to divide the Union?' Douglas, rising and looking like one inspired, replied. "The cotton States are making an effort to draw in the border States to their schemes of secession, and I am but too fearful they will succeed. If they do succeed, there will be the most terrible civil war the world has ever seen, lasting for years.' Pausing a a moment, he exclaimed, 'Virginia will become a charnel house, but the end will be the triumph of the Union cause. One of their first efforts will be to take possession of this Capital, to give them prestige abroad, but they will never succeed in taking it. The North will rise en masse to defend it, but Washington will become a city of hospitals-the churches will be used for the sick and wounded-even this house (Minnesota block, afterwards, and during the war the Douglas Hospital) may be devoted to that purpose before the end of the war.' The friend to whom this was said inquired, 'What justification for all this?' Douglas replied, "There is no justification, nor any pretense of any. If they remain in the Union, I will go as far as the Constitution will permit, to maintain their just rights, and I do not doubt a majority of Congress would do the same. But,' said he, again rising on his feet, and extending his arm, if the Southern States attempt to secede from this Union without further cause, I am in favor of their having just so many slaves, and just so much slave territory, as they can hold at the point of the bayonet, and no more."

The words of Douglas proved as prophetic as they were patriotic.

Soon after President Lincoln issued his proclamation calling for 75,000 troops, Senator Douglas called on him and warmly assured him of his purpose to stand by him in the hour of the country's peril. At the request of Mr. Lincoln he dictated this dispatch, which was sent through the Associated Press to the country:

"April 18, 1861, Senator Douglas called on the President, and had an interesting conversation on the present condition of the country. The substance of it was, on the part of Mr. Douglas, that while he was unalterably opposed to the Administration in all its political issues, he was prepared to fully sustain the President in the exercise of all his constitutional functions to preserve the Union, maintain the Government, and defend the Federal Capital. A firm policy and prompt action was necessary. The Capital was in danger, and must be defended at all hazards, and at any expense of men and money. He spoke of the present and future, without reference to the past."

Arriving at Springfield on the 25th of April, he addressed, at their request, the two houses of the General Assembly in this decisive and unequivocal language:

"For the first time since the adoption of the Federal Constitution, a wide-spread conspiracy exists to overthrow the best government the sun of heaven ever shone upon. An invading army is marching upon Washington. The boast has gone forth from the Secretary of War of the so-called Confederate States, that by the first of May the rebel army will be in possession of the National Capital, and, by the first of July, its headquarters will be in old Independence Hall.

"The only question for us is, whether we shall wait supinely for the invaders, or rush, as one man, to the defence of that we hold most dear. Piratical flags are afloat on the ocean, under pretended letters of marque. Our great river has been closed to the commerce of the Northwest.

So long as a hope remained of peace, I plead and implored for compromise. Now, that all else has failed, there is but one course left, and that is to rally as one man, under the flag of Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison and Franklin. At what time since the Government was organized, have the constitutional rights of the South been more secure than now? For the first time since the Constitution was adopted, there is no legal restriction against the spread of slavery in the Territories. When was the Fugitive Slave Law more faithfully executed? What single act has been done to justify this mad attempt to overthrow the Republic? We are told that because a certain party has carried a Presidential election, therefore the South chose to consider their liberties insecure! I

had supposed it was a fundamental principle of American institutions, that the will of the majority, constitutionally expressed, should govern! If the defeat at the ballot-box is to justify rebellion, the future history of the United States may be read in the past history of Mexico.

"It is a prodigious crime against the freedom of the world, to attempt to blot the United States out of the map of Christendom. How long do you think it will be ere the guillotine is in operation? Allow me to say to my former political enemies, you will not be true to your country if you seek to make political capital out of these disasters; and to my old friends, you will be false and unworthy of your principles if you allow political defeat to convert you into traitors to your national land. The shortest way now to peace is the most stupendous and unanimous preparations for war.

"Gentlemen, it is our duty to defend our constitution and protect our flag."

Mr. Douglas then proceeded to Chicago where he spoke in the "Republican Wigwam," the building in which Abraham Lincoln had been nominated for President, to a vast audience composed of men of all parties. The following extract from that speech will show that Douglas had fully sunk the partisan in the patriot, and that he stood ready to peril fortune, fame and honor for the preservation of the Government.

"I beg you to believe that I will not do you or myself the injustice to think that this magnificent ovation is personal to myself. I rejoice to know that it expresses your devotion to the Constitution, the Union, and the flag of our country. I will not conceal gratification at the uncontrovertible test this vast audience presents-that, whatsoever political differences or party questions may have divided us, yet you all had a conviction that, when the country should be in danger, my loyalty could be relied on. That the present danger is imminent, no man can conceal. If war must come-if the bayonet must be used to maintain the Constitution-I say before God, my conscience is clean. I have struggled long for a peaceful solution of the difficulty. I have not only tendered those States what was theirs of right, but I have gone to the very extreme of magnanimity.

"The return we receive is war; armies marching upon our Capital; obstructions and dangers to our navigation; letters of marque, to invite pirates to prey upon our commerce; a concerted movement to blot out the United States of America from the map of the globe. The question is, are we to maintain the country of our fathers, or allow it to be stricken down by those who, when they can no longer govern, threaten to destroy?

"What cause, what excuse do disunionists give us for breaking up the best Government on which the sun of heaven ever shed its rays? They are dissatisfied with the result of the Presidential election. Did they never get beaten before? Are we to resort to the sword when we get defeated at the ballot-box? I understand it that the voice of the people, expressed in the mode appointed by the Constitution, must command the obedience of every citizen. They assume, on the election of a particular candidate, that their rights are not safe in the Union. What evidence do they present of this? I defy any man to show any act on which it is based. What act has been omitted to be done? I appeal to these assembled thousands, that so far as the constitutional rights of slaveholders are concerned, nothing has been done and nothing omitted of which they can complain.

"There has never been a time from the day that Washington was inaugurated first President of the United States, when the rights of the Southern States stood firmer under the laws of the land than they do now; there never was a time when they had not as good a cause for disunion as they have to-day. What good cause have they now that has not existed under every administration?

"If they say the Territorial question-now, for the first time, there is no act of Congress prohibiting slavery anywhere. If it be the non-enforcement of the laws, the only complaints, that I have heard, have been of the too vigorous and faithful fulfillment of the Fugitive Slave Law. Then what reason have they?

"The slavery question is a mere excuse. The election of Lincoln is a mere pretext. The present secession movement is the result of an enormous conspiracy, formed more than a year since, formed by leaders in the Southern Confederacy more than twelve months ago. "But this is no time for the detail of causes. The conspiracy is now known. Armies have been raised, war is levied to accomplish it. There are only two sides to the

question. Every man must be for the United States or against it. There can be no neutrals in this war, only patriots or traitors.

"Thank God, Illinois is not divided on this question. I know they expected to present a united South against a divided North. They hoped in the Northern States party questions would bring civil war between Democrats and Republicans, when the South would step in with her cohorts, aid one party to conquer the other, and then make easy prey of the victors. Their scheme was carnage and civil war in the North.

"There is but one way to defeat this. In Illinois it is being so defeated, by closing up the ranks. War will thus be prevented on our own soil. While there was a hope for peace, I was ready for any reasonable sacrifice or compromise to maintain it. But when the question comes of war in the cotton fields of the South, or the corn fields of Illinois, I say the farther off the better.

"I have said more than I intended to say. It is a sad task to discuss questions so fearful as civil war; but sad as it is, bloody and disastrous as I expect it will be, I express it as my conviction before God, that it is the duty of every American citizen to rally around the flag of his country.

"I thank you again for this magnificent demonstration. By it you show you have laid aside party strife. Illinois has a proud position-united, firm, determined never to permit the Government to be destroyed."

This was the last public speech ever made by the great Senator, for at its close he returned to his rooms at the Tremont House, where he was taken sick, and never again left them alive.

Douglas was one of the wonderful men of his time. He came to Illinois, from Vermont, in the latter part of 1833, then only twenty years of age, and like Breese, soon won the confidence and respect of the people of his adopted State, and rapidly rose to distinction. After filling various public trusts, among which were State's Attorney, Representative in the General Assembly, Secretary of State, Judge of the Supreme Court, and Representative in Congress, he was elected to the United States Senate in 1847, as the successor of James Semple, and he continued Senator until