THE REBELLION. 443 



These and some files of papers, and the Doctor's 

 memory, gave us the leading occurrences which had 

 taken place at home up to near the end of March, 

 1861. We learned of the inauguration of the new 

 President and of the leading events following his elec- 

 tion, but of the startling incidents of a later period 

 we were ignorant. We could not apprehend that war 

 had actually broken out. We knew only of the in- 

 trigues for a division of the States and of the acts 

 looking to that design. We learned that suspicion on 

 the one hand, and treason on the other, ruled the 

 hour ; that threats of violence and irresolute counsels 

 had thrown society into a ferment ; and that the na- 

 tional safety was imperiled ; but we knew not of the 

 firing on Fort Sumter, nor of the bloody wound 

 which the Nation had received at Bull Kun ; nor that 

 a vast army for the protection of the Capital and the 

 defense of the Government was then growing up on 

 the banks of the Potomac. We little thought, that in 

 every city, and town, and hamlet, the occupations of 

 peace had already given place to the passionate ex- 

 citements of war ; that a cry of indignation and 

 anger had gone up throughout the land against men 

 who, pledged to protect the national flag and the na- 

 tional name, had abandoned and repudiated them ; or, 

 that under the banner of States' rights and under the 

 impulse of ambition, a powerful party had boldly bid 

 defiance to the Federal power and declared their pur- 

 pose to break the Federal compact. And, even had 

 we heard these things, it would have been difficult for 

 us to have thus suddenly realized that, in a single 

 year, human folly and human madness had so com- 

 pletely got the better of right and reason. 



I occupied myself while the schooner lay at Uper- 



