... The
mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and
patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone, all over
this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when
again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of
our nature."
Gentle, as was the phrasing of the inaugural, it was perfectly
firm, and it outlined a policy which the South would not accept,
and which, in the opinion of the Southern leaders, brought them a
step nearer war. Wall Street held the same belief, and as a
consequence the price of stocks fell.
CHAPTER VI. WAR
On the day following the inauguration, commissioners of the newly
formed Confederacy appeared at Washington and applied to the
Secretary of State for recognition as envoys of a foreign power.
Seward refused them such recognition. But he entered into a
private negotiation with them which is nearly, if not quite, the
strangest thing in our history. Virtually, Seward intrigued
against Lincoln for control of the Administration. The events of
the next five weeks have an importance out of all proportion to
the brevity of the time. This was Lincoln's period of final
probation. The psychological intensity of this episode grew from
the consciousness in every mind that now, irretrievably, destiny
was to be determined.
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