“He had more or less blundered into the Republican nomination, much as his Democratic opponents had blundered into defeat in the election which had followed. It had all come about as a result of linking accidents and crises, and the people had enjoyed it at the time. Yet now that the nation was divided, now that war loomed, they were not so sure.”

— Shelby Foote’s "The Civil War: A Narrative," vol. I, page 19.

This was his description on the state of the nation as Lincoln left Springfield, Illinois, for his inauguration in Washington.

Stephen J. Schrader, Ventura

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