It seemed an easy way of

privateers of all nations. procuring a navy, and it took for granted the recognition by the world of the Confederacy as a new power, but it was counteracted two days later by a proclamation by President Lincoln, announcing that all such privateers would be "held amenable to the laws of the United States for the prevention and punishment of piracy." This was no empty threat, for the Federal Navy contained a number of very serviceable cruisers, and it was adding to them daily the swift steamers urged upon it by owners who dreaded the possible future work of precisely such privateers and of Confederate armed rovers.

Events were ripening fast in Missouri and Kentucky, and the Confederacy had a well-grounded hope of garnering both of them. It already held complete control of Western Tennessee and of Arkansas, and its Secretary of War and others. loudly vaunted their expectation that the Stars and Bars would float over the Capitol at Washington by May 1st. That was before the tide in Maryland and Missouri was known to have turned against them, and was said without due consideration of the position of Virginia. The authorities of the old commonwealth refused to turn over the State troops to the Confederacy, or to permit the passage of its armies until after the formal action of the voters on May 23d. They made every preparation, indeed, beforehand, and among these was one which affords a perfect illustration of the great perplexities besetting President Lincoln with reference to all military plans and operations, as well as of the opposite

views of honor and duty held by officers of the army and navy. What these individual views might be, there had, as yet, been no means of ascertaining, except in the case of those who had already resigned and hurried away to Montgomery. On April 20th President Lincoln offered to Colonel Robert E. Lee the command of the Federal forces gathering, not doubting that he was as firm a Unionist as General Scott himself. He replied by accepting, instead, the command of the State forces of Virginia, with a future course perfectly well understood. Other Virginian officers of the army followed his example, while others still regarded the Union and not the State as their first duty, and served the old flag faithfully. No better example of the latter class can be named than General George H. Thomas.

The end of delay and uncertainty with reference to many matters was at hand. On May 23d, 1861, a large majority of the citizens of Virginia voted in favor of the measure which declared her to be no longer a State of the Union. The result was well known beforehand, and required no formal announcement to justify action based upon it. On the very next day, the 24th, long before all the interior counties could be heard from, the State troops were turned over to the Confederacy, and their commander entered upon his new and remarkable career. At sunset of the day of voting, however, the 23d, the drums beat in the camps of the Union regiments all along the line. Before midnight several regiments had crossed the Potomac into Vir

ginia by the Long Bridge at Washington, others by the aqueduct bridge at Georgetown, one was on its way to Alexandria by water, and in the morning all the North was aflame with the news of the advance of the army, and of the shedding of the blood of young Colonel Ellsworth upon the threshold of the great Civil War.

CHAPTER XXI.

Getting into Harness-A Leader of Men-Stern Warnings to Foreign Powers-Mrs. Lincoln and the Children-The President's Workshop-West Virginia-Matters in Missouri-On to Richmond -Bull Run-Five Hundred Thousand Men.

THE course of the war for the Union can only be suggested in outline, and its great events cannot be enumerated in the narrow limits of a brief biography of its central figure. Armies marched and countermarched, battles were lost or won, military and civil fames grew and faded, and scores on scores of volumes and an endless series of minor publications have been insufficient for completely telling the story of the days when Abraham Lincoln was President of the United States. In and through all the narrations, however, more and more clearly as the years go by, appears the great marvel that the delegates at the Chicago Convention and the voters at the election of 1860 were somehow led to select the right man for the place of trust and trial.

The crucial test of human greatness was applied to him, and he responded to it, for he arose and grew to the mental and moral stature required of him by the mighty tasks from day to day set before him.

His first achievement was that of reorganizing the

shattered machinery of the general government, and consolidating for its support all the confused, excited, wavering forces of the astonished and bewildered people of the free States. To this end the long delay afforded him by the course of Virginia and the border States was invaluable.

There were very strong men among those who stood for the Union and upheld the hands of the President. There were governors of States, editors. of newspapers, senators, Congressmen, clergymen, orators, writers, whose services equalled those of generals in the field. They were by no means always in perfect accord with or approval of the action taken by Mr. Lincoln, but that was of less consequence than was the greater fact that they were utterly devoted to the same cause and worked on to the end with him, and nowhere else was this truth better illustrated than in the earlier working, the settling down to its work of his own Cabinet. Its members were all men of positive character and uncommon ability, and the very qualities which fitted them for the duties confided to them forbade them to yield implicitly to the leadership of any other man. Mr. Seward, for instance, holding the first place in the distinguished knot of national councillors, had behind him a long record of legislative usefulness, and his rare capacity had received almost perfect training in varied study and experience. His immediate admirers and followers really expected that he would and desired that he should be the guiding, controlling mind of the Administration. He was above committing the error of at