done so, we will meet it in a spirit as determined as the Administration has exhibited toward the South." Governor Ellis of North Carolina answered: "Your despatch is received, and if genuine, which its extraordinary character leads me to doubt, I have to say in reply, that I regard the levy of troops made by the Administration for the purpose of subjugating the States of the South, as in violation of the Constitution and a usurpation of power. I can be no party to this wicked violation of the laws of the country, and to this war upon the liberties of a free people. You can get no troops from North Carolina." Governor Magoffin of Kentucky answered: "Your despatch is received. I say emphatically that Kentucky will furnish no troops for the wicked purpose of subduing her sister Southern States." Governor Harris of Tennessee said: "Tennessee will not furnish a single man for coercion; but fifty thousand, if necessary, for the defence of our rights or those of our Southern brethren." Governor Rector of Arkansas replied, "In answer to your requisition for troops from Arkansas, to subjugate the Southern States, I have to say that none will be furnished. The demand is only adding insult to injury. The people of this Commonwealth are freemen, not slaves, and will defend, to the last extremity, their honor, their lives and property against Northern mendacity and usurpation." Governor Jackson of Missouri responded: "There can be, I apprehend, no doubt that these men are intended to make war on the seceded States. Your requisition, in my judgment, is illegal, unconstitutional and revolting in its objects, inhuman and diabolical, and cannot be complied with. Not one man will the State of Missouri furnish to carry on such an unholy crusade."
It was reported from Montgomery that Mr. Davis and his compeers received Mr. Lincoln's call for troops "with derisive laughter." Mr. Hooper, the Secretary of the Montgomery Convention, in reply to the question of the agent of the Associated Press at Washington, "What is the feeling there?" said:
"Davis answers, rough and curt,
With Paixhan and petard,
Sumter is ours and nobody hurt,
We tender old Abe our Beau-regard."
And on the day after the call was made (April 16), the Mobile Advertiser contained the following advertisement in one of its inside business columns:
"75,000 COFFINS WANTED."
"PROPOSALS will be received to supply the Confederacy with 75,000 black coffins."
"No proposals will be entertained coming north of Mason and Dixon's line."
"Direct to Jeff Davis, Montgomery, Alabama."
This ghastly joke showed the temper of the political leaders in that region. But this feeling of boastfulness and levity was soon changed to seriousness, for there were indications of a wonderful uprising of the loyal people of the free-labor States in defence of the Union. Men, women, and children shared in the general enthusiasm. Loyalty was everywhere expressed, as if by preconcert, by the unfurling of the National flag. That banner was seen all over the land in attestation of devotion to the Union-in halls of justice and places of public worship. It was displayed from flagstaffs, balconies, windows, and even from the spires of churches and cathedrals. It was seen at all public gatherings, where cannon roared and orators spoke eloquently for the preservation of the Republic; and red, white, and blue - the
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