THEN came another crisis--the crisis of Secession and Civil war.
Again Lincoln spoke the deepest feeling and the highest thought of the
Nation. In his first message he said:
"The central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy."
He also showed conclusively that the North and South, in spite of
secession, must remain face to face--that physically they could not
separate--that they must have more or less commerce, and that this
commerce must be carried on either between the two sections as friends,
or as aliens.
This situation and its consequences he pointed out to absolute
perfection in these words:
"Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws? Can
treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws among
friends?"
After having stated fully and fairly the philosophy of the conflict,
after having said enough to satisfy any calm and thoughtful mind, he
addressed himself to the hearts of America. Probably there are few finer
passages in literature than the close of Lincoln's inaugural address:
"I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be
enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break, our
bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory stretching from every
battlefield and patriotic grave to every loving heart and hearthstone
all over this broad land, will swell the chorus of the Union when again
touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
These noble, these touching, these pathetic words, were delivered
in the presence of rebellion, in the midst of spies and
conspirators--surrounded by but few friends, most of whom were unknown,
and some of whom were wavering in their fidelity--at a time when
secession was arrogant and organized, when patriotism was silent, and
when, to quote the expressive words of Lincoln himself, "Sinners were
calling the righteous to repentance."
When Lincoln became President, he was held in contempt by the
South--underrated by the North and East--not appreciated even by his
cabinet--and yet he was not only one of the wisest, but one of the
shrewdest of mankind. Knowing that he had the right to enforce the
laws of the Union in all parts of the United States, and
Territories--knowing, as he did, that the secessionists were in the
wrong, he also knew that they had sympathizers not only in the North,
but in other lands.
Consequently, he felt that it was of the utmost importance that the
South should fire the first shot, should do some act that would solidify
the North, and gain for us the justification of the civilized world.
He proposed to give food to the soldiers at Sumter. He asked the advice
of all his cabinet on this question, and all, with the exception of
Montgomery Blair, answered in the negative, giving their reasons in
writing. In spite of this, Lincoln took his own course--endeavored to
send the supplies, and while thus engaged, doing his simple duty, the
South commenced actual hostilities and fired on the fort. The course
pursued by Lincoln was absolutely right, and the act of the South to
a great extent solidified the North, and gained for the Republic the
justification of a great number of people in other lands.
At that time Lincoln appreciated the scope and consequences of the
impending conflict. Above all other thoughts in his mind was this:
"This conflict will settle the question, at least for centuries to
come, whether man is capable of governing himself, and consequently is
of greater importance to the free than to the enslaved."
He knew what depended on the issue and he said: "We shall nobly save, or
meanly lose, the last, best hope of earth."
HEN came a crisis in the North. It became clearer and clearer to
Lincoln's mind, day by day, that the Rebellion was slavery, and that it
was necessary to keep the border States on the side of the Union. For
this purpose he proposed a scheme of emancipation and colonization--a
scheme by which the owners of slaves should be paid the full value of
what they called their "property."
He knew that if the border States agreed to gradual emancipation, and
received compensation for their slaves, they would be forever lost to
the Confederacy, whether secession succeeded or not. It was objected at
the time, by some, that the scheme was far too expensive; but Lincoln,
wiser than his advisers--far wiser than his enemies--demonstrated that
from an economical point of view, his course was best.