men face to face, and saw them intimately during the time that tried men's souls, is already small, and growing smaller; and it is a duty to record the impressions and to narrate the facts of those times and of those relations.

The election of Abraham Lincoln was brought about by a dissension in the Democratic party. It was divided, and the Republican party was united, and the consequence was his election. The great question at issue in that election, although I do not think it was formally stated in the platforms of the parties, was this: Shall the owners of slaves enjoy the right of taking their slaves into the Territories of the United States that are now free, and keeping them there? The slave-owners claimed that right.

Slaves were property. They were like other property, and why should their owners be denied the right of taking their property into the Territories, when a Northern man could take his property - his horses, his oxen, whatever he possessed? The slaves were their oxen; they were their chattels; and they insisted that they ought to have the right of taking them into the Territories, and keeping them there as slaves. That was the fundamental question of the election. And when Mr. Lincoln was elected the South said: "Now we are denied this

right, we will break up the government; we will secede; we will withdraw." That right, too, they claimed as a constitutional principle. No Northerner had claimed it, though some ardent partizans

had threatened it; but several of the

Southern States now set it up as an

as an original, inalienable right. They claimed that the refusal to them of the right to take their property with them when they went to live in one of the new Territories was sufficient occasion for the withdrawal from the Union of the slaveholding States, and for the breaking up of the government.

That question was to be determined by war, and as soon as Abraham Lincoln was elected they began to prepare for war; and when he became President we began, on our side, to prepare for war. Previous to his inauguration there had been no preparation. When Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated as President his first act was to name his cabinet; and it was

a common remark at the time that he

had

put into the cabinet every man who had competed with him for the nomination in the Republican National Convention. The first in importance, in consequence, was William H. Seward, of New York, who had been Mr. Lincoln's most prominent competitor. It had been feared by many of those who were opposed to Mr. Seward's friends-he had no personal opposition, but some of his friends had a good deal—it was feared by those who were opposed to his friends that if he became President his friends would run the government, and run it for purposes that all might not approve. He was made Secretary of State.

It is worth while to notice this: the

great opposition against Mr. Seward was because he was a New Yorker, and the Republican party in New York was under the control, more or less decided, of what is called a "boss." And they said there should n't be any boss, but that the party should direct itself. Well, exactly what that means I have not been able to understand. An army without a general is of no use, and a ship without a captain does n't get navigated safely. I notice, too, that the class of politicians who are most strenuous against bosses are those who are not able to control for themselves the boss who happens to be in power in their district or their State. At any rate, that objection, managed by skillful politicians, and aided by Mr. Lincoln's per