aracteristic
optimism, though without disclosing Lincoln's position or his own on
the question of compromise. "I know that the necessities which created
this Union," he said, in closing, "are stronger to-day than they were
when the Union was cemented; and that these necessities are as
enduring as the passions of men are short-lived and effervescent. I
believe that the cause of secession was as strong, on the night of
November 6, when the President and Vice President were elected, as it
has been at any time. Some fifty days have now passed; and I believe
that every day the sun has set since that time, it has set upon
mollified passions and prejudices; and if you will only await the
time, sixty more suns will shed a light and illuminate a more cheerful
atmosphere."[682]

[Footnote 682: New York _Times_, December 24, 1860.]

This speech has been severely criticised for its unseemly jest, its
exuberant optimism, and its lack of directness. It probably discloses,
in the copy published the next morning, more levity than it seemed to
possess when spoken, with its inflections and intonations, while its
optimism, made up of hopeful generalities which were not true, and of
rhetorical phrases that could easily be misapprehended, appeared to
sustain the suggestion that he did not realise the critical juncture
of affairs. But the assertion that he predicted the "war will be over
in sixty days" was a ridiculous perversion of his words. No war
existed at that time, and his "sixty suns" plainly referred to the
sixty days that must elapse before Lincoln's inauguration.
Nevertheless, the "sixty days prediction," as it was called, was
repeated and believed for many years.

The feature of the speech that makes it peculiarly interesting,
however, is its strength in the advocacy of the Union. Seward believed
that he had a difficult role to play. Had he so desired he could not
support the restoration of the Missouri Compromise line, for the
President-elect had ruled inflexibly against it; neither could he
openly oppose it, lest it hurry the South into some overt act of
treason before Lincoln's inauguration. So he began exalting the Union,
skilfully creating the impression, at least by inference, that he
would not support the compromise, although his hearers and readers
held to the belief that he would have favoured it had he not submitted
to Lincoln's leadership by accepting the state department.

During Seward's absence from Washington