take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins
upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the
States.... In doing this, there need be no bloodshed or violence; and
there shall be none, unless it be forced upon the national authority.
The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess
the property and places belonging to the government." Addressing the
Southerners, he said: "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen,
and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government
will not assail you.... We are not enemies but friends.... The mystic
cords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to
every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet
swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will
be, by the better angels of our nature."

Gentle, as was the phrasing of the inaugural, it was perfectly firm, and
it outlined a policy which the South would not accept, and which, in the
opinion of the Southern leaders, brought them a step nearer war. Wall
Street held the same belief, and as a consequence the price of stocks
fell.

CHAPTER VI. WAR

On the day following the inauguration, commissioners of the newly formed
Confederacy appeared at Washington and applied to the Secretary of State
for recognition as envoys of a foreign power. Seward refused them such
recognition. But he entered into a private negotiation with them which
is nearly, if not quite, the strangest thing in our history. Virtually,
Seward intrigued against Lincoln for control of the Administration. The
events of the next five weeks have an importance out of all proportion
to the brevity of the time. This was Lincoln's period of final
probation. The psychological intensity of this episode grew from the
consciousness in every mind that now, irretrievably, destiny was to be
determined. War or peace, happiness or adversity, one nation or two--all
these were in the balance. Lincoln entered the episode a doubtful
quantity, not with certainty the master even in his own Cabinet. He
emerged dominating the situation, but committed to the terrible course
of war.

One cannot enter upon this great episode, truly the turning point in
American history, without pausing for a glance at the character of
Seward. The subject is elusive. His ablest biographer* plainly is so
constantly on guard not to appear an apologist that he ends by reducing
his