Chapter 37

Failure of the Peace Congress.--Treatment of the Commissioners.--Their Withdrawal.--Notice of an Armed Expedition.--Action of the Confederate Government.--Bombardment and Surrender of Fort Sumter.--Its Reduction required by the Exigency of the Case.--Disguise thrown off.--President Lincoln's Call for Seventy-five Thousand Men.--His Fiction of "Combinations."--Palpable Violation of the Constitution.--Action of Virginia.--Of Citizens of Baltimore.--The Charge of Precipitation against South Carolina.--Action of the Confederate Government.--The Universal Feeling.