It would also be the repetition of a worn-out and wearisome story.

These events are known of all men; for the political history of the United States, from 1820, when the slavery agitation began, on the question of the Missouri restriction, to 1861, when it ended in civil convulsion, has been discussed, rediscussed, and discussed again, in every journal, great and small, in the whole country.

The person who is not familiar, therefore, with the main points at issue, must be ignorant beyond the power of any writer to enlighten him.

We need only say that the election of Abraham Lincoln, the nominee of the Republican party, had determined the Gulf States to leave the Union.
South Carolina accordingly seceded, on the 20th of December, 1860; and by the 1st of February, 1861, she had been followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.

The struggle thus approached.