's library, and the papers were
always there. I could give to them only a few minutes now and
then; but I felt that the growl of the storm was coming nearer
and growing more threatening. Extracts from Southern papers
seemed to me very violent and very wrong-headed; at the same
time I knew that my mother would endorse them and Preston
would echo them. Then South Carolina passed the ordinance of
secession. Six days after, Major Anderson took possession of
Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbour, and immediately the fort he
had left and Castle Pinckney were garrisoned by the South
Carolinians in opposition. I could not tell how much all this
signified; but my heart began to give a premonitory beat
sometimes. Mississippi followed South Carolina; then United
States' forts and Arsenals were seized in North Carolina and
Georgia, and Alabama, one after the other. The tone of the
press was very threatening, at least of the Southern press.
And not less significant, to my ear, was the whisper I
occasionally heard among a portion of our own little
community.
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