in accord with Lincoln;
this should not be forgotten, but it must not be supposed that it
prevailed constantly. On the contrary, it was inherent in the nature of
the crisis that opinion wavered and swayed. We should miss the whole
significance of Lincoln's story if we did not think of the North now and
to the end of the war as exposed to disunion, hesitation, and quick
reaction. If at this time a sufficiently authoritative leader with
sufficiently determined timidity had inaugurated a policy of stampede, he
might have had a vast and tumultuous following. Only his following would
quickly, if too late, have repented. What was wanted, if the people of
the North were to have what most justly might be called their way, was a
leader who would not seem to hurry them along, nor yet be ever looking
round to see if they followed, but just go groping forward among the
innumerable obstacles, guided by such principles of good sense and of
right as would perhaps on the whole and in the long run be approved by
the maturer thought of most men; and Lincoln was such a leader.

When we turn to the South, where, as has been said, the movement for
secession was making steady though not unopposed progress, we have indeed
to make exceptions to any sweeping statement, but we must recognise a far
more clearly defined and far more prevailing general opinion. We may set
aside for the moment the border slave States of Maryland, Virginia,
Kentucky, and Missouri, each of which has a distinct and an important
history. Delaware belonged in effect to the North. In Texas there were
peculiar conditions, and Texas had an interesting history of its own in
this matter, but may be treated as remote. There was also, as has been
said, a highland region covering the west of Virginia and the east of
Kentucky but reaching far south into the northern part of Alabama.
Looking at the pathetic spectacle of enduring heroism in a mistaken cause
which the South presented, many people have been ready to suppose that it
was manoeuvred and tricked into its folly by its politicians and might
have recovered itself from it if the North and the Government had
exercised greater patience and given it time. In support of this view
instances are cited of strong Unionist feeling in the South. Such
instances probably belong to the peculiar people of this highland
country, or else to the mixed and more or less neutral population that
might be found at New Orleans or trading