ixed time for
redemption, but made a legal tender for all debts, public and
private, except customs duties; fourth, borrow any moneys needed
on the most favorable terms possible.

On the 4th of July, 1861, the Senate convened in compliance with
the proclamation of the President, from whom it received a message
containing a clear statement of the events that followed his
inaugural address. He described the attack upon Fort Sumter and
said:

"By the affair at Fort Sumter, with its surrounding circumstances,
that point was reached. Then and thereby the assailants of the
government began the conflict of arms, without a gun in sight or
in expectancy to return their fire, save only the few in the fort,
sent to that harbor years before for their own protection, and
still ready to give that protection in whatever was lawful. In
this act, discarding all else, they have forced upon the country
the distinct issue, 'immediate dissolution or blood.'

"And this issue embraces more than the fate of these United States.
It presents to the whole family of man the question, whether a
constitutional republic, or democracy--a government of the people
by the same people--can or cannot maintain its territorial integrity
against its own domestic foes. It presents the question, whether
discontented individuals, too few in number to control administration
according to organic law in any case, can always, upon the pretenses
made in this case, or on any other pretenses, or arbitrarily,
without any pretense, break up their government, and thus practically
put an end to free government upon the earth. It forces us to ask:
'Is there, in all republics, this inherent and fatal weakness?'
'Must a government, of necessity, be too _strong_ for the liberties
of its own people, or too _weak_ to maintain its own existence?'

"So viewing the issue, no choice was left but to call out the war
power of the government; and so to resist force employed for its
destruction, by force for its preservation."

He closed with this appeal to the people:

"It was with the deepest regret that the Executive found the duty
of employing the war power in defense of the government forced upon
him. He could but perform this duty, or surrender the existence
of the government. No compromise by public servants could in this
case be a cure; not that compromises are not often proper, but that
no popular government can long survive a marked precedent that
those who car