In the North men wept who ne’er had wept be-fore. It seemed as if the worst had come. “But Lin-coln, our brave Lin-coln, what will he do now?” they asked. A-bra-ham Lin-coln knew just what to do. He did not need to be told. He knew that the peo-ple would de-cide the mat-ter and to them he turned. He talked with his men near him, his “Cab-i-net,” and said that 75,000 of “the peo-ple” would come to his aid and quell this thing. Four times that num-ber came. The par-ties, “Re-pub-li-can” and “Dem-o-crat,” for the time were both much of one mind, “For the Un-ion,” side by side to “fall in” and march south and save it. One state had troops all read-y to start. It was Mas-sa-chu-setts. Her Gov-ern-or, in 1860, N. P. Banks, had long seen the trend of things, the need of men that must come, so his sol-diers were a-ble to leave at the first call for help. On A-pril 19, the Sixth Reg-i-ment fought its way through the streets of Bal-ti-more, and reached Wash-ing-ton in time to aid Lin-coln in hold-ing the cap-i-tol. In ev-er-y cit-y and town there were drum beats and the cry of “To arms! To arms!” Men were in haste to give their help to the great Chief, A-bra-ham Lin-coln, whose call they had heard. Ste-phen A. Doug-las, now that the ver-y life of the Un-ion was at stake, left no doubt as to where he stood. He made it plain-ly known that he was “For the Un-ion,” and he led the loy-al Dem-o-crats of the North to up-hold the Un-ion, and they went glad-ly with him to the task. Much as the men who led the South to try to go out of the Un-ion were to blame, it was well known that man-y in the South were loath to go and did so on-ly when their states said they must. Some of the best gen-er-als on the side of the South, such as Lee, were of those un-will-ing men. Each of them fought the North be-cause his own state told him to. The bad “doc-trine of State Rights,” brought this a-bout. Un-der it the state was held to have a claim up-on those who lived in it high-er than the claim which the na-tion had up-on them. The men who stood for the cause of the South burned the bridg-es on the rail-roads lead-ing north from Bal-ti-more so that no more troops might reach Wash-ing-ton from that side. Cit-i-zens, un-der the com-mand of Maj-or Da-vid Hun-ter, kept guard o-ver the White House and Treas-u-ry. [Illustration: DEFENCES OF WASHINGTON.] All through the long, sad hours Pres-i-dent Lin-coln stood at the helm and was the pi-lot who, un-der the Lord, took the Ship of State through the most aw-ful storm in which she had ev-er sailed. It was, in-deed, a glad hour when the 8th Mas-sa-chu-setts reg-i-ment and the 7th New York reached Wash-ing-ton. This made the Cap-i-tol safe. In the West, at Il-li-nois, troops from Chi-ca-go took pos-ses-sion of Cai-ro. So, by the prompt com-ing of troops to Wash-ing-ton and of those troops in the West keep-ing charge at Cai-ro, the plans of the South-ern foe were checked. CHAPTER IX. EARLY BATTLES OF THE WAR.