"Physically speaking, we cannot separate-we cannot remove our respective sections from each other, nor build an impassible wall between them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence and beyond the reach of the other; but the different parts of our country cannot do that. They cannot but remain face to face; and 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? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can among friends? Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides, and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical questions as to terms of intercourse are again upon you.

"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. I cannot be ignorant of the fact that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the national Constitution amended. While I make no recommendation of amendment, I fully recognize the full authority of the people over the whole subject, to be exercised in either of the modes prescribed in the instrument itself, and I should, under existing circumstances, favor, rather than oppose, a fair opportunity being afforded the people to act upon it.

"I will venture to add that to me the convention mode seems preferable, in that it allows amendments to originate with the people themselves, instead of only permitting them to take or reject propositions originated by others not especially chosen for the purpose, and which

might not be precisely such as they would wish either to accept or refuse. I understand that a proposed amendment to the Constitution (which amendment, however, I have not seen), has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of States, including that of persons held to service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I depart from my purpose not to speak of particular amendments, so far as to say that, holding such a provision to now be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable.

“The chief magistrate derives all his authority from the people, and they have conferred none upon him to fix the terms for the separation of the States. The people themselves, also, can do this if they choose, but the Executive, as such, has nothing to do with it. His duty is to administer the present government as it came to his hands, and to transmit it, unimpaired by him, to his successor. Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? In our present differences, is either party without faith of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with His eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal, the American people. By the frame of the government under which we live, this same people have wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief, and have, with equal wisdom, provided for the return of that little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government in the short space of four years.

"My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time.

"If there be an object to hurry any of you, in hot haste, to a step which you would never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking time; but no good object can be frustrated by it.

"Such of you as are now dissatisfied still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; while the new administration will have no immediate power, if it would, to change either.

"If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side in the dispute, there is still no single reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulties.

"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you.

"You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. 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.'

"I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.

"The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely as they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

Chief Justice Taney then administered the oath of office, and President Lincoln left the Capitol for the White House, where he held a public reception.

MR. LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION.

It is not within the purpose of this work to record the acts or sketch the characteristics of Mr. Lincoln's administration, nor to give a history of the events which succeeded his inauguration. War against the United States was declared by the rebel confederacy by firing upon the Star of the West, a vessel sent with provisions to the garrison in Fort Moultrie, in Charleston harbor; and, under orders of General Beauregard, Fort Sumter was bombarded on the 12th of April, 1861, and on the 15th, Major Anderson and his command of seventy men were compelled to evacuate. From that day war to crush the rebellion was prosecuted, with varying fortunes, until April 9th, 1865, when Gen. Robert E. Lee, Commanderin-Chief of the forces of the Confederacy, surrendered the army of Northern Virginia to Lieut.-General Grant, of the United States army. Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy, had previously been occupied, and on the 14th of April, 1865, the anniversary of the removal of the American flag from Fort Sumter-and the day appointed for the replanting of the national colors upon its battered walls-on that day, celebrated by the loyal people of the nation as the crowning hour of national victory-a Good Friday of loyal congratulations-Abraham Lincoln, who had been unanimously renominated by the Union Convention, which met at Baltimore, June 7th, 1864, and had been re-elected by a majority on the popular vote of 411,281 ballots over his competitor, Gen. Geo.

B. McClellan, was assassinated at Ford's Theatre, in the

city of Washington.

Frequent threats of assassination had been reported after the discovery of the plot at Baltimore, in 1861, and some apprehensions were entertained on the day of Mr. Lincoln's re-inauguration, March 4th, 1865, but no demonstrations other than of the most enthusiastic and cordial approval were witnessed, and the President announced to a very large assemblage of the people the general policy of his second term of service, in the following remarkable

INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

"FELLOW COUNTRYMEN:-At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed very fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have constantly been called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented.

66 "The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it; all sought to avoid it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it with war; seeking to dissolve the Union and divide the effects by negotiation.