ion of the Supreme Court; and, nevertheless, the representatives
of the rebellion formed at Montgomery a provisional government, and
pursued their relentless purpose with such success that the
Lieutenant-General feared the city of Washington might find itself
"included in a foreign country," and proposed, among the options for
the consideration of LINCOLN, to bid the wayward States "depart in
peace." The great republic appeared to have its emblem in the vast
unfinished Capitol, at that moment surrounded by masses of stone and
prostrate columns never yet lifted into their places, seemingly the
moment of high but delusive aspirations, the confused wreck of
inchoate magnificence, sadder than any ruin of Egyptian Thebes or
Athens.

The fourth of March came. With instinctive wisdom the new President,
speaking to the people on taking the oath of office, put aside every
question that divided the country, and gained a right to universal
support by planting himself on the single idea of Union. The Union he
declared to be unbroken and perpetual, and he announced his
determination to fulfil "the simple duty of taking care that the laws
be faithfully executed in all the States." Seven days later, the
convention of Confederate States unanimously adopted a constitution of
their own, and the new government was authoritatively announced to be
founded on the idea that the negro race is a slave race; that slavery
is its natural and normal condition. The issue was made up, whether
the great republic was to maintain its providential place in the
history of mankind, or a rebellion founded on negro slavery gain a
recognition of its principle throughout the civilized world. To the
disaffected LINCOLN had said, "You can have no conflict without being
yourselves the aggressors." To fire the passions of the southern
portion of the people, the confederate government chose to become
aggressors, and, on the morning of the twelfth of April, began the
bombardment of Fort Sumter, and compelled its evacuation.

It is the glory of the late President that he had perfect faith in the
perpetuity of the Union. Supported in advance by Douglas, who spoke as
with the voice of a million, he instantly called a meeting of
Congress, and summoned the people to come up and repossess the forts,
places, and property which had been seized from the Union. The men of
the North were trained in schools; industrious and frugal; many of
them delicately bred, their minds te