PIERCE'S ADMINISTRATION-1853-1857.

Franklin Pierce, the fourteenth president of the United States, was inaugurated March 4th, 1853.

The most exciting question that arose during Pierce's term related to the organization of a vast region in the interior of the continent into two territories, to be called respectively Nebraska and Kansas. The slavery agitation was revived again in all its strength. The bill for organizing these territorial governments passed both houses, and after receiving the signature of the president, became a law. The question of slavery or freedom was left to its occupants to decide, when they should seek admission into the union as states.

BUCHANAN'S ADMINISTRATION-1857-1861.

March 4th, 1857, Franklin Pierce was succeeded by James Buchanan, the democratic candidate. The two great political parties, into which the people were divided, were the whigs and democrats. But after the Missouri compromise was repealed a new party was formed, styled republican. It was composed chiefly of those who had formerly belonged to the whig party. The republicans were opposed to the extension of slavery into free territory; and yet maintained that Congress had no right to interfere with it in the slave states. The country was violently agitated by the slavery question throughout Buchanan's term. The excitement reached its highest pitch in October, 1859, when John Brown, with fifteen white and five colored men, seized the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, with the view of establishing the freedom of the slaves by force of arms. Federal troops were sent to suppress the insurrection. Thirteen of the invaders were killed. Brown and the remainder were captured, tried, convicted of treason, and were executed December 2d, under the laws of Virginia. The southern leaders attempted to implicate the people of the north in this mad enterprise, and the bitterness of feeling existing between them was greatly increased.

During the close of Buchanan's administration, preparations were made for the rebellion which soon followed. Cobb, Thompson, and Floyd, members of his cabinet, took an active part in

the secession of the slave states. Floyd, the secretary of war, sent United States arms and munitions of war to the southern states.

LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION.

On the 4th of March, 1861, Chief Justice Taney administered the oath of office to Abraham Lincoln, the president elect of the United States. The leaders of the democratic party in the south claimed that Mr. Lincoln was the representative of the so-called "abolitionists," who now expected, through him, to abolish the institution of slavery from the United States. They, therefore, made his election a pretext for attempting to dissolve the union, and establish a southern confederacy with slavery as its corner stone.

At the time agreed upon, the politicians in the several states met in convention, and, without consulting the people, passed the ordinance of secession from the United States. South Carolina took the lead on the 20th of December, 1860, in a convention at Charleston, and her action was imitated by the following states, in order, namely: Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee. On the 4th of February a convention assembled at Montgomery, Alabama, and established a "southern confederacy,' "with the title of Confederate States of America. Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, was chosen president, and Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, vice president of the "confederacy." The conspirators immediately raised an army to sustain their revolt, and seized all forts, arsenals, ships, arms, and other government property which they could lay hold of.

It had been the intention of the conspirators from the first to take possession of Forts Sumter and Moultrie, in Charleston harbor, especially Sumter, as it was the stronger. (See view No. 3133.) Major Robert Anderson, who was stationed at that point, suspected their design, and removed his garrison from Fort Moultrie to Sumter. At this, the rebels were enraged, and immediately determined to bombard the fort. They cut off all communication between the garrison and its friends, and

demanded the surrender of the fort to the authorities of the state. On the refusal of Anderson to surrender, General P. G. T. Beauregard, who had raised a large army, prepared to seize the fort. On the 12th of April, 1861, the fort was assaulted, and its interior fired. Anderson held out as long as he was able, but his supplies having become exhausted, "he evacuated the fort on the 14th, carrying with him the garrison flag."

It was while the preparations for the attack upon Fort Sumter were going on that president Lincoln was inaugurated. He declared his intention to execute the laws of the country and protect the property of its citizens. As soon as tidings of the assault upon Sumter reached Washington, the president issued a call for seventy-five thousand men, to serve for three months in quelling the rebellion, and in less than twenty days nearly two hundred thousand had volunteered, and about forty millions of dollars had been subscribed by the loyal people of the north for the purpose of carrying on the war. Then a contest was begun, which, “in numbers engaged, territorial extent of operations, and destructive engines used," is unparalleled in the history of the world.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE CIVIL WAR.

1861.

The condition of the national army at the commencement of the war was extremely unfavorable. It consisted of only sixteen thousand men, the greater part of whom were on the western border, holding the Indians in check, and at least one-half of the entire land force of the United States was surrendered by General Twiggs to the "authorities of Texas," one of the revolted states. The naval force consisted of but ninety vessels, bearing twenty-four hundred guns and but seven thousand men. These, however, at the beginning of the war were all in foreign waters, with the exception of one steamship bearing twenty-five guns, and a small relief ship of two guns. John B. Floyd, the former secretary of war, had caused most of the arms to be taken from the forts in the northern states to those in the slave states. From this, it will be seen, that almost every instrument which might have been employed for the protection of the government, had been put away from its control by the conspirators.

From the beginning, the conspirators had determined to gain possession of the capital, and it was now in great danger of being seized. As a movement preparatory to the seizure of Washington, the navy yard at Gosport, and the arsenal and armory at Harper's Ferry were attacked by the insurgents. Not being able to hold them, the commander of the national forces set fire to them, and evacuated Harper's Ferry on the 18th, and Gosport on the 21st of April. On the 19th of the same month, the sixth Massachusetts regiment passed through Baltimore on its way to Washington, and was attacked by a mob of ten thousand men. Two of its number were killed, and one mortally wounded. This was the first blood shed in the

great conflict. A monument to the memory of the two who fell as the first victims of the rebellion, was erected in Lowell, Massachusetts. (See view No. 6617.)

On account of the entensive preparations which the conspirators had made, and the increasing strength of the conspiracy, the president issued a call for over sixty-four thousand additional troops for the army and eighteen thousand for the navy "to serve during the war."

Baltimore was seized by a detachment from the United States forces under General Benjamin F. Butler, and troops after that passed through the city without molestation. The city of Washington was occupied by a large body of national troops under General Winfield Scott, and no more trouble was anticipated from the rebels in that quarter. Up to the time that congress assembled, July 4th, there had been, besides the three months troops, two hundred and thirty thousand men enlisted, and on the 10th congress appropriated five hundred millions of dollars for defraying the expenses of the war, and authorized the president to call for five hundred thousand more men. On the 20th of the same month, the seat of the confederate government was removed from Montgomery to Richmond, Virginia.

On the 24th of May occurred the first entrance by loyal troops into a rebellious state. Alexandria and Arlington Heights, in Virginia, were seized by United States forces. The first commander who entered Alexandria was Colonel E. E. Ellsworth, at the head of his gallant New York Fire Zouaves. He was shot on the same day by the proprietor of the "Marshall House," in that city. (See views No. 2294 and No. 2295.)

The seat of war was soon extended as far west as Missouri, but that state was rescued from the hands of the conspirators by the energetic Captain Nathaniel Lyon, aided by his troops and the loyal citizens. The first battle after the declaration of war by the United States government, was fought on the 3d of June at Philippi, Barbour county, Virginia. A body of national forces, commanded by Colonel B. F. Kelley, assaulted and defeated a detachment of seventeen hundred confederate soldiers. General Butler, who was in command at Fortress Monroe,