Never was a new ruler in a more desperate plight than Lincoln when he
entered office on the fourth of March, 1861, four months after his
election, and took his oath to support the Constitution and the Union.
The intervening time had been busily employed by the Southern States in
carrying out their threat of disunion in the event of his election. As
soon as the fact was ascertained, seven of them had seceded and had
seized upon the forts, arsenals, navy yards, and other public property of
the United States within their boundaries, and were making every
preparation for war. In the meantime the retiring President, who had
been elected by the slave power, and who thought the seceding States
could not lawfully be coerced, had done absolutely nothing. Lincoln found
himself, by the Constitution, Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of
the United States, but with only a remnant of either at hand. Each was
to be created on a great scale out of the unknown resources of a nation
untried in war.

In his mild and conciliatory inaugural address, while appealing to the
seceding States to return to their allegiance, he avowed his purpose to
keep the solemn oath he had taken that day, to see that the laws of the
Union were faithfully executed, and to use the troops to recover the
forts, navy yards, and other property belonging to the government. It is
probable, however, that neither side actually realized that war was
inevitable, and that the other was determined to fight, until the assault
on Fort Sumter presented the South as the first aggressor and roused the
North to use every possible resource to maintain the government and the
imperilled Union, and to vindicate the supremacy of the flag over every
inch of the territory of the United States. The fact that Lincoln's
first proclamation called for only 75,000 troops, to serve for three
months, shows how inadequate was even his idea of what the future had in
store. But from that moment Lincoln and his loyal supporters never