolution of the Union for the preservation of the rights of the States, but the verdict of history will be that it was to establish a government based on slavery.

CHAPTER II.

THE CONSPIRACY.

WE come to 1860, the last year of the presidency of James Buchanan

The prediction made by John C. Calhoun in 1812 had come to pass. The Democratic party had been purposely divided by the great slaveholders, who made demands for the extension of slavery which the members of the party in the North would not listen to. The slave-holders nominated John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, while the Northern men nominated Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois. The Whig party nominated John Bell, of Tennessee. A new party, the Republican, had risen, pledged to resist the aggressions of slavery. Its candidate was that boy whom we saw in the first chapter, floating down the Ohio on a raft, whose father was moving from a slave to a free State. Abraham Lincoln had attended school only a few weeks in a log cabin, where the only window was a hole in the side of the building, covered with a skin dressed very thin, or a sheet of paper greased with lard. He had very few books-the Bible, "Robinson Crusoe," the "Pilgrim's Progress," a history of the United States, and a life of Washington. For want of other books he read the Dictionary, carefully studying the words to comprehend their meaning. He used to sit before the wide fireplace in the evenings with a wooden shovel before him, and work out problems in arithmetic upon it with a bit of charcoal. He frequently walked several miles to the house of David Turnham to read the laws of Indiana In 1830, at the age of twenty-one, he moved with his father to Illinois. It was bitter cold, and the snow was deep on those December days when they made their way across the wind-swept prairies to their future home, on the north fork of Sangamon River. With John Hanks and John Johnston he went down the river to Springfield to build a flat - boat, working for fifty cents a day. When the boat was completed, they loaded it with country produce and started for New Orleans, where he saw slaves whipped and sold. His heart sickened at the sight. Returning to Illinois, he went to work splitting rails-four hundred of them for a pair of butternut-colored

jean trousers, which Nancy Hanks made for him, walking seven miles each day to and from his work.

In 1841 he helped John Hanks build a flat-boat, and again went to New Orleans pulling an oar, seeing more of the hateful features of slavery. The water was low in the river when he returned on a steamboat, so that he was a long time in getting home. There was a gang of slaves on board, handcuffed and chained to prevent their escape, the sight of which made a deep impression upon him. Once more at home, he became clerk in a store, and kept his accounts with such exactness, and was so fair in trading, that people called him "honest Abe." All respected him and had such confidence in him that they elected him to represent them in the legislature, where he came in contact with public men and learned about government. At one time he thought of becoming a blacksmith, but concluded to survey land instead, and draw deeds. He finally went to Springfield, studied law, and was admitted to the bar. He was so exact in all his dealings, so able in argument, so clear-sighted upon questions of law, that the people liked him and elected him to Congress. Being a native of Kentucky, he had a great admiration for Henry ClayKentucky's great statesman and orator-and was a firm believer in the principles of the Whig party. The northern section of that party was opposed to the aggression of slavery. Most of those who supported the Whig party, together with many of the Democratic party, organized the new Republican party. Mr. Lincoln had been selected by the Republican party in Illinois as their candidate for Senator, but Stephen A. Douglas was elected instead. At the convention of the Republican party held in Chicago in 1860, Mr. Lincoln was selected as their candidate for the presidency

It was on Saturday evening, after the adjournment of the convention, that I first saw Mr. Lincoln in his own home in Springfield, accompanying the committee of the convention who apprised him of his nomination. He received the committee in the parlor, standing before the open fireplace, wearing a black frock-coat. He listened to the address of Mr. Ashman, president of the convention, and replied briefly. There was no study of inflection or cadence for effect, but there was a sincerity of expression which won instant confidence from all present. With the utterance of the last syllable his manner instantly changed. A smile illuminated his face. Addressing Hon. William D. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, he said, "You are a tall man, judge. What is your height?" "Six feet three," was the reply. "I beat you. I am six feet four without my high-heeled boots." Pennsylvania bows to Illinois," said Mr. Kelley," and I am glad that we