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the vigilant preparations deemed essential at the time of Mr. Lincoln's inauguration, when the troops were stationed at different points in the city, and Generals Scott and Wool and other officers stood ready to mount at a moment's warning; these are all well-remembered facts, and the measures then taken by the illustrious head of the army reveal his sagacity and patriotism, and illustrate, in their warding off the threatened evil, the debt of gratitude due him from his countrymen.

The scheme of seizing the Government was not abandoned on the successful inauguration of Mr. Lincoln. On the evening of the 12th of April, 1861, when the citizens of Montgomery, then the rebel capital, were rejoicing in the prospect of Fort Sumter's speedy fall, the bombardment being then in progress, General Walker, the rebel Secretary of War, made the following declarations in a public speech: "That before many hours the flag of the of night, disguised in plaid cloak and Scotch cap, lest, as was feared by his friends, he might have received a warmer greeting than would have been agreeable, on his way through Baltimore, at the hands of the constituents of the gentleman from Maryland." Mr. Long is one of the opponents of the present Administration. The Albany Evening Journal speaks of the contemplated assassination, and of the measures taken to prevent it, on the part of the President's friends, as follows: "They employed a detective of great experience, who was engaged at Baltimore in the business some three weeks prior to Mr. Lincoln's arrival there, employing both men and women to assist him. Shortly after coming to Baltimore, the detective discovered a combination of men banded together under a solemn oath to assassinate the President elect. It was arranged, in case Mr. Lincoln should pass safely over the railroad to Baltimore, that the conspirators should mingle with the crowd which might surround his carriage, and by pretending to be his friends, be enabled to approach his person, when, upon a signal from their leader, some of them would shoot at Mr. Lincoln with their pistols, and others would throw into his carriage hand-grenades filled with detonating powder, similar to those used in the attempted assassination of the Emperor Louis Napoleon. It was intended that in the confusion which should result from this attack, the assailants should escape to a vessel waiting in the harbor to receive them, and be carried to Mobile, in the seceding State of Alabama." Then, speaking of Mr. Lincoln, the Journal says: "The party then took berths in the sleeping-car [at Philadelphia], and, without change of cars, passad directly through to Washington, where they arrived at the usual hour. Mr. Lincoln wore no disguise whatever, but journeyed in an ordinary travelling dress,"

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IT AIMED TO USURP THE GOVERNMENT.

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Confederacy would float over the fortress; and no man could tell where the war this day commenced would end, but he would prophesy that the flag which now flaunts the breeze here, would float over the dome of the old capitol at Washington before the first of May." This speech of General Walker struck the key-note which was immediately echoed by the newspapers throughout the seceded States. Though Virginia had not yet seceded, the papers of that State sounded it. The Richmond Enquirer of April 13th, the day of the fall of Fort Sumter, had the following: Nothing is more probable than that President Davis will soon march an army through North Carolina and Virginia to Washington. Those of our volunteers who desire to join the Southern army as it shall pass through our borders, had better organize at once for the purpose." This was published nearly a week before the Virginia Convention passed the ordinance of secession, and forty days before the people were to vote on the ordinance. This was also two days before President Lincoln issued his Proclamation (dated April 15th), calling for troops, and before it was known, either North or South, how the intelligence of the taking of Fort Sumter would affect either the Government or the people. Mr. Stephens, the rebel Vice-President, soon afterwards uttered the same sentiment respecting the taking of Washington, in a public speech at Richmond, on his arri val there before the secession of Virginia, and before the ordinance had passed the Convention, when on a mission to conclude a "military league" between that State and the Southern Confederacy.

There is nothing clearer in the early history of the rebellion, than that the primary plan of its leaders was to overthrow the Administration at Washington, to usurp its power and authority, and to install the rebel Government

as its legitimate successor.

This from the first was the battle-cry of their rulers, their armies, and their people. It is only because they were foiled in their original purpose that they have been content to seek to establish their separate independence.

POPULAR GOVERNMENT UNIVERSALLY ENDANGERED.

9. Another thing settled in the character of this rebellion, is, that its success would have destroyed the hope for popular government throughout the world.

A successful rebellion resulting in the overthrow of any other government on earth would be of little consequence in the great scale of human interests when poised against such a result to the Government of the United States. This is illustrated in the deep anxiety with which the contest has been watched on both sides of the Atlantic and by the people of every nation. The aristocracies of the Old World have aided the rebellion as far as they have deemed it safe, and have earnestly desired our dismemberment and downfall. They have felt that in such an issue their own power would be more secure. From the great heart of "the peoples" alone has there been for us a single genuine throb of sympathy. The only notable exception to this among the rulers in the monarchies of Europe is that of the Russian Empire. Even many of the middle classes of the nations of Western Europe, and among them many of the merchant princes of her marts of commerce, have given their good wishes and their active aid and their stores of gold to the rebellion, making a gain out of our national peril.

But the millions of the real people have desired our success and deserve our grateful remembrance. They feel that their own interests are bound up in our triumph. When, therefore, the nation shall come out of this strife

POPULAR GOVERNMENT ENDANGERED.

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successful, they will feel as do we, that what the nations of the earth have ever regarded as but "the American experiment," will be settled in favor of popular government for all time to come. One universal shout of rejoicing will then go up from the down-trodden millions of the world, and at its reverberations among the habitations of men, tyrants will everywhere tremble as they have never done before.

Among the characteristics, therefore, which stamp this rebellion with peculiar odium, is the fact not only that it is made against popular government, but in its success the last hope of liberty would have perished from among men. No people could have dared reasonably to hope for success in an experiment of free institutions after ours should have failed, commenced as it was under such favorable auspices, and having had such prosperity in all that can make a people great and glorious for nearly three generations.

It is too well known for doubt that a part of the original scheme of the rebel leaders was to establish an aristocracy, and perhaps a monarchy, and if we may judge from very recent utterances the plan is not abandoned. To this end, as well as to secure their independence, they have sought an alliance with several monarchical powers, and have been willing to place themselves under their protection without much scruple about conditions provided their independence could be gained.

Should the rebellion therefore succeed, and the plan of the Southern oligarchy be consummated, popular government throughout the world would thereby receive a double blow, in the dismemberment of that system of government, where it has now its fairest illustra tion, and in the establishment of aristocratic institutions in its stead over a large portion of the territory of the

United States, and over several millions of the people now embraced within its legitimate rule.*

TO PERPETUATE NEGRO SLAVERY.

10. And finally, this is a rebellion whose chief prompting impulse, at its inception and through its whole progress, has been the security, the expansion of the area, and the perpetuation, of human bondage.

That the slavery of the negro race, as the stimulating power, is the foundation on which the whole superstruc ture of this rebellion rests, is a fact patent to the eyes of all men. But as we reserve this point for a separate chapter, to be canvassed when we come to speak of the causes of the rebellion, we shall not dwell upon it here. We barely mention it now as completing the summation and forming the climax in the catalogue of those elements, -all of which we have not attempted to enumerate,-which give a special character to the rebellion, and stamp it as monstrous and diabolical without a parallel in the history of mankind.

When we speak of negro slavery as being at the bottom of the rebellion, we are aware that this is denied. The proof of our position, however, to be given hereafter, will be found in Southern testimony which cannot be confuted. We are also aware that other causes are assigned, the chief of which are: that the rebellion is the scheme of dis

* No man better understands the character and aims of the rebellion and its leaders than Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, a candidate for the Vice-Presidency. In a speech at Nashville, June 10, 1864, he said: "One of the chief elements of this rebellion, is the opposition of the slave aristocracy to being ruled by men who have risen from the ranks of the people. This aristocracy hated Mr. Lincoln because he was of humble origin, a rail-splitter in early life. One of them, the private secretary of Howell Cobb, said to me one day, after a long conversation, We people of the South will not submit to be governed by a man who has come up from the ranks of the common people, as Abe Lincoln has.' He uttered the essential feeling and spirit of this Southern rebellion."

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