The election in February resulted in a majority of more than sixty thousand voters for Tennessee continuing in the United States, and also in a decided majority against holding the proposed convention. It was clearly to be seen that the people were content to continue in old and tried paths, and did not think it wise or expedient even to send delegates of their own choosing to discuss the vital questions that agitated and threatened the country. Many of them looked upon the convention with apprehension as a contrivance for mischief. What if the enemies of the United States intended and should use it as a hot-bed to mature an ordinance of secession, which, like the gourd over the head of the displeased and murmuring Hebrew prophet at Nineveh, quickly grown, would quickly perish? Has not experience any lesson to teach on the subject of unusual gatherings of inflammable materials, which a spark may kindle into a great fire, when the air is very dry from intense heats? With the advent of spring, in 1861, the muttering of the storm gathering in the national heavens became louder and longer. The inauguration of Mr. Lincoln on the fourth of March, was affirmed by men in Tennessee with others in the South, who were bent upon separation, to be an ample reason in itself for a dissolution of the Union. His words when he took the oath of office,--so full of friendship and good will to the South, fell idly on their ears, and his abstinence from any act to disturb its peace, did not abate their hostility a fraction. During the month of March a young New Yorker arrived at Knoxville, returning home from Havana, where he had dwelt in the winter for the sake of health. He found New Orleans, through which his journey lay, all in a ferment over the cauldron of political troubles in the land. Not being versed in State-craft nor fully impressed by the gravity of the national situation, he was disposed to look with a lenient eye upon the insubordination to the Federal Government prevailing in the Queen City of the South. Louisiana desired to have a government of its own, and with great generosity, he said it might be well to let its people make the experiment. He, at least, was not inclined to coerce them into obedience. Now and then in his leisure at Knoxville, as the times were ominous, he kept on the alert for news. One day, being told of the fall of Fort Sumter, he inquired of an ardent secessionist standing near: “Was the attack upon the Fort without provocation?” The citizen addressed, took the question, not as it was intended, merely to learn how the fight began, but as a provocation. At once he spoke with stern manner and strong words of Southern rights and as his sectional zeal grew more fervid with its venting, he asserted that “one Southern man could whip five or six Yankees.” He himself “could whip three or four.” “My friend,” was the reply, “you are mistaken. We are all of one Anglo-Saxon blood and Northern men can fight, as well as Southern.”