A President is elected by popular vote early in November, but he
is not inaugurated until the following fourth of March. Until the
day of his inauguration, when he takes the oath of office and
begins to discharge his duties, he is not only not President--he
has no more power in the affairs of the Government than the
humblest private citizen. It is easy to imagine the anxieties and
misgivings that beset Mr. Lincoln during the four long months
that lay between his election and his inauguration. True to their
threats never to endure the rule of a "Black Republican"
President, the Cotton States one after the other withdrew their
senators and representatives from Congress, passed what they
called "Ordinances of Secession," and declared themselves to be
no longer a part of the United States. One after another, too,
army and navy officers stationed in the Southern States gave up
to the Southern leaders in this movement the forts, navy-yards,
arsenals, mints, ships, and other government property under their
charge. President Buchanan, in whose hands alone rested the power
to punish these traitors and avenge their insults to the
government he had sworn to protect and defend, showed no
disposition to do so; and Lincoln, looking on with a heavy heart,
was unable to interfere in any way. No matter how anxiously he
might watch the developments at Washington or in the Cotton
States, no matter what appeals might be made to him, no action of
any kind was possible on his part.
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