Meanwhile the Southern Confederacy had been formed, Jefferson Davis
elected President, and steps taken at once for the organization of an
army.
Everyone was waiting anxiously for the inauguration of the new
President--waiting to see what his course would be. They were not left
long in doubt. His inaugural address was earnest and direct. He said,
"The union of these States is perpetual. No State upon its own mere
motion can lawfully get out of the Union. I shall take care that the
laws of the Union are faithfully executed in all the States." It was, in
effect, a declaration of war, and was so received by the South. Whether
or not it was the constitutional attitude need not concern us now.
The story of Lincoln's life for the next five years is the story of the
Civil War. How Lincoln grew and broadened in those fateful years, how he
won men by his deep humanity, his complete understanding, his ready
sympathy; how, once having undertaken the task of conquering rebellion,
he never faltered nor turned back despite the awful sacrifices which the
conflict demanded; all this has passed into the commonplaces of history.
No man ever had a harder task, and no other man could have accomplished
it so well.
[Illustration: LINCOLN]
The emancipation of the slaves, which has loomed so large in history,
was in reality, merely an incident, a war measure, taken to weaken the
enemy and justifiable, perhaps, only on that ground; the preliminary
proclamation, indeed, proposed to liberate the slaves only in such
states as were in rebellion on the following first of January.
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