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past; and nothing would now satisfy them, short of the impossible.

They were not satisfied now with Lincoln's promise that the Government would not assail them-organized as, by this time, they were into a so-called Southern "Confederacy" of States-and they proceeded accordingly to assail that Government which would not assail them. They opened fire on Fort Sumter.

This was done, as has duly appeared, in the hope that the shedding of blood would not only draw the States of the Southern Confederacy more closely together in their common cause, and prevent the return of any of them to their old allegiance, but also to so influence the wavering allegiance to the Union, of the Border States, as to strengthen that Confederacy and equivalently weaken that Union, by their Secession.

Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas, of the Border States that were wavering, were thus gathered into the Confederate fold, by this policy of blood-spilling— carried bodily thither, by a desperate and frenzied minority, against the wishes of a patriotic majority.

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Virginia, especially, was a great accession to the Rebel cause. She brought to it the prestige of her great name. To secure the active coöperation of "staid old Virginia,' 'the Mother of Statesmen," in the struggle, was, in the estimation of the Rebels, an assurance of victory to their cause. And the Secession of Virginia for a time had a depressing influence upon the friends of the Union everywhere.

The refusal of West Virginia to go with the rest of the State into Rebellion, was, to be sure, some consolation; and the checkmating of the Conspirators' designs to secure to the Confederacy the States of Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri, helped the confidence of Union men. In fact, as long as the National Capital was secure, it was felt that the Union was still safe.

But while the Confederacy, by the firing upon Fort Sumter, and thus assailing that Government which Lincoln had promised would not assail the Rebels, had gained

much in securing the aid of the States mentioned, yet the Union Cause, by that very act, had gained more. For the echoes of the Rebel guns of Fort Moultrie were the signal for such an uprising of the Patriots of the North and West and Middle States, as, for the moment, struck awe to the hearts of Traitors and inspired with courage and hopefulness the hearts of Union men throughout the Land.

Moreover it put the Rebels in their proper attitude, in the eyes of the World-as the first aggressors-and thus deprived them, to a certain extent, of that moral support from the outside which flows from sympathy.

Those echoes were the signal, not only of that call to arms which led to such an uprising, but for the simultaneous calling together of the Thirty-seventh Congress of the United States in Extra Session-the Congress whose measures ultimately enabled President Lincoln and the Union Armies to subdue the Rebellion and save the Union -the Congress whose wise and patriotic deliberations resulted in the raising of those gigantic Armies and Navies, and in supplying the unlimited means, through the Tariff and National Bank Systems and otherwise, by which those tremendous Forces could be both created and effectively operated-the Congress which coöperated with President Lincoln and those Forces in preparing the way for the destruction of the very corner-stone of the Confederacy, Slavery itself.

CHAPTER XX.

LINCOLN'S TROUBLES AND TEMPTATIONS.

INTERFERENCE WITH SLAVERY, FORCED BY THE WAR-EDWARD EVERETT'S OPINION-BORDER-STATES DISTRUST OF LINCOLNIMPOSSIBILITY OF SATISFYING THEIR REPRESENTATIVES-THEIR JEALOUS SUSPICIONS AND CONGRESSIONAL ACTION-PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE OF KINDLY WARNING-STORMY CONTENTION IN CONGRESS CRITTENDEN'S ARGUMENT ON PROPERTY IN MANBORDER-STATES BID" FOR MR. LINCOLN THE NICHE IN THE TEMPLE OF FAME" OFFERED HIM-LOVEJOY'S ELOQUENT COUNTERBLAST-SUMNER (JUNE, 1862,) ON LINCOLN AND EMANCIPA

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TION-THE PRESIDENT HARRIED AND WORRIED-SNUBBED BY
BORDER STATESMEN-MC CLELLAN'S THREAT-ARMY-MISMAN-
AGEMENT-ARMING THE BLACKS-HOW THE EMANCIPATION
PROCLAMATION WAS WRITTEN-CABINET SUGGESTIONS-MILI-
TARY SITUATION REBEL ADVANCE NORTHWARD-LINCOLN,
AND THE BREAST-WORKS - WASHINGTON AND BALTIMORE
MENACED-ANTIETAM, AND THE FIAT OF FREEDOM-BORDER-
KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN CIRCLE,
Pages 474 to 500.

STATE DENUNCIATION
ETC.

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HE Rebels themselves, as has already been noted, by the employment of their Slaves in the construction of earthworks and other fortifications, and even in battle, at Bull Run and elsewhere, against the Union Forces, brought the Thirty-seventh Congress, as well as the Military Commanders, and the President, to an early consideration of the Slavery question. But it was none the less a question to be treated with the utmost delicacy.

The Union men, as well as the Secession-sympathizers, of Kentucky and Tennessee and Missouri and Maryland, largely believed in Slavery, or at least were averse to any interference with it. These, would not see that the right to destroy that unholy Institution could pertain to any author

ity, or be justified by any exigency; much less that, as held by some authorities,* its existence ceased at the moment when its hands, or those of the State in which it had existed, were used to assail the General Government.

They looked with especial suspicion and distrust upon the guarded utterances of the President upon all questions touching the future of the Colored Race.

They believed that when Fremont issued the General Order heretofore given in full-in which that General declared that "The property, real and personal, of all persons, in the State of Missouri, who shall take up arms against the United States, or who shall be directly proven to have taken an active part with their enemies in the field, is declared to be confiscated to the public use, and their Slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared Free men," it must have been with the concurrence, if not at the suggestion, of the President; and, when the President subsequently, September 11,1861, made an open Order directing that this

At Faneuil Hall, Edward Everett is reported to have said, in October of 1864:

"It is very doubtful whether any act of the Government of the United States was necessary to liberate the Slaves in a State which is in Rebellion. There is much reason for the opinion that, by the simple act of levying War against the United States, the relation of Slavery was terminated; certainly, so far as concerns the duty of the United States to recognize it, or to refrain from interfering with it.

"Not being founded on the Law of Nature, and resting solely on positive Local Law-and that, not of the United States-as soon as it becomes either the motive or pretext of an unjust War against the Union-an efficient instrument in the hands of the Rebels for carrying on the War-a source of Military strength to the Rebellion, and of danger to the Government at home and abroad, with the additional certainty that, in any event but its abandonment, it will continue, in all future time to work these mischiefs, who can suppose it is the duty of the United States to continue to recognize it.

"To maintain this would be a contradiction in terms. It would be to recognize a right in a Rebel master to employ his Slave in acts of Rebellion and Treason, and the duty of the Slave to aid and abet his master in the commission of the greatest crime known to the Law. No such absurdity can be admitted; and any citizen of the United States, from the President down, who should, by any overt act, recognize the duty of a Slave to obey a Rebel master in a hostile operation, would himself be giving aid and comfort to the Enemy."

clause of Fremont's General Order, or proclamation, should be "so modified, held, and construed, as to conform to, and not to transcend, the provisions on the same subject contained in the Act of Congress entitled 'An Act to Confiscate Property used for Insurrectionary Purposes,' approved August 6, 1861,"* they still were not satisfied.

It seemed as impossible to satisfy these Border-State men as it had been to satisfy the Rebels themselves.

The Act of Congress, to which President Lincoln referred * The sections of the above Act, bearing upon the matter, are the first and fourth, which are in these words:

"That if, during the present or any future insurrection against the Government of the United States, after the President of the United States shall have declared, by proclamation, that the laws of the United States are opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the power vested in the marshals by law, any person or persons, his, her, or their agent, attorney, or employee, shall purchase or acquire, sell or give, any property of whatsoever kind or description, with intent to use or employ the same, or suffer the same to be used or employed, in aiding, abetting, or promoting such insurrection or resistance to the laws, or any persons engaged therein; or if any person or persons, being the owner or owners of any such property, shall knowingly use or employ, or consent to the use or employment of the same as aforesaid, all such property is hereby declared to be lawful subject of prize and capture wherever found; and it shall be the duty of the President of the United States to cause the same to be seized, confiscated and condemned."

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SEC. 4. That whenever hereafter, during the present insurrection against the Government of the United States, any person claimed to be held to Labor or Service under the law of any State shall be required or permitted by the person to whom such Labor or Service is claimed to be due, or by the lawful agent of such person, to take up arms against the United States; or shall be required or permitted by the person to whom such Labor or Service is claimed to be due, or his lawful agent, to work or to be employed in or upon any fort, navy-yard, dock, armory, ship, entrenchment, or in any Military or Naval service whatsoever, against the Government and lawful authority of the United States, then, and in every such case, the person to whom such Labor or Service is claimed to be due, shall forfeit his claim to such Labor, any law of the State or of the United States to the contrary notwithstanding. And whenever thereafter the person claiming such Labor or Service shall seek to enforce his claim, it shall be a full and sufficient answer to such claim that the person whose Service or Labor is claimed had been employed in hostile service against the Government of the United States, contrary to the provisions of this act."

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