Excerpt from The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 18: A Comprehensive and Readable Account of the World's History, Emphasizing the More Important Events, and Presenting These as Complete Narratives in the Master-Words of the Most Eminent Historians President Lincoln was elected by the Republicans of the North in the autumn of 1860. Without waiting for his inaugu ration, several Southern States withdrew from the Union, some of them unwillingly and with sad words of adieu. Virginia, whose ancient leaders had done so much to create the central Govern ment, could hardly bring herself to abandon it. When her citi zens chose a special convention to consider the question of seces sion, a majority of the delegates elected received instructions to cling to the Government at Washington. Congress hastened to offer every sort of concession to the seceding States. But every concession was rejected by the States farthest south. The die was cast; and when President Lincoln in his inaugural address asserted that his oath of omce bound him to preserve the Union at any cost, civil war became inevitable. The Anien'can flag was fired on at Fort Sumter, and the President called for volun teers to defend it. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.