oration was a model of a generous, pleading, kindly, and withal reasoning address. His arguments were more implied than assertive, put in his favorite form of questions, rather than in declarations. Clearly, he hoped, as many others then did, that reason and persuasiveness might yet be brought to bear upon the masses of the Southern people so that they would forsake their wilful leaders, or brush them aside and declare for the Union. To reach these, through their judgment and their patriotism, was the main purpose of Lincoln's inaugural address. This was a disappointment to the Southern leaders, and great pains were taken to suppress or distort some portions of the oration when it was subsequently printed in the South.

Lincoln took occasion, early in this address, to reassure the Southern people of his intention to let slavery alone where it then existed. It had been said that the accession to the Presidency of a man who had been nominated by the Republicans was, in itself, a threat against slavery; that he would urge legislation to abolish domestic servitude, and would instantly begin his administration with measures designed to encourage slave insurrections and a general unsettlement of Southern institutions. To dispel this delusion, which had been industriously fostered, Lincoln said:

'Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that, by the accession of a Republican administration, their property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There never has been

any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed, and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists: I believe I have no lawful right to do so. Those who nominated and elected me did so with the full knowledge that I had made this and many similar declarations, and had never recanted them."

These were reassuring words; words anxiously designed to conciliate the South, to remove possible misapprehensions, and allay groundless suspicions. We shall see how ineffectual they were to change the determination of the men who had resolved upon rebellion. In like manner he committed himself to the doctrine, enunciated in the Federal Constitution, that a slave who escapes from a slave State into a free State is not thereby made free; for the doctrine of the Republicans was that only the voluntary bringing of a slave into free territory emancipated him. And it was shocking to some of Lincoln's more radical friends that he should thus justify the Fugitive Slave law as constitutional. Lincoln merely insisted on such an administration of the law that no free man, under any circumstances, should be surrendered as a slave.

He traced the process by which the Union of the States had been formed and the Constitution had become the fundamental law of the Republic, from which he argued that an act of secession, so-called,

was of no effect; that no State could leave the Union without the assent of the other States of that Union. This is the way he put the case: "It follows from these views that no State, upon its own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union; that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void; and that acts of violence within any State, or States, against the authority of the United States are insurrectionary, or revolutionary, according to circumstances.' Then Lincoln, having shown by a clear and luminous argument that no State could "lawfully get out of the Union," proceeded to say that the oath to support the Constitution expressly enjoined on him the duty of seeing that the laws of the United States were faithfully executed in all the States; and that he should do this until the sovereign people, the rightful masters, should refuse to supply him with the means of enforcing that authority or in some authoritative manner direct to the contrary. But he immediately added, as if solicitous that his peaceful and amicable intentions should be fully appreciated: "I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself. In doing this there need be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall be none unless it is forced upon the national authority."

It was this express, solemn, and emphatic declaration of the incoming President that disconcerted the Rebel leaders. They had expected that Lincoln would threaten; but, with his usual sagacity, he laid upon his enemies, the enemies of the Union,

the responsibility of beginning the war, if war was to be. Lincoln was always, as we have seen, fair and generous in his treatment of his opponents. This generosity breathed in every line of his inaugural address. Nevertheless, nothing would move him to surrender a principle once accepted as truth. Passing from this pleading for full faith and confidence in his peaceable intentions, he immediately added: "The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the Government." The men who, even then, were planning to seize forts, arsenals, and other governmental property, as their "share" of the property of the old Union, were doubtless glad to hear this utterance. They wanted war. Lincoln said that there would be no invasion; but this property of the Republic would be held and defended. The Rebel leaders knew that they were ready to seize this property, and that bloodshed and violence must needs come. Lincoln's plea for peace, while it was purposely designed to appease the South, had the effect of turning upon the Rebel leaders the responsibility of beginning and inviting hostilities.

Lincoln also argued against the possibility of a complete separation of the Northern States and the Southern States, even should both consent, or agree, to such an attempt at a division of the Republic. "Physically speaking," he said, "we cannot separate; we cannot remove our respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence and beyond the reach of each

other, but the different parts of our country cannot do this." And he showed that they must remain face to face, either as friends or enemies, and that there must be intercourse between the two; and that it would not be possible to make that intercourse more advantageous as aliens than it then was as friends. Lincoln showed his undying faith in the people by saying, after he had argued pleadingly for his proposition that the whole matter in dispute should be left to the people: "While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the Government in the short space of four years.

As Lincoln's voice, trained to open-air speaking, rang out, clear and resonant, above the vast throngs of people before him, the feelings of those who heard him were deeply stirred. The intense, passionate love for the Union that had been developed since its existence had been threatened, manifested itself in spontaneous cheering whenever any allusion to that sacred compact fell on their ears. Everybody hoped for the best-hoped that the Union might be saved and war averted. But it was also true that the people cheered lustily at every expression of the new President's determination to maintain the dignity of the Government and defend the public property. It was evident that those who heard the inaugural address were, like Lincoln, glad to avail themselves of every honorable device to keep the peace and avoid war, but likewise determined to surrender no vital principle for the sake of present peace.

Lincoln's