care the Union is unbroken; and to the extent of my ability, I shall take that the laws of the Union shall be faithfully executed in all the States. . . . In doing this there need be no bloodshed . . . unless it is forced upon the National authority. . . . The power confided to me will be used to hold . . . the property and places belonging to the government, and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects there will be no invasion, no using of force against the people anywhere." [Then, recognizing the right of revolution, the deplorable loss from any division of the Union is set forth]: "Physically speaking, we cannot separate: we cannot remove our respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall between them. . . Intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue between them. Is it possible, then, to make that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory after separation than before? Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws? "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. . . . 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." Statesmen showered the new President with advice. Lincoln heard all patiently; but his real efforts were given Abraham to keeping in touch, not with "leaders," but with Lincoln the plain people whom he so well understood. His own eyes were set unwavering upon his goal - the preservation of the Union-while with unrivaled skill, he kept his finger on the Nation's pulse, to know how fast he might move toward that end. For a time he was railed at by noisy extremists, who would have had him faster or slower; but the silent masses responded to his sympathy and answered his appeal with love and perfect trust, and enabled him to carry through successfully the greatest task so far set for any American statesman.1 1 The country now paid heavily, through the wear upon its burdened chieftain, for its low tone toward the spoils system. Washington was thronged, beyond all precedent, with office seekers, who were "Republicans for revenue"; and the first precious weeks of the new administration had to go largely to settling petty personal disputes over plunder. Lincoln compared himself to a man busied in assigning rooms in a palace to importunate applicants, while the structure itself was THE CALL TO ARMS 531 Despite the seeming cowardice or apathy of Northern statesmen, the masses needed only a blow and a leader to rally them for the Union. South Carolina fired Fort Sumter on the flag, and Abraham Lincoln called the North to arms. From November to April, Major Anderson and sixty soldiers had held Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. In vain he had pleaded to Buchanan for reinforcements. In January, Buchanan made a feeble show of sending some; but the unarmed vessel, weakly chosen for the purpose, was easily turned back by Secessionist shells; and further efforts were soon made difficult by rising batteries whose construction Anderson's orders did not permit him to prevent. A month after taking office, Lincoln decided, against all his Cabinet, to send supplies to Anderson. The Confederates took this decision as a declaration of war, and attacked the fort. April 12, the bombardment of Sumter began; and thirty hours later, with the fortress in ruins, Major Anderson surrendered. The next day (April 15) the wires flashed over the country Lincoln's stirring call for seventyfive thousand volunteers. This call to arms brought a magnificent uprising of the North. Laborers, mechanics, business men, professional men, college boys and their learned teachers, And the shouldered muskets side by side. From Maine to call to arms California, devotion and love for the Union spoke with one mighty voice. Banks offered huge loans without security, and wealthy men placed their private fortunes at the disposal of the government. By July, 310,000 men were in the field. Before the close of 1861, the number was 660,000, enlisted for "three years or the war." Party distinctions in the North faded. Talk of compromise was drowned in the din of arms. Douglas, dying though he was, hastened gallantly to Lincoln's support; and Buchanan gave cordial aid. Lowell wrote of "that first gun at Sumter which burning over his head; and in 1862, when an old Illinois friend remarked on his careworn face, he exclaimed with petulant humor, "It isn't this war that's killing me, Judge: it's your confounded Pepperton postoffice!" brought the free States to their feet as one man"; and four years later, while sorrowing for his own glorious dead, he told again how "America lay asleep, like the princess of the fairy tale, enchanted by prosperity. But at the fiery kiss of war, the spell is broken, the blood tingles along her veins, and she awakens, conscious of her beauty and her sovereignty. What splendid possibilities has not our trial revealed, even to ourselves! What costly stuff whereof to make a Nation!" Second UNION AND CONFEDERACY IN 1862. The Confederacy sprang to arms with even greater unanimity. And now the remaining Slave States had to choose sides. Within six weeks the second tier tier of Slave (North Carolina and Virginia, Tennessee, ArkanStates sas) joined the Confederacy rather than join in attempts "to coerce sister States"; and the Confederate capital was moved from Montgomery to Richmond, within striking distance of Washington. secede 1 The people of the western counties in Virginia had been opposed to secession. When the State withdrew, they organized a separate State government, and (1863) were admitted to the Union as West Virginia. The legislature of Tennessee submitted the matter directly to the people; and the popular vote stood 105,000 to 47,000 (the eastern mountain counties, like their Virginia neighbors, containing a strong Union element). In Virginia the convention vote was two to one for THE CALL TO ARMS 533 The third tier of Slave States (Maryland and Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri) were the true "Border States.' Delaware was firm for the Union from the first; The Border and in spite of strong secession sentiment, the States others were finally kept in the Union by Lincoln's wise diplomacy and by swift action of Union armies, — though their inhabitants sent many regiments to swell the Southern ranks. Missouri would have joined the Confederacy except for vigorous measures by the many thousands of recent, freedom-loving German immigrants in St. Louis, who stood stoutly for the Union. The lines were drawn, twenty-two States against eleven. secession. There also the question was submitted to a popular vote; and the people sustained the convention by a vote of three to one- the opposition coming almost wholly from the western counties. A Virginian who had been a Unionist delegate in the convention was asked just afterwards - "What will the Union men of Virginia do?" "There are no Union men left in Virginia," came the swift reply. "We stand this day a united people. . . . We will give you a fight that will stand out on the page of history." CHAPTER XXXIV THE CIVIL WAR AT first the North expected confidently to end the conflict in three months - "by one decisive blow." From this dream the country awoke when the Union forces Bull Run were utterly routed at Bull Run (July 21) in an advance on Richmond. Then, in more wholesome temper, it settled down to a stern war. That war lasted four years, and was the most tremendous struggle the world had ever seen. To subdue the South two things were essential: (1) The seceding States must be invaded and conquered on their own soil; but this was plainly impossible unless (2) a cordon was first drawn about them, so that they could get no supplies from the outside world. Plans of To completely beleaguer the South, then, was the first task. On the land side, the overwhelming numbers of the North made this fairly easy. The Border States campaigns were quickly occupied, and the South was kept upon the defensive. She did make some daring raids into Kentucky and two formidable invasions across the Potomac that threw the North Atlantic cities into panic; but all these sorties were failures. The first one across the Potomac was turned back at Antietam, September 17, 1862; and the second, the "high-tide of the Confederacy," at Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863. To close the three thousand miles of sea coast was a more difficult matter. April 19, 1861, Lincoln declared it block The blockade aded; but this was little more than a statement of intention. Only twelve ships were at the government's command. The rest of the small navy of fortynine ships had fallen into Southern hands or was scattered |