enditure of treasure or the sacrifice
of life. Telegrams of congratulation and sympathy fell upon the
White House like snow-flakes in a storm; and the President was made
to feel, after all the months of gloom and darkness through which
he had passed since his election, that light had broken, that day
had dawned, and that the open struggle for the Union, however severe
and however sanguinary it might prove, was preferable to the slough
of despond in which the nation had been cast, and the valley of
humiliation through which the government had been groping.

In the history of popular uprisings and of manifestations of National
enthusiasm, there is perhaps no equal to that which was seen in
the free States of the Union in the weeks immediately following
the rash attack on Fort Sumter. While the feeling was too deep to
brook resistance, or quietly to endure a word of opposition, it
was happily so tempered with discretion as to prevent personal
outrages upon the few who did not join in the general chorus for
the Union. Suspected men were waited upon and requested to speak
for the loyal cause, and newspapers, which before the firing of
Sumter had been offensive in tone, were compelled to hoist the
National flag over their offices, and openly support the government.
But these cases were few and exceptional; and it is due to the
Democracy of the North to say, that however strongly they had
opposed the election of Mr. Lincoln, and however hostile they had
been to the principles which he represented, the mass of the party
responded with noble enthusiasm and with patriotic fidelity to the
Union. Their great leader, Senator Douglas, set a worthy example
by promptly waiting on the President, and expressing his deepest
sympathy and his most earnest co-operation in the struggle for the
life of the nation.

PATRIOTIC COURSE OF MR. DOUGLAS.

The patriotic course of Mr. Douglas had been of invaluable service
to the government from the hour of Mr. Lincoln's inauguration.
The old friendship between the illustrious rivals from Illinois,
which had begun when each was in his youth, was now strongly revived.
Differing always on political issues, they were at once in accord
when the fate of the government was at stake. The position of
Douglas during the extra session of the Senate had given marked
satisfaction to Mr. Lincoln, and when the deliberations came to a
close, on the 28th of March, th