world, the roar of Beauregard's guns had changed incredulity into fact.
Behind those guns stood seven seceded States, with the machinery of a
perfectly organized local government and with a zeal worthy of a nobler
cause.

The news of the assault reached the Capitol on Saturday, April 13th, On
Sunday, the 14th, the President and his cabinet held their first council
of war. On the following morning the first "call for troops" was
proclaimed to the whole country, in a grand "appeal to all loyal
citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the
honor, the integrity, and existence of our National Union, and the
perpetuity of popular government."

The North was now aroused. Within forty-eight hours from the publication
of the proclamation armed companies of volunteers were moving towards
the expected scene of conflict. For the first time in the history of
this nation parties vanished from politics, and "universal opinion
recognized but two rallying points,--the camps of the South which
gathered to assail the Union, and the armies of the North that rose to
defend it."

The watchword of the impending conflict was sounded by Stephen A.
Douglas, one of the most powerful and energetic of public leaders, a
recent candidate for the presidency, and the life-long political
antagonist of Abraham Lincoln. On Sunday, the 14th of April, while the
ink was scarcely yet dry upon the written parchment of the proclamation,
Mr. Douglas called at the White House, and, in a long interview, assured
his old antagonist of his readiness to join him in unrelenting warfare
against Rebellion. Shortly afterwards he departed for his home in
Illinois, where, until his death, which occurred a few weeks later, he