" CHAPTER XIV. THE CIVIL WAR. What is the wail that shakes the land, clouding the face of day, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, sixteenth President of the United States, was born in Kentucky on the 12th of February, 1809. At the early age of seven he was taken with his father's family to Southern Indiana, where his youthful days were passed in poverty, hardship and toil. On becoming of age he left the farm and river life, removed to Illinois and studied law. He became brilliant in his profession, was elected to the legislature of his adopted State, and later was elected to Congress. He became nationally prominent in 1858, when as the opponent of Stephen A. Douglas, he canvassed the State of Illinois, for the United States Senate. His tilt with Mr. Douglas showed him to be one of the strongest debaters of the country. In the Presidential canvass of 1860, Abraham Lincoln of Illinois became the Republican candidate for the highest office within the gift of the American people. The vital principle of this party was opposition to the extension of slavery. In April of the same year, the Democratic convention assembled at Charleston, South Carolina, but the Southern delegates withdrew from the assembly. The Northern delegates adjourned to Baltimore and chose Stephan A. Douglas, of Illinois, as their standard bearer. The Southern delegates from the South however, returned to Baltimore in the June following, and selected John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky as their leader. The American party chose John Bell of Tennessee, as their candidate. The contest resulted in the election of Mr. Lincoln to the office of President. The leaders of the South had declared that the choice of Lincoln for the Presidency would be a just cause for the dissolution of the American Union. A majority of the Cabinet and a large number of Senators and Representatives in Congress were advocates of disunion. It was seen that all the departments of the Government would soon pass under the control of the Republican party. James Buchanan was not himself a disunionist; but he declared himself not armed with the Constitutional power to prevent secession by force. The interval, therefore, between the election and inauguration of Mr. Lincoln was seized by the Southern leaders of the secession element, as the fitting time to dissolve the Union. The work of secession began in South Carolina, on the 17th of December, 1860; a convention met at Charleston, and after three days passed an Ordinance that the union hitherto exist ing between South Carolina and the other States was dissolved. The sentiment spread over the South with great rapidity. By February 1, 1861, six other States-Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas--had all passed Ordinances of Secession. Nearly all the Senators and Representatives of these States resigned their seats in Congress and gave themselves to the disunion cause. In the Secession conventions a few of the speakers denounced. disunion as bad and ruinous. In the convention of Georgia, Mr. Stephens, afterwards Vice President of the Confederate States, undertook to prevent the secession of his State. He delivered a great oration, in which he defended the theory of secession, but spoke against it on the ground that the measure was impolitic, ununion, and likely to prove disastrous. On the 4th of February, 1861, delegates from six of the seceded States convened at Montgomery, Alabama, and formed a newGovernment, called the "Confederate States of America." On the 8th the Government was organized by electing Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, as Provisional President, and Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, as Vice President. A few days before a Peace Conference met at Washington and proposed certain amendments to the Constitution But Congress gave it little attention, and the Conference adjourned. 239 fed the The country seemed on the brink of destruction. Our army was on remote 4 The new Cabinet was soon organized, with William H. Seward, of New York, as Secretary of the State. S. P. Chase, of Ohio, was chosen Secretary of the Treasury, and Simon Cameron, Secretary of War, but he, in the following January. was succeeded in office by Edwin M. Stanton. The Secretaryship of the Navy was conferred on Gideon Welles. In his inaugural address and first official papers President Lincoln indicated the policy of the new administration by his purpose to repossess the forts, arsenals and public property which had been seized by the Southern authorities. It was with this parpose that the first military preparations were male In the meantime, on the 12th of March, an effort was made by com missioners of the seceded States to can frm the Tabel States Government a recognition of their bogendos bu their attempt met with failure. The government the maur a second movement to reinforce the garrison of Fe and with that came the actual beginning of CTE Major Robert Anderson held the deases of Curren Harbor with a force of only seventy-nine en Es werde deemed it prudent to abandon Fort More on aseouts of the weakness of his garrison, and enter For The Cu federates had erected powerful batteries about the Eaton and their volunteers poured into the city. As I v by the Southern authorities that the Fent Government would rs of the two into pro the each tion. Con the sue. pact nion lged that at a that and lifi ary. rth the the ates are t of hest and and ost the hole the reinforce the forts, they determined to prevent the movement, by compelling the surrender of Major Anderson. Hence, on April 11, General Beauregard, the Confederate commander of Charleston, sent a flag to Fort Sumter demanding an evacuation. Major Anderson informed him in reply that he would defend the American flag, and hold the fortress. Accordingly the next morning the first gun was fired from a Confederate battery, and after a terrific bombardment of thirty-four hours duration, the fort was set on fire, reduced to ruins, and forced to surrender. Three days after the destruction of Fort Sumter, Mr. Lincoln issued a call for seventy-five thousand volunteers to serve for three months, to exterminate the secession movement. Virginia seceded from the Union two days later. Arkansas seceded on May 6, and North Carolina followed on the 20th of the same month. In Tennessee there was a strong feeling against disunion, and it was not until June 8, that a Secession Ordinance could be adopted. The movement in Missouri resulted in Civil War, whilst in Kentucky the authorities assumed a neutral position. The people of Maryland divided into hostile factions. Massachusetts volunteers were forwarded for the defense of the Union on the 19th of April, but as they were passing through Baltimore they were attacked by the citizens and three men killed. Thus the first blood of the war was shed on Maryland soil. Already a body of Confederate soldiers had captured the United States Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, and on April 20th the Confederates secured possession of the great Navy Yard at Norfolk, Virginia. The captured property now in Confederate hands amounted to ten millions of dollars. Washington City was excited, from the fact that it was in danger of being captured, pillaged and destroyed by fire. Another call for eighty-three thousand soldiers was made by President Lincoln on the 3d of May; to serve for a term of three years or during the war. The venerable General Winfield Scott was made Commander-in-chief of the Union army. The Southern ports were blockaded by war ships. There was boundless activity and enthusiasm in the Southern States. The Confed erate Congress adjourned from Montgomery to convene on the 20th of July at Richmond. Jefferson Davis and the officers of his Cabinet had assembled there to direct the affairs of the Confederate Government. Such was the position of the two opposing powers early in June, 1861 An examination into the causes which produced the great Civil War is now appropriate. The most general and original cause of the Civil War in the United States was that the people of the North and South each placed a different construction upon the National Constitution. A difference of opinion had existed always as to how the Constitution was to be understood. The relation between the States and the General Government was the question at issue. One party held that the National Constitution is a compact between sovereign States, and for certain reasons the Union may be dissolved; that the sovereignty of the nation is lodged in individual States and not in the Central Government; that Congress can exercise no other than delegated powers, that a State, feeling aggrieved, may annul an Act of Congress; that the highest allegiance of the citizen is to his own State, and afterwards to the general Government, and that acts of nullification and disunion are justifiable, honorable and revolutionary. This was the view held in the Southern States. In the Northern States the other party held that under the Constitution the Union of the States cannot be dissolved, that the power of tho nation is vested in the Central Government; that the States are subordinate; that the Acts of Congress, until they are repealed or decided unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States, are binding on the States; that the highest allegiance of the citizen is due the general Government and not to his own State, and that all attempts at nullification and disunion are in their nature disloyal and treasonable. Hence, from the preceding views, arose an issue the most terrible that ever perplexed a Nation. It struck right into the vitals of our Government. It threatened to undo the whole Civil structure of the United States, with each renewal of the |