plainly showed that madness had usurped the throne of reason, and that "those whom the Gods wish to destroy they first make mad."

On the 3d of January, 1861, Forts Pulaski and Jackson, in the harbor of Savannah, were taken possession of by State troops, by order of the Governor of Georgia, under the pretext of preventing them from falling into the hands of mobs!

On the 9th, the State Convention of Mississippi passed an ordinance of secession by a vote of eighty-four to fifteen.

On the 11th, the State Convention of Alabama passed an ordinance of secession by a vote of sixty-one to thirtynine, and invited the other slaveholding States to send delegates to a Convention to be held on the 4th day of February, in Montgomery, Alabama.

Soon after all the United States forts and arsenals along the Atlantic and Gulf coast and on the Mississippi river, with the mints, custom-houses and other Federal buildings in the South were seized. Batteries were erected on the Mississippi river, and its navigation obstructed. Beside the above States, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas seceded.

On the 4th, a Convention of the seceded States convened at Montgomery, Alabama, and elected Howell Cobb, the late Secretary of the Treasury, President.

On the 9th, the Southern Congress, at Montgomery, Alabama, elected Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, President, and Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia, Vice-President of the Southern Confederacy for one year. The Constitution of the United States, with amendments, was adopted.

On the 16th, Mr. Davis, at Montgomery, declared in a speech, that the South will hold her own, and force all who oppose them, "to smell Southern powder and feel Southern steel."

During this time, a little over two months only, the most bitter feeling of hatred and animosity was engen

dered against Northerners residing in the South, and school teachers and mistresses were shipped north, whipped, tarred and feathered, or hung, according to the whims or passions of the mobs. Merchants were robbed, honest men, who had resided among them for years, were notified to leave without time to collect their debts or dispose of their property. Traders on the Mississippi were driven from their barges by lawless mobs, their goods plundered and their lives jeopardized. Yet, while the military force of the United States could be used to drive squatters from their cabins on the Govern ment lands in Kansas in the middle of winter, the right of the Government to use it to protect its own property, sustain the supremacy of its laws, and suppress insurrection, was denied. Such is the deplorable course secession had run during the last days of Mr. Buchanan's Administration, and so far from raising his voice or hand to save our beloved Union from destruction, he encouraged them in their treason by his imbecility and silent acquisition, until at last, in a message to Congress, he actually denied the power of the Government under the Constitution to coerce the seceding States-i. e., to maintain the supremacy of its own laws.

And what was his Cabinet? The hot-bed of treason and secession! On the 8th of January, Jacob Thompson of Misssissippi, resigned his position as Secretary of the Interior, because aid was granted to Major Anderson, at Fort Sumter. The next day the Constitution, the Government organ at Washington, attacked Secretary Holt, for sending aid to Major Anderson, and defended Mr. Thompson for resigning, and the United States subtreasurer refused to pay the salaries to Major Anderson and his command. Howell Cobb, the Secretary of the Treasury resigned, and was chosen President of the Convention of the seceding States, convened at Montgomery, Alabama. John B. Floyd of Virginia, Secretary of War, after stripping the arsenals of the Northern States of their arms, ordnance, and ammunition, colleagued with

Russell, Bailey, and others in stealing over $6,000,000 worth of trust bonds, resigned, and on the 29th of February, the Grand Jury of the District of Columbia presented charges against him for mal-administration in office, and conspiring against the Government. And even Isaac Toucey of Connecticut, Secretary of the Navy, had ordered to foreign stations all the available vessels of the navy, leaving at home only the ships in ordinary. Can any one suppose that these chosen counsellors of the President, who daily debated at the meetings of the Cabinet the great questions that had agitated the country for so long a time, had succeeded in deluding Mr. Buchanan in regard to their real views and intentions? Can any one suppose that the leading statesmen of the South who always had free access to the White House, and were welcomed to the hospitalities of the President, could so utterly deceive him in regard to their designs? Could it be possible that a man of the ability of Mr. Buchanan, with his familiarity with the politics of the country, and long intercourse with the leading men of the nation, could have been blinded as to the intentions of the archtraitors and "fire-eaters" of the South? No! It requires too much credulity and charity to answer in the negative. But let us put the most charitable construction on his actions that we can, and what shall we say of them? That the poor old dotard was in the traces and could not kick out; that he was bound hand and foot and had not the strength to release himself, and that he quietly acquiesced in their treasonable designs, hoping that the Government would be reconstructed upon a firmer basis by those who had treason in their hearts. The great principle of popular suffrage was to be violated, the broad arena stretching to the Pacific, and far to the south was to be given up to human bondage. The African slave trade, with all its loathsome horrors, was to be re-opened, and for what? To preserve a dishonorable peace, that soon would be broken.

But, thank God, the Administration of Mr. Buchanan

was coming to a close, and through the dark clouds that empaled the Nation, a bright ray of hope shone upon the horizon as Abraham Lincoln appeared upon the ship of state and seized the helm.

The nation breathed freer, and patriots felt our Government was a reality, and not a rope of sand.

CHAPTER II.

SUMTER AND THE FLAG FIRED ON-THE AIM AND DESIGN OF THE LEADERS OF THE REBELLION-JUSTIFICATION OF THE COURSE OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN.

No President ever assumed the cares of State under more inauspicious circumstances than Mr. Lincoln did. Seven States had already seceded from the Union and were marshalling their armies to maintain their independ ence at the point of the bayonet, and the arch-traitors. were using all their insidious wiles to seduce the remaining slave States from their allegiance to the Federal Government. From the Forum, Pulpit and Press was proclaimed the foulest treason, and the boast made that the "Stars and Bars" would soon float in triumph over the National Capitol. A large portion of the army had been surrendered by General Twiggs, in Texas, the remainder of it was on the Pacific coast, or scattered through the Territories of Utah and New Mexico, or stationed on our distant frontiers, while six hundred men were the entire available force which the Government was able to concentrate at Washington to secure the peaceful inauguration of the President. All the available vessels of the navy were stationed in distant seas. Many of the purest patriots despaired of the Republic, foreign nations proclaimed its doom was sealed, and "hope for a season bade the world farewell," while the hallowed light of Liberty paled before the gathering storm. But the

steadfast chief heeded not the storm that swept across the land, but serene, firm and immovable, held aloft the lamp of hope, while he gathered the scattered strength of the Nation and matured his plans for its preservation. On the 11th of April, Leroy P. Walker, rebel Secretary of War, demanded the surrender of Fort Sumter, to which Major Anderson replied, that his sense of honor and his obligations to the Government prevented a com-, pliance. The next morning at two o'clock the rebel General Beauregard sent word to Major Anderson that if he would evacuate, he would not be fired upon, to which the Major replied, that, if not otherwise ordered or provisioned, he would be forced to evacuate by noon of the 15th inst. But the peaceful possession of the fort was not what the traitors desired; they wanted blood "to fire the Southern heart."

In two hours afterwards, the batteries and fortifications in Charleston harbor, seventeen in number, opened fire upon the fort, which was returned by Major Anderson, and kept up on both sides all day without harm on either side, excepting the dismounting of two of Anderson's guns. A slow fire was kept up all night, and resumed with great vigor early the next morning. At eight A. M., the officers' quarters took fire from a shell. Soon after a number of hand grenades and shells caught fire and exploded within the fort. At twelve o'clock, the whole roof of the barracks were in flames, and the magazine being in great danger, ninety barrels of gunpowder were taken out and thrown into the sea. The heat, smoke, and galling fire gradually exhausted the garrison, and nearly suffocated them. At one P. M., after sustaining an attack of thirty-three hours, the fort was surrendered, the garrison being permitted to carry away the flag and all company arms and private property. A salute of fifty guns was fired, and the glorious old flag was hauled down, and the emblem of liberty and hope of the down-trodden and oppressed of the world gave place to the flag of treason.