well upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry any of you, in hot haste, to a step which you would never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking time; but no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; while the new Administration will have no immediate power, if it would, to change either. If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied, hold the right side in the dispute, there still is no single good reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulty.

"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect, and defend it.'

"I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this

broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

LINCOLN'S CABINET.

The Inaugural was well received by the people of the North quite generally and also by those of the Border States; but the "Southern heart" had been "fired," and the people of that section were coerced by their hot-headed leaders into most cruel and unjustifiable rebellion. Meantime, President Lincoln proceeded to administer the government with patience and wisdom. He selected a cabinet of eminent men in the party, a majority of whom had been his competitors for the nomination at Chicago, namely: William H. Seward, of New York, Secretary of State; Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, Secretary of the Treasury; Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania, Secretary of War; Gideon Welles, of Connecticut, Secretary of the Navy; Caleb B. Smith, of Indiana, Secretary of the Interior; Edward Bates, of Missouri, Attorney General; Montgomery Blair, of Maryland, Postmaster General. ́

CHAPTER III.

HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.

(CONTINUED.)

General History of the Party During the War-Emancipation - The Amendments to the Constitution-The Campaign of 1846-The Balti- 15 > more Platform-The Cleveland Convention-The Democratic Convention -The Democratic Convention and Platform-The Canvass-The Death of President Lincoln-Andrew Johnson-His Treachery and Impeachment-Reconstruction Commenced.

From this time forth until the close of the war of the rebellion, the history of the Republican party is so interwoven with the history of the Union itself that it would be impossible to separate the

Called by the people to the conduct of affairs during this momentous era in the history of the country, the policy of the party was necessarily engrafted into the conduct of the war and the material, financial, and legislative measures of the stirring and exceptional times. That the administration of affairs during this national crisis was in the main highly successful, the event of the war is ample demonstration. For not only was the Union saved, but the credit of the nation was also constantly maintained, so that notwithstanding the war, the people continued to be prosperous, and remain highly prosperous to this day. The soldiers and sailors were promptly paid. There never was any