that the peace and unity of the nation might be promoted by the withdrawal of the dissatisfied State or States, let him remember that this Union is an inheritance from our fathers, to be transmitted by us to our posterity, and that the great hope of down-trodden humanity throughout the world is in its permanence. Let us never forget the solemn warnings of the Father of his Country, that 'we should accustom ourselves to think and speak of the Union as the palladium of our political safety and prosperity, discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can, in any event, be abandoned.'

"So deeply impressed were Jackson, Webster and Clay, with the conviction that the durability and efficiency of our free institutions depended upon a perpetual, unbroken Union, that they have left, upon many a page of the national history, most eloquent warnings that the thought, even, that the Union could be dissolved, was never to be entertained. The veteran Cass has said that the man who believed this Union could be broken up without bloodshed, has read history to little purpose.' As we love our common country in all its parts, and with all its blessings of climates and cultures, its mountains, valleys and streams; as we cherish its history, and the memory of the world's only Washington; as we love the grand old flag, 'sign of the free heart's only home,' that is cheered and hailed on every sea and haven of the world, let us swear that its glories shall never be dimmed-that there shall be no sccession, no disunion-and that the American people shall be one and united, now and forever.

"I believe and trust it is to be the mission of those to whom the people have lately committed, for a period, the interests of this nation, to administer public affairs upon the theory of THE PERPETUITY OF THE CONSTITUTION AND THE GOVERN

MENT ORGANIZED UNDER IT.

"No matter how vociferously South Carolina may declare that the Union is dissolved, and that she and other States are out of the confederacy, no recognition whatever is due to her self-assumed independence in this regard. It took seven years to establish our independence. The precious boon purchased by patriot blood and treasure was committed to us for enjoyment, and to be transmitted to our posterity, with the most solemn injunctions that man has the power to lay on man. By the grace of God, we will be faithful to the trust. For seven years yet to come, at least, will we struggle to maintain a perfect union-a government of one people, in one nation, under one Constitution."

He then asked, "What is to be done?" and suggested that if any grievances had been wrought by Northern States, they should be redressed, even though the complaint comes from States which have ignored the rights of Northern citizens. The Fugitive Slave Law, with all its errors, must be enforced while it stands unrepealed; if any State laws exist which contravene the letter or spirit of the Constitution they should be repealed, and "let all parties cordially unite and assure the South that the North has no design or purpose to in

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terfere with slavery in the States, and entertain no hostility to the people of the slave States." But if lawless resistance should not willingly yield to constitutional authority, then it must be compelled to do so. He said:

"I know not what the exigencies of the future may be, nor what remedies it may be necessary to use, but the administration of the incoming President, I have no doubt, will be characterized by wisdom as well as firmness. He certainly will not forget that the people of all the United States, whether loyal or not, are citizens of the same Republic, component parts of the same integral Union. He never will forget, so long as he remembers his official oath, that the whole material of the government, moral, political, and physical, if need be, must be employed to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. In such an event as this I hesitate not to say, that the General Assembly, without a dissenting voice, and the people of Illinois, would unanimously pledge the men and means of the State to uphold the Constitution and preserve the Union. To those who would distrust the loyalty of the American people to the Union, let the spontaneous response of the national heart, borne upon ten thousand streams of lightning to the heroic Anderson,

answer.

"It is, perhaps, impossible to tell what may be the exact result of this South Carolina nullification, but do what she will, conspire with many or few, I am confident that this Union of our fathers-a Union of intelligence, of freedom, of justice, of industry, of religion, of science and art, will, in the end, be stronger and richer and more glorious, renowned and free, than it has ever been heretofore, by the necessary reaction of the crisis through which we are passing.

"As to our own State, we are closely allied in origin, in kindred, in sympathy, in interest, in civilization and in destiny, with many of the best of both the slave and the free states, and though young in years, we have learned to be proud of our origin, and of our neighbors, and of our sister States. No State has entered into the recent political campaign with more intense partisan prejudices and zeal than our own. Each opposing party nominated for the Presidency the favorite son not only of the State, but of the Northwest. We fought the canvass through to the hilt; but the moment the contest was decided, the world was at a loss to know which most to admire, the exuberant joy of the victors, or the admirable gallantry, grace and dignity of the unsuccessful party. We have put one of our champions into the Presidency, the other still stands in the Senate, places almost equal for usefulness; which will achieve most honor to himself and good to his country and the world, time will decide. We will believe that neither will prove coward in the fight, or traitor to the cause. On the question of the union of these States they, and all our people, will be a unit. The foot of the traitor has never yet blasted the green sward of the State of Illinois. All the running waters of the Northwest are waters of freedom and union, and come what will, as they glide to the great gulf, they will ever, by the ordinance of '87, and by the higher ordinance of Almighty God, bear only free men and free trade upon their bosoms, or their channels will be filled with the commingled blood of traitors, cowards and slaves."

The first call for troops was made on the 15th of April, 1861, by Hon. Simon Cameron, Secretary of War, requiring the Governor to detach from the State militia 225 officers and 4,458 men, to compose six regiments. The order, "to detach," supposed the previous existence of an efficient, organized militia force, properly officered and equipped, capable of being called at once into active service. Such was not the case. In the long sway of peace, the people had neglected the "mimic show of war;" few companies were organized; fewer still were drilled and supplied with arms. Plowshares instead of swords, pruning-hooks instead of spears or bayonets, was the order from Lake Michigan to the Great River.

Adjutant-General Fuller, in his Report for 1861-2, gives the situation :

"From papers turned over to me by my predecessor, I find but twenty-five bonds for the return of arms issued to militia companies in 1857-8-9 and '60, and during that time but thirty-seven certificates of the election of company officers. It will furthermore appear from the report of the Quartermaster-General, who, until about the first of April, 1862, had charge of the Ordnance Department, there were but three hundred and sixty-two United States altered muskets, one hundred and five Harper's Ferry and Deniger's rifles, one hundred and thirty-three musketoons and two hundred and ninety-seven horse pistols in the arsenal. A few hundred unserviceable arms and accoutrements were scattered through the State, principally in possession of the militia companies. In fact, there were no available, efficient, armed and organized militia in the State, and it is doubted whether there were thirty companies with any regular organization. It is true there were in our principal cities and towns several independent militia companies whose occasional meetings for drill were held more for exercise and amusement than from any sense of duty to the State. Many of these formed the nucleus of splendid companies, which came promptly forward, and who have rendered excellent service to their State and country."

The day the Governor received the call of the War Department, he issued a proclamation for a special session of the Legislature to meet on the 23d of April. As part of the history of the beginning of the war some extracts from the message are appended:

THE OCCASION.

"The Constitution authorizes me on extraordinary occasions to convene the Legislature in special sessions. Certainly no occasion could have arisen more extraordinary than the one which is now presented to us. A plan conceived and cherished by some able but misguided statesman of the Southern States for many years past,

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founded upon an inadmissible and destructive interpretation of our national constitution, considered until very recently as merely visionary, has been partially carried into practical execution by ambitious and restless leaders, to the great peril of our noble Union, of our Democratic institutions and of our public and private prosperity.

"The popular discontent, consequent inevitably upon a warmly-contested Presi dential election, which heretofore has always soon subsided amongst a people having the profoundest respect for their self-imposed laws, and bowing respectfully before the majesty of the popular will, constitutionally expressed; this discontent was in this instance artfully seized upon, and before there was time for the angry passions to subside, one State after another was precipitated out of the Union by a machinery, wanting in most instances, the sanction of the people in the seceding States.

"No previous effort was made by the disloyal States to procure redress for sup posed grievances. Impelled by bold and sagacious leaders, disunionists at heart, they spurned in advance all proffers of compromise. The property of the Union, its forts and arsenals, costing the people of all the States enormous sums of money, were seized with a strong hand. Our noble flag, which had protected the now seceding portions of the Confederacy within its ample folds in their infancy, and which is the pride of every true and loyal American heart, and which had become respected and revered throughout the world as the symbol of democracy and liberty, was insulted and trampled in the dust.

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"A conference of Commissioners, at the instance of the Commonwealth of Virginia, was held at the Capital, attended by nearly all the border States and all the free States, with but one or two exceptions. Propositions of a highly conciliatory character were adopted by a majority of the free States represented in said conference; but before Congress had even time to consider them, they were denounced by leading men in the border States, and by almost every one of their members of Congress, as unsatisfactory and inadmissible, though they met the approval of the best patriots and of the mass of the people in the border States. The seceded States treated them with the utmost contempt. That, under such circumstances, and when no practical object could be obtained, the representatives of the free States declined to adopt them, is no matter of surprise.

"A proposition, first made by the Legislature of Kentucky, for the call of a National Constitutional Convention, as provided in the Constitution, for the redress of all grievances, undoubtedly the best and surest mode of settling all difficulties, was responded to by Illinois, and by many other free States, and such a convention was definitely recommended by the present administration on its advent to the government. Enough had been done by the border and free States to satisfy every rational mind that the South would have nothing to fear from any measures to be passed by Congress, or by any of the State Legislatures.

"Public sentiment was everywhere, in the free States, for peace and compromise. No better proof could be required, that the conspiracy, which has now assumed such formidable dimensions, and which is threatening the destruction of the fairest

fabric of human wisdom and human liberty, is of long standing, and is wholly independent of the election of a particular person to the Presidential office, than the manner in which the seceded States have acted toward their loyal brethren of the South and North since they have entered upon their criminal enterprise. We must do them, however, the justice to say, that all their public documents, and all the speeches of their controlling leaders, candidly admit that the Presidential election has not been the cause for their action, and that they were impelled by far different motives.

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"The spirit of a free and brave people is aroused at last. Upon the first call of the constitutional government they are rushing to arms. Fully justified in the eyes of the world and in the light of history, they have resolved to save the government of our fathers, to preserve the Union so dear by a thousand memories and promising so much of happiness to them and their children, and to bear aloft the flag which for eighty-five years has gladdened the hearts of the struggling free on every continent, island and sea under the whole heavens. Our own noble State, as of yore, has responded in a voice of thunder. The entire mass is alive to the crisis. If, in Mexico, our Hardin and Shields, and Bissell and Baker, and their gallant comrades, were found closest to their colors, and in the thickest of the fight, and shed imperishable luster upon the fame and glory of Illinois, now that the struggle is for our very Nationality, and for the Stars and Stripes, her every son will be a soldier and bare his breast to the storm of battle.

"The attack upon Fort Sumter produced a most startling transformation on the Northern mind, and awakened a sleeping giant, and served to show, as no other event in all the history of the past ever did, the deep-seated fervor and affection with which our whole people regard our glorious Union. Party distinctions vanished as a mist, in a single night, as if by magic; and parties and party platforms were swept as a morning dream from the minds of men; and now men of all parties, by thousands, are begging for places in the ranks. The blood of twenty millions of freemen boils, with cauldron heat, to replace our national flag upon the very walls whence it was insulted and by traitor hands pulled down. Every village and hamlet resounds with beat of drum and clangor of arms. Three hundred thousand men wait the click of the wires for marching orders, and all the giant energies of the Northwest are at the command of the government. Those who have supposed that the people of the free States will not fight for the integrity of the Union, and that they will suffer another government to be carved out of the boundaries of this Union, have hugged a fatal delusion to their bosoms, for our people will wade through seas of blood before they will see a single star or a solitary stripe erased from the glorious flag of our Union.

ASSISTANCE RENDERED.

The Governor thus refers to aid rendered him by gentlemen of adverse political sentiments, and by the citizens of various portions of the State:

"The services already rendered me, in my effort to organize troops, provide