called to lead.

The Abolitionists only sneered at this cry. They demanded an answer to a
single insistent question:

"What are you going to fight about?"

A battle which does not settle the question of Slavery they declared to
be a waste of blood and treasure. If the slave was not the issue, why
fight? The South would return to the Union which they had always ruled
if let alone. Why fight them for nothing?

Gilbert Winter, their spokesman at Washington, again confronted the
President with his uncompromising demand:

"An immediate proclamation of emancipation!"

And the President with quiet dignity refused to consider it.

"Why?" again thundered the Senator.

His answer was always the same:

"I am not questioning the right or wrong of Slavery. If Slavery is not
wrong, nothing is wrong. But the Constitution, which I have sworn to
uphold in the Border States of Maryland, Missouri and Kentucky,
guarantees to their people the right to hold slaves if they choose. We
have already eleven Southern States solidly arrayed against us. Add the
Border States by such a proclamation, and the contest is settled before
a blow is struck. I know the power of State loyalty in the South. I was
born there. Many a mother in Richmond wept the days the stars and
stripes were lowered from their Capitol. And well they might--for their
sires created this Republic. But they brushed their tears away and sent
their sons to the front next day to fight that flag in the name of
Virginia. So would thousands of mothers in these remaining Slave States
if I put them to the test. I'm going to save them for the Union. In
God's own time Slavery will be destroyed."

Against every demand of the heart of the party which had given him
power, he stood firm in the position he had taken.

But there was no resisting the universal demand for a march on Richmond.
The cry was literally from twenty millions. He must heed it or yield the
reins of power to more daring hands.

To add to the President's burden, his Secretary of State was still
dreaming of foreign wars. He had drawn up a letter of instruction to our
Minister to Great Britain which would have provoked an armed conflict.
When the backwoodsman from Southern Illinois read this document he was
compelled to lay aside his other duties and practically rewrite it. His
work showed a freedom of mind, a balance of judicial temperament, an
insight into foreign affairs, a skill in the use of language, a delic