secession.  Whatever else I may do for the purpose, I shall not attempt to collect the duties and imposts by any armed invasion of any part of the country; not meaning by this, however, that I may not land a force deemed necessary to relieve a fort upon the border of the country.  From the fact that I have quoted a part of the Inaugural Address, it must not be inferred that I repudiate any other part, the whole of which I reaffirm, except so far as what I now say of the mails may be regarded as a modification.

     ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

In the early period of Lincoln’s administration he was hopeful that many serious phases of the threatened trouble might be averted, and that the better judgment of the citizens of the South might prevail.  “For more than a month after his inauguration,” says Secretary Welles, “President Lincoln indulged the hope, I may say felt a strong confidence, that Virginia would not secede but would adhere to the Union....  That there should be no cause of offense, no step that would precipitate or justify secession, he enjoined forbearance from all unnecessary exercise of political party authority.”  But he was very decided and determined as to what his duty was and what his action would be if the secessionists and disunionists pressed their case.  He said:  “The disunionists did not want me to take the oath of office.  I have taken it, and I intend to administer the office for the benefit of the people, in accordance with the Constitution and the law.”  He was especially anxious that Kentucky should not be plunged into a rebellious war, as he saw that this State would be of the utmost importance to the Union cause.  Soon after the bombardment of Fort Sumter a conference was held between the President and a number of prominent Kentuckians then in Washington, at which Lincoln expressed himself in the most earnest words.  Kentucky, he declared, “must not be precipitated into secession.  She is the key to the situation.  With her faithful to the Union, the discord in the other States will come to an end.  She is now in the hands of those who do not represent the people.  The sentiment of her State officials must be counteracted.  We must arouse the young men of the State to action for the Union.  We must know what men in Kentucky have the confidence of the people, and who can be relied on for good judgment, that they may be brought to the support of the Government at once.”  He paid a high tribute to the patriotism of the Southern men who had stood up against secession.  “But,” said he, “they are, as a rule, beyond the meridian of life, and their counsel and example do not operate quickly, if at all, on the excitable nature of young men who become inflamed by the preparations for war, and who in such a war as this will be, if it goes on, are apt to go in on the side that gives the first opportunity.  The young men must not be permitted to drift away from us.  I know that the men who voted against me in Kentucky will not permit this Government to be swept away by any such issue as that framed by the disunionists.”