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230 CONFEDERATE STATES abodes within twenty days from this date. Deeming that the present condition of public affairs presents an extraordi- nary occasion, I do hereby, in virtue of the power in me vest- ed by the constitution, convene both houses of congress. Senators and representatives are therefore summoned to as- semble at their respective chambers, at 12 o'clock, noon, on Thursday, the. fourth day of July next, then and there to con- sider and determine such measures as, in their wisdom, the public interest and safety may seem to demand." On this call to arms the north, which had been for months patiently though anxiously waiting for the government to act, rose almost as one man. Great meetings were he.ld in all the large cities, in which men of all parties united. The governors of all the northern states responded promptly to the demand for troops. Massachusetts was the first in the field. On the day after the proclamation ap- peared, four regiments of volunteers, twice the number called for by the secretary of war, mustered with full ranks on Boston common, and three days later one of these regiments, the 6tji, was 500 miles on its march to Wash- ington, and was fighting its way through Balti- more on the 19th of April, the anniversary of Lexington and Concord, having been attacked in the streets by a mob of secessionists, whom it repulsed, not without considerable blood- shed on both sides. Pennsylvania was almost equally prompt, and her legislature sanctioned a loan of $3,000,000, and organized a reserve corps besides her quota. New York, called upon for 17,000 men for three months, re- sponded by raising 30,000 for two years, and voted a war loan of $3,000,000. Rhode Island sent her quota at once, with her governor at its head. The other free states did likewise, and men and money were contributed to an extent far beyond what was demanded by the government. On the other hand, the governors of the border states replied to the requisition for troops in a defiant manner, and positively refused to furnish any. Those states, in fact, were as much excited by the fight at Sumter as any part of the nation, and there is no doubt that the attack on the fort was mainly prompt- ed by a desire on the part of the confederate leaders to precipitate the border states into secession. Secessionists from all those states had long been urging upon the leaders at Mont- gomery and at Charleston the necessity of do- ing something decisive. " Sprinkle blood in the faces of the people of Alabama," said Mr. Gil- christ, a member of congress from that state, " or they will be back in the Union in less than ten days." " Strike a blow," said Roger A. Pryor, ex-congressman from Virginia, address- ing the citizens of Charleston on the eve of the attack on Fort Sumter, " and the moment that blood is shed Virginia will make common cause with her sisters of the south." These persons knew well the spirit of their states. As late as April 4 the Virginia convention, by the decisive vote of 89 to 45, had refused to pass an ordinance of secession. On the 17th, four days after the surrender of Fort Sumter, the same convention in secret session, by a vote of 88 to 55, decreed the separation of Vir- ginia from the Union, and her adhesion to the southern confederacy. A day or two later her military forces, energetically led, were in possession of the great navy yard at Nor- folk, and of the United States arsenal at Har- per's Ferry, neither of which was sufficiently garrisoned, though they contained millions of dollars worth of arms and ammunition, of in- calculable value to the insurgents. At Nor- folk alone they obtained 2,000 cannon and the steam frigate Merrimack, one of the finest in the navy. West Virginia, including more than a third of the area of the state and nearly a fourth of its white population, with very few slaves, refused to secede from the Union, but on the contrary seceded from Virginia. A convention of delegates from 40 counties met at Wheeling June 11, and formed a provisional government of men loyal to the Union. Five months later (Nov. 26) another convention assembled at Wheeling, framed a constitution for a new state, which was admitted by con- gress in December, 1862, and comprises 50 counties and nearly half a million of inhabi- tants. Tennessee speedily followed Virginia, and seceded May 6, but not without strong opposition from the eastern part of the state, where there were very few slaveholders, and where the Unionists were ably led by William G. Brownlow, Andrew Johnson, Horace May- nard, and other conspicuous citizens. The right of secession from the state, however, was denied them, and for a year or two they were severely persecuted for their fidelity to the Union, and were kept in subjection to the con- federacy by military force, until relieved by the advance and victories of the Union armies. Arkansas seceded May 6, and North Carolina May 20. The excitement created by the attack on Fort Sumter had thus carried four states out of the Union. No more states formally seceded. Of the 15 slave states, 11 had now withdrawn. Four, Missouri, Kentucky, Mary- land, and Delaware, maintained their consti- tutional compact, though great efforts were made to induce them to join the south. Mis- souri and Kentucky were indeed claimed by the confederacy, and were admitted to repre- sentation in the confederate congress ; and Maryland furnished many soldiers to the con- federate army. Missouri was in fact saved from actual secession only by a sharp and bloody struggle between the confederate party led by Claiborne F. Jackson, governor of the state, and Sterling Price, an ex-governor, and the Union party, headed by Francis P. Blair and B. Gratz Brown, who had also the support of the garrison of the United States arsenal at St. Louis, consisting of several hundred troops commanded by Capt. Nathaniel P. Lyon. Immediately after the occurrences at Fort Sumter Jefferson Davis summoned the confed- erate congress to meet in Montgomery on April 29. In a session of three weeks measures were taken to raise money, to organize an army, and to issue letters of marque to privateers. A loan