nt, the recapture of the forts which had been
seized by the States already seceded, or any attempt to exact duties
from them. True, this was followed during the first week in April by the
rejection of a proposition to secede by a vote of eighty-nine to
forty-five; but, as Farragut held that the President would be justified
in calling out troops when the forts and property of the nation had been
violently taken from it, the contrary avowal of the Legislature of his
State showed that he might soon be forced to choose between it and the
National Government. In that case his mind was fully made up; the choice
was painful, but not doubtful. "God forbid," he said, "that I should
have to raise my hand against the South!" but the words themselves
showed that, however bitter the decision, he was ready to make it. If
separation between the sections came peacefully, by mutual consent, he
would abide in the only home his manhood had known, and cast his lot
thenceforth with the people to whom he was allied and among whom his
interests lay; but if the rupture took the form of violent rebellion
against the Central Government, whose claims he admitted and to which he
owned allegiance, he was prepared to turn his arms even against those
who in the other alternative would have been his countrymen. The
attitude thus held during those long months of suspense and anxiety was
honorable alike to his heart, which responded warmly to the calls of
natural affection, and to his conscience, which subordinated the
dictates of the heart to his convictions of right; while the
unhesitating character of his resolution, amid the uncertainties that
unsettled so many men, must be attributed to that habit of preparing for
emergencies which characterized his career.

On the 12th of April, 1861, the long period of waiting and watching was
brought to an end by the attack upon Fort Sumter. On the 15th President
Lincoln issued his proclamation formally announcing the condition of
affairs which existed in the seceded States, the defiance of the Central
Government, and the seizure of its property. In consequence he called
for seventy-five thousand men from the militia of the various States,
and avowed clearly that "the first service assigned to the forces hereby
called forth will probably be to repossess the forts, places, and
property which have been seized from the Union." This was clearly an
appeal to arms, provoked finally by the assault upon Fort Sumter, but