memorable alike for their mireasoning infatuation, their moral criminality, and the terrible woes to which they have given birth. It was a sad hour for them, and for us, when they broke the bond of peace, and threw down the dire gauntlet of war. Acting under the inspiration of treacherous leaders, who had been long waiting for an opportunity and maturing their plans, the Southern people refused to be governed by the legally expressed will of the majority. Though they shared in the election, they declined to abide by the choice. Under the pretended right of Secession, State after State professed to withdraw from the Union ; and when seven States had thus withdrawn, they organized a Confederate Government at Montgomery, in Alabama, hostile in its character, repudiating the authority of the Constitutional President, and forcibly taking possession of the Forts, Mints, Property, and Military Stores of the United States lying within its pretended jurisdiction. In a word, these seceders made war upon this Government. ,Tliese acts on their part were acts of Avar. All this was done during the winter of 1860 and '61, and while Mr. Buchanan yet held the office of President, surrounded, I am sorry to say, by as infamous a nest of traitors in his Cabinet and among his counsellors as ever disgraced this fallen world. That winter was one of the darkest periods in the history of this whole tragedy. In the Spring of 1861, Mr. Lincoln was formally inaugurated into office, and became in fact President of these United States, being bound by the solemnities of an oath to support the Constitution, and execute the laws of the land. He took occasion to address the whole people, to exhort the insurgents in the most paternal manner not to pursue their mad purpose of dissolving the Union—assuring them that he had no disposition to interfere with a single one of their Constitutional rights, yet distinctly informing them that he meant to assert the supreme jurisdiction of this Government, and faithfully execute the laws. The Inaugural of the President was worthy of the man, and worthy of the hour. It inspired the nation with hope, especially when contrasted with t^'e vacillating imbecility of Mr. Buchanan. All honest people felt that it was right. Traitors
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