On April 15, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln called Congress into special session that would last thirty-four days because he needed its cooperation in prosecuting the war, including an appropriation of $400 million and 400,000 men. On the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Lincoln explained to Congress, and by extension the nation, that civil war threatened the experiment in democracy created by the nation’s founders. In Lincoln’s view the present conflict was ultimately “a people’s contest,” testing whether or not a government based on the consent of the governed could survive domestic discord.