Chap. IV. Nor does he appear to have been a man of quick or commanding judgment. But his understanding was robust, his character straightforward and steadfast, his sense of public duty keen and high; and these qualities, joined to a serene temper and a disposition singularly gentle and kind, enabled him to serve his country better than she might have been served by a far abler man. In politics he had been an "old Whig" and fervent admirer of Henry Clay, and was now a staunch but sober Republican. "I have no purpose," he had said, "directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." And he repeated these words in his Inaugural Address. But no man had more firmly opposed the extension of slavery into the Territories, or more unreservedly expressed the conviction that sooner or later it must perish in the States themselves. His Cabinet, formed immediately after his accession to office, was, of course, Republican; four of its members, indeed, had been proposed at the Chicago Convention as candidates for the Presidency; and the Secretaryship of State was assigned to Mr. Seward, a man of shining ability, who had headed the list of candidates until the third ballot, when the choice of the party fell on Mr. Lincoln.

Mr. Lincoln found the seven Confederated States in open and flagrant revolt from the Union. They had usurped its powers, removed its officers, seized its forts, stores, and money, and were levying and appropriating the duties which should have found their way into its treasury; they had organized a Government of their own, and insisted on their right to treat the United States as a foreign Power. They were preparing to raise an army and navy, and one of their forts had opened fire on a steam-ship hoisting the American ensign. To enforce the authority of the Union, or to

surrender it altogether, withdraw the remaining garri- Chap. IV. sons, and rest in the hope that time might dissolve the Confederacy and bring the seceders back again, were the two alternatives between which the choice really lay. Yet for a little while, perhaps, it might still be possible to temporize. Mr. Lincoln proposed to temporize; but his plan of action, which was stated somewhat obscurely in his Inaugural Address, was one which could hardly fail to lead straight to war :

"I consider that, in view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken, and, to the extent of my ability, I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the law of the Union is faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part; and I shall perform it, so far as practicable, unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisite means, or, in some authoritative manner, direct the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain. itself.

In doing this there need be no bloodshed or violence; and there shall be none, unless it be forced upon the national authority. The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the Government, and to collect the duties and imposts; but, beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere. Where hostility to the United States, in any interior locality, shall be so great and universal as to prevent competent resident citizens from holding the Federal offices, there will be no attempt to force obnoxious strangers among the people for that object. While the strict legal right may exist in the Government to enforce the exercise of these offices, the attempt to do so would be so irritating, and so nearly impracticable withal, I deem it better to forego, for the time, the uses of such offices.

"The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished in all parts of the Union."

In pursuance of this plan, he resolved, instead of withdrawing the garrison from Fort Sumter,-a place ascertained to be indefensible,-to provision it, or at least to make the attempt to do so.

It is uncertain at what time this decision was formed. Early in March, the Confederate Government

Chap. IV. had sent Commissioners to Washington with instructions to endeavour to arrange terms for a peaceable separation. They had applied, on the 12th March, for leave to present their credentials, and it was not until three weeks later that they received a formal answer, which was, as might be expected, a civil but peremptory refusal. This delay has never been fully explained : by some it has been ascribed to the officious interference of one of the Judges of the Supreme Court, who was a friend of the South-by others to vacillation-by others, again, to a deliberate design to gain time for preparation, whilst amusing the Confederates with a vain hope of being permitted to negotiate. Be this as it may, nothing appears to have been done before the 1st April. On that and the following day orders were sent to Brooklyn and Governor's Island to fit out several vessels with the utmost despatch; and between the 6th and the 10th, the ships following one another as they were got ready, an expedition put to sea and sailed southwards. It consisted of a large merchant-ship chartered by the Government and laden with provisions for Fort Sumter, and a small armed steam-cutter, the Harriet Lane, with two transports, full of men and military stores, attended by the steam-frigate Powhatan. These last appear to have been destined for Fort Pickens, in Alabama, the reinforcement of which was afterwards accomplished without difficulty. The gun-boats Pocahontas and Pawnee were at the same time dispatched from Norfolk.

Fort Sumter, three miles and a-half from Charleston, and commanding the entrance to the harbour, had been a constant object of jealousy and uneasiness to the Confederates, and of perplexity to the Federal Government ; and many informal communications bearing reference to it had passed to and fro, both before and after the accession of Mr. Lincoln. President Buchanan had steadily refused to abandon the fort, and asserted his resolution to

defend it against attack, both as a military post and as "public property" of the United States; and this had led to dissensions in his Cabinet, and furnished a pretext at least for the resignation of some of its disaffected members. The Confederates, on the other hand, had declared themselves resolved to regard any attempt to reinforce the garrison as a menace to their independence and an act of war. Early in January an unarmed steam-ship, the Star of the West, had been actually sent thither from New York with troops and stores, but was driven back by the batteries on Morris Island and Fort Moultrie, after having been ten minutes under fire; and the attempt was not renewed. The fort itself, a structure of solid masonry, some sixty feet high, rising sheer out of the water and capable of mounting 140 guns, was well adapted for its intended purpose,-defence against attacks from the sea. But it was now exposed to the fire of the powerful batteries, which, under the superintendence of Brigadier-General Beauregard, an engineer officer of Southern extraction formerly in the United States' service, had been completed with much labour and skill on both shores of the inlet; and it was further threatened on the side of the town by a floating battery, heavily armed. The garrison was small, their stock of ammunition low, and their provisions almost exhausted; and the number of guns available did not exceed forty-eight, many of which, being en barbette, were practically useless under a well-aimed vertical fire.

On the 8th April, before the whole of the relieving expedition had left New York, notice that provisions were about to be sent to the garrison, "peaceably, or otherwise by force," was delivered by an officer of the United States' army to the civil and military authorities at Charleston, by whom it was transmitted to the Confederate Secretary at War. The fort was summoned on the 11th, and by the afternoon of the 13th it was reduced, after a heavy but bloodless bombardment of

Chap. IV.

Chap. IV. many hours. Major Anderson capitulated on honourable terms, and was conveyed with his handful of soldiers to New York in the same vessel which had brought their intended supplies. The ships composing the expedition had appeared off the bar before the attack began, a gale blowing at the time; but they remained spectators of the combat, and did not venture, as indeed they could not usefully have done, within the range of the Confederate batteries.

With these events vanished instantly all hopes of a peaceable separation or a peaceable reunion, and no future historian will hesitate to date from them the commencement of the civil war. The sword was drawn, and all over the country it was thoroughly understood that the question whether the revolted States were to be regained by the Republic or lost to her for ever must now be decided by force.

On the day following that on which Fort Sumter had been evacuated, the following Proclamation, under the President's signature, was issued by the Government at Washington :

"PROCLAMATION.

"Whereas the laws of the United States have been for some time past and now are opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed, in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshals by law :

"Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution and the laws, have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth, the militia of the several States of the Union, to the aggregate number of 75,000, in order to suppress said combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed.

"The details for this object will be immediately communicated to the State authorities through the War Department.

"I appeal to all loyal citizens to favour, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honour, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union, and the perpetuity of popular Government, and to redress wrongs already long enough endured.