Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/683

 PRESIDENT]. LINCOLN 659 Democrat; but four opposition members, of Democratic antecedents, refused to vote for Lincoln, who was yet called a Whig, and by their persistence compelled the election of Trumbull. The Republican party of Illinois was formally organized in 1856; the campaign resulted substantially in a drawn battle, the Democrats gaining a majority in the State for president, while the Republicans elected the governor and State officers. In 1858 the senatorial term of Douglas, author of the repeal of the Missouri compromise, was expiring, and he sought re election. Lincoln, who had four years before successfully met him in public debate, was now by unanimous resolution of the Republican State convention designated as his rival and opponent. Yielding to the wish of his party friends, Lincoln challenged Douglas to a joint public discussion. The antagonists met in debate at seven designated points in the State, while they also separately addressed audiences in nearly every one of the hundred counties. At the November election the Republicans received a majority in the popular vote, but the Democrats, through a favourable apportionment of representative districts, secured a majority of the legislature, which re-elected Douglas. This remark able campaign excited the closest attention from every part of the Union. Lincoln, addressing the convention which nominated him, June 16, 1858, opened the discussion with the following bold prophecy : A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this Gov ernment cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved I do not expect the house to fall but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in course of ultimate extinction ; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike law ful in all the States, old as well as new North as well as South.&quot; Lincoln s speeches in this campaign won him a national fame, which was greatly increased by several made in Ohio the following year, and especially by his Cooper Institute address in New York city, February 27, 1860. More than any contemporary statesman he had in the long six years agitation insisted that, transcending the technical point of constitutional authority, or the problem of public policy, the deeper question of human right and wrong lay at the bottom of the slavery controversy. The Republican national convention, which made &quot; No Extension of Slavery&quot; its principal tenet, met at Chicago. May 16, 1860. Seward was the leading candidate; but the more conservative delegates opposed him as being too radical, and uniting their forces nominated Lincoln, who was elected president of the United States after an unusu ally animated political campaign, November 6, I860, 1 and inaugurated at Washington, March 4, 1861. Meanwhile a formidable movement, begun by South Carolina a month before the November election, and based on the slavery agitation, had carried the slave States South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas into secession. A provisional government under the designation &quot;The Confederate States of America,&quot; with Jefferson Davis as president, was organized by the seceding States, who seized by force nearly all the forts, arsenals, and public buildings within their limits. Great division of sentiment existed in the North, whether in this emergency acquiescence or coercion was the prefer able policy. Lincoln s inaugural address declared the Union perpetual and acts of secession void, and announced the determination of the Government to defend its autho- 1 The popular vote cast for electors stood: Lincoln, 1,866,462; Douglas, 1,375,157; Breckinridge, 847,953 ; Bell, 590,631. The official vote cast by the electors on December 5, 1860, and counted and declared by Congress on February 13, 1861, was: Lincoln, 180 ; Breckinridge, 72 ; Bell, 39 ; Douglas, 12. rity, and to hold forts and places yet in its possession. On the other hand, he disclaimed any intention to invade, subjugate, or oppress the seceding States. &quot; You can have no conflict,&quot; he said, &quot; without being yourselves the aggressors,&quot; Fort Sumter in Charleston harbour had been besieged by the secessionists since January ; and, it being now on the point of surrender through starvation, Lincoln sent the besiegers official notice on April 8 that a fleet was on its way to carry provisions to the fort, but that he would not attempt to reinforce it unless this effort were resisted. The Confederates, however, immediately ordered its reduction, and after a thirty-four hours bombardment the garrison capitulated, April 13, 1861. With civil war thus provoked, Lincoln on April 15th by proclamation called 75,000 three months militia under arms, and on May 4th ordered the further enlistment of 64,748 soldiers and 18,000 seamen for three years service. He instituted a blockade of the Southern ports, took effective steps to extemporize a navy, convened Congress in special session, and asked for legislation and authority to make the war &quot;short, sharp, and decisive.&quot; The country responded with enthusiasm to his summons and suggestions ; and the South on its side was not less active. The Sumter bombardment rapidly developed and increased the limits of insurrection. Four additional slave States drifted into secession ; the Unionists maintained ascendency in Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, and succeeded in dividing Virginia. Minor engagements soon took place between the opposing forces ; and on July 21, 1861, the first important battle was fought at Bull Run, and resulted in the defeat and panic of the Unionists. The slavery question presented vexatious difficulties in conducting the war. Acute observers could not fail to note that its gigantic agencies were beginning to work in the direction of practical abolition. Congress in August 1861 passed an Act confiscating rights of slaveowners to slaves employed in hostile service against the Union. On August 31st General Fremont by military order declared martial law #nd confiscation against active enemies, with freedom to their slaves, in the State of Missouri. Believ ing that under existing conditions such a step was both detrimental in present policy and unauthorized in law, President Lincoln directed him to modify the order to make it conform to the Confiscation Act of Congress. Strong political factions were instantly formed for and against military emancipation, and the Government was hotly beset by antagonistic counsel. The Unionists of the border slave States were greatly alarmed, but Lincoln by his moderate conservatism held them to the military support of the Government. Meanwhile he sagaciously prepared the way for the supreme act of statesmanship which the gathering national crisis already dimly foreshadowed. On March 6, 1862, he sent a special message to Congress recommending the passage of a resolution offering pecuniary aid from the general Government to induce States to adopt gradual abolishment of slavery. Promptly passed by Congress, the resolution produced no immediate result except in its influence on public opinion. A practical step, however, soon followed. In April Congress passed and the president approved an Act emancipating the slaves in the District of Columbia, with compensation to owners a measure which Lincoln bad proposed when in Congress in 1849. Meanwhile slaves of loyal masters were constantly escaping to military camps. Some commanders excluded them altogether ; others surrendered them on demand ; while still others sheltered and protected them against their owners. Lincoln tolerated this latitude as falling properly within the military discretion pertaining to local army operations. A new case, however, soon demanded his official interference. On the 9th of May 1862 General