Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

[75] sorcerer's wand. In the contrast between Jackson and Buchanan, which that retrospect exhibited, they saw cause for gloomy forebodings.

Patriotic men wrote earnest letters to their representatives in Congress, asking them to be firm, yet conciliatory; and clergymen of every degree and religious denomination — Shepherds of the Church of Christ, the Prince of Peace — exhorted their flocks to be firm in faith, patient in hope, careful in conduct, and trustful in God. “This is no time for noisy disputants to lead us,” wrote Bishop Lay, at Fort Smith, Arkansas. “We should ask counsel of the experienced, the sober, the God-fearing men among us. We may follow peace, and yet guard our country's rights; nor should we, in concern for our own, forget the rights and duties of others.” ¹--“In our public congregations, in our family worship, in each heart's private prayers,” wrote Bishop McIlvaine, of Ohio, “I solemnly feel that it is a time for all to beseech God to have mercy upon our country — not to deal with us according to our sins — not to leave us to our own wisdom and might — to take the counsels of our senators and legislators; and all in authority, into His own guidance and government.” ²--“These evils are the punishment of sin,” wrote Bishop McFarland, of Hartford, Connecticut, to the clergy of his diocese, “and are to be averted only by appeasing the anger of Heaven. You will, therefore, request your congregation to unite in fervent prayers for the preservation of the Union and the peace of the country. For this intention, we exhort them to say, each day, at least one ‘Our Father’ and one ‘Hail Mary;’ to observe with great strictness the Fast-days of this holy season; to prepare themselves for the worthy reception of the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist, at or before Christmas; to give alms generally to the poor, and to turn their whole hearts in all humility to God.” ³ More than forty leading clergymen of various denominations in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania united in sending forth

January 1, 1861.

a circular letter, in the form of an appeal to the churches, in which they said:--“We cannot doubt that a spirit of candor and forbearance, such as our religion prompts, and the exigencies of the times demand, would render the speedy adjustment of our difficulties possible, consistently with every constitutional right. Unswerving fealty to the Constitution justly interpreted, and a prompt return to its spirit and requirements wherever there may have been divergence from either, would seem to be the first duty of citizens and legislators. It is our firm, and, we think, intelligent conviction, that only a very inconsiderable fraction of the people of the North will hesitate in the discharge of their constitutional obligations; and that whatever enactments are found to be in conflict therewith will be annulled.” They urged the necessity of a more candid and temperate discussion, on the part of the press and the pulpit, of moral and political questions — a greater regard “for the rights and feelings of men.”

So early as the close of October,

October 80, 1860.

that venerable soldier, Lieutenant-General Winfield Scott, the General-in-chief of the armies of the Republic, perceiving the gathering cloud betokening a storm, spoke