LINCOLN LEAVES SPRINGFIELD
In 1860 Lincoln was elected the President of the United States. While he waited to
take office, seven Southern States, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississipi,
Florida, Alabama and Texas, seceded from the Union. on February 11, 1861, he left
Springfield for Washington. He said to the crowd from the rear platform of his train:
" No one, not in my position, can understand how sad I feel at this parting. All that
I am I owe to you and to this place. Here I have lived more than a quarter of a century.
Here my children were born, and here one of them lies buried. I now leave, not knowing
when I shall see you again. My duty is perhaps more difficult than George Washington.
He always relied upon God's help, without which he would never have succeeded.
I feel that I can not succeed without the same God's help that supported him.
My friends, I hope you will pray I may receive that God's help without which I can not
succeed, but with which success is certain. Good-bye, my friends and neighbors."
Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4, 1861. He tried to take a moderate course, but his
hope for a peaceful settlement were shattered when the Confederates open fire on Fort
Sumter in Charleston harbor on April 12, 39 days after his inauguration.