the nomination of Abraham Lincoln secured his election. His history is remarkable. His father died when he was a child. He had only six months' schooling. When a little boy he earned his own living by wielding an axe, driving a cart, shepherding flocks, and afterwards working on a river-steamer. Then he took to rail-splitting, and then was clerk in a store, all the while educating himself. He was chosen a member of the parliament of his State; then became a barrister; then was sent to Congress. An avowed opponent of slavery, he was adopted by the Abolitionists. Pledging himself to abide by constitutional law, and under that law to prevent the extension of slavery into the Territories, he was adopted by the Republicans.

The election of 1860 placed him by a large majority at the head of the poll. The news no sooner reached Charleston than the Federal flag was hauled down, and that of the State run up in its place. At a great meeting it was resolved that as the North had elected a president whose opinions and purposes were hostile to Slavery, South Carolina seceded from the Union. Federal fort was seized, and the Federal Major Anderson retired to Fort Sumter. Other States soon followed the example of South Carolina, and preparations were made for war.

But before Mr. Lincoln came into office, treason in the cabinet had been promoting the secession. Mr. Toucey, in the navy department, had dispersed the fleets, and

Mr. Floyd, in the army department, had transferred military stores to Southern arsenals, appropriated public moneys, and put Southern partizans into offices of trust. Thus the Southerners gained a great advantage at the breaking out of the war, having possession of government property, and being able to carry forward their designs for some time unchecked.

The first act of war was the firing into a Federal steamer while carrying supplies to Fort Sumter, in January, 1861. In March the new President was inaugurated. In his address he declared that he had no lawful right and no inclination to interfere with slavery where it existed, and that he would maintain inviolate the rights of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment. But this had no effect in staying the progress of secession. In April Fort Sumter was bombarded, and Virginia joined the Confederacy. In July occurred the Federal defeat at Bull Run; in August the indecisive. battle at Springfield; in September the Federal victory at Somerville; in October the Confederate victory at Leesburg. In November took place the affair of the Trent. Thank God that we were then preserved from being carried into the strife!

The present year 1862 opened amidst mutual preparation for continued conflict. In February Fort Donelson and the city of Nashville was taken by the Federals. In March the Confederate Ram Merrimac destroyed two

Federal ships at the mouth of the James river. In April Island No. 10 surrendered to the Federals, and New Orleans fell into the hands of General Butler. During April and May many fierce battles were fought before Richmond. In June the besieging army suffered a sanguinary defeat; after which McClellan changed his base of operations, but was soon compelled to retire altogether from the Confederate capital, leaving behind him the bodies of tens of thousands who had perished either in battle or from pestilence. By rapid marches, the Confederate Generals Lee and Jackson were enabled to attack the Federal army under Pope before his junction with McClellan, and on August 29, the Confederates gained their second victory of Bull Run. The Federal army then retreated beyond the Potomac, and fell back on Washington. The Confederates entered Maryland and advanced towards Baltimore; but not receiving from the Marylanders the support they expected, and being severely handled by McClellan, they recrossed the Potomac into Virginia. After spending several hundred millions of pounds sterling, and after sacrificing several hundred thousands of precious lives, the two great armies still confront each other. A civil war on such a scale, the world has never witnessed. Humanity stands aghast at the contemplation of it. Piety lifts up her hands in supplication and says--" How long, O Lord, how long!"

I.

HAD THE SOUTH A RIGHT TO SECEDE?

If they had, it was either a constitutional or a revolutionary right. Had they a constitutional right? If so, this was derived either from the fundamental principles of all government, or from the peculiar constitution of the United States. Do the fundamental principles of government give the right to any section of a nation at its own option to secede from that nation? If a province may do this, so may a county, so may a town. Scotland, Wales, Ireland, might severally separate from Great Britain; then Yorkshire, or Surrey, or this borough of Southwark! There could be no such thing as nationality were such secession to be recognized as lawful. What security would there be for the payment of debts incurred by the nation, if any portion of that nation might, by secession, escape its share of the liability? Who would advance money on such terms? What dependence could be placed on any national engagement? In case of war, the province or city most threatened might secede and make a separate treaty with the foe, or declare its neutrality; and where then would be national safety? The claim of an integral part of an empire, when union appears to itself no longer desirable, to secede without the general consent of the empire of which it forms a part, is destructive to all nationality.

But does the peculiar constitution of the United States give a special right of secession? It has been maintained that the several States composing the Union, retain their individual sovereignty. They have their local governors and parliaments, and as by their own decree they originally joined the Union, so, it is said, by a reversal of that decree, they may separate. If so, as we have just shown, the United States never constituted a nation. To unite with such an understanding was not to unite. A constitution with such a proviso would be self-destructive.

Therefore

If one State may secede from the rest, it is obvious that two States may agree to do the same. also a majority may agree to secede from the minority. Therefore also all the States but one, may combine to secede from that one. That is to say, according to this notion, any single State may at any time be expelled from the Union without its own consent. This unavoidably follows from the right of any single State to secede. Again we say that a constitution with such a proviso would be self-destructive.

It is not the fact that the States retained their sovereign rights uncurtailed. They retained those in respect of which they did not combine: but those which they surrendered as individual States and handed over to the central Government, they had no longer any right to exercise. General taxation for general purposes, coinage, postage, tariffs, peace and war, treaties with foreign