Mr. Lincoln's Journey from Springfield to Washington.--Speeches on
the Way.--Reaches Washington.--His Secret Journey.--Afterwards
regretted.--Precautions for his Safety.--President Buchanan.--
Secretary Holt.--Troops for the Protection of Washington.--Inauguration
of Mr. Lincoln.--Relief to the Public Anxiety.--Inaugural Address.
--Hopefulness and Security in the North.--Mr. Lincoln's Appeal to
the South.--Fails to appease Southern Wrath.--Dilemma of the South.
--The New Cabinet.--The "Easy Accession" of Former Times.--Seward
Secretary of State.--Chase at the Head of the Treasury.--Radical
Republicans dissatisfied.--Influence of the Blairs.--Comment of
Thaddeus Stevens.--The National Flag in the Confederacy.--Flying
at only Three Points.--Defenseless Condition of the Government.--
Confidence of Disunion Leaders.--Extra Session of the Senate.--
Douglas and Breckinridge.--Their Notable Debate.--Douglas's Reply
to Wigfall.--His Answer to Mason.--Condition of the Territories.--
Slavery not excluded by Law.--Public Opinion in Maine, 1861.--Mr.
Lincoln's Difficult Task.--His Wise Policy.--His Careful Preparation.
--Statesmanship of his Administration.
When Southern confidence was at its height, and Northern courage
at its lowest point, Mr. Lincoln began his journey from Springfield
to Washington to assume the government of a divided and disorganized
Republic. His speeches on the way were noticeable for the absence
of all declaration of policy or purpose touching the impending
troubles. This peculiarity gave rise to unfavorable comments in
the public press of the North, and to unfounded apprehensions in
the popular mind. There was fear that he was either indifferent
to the peril, or that he failed to comprehend it. The people did
not understand Mr. Lincoln. The failure to comprehend was on their
part, not on his. Had he on that journey gratified the aggressive
friends of the Union who had supported him for the Presidency, he
would have added immeasurably to the serious troubles which already
confronted him. He had the practical faculty of discerning the
chief point to be reached, and then bending every energy to reach
it. He saw that the one thing needful was his regular, constitutional
inauguration as President of the United States. Policies both
general and in detail would come after that. He could not afford
by imprudent forwardness of speech or premature declaration of
measures to increase the embarrassment which already surrounded
him. "Let us do one thing at a time and the big things first" was
his homely but expressive way of indicating the wisdom of his
course.
A man of ordinary courage would have been overwhelmed by the task
before him. But Mr. Lincoln possessed a certain calmness, firmness,
and faith that enabled him to meet any responsibility, and to stand
unappalled in any peril. He reached Washington by a night journey,
taken secretly much against his own will and to his subsequent
chagrin and mortification, but urged upon him by the advice of
those in whose judgment and wisdom he was forced to confide. It
is the only instance in Mr. Lincoln's public career in which he
did not patiently face danger, and to the end of his life he
regretted that he had not, according to his own desire, gone through
Baltimore in open day, trusting to the hospitality of the city, to
the loyalty of its people, to the rightfulness of his cause and
the righteousness of his aims and ends. He came as one appointed
to a great duty, not with rashness, not with weakness, not with
bravado, not with shrinking, but in the perfect confidence of a
just cause and with the stainless conscience of a good man. Threats
that he never should be inaugurated had been numerous and serious,
and it must be credited to the administration of Mr. Buchanan, that
ample provision had been made for the protection of the rightful
ruler of the nation.
PATRIOTIC CONDUCT OF JOSEPH HOLT.
The active and practical loyalty of Joseph Holt in this crisis
deserves honorable mention. When, at the close of December, 1860,
he succeeded Mr. Floyd as Secretary of War, no troops were stationed
in Washington or its neighborhood. After consultation with General
Scott, then in command of the army, and with the full approval of
President Buchanan, Secretary Holt thought it wise to make precautions
for the safety of the National Capital. Seven companies of artillery
and one company of sappers and miners were accordingly brought to
Washington. This movement gave offense to the Southern men who
still remained in Congress, and Mr. Branch of North Carolina offered
a resolution declaring that "the quartering of troops around the
capital was impolitic and offensive," and that, "if permitted, it
would be destructive of civil liberty, and therefore the troops
should be forthwith removed." The House laid the resolution on
the table by a vote of 125 to 35. Ex-President Tyler had formally
complained to the President from the Peace Congress, that United-
States troops were to march in the procession which was to celebrate
the 22d of February. When so many of the Southern people were
engaged in seizing the forts and other property of the government,
it was curious to witness their uneasiness at the least display of
power on the part of the National Government.
The tone of Secretary Holt's report to the President in regard to
the marshaling of troops in the National Capital was a manifestation
of courage in refreshing contrast with the surrounding timidity.
He stated in very plain language that "a revolution had been in
progress for the preceding three months in several of the Southern
States;" that its history was one of "surprise, treacheries, and
ruthless spoliations;" that forts of the United States had been
captured and garrisoned, and "hostile flags unfurled from the
ramparts;" that arsenals had been seized, and the arms which they
contained appropriated to the use of the captors; that more than
half a million of dollars, found in the mint of New Orleans, had
been unscrupulously applied to replenish the treasury of Louisiana;
that a conspiracy had been entered into for the armed occupation
of Washington as part of the revolutionary programme; and that he
could not fail to remember that, if the early admonitions in regard
to the designs of lawless men in Charleston Harbor had been acted
on, and "adequate re-enforcements sent there before the revolution
began, the disastrous political complications which ensued might
not have occurred."
The inauguration of Mr. Lincoln was an immense relief to the country.
There had been an undefined dread throughout the Northern States,
colored and heightened by imagination, that Mr. Lincoln would in
some way, by some act of violence or of treachery, be deprived of
the Presidency, and the government thrown into anarchy. Mr.
Breckinridge was the Vice-President, and there had been a vague
fear that the count of the electoral votes, over which he presided,
would in some way be obstructed or tampered with, and that the
regularity of the succession might be interrupted, and its legitimacy
stained. But Mr. Breckinridge had performed his official duty with
scrupulous fidelity, and Mr. Lincoln had been declared by him, in
the presence of the two Houses of Congress, to be lawfully and
constitutionally elected President of the United States. Anarchy
and disorder in the North would at that time have proved so
advantageous to the leaders of Secession, that the apprehension
was firmly fixed in the Northern mind that some attempt would be
made to bring it about. The very fact, therefore, that Mr. Lincoln
was in possession of the office, that he was quietly living in the
Executive mansion, that the Senate of the United States was in
session, with a quorum present, ready to act upon his nominations,
imported a new confidence and opened a new prospect to the friends
of the Union.
The Inaugural address added to the feeling of hopefulness and
security in the North. It effectually removed every trace of
unfavorable impression which had been created by Mr. Lincoln's
speeches, and gave at once a new view and an exalted estimate of
the man. He argued to the South, with persuasive power, that the
institution of Slavery in the States was not in danger by his
election. He admitted the full obligation under the Constitution
for the return of fugitive slaves. He neither affirmed nor denied
any position touching Slavery in the Territories. He was fully
aware that many worthy, patriotic citizens desired that the National
Constitution should be amended; and, while he declined to make any
recommendation, he recognized the full authority of the people over
the subject, and said he should favor rather than oppose a fair
opportunity for them to act upon it. He expressed a preference,
if the Constitution was to be amended, for a general convention
rather than for action through State Legislatures. He so far
departed from his purpose not to speak of particular amendments as
to allude to the one submitted by the late Congress, to the effect
that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic
institutions of the States; and he said that, holding such a
provision to be now implied in the Constitution, he had no objection
to its being made express and irrevocable. He pleaded earnestly,
even tenderly, with those who would break up the Union. "In your
hands," said he, "my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in
mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will
not assail you. You can have no conflict without yourselves being
the aggressors. You can have no oath registered in heaven to
destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to
preserve, protect, and defend it. I am loath to close. We are
not enemies, but friends. Though passion may have strained, it
must not break, our bonds of affection."
While the effect produced by the Inaugural in the North was so
auspicious, no corresponding impression was made in the South.
Mr. Lincoln's concise and candid statement of his opinions and
purposes in regard to Slavery, his majestic and unanswerable argument
against Secession, and his pathetic appeal to the people and States
of the South, all alike failed to win back the disaffected communities.
The leaders of the Secession movement were only the more enraged
by witnessing the favor with which Mr. Lincoln's position was
received in the North. The declaration of the President that he
should execute the laws in all parts of the country, as required
by his oath, and that the jurisdiction of the nation under the
Constitution would be asserted everywhere and constantly, inspired
the doubting with confidence, and gave to the people of the North
a common hope and a common purpose in the approaching struggle.
The address left to the seceding States only the choice of retiring
from the position they had taken, or of assuming the responsibilities
of war. It was clear that the assertion of jurisdiction by two
separate governments over the same territory and people must end
in bloodshed. In this dilemma was the South placed by the Inaugural
address of President Lincoln. Mr. Buchanan had admitted the right
of Secession, while denying the wisdom of its exercise; but the
right when exercised carried jurisdiction with it. Hence it was
impossible for Mr. Buchanan to assert jurisdiction and attempt its
exercise over the territory and people of the seceding States.
But Mr. Lincoln, by his Inaugural address, set himself free from
all logical entanglements. His emphatic words were these: "I
therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and the laws,
the Union is unbroken; and to the extent of my ability, I shall
take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me,
that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States.
. . . I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as
a declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend
and maintain itself."
THE CABINET OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN.
Mr. Lincoln constituted his Cabinet in a manner at least unusual
if not unprecedented. It had been the general practice of Presidents,
from the first organization of the government, to tender the post
of Secretary of State to the man considered to be next in prominence
to himself in the party to which both belonged. In the earlier
history of the country, the expected successor in the Executive
office was selected. This was indeed for a long period so uniform
that the appointment to the State Department came to be regarded
as a designation to the Presidency. In political phrase, this mode
of reaching the coveted place was known as the "easy accession."
By its operation Madison succeeded Jefferson, Monroe succeeded
Madison, John Quincy Adams succeeded Monroe. After successful
application for a quarter of a century the custom fell into disfavor
and, by bitter agitation, into disuse. The cause of its overthrow
was the appointment of Henry Clay to the State Department, and the
baseless scandal of a "bargain and sale" was invented to deprive
Mr. Clay of the "easy accession." After a few years, when National
Conventions were introduced, it became the habit of the President
to tender the State Department to a leading or prominent competitor
for the Presidential nomination. Thus General Harrison offered
the post to Mr. Clay, who declined; and then to Mr. Webster, who
accepted. President Polk appointed Mr. Buchanan. President Pierce
appointed Mr. Marcy. President Buchanan appointed General Cass.
Following in the same line, Mr. Lincoln now invited his chief rival,
Mr. Seward, to the State Department. But his courtesy did not stop
there. He was generous beyond all example to his rivals. He called
Salmon P. Chase to the Treasury, appointed Simon Cameron to the
War Department, and made Edward Bates of Missouri Attorney-General.
These were the three who, next to Mr. Seward, received the largest
votes of the minority in the convention which nominated Mr. Lincoln.
The Cabinet was completed by the appointment of Gideon Welles of
Connecticut Secretary of the Navy, Caleb B. Smith of Indiana
Secretary of the Interior, and Montgomery Blair of Maryland Postmaster-
General.
The announcement of these names gave fair satisfaction to the party,
though the most advanced and radical element of the Republicans
regarded its composition with distrust. There had been strong hope
on the part of the conservative friends of the Union that some
prominent man from the Cotton States would be included in the
Cabinet, and overtures were undoubtedly made to that effect directly
after the election in November. But the rapidly developing revolt
against the Union made such an appointment undesirable if not
altogether impracticable. By the time of the inauguration it was
found that such an olive-branch from the President would exert no
influence over the wild passions which had been aroused in the
South. The name most frequently suggested was that of Mr. John A.
Gilmer of North Carolina, who was a sincere friend of the Union,
and did all in his power to avert a conflict; but his appointment
to the Cabinet would have destroyed him at home, without bringing
strength at that crisis to the National cause.
The opinions and characteristics of each member of the Cabinet were
very closely scanned and criticised. Mr. Seward was known to be
fully committed to the policy of conciliation towards the South,
and to the adoption of every measure consistent with the honor of
the country to avert war and induce the return of the seceding
States. Mr. Chase was understood to favor a moderate policy, but
did not go so far as Mr. Seward. Mr. Cameron sympathized with Mr.
Seward more than with Mr. Chase. Mr. Bates was extremely conservative,
but a zealous friend of the Union, and a lifelong disciple of Mr.
Clay. Mr. Welles was of Democratic antecedents, a follower of Van
Buren and Wright, an associate of John M. Niles, anti-slavery in
principle, a strict constructionist, instinctively opposed to Mr.
Seward, readily co-operating with Mr. Chase. His appointment was
a surprise to New-England Republicans who expected a much more
prominent member of the party to be called to the Cabinet. It was
understood that the selection was due to the counsel of Vice-
President Hamlin, who soon after had such serious differences with
Mr. Welles that a state of absolute non-intercourse existed between
them during the whole period of his incumbency of the Navy Department.
Mr. Caleb B. Smith had been prominent in the House of Representatives
when Mr. Lincoln was a member, had been popular as a public speaker
in the West, but had no aptitude for so serious a task as the
administration of a great department, and did not long retain his
position.
THE CABINET OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN.
Mr. Blair was appointed as a citizen of Maryland. This gave serious
offense to many of Mr. Lincoln's most valued supporters, and was
especially distasteful to the Union men of Maryland, with Henry
Winter Davis at their head. They regarded Mr. Blair as a non-
resident, as not in any sense identified with them, and as disposed
from the outset to foment disturbance where harmony was especially
demanded. Mr. Bates had been appointed from Missouri largely by
the influence of Francis P. Blair, Jr.; and the border-State
Republicans were dissatisfied that the only two members of the
Cabinet from the slave States had been appointed apparently without
any general consultation among those who were best fitted to give
the President advice on so important a matter. The extreme men in
the Republican party, of the type of Benjamin F. Wade and Owen
Lovejoy, believed that the Cabinet was so constituted as to insure
what they termed "a disgraceful surrender to the South." It was
a common saying at the time in Washington, among the radical
Republicans, that Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet did not contain three as
absolute and strong defenders of the Union as Dix, Holt, and Stanton,
who had just retired with Mr. Buchanan. Thaddeus Stevens, with
his accustomed sharpness of speech, said the Cabinet was composed
of an assortment of rivals whom the President appointed from
courtesy, one stump-speaker from Indiana, and two representatives
of the Blair family.
In the seven States which constituted the original Southern
Confederacy, the flag of the United States was flying at only three
points on the day of Mr. Lincoln's inauguration. The army of the
United States still held Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston;
Fort Pickens, opposite the Pensacola Navy Yard; and Key West, the
extreme southern point of Florida. Every other fort, arsenal, dock-
yard, mint, custom-house, and court-house had been seized by the
Confederacy, and turned to hostile use. Fort Moultrie, Castle
Pinckney, and the United-States arsenal at Charleston had been
seized by the troops of South Carolina; Forts Jackson and Pulaski,
and the United-States arsenal at Augusta, by the troops of Georgia;
the Chattahoochee and St. Augustine arsenals and the Florida forts,
by the troops of that State; the arsenal at Baton Rouge, and Forts
Jackson and St. Philip, together with the New-Orleans mint and
custom-house, by the troops of Louisiana; the Little-Rock arsenal
by the troops of Arkansas; Forts Johnson and Caswell by the troops
of North Carolina; and General Twiggs had traitorously surrendered
to the State of Texas all the military stores in his command,
amounting in value to a million and a half of dollars. By these
means the seceding States had come into possession of all the
artillery, small arms, ammunition, and supplies of war needed for
immediate use, and were well prepared for the opening of the
campaign. On the part of the government there was no such preparation.
Indeed the government did not at that moment have twelve thousand
available troops against the most formidable rebellion in history.
Its whole navy could not make one large squadron, and its most
effective ships were at points remote from the scene of conflict.
The revenues of the country were not then yielding more than thirty
millions per annum, and the credit was so low that one per cent.
a month had been paid by the retiring administration for the funds
necessary to close its unfortunate career.
In view of all these facts, it cannot be matter of wonder that the
Disunion leaders in the South laughed to scorn any efforts on the
part of the Government of the United States to arrest their progress,
much less to subdue them, and enforce their return to the Union.
North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Arkansas had not yet
seceded. The Union sentiment was strong in each one of these
States, and the design of Mr. Lincoln was to pursue a policy so
mild and conciliatory as to win them to the side of the government.
Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri were excited by strong minorities
who desired to aid the South, while no strong element in their
population was ready to take decisive measures for the Union.
Palliation, conciliation, concession, compromise, were the only
words heard, and the almost universal opinion in the South, shared
largely by the North, was that to precipitate war would be to
abandon the last hope for restoration of the Union.
EXTRA SESSION OF THE SENATE.
The extra session of the Senate, called by Mr. Buchanan for the
convenience of the new administration, assembled on the 4th of
March. All the Southern States were represented in full except
those which had members in the Confederate Congress at Montgomery,
and from one of these--the State of Texas--both senators, John
Hemphill and Louis T. Wigfall, were present. Texas was indeed
represented in the Congress of the Confederate States at Montgomery
and in the Congress of the United States at Washington at the same
time. Some excuse was given for the continuance of the senators
by an alleged lack of completeness in the secession proceedings of
their State; but to the apprehension of the ordinary mind, a
secession that was complete enough to demand representation at
Montgomery was complete enough to end it at Washington. The Texas
senators, therefore, did not escape the imputation of seizing a
mere pretext for remaining at Washington somewhat in the character
of spies upon the new administration. John C. Breckinridge of
Kentucky and Thomas L. Clingman of North Carolina took the usual
oath to support the Constitution--Clingman for his second term,
Breckinridge for his first. Salmon P. Chase was sworn in as senator
from Ohio, and retired the next day to the Treasury Department.
John Sherman was his successor. Among the new senators who entered,
and who afterwards became conspicuous, were Howe of Wisconsin and
Baker of Oregon. The session was only for Executive purposes, and
of course possessed no legislative power; but the debates were of
interest and of value to the country.
Mr. Douglas, with the characteristic boldness of a leader and with
a patriotism which did him honor, defended the Inaugural address
of Mr. Lincoln against the assault of opposition senators. In
reply to Wigfall of Texas, who wished to know Douglas's views upon
certain points of policy, he said, "I do not choose to proclaim
what my policy would be, in view of the fact that the senator does
not regard himself as the guardian of the honor and the interests
of my country, but is looking to the interests of another which he
thinks is in hostility. It would hardly be good policy or wisdom
for me to reveal what I think ought to be our policy to one who
may so soon be in the councils of the enemy and in the command of
his armies." Being pressed by Wigfall to know what he would advise
the President to do in the critical condition of Fort Sumter,
Douglas sarcastically answered that he "should have no hesitancy
in replying to the senator from Texas if that senator held himself
bound by his oath to support the Constitution of the United States,
and to protect and aid the honor of the country instead of
communicating it to the enemy to be used against us." It was a
vast gain to the Union that Douglas spoke so boldly in defense of
Mr. Lincoln; and it was significant that Wigfall received imputations
upon his honor without threats of a duel, and without even using
the language of resentment.
Mr. Mason of Virginia came to the aid of Wigfall in the debate,
but fared badly at the hands of Douglas. He asked Douglas to define
what should be done in this crisis in regard to Fort Sumter. "If
the senator from Virginia," said Douglas, "had voted right in the
last Presidential election, I should have been, perhaps, in a
position to-day to tell him authoritatively what ought to be done.
Not occupying that position, I must refer the senator from Virginia
to those who have been intrusted by the American people, according
to the Constitution, with the decision of that question." The
speech of Wigfall had given great offense, and the castigation
administered by Douglas was heartily responded to throughout the
North. Wigfall had boasted that he owed no allegiance to the
government; that he was a foreigner and owed allegiance to another
government. On the next day, reciting these words as a preamble,
Mr. Foster of Connecticut moved "that Louis T. Wigfall be and hereby
is expelled from the Senate." Mr. Clingman of North Carolina moved
as a substitute a declaration that "Texas having seceded from the
Union, and being no longer one of the United States, is not entitled
to be represented in this body." After a brief debate, the
resolutions were referred to the Judiciary by the votes of Republican
senators, who, not wishing to precipitate any issue prematurely,
and persuaded that Wigfall's presence was helping rather than
harming the Union cause, concluded to let the matter rest.
BRECKINRIDGE AND DOUGLAS.
A notable debate took place between Breckinridge and Douglas, in
which the issues that had led to the disruption of the Democracy
in the late Presidential election were, in a certain sense, fought
over again. Mr. Breckinridge's speech was carefully prepared, and
presented the Southern side in a tone of dignity and confidence;
but the reply of Douglas exhibited his superiority as a debater.
Breckinridge had declared that whatever settlement be made of other
questions, there must be a concession to the South of the right to
emigrate into all the Territories, or at least an equitable partition
of the National Domain. In reply, Douglas reminded him that the
South had, by the action of a Republican Congress, the full right
to emigrate into all the territory of the United States; and that,
with the consent of the Republican Congress, every inch of the
territory of the United States south of the thirty-seventh degree
of latitude was at that hour open to slavery. "So far," said he,
"as the doctrine of popular sovereignty and non-intervention is
concerned, the Colorado Bill and the Nevada Bill and the Dakota
Bill are identically the same with the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, and
in its precise language." The answer was at once a complete
destruction of the argument of Breckinridge, and a severe indictment
of the Republican party. Never before in the existence of the
Federal Government had its territory been so open, by Congressional
enactment and by judicial decision, to the slave-holder as on the
day that Abraham Lincoln assumed the office of President of the
United States. It is a singular fact that, on the eve of the utter
destruction of the institution of Slavery, its legal status was
stronger than ever before in the history of the government, and
the area over which it might lawfully spread was far larger than
at any previous period. Douglas showed in this debate how absolutely
groundless was the excuse of slave-holders for basing secession or
revolution upon the failure to acquire their rights in the Territories,
when never before had their rights in the Territories been so
absolutely complete.
Public opinion in March, 1861, was so unsettled, the popular mind
so impressible, that a spirit of discontent soon began to spread
over the loyal States on the part of those who had hoped for what
they termed a vigorous administration. For a few weeks the conduct
of the government fell under the animadversion of all classes in
the North. To those who wanted an instant settlement, and the
return of the seceding States upon their own terms, the administration
seemed too radical. To those who demanded that the flag be
maintained, and Fort Sumter promptly re-enforced, who would be
satisfied with nothing less than the recovery of every piece of
public property of which the Confederates had possessed themselves,
the administration appeared altogether too conservative. The
overwhelming public desire after all was for peace, and the
overwhelming public opinion was against the extremists who would,
by any possibility, precipitate war. The administration thus began
its career with no firm footing beneath it, with an aggressive and
defiant enemy in front of it, with a public opinion divided,
distrustful, and compromising, behind it.
No more difficult task has ever been presented to any government
than that which Mr. Lincoln and his Cabinet assumed in the month
of March, 1861. To judge it now by any appearance of irresolution,
or by any seeming deficiency of courage, would be trying it by a
standard totally inapplicable and unfair. Before and beyond all
things, Mr. Lincoln desired to prevent war, and he felt that every
day of peace gave fresh hope that bloodshed might be avoided. In
his Inaugural address he had taken the strongest ground for the
preservation of the Union, and had carefully refrained from every
act and every expression which would justify, even in the public
opinion of the South, an outbreak of violence on the part of the
Confederates. He believed that the Southern revolt had attained
its great proportions in consequence of Mr. Buchanan's assertion
that he had not power to coerce a seceding State. Mr. Lincoln had
announced a different creed, and every week that the South continued
peaceful, his hope of amicable adjustment grew stronger. He believed
that with the continuance of peace, the Secessionists could be
brought to see that Union was better than war for all interests,
and that in an especial degree the institution of Slavery would be
imperiled by a resort to arms. He had faith in the sober second-
thought. If the South would deliberate, the Union would be saved.
He feared that the Southern mind was in the condition in which a
single untoward circumstance might precipitate a conflict, and he
determined that the blood of his brethren should not be on his
hands.
STATESMANSHIP OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN.
Mr. Lincoln saw, moreover, that war between a divided North and a
united South would be a remediless calamity. If, after all efforts
at peace, war should be found unavoidable, the Administration had
determined so to shape its policy, so to conduct its affairs, that
when the shock came it should leave the South entirely in the wrong,
and the government of the Union entirely in the right. Consolidated
as might be the front which the Rebellion would present, the
administration was resolved that it should not be more solid, more
immovable, more courageous, than that with which the supporters of
the government would meet it. Statesmanship cannot be judged upon
theories. It must be decided by results. When that conclusive
test is brought to bear, Mr. Lincoln's administration of the
government in the weeks immediately following his inauguration
deserves the highest praise; and all the more because it was
compelled to disregard the clamor and disappoint the expectations
of many who had been conspicuously influential in bringing it into
power, and who therefore thought themselves entitled to give
counsel.