was the hope of Seward and the moderates of the North, who
thought that a friendly reconstruction would be the result of continued
delay.

Jefferson Davis, who was informed daily of every move that was made in
Washington, determined to let Anderson quietly evacuate Fort Sumter,
having assurances from Seward that no supplies would be sent. In this he
was supported by the unanimous opinion of his Cabinet until on April 9,
when General P. G. T. Beauregard, who commanded the troops gathering at
Charleston, telegraphed that the Federal Government had given formal
notice that assistance would be sent to the starving garrison. Davis
still delayed, giving conditional orders to Beauregard; and Beauregard
acted in the same spirit when he sent Roger A. Pryor and three other
aides to the fort to get definite assurance on the point of Federal
surrender. But when Anderson, on the night of April 12, gave assurance
that on April 15 he would give up his post if he should not receive
contrary orders from Washington prior to that time, the four aides of
General Beauregard who had been sent to the fort gave notice to the
Confederate artillery commander, without consulting superior authority,
that the answer was not satisfactory, and the fatal shelling began. On
the next day Anderson and his men, finding the walls of the fort falling
about them, surrendered. The war had begun.

The act of South Carolina on December 20 led immediately to the
formation of the confederacy of the lower Southern States. The firing on
Fort Sumter was followed in a few days by the secession of Virginia,
Tennessee, and Arkansas, Texas having already joined the "revolution";
Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri were prevented from joining the new
confederacy only by the prompt and extra-legal interference of President
Lincoln. The second tier of Southern States thus joined the first, and a
confederacy of some ten million people demanded the independence which
all agreed had not been forbidden in the Constitution of 1787, and began
at once the raising of armies to make good that demand. The boundaries
of the new republic were extended to the Potomac; commissioners were
sent to the European powers to sue for recognition, and hundreds of the
best officers in the United States Army resigned to seek commands under
the new flag.

The popular excitement and enthusiasm which followed these events in the
South equaled that which marked the early stages of the French
Revoluti