The brief recapitulation which we have given sufficiently exposes the pretexts upon which the North began the war of coercion. Assuming that the national dignity had been insulted, and the national honor violated, by an attack upon the flag of the Union, under the impious profession of vindicating the law, the North drew its sword against the sovereignty of the States. It had procured the assault upon Sumter--that essential step to the desired frenzy of the masses. By a shallow device, the South had been provoked to initiate resistance--that long-sought pretext which should justify the most barbaric invasion of modern times. Yet, under this flimsy imposition, the North cloaks its crime, and exults in its anticipated immunity from those execrations which have been the reward of similar examples of turpitude. The spirit of inquiry is not to be thus deftly eluded, nor the avenging sentence of history so easily perverted. The question shall not be, who fired the first shot? but, _who offered the first aggression? who first indicated the purpose of hostility?_ We are not required to await the bursting forth of the flames over our heads, when the fell intent of the incendiary is revealed to our sight. The menace of the murderer justifies his intended victim in eluding the blow while the steel is uplifted. Jefferson Davis signed the order for the reduction of Fort Sumter, but he did not thereby invoke the calamities of war. That act was simply the patriot's defiance to the menace of tyranny. It was the choice of the freeman between resistance and shame. CHAPTER IX. EVENTS CONSEQUENT UPON THE BOMBARDMENT OF FORT SUMTER--MR. LINCOLN BEGINS THE WAR BY USURPATION--THE BORDER STATES--CONTINUED DUPLICITY OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT--VIRGINIA JOINS THE COTTON STATES--AFFAIRS IN MARYLAND, MISSOURI, AND KENTUCKY--UNPROMISING PHASES OF THE SITUATION, AFFECTING THE PROSPECTS OF THE SOUTH--DIVISIONS IN SOUTHERN SENTIMENT--THE NORTHERN DEMOCRACY--PRESIDENT DAVIS' ANTICIPATIONS REALIZED--HIS RESPONSE TO MR. LINCOLN'S PROCLAMATION OF WAR--PUBLIC ENTHUSIASM IN THE SOUTH--PRESIDENT DAVIS' MESSAGE--VIRGINIA THE FLANDERS OF THE WAR--REMOVAL OF THE CONFEDERATE CAPITAL TO RICHMOND--POLICY OF THAT STEP CONSIDERED--POPULAR REGARD FOR MR. DAVIS IN VIRGINIA--ACTION OF THE VIRGINIAN AUTHORITIES--NORTH CAROLINA; HER NOBLE CONDUCT, AND EFFICIENT AID TO THE CONFEDERACY--MILITARY PREPARATIONS IN VIRGINIA--GENERAL LEE--HIS SERVICES IN THE EARLY MONTHS OF THE WAR--MINOR ENGAGEMENTS--PREPARATIONS FOR THE GREAT STRUGGLE IN VIRGINIA--AN IMPORTANT HISTORICAL QUESTION--CHARGES AGAINST MR. DAVIS CONSIDERED--HIS STATESMAN-LIKE PREVISION--DID HE ANTICIPATE AND PROVIDE FOR WAR?--WHEN MR. DAVIS' RESPONSIBILITY BEGAN--HIS ENERGETIC PREPARATION--THE PREVAILING SENTIMENT AT MONTGOMERY AS TO THE WAR--QUOTATIONS FROM GENERAL EARLY AND GENERAL VON MOLKTE.