The bombardment of Ft. Sumter, which began on the morning of April 12, 1861, was the event that unified both the North and the South, and henceforth the issue was to be decided solely by War. In the North, party lines were forgotten, and the President received promises of hearty support on all sides. On April 15th, the President declared the South to be in a state of rebellion, and called for 75,000 troops to recover the Government forts and property, and also called an extraordinary session of Congress, to meet on July 4th. This history is not directly concerned with the trying and bloody events of the Civil War. The tremendous strain on President Lincoln during this period perhaps will never be fully appreciated by the generations which follow it; it was all a horrible nightmare through which the country safely passed under the guidance of President Lincoln and the Republican Party. On April 16, 1862, Slavery was abolished in the District of Columbia, and on June 19th was forever prohibited in the Territories. On September 22d President Lincoln issued his preliminary Proclamation of Emancipation, declaring all slaves forever free in territory which might still be in rebellion on January 1, 1863. This act, and what was believed to be the failure of the Administration in conducting the War, turned thousands of Democrats in the North away from the President, and in the Fall elections of 1862 large Democratic gains were made. Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Jersey and Wisconsin went Democratic; New York elected a Democratic Governor, Horatio Seymour; but New England, the Border States and the Western States not mentioned, stood firm for the President, and the Administration was assured of a good working majority in the House. Before passing to the presidential campaign of 1864, mention must be made of several great legislative acts of the Republican Party during the first few years of its control of the Government. The Morrill Protective Tariff Bill was made a law on March 2, 1861, and became the foundation of the Republican Tariff Bills of later years; the Legal Tender Act of February 25, 1862, was a great turning point in the financial history of the nation; the Homestead Act of May 20, 1862, opened up the western country to actual settlers, and contributed greatly to the development of the West; the Internal Revenue Act of July 1, 1862, and a National Banking system, established by the Act of February 25, 1863, were most important, the latter removing the conflict between the national currency and the currency of the state banks, and marked the beginning of a sound and stable financial system, the importance of which, in the remarkable physical development of the country, cannot be too strongly asserted.