Lincoln's ambition just now, his resoluteness in swallowing thousands of miles, his strong demand to support Fort Sumter, and his will not to fear the outbreak of war, all of them came to naught after he really heard the news that Fort Sumter had been captured by the southern rebels, especially the news that the defenders of Fort Sumter had opened fire first. All that's left is panic and endless headaches.

Who would have thought that Major Anderson, who had been in the army for more than 20 years and was very trusted, would not be able to restrain his soldiers and take the lead in firing artillery at the rebels, as if he was deliberately provoking the incident of war, so that the other side would have a sufficient excuse to attack. In this way, not only did his recent arrangements come to naught, but more seriously, although Lincoln knew in his heart that this civil war between the North and the South was inevitable, many northern and southern slave states were still looking forward to a peaceful settlement of this dispute, and the Union soldiers would take the lead in firing the war, triggering the war, and he as the president of the Union must bear the main responsibility.

The compromisers and Democrats, as well as the uninformed Northerners, will think that they are planning and ordering the war. And the most important thing is the upper southern slave states, those slave owners who will surely think that the North has taken the initiative to attack, and thus sympathize with the southern rebels, and by extension, think that they can't wait to abolish slavery, and then turn to the so-called Union states that rebel in the south, so the consequences will be unimaginable!

Lincoln suddenly felt a chill in his back, and when he looked up, Seward next to him was also pale, he suddenly calmed down and warned himself not to panic at this time. He calmly said to Seward: "Don't panic! At present, the most important thing is to stabilize, and the federal states must stabilize. Only by stabilizing yourself first can you be invincible. What you have to do now is to immediately contact Richard Lyons, the British Minister to the American Federation, and tell him that the outbreak of the war was caused solely by the rebellion of the southern states of the Union, which is an internal affair of the Union, and that they should not interfere in the internal affairs of our Federation. If necessary, you can agree to some of their conditions, but make sure that the Kingdom of Great Britain does not interfere in our American affairs! ”

At this time, Seward realized that his psychological quality and adaptability were really inferior to this president, who relied on his wife to take the throne, and couldn't help but be a little discouraged: "Mr. President, at the end of last month, I met with Richard Lyons, and asked him tentatively at that time, if the federal government sent warships to blockade the entire southern waters of the United States because of the need to support Fort Sumter, how would they respond to the United Kingdom. Lyons replied, 'If you in America must do this, then Britain will lead the whole of Europe, and either recognize the independence of the South, or ignore your blockade at all.' Besides, your so-called blockade can only stay on paper at best, do you have the strength to actually block the entire south? ’”

Lincoln couldn't help but have a headache, frowned and said, "No matter what, what should be blocked has to be blocked, even if it's on paper!" The rebels in the south must not be allowed too much outside support. At first, we may not be able to blockade them completely, but from today onwards, even if the American Federation borrows money, it must immediately build a navy capable of long-range operations, find a way to cut off their agricultural trade, and with their own poor industry, it will collapse and disintegrate on its own in less than half a year or a year. By the way, Seward, the Kingdom of Great Britain has now agreed to our accession to the Paris Declaration, right? ”

Seward said: "Last time, Lyons didn't say anything. ”

Lincoln said impatiently, "So be it! Immediately meet with Lyons, whatever the cost, and demand immediate accession to the Paris Declaration, which will guarantee that our federal government's blockade of the rebel areas in the south is lawful and in accordance with international regulations, so that the European powers, especially the British Empire, will not be able to find an excuse to interfere in the affairs of the Union. ”

With that, Lincoln immediately went downstairs and found that the rest of the cabinet had gathered downstairs and were waiting for him.

Lincoln said in a heavy tone: "Rank, you should all have received the news!" The war has officially broken out! ”

Everyone was solemn and did not say a word, they all knew the seriousness of the matter, the outbreak of war was not a trivial matter, not to mention that the reason for the outbreak of war was now attributed to the federal side, or it would not be long before the newspapers of the entire American Federation would report on this matter as soon as it was dawn.

"Ladies and gentlemen, at this most critical time in the United States of America, we must fulfill our duties, defuse the crisis, and work together to tide over the difficulties! Now, in my capacity as President of the Federal Government of the United States, I issue an order for you to carry out immediately. Lincoln exclaimed, solemnly, "First of all, it should be stated that our supreme goal in this battle is to save the Union, not to save or destroy slavery, and in order to preserve the unity of the Union, we can try any means, and we can bear any conditions!" ”

This sentence made everyone's hearts sink, and everyone understood that the president was determined to unify the Union through armed war. And Seward was also appointed by the president just now, and without this compromise, the whole cabinet members, except for the Minister of Posts Montgomery Blair, who insisted on a peaceful settlement of the dispute between the North and the South, the other cabinet members were in favor of using troops against the South. And now, the war has officially broken out, and even Montgomery Blair can no longer compromise, and he wanted to ask whether to send Major Anderson, the commander of Fort Sumter who provoked the war, to a court-martial, and give an explanation to the South, which might prevent the war from expanding further. But seeing the attitude of the president and the rest of the cabinet, he could only remain silent. Everyone understands that war is inevitable!

"I have sent Secretary of State Seward to contact Britain and other European countries to ensure that the European powers do not interfere in the affairs of our Federation." Lincoln began to announce the state of affairs: "First, in the name of the President of the Union, I declare the eight southern states to be rebellions, transgressions against the United States of America, to the most severe condemnation and rebuke of God! Second, I issue a decree in the name of the President of the Federation that 75,000 militiamen from all the states of the Federation shall be immediately conscripted into the Union for three months to suppress a rebellion which is so powerful that it cannot be suppressed by the normal process of justice! I will formally propose to convene members of Congress and read out the decision of the federal government in public! Third, I will meet with Democratic leaders Douglas and ask the Northern Democrats and other parties to support the federal government! Fourth, please do your part to contact the local forces in the southern states, reassure them, and ask them not to betray the Union, even if they remain neutral! For the rest, let's work together to get through the difficulties! ”

With that, Lincoln simply disbanded the emergency meeting of the cabinet and asked everyone to prepare separately. But he left Secretary of War Simon Cameron, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Wells, and Secretary of Posts Montgomery Blair and said to the trio: "Cameron, you are well-known in the army, and you should pay more attention to officers who can fight well!" As you know, General Winfield Scott, commander-in-chief of the Federal Army, is too old to command operations on the battlefield. And Wells, you have to rebuild the Federation's navy as soon as possible, not only to make effective use of all the warships in service, strengthen training, but also to integrate those decommissioned warships and merchant ships, cancel the leave of all naval soldiers, and prepare to blockade the southern rebel areas! As for Blair, your first task is to ensure that the railway and telegraph lines are unblocked, and the military situation at the front must be delivered to the commander and me as soon as possible! ”

Montgomery Blair suddenly suggested: "Mr. President, I recommend a man to succeed General Winfield Scott as Commander-in-Chief of the Union Army." He was none other than Colonel Robert Edward Lee, who was currently the commander of the 1st U.S. Cavalry Regiment in Washington. He was the son of Henry Lee, the hero of the Union War of Independence, and was the best graduate of the Union Military Academy at West Point in his early years, and during the Union war with Mexico, he excelled in his performances, he became the main assistant to Commander Winfield Scott, and with his personal ability and advice he contributed to many victories for the Union army, and then he went through the Battle of Cerrogoro, the Battle of Contrilas, the Battle of Churubasco, and the Battle of Chabultepec, and was promoted to colonel and became the director of West Point! And the year before, when John Brown launched a rebellion at Harps Ferry, Virginia, Robert Lee was ordered to put down the rebellion in one fell swoop and became a colonel. ”

Secretary of War Simon Cameron echoed: "Robert Lee is indeed a military commander who can accurately grasp the pulse of the battlefield, and it is perfectly fine for him to be the commander-in-chief of the Federal Army." Moreover, he served as the principal of West Point, and he was strongly supported by the officers who came out of West Point among the federal soldiers, and he had a good relationship with General Winfield Scott, and he must also have the support of General Scott! ”

Lincoln nodded and said, "Not bad!" I know him, Robert Lee is a real soldier. He seems to be from Virginia, this is him, Cameron, Blair, you two are familiar with him, so you will ask him to be the post! I went to General Winfield Scott and trusted that he would accept my advice and relinquish his post as Commander-in-Chief of the Union Army. ”

Sending everyone away, Lincoln's originally calm momentum softened a little. Walking into the bedroom, Mrs. Mary was not there, and a servant stepped forward to put on a single coat for Lincoln, but the warmth of the room and clothes did not make Lincoln feel any better.

As president, his biggest headache is not to call up the army, but how to raise the war funds generated after the army is called!

Lincoln knew that the federal government's revenues were currently coming primarily from tariffs and the sale of public lands. But once the war breaks out, normal commercial trade will inevitably be affected, even if the demand for weapons, arms and other war materials needed for the war is strong, these are all purchased by the federal government itself, and it is meaningless to collect tariffs or not, and the tariffs in the southern rebel areas must not be collected, and the reason for their rebellion, in addition to the slave breeding, is that they cannot carry out free trade because the resistance tariffs are too high. The war will definitely reduce tariff revenues, that's for sure. As for the sale of public land, Lincoln is not worried, and most of the land sold is in the north and the newly developed Midwest. But these are far from enough, you know, these financial revenues, even the daily expenses of the federation are only barely maintained, and even the unemployed people are unable to help, and they have to find rich people through the church to raise donations, let alone use these poor federal revenues to paste huge military expenditures.

It is necessary to mobilize the National Assembly to amend some of the laws on taxation and raise as much money as possible. Lincoln secretly thought: the already high tariffs may have to be raised by a large margin, but this will attract protests from Britain and other European powers, but for the sake of federal unity, it must be implemented no matter what, and in addition, it is necessary to increase the types of taxes as much as possible, raise the tax rate, even if this leads to popular protests, there is no way. Of course, these are only small heads, large parts, or like when the Revolutionary War broke out and the Union was just formed, federal government bonds were issued to raise funds.

But Lincoln really didn't want to use this method of raising money, his father-in-law was a big banker, and because of this, he knew best how high the interest rates of the so-called bankers and financial giants were, and how these black-hearted vampires could push themselves and the federal government into a corner. He learned that during the Confederation Revolutionary War, he purchased weapons to get rid of British rule, and in order to establish a central bank and a navy in the early days of the Confederation, the then President of the United States Benjamin Franklin borrowed several times from the Russian aristocratic bank and the Russian royal treasury, and the interest was worth tens of millions of dollars now, and even now he has not paid off half of it. That's it, the money borrowed from Russia is still at a lower interest, and it is even more terrifying to change it to vampire-like France.

I only hope that in two or three months, the southern rebels will be completely put down, so that I may not have to issue government bonds. Everything depends on whether God blesses it! Lincoln, who had never believed much in Christianity, couldn't help but draw a cross on his chest and prayed silently.