In the early months of 1861, the Northern people were overwhelmingly opposed to military coercion of the seceded Southern States. Such was the general feeling when Abraham Lincoln took office, assuring the public of his pacific intentions in his first inaugural address. However, as the author of this little book proves from the U.S. Government's own official records, while the Confederate Peace Commissioners were being stalled in Washington with promises of the evacuation of troops from Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, Lincoln was secretly working behind the scenes to reinforce the fort in order to force the South to fire the first shot and thus "put the rebellion in the wrong."