1860 are described. Chapters vii. and viii. are on the election of 1860. The process of secession and the attitude of Buchanan occupy chapters ix. and x. Chapter xi. deals with the first and utterly unsuccessful attempt at compromise. In chapters xii. to xv. there is a thorough discussion of the status of the Federal forts in the South, and of the attitud of Buchanan's administration, culminating in the episode of the Star of the West. Chapter xvi. is upon the second attempt at compromise, in February, 1861. With chapter xvii. begins Lincoln's administration and the development of its policy. Chapter xix. in detail expounds the final outbreak in the fall of Fort Sumter. A West Virginian by birth, a graduate of the Naval Academy in 1864, and acquainted with many of the principal actors in this great drama, Admiral Chadwick brings an impartial spirit to his difficult task. The question of responsibility for the Civil War is one which cannot be settled off-hand, and no two writers, even occupying about the same stand-point, will agree as to the character of all individuals or the question of aggression; but the author has aimed in moderate phrase to state the results of a careful study of the men and the principles involved. The volume leads directly to the story of the events of the war in Hosmer's Appeal to Arms and Outcome of the Civil War (American Nation, XX. and XXI.). AUTHOR'S PREFACE IN preparing this volume I have had in mind throughout, both the limitations of space and the extent of the field described by its title. By "Causes of the Civil War," I understand those events, principles, and personalities, which were finally focussed in the exciting period from 1859 to 1861; but it is not possible to bring out the significance of all those influences in a narrative confined to those two years, however eventful. The subject is one of such long continued and deep nationalistic and psychologic influences, that I have devoted several preliminary chapters to the state of mind of those who took the responsibility for the final arbitrament of civil war. No such crisis can be explained in any other way than as a slow development; and though I have in those introductory chapters freely referred to earlier volumes of this series, and have so far as possible avoided going over the ground which they have traversed, I have aimed to make the volume self-explanatory, even at the risk of some slight repetition in the work as a whole. The crisis of the secessionist movement was in the government's attitude in the questions of Forts Sumter and Pickens; this part of the subject has thus been dealt with in especial detail. Many friends have given information, or made suggestions on text and maps. I beg to express my obligations to them, and particularly to the officials of the War and Navy Department Libraries, of the Libraries of Congress, of the United Libraries of New York City, of Brown and Harvard Universities, of the Boston Public Library, and the Redwood Library, Newport, whose courtesy and helpfulness have lightened the task of preparation. F. E. CHADWICK. |