ment by a trick too dishonest and shallow to account for the immense display of sentiment in the North that ensued. The event afforded indeed to many politicians in the North a most flimsy and false excuse for loosing passions of hate against the South that had all along been festering in the concealment of their hearts. That action suddenly convinced them that the South was really resolved to separate; it disconcerted their hopes and plans of seducing her back into the Union by false and temporizing speeches; it utterly disappointed the Northern expectation that the South was not really in earnest, and that "all would come out right" by a little hypocrisy and affectation on the Northern side; it snapped as a rotten net their vile and cheap schemes of getting the South back into the Union by art and deceit; and men, finding no longer any purpose for concealment, threw aside their former professions, quickly determined to coerce what they could not cozen. This was the whole explanation of the Northern "reaction" at the occurrence at Sumter.

There now ensued in the North a sort of crusade against the South, the passion, the fury, and blasphemy of which it is almost impossible to describe. The holiness of this crusade was preached, alike, from the hustings and the pulpit. Dr. Tyng, a celebrated minister of New York, assembled certain "roughs" and marauders of that city, known as "Billy Wilson's men," presented them Bibles, and declared that in carrying fire and sword into the rebellious States, they were propitiating Heaven, and would go far to assure the salvation of their souls.* In most of the

* As an evidence of the contrast of spirit between the Christian churches, North and South, with reference to the war, we may place in juxtaposition here certain remarkable cotemporary expressions of sentiment emanating from two of the most conspicuous Episcopal divines of the country-Bishop Meade of Virginia, and Doctor Tyng of New York.

The report of the first venerable Diocesan to the Episcopal Convention of Virginia, on the eve of the war, was replete with Christian sentiment befitting the occasion. He wrote: "I have clung with tenacity to the hope of preserving the Union to the last moment. If I know my own heart, could the sacrifice of the poor remnant of my life have contributed in any degree to its maintenance, such sacrifice would have been cheerfully made. But the developments of public feeling and the course of our rulers have brought me, slowly, reluctantly, sorrowfully, yet most decidedly, to the painful conviction that notwithstanding attendant dangers and evils, we shall consult the welfare and happiness of the whole land by separation. And who can desire to retain a Union which has now become so hateful, and by the application of armed force, which, if successful, would make it tenfold more hateful, and soon lead to the repetition of the same bloody contests?

"In connection with this civil and geographical separation in our country, and almost necessarily resulting from it, subjects of some change of the ecclesiastical relations of our Diocese must come under consideration. There is a general and strong desire, I believe, to retain as much as possible of our past and present happy intercourse with those from whom we shall be in other matters more divided. A meeting is already proposed for this purpose in one of the seceded States, whose plans, so far as developed, I will submit to the consideration of this body at its present session.

"I cannot conclude without expressing the earnest desire that the ministers and members of our Church, and all the citizens of our State, who are so deeply interested in the present contest, may conduct it in the most clevated and Christian spirit, rising above unworthy and uncharitable imputations

FANATICISM OF THE NORTH.

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Northern cities men were forced to wear badges of "loyalty," and every house required to hang out the Federal flag as a signal of patriotism, and an evidence of their support of the war. This peculiarly Yankee exhibition in flags pervaded nearly every square mile of country, and was carried even into the sanctuary. Pulpits were dressed with the Stars and Stripes; Sunday-school children wore the colours of the Federal ensign; the streets were rubicund with the bunting; and even in distant parts of the country flags floated from gate-posts and tops of trees, as evidences of "loyal" sentiments and marks for protection against "vigilance committees." This singular exhibition of " Union" sentiment was not a mere picturesque affair; it was attended with fearful riots and violence, and the man who refused to display a piece of bunting was treated as a criminal and outlaw, pursued by mobs, and threatened with death.

Into this crusade against the South all parties and sects and races were strangely mingled. Old contentions and present animosities were forgotten; Democrats associated with recreants and fanatics in one grand league, for one grand purpose; foreigners from Europe were induced into the belief that they were called upon to fight for the "liberty" for which they had crossed the ocean, or for the "free homesteads " which were to be the rewards of the war; and all conceivable and reckless artifices were re sorted to to swell the tide of numbers against the South.

But what was most remarkable in this display of popular fury was its

on all who are opposed. Many there are equally sincere, on both sides, as there ever have been in all the wars and controversies that have been waged upon earth; though it does not follow that all have the same grounds of justice and truth on which to base their warfare.

"Let me, in conclusion, commend to the special prayers all those who have now devoted themselves to the defence of our State. From personal knowledge of many of them, and from the information of others, there is already, I believe, a large portion of religious principle and genuine piety to be found among them. I rejoice to learn that in many companies not only are the services of chaplains and other ministers earnestly sought for and after, but social prayer-meetings held among themselves. Our own Church has a very large proportion of communicants among the officers of our army, and not a few among the soldiers. Let us pray that grace may be given them to be faith. ful soldiers of the Cross, as well as valiant and successful defenders of the State."

About the same time, Dr. Tyng addressed a public meeting in New York, with reference to the war. He said he would not descend to call it civil warfare. He would not meet pirates upon the deck, and call it warfare. He would hang them as quick as he would shoot a mad dog. [Cheers.] There was one road to peace, and that was absolute and entire subjection. [Cheers.] He did not mean the subjection of the South, but of the riotous mob which there had control of affairs. The sword of justice was the only pen that could write the final treaty. Referring to the troops that had been raised, the speaker asked who ever saw such an army as has been gathered in our land? He would not except the rare birds of Billy Wilson's Regiment. He might venture to say of them that their salvation might be in the very consecration they have made of themselves to their country. [Cheers.] Twenty-three thousand Bibles had been given to the troops who go to fight for their conntry; did anybody believe there were five hundred copies in the army of renegades who are meeting them in the contest? It would scald and singe their polluted hands. We had every cause to be proud of our army. They are worthy of the Bible. How their names will glisten in glory!

sudden and complete absorption of the entire Democratic party in the North, which had so long professed regard for the rights of the Southern States, and even sympathy with the first movements of their secession. This party now actually rivalled the Abolitionists in their expressions of fury and revenge. They not only followed the tide of public opinion, but sought to ride on its crest. Daniel S. Dickinson of New York, who had enjoyed the reputation of a "Northern man with Southern principles," became the fiercest advocate of the war, and consigned his former friends in the South to fire and sword. Edward Everett of Massachusetts, who, a few months ago, had declared that the Southern States should be permitted to go out of the Union in peace, became an apostle of the war, and exhausted his famous rhetoric in preaching the new gospel of blood.* These men were types of their party. In the early stages of Secession, it had been said that such was the sympathy of New York with the movement, that the Southern States would be able to recruit several regiments for their military service. Now in that city a newspaper office was threatened with a mob, because it had dared to criticise the defence of Sumter; and Democratic orators-among them a man named John Cochrane, who had made his reputation and modelled his manners by playing toady to Southern members in Congress-harangued the multi

In a letter published in the newspapers of the day, Mr. Everett wrote:

"It was my opinion that, if they [the Cotton States] would abstain from further aggression, and were determined to separate, we had better part in peace. But the wanton attack on Fort Sumter (which took place not from any military necessity, for what harm was a single company cooped up in Charleston harbour, able to do to South Carolina? but for the avowed purpose of 'stirring the blood of the South, and thus bringing in the Border States), and the subsequent proceedings at Montgomery have wholly changed the state of affairs. The South has levied an unprovoked war against the Government of the United States, the mildest and most beneficent in the world, and has made it the duty of every good citizen to rally to its support."

The excuse of the Sumter attack served other Democrats, beside Mr. Everett, as a convenient handle for hypocrisy and falseness. To be used as such, of course, it had to be put in a convenient shape of words. Mr. Everett speaks of it as "a wanton attack." How wanton on the part of the South-how even evitable on her part, when the Administration made the direct challenge, which the South had forewarned the Government at Washington that it would be constrained to accept? This was a simple question; but it presented the whole issue of the Sumter complication, and everely indicates where the responsibility for the collision lies.

There is a wretched argument in Mr. Everett's statement above, which, wretched as it is, may be reversed against himself. He says that there was no "military necessity" for the possession of the fort by South Carolina, as it was able to do her no harm. Then, in what respect greater was the military necessity for the Government to retain it, if it was so powerless to control or to affect the seceded State?

It was no question of military necessity. The Government at Washington wanted the fort as an appanage of its sovereignty. So did South Carolina. And its possession by the latter was but the incident of the separation, which Mr. Everett says he had recommended! It was but the logical and legitimate conclusion of his own policy! Why should be complain that South Carolina should be in possession—and even bloodless possession-of the fort, which very fact was but the essential and inevitable carrying out of his own early recommendation of her separate sovereignty!

DEFECTION OF THE DEMOCRACY.

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tude, advising them to "crush the rebellion," and, if need be, to drown the whole South in one indiscriminate sea of blood.

This giving way of the Democratic party to the worst fanaticism of the North, proved beyond doubt that it was wholly unreliable, entirely untrustworthy as the friend of the South, and, as Senator Brown of Missis sippi had designated it in the last Congress, hopelessly "rotten." But it proved something more than this. It proved that remarkable want of virtue in American politics, common in a certain degree, to all parts of the country. It was another illustration of the fact which runs through the whole of the political history of America, that in every election where one party greatly preponderates, or in every decisive exhibition of a majority, the minority is absorbed and disappears; principle is exchanged for expediency; public opinion becomes the slave of the larger party; and public men desert the standards of conviction to follow the dispensations of patronage, and serve the changes of the times.

President Lincoln did not hesitate to take immediate advantage of the "reaction" in the North. Two days after the boodless battle of Sumter, he issued his proclamation to raise seventy-five thousand troops, usurping the power and discretion of Congress to declare war by a shallow, verbal pretence of calling them out under the act of 1795, which only contemplated the raising of armed posses " in aid of the civil authorities." *

Even in this conjuncture, the President still hesitated to unmask his real intentions of a war of subjugation, still embracing the hope of keeping the Border States "loyal" to his Government. On the very day of the

The following is a full copy of this important paper:

"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, Georgia, Alabama, 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 the Militia of the several States of the Union to the aggregate number of 75,000, 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 honour, 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 of any part of the country; and I hereby command the persons composing the combinations aforesaid, to disperse and retire peace ably 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. The Senators and Representatives are, therefore, summoned to assemble at their respective chamber

attack on Sumter, he made the most pacific protests to the Virginia Commissioners, who were then visiting him ;-the President then threatening no other retaliation for the capture of Sumter than the withdrawal of the mails from the seceded States. But Virginia was not to be easily deluded. Two days after the interview of her Commissioners with President Lincoln, her people were reading his call for a land force of seventy-five thousand men; and almost instantly thereafter, the proud and thrilling news was flashed over the South that Virginia had redeemed the pledges she had given against coercion, and was no longer a member of the Federal Union, but in a new, heart-to-heart, defiant union with the Confederate States of the South.

The ordinance of secession on the part of Virginia was met by signs of discontent in some thirty or forty counties in the western part of the State. But despite this distraction, her example was not without its influence and fruit. North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas followed the leadership of Virginia, in what may be called the second secessionary movement of the States-which, made as it was, in the immediate presence of war, and led by Virginia in the face of the most imposing, actual, and imminent dangers to herself, showed a courage and devotion of a degree not permitted to be exhibited by the first movement of the Cotton States. History will not allow the real leadership of Virginia in the glory of the movement for freedom to be disputed by South Carolina. Where all are confessed brave, and where opportunities only have differed for exhibitions of devotion, it is only in the historical spirit, and not in that of invidiousness, that the fact is claimed for Virginia of a supreme manifestation of devoted courage and leadership.

The people of Virginia had not long to wait to see verified the interpretation that that State had given to Mr. Lincoln's policy, as one of coercion and subjugation of the South, and of unauthorized war upon its citizens. He increased his levies by repeated proclamations, until more than two hundred thousand men in the North were put under arms. He exchanged his former pretext for calling out troops to repossess the Southern forts. He induced his new forces to believe that they were only intended for the defence of his capital. He did not hesitate, however, to occupy Maryland with troops, to increase the garrison and subsidiary

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.

"By the President,

"WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State."

"ABRAHAM LINCOLN.