ABRAHAM LINCOLN -- CHAPTER 17

THE CIVIL WAR      Fort Sumter fell the next day, and it became the beginning of the Civil War. Soon four states seceded, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina. Thus eleven states in the South seceded; the remaining four states were Kentucky, Delaware, Maryland and Missouri.      It was fortunate that Maryland did not secede; for Washington, the political center, was between Maryland and Virginia. These Southern states set up government at Montgomery,   Alabama; and Richmond, Virginia, was the capital. Jefferson Davis and Alexander H. Stephens were elected President and Vice President.      on September 22, 1862, Lincoln read a draft of an Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet. It was in January, 1863, that the formal Emancipation Proclamation was issued. It did not free all slaves in the United States, but only those in states in rebellion. It was designed to deplate Southern manpower of slaves and to enhance the Union cause abroad.      Lincoln was gloomy, for he had to fight with the South where lived the same Americans.    one day Stephen Douglas entered his room. " The last time has come, Mr. President," he said. " I have   been wishing that this time would never come," Lincoln answered. " Things having come to this pass, there is no choice but to fight," Douglassaid. " I think so, too, but..." Douglas looked hard at Lincoln and said; " Iknow what you are thinking of,    Mr. President. You are a Republican. I am a Democrat. But I promise   you to do my best to cooperate with you. I will wire to every branch of Democrats to this effect."      "Thank you Mr. Douglas." They shook hands warmly. For a long time Douglas was Lincoln's political opponent, but, in the face of this national crisis, he cast aside partisanship and emulation and offered his help willingly for America's sake. Douglas spoke in various places to levy volunteer soldiers, advising people to buy bonds for subscription.      " I am a Democrat. For a long time I was politically against Mr. Lincoln. But I am as American. I fight for America," he exclaimed. His last speech was made in Chicago, when his health was completely shattered. " What's that noise?" he asked in a faint voice in bed of a hospital. " The volunteer soldiers going to the front, sir," the doctor answered. Douglas smiled, listening to the measured footsteps, till they went out of hearing; and died. He was forty-eight.