The grim walls of Fort
Sumter and Pickens, in far off Southern waters, flashed red before every
eye.
The applause suddenly died away into the old silence, and a man in the
crowd before the platform yelled:
"We're for Jefferson Davis!"
There was no answer and no disorder--only the shrill cry of the
Southerner through the silence, and the speaker continued his address.
Senator Douglas looked uneasily over the crowd toward the spot from
whence came the cry. His brow wrinkled with a frown.
John Vaughan leaned toward Betty and whispered half to himself:
"I wonder if those cheers were defiance after all?"
But the girl was too intent on the words of the speaker to answer. His
next sentence brought a smile and a nod of approval from Senator
Douglas.
"But beyond what may be necessary for those objects, there will be no
invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere----"
Again and again Douglas nodded his approval and spoke it in low tones:
"Good! Good! That means no coercion."
And then, followed in solemn tones, the fateful sentences:
"In _your_ hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in _mine_
is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail
_you_ unless you _first_ assail _it_. You can have no conflict without
yourselves being the aggressors.
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