e was no power in the Constitution to coerce a
sovereign State.

Never was popular delusion so suddenly and so completely dispelled.
The effect of the assault on Sumter and the lowering of the National
flag to the forces of the Confederacy acted upon the North as an
inspiration, consolidating public sentiment, dissipating all
differences, bringing the whole people to an instant and unanimous
determination to avenge the insult and re-establish the authority
of the Union. Yesterday there had been doubt and despondency; to-
day had come assurance and confidence. Yesterday there had been
division; to-day there was unity. The same issue of the morning
paper that gave intelligence of the fall of Sumter, brought also
a call from the President of the United States for seventy-five
thousand men to aid him "in suppressing combinations against the
law, too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial
proceedings." He notified the people that "the first service
assigned to the force hereby called forth will probably be to
repossess the forts, places, and property which have been seized
from the Union;" and he concluded by convening an extra session of
Congress to assemble on the fourth day of the ensuing July. The
President stated, in his Proclamation, that the laws of the United
States had been "for some time past opposed, and their execution
obstructed, in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama,
Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, by combinations too
powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial
procedure, or by the powers vested in the marshals by law." He
had therefore "called forth the militia to suppress such combinations,
and to cause the laws to be duly executed." He appealed to all
loyal citizens "to aid in maintaining the honor, the integrity,
and the existence of the National Union, and the perpetuity of
popular government." The Proclamation was general. The Call for
troops was issued specifically to every State except the seven
already in revolt.

The Proclamation was responded to in the loyal States with an
unparalleled outburst of enthusiasm. On the day of its issue
hundreds of public meetings were held, from the eastern border of
Maine to the extreme western frontier. Work was suspended on farm
and in factory, and the whole people were roused to patriotic ardor,
and to a determination to subdue the Rebellion and restore the
Union, whatever might be the exp