As late as March 23, the paper declared, in a gloomier mood than usual, but with a misgiving from which few then were wholly free, that loyalty, as an enthusiastic sentiment, does not exist among Americans. In the first month of Lincoln's administration-while as yet no blow had been struck; while commissioners of the Confederacy were at Washington trying to negotiate for a peaceful separation; while the Virginia convention still debated whether the state should secede-one great fact was becoming clear to the North. It was expressed in a sentence of the President's inaugural: "The central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy." It was notso the North slowly perceived-a question merely whether several states were to part company with the rest. It was a question whether the bond of all national government was to be dissolved; whether a principle was to be admitted which in its ultimate application would reduce the country to a chaos of discordant states. The fact of a common nationality, on whose preservation depended ultimately the peace of society, the happiness of every household, the hopes of future generations, was asserting itself in the hearts of the common people. The character of the seceders' act had been obscured by that feature in our system which places very many of the functions of civil government in the state, and only a few in the Federal Union. In a centralized nation, a revolt against governmental authority brings the insurgents into immediate collision with the civil authority, at every point where law touches the citizen. The revolt of the Gulf states from the Union had not disturbed the relations of their citizens to that frame-work of local law which covers most of the questions and interests of civil life. Business contracts, police, the state courts, the ordinary functions of government, went on as before. The scanty machinery of Federal admin istration, in its local forms, had dissolved by the consent of the people; Federal judges and marshals had resigned; the post-offices had been easily transferred to the new authorities. From their share in the government at Washington the senators and representatives had withdrawn. But at one point the relation was not effectually severed; the supreme right of government, the right of taxation,— exercised then by the Federal government only through the customs duties,- remained fully asserted by the North in theory, and practically expressed by the two or three forts over which the stars and stripes still waved. This brought the whole matter to an immediate practical test. To withdraw from the forts would be a virtual renunciation by the government of the one remaining function which testified to a vital, organic, indissoluble relation between itself as an authority sovereign within its sphere, and the seceders as rightfully its subjects within that sphere. This was the logic of the situation. The concrete fact was, a beleaguered fort, garrisoned by a company of United States soldiers, with rapidly diminishing supplies, menaced on all sides by the batteries of a people exultant in their new independence, and eager to be free from the last symbol of the authority they had cast off. On that fort and its flag the eyes of both sections were fastened; and as men watched, the tide of feeling rose higher and higher. Unrelieved, it must speedily fall. Would the Administration reënforce it or withdraw from it? To hold it, said the military counselors, would require twenty thousand men. It is worthless to us, said Seward and others of the cabinet, and by holding it we risk a collision which destroys the last hope of a peaceful victory. Once the report went over the country from Washington that the garrison was to be withdrawn. Such retreat was bitter for patriots, even for those who sought peace. "The moral effect of the aban donment of Fort Sumter," said the Republican, March 12,"will unquestionably be a degree of disappointment and chagrin among loyal citizens of the North." Yet, it adds, if it will deprive secession of its last opportunity, it is a good move. Lincoln, as it now appears, was hoping to gain a substantial advantage by a small sacrifice,to keep Virginia in the Union, by giving up Sumter. He told a representative of the Virginia convention (so says Henry Wilson) that if that body would immediately adjourn, he would order Sumter to be evacuated. The reply was that both Sumter and Pickens must be evacuated at once, and assurance given that no attempt would be made to collect revenue in Southern ports. This was more than Lincoln could grant. At last, a relieving squadron was secretly ordered to sail from New York for Sumter. The government, keeping its promise to the Confederate commissioners, that if Sumter were not first attacked, no relief should be sent it without notice being given, sent private word to the Charleston authorities that supplies were to be introduced into the fort,— peaceably if possible, otherwise by force. Throughout the country, meanwhile, the hopes of peace which had followed Lincoln's inaugural and Seward's pacific counsels had been obscured by swiftly gathering clouds. We read, April 6, that a warlike aspect has suddenly come over the whole face of affairs; that the Secessionists are getting ready to strike, and the Administration is on its guard. The tension of suspense was nearing the point where something must break. It paralyzed business, so said the Republican, April 11. With food abundant, with money plenty, there yet was universal stagnation. Men felt thunder in the air, and waited for the storm. "The time is come when the North is entirely ready to see the issue decided as regards Fort Sumter. If the Confederate conspirators refuse to let food be conveyed to a starving garrison of American soldiers, the friends of the Union everywhere are ready to know the reason why, and it will be a joy to the country to have that question settled." Between Charleston and Montgomery, the Confederate capital, secret telegrams were flying. Doubtless, the Secessionists counted on the effect of a conflict of arms in sweeping the wavering border states into union with the South. The effect in uniting the North they did not foresee,- they believed the North to be divided, half-hearted, and without spirit to fight. The decisive order was given by President Davis; the fort received a summons to surrender, and Major Anderson refused; then from the surrounding forts a circle of fire opened upon it. For two days, April 12 and 13, the people North and South listened breathlessly to the pealing of the guns. Then the overmatched garrison yielded; Major Anderson agreed to evacuate the fort, and its flag went down. One great passion of grief, resentment, and purpose united the North as one Hesitations, doubts, theories, vanished. Party lines were forgotten. There was but one thought, one feeling to make the flag supreme again over the whole land. The President called for seventy-five thousand volunteers, and the loyal states rushed to arms. Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas joined the Southern Confederacy. Pennsylvania troops were thrown instantly into Washington to defend it, and close after them came the Massachusetts Sixth Regiment. The country was wrapped in a whirlwind of war. man. CHAPTER XXV. LETTERS: 1857-1860. a 10 turn from the story of a nation's crisis to details of personal life gives at first an impression of abrupt descent. It is like coming from the distant view of a city in which its far-away grandeur charms the eye and fires the imagination, into immediate contact with its scenes of prosaic reality. But the deeper look sees under these homely aspects the great drama of humanity. The pictured tapestry of a people's fortunes has for its warp and woof the thread of every-day lives-their toils, pleasures, discomforts, losses, successes. Of the letters in this and other chapters, not a few are given for their incidental revelations of traits in the writer. Often the thought may not be weighty, the judgment, perhaps, not correct, but if the reader is helped to see the man as he really was, something is gained. To Charles Allen. January 11, 1857. With what meat are you consoling yourself in L-'s absence, and the want of my delightful chirography for the last ten days? I have been to New York and Boston, have gone to a ball, and have sat up till four o'clock printing Governor Gardner's message, besides experiencing several other unusual sensations, VOL. I.-19 289 |