CHAPTER VIII.

IN THE PRESIDENTIAL CHAIR; THE CIVIL WAR BEGINS.
One of the last things that A-bra-ham Lin-coln did ere he said good-bye to his Spring-field home was to go down to see the good old step-moth-er who did so much for him when he was a poor, sad boy. Proud in-deed, was she of the lad she had reared¹ with so much care, but she felt that there were hard days to come to him. She told him that she feared she should not see him a-gain. She said “They will kill you; I know they will.”
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Lin-coln tried to cheer her, and told her they would not do that. But she clung³ to him with tears, and a break-ing heart. “We must trust in the Lord, and all will be well,” said the good man as he bade his step-moth-er a ten-der fare-well and went a-way.
It was on Feb. 11, 1861, that Lin-coln left Spring-field for Wash-ing-ton. Snow was fall-ing fast as Lin-coln stood at the rear² of his train to say his last words. A great crowd was at the rail-road sta-tion. Men stood si-lent with bare heads while he spoke⁴.
Six firm friends of Mr. Lin-coln went with him to Wash-ing-ton. Mr. Lin-coln was ver-y much af-fect-ed when he went in-to the car af-ter say-ing good-bye to his old home folks. Tears were in his eyes.
Crowds were at each sta-tion a-long the route and Mr. Lin-coln oft-en spoke to those who had come there to see him. While talk-ing at West-field Mr. Lin-coln said that he had a young friend there who had sent a note to him, and that if Grace Be-dell were in the sta-tion he should like to meet the child. It seems she was there, and the word was passed on; “Grace, Grace, the Pres-i-dent is call-ing for you!” A friend led her through the crowd, and Mr. Lin-coln took her by the
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 hand and kissed her. Then he said, with a smile, “You see, Grace, that I have let my whis-kers grow!”
The train then rushed off, but a smile was on Mr. Lin-coln’s face, and for a brief time the weight of of-fice had left him.
Threats of a sad sort were then a-broad in the land. Foes⁵ said Lin-coln should nev-er be made Pres-i-dent. Their hearts were full of hate. They felt that this man would be sure to en-force the laws, e-ven a-gainst those who were joined to-geth-er to try to break them.
Lin-coln was brave. He did not fear. He felt that the Lord was on his side and that He would give him strength to do all the work that he had planned for him. Though he did not doubt this, yet, both he and his friends felt that it would not be right to risk his life at that time, so they did not take the route at first thought of, but went by a way, and at a time, which would make all safe.
Thus the train from Phil-a-del-phi-a rolled in-to Wash-ing-ton ear-ly one morn-ing and Lin-coln was safe, and must, in-deed, have felt the truth of those Bi-ble words, “He shall give His an-gels charge o-ver thee to keep thee in all thy ways.”
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On the Fourth of March, 1861, A-bra-ham Lin-coln stood on a plat-form, built for that day, on the east front of the cap-i-tol, and took the oath⁷ of of-fice. He laid his right hand on the Bi-ble. A hush⁸ fell up-on the vast throng⁹ as he said, af-ter Chief Jus-tice Ta-ney, these words: “I, A-bra-ham Lin-coln, do sol-emn-ly swear that I will faith-ful-ly ex-e-cute the of-fice of Pres-i-dent of the U-ni-ted States, and will, to the best of my a-bil-i-ty, pre-serve, pro-tect, and de-fend the Con-sti-tu-tion of the U-ni-ted States.”
Then came the can-non sa-lute while cheer on cheer rent the air.
Lin-coln read his in-au-gu-ral ad-dress as Pres-i-dent of the U-ni-ted States. His old ri-val, Doug-las was near him, and to show his friend-ly and loy-al heart, held Lin-coln’s hat.
Lin-coln’s speech was a grand one. He did not boast nor tell what great things he would do. He spoke as would a fa-ther to way-ward chil-dren, and told those who were try-ing to break up the Un-ion that their move would bring ru-in to the Na-tion. He asked them to stop, and turn back while there was time.
In sad-ness he told them that it was not right for
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 an-y to try to des-troy the Un-ion; that it was his sworn du-ty to pre-serve it. This speech did much good, but most-ly where there were folks who had not known which side to take. These saw, then, that the Pres-i-dent was bound by his oath to do his dut-y.
No Chief of the U-ni-ted States, when he took his chair, had so hard a task be-fore him as Lin-coln had. Sev-en States had gone out of the Un-ion, made a start at a new gov-ern-ment, and found a pres-i-dent and a vice-pres-i-dent for them-selves. Some of the folks in oth-er states were mak-ing plans to leave the Un-ion. The peo-ple of the far South laid hold of Un-ion forts¹⁰, ships, guns, and post-of-fi-ces. Some men who had held high posts in the ar-my and na-vy left the Un-ion and gave their help to the oth-er side. They had sent out the news to the world that they would have the name of the “Con-fed-er-ate States of A-mer-i-ca,” and that their pres-i-dent’s name was Jef-fer-son Dav-is.
 
JEFFERSON DAVIS
How to save the Un-ion, bring back all the states, make the North and South friends once more were themes of the day. These thoughts hung like a weight o-ver Lin-coln as he paced his room at night, and as he talked with the men he had with him. He did not wish
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 to de-clare war. He must, he thought, work for peace. This he did till he saw war must come, but he made up his mind that the first act that brought a-bout war should not come from him but from those whose wish was to break up the Un-ion. At last the foe⁶ struck the first blow.
It was on a spring day, the twelfth of A-pril, 1861, that the first gun was fired in Charles-ton har-bor up-on the Un-ion flag on Fort¹¹ Sum-ter. The call was sound-ed. The great heart of the North grew hot with shame and rage.
“What! De-grade our coun-try’s flag?” they cried. “’Tis the flag for which our fa-thers fought and died!” “We will give the last drop of our blood for it! We will leave our trades, our homes and dear ones, and fly
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 to put down the foe who has dared to strike a blow at it!”
But in Charles-ton, S. C. the folks were wild with joy. The Gov-ern-or of the state, Pick-ens, made a speech from the bal-co-ny of a ho-tel. He said, “Thank God, the day has come! The war is o-pen, and we will con-quer or pe-rish. We have de-feat-ed twen-ty mil-lions, and we have hum-bled their proud flag of stars and stripes.” There was much more talk in the same vein¹².
In the North men wept who ne’er had wept be-fore. It seemed as if the worst had come. “But Lin-coln, our brave Lin-coln, what will he do now?” they asked. A-bra-ham Lin-coln knew just what to do. He did not need to be told. He knew that the peo-ple would de-cide the mat-ter and to them he turned. He talked with his men near him, his “Cab-i-net,” and said that 75,000 of “the peo-ple” would come to his aid and quell¹³ this thing. Four times that num-ber came.
The par-ties, “Re-pub-li-can” and “Dem-o-crat,” for the time were both much of one mind, “For the Un-ion,” side by side to “fall in” and march south and save it.
One state had troops all read-y to start. It was
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 Mas-sa-chu-setts. Her Gov-ern-or, in 1860, N. P. Banks, had long seen the trend of things, the need of men that must come, so his sol-diers were a-ble to leave at the first call for help. On A-pril 19, the Sixth Reg-i-ment fought its way through the streets of Bal-ti-more, and reached Wash-ing-ton in time to aid Lin-coln in hold-ing the cap-i-tol.
In ev-er-y cit-y and town there were drum beats and the cry of “To arms! To arms!” Men were in haste to give their help to the great Chief, A-bra-ham Lin-coln, whose call they had heard.
Ste-phen A. Doug-las, now that the ver-y life of the Un-ion was at stake, left no doubt as to where he stood. He made it plain-ly known that he was “For the Un-ion,” and he led the loy-al Dem-o-crats of the North to up-hold the Un-ion, and they went glad-ly with him to the task.
Much as the men who led the South to try to go out of the Un-ion were to blame, it was well known that man-y in the South were loath¹⁴ to go and did so on-ly when their states said they must.
Some of the best gen-er-als on the side of the South, such as Lee, were of those un-will-ing men. Each of
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 them fought the North be-cause his own state told him to. The bad “doc-trine of State Rights,” brought this a-bout. Un-der it the state was held to have a claim up-on those who lived in it high-er than the claim which the na-tion had up-on them.
The men who stood for the cause of the South
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 burned the bridg-es on the rail-roads lead-ing north from Bal-ti-more so that no more troops might reach Wash-ing-ton from that side.
Cit-i-zens, un-der the com-mand of Maj-or Da-vid Hun-ter, kept guard o-ver the White House and Treas-u-ry.
 
DEFENCES OF WASHINGTON.
All through the long, sad hours Pres-i-dent Lin-coln stood at the helm and was the pi-lot who, un-der the Lord, took the Ship of State through the most aw-ful storm in which she had ev-er sailed.
It was, in-deed, a glad hour when the 8th Mas-sa-chu-setts reg-i-ment and the 7th New York reached Wash-ing-ton. This made the Cap-i-tol safe.
In the West, at Il-li-nois, troops from Chi-ca-go took pos-ses-sion of Cai-ro.
So, by the prompt com-ing of troops to Wash-ing-ton and of those troops in the West keep-ing charge at Cai-ro, the plans of the South-ern foe were checked.

1 reared   

v.饲养( rear的过去式和过去分词 )；养育；抚养；抬起

参考例句：

• The horse reared up on its hind legs. 那匹马后腿前立，站了起来。
• The horse suddenly reared up and threw me off. 马忽然用后腿直立起来，把我摔下马背。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 rear   

vt.抚养，饲养；n.后部，后面

参考例句：

• We had to rear it in a nursery and plant it out.我们不得不在苗棚里培育它，然后再把它移植出来。
• The hall is in the rear of the building.礼堂在大楼的后部。

3 Clung   

v.附着于( cling的过去式和过去分词 )；抓紧或抱住；坚持；依恋，依附于

参考例句：

• The Prime Minister clung to his job like a limpet, despite calls for him to resign. 首相不顾有人要求他辞职，死赖在他的职位上不下台。
• She clung to the hope that her son was not dead. 她抱定儿子并没有死的希望不放。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

5 foes   

敌人，仇敌( foe的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They steadily pushed their foes before them. 他们不停地追击敌人。
• She had fought many battles, vanquished many foes. 她身经百战，挫败过很多对手。

6 foe   

n.敌人，仇敌

参考例句：

• He knew that Karl could be an implacable foe.他明白卡尔可能会成为他的死敌。
• A friend is a friend;a foe is a foe;one must be clearly distinguished from the other.敌是敌，友是友，必须分清界限。

7 oath   

n.誓言，誓约，咒骂，诅咒语

参考例句：

• They swore an oath to carry out their duties faithfully.他们宣誓忠实履行自己的职责。
• They swore an oath of loyalty to the country.他们宣誓要报效祖国。

8 hush   

int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静

参考例句：

• A hush fell over the onlookers.旁观者们突然静了下来。
• Do hush up the scandal!不要把这丑事声张出去！

9 throng   

n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集

参考例句：

• A patient throng was waiting in silence.一大群耐心的人在静静地等着。
• The crowds thronged into the mall.人群涌进大厅。

10 forts   

fortsaettelse (Dano-Norwegian=continuation or sequel) （丹麦-挪威语）继续或结局

参考例句：

• A line of forts was built along the border to protect the country against attack. 在边界沿线修筑了堡垒以保护国家免受攻击。
• Forts and churches almost always go together, and yet they're downright contradictions. 有要塞的地方，就一定有教堂，然而，这两者显然是水火不相容的。

11 fort   

n.要塞，堡垒，碉堡

参考例句：

• The fort can not be defended against an air attack.这座要塞遭到空袭时无法防御。
• No one can get into the fort without a pass.没有通行证，任何人不得进入要塞。

12 vein   

n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络

参考例句：

• The girl is not in the vein for singing today.那女孩今天没有心情唱歌。
• The doctor injects glucose into the patient's vein.医生把葡萄糖注射入病人的静脉。

13 quell   

v.压制，平息，减轻

参考例句：

• Soldiers were sent in to quell the riots.士兵们被派去平息骚乱。
• The armed force had to be called out to quell violence.不得不出动军队来镇压暴力行动。

14 loath   

adj.不愿意的；勉强的

参考例句：

• The little girl was loath to leave her mother.那小女孩不愿离开她的母亲。
• They react on this one problem very slow and very loath.他们在这一问题上反应很慢，很不情愿。