ocated a protective system. Their most difficult
problem was the selection of a candidate for the presidency. Inasmuch
as Seward and Chase had alienated certain elements by their bold
advocacy of advanced principles and Lincoln was comparatively unknown,
the managers of the party finally accepted him because of his
availability. This choice was received with much indignation among the
antislavery leaders, for even Wendell Phillips and William Lloyd
Garrison railed against the nominee and portrayed him as an
obscurity.[16]

Lincoln's election forced slavery into the foreground. Without
waiting for his inauguration, several Southern States, acting in
accordance with their previous threats that they would secede if a
Republican President were elected, withdrew from the Union. Others
soon followed their example. Congress hastened to offer various
concessions to the seceding States,[17] but these efforts for
compromise were in vain. The die was cast. When Lincoln asserted that
his oath of office bound him to preserve the Union at any cost, civil
war became inevitable. The proslavery element opened fire on the
American flag at Fort Sumter and forced its surrender April 14.[18] On
the next day Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for 75,000
volunteers. 500,000 others were later called to defend the honor of
the nation.

The emancipation of Negroes during the Civil War could not be kept
down. It appeared first in the acceptance of Negroes in the Union army
camps as contraband, on the ground that they were being used by the
Confederates to build fortifications and the like and, if returned to
the seceding territory, would be of further use in opposing the
Federal troops. General Butler set this precedent when he was in
charge of the forces at Fortress Monroe. At first there was some
hesitation as to whether the administration should adopt such a
policy. Butler's course, however, was approved by Cameron, the
Secretary of War, May 30, 1861, although Lincoln was not pleased with
it; for he did not desire to alienate the border slave States by
radical steps toward emancipation. He was hoping that the nation would
trust him, "as having the more commanding view, gradually to fix the
attitude of the Government toward the subject,"[19] as the conquest of
the Confederacy proceeded. The Federal troops, however, did not at
first make much headway in the East, but events west of the
Alleghenies progressed favorably for the Union cause,