dered over the
toils that were endured by the officers and soldiers of the army who
achieved that independence. I have often inquired of myself what great
principle or idea it was that kept the Confederacy so long together. It
was not the mere matter of separation of the colonies from the
motherland, it was the sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which
gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but I hope to the
world, for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due
time the weight would be lifted from the shoulders of all men."

2. _The Progress of Secession_.

So much for the broad causes without which there could have been no Civil
War in America. We have now to sketch the process by which the fuel was
kindled. It will be remembered that the President elected in November
does not enter upon his office for nearly four months. For that time,
therefore, the conduct of government lay in the hands of President
Buchanan, who, for all his past subserviency to Southern interests,
believed and said that secession was absolutely unlawful. Several
members of his Cabinet were Southerners who favoured secession; but the
only considerable man among them, Cobb of Georgia, soon declared that his
loyalty to his own State was not compatible with his office and resigned;
and, though others, including the Secretary for War, hung on to their
position, it does not appear that they influenced Buchanan much, or that
their somewhat dubious conduct while they remained was of great
importance. Black, the Attorney-General, and Cass, the Secretary of
State, who, however, resigned when his advice was disregarded, were not
only loyal to the Union, but anxious that the Government should do
everything that seemed necessary in its defence. Thus this
administration, hitherto Southern in its sympathies, must be regarded for
its remaining months as standing for the Union, so far as it stood for
anything. Lincoln meanwhile had little that he could do but to watch
events and prepare. There was, nevertheless, a point in the negotiations
which took place between parties at which he took on himself a tremendous
responsibility and at which his action was probably decisive of all that
followed.

The Presidential election took place on November 6, 1860. On November 10
the Legislature of South Carolina, which had remained in session for this
purpose, convened a specially elected Convention of the State to deci