[Footnote 956:  Nicolay and Hay, Lincoln, III, p. 340, note.]

[Footnote 957:  Seward’s letter was written on the evening of February 24th.  Douglas called upon the President February 26th.  See Nicolay and Hay, Lincoln, III, p. 319; Diary of a Public Man, pp. 264, 268.]

[Footnote 958:  New York Times, March 6, 1861.]

[Footnote 959:  Globe, 36 Cong., Special Sess., p. 1437.]

[Footnote 960:  Globe, 36 Cong., Special Sess., p. 1438]

[Footnote 961:  Ibid., p. 1442.]

[Footnote 962:  Diary of a Public Man, p. 493.]

[Footnote 963:  Diary of a Public Man, p. 493.]

[Footnote 964:  New York Times, March 8, 1861; also the Philadelphia Press, March 11, 1861.]

[Footnote 965:  New York Times, March 10, 1861.]

[Footnote 966:  Rhodes History of the United States, III, p. 332.]

[Footnote 967:  Diary of a Public Man, p. 493.]

[Footnote 968:  Ibid., pp. 495-496.]

[Footnote 969:  Globe, 36 Cong., Special Sess., p. 1452.]

[Footnote 970:  Diary of a Public Man, pp. 495-496.]

[Footnote 971:  Globe, 36 Cong., Special Sess., p 1461.]

[Footnote 972:  Ibid., p. 1461.]

[Footnote 973:  Globe, 36 Cong., Special Sess., p. 1465.]

[Footnote 974:  Ibid., pp. 1460, 1501, 1504.]

[Footnote 975:  Ibid., p. 1501.]

[Footnote 976:  Diary of a Public Man, p. 494.]

[Footnote 977:  Ibid., p. 494.]

[Footnote 978:  Globe, 36 Cong., Special Sess., pp. 1505, 1511.]

CHAPTER XX

THE SUMMONS

The news of the capitulation of Fort Sumter reached Washington on Sunday morning, April 14th.  At a momentous cabinet meeting, President Lincoln read the draft of a proclamation calling into service seventy-five thousand men, to suppress combinations obstructing the execution of the laws in the Southern States.  The cabinet was now a unit.  Now that the crisis had come, the administration had a policy.  Would it approve itself to the anxious people of the North?  Could it count upon the support of those who had counselled peace, peace at any cost?

Those who knew Senator Douglas well could not doubt his loyalty to the Union in this crisis; yet his friends knew that Union-loving men in the Democratic ranks would respond to the President’s proclamation with a thousandfold greater enthusiasm, could they know that their leader stood by the administration.  Moved by these considerations, Hon. George Ashmun of Massachusetts ventured to call upon Douglas on this Sunday evening, and to suggest the propriety of some public statement to strengthen the President’s hands.  Would he not call upon the President at once and give him the assurance of his support?