Chief Magistrate as to his feelings or intentions regarding the policy he would pursue, and while they held the controlling power in both branches of Congress and the Supreme Court, twelve of the slave States had passed ordinances of secession, and on the 4th day of February, four days before the President-elect had left Springfield for Washington, they met at Montgomery, Alabama, and formed the socalled Southern Confederacy, with slavery as its chief corner stone. This was followed by active preparations for war. Buchanan's Administration had permitted the firing upon the Star of the West, which carried supplies to Fort Sumter, to pass without redress, and State after State to secede without offering the slightest protest. Indeed, the President had expressed in his last annual message the remarkable opinion, that "no power has been delegated to coerce into submission a State that is attempting to withdraw, or has entirely withdrawn, from the Confederacy." This singular conduct on the part of the outgoing administration, and the extraordinary proceeding of the seceded States in setting up a government for themselves, created a widespread feeling of alarm among the law-abiding citizens of the North; and Mr. Lincoln, himself, was evidently deeply agitated as to what would be the finality of the momentous issue, and the grave responsibilities he was so soon to assume weighed heavily upon his mind. He felt that the temple of liberty, founded more than three-quarters of a century before, was being shaken from center to circumference, and the absorbing thought of his great mind was, how should he prevent the temple from falling to pieces, and yet, at the same time, preserve the rights and liberties of the people.

On the day he left Springfield, February 11, many of his personal and political friends had assembled at the depot to give him a loving farewell, and in bidding them adieu, for the last time-for he was never in Springfield

again, alive-he addressed them in this feeling and pathetic

manner:

"MY FRIENDS-No one, not in my position, can appreciate the sadness I feel at this parting. To this people I owe all that I am. Here I have lived more than a quarter of a century, here my children were born, and here one of them lies buried. I know not how soon I will see you again. A duty devolves upon me which is perhaps greater than that which has rested upon any other man since the day of Washington. He would never have succeeded except for the aid of Divine Providence, on which he at all times relied. I feel that I can not succeed without the same Divine aid which sustained him. On the same Almighty Being I place my reliance for support; and I hope you, my friends, will pray that I may receive that Divine assistance, without which I can not succeed, but with which success is certain. Again, I bid you all an affectionate farewell."

Reaching Cincinnati, he was called out for a speech, and being in the vicinity of Kentucky, one of the slave States, and doubtless with many slave-holders as his hearers, he took occasion to advert, briefly but with perfect frankness, to the policy he should pursue towards those States. We quote his language, as it appeared in the public prints of that day:

"I have spoken but once before in Cincinnati. That was a year previous to the late Presidential election. On that occasion, in a playful manner, but with sincere words, I addressed much of what I said to the Kentuckians. I gave my opinion that we as Republicans would ultimately beat them as Democrats, but that they could postpone the result longer by nominating Senator Douglas for the Presidency, than in any other way. They did not in any true sense nominate Mr. Douglas, and the result has certainly come as soon as ever I expected. I told them how I expected they would be treated after they should be beaten, and I now wish to call their attention to what I then said. When beaten, you perhaps will want to know what we will do with you. I will tell you, so far as I am authorized to speak for the opposition. We mean to treat you as near as we possibly can as Washington, Jefferson and Madison treated you. We mean to leave you alone, and in no way interfere with your institutions. We mean to recognize

and bear in mind that you have as good hearts in your bosoms as other people, or as we claim to have, and treat you accordingly. Fellow-citizens of Kentucky, brethren may I call you, in my new position I see no occasion and feel no inclination to retract a word from this. If it shall not be made good, be assured the fault shall not be mine."

We will not follow him through his travels to the National capital, further than to say, that in order to reach that city in safety he was compelled to change his plans, as to his passage through Baltimore, lest he should be assassinated.

His inaugural message had been prepared with great care, and addressed itself to the sober, second-thought of the people of all the States. The platform on which he had made the race for President, and which was still fresh in the minds of the people, was utterly thrown aside, and in concluding this, his first state paper, he addressed himself, in this language, directly to his dissatisfied countrymen :

"Apprehensions seem to exist among the people of the Southern States that by the accession of a Republican administration their property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed, and have been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the public speeches of him who now addresses you. I consider that, in view of the Constitution and laws, the Union is unbroken, and to the extent of my ability I will take care, as the Constitution expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this, I deem it only a simple duty on my part, and I shall perform it, so far as possible, unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisite means, or shall, in some other authoritative manner, direct the contrary. Physically speaking, we can not separate. We can not move the 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 can not 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 more easily than friends can make laws among friends? Suppose you go to war, you can not fight always, and when, after much loss on both sides, and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical old questions are upon you. 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 aggressors. You have no solemn 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's 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."

It would seem after these unqualified personal and official declarations regarding the policy of his Administration towards the Southern States, that there was no longer any necessity for doubt in the public mind as to what he would do, for he had given them the strongest assurance that he meant only to execute the laws as he found them, and that he would preserve, protect and defend the Government.

So great was the domination of Southern sentiment in the North, that even Harper's Weekly printed a vulgar cartoon of President Lincoln, as he passed through Baltimore. When he took the oath of office he was surrounded by traitors within and without; on the right and on the left; and notwithstanding the pacific language of his inaugural address, Southern Senators and Representatives precipitately resigned their seats in Congress and cast their fortunes with the so-called Southern Confederacy. The

reader will bear in mind that these men deserted their trusts at a time when the Democrats had a majority in both houses of Congress, and there was not a single law upon the statute books of the Nation which had been fathered or fostered by a Republican or Abolitionist relating to the question of slavery or the right of the people of the slave States to manage their domestic affairs in their own way; and with the most solemn assurance from the President staring them in the face, that he recognized the fact that under the Constitution and laws he had no right to interfere with the institution of slavery, and no disposition to do so, whether the right existed or not.

CHAPTER XII.

STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS.

Douglas' Prophecy-Avows His Determination to Stand by President Lincoln-His Patriotic Address at Springfield-Speech at ChicagoDeath at Chicago-Monument to His Memory.

Among the many able men Illinois has had in the councils of the State and Nation, there has been no grander man than Stephen A. Douglas, and at no time did his patriotism or ability shine forth with more splendor than when the seceding States made war upon his country's flag, and among all our statesmen, there was none who had a clearer vision as to what was to be the results of the war. In Arnold's history of Abraham Lincoln is related this prophecy: "Gen. Charles Stuart, of New York, was a caller at Douglas' house in Washington, on New Year's day, 1861, and to the question, 'What will be the result of the efforts of Jefferson Davis and his associates