throbbed and pulsed with emotion, and the tensity of the times was upon
him. Without once referring directly to Sumter, his address was a call
to arms.

He spoke for an hour, and when he sat down he knew that he had won. The
next Sunday the place was again packed, and then followed urgent
invitations that he should speak during the week in a larger hall.

California was trembling in the balances, and orators were not wanting
to give out the arguments of Calhoun. They showed that the right of
secession was plainly provided for in the Constitution. Lincoln's call
for troops was coldly received, and from several San Francisco pulpits
orthodox clergymen were expressing deep regret that the President was
plunging the country into civil war.

The heart of Starr King burned with shame--to him there was but one side
to this question--the Union must be preserved.

One man who had known King in Massachusetts wrote back home saying: "You
would not know Starr King--he is not the orderly man of genteel culture
you once had in Boston. He is a torrent of eloquence, so heartfelt, so
convincing, so powerful, that when he speaks on Sunday afternoon out on
the sand-hills, he excites the multitude into a whirlwind of applause,
with a basso undertone of dissent, which, however, seems to grow
gradually less."

Loyalty to the Union was to him the one vital issue. His fight was not
with individuals--he made no personal issues. And in several joint
debates his courteous treatment of his adversary won converts for his
cause. He took pains to say that personally he had only friendship and
pity for the individuals who upheld secession and slavery--"The man in
the wrong needs friends as never before, since he has ceased to be his
own. Do we blame a blind man whom we see rushing towards a precipice?"

From that first Sunday he preached in San Francisco, his life was an
ovation wherever he went. Wherever he was advertised to speak,
multitudes were there to hang upon his words. He spoke in all the
principal towns of California; and often on the plains, in the
mountains, or by the seashore, men would gather from hundreds of miles
to hear him.

He gave himself, and before he had been in California a year, the State
was safe for the Union, and men and treasure were being sent to
Lincoln's aid. The fame of Starr King reached the President, and he
found time to write several letters to the orator, thanking him for what
he had done. It was in one