ren to settle. Now we're facing it with a
vengeance.

"Our fathers only dreamed a Union. They never lived to see it. This
country has always been an aggregation of jangling, discordant,
antagonistic sections. How is this man who comes into power to-day, this
humble rail-splitter, this County Court advocate, to achieve what our
greatest statesmen have tried for nearly a hundred years and failed to
do? Seward, the man he has called to be Secretary of State, has been
here for two months, juggling with his enemies. He's a Secessionist at
heart and expects the Union to be divided----"

"Surely," Betty interrupted, "you can't believe that."

"It's true. We don't dare say this in our paper, but we know it. So sure
is Seward of the collapse of the Lincoln administration that he withdrew
his acceptance of the post of Secretary of State, only day before
yesterday. It's uncertain at this hour whether he'll be in the
cabinet----"

"Why?" Betty asked in breathless surprise.

The young editor was silent a moment and spoke in low tones:

"You can keep a secret?"

"State secrets--easily."

"Mr. Seward expects to be called to a position of greater power than
President----"

"You mean?"

"The Dictatorship. That's the talk in the inner circles. Nobody in the
North expects war or wants war----"

"Except my father," Betty laughed.

"The Abolitionists don't count. If we have war there are not enough of
them to form a corporal's guard--to say nothing of an army. The North is
hopelessly divided and confused. If the South unites--if North Carolina,
Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri and Maryland join the
Confederacy under Davis, the Union is lost. What's going to hinder them
from uniting? They are all Slave States. They believe the new President
is a Black Abolitionist Republican. He isn't, of course, but they
believe it. How can he reassure them? The States that have already
plunged into Secession have hauled the flag down from every fort and
arsenal except Sumter and Pickens. The new President can only retake
these forts by force. The first shot fired will sweep every Slave State
out of the Union and arraign the millions of Democratic voters in the
North solidly against the Government. God pity the man who takes the
oath to-day to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution!"

When John Vaughan's voice died away at last into a passionate whisper,
Betty stood looking at him in a spell. She recovered herself wi