New England is not mentioned first except in a geographical sense.
More important even than her patriotic action was the course of
the great Central and Western States. New York and Pennsylvania
of themselves constituted no mean power, with a population of seven
millions, with their boundless wealth, and their ability to produce
the material of war. Edwin D. Morgan was the Executive of New
York. He was a successful merchant of high character, of the
sturdiest common sense and soundest judgment. A man of wealth
himself, he possessed the entire confidence of the bankers and
capitalists of the metropolis. His influence in aid of the finances
of the government in its early period of depression was given
without stint and was of incalculable value. In the neighboring
State of New Jersey, Governor Charles Olden was ready for hearty
co-operation, and seconded with patriotic zeal every movement in
aid of the loyal cause.

Of a different type from Governor Morgan, but equally valuable and
more enthusiastic, was the Governor of Pennsylvania, Andrew G.
Curtin. Circumstances had thrown him into close and cordial
relations with Mr. Lincoln,--relations which had their origin at
the time of the Chicago Convention, and which had grown more intimate
after Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated. Before the firing on Sumter,
but when the States of the Confederacy were evidently preparing
for war, Mr. Lincoln earnestly desired a counter signal of readiness
on the part of the North. Such a movement in New England would
have been regarded in the South merely as a fresh ebullition of
radicalism. In New York the tone was too conservative and Governor
Morgan too cautious to permit the demonstration to be made there.
Governor Curtin undertook to do it in Pennsylvania at the President's
special request. On the eleventh day of April, one day before the
South precipitated the conflict, the Legislature of Pennsylvania
passed an Act for the better organization of the militia, and
appropriated five hundred thousand dollars to carry out the details
of the measure. The manifest reference to the impending trouble
was in the words prescribing the duty of the Adjutant-General of
the State in case the President should call out the militia. It
was the first official step in the loyal States to defend the Union,
and the generous appropriation, made in advance of any blow struck
by the Confederacy, enabled Governor Curtin to rally the forces of
the great