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From the false political principles and the perilous official neglect of the old administration — from the dissensions and impotence of Congress, and from the threatening attitude and the hostile preparations of the
South, all parties and persons now turned to the
President-elect and the incoming administration.
During the winter many earnest but overhasty patriots had besought him to intervene by some public declaration.
But
Mr. Lincoln preserved a discreet silence, though in confidential letters to responsible personal friends of opposing politics he repeated his former assertions that, while adhering tenaciously to the
Republican doctrine of “No extension of slavery,” he bore no ill — will to the
South, meditated no aggression on her rights, and would on the contrary treat her with liberal indulgence in matters of minor controversy.
As the day of inauguration approached, various legislatures of the
Free States by formal resolutions invited him to visit their capitals on his way to
Washington; a call which his deep popular sympathy moved him to accept.
Starting from home on the 11th of February, he accordingly passed through the principal cities between
Springfield and New York, and between New York and
Washington.
Unprecedented crowds came forth to see the new Chief
