CHAPTER LIX.

LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION AND THE CIVIL WAR, 1861-1865.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN was a native of Kentucky, born on the

12th of February, 1809. At the age of seven he was taken to Southern Indiana, where his boyhood was passed in poverty and toil. On reaching his majority, he removed to Illinois, where he distinguished himself as a lawyer. He gained a national reputation in 1858, when, as the competitor of Stephen A. Douglas, he canvassed Illinois for the United States Senate. 2. The new cabinet was organized with William H. Seward of New York as secretary of state. Salmon P. Chase of Ohio was chosen secretary of the treasury, and Simon Cameron secretary of war; but he was soon succeeded by Edwin

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

M. Stanton. The secretaryship of the navy was conferred on Gideon Welles. In his inaugural address the President indicated his policy by declaring his purpose to repossess the forts and public

property which had been seized by the Confederates. On the 12th of March, an effort was made by the seceded States to obtain from the national government a recognition of their independence; but the negotiations failed. Then followed a second attempt on the part of the government to reinforce Fort Sumter.

3. The defences of Charleston were held by seventy-nine men under Major Robert Anderson. With this small force he retired to Fort Sumter. Confederate volunteers flocked to the city, and batteries were built about the harbor. The authorities of the Confederate States determined to anticipate the movement of the government by compelling Anderson to surrender. On the 11th of April, General P. T. Beauregard, commandant of Charleston, sent a flag to Sumter, demanding an evacuation. Major Anderson replied that he should defend the fortress. On the following morn

ing the first gun was fired from a Confederate battery; and a bombardment of thirty-four hours' duration followed. The fort was obliged to capitulate. The honors of war were granted to Anderson and his men.

4. Three days after the fall of Sumter the President issued a call for seventy-five thousand volunteers to serve three months in the overthrow of the secession movement. Two days later Virginia seceded from the Union. On the 6th of May, Arkansas followed, and then North Carolina, on the 20th of the month. In Tennessee there was a powerful opposition to disunion, and it was not until the 8th of June that a secession ordinance could be passed. In Missouri the movement resulted in civil war, while in Kentucky the authorities issued a proclamation of neutrality. The people of Maryland were divided into hostile parties.

5. On the 19th of April, when the Massachusetts volunteers were passing through Baltimore they were fired upon by the citizens, and three men killed. This was the first bloodshed of the war. On the day previous, a body of Confederate soldiers captured the armory of the United States at Harper's Ferry. On the 20th of the month, another company obtained possession of the great navy yard at Norfolk. The property thus captured amounted to fully ten millions of dollars. For a while, Washington city was in danger of being taken. On the 3d of May, the President issued a

call for eighty-three thousand soldiers to serve for three years or during the war. General Winfield Scott was made commanderin-chief. War ships were sent to blockade the Southern ports. In the seceded States there was boundless activity. The Southern Congress adjourned from Montgomery, to meet on the 20th of July, at Richmond. There Mr. Davis and the officers of his cabinet had assembled to direct the affairs of the government. So stood the antagonistic powers in the beginning of June, 1861. It is appropriate to look briefly into THE CAUSES of the conflict.

RECAPITULATION.

Sketch of Abraham Lincoln.-Organization of his cabinet.-His purpose to repossess the forts of the United States.-Preparations to reinforce Sumter.-Confederate movements in Charleston.- Bombardment and fall of Sumter. -The call for troops.-Secession of Virginia, Arkausas, North Carolina, and Tennessee. The soldiers attacked in Baltimore.-Capture of Harper's Ferry and the Norfolk navy yard.-Activity and preparations.-Davis and his cabinet at Richmond.

THE

CHAPTER LX.

CAUSES.

HE most general cause of the civil war in the United States was the different construction put upon the Constitution by the people of the North and the South. A difference of opinion existed as to how that instrument was to be understood. One party held that the Union of the States is indissoluble; that the States are subordinate to the central government; that the acts of Congress are binding on the States; and that all attempts at nullification and disunion are disloyal and treasonable. The other party held that the national Constitution is a compact between sovereign States; that for certain reasons the Union may be dissolved; that the sovereignty of the nation belongs to the individual States; that a State may

annul an act of Congress; that the highest allegiance of the citizen is due to his own State; and that nullification and disunion are justifiable and honorable.

2. This question struck into the very heart of the government. It threatened to undo the whole civil structure of the United States. In the earlier history of the country the doctrine of State sovereignty was most advocated in New England. Afterward the people of that section passed over to the advocacy of national sovereignty, while the people of the South took up the doctrine of State rights. As early as 1831, the right of nullifying an act of Congress was openly advocated in South Carolina. Thus it happened that the belief in State sovereignty became more prevalent in the South than in the North.

3. A second cause of the civil war was the different system of labor in the North and in the South. In the former section the laborers were freemen; in the latter, slaves. In the South the theory was that capital should own labor; in the North that both labor and capital are free. In the beginning all the colonies had been slaveholding. In the Eastern and Middle States the system of slavelabor had been abolished. In the North-western Territory slavery was excluded from the beginning. Thus there came to be a dividing line drawn through the Union. Whenever the question of slavery was agitated, a sectional division would arise between the North and the South. The danger arising from this source was increased by several subordinate causes.

4. The first of these was the invention of THE COTTON GIN. In 1793 Eli Whitney, of Massachusetts, went to Georgia, and resided with the family of Mrs. Greene, widow of General Greene. His . attention was directed to the tedious process of picking cotton by hand. So slow was the work that the production of upland cotton was profitless. Mr. Whitney succeeded in inventing a gin which astonished all beholders. From being profitless, cotton suddenly became the most profitable of all the staples. It was estimated that Whitney's gin added a thousand millions of dollars to the revenues of the Southern States. Just in proportion to the increased profitableness of cotton, slave-labor grew in demand and slavery became an important and deep-rooted institution.

5 From this time onward, there was constant danger of disunion. IN THE MISSOURI AGITATION of 1820-21, threats of dissolving the Union were freely made in both the North and the South. When the Missouri Compromise was enacted, it was the hope of Mr. Clay and his fellow-statesmen to save the Union by removing the slavery question from the politics of the country.

6. Next came THE NULLIFICATION ACTS of South Carolina. The Southern States had become cotton-producing; the Eastern States had given themselves to manufacturing. The tariff measures favored manufacturers at the expense of producers. Mr. Calhoun proposed to remedy the evil by annulling the laws of Congress; and another compromise was found necessary in order to allay the animosities which had been awakened.

7. THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS led to a renewal of the Agitation. Those who opposed the Mexican War did so because of the fact that thereby slavery would be extended. At the close of the war came an enormous acquisition of territory. Whether the same should be made into free or slaveholding States was the question next agitated. This controversy led to the passage of THE OMNIBUS BILL, by which the excitement was again allayed.

8. In 1854 THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA bill opened the question anew. Meanwhile, the character of the Northern and the Southern people had become quite different. In population and wealth the North had far outgrown the South. In 1860 Mr. Lincoln was

elected by the votes of the Northern States. The people of the South were exasperated at the choice of a chief-magistrate whom they regarded as hostile to their interests.

9. The third general cause of the war was the want of intercourse between the people of the North and the South. The great railroads ran east and west. Emigration flowed from the East to the West. Between the North and the South there was little travel or interchange of opinion. From want of acquaintance the people became estranged and jealous. They misrepresented each other's beliefs, and suspected each other of dishonesty and ill-will.

10. A fourth cause was the publication of sectional books. During the twenty years preceding the war, many works were published whose popularity depended on the animosity existing between the