ter another, known and
honored names were stricken from the army and navy lists, by resignation.
One after another, states met in convention and, by "ordinance of
secession," declared themselves independent of the Federal Government.
It was as though the train had been prepared and the action of South
Carolina was but the lighting of the fuse. Within six weeks from Mr.
Buchanan's New Year reception, six states had deliberately gone out of
the Union.

When it was too late, the sleepy administration opened its eyes. Not
liking the looks of things, it shut them again. When it was too late,
there were windy declarations and some feeble temporizing; but all
thinking men felt that the crisis had come and nothing could avert it.
The earthquake that had rumbled so long in premonitory throes suddenly
yawned in an ugly chasm, that swallowed up the petty differences of
each side. One throb and the little lines of party were roughly
obliterated; while across the gulf that gaped between them, men glared
at each other with but one meaning in their eyes.

That solemn mummery, the "Peace Congress," might temporarily have
turned the tide it was wholly powerless to dam; but the arch seceder,
Massachusetts, manipulated even that slight chance of compromise. The
weaker elements in convention were no match for the peaceful Puritan
whom war might profit, but could not injure. Peace was pelted from
under her olive with splinters of Plymouth Rock, and Massachusetts
members poured upon the troubled waters oil--of vitriol!

When the "Peace Commissioners" from the southern Congress at Montgomery
came to Washington, all felt their presence only a mockery. It was too
late! they came only to demand what the government could not then
concede, and every line they wrote was waste of ink, every word they
spoke waste of breath. Southern congressmen were leaving by every
train. Families of years residence were pulling down their household
gods and starting on a pilgrimage to set them up--where they knew not,
save it must be in the South. Old friends looked doubtfully at each
other, and wild rumors were rife of incursions over the Potomac by
wild-haired riders from Virginia. Even the fungi of the departmental
desks, seeming suddenly imbued with life, rose and threw away their
quills--and with them the very bread for their families--to go South.
It was the modern hegira!

A dull, vague unrest brooded over Washington, as though the city had
been shadowe