6 sneered at it ; bnt patriots ■welcomed it as alike considerate and firm. As the first ofiicial utterance of the President, it was accepted as a great relief from the oppressive uncertainty which had hitherto Imrdened the public heart. It gave promise that all was'not to be lost. In a little more than a month after this inauguration, the insurgents, by the express order of Jefferson Davis, made the attack upon Fort Sumter. Anderson and his noble band met the attack in the name of their country ; and yet after a terrible bombardment, for which the Kebels had been months preparing, these defenders of the flag were compelled to surrender. Down went the symbol of the nation's honor, and up went the flag of treason —a scene that stung every loyal heart to the very quick. Almost immediately four other States rushed into the arms of the rebellion, —States, too, in which the popular vote had been unequivocally adverse to this dreadful experiment. Against the will of the people they were dragged in by the machinations and intrigues of desperate and wicked men. Public threats were uttered, and traitorous preparations made for the capture of Washington. Some 30,000 Pebel troops were already under arms ; and the Confederate Congress at Montgomery had passed a bill for raising 100,000 more, and that too before a single soldier had been enlisted in defense of the nation. This state of things laid the basis for that wonderful uprising of public feeling in the loyal States, which swept everything before it. The people saw that the Rebels meant war, that their leaders were terribly in earnest, that the day of negotiation and compromise was past, and that nothing but the sword could save the nation. In the name of their country, in the name of the Constitution, burning too under the inspirations of a glorious history, the people of tlie loyal States were ready to accept the dreadful issue of war. Traitors at the North and Northern Sympathizers with treason were for the moment Inn-led headlong from the public regard. They dare not face the intense passion of the hour. The President, as it was his solemn duty to do, gave official and legal form to tliis feeling of the national heart. He summoned the nation to arms. He did not begin the war, as some
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