have been widely different from what was anticipated. Possibly the people of the North would have permitted themselves to be governed by their apprehensions rather than their sentiments, had they foreseen that the insanity of the South would culminate in the terrible conflict which devastated the land; but, can there be a doubt now, when the ultimate issue of the shaking struggle between freedom and slavery is so clearly in view, that they are moving onward to better things— that the result of the campaign of 1860 was a thing ordained by Providence for the best?

He who does all things well, has nations as well as individuals in his keeping; and that He permitted the events of 1860-61 to culminate in civil war, must have been for some divine purpose. A few generations hence the world will look back with wonder and awe upon the appalling trial through which the Union passed; but, if they see as its fruits a nation of freemen who shudder at the crimes of their fathers in buying and selling human flesh and blood, the sacrifice will be deemed to have been not too great.

CHAPTER III.

The Secession Movement-Mr. Lincoln's "Record"-The Conspirators The "Progress" of the President Elect from Illinois to Washington-The Inauguration-Secession-Events of the War.

THAT Abraham Lincoln was for the subversion of the Constitution, by intermeddling with slavery within the States where it existed, was widely proclaimed by the ambitious leaders of public opinion in the South. In

no utterance, public or private, which Mr. Lincoln had made during his life, was this principle upheld or hinted. He had, indeed, watched the increase of the slave power, and the baneful effects it was producing upon the Government, with jealousy and apprehension; but the means he would have used to arrest the evil was simply by confining the institution within the limits of those States which already, by their own State constitution, had legalized and ingrafted it upon their domestic systems. He had, therefore, boldly asserted the right of Congress to prohibit the extension of the institution to those Territories* which were as free and untrammelled as the broad rivers that rush through their wastes, or the winds that sing through their forests.

* In addition to the thirty-six States, there is a large district of land belonging to the United States lying westward and extending to the Pacific (see map). It embraces an area of 1,344,000 square miles, and is divided into nine districts, called "Territories." Notwithstanding their immense area, they only contained in 1860 a white population of 220,149. They are mostly inhabited by wild tribes of native Indians, but are rapidly being settled up from the States and by foreign immigration. These Territories are under the control of Congress, but any of them may be admitted into the Union as States on the same footing as the other States on attaining a population necessary for one representative in Congress-viz., 124,000. The relation of the Territories to the General Government differs widely from that sustained by the States, and is based on the following provision of the Constitution and the rules and regulations established in pursuance of the same :

"The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the Territory or other property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice the claims of the United States, or of any particular State."

Since the adoption of the Constitution by the thirteen original States, twenty-one new States have been formed out of the Territories, and have adopted, assented to, and ratified the Constitution,

The Southerners knew this, and they knew-many of them had said that there was nothing which was unconstitutional in such principles, and the promulgation of them. The purpose in the hearts of the Southern extremists, which had been gestating for thirty years, was the destruction of the American Union, and the foundation of a slave empire upon the North American continent, and the accomplishment of this ambitious scheme was the overruling motive of action. The election of Mr. Lincoln was made a pretext for secession, and was the culminating argument by which the "Southern heart was fired."

It is, therefore, not wonderful that the news of Mr. Lincoln's election was the signal for general gratulation and undisguised pleasure in many parts of the South.

and become integral parts of the Union-making thirty-six States in all-nine Territories still remaining. The following are the chief regulations established by Congress, in pursuance of the Constitution:

The Governor is appointed for each Territory by the President. The Legislative Assembly of each Territory consists of a Council and House of Representatives elected by the people.

All laws passed by the Legislature, and approved by the Territorial Governors, must be submitted to the National Congress, and if disapproved, are null and void.

The Secretary of the Territory is also appointed by the President for four years; also the United States Attorney and Marshal.

The Judiciary of each Territory is vested in a supreme court and other inferior courts, from which there is an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States.

The constitution and laws of the United States have the same force within the Territories as elsewhere in the United States.

Each Territory sends a delegate to the Lower House of the National Congress, who is entitled to speak and debate on all matters in which his Territory is interested, but is not entitled to a ote in the House.

They had been seeking excuses-here was one ready to their hand! In vain did the North exclaim, "This is We stood your Presidents, one

ungenerous-unfair!

after another, for a quarter of a century. You will majority, four years. At any Only try us! For never SO

surely allow us, the rate, be reasonable. brief a time, let us, at

least, have a trial, that you may judge us." What! risk the long-sought-for, at-lengthdiscovered excuse for the parricidal blow, and the establishment of their slave kingdom-risk that on the chance of an experiment with the "Black Republican Abolitionists ?" No, never! In short, the news of Mr. Lincoln's election was not a month old before the spirit of secession in South Carolina began to assume proportions most startling to the loyal people of the United States.

Mr. Douglas had been the favourite of the Democratic Convention which had originally assembled at Charleston; but the slaveholding politicians had managed to procure the nomination of Mr. Breckinridge, with a full knowledge that the division in their party thus produced could hardly fail to secure the success of the Republican candidate at the polls. The two wings of the Democratic party, which were thus created, were not so widely antagonistic in principles but that the South might have united upon that one represented by Mr. Douglas, without serious detriment to their supposed rights and privileges, had they been disposed to preserve the Union.

Mr. Breckinridge represented that pro-slavery element of the Democratic party which demanded the positive protection of slave property in the Territories against any legislation, either of Congress or

the people of the Territories themselves, that might seek to impair their alleged right of property in human beings.

Mr. Douglas, on the contrary, represented the theory that the inhabitants of the Territories had a perfect right to decide whether or not the institution of slavery should find foothold on their soil.

Thus, while the Republicans maintained the right of Congressional interference, in the Territories, to prohibit the entrance of slavery, and the Southern Democrats held the right of Congressional interference to protect but not to prohibit slavery therein, Mr. Douglas was similarly and equally opposed to both Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Breckinridge in the Presidential issue.

The supporters of John Bell were simply the few who were dissatisfied with all existing parties, and who did not enunciate definite opinions on the main points at issue.*

The different sections of the country had entered the election with equal zeal and activity. And, as heretofore, the Lincoln, Bell, and Douglas parties, though desirous of success, were fully willing to abide by the victory, upon whichever standard it might happen to perch. But the Breckinridge Democracy had entered upon the contest with the distinct intention of " acquiescing in the result only in the event of its giving them the victory." The election of the Republican candidate -which, by their own action, they especially promoted -was to be the signal for revolt.

When the secession storm began to gather in the South, after the 6th of November, the people were not

* See "platforms" of the four political parties in the Appendix.