And still no cheer came from the strangely silent crowd--only a vague shiver swept the hearts of the Southern people before him. If the North loved the Union they were giving no tokens to the tall, lonely figure on that platform. At last the sentences, big with the fate of millions, were slowly and tenderly spoken: "I shall take care that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this I deem to be a simple duty on my part, and I shall perform it----" At last he had touched the hidden powder magazine with an electric spark, and a cheer swept the crowd. It died away at last--rose with new power and rose a third time before it subsided, and the clear voice went on: "I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself. In doing this there needs be no bloodshed or violence; and there shall be none unless it be forced upon the National authority. The power confided in me will be used to hold and occupy and possess the property and places belonging to the Government." Again the powder mine exploded, and a cheer rose. The grim walls of Fort Sumter and Pickens, in far off Southern waters, flashed red before every eye. The applause suddenly died away into the old silence, and a man in the crowd before the platform yelled: "We're for Jefferson Davis!" There was no answer and no disorder--only the shrill cry of the Southerner through the silence, and the speaker continued his address. Senator Douglas looked uneasily over the crowd toward the spot from whence came the cry. His brow wrinkled with a frown. John Vaughan leaned toward Betty and whispered half to himself: "I wonder if those cheers were defiance after all?" But the girl was too intent on the words of the speaker to answer. His next sentence brought a smile and a nod of approval from Senator Douglas. "But beyond what may be necessary for those objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere----" Again and again Douglas nodded his approval and spoke it in low tones: "Good! Good! That means no coercion." And then, followed in solemn tones, the fateful sentences: "In _your_ hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in _mine_ is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail _you_ unless you _first_ assail _it_. You can have no conflict without yourselves being the aggressors. _You_ have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the Government, while _I_ shall have the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect and defend' it. _You_ can forbear the _assault_ upon it; _I_ can _not_ shrink from the _defense_ of it----" Again he paused, and the crowd hung spellbound as he began his closing paragraph in tender persuasive accents throbbing with emotion, his clear voice breaking for the first time: