Mr. Lincoln received them in a manner at once graceful and possessed. This closed his first day at the capital. Thereafter he was to enter upon the thorny field of administration. A Cabinet was to be chosen, Ministers to be selected, a settled policy to be drawn out of that fearful distraction. The brief interval of ten days prior to his inauguration, was to be the most trying of his experience; for the claims of persons to posts of honor the rights of sections-the harmonization of conflicting interests-the disposition of places demanding a peculiar fitness-all were among those minor annoyances of administration which rendered the yoke any thing but easy to bear."

On Wednesday, the 27th, the Mayor and Common Council of the city, waited upon Mr. Lincoln, and tendered him a welcome. He replied to them as follows:

"MR. MAYOR:-I thank you, and through you the municipal authorities of this city who accompany you, for this welcome. And as it is the first time in my life since the present phase of politics has presented itself in this country, that I have said any thing publicly within a region of country where the institution of slavery exists, I will take this occasion to say, that I think very much of the ill-feeling that has existed and still exists, between the people in the sections from which I came, and the people here, is dependent upon a misunderstanding of one another. I therefore avail myself of this opportunity to assure you, Mr. Mayor, and all the gentlemen present, that I have not now, and never have had, any other than as kindly feelings towards you as the people of my own section. I have not now, and never have had, any disposition to treat you in any respect otherwise than as my own neighbors. I have not now any purpose to withhold from you any of the

benefits of the Constitution, under any circumstances, that I would not feel myself constrained to withhold from my own neighbors; and I hope, in a word, that when we shall become better acquainted, and I say it with great confidence, we shall like each other the more. I thank you for the kindness of tnis reception."

On the following evening the Republican Association tendered him a delightful serenade, at the conclusion of which, he made the following remarks to the assembled crowd:

"MY FRIENDS :—I suppose that I may take this as a compli ment paid to me, and as such, please accept my thanks for it. I have reached this city of Washington under circumstances considerably differing from those under which any other man has ever reached it. I am here for the purpose of taking an official position amongst the people, almost all of whom were politically opposed to me, and are yet opposed to me as I suppose. I propose no lengthy address to you. I only propose to say, as I did on yesterday, when your worthy Mayor and Board of Aldermen called upon me, that I thought much of the ill-feeling that has existed between you and the people of your surroundings, and that people from amongst whom I came, has depended, and now depends, upon a misunderstanding.

"I hope that, if things shall go along as prosperously as 1 believe we all desire they may, I may have it in my power to remove something of this misunderstanding; that I may be enabled to convince you, and the people of your section of the country, that we regard you as in all things our equals, and in all things entitled to the same respect and the same treatment that we claim for ourselves; that we are in nowise disposed, if it were in our power, to oppress you, to deprive you of any of your rights under the Constitution of the United States, or even narrowly to split hairs with you in regard to those rights, but are determined to give you, as far

as lies in our hands, all your rights under the Constitution—not grudgingly, but fully and fairly. I hope that, by thus dealing with you, we will become better acquainted, and be better friends. And now, my friends, with these few remarks, and again returning my thanks for this compliment, and expressing my desire to hear a little more of your good music, I bid you good night."

This was the latest of Mr. Lincoln's public utterances previous to his inauguration.

CHAPTER IX.

FROM THE INAUGURATION TO THE EXTRA SESSION OF CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1861.

The Inaugural Address.-Mr. Lincoln's first Cabinet.-Changes in the Departments. Difficulties which surrounded the new Administration.— The attack on Fort Sumter.-Its effect, North and South.-The President's Proclamation.-The Northern States rally to the aid of the Government.-The troubles at Baltimore.-Mr. Lincoln's answer to the Committee of the Virginia Convention.-Preparations for War.— Foreign policy of the Administration.

ON the 4th of March, 1861, Mr. Lincoln took the oath and assumed the duties of the Presidential officeduties which he had rightly characterized, on the eve of his departure from his home at Springfield, as " "greater than had devolved upon any other man since the days of Washington." The conspiracy, which for thirty years had been sapping the virtue, and weakening the strength of the Republic, was now ready to throw off the mask, and to astonish the incredulous people of the North, and of the world, with the full development of a treason, such, as for extent, perfidy, and malignity, has never before been equalled in history.

The administration of James Buchanan, with its intensely southern sway in all branches of the National Governinent, was now at an end. During the four months that had intervened since the election of Mr. Lincoln, not a moment had been lost by the leaders of the now clearly developed scheme of revolt, in making energetic

So well had they

preparation for its consummation. succeeded, by the aid of bold treason or of inert complicity at the national capital, that they felt assured of the full attainment of their object, almost without the hazard of a single campaign. While professing, however, to believe in the right of peaceable secession, and proclaiming their desire to be left unmolested in the execution of their revolutionary purposes, the chief conspirators were well aware that this immunity could only be gained by such use of the remaining days of the outgoing administration that the crisis should already be passed, or resistance to their treason be utterly ineffectual, when the new administration should begin. While industriously collecting the materials of war, they yet spared no efforts to bring about such a state of things as should insure either peaceful submission to their will, or a sure vantage ground for an appeal to arms.

In spite, however, of all that had been done by the arch-conspirators, to "fire the Southern heart," to the support of the proposed rebellion, "the people of the slave-holding States were by no means a unit in its support. Seven of those States, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Florida, and Louisiana, had passed secession ordinances and united in the establishment of a hostile Confederacy; but in nearly all of them a considerable portion of the people were opposed to the movement, while in all the remaining slaveholding States a very active canvass was carried on between the friends and the opponents of secession. In Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee especially, the Government of the United States was vindicated, and its