d fifteen free. Some
threats were made that the slaveholding States would leave the Union
if Congress sought to shut out slavery in the territory gained from
Mexico.

That a State might secede, or withdraw from the Union, had long been
claimed by a party led by John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina. Daniel
Webster had always opposed this doctrine and stood as the
representative of those who held that the Union could not be broken.
Now, in 1850, Henry Clay undertook to end the quarrel between the
States, and as a result there was a famous debate between the most
notable living orators, Webster, Calhoun, and Clay, and a new
compromise was made. It was called the Compromise of 1850, and it was
confidently hoped would be a final settlement of all the troubles
growing out of slavery. But it was not. With slow and increasing
bitterness the feeling rose in both North and South over the mooted
question, and slowly but surely events moved on toward the great
crisis of 1860, when Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the
United States.

"The Southern States had been hoping that this might be prevented, for
they knew that Lincoln stood firmly for the abolition of slavery in
every State in the Union, and that he was not a man to compromise or
falter when he believed in a principle. So as soon as he was elected
the Southern States began to withdraw from the Union, known as the
United States of America. First went South Carolina, then Georgia,
Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Then delegates from
these States met in Montgomery, Alabama, and formed a new Union which
they called the 'Confederate States of America,' with Jefferson Davis
as its President. Then Texas joined the Confederacy, and events were
shaping themselves rapidly for an inevitable culmination.

"When South Carolina withdrew there was within her boundary much
property belonging to the United States, such as lighthouses,
court-houses, post-offices, custom-houses, and two important forts,
Moultrie and Sumter, which guarded the entrance to Charleston harbor,
and were held by a small band of United States troops under the
command of Major Robert Anderson.

"As soon as the States seceded a demand was made on the United States
for a surrender of this property. The partnership called the Union,
having been dissolved by the secession of South Carolina, the land on
which the buildings stood belonged to the State, but the buildings
themselves, being the property