“Mr. Douglas called on the President this evening and had an interesting conversation on the present condition of the country. The substance of the conversation was that while Mr. Douglas unalterably opposed the administration in all its political issues, he was prepared to sustain the President in the exercise of his constitutional functions to preserve the Union, maintain the Government and defend the Federal capital. A firm policy and prompt action were necessary. The capital of our nation was in danger and must be defended at all hazards, at any expense of men and money. He spoke of the present and future without reference to the past."'

These patriotic utterances of Senator Douglas were exemplified in his devotion to the cause of his country during the brief remainder of his life. In a few days after his interview with the President he was on his way home to Illinois. His address to his countrymen on the route, before the Legislature of Illinois and before his fellow citizens at Chicago, were listened to with great attention. As the enthusiastic patriot speaks, party fealty and party policy were ignored, while unity and the Union were the watchwords. In May he was taken sick, and died June 3. His last words were a wish for the honor and prosperity of his country through the defeat and dispersion of its enemies. The death of Senator Douglas was a national calamity, and the President regarded and fully realized it as such.

The patriotic stand taken by Senator Douglas for the Union carried with it the loyal Democratic element, the influences of which may be estimated when we recollect that in the popular vote Douglas received 1,365,976 votes, and Breckenridge and Bell received 1,488,584 votes. He uttered many patriotic sentiments after his interview with the President, among which was this one, in one of the last letters he ever wrote: "We should never forget that a man cannot be a true Democrat unless he is a true and loyal patriot." These and similar sentiments uttered by the great champion of Democracy were received and treasured up as precious legacies by his followers, and on the call of the President for men to defend the national capital and assert the supremacy of the laws of the nation, they rushed to the rescue, vieing with their Republican opponents in their devotion to the Union and the perpetuity of the republic.

It is a pleasure to say that during the dark and bloody days of the rebellion, in the hospitals, filled with our wounded and dying soldiers, was seen Mrs. Douglas, in her weeds of mourning, in acts of love and mercy ministering to the wants and sufferings of the Union soldiers-nor were the boys in gray passed by or forgotten in her labors of mercy and patriotism.

CHAPTER XX.

UPRISING OF PATRIOTISM-OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS.

The issue of the President's proclamation created the utmost enthusiasm throughout the country. It was a sublime spectacle to see a people thus united in thought and purpose, and to realize that underneath all divisions of party and sect there was a love of country which made us united, and that would hold us united as a nation and a republic. The President's action was timely, as it was necessary. The loyal citizens everywhere realized and fully comprehended that the great struggle of slavery for supremacy was now at hand. "Better it should be settled by us, and now, than by our children," was the loyal cry and feeling everywhere.

In the midst of the loyal enthusiam there was not an entire unanimity of opinion as to the measures and methods that should be pursued to suppress the rebellion. There were many who said the President should have called for two or three hundred thousand men and crushed out the rebellion at once. Those men seemed to have forgotten that a Democratic administration had left the Government in a helpless condition-loyal hands and hearts were willing, but the rebels had secured most of the arms of the Government, and that in the loyal States there was only sufficient to arm those called for in the proclamation. The outgoing administration had left the Treasury bankrupt, which made it necessary that credit should be established and funds provided before large bodies of troops could be organized and provided for. There were questions of public policy which must be considered. The President's policy was defensive, not aggressive. Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Arkansas were still in the Union, and the President's call was for men "to protect the capital, and suppress such combinations as had been made to resist the enforcements of the laws of the United States." Massachusetts was the first to respond to the President's call. Within twenty-four hours after the issue of his proclamation her sixth regiment, fully equipped, started for the national capital: two more regiments took their departure within forty-eight hours. The sixth, on its way to Washington, on the 19th of April was attacked in Baltimore by a mob bearing a secession flag, and a number of

its members were killed and wounded. This insane and unnatural act of the the secessionists of Baltimore added still more to the wrath and indignation of the Union citizens. The loyal citizens of the Union felt outraged that the national troops should be assailed and murdered on their way to defend and protect the capital of the nation. General Hicks of Maryland occupied a very difficult position-he was a Bell and Everett man, "and for the Union." His people threatened him, and he was vacillating. They would have no more troops pass through Baltimore. He applied to the President for relief in his emergency. The President assured him that the Government must have troops for the protection of the capital, but that for the present the troops would avoid Baltimore and come by the way of Annapolis.

The rebels had anticipated the secession of Maryland, and at the outbreak of the rebellion a majority of its citizens were disloyal, but they were held by a controlling Union sentiment which became predominant, until before the close of the war her citizens declared for emancipation and abolished slavery. Four days after the President's call for troops, he issued a proclamation declaring a blockade of the ports of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. This call for troops and the establishment of a blockade were the preliminaries of the most remarkable and closely contested war that is recorded in the history of the human racea contest which, for the number of men engaged, the extent of country traversed, of coast line blockaded, amount of war material consumed and results achieved, has no parallel in the history of the world. The attitude of the North and South at this period presented a strong contrast. On one side was rampant treason and a policy of aggressive war already inaugurated; on the other, patient forbearance and the most considerate care not to take any step not absolutely necessary to the security of the indispensable rights of the Government. Loyal men could find no fault with the President for claiming too much, or being harsh with those “erring sisters "who it was thought by some might yet be led back to their allegiance. The call by the President for troops to defend the capital of the nation was a little too much for the "mother of Presidents," so on the 17th of April Virginia went out from the Union, as far as she could, by a convention vote of eighty-eight to fifty-five; and on the 21st of May the Confederate Government was transferred to Richmond, and the sacred soil of Virginia from that time was to be devoted to battlefields, fortifications, military camps and untimely graves. North Carolina and Arkansas soon followed. Tennessee made the attempt with partial success. Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri remained faithful to the Union. With the disloyalty of Virginia and the removal of the rebel capital to Richmond, went the last lingering hope of the President

that intestine war could be averted, and that coercive measures would not be necessary to preserve the integrity of the Union.

On the 29th of April the Confederate Congress met at Montgomery, when President Davis sent that body a message which was intended to be a justification of himself and the rebel cause before the country and the world. It was a document plausible in his theory of State rights, and presented the Southern doctrine of secession in its most favorable light. Mr. Davis held that the States were sovereign, and the United States essentially subject, therefore when any State had a plausible pretext for dissolving its union with the other States, it had a right to do so. Mr. Lincoln maintained and upheld the principle that the Union was sovereign and indivisible, and the States subject, and that any attempt of individuals to dissolve and destroy the Union by or through a combination of a State or States, was treason.

The approach of the rebel forces towards Washington rendered it necessary that President Lincoln should take offensive operations. On the 3d of May he issued a call for forty-two thousand volunteers to serve for three years; twenty-two thousand for the regular army, and eighteen thousand for the navy. A quick response was made, and the demand for volunteers was soon answered in excess. On the 27th of April the blockade was extended to include the States of Virginia and North Carolina. One of the first and most important duties of the President after the selection of his cabinet, was to define the position that would be assumed by our Government towards foreign nations on questions that might arise relative to the rebellion. Secretary Seward, in his letter of instructions to our minister at the court of St. James (Mr. Adams), under date of April 10, very distinctly defined the attitude the President intended to pursue. [The limit of these pages precludes an entry of any considerable length on this subject; a brief extract from Mr. Seward's letter must suffice, and will show the position of our Government.] Mr. Seward said: "If, as the President does not at all apprehend, you shall unhappily find Her Majesty's Government tolerating the application of the so-called seceding States for recognition, or wavering about it, you will not leave them for a moment in doubt or to suppose that they can grant that application and remain friends of the United States. You may assure them promptly in that case that if they determine to recognize they may at the same time prepare to enter into an alliance with the enemies of this republic. You alone will represent your country at London, and you will represent the whole of it there. When you are asked to divide that duty with others, diplomatic relations between the Government of Great Britain and this Government will be suspended, and will remain so until it shall be seen which of the two is most strongly intrenched in the confidence of their respective nations or of mankind."

The firm and decided stand taken by the President in the instructions of Secretary Seward to Minister Adams, prevented the rebel Government from receiving a full recognition from the British Government, which President Davis expected and desired. Our Ministers at the Court of France and at all the Foreign courts received similar instructions. The Court party and aristocracy of Great Britain were, and long had been, jealous of the growth and rising power and prosperity of the United States. This disruption of the republic was looked upon by them with favor, and the cry of the South that cotton is king," and the promises and inducement held out to them by the Southern confederacy was that on their recognition their factories and looms would be supplied with that article on much better terms than from the United States. These representations and promises created a strong party in Great Britain, whose sympathies in the first years of the war were with the South. The firm, positive stand taken by our Government, and the strong anti-slavery sentiment of a large portion of the English people held their Government ostensibly on the side of freedom. And still, notwithstanding their professions of neutrality, they indirectly gave aid and comfort to the rebels, for which in after years they were called to an account by our Government, and for their actions and conduct they paid justly and dearly. France, by her recognition of the belligerent rights of the Confederate States, evinced. her sympathy for the rebels, but her embroglio with Mexico and the firm position of our Government restrained her Government from giving aid directly to the enemy. Spain continued friendly. Her possessions near the South and the filibustering experience she formerly had with her neighbors rendered her indifferent to the appeals of the rebels for aid. Russia and Germany, old friends, remained true and faithful to the Union.

Called by the President, Congress met July 4, 1861. The Republicans had fourteen majority in the Senate, and seventy-two majority in the House, and of the opposition, five Senators and twenty-eight members supported the President to preserve the Union. The President in his first message to Congress first made a statement of the rebellion and its progress from its commencement up to the period of his communication to that body. The doctrine of State rights, State sovereignty, the right of secession, was reviewed and dwelt upon at length, and was intended as a reply to the message of Mr. Davis, and to place before the people of the United States, and before the world whose Governments and people were sitting in judgment on the case, the reasons for and the grounds of the 'national struggle for the suppression of the rebellion. The President recommended that Cong ess make the contest a short and decisive one, by placing at the control of the Government 400,000 men and $400,000,000, stating that a right result at the right time would be worth more to the world and nation than ten times that number of men and