Lincoln, the unknown

116 • LINCOLN THE UNKNOWNa century, and various States at one time or another had threatenedto leave the Union. For example: during the War of 1812the New England States talked very seriously of forming a separatenation; and the Connecticut Legislature passed a resolutiondeclaring that "the state of Connecticut is a free, sovereign andindependent state."Even Lincoln himself had once believed in the right of secession.He had said during a speech in Congress: "Any peopleanywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the rightto rise up and shake off the existing government, and form anew one that suits them better. That is a most valuable, a mostsacred right—a right which we hope and believe is to liberatethe world."Nor is the right confined to cases in which the whole peopleof an existing government may choose to exercise it. Any portionof such people that can, may revolutionize and make theirown of so much of the territory as they inhabit."He had said that in 1848. This, however, was 1860, and heno longer believed it. But the South did. Six weeks after Lincoln'selection South Carolina passed an Ordinance of Secession.Charleston celebrated the new "Declaration of Independence"with martial music and bonfires and fireworks and dancing inthe streets. Six other States followed in rapid succession; andtwo days before Lincoln left Springfield for Washington, JeffersonDavis was elected President of a new nation, founded uponwhat was called "the great truth . . . that slavery is the negro'snatural and normal condition."The outgoing administration of Buchanan, honeycombed withdisloyalty, did nothing whatever to prevent all this; so Lincolnwas obliged to sit helplessly in Springfield for three months, andwatch the Union dissolving and the republic tottering on theverge of ruin. He saw the Confederacy buying guns and buildingforts and drilling soldiers; and he realized that he would haveto lead a people through a civil war—bitter and bloody.He was so distressed that he couldn't sleep at night. He lostforty pounds in weight, from worry.Lincoln, who was superstitious,believed that coming eventscast their shadow through dreams and omens. The day after hiselection in 1860 he went home in the afternoon and threw himselfdown on a haircloth sofa. Opposite him was a bureau witha swinging mirror; and, as he looked into the mirror, he sawhimself reflected with one body but with two faces—one very