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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/3035-0.txt b/3035-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fb1115c --- /dev/null +++ b/3035-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4913 @@ +The Day of the Confederacy by Nathaniel W. Stephenson, presented by +Project Gutenberg + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost +no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it +under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this +eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +Title: The Day of the Confederacy, A Chronicle of the Embattled South, +Volume 30 in The Chronicles Of America Series +Author: Nathaniel W. Stephenson +Editor: Allen Johnson +Release Date: January 26, 2009 [EBook #3035] +Last Updated: September 6, 2016 +Language: English +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by The James J. Kelly Library of St. Gregory's University, Alev +Akman, David Widger, and Robert Homa. + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAY OF THE CONFEDERACY *** + +The Day of the Confederacy + +By Nathaniel W. Stephenson + +A Chronicle of the Embattled South + +Volume 30 of the +Chronicles of America Series +? +Allen Johnson, Editor +Assistant Editors +Gerhard R. Lomer +Charles W. Jefferys + +Abraham Lincoln Edition + + + +New Haven: Yale University Press +Toronto: Glasgow, Brook & Co. +London: Humphrey Milford +Oxford University Press +1919 + +Copyright, 1919 +by Yale University Press + + + + + + + +CONTENTS + + The Day of the Confederacy +Chapter Chapter Title Page + I. The Secession Movement 1 + II. The Davis Government 24 + III. The Fall of King Cotton 45 + IV. Reaction Against Richmond 58 + V. The Critical Year 87 + VI. Life in the Confederacy 99 + VII. The Turning of the Tide 112 +VIII. A Game of Chance 130 + IX. Desperate Remedies 145 + X. Disintegration 165 + XI. An Attempted Revolution 183 + XII. The Last Word 200 + Bibliographical Note 205 + Index 209 + +THE DAY OF THE CONFEDERACY + +? +CHAPTER I. + +The Secession Movement + +The secession movement had three distinct stages. The first, beginning +with the news that Lincoln was elected, closed with the news, sent +broadcast over the South from Charleston, that Federal troops had taken +possession of Fort Sumter on the night of the 26th of December. During +this period the likelihood of secession was the topic of discussion in +the lower South. What to do in case the lower South seceded was the +question which perplexed the upper South. In this period no State north +of South Carolina contemplated taking the initiative. In the +Southeastern and Gulf States immediate action of some sort was expected. +Whether it would be secession or some other new course was not certain +on the day of Lincoln's election. + +Various States earlier in the year had provided for conventions of their +people in the event of a Republican victory. The first to assemble was +the convention of South Carolina, which organized at Columbia, on +December 17, 1860. Two weeks earlier Congress had met. Northerners and +Southerners had at once joined issue on their relation in the Union. The +House had appointed its committee of thirty-three to consider the +condition of the country. So unpromising indeed from the Southern point +of view had been the early discussions of this committee that a +conference of Southern members of Congress had sent out their famous +address To Our Constituents: "The argument is exhausted. All hope of +relief in the Union ... is extinguished, and we trust the South will not +be deceived by appearances or the pretense of new guarantees. In our +judgment the Republicans are resolute in the purpose to grant nothing +that will or ought to satisfy the South. We are satisfied the honor, +safety, and independence of the Southern people require the organization +of a Southern Confederacy--a result to be obtained only by separate +state secession." Among the signers of this address were the two +statesmen who had in native talent no superiors at Washington--Judah P. +Benjamin of Louisiana and Jefferson Davis of Mississippi. + +The appeal To Our Constituents was not the only assurance of support +tendered to the convention of South Carolina. To represent them at this +convention the governors of Alabama and Mississippi had appointed +delegates. Mr. Hooker of Mississippi and Mr. Elmore of Alabama made +addresses before the convention on the night of the 17th of December. +Both reiterated views which during two days of lobbying they had +disseminated in Columbia "on all proper occasions." Their argument, +summed up in Elmore's report to Governor Moore of Alabama, was "that the +only course to unite the Southern States in any plan of coöperation +which could promise safety was for South Carolina to take the lead and +secede at once without delay or hesitation ... that the only effective +plan of coöperation must ensue after one State had seceded and presented +the issue when the plain question would be presented to the other +Southern States whether they would stand by the seceding State engaged +in a common cause or abandon her to the fate of coercion by the arms of +the Government of the United States." + +Ten years before, in the unsuccessful secession movement of 1850 and +1851, Andrew Pickens Butler, perhaps the ablest South Carolinian then +living, strove to arrest the movement by exactly the opposite argument. +Though desiring secession, he threw all his weight against it because +the rest of the South was averse. He charged his opponents, whose leader +was Robert Barnwell Rhett, with aiming to place the other Southern +States "in such circumstances that, having a common destiny, they would +be compelled to be involved in a common sacrifice." He protested that +"to force a sovereign State to take a position against its consent is to +make of it a reluctant associate.... Both interest and honor must +require the Southern States to take council together." + +That acute thinker was now in his grave. The bold enthusiast whom he +defeated in 1851 had now no opponent that was his match. No great +personality resisted the fiery advocates from Alabama and Mississippi. +Their advice was accepted. On December 20, 1860, the cause that ten +years before had failed was successful. The convention, having adjourned +from Columbia to Charleston, passed an ordinance of secession. + +Meanwhile, in Georgia, at a hundred meetings, the secession issue was +being hotly discussed. But there was not yet any certainty which way the +scale would turn. An invitation from South Carolina to join in a general +Southern convention had been declined by the Governor in November. +Governor Brown has left an account ascribing the comparative coolness +and deliberation of the hour to the prevailing impression that President +Buchanan had pledged himself not to alter the military status at +Charleston. In an interview between South Carolina representatives and +the President, the Carolinians understood that such a pledge was given. +"It was generally understood by the country," says Governor Brown, "that +such an agreement ... had been entered into ... and that Governor Floyd +of Virginia, then Secretary of War, had expressed his determination to +resign his position in the Cabinet in case of the refusal of the +President to carry out the agreement in good faith. The resignation of +Governor Floyd was therefore naturally looked upon, should it occur, as +a signal given to the South that reinforcements were to be sent to +Charleston and that the coercive policy had been adopted by the Federal +Government." + +While the "canvass in Georgia for members of the State convention was +progressing with much interest on both sides," there came suddenly the +news that Anderson had transferred his garrison from Fort Moultrie to +the island fortress of Sumter. That same day commissioners from South +Carolina, newly arrived at Washington, sought in vain to persuade the +President to order Anderson back to Moultrie. The Secretary of War made +the subject an issue before the Cabinet. Unable to carry his point, two +days later he resigned. ¹ + +¹ The President had already asked for Floyd's resignation because of +financial irregularities, and Floyd was shrewd enough to use Anderson's +coup as an excuse for resigning. See Rhodes, History of the United +States, vol. II pp. 225, 236 (note). + +The Georgia Governor, who had not hitherto been in the front rank of the +aggressives, now struck a great blow. Senator Toombs had telegraphed +from Washington that Fort Pulaski, guarding the Savannah River, was "in +danger." The Governor had reached the same conclusion. He mustered the +state militia and seized Fort Pulaski. Early in the morning on January +3, 1861, the fort was occupied by Georgia troops. Shortly afterward, +Brown wrote to a commissioner sent by the Governor of Alabama to confer +with him: "While many of our most patriotic and intelligent citizens in +both States have doubted the propriety of immediate secession, I feel +quite confident that recent events have dispelled those doubts from the +minds of most men who have, till within the past few days, honestly +sustained them." The first stage of the secession movement was at an +end; the second had begun. + +A belief that Washington had entered upon a policy of aggression swept +the lower South. The state conventions assembling about this time passed +ordinances of secession--Mississippi, January 9; Florida, January 10; +Alabama, January 11; Georgia, January 19; Louisiana, January 26; Texas, +February 1. But this result was not achieved without considerable +opposition. In Georgia the Unionists put up a stout fight. The issue was +not upon the right to secede--virtually no one denied the right--but +upon the wisdom of invoking the right. Stephens, gloomy and pessimistic, +led the opposition. Toombs came down from Washington to take part with +the secessionists. From South Carolina and Alabama, both ceaselessly +active for secession, commissioners appeared to lobby at Milledgeville, +as commissioners of Alabama and Mississippi had lobbied at Columbia. +Besides the out-and-out Unionists, there were those who wanted to +temporize, to threaten the North, and to wait for developments. The +motion on which these men and the Unionists made their last stand +together went against them 164 to 133. Then at last came the square +question: Shall we secede? Even on this question, the minority was +dangerously large. Though the temporizers came over to the +secessionists, and with them came Stephens, there was still a minority +of 89 irreconcilables against the majority numbering 208. + +"My allegiance," said Stephens afterwards, "was, as I considered it, not +due to the United States, or to the people of the United States, but to +Georgia, in her sovereign capacity. Georgia had never parted with her +right to demand the ultimate allegiance of her citizens." + +The attempt in Georgia to restrain impetuosity and advance with +deliberation was paralleled in Alabama, where also the aggressives were +determined not to permit delay. In the Alabama convention, the +conservatives brought forward a plan for a general Southern convention +to be held at Nashville in February. It was rejected by a vote of 54 to +45. An attempt to delay secession until after the 4th of March was +defeated by the same vote. + +The determination of the radicals to precipitate the issue received +interesting criticism from the Governor of Texas, old Sam Houston. To a +commissioner from Alabama who was sent out to preach the cause in Texas +the Governor wrote, in substance, that since Alabama would not wait to +consult the people of Texas he saw nothing to discuss at that time, and +he went on to say: + +Recognizing as I do the fact that the sectional tendencies of the Black +Republican party call for determined constitutional resistance at the +hands of the united South, I also feel that the million and a half of +noble-hearted, conservative men who have stood by the South, even to +this hour, deserve some sympathy and support. Although we have lost the +day, we have to recollect that our conservative Northern friends cast +over a quarter of a million more votes against the Black Republicans +than we of the entire South. I cannot declare myself ready to desert +them as well as our Southern brethren of the border (and such, I +believe, will be the sentiment of Texas) until at least one firm attempt +has been made to preserve our constitutional rights within the Union. + +Nevertheless, Houston was not able to control his State. Delegates from +Texas attended the later sessions of a general Congress of the seceding +States which, on the invitation of Alabama, met at Montgomery on the 4th +of February. A contemporary document of singular interest today is the +series of resolutions adopted by the Legislature of North Carolina, +setting forth that, as the State was a member of the Federal Union, it +could not accept the invitation of Alabama but should send delegates for +the purpose of persuading the South to effect a readjustment on the +basis of the Crittenden Compromise as modified by the Legislature of +Virginia. The commissioners were sent, were graciously received, were +accorded seats in the Congress, but they exerted no influence on the +course of its action. + +The Congress speedily organized a provisional Government for the +Confederate States of America. The Constitution of the United States, +rather hastily reconsidered, became with a few inevitable alterations +the Constitution of the Confederacy. ¹ Davis was unanimously elected +President; Stephens, Vice-President. Provision was made for raising an +army. Commissioners were dispatched to Washington to negotiate a treaty +with the United States; other commissioners were sent to Virginia to +attempt to withdraw that great commonwealth from the Union. + +¹ To the observer of a later age this document appears a thing of haste. +Like the framers of the Constitution of 1787, who omitted from their +document some principles which they took for granted, the framers of +1861 left unstated their most distinctive views. The basal idea upon +which the revolution proceeded, the right of secession, is not to be +found in the new Constitution. Though the preamble declares that the +States are acting in their sovereign and independent character, the new +Confederation is declared "permanent." In the body of the document are +provisions similar to those in the Federal Constitution enabling a +majority of two-thirds of the States to amend at their pleasure, thus +imposing their will upon the minority. With three notable exceptions the +new Constitution, subsequent to the preamble, does little more than +restate the Constitution of 1787 rearranged so as to include those basal +principles of the English law added to the earlier Constitution by the +first eight amendments. The three exceptions are the prohibitions (1) of +the payment of bounties, (2) of the levying of duties to promote any one +form of industry, and (3) of appropriations for internal improvements. +Here was a monument to the battle over these matters in the Federal +Congress. As to the mechanism of the new Government it was the same as +the old except for a few changes of detail. The presidential term was +lengthened to six years and the President was forbidden to succeed +himself. The President was given the power to veto items in +appropriation bills. The African slave-trade was prohibited. + +The upper South was thus placed in a painful situation. Its sympathies +were with the seceding States. Most of its people felt also that if +coercion was attempted, the issue would become for Virginia and North +Carolina, no less than for South Carolina and Alabama, simply a matter +of self-preservation. As early as January, in the exciting days when +Floyd's resignation was being interpreted as a call to arms, the +Virginia Legislature had resolved that it would not consent to the +coercion of a seceding State. In May the Speaker of the North Carolina +Legislature assured a commissioner from Georgia that North Carolina +would never consent to the movement of troops "from or across" the State +to attack a seceding State. But neither Virginia nor North Carolina in +this second stage of the movement wanted to secede. They wanted to +preserve the Union, but along with the Union they wanted the principle +of local autonomy. It was a period of tense anxiety in those States of +the upper South. The frame of mind of the men who loved the Union but +who loved equally their own States and were firm for local autonomy is +summed up in a letter in which Mrs. Robert E. Lee describes the anguish +of her husband as he confronted the possibility of a divided country. + +The real tragedy of the time lay in the failure of the advocates of +these two great principles--each so necessary to a far-flung democratic +country in a world of great powers!--the failure to coördinate them so +as to insure freedom at home and strength abroad. The principle for +which Lincoln stood has saved Americans in the Great War from playing +such a trembling part as that of Holland. The principle which seemed to +Lee even more essential, which did not perish at Appomattox but was +transformed and not destroyed, is what has kept us from becoming a +western Prussia. And yet if only it had been possible to coördinate the +two without the price of war! It was not possible because of the stored +up bitterness of a quarter century of recrimination. But Virginia made a +last desperate attempt to preserve the Union by calling the Peace +Convention. It assembled at Washington the day the Confederate Congress +met at Montgomery. Though twenty-one States sent delegates, it was no +more able to effect a working scheme of compromise than was the House +committee of thirty-three or the Senate committee of thirteen, both of +which had striven, had failed, and had gone their ways to a place in the +great company of historic futilities. + +And so the Peace Convention came and went, and there was no consolation +for the troubled men of the upper South who did not want to secede but +were resolved not to abandon local autonomy. Virginia was the key to the +situation. If Virginia could be forced into secession, the rest of the +upper South would inevitably follow. Therefore a Virginia hothead, Roger +A. Pryor, being in Charleston in those wavering days, poured out his +heart in fiery words, urging a Charleston crowd to precipitate war, in +the certainty that Virginia would then have to come to their aid. When +at last Sumter was fired upon and Lincoln called for volunteers, the +second stage of the secession movement ended in a thunderclap. The third +period was occupied by the second group of secessions: Virginia on the +17th of April, North Carolina and Arkansas during May, Tennessee early +in June. + +Sumter was the turning-point. The boom of the first cannon trained on +the island fortress deserves all the rhetoric it has inspired. Who was +immediately responsible for that firing which was destiny? Ultimate +responsibility is not upon any person. War had to be. If Sumter had not +been the starting-point, some other would have been found. Nevertheless +the question of immediate responsibility, of whose word it was that +served as the signal to begin, has produced an historic controversy. + +When it was known at Charleston that Lincoln would attempt to provision +the fort, the South Carolina authorities referred the matter to the +Confederate authorities. The Cabinet, in a fateful session at +Montgomery, hesitated--drawn between the wish to keep their hold upon +the moderates of the North, who were trying to stave off war, and the +desire to precipitate Virginia into the lists. Toombs, Secretary of +State in the new Government, wavered; then seemed to find his resolution +and came out strong against a demand for surrender. "It is suicide, +murder, and will lose us every friend at the North.... It is +unnecessary; it puts us in the wrong; it is fatal," said he. But the +Cabinet and the President decided to take the risk. To General Pierre +Beauregard, recently placed in command of the militia assembled at +Charleston, word was sent to demand the surrender of Fort Sumter. + +On Thursday, the 7th of April, besides his instructions from Montgomery, +Beauregard was in receipt of a telegram from the Confederate +commissioners at Washington, repeating newspaper statements that the +Federal relief expedition intended to land a force "which will overcome +all opposition." There seems no doubt that Beauregard did not believe +that the expedition was intended merely to provision Sumter. Probably +every one in Charleston thought that the Federal authorities were trying +to deceive them, that Lincoln's promise not to do more than provision +Sumter was a mere blind. Fearfulness that delay might render Sumter +impregnable lay back of Beauregard's formal demand, on the 11th of +April, for the surrender of the fort. Anderson refused but "made some +verbal observations" to the aides who brought him the demand. In effect +he said that lack of supplies would compel him to surrender by the +fifteenth. When this information was taken back to the city, eager +crowds were in the streets of Charleston discussing the report that a +bombardment would soon begin. But the afternoon passed; night fell; and +nothing was done. On the beautiful terrace along the sea known as East +Battery, people congregated, watching the silent fortress whose brick +walls rose sheer from the midst of the harbor. The early hours of the +night went by and as midnight approached and still there was no flash +from either the fortress or the shore batteries which threatened it, the +crowds broke up. + +Meanwhile there was anxious consultation at the hotel where Beauregard +had fixed his headquarters. Pilots came in from the sea to report to the +General that a Federal vessel had appeared off the mouth of the harbor. +This news may well explain the hasty dispatch of a second expedition to +Sumter in the middle of the night. At half after one, Friday morning, +four young men, aides of Beauregard, entered the fort. Anderson repeated +his refusal to surrender at once but admitted that he would have to +surrender within three days. Thereupon the aides held a council of war. +They decided that the reply was unsatisfactory and wrote out a brief +note which they handed to Anderson informing him that the Confederates +would open "fire upon Fort Sumter in one hour from this time." The note +was dated 3:20 A.M. The aides then proceeded to Fort Johnston on the +south side of the harbor and gave the order to fire. + +The council of the aides at Sumter is the dramatic detail that has +caught the imagination of historians and has led them, at least in some +cases, to yield to a literary temptation. It is so dramatic--that scene +of the four young men holding in their hands, during a moment of +absolute destiny, the fate of a people; four young men, in the +irresponsible ardor of youth, refusing to wait three days and forcing +war at the instant! It is so dramatic that one cannot judge harshly the +artistic temper which is unable to reject it. But is the incident +historic? Did the four young men come to Sumter without definite +instructions? Was their conference really anything more than a careful +comparing of notes to make sure they were doing what they were intended +to do? Is not the real clue to the event a message from Beauregard to +the Secretary of War telling of his interview with the pilots? ¹ + +¹ A chief authority for the dramatic version of the council of the aides +is that fiery Virginian, Roger A. Pryor. He and another accompanied the +official messengers, the signers of the note to Anderson, James Chestnut +and Stephen Lee. Years afterwards Pryor told the story of the council in +a way to establish its dramatic significance. But would there be +anything strange if a veteran survivor, looking back to his youth, as +all of us do through more or less of mirage, yielded to the unconscious +artist that is in us all and dramatized this event unaware? + +Dawn was breaking gray, with a faint rain in the air, when the first +boom of the cannon awakened the city. Other detonations followed in +quick succession. Shells rose into the night from both sides of the +harbor and from floating batteries. How lightly Charleston slept that +night may be inferred from the accounts in the newspapers. "At the +report of the first gun," says the Courier, "the city was nearly emptied +of its inhabitants who crowded the Battery and the wharves to witness +the conflict." + +The East Battery and the lower harbor of the lovely city of Charleston +have been preserved almost without alteration. What they are today they +were in the breaking dawn on April 12, 1861. Business has gone up the +rivers between which Charleston lies and has left the point of the +city's peninsula, where East Battery looks outward to the Atlantic, in +its perfect charm. There large houses, pillared, with high piazzas, +stand apart one from another among gardens. With few exceptions they +were built before the middle of the century and all, with one exception, +show the classical taste of those days. The mariner, entering the +spacious inner sea that is Charleston Harbor, sights this row of stately +mansions even before he crosses the bar seven miles distant. Holding +straight onward up into the land he heads first for the famous little +island where, nowadays, in their halo of thrilling recollection, the +walls of Sumter, rising sheer from the bosom of the water, drowse idle. +Close under the lee of Sumter, the incoming steersman brings his ship +about and chooses, probably, the eastward of two huge tentacles of the +sea between which lies the city's long but narrow peninsula. To the +steersman it shows a skyline serrated by steeples, fronted by sea, +flanked southward by sea, backgrounded by an estuary, and looped about +by a sickle of wooded islands. + +This same scene, so far as city and nature go, was beheld by the crowds +that swarmed East Battery, a flagstone marine parade along the seaward +side of the boulevard that faces Sumter; that filled the windows and +even the housetops; that watched the bombardment with the eagerness of +an audience in an amphitheater; that applauded every telling shot with +clapping of hands and waving of shawls and handkerchiefs. The fort lay +distant from them about three miles, but only some fifteen hundred yards +from Fort Johnston on one side and about a mile from Fort Moultrie on +the other. From both of these latter, the cannon of those days were +equal to the task of harassing Sumter. Early in the morning of the 12th +of April, though not until broad day had come, did Anderson make reply. +All that day, at first under heavily rolling cloud and later through +curiously misty sunshine, the fire and counterfire continued. "The +enthusiasm and fearlessness of the spectators," says the Charleston +Mercury, "knew no bounds." Reckless observers even put out in small +boats and roamed about the harbor almost under the guns of the fort. +Outside the bar, vessels of the relieving squadron were now visible, and +to these Anderson signaled for aid. They made an attempt to reach the +fort, but only part of the squadron had arrived, and the vessels +necessary to raise the siege were not there. The attempt ended in +failure. When night came, a string of rowboats each carrying a huge +torch kept watch along the bar to guard against surprise from the sea. + +On that Friday night the harbor was swept by storm. But in spite of +torrents of rain East Battery and the rooftops were thronged. "The wind +was inshore and the booming was startlingly distinct." At the height of +the bombardment, the sky above Sumter seemed to be filled with the +flashes of bursting shells. But during this wild night Sumter itself was +both dark and silent. Its casements did not have adequate lamps and the +guns could not be used except by day. When morning broke, clear and +bright after the night's storm, the duel was resumed. + +The walls of Sumter were now crumbling. At eight o'clock Saturday +morning the barracks took fire. Soon after it was perceived from the +shore that the flag was down. Beauregard at once sent offers of +assistance. With Sumter in flames above his head, Anderson replied that +he had not surrendered; he declined assistance; and he hauled up his +flag. Later in the day the flagstaff was shot in two and again the flag +fell, and again it was raised. Flames had been kindled anew by red-hot +shot, and now the magazine was in danger. Quantities of powder were +thrown into the sea. Still the rain of red-hot shot continued. About +noon, Saturday, says the Courier, "flames burst out from every quarter +of Sumter and poured from many of its portholes ... the wind was from +the west driving the smoke across the fort into the embrasures where the +gunners were at work." Nevertheless, "as if served with a new impulse," +the guns of Sumter redoubled their fire. But it was not in human +endurance to keep on in the midst of the burning fort. This splendid +last effort was short. At a quarter after one, Anderson ceased firing +and raised a white flag. Negotiations followed ending in terms of +surrender--Anderson to be allowed to remove his garrison to the fleet +lying idle beyond the bar and to salute the flag of the United States +before taking it down. The bombardment had lasted thirty-two hours +without a death on either side. The evacuation of the fort was to take +place next day. + +The afternoon of Sunday, the 14th of April, was a gala day in the harbor +of Charleston. The sunlight slanted across the roofs of the city, +sparkled upon the sea. Deep and rich the harbor always looks in the +spring sunshine on bright afternoons. The filmy atmosphere of these +latitudes, at that time of year, makes the sky above the darkling, +afternoon sea a pale but luminous turquoise. There is a wonderful soft +strength in the peaceful brightness of the sun. In such an atmosphere +the harbor was flecked with brilliantly decked craft of every +description, all in a flutter of flags and carrying a host of passengers +in gala dress. The city swarmed across the water to witness the ceremony +of evacuation. Wherry men did a thriving business carrying passengers to +the fort. + +Anderson withdrew from Sumter shortly after two o'clock amid a salute of +fifty guns. The Confederates took possession. At half after four a new +flag was raised above the battered and fire-swept walls. + + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +The Davis Government + +It has never been explained why Jefferson Davis was chosen President of +the Confederacy. He did not seek the office and did not wish it. He +dreamed of high military command. As a study in the irony of fate, +Davis's career is made to the hand of the dramatist. An instinctive +soldier, he was driven by circumstances three times to renounce the +profession of arms for a less congenial civilian life. His final +renunciation, which proved to be of the nature of tragedy, was his +acceptance of the office of President. Indeed, why the office was given +to him seems a mystery. Rhett was a more logical candidate. And when +Rhett, early in the lobbying at Montgomery, was set aside as too much of +a radical, Toombs seemed for a time the certain choice of the majority. +The change to Davis came suddenly at the last moment. It was puzzling at +the time; it is puzzling still. + +Rhett, though doubtless bitterly disappointed, bore himself with the +savoir faire of a great gentleman. At the inauguration, it was on +Rhett's arm that Davis leaned as he entered the hall of the Confederate +Congress. The night before, in a public address, Yancey had said that +the man and the hour were met. The story of the Confederacy is filled +with dramatic moments, but to the thoughtful observer few are more +dramatic than the conjunction of these three men in the inauguration of +the Confederate President. Beneath a surface of apparent unanimity they +carried, like concealed weapons, points of view that were in deadly +antagonism. This antagonism had not revealed itself hitherto. It was +destined to reveal itself almost immediately. It went so deep and spread +so far that unless we understand it, the Confederate story will be +unintelligible. + +A strange fatality destined all three of these great men to despair. +Yancey, who was perhaps most directly answerable of the three for the +existence of the Confederacy, lost influence almost from the moment when +his dream became established. Davis was partly responsible, for he +promptly sent him out of the country on the bootless English mission. +Thereafter, until his death in 1863, Yancey was a waning, overshadowed +figure, steadily lapsing into the background. It may be that those +critics are right who say he was only an agitator. The day of the mere +agitator was gone. Yancey passed rapidly into futile but bitter +antagonism to Davis. In this attitude he was soon to be matched by +Rhett. + +The discontent of the Rhett faction because their leader was not given +the portfolio of the State Department found immediate voice. But the +conclusion drawn by some that Rhett's subsequent course sprang from +personal vindictiveness is trifling. He was too large a personality, too +well defined an intellect, to be thus explained. Very probably Davis +made his first great blunder in failing to propitiate the Rhett faction. +And yet few things are more certain than that the two men, the two +factions which they symbolized, could not have formed a permanent +alliance. Had Rhett entered the Cabinet he could not have remained in it +consistently for any considerable time. The measures in which, +presently, the Administration showed its hand were measures in which +Rhett could not acquiesce. From the start he was predestined to his +eventual position--the great, unavailing genius of the opposition. + +As to the comparative ignoring of these leaders of secession by the +Government which secession had created, it is often said that the +explanation is to be found in a generous as well as politic desire to +put in office the moderates and even the conservatives. Davis, +relatively, was a moderate. Stephens was a conservative. Many of the +most pronounced opponents of secession were given places in the public +service. Toombs, who received the portfolio of State, though a +secessionist, was conspicuously a moderate when compared with Rhett and +Yancey. The adroit Benjamin, who became Attorney-General, had few points +in common with the great extremists of Alabama and South Carolina. + +However, the dictum that the personnel of the new Government was a +triumph for conservatism over radicalism signifies little. There was a +division among Southerners which scarcely any of them had realized +except briefly in the premature battle over secession in 1851. It was +the division between those who were conscious of the region as a whole +and those who were not. Explain it as you will, there was a moment just +after the secession movement succeeded when the South seemed to realize +itself as a whole, when it turned intuitively to those men who, as time +was to demonstrate, shared this realization. For the moment it turned +away from those others, however great their part in secession, who +lacked this sense of unity. + +At this point, geography becomes essential. The South fell, +institutionally, into two grand divisions: one, with an old and firmly +established social order, where consciousness of the locality went back +to remote times; another, newly settled, where conditions were still +fluid, where that sense of the sacredness of local institutions had not +yet formed. + +A typical community of the first-named class was South Carolina. Her +people had to a remarkable degree been rendered state-conscious partly +by their geographical neighbors, and partly by their long and +illustrious history, which had been interwoven with great European +interests during the colonial era and with great national interests +under the Republic. It is possible also that the Huguenots, though few +in numbers, had exercised upon the State a subtle and pervasive +influence through their intellectual power and their Latin sense for +institutions. + +In South Carolina, too, a wealthy leisure class with a passion for +affairs had cultivated enthusiastically that fine art which is the pride +of all aristocratic societies, the service of the State as a profession +high and exclusive, free from vulgar taint. In South Carolina all things +conspired to uphold and strengthen the sense of the State as an object +of veneration, as something over and above the mere social order, as the +sacred embodiment of the ideals of the community. Thus it is fair to say +that what has animated the heroic little countries of the Old +World--Switzerland and Serbia and ever-glorious Belgium--with their +passion to remain themselves, animated South Carolina in 1861. Just as +Serbia was willing to fight to the death rather than merge her identity +in the mosaic of the Austrian Empire, so this little American community +saw nothing of happiness in any future that did not secure its virtual +independence. + +Typical of the newer order in the South was the community that formed +the President of the Confederacy. In the history of Mississippi previous +to the war there are six great names--Jacob Thompson, John A. Quitman, +Henry S. Foote, Robert J. Walker, Sergeant S. Prentiss, and Jefferson +Davis. Not one of them was born in the State. Thompson was born in North +Carolina; Quitman in New York; Foote in Virginia; Walker in +Pennsylvania; Prentiss in Maine; Davis in Kentucky. In 1861 the State +was but forty-four years old, younger than its most illustrious sons--if +the paradox may be permitted. How could they think of it as an entity +existing in itself, antedating not only themselves but their traditions, +circumscribing them with its all-embracing, indisputable reality? These +men spoke the language of state rights. It is true that in politics, +combating the North, they used the political philosophy taught them by +South Carolina. But it was a mental weapon in political debate; it was +not for them an emotional fact. + +And yet these men of the Southwest had an ideal of their own as vivid +and as binding as the state ideal of the men of the eastern coast. +Though half their leaders were born in the North, the people themselves +were overwhelmingly Southern. From all the older States, all round the +huge crescent which swung around from Kentucky coastwise to Florida, +immigration in the twenties and thirties had poured into Mississippi. +Consequently the new community presented a composite picture of the +whole South, and like all composite pictures it emphasized only the +factors common to all its parts. What all the South had in common, what +made a man a Southerner in the general sense--in distinction from a +Northerner on the one hand, or a Virginian, Carolinian, Georgian, on the +other--could have been observed with clearness in Mississippi, just +before the war, as nowhere else. Therefore, the fulfillment of the ideal +of Southern life in general terms was the vision of things hoped for by +the new men of the Southwest. The features of that vision were common to +them all--country life, broad acres, generous hospitality, an +aristocratic system. The temperaments of these men were sufficiently +buoyant to enable them to apprehend this ideal even before it had +materialized. Their romantic minds could see the gold at the end of the +rainbow. Theirs was not the pride of administering a well-ordered, +inherited system, but the joy of building a new system, in their minds +wholly elastic, to be sure, but still inspired by that old system. + +What may be called the sense of Southern nationality as opposed to the +sense of state rights, strictly speaking, distinguished this brilliant +young community of the Southwest. In that community Davis spent the +years that appear to have been the most impressionable of his life. +Belonging to a "new" family just emerging into wealth, he began life as +a West Pointer and saw gallant service as a youth on the frontier; +resigned from the army to pursue a romantic attachment; came home to +lead the life of a wealthy planter and receive the impress of +Mississippi; made his entry into politics, still a soldier at heart, +with the philosophy of state rights on his lips, but in his heart that +sense of the Southern people as a new nation, which needed only the +occasion to make it the relentless enemy of the rights of the individual +Southern States. Add together the instinctive military point of view and +this Southern nationalism that even in 1861 had scarcely revealed +itself; join with these a fearless and haughty spirit, proud to the +verge of arrogance, but perfectly devoted, perfectly sincere; and you +have the main lines of the political character of Davis when he became +President. It may be that as he went forward in his great undertaking, +as antagonisms developed, as Rhett and others turned against him, Davis +hardened. He lost whatever comprehension he once had of the Rhett type. +Seeking to weld into one irresistible unit all the military power of the +South, he became at last in the eyes of his opponents a monster, while +to him, more and more positively, the others became mere dreamers. + +It took about a year for this irrepressible conflict within the +Confederacy to reveal itself. During the twelve months following Davis's +election as provisional President, he dominated the situation, though +the Charleston Mercury, the Rhett organ, found opportunities to be +sharply critical of the President. He assembled armies; he initiated +heroic efforts to make up for the handicap of the South in the +manufacture of munitions and succeeded in starting a number of munition +plants; though powerless to prevent the establishment of the blockade, +he was able during that first year to keep in touch with Europe, to +start out Confederate privateers upon the high seas, and to import a +considerable quantity of arms and supplies. At the close of the year the +Confederate armies were approaching general efficiency, for all their +enormous handicap, almost if not quite as rapidly as were the Union +armies. And the one great event of the year on land, the first battle of +Manassas, or Bull Run, was a signal Confederate victory. + +To be sure Davis was severely criticized in some quarters for not +adopting an aggressive policy. The Confederate Government, whether +wisely or foolishly, had not taken the people into its confidence and +the lack of munitions was not generally appreciated. The easy popular +cries were all sounded: "We are standing still!" "The country is being +invaded!" "The President is a do-nothing!" From the coast regions +especially, where the blockade was felt in all its severity, the outcry +was loud. + +Nevertheless, the South in the main was content with the Administration +during most of the first year. In November, when the general elections +were held, Davis was chosen without opposition as the first regular +Confederate President for six years, and Stephens became the +Vice-President. The election was followed by an important change in the +Southern Cabinet. Benjamin became Secretary of War, in succession to the +first War Secretary, Leroy P. Walker. Toombs had already left the +Confederate Cabinet. Complaining that Davis degraded him to the level of +a mere clerk, he had withdrawn the previous July. His successor in the +State Department was R. M. T. Hunter of Virginia, who remained in office +until February, 1862, when his removal to the Confederate Senate opened +the way for a further advancement of Benjamin. + +Richmond, which had been designated as the capital soon after the +secession of Virginia, was the scene of the inauguration, on February +22, 1862. Although the weather proved bleak and rainy, an immense crowd +gathered around the Washington monument, in Capitol Square, to listen to +the inaugural address. By this time the confidence in the Government, +which was felt generally at the time of the election, had suffered a +shock. Foreign affairs were not progressing satisfactorily. Though +England had accorded to the Confederacy the status of a belligerent, +this was poor consolation for her refusal to make full recognition of +the new Government as an independent power. Dread of internal distress +was increasing. Gold commanded a premium of fifty per cent. Disorder was +a feature of the life in the cities. It was known that several recent +military events had been victories for the Federals. A rumor was abroad +that some great disaster had taken place in Tennessee. The crowd +listened anxiously to hear the rumor denied by the President. But it was +not denied. The tense listeners noted two sentences which formed an +admission that the situation was grave: "A million men, it is estimated, +are now standing in hostile array and waging war along a frontier of +thousands of miles. Battles have been fought, sieges have been +conducted, and although the contest is not ended, and the tide for the +moment is against us, the final result in our favor is not doubtful." + +Behind these carefully guarded words lay serious alarm, not only with +regard to the operations at the front but as to the composition of the +army. It had been raised under various laws and its portions were +subject to conflicting classifications; it was partly a group of state +armies, partly a single Confederate army. None of its members had +enlisted for long terms. Many enlistments would expire early in 1862. +The fears of the Confederate Administration with regard to this matter, +together with its alarm about the events at the front, were expressed by +Davis in a frank message to the Southern Congress, three days later. "I +have hoped," said he, "for several days to receive official reports in +relation to our discomfiture at Roanoke Island and the fall of Fort +Donelson. They have not yet reached me.... The hope is still entertained +that our reported losses at Fort Donelson have been greatly +exaggerated...." He went on to condemn the policy of enlistments for +short terms, "against which," said he, "I have steadily contended"; and +he enlarged upon the danger that even patriotic men, who intended to +reënlist, might go home to put their affairs in order and that thus, at +a critical moment, the army might be seriously reduced. The accompanying +report of the Confederate Secretary of War showed a total in the army of +340,250 men. This was an inadequate force with which to meet the great +hosts which were being organized against it in the North. To permit the +slightest reduction of the army at that moment seemed to the Southern +President suicidal. + +But Davis waited some time longer before proposing to the Confederate +Congress the adoption of conscription. Meanwhile, the details of two +great reverses, the loss of Roanoke Island and the loss of Fort +Donelson, became generally known. Apprehension gathered strength. +Newspapers began to discuss conscription as something inevitable. At +last, on March 28, 1862, Davis sent a message to the Confederate +Congress advising the conscription of all white males between the ages +of eighteen and thirty-five. For this suggestion Congress was ripe, and +the first Conscription Act of the Confederacy was signed by the +President on the 16th of April. The age of eligibility was fixed as +Davis had advised; the term of service was to be three years; every one +then in service was to be retained in service during three years from +the date of his original enlistment. + +This statute may be thought of as a great victory on the part of the +Administration. It was the climax of a policy of centralization in the +military establishment to which Davis had committed himself by the veto, +in January, of "A bill to authorize the Secretary of War to receive into +the service of the Confederate States a regiment of volunteers for the +protection of the frontier of Texas." This regiment was to be under the +control of the Governor of the State. In refusing to accept such troops, +Davis laid down the main proposition upon which he stood as military +executive to the end of the war, a proposition which immediately set +debate raging: "Unity and cooperation by the troops of all the States +are indispensable to success, and I must view with regret this as well +as all other indications of a purpose to divide the power of States by +dividing the means to be employed in efforts to carry on separate +operations." + +In these military measures of the early months of 1862 Davis's purpose +became clear. He was bent upon instituting a strong government, able to +push the war through, and careless of the niceties of constitutional law +or of the exact prerogatives of the States. His position was expressed +in the course of the year by a Virginia newspaper: "It will be time +enough to distract the councils of the State about imaginary violations +of constitutional law by the supreme government when our independence is +achieved, established, and acknowledged. It will not be until then that +the sovereignty of the States will be a reality." But there were many +Southerners who could not accept this point of view. The Mercury was +sharply critical of the veto of the Texas Regiment Bill. In the interval +between the Texas veto and the passing of the Conscription Act, the +state convention of North Carolina demanded the return of North Carolina +volunteers for the defense of their own State. No sooner was the +Conscription Act passed than its constitutionality was attacked. As the +Confederacy had no Supreme Court, the question came up before state +courts. One after another, several state supreme courts pronounced the +act constitutional and in most of the States the constitutional issue +was gradually allowed to lapse. + +Nevertheless, Davis had opened Pandora's box. The clash between State +and Confederate authority had begun. An opposition party began to form. +In this first stage of its definite existence, the opposition made an +interesting attempt to control the Cabinet. Secretary Benjamin, though +greatly trusted by the President, seems never to have been a popular +minister. Congress attempted to load upon Benjamin the blame for Roanoke +Island and Fort Donelson. In the House a motion was introduced to the +effect that Benjamin had "not the confidence of the people of the +Confederate States nor of the army ... and that we most respectfully +request his retirement" from the office of Secretary of War. Friends of +the Administration tabled the motion. Davis extricated his friend by +taking advantage of Hunter's retirement and promoting Benjamin to the +State Department. A month later a congressional committee appointed to +investigate the affair of Roanoke Island exonerated the officer in +command and laid the blame on his superiors, including "the late +Secretary of War." + +With Benjamin safe in the Department of State, with the majority in the +Confederate Congress still fairly manageable, with the Conscription Act +in force, Davis seemed to be strong enough in the spring of 1862 to +ignore the gathering opposition. And yet there was another measure, +second only in the President's eyes to the Conscription Act, that was to +breed trouble. This was the first of the series of acts empowering him +to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus. Under this act he +was permitted to set up martial law in any district threatened with +invasion. The cause of this drastic measure was the confusion and the +general demoralization that existed wherever the close approach of the +enemy created a situation too complex for the ordinary civil +authorities. Davis made use of the power thus given to him and +proclaimed martial law in Richmond, in Norfolk, in parts of South +Carolina, and elsewhere. It was on Richmond that the hand of the +Administration fell heaviest. The capital was the center of a great +camp; its sudden and vast increase in population had been the signal for +all the criminal class near and far to hurry thither in the hope of a +new field of spoliation; to deal with this immense human congestion, the +local police were powerless; every variety of abominable contrivance to +entrap and debauch men for a price was in brazen operation. The first +care of the Government under the new law was the cleansing of the +capital. General John H. Winder, appointed military governor, did the +job with thoroughness. He closed the barrooms, disarmed the populace, +and for the time at least swept the city clean of criminals. The +Administration also made certain political arrests, and even imprisoned +some extreme opponents of the Government for "offenses not enumerated +and not cognizable under the regular process of law." Such arrests gave +the enemies of the Administration another handle against it. As we shall +see later, the use that Davis made of martial law was distorted by a +thousand fault-finders and was made the basis of the charge that the +President was aiming at absolute power. + +At the moment, however, Davis was master of the situation. The six +months following April 1, 1862, were doubtless, from his own point of +view, the most satisfactory part of his career as Confederate President. +These months were indeed filled with peril. There was a time when +McClellan's advance up the Peninsula appeared so threatening that the +archives of the Government were packed on railway cars prepared for +immediate removal should evacuation be necessary. There were the other +great disasters during that year, including the loss of New Orleans. The +President himself experienced a profound personal sorrow in the death of +his friend, Albert Sidney Johnston, in the bloody fight at Shiloh. It +was in the midst of this time that tried men's souls that the Richmond +Examiner achieved an unenvied immortality for one of its articles on the +Administration. At a moment when nothing should have been said to +discredit in any way the struggling Government, it described Davis as +weak with fear telling his beads in a corner of St. Paul's Church. This +paper, along with the Charleston Mercury, led the Opposition. Throughout +Confederate history these two, which were very ably edited, did the +thinking for the enemies of Davis. We shall meet them time and again. + +A true picture of Davis would have shown the President resolute and +resourceful, at perhaps the height of his powers. He recruited and +supplied the armies; he fortified Richmond; he sustained the great +captain whom he had placed in command while McClellan was at the gates. +When the tide had turned and the Army of the Potomac sullenly withdrew, +baffled, there occurred the one brief space in Confederate history that +was pure sunshine. In this period took place the splendid victory of +Second Manassas. The strong military policy of the Administration had +given the Confederacy powerful armies. Lee had inspired them with +victory. This period of buoyant hope culminated in the great offensive +design which followed Second Manassas. It was known that the Northern +people, or a large part of them, had suffered a reaction; the tide was +setting strong against the Lincoln Government; in the autumn, the +Northern elections would be held. To influence those elections and at +the same time to drive the Northern armies back into their own section; +to draw Maryland and Kentucky into the Confederate States; to fall upon +the invaders in the Southwest and recover the lower Mississippi--to +accomplish all these results was the confident expectation of the +President and his advisers as they planned their great triple offensive +in August, 1862. Lee was to invade Maryland; Bragg was to invade +Kentucky; Van Dorn was to break the hold of the Federals in the +Southwest. If there is one moment that is to be considered the climax of +Davis's career, the high-water mark of Confederate hope, it was the +moment of joyous expectation when the triple offensive was launched, +when Lee's army, on a brilliant autumn day, crossed the Potomac, singing +Maryland, my Maryland. + + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +The Fall Of King Cotton + +While the Confederate Executive was building up its military +establishment, the Treasury was struggling with the problem of paying +for it. The problem was destined to become insoluble. From the +vantage-point of a later time we can now see that nothing could have +provided a solution short of appropriation and mobilization of the whole +industrial power of the country along with the whole military power--a +conscription of wealth of every kind together with conscription of men. +But in 1862 such an idea was too advanced for any group of Americans. +Nor, in that year, was there as yet any certain evidence that the +Treasury was facing an impossible situation. Its endeavors were taken +lightly--at first, almost gaily--because of the profound illusion which +permeated Southern thought that Cotton was King. + +Obviously, if the Southern ports could be kept open and cotton could +continue to go to market, the Confederate financial problem was not +serious. When Davis, soon after his first inauguration, sent Yancey, +Rost, and Mann as commissioners to Europe to press the claims of the +Confederacy for recognition, very few Southerners had any doubt that the +blockade would be short-lived. "Cotton is King" was the answer that +silenced all questions. Without American cotton the English mills would +have to shut down; the operatives would starve; famine and discontent +would between them force the British ministry to intervene in American +affairs. There were, indeed, a few far-sighted men who perceived that +this confidence was ill-based and that cotton, though it was a power in +the financial world, was not the commercial king. The majority of the +population, however, had to learn this truth from keen experience. + +Several events of 1861 for a time seemed to confirm this illusion. The +Queen's proclamation in the spring, giving the Confederacy the status of +a belligerent, and, in the autumn, the demand by the British Government +for the surrender of the commissioners, Mason and Slidell, who had been +taken from a British packet by a Union cruiser--both these events seemed +to indicate active British sympathy. In England, to be sure, Yancey +became disillusioned. He saw that the international situation was not so +simple as it seemed; that while the South had powerful friends abroad, +it also had powerful foes; that the British anti-slavery party was a +more formidable enemy than he had expected it to be; and that +intervention was not a foregone conclusion. The task of an unrecognized +ambassador being too annoying for him, Yancey was relieved at his own +request and Mason was sent out to take his place. A singular little +incident like a dismal prophecy occurred as Yancey was on his way home. +He passed through Havana early in 1862, when the news of the surrender +of Fort Donelson had begun to stagger the hopes and impair the prestige +of the Confederates. By the advice of the Confederate agent in Cuba, +Yancey did not call on the Spanish Governor but sent him word that +"delicacy alone prompted his departure without the gratification of a +personal interview." The Governor expressed himself as "exceedingly +grateful for the noble sentiment which prevented" Yancey from causing +international complications at Havana. + +The history of the first year of Confederate foreign affairs is +interwoven with the history of Confederate finance. During that year the +South became a great buyer in Europe. Arms, powder, cloth, machinery, +medicines, ships, a thousand things, had all to be bought abroad. To +establish the foreign credit of the new Government was the arduous task +of the Confederate Secretary of the Treasury, Christopher G. Memminger. +The first great campaign of the war was not fought by armies. It was a +commercial campaign fought by agents of the Federal and Confederate +governments and having for its aim the cornering of the munitions market +in Europe. In this campaign the Federal agents had decisive advantages: +their credit was never questioned, and their enormous purchases were +never doubtful ventures for the European sellers. In some cases their +superior credit enabled them to overbid the Confederate agents and to +appropriate large contracts which the Confederates had negotiated but +which they could not hold because of the precariousness of their credit. +And yet, all things considered, the Confederate agents made a good +showing. In the report of the Secretary of War in February, 1862, the +number of rifles contracted for abroad was put at 91,000, of which +15,000 had been delivered. The chief reliance of the Confederate +Treasury for its purchases abroad was at first the specie in the +Southern branch of the United States Mint and in Southern banks. The +former the Confederacy seized and converted to its own use. Of the +latter it lured into its own hands a very large proportion by what is +commonly called "the fifteen million loan"--an issue of eight per cent +bonds authorized in February, 1861. Most of this specie seems to have +been taken out of the country by the purchase of European commodities. A +little, to be sure, remained, for there was some gold still at home when +the Confederacy fell. But the sum was small. + +In addition to this loan Memminger also persuaded Congress on August 19, +1861, to lay a direct tax--the "war tax," as it was called--of one-half +of one per cent on all property except Confederate bonds and money. As +required by the Constitution this tax was apportioned among the States, +but if it assumed its assessment before April 1, 1862, each State was to +have a reduction of ten per cent. As there was a general aversion to the +idea of Confederate taxation and a general faith in loans, what the +States did, as a rule, was to assume their assessment, agree to pay it +into the Treasury, and then issue bonds to raise the necessary funds, +thus converting the war tax into a loan. + +The Confederate, like the Union, Treasury did not have the courage to +force the issue upon taxation and leaned throughout the war largely upon +loans. It also had recourse to the perilous device of paper money, the +gold value of which was not guaranteed. Beginning in March, 1861, it +issued under successive laws great quantities of paper notes, some of +them interest bearing, some not. It used these notes in payment of its +domestic obligations. The purchasing value of the notes soon started on +a disastrous downward course, and in 1864 the gold dollar was worth +thirty paper dollars. The Confederate Government thus became involved in +a problem of self-preservation that was but half solved by the system of +tithes and impressment which we shall encounter later. The depreciation +of these notes left governmental clerks without adequate salaries and +soldiers without the means of providing for their families. During most +of the war, women and other noncombatants had to support the families or +else rely upon local charity organized by state or county boards. + +Long before all the evils of paper money were experienced, the North, +with great swiftness, concentrated its naval forces so as to dominate +the Southern ports which had trade relations with Europe. The shipping +ports were at once congested with cotton to the great embarrassment of +merchants and planters. Partly to relieve them, the Confederate Congress +instituted in May, 1861, what is known today as "the hundred million +loan." It was the first of a series of "produce loans." The Treasury was +authorized to issue eight per cent bonds, to fall due in twenty years, +and to sell them for specie or to exchange them for produce or +manufactured articles. In the course of the remaining months of 1861 +there were exchanged for these bonds great quantities of produce +including some 400,000 bales of cotton. + +In spite of the distress of the planters, however, the illusion of King +Cotton's power does not seem to have been seriously impaired during +1861. In fact, strange as it now seems, the frame of mind of the leaders +appears to have been proof, that year, against alarm over the blockade. +For two reasons, the Confederacy regarded the blockade at first as a +blessing in disguise. It was counted on to act as a protective tariff in +stimulating manufactures; and at the same time the South expected +interruption of the flow of cotton towards Europe to make England feel +her dependence upon the Confederacy. In this way there would be exerted +an economic coercion which would compel intervention. Such reasoning lay +behind a law passed in May forbidding the export of cotton except +through the seaports of the Confederacy. Similar laws were enacted by +the States. During the summer, many cotton factors joined in advising +the planters to hold their cotton until the blockade broke down. In the +autumn, the Governor of Louisiana forbade the export of cotton from New +Orleans. So unshakeable was the illusion in 1861, that King Cotton had +England in his grip! The illusion died hard. Throughout 1862, and even +in 1863, the newspapers published appeals to the planters to give up +growing cotton for a time, and even to destroy what they had, so as to +coerce the obdurate Englishmen. + +Meanwhile, Mason had been accorded by the British upper classes that +generous welcome which they have always extended to the representative +of a people fighting gallantly against odds. During the hopeful days of +1862--that Golden Age of Confederacy--Mason, though not recognized by +the English Government, was shown every kindness by leading members of +the aristocracy, who visited him in London and received him at their +houses in the country. It was during this period of buoyant hope that +the Alabama was allowed to go to sea from Liverpool in July, 1862. At +the same time Mason heard his hosts express undisguised admiration for +the valor of the soldiers serving under Jackson and Lee. Whether he +formed any true impression of the other side of British idealism, its +resolute opposition to slavery, may be questioned. There seems little +doubt that he did not perceive the turning of the tide of English public +opinion, in the autumn of 1862, following the Emancipation Proclamation +and the great reverses of September and October--Antietam-Sharpsburg, +Perryville, Corinth--the backflow of all three of the Confederate +offensives. + +The cotton famine in England, where perhaps a million people were in +actual want through the shutting down of cotton mills, seemed to Mason +to be "looming up in fearful proportions." "The public mind," he wrote +home in November, 1862, "is very much disturbed by the prospect for the +winter; and I am not without hope that it will produce its effects on +the councils of the government." + +Yet it was the uprising of the British working people in favor of the +North that contributed to defeat the one important attempt to intervene +in American affairs. Napoleon III had made an offer of mediation which +was rejected by the Washington Government early the next year. England +and Russia had both declined to participate in Napoleon's scheme, and +their refusal marks the beginning of the end of the reign of King +Cotton. + +At Paris, Slidell was even more hopeful than Mason. He had won over +Émile Erlanger, that great banker who was deep in the confidence of +Napoleon. So cordial became the relations between the two that it +involved their families and led at last to the marriage of Erlanger's +son with Slidell's daughter. Whether owing to Slidell's eloquence, or +from secret knowledge of the Emperor's designs, or from his own +audacity, Erlanger toward the close of 1862 made a proposal that is one +of the most daring schemes of financial plunging yet recorded. If the +Confederate Government would issue to him bonds secured by cotton, +Erlanger would underwrite the bonds, put the proceeds of their sale to +the credit of the Confederate agents, and wait for the cotton until it +could run the blockade or until peace should be declared. The +Confederate Government after some hesitation accepted his plan and +issued fifteen millions of "Erlanger bonds," bearing seven per cent, and +put them on sale at Paris, London, Amsterdam, and Frankfort. + +As a purchaser of these bonds was to be given cotton eventually at a +valuation of sixpence a pound, and as cotton was then selling in England +for nearly two shillings, the bold gamble caught the fancy of +speculators. There was a rush to take up the bonds and to pay the first +installment. But before the second installment became due a mysterious +change in the market took place and the price of the bonds fell. Holders +became alarmed and some even proposed to forfeit their bonds rather than +pay on May 1, 1863, the next installment of fifteen per cent of the +purchase money. Thereupon Mason undertook to "bull" the market. Agents +of the United States Government were supposed to be at the bottom of the +drop in the bonds. To defeat their schemes the Confederate agents bought +back large amounts in bonds intending to resell. The result was the +expenditure of some six million dollars with practically no effect on +the market. These "Erlanger bonds" sold slowly through 1863 and even in +1864, and netted a considerable amount to the foreign agents of the +Confederacy. + +The comparative failure of the Erlanger loan marks the downfall of King +Cotton. He was an exploded superstition. He was unable, despite the +cotton famine, to coerce the English workingmen into siding with a +country which they regarded, because of its support of slavery, as +inimical to their interests. At home, the Government confessed the +powerlessness of King Cotton by a change of its attitude toward export. +During the latter part of the war, the Government secured the meager +funds at its disposal abroad by rushing cotton in swift ships through +the blockade. So important did this traffic become that the Confederacy +passed stringent laws to keep the control in its own hands. One more +cause of friction between the Confederate and the State authorities was +thus developed: the Confederate navigation laws prevented the States +from running the blockade on their own account. + +The effects of the blockade were felt at the ends of the earth. India +became an exporter of cotton. Egypt also entered the competition. That +singular dreamer, Ismail Pasha, whose reign made Egypt briefly an exotic +nation, neither eastern nor western, found one of his opportunities in +the American War and the failure of the cotton supply. + + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +The Reaction Against Richmond + +A popular revulsion of feeling preceded and followed the great period of +Confederate history--these six months of Titanic effort which embraced +between March and September, 1862, splendid success along with +catastrophes. But there was a marked difference between the two tides of +popular emotion. The wave of alarm which swept over the South after the +surrender of Fort Donelson was quickly translated into such a high +passion for battle that the march of events until the day of Antietam +resounded like an epic. The failure of the triple offensive which closed +this period was followed in very many minds by the appearance of a new +temper, often as valiant as the old but far more grim and deeply seamed +with distrust. And how is this distrust, of which the Confederate +Administration was the object, to be accounted for? + +Various answers to this question were made at the time. The laws of the +spring of 1862 were attacked as unconstitutional. Davis was held +responsible for them and also for the slow equipment of the army. +Because the Confederate Congress conducted much of its business in +secret session, the President was charged with a love of mystery and an +unwillingness to take the people into his confidence. Arrests under the +law suspending the writ of habeas corpus were made the texts for +harangues on liberty. The right of freedom of speech was dragged in when +General Van Dorn, in the Southwest, threatened with suppression any +newspaper that published anything which might impair confidence in a +commanding officer. How could he have dared to do this, was the cry, +unless the President was behind him? And when General Bragg assumed a +similar attitude toward the press, the same cry was raised. Throughout +the summer of victories, even while the thrilling stories of Seven +Pines, the Peninsula, Second Manassas, were sounding like trumpets, +these mutterings of discontent formed an ominous accompaniment. + +Yancey, speaking of the disturbed temper of the time, attributed it to +the general lack of information on the part of Southern people as to +what the Confederate Government was doing. His proposed remedy was an +end of the censorship which that Government was attempting to maintain, +the abandonment of the secret sessions of its Congress, and the taking +of the people into its full confidence. Now a Senator from Alabama, he +attempted, at the opening of the congressional session in the autumn of +1862, to abolish secret sessions, but in his efforts he was not +successful. + +There seems little doubt that the Confederate Government had blundered +in being too secretive. Even from Congress, much information was +withheld. A curious incident has preserved what appeared to the military +mind the justification of this reticence. The Secretary of War refused +to comply with a request for information, holding that he could not do +so "without disclosing the strength of our armies to many persons of +subordinate position whose secrecy cannot be relied upon." "I beg leave +to remind you," said he, "of a report made in response to a similar one +from the Federal Congress, communicated to them in secret session, and +now a part of our archives." + +How much the country was in the dark with regard to some vital matters +is revealed by an attack on the Confederate Administration which was +made by the Charleston Mercury, in February. The Southern Government was +accused of unpardonable slowness in sending agents to Europe to purchase +munitions. In point of fact, the Confederate Government had been more +prompt than the Union Government in rushing agents abroad. But the +country was not permitted to know this. Though the Courier was a +government organ in Charleston, it did not meet the charges of the +Mercury by disclosing the facts about the arduous attempts of the +Confederate Government to secure arms in Europe. The reply of the +Courier to the Mercury, though spirited, was all in general terms. "To +shake confidence in Jefferson Davis," said the Courier, "is ... to bring +'hideous ruin and combustion' down upon our dearest hopes and +interests." It made "Mr. Davis and his defensive policy" objects of all +admiration; called Davis "our Moses." It was deeply indignant because it +had been "reliably informed that men of high official position among us" +were "calling for a General Convention of the Confederate States to +depose him and set up a military Dictator in his place." The Mercury +retorted that, as to the plot against "our Moses," there was no evidence +of its existence except the Courier's assertion. Nevertheless, it +considered Davis "an incubus to the cause." The controversy between the +Mercury and the Courier at Charleston was paralleled at Richmond by the +constant bickering between the government organ, the Enquirer, and the +Examiner, which shares with the Mercury the first place among the +newspapers hostile to Davis. ¹ + +¹ The Confederate Government did not misapprehend the attitude of the +intellectual opposition. Its foreign organ, The Index, published in +London, characterized the leading Southern papers for the enlightenment +of the British public. While the Enquirer and the Courier were singled +out as the great champions of the Confederate Government, the Examiner +and the Mercury were portrayed as its arch enemies. The Examiner was +called the "Ishmael of the Southern press." The Mercury was described as +"almost rabid on the subject of state rights." + +Associated with the Examiner was a vigorous writer having considerable +power of the old-fashioned, furious sort, ever ready to foam at the +mouth. If he had had more restraint and less credulity, Edward A. +Pollard might have become a master of the art of vituperation. Lacking +these qualities, he never rose far above mediocrity. But his fury was so +determined and his prejudice so invincible that his writings have +something of the power of conviction which fanaticism wields. In +midsummer, 1862, Pollard published a book entitled The First Year of the +War, which was commended by his allies in Charleston as showing no +"tendency toward unfairness of statement" and as expressing views +"mainly in accordance with popular opinion." + +This book, while affecting to be an historical review, was skillfully +designed to discredit the Confederate Administration. Almost every +disaster, every fault of its management was traceable more or less +directly to Davis. Kentucky had been occupied by the Federal army +because of the "dull expectation" in which the Confederate Government +had stood aside waiting for things somehow to right themselves. The +Southern Congress had been criminally slow in coming to conscription, +contenting itself with an army of 400,000 men that existed "on paper." +"The most distressing abuses were visible in the ill-regulated hygiene +of our camps." According to this book, the Confederate Administration +was solely to blame for the loss of Roanoke Island. In calling that +disaster "deeply humiliating," as he did in a message to Congress, Davis +was trying to shield his favorite Benjamin at the cost of gallant +soldiers who had been sacrificed through his incapacity. Davis's +promotion of Benjamin to the State Department was an act of "ungracious +and reckless defiance of popular sentiment." The President was "not the +man to consult the sentiment and wisdom of the people; he desired to +signalize the infallibility of his own intellect in every measure of the +revolution and to identify, from motives of vanity, his own personal +genius with every event and detail of the remarkable period of history +in which he had been called upon to act. This imperious conceit seemed +to swallow up every other idea in his mind." The generals "fretted under +this pragmatism" of one whose "vanity" directed the war "from his +cushioned seat in Richmond" by means of the one formula, "the defensive +policy." + +One of Pollard's chief accusations against the Confederate Government +was its failure to enforce the conscription law. His paper, the +Examiner, as well as the Mercury, supported Davis in the policy of +conscription, but both did their best, first, to rob him of the credit +for it and, secondly, to make his conduct of the policy appear +inefficient. Pollard claimed for the Examiner the credit of having +originated the policy of conscription; the Mercury claimed it for Rhett. + +In other words, an aggressive war party led by the Examiner and the +Mercury had been formed in those early days when the Confederate +Government appeared to be standing wholly on the defensive, and when it +had failed to confide to the people the extenuating circumstance that +lack of arms compelled it to stand still whether it would or no. And +yet, after this Government had changed its policy and had taken up in +the summer of 1862 an offensive policy, this party--or faction, or what +you will--continued its career of opposition. That the secretive habit +of the Confederate Government helped cement the opposition cannot be +doubted. It is also likely that this opposition gave a vent to certain +jealous spirits who had missed the first place in leadership. + +Furthermore, the issue of state sovereignty had been raised. In Georgia +a movement had begun which was distinctly different from the +Virginia-Carolina movement of opposition, a movement for which Rhett and +Pollard had scarcely more than disdainful tolerance, and not always +that. This parallel opposition found vent, as did the other, in a +political pamphlet. On the subject of conscription Davis and the +Governor of Georgia--that same Joseph E. Brown who had seized Fort +Pulaski in the previous year--exchanged a rancorous correspondence. +Their letters were published in a pamphlet of which Pollard said +scornfully that it was hawked about in every city of the South. Brown, +taking alarm at the power given the Confederate Government by the +Conscription Act, eventually defined his position, and that of a large +following, in the extreme words: "No act of the Government of the United +States prior to the secession of Georgia struck a blow at constitutional +liberty so fell as has been stricken by the conscript acts." + +There were other elements of discontent which were taking form as early +as the autumn of 1862 but which were not yet clearly defined. But the +two obvious sources of internal criticism just described were enough to +disquiet the most resolute administration. When the triple offensive +broke down, when the ebb-tide began, there was already everything that +was needed to precipitate a political crisis. And now the question +arises whether the Confederate Administration had itself to blame. Had +Davis proved inadequate in his great undertaking? + +The one undeniable mistake of the Government previous to the autumn of +1862 was its excessive secrecy. As to the other mistakes attributed to +it at the time, there is good reason to call them misfortunes. Today we +can see that the financial situation, the cotton situation, the +relations with Europe, the problem of equipping the armies, were all to +a considerable degree beyond the control of the Confederate Government. +If there is anything to be added to its mistaken secrecy as a definite +cause of irritation, it must be found in the general tone given to its +actions by its chief directors. And here there is something to be said. + +With all his high qualities of integrity, courage, faithfulness, and +zeal, Davis lacked that insight into human life which marks the genius +of the supreme executive. He was not an artist in the use of men. He had +not that artistic sense of his medium which distinguishes the statesman +from the bureaucrat. In fact, he had a dangerous bent toward +bureaucracy. As Reuben Davis said of him, "Gifted with some of the +highest attributes of a statesman, he lacked the pliancy which enables a +man to adapt his measures to the crisis." Furthermore, he lacked humor; +there was no safety-valve to his intense nature; and he was a man of +delicate health. Mrs. Davis, describing the effects which nervous +dyspepsia and neuralgia had upon him, says he would come home from his +office "fasting, a mere mass of throbbing nerves, and perfectly +exhausted." And it cannot be denied that his mind was dogmatic. Here are +dangerous lines for the character of a leader of revolution--the +bureaucratic tendency, something of rigidity, lack of humor, physical +wretchedness, dogmatism. Taken together, they go far toward explaining +his failure in judging men, his irritable confidence in himself. + +It is no slight detail of a man's career to be placed side by side with +a genius of the first rank without knowing it. But Davis does not seem +ever to have appreciated that the man commanding in the Seven Days' +Battles was one of the world's supreme characters. The relation between +Davis and Lee was always cordial, and it brought out Davis's character +in its best light. Nevertheless, so rooted was Davis's faith in his own +abilities that he was capable of saying, at a moment of acutest anxiety, +"If I could take one wing and Lee the other, I think we could between us +wrest a victory from those people." And yet, his military experience +embraced only the minor actions of a young officer on the Indian +frontier and the gallant conduct of a subordinate in the Mexican War. He +had never executed a great military design. His desire for the military +life was, after all, his only ground for ranking himself with the victor +of Second Manassas. Davis was also unfortunate in lacking the power to +overcome men and sweep them along with him--the power Lee showed so +conspicuously. Nor was Davis averse to sharp reproof of the highest +officials when he thought them in the wrong. He once wrote to Joseph E. +Johnston that a letter of his contained "arguments and statements +utterly unfounded" and "insinuations as unfounded as they were +unbecoming." + +Davis was not always wise in his choice of men. His confidence in Bragg, +who was long his chief military adviser, is not sustained by the +military critics of a later age. His Cabinet, though not the +contemptible body caricatured by the malice of Pollard, was not equal to +the occasion. Of the three men who held the office of Secretary of +State, Toombs and Hunter had little if any qualification for such a +post, while the third, Benjamin, is the sphinx of Confederate history. + +In a way, Judah P. Benjamin is one of the most interesting men in +American politics. By descent a Jew, born in the West Indies, he spent +his boyhood mainly at Charleston and his college days at Yale. He went +to New Orleans to begin his illustrious career as a lawyer, and from +Louisiana entered politics. The facile keenness of his intellect is +beyond dispute. He had the Jewish clarity of thought, the wonderful +Jewish detachment in matters of pure mind. But he was also an American +of the middle of the century. His quick and responsive nature--a nature +that enemies might call simulative--caught and reflected the +characteristics of that singular and highly rhetorical age. He lives in +tradition as the man of the constant smile, and yet there is no one in +history whose state papers contain passages of fiercer violence in days +of tension. How much of his violence was genuine, how much was a manner +of speaking, his biographers have not had the courage to determine. Like +so many American biographers they have avoided the awkward questions and +have glanced over, as lightly as possible, the persistent attempts of +Congress to drive him from office. + +Nothing could shake the resolution of Davis to retain Benjamin in the +Cabinet. Among Davis's loftiest qualities was his sense of personal +loyalty. Once he had given his confidence, no amount of opposition could +shake his will but served rather to harden him. When Benjamin as +Secretary of War passed under a cloud, Davis led him forth resplendent +as Secretary of State. Whether he was wise in doing so, whether the +opposition was not justified in its distrust of Benjamin, is still an +open question. What is certain is that both these able men, even before +the crisis that arose in the autumn of 1862, had rendered themselves and +their Government widely unpopular. It must never be forgotten that Davis +entered office without the backing of any definite faction. He was a +"dark horse," a compromise candidate. To build up a stanch following, to +create enthusiasm for his Administration, was a prime necessity of his +first year as President. Yet he seems not to have realized this +necessity. Boldly, firmly, dogmatically, he gave his whole thought and +his entire energy to organizing the Government in such a way that it +could do its work efficiently. And therein may have been the proverbial +rift within the lute. To Davis statecraft was too much a thing of +methods and measures, too little a thing of men and passions. + +During the autumn of 1862 and the following winter the disputes over the +conduct of the war began to subside and two other themes became +prominent: the sovereignty of the States, which appeared to be menaced +by the Government, and the personality of Davis, whom malcontents +regarded as a possible despot. Contrary to tradition, the first note of +alarm over state rights was not struck by its great apostle Rhett, +although the note was sounded in South Carolina in the early autumn. +There existed in this State at that time an extra assembly called the +"Convention," which had been organized in 1860 for the general purpose +of seeing the State through the "revolution." In the Convention, in +September, 1862, the question of a contest with the Confederate +Government on the subject of a state army was definitely raised. It was +proposed to organize a state army and to instruct the Legislature to +"take effectual measures to prevent the agents of the Confederate +Government from raising troops in South Carolina except by voluntary +enlistment or by applying to the Executive of the State to call out the +militia as by law organized, or some part of it to be mustered into the +Confederate service." This proposal brought about a sharp debate upon +the Confederate Government and its military policy. Rhett made a +remarkable address, which should of itself quiet forever the old tale +that he was animated in his opposition solely by the pique of a +disappointed candidate for the presidency. Though as sharp as ever +against the Government and though agreeing wholly with the spirit of the +state army plan, he took the ground that circumstances at the moment +rendered the organization of such an army inopportune. A year earlier he +would have strongly supported the plan. In fact, in opposition to Davis +he had at that time, he said, urged an obligatory army which the States +should be required to raise. The Confederate Administration, however, +had defeated his scheme. Since then the situation had changed and had +become so serious that now there was no choice but to submit to military +necessity. He regarded the general conscription law as "absolutely +necessary to save" the Confederacy "from utter devastation if not final +subjugation. Right or wrong, the policy of the Administration had left +us no other alternative...." + +The dominant attitude in South Carolina in the autumn of 1862 is in +strong contrast, because of its firm grasp upon fact, with the attitude +of the Brown faction in Georgia. An extended history of the Confederate +movement--one of those vast histories that delight the recluse and scare +away the man of the world--would labor to build up images of what might +be called the personalities of the four States that continued from the +beginning to the end parts of the effective Confederate +system--Virginia, the two Carolinas, and Georgia. We are prone to forget +that the Confederacy was practically divided into separate units as +early as the capture of New Orleans by Farragut, but a great history of +the time would have a special and thrilling story of the conduct of the +detached western unit, the isolated world of Louisiana, Arkansas, and +Texas--the "Department of the Trans-Mississippi"--cut off from the main +body of the Confederacy and hemmed in between the Federal army and the +deep sea. Another group of States--Tennessee, Mississippi, +Alabama--became so soon, and remained so long, a debatable land, on +which the two armies fought, that they also had scant opportunity for +genuine political life. Florida, small and exposed, was absorbed in its +gallant achievement of furnishing to the armies a number of soldiers +larger than its voting population. + +Thus, after the loss of New Orleans, one thing with another operated to +confine the area of full political life to Virginia and her three +neighbors to the South. And yet even among these States there was no +political solidarity or unanimity of opinion, for the differences in +their past experience, social structure, and economic conditions made +for distinct points of view. In South Carolina, particularly, the +prevailing view was that of experienced, disillusioned men who realized +from the start that secession had burnt their bridges, and that now they +must win the fight or change the whole current of their lives. In the +midst of the extraordinary conditions of war, they never talked as if +their problems were the problems of peace. Brown, on the other hand, had +but one way of reasoning--if we are to call it reasoning--and, with +Hannibal at the gates, talked as if the control of the situation were +still in his own hands. + +While South Carolina, so grimly conscious of the reality of war and the +danger of internal discord, held off from the issue of state +sovereignty, the Brown faction in Georgia blithely pressed it home. A +bill for extending the conscription age which was heartily advocated by +the Mercury was as heartily condemned by Brown. To the President he +wrote announcing his continued opposition to a law which he declared +"encroaches upon the reserved rights of the State and strikes down her +sovereignty at a single blow." Though the Supreme Court of Georgia +pronounced the conscription acts constitutional, the Governor and his +faction did not cease to condemn them. Linton Stephens, as well as his +famous kinsman, took up the cudgels. In a speech before the Georgia +Legislature, in November, Linton Stephens borrowed almost exactly the +Governor's phraseology in denying the necessity for conscription, and +this continued to be the note of their faction throughout the war. +"Conscription checks enthusiasm," was ever their cry; "we are invincible +under a system of volunteering, we are lost with conscription." + +Meanwhile the military authorities looked facts in the face and had a +different tale to tell. They complained that in various parts of the +country, especially in the mountain districts, they were unable to +obtain men. Lee reported that his army melted away before his eye and +asked for an increase of authority to compel stragglers to return. At +the same time Brown was quarreling with the Administration as to who +should name the officers of the Georgia troops. Zebulon B. Vance, the +newly elected Governor of North Carolina and an anti-Davis man, said to +the Legislature: "It is mortifying to find entire brigades of North +Carolina soldiers commanded by strangers, and in many cases our own +brave and war-worn colonels are made to give place to colonels from +distant States." In addition to such indications of discontent a vast +mass of evidence makes plain the opposition to conscription toward the +close of 1862 and the looseness of various parts of the military system. + +It was a moment of intense excitement and of nervous strain. The country +was unhappy, for it had lost faith in the Government at Richmond. The +blockade was producing its effect. European intervention was receding +into the distance. One of the characteristics of the editorials and +speeches of this period is a rising tide of bitterness against England. +Napoleon's proposal in November to mediate, though it came to naught, +somewhat revived the hope of an eventual recognition of the Confederacy +but did not restore buoyancy to the people of the South. The +Emancipation Proclamation, though scoffed at as a cry of impotence, none +the less increased the general sense of crisis. + +Worst of all, because of its immediate effect upon the temper of the +time, food was very scarce and prices had risen to indefensible heights. +The army was short of shoes. In the newspapers, as winter came on, were +to be found touching descriptions of Lee's soldiers standing barefoot in +the snow. A flippant comment of Benjamin's, that the shoes had probably +been traded for whiskey, did not tend to improve matters. Even though +short of supplies themselves, the people as a whole eagerly subscribed +to buy shoes for the army. + +There was widespread and heartless speculation in the supplies. Months +previous the Courier had made this ominous editorial remark: +"Speculators and monopolists seem determined to force the people +everywhere to the full exercise of all the remedies allowed by law." In +August, 1862, the Governor of Florida wrote to the Florida delegation at +Richmond urging them to take steps to meet the "nefarious smuggling" of +speculators who charged extortionate prices. In September, he wrote +again begging for legislation to compel millers, tanners, and saltmakers +to offer their products at reasonable rates. As these men were exempt +from military duty because their labor was held to be a public service, +feeling against them ran high. Governor Vance proposed a state +convention to regulate prices for North Carolina and by proclamation +forbade the export of provisions in order to prevent the seeking of +exorbitant prices in other markets. Davis wrote to various Governors +urging them to obtain state legislation to reduce extortion in the food +business. In the provisioning of the army the Confederate Government had +recourse to impressment and the arbitrary fixing of prices. Though the +Attorney-General held this action to be constitutional, it led to sharp +contentions; and at length a Virginia court granted an injunction to a +speculator who had been paid by the Government for flour less than it +had cost him. + +In an attempt to straighten out this tangled situation, the Confederate +Government began, late in 1862, by appointing as its new Secretary of +War, ¹ James A. Seddon of Virginia--at that time high in popular favor. +The Mercury hailed his advent with transparent relief, for no +appointment could have seemed to it more promising. Indeed, as the new +year (1863) opened the Mercury was in better humor with the +Administration than perhaps at any other time during the war. To the +President's message it gave praise that was almost cordial. This +amicable temper was short-lived, however, and three months later the +heavens had clouded again, for the Government had entered upon a course +that consolidated the opposition in anger and distrust. + +¹ There were in all six Secretaries of War: Leroy P. Walker, until +September 16, 1861; Judah P. Benjamin, until March 18, 1862; George W. +Randolph, until November 17, 1862; Gustavus W. Smith (temporarily), +until November 21, 1862; James A. Seddon, until February 6, 1865; +General John C. Breckinridge. + +Early in 1863 the Confederate Government presented to the country a +program in which the main features were three. Of these the two which +did not rouse immediate hostility in the party of the Examiner and the +Mercury were the Impressment Act of March, 1863 (amended by successive +acts), and the act known as the Tax in Kind, which was approved the +following month. Though the Impressment Act subsequently made vast +trouble for the Government, at the time of its passage its beneficial +effects were not denied. To it was attributed by the Richmond Whig the +rapid fall of prices in April, 1863. Corn went down at Richmond from $12 +and $10 a bushel to $4.20, and flour dropped in North Carolina from $45 +a barrel to $25. Under this act commissioners were appointed in each +State jointly by the Confederate President and the Governor with the +duty of fixing prices for government transactions and of publishing +every two months an official schedule of the prices to be paid by the +Government for the supplies which it impressed. + +The new Tax Act attempted to provide revenues which should not be paid +in depreciated currency. With no bullion to speak of, the Confederate +Congress could not establish a circulating medium with even an +approximation to constant value. Realizing this situation, Memminger had +advised falling back on the ancient system of tithes and the support of +the Government by direct contributions of produce. After licensing a +great number of occupations and laying a property tax and an income tax, +the new law demanded a tenth of the produce of all farmers. On this law +the Mercury pronounced a benediction in an editorial on The Fall of +Prices, which it attributed to "the healthy influence of the tax bill +which has just become law." ¹ + +¹ The fall of prices was attributed by others to a funding act,--one of +several passed by the Confederate Congress--which, in March, 1863, aimed +by various devices to contract the volume of the currency. It was very +generally condemned, and it anticipated the yet more drastic measure, +the Funding Act of 1864, which will be described later. + +Had these two measures been the whole program of the Government, the +congressional session of the spring of 1863 would have had a different +significance in Confederate history. But there was a third measure that +provoked a new attack on the Government. The gracious words of the +Mercury on the tax in kind came as an interlude in the midst of a bitter +controversy. An editorial of the 12th of March headed A Despotism over +the Confederate States Proposed in Congress amounted to a declaration of +war. From this time forward the opposition and the Government drew +steadily further and further apart and their antagonism grew steadily +more relentless. + +What caused this irrevocable breach was a bill introduced into the House +by Ethelbert Barksdale of Mississippi, an old friend of President Davis. +This bill would have invested the President with authority to suspend +the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in any part of the +Confederacy, whenever in his judgment such suspension was desirable. The +first act suspending the privilege of habeas corpus had long since +expired and applied only to such regions as were threatened with +invasion. It had served usefully under martial law in cleansing Richmond +of its rogues, and also had been in force at Charleston. The Mercury had +approved it and had exhorted its readers to take the matter sensibly as +an inevitable detail of war. Between that act and the act now proposed +the Mercury saw no similarity. Upon the merits of the question it fought +a furious journalistic duel with the Enquirer, the government organ at +Richmond, which insisted that President Davis would not abuse his power. +The Mercury replied that if he "were a second Washington, or an angel +upon earth, the degradation such a surrender of our rights implies would +still be abhorrent to every freeman." In retort the Enquirer pointed out +that a similar law had been enacted by another Congress with no bad +results. And in point of fact the Enquirer was right, for in October, +1862, after the expiration of the first act suspending the privilege of +the writ of habeas corpus, Congress passed a second giving to the +President the immense power which was now claimed for him again. This +second act was in force several months. Then the Mercury made the +astounding declaration that it had never heard of the second act, and +thereupon proceeded to attack the secrecy of the Administration with +renewed vigor. + +On this issue of reviving the expired second Habeas Corpus Act, a battle +royal was fought in the Confederate Congress. The forces of the +Administration defended the new measure on the ground that various +regions were openly seditious and that conscription could not be +enforced without it. This argument gave a new text for the cry of +"despotism." The congressional leader of the opposition was Henry S. +Foote, once the rival of Davis in Mississippi and now a citizen of +Tennessee. Fierce, vindictive, sometimes convincing, always shrewd, he +was a powerful leader of the rough and ready, buccaneering sort. Under +his guidance the debate was diverted into a rancorous discussion of the +conduct of the generals in the execution of martial law. Foote pulled +out all the stops in the organ of political rhetoric and went in for a +chant royal of righteous indignation. The main object of this attack was +General Hindman and his doings in Arkansas. Those were still the days of +pamphleteering. Though General Albert Pike had written a severe pamphlet +condemning Hindman, to this pamphlet the Confederate Government had shut +its eyes. Foote, however, flourished it in the face of the House. He +thundered forth his belief that Hindman was worse even than the man most +detested in the South, than "beast Butler himself, for the latter is +only charged with persecuting and oppressing the avowed enemies of his +Government, while Hindman, if guilty as charged, has practised cruelties +unnumbered" on his people. Other representatives spoke in the same vein. +Baldwin of Virginia told harrowing tales of martial law in that State. +Barksdale attempted to retaliate, sarcastically reminding him of a +recent scene of riot and disorder which proved that martial law, in any +effective form, did not exist in Virginia. He alluded to a riot, +ostensibly for bread, in which an Amazonian woman had led a mob to the +pillaging of the Richmond jewelry shops, a riot which Davis himself had +quelled by meeting the rioters and threatening to fire upon them. But +sarcasm proved powerless against Foote. His climax was a lurid tale of a +soldier who while marching past his own house heard that his wife was +dying, who left the ranks for a last word with her, and who on rejoining +the command, "hoping to get permission to bury her," was shot as a +deserter. And there was no one on the Government benches to anticipate +Kipling and cry out "flat art!" Resolutions condemning martial law were +passed by a vote of 45 to 27. + +Two weeks later the Mercury preached a burial sermon over the Barksdale +Bill, which had now been rejected by the House. Congress was about to +adjourn, and before it reassembled elections for the next House would be +held. "The measure is dead for the present," said the Mercury, "but +power is ever restive and prone to accumulate power; and if the war +continues, other efforts will doubtless be made to make the President a +Dictator. Let the people keep their eyes steadily fixed on their +representatives with respect to this vital matter; and should the effort +again be made to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act, demand that a recorded +vote should show those who shall strike down their liberties." + + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +The Critical Year + +The great military events of the year 1863 have pushed out of men's +memories the less dramatic but scarcely less important civil events. To +begin with, in this year two of the greatest personalities in the South +passed from the political stage: in the summer Yancey died; and in the +autumn, Rhett went into retirement. + +The ever malicious Pollard insists that Yancey's death was due +ultimately to a personal encounter with a Senator from Georgia on the +floor of the Senate. The curious may find the discreditable story +embalmed in the secret journal of the Senate, where are the various +motions designed to keep the incident from the knowledge of the world. +Whether it really caused Yancey's death is another question. However, +the moment of his passing has dramatic significance. Just as the battle +over conscription was fully begun, when the fear that the Confederate +Government had arrayed itself against the rights of the States had +definitely taken shape, when this dread had been reënforced by the alarm +over the suspension of habeas corpus, the great pioneer of the secession +movement went to his grave, despairing of the country he had failed to +lead. His death occurred in the same month as the Battle of Gettysburg, +at the very time when the Confederacy was dividing against itself. + +The withdrawal of Rhett from active life was an incident of the +congressional elections. He had consented to stand for Congress in the +Third District of South Carolina but was defeated. The full explanation +of the vote is still to be made plain; it seems clear, however, that +South Carolina at this time knew its own mind quite positively. Five of +the six representatives returned to the Second Congress, including +Rhett's opponent, Lewis M. Ayer, had sat in the First Congress. The +subsequent history of the South Carolina delegation and of the State +Government shows that by 1863 South Carolina had become, broadly +speaking, on almost all issues an anti-Davis State. And yet the largest +personality and probably the ablest mind in the State was rejected as a +candidate for Congress. No character in American history is a finer +challenge to the biographer than this powerful figure of Rhett, who in +1861 at the supreme crisis of his life seemed the master of his world +and yet in every lesser crisis was a comparative failure. As in Yancey, +so in Rhett, there was something that fitted him to one great moment but +did not fit him to others. There can be little doubt that his defeat at +the polls of his own district deeply mortified him. He withdrew from +politics, and though he doubtless, through the editorship of one of his +sons, inspired the continued opposition of the Mercury to the +Government, Rhett himself hardly reappears in Confederate history except +for a single occasion during the debate a year later upon the burning +question of arming the slaves. + +The year was marked by very bitter attacks upon President Davis on the +part of the opposition press. The Mercury revived the issue of the +conduct of the war which had for some time been overshadowed by other +issues. In the spring, to be sure, things had begun to look brighter, +and Chancellorsville had raised Lee's reputation to its zenith. The +disasters of the summer, Gettysburg and Vicksburg, were for a time +minimized by the Government and do not appear to have caused the alarm +which their strategic importance might well have created. But when in +the latter days of July the facts became generally known, the Mercury +arraigned the President's conduct of the war as "a vast complication of +incompetence and folly"; it condemned the whole scheme of the Northern +invasion and maintained that Lee should have stood on the defensive +while twenty or thirty thousand men were sent to the relief of +Vicksburg. These two ideas it bitterly reiterated and in August went so +far as to quote Macaulay's famous passage on Parliament's dread of a +decisive victory over Charles and to apply it to Davis in unrestrained +language that reminds one of Pollard. + +Equally unrestrained were the attacks upon other items of the policy of +the Confederate Government. The Impressment Law began to be a target. +Farmers who were compelled to accept the prices fixed by the impressment +commissioners cried out that they were being ruined. Men of the stamp of +Toombs came to their assistance with railing accusations such as this: +"I have heard it said that we should not sacrifice liberty to +independence, but I tell you, my countrymen, that the two are +inseparable.... If we lose our liberty we shall lose our +independence.... I would rather see the whole country the cemetery of +freedom than the habitation of slaves." Protests which poured in upon +the Government insisted that the power to impress supplies did not carry +with it the power to fix prices. Worthy men, ridden by the traditional +ideas of political science and unable to modify these in the light of +the present emergency, wailed out their despair over the "usurpation" of +Richmond. + +The tax in kind was denounced in the same vein. The licensing provisions +of this law and its income tax did not satisfy the popular imagination. +These provisions concerned the classes that could borrow. The classes +that could not borrow, that had no resources but their crops, felt that +they were being driven to the wall. The bitter saying went around that +it was "a rich man's war and a poor man's fight." As land and slaves +were not directly taxed, the popular discontent appeared to have ground +for its anger. Furthermore, it must never be forgotten that this was the +first general tax that the poor people of the South were ever conscious +of paying. To people who knew the tax-gatherer as little more than a +mythical being, he suddenly appeared like a malevolent creature who +swept off ruthlessly the tenth of their produce. It is not strange that +an intemperate reaction against the planters and their leadership +followed. The illusion spread that they were not doing their share of +the fighting; and as rich men were permitted to hire substitutes to +represent them in the army, this really baseless report was easily +propped up in the public mind with what appeared to be reason. + +In North Carolina, where the peasant farmer was a larger political +factor than in any other State, this feeling against the Confederate +Government because of the tax in kind was most dangerous. In the course +of the summer, while the military fortunes of the Confederacy were +toppling at Vicksburg and Gettysburg, the North Carolina farmers in a +panic of self-preservation held numerous meetings of protest and +denunciation. They expressed their thoughtless terror in resolutions +asserting that the action of Congress "in secret session, without +consulting with their constituents at home, taking from the hard +laborers of the Confederacy one-tenth of the people's living, instead of +taking back their own currency in tax, is unjust and tyrannical." Other +resolutions called the tax "unconstitutional, anti-republican, and +oppressive"; and still others pledged the farmers "to resist to the +bitter end any such monarchical tax." + +A leader of the discontented in North Carolina was found in W. W. +Holden, the editor of the Raleigh Progress, who before the war had +attempted to be spokesman for the men of small property by advocating +taxes on slaves and similar measures. He proposed as the conclusion of +the whole matter the opening of negotiations for peace. We shall see +later how deep-seated was this singular delusion that peace could be had +for the asking. In 1863, however, many men in North Carolina took up the +suggestion with delight. Jonathan Worth wrote in his diary, on hearing +that the influential North Carolina Standard had come out for peace: "I +still abhor, as I always did, this accursed war and the wicked men, +North and South, who inaugurated it. The whole country at the North and +the South is a great military despotism." With such discontent in the +air, the elections in North Carolina drew near. The feeling was intense +and riots occurred. Newspaper offices were demolished--among them +Holden's, to destroy which a detachment of passing soldiers converted +itself into a mob. In the western counties deserters from the army, +combined in bands, were joined by other deserters from Tennessee, and +terrorized the countryside. Governor Vance, alarmed at the progress +which this disorder was making, issued a proclamation imploring his +rebellious countrymen to conduct in a peaceable manner their campaign +for the repeal of obnoxious laws. + +The measure of political unrest in North Carolina was indicated in the +autumn when a new delegation to Congress was chosen. Of the ten who +composed it, eight were new men. Though they did not stand for a clearly +defined program, they represented on the whole anti-Davis tendencies. +The Confederate Administration had failed to carry the day in the North +Carolina elections; and in Georgia there were even more sweeping +evidences of unrest. Of the ten representatives chosen for the Second +Congress nine had not sat in the First, and Georgia now was in the main +frankly anti-Davis. There had been set up at Richmond a new organ of the +Government called the Sentinel, which was more entirely under the +presidential shadow than even the Enquirer and the Courier. Speaking of +the elections, the Sentinel deplored the "upheaval of political +elements" revealed by the defeat of so many tried representatives whose +constituents had not returned them to the Second Congress. + +What was Davis doing while the ground was thus being cut from under his +feet? For one thing he gave his endorsement to the formation of +"Confederate Societies" whose members bound themselves to take +Confederate money as legal tender. He wrote a letter to one such society +in Mississippi, praising it for attempting "by common consent to bring +down the prices of all articles to the standard of the soldiers' wages" +and adding that the passion of speculation had "seduced citizens of all +classes from a determined prosecution of the war to an effort to amass +money." The Sentinel advocated the establishment of a law fixing maximum +prices. The discussion of this proposal seems to make plain the raison +d'être for the existence of the Sentinel. Even such stanch government +organs as the Enquirer and the Courier shied at the idea, but the +Mercury denounced it vigorously, giving long extracts from Thiers, and +discussed the mistakes of the French Revolution with its "law of +maximum." + +Davis, however, did not take an active part in the political campaign, +nor did the other members of the Government. It was not because of any +notion that the President should not leave the capital that Davis did +not visit the disaffected regions of North Carolina when the startled +populace winced under its first experience with taxation. Three times +during his Administration Davis left Richmond on extended journeys: late +in 1862, when Vicksburg had become a chief concern of the Government, he +went as far afield as Mississippi in order to get entirely in touch with +the military situation in those parts; in the month of October, 1863, +when there was another moment of intense military anxiety, Davis again +visited the front; and of a third journey which he undertook in 1864, we +shall hear in time. It is to be noted that each of these journeys was +prompted by a military motive; and here, possibly, we get an explanation +of his inadequacy as a statesman. He could not lay aside his interest in +military affairs for the supremely important concerns of civil office; +and he failed to understand how to ingratiate his Administration by +personal appeals to popular imagination. + +In October, 1863,--the very month in which his old rival Rhett suffered +his final defeat,--Davis undertook a journey because Bragg, after his +great victory at Chickamauga, appeared to be letting slip a golden +opportunity, and because there were reports of dissension among Bragg's +officers and of general confusion in his army. After he had, as he +thought, restored harmony in the camp, Davis turned southward on a tour +of appeal and inspiration. He went as far as Mobile, and returning bent +his course through Charleston, where, at the beginning of November, less +than two weeks after Rhett's defeat, Davis was received with all due +formalities. Members of the Rhett family were among those who formally +received the President at the railway station. There was a parade of +welcome, an official reception, a speech by the President from the steps +of the city hall, and much applause by friends of the Administration. +But certain ominous signs were not lacking. The Mercury, for example, +tucked away in an obscure column its account of the event, while its +rival, the Courier, made the President's visit the feature of the day. + +Davis returned to Richmond, early in November, to throw himself again +with his whole soul into problems that were chiefly military. He did not +realize that the crisis had come and gone and that he had failed to +grasp the significance of the internal political situation. The +Government had failed to carry the elections and to secure a working +majority in Congress. Never again was it to have behind it a firm and +confident support. The unity of the secession movement had passed away. +Thereafter the Government was always to be regarded with suspicion by +the extreme believers in state sovereignty and by those who were +sullenly convinced that the burdens of the war were unfairly +distributed. And there were not wanting men who were ready to construe +each emergency measure as a step toward a coup d'état. + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Life In The Confederacy + +When the fortunes of the Confederacy in both camp and council began to +ebb, the life of the Southern people had already profoundly changed. The +gallant, delightful, care-free life of the planter class had been +undermined by a war which was eating away its foundations. Economic no +less than political forces were taking from the planter that ideal of +individual liberty as dear to his heart as it had been, ages before, to +his feudal prototype. One of the most important details of the changing +situation had been the relation of the Government to slavery. The +history of the Confederacy had opened with a clash between the extreme +advocates of slavery--the slavery-at-any-price men--and the +Administration. The Confederate Congress had passed a bill ostensibly to +make effective the clause in its constitution prohibiting the African +slave-trade. The quick eye of Davis had detected in it a mode of +evasion, for cargoes of captured slaves were to be confiscated and sold +at public auction. The President had exposed this adroit subterfuge in +his message vetoing the bill, and the slavery-at-any-price men had not +sufficient influence in Congress to override the veto, though they +muttered against it in the public press. + +The slavery-at-any-price men did not again conspicuously show their +hands until three years later when the Administration included +emancipation in its policy. The ultimate policy of emancipation was +forced upon the Government by many considerations but more particularly +by the difficulty of securing labor for military purposes. In a country +where the supply of fighting men was limited and the workers were a +class apart, the Government had to employ the only available laborers or +confess its inability to meet the industrial demands of war. But the +available laborers were slaves. How could their services be secured? By +purchase? Or by conscription? Or by temporary impressment? + +Though Davis and his advisers were prepared to face all the hazards +involved in the purchase or confiscation of slaves, the traditional +Southern temper instantly recoiled from the suggestion. A Government +possessed of great numbers of slaves, whether bought or appropriated, +would have in its hands a gigantic power, perhaps for industrial +competition with private owners, perhaps even for organized military +control. Besides, the Government might at any moment by emancipating its +slaves upset the labor system of the country. Furthermore, the +opportunities for favoritism in the management of state-owned slaves +were beyond calculation. Considerations such as these therefore explain +the watchful jealousy of the planters toward the Government whenever it +proposed to acquire property in slaves. + +It is essential not to attribute this social-political dread of +government ownership of slaves merely to the clutch of a wealthy class +on its property. Too many observers, strangely enough, see the latter +motive to the exclusion of the former. Davis himself was not, it would +seem, free from this confusion. He insisted that neither slaves nor land +were taxed by the Confederacy, and between the lines he seems to +attribute to the planter class the familiar selfishness of massed +capital. He forgot that the tax in kind was combined with an income tax. +In theory, at least, the slave and the land--even non-farming land--were +taxed. However, the dread of a slave-owning Government prevented any +effective plan for supplying the army with labor except through the +temporary impressment of slaves who were eventually to be returned to +their owners. The policy of emancipation had to wait. + +Bound up in the labor question was the question of the control of slaves +during the war. In the old days when there were plenty of white men in +the countryside, the roads were carefully patrolled at night, and no +slave ventured to go at large unless fully prepared to prove his +identity. But with the coming of war the comparative smallness of the +fighting population made it likely from the first that the countryside +everywhere would be stripped of its white guardians. In that event, who +would be left to control the slaves? Early in the war a slave police was +provided for by exempting from military duty overseers in the ratio +approximately of one white to twenty slaves. But the marvelous +faithfulness of the slaves, who nowhere attempted to revolt, made these +precautions unnecessary. Later laws exempted one overseer on every +plantation of fifteen slaves, not so much to perform patrol duty as to +increase the productivity of plantation labor. + +This "Fifteen Slave" Law was one of many instances that were caught up +by the men of small property as evidence that the Government favored the +rich. A much less defensible law, and one which was bitterly attacked +for the same reason, was the unfortunate measure permitting the hiring +of substitutes by men drafted into the army. Eventually, the clamor +against this law caused its repeal, but before that time it had worked +untold harm as apparent evidence of "a rich man's war and a poor man's +fight." Extravagant stories of the avoidance of military duty by the +ruling class, though in the main they were mere fairy tales, changed the +whole atmosphere of Southern life. The old glad confidence uniting the +planter class with the bulk of the people had been impaired. +Misapprehension appeared on both sides. Too much has been said lately, +however, in justification of the poorer classes who were thus wakened +suddenly to a distrust of the aristocracy; and too little has been said +of the proud recoil of the aristocracy in the face of a sudden, +credulous perversion of its motives--a perversion inspired by the +pinching of the shoe, and yet a shoe that pinched one class as hard as +it did another. It is as unfair to charge the planter with selfishness +in opposing the appropriation of slaves as it is to make the same charge +against the small farmers for resisting tithes. In face of the record, +the planter comes off somewhat the better of the two; but it must be +remembered that he had the better education, the larger mental horizon. + +The Confederacy had long recognized women of all classes as the most +dauntless defenders of the cause. The women of the upper classes passed +without a tremor from a life of smiling ease to a life of extreme +hardship. One day, their horizon was without a cloud; another day, their +husbands and fathers had gone to the front. Their luxuries had +disappeared, and they were reduced to plain hard living, toiling in a +thousand ways to find provision and clothing, not only for their own +children but for the poorer families of soldiers. The women of the poor +throughout the South deserve similar honor. Though the physical shock of +the change may not have been so great, they had to face the same deep +realities--hunger and want, anxiety over the absent soldiers, solicitude +for children, grief for the dead. One of the pathetic aspects of +Confederate life was the household composed of several families, all +women and children, huddled together without a man or even a half-grown +lad to be their link with the mill and the market. In those regions +where there were few slaves and the exemption of overseers did not +operate, such households were numerous. + +The great privations which people endured during the Confederacy have +passed into familiar tradition. They are to be traced mainly to three +causes: to the blockade, to the inadequate system of transportation, and +to the heartlessness of speculators. The blockade was the real destroyer +of the South. Besides ruining the whole policy based on King Cotton, +besides impeding to a vast extent the inflow of munitions from Europe, +it also deprived Southern life of numerous articles which were hard to +relinquish--not only such luxuries as tea and coffee, but also such +utter necessities as medicines. And though the native herbs were +diligently studied, though the Government established medical +laboratories with results that were not inconsiderable, the shortage of +medicines remained throughout the war a distressing feature of Southern +life. The Tredegar Iron Works at Richmond and a foundry at Selma, +Alabama, were the only mills in the South capable of casting the heavy +ordnance necessary for military purposes. And the demand for powder +mills and gun factories to provide for the needs of the army was +scarcely greater than the demand for cotton mills and commercial +foundries to supply the wants of the civil population. The Government +worked without ceasing to keep pace with the requirements of the +situation, and, in view of the immense difficulties which it had to +face, it was fairly successful in supplying the needs of the army. +Powder was provided by the Niter and Mining Bureau; lead for Confederate +bullets was collected from many sources--even from the window-weights of +the houses; iron was brought from the mines of Alabama; guns came from +newly built factories; and machines and tools were part of the precious +freight of the blockade-runners. Though the poorly equipped mills turned +a portion of the cotton crop into textiles, and though everything that +was possible was done to meet the needs of the people, the supply of +manufactures was sadly inadequate. The universal shortage was betrayed +by the limitation of the size of most newspapers to a single sheet, and +the desperate situation clearly and completely revealed by the way in +which, as a last resort, the Confederates were compelled to repair their +railroads by pulling up the rails of one road in order to repair another +that the necessities of war rendered indispensable. + +The railway system, if such it can be called, was one of the weaknesses +of the Confederacy. Before the war the South had not felt the need of +elaborate interior communication, for its commerce in the main went +seaward, and thence to New England or to Europe. Hitherto the railway +lines had seen no reason for merging their local character in extensive +combinations. Owners of short lines were inclined by tradition to resist +even the imperative necessities of war and their stubborn conservatism +was frequently encouraged by the short-sighted parochialism of the +towns. The same pitiful narrowness that led the peasant farmer to +threaten rebellion against the tax in kind led his counterpart in the +towns to oppose the War Department in its efforts to establish through +railroad lines because they threatened to impair local business +interests. A striking instance of this disinclination towards +coöperation is the action of Petersburg. Two railroads terminated at +this point but did not connect, and it was an ardent desire of the +military authorities to link the two and convert them into one. The +town, however, unable to see beyond its boundaries and resolute in its +determination to save its transfer business, successfully obstructed the +needs of the army. ¹ + +¹ See an article on The Confederate Government and the Railroads in the +American Historical Review, July, 1917, by Charles W. Ramsdell. + +As a result of this lack of efficient organization an immense congestion +resulted all along the railroads. Whether this, rather than a failure in +supply, explains the approach of famine in the latter part of the war, +it is today very difficult to determine. In numerous state papers of the +time, the assertion was reiterated that the yield of food was abundant +and that the scarcity of food at many places, including the cities and +the battle fronts, was due to defects in transportation. Certain it is +that the progress of supplies from one point to another was intolerably +slow. + +All this want of coördination facilitated speculation. We shall see +hereafter how merciless this speculation became and we shall even hear +of profits on food rising to more than four hundred per cent. However, +the oft-quoted prices of the later years--when, for instance, a pair of +shoes cost a hundred dollars--signify little, for they rested on an +inflated currency. None the less they inspired the witticism that one +should take money to market in a basket and bring provisions home in +one's pocketbook. Endless stories could be told of speculators hoarding +food and watching unmoved the sufferings of a famished people. Said +Bishop Pierce, in a sermon before the General Assembly of Georgia, on +Fast Day, in March, 1863: "Restlessness and discontent prevail.... +Extortion, pitiless extortion is making havoc in the land. We are +devouring each other. Avarice with full barns puts the bounties of +Providence under bolts and bars, waiting with eager longings for higher +prices.... The greed of gain ... stalks among us unabashed by the heroic +sacrifice of our women or the gallant deeds of our soldiers. Speculation +in salt and bread and meat runs riot in defiance of the thunders of the +pulpit, and executive interference and the horrors of threatened +famine." In 1864, the Government found that quantities of grain paid in +under the tax as new-grown were mildewed. It was grain of the previous +year which speculators had held too long and now palmed off on the +Government to supply the army. + +Amid these desperate conditions the fate of soldiers' families became +everywhere a tragedy. Unless the soldier was a land-owner his family was +all but helpless. With a depreciated currency and exaggerated prices, +his pay, whatever his rank, was too little to count in providing for his +dependents. Local charity, dealt out by state and county boards, by +relief associations, and by the generosity of neighbors, formed the +barrier between his family and starvation. The landless soldier, with a +family at home in desperate straits, is too often overlooked when +unimaginative people heap up the statistics of "desertion" in the latter +half of the war. + +It was in this period, too, that amid the terrible shrinkage of the +defensive lines "refugeeing" became a feature of Southern life. From the +districts over which the waves of war rolled back and forth helpless +families--women, children, slaves--found precarious safety together with +great hardship by withdrawing to remote places which invasion was little +likely to reach. An Odyssey of hard travel, often by night and half +secret, is part of the war tradition of thousands of Southern families. +And here, as always, the heroic women, smiling, indomitable, are the +center of the picture. Their flight to preserve the children was no +small test of courage. Almost invariably they had to traverse desolate +country, with few attendants, through forests, and across rivers, where +the arm of the law was now powerless to protect them. Outlaws, defiant +of the authorities both civil and military,--ruthless men of whom we +shall hear again,--roved those great unoccupied spaces so characteristic +of the Southern countryside. Many a family legend preserves still the +sense of breathless caution, of pilgrimage in the night-time intently +silent for fear of these masterless men. When the remote rendezvous had +been reached, there a colony of refugees drew together in a steadfast +despair, unprotected by their own fighting men. What strange sad pages +in the history of American valor were filled by these women outwardly +calm, their children romping after butterflies in a glory of sunshine, +while horrid tales drifted in of deeds done by the masterless men in the +forest just beyond the horizon, and far off on the soul's horizon +fathers, husbands, brothers, held grimly the lines of last defense! + + +CHAPTER VII. + +The Turning Of The Tide + +The buoyancy of the Southern temper withstood the shock of Gettysburg +and was not overcome by the fall of Vicksburg. Of the far-reaching +significance of the latter catastrophe in particular there was little +immediate recognition. Even Seddon, the Secretary of War, in November, +reported that "the communication with the Trans-Mississippi, while +rendered somewhat precarious and insecure, is found by no means cut off +or even seriously endangered." His report was the same sort of thing as +those announcements of "strategic retreats" with which the world has +since become familiar. He even went so far as to argue that on the whole +the South had gained rather than lost; that the control of the river was +of no real value to the North; that the loss of Vicksburg "has on our +side liberated for general operations in the field a large army, while +it requires the enemy to maintain cooped up, inactive, in positions +insalubrious to their soldiers, considerable detachments of their +forces." + +Seddon attempted to reverse the facts, to show that the importance of +the Mississippi in commerce was a Northern not a Southern concern. He +threw light upon the tactics of the time by his description of the +future action of Confederate sharpshooters who were to terrorize such +commercial crews as might attempt to navigate the river; he also told +how light batteries might move swiftly along the banks and, at points +commanding the channel, rain on the passing steamer unheralded +destruction. He was silent upon the really serious matter, the patrol of +the river by Federal gunboats which rendered commerce with the +Trans-Mississippi all but impossible. + +This report, dated the 26th of November, gives a roseate view of the war +in Tennessee and enlarges upon that dreadful battle of Chickamauga which +"ranks as one of the grandest victories of the war." But even as the +report was signed, Bragg was in full retreat after his great disaster at +Chattanooga. On the 30th of November the Administration at Richmond +received from him a dispatch that closed with these words: "I deem it +due to the cause and to myself to ask for relief from command and an +investigation into the causes of the defeat." In the middle of December, +Joseph E. Johnston was appointed to succeed him. + +Whatever had been the illusions of the Government, they were now at an +end. There was no denying that the war had entered a new stage and that +the odds were grimly against the South. Davis recognized the gravity of +the situation, and in his message to Congress in December, 1863, he +admitted that the Trans-Mississippi was practically isolated. This was +indeed a great catastrophe, for hereafter neither men nor supplies could +be drawn from the far Southwest. Furthermore, the Confederacy had now +lost its former precious advantage of using Mexico as a means of secret +trade with Europe. + +These distressing events of the four months between Vicksburg and +Chattanooga established also the semi-isolation of the middle region of +the lower South. The two States of Mississippi and Alabama entered upon +the most desperate chapter of their history. Neither in nor out of the +Confederacy, neither protected by the Confederate lines nor policed by +the enemy, they were subject at once to the full rigor of the financial +and military demands of the Administration of Richmond and to the full +ruthlessness of plundering raids from the North. Nowhere can the +contrast between the warfare of that day and the best methods of our own +time be observed more clearly than in this unhappy region. At the +opening of 1864 the effective Confederate lines drew an irregular zigzag +across the map from a point in northern Georgia not far below +Chattanooga to Mobile. Though small Confederate commands still operated +bravely west of this line, the whole of Mississippi and a large part of +Alabama were beyond aid from Richmond. But the average man did not grasp +the situation. When a region is dominated by mobile armies the +appearance of things to the civilian is deceptive. Because the powerful +Federal armies of the Southwest, at the opening of 1864, were massed at +strategic points from Tennessee to the Gulf, and were not extended along +an obvious trench line, every brave civilian would still keep up his +hope and would still insist that the middle Gulf country was far from +subjugation, that its defense against the invader had not become +hopeless. + +Under such conditions, when the Government at Richmond called upon the +men of the Southwest to regard themselves as mere sources of supply, +human and otherwise, mere feeders to a theater of war that did not +include their homes, it was altogether natural that they should resent +the demand. All the tragic confusion that was destined in the course of +the fateful year 1864 to paralyze the Government at Richmond was already +apparent in the middle Gulf country when the year began. Chief among +these was the inability of the State and Confederate Governments to +coöperate adequately in the business of conscription. The two powers +were determined rivals struggling each to seize the major part of the +manhood of the community. While Richmond, looking on the situation with +the eye of pure strategy, wished to draw together the full man-power of +the South in one great unit, the local authorities were bent on +retaining a large part of it for home defense. + +In the Alabama newspapers of the latter half of 1863 strange incidents +are to be found throwing light on the administrative duel. The writ of +habeas corpus, as was so often the case in Confederate history, was the +bone of contention. We have seen that the second statute empowering the +President to proclaim martial law and to suspend the operation of the +writ had expired by limitation in February, 1863. The Alabama courts +were theoretically in full operation, but while the law was in force the +military authorities had acquired a habit of arbitrary control. Though +warned from Richmond in general orders that they must not take unto +themselves a power vested in the President alone, they continued their +previous course of action. It thereupon became necessary to issue +further general orders annulling "all proclamations of martial law by +general officers and others" not invested by law with adequate +authority. + +Neither general orders nor the expiration of the statute, however, +seemed able to put an end to the interference with the local courts on +the part of local commanders. The evil apparently grew during 1863. A +picturesque instance is recorded with extreme fullness by the Southern +Advertiser in the autumn of the year. In the minutely circumstantial +account, we catch glimpses of one Rhodes moving heaven and earth to +prove himself exempt from military service. After Rhodes is enrolled by +the officers of the local military rendezvous, the sheriff attempts to +turn the tables by arresting the Colonel in command. The soldiers rush +to defend their Colonel, who is ill in bed at a house some distance +away. The judge who had issued the writ is hot with anger at this +military interference in civil affairs. Thereupon the soldiers seize +him, but later, recognizing for some unexplained reason the majesty of +the civil law, they release him. And the hot-tempered incident closes +with the Colonel's determination to carry the case to the Supreme Court +of the State. + +The much harassed people of Alabama had still other causes of complaint +during this same year. Again the newspapers illumine the situation. In +the troubled autumn, Joseph Wheeler swept across the northern counties +of Alabama and in a daring ride, with Federal cavalry hot on his trail, +reached safety beyond the Tennessee River. Here his pursuers turned back +and, as their horses had been broken by the swiftness of the pursuit, +returning slowly, they "gleaned the country" to replace their supplies. +Incidentally they pounced upon the town of Huntsville. "Their appearance +here," writes a local correspondent, "was so sudden and ... the +contradictory reports of their whereabouts" had been so baffling that +the townspeople had found no time to secrete things. The whole +neighborhood was swept clean of cattle and almost clean of provision. +"We have not enough left," the report continues, "to haul and plow with +... and milch cows are non est." Including "Stanley's big raid in July," +this was the twenty-first raid which Huntsville had endured that year. +The report closes with a bitter denunciation of the people of southern +Alabama who as yet do not know what war means, who are accused of +complete hardness of heart towards their suffering fellowcountrymen and +of caring only to make money out of war prices. + +When Davis sent his message to the Southern Congress at the opening of +the session of 1864, the desperate plight of the middle Gulf country was +at once a warning and a menace to the Government. If the conditions of +that debatable land should extend eastward, there could be little doubt +that the day of the Confederacy was nearing its close. To remedy the +situation west of the main Confederate line, to prevent the growth of a +similar condition east of it, Davis urged Congress to revive the statute +permitting martial law and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. +The President told Congress that in parts of the Confederacy "public +meetings have been held, in some of which a treasonable design is masked +by a pretense of devotion of state sovereignty, and in others is openly +avowed ... a strong suspicion is entertained that secret leagues and +associations are being formed. In certain localities men of no mean +position do not hesitate to avow their disloyalty and hostility to our +cause, and their advocacy of peace on the terms of submission and the +abolition of slavery." + +This suspicion on the part of the Confederate Government that it was +being opposed by organized secret societies takes us back to debatable +land and to the previous year. The Bureau of Conscription submitted to +the Secretary of War a report from its Alabama branch relative to "a +sworn secret organization known to exist and believed to have for its +object the encouragement of desertion, the protection of deserters from +arrest, resistance to conscription, and perhaps other designs of a still +more dangerous character." To the operations of this insidious foe were +attributed the shifting of the vote in the Alabama elections, the defeat +of certain candidates favored by the Government, and the return in their +stead of new men "not publicly known." The suspicions of the Government +were destined to further verification in the course of 1864 by the +unearthing of a treasonable secret society in southwestern Virginia, the +members of which were "bound to each other for the prosecution of their +nefarious designs by the most solemn oaths. They were under obligation +to encourage desertions from the army, and to pass and harbor all +deserters, escaped prisoners, or spies; to give information to the enemy +of the movements of our troops, of exposed or weakened positions, of +inviting opportunities of attack, and to guide and assist the enemy +either in advance or retreat." This society bore the grandiloquent name +"Heroes of America" and had extended its operations into Tennessee and +North Carolina. + +In the course of the year further evidence was collected which satisfied +the secret service of the existence of a mysterious and nameless society +which had ramifications throughout Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia. A +detective who joined this "Peace Society," as it was called, for the +purpose of betraying its secrets, had marvelous tales to tell of +confidential information given to him by members, of how Missionary +Ridge had been lost and Vicksburg had surrendered through the +machinations of this society. ¹ + +¹ What classes were represented in these organizations it is difficult +if not impossible to determine. They seem to have been involved in the +singular "peace movement" which is yet to be considered. This fact gives +a possible clue to the problem of their membership. A suspiciously large +number of the "peace" men were original anti-secessionists, and though +many, perhaps most, of these who opposed secession became loyal servants +of the Confederacy, historians may have jumped too quickly to the +assumption that the sincerity of all of these men was above reproach. + +In spite of its repugnance to the suspension of the writ of habeas +corpus, Congress was so impressed by the gravity of the situation that +early in 1864 it passed another act "to suspend the privilege of the +writ of habeas corpus in certain cases." This was not quite the same as +that sweeping act of 1862 which had set the Mercury irrevocably in +opposition. Though this act of 1864 gave the President the power to +order the arrest of any person suspected of treasonable practices, and +though it released military officers from all obligation to obey the +order of any civil court to surrender a prisoner charged with treason, +the new legislation carefully defined a list of cases in which alone +this power could be lawfully used. This was the last act of the sort +passed by the Confederate Congress, and when it expired by limitation +ninety days after the next meeting of Congress it was not renewed. + +With regard to the administration of the army, Congress can hardly be +said to have met the President more than half way. The age of military +service was lowered to seventeen and was raised to fifty. But the +President was not given--though he had asked for it--general control +over exemptions. Certain groups, such as ministers, editors, physicians, +were in the main exempted; one overseer was exempted on each plantation +where there were fifteen slaves, provided he gave bond to sell to the +Government at official prices each year one hundred pounds of either +beef or bacon for each slave employed and provided he would sell all his +surplus produce either to the Government or to the families of soldiers. +Certain civil servants of the Confederacy were also exempted as well as +those whom the governors of States should "certify to be necessary for +the proper administration of the State Government." The President was +authorized to detail for nonmilitary service any members of the +Confederate forces "when in his judgment, justice, equity, and +necessity, require such details." + +This statute retained two features that had already given rise to much +friction, and that were destined to be the cause of much more. It was +still within the power of state governors to impede conscription very +seriously. By certifying that a man was necessary to the civil +administration of a State, a Governor could place him beyond the legal +reach of the conscripting officers. This provision was a concession to +those who looked on Davis's request for authority over exemption as the +first step toward absolutism. On the other hand the statute allowed the +President a free hand in the scarcely less important matter of +"details." Among the imperative problems of the Confederacy, where the +whole male population was needed in the public service, was the most +economical separation of the two groups, the fighters and the producers. +On the one hand there was the constant demand for recruits to fill up +the wasted armies; on the other, the need for workers to keep the shops +going and to secure the harvest. The two interests were never fully +coördinated. Under the act of 1864, no farmer, mechanic, tradesman, +between the ages of seventeen and fifty, if fit for military service, +could remain at his work except as a "detail" under orders of the +President: he might be called to the colors at a moment's notice. We +shall see, presently, how the revoking of details, toward the end of +what may truly be called the terrible year, was one of the major +incidents of Confederate history. + +Together with the new conscription act, the President approved on +February 17, 1864, a reenactment of the tax in kind, with some slight +concessions to the convenience of the farmers. The President's appeal +for a law directly taxing slaves and land had been ignored by Congress, +but another of his suggestions had been incorporated in the Funding Act. +The state of the currency was now so grave that Davis attributed to it +all the evils growing out of the attempts to enforce impressment. As the +value of the paper dollar had by this time shrunk to six cents in specie +and the volume of Confederate paper was upward of seven hundred +millions, Congress undertook to reduce the volume and raise the value by +compelling holders of notes to exchange them for bonds. By way of +driving the note-holders to consent to the exchange, provision was made +for the speedy taxation of notes for one-third their face value. + +Such were the main items of the government program for 1864. Armed with +this, Davis braced himself for the great task of making head against the +enemies that now surrounded the Confederacy. It is an axiom of military +science that when one combatant possesses the interior line, the other +can offset this advantage only by exerting coincident pressure all +round, thus preventing him from shifting his forces from one front to +another. On this principle, the Northern strategists had at last +completed their gigantic plan for a general envelopment of the whole +Confederate defense both by land and sea. Grant opened operations by +crossing the Rapidan and telegraphing Sherman to advance into Georgia. + +The stern events of the spring of 1864 form such a famous page in +military history that the sober civil story of those months appears by +comparison lame and impotent. Nevertheless, the Confederate Government +during those months was at least equal to its chief obligation: it +supplied and recruited the armies. With Grant checked at Cold Harbor, in +June, and Sherman still unable to pierce the western line, the hopes of +the Confederates were high. + +In the North there was corresponding gloom. This was the moment when all +Northern opponents of the war drew together in their last attempt to +shatter the Lincoln Government and make peace with the Confederacy. The +value to the Southern cause of this Northern movement for peace at any +price was keenly appreciated at Richmond. Trusted agents of the +Confederacy were even then in Canada working deftly to influence +Northern sentiment. The negotiations with those Northern secret +societies which befriended the South belong properly in the story of +Northern politics and the presidential election of 1864. They were +skillfully conducted chiefly by Jacob Thompson and C. C. Clay. The +reports of these agents throughout the spring and summer were all +hopeful and told of "many intelligent men from the United States" who +sought them out in Canada for political consultations. They discussed +"our true friends from the Chicago (Democratic) convention" and even +gave names of those who, they were assured, would have seats in +McClellan's Cabinet. They were really not well informed upon Northern +affairs, and even after the tide had turned against the Democrats in +September, they were still priding themselves on their diplomatic +achievement, still confident they had helped organize a great political +power, had "given a stronger impetus to the peace party of the North +than all other causes combined, and had greatly reduced the strength of +the war party." + +While Clay and Thompson built their house of cards in Canada, the +Richmond Government bent anxious eyes on the western battlefront. +Sherman, though repulsed in his one frontal attack at Kenesaw Mountain, +had steadily worked his way by the left flank of the Confederate army, +until in early July he was within six miles of Atlanta. All the lower +South was a-tremble with apprehension. Deputations were sent to Richmond +imploring the removal of Johnston from the western command. What had he +done since his appointment in December but retreat? Such was the tenor +of public opinion. "It is all very well to talk of Fabian policy," said +one of his detractors long afterward, "and now we can see we were rash +to say the least. But at the time, all of us went wrong together. +Everybody clamored for Johnston's removal." Johnston and Davis were not +friends; but the President hesitated long before acting. And yet, with +each day, political as well as military necessity grew more imperative. +Both at Washington and Richmond the effect that the fighting in Georgia +had on Northern opinion was seen to be of the first importance. Sherman +was staking everything to break the Confederate line and take Atlanta. +He knew that a great victory would have incalculable effect on the +Northern election. Davis knew equally well that the defeat of Sherman +would greatly encourage the peace party in the North. But he had no +general of undoubted genius whom he could put in Johnston's place. +However, the necessity for a bold stroke was so undeniable, and Johnston +appeared so resolute to continue his Fabian policy, that Davis +reluctantly took a desperate chance and superseded him by Hood. + +During August, though the Democratic convention at Chicago drew up its +platform favoring peace at any price, the anxiety of the Southern +President did not abate his activities. The safety of the western line +was now his absorbing concern. And in mid-August that line was turned, +in a way, by Farragut's capture of Mobile Bay. As the month closed, +Sherman, despite the furious blows delivered by Hood, was plainly +getting the upper hand. North and South, men watched that tremendous +duel with the feeling that the foundations of things were rocking. At +last, on the 2d of September, Sherman, victorious, entered Atlanta. + + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +A Game Of Chance + +With dramatic completeness in the summer and autumn of 1864, the +foundations of the Confederate hope one after another gave way. Among +the causes of this catastrophe was the failure of the second great +attempt on the part of the Confederacy to secure recognition abroad. The +subject takes us back to the latter days of 1862, when the center of +gravity in foreign affairs had shifted from London to Paris. Napoleon +III, at the height of his strange career, playing half a dozen dubious +games at once, took up a new pastime and played at intrigue with the +Confederacy. In October he accorded a most gracious interview to +Slidell. He remarked that his sympathies were entirely with the South +but added that, if he acted alone, England might trip him up. He spoke +of his scheme for joint intervention by England, France, and Russia. +Then he asked why we had not created a navy. Slidell snapped at the +bait. He said that the Confederates would be glad to build ships in +France, that "if the Emperor would give only some kind of verbal +assurance that the police would not observe too closely when we wished +to put on guns and men we would gladly avail ourselves of it." To this, +the imperial trickster replied, "Why could you not have them built as +for the Italian Government? I do not think it would be difficult but +will consult the Minister of Marine about it." + +Slidell left the Emperor's presence confident that things would happen. +And they did. First came Napoleon's proposal of intervention, which was +declined before the end of the year by England and Russia. Then came his +futile overtures to the Government at Washington, his offer of +mediation--which was rejected early in 1863. But Slidell remained +confident that something else would happen. And in this expectation also +he was not disappointed. The Emperor was deeply involved in Mexico and +was busily intriguing throughout Europe. This was the time when +Erlanger, standing high in the favor of the Emperor, made his gambler's +proposal to the Confederate authorities about cotton. Another of the +Emperor's friends now enters the play. On January 7, 1863, M. Arman, of +Bordeaux, "the largest shipbuilder in France," had called on the +Confederate commissioner: M. Arman would be happy to build ironclad +ships for the Confederacy, and as to paying for them, cotton bonds might +do the trick. + +No wonder Slidell was elated, so much so that he seems to have given +little heed to the Emperor's sinister intimation that the whole affair +must be subterranean. But the wily Bonaparte had not forgotten that six +months earlier he had issued a decree of neutrality forbidding Frenchmen +to take commissions from either belligerent "for the armament of vessels +of war or to accept letters of marque, or to coöperate in any way +whatsoever in the equipment or arming of any vessel of war or corsair of +either belligerent." He did not intend to abandon publicly this cautious +attitude--at least, not for the present. And while Slidell at Paris was +completely taken in, the cooler head of A. Dudley Mann, Confederate +commissioner at Brussels, saw what an international quicksand was the +favor of Napoleon. It was about this time that Napoleon, having +dispatched General Forey with a fresh army to Mexico, wrote the famous +letter which gave notice to the world of what he was about. Mann wrote +home in alarm that the Emperor might be expected to attempt recovering +Mexico's ancient areas including Texas. Slidell saw in the Forey letter +only "views ... which will not be gratifying to the Washington +Government." + +The adroit Arman, acting on hints from high officers of the Government, +applied for permission to build and arm ships of war, alleging that he +intended to send them to the Pacific and sell them to either China or +Japan. To such a laudable expression of commercial enterprise, one of +his fellows in the imperial ring, equipped with proper authority under +Bonaparte, hastened to give official approbation, and Erlanger came +forward by way of financial backer. There were conferences of +Confederate agents; contracts were signed; plans were agreed upon; and +the work was begun. + +There was no more hopeful man in the Confederate service than Slidell +when, in the full flush of pride after Chancellorsville, he appealed to +the Emperor to cease waiting on other powers and recognize the +Confederacy. Napoleon accorded another gracious interview but still +insisted that it was impossible for him to act alone. He said that he +was "more fully convinced than ever of the propriety of a general +recognition by the European powers of the Confederate States but that +the commerce of France and the interests of the Mexican expedition would +be jeopardized by a rupture with the United States" and unless England +would stand by him he dared not risk such an eventuality. In point of +fact, he was like a speculator who is "hedging" on the stock exchange, +both buying and selling, and trying to make up his mind on which cast to +stake his fortune. At the same time he threw out once more the sinister +caution about the ships. He said that the ships might be built in France +but that their destination must be concealed. + +That Napoleon's choice just then, if England had supported him, would +have been recognition of the Confederacy, cannot be doubted. The tangle +of intrigue which he called his foreign policy was not encouraging. He +was deeply involved in Italian politics, where the daring of Garibaldi +had reopened the struggle between clericals and liberals. In France +itself the struggle between parties was keen. Here, as in the American +imbroglio, he found it hard to decide with which party to break. The +chimerical scheme of a Latin empire in Mexico was his spectacular device +to catch the imagination, and incidentally the pocketbook, of everybody. +But in order to carry out this enterprise he must be able to avert or +withstand the certain hostility of the United States. Therefore, as he +told Slidell, "no other power than England possessed a sufficient navy" +to pull his chestnuts out of the fire. The moment was auspicious, for +there was a revival of the "Southern party" in England. The sailing of +the Alabama from Liverpool during the previous summer had encouraged the +Confederate agents and their British friends to undertake further +shipbuilding. + +While M. Arman was at work in France, the Laird Brothers were at work in +England and their dockyards contained two ironclad rams supposed to +outclass any vessels of the United States navy. Though every effort had +been made to keep secret the ultimate destination of these rams, the +vigilance of the United States minister, reinforced by the zeal of the +"Northern party," detected strong circumstantial evidence pointing +toward a Confederate contract with the Lairds. A popular agitation +ensued along with demands upon the Government to investigate. To mask +the purposes of the Lairds, Captain James Bullock, the able special +agent of the Confederate navy, was forced to fall back upon the same +tactics that were being used across the Channel, and to sell the rams, +on paper, to a firm in France. Neither he nor Slidell yet appreciated +what a doubtful refuge was the shadow of Napoleon's wing. + +Nevertheless the British Government, by this time practically alined +with the North, continued its search for the real owner of the Laird +rams. The "Southern party," however, had not quite given up hope, and +the agitation to prevent the sailing of the rams was a keen spur to its +flagging zeal. Furthermore the prestige of Lee never was higher than it +was in June, 1863, when the news of Chancellorsville was still fresh and +resounding in every mind. It had given new life to the Confederate hope: +Lee would take Washington before the end of the summer; the Laird rams +would go to sea; the Union would be driven to the wall. So reasoned the +ardent friends of the South. But one thing was lacking--a European +alliance. What a time for England to intervene! + +While Slidell was talking with the Emperor, he had in his pocket a +letter from J. A. Roebuck, an English politician who wished to force the +issue in the House of Commons. As a preliminary to moving the +recognition of the Confederacy, he wanted authority to deny a rumor +going the rounds in London, to the effect that Napoleon had taken +position against intervention. Napoleon, when he had seen the letter, +began a negotiation of some sort with this politician. It is needless to +enter into the complications that ensued, the subsequent recriminations, +and the question as to just what Napoleon promised at this time and how +many of his promises he broke. He was a diplomat of the old school, the +school of lying as a fine art. He permitted Roebuck to come over to +Paris for an audience, and Roebuck went away with the impression that +Napoleon could be relied upon to back up a new movement for recognition. +When, however, Roebuck brought the matter before the Commons at the end +of the month and encountered an opposition from the Government that +seemed to imply an understanding with Napoleon which was different from +his own, he withdrew his motion (in July). Once more the scale turned +against the Confederacy, and Gettysburg was supplemented by the seizure +of the Laird rams by the British authorities. These events explain the +bitter turn given to Confederate feeling toward England in the latter +part of 1863. On the 4th of August Benjamin wrote to Mason that "the +perusal of the recent debates in Parliament satisfies the President" +that Mason's "continued residence in London is neither conducive to the +interests nor consistent with the dignity of this government," and +directed him to withdraw to Paris. + +Confederate feeling, as it cooled toward England, warmed toward France. +Napoleon's Mexican scheme, including the offer of a ready-made imperial +crown to Maximilian, the brother of the Emperor of Austria, was fully +understood at Richmond; and with Napoleon's need of an American ally, +Southern hope revived. It was further strengthened by a pamphlet which +was translated and distributed in the South as a newspaper article under +the title France, Mexico, and the Confederate States. The reputed +author, Michel Chevalier, was an imperial senator, another member of the +Napoleon ring, and highly trusted by his shifty master. The pamphlet, +which emphasized the importance of Southern independence as a condition +of Napoleon's "beneficent aims" in Mexico, was held to have been +inspired, and the imperial denial was regarded as a mere matter of form. + +What appeared to be significant of the temper of the Imperial Government +was a decree of a French court in the case of certain merchants who +sought to recover insurance on wine dispatched to America and destroyed +in a ship taken by the Alabama. Their plea was that they were insured +against loss by "pirates." The court dismissed their suit and assessed +costs against them. Further evidence of Napoleon's favor was the +permission given to the Confederate cruiser Florida to repair at Brest +and even to make use of the imperial dockyard. The very general faith in +Napoleon's promises was expressed by Davis in his message to Congress in +December: "Although preferring our own government and institutions to +those of other countries, we can have no disposition to contest the +exercise by them of the same right of self-government which we assert +for ourselves. If the Mexican people prefer a monarchy to a republic, it +is our plain duty cheerfully to acquiesce in their decision and to +evince a sincere and friendly interest in their prosperity.... The +Emperor of the French has solemnly disclaimed any purpose to impose on +Mexico a form of government not acceptable to the nation...." In +January, 1864, hope of recognition through support of Napoleon's Mexican +policy moved the Confederate Congress to adopt resolutions providing for +a Minister to the Mexican Empire and giving him instructions with regard +to a presumptive treaty. To the new post Davis appointed General William +Preston. + +But what, while hope was springing high in America, was taking place in +France? So far as the world could say, there was little if anything to +disturb the Confederates; and yet, on the horizon, a cloud the size of a +man's hand had appeared. M. Arman had turned to another member of the +Legislative Assembly, a sound Bonapartist like himself, M. Voruz, of +Nantes, to whom he had sublet a part of the Confederate contract. The +truth about the ships and their destination thus became part of the +archives of the Voruz firm. No phase of Napoleonic intrigue could go +very far without encountering dishonesty, and to the confidential clerk +of M. Voruz there occurred the bright idea of doing something for +himself with this valuable diplomatic information. One fine day the +clerk was missing and with him certain papers. Then there ensued a +period of months during which the firm and their employers could only +conjecture the full extent of their loss. + +In reality, from the Confederate point of view, everything was lost. +Again the episode becomes too complex to be followed in detail. Suffice +it to say that the papers were sold to the United States; that the +secret was exposed; that the United States made a determined assault +upon the Imperial Government. In the midst of this entanglement, Slidell +lost his head, for hope deferred when apparently within reach of its end +is a dangerous councilor of state. In his extreme anxiety, Slidell sent +to the Emperor a note the blunt rashness of which the writer could not +have appreciated. Saying that he feared the Emperor's subordinates might +play into the hands of Washington, he threw his fat in the fire by +speaking of the ships as "now being constructed at Bordeaux and Nantes +for the government of the Confederate States" and virtually claimed of +Napoleon a promise to let them go to sea. Three days later the Minister +of Foreign Affairs took him sharply to task because of this note, +reminding him that "what had passed with the Emperor was confidential" +and dropping the significant hint that France could not be forced into +war by "indirection." According to Slidell's version of the interview +"the Minister's tone changed completely" when Slidell replied with "a +detailed history of the affair showing that the idea originated with the +Emperor." Perhaps the Minister knew more than he chose to betray. + +From this hour the game was up. Napoleon's purpose all along seems to +have been quite plain. He meant to help the South to win by itself, and, +after it had won, to use it for his own advantage. So precarious was his +position in Europe that he dared not risk an American war without +England's aid, and England had cast the die. In this way, secrecy was +the condition necessary to continued building of the ships. Now that the +secret was out, Napoleon began to shift his ground. He sounded the +Washington Government and found it suspiciously equivocal as to Mexico. +To silence the French republicans, to whom the American minister had +supplied information about the ships, Napoleon tried at first muzzling +the press. But as late as February, 1864, he was still carrying water on +both shoulders. His Minister of Marine notified the builders that they +must get the ships out of France, unarmed, under fictitious sale to some +neutral country. The next month, reports which the Confederate +commissioners sent home became distinctly alarming. Mann wrote from +Brussels: "Napoleon has enjoined upon Maximilian to hold no official +relations with our commissioners in Mexico." Shortly after this Slidell +received a shock that was the beginning of the end: Maximilian, on +passing through Paris on his way to Mexico, refused to receive him. + +The Mexican project was now being condemned by all classes in France. +Nevertheless, the Government was trying to float a Mexican loan, and it +is hardly fanciful to think that on this loan the last hope of the +Confederacy turned. Despite the popular attitude toward Mexico, the loan +was going well when the House of Representatives of the United States +dealt the Confederacy a staggering blow. It passed unanimous resolutions +in the most grim terms, denouncing the substitution of monarchical for +republican government in Mexico under European auspices. When this +action was reported in France, the Mexican loan collapsed. + +Napoleon's Italian policy was now moving rapidly toward the crisis which +it reached during the following summer when he surrendered to the +opposition and promised to withdraw the French troops from Rome. In May, +when the loan collapsed, there was nothing for it but to throw over his +dear friends of the Confederacy. Presently he had summoned Arman before +him, "rated him severely," and ordered him to make bona fide sales of +the ships to neutral powers. The Minister of Marine professed surprise +and indignation at Arman's trifling with the neutrality of the Imperial +Government. And that practically was the end of the episode. + +Equally complete was the breakdown of the Confederate negotiations with +Mexico. General Preston was refused recognition. In those fierce days of +July when the fate of Atlanta was in the balance, the pride and despair +of the Confederate Government flared up in a haughty letter to Preston +reminding him that "it had never been the intention of this Government +to offer any arguments to the new Government of Mexico ... nor to place +itself in any attitude other than that of complete equality," and +directing him to make no further overtures to the Mexican Emperor. + +And then came the débâcle in Georgia. On that same 20th of September +when Benjamin poured out in a letter to Slidell his stored-up bitterness +denouncing Napoleon, Davis, feeling the last crisis was upon him, left +Richmond to join the army in Georgia. His frame of mind he had already +expressed when he said, "We have no friends abroad." + + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +Desperate Remedies + +The loss of Atlanta was the signal for another conflict of authority +within the Confederacy. Georgia was now in the condition in which +Alabama had found herself in the previous year. A great mobile army of +invaders lay encamped on her soil. And yet there was still a state +Government established at the capital. Inevitably the man who thought of +the situation from the point of view of what we should now call the +general staff, and the man who thought of it from the point of view of a +citizen of the invaded State, suffered each an intensification of +feeling, and each became determined to solve the problem in his own way. +The President of the Confederacy and the Governor of Georgia represented +these incompatible points of view. + +The Governor, Joseph E. Brown, is one of the puzzling figures of +Confederate history. We have already encountered him as a dogged +opponent of the Administration. With the whole fabric of Southern life +toppling about his ears, Brown argued, quibbled, evaded, and became a +rallying-point of disaffection. That more eminent Georgian, Howell Cobb, +applied to him very severe language, and they became engaged in a +controversy over that provision of the Conscription Act which exempted +state officials from military service. While the Governor of Virginia +was refusing certificates of exemption to the minor civil officers such +as justices of the peace, Brown by proclamation promised his +"protection" to the most insignificant civil servants. "Will even your +Excellency," demanded Cobb, "certify that in any county of Georgia +twenty justices of the peace and an equal number of constables are +necessary for the proper administration of the state government?" The +Bureau of Conscription estimated that Brown kept out of the army +approximately 8000 eligible men. The truth seems to be that neither by +education nor heredity was this Governor equipped to conceive large +ideas. He never seemed conscious of the war as a whole, or of the +Confederacy as a whole. To defend Georgia and, if that could not be +done, to make peace for Georgia--such in the mind of Brown was the aim +of the war. His restless jealousy of the Administration finds its +explanation in his fear that it would denude his State of men. The +seriousness of Governor Brown's opposition became apparent within a week +of the fall of Atlanta. Among Hood's forces were some 10,000 Georgia +militia. Brown notified Hood that these troops had been called out +solely with a view to the defense of Atlanta, that since Atlanta had +been lost they must now be permitted "to return to their homes and look +for a time after important interests," and that therefore he did +"withdraw said organizations" from Hood's command. In other words, Brown +was afraid that they might be taken out of the State. By proclamation he +therefore gave the militia a furlough of thirty days. Previous to the +issue of this proclamation, Seddon had written to Brown making +requisition for his 10,000 militia to assist in a pending campaign +against Sherman. Two days after his proclamation had appeared, Brown, in +a voluminous letter full of blustering rhetoric and abounding in sneers +at the President, demanded immediate reinforcements by order of the +President and threatened that, if they were not sent, he would recall +the Georgia troops from the army of Lee and would command "all the sons +of Georgia to return to their own State and within their own limits to +rally round her glorious flag." + +So threatening was the situation in Georgia that Davis attempted to take +it into his own hands. In a grim frame of mind he left Richmond for the +front. The resulting military arrangements do not of course belong +strictly to the subject-matter of this volume; but the brief tour of +speechmaking which Davis made in Georgia and the interior of South +Carolina must be noticed; for his purpose seems to have been to put the +military point of view squarely before the people. He meant them to see +how the soldier looked at the situation, ignoring all demands of +locality, of affiliation, of hardship, and considering only how to meet +and beat the enemy. In his tense mood he was not always fortunate in his +expressions. At Augusta, for example, he described Beauregard, whom he +had recently placed in general command over Georgia and South Carolina, +as one who would do whatever the President told him to do. But this idea +of military self-effacement was not happily worded, and the enemies of +Davis seized on his phraseology as further evidence of his instinctive +autocracy. The Mercury compared him to the Emperor of Russia and +declared the tactless remark to be "as insulting to General Beauregard +as it is false and presumptuous in the President." + +Meanwhile Beauregard was negotiating with Brown. Though they came to an +understanding about the disposition of the militia, Brown still tried to +keep control of the state troops. When Sherman was burning Atlanta +preparatory to the March to the Sea, Brown addressed to the Secretary of +War another interminable epistle, denouncing the Confederate authorities +and asserting his willingness to fight both the South and the North if +they did not both cease invading his rights. But the people of Georgia +were better balanced than their Governor. Under the leadership of such +men as Cobb they rose to the occasion and did their part in what proved +a vain attempt to conduct a "people's war." Their delegation at Richmond +sent out a stirring appeal assuring them that Davis was doing for them +all it was possible to do. "Let every man fly to arms," said the appeal. +"Remove your negroes, horses, cattle, and provisions from before +Sherman's army, and burn what you cannot carry. Burn all bridges and +block up the roads in his route. Assail the invader in front, flank, and +rear, by night and by day. Let him have no rest." + +The Richmond Government was unable to detach any considerable force from +the northern front. Its contribution to the forces in Georgia was +accomplished by such pathetic means as a general order calling to the +colors all soldiers furloughed or in hospital, "except those unable to +travel"; by revoking all exemptions to farmers, planters, and mechanics, +except munitions workers; and by placing one-fifth of the ordnance and +mining bureau in the battle service. + +All the world knows how futile were these endeavors to stop the +whirlwind of desolation that was Sherman's march. He spent his Christmas +Day in Savannah. Then the center of gravity shifted from Georgia to +South Carolina. Throughout the two desperate months that closed 1864 the +authorities of South Carolina had vainly sought for help from Richmond. +Twice the Governor made official request for the return to South +Carolina of some of her own troops who were at the front in Virginia. +Davis first evaded and then refused the request. Lee had informed him +that if the forces on the northern front were reduced, the evacuation of +Richmond would become inevitable. + +The South Carolina Government, in December, 1864, seems to have +concluded that the State must save itself. A State Conscription Act was +passed placing all white males between the ages of sixteen and sixty at +the disposal of the state authorities for emergency duty. An Exemption +Act set forth a long list of persons who should not be liable to +conscription by the Confederate Government. Still a third act regulated +the impressment of slaves for work on fortifications so as to enable the +state authorities to hold a check upon the Confederate authorities. The +significance of the three statutes was interpreted by a South Carolina +soldier, General John S. Preston, in a letter to the Secretary of War +that was a wail of despair. "This legislation is an explicit declaration +that this State does not intend to contribute another soldier or slave +to the public defense, except on such terms as may be dictated by her +authorities. The example will speedily be followed by North Carolina and +Georgia, the Executives of those States having already assumed the +position." + +The division between the two parties in South Carolina had now become +bitter. To Preston the men behind the State Exemption Act appeared as +"designing knaves." The Mercury, on the other hand, was never more +relentless toward Davis than in the winter of 1864-1865. However, none +or almost none of the anti-Davis men in South Carolina made the least +suggestion of giving up the struggle. To fight to the end but also to +act as a check upon the central Government--as the new Governor, Andrew +G. Magrath, said in his inaugural address in December, 1864,--was the +aim of the dominant party in South Carolina. How far the State +Government and the Confederate Government had drifted apart is shown by +two comments which were made in January, 1865. Lee complained that the +South Carolina regiments, "much reduced by hard service," were not being +recruited up to their proper strength because of the measures adopted in +the southeastern States to retain conscripts at home. About the same +date the Mercury arraigned Davis for leaving South Carolina defenseless +in the face of Sherman's coming offensive, and asked whether Davis +intended to surrender the Confederacy. + +And in the midst of this critical period, the labor problem pushed to +the fore again. The revocation of industrial details, necessary as it +was, had put almost the whole male population--in theory, at least--in +the general Confederate army. How far-reaching was the effect of this +order may be judged from the experience of the Columbia and Augusta +Railroad Company. This road was building through the interior of the +State a new line which was rendered imperatively necessary by Sherman's +seizure of the lines terminating at Savannah. The effect of the +revocation order on the work in progress was described by the president +of the road in a letter to the Secretary of War: + +In July and August I made a fair beginning and by October we had about +600 hands. General Order No. 77 took off many of our contractors and +hands. We still had increased the number of hands to about 400 when +Sherman started from Atlanta. The military authorities of Augusta took +about 300 of them to fortify that city. These contractors being from +Georgia returned with their slaves to their homes after being discharged +at Augusta. We still have between 500 and 600 hands at work and are +adding to the force every week. + +The great difficulty has been in getting contractors exempt or +definitely detailed since Order No. 77. I have not exceeded eight or +nine contractors now detailed. The rest are exempt from other causes or +over age. + +It was against such a background of economic confusion that Magrath +wrote to the Governor of North Carolina making a revolutionary proposal. +Virtually admitting that the Confederacy had been shattered, and knowing +the disposition of those in authority to see only the military aspects +of any given situation, he prophesied two things: that the generals +would soon attempt to withdraw Lee's army south of Virginia, and that +the Virginia troops in that army would refuse to go. "It is natural +under the circumstances," said he, "that they would not." He would +prepare for this emergency by an agreement among the Southeastern and +Gulf States to act together irrespective of Richmond, and would thus +weld the military power of these States into "a compact and organized +mass." + +Governor Vance, with unconscious subtlety, etched a portrait of his own +mind when he replied that the crisis demanded "particularly the skill of +the politician perhaps more than that of the great general." He adroitly +evaded saying what he really thought of the situation but he made two +explicit counter-proposals. He suggested that a demand should be made +for the restoration of General Johnston and for the appointment of +General Lee to "full and absolute command of all the forces of the +Confederacy." On the day on which Vance wrote to Magrath, the Mercury +lifted up its voice and cried out for a Lee to take charge of the +Government and save the Confederacy. About the same time Cobb wrote to +Davis in the most friendly way, warning him that he had scarcely a +supporter left in Georgia, and that, in view of the great popular +reaction in favor of Johnston, concessions to the opposition were an +imperative necessity. "By accident," said he, "I have become possessed +of the facts in connection with the proposed action of the Governors of +certain States." He disavowed any sympathy with the movement but warned +Davis that it was a serious menace. + +Two other intrigues added to the general political confusion. One of +these, the "Peace Movement," will be considered in the next chapter. The +other was closely connected with the alleged conspiracy to depose Davis +and set up Lee as dictator. If the traditional story, accepted by able +historians, may be believed, William C. Rives, of the Confederate +Congress, carried in January, 1865, to Lee from a congressional cabal an +invitation to accept the rôle of Cromwell. The greatest difficulty in +the way of accepting the tradition is the extreme improbability that any +one who knew anything of Lee would have been so foolish as to make such +a proposal. Needless to add, the tradition includes Lee's refusal to +overturn the Government. + +There can be no doubt, however, that all the enemies of Davis in +Congress and out of it, in the opening months of 1865, made a determined +series of attacks upon his Administration. Nor can there be any doubt +that the popular faith in Lee was used as their trump card. To that end, +a bill was introduced to create the office of commanding general of the +Confederate armies. The bill was generally applauded, and every one +assumed that the new office was to be given to Lee. On the day after the +bill had passed the Senate the Virginia Legislature resolved that the +appointment of General Lee to supreme command would "reanimate the +spirit of the armies as well as the people of the several States and ... +inspire increased confidence in the final success of the cause." When +the bill was sent to the President, it was accompanied by a resolution +asking him to restore Johnston. While Davis was considering this bill, +the Virginia delegation in the House, headed by the Speaker, Thomas S. +Bocock, waited upon the President, informed him what was really wanted +was a change of Cabinet, and told him that three-fourths of the House +would support a resolution of want of confidence in the Cabinet. The +next day Bocock repeated the demand in a note which Davis described as a +"warning if not a threat." + +The situation of both President and country was now desperate. The +program with which the Government had entered so hopefully upon this +fated year had broken down at almost every point. In addition to the +military and administrative disasters, the financial and economic +situation was as bad as possible. So complete was the financial +breakdown that Secretary Memminger, utterly disheartened, had resigned +his office, and the Treasury was now administered by a Charleston +merchant, George A. Trenholm. But the financial chaos was wholly beyond +his control. The government notes reckoned in gold were worth about +three cents on the dollar. The Government itself avoided accepting them. +It even bought up United States currency and used it in transacting the +business of the army. The extent of the financial collapse was to be +measured by such incidents as the following which is recounted in a +report that had passed under Davis's eye only a few weeks before the +"threat" of Bocock was uttered: "Those holding the four per cent +certificates complain that the Government as far as possible discredits +them. Fractions of hundreds cannot be paid with them. I saw a widow +lady, a few days since, offer to pay her taxes of $1,271.31 with a +certificate of $1,300. The tax-gatherer refused to give her the change +of $28.69. She then offered the whole certificate for the taxes. This +was refused. This apparent injustice touched her far more than the +amount of the taxes." + +A letter addressed to the President from Griffin, Georgia, contained +this dreary picture: + +Unless something is done and that speedily, there will be thousands of +the best citizens of the State and heretofore as loyal as any in the +Confederacy, that will not care one cent which army is victorious in +Georgia.... Since August last there have been thousands of cavalry and +wagon trains feeding upon our cornfields and for which our +quartermasters and officers in command of trains, regiments, battalions, +companies, and squads, have been giving the farmers receipts, and we +were all told these receipts would pay our government taxes and tithing; +and yet not one of them will be taken by our collector.... And yet we +are threatened with having our lands sold for taxes. Our scrip for corn +used by our generals will not be taken.... How is it that we have +certified claims upon our Government, past due ten months, and when we +enter the quartermaster's office we see placed up conspicuously in large +letters "no funds." Some of these said quartermasters [who] four years +ago were not worth the clothes upon their backs, are now large dealers +in lands, negroes, and real estate. + +There was almost universal complaint that government contractors were +speculating in supplies and that the Impressment Law was used by +officials to cover their robbery of both the Government and the people. +Allowing for all the panic of the moment, one is forced to conclude that +the smoke is too dense not to cover a good deal of fire. In a word, at +the very time when local patriotism everywhere was drifting into +opposition to the general military command and when Congress was +reflecting this widespread loss of confidence, the Government was loudly +charged with inability to restrain graft. In all these accusations there +was much injustice. Conditions that the Government was powerless to +control were cruelly exaggerated, and the motives of the Government were +falsified. For all this exaggeration and falsification the press was +largely to blame. Moreover, the press, at least in dangerously large +proportion, was schooling the people to hold Davis personally +responsible for all their suffering. General Bragg was informed in a +letter from a correspondent in Mobile that "men have been taught to look +upon the President as an inexorably self-willed man who will see the +country to the devil before giving up an opinion or a purpose." + +This deliberate fostering of an anti-Davis spirit might seem less +malicious if the fact were not known that many editors detested Davis +because of his desire to abolish the exemption of editors from +conscription. Their ignoble course brings to mind one of the few +sarcasms recorded of Lee--the remark that the great mistake of the South +was in making all its best military geniuses editors of newspapers. But +it must be added in all fairness that the great opposition journals, +such as the Mercury, took up this new issue with the President because +they professed to see in his attitude toward the press a determination +to suppress freedom of speech, so obsessed was the opposition with the +idea that Davis was a monster! Whatever explanations may be offered for +the prevalence of graft, the impotence of the Government at Richmond +contributed to the general demoralization. In regions like Georgia and +Alabama, the Confederacy was now powerless to control its agents. +Furthermore, in every effort to assume adequate control of the food +situation the Government met the continuous opposition of two groups of +opponents--the unscrupulous parasites and the bigots of economic and +constitutional theory. Of the activities of the first group, one +incident is sufficient to tell the whole story. At Richmond, in the +autumn of 1864, the grocers were selling rice at two dollars and a half +a pound. It happened that the Governor of Virginia was William Smith, +one of the strong men of the Confederacy who has not had his due from +the historians. He saw that even under the intolerable conditions of the +moment this price was shockingly exorbitant. To remedy matters, the +Governor took the State of Virginia into business, bought rice where it +was grown, imported it, and sold it in Richmond at fifty cents a pound, +with sufficient profit to cover all costs of handling. + +Nevertheless, when Smith urged the Virginia Legislature to assume +control of business as a temporary measure, he was at once assailed by +the second group--those martinets of constitutionalism who would not +give up their cherished Anglo-Saxon tradition of complete individualism +in government. The Administration lost some of its staunchest supporters +the moment its later organ, the Sentinel, began advocating the general +regulation of prices. With ruin staring them in the face, these devotees +of tradition could only reiterate their ancient formulas, nail their +colors to the mast, end go down, satisfied that, if they failed with +these principles, they would have failed still more terribly without +them. Confronting the practical question how to prevent speculators from +charging 400 per cent profit, these men turned grim but did not abandon +their theory. In the latter part of 1864 they aligned themselves with +the opposition when the government commissioners of impressment fixed an +official schedule that boldly and ruthlessly cut under market prices. +The attitude of many such people was expressed by the Montgomery Mail +when it said: + +"The tendency of the age, the march of the American people, is toward +monarchy, and unless the tide is stopped we shall reach something worse +than monarchy. + +"Every step we have taken during the past four years has been in the +direction of military despotism. + +"Half our laws are unconstitutional." + +Another danger of the hour was the melting away of the Confederate army +under the very eyes of its commanders. The records showed that there +were 100,000 absentees. And though the wrathful officials of the Bureau +of Conscription labeled them all "deserters," the term covered great +numbers who had gone home to share the sufferings of their families. + +Such in brief was the fateful background of the congressional attack +upon the Administration in January, 1865. Secretary Seddon, himself a +Virginian, believing that he was the main target of the hostility of the +Virginia delegation, insisted upon resigning. Davis met this +determination with firmness, not to say infatuation, and in spite of the +congressional crisis, exhausted every argument to persuade Seddon to +remain in office. He denied the right of Congress to control his +Cabinet, but he was finally constrained to allow Seddon to retire. The +bitterness inspired by these attempts to coerce the President may be +gauged by a remark attributed to Mrs. Davis. Speaking of the action of +Congress in forcing upon him the new plan for a single commanding +general of all the armies, she is said to have exclaimed, "I think I am +the proper person to advise Mr. Davis and if I were he, I would die or +be hung before I would submit to the humiliation." + +Nevertheless the President surrendered to Congress. On January 26, 1865, +he signed the bill creating the office of commanding general and at once +bestowed the office upon Lee. It must not be supposed, however, that Lee +himself had the slightest sympathy with the congressional cabal which +had forced upon the President this reorganization of the army. In +accepting his new position he pointedly ignored Congress by remarking, +"I am indebted alone to the kindness of His Excellency, the President, +for my nomination to this high and arduous office." + +The popular clamor for the restoration of Johnston had still to be +appeased. Disliking Johnston and knowing that the opposition was using a +popular general as a club with which to beat himself, Davis hesitated +long but in the end yielded to the inevitable. To make the reappointment +himself, however, was too humiliating. He left it to the new +commander-in-chief, who speedily restored Johnston to command. + + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +Disintegration + +While these factions, despite their disagreements, were making valiant +efforts to carry on the war, other factions were stealthily cutting the +ground from under them. There were two groups of men ripe for +disaffection--original Unionists unreconciled to the Confederacy and +indifferentists conscripted against their will. + +History has been unduly silent about these disaffected men. At the time +so real was the belief in state rights that contemporaries were +reluctant to admit that any Southerner, once his State had seceded, +could fail to be loyal to its commands. Nevertheless in considerable +areas--such, for example, as East Tennessee--the majority remained to +the end openly for the Union, and there were large regions in the South +to which until quite recently the eye of the student had not been +turned. They were like deep shadows under mighty trees on the face of a +brilliant landscape. When the peasant Unionist who had been forced into +the army deserted, however, he found in these shadows a nucleus of +desperate men ready to combine with him in opposition to the local +authorities. + +Thus were formed local bands of free companions who pillaged the +civilian population. The desperadoes whom the deserters joined have been +described by Professor Dodd as the "neglected by-products" of the old +régime. They were broken white men, or the children of such, of the sort +that under other circumstances have congregated in the slums of great +cities. Though the South lacked great cities, nevertheless it had its +slum--a widespread slum, scattered among its swamps and forests. In +these fastnesses were the lowest of the poor whites, in whom hatred of +the dominant whites and vengeful malice against the negro burned like +slow fires. When almost everywhere the countryside was stripped of its +fighting men, these wretches emerged from their swamps and forests, like +the Paris rabble emerging from its dens at the opening of the +Revolution. But unlike the Frenchmen, they were too sodden to be capable +of ideas. Like predatory wild beasts they revenged themselves upon the +society that had cast them off, and with utter heartlessness they smote +the now defenseless negro. In the old days, with the country well +policed, the slaves had been protected against their fury, but war now +changed all. The negro villages--or "streets," as the term was--were +without arms and without white police within call. They were ravaged by +these marauders night after night, and negroes were not the only +victims, for in remote districts even murder of the whites became a +familiar horror. + +The antiwar factions were not necessarily, however, users of violence. +There were some men who cherished a dream which they labeled +"reconstruction"; and there were certain others who believed in separate +state action, still clinging to the illusion that any State had it in +its power to escape from war by concluding a separate peace with the +United States. + +Yet neither of these illusions made much headway in the States that had +borne the strain of intellectual leadership. Virginia and South +Carolina, though seldom seeing things eye to eye and finally drifting in +opposite directions, put but little faith in either "reconstruction" or +separate peace. Their leaders had learned the truth about men and +nations; they knew that life is a grim business; they knew that war had +unloosed passions that had to spend themselves and that could not be +talked away. + +But there was scattered over the Confederacy a population which lacked +experience of the world and which included in the main those small +farmers and semipeasants who under the old régime were released from the +burden of taxation and at the same time excluded from the benefits of +education. Among these people the illusions of the higher classes were +reflected without the ballast of mentality. Ready to fight on any +provocation, yet circumscribed by their own natures, not understanding +life, unable to picture to themselves different types and conditions, +these people were as prone as children to confuse the world of their own +desire with the world of fact. When hardship came, when taxation fell +upon them with a great blow, when the war took a turn that necessitated +imagination for its understanding and faith for its pursuit, these +people with childlike simplicity immediately became panic-stricken. Like +the similar class in the North, they had measureless faith in talk. +Hence for them, as for Horace Greeley and many another, sprang up the +notion that if only all their sort could be brought together for talk +and talk and yet more talk, the Union could be "reconstructed" just as +it used to be, and the cruel war would end. Before their eyes, as before +Greeley in 1864, danced the fata morgana of a convention of all the +States, talking, talking, talking. + +The peace illusion centered in North Carolina, where the people were as +enthusiastic for state sovereignty as were any Southerners. They had +seceded mainly because they felt that this principle had been attacked. +Having themselves little if any intention to promote slavery, they +nevertheless were prompt to resent interference with the system or with +any other Southern institution. Jonathan Worth said that they looked on +both abolition and secession as children of the devil, and he put the +responsibility for the secession of his State wholly upon Lincoln and +his attempt to coerce the lower South. This attitude was probably +characteristic of all classes in North Carolina. There also an unusually +large percentage of men lacked education and knowledge of the world. We +have seen how the first experience with taxation produced instant and +violent reaction. The peasant farmers of the western counties and the +general mass of the people began to distrust the planter class. They +began asking if their allies, the other States, were controlled by that +same class which seemed to be crushing them by the exaction of tithes. +And then the popular cry was raised: Was there after all anything in the +war for the masses in North Carolina? Had they left the frying-pan for +the fire? Could they better things by withdrawing from association with +their present allies and going back alone into the Union? The delusion +that they could do so whenever they pleased and on the old footing seems +to have been widespread. One of their catch phrases was "the +Constitution as it is and the Union as it was." Throughout 1863, when +the agitation against tithes was growing every day, the "conservatives" +of North Carolina, as their leaders named them, were drawing together in +a definite movement for peace. This project came to a head during the +next year in those grim days when Sherman was before Atlanta. Holden, +that champion of the opposition to tithes, became a candidate for +Governor against Vance, who was standing for reëlection. Holden stated +his platform in the organ of his party: "If the people of North Carolina +are for perpetual conscriptions, impressments and seizures to keep up a +perpetual, devastating and exhausting war, let them vote for Governor +Vance, for he is for 'fighting it out now'; but if they believe, from +the bitter experience of the last three years, that the sword can never +end it, and are in favor of steps being taken by the State to urge +negotiations by the general government for an honorable and speedy +peace, they must vote for Mr. Holden." + +As Holden, however, was beaten by a vote that stood about three to one, +Governor Vance continued in power, but just what he stood for and just +what his supporters understood to be his policy would be hard to say. A +year earlier he was for attempting to negotiate peace, but though +professing to have come over to the war party he was never a cordial +supporter of the Confederacy. In a hundred ways he played upon the +strong local distrust of Richmond, and upon the feeling that North +Carolina was being exploited in the interests of the remainder of the +South. To cripple the efficiency of Confederate conscription was one of +his constant aims. Whatever his views of the struggle in which he was +engaged, they did not include either an appreciation of Southern +nationalism or the strategist's conception of war. Granted that the +other States were merely his allies, Vance pursued a course that might +justly have aroused their suspicion, for so far as he was able he +devoted the resources of the State wholly to the use of its own +citizens. The food and the manufactures of North Carolina were to be +used solely by its own troops, not by troops of the Confederacy raised +in other States. And yet, subsequent to his reëlection, he was not a +figure in the movement to negotiate peace. + +Meanwhile in Georgia, where secession had met with powerful opposition, +the policies of the Government had produced discontent not only with the +management of the war but with the war itself. And now Alexander H. +Stephens becomes, for a season, very nearly the central figure of +Confederate history. Early in 1864 the new act suspending the writ of +habeas corpus had aroused the wrath of Georgia, and Stephens had become +the mouthpiece of the opposition. In an address to the Legislature, he +condemned in most exaggerated language not only the Habeas Corpus Act +but also the new Conscription Act. Soon afterward he wrote a long letter +to Herschel V. Johnson, who, like himself, had been an enemy of +secession in 1861. He said that if Johnson doubted that the Habeas +Corpus Act was a blow struck at the very "vitals of liberty," then he +"would not believe though one were to rise from the dead." In this +extraordinary letter Stephens went on "most confidentially" to state his +attitude toward Davis thus: "While I do not and never have regarded him +as a great man or statesman on a large scale, or a man of any marked +genius, yet I have regarded him as a man of good intentions, weak and +vacillating, timid, petulant, peevish, obstinate, but not firm. Am now +beginning to doubt his good intentions.... His whole policy on the +organization and discipline of the army is perfectly consistent with the +hypothesis that he is aiming at absolute power." + +That a man of Stephens's ability should have dealt in fustian like this +in the most dreadful moment of Confederate history is a psychological +problem that is not easily solved. To be sure, Stephens was an extreme +instance of the martinet of constitutionalism. He reminds us of those +old-fashioned generals of whom Macaulay said that they preferred to lose +a battle according to rule than win it by an exception. Such men find it +easy to transform into a bugaboo any one who appears to them to be +acting irregularly. Stephens in his own mind had so transformed the +President. The enormous difficulties and the wholly abnormal +circumstances which surrounded Davis counted with Stephens for nothing +at all, and he reasoned about the Administration as if it were operating +in a vacuum. Having come to this extraordinary position, Stephens passed +easily into a rôle that verged upon treason. ¹ + +¹ There can be no question that Stephens never did anything which in his +own mind was in the least disloyal. And yet it was Stephens who, in the +autumn of 1864, was singled out by artful men as a possible figurehead +in the conduct of a separate peace negotiation with Sherman. A critic +very hostile to Stephens and his faction might here raise the question +as to what was at bottom the motive of Governor Brown, in the autumn of +1864, in withdrawing the Georgia militia from Hood's command. Was there +something afoot that has never quite revealed itself on the broad pages +of history? As ordinarily told, the story is simply that certain +desperate Georgians asked Stephens to be their ambassador to Sherman to +discuss terms; that Sherman had given them encouragement; but that +Stephens avoided the trap, and so nothing came of it. The recently +published correspondence of Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb, however, +contains one passage that has rather a startling sound. Brown, writing +to Stephens regarding his letter refusing to meet Sherman, says, "It +keeps the door open and I think this is wise." At the same time he made +a public statement that "Georgia has power to act independently but her +faith is pledged by implication to her Southern sisters ... will triumph +with her Southern sisters or sink with them in common ruin." It is still +to be discovered what "door" Stephens was supposed to have kept open. + +Peace talk was now in the air, and especially was there chatter about +reconstruction. The illusionists seemed unable to perceive that the +reëlection of Lincoln had robbed them of their last card. These dreamers +did not even pause to wonder why after the terrible successes of the +Federal army in Georgia, Lincoln should be expected to reverse his +policy and restore the Union with the Southern States on the old +footing. The peace mania also invaded South Carolina and was espoused by +one of its Congressmen, Mr. Boyce, but he made few converts among his +own people. The Mercury scouted the idea; clear-sighted and +disillusioned, it saw the only alternatives to be victory or +subjugation. Boyce's argument was that the South had already succumbed +to military despotism and would have to endure it forever unless it +accepted the terms of the invaders. News of Boyce's attitude called +forth vigorous protest from the army before Petersburg, and even went so +far afield as New York, where it was discussed in the columns of the +Herald. + +In the midst of the Northern elections, when Davis was hoping great +things from the anti-Lincoln men, Stephens had said in print that he +believed Davis really wished the Northern peace party defeated, +whereupon Davis had written to him demanding reasons for this astounding +charge. To the letter, which had missed Stephens at his home and had +followed him late in the year to Richmond, Stephens wrote in the middle +of December a long reply which is one of the most curious documents in +American history. He justified himself upon two grounds. One was a +statement which Davis had made in a speech at Columbia, in October, +indicating that he was averse to the scheme of certain Northern peace +men for a convention of all the States. Stephens insisted that such a +convention would have ended the war and secured the independence of the +South. Davis cleared himself on this charge by saying that the speech at +Columbia "was delivered after the publication of McClellan's letter +avowing his purpose to force reunion by war if we declined +reconstruction when offered, and therefore warned the people against +delusive hopes of peace from any other influence than that to be exerted +by the manifestation of an unconquerable spirit." + +As Stephens professed to have independence and not reconstruction for +his aim, he had missed his mark with this first shot. He fared still +worse with the second. During the previous spring a Northern soldier +captured in the southeast had appealed for parole on the ground that he +was a secret emissary to the President from the peace men of the North. +Davis, who did not take him seriously, gave orders to have the case +investigated, but Stephens, whose mentality in this period is so +curiously overcast, swallowed the prisoner's story without hesitation. +He and Davis had a considerable amount of correspondence on the subject. +In the fierce tension of the summer of 1864 the War Department went so +far as to have the man's character investigated, but the report was +unsatisfactory. He was not paroled and died in prison. This episode +Stephens now brought forward as evidence that Davis had frustrated an +attempt of the Northern peace party to negotiate. Davis contented +himself with replying, "I make no comment on this." + +The next step in the peace intrigue took place at the opening of the +next year, 1865. Stephens attempted to address the Senate on his +favorite topic, the wickedness of the suspension of habeas corpus; was +halted by a point of parliamentary law; and when the Senate sustained an +appeal from his decision, left the chamber in a pique. Hunter, now a +Senator, became an envoy to placate him and succeeded in bringing him +back. Thereupon Stephens poured out his soul in a furious attack upon +the Administration. He ended by submitting resolutions which were just +what he might have submitted four years earlier before a gun had been +fired, so entirely had his mind crystallized in the stress of war! These +resolutions, besides reasserting the full state rights theory, assumed +the readiness of the North to make peace and called for a general +convention of all the States to draw up some new arrangement on a +confessed state rights basis. More than a month before, Lincoln had been +reëlected on an unequivocal nationalistic platform. And yet Stephens +continued to believe that the Northerners did not mean what they said +and that in congregated talking lay the magic which would change the +world of fact into the world of his own desire. + +At this point in the peace intrigue the ambiguous figure of Napoleon the +Little reappears, though only to pass ghostlike across the back of the +stage. The determination of Northern leaders to oppose Napoleon had +suggested to shrewd politicians a possible change of front. That +singular member of the Confederate Congress, Henry S. Foote, thought he +saw in the Mexican imbroglio means to bring Lincoln to terms. In +November he had introduced into the House resolutions which intimated +that "it might become the true policy of ... the Confederate States to +consent to the yielding of the great principle embodied in the Monroe +Doctrine." The House referred his resolutions to the Committee on +Foreign Affairs, and there they slumbered until January. + +Meanwhile a Northern politician brought on the specter of Napoleon for a +different purpose. Early in January, 1865, Francis P. Blair made a +journey to Richmond and proposed to Davis a plan of reconciliation +involving the complete abandonment of slavery, the reunion of all the +States, and an expedition against Mexico in which Davis was to play the +leading rôle. Davis cautiously refrained from committing himself, though +he gave Blair a letter in which he expressed his willingness to enter +into negotiations for peace between "the two countries." The visit of +Blair gave new impetus to the peace intrigue. The Confederate House +Committee on Foreign Affairs reported resolutions favoring an attempt to +negotiate with the United States so as to "bring into view" the +possibility of coöperation between the United States and the Confederacy +to maintain the Monroe Doctrine. The same day saw another singular +incident. For some reason that has never been divulged Foote determined +to counterbalance Blair's visit to Richmond by a visit of his own to +Washington. In attempting to pass through the Confederate lines he was +arrested by the military authorities. With this fiasco Foote passes from +the stage of history. + +The doings of Blair, however, continued to be a topic of general +interest throughout January. The military intrigue was now simmering +down through the creation of the office of commanding general. The +attempt of the congressional opposition to drive the whole Cabinet from +office reached a compromise in the single retirement of the Secretary of +War. Before the end of the month the peace question was the paramount +one before Congress and the country. Newspapers discussed the movements +of Blair, apparently with little knowledge, and some of the papers +asserted hopefully that peace was within reach. Cooler heads, such as +the majority of the Virginia Legislature, rejected this idea as +baseless. The Mercury called the peace party the worst enemy of the +South. Lee was reported by the Richmond correspondent of the Mercury as +not caring a fig for the peace project. Nevertheless the rumor persisted +that Blair had offered peace on terms that the Confederacy could accept. +Late in the month, Davis appointed Stephens, Hunter, and John A. +Campbell commissioners to confer with the Northern authorities with +regard to peace. + +There followed the famous conference of February 3, 1865, in the cabin +of a steamer at Hampton Roads, with Seward and Lincoln. The Confederate +commissioners represented two points of view: that of the +Administration, unwilling to make peace without independence; and that +of the infatuated Stephens who clung to the idea that Lincoln did not +mean what he said, and who now urged "an armistice allowing the States +to adjust themselves as suited their interests. If it would be to their +interests to reunite, they would do so." The refusal of Lincoln to +consider either of these points of view--the refusal so clearly foreseen +by Davis--put an end to the career of Stephens. He was "hoist with his +own petard." + +The news of the failure of the conference was variously received. The +Mercury rejoiced because there was now no doubt how things stood. +Stephens, unwilling to coöperate with the Administration, left the +capital and went home to Georgia. At Richmond, though the snow lay thick +on the ground, a great public meeting was held on the 6th of February in +the precincts of the African Church. Here Davis made an address which +has been called his greatest and which produced a profound impression. A +wave of enthusiasm swept over Richmond, and for a moment the President +appeared once more to be master of the situation. His immense audacity +carried the people with him when, after showing what might be done by +more drastic enforcement of the conscription laws, he concluded: "Let us +then unite our hands and our hearts, lock our shields together, and we +may well believe that before another summer solstice falls upon us, it +will be the enemy that will be asking us for conferences and occasions +in which to make known our demands." + + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +An Attempted Revolution + +Almost from the moment when the South had declared its independence +voices had been raised in favor of arming the negroes. The rejection of +a plan to accomplish this was one of the incidents of Benjamin's tenure +of the portfolio of the War Department; but it was not until the early +days of 1864, when the forces of Johnston lay encamped at Dalton, +Georgia, that the arming of the slaves was seriously discussed by a +council of officers. Even then the proposal had its determined +champions, though there were others among Johnston's officers who +regarded it as "contrary to all true principles of chivalric warfare," +and their votes prevailed in the council by a large majority. + +From that time forward the question of arming the slaves hung like a +heavy cloud over all Confederate thought of the war. It was discussed in +the army and at home around troubled firesides. Letters written from the +trenches at Petersburg show that it was debated by the soldiers, and the +intense repugnance which the idea inspired in some minds was shown by +threats to leave the ranks if the slaves were given arms. + +Amid the pressing, obvious issues of 1864, this project hardly appears +upon the face of the record until it was alluded to in Davis's message +to Congress in November, 1864, and in the annual report of the Secretary +of War. The President did not as yet ask for slave soldiers. He did, +however, ask for the privilege of buying slaves for government use--not +merely hiring them from their owners as had hitherto been done--and for +permission, if the Government so desired, to emancipate them at the end +of their service. The Secretary of War went farther, however, and +advocated negro soldiers, and he too suggested their emancipation at the +end of service. + +This feeling of the temper of the country, so to speak, produced an +immediate response. It drew Rhett from his retirement and inspired a +letter in which he took the Government severely to task for designing to +remove from state control this matter of fundamental importance. +Coinciding with the cry for more troops with which to confront Sherman, +the topic of negro soldiers became at once one of the questions of the +hour. It helped to focus that violent anti-Davis movement which is the +conspicuous event of December, 1864, and January, 1865. Those who +believed the President unscrupulous trembled at the thought of putting +into his hands a great army of hardy barbarians trained to absolute +obedience. The prospect of such a weapon held in one firm hand at +Richmond seemed to those opponents of the President a greater menace to +their liberties than even the armies of the invaders. It is quite likely +that distrust of Davis and dread of the use he might make of such a +weapon was increased by a letter from Benjamin to Frederick A. Porcher +of Charleston, a supporter of the Government, who had made rash +suggestions as to the extraconstitutional power that the Administration +might be justified by circumstances in assuming. Benjamin deprecated +such suggestions but concluded with the unfortunate remark: "If the +Constitution is not to be our guide I would prefer to see it suppressed +by a revolution which should declare a dictatorship during the war, +after the manner of ancient Rome, leaving to the future the care of +reëstablishing firm and regular government." + +In the State of Virginia, indeed, the revolutionary suggestions of the +President's message and the Secretary's report were promptly taken up +and made the basis of a political program, which Governor Smith embodied +in his message to the Legislature--a document that will eventually take +its place among the most interesting state papers of the Confederacy. It +should be noted that the suggestions thrown out in this way by the +Administration to test public feeling involved three distinct questions: +Should the slaves be given arms? Should they, if employed as soldiers, +be given their freedom? Should this revolutionary scheme, if accepted at +all, be handled by the general Government or left to the several States? +On the last of the three questions the Governor of Virginia was silent; +by implication he treated the matter as a concern of the States. Upon +the first and second questions, however, he was explicit and advised +arming the slaves. He then added: + +Even if the result were to emancipate our slaves, there is not a man who +would not cheerfully put the negro into the Army rather than become a +slave himself to our hated and vindictive foe. It is, then, simply a +question of time. Has the time arrived when this issue is fairly before +us?... For my part standing before God and my country, I do not hesitate +to say that I would arm such portion of our able-bodied slave population +as may be necessary, and put them in the field, so as to have them ready +for the spring campaign, even if it resulted in the freedom of those +thus organized. Will I not employ them to fight the negro force of the +enemy? Aye, the Yankees themselves, who already boast that they have +200,000 of our slaves in arms against us. Can we hesitate, can we doubt, +when the question is, whether the enemy shall use our slaves against us +or we use them against him; when the question may be between liberty and +independence on the one hand, or our subjugation and utter ruin on the +other? + +With their Governor as leader for the Administration, the Virginians +found this issue the absorbing topic of the hour. And now the great +figure of Lee takes its rightful place at the very center of Confederate +history, not only military but civil, for to Lee the Virginia +politicians turned for advice. ¹ In a letter to a State Senator of +Virginia who had asked for a public expression of Lee's views because "a +mountain of prejudices, growing out of our ancient modes of regarding +the institution of Southern slavery will have to be met and overcome" in +order to attain unanimity, Lee discussed both the institution of slavery +and the situation of the moment. He plainly intimated that slavery +should be placed under state control; and, assuming such control, be +considered "the relation of master and slave ... the best that can exist +between the black and white races while intermingled as at present in +this country." He went on to show, however, that military necessity now +compelled a revolution in sentiment on this subject, and he came at last +to this momentous conclusion: + +¹ Lee now revealed himself in his previously overlooked capacity of +statesman. Whether his abilities in this respect equaled his abilities +as a soldier need not here be considered; it is said that he himself had +no high opinion of them. However, in the advice which he gave at this +final moment of crisis, he expressed a definite conception of the +articulation of civil forces in such a system as that of the +Confederacy. He held that all initiative upon basal matters should +remain with the separate States, that the function of the general +Government was to administer, not to create conditions, and that the +proper power to constrain the State Legislatures was the flexible, +extra-legal power of public opinion. + +Should the war continue under existing circumstances, the enemy may in +course of time penetrate our country and get access to a large part of +our negro population. It is his avowed policy to convert the able-bodied +men among them into soldiers, and to emancipate all.... His progress +will thus add to his numbers, and at the same time destroy slavery in a +manner most pernicious to the welfare of our people. Their negroes will +be used to hold them in subjection, leaving the remaining force of the +enemy free to extend his conquest. Whatever may be the effect of our +employing negro troops, it cannot be as mischievous as this. If it end +in subverting slavery it will be accomplished by ourselves, and we can +devise the means of alleviating the evil consequences to both races. I +think, therefore, we must decide whether slavery shall be extinguished +by our enemies and the slaves be used against us, or use them ourselves +at the risk of the effects which may be produced upon our social +institutions ... + +The reasons that induce me to recommend the employment of negro troops +at all render the effect of the measures ... upon slavery immaterial, +and in my opinion the best means of securing the efficiency and fidelity +of this auxiliary force would be to accompany the measure with a +well-digested plan of gradual and general emancipation. As that will be +the result of the continuance of the war, and will certainly occur if +the enemy succeed, it seems to me most advisable to adopt it at once, +and thereby obtain all the benefits that will accrue to our cause.... + +I can only say in conclusion, that whatever measures are to be adopted +should be adopted at once. Every day's delay increases the difficulty. +Much time will be required to organize and discipline the men, and +action may be deferred until it is too late. + +Lee wrote these words on January 11, 1865. At that time a fresh wave of +despondency had gone over the South because of Hood's rout at Nashville; +Congress was debating intermittently the possible arming of the slaves; +and the newspapers were prophesying that the Administration would +presently force the issue. It is to be observed that Lee did not advise +Virginia to wait for Confederate action. He advocated emancipation by +the State. After all, to both Lee and Smith, Virginia was their +"country." + +During the next sixty days Lee rejected two great opportunities--or, if +you will, put aside two great temptations. If tradition is to be +trusted, it was during January that Lee refused to play the rôle of +Cromwell by declining to intervene directly in general Confederate +politics. But there remained open the possibility of his intervention in +Virginia politics, and the local crisis was in its own way as momentous +as the general crisis. What if Virginia had accepted the views of Lee +and insisted upon the immediate arming of the slaves? Virginia, however, +did not do so; and Lee, having made public his position, refrained from +further participation. Politically speaking, he maintained a splendid +isolation at the head of the armies. + +Through January and February the Virginia crisis continued undetermined. +In this period of fateful hesitation, the "mountains of prejudice" +proved too great to be undermined even by the influence of Lee. When at +last Virginia enacted a law permitting the arming of her slaves, no +provision was made for their manumission. + +Long before the passage of this act in Virginia, Congress had become the +center of the controversy. Davis had come to the point where no +tradition however cherished would stand, in his mind, against the needs +of the moment. To reinforce the army in great strength was now his +supreme concern, and he saw but one way to do it. As a last resort he +was prepared to embrace the bold plan which so many people still +regarded with horror and which as late as the previous November he +himself had opposed. He would arm the slaves. On February 10, 1865, +bills providing for the arming of the slaves were introduced both in the +House and in the Senate. + +On this issue all the forces both of the Government and the opposition +fought their concluding duel in which were involved all the other basal +issues that had distracted the country since 1862. Naturally there was a +bewildering criss-cross of political motives. There were men who, like +Smith and Lee, would go along with the Government on emancipation, +provided it was to be carried out by the free will of the States. There +were others who preferred subjugation to the arming of the slaves; and +among these there were clashings of motive. Then, too, there were those +who were willing to arm the slaves but were resolved not to give them +their freedom. + +The debate brings to the front of the political stage the figure of +R. M. T. Hunter. Hitherto his part has not been conspicuous either as +Secretary of State or as Senator from Virginia. He now becomes, in the +words of Davis, "a chief obstacle" to the passage of the Senate bill +which would have authorized a levy of negro troops and provided for +their manumission by the War Department with the consent of the State in +which they should be at the time of the proposed manumission. After long +discussion, this bill was indefinitely postponed. Meanwhile a very +different bill had dragged through the House. While it was under debate, +another appeal was made to Lee. Barksdale, who came as near as any one +to being the leader of the Administration, sought Lee's aid. Again the +General urged the enrollment of negro soldiers and their eventual +manumission, but added this immensely significant proviso: + +I have no doubt that if Congress would authorize their [the negroes'] +reception into service, and empower the President to call upon +individuals or States for such as they are willing to contribute, with +the condition of emancipation to all enrolled, a sufficient number would +be forthcoming to enable us to try the experiment [of determining +whether the slaves would make good soldiers]. If it proved successful, +most of the objections to the measure would disappear, and if +individuals still remained unwilling to send their negroes to the army, +the force of public opinion in the States would soon bring about such +legislation as would remove all obstacles. I think the matter should be +left, as far as possible, to the people and to the States, which alone +can legislate as the necessities of this particular service may require. + +The fact that Congress had before it this advice from Lee explains why +all factions accepted a compromise bill, passed on the 9th of March, +approved by the President on the 13th of March, and issued to the +country in a general order on the 23d of March. It empowered the +President to "ask for and accept from the owners of slaves" the service +of such number of negroes as he saw fit, and if sufficient number were +not offered to "call on each State ... for her quota of 300,000 troops +... to be raised from such classes of the population, irrespective of +color, in each State as the proper authorities thereof may determine." +However, "nothing in this act shall be construed to authorize a change +in the relation which the said slaves shall bear toward their owners, +except by consent of the owners and of the States in which they may +reside and in pursuance of the laws thereof." + +The results of this act were negligible. Its failure to offer the +slave-soldier his freedom was at once seized upon by critics as evidence +of the futility of the course of the Administration. The sneer went +round that the negro was to be made to fight for his own captivity. +Pollard--whose words, however, must be taken with a grain of salt--has +left this account of recruiting under the new act: "Two companies of +blacks, organized from some negro vagabonds in Richmond, were allowed to +give balls at the Libby Prison and were exhibited in fine fresh uniforms +on Capitol Square as decoys to obtain recruits. But the mass of their +colored brethren looked on the parade with unenvious eyes, and little +boys exhibited the early prejudices of race by pelting the fine uniforms +with mud." + +Nevertheless both Davis and Lee busied themselves in the endeavor to +raise black troops. Governor Smith coöperated with them. And in the mind +of the President there was no abandonment of the program of +emancipation, which was now his cardinal policy. Soon after the passage +of the act, he wrote to Smith: "I am happy to receive your assurance of +success [in raising black troops], as well as your promise to seek +legislation to secure unmistakable freedom to the slave who shall enter +the Army, with a right to return to his old home, when he shall have +been honorably discharged from military service." + +While this final controversy was being fought out in Congress, the +enthusiasm for the Administration had again ebbed. Its recovery of +prestige had run a brief course and was gone, and now in the midst of +the discussion over the negro soldiers' bills, the opposition once more +attacked the Cabinet, with its old enemy, Benjamin, as the target. +Resolutions were introduced into the Senate declaring that "the +retirement of the Honorable Judah P. Benjamin from the State Department +will be subservient of the public interests"; in the House resolutions +were offered describing his public utterances as "derogatory to his +position as a high public functionary of the Confederate Government, a +reflection on the motives of Congress as a deliberative body, and an +insult to public opinion." + +So Congress wrangled and delayed while the wave of fire that was +Sherman's advance moved northward through the Carolinas. Columbia had +gone up in smoke while the Senate debated day after day--fifteen in +all--what to do with the compromise bill sent up to it from the House. +It was during this period that a new complication appears to have been +added to a situation which was already so hopelessly entangled, for this +was the time when Governor Magrath made a proposal to Governor Vance for +a league within the Confederacy, giving as his chief reason that +Virginia's interests were parting company with those of the lower South. +The same doubt of the upper South appears at various times in the +Mercury. And through all the tactics of the opposition runs the constant +effort to discredit Davis. The Mercury scoffed at the agitation for +negro soldiers as a mad attempt on the part of the Administration to +remedy its "myriad previous blunders." + +In these terrible days, the mind of Davis hardened. He became possessed +by a lofty and intolerant confidence, an absolute conviction that, in +spite of all appearances, he was on the threshold of success. We may +safely ascribe to him in these days that illusory state of mind which +has characterized some of the greatest of men in their over-strained, +concluding periods. His extraordinary promises in his later messages, a +series of vain prophecies beginning with his speech at the African +Church, remind one of Napoleon after Leipzig refusing the Rhine as a +boundary. His nerves, too, were all but at the breaking-point. He sent +the Senate a scolding message because of its delay in passing the Negro +Soldiers' Bill. The Senate answered in a report that was sharply +critical of his own course. Shortly afterward Congress adjourned +refusing his request for another suspension of the writ of habeas +corpus. + +Davis had hinted at important matters he hoped soon to be able to submit +to Congress. What he had in mind was the last, the boldest, stroke of +this period of desperation. The policy of emancipation he and Benjamin +had accepted without reserve. They had at last perceived, too late, the +power of the anti-slavery movement in Europe. Though they had already +failed to coerce England through cotton and had been played with and +abandoned by Napoleon, they persisted in thinking that there was still a +chance for a third chapter in their foreign affairs. + +The agitation to arm the slaves, with the promise of freedom, had +another motive besides the reinforcement of Lee's army: it was intended +to serve as a basis for negotiations with England and France. To that +end D. J. Kenner was dispatched to Europe early in 1865. Passing through +New York in disguise, he carried word of this revolutionary program to +the Confederate commissioners abroad. A conference at Paris was held by +Kenner, Mason, and Slidell. Mason, who had gone over to England to sound +Palmerston with regard to this last Confederate hope, was received on +the 14th of March. On the previous day, Davis had accepted temporary +defeat, by signing the compromise bill which omitted emancipation. But +as there was no cable operating at the time, Mason was not aware of this +rebuff. In his own words, he "urged upon Lord P. that if the President +was right in his impression that there was some latent, undisclosed +obstacle on the part of Great Britain to recognition, it should be +frankly stated, and we might, if in our power to do so, consent to +remove it." Palmerston, though his manner was "conciliatory and kind," +insisted that there was nothing "underlying" his previous statements, +and that he could not, in view of the facts then existing, regard the +Confederacy in the light of an independent power. Mason parted from him +convinced that "the most ample concessions on our part in the matter +referred to would have produced no change in the course determined on by +the British Government with regard to recognition." In a subsequent +interview with Lord Donoughmore, he was frankly told that the offer of +emancipation had come too late. + +The dispatch in which Mason reported the attitude of the British +Government never reached the Confederate authorities. It was dated the +31st of March. Two days later Richmond was evacuated by the Confederate +Government. + + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +The Last Word + +The evacuation of Richmond broke the back of the Confederate defense. +Congress had adjourned. The legislative history of the Confederacy was +at an end. The executive history still had a few days to run. After +destroying great quantities of records, the government officials had +packed the remainder on a long train that conveyed the President and +what was left of the civil service to Danville. During a few days, +Danville was the Confederate capital. There, Davis, still unable to +conceive defeat, issued his pathetic last Address to the People of the +Confederate States. His mind was crystallized. He was no longer capable +of judging facts. In as confident tones as ever he promised his people +that they should yet prevail; he assured Virginians that even if the +Confederate army should withdraw further south the withdrawal would be +but temporary, and that "again and again will we return until the +baffled and exhausted enemy shall abandon in despair his endless and +impossible task of making slaves of a people resolved to be free." + +The surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, compelled another +migration of the dwindling executive company. General Johnston had not +yet surrendered. A conference which he had with the President and the +Cabinet at Greensboro ended in giving him permission to negotiate with +Sherman. Even then Davis was still bent on keeping up the fight; yet, +though he believed that Sherman would reject Johnston's overtures, he +was overtaken at Charlotte on his way South by the crushing news of +Johnston's surrender. There the executive history of the Confederacy +came to an end in a final Cabinet meeting. Davis, still blindly resolute +to continue the struggle, was deeply distressed by the determination of +his advisers to abandon it. In imminent danger of capture, the +President's party made its way to Abbeville, where it broke up, and each +member sought safety as best he could. Davis with a few faithful men +rode to Irwinsville, Georgia, where, in the early morning of the 10th of +May, he was surprised and captured. But the history of the Confederacy +was not quite at an end. The last gunshots were still to be fired far +away in Texas on the 13th of May. The surrender of the forces of the +Trans-Mississippi on May 26, 1865, brought the war to a definite +conclusion. + +There remains one incident of these closing days, the significance of +which was not perceived until long afterward, when it immediately took +its rightful place among the determining events of American history. The +unconquerable spirit of the Army of Northern Virginia found its last +expression in a proposal which was made to Lee by his officers. If he +would give the word, they would make the war a duel to the death; it +should drag out in relentless guerrilla struggles; and there should be +no pacification of the South until the fighting classes had been +exterminated. Considering what those classes were, considering the +qualities that could be handed on to their posterity, one realizes that +this suicide of a whole people, of a noble fighting people, would have +maimed incalculably the America of the future. But though the heroism of +this proposal of his men to die on their shields had its stern charm for +so brave a man as Lee, he refused to consider it. He would not admit +that he and his people had a right thus to extinguish their power to +help mold the future, no matter whether it be the future they desired or +not. The result of battle must be accepted. The Southern spirit must not +perish, luxuriating blindly in despair, but must find a new form of +expression, must become part of the new world that was to be, must look +to a new birth under new conditions. In this spirit he issued to his +army his last address: + +After four years of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed courage and +fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to +overwhelming numbers and resources. I need not tell the survivors of so +many hard-fought battles, who have remained steadfast to the last, that +I have consented to the result from no distrust of them; but feeling +that valor and devotion could accomplish nothing that could compensate +for the loss that would have attended the continuation of the contest, I +determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past services +have endeared them to their countrymen.... I bid you an affectionate +farewell. + +How inevitably one calls to mind, in view of the indomitable valor of +Lee's final decision, those great lines from Tennyson: + +Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho' +We are not now that strength which in old days +Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are; +One equal temper of heroic hearts, +Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will. + + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + +There is no adequate history of the Confederacy. It is rumored that a +distinguished scholar has a great work approaching completion. It is +also rumored that another scholar, well equipped to do so, will soon +bring out a monumental life of Davis. But the fact remains that as yet +we lack a comprehensive review of the Confederate episode set in proper +perspective. Standard works such as the History of the United States +from the Compromise of 1850, by J. F. Rhodes (7 vols., 1893-1906), even +when otherwise as near a classic as is the work of Mr. Rhodes, treat the +Confederacy so externally as to have in this respect little value. The +one searching study of the subject, The Confederate States of America, +by J. C. Schwab (1901), though admirable in its way, is wholly +overshadowed by the point of view of the economist. The same is to be +said of the article by Professor Schwab in the 11th edition of The +Encyclopædia Britannica. + +Two famous discussions of the episode by participants are: The Rise and +Fall of the Confederate Government, by the President of the Confederacy +(2 vols., 1881), and A Constitutional View of the Late War Between the +States, by Alexander H. Stephens (2 vols., 1870). Both works, though +invaluable to the student, are tinged with controversy, each of the +eminent authors aiming to refute the arguments of political antagonists. + + +The military history of the time has so overshadowed the civil, in the +minds of most students, that we are still sadly in need of careful, +disinterested studies of the great figures of Confederate civil affairs. +Jefferson Davis, by William E. Dodd (American Crisis Biographies, 1907), +is the standard life of the President, superseding older ones. Not so +satisfactory in the same series is Judah P. Benjamin, by Pierce Butler +(1907), and Alexander H. Stephens, by Louis Pendleton (1907). Older +works which are valuable for the material they contain are: Memoir of +Jefferson Davis, by his Wife (1890); The Life and Times of Alexander H. +Stephens, by R. M. Johnston and W. M. Browne (1878); The Life and Times +of William Lowndes Yancey, by J. W. Du Bose (1892); The Life, Times, and +Speeches of Joseph E. Brown, by Herbert Fielder (1883); Public Life and +Diplomatic Correspondence of James M. Mason, by his Daughter (1903); The +Life and Time of C. G. Memminger, by H. D. Capers (1893). The writings +of E. A. Pollard cannot be disregarded, but must be taken as the violent +expression of an extreme partizan. They include a Life of Jefferson +Davis (1869) and The Lost Cause (1867). A charming series of essays is +Confederate Portraits, by Gamaliel Bradford (1914). Among books on +special topics that are to be recommended are: The Diplomatic History of +the Southern Confederacy by J. M. Callahan (1901); France and the +Confederate Navy, by John Bigelow (1888); and The Secret Service of the +Confederate States in Europe, by J. D. Bulloch (2 vols., 1884). There is +a large number of contemporary accounts of life in the Confederacy. +Historians have generally given excessive attention to A Rebel War +Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, by J. B. Jones (2 +vols., 1866) which has really neither more nor less value than a +Richmond newspaper. Conspicuous among writings of this type is the +delightful Diary from Dixie, by Mrs. Mary B. Chestnut (1905) and My +Diary, North and South, by W. H. Russell (1862). + +The documents of the civil history, so far as they are accessible to the +general reader, are to be found in the three volumes forming the fourth +series of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (128 +vols., 1880-1901); the Journals of the Congress of the Confederate +States (8 vols., 1904) and Messages and Papers of the Confederacy, +edited by J. D. Richardson (2 vols., 1905). Four newspapers are of first +importance: the famous opposition organs, the Richmond Examiner and the +Charleston Mercury, which should be offset by the two leading organs of +the Government, the Courier of Charleston and the Enquirer of Richmond. +The Statutes of the Confederacy have been collected and published; most +of them are also to be found in the fourth series of the Official +Records. + +Additional bibliographical references will be found appended to the +articles on the Confederate States of America, Secession, and Jefferson +Davis, in The Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition. + + + + + + + + + +INDEX +A +Alabama, represented at South Carolina convention, 3; secedes, 7; +convention, 8; situation in, 74, 114-120; iron for munitions from, 106; +questions of state sovereignty in, 116-119. +Alabama, The (ship), 53, 135, 139. +Anderson, Major Robert, transfers garrison to Sumter, 6; refuses +Beauregard's demands, 15-16; see also Sumter. +Antietam campaign, 53, 58. +Appomattox, surrender at, 201. +Arkansas, 14, 74, 112, 113, 114. +Arman, shipbuilder of Bordeaux, 132, 133, 135, 140, 143-144. +Army, composition and size of, 36-37; state armies, 38, 72; difficulty +of enlisting, 76; lack of shoes for, 77-78; desertion, 110, 120, 162, +166; surrenders, 201-202; see also Conscription, Military policy. +Ayer, L. M., of South Carolina, 88. + + +B +Baldwin, of Virginia, tells of martial law, 84. +Barksdale, Ethelbert, of Mississippi, 82, 84-85, 192. +Beauregard, General P. G. T., and the surrender of Fort Sumter, 15-24; +in Georgia, 148, 149. +Benjamin, J. P., signs To Our Constituents, 3; Attorney-General, 27; +Secretary of War, 34, 79 (note); Secretary of State, 34, 40; complaints +against, 40, 63-64; life and character, 69-71; denounces Napoleon, 144; +on extraconstitutional power, 185; attacked by Congress, 195; accepts +policy of emancipation, 197. +Blair, F. P., plan of reconciliation, 179-180. +Blockade, 51, 56, 77, 105. +Bocock, T. S., Speaker of House, 156. +Bonds, see Finance. +Boyce, of South Carolina, argument for peace, 175. +Bragg, General Braxton, plan to invade Kentucky, 44; attitude toward +press, 59; Davis's confidence in, 69; army conditions under, 96; resigns +command, 113-114. +Breckinridge, General J. C., Secretary of War, 79 (note). +Brown, J. E., Governor of Georgia, on secession, 5, 6-7; on +conscription, 65-66, 75-76; opponent of Administration, 145-149; +motives, 174 (note). +Bull Run, Battle of, see Manassas. +Bullock, Captain James, 135-136. +Butler, A. P., of South Carolina, 4. + + +C +Cabinet, 14-15, 27, 34, 40, 69. +Campbell, J. A., Confederate commissioner at Hampton Roads, 180. +Canada, Confederate agents in, 126-127. +Chancellorsville, 89. +Charleston, 15 et seq., 97. +Charleston Courier, 18, 21-22, 61-62, 94, 95, 97. +Charleston Mercury, describes siege of Sumter, 20; opposes +Administration, 33, 39, 43, 61-62, 95, 151, 152, 154; on conscription, +64; on Seddon's appointment, 79; on Impressment Act, 80; on Tax Act, 81; +on suspension of habeas corpus, 82-83, 85-86; issue of conduct of war, +89, 90; account of President's visit to Charleston, 97; on peace, 175, +180; doubts upper South, 196; on negro soldiers, 196. +Chattanooga, 113. +Chestnut, James, 18 (note). +Chevalier, Michel, 138. +Chickamauga campaign, 96, 113. +Clay, C. C., 127. +Cobb, Howell, 146, 154-155. +Cold Harbor, 126. +Columbia and Augusta Railroad Company, 152-153. +"Confederate Societies," 95. +Confederate States, provisional government organized, 10-11; status of +belligerent accorded by England, 35; clash with state authority, 38-40; +archives threatened, 42; period of elation, 43-44; foreign affairs, 46 +et seq.; 130 et seq.; secrecy of government, 59, 60, 65, 66; divided +into separate units, 74; impotence of government, 160; anti-war factions +in, 165-167; war ended, 202; see also Davis, South. +Congress, Confederate, 9-11. +Congress, U. S., House committee of thirty-three, 2, 13. +Conscription, adopted, 37-38; constitutionality attacked, 39; Pollard's +criticism of enforcement, 64; correspondence of Davis and Brown on, +65-66; Rhett's opinion of, 73; opposition to, 75-77; exemptions, 102, +123-124; hiring of substitutes, 103; failure of State and Confederate +governments to coöperate, 116, 151; age limits, 122-123. +Constitution, Confederate, 10-11. +Corinth, 53. +Cotton, to solve financial problem, 45-46; necessary to English, 46; +effect of blockade, 51-57; powerless to coerce England, 56. + + +D +Danville, Confederate capital, 200. +Davis, Jefferson, signs To Our Constituents, 3; elected President in +provisional Government, 11; as President, 15, 24 et seq.; from +Mississippi, 29; born in Kentucky, 30; early life, 31-32; personal +characteristics, 32; military activities, 33; criticism of, 33-34, 43, +61-65, 89-90, 159-160, 175; President at first regular election, 34; +inauguration, 35-36; message to Congress (1862), 36; proposes +conscription, 37; vetoes Texas Regiment Bill, 38; clash with state +authority, 38-40; use of martial law, 40-42; at height of powers, 43; +shortcomings, 67-69; relations with Lee, 68; Cabinet, 69; personal +loyalty, 70; statecraft, 71; endorses "Confederate Societies," 95; +journeys during Administration, 96-97; message to Congress (1863), 114; +message to Congress (1864), 119-120; in Georgia, 144, 148-149; forced to +reorganize army, 163-164; confident of Confederate success, 182, +196-197; signs compromise bill, 198; Address to the People of the +Confederate States, 200-201; resolute to continue struggle, 201; capture +at Irwinsville, Ga., 201. +Davis, Mrs. Jefferson, quoted, 67-68, 163. +Davis, Reuben, quoted, 67. +Deserters, 110, 120, 162, 166. +Desperadoes, 111, 166-167. +Donelson, Fort, 36, 40, 58. +Donoughmore, Lord, Mason interviews, 199. +Draft, see Conscription. + + +E +Egypt enters cotton competition, 56-57. +Elmore, of Alabama, addresses South Carolina convention, 3. +Emancipation, 184, 197, 198; Proclamation, 53, 77. +England, attitude toward Confederacy, 35, 46-47, 54, 56, 198-199; +mission to, 46; effort to coerce, 51-52; Mason in, 52-53; cotton famine +in, 53; bitterness against, 77, 137-138; "Southern party," 135, 136; +shipbuilding investigations, 135-136; decides France's attitude, 142. +Erlanger, Émile, 54-56, 131, 133. +Exemptions, 102, 123-124. + + +F +Finance, 45, 48; specie seized, 49; "fifteen million loan," 49; war tax, +49-50; loans, 50; note issues, 50; "hundred million loan," 51; "Erlanger +bonds," 54-56; price fixing, 78; 79, 80, 90-91, 95; Impressment Act, 80; +tax in kind, 80-81, 91, 92, 125; licensing of occupations, 81, 91; +income tax, 81, 91; property tax, 81; Funding Act, 81 (note), 125; +financial breakdown, 157-158. +Florida, 7, 74. +Florida, The, Confederate cruiser, 139. +Floyd, J. B., U. S. Secretary of War, resignation, 5, 6. +Food situation, 77, 108-109, 160-161. +Foote, H. S., 29, 84, 178, 179-180. +Forey, General, dispatched to Mexico, 132. +France, see Napoleon. +France, Mexico, and the Confederate Slates, 138. + + +G +Georgia, 74; secession issue in, 4-8; state sovereignty in, 65-66, +75-76; unrest in, 94, 158, 172; invaded, 127-129, 145-150. +Gettysburg, Battle of, 88, 89. +Grant, General U. S., crosses Rapidan, 126; at Cold Harbor, 126. + + +H +Habeas corpus acts, 41, 59, 82-86, 116-118, 119-120; 122, 197. +"Heroes of America," 120-121. +Hindman, General T. C., 84. +Holden, W. W., of North Carolina, 93, 170-171. +Hood, General J. B., 129, 147. +Hooker, of Mississippi, 3. +Houston, Sam, Governor of Texas, 8-9. +Hunter, R. M. T., Secretary of State, 34, 69; in Senate, 177; +Confederate commissioner at Hampton Roads, 180; opposes levy of negro +troops, 192. +Huntsville (Ala.), 118-119. + + +I +Impressment Act, 80, 90-91, 159. +Index, The, Confederate foreign organ, 62 (note). +India begins to export cotton, 56. +Industries in the South, 105-107. +Ismail Pasha, 56, 57. + + +J +Johnson, H. V., 172. +Johnston, A. S., 42-43. +Johnston, General J. E., 69; succeeds Bragg in command, 114; lower South +demands removal of, 128; superseded by Hood, 129; appeals for +restoration of, 154, 156; restored to command, 164; surrenders, 201. +Johnston, Fort, 17, 20. + + +K +Kenesaw Mountain, 127. +Kenner, D. J., dispatched to Europe, 197-198. +Kentucky, 63; plan of Confederacy to win, 44. + + +L +Labor, 100-102, 152-153. +Laird rams controversy, 135-136, 137. +Lee, General R. E., inspires army, 43-44; to invade Maryland, 44; and +Davis, 68-69; demand of full command for, 154, 156; conspiracy to set up +as dictator, 155; made commanding general, 163; opinion of peace +project, 180; as statesman, 187-190; officers propose to continue +fighting, 202-203; address to army, 203. +Lee, Stephen, 18 (note). +Lincoln, Abraham, reëlection, 175, 178; conference at Hampton Roads, +181. +Louisiana, 7, 42, 74, 112, 113, 114. + + +M +McClellan, General G. B., 42, 127. +Magrath, A. G., Governor of South Carolina, 152, 153-154, 196. +Manassas, Battle of, 33; Second, 43, 59. +Mann, A. D., Confederate commissioner at Brussels, 46, 132-133, 142. +Martial law, see Habeas corpus. Maryland, plan of Confederate States to +win, 44. +Mason, J. M., capture of, 46; replaces Yancey as commissioner, 47; in +England, 52-53, 55, 198-199; in Paris, 137-138, 198. +Memminger, C. G., Secretary of Treasury, attempts to establish foreign +credit, 48; resigns, 157; see also Finance. +Mexico, 114; Napoleon III and, 131, 132-133, 134, 138, 139; Confederate +negotiations with, 139-140, 144; project condemned by French people, +143; expedition suggested, 179. +Military policy, 33, 43-44. +Mississippi, represented in South Carolina convention, 3; secedes, 7; +typical of new order in South, 29-31; sense of Southern nationality, 31; +status of, 74, 114-115. +Mobile Bay, capture of, 129. +Montgomery (Ala.), general Congress of seceding States at, 9-11. +Montgomery Mail, 162. +Moultrie, Fort, 6, 20. +Munitions, 33, 48, 61, 65, 105-106. + + +N +Napoleon III, offers mediation, 54, 77; intrigues with Confederacy, 130 +et seq.; Italian policy, 134, 143; purpose exposed, 142; influence in +Mexican policy of the South, 178. +New Orleans, loss of, 42, 74. +New York Herald, 175. +Niter and Mining Bureau supplies powder for South, 106. +North Carolina, resolutions concerning Congress of seceding States, +9-10; against secession, 12; secedes, 14; state rights, 12, 39; +political life in, 74; protests tithes, 92; disorder in, 93-94; +anti-Davis tendencies in, 94; peace illusion in, 169-170; see also +Vance. +North Carolina Standard, 93. + + +P +Palmerston, Lord, British Prime Minister, Mason interviews, 198. +Peace, 93, 120, 121-122, 126-127, 169-170, 175-182, 202. +Peace Convention, 13. +"Peace Society," 121-122. +Peninsular campaign, 42, 59. +Perryville, Battle of, 53. +Petersburg (Va.), 107-108. +Pierce, Bishop, quoted, 109. +Pike, General Albert, 84. +Pollard, E. A., 62, 66, 69, 87; The First Year of the War, 62-64. +Porcher, F. A., 185. +Prentiss, S. S., 29. +Press, Freedom of, 59. +Preston, General J. S., 151. +Preston, General William, 140, 144. +Price-fixing, see Finance. +Profiteering, 78-79, 95, 108-109, 161-162. +Pryor, R. A., 13, 17-18 (note). +Pulaski, Fort, seized, 6. + + +Q +Quitman, J. A., 29. + + +R +Raleigh Progress, 93. +Ramsdell, C. W., The Confederate Government and the Railroads, cited, +108 (note). +Randolph, G. W., Secretary of War, 79 (note). +Refugees, 110-111. +Rhett, R. B., leader of secession movement of 1850-1851, 4; candidate +for President of Confederate States, 24; disappointment, 25, 26; on +state army, 72-73; retires, 87, 88-89; on arming the negroes, 184. +Rhodes, J. F., History of the United States, cited, 6 (note). +Richmond (Va.), capital of Confederacy, 34-35; martial law in, 41-42, +85; evacuated, 199. +Richmond Enquirer, government organ, 62, 82-83, 94, 95. +Richmond Examiner, opposition newspaper, 43, 62, 64-65, 80. +Richmond Sentinel, government organ, 94, 95, 161. +Richmond Whig, 80. +Rives, W. C., 155. +Roanoke Island, 36, 40, 63. +Roebuck, J. A., 136-137. +Rost, Confederate commissioner to Europe, 46. + + +S +Secession movement, 1 et seq.; of 1850-51, 3-4. +Secrecy of Administration, 59, 60, 65, 66. +Seddon, J. A., Secretary of War, 79, 112, 113, 147; resigns, 163, 180. +Selma (Ala.), foundry at, 105. +Seven Pines (Va.), 59. +Seward, W. H., at Hampton Roads conference, 181. +Sherman, General W. T., Georgia campaign, 126, 127-129, 150. +Slaves, 53, 167: not directly taxed, 91, 125; relation of Government to, +99-102; "Fifteen Slave" Law, 102-103; arming of, 183 et seq.; see also +Emancipation. +Slave-trade, African, prohibited, 11 (note), 99-100. +Slidell, John, capture of, 46; Confederate commissioner at Paris, 54; +and Napoleon, 130 et seq.; conference at Paris, 198. +Smith, G. W., 79 (note). +Smith, William, Governor of Virginia, 161, 186-187. +South, division in, 28 et seq.; life in, 99 et seq. +South Carolina, convention (1860), 2-4; secedes, 4; community of +aristocratic class, 28-29; question of state sovereignty in, 72; +political life in, 73-75; anti-Davis, 88; situation in 1864, 150-152; +passes State Conscription Act, 151. +Southern Advertiser, 117. +State sovereignty, 8, 12, 39, 56, 65-66, 71 et seq., 116-118, 169. +Stephens, A. H., leads opposition to secession, 7; on state sovereignty, +8; Vice-President in provisional Government, 11; a conservative, 27; +elected Vice-President at first regular election, 34; as central figure +in South, 172-174; on question of peace, 175-178; commissioner at +Hampton Roads conference, 180, 181. +Stephens, Linton, 76. +Substitutes, Hiring, 92, 103. +Sumter, Fort, 6; attack on, 14-23. + + +T +Taxation, see Finance. +Tennessee, 14, 74. +Texas, secedes, 7; secession issue in, 9; proposes regiment for home +defense, 38; last gunshots of war, 202; see also Trans-Mississippi. +Thompson, Jacob, 29, 127. +To Our Constituents, 2-3. +Toombs, Robert, gives information about Fort Pulaski, 6; a secessionist, +7; Secretary of State, 14, 27, 69; and Sumter, 14-15; candidate for +President, 24; leaves Cabinet, 34. +Trans-Mississippi, 74, 112, 113, 114. +Transportation, 107-108. +Tredegar Iron Works, 105. +Trenholm, G. A., 157. + + +V +Vance, Z. B., Governor of North Carolina, on military arrangements, +76-77; seeks to regulate prices, 78; proclamation to urge order, 93-94; +urges political changes, 154; reëlection, 170-171; policy, 171-172. +Van Dorn, General Earl, 44, 59. +Vicksburg (Miss.), 89-90, 96, 112-113. +Virginia, and secession, 11-14; calls Peace Convention, 13; political +life in, 74-75, 161, 186-187; see also Richmond. +Voruz, shipbuilder of Nantes, 140. + + +W +Walker, L. P., 34, 79 (note). +Walker, R. J., 29. +Wheeler, Joseph, 118. +Winder, J. H., 41. +Women, position in Confederacy, 104-105, 110-111. +Worth, Jonathan, 93, 169. + + +Y +Yancey, W. L., influence of, 25-26, commissioner to England, 25, 46, 47; +relieved by Mason, 47; incident at Havana, 47; attempts to abolish +secrecy of Government, 59-60; death, 87. + + + + +The Chronicles of America Series + + 1. The Red Man's Continent + by Ellsworth Huntington + 2. The Spanish Conquerors + by Irving Berdine Richman + 3. Elizabethan Sea-Dogs + by William Charles Henry Wood + 4. The Crusaders of New France + by William Bennett Munro + 5. Pioneers of the Old South + by Mary Johnson + 6. The Fathers of New England + by Charles McLean Andrews + 7. Dutch and English on the Hudson + by Maud Wilder Goodwin + 8. The Quaker Colonies + by Sydney George Fisher + 9. Colonial Folkways + by Charles McLean Andrews +10. The Conquest of New France + by George McKinnon Wrong +11. The Eve of the Revolution + by Carl Lotus Becker +12. Washington and His Comrades in Arms + by George McKinnon Wrong +13. The Fathers of the Constitution + by Max Farrand +14. Washington and His Colleagues + by Henry Jones Ford +15. Jefferson and his Colleagues + by Allen Johnson +16. John Marshall and the Constitution + by Edward Samuel Corwin +17. The Fight for a Free Sea + by Ralph Delahaye Paine +18. Pioneers of the Old Southwest + by Constance Lindsay Skinner +19. The Old Northwest + by Frederic Austin Ogg +20. The Reign of Andrew Jackson + by Frederic Austin Ogg +21. The Paths of Inland Commerce + by Archer Butler Hulbert +22. Adventurers of Oregon + by Constance Lindsay Skinner +23. The Spanish Borderlands + by Herbert Eugene Bolton +24. Texas and the Mexican War + by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson +25. The Forty-Niners + by Stewart Edward White +26. The Passing of the Frontier + by Emerson Hough +27. The Cotton Kingdom + by William E. Dodd +28. The Anti-Slavery Crusade + by Jesse Macy +29. Abraham Lincoln and the Union + by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson +30. The Day of the Confederacy + by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson +31. Captains of the Civil War + by William Charles Henry Wood +32. The Sequel of Appomattox + by Walter Lynwood Fleming +33. The American Spirit in Education + by Edwin E. Slosson +34. The American Spirit in Literature + by Bliss Perry +35. Our Foreigners + by Samuel Peter Orth +36. The Old Merchant Marine + by Ralph Delahaye Paine +37. The Age of Invention + by Holland Thompson +38. The Railroad Builders + by John Moody +39. The Age of Big Business + by Burton Jesse Hendrick +40. The Armies of Labor + by Samuel Peter Orth +41. The Masters of Capital + by John Moody +42. The New South + by Holland Thompson +43. The Boss and the Machine + by Samuel Peter Orth +44. The Cleveland Era + by Henry Jones Ford +45. The Agrarian Crusade + by Solon Justus Buck +46. The Path of Empire + by Carl Russell Fish +47. Theodore Roosevelt and His Times + by Harold Howland +48. Woodrow Wilson and the World War + by Charles Seymour +49. The Canadian Dominion + by Oscar D. Skelton +50. The Hispanic Nations of the New World + by William R. Shepherd + + + + + +Transcriber's Notes + + +Introduction: + +The Chronicles of America Series has two similar editions of each volume +in the series. One version is the Abraham Lincoln edition of the series, +a premium version which includes full-page pictures. 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Stephenson, +presented by Project Gutenberg +</p> + +<p class="boilerplate"> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org +</p> + + + +<p class="boilerplate"> +Title: The Day of the Confederacy,<br> + A Chronicle of the Embattled South,<br> + Volume 30 in The Chronicles Of America Series<br> +</p> +<p class="boilerplate"> +Author: Nathaniel W. Stephenson<br> +Editor: Allen Johnson<br> +Release Date: January 26, 2009 [EBook #3035]<br> +Last Updated: September 6, 2016<br> +Language: English<br> +Character set encoding: UTF-8 +</p> + +<p class="boilerplate"> +Produced by The James J. Kelly Library of St. Gregory's +University, Alev Akman, David Widger, and Robert Homa. +</p> + +<p class="boilerplate bold quad-space-bottom"> +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAY OF THE CONFEDERACY *** +</p> +</div> + + + + + +<div class="titlepage"> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">i</a></span> + <h1>The Day of the Confederacy</h1> + <p class="author">By Nathaniel W. Stephenson</p> + <p class="book-subtitle">A Chronicle of the Embattled South</p> + <p class="noindent"> + Volume 30 of the<br> + Chronicles of America Series <br> + ∴<br> + Allen Johnson, Editor<br> + Assistant Editors<br> + Gerhard R. Lomer <br> + Charles W. Jefferys + </p> + <p class="tiny"> + <p class="noindent"> + <i>Abraham Lincoln Edition</i><br><br><br><br> + </p> + <p class="noindent small"> + New Haven: Yale University Press<br> + Toronto: Glasgow, Brook & Co.<br> + London: Humphrey Milford<br> + Oxford University Press<br> + 1919 + </p> +</div> +<p class="noindent center small"> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">ii</a></span> + Copyright, 1919<br> + by Yale University Press +</p> +<p> + <br><br><br> +</p> +<hr> + + + +<p> +<a name="Contents"></a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">iii</a></span> +<br><br><br> +</p> +<h2 align="center">CONTENTS</h2> + + +<table class="toc" summary="Table of Contents for The Day of the Confederacy"> +<caption>The Day of the Confederacy</caption> +<tr> +<th>Chapter</th> +<th>Chapter Title</th> +<th>Page</th> +</tr> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td>I.</td> +<td class="smcap"> +<a href="#chap01">The Secession Movement</a></td> +<td>1</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>II.</td> +<td class="smcap"> +<a href="#chap02">The Davis Government</a></td> +<td>24</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>III.</td> +<td class="smcap"> +<a href="#chap03">The Fall of King Cotton</a></td> +<td>45</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>IV.</td> +<td class="smcap"> +<a href="#chap04">Reaction Against Richmond</a></td> +<td>58</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>V.</td> +<td class="smcap"> +<a href="#chap05">The Critical Year</a></td> +<td>87</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>VI.</td> +<td class="smcap"> +<a href="#chap06">Life in the Confederacy</a></td> +<td>99</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>VII.</td> +<td class="smcap"> +<a href="#chap07">The Turning of the Tide</a></td> +<td>112</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>VIII.</td> +<td class="smcap"> +<a href="#chap08">A Game of Chance</a></td> +<td>130</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>IX.</td> +<td class="smcap"> +<a href="#chap09">Desperate Remedies</a></td> +<td>145</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>X.</td> +<td class="smcap"> +<a href="#chap10">Disintegration</a></td> +<td>165</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>XI.</td> +<td class="smcap"> +<a href="#chap11">An Attempted Revolution</a></td> +<td>183</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>XII.</td> +<td class="smcap"> +<a href="#chap12">The Last Word</a></td> +<td>200</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="smcap"> +<a href="#biblio">Bibliographical Note</a></td> +<td>205</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td class="smcap"> +<a href="#index">Index</a></td> +<td>209</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> + + + + + + <hr> + + + + <div class="start-of-book"> + <p class="center"> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">1</a></span> + <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"></a> + <a name="chap01" id="chap01"></a> + THE DAY OF THE CONFEDERACY + </p> + <p class="center single-space-top"> + <span class="xlarge">∴</span> + </p> + <h2> + <a href="#Contents">CHAPTER I.</a> + </h2> + </div> + + + <p class="chaptertitle">The Secession Movement</p> + + <p class="noindent"> + <span class="smcap">The</span> + secession movement had three distinct stages. The first, beginning + with the news that Lincoln was elected, closed with the news, sent + broadcast over the South from Charleston, that Federal troops had taken + possession of Fort Sumter on the night of the 26th of December. During + this period the likelihood of secession was the topic of discussion in the + lower South. What to do in case the lower South seceded was the question + which perplexed the upper South. In this period no State north of South + Carolina contemplated taking the initiative. In the Southeastern and Gulf + States immediate action of some sort was expected. Whether it would be + secession or some other new course was not certain on the day of Lincoln's + election. + </p> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">2</a></span> + Various States earlier in the year had provided for conventions + of their people in the event of a Republican victory. The first to + assemble was the convention of South Carolina, which organized at + Columbia, on December 17, 1860. Two weeks earlier Congress had met. + Northerners and Southerners had at once joined issue on their relation in + the Union. The House had appointed its committee of thirty-three to + consider the condition of the country. So unpromising indeed from the + Southern point of view had been the early discussions of this committee + that a conference of Southern members of Congress had sent out their + famous address <i>To Our Constituents</i>: "The argument is exhausted. All hope + of relief in the Union … is extinguished, and we trust the South will not + be deceived by appearances or the pretense of new guarantees. In our + judgment the Republicans are resolute in the purpose to grant nothing that + will or ought to satisfy the South. We are satisfied the honor, safety, + and independence of the Southern people require the organization of a + Southern Confederacy—a result to be obtained only by separate state + secession." Among the signers of this address were the two statesmen who + had in native talent no superiors at Washington—Judah + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">3</a></span> + P. Benjamin of Louisiana and Jefferson Davis of Mississippi. + </p> + <p> + The appeal <i>To Our Constituents</i> was not the only assurance of support + tendered to the convention of South Carolina. To represent them at this + convention the governors of Alabama and Mississippi had appointed + delegates. Mr. Hooker of Mississippi and Mr. Elmore of Alabama made + addresses before the convention on the night of the 17th of December. Both + reiterated views which during two days of lobbying they had disseminated + in Columbia "on all proper occasions." Their argument, summed up in + Elmore's report to Governor Moore of Alabama, was "that the only course to + unite the Southern States in any plan of coöperation which could promise + safety was for South Carolina to take the lead and secede at once without + delay or hesitation … that the only effective plan of coöperation must + ensue after one State had seceded and presented the issue when the plain + question would be presented to the other Southern States whether they + would stand by the seceding State engaged in a common cause or abandon her + to the fate of coercion by the arms of the Government of the United + States." + </p> + <p> + Ten years before, in the unsuccessful secession + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">4</a></span> + movement of 1850 and 1851, + Andrew Pickens Butler, perhaps the ablest South Carolinian then living, + strove to arrest the movement by exactly the opposite argument. Though + desiring secession, he threw all his weight against it because the rest of + the South was averse. He charged his opponents, whose leader was Robert + Barnwell Rhett, with aiming to place the other Southern States "in such + circumstances that, having a common destiny, they would be compelled to be + involved in a common sacrifice." He protested that "to force a sovereign + State to take a position against its consent is to make of it a reluctant + associate.… Both interest and honor must require the Southern States to + take council together." + </p> + <p> + That acute thinker was now in his grave. The bold enthusiast whom he + defeated in 1851 had now no opponent that was his match. No great + personality resisted the fiery advocates from Alabama and Mississippi. + Their advice was accepted. On December 20, 1860, the cause that ten years + before had failed was successful. The convention, having adjourned from + Columbia to Charleston, passed an ordinance of secession. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, in Georgia, at a hundred meetings, the secession issue was + being hotly discussed. But + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">5</a></span> + there was not yet any certainty which way the + scale would turn. An invitation from South Carolina to join in a general + Southern convention had been declined by the Governor in November. + Governor Brown has left an account ascribing the comparative coolness and + deliberation of the hour to the prevailing impression that President + Buchanan had pledged himself not to alter the military status at + Charleston. In an interview between South Carolina representatives and the + President, the Carolinians understood that such a pledge was given. "It + was generally understood by the country," says Governor Brown, "that such + an agreement … had been entered into … and that Governor Floyd of + Virginia, then Secretary of War, had expressed his determination to resign + his position in the Cabinet in case of the refusal of the President to + carry out the agreement in good faith. The resignation of Governor Floyd + was therefore naturally looked upon, should it occur, as a signal given to + the South that reinforcements were to be sent to Charleston and that the + coercive policy had been adopted by the Federal Government." + </p> + <p> + While the "canvass in Georgia for members of the State convention was + progressing with much interest on both sides," there came suddenly the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">6</a></span> + news that Anderson had transferred his garrison from Fort Moultrie to the + island fortress of Sumter. That same day commissioners from South + Carolina, newly arrived at Washington, sought in vain to persuade the + President to order Anderson back to Moultrie. The Secretary of War made + the subject an issue before the Cabinet. Unable to carry his point, two + days later he resigned. ¹ + </p> + + <div class="footer"> + <p class="footer"> + <a id="footer_6-1" name="footer_6-1"></a> + ¹ The President had already asked for Floyd's resignation + because of financial irregularities, and Floyd was shrewd + enough to use Anderson's <i>coup</i> as an excuse for resigning. + See Rhodes, <i>History of the United States,</i> vol. II pp. 225, + 236 (note). + </p> + </div> + + <p> + The Georgia Governor, who had not hitherto been in the front rank of the + aggressives, now struck a great blow. Senator Toombs had telegraphed from + Washington that Fort Pulaski, guarding the Savannah River, was "in + danger." The Governor had reached the same conclusion. He mustered the + state militia and seized Fort Pulaski. Early in the morning on January + 3, 1861, the fort was occupied by Georgia troops. Shortly afterward, Brown + wrote to a commissioner sent by the Governor of Alabama to confer with + him: "While many of our most patriotic and intelligent citizens in both + States have doubted the propriety of immediate secession, I feel quite + confident that recent events have dispelled those doubts from the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">7</a></span> + minds of + most men who have, till within the past few days, honestly sustained + them." The first stage of the secession movement was at an end; the second + had begun. + </p> + <p> + A belief that Washington had entered upon a policy of aggression swept the + lower South. The state conventions assembling about this time passed + ordinances of secession—Mississippi, January 9; Florida, January 10; + Alabama, January 11; Georgia, January 19; Louisiana, January 26; Texas, + February 1. But this result was not achieved without considerable + opposition. In Georgia the Unionists put up a stout fight. The issue was + not upon the right to secede—virtually no one denied the right—but + upon the wisdom of invoking the right. Stephens, gloomy and pessimistic, + led the opposition. Toombs came down from Washington to take part with the + secessionists. From South Carolina and Alabama, both ceaselessly active + for secession, commissioners appeared to lobby at Milledgeville, as + commissioners of Alabama and Mississippi had lobbied at Columbia. Besides + the out-and-out Unionists, there were those who wanted to temporize, to + threaten the North, and to wait for developments. The motion on which + these men and the Unionists made their + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">8</a></span> + last stand together went against + them 164 to 133. Then at last came the square question: Shall we secede? + Even on this question, the minority was dangerously large. Though the + temporizers came over to the secessionists, and with them came Stephens, + there was still a minority of 89 irreconcilables against the majority + numbering 208. + </p> + <p> + "My allegiance," said Stephens afterwards, "was, as I considered it, not + due to the United States, or to the people of the United States, but to + Georgia, in her sovereign capacity. Georgia had never parted with her + right to demand the ultimate allegiance of her citizens." + </p> + <p> + The attempt in Georgia to restrain impetuosity and advance with + deliberation was paralleled in Alabama, where also the aggressives were + determined not to permit delay. In the Alabama convention, the + conservatives brought forward a plan for a general Southern convention to + be held at Nashville in February. It was rejected by a vote of 54 to 45. + An attempt to delay secession until after the 4th of March was defeated by + the same vote. + </p> + <p> + The determination of the radicals to precipitate the issue received + interesting criticism from the Governor of Texas, old Sam Houston. To a + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">9</a></span> + commissioner from Alabama who was sent out to preach the cause in Texas + the Governor wrote, in substance, that since Alabama would not wait to + consult the people of Texas he saw nothing to discuss at that time, and he + went on to say: + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="noindent"> + Recognizing as I do the fact that the sectional tendencies of the Black + Republican party call for determined constitutional resistance at the + hands of the united South, I also feel that the million and a half of + noble-hearted, conservative men who have stood by the South, even to this + hour, deserve some sympathy and support. Although we have lost the day, we + have to recollect that our conservative Northern friends cast over a + quarter of a million more votes against the Black Republicans than we of + the entire South. I cannot declare myself ready to desert them as well as + our Southern brethren of the border (and such, I believe, will be the + sentiment of Texas) until at least one firm attempt has been made to + preserve our constitutional rights within the Union. + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + Nevertheless, Houston was not able to control his State. Delegates from + Texas attended the later sessions of a general Congress of the seceding + States which, on the invitation of Alabama, met at Montgomery on the 4th + of February. A contemporary document of singular interest today is the + series of resolutions adopted by the Legislature of North Carolina, + setting forth that, as the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">10</a></span> + State was a member of the Federal Union, it + could not accept the invitation of Alabama but should send delegates for + the purpose of persuading the South to effect a readjustment on the basis + of the Crittenden Compromise as modified by the Legislature of Virginia. + The commissioners were sent, were graciously received, were accorded seats + in the Congress, but they exerted no influence on the course of its + action. + </p> + <p> + The Congress speedily organized a provisional Government for the + Confederate States of America. The Constitution of the United States, + rather hastily reconsidered, became with a few inevitable alterations the + Constitution of the Confederacy. ¹ + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">11</a></span> + Davis was unanimously elected + President; Stephens, Vice-President. Provision was made for raising an + army. Commissioners were dispatched to Washington to negotiate a treaty + with the United States; other commissioners were sent to Virginia to + attempt to withdraw that great commonwealth from the Union. + </p> + + + <div class="footer"> + <p class="footer"> + <a id="footer_11-1" name="footer_11-1"></a> + ¹ To the observer of a later age this document appears a + thing of haste. Like the framers of the Constitution of + 1787, who omitted from their document some principles which + they took for granted, the framers of 1861 left unstated + their most distinctive views. The basal idea upon which the + revolution proceeded, the right of secession, is not to be + found in the new Constitution. Though the preamble declares + that the States are acting in their sovereign and + independent character, the new Confederation is declared + "permanent." In the body of the document are provisions + similar to those in the Federal Constitution enabling a + majority of two-thirds of the States to amend at their + pleasure, thus imposing their will upon the minority. With + three notable exceptions the new Constitution, subsequent to + the preamble, does little more than restate the Constitution + of 1787 rearranged so as to include those basal principles + of the English law added to the earlier Constitution by the + first eight amendments. The three exceptions are the + prohibitions (1) of the payment of bounties, (2) of the + levying of duties to promote any one form of industry, and + (3) of appropriations for internal improvements. Here was a + monument to the battle over these matters in the Federal + Congress. As to the mechanism of the new Government it was + the same as the old except for a few changes of detail. The + presidential term was lengthened to six years and the + President was forbidden to succeed himself. The President + was given the power to veto items in appropriation bills. + The African slave-trade was prohibited. + </p> + </div> + <p> + The upper South was thus placed in a painful situation. Its sympathies + were with the seceding States. Most of its people felt also that if + coercion was attempted, the issue would become for Virginia and North + Carolina, no less than for South Carolina and Alabama, simply a matter of + self-preservation. As early as January, in the exciting days when Floyd's + resignation was being interpreted as a call to arms, the Virginia + Legislature had resolved that it would not consent to the coercion of a + seceding State. In May the Speaker of the North Carolina Legislature + assured a commissioner from Georgia that North Carolina would never + consent to the movement of troops "from or + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">12</a></span> + across" the State to attack a + seceding State. But neither Virginia nor North Carolina in this second + stage of the movement wanted to secede. They wanted to preserve the Union, + but along with the Union they wanted the principle of local autonomy. It + was a period of tense anxiety in those States of the upper South. The + frame of mind of the men who loved the Union but who loved equally their + own States and were firm for local autonomy is summed up in a letter in + which Mrs. Robert E. Lee describes the anguish of her husband as he + confronted the possibility of a divided country. + </p> + <p> + The real tragedy of the time lay in the failure of the advocates of these + two great principles—each so necessary to a far-flung democratic + country in a world of great powers!—the failure to coördinate them + so as to insure freedom at home and strength abroad. The principle for + which Lincoln stood has saved Americans in the Great War from playing such + a trembling part as that of Holland. The principle which seemed to Lee + even more essential, which did not perish at Appomattox but was + transformed and not destroyed, is what has kept us from becoming a western + Prussia. And yet if only it had been possible to coördinate the two + without the price of war! It was not possible because of + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">13</a></span> + the stored up + bitterness of a quarter century of recrimination. But Virginia made a last + desperate attempt to preserve the Union by calling the Peace Convention. + It assembled at Washington the day the Confederate Congress met at + Montgomery. Though twenty-one States sent delegates, it was no more able + to effect a working scheme of compromise than was the House committee of + thirty-three or the Senate committee of thirteen, both of which had + striven, had failed, and had gone their ways to a place in the great + company of historic futilities. + </p> + <p> + And so the Peace Convention came and went, and there was no consolation + for the troubled men of the upper South who did not want to secede but + were resolved not to abandon local autonomy. Virginia was the key to the + situation. If Virginia could be forced into secession, the rest of the + upper South would inevitably follow. Therefore a Virginia hothead, Roger + A. Pryor, being in Charleston in those wavering days, poured out his heart + in fiery words, urging a Charleston crowd to precipitate war, in the + certainty that Virginia would then have to come to their aid. When at last + Sumter was fired upon and Lincoln called for volunteers, the second stage + of the secession movement ended + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">14</a></span> + in a thunderclap. The third period was + occupied by the second group of secessions: Virginia on the 17th of April, + North Carolina and Arkansas during May, Tennessee early in June. + </p> + <p> + Sumter was the turning-point. The boom of the first cannon trained on the + island fortress deserves all the rhetoric it has inspired. Who was + immediately responsible for that firing which was destiny? Ultimate + responsibility is not upon any person. War had to be. If Sumter had not + been the starting-point, some other would have been found. Nevertheless + the question of immediate responsibility, of whose word it was that served + as the signal to begin, has produced an historic controversy. + </p> + <p> + When it was known at Charleston that Lincoln would attempt to provision + the fort, the South Carolina authorities referred the matter to the + Confederate authorities. The Cabinet, in a fateful session at Montgomery, + hesitated—drawn between the wish to keep their hold upon the + moderates of the North, who were trying to stave off war, and the desire + to precipitate Virginia into the lists. Toombs, Secretary of State in the + new Government, wavered; then seemed to find his resolution and came out + strong against a demand for + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">15</a></span> + surrender. "It is suicide, murder, and will + lose us every friend at the North.… It is unnecessary; it puts us in the + wrong; it is fatal," said he. But the Cabinet and the President decided to + take the risk. To General Pierre Beauregard, recently placed in command of + the militia assembled at Charleston, word was sent to demand the surrender + of Fort Sumter. + </p> + <p> + On Thursday, the 7th of April, besides his instructions from Montgomery, + Beauregard was in receipt of a telegram from the Confederate commissioners + at Washington, repeating newspaper statements that the Federal relief + expedition intended to land a force "which will overcome all opposition." + There seems no doubt that Beauregard did not believe that the expedition + was intended merely to provision Sumter. Probably every one in Charleston + thought that the Federal authorities were trying to deceive them, that + Lincoln's promise not to do more than provision Sumter was a mere blind. + Fearfulness that delay might render Sumter impregnable lay back of + Beauregard's formal demand, on the 11th of April, for the surrender of the + fort. Anderson refused but "made some verbal observations" to the aides + who brought him the demand. In effect he said + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">16</a></span> + that lack of supplies would + compel him to surrender by the fifteenth. When this information was taken + back to the city, eager crowds were in the streets of Charleston + discussing the report that a bombardment would soon begin. But the + afternoon passed; night fell; and nothing was done. On the beautiful + terrace along the sea known as East Battery, people congregated, watching + the silent fortress whose brick walls rose sheer from the midst of the + harbor. The early hours of the night went by and as midnight approached + and still there was no flash from either the fortress or the shore + batteries which threatened it, the crowds broke up. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile there was anxious consultation at the hotel where Beauregard had + fixed his headquarters. Pilots came in from the sea to report to the + General that a Federal vessel had appeared off the mouth of the harbor. + This news may well explain the hasty dispatch of a second expedition to + Sumter in the middle of the night. At half after one, Friday morning, four + young men, aides of Beauregard, entered the fort. Anderson repeated his + refusal to surrender at once but admitted that he would have to surrender + within three days. Thereupon the aides held a council of war. They decided + that the reply was unsatisfactory and + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">17</a></span> + wrote out a brief note which they + handed to Anderson informing him that the Confederates would open "fire + upon Fort Sumter in one hour from this time." The note was dated 3:20 A.M. + The aides then proceeded to Fort Johnston on the south side of the harbor + and gave the order to fire. + </p> + <p> + The council of the aides at Sumter is the dramatic detail that has caught + the imagination of historians and has led them, at least in some cases, to + yield to a literary temptation. It is so dramatic—that scene of the + four young men holding in their hands, during a moment of absolute + destiny, the fate of a people; four young men, in the irresponsible ardor + of youth, refusing to wait three days and forcing war at the instant! It + is so dramatic that one cannot judge harshly the artistic temper which is + unable to reject it. But is the incident historic? Did the four young men + come to Sumter without definite instructions? Was their conference really + anything more than a careful comparing of notes to make sure they were + doing what they were intended to do? Is not the real clue to the event a + message from Beauregard to the Secretary of War telling of his interview + with the pilots? ¹ + </p> + + <div class="footer"> + <p class="footer"> + <a id="footer_17-1" name="footer_17-1"></a> + ¹ A chief authority for the dramatic version of the council + of the aides is that fiery Virginian, Roger A. Pryor. He and + another accompanied + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">18</a></span> + the official messengers, the signers of + the note to Anderson, James Chestnut and Stephen Lee. Years + afterwards Pryor told the story of the council in a way to + establish its dramatic significance. But would there be + anything strange if a veteran survivor, looking back to his + youth, as all of us do through more or less of mirage, + yielded to the unconscious artist that is in us all and + dramatized this event unaware? + </p> + </div> + + <p> + Dawn was breaking gray, with a faint rain in the air, when the first boom + of the cannon awakened the city. Other detonations followed in quick + succession. Shells rose into the night from both sides of the harbor and + from floating batteries. How lightly Charleston slept that night may be + inferred from the accounts in the newspapers. "At the report of the first + gun," says the <i>Courier,</i> "the city was nearly emptied of its inhabitants + who crowded the Battery and the wharves to witness the conflict." + </p> + <p> + The East Battery and the lower harbor of the lovely city of Charleston + have been preserved almost without alteration. What they are today they + were in the breaking dawn on April 12, 1861. Business has gone up the + rivers between which Charleston lies and has left the point of the city's + peninsula, where East Battery looks outward to the Atlantic, in its + perfect charm. There large houses, pillared, with high piazzas, stand + apart one from another among gardens. With few exceptions + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">19</a></span> + they were built + before the middle of the century and all, with one exception, show the + classical taste of those days. The mariner, entering the spacious inner + sea that is Charleston Harbor, sights this row of stately mansions even + before he crosses the bar seven miles distant. Holding straight onward up + into the land he heads first for the famous little island where, nowadays, + in their halo of thrilling recollection, the walls of Sumter, rising sheer + from the bosom of the water, drowse idle. Close under the lee of Sumter, + the incoming steersman brings his ship about and chooses, probably, the + eastward of two huge tentacles of the sea between which lies the city's + long but narrow peninsula. To the steersman it shows a skyline serrated by + steeples, fronted by sea, flanked southward by sea, backgrounded by an + estuary, and looped about by a sickle of wooded islands. + </p> + <p> + This same scene, + so far as city and nature go, was beheld by the crowds that swarmed East + Battery, a flagstone marine parade along the seaward side of the boulevard + that faces Sumter; that filled the windows and even the housetops; that + watched the bombardment with the eagerness of an audience in an + amphitheater; that applauded every telling shot with clapping of hands and + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">20</a></span> + waving of shawls and handkerchiefs. The fort lay distant from them about + three miles, but only some fifteen hundred yards from Fort Johnston on one + side and about a mile from Fort Moultrie on the other. From both of these + latter, the cannon of those days were equal to the task of harassing + Sumter. Early in the morning of the 12th of April, though not until broad + day had come, did Anderson make reply. All that day, at first under + heavily rolling cloud and later through curiously misty sunshine, the fire + and counterfire continued. "The enthusiasm and fearlessness of the + spectators," says the Charleston <i>Mercury,</i> "knew no bounds." Reckless + observers even put out in small boats and roamed about the harbor almost + under the guns of the fort. Outside the bar, vessels of the relieving + squadron were now visible, and to these Anderson signaled for aid. They + made an attempt to reach the fort, but only part of the squadron had + arrived, and the vessels necessary to raise the siege were not there. The + attempt ended in failure. When night came, a string of rowboats each + carrying a huge torch kept watch along the bar to guard against surprise + from the sea. + </p> + <p> + On that Friday night the harbor was swept by + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">21</a></span> + storm. But in spite of + torrents of rain East Battery and the rooftops were thronged. "The wind + was inshore and the booming was startlingly distinct." At the height of + the bombardment, the sky above Sumter seemed to be filled with the flashes + of bursting shells. But during this wild night Sumter itself was both dark + and silent. Its casements did not have adequate lamps and the guns could + not be used except by day. When morning broke, clear and bright after the + night's storm, the duel was resumed. + </p> + <p> + The walls of Sumter were now crumbling. At eight o'clock Saturday morning + the barracks took fire. Soon after it was perceived from the shore that + the flag was down. Beauregard at once sent offers of assistance. With + Sumter in flames above his head, Anderson replied that he had not + surrendered; he declined assistance; and he hauled up his flag. Later in + the day the flagstaff was shot in two and again the flag fell, and again + it was raised. Flames had been kindled anew by red-hot shot, and now the + magazine was in danger. Quantities of powder were thrown into the sea. + Still the rain of red-hot shot continued. About noon, Saturday, says the + <i>Courier,</i> "flames burst out from every quarter of Sumter and + poured from many + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">22</a></span> + of its portholes … the wind was from the west driving the smoke + across the fort into the embrasures where the gunners were at work." + Nevertheless, "as if served with a new impulse," the guns of Sumter + redoubled their fire. But it was not in human endurance to keep on in the + midst of the burning fort. This splendid last effort was short. At a + quarter after one, Anderson ceased firing and raised a white flag. + Negotiations followed ending in terms of surrender—Anderson to be + allowed to remove his garrison to the fleet lying idle beyond the bar and + to salute the flag of the United States before taking it down. The + bombardment had lasted thirty-two hours without a death on either side. + The evacuation of the fort was to take place next day. + </p> + <p> + The afternoon of Sunday, the 14th of April, was a gala day in the harbor + of Charleston. The sunlight slanted across the roofs of the city, sparkled + upon the sea. Deep and rich the harbor always looks in the spring sunshine + on bright afternoons. The filmy atmosphere of these latitudes, at that + time of year, makes the sky above the darkling, afternoon sea a pale but + luminous turquoise. There is a wonderful soft strength in the peaceful + brightness of the sun. In such an atmosphere the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">23</a></span> + harbor was flecked with + brilliantly decked craft of every description, all in a flutter of flags + and carrying a host of passengers in gala dress. The city swarmed across + the water to witness the ceremony of evacuation. Wherry men did a thriving + business carrying passengers to the fort. + </p> + <p> + Anderson withdrew from Sumter shortly after two o'clock amid a salute of + fifty guns. The Confederates took possession. At half after four a new + flag was raised above the battered and fire-swept walls. + </p> + + <hr> + + + + <div class="chapterhead"> + <p class="center"> + <br> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">24</a></span> + <a name="chap02" id="chap02"></a> + <br><br><br> + </p> + <h2> + <a href="#Contents">CHAPTER II.</a> + </h2> + </div> + + <p class="chaptertitle">The Davis Government</p> + + <p class="noindent"> + <span class="smcap">It</span> + has never been explained why Jefferson Davis was chosen President of + the Confederacy. He did not seek the office and did not wish it. He + dreamed of high military command. As a study in the irony of fate, Davis's + career is made to the hand of the dramatist. An instinctive soldier, he + was driven by circumstances three times to renounce the profession of arms + for a less congenial civilian life. His final renunciation, which proved + to be of the nature of tragedy, was his acceptance of the office of + President. Indeed, why the office was given to him seems a mystery. Rhett + was a more logical candidate. And when Rhett, early in the lobbying at + Montgomery, was set aside as too much of a radical, Toombs seemed for a + time the certain choice of the majority. The change to Davis came suddenly + at the last moment. It was puzzling at the time; it is puzzling still. + </p> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">25</a></span> + Rhett, though doubtless bitterly disappointed, bore himself with the + <i>savoir faire</i> of a great gentleman. At the inauguration, it was on Rhett's + arm that Davis leaned as he entered the hall of the Confederate Congress. + The night before, in a public address, Yancey had said that the man and + the hour were met. The story of the Confederacy is filled with dramatic + moments, but to the thoughtful observer few are more dramatic than the + conjunction of these three men in the inauguration of the Confederate + President. Beneath a surface of apparent unanimity they carried, like + concealed weapons, points of view that were in deadly antagonism. This + antagonism had not revealed itself hitherto. It was destined to reveal + itself almost immediately. It went so deep and spread so far that unless + we understand it, the Confederate story will be unintelligible. + </p> + <p> + A strange fatality destined all three of these great men to despair. + Yancey, who was perhaps most directly answerable of the three for the + existence of the Confederacy, lost influence almost from the moment when + his dream became established. Davis was partly responsible, for he + promptly sent him out of the country on the bootless English mission. + Thereafter, until his death in 1863, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">26</a></span> + Yancey was a waning, overshadowed + figure, steadily lapsing into the background. It may be that those critics + are right who say he was only an agitator. The day of the mere agitator + was gone. Yancey passed rapidly into futile but bitter antagonism to + Davis. In this attitude he was soon to be matched by Rhett. + </p> + <p> + The discontent of the Rhett faction because their leader was not given the + portfolio of the State Department found immediate voice. But the + conclusion drawn by some that Rhett's subsequent course sprang from + personal vindictiveness is trifling. He was too large a personality, too + well defined an intellect, to be thus explained. Very probably Davis made + his first great blunder in failing to propitiate the Rhett faction. And + yet few things are more certain than that the two men, the two factions + which they symbolized, could not have formed a permanent alliance. Had + Rhett entered the Cabinet he could not have remained in it consistently + for any considerable time. The measures in which, presently, the + Administration showed its hand were measures in which Rhett could not + acquiesce. From the start he was predestined to his eventual position—the + great, unavailing genius of the opposition. + </p> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">27</a></span> + As to the comparative ignoring of these leaders of secession by the + Government which secession had created, it is often said that the + explanation is to be found in a generous as well as politic desire to put + in office the moderates and even the conservatives. Davis, relatively, was + a moderate. Stephens was a conservative. Many of the most pronounced + opponents of secession were given places in the public service. Toombs, + who received the portfolio of State, though a secessionist, was + conspicuously a moderate when compared with Rhett and Yancey. The adroit + Benjamin, who became Attorney-General, had few points in common with the + great extremists of Alabama and South Carolina. + </p> + <p> + However, the dictum that the personnel of the new Government was a triumph + for conservatism over radicalism signifies little. There was a division + among Southerners which scarcely any of them had realized except briefly + in the premature battle over secession in 1851. It was the division + between those who were conscious of the region as a whole and those who + were not. Explain it as you will, there was a moment just after the + secession movement succeeded when the South seemed to realize itself as a + whole, when it turned intuitively to those + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">28</a></span> + men who, as time was to + demonstrate, shared this realization. For the moment it turned away from + those others, however great their part in secession, who lacked this sense + of unity. + </p> + <p> + At this point, geography becomes essential. The South fell, + institutionally, into two grand divisions: one, with an old and firmly + established social order, where consciousness of the locality went back to + remote times; another, newly settled, where conditions were still fluid, + where that sense of the sacredness of local institutions had not yet + formed. + </p> + <p> + A typical community of the first-named class was South Carolina. Her + people had to a remarkable degree been rendered state-conscious partly by + their geographical neighbors, and partly by their long and illustrious + history, which had been interwoven with great European interests during + the colonial era and with great national interests under the Republic. It + is possible also that the Huguenots, though few in numbers, had exercised + upon the State a subtle and pervasive influence through their intellectual + power and their Latin sense for institutions. + </p> + <p> + In South Carolina, too, a wealthy leisure class with a passion for affairs + had cultivated enthusiastically + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">29</a></span> + that fine art which is the pride of all + aristocratic societies, the service of the State as a profession high and + exclusive, free from vulgar taint. In South Carolina all things conspired + to uphold and strengthen the sense of the State as an object of + veneration, as something over and above the mere social order, as the + sacred embodiment of the ideals of the community. Thus it is fair to say + that what has animated the heroic little countries of the Old + World—Switzerland and Serbia and ever-glorious Belgium—with + their passion to remain themselves, animated South Carolina in 1861. Just + as Serbia was willing to fight to the death rather than merge her identity + in the mosaic of the Austrian Empire, so this little American community + saw nothing of happiness in any future that did not secure its virtual + independence. + </p> + <p> + Typical of the newer order in the South was the community that formed the + President of the Confederacy. In the history of Mississippi previous to + the war there are six great names—Jacob Thompson, John A. Quitman, + Henry S. Foote, Robert J. Walker, Sergeant S. Prentiss, and Jefferson + Davis. Not one of them was born in the State. Thompson was born in North + Carolina; Quitman in New York; Foote in Virginia; Walker in Pennsylvania; + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</a></span> + Prentiss in Maine; Davis in Kentucky. In 1861 the State was but forty-four + years old, younger than its most illustrious sons—if the paradox may + be permitted. How could they think of it as an entity existing in itself, + antedating not only themselves but their traditions, circumscribing them + with its all-embracing, indisputable reality? These men spoke the language + of state rights. It is true that in politics, combating the North, they + used the political philosophy taught them by South Carolina. But it was a + mental weapon in political debate; it was not for them an emotional fact. + </p> + <p> + And yet these men of the Southwest had an ideal of their own as vivid and + as binding as the state ideal of the men of the eastern coast. Though half + their leaders were born in the North, the people themselves were + overwhelmingly Southern. From all the older States, all round the huge + crescent which swung around from Kentucky coastwise to Florida, + immigration in the twenties and thirties had poured into Mississippi. + Consequently the new community presented a composite picture of the whole + South, and like all composite pictures it emphasized only the factors + common to all its parts. What all the South had in common, what made a man + a Southerner in the general sense—in + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">31</a></span> + distinction from a Northerner + on the one hand, or a Virginian, Carolinian, Georgian, on the other—could + have been observed with clearness in Mississippi, just before the war, as + nowhere else. Therefore, the fulfillment of the ideal of Southern life in + general terms was the vision of things hoped for by the new men of the + Southwest. The features of that vision were common to them all—country + life, broad acres, generous hospitality, an aristocratic system. The + temperaments of these men were sufficiently buoyant to enable them to + apprehend this ideal even before it had materialized. Their romantic minds + could see the gold at the end of the rainbow. Theirs was not the pride of + administering a well-ordered, inherited system, but the joy of building a + new system, in their minds wholly elastic, to be sure, but still inspired + by that old system. + </p> + <p> + What may be called the sense of Southern nationality as opposed to the + sense of state rights, strictly speaking, distinguished this brilliant + young community of the Southwest. In that community Davis spent the years + that appear to have been the most impressionable of his life. Belonging to + a "new" family just emerging into wealth, he began life as a West Pointer + and saw gallant service as a + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">32</a></span> + youth on the frontier; resigned from the army + to pursue a romantic attachment; came home to lead the life of a wealthy + planter and receive the impress of Mississippi; made his entry into + politics, still a soldier at heart, with the philosophy of state rights on + his lips, but in his heart that sense of the Southern people as a new + nation, which needed only the occasion to make it the relentless enemy of + the rights of the individual Southern States. Add together the instinctive + military point of view and this Southern nationalism that even in 1861 had + scarcely revealed itself; join with these a fearless and haughty spirit, + proud to the verge of arrogance, but perfectly devoted, perfectly sincere; + and you have the main lines of the political character of Davis when he + became President. It may be that as he went forward in his great + undertaking, as antagonisms developed, as Rhett and others turned against + him, Davis hardened. He lost whatever comprehension he once had of the + Rhett type. Seeking to weld into one irresistible unit all the military + power of the South, he became at last in the eyes of his opponents a + monster, while to him, more and more positively, the others became mere + dreamers. + </p> + <p> + It took about a year for this irrepressible + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">33</a></span> + conflict within the + Confederacy to reveal itself. During the twelve months following Davis's + election as provisional President, he dominated the situation, though the + Charleston <i>Mercury,</i> the Rhett organ, found opportunities to be sharply + critical of the President. He assembled armies; he initiated heroic + efforts to make up for the handicap of the South in the manufacture of + munitions and succeeded in starting a number of munition plants; though + powerless to prevent the establishment of the blockade, he was able during + that first year to keep in touch with Europe, to start out Confederate + privateers upon the high seas, and to import a considerable quantity of + arms and supplies. At the close of the year the Confederate armies were + approaching general efficiency, for all their enormous handicap, almost if + not quite as rapidly as were the Union armies. And the one great event of + the year on land, the first battle of Manassas, or Bull Run, was a signal + Confederate victory. + </p> + <p> + To be sure Davis was severely criticized in some quarters for not adopting + an aggressive policy. The Confederate Government, whether wisely or + foolishly, had not taken the people into its confidence and the lack of + munitions was not generally + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">34</a></span> + appreciated. The easy popular cries were all + sounded: "We are standing still!" "The country is being invaded!" "The + President is a do-nothing!" From the coast regions especially, where the + blockade was felt in all its severity, the outcry was loud. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, the South in the main was content with the Administration + during most of the first year. In November, when the general elections + were held, Davis was chosen without opposition as the first regular + Confederate President for six years, and Stephens became the + Vice-President. The election was followed by an important change in the + Southern Cabinet. Benjamin became Secretary of War, in succession to the + first War Secretary, Leroy P. Walker. Toombs had already left the + Confederate Cabinet. Complaining that Davis degraded him to the level of a + mere clerk, he had withdrawn the previous July. His successor in the State + Department was R. M. T. Hunter of Virginia, who remained in office until + February, 1862, when his removal to the Confederate Senate opened the way + for a further advancement of Benjamin. + </p> + <p> + Richmond, which had been designated as the capital soon after the + secession of Virginia, was the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">35</a></span> + scene of the inauguration, on February 22, + 1862. Although the weather proved bleak and rainy, an immense crowd + gathered around the Washington monument, in Capitol Square, to listen to + the inaugural address. By this time the confidence in the Government, + which was felt generally at the time of the election, had suffered a + shock. Foreign affairs were not progressing satisfactorily. Though England + had accorded to the Confederacy the status of a belligerent, this was poor + consolation for her refusal to make full recognition of the new Government + as an independent power. Dread of internal distress was increasing. Gold + commanded a premium of fifty per cent. Disorder was a feature of the life + in the cities. It was known that several recent military events had been + victories for the Federals. A rumor was abroad that some great disaster + had taken place in Tennessee. The crowd listened anxiously to hear the + rumor denied by the President. But it was not denied. The tense listeners + noted two sentences which formed an admission that the situation was + grave: "A million men, it is estimated, are now standing in hostile array + and waging war along a frontier of thousands of miles. Battles have been + fought, sieges have been conducted, and although the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">36</a></span> + contest is not ended, + and the tide for the moment is against us, the final result in our favor + is not doubtful." + </p> + <p> + Behind these carefully guarded words lay serious alarm, not only with + regard to the operations at the front but as to the composition of the + army. It had been raised under various laws and its portions were subject + to conflicting classifications; it was partly a group of state armies, + partly a single Confederate army. None of its members had enlisted for + long terms. Many enlistments would expire early in 1862. The fears of the + Confederate Administration with regard to this matter, together with its + alarm about the events at the front, were expressed by Davis in a frank + message to the Southern Congress, three days later. "I have hoped," said + he, "for several days to receive official reports in relation to our + discomfiture at Roanoke Island and the fall of Fort Donelson. They have + not yet reached me.… The hope is still entertained that our reported + losses at Fort Donelson have been greatly exaggerated.…" He went on to + condemn the policy of enlistments for short terms, "against which," said + he, "I have steadily contended"; and he enlarged upon the danger that even + patriotic men, who intended to reënlist, might + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">37</a></span> + go home to put their + affairs in order and that thus, at a critical moment, the army might be + seriously reduced. The accompanying report of the Confederate Secretary of + War showed a total in the army of 340,250 men. This was an inadequate + force with which to meet the great hosts which were being organized + against it in the North. To permit the slightest reduction of the army at + that moment seemed to the Southern President suicidal. + </p> + <p> + But Davis waited some time longer before proposing to the Confederate + Congress the adoption of conscription. Meanwhile, the details of two great + reverses, the loss of Roanoke Island and the loss of Fort Donelson, became + generally known. Apprehension gathered strength. Newspapers began to + discuss conscription as something inevitable. At last, on March 28, 1862, + Davis sent a message to the Confederate Congress advising the conscription + of all white males between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five. For this + suggestion Congress was ripe, and the first Conscription Act of the + Confederacy was signed by the President on the 16th of April. The age of + eligibility was fixed as Davis had advised; the term of service was to be + three years; every one then in service was to be retained + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</a></span> + in service + during three years from the date of his original enlistment. + </p> + <p> + This statute may be thought of as a great victory on the part of the + Administration. It was the climax of a policy of centralization in the + military establishment to which Davis had committed himself by the veto, + in January, of "A bill to authorize the Secretary of War to receive into + the service of the Confederate States a regiment of volunteers for the + protection of the frontier of Texas." This regiment was to be under the + control of the Governor of the State. In refusing to accept such troops, + Davis laid down the main proposition upon which he stood as military + executive to the end of the war, a proposition which immediately set + debate raging: "Unity and cooperation by the troops of all the States are + indispensable to success, and I must view with regret this as well as all + other indications of a purpose to divide the power of States by dividing + the means to be employed in efforts to carry on separate operations." + </p> + <p> + In these military measures of the early months of 1862 Davis's purpose + became clear. He was bent upon instituting a strong government, able to + push the war through, and careless of the niceties + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">39</a></span> + of constitutional law + or of the exact prerogatives of the States. His position was expressed in + the course of the year by a Virginia newspaper: "It will be time enough to + distract the councils of the State about imaginary violations of + constitutional law by the supreme government when our independence is + achieved, established, and acknowledged. It will not be until then that + the sovereignty of the States will be a reality." But there were many + Southerners who could not accept this point of view. The <i>Mercury</i> was + sharply critical of the veto of the Texas Regiment Bill. In the interval + between the Texas veto and the passing of the Conscription Act, the state + convention of North Carolina demanded the return of North Carolina + volunteers for the defense of their own State. No sooner was the + Conscription Act passed than its constitutionality was attacked. As the + Confederacy had no Supreme Court, the question came up before state + courts. One after another, several state supreme courts pronounced the act + constitutional and in most of the States the constitutional issue was + gradually allowed to lapse. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, Davis had opened Pandora's box. The clash between State and + Confederate authority had begun. An opposition party began to + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">40</a></span> + form. In + this first stage of its definite existence, the opposition made an + interesting attempt to control the Cabinet. Secretary Benjamin, though + greatly trusted by the President, seems never to have been a popular + minister. Congress attempted to load upon Benjamin the blame for Roanoke + Island and Fort Donelson. In the House a motion was introduced to the + effect that Benjamin had "not the confidence of the people of the + Confederate States nor of the army … and that we most respectfully + request his retirement" from the office of Secretary of War. Friends of + the Administration tabled the motion. Davis extricated his friend by + taking advantage of Hunter's retirement and promoting Benjamin to the + State Department. A month later a congressional committee appointed to + investigate the affair of Roanoke Island exonerated the officer in command + and laid the blame on his superiors, including "the late Secretary of + War." + </p> + <p> + With Benjamin safe in the Department of State, with the majority in the + Confederate Congress still fairly manageable, with the Conscription Act in + force, Davis seemed to be strong enough in the spring of 1862 to ignore + the gathering opposition. And yet there was another measure, second only + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">41</a></span> + in the President's eyes to the Conscription Act, that was to breed + trouble. This was the first of the series of acts empowering him to + suspend the privilege of the writ of <i>habeas corpus.</i> Under this act he was + permitted to set up martial law in any district threatened with invasion. + The cause of this drastic measure was the confusion and the general + demoralization that existed wherever the close approach of the enemy + created a situation too complex for the ordinary civil authorities. Davis + made use of the power thus given to him and proclaimed martial law in + Richmond, in Norfolk, in parts of South Carolina, and elsewhere. It was on + Richmond that the hand of the Administration fell heaviest. The capital + was the center of a great camp; its sudden and vast increase in population + had been the signal for all the criminal class near and far to hurry + thither in the hope of a new field of spoliation; to deal with this + immense human congestion, the local police were powerless; every variety + of abominable contrivance to entrap and debauch men for a price was in + brazen operation. The first care of the Government under the new law was + the cleansing of the capital. General John H. Winder, appointed military + governor, did the job with thoroughness. He closed the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">42</a></span> + barrooms, disarmed + the populace, and for the time at least swept the city clean of criminals. + The Administration also made certain political arrests, and even + imprisoned some extreme opponents of the Government for "offenses not + enumerated and not cognizable under the regular process of law." Such + arrests gave the enemies of the Administration another handle against it. + As we shall see later, the use that Davis made of martial law was distorted + by a thousand fault-finders and was made the basis of the charge that the + President was aiming at absolute power. + </p> + <p> + At the moment, however, Davis was master of the situation. The six months + following April 1, 1862, were doubtless, from his own point of view, the + most satisfactory part of his career as Confederate President. These + months were indeed filled with peril. There was a time when McClellan's + advance up the Peninsula appeared so threatening that the archives of the + Government were packed on railway cars prepared for immediate removal + should evacuation be necessary. There were the other great disasters + during that year, including the loss of New Orleans. The President himself + experienced a profound personal sorrow in the death of his friend, Albert + Sidney + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</a></span> + Johnston, in the bloody fight at Shiloh. It was in the midst of + this time that tried men's souls that the Richmond <i>Examiner</i> achieved an + unenvied immortality for one of its articles on the Administration. At a + moment when nothing should have been said to discredit in any way the + struggling Government, it described Davis as weak with fear telling his + beads in a corner of St. Paul's Church. This paper, along with the + Charleston <i>Mercury,</i> led the Opposition. Throughout Confederate history + these two, which were very ably edited, did the thinking for the enemies + of Davis. We shall meet them time and again. + </p> + <p> + A true picture of Davis would have shown the President resolute and + resourceful, at perhaps the height of his powers. He recruited and + supplied the armies; he fortified Richmond; he sustained the great captain + whom he had placed in command while McClellan was at the gates. When the + tide had turned and the Army of the Potomac sullenly withdrew, baffled, + there occurred the one brief space in Confederate history that was pure + sunshine. In this period took place the splendid victory of Second + Manassas. The strong military policy of the Administration had given the + Confederacy powerful armies. Lee had inspired them + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">44</a></span> + with victory. This + period of buoyant hope culminated in the great offensive design which + followed Second Manassas. It was known that the Northern people, or a + large part of them, had suffered a reaction; the tide was setting strong + against the Lincoln Government; in the autumn, the Northern elections + would be held. To influence those elections and at the same time to drive + the Northern armies back into their own section; to draw Maryland and + Kentucky into the Confederate States; to fall upon the invaders in the + Southwest and recover the lower Mississippi—to accomplish all these + results was the confident expectation of the President and his advisers as + they planned their great triple offensive in August, 1862. Lee was to + invade Maryland; Bragg was to invade Kentucky; Van Dorn was to break the + hold of the Federals in the Southwest. If there is one moment that is to + be considered the climax of Davis's career, the high-water mark of + Confederate hope, it was the moment of joyous expectation when the triple + offensive was launched, when Lee's army, on a brilliant autumn day, + crossed the Potomac, singing <i>Maryland, my Maryland.</i> + </p> + <hr> + + + + <div class="chapterhead"> + <p class="center"> + <br> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">45</a></span> + <a name="chap03" id="chap03"></a> + <br><br><br> + </p> + <h2> + <a href="#Contents">CHAPTER III.</a> + </h2> + </div> + + <p class="chaptertitle">The Fall Of King Cotton</p> + + + <p class="noindent"> + <span class="smcap">While</span> + the Confederate Executive was building up its military + establishment, the Treasury was struggling with the problem of paying for + it. The problem was destined to become insoluble. From the vantage-point + of a later time we can now see that nothing could have provided a solution + short of appropriation and mobilization of the whole industrial power of + the country along with the whole military power—a conscription of + wealth of every kind together with conscription of men. But in 1862 such + an idea was too advanced for any group of Americans. Nor, in that year, + was there as yet any certain evidence that the Treasury was facing an + impossible situation. Its endeavors were taken lightly—at first, + almost gaily—because of the profound illusion which permeated Southern + thought that Cotton was King. + </p> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">46</a></span> + Obviously, if the Southern ports could be + kept open and cotton could continue to go to market, the Confederate + financial problem was not serious. When Davis, soon after his first + inauguration, sent Yancey, Rost, and Mann as commissioners to Europe to + press the claims of the Confederacy for recognition, very few Southerners + had any doubt that the blockade would be short-lived. "Cotton is King" + was the answer that silenced all questions. Without American cotton the + English mills would have to shut down; the operatives would starve; famine + and discontent would between them force the British ministry to intervene + in American affairs. There were, indeed, a few far-sighted men who + perceived that this confidence was ill-based and that cotton, though it + was a power in the financial world, was not the commercial king. The + majority of the population, however, had to learn this truth from keen + experience. + </p> + <p> + Several events of 1861 for a time seemed to confirm this illusion. The + Queen's proclamation in the spring, giving the Confederacy the status of a + belligerent, and, in the autumn, the demand by the British Government for + the surrender of the commissioners, Mason and Slidell, who had been taken + from a British packet by a Union cruiser—both + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">47</a></span> + these events seemed to + indicate active British sympathy. In England, to be sure, Yancey became + disillusioned. He saw that the international situation was not so simple + as it seemed; that while the South had powerful friends abroad, it also + had powerful foes; that the British anti-slavery party was a more + formidable enemy than he had expected it to be; and that intervention was + not a foregone conclusion. The task of an unrecognized ambassador being + too annoying for him, Yancey was relieved at his own request and Mason was + sent out to take his place. A singular little incident like a dismal + prophecy occurred as Yancey was on his way home. He passed through Havana + early in 1862, when the news of the surrender of Fort Donelson had begun + to stagger the hopes and impair the prestige of the Confederates. By the + advice of the Confederate agent in Cuba, Yancey did not call on the + Spanish Governor but sent him word that "delicacy alone prompted his + departure without the gratification of a personal interview." The Governor + expressed himself as "exceedingly grateful for the noble sentiment which + prevented" Yancey from causing international complications at Havana. + </p> + <p> + The history of the first year of Confederate + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">48</a></span> + foreign affairs is interwoven + with the history of Confederate finance. During that year the South became + a great buyer in Europe. Arms, powder, cloth, machinery, medicines, ships, + a thousand things, had all to be bought abroad. To establish the foreign + credit of the new Government was the arduous task of the Confederate + Secretary of the Treasury, Christopher G. Memminger. The first great + campaign of the war was not fought by armies. It was a commercial campaign + fought by agents of the Federal and Confederate governments and having for + its aim the cornering of the munitions market in Europe. In this campaign + the Federal agents had decisive advantages: their credit was never + questioned, and their enormous purchases were never doubtful ventures for + the European sellers. In some cases their superior credit enabled them to + overbid the Confederate agents and to appropriate large contracts which + the Confederates had negotiated but which they could not hold because of + the precariousness of their credit. And yet, all things considered, the + Confederate agents made a good showing. In the report of the Secretary of + War in February, 1862, the number of rifles contracted for abroad was put + at 91,000, of which 15,000 had been delivered. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">49</a></span> + The chief reliance of the + Confederate Treasury for its purchases abroad was at first the specie in + the Southern branch of the United States Mint and in Southern banks. The + former the Confederacy seized and converted to its own use. Of the latter + it lured into its own hands a very large proportion by what is commonly + called "the fifteen million loan"—an issue of eight per cent bonds + authorized in February, 1861. Most of this specie seems to have been taken + out of the country by the purchase of European commodities. A little, to + be sure, remained, for there was some gold still at home when the + Confederacy fell. But the sum was small. + </p> + <p> + In addition to this loan Memminger also persuaded Congress on August 19, + 1861, to lay a direct tax—the "war tax," as it was called—of + one-half of one per cent on all property except Confederate bonds and + money. As required by the Constitution this tax was apportioned among the + States, but if it assumed its assessment before April 1, 1862, each State + was to have a reduction of ten per cent. As there was a general aversion + to the idea of Confederate taxation and a general faith in loans, what the + States did, as a rule, was to assume their assessment, agree to pay it + into + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">50</a></span> + the Treasury, and then issue bonds to raise the necessary funds, thus + converting the war tax into a loan. + </p> + <p> + The Confederate, like the Union, Treasury did not have the courage to + force the issue upon taxation and leaned throughout the war largely upon + loans. It also had recourse to the perilous device of paper money, the + gold value of which was not guaranteed. Beginning in March, 1861, it + issued under successive laws great quantities of paper notes, some of them + interest bearing, some not. It used these notes in payment of its domestic + obligations. The purchasing value of the notes soon started on a + disastrous downward course, and in 1864 the gold dollar was worth thirty + paper dollars. The Confederate Government thus became involved in a + problem of self-preservation that was but half solved by the system of + tithes and impressment which we shall encounter later. The depreciation of + these notes left governmental clerks without adequate salaries and + soldiers without the means of providing for their families. During most of + the war, women and other noncombatants had to support the families or else + rely upon local charity organized by state or county boards. + </p> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">51</a></span> + Long before all the evils of paper money were experienced, the North, with + great swiftness, concentrated its naval forces so as to dominate the + Southern ports which had trade relations with Europe. The shipping ports + were at once congested with cotton to the great embarrassment of merchants + and planters. Partly to relieve them, the Confederate Congress instituted + in May, 1861, what is known today as "the hundred million loan." It was + the first of a series of "produce loans." The Treasury was authorized to + issue eight per cent bonds, to fall due in twenty years, and to sell them + for specie or to exchange them for produce or manufactured articles. In + the course of the remaining months of 1861 there were exchanged for these + bonds great quantities of produce including some 400,000 bales of cotton. + </p> + <p> + In spite of the distress of the planters, however, the illusion of King + Cotton's power does not seem to have been seriously impaired during 1861. + In fact, strange as it now seems, the frame of mind of the leaders appears + to have been proof, that year, against alarm over the blockade. For two + reasons, the Confederacy regarded the blockade at first as a blessing in + disguise. It was counted on to act as a protective tariff in stimulating + manufactures; + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">52</a></span> + and at the same time the South expected interruption of the + flow of cotton towards Europe to make England feel her dependence upon the + Confederacy. In this way there would be exerted an economic coercion which + would compel intervention. Such reasoning lay behind a law passed in May + forbidding the export of cotton except through the seaports of the + Confederacy. Similar laws were enacted by the States. During the summer, + many cotton factors joined in advising the planters to hold their cotton + until the blockade broke down. In the autumn, the Governor of Louisiana + forbade the export of cotton from New Orleans. So unshakeable was the + illusion in 1861, that King Cotton had England in his grip! The illusion + died hard. Throughout 1862, and even in 1863, the newspapers published + appeals to the planters to give up growing cotton for a time, and even to + destroy what they had, so as to coerce the obdurate Englishmen. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, Mason had been accorded by the British upper classes that + generous welcome which they have always extended to the representative of + a people fighting gallantly against odds. During the hopeful days of 1862—that + Golden Age of Confederacy—Mason, though not recognized by + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">53</a></span> + the English Government, was shown every kindness by leading members of the + aristocracy, who visited him in London and received him at their houses in + the country. It was during this period of buoyant hope that the <i>Alabama</i> + was allowed to go to sea from Liverpool in July, 1862. At the same time + Mason heard his hosts express undisguised admiration for the valor of the + soldiers serving under Jackson and Lee. Whether he formed any true + impression of the other side of British idealism, its resolute opposition + to slavery, may be questioned. There seems little doubt that he did not + perceive the turning of the tide of English public opinion, in the autumn + of 1862, following the Emancipation Proclamation and the great reverses of + September and October—Antietam-Sharpsburg, Perryville, Corinth—the + backflow of all three of the Confederate offensives. + </p> + <p> + The cotton famine in England, where perhaps a million people were in + actual want through the shutting down of cotton mills, seemed to Mason to + be "looming up in fearful proportions." "The public mind," he wrote home + in November, 1862, "is very much disturbed by the prospect for the winter; + and I am not without hope that it will produce its effects on the councils + of the government." + </p> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">54</a></span> + Yet it was the uprising of the British working people + in favor of the North that contributed to defeat the one important attempt + to intervene in American affairs. Napoleon III had made an offer of + mediation which was rejected by the Washington Government early the next + year. England and Russia had both declined to participate in Napoleon's + scheme, and their refusal marks the beginning of the end of the reign of + King Cotton. + </p> + <p> + At Paris, Slidell was even more hopeful than Mason. He had won over + Émile Erlanger, that great banker who was deep in the confidence + of Napoleon. So cordial became the relations between the two that it + involved their families and led at last to the marriage of Erlanger's + son with Slidell's daughter. Whether owing to Slidell's eloquence, or + from secret knowledge of the Emperor's designs, or from his own audacity, + Erlanger toward the close of 1862 made a proposal that is one of the + most daring schemes of financial plunging yet recorded. If the + Confederate Government would issue to him bonds secured by cotton, + Erlanger would underwrite the bonds, put the proceeds of their sale + to the credit of the Confederate agents, and wait for the cotton until it + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">55</a></span> + could run the blockade or until peace should be declared. The Confederate + Government after some hesitation accepted his plan and issued fifteen + millions of "Erlanger bonds," bearing seven per cent, and put them on + sale at Paris, London, Amsterdam, and Frankfort. + </p> + <p> + As a purchaser of these bonds was to be given cotton eventually at a + valuation of sixpence a pound, and as cotton was then selling in England + for nearly two shillings, the bold gamble caught the fancy of speculators. + There was a rush to take up the bonds and to pay the first installment. + But before the second installment became due a mysterious change in the + market took place and the price of the bonds fell. Holders became alarmed + and some even proposed to forfeit their bonds rather than pay on May 1, + 1863, the next installment of fifteen per cent of the purchase money. + Thereupon Mason undertook to "bull" the market. Agents of the United + States Government were supposed to be at the bottom of the drop in the + bonds. To defeat their schemes the Confederate agents bought back large + amounts in bonds intending to resell. The result was the expenditure of + some six million dollars with practically no effect on the market. These + "Erlanger bonds" + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">56</a></span> + sold slowly through 1863 and even in 1864, and netted a + considerable amount to the foreign agents of the Confederacy. + </p> + <p> + The comparative failure of the Erlanger loan marks the downfall of King + Cotton. He was an exploded superstition. He was unable, despite the cotton + famine, to coerce the English workingmen into siding with a country which + they regarded, because of its support of slavery, as inimical to their + interests. At home, the Government confessed the powerlessness of King + Cotton by a change of its attitude toward export. During the latter part + of the war, the Government secured the meager funds at its disposal abroad + by rushing cotton in swift ships through the blockade. So important did + this traffic become that the Confederacy passed stringent laws to keep the + control in its own hands. One more cause of friction between the + Confederate and the State authorities was thus developed: the Confederate + navigation laws prevented the States from running the blockade on their + own account. + </p> + <p> + The effects of the blockade were felt at the ends of the earth. India + became an exporter of cotton. Egypt also entered the competition. That + singular dreamer, Ismail Pasha, whose reign made + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">57</a></span> + Egypt briefly an exotic + nation, neither eastern nor western, found one of his opportunities in the + American War and the failure of the cotton supply. + </p> + <hr> + + + + <div class="chapterhead"> + <p class="center"> + <br> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">58</a></span> + <a name="chap04" id="chap04"></a> + <br><br><br> + </p> + <h2> + <a href="#Contents">CHAPTER IV.</a> + </h2> + </div> + + <p class="chaptertitle">The Reaction Against Richmond</p> + + + + <p class="noindent"> + <span class="smcap">A popular</span> + revulsion of feeling preceded and followed the great period of + Confederate history—these six months of Titanic effort which + embraced between March and September, 1862, splendid success along with + catastrophes. But there was a marked difference between the two tides of + popular emotion. The wave of alarm which swept over the South after the + surrender of Fort Donelson was quickly translated into such a high passion + for battle that the march of events until the day of Antietam resounded + like an epic. The failure of the triple offensive which closed this period + was followed in very many minds by the appearance of a new temper, often + as valiant as the old but far more grim and deeply seamed with distrust. + And how is this distrust, of which the Confederate Administration was the + object, to be accounted for? + </p> + <p> + Various answers to this question were made at + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">59</a></span> + the time. The laws of the + spring of 1862 were attacked as unconstitutional. Davis was held + responsible for them and also for the slow equipment of the army. Because + the Confederate Congress conducted much of its business in secret session, + the President was charged with a love of mystery and an unwillingness to + take the people into his confidence. Arrests under the law suspending the + writ of <i>habeas corpus</i> were made the texts for harangues on liberty. The + right of freedom of speech was dragged in when General Van Dorn, in the + Southwest, threatened with suppression any newspaper that published + anything which might impair confidence in a commanding officer. How could + he have dared to do this, was the cry, unless the President was behind + him? And when General Bragg assumed a similar attitude toward the press, + the same cry was raised. Throughout the summer of victories, even while + the thrilling stories of Seven Pines, the Peninsula, Second Manassas, were + sounding like trumpets, these mutterings of discontent formed an ominous + accompaniment. + </p> + <p> + Yancey, speaking of the disturbed temper of the time, attributed it to the + general lack of information on the part of Southern people as to what the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">60</a></span> + Confederate Government was doing. His proposed remedy was an end of the + censorship which that Government was attempting to maintain, the + abandonment of the secret sessions of its Congress, and the taking of the + people into its full confidence. Now a Senator from Alabama, he attempted, + at the opening of the congressional session in the autumn of 1862, to + abolish secret sessions, but in his efforts he was not successful. + </p> + <p> + There seems little doubt that the Confederate Government had blundered in + being too secretive. Even from Congress, much information was withheld. A + curious incident has preserved what appeared to the military mind the + justification of this reticence. The Secretary of War refused to comply + with a request for information, holding that he could not do so "without + disclosing the strength of our armies to many persons of subordinate + position whose secrecy cannot be relied upon." "I beg leave to remind + you," said he, "of a report made in response to a similar one from the + Federal Congress, communicated to them in secret session, and now a part + of our archives." + </p> + <p> + How much the country was in the dark with regard to some vital matters is + revealed by an attack on the Confederate Administration which + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">61</a></span> + was made by the Charleston <i>Mercury,</i> in February. The Southern + Government was accused of unpardonable slowness in sending agents to + Europe to purchase munitions. In point of fact, the Confederate Government + had been more prompt than the Union Government in rushing agents abroad. + But the country was not permitted to know this. Though the <i>Courier</i> + was a government organ in Charleston, it did not meet the charges of the + <i>Mercury</i> by disclosing the facts about the arduous attempts of the + Confederate Government to secure arms in Europe. The reply of the + <i>Courier</i> to the <i>Mercury,</i> though spirited, was all in + general terms. "To shake confidence in Jefferson Davis," said the + <i>Courier,</i> "is … to bring 'hideous ruin and combustion' + down upon our dearest hopes and interests." It made "Mr. Davis and his + defensive policy" objects of all admiration; called Davis "our Moses." It + was deeply indignant because it had been "reliably informed that men of + high official position among us" were "calling for a General Convention of + the Confederate States to depose him and set up a military Dictator in his + place." The <i>Mercury</i> retorted that, as to the plot against "our + Moses," there was no evidence of its existence except the <i>Courier's</i> + assertion. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">62</a></span> + Nevertheless, it considered Davis "an incubus to the cause." + The controversy between the <i>Mercury</i> and the <i>Courier</i> at + Charleston was paralleled at Richmond by the constant bickering between + the government organ, the <i>Enquirer,</i> and the <i>Examiner,</i> which + shares with the <i>Mercury</i> the first place among the newspapers + hostile to Davis. ¹ + </p> + + <div class="footer"> + <p class="footer"> + <a id="footer_62-1" name="footer_62-1"></a> + ¹ The Confederate Government did not misapprehend the + attitude of the intellectual opposition. Its foreign organ, + <i>The Index,</i> published in London, characterized the leading + Southern papers for the enlightenment of the British public. + While the <i>Enquirer</i> and the <i>Courier</i> were singled out as the + great champions of the Confederate Government, the <i>Examiner</i> + and the <i>Mercury</i> were portrayed as its arch enemies. The + <i>Examiner</i> was called the "Ishmael of the Southern press." The + <i>Mercury</i> was described as "almost rabid on the subject of + state rights." + </p> + </div> + + + <p> + Associated with the <i>Examiner</i> was a vigorous writer having considerable + power of the old-fashioned, furious sort, ever ready to foam at the mouth. + If he had had more restraint and less credulity, Edward A. Pollard might + have become a master of the art of vituperation. Lacking these qualities, + he never rose far above mediocrity. But his fury was so determined and his + prejudice so invincible that his writings have something of the power of + conviction which fanaticism wields. In midsummer, 1862, Pollard published + a book entitled <i>The First Year of the War,</i> which was commended + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">63</a></span> + by his + allies in Charleston as showing no "tendency toward unfairness of + statement" and as expressing views "mainly in accordance with popular + opinion." + </p> + <p> + This book, while affecting to be an historical review, was skillfully + designed to discredit the Confederate Administration. Almost every + disaster, every fault of its management was traceable more or less + directly to Davis. Kentucky had been occupied by the Federal army because + of the "dull expectation" in which the Confederate Government had stood + aside waiting for things somehow to right themselves. The Southern + Congress had been criminally slow in coming to conscription, contenting + itself with an army of 400,000 men that existed "on paper." "The most + distressing abuses were visible in the ill-regulated hygiene of our + camps." According to this book, the Confederate Administration was solely + to blame for the loss of Roanoke Island. In calling that disaster "deeply + humiliating," as he did in a message to Congress, Davis was trying to + shield his favorite Benjamin at the cost of gallant soldiers who had been + sacrificed through his incapacity. Davis's promotion of Benjamin to the + State Department was an act of "ungracious and reckless + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">64</a></span> + defiance of + popular sentiment." The President was "not the man to consult the + sentiment and wisdom of the people; he desired to signalize the + infallibility of his own intellect in every measure of the revolution and + to identify, from motives of vanity, his own personal genius with every + event and detail of the remarkable period of history in which he had been + called upon to act. This imperious conceit seemed to swallow up every + other idea in his mind." The generals "fretted under this pragmatism" of + one whose "vanity" directed the war "from his cushioned seat in Richmond" + by means of the one formula, "the defensive policy." + </p> + <p> + One of Pollard's chief accusations against the Confederate Government was + its failure to enforce the conscription law. His paper, the <i>Examiner,</i> as + well as the <i>Mercury,</i> supported Davis in the policy of conscription, but + both did their best, first, to rob him of the credit for it and, secondly, + to make his conduct of the policy appear inefficient. Pollard claimed for + the <i>Examiner</i> the credit of having originated the policy of conscription; + the <i>Mercury</i> claimed it for Rhett. + </p> + <p> + In other words, an aggressive war party led by the <i>Examiner</i> and the + <i>Mercury</i> had been formed in + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">65</a></span> + those early days when the Confederate + Government appeared to be standing wholly on the defensive, and when it + had failed to confide to the people the extenuating circumstance that lack + of arms compelled it to stand still whether it would or no. And yet, after + this Government had changed its policy and had taken up in the summer of + 1862 an offensive policy, this party—or faction, or what you will—continued + its career of opposition. That the secretive habit of the Confederate + Government helped cement the opposition cannot be doubted. It is also + likely that this opposition gave a vent to certain jealous spirits who had + missed the first place in leadership. + </p> + <p> + Furthermore, the issue of state sovereignty had been raised. In Georgia a + movement had begun which was distinctly different from the + Virginia-Carolina movement of opposition, a movement for which Rhett and + Pollard had scarcely more than disdainful tolerance, and not always that. + This parallel opposition found vent, as did the other, in a political + pamphlet. On the subject of conscription Davis and the Governor of Georgia—that + same Joseph E. Brown who had seized Fort Pulaski in the previous year—exchanged + a rancorous correspondence. Their letters were published + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">66</a></span> + in a pamphlet of + which Pollard said scornfully that it was hawked about in every city of + the South. Brown, taking alarm at the power given the Confederate + Government by the Conscription Act, eventually defined his position, and + that of a large following, in the extreme words: "No act of the Government + of the United States prior to the secession of Georgia struck a blow at + constitutional liberty so fell as has been stricken by the conscript + acts." + </p> + <p> + There were other elements of discontent which were taking form as early as + the autumn of 1862 but which were not yet clearly defined. But the two + obvious sources of internal criticism just described were enough to + disquiet the most resolute administration. When the triple offensive broke + down, when the ebb-tide began, there was already everything that was + needed to precipitate a political crisis. And now the question arises + whether the Confederate Administration had itself to blame. Had Davis + proved inadequate in his great undertaking? + </p> + <p> + The one undeniable mistake of the Government previous to the autumn of + 1862 was its excessive secrecy. As to the other mistakes attributed to it + at the time, there is good reason to call them + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">67</a></span> + misfortunes. Today we can + see that the financial situation, the cotton situation, the relations with + Europe, the problem of equipping the armies, were all to a considerable + degree beyond the control of the Confederate Government. If there is + anything to be added to its mistaken secrecy as a definite cause of + irritation, it must be found in the general tone given to its actions by + its chief directors. And here there is something to be said. + </p> + <p> + With all his high qualities of integrity, courage, faithfulness, and zeal, + Davis lacked that insight into human life which marks the genius of the + supreme executive. He was not an artist in the use of men. He had not that + artistic sense of his medium which distinguishes the statesman from the + bureaucrat. In fact, he had a dangerous bent toward bureaucracy. As Reuben + Davis said of him, "Gifted with some of the highest attributes of a + statesman, he lacked the pliancy which enables a man to adapt his measures + to the crisis." Furthermore, he lacked humor; there was no safety-valve to + his intense nature; and he was a man of delicate health. Mrs. Davis, + describing the effects which nervous dyspepsia and neuralgia had upon him, + says he would come home from his office "fasting, a mere mass of throbbing + nerves, and + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">68</a></span> + perfectly exhausted." And it cannot be denied that his mind + was dogmatic. Here are dangerous lines for the character of a leader of + revolution—the bureaucratic tendency, something of rigidity, lack of + humor, physical wretchedness, dogmatism. Taken together, they go far + toward explaining his failure in judging men, his irritable confidence in + himself. + </p> + <p> + It is no slight detail of a man's career to be placed side by side with a + genius of the first rank without knowing it. But Davis does not seem ever + to have appreciated that the man commanding in the Seven Days' Battles was + one of the world's supreme characters. The relation between Davis and Lee + was always cordial, and it brought out Davis's character in its best + light. Nevertheless, so rooted was Davis's faith in his own abilities that + he was capable of saying, at a moment of acutest anxiety, "If I could take + one wing and Lee the other, I think we could between us wrest a victory + from those people." And yet, his military experience embraced only the + minor actions of a young officer on the Indian frontier and the gallant + conduct of a subordinate in the Mexican War. He had never executed a great + military design. His desire for the military life was, after all, his + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">69</a></span> + only + ground for ranking himself with the victor of Second Manassas. Davis was + also unfortunate in lacking the power to overcome men and sweep them along + with him—the power Lee showed so conspicuously. Nor was Davis averse + to sharp reproof of the highest officials when he thought them in the + wrong. He once wrote to Joseph E. Johnston that a letter of his contained + "arguments and statements utterly unfounded" and "insinuations as + unfounded as they were unbecoming." + </p> + <p> + Davis was not always wise in his choice of men. His confidence in Bragg, + who was long his chief military adviser, is not sustained by the military + critics of a later age. His Cabinet, though not the contemptible body + caricatured by the malice of Pollard, was not equal to the occasion. Of + the three men who held the office of Secretary of State, Toombs and Hunter + had little if any qualification for such a post, while the third, + Benjamin, is the sphinx of Confederate history. + </p> + <p> + In a way, Judah P. Benjamin is one of the most interesting men in American + politics. By descent a Jew, born in the West Indies, he spent his boyhood + mainly at Charleston and his college days at Yale. He went to New Orleans + to begin his illustrious career as a lawyer, and from Louisiana + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">70</a></span> + entered + politics. The facile keenness of his intellect is beyond dispute. He had + the Jewish clarity of thought, the wonderful Jewish detachment in matters + of pure mind. But he was also an American of the middle of the century. + His quick and responsive nature—a nature that enemies might call + simulative—caught and reflected the characteristics of that singular + and highly rhetorical age. He lives in tradition as the man of the + constant smile, and yet there is no one in history whose state papers + contain passages of fiercer violence in days of tension. How much of his + violence was genuine, how much was a manner of speaking, his biographers + have not had the courage to determine. Like so many American biographers + they have avoided the awkward questions and have glanced over, as lightly + as possible, the persistent attempts of Congress to drive him from office. + </p> + <p> + Nothing could shake the resolution of Davis to retain Benjamin in the + Cabinet. Among Davis's loftiest qualities was his sense of personal + loyalty. Once he had given his confidence, no amount of opposition could + shake his will but served rather to harden him. When Benjamin as Secretary + of War passed under a cloud, Davis led him forth + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">71</a></span> + resplendent as Secretary + of State. Whether he was wise in doing so, whether the opposition was not + justified in its distrust of Benjamin, is still an open question. What is + certain is that both these able men, even before the crisis that arose in + the autumn of 1862, had rendered themselves and their Government widely + unpopular. It must never be forgotten that Davis entered office without + the backing of any definite faction. He was a "dark horse," a compromise + candidate. To build up a stanch following, to create enthusiasm for his + Administration, was a prime necessity of his first year as President. Yet + he seems not to have realized this necessity. Boldly, firmly, + dogmatically, he gave his whole thought and his entire energy to + organizing the Government in such a way that it could do its work + efficiently. And therein may have been the proverbial rift within the + lute. To Davis statecraft was too much a thing of methods and measures, + too little a thing of men and passions. + </p> + <p> + During the autumn of 1862 and the following winter the disputes over the + conduct of the war began to subside and two other themes became prominent: + the sovereignty of the States, which appeared to be menaced by the + Government, and + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">72</a></span> + the personality of Davis, whom malcontents regarded as a + possible despot. Contrary to tradition, the first note of alarm over state + rights was not struck by its great apostle Rhett, although the note was + sounded in South Carolina in the early autumn. There existed in this State + at that time an extra assembly called the "Convention," which had been + organized in 1860 for the general purpose of seeing the State through the + "revolution." In the Convention, in September, 1862, the question of a + contest with the Confederate Government on the subject of a state army was + definitely raised. It was proposed to organize a state army and to + instruct the Legislature to "take effectual measures to prevent the agents + of the Confederate Government from raising troops in South Carolina except + by voluntary enlistment or by applying to the Executive of the State to + call out the militia as by law organized, or some part of it to be + mustered into the Confederate service." This proposal brought about a + sharp debate upon the Confederate Government and its military policy. + Rhett made a remarkable address, which should of itself quiet forever the + old tale that he was animated in his opposition solely by the pique of a + disappointed candidate for the presidency. Though + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">73</a></span> + as sharp as ever against + the Government and though agreeing wholly with the spirit of the state + army plan, he took the ground that circumstances at the moment rendered + the organization of such an army inopportune. A year earlier he would have + strongly supported the plan. In fact, in opposition to Davis he had at + that time, he said, urged an obligatory army which the States should be + required to raise. The Confederate Administration, however, had defeated + his scheme. Since then the situation had changed and had become so serious + that now there was no choice but to submit to military necessity. He + regarded the general conscription law as "absolutely necessary to save" + the Confederacy "from utter devastation if not final subjugation. Right or + wrong, the policy of the Administration had left us no other + alternative.…" + </p> + <p> + The dominant attitude in South Carolina in the autumn of 1862 is in strong + contrast, because of its firm grasp upon fact, with the attitude of the + Brown faction in Georgia. An extended history of the Confederate movement—one + of those vast histories that delight the recluse and scare away the man of + the world—would labor to build up images of what might be called the + personalities + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">74</a></span> + of the four States that continued from the beginning to the + end parts of the effective Confederate system—Virginia, the two + Carolinas, and Georgia. We are prone to forget that the Confederacy was + practically divided into separate units as early as the capture of New + Orleans by Farragut, but a great history of the time would have a special + and thrilling story of the conduct of the detached western unit, the + isolated world of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas—the "Department of + the Trans-Mississippi"—cut off from the main body of the Confederacy + and hemmed in between the Federal army and the deep sea. Another group of + States—Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama—became so soon, and + remained so long, a debatable land, on which the two armies fought, that + they also had scant opportunity for genuine political life. Florida, small + and exposed, was absorbed in its gallant achievement of furnishing to the + armies a number of soldiers larger than its voting population. + </p> + <p> + Thus, after the loss of New Orleans, one thing with another operated to + confine the area of full political life to Virginia and her three + neighbors to the South. And yet even among these States there was no + political solidarity or unanimity of + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">75</a></span> + opinion, for the differences in their + past experience, social structure, and economic conditions made for + distinct points of view. In South Carolina, particularly, the prevailing + view was that of experienced, disillusioned men who realized from the + start that secession had burnt their bridges, and that now they must win + the fight or change the whole current of their lives. In the midst of the + extraordinary conditions of war, they never talked as if their problems + were the problems of peace. Brown, on the other hand, had but one way of + reasoning—if we are to call it reasoning—and, with Hannibal at + the gates, talked as if the control of the situation were still in his own + hands. + </p> + <p> + While South Carolina, so grimly conscious of the reality of war and the + danger of internal discord, held off from the issue of state sovereignty, + the Brown faction in Georgia blithely pressed it home. A bill for + extending the conscription age which was heartily advocated by the + <i>Mercury</i> was as heartily condemned by Brown. To the President + he wrote announcing his continued opposition to a law which he declared + "encroaches upon the reserved rights of the State and strikes down her + sovereignty at a single blow." Though the Supreme Court of Georgia + pronounced the conscription acts + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">76</a></span> + constitutional, the Governor and his faction did not cease to condemn + them. Linton Stephens, as well as his famous kinsman, took up the cudgels. + In a speech before the Georgia Legislature, in November, Linton Stephens + borrowed almost exactly the Governor's phraseology in denying the + necessity for conscription, and this continued to be the note of their + faction throughout the war. "Conscription checks enthusiasm," was ever + their cry; "we are invincible under a system of volunteering, we are lost + with conscription." + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile the military authorities looked facts in the face and had a + different tale to tell. They complained that in various parts of the + country, especially in the mountain districts, they were unable to obtain + men. Lee reported that his army melted away before his eye and asked for + an increase of authority to compel stragglers to return. At the same time + Brown was quarreling with the Administration as to who should name the + officers of the Georgia troops. Zebulon B. Vance, the newly elected + Governor of North Carolina and an anti-Davis man, said to the Legislature: + "It is mortifying to find entire brigades of North Carolina soldiers + commanded by strangers, and in many cases our own brave and war-worn + colonels + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">77</a></span> + are made to give place to colonels from distant States." In + addition to such indications of discontent a vast mass of evidence makes + plain the opposition to conscription toward the close of 1862 and the + looseness of various parts of the military system. + </p> + <p> + It was a moment of intense excitement and of nervous strain. The country + was unhappy, for it had lost faith in the Government at Richmond. The + blockade was producing its effect. European intervention was receding into + the distance. One of the characteristics of the editorials and speeches of + this period is a rising tide of bitterness against England. Napoleon's + proposal in November to mediate, though it came to naught, somewhat + revived the hope of an eventual recognition of the Confederacy but did not + restore buoyancy to the people of the South. The Emancipation + Proclamation, though scoffed at as a cry of impotence, none the less + increased the general sense of crisis. + </p> + <p> + Worst of all, because of its immediate effect upon the temper of the time, + food was very scarce and prices had risen to indefensible heights. The + army was short of shoes. In the newspapers, as winter came on, were to be + found touching descriptions of Lee's soldiers standing barefoot in + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">78</a></span> + the + snow. A flippant comment of Benjamin's, that the shoes had probably been + traded for whiskey, did not tend to improve matters. Even though short of + supplies themselves, the people as a whole eagerly subscribed to buy shoes + for the army. + </p> + <p> + There was widespread and heartless speculation in the supplies. Months + previous the <i>Courier</i> had made this ominous editorial remark: "Speculators + and monopolists seem determined to force the people everywhere to the full + exercise of all the remedies allowed by law." In August, 1862, the + Governor of Florida wrote to the Florida delegation at Richmond urging + them to take steps to meet the "nefarious smuggling" of speculators who + charged extortionate prices. In September, he wrote again begging for + legislation to compel millers, tanners, and saltmakers to offer their + products at reasonable rates. As these men were exempt from military duty + because their labor was held to be a public service, feeling against them + ran high. Governor Vance proposed a state convention to regulate prices + for North Carolina and by proclamation forbade the export of provisions in + order to prevent the seeking of exorbitant prices in other markets. Davis + wrote to various Governors urging them to obtain state legislation + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">79</a></span> + to + reduce extortion in the food business. In the provisioning of the army the + Confederate Government had recourse to impressment and the arbitrary + fixing of prices. Though the Attorney-General held this action to be + constitutional, it led to sharp contentions; and at length a Virginia + court granted an injunction to a speculator who had been paid by the + Government for flour less than it had cost him. + </p> + <p> + In an attempt to straighten out this tangled situation, the Confederate + Government began, late in 1862, by appointing as its new Secretary of + War, ¹ James A. Seddon of Virginia—at that time high in popular + favor. The <i>Mercury</i> hailed his advent with transparent relief, for no + appointment could have seemed to it more promising. Indeed, as the new + year (1863) opened the <i>Mercury</i> was in better humor with the Administration + than perhaps at any other time during the war. To the President's message + it gave praise that was almost cordial. This amicable temper was + short-lived, however, and three months later the heavens had clouded + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">80</a></span> + again, for the Government had entered upon a course that consolidated + the opposition in anger and distrust. + </p> + + <div class="footer"> + <p class="footer"> + <a id="footer_80-1" name="footer_80-1"></a> + ¹ There were in all six Secretaries of War: Leroy P. Walker, + until September 16, 1861; Judah P. Benjamin, until March 18, + 1862; George W. Randolph, until November 17, 1862; Gustavus + W. Smith (temporarily), until November 21, 1862; James A. + Seddon, until February 6, 1865; General John C. + Breckinridge. + </p> + </div> + + <p> + Early in 1863 the Confederate Government presented to the country a + program in which the main features were three. Of these the two which did + not rouse immediate hostility in the party of the <i>Examiner</i> and the <i>Mercury</i> + were the Impressment Act of March, 1863 (amended by successive acts), and + the act known as the Tax in Kind, which was approved the following month. + Though the Impressment Act subsequently made vast trouble for the + Government, at the time of its passage its beneficial effects were not + denied. To it was attributed by the Richmond <i>Whig</i> the rapid fall of prices + in April, 1863. Corn went down at Richmond from $12 and $10 a bushel to + $4.20, and flour dropped in North Carolina from $45 a barrel to $25. Under + this act commissioners were appointed in each State jointly by the + Confederate President and the Governor with the duty of fixing prices for + government transactions and of publishing every two months an official + schedule of the prices to be paid by the Government for the supplies which + it impressed. + </p> + <p> + The new Tax Act attempted to provide revenues + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">81</a></span> + which should not be paid in depreciated currency. With no bullion to + speak of, the Confederate Congress could not establish a circulating + medium with even an approximation to constant value. Realizing this + situation, Memminger had advised falling back on the ancient system + of tithes and the support of the Government by direct contributions + of produce. After licensing a great number of occupations and laying + a property tax and an income tax, the new law demanded a tenth of the + produce of all farmers. On this law the <i>Mercury</i> pronounced a + benediction in an editorial on <i>The Fall of Prices,</i> which it + attributed to "the healthy influence of the tax bill which has + just become law." ¹ + </p> + + + <div class="footer"> + <p class="footer"> + <a id="footer_81-1" name="footer_81-1"></a> + ¹ The fall of prices was attributed by others to a funding + act,—one of several passed by the Confederate + Congress—which, in March, 1863, aimed by various devices + to contract the volume of the currency. It was very generally + condemned, and it anticipated the yet more drastic measure, + the Funding Act of 1864, which will be described later. + </p> + </div> + + <p> + Had these two measures been the whole program of the Government, the + congressional session of the spring of 1863 would have had a different + significance in Confederate history. But there was a third measure that + provoked a new attack on the Government. The gracious words of the + <i>Mercury</i> on the tax in kind came as an interlude in the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">82</a></span> + midst of a bitter controversy. An editorial of the 12th of March headed + <i>A Despotism over the Confederate States Proposed in Congress</i> + amounted to a declaration of war. From this time forward the opposition + and the Government drew steadily further and further apart and their + antagonism grew steadily more relentless. + </p> + <p> + What caused this irrevocable breach was a bill introduced into the House + by Ethelbert Barksdale of Mississippi, an old friend of President Davis. + This bill would have invested the President with authority to suspend the + privilege of the writ of <i>habeas corpus</i> in any part of the Confederacy, + whenever in his judgment such suspension was desirable. The first act + suspending the privilege of <i>habeas corpus</i> had long since expired and + applied only to such regions as were threatened with invasion. It had + served usefully under martial law in cleansing Richmond of its rogues, and + also had been in force at Charleston. The <i>Mercury</i> had approved it and had + exhorted its readers to take the matter sensibly as an inevitable detail + of war. Between that act and the act now proposed the <i>Mercury</i> saw no + similarity. Upon the merits of the question it fought a furious + journalistic duel with the <i>Enquirer,</i> the government organ at Richmond, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">83</a></span> + which insisted that President Davis would not abuse his power. The <i>Mercury</i> + replied that if he "were a second Washington, or an angel upon earth, the + degradation such a surrender of our rights implies would still be + abhorrent to every freeman." In retort the <i>Enquirer</i> pointed out that a + similar law had been enacted by another Congress with no bad results. And + in point of fact the <i>Enquirer</i> was right, for in October, 1862, after the + expiration of the first act suspending the privilege of the writ of <i>habeas + corpus,</i> Congress passed a second giving to the President the immense power + which was now claimed for him again. This second act was in force several + months. Then the <i>Mercury</i> made the astounding declaration that it had never + heard of the second act, and thereupon proceeded to attack the secrecy of + the Administration with renewed vigor. + </p> + <p> + On this issue of reviving the expired second <i>Habeas Corpus</i> Act, a battle + royal was fought in the Confederate Congress. The forces of the + Administration defended the new measure on the ground that various regions + were openly seditious and that conscription could not be enforced without + it. This argument gave a new text for the cry of "despotism." The + congressional leader of the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">84</a></span> + opposition was Henry S. Foote, once the rival + of Davis in Mississippi and now a citizen of Tennessee. Fierce, + vindictive, sometimes convincing, always shrewd, he was a powerful leader + of the rough and ready, buccaneering sort. Under his guidance the debate + was diverted into a rancorous discussion of the conduct of the generals + in the execution of martial law. Foote pulled out all the stops in the + organ of political rhetoric and went in for a chant royal of righteous + indignation. The main object of this attack was General Hindman and his + doings in Arkansas. Those were still the days of pamphleteering. Though + General Albert Pike had written a severe pamphlet condemning Hindman, to + this pamphlet the Confederate Government had shut its eyes. Foote, + however, flourished it in the face of the House. He thundered forth his + belief that Hindman was worse even than the man most detested in the + South, than "beast Butler himself, for the latter is only charged with + persecuting and oppressing the avowed enemies of his Government, while + Hindman, if guilty as charged, has practised cruelties unnumbered" on his + people. Other representatives spoke in the same vein. Baldwin of Virginia + told harrowing tales of martial law in that State. Barksdale attempted to + retaliate, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">85</a></span> + sarcastically reminding him of a recent scene of riot and + disorder which proved that martial law, in any effective form, did not + exist in Virginia. He alluded to a riot, ostensibly for bread, in which an + Amazonian woman had led a mob to the pillaging of the Richmond jewelry + shops, a riot which Davis himself had quelled by meeting the rioters and + threatening to fire upon them. But sarcasm proved powerless against Foote. + His climax was a lurid tale of a soldier who while marching past his own + house heard that his wife was dying, who left the ranks for a last word + with her, and who on rejoining the command, "hoping to get permission to + bury her," was shot as a deserter. And there was no one on the Government + benches to anticipate Kipling and cry out "flat art!" Resolutions + condemning martial law were passed by a vote of 45 to 27. + </p> + <p> + Two weeks later the <i>Mercury</i> preached a burial sermon over the Barksdale + Bill, which had now been rejected by the House. Congress was about to + adjourn, and before it reassembled elections for the next House would be + held. "The measure is dead for the present," said the <i>Mercury,</i> "but power + is ever restive and prone to accumulate power; and if the war continues, + other efforts will + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">86</a></span> + doubtless be made to make the President a Dictator. Let + the people keep their eyes steadily fixed on their representatives with + respect to this vital matter; and should the effort again be made to + suspend the Habeas Corpus Act, demand that a recorded vote should show + those who shall strike down their liberties." + </p> + <hr> + + <div class="chapterhead"> + <p class="center"> + <br> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">87</a></span> + <a name="chap05" id="chap05"></a> + <br><br><br> + </p> + <h2> + <a href="#Contents">CHAPTER V.</a> + </h2> + </div> + <p class="chaptertitle">The Critical Year</p> + + <p class="noindent"> + <span class="smcap">The</span> + great military events of the year 1863 have pushed out of men's + memories the less dramatic but scarcely less important civil events. To + begin with, in this year two of the greatest personalities in the South + passed from the political stage: in the summer Yancey died; and in the + autumn, Rhett went into retirement. + </p> + <p> + The ever malicious Pollard insists that Yancey's death was due ultimately + to a personal encounter with a Senator from Georgia on the floor of the + Senate. The curious may find the discreditable story embalmed in the + secret journal of the Senate, where are the various motions designed to + keep the incident from the knowledge of the world. Whether it really + caused Yancey's death is another question. However, the moment of his + passing has dramatic significance. Just as the battle over conscription + was fully begun, when the fear that the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">88</a></span> + Confederate Government had arrayed + itself against the rights of the States had definitely taken shape, when + this dread had been reënforced by the alarm over the suspension of + <i>habeas corpus,</i> the great pioneer of the secession movement went + to his grave, despairing of the country he had failed to lead. His death + occurred in the same month as the Battle of Gettysburg, at the very time + when the Confederacy was dividing against itself. + </p> + <p> + The withdrawal of Rhett from active life was an incident of the + congressional elections. He had consented to stand for Congress in the + Third District of South Carolina but was defeated. The full explanation of + the vote is still to be made plain; it seems clear, however, that South + Carolina at this time knew its own mind quite positively. Five of the six + representatives returned to the Second Congress, including Rhett's + opponent, Lewis M. Ayer, had sat in the First Congress. The subsequent + history of the South Carolina delegation and of the State Government shows + that by 1863 South Carolina had become, broadly speaking, on almost all + issues an anti-Davis State. And yet the largest personality and probably + the ablest mind in the State was rejected as a candidate for Congress. No + character in American + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">89</a></span> + history is a finer challenge to the biographer than + this powerful figure of Rhett, who in 1861 at the supreme crisis of his + life seemed the master of his world and yet in every lesser crisis was a + comparative failure. As in Yancey, so in Rhett, there was something that + fitted him to one great moment but did not fit him to others. There can be + little doubt that his defeat at the polls of his own district deeply + mortified him. He withdrew from politics, and though he doubtless, through + the editorship of one of his sons, inspired the continued opposition of + the <i>Mercury</i> to the Government, Rhett himself hardly reappears in + Confederate history except for a single occasion during the debate a year + later upon the burning question of arming the slaves. + </p> + <p> + The year was marked by very bitter attacks upon President Davis on the + part of the opposition press. The <i>Mercury</i> revived the issue of the conduct + of the war which had for some time been overshadowed by other issues. In + the spring, to be sure, things had begun to look brighter, and + Chancellorsville had raised Lee's reputation to its zenith. The disasters + of the summer, Gettysburg and Vicksburg, were for a time minimized by the + Government and do not appear to have caused the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">90</a></span> + alarm which their + strategic importance might well have created. But when in the latter days + of July the facts became generally known, the <i>Mercury</i> arraigned the + President's conduct of the war as "a vast complication of incompetence and + folly"; it condemned the whole scheme of the Northern invasion and + maintained that Lee should have stood on the defensive while twenty or + thirty thousand men were sent to the relief of Vicksburg. These two ideas + it bitterly reiterated and in August went so far as to quote Macaulay's + famous passage on Parliament's dread of a decisive victory over Charles + and to apply it to Davis in unrestrained language that reminds one of + Pollard. + </p> + <p> + Equally unrestrained were the attacks upon other items of the policy of + the Confederate Government. The Impressment Law began to be a target. + Farmers who were compelled to accept the prices fixed by the impressment + commissioners cried out that they were being ruined. Men of the stamp of + Toombs came to their assistance with railing accusations such as this: "I + have heard it said that we should not sacrifice liberty to independence, + but I tell you, my countrymen, that the two are inseparable.… If we lose + our liberty we shall lose our independence.… I would rather + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">91</a></span> + see the + whole country the cemetery of freedom than the habitation of slaves." + Protests which poured in upon the Government insisted that the power to + impress supplies did not carry with it the power to fix prices. Worthy + men, ridden by the traditional ideas of political science and unable to + modify these in the light of the present emergency, wailed out their + despair over the "usurpation" of Richmond. + </p> + <p> + The tax in kind was denounced in the same vein. The licensing provisions + of this law and its income tax did not satisfy the popular imagination. + These provisions concerned the classes that could borrow. The classes that + could not borrow, that had no resources but their crops, felt that they + were being driven to the wall. The bitter saying went around that it was + "a rich man's war and a poor man's fight." As land and slaves were not + directly taxed, the popular discontent appeared to have ground for its + anger. Furthermore, it must never be forgotten that this was the first + general tax that the poor people of the South were ever conscious of + paying. To people who knew the tax-gatherer as little more than a mythical + being, he suddenly appeared like a malevolent creature who swept off + ruthlessly the tenth of their produce. It is not + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">92</a></span> + strange that an + intemperate reaction against the planters and their leadership followed. + The illusion spread that they were not doing their share of the fighting; + and as rich men were permitted to hire substitutes to represent them in + the army, this really baseless report was easily propped up in the public + mind with what appeared to be reason. + </p> + <p> + In North Carolina, where the peasant farmer was a larger political factor + than in any other State, this feeling against the Confederate Government + because of the tax in kind was most dangerous. In the course of the + summer, while the military fortunes of the Confederacy were toppling at + Vicksburg and Gettysburg, the North Carolina farmers in a panic of + self-preservation held numerous meetings of protest and denunciation. They + expressed their thoughtless terror in resolutions asserting that the + action of Congress "in secret session, without consulting with their + constituents at home, taking from the hard laborers of the Confederacy + one-tenth of the people's living, instead of taking back their own + currency in tax, is unjust and tyrannical." Other resolutions called the + tax "unconstitutional, anti-republican, and oppressive"; and still others + pledged the farmers "to resist to the bitter end any such monarchical + tax." + </p> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">93</a></span> + A leader of the discontented in North Carolina was found in W. W. Holden, + the editor of the <i>Raleigh Progress,</i> who before the war had attempted to be + spokesman for the men of small property by advocating taxes on slaves and + similar measures. He proposed as the conclusion of the whole matter the + opening of negotiations for peace. We shall see later how deep-seated was + this singular delusion that peace could be had for the asking. In 1863, + however, many men in North Carolina took up the suggestion with delight. + Jonathan Worth wrote in his diary, on hearing that the influential <i>North + Carolina Standard</i> had come out for peace: "I still abhor, as I always did, + this accursed war and the wicked men, North and South, who inaugurated it. + The whole country at the North and the South is a great military + despotism." With such discontent in the air, the elections in North + Carolina drew near. The feeling was intense and riots occurred. Newspaper + offices were demolished—among them Holden's, to destroy which a + detachment of passing soldiers converted itself into a mob. In the western + counties deserters from the army, combined in bands, were joined by other + deserters from Tennessee, and terrorized the countryside. Governor Vance, + alarmed at the progress which + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">94</a></span> + this disorder was making, issued a + proclamation imploring his rebellious countrymen to conduct in a peaceable + manner their campaign for the repeal of obnoxious laws. + </p> + <p> + The measure of political unrest in North Carolina was indicated in the + autumn when a new delegation to Congress was chosen. Of the ten who + composed it, eight were new men. Though they did not stand for a clearly + defined program, they represented on the whole anti-Davis tendencies. The + Confederate Administration had failed to carry the day in the North + Carolina elections; and in Georgia there were even more sweeping evidences + of unrest. Of the ten representatives chosen for the Second Congress nine + had not sat in the First, and Georgia now was in the main frankly + anti-Davis. There had been set up at Richmond a new organ of the + Government called the <i>Sentinel,</i> which was more entirely under the + presidential shadow than even the <i>Enquirer</i> and the <i>Courier.</i> Speaking of + the elections, the <i>Sentinel</i> deplored the "upheaval of political elements" + revealed by the defeat of so many tried representatives whose constituents + had not returned them to the Second Congress. + </p> + <p> + What was Davis doing while the ground was + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">95</a></span> + thus being cut from under his + feet? For one thing he gave his endorsement to the formation of + "Confederate Societies" whose members bound themselves to take Confederate + money as legal tender. He wrote a letter to one such society in + Mississippi, praising it for attempting "by common consent to bring down + the prices of all articles to the standard of the soldiers' wages" and + adding that the passion of speculation had "seduced citizens of all + classes from a determined prosecution of the war to an effort to amass + money." The <i>Sentinel</i> advocated the establishment of a law fixing + maximum prices. The discussion of this proposal seems to make plain the + <i>raison d'être</i> for the existence of the <i>Sentinel.</i> Even + such stanch government organs as the <i>Enquirer</i> and the + <i>Courier</i> shied at the idea, but the <i>Mercury</i> + denounced it vigorously, giving long extracts from Thiers, and discussed + the mistakes of the French Revolution with its "law of maximum." + </p> + <p> + Davis, however, did not take an active part in the political campaign, nor + did the other members of the Government. It was not because of any notion + that the President should not leave the capital that Davis did not visit + the disaffected regions of North Carolina when the startled populace + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">96</a></span> + winced under its first experience with taxation. Three times during his + Administration Davis left Richmond on extended journeys: late in 1862, + when Vicksburg had become a chief concern of the Government, he went as + far afield as Mississippi in order to get entirely in touch with the + military situation in those parts; in the month of October, 1863, when + there was another moment of intense military anxiety, Davis again visited + the front; and of a third journey which he undertook in 1864, we shall + hear in time. It is to be noted that each of these journeys was prompted + by a military motive; and here, possibly, we get an explanation of his + inadequacy as a statesman. He could not lay aside his interest in military + affairs for the supremely important concerns of civil office; and he + failed to understand how to ingratiate his Administration by personal + appeals to popular imagination. + </p> + <p> + In October, 1863,—the very month in which his old rival Rhett + suffered his final defeat,—Davis undertook a journey because Bragg, + after his great victory at Chickamauga, appeared to be letting slip a + golden opportunity, and because there were reports of dissension among + Bragg's officers and of general confusion in his army. After he had, as + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">97</a></span> + he thought, restored harmony in the camp, Davis turned southward on a tour + of appeal and inspiration. He went as far as Mobile, and returning bent + his course through Charleston, where, at the beginning of November, less + than two weeks after Rhett's defeat, Davis was received with all due + formalities. Members of the Rhett family were among those who formally + received the President at the railway station. There was a parade of + welcome, an official reception, a speech by the President from the steps + of the city hall, and much applause by friends of the Administration. But + certain ominous signs were not lacking. The <i>Mercury,</i> for example, + tucked away in an obscure column its account of the event, while its + rival, the <i>Courier,</i> made the President's visit the feature of the + day. + </p> + <p> + Davis returned to Richmond, early in November, to throw himself again with + his whole soul into problems that were chiefly military. He did not + realize that the crisis had come and gone and that he had failed to grasp + the significance of the internal political situation. The Government had + failed to carry the elections and to secure a working majority in + Congress. Never again was it to have behind it a firm and confident + support. The + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">98</a></span> + unity of the secession movement had passed away. Thereafter + the Government was always to be regarded with suspicion by the extreme + believers in state sovereignty and by those who were sullenly convinced + that the burdens of the war were unfairly distributed. And there were not + wanting men who were ready to construe each emergency measure as a step + toward a <i>coup d'état.</i> + </p> + <hr> + + <div class="chapterhead"> + <p class="center"> + <br> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">99</a></span> + <a name="chap06" id="chap06"></a> + <br><br><br> + </p> + <h2> + <a href="#Contents">CHAPTER VI.</a> + </h2> + </div> + <p class="chaptertitle">Life In The Confederacy</p> + + <p class="noindent"> + <span class="smcap">When</span> + the fortunes of the Confederacy in both camp and council began to + ebb, the life of the Southern people had already profoundly changed. The + gallant, delightful, care-free life of the planter class had been + undermined by a war which was eating away its foundations. Economic no + less than political forces were taking from the planter that ideal of + individual liberty as dear to his heart as it had been, ages before, to + his feudal prototype. One of the most important details of the changing + situation had been the relation of the Government to slavery. The history + of the Confederacy had opened with a clash between the extreme advocates + of slavery—the slavery-at-any-price men—and the + Administration. The Confederate Congress had passed a bill ostensibly to + make effective the clause in its constitution prohibiting the African + slave-trade. The quick eye of Davis had detected in + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">100</a></span> + it a mode of evasion, + for cargoes of captured slaves were to be confiscated and sold at public + auction. The President had exposed this adroit subterfuge in his message + vetoing the bill, and the slavery-at-any-price men had not sufficient + influence in Congress to override the veto, though they muttered against + it in the public press. + </p> + <p> + The slavery-at-any-price men did not again conspicuously show their hands + until three years later when the Administration included emancipation in + its policy. The ultimate policy of emancipation was forced upon the + Government by many considerations but more particularly by the difficulty + of securing labor for military purposes. In a country where the supply of + fighting men was limited and the workers were a class apart, the + Government had to employ the only available laborers or confess its + inability to meet the industrial demands of war. But the available + laborers were slaves. How could their services be secured? By purchase? Or + by conscription? Or by temporary impressment? + </p> + <p> + Though Davis and his advisers were prepared to face all the hazards + involved in the purchase or confiscation of slaves, the traditional + Southern temper instantly recoiled from the suggestion. A + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">101</a></span> + Government + possessed of great numbers of slaves, whether bought or appropriated, + would have in its hands a gigantic power, perhaps for industrial + competition with private owners, perhaps even for organized military + control. Besides, the Government might at any moment by emancipating its + slaves upset the labor system of the country. Furthermore, the + opportunities for favoritism in the management of state-owned slaves were + beyond calculation. Considerations such as these therefore explain the + watchful jealousy of the planters toward the Government whenever it + proposed to acquire property in slaves. + </p> + <p> + It is essential not to attribute this social-political dread of government + ownership of slaves merely to the clutch of a wealthy class on its + property. Too many observers, strangely enough, see the latter motive to + the exclusion of the former. Davis himself was not, it would seem, free + from this confusion. He insisted that neither slaves nor land were taxed + by the Confederacy, and between the lines he seems to attribute to the + planter class the familiar selfishness of massed capital. He forgot that + the tax in kind was combined with an income tax. In theory, at least, the + slave and the land—even non-farming land—were taxed. However, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">102</a></span> + the dread of a slave-owning Government prevented any effective plan for + supplying the army with labor except through the temporary impressment of + slaves who were eventually to be returned to their owners. The policy of + emancipation had to wait. + </p> + <p> + Bound up in the labor question was the question of the control of slaves + during the war. In the old days when there were plenty of white men in the + countryside, the roads were carefully patrolled at night, and no slave + ventured to go at large unless fully prepared to prove his identity. But + with the coming of war the comparative smallness of the fighting + population made it likely from the first that the countryside everywhere + would be stripped of its white guardians. In that event, who would be left + to control the slaves? Early in the war a slave police was provided for by + exempting from military duty overseers in the ratio approximately of one + white to twenty slaves. But the marvelous faithfulness of the slaves, who + nowhere attempted to revolt, made these precautions unnecessary. Later + laws exempted one overseer on every plantation of fifteen slaves, not so + much to perform patrol duty as to increase the productivity of plantation + labor. + </p> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">103</a></span> + This "Fifteen Slave" Law was one of many instances that were caught up by + the men of small property as evidence that the Government favored the + rich. A much less defensible law, and one which was bitterly attacked for + the same reason, was the unfortunate measure permitting the hiring of + substitutes by men drafted into the army. Eventually, the clamor against + this law caused its repeal, but before that time it had worked untold harm + as apparent evidence of "a rich man's war and a poor man's fight." + Extravagant stories of the avoidance of military duty by the ruling class, + though in the main they were mere fairy tales, changed the whole + atmosphere of Southern life. The old glad confidence uniting the planter + class with the bulk of the people had been impaired. Misapprehension + appeared on both sides. Too much has been said lately, however, in + justification of the poorer classes who were thus wakened suddenly to a + distrust of the aristocracy; and too little has been said of the proud + recoil of the aristocracy in the face of a sudden, credulous perversion of + its motives—a perversion inspired by the pinching of the shoe, and + yet a shoe that pinched one class as hard as it did another. It is as + unfair to charge the planter with selfishness in opposing + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">104</a></span> + the + appropriation of slaves as it is to make the same charge against the small + farmers for resisting tithes. In face of the record, the planter comes off + somewhat the better of the two; but it must be remembered that he had the + better education, the larger mental horizon. + </p> + <p> + The Confederacy had long recognized women of all classes as the most + dauntless defenders of the cause. The women of the upper classes passed + without a tremor from a life of smiling ease to a life of extreme + hardship. One day, their horizon was without a cloud; another day, their + husbands and fathers had gone to the front. Their luxuries had + disappeared, and they were reduced to plain hard living, toiling in a + thousand ways to find provision and clothing, not only for their own + children but for the poorer families of soldiers. The women of the poor + throughout the South deserve similar honor. Though the physical shock of + the change may not have been so great, they had to face the same deep + realities—hunger and want, anxiety over the absent soldiers, + solicitude for children, grief for the dead. One of the pathetic aspects + of Confederate life was the household composed of several families, all + women and children, huddled together without + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">105</a></span> + a man or even a half-grown + lad to be their link with the mill and the market. In those regions where + there were few slaves and the exemption of overseers did not operate, such + households were numerous. + </p> + <p> + The great privations which people endured during the Confederacy have + passed into familiar tradition. They are to be traced mainly to three + causes: to the blockade, to the inadequate system of transportation, and + to the heartlessness of speculators. The blockade was the real destroyer + of the South. Besides ruining the whole policy based on King Cotton, + besides impeding to a vast extent the inflow of munitions from Europe, it + also deprived Southern life of numerous articles which were hard to + relinquish—not only such luxuries as tea and coffee, but also such + utter necessities as medicines. And though the native herbs were + diligently studied, though the Government established medical laboratories + with results that were not inconsiderable, the shortage of medicines + remained throughout the war a distressing feature of Southern life. The + Tredegar Iron Works at Richmond and a foundry at Selma, Alabama, were the + only mills in the South capable of casting the heavy ordnance necessary + for military purposes. And + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">106</a></span> + the demand for powder mills and gun factories + to provide for the needs of the army was scarcely greater than the demand + for cotton mills and commercial foundries to supply the wants of the civil + population. The Government worked without ceasing to keep pace with the + requirements of the situation, and, in view of the immense difficulties + which it had to face, it was fairly successful in supplying the needs of + the army. Powder was provided by the Niter and Mining Bureau; lead for + Confederate bullets was collected from many sources—even from the + window-weights of the houses; iron was brought from the mines of Alabama; + guns came from newly built factories; and machines and tools were part of + the precious freight of the blockade-runners. Though the poorly equipped + mills turned a portion of the cotton crop into textiles, and though + everything that was possible was done to meet the needs of the people, the + supply of manufactures was sadly inadequate. The universal shortage was + betrayed by the limitation of the size of most newspapers to a single + sheet, and the desperate situation clearly and completely revealed by the + way in which, as a last resort, the Confederates were compelled to repair + their railroads by pulling up the rails of one + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">107</a></span> + road in order to repair + another that the necessities of war rendered indispensable. + </p> + <p> + The railway system, if such it can be called, was one of the weaknesses of + the Confederacy. Before the war the South had not felt the need of + elaborate interior communication, for its commerce in the main went + seaward, and thence to New England or to Europe. Hitherto the railway + lines had seen no reason for merging their local character in extensive + combinations. Owners of short lines were inclined by tradition to resist + even the imperative necessities of war and their stubborn conservatism was + frequently encouraged by the short-sighted parochialism of the towns. The + same pitiful narrowness that led the peasant farmer to threaten rebellion + against the tax in kind led his counterpart in the towns to oppose the War + Department in its efforts to establish through railroad lines because they + threatened to impair local business interests. A striking instance of this + disinclination towards coöperation is the action of Petersburg. Two + railroads terminated at this point but did not connect, and it was an + ardent desire of the military authorities to link the two and convert them + into one. The town, however, unable to see beyond its boundaries and + resolute in + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">108</a></span> + its determination to save its transfer business, successfully + obstructed the needs of the army. ¹ + </p> + + <div class="footer"> + <p class="footer"> + <a id="footer_108-1" name="footer_108-1"></a> + ¹ See an article on <i>The Confederate Government and the + Railroads</i> in the <i>American Historical Review,</i> July, 1917, + by Charles W. Ramsdell. + </p> + </div> + + <p> + As a result of this lack of efficient organization an immense congestion + resulted all along the railroads. Whether this, rather than a failure in + supply, explains the approach of famine in the latter part of the war, it + is today very difficult to determine. In numerous state papers of the + time, the assertion was reiterated that the yield of food was abundant and + that the scarcity of food at many places, including the cities and the + battle fronts, was due to defects in transportation. Certain it is that + the progress of supplies from one point to another was intolerably slow. + </p> + <p> + All this want of coördination facilitated speculation. We shall see + hereafter how merciless this speculation became and we shall even hear of + profits on food rising to more than four hundred per cent. However, the + oft-quoted prices of the later years—when, for instance, a pair of + shoes cost a hundred dollars—signify little, for they rested on an + inflated currency. None the less they inspired the witticism that one + should take money to market in a basket and bring provisions home + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">109</a></span> + in one's + pocketbook. Endless stories could be told of speculators hoarding food and + watching unmoved the sufferings of a famished people. Said Bishop Pierce, + in a sermon before the General Assembly of Georgia, on Fast Day, in March, + 1863: "Restlessness and discontent prevail.… Extortion, pitiless + extortion is making havoc in the land. We are devouring each other. + Avarice with full barns puts the bounties of Providence under bolts and + bars, waiting with eager longings for higher prices.… The greed of + gain … stalks among us unabashed by the heroic sacrifice of our women or + the gallant deeds of our soldiers. Speculation in salt and bread and meat + runs riot in defiance of the thunders of the pulpit, and executive + interference and the horrors of threatened famine." In 1864, the + Government found that quantities of grain paid in under the tax as + new-grown were mildewed. It was grain of the previous year which + speculators had held too long and now palmed off on the Government to + supply the army. + </p> + <p> + Amid these desperate conditions the fate of soldiers' families became + everywhere a tragedy. Unless the soldier was a land-owner his family was + all but helpless. With a depreciated currency and exaggerated prices, his + pay, whatever his rank, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">110</a></span> + was too little to count in providing for his + dependents. Local charity, dealt out by state and county boards, by relief + associations, and by the generosity of neighbors, formed the barrier + between his family and starvation. The landless soldier, with a family at + home in desperate straits, is too often overlooked when unimaginative + people heap up the statistics of "desertion" in the latter half of the + war. + </p> + <p> + It was in this period, too, that amid the terrible shrinkage of the + defensive lines "refugeeing" became a feature of Southern life. From the + districts over which the waves of war rolled back and forth helpless + families—women, children, slaves—found precarious safety + together with great hardship by withdrawing to remote places which + invasion was little likely to reach. An Odyssey of hard travel, often by + night and half secret, is part of the war tradition of thousands of + Southern families. And here, as always, the heroic women, smiling, + indomitable, are the center of the picture. Their flight to preserve the + children was no small test of courage. Almost invariably they had to + traverse desolate country, with few attendants, through forests, and + across rivers, where the arm of the law was now powerless to protect them. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">111</a></span> + Outlaws, defiant of the authorities both civil and military,—ruthless + men of whom we shall hear again,—roved those great unoccupied spaces + so characteristic of the Southern countryside. Many a family legend + preserves still the sense of breathless caution, of pilgrimage in the + night-time intently silent for fear of these masterless men. When the + remote rendezvous had been reached, there a colony of refugees drew + together in a steadfast despair, unprotected by their own fighting men. + What strange sad pages in the history of American valor were filled by + these women outwardly calm, their children romping after butterflies in a + glory of sunshine, while horrid tales drifted in of deeds done by the + masterless men in the forest just beyond the horizon, and far off on the + soul's horizon fathers, husbands, brothers, held grimly the lines of last + defense! + </p> + <hr> + + <div class="chapterhead"> + <p class="center"> + <br> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">112</a></span> + <a name="chap07" id="chap07"></a> + <br><br><br> + </p> + <h2> + <a href="#Contents">CHAPTER VII.</a> + </h2> + </div> + <p class="chaptertitle">The Turning Of The Tide</p> + + + <p class="noindent"> + <span class="smcap">The</span> + buoyancy of the Southern temper withstood the shock of Gettysburg and + was not overcome by the fall of Vicksburg. Of the far-reaching + significance of the latter catastrophe in particular there was little + immediate recognition. Even Seddon, the Secretary of War, in November, + reported that "the communication with the Trans-Mississippi, while + rendered somewhat precarious and insecure, is found by no means cut off or + even seriously endangered." His report was the same sort of thing as those + announcements of "strategic retreats" with which the world has since + become familiar. He even went so far as to argue that on the whole the + South had gained rather than lost; that the control of the river was of no + real value to the North; that the loss of Vicksburg "has on our side + liberated for general operations in the field a large army, while it + requires the enemy to maintain + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">113</a></span> + cooped up, inactive, in positions + insalubrious to their soldiers, considerable detachments of their forces." + </p> + <p> + Seddon attempted to reverse the facts, to show that the importance of the + Mississippi in commerce was a Northern not a Southern concern. He threw + light upon the tactics of the time by his description of the future action + of Confederate sharpshooters who were to terrorize such commercial crews + as might attempt to navigate the river; he also told how light batteries + might move swiftly along the banks and, at points commanding the channel, + rain on the passing steamer unheralded destruction. He was silent upon the + really serious matter, the patrol of the river by Federal gunboats which + rendered commerce with the Trans-Mississippi all but impossible. + </p> + <p> + This report, dated the 26th of November, gives a roseate view of the war + in Tennessee and enlarges upon that dreadful battle of Chickamauga which + "ranks as one of the grandest victories of the war." But even as the + report was signed, Bragg was in full retreat after his great disaster at + Chattanooga. On the 30th of November the Administration at Richmond + received from him a dispatch that closed with these words: "I deem it due + to + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">114</a></span> + the cause and to myself to ask for relief from command and an + investigation into the causes of the defeat." In the middle of December, + Joseph E. Johnston was appointed to succeed him. + </p> + <p> + Whatever had been the illusions of the Government, they were now at an + end. There was no denying that the war had entered a new stage and that + the odds were grimly against the South. Davis recognized the gravity of + the situation, and in his message to Congress in December, 1863, he + admitted that the Trans-Mississippi was practically isolated. This was + indeed a great catastrophe, for hereafter neither men nor supplies could + be drawn from the far Southwest. Furthermore, the Confederacy had now lost + its former precious advantage of using Mexico as a means of secret trade + with Europe. + </p> + <p> + These distressing events of the four months between Vicksburg and + Chattanooga established also the semi-isolation of the middle region of + the lower South. The two States of Mississippi and Alabama entered upon + the most desperate chapter of their history. Neither in nor out of the + Confederacy, neither protected by the Confederate lines nor policed by the + enemy, they were subject at once to the full rigor of the financial and + military + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">115</a></span> + demands of the Administration of Richmond and to the full + ruthlessness of plundering raids from the North. Nowhere can the contrast + between the warfare of that day and the best methods of our own time be + observed more clearly than in this unhappy region. At the opening of 1864 + the effective Confederate lines drew an irregular zigzag across the map + from a point in northern Georgia not far below Chattanooga to Mobile. + Though small Confederate commands still operated bravely west of this + line, the whole of Mississippi and a large part of Alabama were beyond aid + from Richmond. But the average man did not grasp the situation. When a + region is dominated by mobile armies the appearance of things to the + civilian is deceptive. Because the powerful Federal armies of the + Southwest, at the opening of 1864, were massed at strategic points from + Tennessee to the Gulf, and were not extended along an obvious trench line, + every brave civilian would still keep up his hope and would still insist + that the middle Gulf country was far from subjugation, that its defense + against the invader had not become hopeless. + </p> + <p> + Under such conditions, when the Government at Richmond called upon the men + of the Southwest + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">116</a></span> + to regard themselves as mere sources of supply, human and + otherwise, mere feeders to a theater of war that did not include their + homes, it was altogether natural that they should resent the demand. All + the tragic confusion that was destined in the course of the fateful year + 1864 to paralyze the Government at Richmond was already apparent in the + middle Gulf country when the year began. Chief among these was the + inability of the State and Confederate Governments to coöperate adequately + in the business of conscription. The two powers were determined rivals + struggling each to seize the major part of the manhood of the community. + While Richmond, looking on the situation with the eye of pure strategy, + wished to draw together the full man-power of the South in one great unit, + the local authorities were bent on retaining a large part of it for home + defense. + </p> + <p> + In the Alabama newspapers of the latter half of 1863 strange incidents are + to be found throwing light on the administrative duel. The writ of <i>habeas + corpus,</i> as was so often the case in Confederate history, was the bone of + contention. We have seen that the second statute empowering the President + to proclaim martial law and to suspend the operation of the writ had + expired by limitation + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">117</a></span> + in February, 1863. The Alabama courts were + theoretically in full operation, but while the law was in force the + military authorities had acquired a habit of arbitrary control. Though + warned from Richmond in general orders that they must not take unto + themselves a power vested in the President alone, they continued their + previous course of action. It thereupon became necessary to issue further + general orders annulling "all proclamations of martial law by general + officers and others" not invested by law with adequate authority. + </p> + <p> + Neither general orders nor the expiration of the statute, however, seemed + able to put an end to the interference with the local courts on the part + of local commanders. The evil apparently grew during 1863. A picturesque + instance is recorded with extreme fullness by the <i>Southern Advertiser</i> in + the autumn of the year. In the minutely circumstantial account, we catch + glimpses of one Rhodes moving heaven and earth to prove himself exempt + from military service. After Rhodes is enrolled by the officers of the + local military rendezvous, the sheriff attempts to turn the tables by + arresting the Colonel in command. The soldiers rush to defend their + Colonel, who is ill in bed at a house some distance away. The judge who + had + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">118</a></span> + issued the writ is hot with anger at this military interference in + civil affairs. Thereupon the soldiers seize him, but later, recognizing + for some unexplained reason the majesty of the civil law, they release + him. And the hot-tempered incident closes with the Colonel's determination + to carry the case to the Supreme Court of the State. + </p> + <p> + The much harassed people of Alabama had still other causes of complaint + during this same year. Again the newspapers illumine the situation. In the + troubled autumn, Joseph Wheeler swept across the northern counties of + Alabama and in a daring ride, with Federal cavalry hot on his trail, + reached safety beyond the Tennessee River. Here his pursuers turned back + and, as their horses had been broken by the swiftness of the pursuit, + returning slowly, they "gleaned the country" to replace their supplies. + Incidentally they pounced upon the town of Huntsville. "Their appearance + here," writes a local correspondent, "was so sudden and … the + contradictory reports of their whereabouts" had been so baffling that the + townspeople had found no time to secrete things. The whole neighborhood + was swept clean of cattle and almost clean of provision. "We have not + enough left," the report continues, "to haul and plow with … + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">119</a></span> + and milch cows are <i>non est.</i>" Including "Stanley's big raid in + July," this was the twenty-first raid which Huntsville had endured + that year. The report closes with a bitter denunciation of the people + of southern Alabama who as yet do not know what war means, who are + accused of complete hardness of heart towards their suffering + fellowcountrymen and of caring only to make money out of war prices. + </p> + <p> + When Davis sent his message to the Southern Congress at the opening of the + session of 1864, the desperate plight of the middle Gulf country was at + once a warning and a menace to the Government. If the conditions of that + debatable land should extend eastward, there could be little doubt that + the day of the Confederacy was nearing its close. To remedy the situation + west of the main Confederate line, to prevent the growth of a similar + condition east of it, Davis urged Congress to revive the statute + permitting martial law and the suspension of the writ of <i>habeas corpus.</i> + The President told Congress that in parts of the Confederacy "public + meetings have been held, in some of which a treasonable design is masked + by a pretense of devotion of state sovereignty, and in others is openly + avowed … a strong suspicion + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">120</a></span> + is entertained that secret leagues and + associations are being formed. In certain localities men of no mean + position do not hesitate to avow their disloyalty and hostility to our + cause, and their advocacy of peace on the terms of submission and the + abolition of slavery." + </p> + <p> + This suspicion on the part of the Confederate Government that it was being + opposed by organized secret societies takes us back to debatable land and + to the previous year. The Bureau of Conscription submitted to the + Secretary of War a report from its Alabama branch relative to "a sworn + secret organization known to exist and believed to have for its object the + encouragement of desertion, the protection of deserters from arrest, + resistance to conscription, and perhaps other designs of a still more + dangerous character." To the operations of this insidious foe were + attributed the shifting of the vote in the Alabama elections, the defeat + of certain candidates favored by the Government, and the return in their + stead of new men "not publicly known." The suspicions of the Government + were destined to further verification in the course of 1864 by the + unearthing of a treasonable secret society in southwestern Virginia, the + members of which were "bound to each other + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">121</a></span> + for the prosecution of their + nefarious designs by the most solemn oaths. They were under obligation to + encourage desertions from the army, and to pass and harbor all deserters, + escaped prisoners, or spies; to give information to the enemy of the + movements of our troops, of exposed or weakened positions, of inviting + opportunities of attack, and to guide and assist the enemy either in + advance or retreat." This society bore the grandiloquent name "Heroes of + America" and had extended its operations into Tennessee and North + Carolina. + </p> + <p> + In the course of the year further evidence was collected which satisfied + the secret service of the existence of a mysterious and nameless society + which had ramifications throughout Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia. A + detective who joined this "Peace Society," as it was called, for the + purpose of betraying its secrets, had marvelous tales to tell of + confidential information given to him by members, of how Missionary Ridge + had been lost and Vicksburg had surrendered through the machinations of + this society. ¹ + </p> + + <div class="footer"> + <p class="footer"> + <a id="footer_761-1" name="footer_761-1"></a> + ¹ What classes were represented in these organizations it is + difficult if not impossible to determine. They seem to have + been involved in the singular "peace movement" which is yet + to be considered. This fact gives a possible clue to the + problem of their membership. A suspiciously large number of + the "peace" men were original anti-secessionists, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">122</a></span> + and though + many, perhaps most, of these who opposed secession became + loyal servants of the Confederacy, historians may have + jumped too quickly to the assumption that the sincerity of + all of these men was above reproach. + </p> + </div> + + + <p> + In spite of its repugnance to the suspension of the writ of <i>habeas corpus,</i> + Congress was so impressed by the gravity of the situation that early in + 1864 it passed another act "to suspend the privilege of the writ of <i>habeas + corpus</i> in certain cases." This was not quite the same as that sweeping act + of 1862 which had set the <i>Mercury</i> irrevocably in opposition. Though this + act of 1864 gave the President the power to order the arrest of any person + suspected of treasonable practices, and though it released military + officers from all obligation to obey the order of any civil court to + surrender a prisoner charged with treason, the new legislation carefully + defined a list of cases in which alone this power could be lawfully used. + This was the last act of the sort passed by the Confederate Congress, and + when it expired by limitation ninety days after the next meeting of + Congress it was not renewed. + </p> + <p> + With regard to the administration of the army, Congress can hardly be said + to have met the President more than half way. The age of military service + was lowered to seventeen and was raised to + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">123</a></span> + fifty. But the President was + not given—though he had asked for it—general control over + exemptions. Certain groups, such as ministers, editors, physicians, were + in the main exempted; one overseer was exempted on each plantation where + there were fifteen slaves, provided he gave bond to sell to the Government + at official prices each year one hundred pounds of either beef or bacon + for each slave employed and provided he would sell all his surplus produce + either to the Government or to the families of soldiers. Certain civil + servants of the Confederacy were also exempted as well as those whom the + governors of States should "certify to be necessary for the proper + administration of the State Government." The President was authorized to + detail for nonmilitary service any members of the Confederate forces "when + in his judgment, justice, equity, and necessity, require such details." + </p> + <p> + This statute retained two features that had already given rise to much + friction, and that were destined to be the cause of much more. It was + still within the power of state governors to impede conscription very + seriously. By certifying that a man was necessary to the civil + administration of a State, a Governor could place him beyond the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">124</a></span> + legal + reach of the conscripting officers. This provision was a concession to + those who looked on Davis's request for authority over exemption as the + first step toward absolutism. On the other hand the statute allowed the + President a free hand in the scarcely less important matter of "details." + Among the imperative problems of the Confederacy, where the whole male + population was needed in the public service, was the most economical + separation of the two groups, the fighters and the producers. On the one + hand there was the constant demand for recruits to fill up the wasted + armies; on the other, the need for workers to keep the shops going and to + secure the harvest. The two interests were never fully coördinated. Under + the act of 1864, no farmer, mechanic, tradesman, between the ages of + seventeen and fifty, if fit for military service, could remain at his work + except as a "detail" under orders of the President: he might be called to + the colors at a moment's notice. We shall see, presently, how the revoking + of details, toward the end of what may truly be called the terrible year, + was one of the major incidents of Confederate history. + </p> + <p> + Together with the new conscription act, the President approved on February + 17, 1864, a reenactment + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">125</a></span> + of the tax in kind, with some slight concessions + to the convenience of the farmers. The President's appeal for a law + directly taxing slaves and land had been ignored by Congress, but another + of his suggestions had been incorporated in the Funding Act. The state of + the currency was now so grave that Davis attributed to it all the evils + growing out of the attempts to enforce impressment. As the value of the + paper dollar had by this time shrunk to six cents in specie and the volume + of Confederate paper was upward of seven hundred millions, Congress + undertook to reduce the volume and raise the value by compelling holders + of notes to exchange them for bonds. By way of driving the note-holders to + consent to the exchange, provision was made for the speedy taxation of + notes for one-third their face value. + </p> + <p> + Such were the main items of the government program for 1864. Armed with + this, Davis braced himself for the great task of making head against the + enemies that now surrounded the Confederacy. It is an axiom of military + science that when one combatant possesses the interior line, the other can + offset this advantage only by exerting coincident pressure all round, thus + preventing him from shifting his forces from one front to + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">126</a></span> + another. On this + principle, the Northern strategists had at last completed their gigantic + plan for a general envelopment of the whole Confederate defense both by + land and sea. Grant opened operations by crossing the Rapidan and + telegraphing Sherman to advance into Georgia. + </p> + <p> + The stern events of the spring of 1864 form such a famous page in military + history that the sober civil story of those months appears by comparison + lame and impotent. Nevertheless, the Confederate Government during those + months was at least equal to its chief obligation: it supplied and + recruited the armies. With Grant checked at Cold Harbor, in June, and + Sherman still unable to pierce the western line, the hopes of the + Confederates were high. + </p> + <p> + In the North there was corresponding gloom. This was the moment when all + Northern opponents of the war drew together in their last attempt to + shatter the Lincoln Government and make peace with the Confederacy. The + value to the Southern cause of this Northern movement for peace at any + price was keenly appreciated at Richmond. Trusted agents of the + Confederacy were even then in Canada working deftly to influence Northern + sentiment. The negotiations with those + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">127</a></span> + Northern secret societies which + befriended the South belong properly in the story of Northern politics and + the presidential election of 1864. They were skillfully conducted chiefly + by Jacob Thompson and C. C. Clay. The reports of these agents throughout + the spring and summer were all hopeful and told of "many intelligent men + from the United States" who sought them out in Canada for political + consultations. They discussed "our true friends from the Chicago + (Democratic) convention" and even gave names of those who, they were + assured, would have seats in McClellan's Cabinet. They were really not + well informed upon Northern affairs, and even after the tide had turned + against the Democrats in September, they were still priding themselves on + their diplomatic achievement, still confident they had helped organize a + great political power, had "given a stronger impetus to the peace party of + the North than all other causes combined, and had greatly reduced the + strength of the war party." + </p> + <p> + While Clay and Thompson built their house of cards in Canada, the Richmond + Government bent anxious eyes on the western battlefront. Sherman, though + repulsed in his one frontal attack at Kenesaw Mountain, had steadily + worked his way by + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">128</a></span> + the left flank of the Confederate army, until in early + July he was within six miles of Atlanta. All the lower South was a-tremble + with apprehension. Deputations were sent to Richmond imploring the removal + of Johnston from the western command. What had he done since his + appointment in December but retreat? Such was the tenor of public opinion. + "It is all very well to talk of Fabian policy," said one of his detractors + long afterward, "and now we can see we were rash to say the least. But at + the time, all of us went wrong together. Everybody clamored for Johnston's + removal." Johnston and Davis were not friends; but the President hesitated + long before acting. And yet, with each day, political as well as military + necessity grew more imperative. Both at Washington and Richmond the effect + that the fighting in Georgia had on Northern opinion was seen to be of the + first importance. Sherman was staking everything to break the Confederate + line and take Atlanta. He knew that a great victory would have + incalculable effect on the Northern election. Davis knew equally well that + the defeat of Sherman would greatly encourage the peace party in the + North. But he had no general of undoubted genius whom he could put in + Johnston's place. However, the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">129</a></span> + necessity for a bold stroke was so + undeniable, and Johnston appeared so resolute to continue his Fabian + policy, that Davis reluctantly took a desperate chance and superseded him + by Hood. + </p> + <p> + During August, though the Democratic convention at Chicago drew up its + platform favoring peace at any price, the anxiety of the Southern + President did not abate his activities. The safety of the western line was + now his absorbing concern. And in mid-August that line was turned, in a + way, by Farragut's capture of Mobile Bay. As the month closed, Sherman, + despite the furious blows delivered by Hood, was plainly getting the upper + hand. North and South, men watched that tremendous duel with the feeling + that the foundations of things were rocking. At last, on the 2d of + September, Sherman, victorious, entered Atlanta. + </p> + + <hr> + + + + <div class="chapterhead"> + <p class="center"> + <br> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">130</a></span> + <a name="chap08" id="chap08"></a> + <br><br><br> + </p> + <h2> + <a href="#Contents">CHAPTER VII.</a> + </h2> + </div> + + <p class="chaptertitle">A Game Of Chance</p> + + <p class="noindent"> + <span class="smcap">With</span> + dramatic completeness in the summer and autumn of 1864, the + foundations of the Confederate hope one after another gave way. Among the + causes of this catastrophe was the failure of the second great attempt on + the part of the Confederacy to secure recognition abroad. The subject + takes us back to the latter days of 1862, when the center of gravity in + foreign affairs had shifted from London to Paris. Napoleon III, at the + height of his strange career, playing half a dozen dubious games at once, + took up a new pastime and played at intrigue with the Confederacy. In + October he accorded a most gracious interview to Slidell. He remarked that + his sympathies were entirely with the South but added that, if he acted + alone, England might trip him up. He spoke of his scheme for joint + intervention by England, France, and Russia. Then he asked why we had + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">131</a></span> + not created a navy. Slidell snapped at the bait. He said that the Confederates + would be glad to build ships in France, that "if the Emperor would give + only some kind of verbal assurance that the police would not observe too + closely when we wished to put on guns and men we would gladly avail + ourselves of it." To this, the imperial trickster replied, "Why could you + not have them built as for the Italian Government? I do not think it would + be difficult but will consult the Minister of Marine about it." + </p> + <p> + Slidell left the Emperor's presence confident that things would happen. + And they did. First came Napoleon's proposal of intervention, which was + declined before the end of the year by England and Russia. Then came his + futile overtures to the Government at Washington, his offer of mediation—which + was rejected early in 1863. But Slidell remained confident that something + else would happen. And in this expectation also he was not disappointed. + The Emperor was deeply involved in Mexico and was busily intriguing + throughout Europe. This was the time when Erlanger, standing high in the + favor of the Emperor, made his gambler's proposal to the Confederate + authorities about cotton. Another of the Emperor's friends + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">132</a></span> + now enters the + play. On January 7, 1863, M. Arman, of Bordeaux, "the largest shipbuilder + in France," had called on the Confederate commissioner: M. Arman would be + happy to build ironclad ships for the Confederacy, and as to paying for + them, cotton bonds might do the trick. + </p> + <p> + No wonder Slidell was elated, so much so that he seems to have given + little heed to the Emperor's sinister intimation that the whole affair + must be subterranean. But the wily Bonaparte had not forgotten that six + months earlier he had issued a decree of neutrality forbidding Frenchmen + to take commissions from either belligerent "for the armament of vessels + of war or to accept letters of marque, or to coöperate in any way + whatsoever in the equipment or arming of any vessel of war or corsair of + either belligerent." He did not intend to abandon publicly this cautious + attitude—at least, not for the present. And while Slidell at Paris + was completely taken in, the cooler head of A. Dudley Mann, Confederate + commissioner at Brussels, saw what an international quicksand was the + favor of Napoleon. It was about this time that Napoleon, having dispatched + General Forey with a fresh army to Mexico, wrote the famous letter which + gave notice to the world of what he was about. Mann + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">133</a></span> + wrote home in alarm + that the Emperor might be expected to attempt recovering Mexico's ancient + areas including Texas. Slidell saw in the Forey letter only "views … + which will not be gratifying to the Washington Government." + </p> + <p> + The adroit Arman, acting on hints from high officers of the Government, + applied for permission to build and arm ships of war, alleging that he + intended to send them to the Pacific and sell them to either China or + Japan. To such a laudable expression of commercial enterprise, one of his + fellows in the imperial ring, equipped with proper authority under + Bonaparte, hastened to give official approbation, and Erlanger came + forward by way of financial backer. There were conferences of Confederate + agents; contracts were signed; plans were agreed upon; and the work was + begun. + </p> + <p> + There was no more hopeful man in the Confederate service than Slidell + when, in the full flush of pride after Chancellorsville, he appealed to + the Emperor to cease waiting on other powers and recognize the + Confederacy. Napoleon accorded another gracious interview but still + insisted that it was impossible for him to act alone. He said that he was + "more fully convinced than ever of the propriety of a general recognition + by the European + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">134</a></span> + powers of the Confederate States but that the commerce of + France and the interests of the Mexican expedition would be jeopardized by + a rupture with the United States" and unless England would stand by him he + dared not risk such an eventuality. In point of fact, he was like a + speculator who is "hedging" on the stock exchange, both buying and + selling, and trying to make up his mind on which cast to stake his + fortune. At the same time he threw out once more the sinister caution + about the ships. He said that the ships might be built in France but that + their destination must be concealed. + </p> + <p> + That Napoleon's choice just then, if England had supported him, would have + been recognition of the Confederacy, cannot be doubted. The tangle of + intrigue which he called his foreign policy was not encouraging. He was + deeply involved in Italian politics, where the daring of Garibaldi had + reopened the struggle between clericals and liberals. In France itself the + struggle between parties was keen. Here, as in the American imbroglio, he + found it hard to decide with which party to break. The chimerical scheme + of a Latin empire in Mexico was his spectacular device to catch the + imagination, and incidentally the pocketbook, of everybody. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">135</a></span> + But in order + to carry out this enterprise he must be able to avert or withstand the + certain hostility of the United States. Therefore, as he told Slidell, "no + other power than England possessed a sufficient navy" to pull his + chestnuts out of the fire. The moment was auspicious, for there was a + revival of the "Southern party" in England. The sailing of the <i>Alabama</i> + from Liverpool during the previous summer had encouraged the Confederate + agents and their British friends to undertake further shipbuilding. + </p> + <p> + While M. Arman was at work in France, the Laird Brothers were at work in + England and their dockyards contained two ironclad rams supposed to + outclass any vessels of the United States navy. Though every effort had + been made to keep secret the ultimate destination of these rams, the + vigilance of the United States minister, reinforced by the zeal of the + "Northern party," detected strong circumstantial evidence pointing toward + a Confederate contract with the Lairds. A popular agitation ensued along + with demands upon the Government to investigate. To mask the purposes of + the Lairds, Captain James Bullock, the able special agent of the + Confederate navy, was forced to fall back upon the same tactics that were + being used + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">136</a></span> + across the Channel, and to sell the rams, on paper, to a firm + in France. Neither he nor Slidell yet appreciated what a doubtful refuge + was the shadow of Napoleon's wing. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless the British Government, by this time practically alined with + the North, continued its search for the real owner of the Laird rams. The + "Southern party," however, had not quite given up hope, and the agitation + to prevent the sailing of the rams was a keen spur to its flagging zeal. + Furthermore the prestige of Lee never was higher than it was in June, + 1863, when the news of Chancellorsville was still fresh and resounding in + every mind. It had given new life to the Confederate hope: Lee would take + Washington before the end of the summer; the Laird rams would go to sea; + the Union would be driven to the wall. So reasoned the ardent friends of + the South. But one thing was lacking—a European alliance. What a + time for England to intervene! + </p> + <p> + While Slidell was talking with the Emperor, he had in his pocket a letter + from J. A. Roebuck, an English politician who wished to force the issue in + the House of Commons. As a preliminary to moving the recognition of the + Confederacy, he wanted authority to deny a rumor going the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">137</a></span> + rounds in + London, to the effect that Napoleon had taken position against + intervention. Napoleon, when he had seen the letter, began a negotiation + of some sort with this politician. It is needless to enter into the + complications that ensued, the subsequent recriminations, and the question + as to just what Napoleon promised at this time and how many of his + promises he broke. He was a diplomat of the old school, the school of + lying as a fine art. He permitted Roebuck to come over to Paris for an + audience, and Roebuck went away with the impression that Napoleon could be + relied upon to back up a new movement for recognition. When, however, + Roebuck brought the matter before the Commons at the end of the month and + encountered an opposition from the Government that seemed to imply an + understanding with Napoleon which was different from his own, he withdrew + his motion (in July). Once more the scale turned against the Confederacy, + and Gettysburg was supplemented by the seizure of the Laird rams by the + British authorities. These events explain the bitter turn given to + Confederate feeling toward England in the latter part of 1863. On the 4th + of August Benjamin wrote to Mason that "the perusal of the recent debates + in Parliament satisfies the President" that Mason's + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">138</a></span> + "continued residence + in London is neither conducive to the interests nor consistent with the + dignity of this government," and directed him to withdraw to Paris. + </p> + <p> + Confederate feeling, as it cooled toward England, warmed toward France. + Napoleon's Mexican scheme, including the offer of a ready-made imperial + crown to Maximilian, the brother of the Emperor of Austria, was fully + understood at Richmond; and with Napoleon's need of an American ally, + Southern hope revived. It was further strengthened by a pamphlet which was + translated and distributed in the South as a newspaper article under the + title <i>France, Mexico, and the Confederate States.</i> The reputed author, + Michel Chevalier, was an imperial senator, another member of the Napoleon + ring, and highly trusted by his shifty master. The pamphlet, which + emphasized the importance of Southern independence as a condition of + Napoleon's "beneficent aims" in Mexico, was held to have been inspired, + and the imperial denial was regarded as a mere matter of form. + </p> + <p> + What appeared to be significant of the temper of the Imperial Government + was a decree of a French court in the case of certain merchants who sought + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">139</a></span> + to recover insurance on wine dispatched to America and destroyed in a ship + taken by the <i>Alabama.</i> Their plea was that they were insured against loss + by "pirates." The court dismissed their suit and assessed costs against + them. Further evidence of Napoleon's favor was the permission given to the + Confederate cruiser <i>Florida</i> to repair at Brest and even to make use of the + imperial dockyard. The very general faith in Napoleon's promises was + expressed by Davis in his message to Congress in December: "Although + preferring our own government and institutions to those of other + countries, we can have no disposition to contest the exercise by them of + the same right of self-government which we assert for ourselves. If the + Mexican people prefer a monarchy to a republic, it is our plain duty + cheerfully to acquiesce in their decision and to evince a sincere and + friendly interest in their prosperity.… The Emperor of the French has + solemnly disclaimed any purpose to impose on Mexico a form of government + not acceptable to the nation.…" In January, 1864, hope of recognition + through support of Napoleon's Mexican policy moved the Confederate + Congress to adopt resolutions providing for a Minister to the Mexican + Empire and giving him instructions with + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">140</a></span> + regard to a presumptive treaty. To + the new post Davis appointed General William Preston. + </p> + <p> + But what, while hope was springing high in America, was taking place in + France? So far as the world could say, there was little if anything to + disturb the Confederates; and yet, on the horizon, a cloud the size of a + man's hand had appeared. M. Arman had turned to another member of the + Legislative Assembly, a sound Bonapartist like himself, M. Voruz, of + Nantes, to whom he had sublet a part of the Confederate contract. The + truth about the ships and their destination thus became part of the + archives of the Voruz firm. No phase of Napoleonic intrigue could go very + far without encountering dishonesty, and to the confidential clerk of M. + Voruz there occurred the bright idea of doing something for himself with + this valuable diplomatic information. One fine day the clerk was missing + and with him certain papers. Then there ensued a period of months during + which the firm and their employers could only conjecture the full extent + of their loss. + </p> + <p> + In reality, from the Confederate point of view, everything was lost. Again + the episode becomes too complex to be followed in detail. Suffice it to + say that the papers were sold to the United States; + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">141</a></span> + that the secret was + exposed; that the United States made a determined assault upon the + Imperial Government. In the midst of this entanglement, Slidell lost his + head, for hope deferred when apparently within reach of its end is a + dangerous councilor of state. In his extreme anxiety, Slidell sent to the + Emperor a note the blunt rashness of which the writer could not have + appreciated. Saying that he feared the Emperor's subordinates might play + into the hands of Washington, he threw his fat in the fire by speaking of + the ships as "now being constructed at Bordeaux and Nantes for the + government of the Confederate States" and virtually claimed of Napoleon a + promise to let them go to sea. Three days later the Minister of Foreign + Affairs took him sharply to task because of this note, reminding him that + "what had passed with the Emperor was confidential" and dropping the + significant hint that France could not be forced into war by + "indirection." According to Slidell's version of the interview "the + Minister's tone changed completely" when Slidell replied with "a detailed + history of the affair showing that the idea originated with the Emperor." + Perhaps the Minister knew more than he chose to betray. + </p> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">142</a></span> + From this hour the + game was up. Napoleon's purpose all along seems to have been quite plain. + He meant to help the South to win by itself, and, after it had won, to use + it for his own advantage. So precarious was his position in Europe that he + dared not risk an American war without England's aid, and England had cast + the die. In this way, secrecy was the condition necessary to continued + building of the ships. Now that the secret was out, Napoleon began to + shift his ground. He sounded the Washington Government and found it + suspiciously equivocal as to Mexico. To silence the French republicans, to + whom the American minister had supplied information about the ships, + Napoleon tried at first muzzling the press. But as late as February, 1864, + he was still carrying water on both shoulders. His Minister of Marine + notified the builders that they must get the ships out of France, unarmed, + under fictitious sale to some neutral country. The next month, reports + which the Confederate commissioners sent home became distinctly alarming. + Mann wrote from Brussels: "Napoleon has enjoined upon Maximilian to hold + no official relations with our commissioners in Mexico." Shortly after + this Slidell received a shock that was the beginning of the end: + Maximilian, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">143</a></span> + on passing through Paris on his way to Mexico, refused to + receive him. + </p> + <p> + The Mexican project was now being condemned by all classes in France. + Nevertheless, the Government was trying to float a Mexican loan, and it is + hardly fanciful to think that on this loan the last hope of the + Confederacy turned. Despite the popular attitude toward Mexico, the loan + was going well when the House of Representatives of the United States + dealt the Confederacy a staggering blow. It passed unanimous resolutions + in the most grim terms, denouncing the substitution of monarchical for + republican government in Mexico under European auspices. When this action + was reported in France, the Mexican loan collapsed. + </p> + <p> + Napoleon's Italian policy was now moving rapidly toward the crisis which + it reached during the following summer when he surrendered to the + opposition and promised to withdraw the French troops from Rome. In May, + when the loan collapsed, there was nothing for it but to throw over his + dear friends of the Confederacy. Presently he had summoned Arman before + him, "rated him severely," and ordered him to make <i>bona fide</i> sales of the + ships to neutral powers. The Minister of Marine professed surprise and + indignation + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">144</a></span> + at Arman's trifling with the neutrality of the Imperial + Government. And that practically was the end of the episode. + </p> + <p> + Equally complete was the breakdown of the Confederate negotiations with + Mexico. General Preston was refused recognition. In those fierce days of + July when the fate of Atlanta was in the balance, the pride and despair of + the Confederate Government flared up in a haughty letter to Preston + reminding him that "it had never been the intention of this Government to + offer any arguments to the new Government of Mexico … nor to place + itself in any attitude other than that of complete equality," and + directing him to make no further overtures to the Mexican Emperor. + </p> + <p> + And then came the <i>débâcle</i> in Georgia. On that + same 20th of September when Benjamin poured out in a letter to Slidell + his stored-up bitterness denouncing Napoleon, Davis, feeling the last + crisis was upon him, left Richmond to join the army in Georgia. His + frame of mind he had already expressed when he said, "We have no + friends abroad." + </p> + <hr> + + <div class="chapterhead"> + <p class="center"> + <br> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">145</a></span> + <a name="chap09" id="chap09"></a> + <br><br><br> + </p> + <h2> + <a href="#Contents">CHAPTER IX.</a> + </h2> + </div> + <p class="chaptertitle">Desperate Remedies</p> + + + <p class="noindent"> + <span class="smcap">The</span> + loss of Atlanta was the signal for another conflict of authority + within the Confederacy. Georgia was now in the condition in which Alabama + had found herself in the previous year. A great mobile army of invaders + lay encamped on her soil. And yet there was still a state Government + established at the capital. Inevitably the man who thought of the + situation from the point of view of what we should now call the general + staff, and the man who thought of it from the point of view of a citizen + of the invaded State, suffered each an intensification of feeling, and + each became determined to solve the problem in his own way. The President + of the Confederacy and the Governor of Georgia represented these + incompatible points of view. + </p> + <p> + The Governor, Joseph E. Brown, is one of the puzzling figures of + Confederate history. We have already encountered him as a dogged opponent + of + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">146</a></span> + the Administration. With the whole fabric of Southern life toppling + about his ears, Brown argued, quibbled, evaded, and became a + rallying-point of disaffection. That more eminent Georgian, Howell Cobb, + applied to him very severe language, and they became engaged in a + controversy over that provision of the Conscription Act which exempted + state officials from military service. While the Governor of Virginia was + refusing certificates of exemption to the minor civil officers such as + justices of the peace, Brown by proclamation promised his "protection" to + the most insignificant civil servants. "Will even your Excellency," + demanded Cobb, "certify that in any county of Georgia twenty justices of + the peace and an equal number of constables are necessary for the proper + administration of the state government?" The Bureau of Conscription + estimated that Brown kept out of the army approximately 8000 eligible men. + The truth seems to be that neither by education nor heredity was this + Governor equipped to conceive large ideas. He never seemed conscious of + the war as a whole, or of the Confederacy as a whole. To defend Georgia + and, if that could not be done, to make peace for Georgia—such in + the mind of Brown was the aim of the war. His restless + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">147</a></span> + jealousy of the + Administration finds its explanation in his fear that it would denude his + State of men. The seriousness of Governor Brown's opposition became + apparent within a week of the fall of Atlanta. Among Hood's forces were + some 10,000 Georgia militia. Brown notified Hood that these troops had + been called out solely with a view to the defense of Atlanta, that since + Atlanta had been lost they must now be permitted "to return to their homes + and look for a time after important interests," and that therefore he did + "withdraw said organizations" from Hood's command. In other words, Brown + was afraid that they might be taken out of the State. By proclamation he + therefore gave the militia a furlough of thirty days. Previous to the + issue of this proclamation, Seddon had written to Brown making requisition + for his 10,000 militia to assist in a pending campaign against Sherman. + Two days after his proclamation had appeared, Brown, in a voluminous + letter full of blustering rhetoric and abounding in sneers at the + President, demanded immediate reinforcements by order of the President and + threatened that, if they were not sent, he would recall the Georgia troops + from the army of Lee and would command "all the sons of Georgia to return + to + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">148</a></span> + their own State and within their own limits to rally round her glorious + flag." + </p> + <p> + So threatening was the situation in Georgia that Davis attempted to take + it into his own hands. In a grim frame of mind he left Richmond for the + front. The resulting military arrangements do not of course belong + strictly to the subject-matter of this volume; but the brief tour of + speechmaking which Davis made in Georgia and the interior of South + Carolina must be noticed; for his purpose seems to have been to put the + military point of view squarely before the people. He meant them to see + how the soldier looked at the situation, ignoring all demands of locality, + of affiliation, of hardship, and considering only how to meet and beat the + enemy. In his tense mood he was not always fortunate in his expressions. + At Augusta, for example, he described Beauregard, whom he had recently + placed in general command over Georgia and South Carolina, as one who + would do whatever the President told him to do. But this idea of military + self-effacement was not happily worded, and the enemies of Davis seized on + his phraseology as further evidence of his instinctive autocracy. The + <i>Mercury</i> compared him to the Emperor of Russia and declared the + tactless remark to be "as + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">149</a></span> + insulting to General Beauregard as it is false and presumptuous in + the President." + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile Beauregard was negotiating with Brown. Though they came to an + understanding about the disposition of the militia, Brown still tried to + keep control of the state troops. When Sherman was burning Atlanta + preparatory to the March to the Sea, Brown addressed to the Secretary of + War another interminable epistle, denouncing the Confederate authorities + and asserting his willingness to fight both the South and the North if + they did not both cease invading his rights. But the people of Georgia + were better balanced than their Governor. Under the leadership of such men + as Cobb they rose to the occasion and did their part in what proved a vain + attempt to conduct a "people's war." Their delegation at Richmond sent out + a stirring appeal assuring them that Davis was doing for them all it was + possible to do. "Let every man fly to arms," said the appeal. "Remove your + negroes, horses, cattle, and provisions from before Sherman's army, and + burn what you cannot carry. Burn all bridges and block up the roads in his + route. Assail the invader in front, flank, and rear, by night and by day. + Let him have no rest." + </p> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">150</a></span> + The Richmond Government was unable to detach any considerable force from + the northern front. Its contribution to the forces in Georgia was + accomplished by such pathetic means as a general order calling to the + colors all soldiers furloughed or in hospital, "except those unable to + travel"; by revoking all exemptions to farmers, planters, and mechanics, + except munitions workers; and by placing one-fifth of the ordnance and + mining bureau in the battle service. + </p> + <p> + All the world knows how futile were these endeavors to stop the whirlwind + of desolation that was Sherman's march. He spent his Christmas Day in + Savannah. Then the center of gravity shifted from Georgia to South + Carolina. Throughout the two desperate months that closed 1864 the + authorities of South Carolina had vainly sought for help from Richmond. + Twice the Governor made official request for the return to South Carolina + of some of her own troops who were at the front in Virginia. Davis first + evaded and then refused the request. Lee had informed him that if the + forces on the northern front were reduced, the evacuation of Richmond + would become inevitable. + </p> + <p> + The South Carolina Government, in December, 1864, seems to have concluded + that the State must + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">151</a></span> + save itself. A State Conscription Act was passed + placing all white males between the ages of sixteen and sixty at the + disposal of the state authorities for emergency duty. An Exemption Act set + forth a long list of persons who should not be liable to conscription by + the Confederate Government. Still a third act regulated the impressment of + slaves for work on fortifications so as to enable the state authorities to + hold a check upon the Confederate authorities. The significance of the + three statutes was interpreted by a South Carolina soldier, General John + S. Preston, in a letter to the Secretary of War that was a wail of + despair. "This legislation is an explicit declaration that this State does + not intend to contribute another soldier or slave to the public defense, + except on such terms as may be dictated by her authorities. The example + will speedily be followed by North Carolina and Georgia, the Executives of + those States having already assumed the position." + </p> + <p> + The division between the two parties in South Carolina had now become + bitter. To Preston the men behind the State Exemption Act appeared as + "designing knaves." The <i>Mercury,</i> on the other hand, was never more + relentless toward Davis than in the winter of 1864-1865. However, none + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">152</a></span> + or + almost none of the anti-Davis men in South Carolina made the least + suggestion of giving up the struggle. To fight to the end but also to act + as a check upon the central Government—as the new Governor, Andrew + G. Magrath, said in his inaugural address in December, 1864,—was the + aim of the dominant party in South Carolina. How far the State Government + and the Confederate Government had drifted apart is shown by two comments + which were made in January, 1865. Lee complained that the South Carolina + regiments, "much reduced by hard service," were not being recruited up to + their proper strength because of the measures adopted in the southeastern + States to retain conscripts at home. About the same date the <i>Mercury</i> + arraigned Davis for leaving South Carolina defenseless in the face of + Sherman's coming offensive, and asked whether Davis intended to surrender + the Confederacy. + </p> + <p> + And in the midst of this critical period, the labor problem pushed to the + fore again. The revocation of industrial details, necessary as it was, had + put almost the whole male population—in theory, at least—in + the general Confederate army. How far-reaching was the effect of this + order may be judged from the experience of the Columbia and + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">153</a></span> + Augusta + Railroad Company. This road was building through the interior of the State + a new line which was rendered imperatively necessary by Sherman's seizure + of the lines terminating at Savannah. The effect of the revocation order + on the work in progress was described by the president of the road in a + letter to the Secretary of War: + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="noindent"> + In July and August I made a fair beginning and by October we had about + 600 hands. General Order No. 77 took off many of our contractors and + hands. We still had increased the number of hands to about 400 when + Sherman started from Atlanta. The military authorities of Augusta took + about 300 of them to fortify that city. These contractors being from + Georgia returned with their slaves to their homes after being discharged + at Augusta. We still have between 500 and 600 hands at work and are adding + to the force every week. + </p> + <p> + The great difficulty has been in getting contractors exempt or definitely + detailed since Order No. 77. I have not exceeded eight or nine contractors + now detailed. The rest are exempt from other causes or over age. + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + It was against such a background of economic confusion that Magrath wrote + to the Governor of North Carolina making a revolutionary proposal. + Virtually admitting that the Confederacy had been shattered, and knowing + the disposition of those in authority to see only the military aspects of + any + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">154</a></span> + given situation, he prophesied two things: that the generals would + soon attempt to withdraw Lee's army south of Virginia, and that the + Virginia troops in that army would refuse to go. "It is natural under the + circumstances," said he, "that they would not." He would prepare for this + emergency by an agreement among the Southeastern and Gulf States to act + together irrespective of Richmond, and would thus weld the military power + of these States into "a compact and organized mass." + </p> + <p> + Governor Vance, with unconscious subtlety, etched a portrait of his own + mind when he replied that the crisis demanded "particularly the skill of + the politician perhaps more than that of the great general." He adroitly + evaded saying what he really thought of the situation but he made two + explicit counter-proposals. He suggested that a demand should be made for + the restoration of General Johnston and for the appointment of General Lee + to "full and absolute command of all the forces of the Confederacy." On + the day on which Vance wrote to Magrath, the <i>Mercury</i> lifted up its voice + and cried out for a Lee to take charge of the Government and save the + Confederacy. About the same time Cobb wrote to Davis in the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">155</a></span> + most friendly + way, warning him that he had scarcely a supporter left in Georgia, and + that, in view of the great popular reaction in favor of Johnston, + concessions to the opposition were an imperative necessity. "By accident," + said he, "I have become possessed of the facts in connection with the + proposed action of the Governors of certain States." He disavowed any + sympathy with the movement but warned Davis that it was a serious menace. + </p> + <p> + Two other intrigues added to the general political confusion. One of + these, the "Peace Movement," will be considered in the next chapter. The + other was closely connected with the alleged conspiracy to depose Davis + and set up Lee as dictator. If the traditional story, accepted by able + historians, may be believed, William C. Rives, of the Confederate + Congress, carried in January, 1865, to Lee from a congressional cabal an + invitation to accept the rôle of Cromwell. The greatest difficulty in the + way of accepting the tradition is the extreme improbability that any one + who knew anything of Lee would have been so foolish as to make such a + proposal. Needless to add, the tradition includes Lee's refusal to + overturn the Government. + </p> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">156</a></span> + There can be no doubt, however, that all the + enemies of Davis in Congress and out of it, in the opening months of 1865, + made a determined series of attacks upon his Administration. Nor can there + be any doubt that the popular faith in Lee was used as their trump card. + To that end, a bill was introduced to create the office of commanding + general of the Confederate armies. The bill was generally applauded, and + every one assumed that the new office was to be given to Lee. On the day + after the bill had passed the Senate the Virginia Legislature resolved + that the appointment of General Lee to supreme command would "reanimate + the spirit of the armies as well as the people of the several States + and … inspire increased confidence in the final success of the cause." + When the bill was sent to the President, it was accompanied by a + resolution asking him to restore Johnston. While Davis was considering + this bill, the Virginia delegation in the House, headed by the Speaker, + Thomas S. Bocock, waited upon the President, informed him what was really + wanted was a change of Cabinet, and told him that three-fourths of the + House would support a resolution of want of confidence in the Cabinet. The + next day Bocock repeated the demand in a + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">157</a></span> + note which Davis described as a + "warning if not a threat." + </p> + <p> + The situation of both President and country was now desperate. The program + with which the Government had entered so hopefully upon this fated year + had broken down at almost every point. In addition to the military and + administrative disasters, the financial and economic situation was as bad + as possible. So complete was the financial breakdown that Secretary + Memminger, utterly disheartened, had resigned his office, and the Treasury + was now administered by a Charleston merchant, George A. Trenholm. But the + financial chaos was wholly beyond his control. The government notes + reckoned in gold were worth about three cents on the dollar. The + Government itself avoided accepting them. It even bought up United States + currency and used it in transacting the business of the army. The extent + of the financial collapse was to be measured by such incidents as the + following which is recounted in a report that had passed under Davis's eye + only a few weeks before the "threat" of Bocock was uttered: "Those holding + the four per cent certificates complain that the Government as far as + possible discredits them. Fractions of hundreds cannot be + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">158</a></span> + paid with them. + I saw a widow lady, a few days since, offer to pay her taxes of $1,271.31 + with a certificate of $1,300. The tax-gatherer refused to give her the + change of $28.69. She then offered the whole certificate for the taxes. + This was refused. This apparent injustice touched her far more than the + amount of the taxes." + </p> + <p> + A letter addressed to the President from Griffin, Georgia, contained this + dreary picture: + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="noindent"> + Unless something is done and that speedily, there will be thousands of + the best citizens of the State and heretofore as loyal as any in the + Confederacy, that will not care one cent which army is victorious in + Georgia.… Since August last there have been thousands of cavalry and + wagon trains feeding upon our cornfields and for which our quartermasters + and officers in command of trains, regiments, battalions, companies, and + squads, have been giving the farmers receipts, and we were all told these + receipts would pay our government taxes and tithing; and yet not one of + them will be taken by our collector.… And yet we are threatened with + having our lands sold for taxes. Our scrip for corn used by our generals + will not be taken.… How is it that we have certified claims upon our + Government, past due ten months, and when we enter the quartermaster's + office we see placed up conspicuously in large letters "no funds." Some of + these said quartermasters [who] four years ago were not worth the clothes + upon their backs, are now large dealers in lands, negroes, and real + estate. + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">159</a></span> + There was almost universal complaint that government contractors were + speculating in supplies and that the Impressment Law was used by officials + to cover their robbery of both the Government and the people. Allowing for + all the panic of the moment, one is forced to conclude that the smoke is + too dense not to cover a good deal of fire. In a word, at the very time + when local patriotism everywhere was drifting into opposition to the + general military command and when Congress was reflecting this widespread + loss of confidence, the Government was loudly charged with inability to + restrain graft. In all these accusations there was much injustice. + Conditions that the Government was powerless to control were cruelly + exaggerated, and the motives of the Government were falsified. For all + this exaggeration and falsification the press was largely to blame. + Moreover, the press, at least in dangerously large proportion, was + schooling the people to hold Davis personally responsible for all their + suffering. General Bragg was informed in a letter from a correspondent in + Mobile that "men have been taught to look upon the President as an + inexorably self-willed man who will see the country to the devil before + giving up an opinion or a purpose." + </p> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">160</a></span> + This deliberate fostering of an + anti-Davis spirit might seem less malicious if the fact were not known + that many editors detested Davis because of his desire to abolish the + exemption of editors from conscription. Their ignoble course brings to + mind one of the few sarcasms recorded of Lee—the remark that the + great mistake of the South was in making all its best military geniuses + editors of newspapers. But it must be added in all fairness that the great + opposition journals, such as the <i>Mercury,</i> took up this new issue with the + President because they professed to see in his attitude toward the press a + determination to suppress freedom of speech, so obsessed was the + opposition with the idea that Davis was a monster! Whatever explanations + may be offered for the prevalence of graft, the impotence of the + Government at Richmond contributed to the general demoralization. In + regions like Georgia and Alabama, the Confederacy was now powerless to + control its agents. Furthermore, in every effort to assume adequate + control of the food situation the Government met the continuous opposition + of two groups of opponents—the unscrupulous parasites and the bigots + of economic and constitutional theory. Of the activities of the first + group, one incident is sufficient + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">161</a></span> + to tell the whole story. At Richmond, in + the autumn of 1864, the grocers were selling rice at two dollars and a + half a pound. It happened that the Governor of Virginia was William Smith, + one of the strong men of the Confederacy who has not had his due from the + historians. He saw that even under the intolerable conditions of the + moment this price was shockingly exorbitant. To remedy matters, the + Governor took the State of Virginia into business, bought rice where it + was grown, imported it, and sold it in Richmond at fifty cents a pound, + with sufficient profit to cover all costs of handling. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, when Smith urged the Virginia Legislature to assume control + of business as a temporary measure, he was at once assailed by the second + group—those martinets of constitutionalism who would not give up + their cherished Anglo-Saxon tradition of complete individualism in + government. The Administration lost some of its staunchest supporters the + moment its later organ, the <i>Sentinel,</i> began advocating the general + regulation of prices. With ruin staring them in the face, these devotees + of tradition could only reiterate their ancient formulas, nail their + colors to the mast, end go down, satisfied that, if they failed with these + principles, they would have failed still more + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">162</a></span> + terribly without them. + Confronting the practical question how to prevent speculators from + charging 400 per cent profit, these men turned grim but did not abandon + their theory. In the latter part of 1864 they aligned themselves with the + opposition when the government commissioners of impressment fixed an + official schedule that boldly and ruthlessly cut under market prices. The + attitude of many such people was expressed by the <i>Montgomery Mail</i> when it + said: + </p> + <p> + "The tendency of the age, the march of the American people, is toward + monarchy, and unless the tide is stopped we shall reach something worse + than monarchy. + </p> + <p> + "Every step we have taken during the past four years has been in the + direction of military despotism. + </p> + <p> + "Half our laws are unconstitutional." + </p> + <p> + Another danger of the hour was the melting away of the Confederate army + under the very eyes of its commanders. The records showed that there were + 100,000 absentees. And though the wrathful officials of the Bureau of + Conscription labeled them all "deserters," the term covered great numbers + who had gone home to share the sufferings of their families. + </p> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">163</a></span> + Such in brief was the fateful background of the congressional attack upon + the Administration in January, 1865. Secretary Seddon, himself a + Virginian, believing that he was the main target of the hostility of the + Virginia delegation, insisted upon resigning. Davis met this determination + with firmness, not to say infatuation, and in spite of the congressional + crisis, exhausted every argument to persuade Seddon to remain in office. + He denied the right of Congress to control his Cabinet, but he was finally + constrained to allow Seddon to retire. The bitterness inspired by these + attempts to coerce the President may be gauged by a remark attributed to + Mrs. Davis. Speaking of the action of Congress in forcing upon him the new + plan for a single commanding general of all the armies, she is said to + have exclaimed, "I think I am the proper person to advise Mr. Davis and if + I were he, I would die or be hung before I would submit to the + humiliation." + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless the President surrendered to Congress. On January 26, 1865, + he signed the bill creating the office of commanding general and at once + bestowed the office upon Lee. It must not be supposed, however, that Lee + himself had the slightest sympathy with the congressional cabal which + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">164</a></span> + had + forced upon the President this reorganization of the army. In accepting + his new position he pointedly ignored Congress by remarking, "I am + indebted alone to the kindness of His Excellency, the President, for my + nomination to this high and arduous office." + </p> + <p> + The popular clamor for the restoration of Johnston had still to be + appeased. Disliking Johnston and knowing that the opposition was using a + popular general as a club with which to beat himself, Davis hesitated long + but in the end yielded to the inevitable. To make the reappointment + himself, however, was too humiliating. He left it to the new + commander-in-chief, who speedily restored Johnston to command. + </p> + <hr> + + <div class="chapterhead"> + <p class="center"> + <br> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">165</a></span> + <a name="chap10" id="chap10"></a> + <br><br><br> + </p> + <h2> + <a href="#Contents">CHAPTER X.</a> + </h2> + </div> + <p class="chaptertitle">Disintegration</p> + + + <p class="noindent"> + <span class="smcap">While</span> + these factions, despite their disagreements, were making valiant + efforts to carry on the war, other factions were stealthily cutting the + ground from under them. There were two groups of men ripe for + disaffection—original Unionists unreconciled to the Confederacy and + indifferentists conscripted against their will. + </p> + <p> + History has been unduly silent about these disaffected men. At the time so + real was the belief in state rights that contemporaries were reluctant to + admit that any Southerner, once his State had seceded, could fail to be + loyal to its commands. Nevertheless in considerable areas—such, for + example, as East Tennessee—the majority remained to the end openly + for the Union, and there were large regions in the South to which until + quite recently the eye of the student had not been turned. They were like + deep shadows under mighty trees + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">166</a></span> + on the face of a brilliant landscape. When + the peasant Unionist who had been forced into the army deserted, however, + he found in these shadows a nucleus of desperate men ready to combine with + him in opposition to the local authorities. + </p> + <p> + Thus were formed local bands of free companions who pillaged the civilian + population. The desperadoes whom the deserters joined have been described + by Professor Dodd as the "neglected by-products" of the old régime. + They were broken white men, or the children of such, of the sort that under + other circumstances have congregated in the slums of great cities. Though + the South lacked great cities, nevertheless it had its slum—a + widespread slum, scattered among its swamps and forests. In these + fastnesses were the lowest of the poor whites, in whom hatred of the + dominant whites and vengeful malice against the negro burned like slow + fires. When almost everywhere the countryside was stripped of its fighting + men, these wretches emerged from their swamps and forests, like the Paris + rabble emerging from its dens at the opening of the Revolution. But unlike + the Frenchmen, they were too sodden to be capable of ideas. Like predatory + wild beasts they revenged themselves upon the society that had cast them + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">167</a></span> + off, and with utter heartlessness they smote the now defenseless negro. In + the old days, with the country well policed, the slaves had been protected + against their fury, but war now changed all. The negro villages—or + "streets," as the term was—were without arms and without white + police within call. They were ravaged by these marauders night after + night, and negroes were not the only victims, for in remote districts even + murder of the whites became a familiar horror. + </p> + <p> + The antiwar factions were not necessarily, however, users of violence. + There were some men who cherished a dream which they labeled + "reconstruction"; and there were certain others who believed in separate + state action, still clinging to the illusion that any State had it in its + power to escape from war by concluding a separate peace with the United + States. + </p> + <p> + Yet neither of these illusions made much headway in the States that had + borne the strain of intellectual leadership. Virginia and South Carolina, + though seldom seeing things eye to eye and finally drifting in opposite + directions, put but little faith in either "reconstruction" or separate + peace. Their leaders had learned the truth about men and nations; they + knew that life is a grim business; they + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">168</a></span> + knew that war had unloosed + passions that had to spend themselves and that could not be talked away. + </p> + <p> + But there was scattered over the Confederacy a population which lacked + experience of the world and which included in the main those small farmers + and semipeasants who under the old régime were released from the + burden of taxation and at the same time excluded from the benefits of + education. Among these people the illusions of the higher classes were + reflected without the ballast of mentality. Ready to fight on any + provocation, yet circumscribed by their own natures, not understanding + life, unable to picture to themselves different types and conditions, + these people were as prone as children to confuse the world of their + own desire with the world of fact. When hardship came, when taxation + fell upon them with a great blow, when the war took a turn that + necessitated imagination for its understanding and faith for its + pursuit, these people with childlike simplicity immediately became + panic-stricken. Like the similar class in the North, they had + measureless faith in talk. Hence for them, as for Horace Greeley + and many another, sprang up the notion that if only all their sort + could be brought together + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">169</a></span> + for talk and talk and yet more talk, + the Union could be "reconstructed" just as it used to be, and the cruel + war would end. Before their eyes, as before Greeley in 1864, danced the + fata morgana of a convention of all the States, talking, talking, talking. + </p> + <p> + The peace illusion centered in North Carolina, where the people were as + enthusiastic for state sovereignty as were any Southerners. They had + seceded mainly because they felt that this principle had been attacked. + Having themselves little if any intention to promote slavery, they + nevertheless were prompt to resent interference with the system or with + any other Southern institution. Jonathan Worth said that they looked on + both abolition and secession as children of the devil, and he put the + responsibility for the secession of his State wholly upon Lincoln and his + attempt to coerce the lower South. This attitude was probably + characteristic of all classes in North Carolina. There also an unusually + large percentage of men lacked education and knowledge of the world. We + have seen how the first experience with taxation produced instant and + violent reaction. The peasant farmers of the western counties and the + general mass of the people began to distrust the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">170</a></span> + planter class. They began + asking if their allies, the other States, were controlled by that same + class which seemed to be crushing them by the exaction of tithes. And then + the popular cry was raised: Was there after all anything in the war for + the masses in North Carolina? Had they left the frying-pan for the fire? + Could they better things by withdrawing from association with their + present allies and going back alone into the Union? The delusion that they + could do so whenever they pleased and on the old footing seems to have + been widespread. One of their catch phrases was "the Constitution as it is + and the Union as it was." Throughout 1863, when the agitation against + tithes was growing every day, the "conservatives" of North Carolina, as + their leaders named them, were drawing together in a definite movement for + peace. This project came to a head during the next year in those grim days + when Sherman was before Atlanta. Holden, that champion of the opposition + to tithes, became a candidate for Governor against Vance, who was standing + for reëlection. Holden stated his platform in the organ of his party: "If + the people of North Carolina are for perpetual conscriptions, impressments + and seizures to keep up a perpetual, devastating and exhausting war, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">171</a></span> + let them vote for Governor Vance, for he is for 'fighting it out now'; + but if they believe, from the bitter experience of the last three years, + that the sword can never end it, and are in favor of steps being taken + by the State to urge negotiations by the general government for an + honorable and speedy peace, they must vote for Mr. Holden." + </p> + <p> + As Holden, however, was beaten by a vote that stood about three to one, + Governor Vance continued in power, but just what he stood for and just + what his supporters understood to be his policy would be hard to say. A + year earlier he was for attempting to negotiate peace, but though + professing to have come over to the war party he was never a cordial + supporter of the Confederacy. In a hundred ways he played upon the strong + local distrust of Richmond, and upon the feeling that North Carolina was + being exploited in the interests of the remainder of the South. To cripple + the efficiency of Confederate conscription was one of his constant aims. + Whatever his views of the struggle in which he was engaged, they did not + include either an appreciation of Southern nationalism or the strategist's + conception of war. Granted that the other States were merely his allies, + Vance pursued a course that might justly have aroused + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">172</a></span> + their suspicion, for + so far as he was able he devoted the resources of the State wholly to the + use of its own citizens. The food and the manufactures of North Carolina + were to be used solely by its own troops, not by troops of the Confederacy + raised in other States. And yet, subsequent to his reëlection, he was not + a figure in the movement to negotiate peace. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile in Georgia, where secession had met with powerful opposition, + the policies of the Government had produced discontent not only with the + management of the war but with the war itself. And now Alexander H. + Stephens becomes, for a season, very nearly the central figure of + Confederate history. Early in 1864 the new act suspending the writ of + <i>habeas corpus</i> had aroused the wrath of Georgia, and Stephens had become + the mouthpiece of the opposition. In an address to the Legislature, he + condemned in most exaggerated language not only the <i>Habeas Corpus</i> Act but + also the new Conscription Act. Soon afterward he wrote a long letter to + Herschel V. Johnson, who, like himself, had been an enemy of secession in + 1861. He said that if Johnson doubted that the <i>Habeas Corpus</i> Act was a + blow struck at the very "vitals of liberty," then he "would not believe + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">173</a></span> + though one were to rise from the dead." In this extraordinary letter + Stephens went on "most confidentially" to state his attitude toward Davis + thus: "While I do not and never have regarded him as a great man or + statesman on a large scale, or a man of any marked genius, yet I have + regarded him as a man of good intentions, weak and vacillating, timid, + petulant, peevish, obstinate, but not firm. Am now beginning to doubt his + good intentions.… His whole policy on the organization and discipline of + the army is perfectly consistent with the hypothesis that he is aiming at + absolute power." + </p> + <p> + That a man of Stephens's ability should have dealt in fustian like this in + the most dreadful moment of Confederate history is a psychological problem + that is not easily solved. To be sure, Stephens was an extreme instance of + the martinet of constitutionalism. He reminds us of those old-fashioned + generals of whom Macaulay said that they preferred to lose a battle + according to rule than win it by an exception. Such men find it easy to + transform into a bugaboo any one who appears to them to be acting + irregularly. Stephens in his own mind had so transformed the President. + The enormous difficulties and the wholly + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">174</a></span> + abnormal circumstances which + surrounded Davis counted with Stephens for nothing at all, and he reasoned + about the Administration as if it were operating in a vacuum. Having come + to this extraordinary position, Stephens passed easily into a rôle that + verged upon treason. ¹ + </p> + + <div class="footer"> + <p class="footer"> + <a id="footer_174-1" name="footer_174-1"></a> + ¹ There can be no question that Stephens never did anything + which in his own mind was in the least disloyal. And yet it + was Stephens who, in the autumn of 1864, was singled out by + artful men as a possible figurehead in the conduct of a + separate peace negotiation with Sherman. A critic very + hostile to Stephens and his faction might here raise the + question as to what was at bottom the motive of Governor + Brown, in the autumn of 1864, in withdrawing the Georgia + militia from Hood's command. Was there something afoot that + has never quite revealed itself on the broad pages of + history? As ordinarily told, the story is simply that + certain desperate Georgians asked Stephens to be their + ambassador to Sherman to discuss terms; that Sherman had + given them encouragement; but that Stephens avoided the + trap, and so nothing came of it. The recently published + correspondence of Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb, however, + contains one passage that has rather a startling sound. + Brown, writing to Stephens regarding his letter refusing to + meet Sherman, says, "It keeps the door open and I think this + is wise." At the same time he made a public statement that + "Georgia has power to act independently but her faith is + pledged by implication to her Southern sisters … will + triumph with her Southern sisters or sink with them in + common ruin." It is still to be discovered what "door" + Stephens was supposed to have kept open. + </p> + </div> + <p> + Peace talk was now + in the air, and especially was there chatter about + reconstruction. The illusionists seemed unable to perceive + that the reëlection of Lincoln had robbed them of their last + card. These dreamers did not even pause to wonder why + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">175</a></span> + after the terrible successes of the Federal army in Georgia, + Lincoln should be expected to reverse his policy and restore + the Union with the Southern States on the old footing. The + peace mania also invaded South Carolina and was espoused by + one of its Congressmen, Mr. Boyce, but he made few converts + among his own people. The <i>Mercury</i> scouted the idea; + clear-sighted and disillusioned, it saw the only alternatives to + be victory or subjugation. Boyce's argument was that the + South had already succumbed to military despotism and would + have to endure it forever unless it accepted the terms of + the invaders. News of Boyce's attitude called forth vigorous + protest from the army before Petersburg, and even went so + far afield as New York, where it was discussed in the + columns of the <i>Herald.</i> + </p> + + + <p> + In the midst of the Northern elections, when Davis was hoping great things + from the anti-Lincoln men, Stephens had said in print that he believed + Davis really wished the Northern peace party defeated, whereupon Davis had + written to him demanding reasons for this astounding charge. To the + letter, which had missed Stephens at his home and had followed him late in + the year to Richmond, Stephens wrote in the middle of December a long + reply which is one of the most curious + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">176</a></span> + documents in American history. He + justified himself upon two grounds. One was a statement which Davis had + made in a speech at Columbia, in October, indicating that he was averse to + the scheme of certain Northern peace men for a convention of all the + States. Stephens insisted that such a convention would have ended the war + and secured the independence of the South. Davis cleared himself on this + charge by saying that the speech at Columbia "was delivered after the + publication of McClellan's letter avowing his purpose to force reunion by + war if we declined reconstruction when offered, and therefore warned the + people against delusive hopes of peace from any other influence than that + to be exerted by the manifestation of an unconquerable spirit." + </p> + <p> + As Stephens professed to have independence and not reconstruction for his + aim, he had missed his mark with this first shot. He fared still worse + with the second. During the previous spring a Northern soldier captured in + the southeast had appealed for parole on the ground that he was a secret + emissary to the President from the peace men of the North. Davis, who did + not take him seriously, gave orders to have the case investigated, but + Stephens, whose mentality in this period is so + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">177</a></span> + curiously overcast, + swallowed the prisoner's story without hesitation. He and Davis had a + considerable amount of correspondence on the subject. In the fierce + tension of the summer of 1864 the War Department went so far as to have + the man's character investigated, but the report was unsatisfactory. He + was not paroled and died in prison. This episode Stephens now brought + forward as evidence that Davis had frustrated an attempt of the Northern + peace party to negotiate. Davis contented himself with replying, "I make + no comment on this." + </p> + <p> + The next step in the peace intrigue took place at the opening of the next + year, 1865. Stephens attempted to address the Senate on his favorite + topic, the wickedness of the suspension of <i>habeas corpus;</i> was halted by a + point of parliamentary law; and when the Senate sustained an appeal from + his decision, left the chamber in a pique. Hunter, now a Senator, became + an envoy to placate him and succeeded in bringing him back. Thereupon + Stephens poured out his soul in a furious attack upon the Administration. + He ended by submitting resolutions which were just what he might have + submitted four years earlier before a gun had been fired, so entirely had + his mind crystallized in the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">178</a></span> + stress of war! These resolutions, besides + reasserting the full state rights theory, assumed the readiness of the + North to make peace and called for a general convention of all the States + to draw up some new arrangement on a confessed state rights basis. More + than a month before, Lincoln had been reëlected on an unequivocal + nationalistic platform. And yet Stephens continued to believe that the + Northerners did not mean what they said and that in congregated talking + lay the magic which would change the world of fact into the world of his + own desire. + </p> + <p> + At this point in the peace intrigue the ambiguous figure of Napoleon the + Little reappears, though only to pass ghostlike across the back of the + stage. The determination of Northern leaders to oppose Napoleon had + suggested to shrewd politicians a possible change of front. That singular + member of the Confederate Congress, Henry S. Foote, thought he saw in the + Mexican imbroglio means to bring Lincoln to terms. In November he had + introduced into the House resolutions which intimated that "it might + become the true policy of … the Confederate States to consent to the + yielding of the great principle embodied in the Monroe Doctrine." The + House referred his + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">179</a></span> + resolutions to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and + there they slumbered until January. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile a Northern politician brought on the specter of Napoleon for a + different purpose. Early in January, 1865, Francis P. Blair made a journey + to Richmond and proposed to Davis a plan of reconciliation involving the + complete abandonment of slavery, the reunion of all the States, and an + expedition against Mexico in which Davis was to play the leading + rôle. Davis cautiously refrained from committing himself, though + he gave Blair a letter in which he expressed his willingness to enter + into negotiations for peace between "the two countries." The visit of + Blair gave new impetus to the peace intrigue. The Confederate House + Committee on Foreign Affairs reported resolutions favoring an attempt + to negotiate with the United States so as to "bring into view" the + possibility of coöperation between the United States and the + Confederacy to maintain the Monroe Doctrine. The same day saw another + singular incident. For some reason that has never been divulged Foote + determined to counterbalance Blair's visit to Richmond by a visit of + his own to Washington. In attempting to pass through the Confederate + lines he was arrested by + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">180</a></span> + the military authorities. With this fiasco Foote passes from the stage + of history. + </p> + <p> + The doings of Blair, however, continued to be a topic of general interest + throughout January. The military intrigue was now simmering down through + the creation of the office of commanding general. The attempt of the + congressional opposition to drive the whole Cabinet from office reached a + compromise in the single retirement of the Secretary of War. Before the + end of the month the peace question was the paramount one before Congress + and the country. Newspapers discussed the movements of Blair, apparently + with little knowledge, and some of the papers asserted hopefully that + peace was within reach. Cooler heads, such as the majority of the Virginia + Legislature, rejected this idea as baseless. The <i>Mercury</i> called the peace + party the worst enemy of the South. Lee was reported by the Richmond + correspondent of the <i>Mercury</i> as not caring a fig for the peace project. + Nevertheless the rumor persisted that Blair had offered peace on terms + that the Confederacy could accept. Late in the month, Davis appointed + Stephens, Hunter, and John A. Campbell commissioners to confer with the + Northern authorities with regard to peace. + </p> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">181</a></span> + There followed the famous conference of February 3, 1865, in the cabin of + a steamer at Hampton Roads, with Seward and Lincoln. The Confederate + commissioners represented two points of view: that of the Administration, + unwilling to make peace without independence; and that of the infatuated + Stephens who clung to the idea that Lincoln did not mean what he said, and + who now urged "an armistice allowing the States to adjust themselves as + suited their interests. If it would be to their interests to reunite, they + would do so." The refusal of Lincoln to consider either of these points of + view—the refusal so clearly foreseen by Davis—put an end to + the career of Stephens. He was "hoist with his own petard." + </p> + <p> + The news of the failure of the conference was variously received. The + <i>Mercury</i> rejoiced because there was now no doubt how things stood. + Stephens, unwilling to coöperate with the Administration, left the capital + and went home to Georgia. At Richmond, though the snow lay thick on the + ground, a great public meeting was held on the 6th of February in the + precincts of the African Church. Here Davis made an address which has been + called his greatest and which produced a profound impression. A wave of + enthusiasm swept + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">182</a></span> + over Richmond, and for a moment the President appeared + once more to be master of the situation. His immense audacity carried the + people with him when, after showing what might be done by more drastic + enforcement of the conscription laws, he concluded: "Let us then unite our + hands and our hearts, lock our shields together, and we may well believe + that before another summer solstice falls upon us, it will be the enemy + that will be asking us for conferences and occasions in which to make + known our demands." + </p> + <hr> + + <div class="chapterhead"> + <p class="center"> + <br> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">183</a></span> + <a name="chap11" id="chap11"></a> + <br><br><br> + </p> + <h2> + <a href="#Contents">CHAPTER XI.</a> + </h2> + </div> + <p class="chaptertitle">An Attempted Revolution</p> + + + <p class="noindent"> + <span class="smcap">Almost</span> + from the moment when the South had declared its independence voices + had been raised in favor of arming the negroes. The rejection of a plan to + accomplish this was one of the incidents of Benjamin's tenure of the + portfolio of the War Department; but it was not until the early days of + 1864, when the forces of Johnston lay encamped at Dalton, Georgia, that + the arming of the slaves was seriously discussed by a council of officers. + Even then the proposal had its determined champions, though there were + others among Johnston's officers who regarded it as "contrary to all true + principles of chivalric warfare," and their votes prevailed in the council + by a large majority. + </p> + <p> + From that time forward the question of arming the slaves hung like a heavy + cloud over all Confederate thought of the war. It was discussed in the + army and at home around troubled firesides. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">184</a></span> + Letters written from the + trenches at Petersburg show that it was debated by the soldiers, and the + intense repugnance which the idea inspired in some minds was shown by + threats to leave the ranks if the slaves were given arms. + </p> + <p> + Amid the pressing, obvious issues of 1864, this project hardly appears + upon the face of the record until it was alluded to in Davis's message to + Congress in November, 1864, and in the annual report of the Secretary of + War. The President did not as yet ask for slave soldiers. He did, however, + ask for the privilege of buying slaves for government use—not merely + hiring them from their owners as had hitherto been done—and for + permission, if the Government so desired, to emancipate them at the end of + their service. The Secretary of War went farther, however, and advocated + negro soldiers, and he too suggested their emancipation at the end of + service. + </p> + <p> + This feeling of the temper of the country, so to speak, produced an + immediate response. It drew Rhett from his retirement and inspired a + letter in which he took the Government severely to task for designing to + remove from state control this matter of fundamental importance. + Coinciding with the cry for more troops with which to confront Sherman, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">185</a></span> + the topic of negro soldiers became at once one of the questions of the + hour. It helped to focus that violent anti-Davis movement which is the + conspicuous event of December, 1864, and January, 1865. Those who believed + the President unscrupulous trembled at the thought of putting into his + hands a great army of hardy barbarians trained to absolute obedience. The + prospect of such a weapon held in one firm hand at Richmond seemed to + those opponents of the President a greater menace to their liberties than + even the armies of the invaders. It is quite likely that distrust of Davis + and dread of the use he might make of such a weapon was increased by a + letter from Benjamin to Frederick A. Porcher of Charleston, a supporter of + the Government, who had made rash suggestions as to the + extraconstitutional power that the Administration might be justified by + circumstances in assuming. Benjamin deprecated such suggestions but + concluded with the unfortunate remark: "If the Constitution is not to be + our guide I would prefer to see it suppressed by a revolution which should + declare a dictatorship during the war, after the manner of ancient Rome, + leaving to the future the care of reëstablishing firm and regular + government." + </p> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">186</a></span> + In the State of Virginia, indeed, the revolutionary + suggestions of the President's message and the Secretary's report were + promptly taken up and made the basis of a political program, which + Governor Smith embodied in his message to the Legislature—a document + that will eventually take its place among the most interesting state + papers of the Confederacy. It should be noted that the suggestions thrown + out in this way by the Administration to test public feeling involved + three distinct questions: Should the slaves be given arms? Should they, if + employed as soldiers, be given their freedom? Should this revolutionary + scheme, if accepted at all, be handled by the general Government or left + to the several States? On the last of the three questions the Governor of + Virginia was silent; by implication he treated the matter as a concern of + the States. Upon the first and second questions, however, he was explicit + and advised arming the slaves. He then added: + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="noindent"> + Even if the result were to emancipate our slaves, there is not a man who + would not cheerfully put the negro into the Army rather than become a + slave himself to our hated and vindictive foe. It is, then, simply a + question of time. Has the time arrived when this issue is fairly before + us?… For my part standing before God and my country, I do not hesitate + to say that I would + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">187</a></span> + arm such portion of our able-bodied slave population + as may be necessary, and put them in the field, so as to have them ready + for the spring campaign, even if it resulted in the freedom of those thus + organized. Will I not employ them to fight the negro force of the enemy? + Aye, the Yankees themselves, who already boast that they have 200,000 of + our slaves in arms against us. Can we hesitate, can we doubt, when the + question is, whether the enemy shall use our slaves against us or we use + them against him; when the question may be between liberty and + independence on the one hand, or our subjugation and utter ruin on the + other? + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + With their Governor as leader for the Administration, the Virginians found + this issue the absorbing topic of the hour. And now the great figure of + Lee takes its rightful place at the very center of Confederate history, + not only military but civil, for to Lee the Virginia politicians turned + for advice. ¹ In a letter to a State Senator of Virginia who had asked for + a public expression of Lee's + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">188</a></span> + views because "a mountain of prejudices, + growing out of our ancient modes of regarding the institution of Southern + slavery will have to be met and overcome" in order to attain unanimity, + Lee discussed both the institution of slavery and the situation of the + moment. He plainly intimated that slavery should be placed under state + control; and, assuming such control, be considered "the relation of master + and slave … the best that can exist between the black and white races + while intermingled as at present in this country." He went on to show, + however, that military necessity now compelled a revolution in sentiment + on this subject, and he came at last to this momentous conclusion: + </p> + + <div class="footer"> + <p class="footer"> + <a id="footer_188-1" name="footer_188-1"></a> + ¹ Lee now revealed himself in his previously overlooked + capacity of statesman. Whether his abilities in this respect + equaled his abilities as a soldier need not here be + considered; it is said that he himself had no high opinion + of them. However, in the advice which he gave at this final + moment of crisis, he expressed a definite conception of the + articulation of civil forces in such a system as that of the + Confederacy. He held that all initiative upon basal matters + should remain with the separate States, that the function of + the general Government was to administer, not to create + conditions, and that the proper power to constrain the State + Legislatures was the flexible, extra-legal power of public + opinion. + </p> + </div> + + <blockquote> + <p class="noindent"> + Should the war continue under existing circumstances, the enemy may in + course of time penetrate our country and get access to a large part of our + negro population. It is his avowed policy to convert the able-bodied men + among them into soldiers, and to emancipate all.… His progress will thus + add to his numbers, and at the same time destroy slavery in a manner most + pernicious to the welfare of our people. Their negroes will be used to + hold them in subjection, leaving the remaining force of the enemy free to + extend his conquest. Whatever may be the effect of our employing negro + troops, it cannot be as mischievous as this. If it end in subverting + slavery it will be accomplished by ourselves, and we can + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">189</a></span> + devise the means + of alleviating the evil consequences to both races. I think, therefore, we + must decide whether slavery shall be extinguished by our enemies and the + slaves be used against us, or use them ourselves at the risk of the + effects which may be produced upon our social institutions … + </p> + <p> + The reasons that induce me to recommend the employment of negro troops at + all render the effect of the measures … upon slavery immaterial, and in + my opinion the best means of securing the efficiency and fidelity of this + auxiliary force would be to accompany the measure with a well-digested + plan of gradual and general emancipation. As that will be the result of + the continuance of the war, and will certainly occur if the enemy succeed, + it seems to me most advisable to adopt it at once, and thereby obtain all + the benefits that will accrue to our cause.… + </p> + <p> + I can only say in conclusion, that whatever measures are to be adopted + should be adopted at once. Every day's delay increases the difficulty. + Much time will be required to organize and discipline the men, and action + may be deferred until it is too late. + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + Lee wrote these words on January 11, 1865. At that time a fresh wave of + despondency had gone over the South because of Hood's rout at Nashville; + Congress was debating intermittently the possible arming of the slaves; + and the newspapers were prophesying that the Administration would + presently force the issue. It is to be observed that Lee did not advise + Virginia to wait for Confederate + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">190</a></span> + action. He advocated emancipation by the + State. After all, to both Lee and Smith, Virginia was their "country." + </p> + <p> + During the next sixty days Lee rejected two great opportunities—or, + if you will, put aside two great temptations. If tradition is to be + trusted, it was during January that Lee refused to play the rôle of + Cromwell by declining to intervene directly in general Confederate + politics. But there remained open the possibility of his intervention in + Virginia politics, and the local crisis was in its own way as momentous as + the general crisis. What if Virginia had accepted the views of Lee and + insisted upon the immediate arming of the slaves? Virginia, however, did + not do so; and Lee, having made public his position, refrained from + further participation. Politically speaking, he maintained a splendid + isolation at the head of the armies. + </p> + <p> + Through January and February the Virginia crisis continued undetermined. + In this period of fateful hesitation, the "mountains of prejudice" proved + too great to be undermined even by the influence of Lee. When at last + Virginia enacted a law permitting the arming of her slaves, no provision + was made for their manumission. + </p> + <p> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">191</a></span> + Long before the passage of this act in Virginia, Congress had become the + center of the controversy. Davis had come to the point where no tradition + however cherished would stand, in his mind, against the needs of the + moment. To reinforce the army in great strength was now his supreme + concern, and he saw but one way to do it. As a last resort he was prepared + to embrace the bold plan which so many people still regarded with horror + and which as late as the previous November he himself had opposed. He + would arm the slaves. On February 10, 1865, bills providing for the arming + of the slaves were introduced both in the House and in the Senate. + </p> + <p> + On this issue all the forces both of the Government and the opposition + fought their concluding duel in which were involved all the other basal + issues that had distracted the country since 1862. Naturally there was a + bewildering criss-cross of political motives. There were men who, like + Smith and Lee, would go along with the Government on emancipation, + provided it was to be carried out by the free will of the States. There + were others who preferred subjugation to the arming of the slaves; and + among these there were clashings of motive. Then, too, there were those + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">192</a></span> + who were willing to arm the slaves but were resolved not to give them + their freedom. + </p> + <p> + The debate brings to the front of the political stage the figure of + R. M. T. Hunter. Hitherto his part has not been conspicuous either as Secretary + of State or as Senator from Virginia. He now becomes, in the words of + Davis, "a chief obstacle" to the passage of the Senate bill which would + have authorized a levy of negro troops and provided for their manumission + by the War Department with the consent of the State in which they should + be at the time of the proposed manumission. After long discussion, this + bill was indefinitely postponed. Meanwhile a very different bill had + dragged through the House. While it was under debate, another appeal was + made to Lee. Barksdale, who came as near as any one to being the leader of + the Administration, sought Lee's aid. Again the General urged the + enrollment of negro soldiers and their eventual manumission, but added + this immensely significant proviso: + </p> + <blockquote> + <p> + I have no doubt that if Congress would authorize their [the negroes'] + reception into service, and empower the President to call upon individuals + or States for such as they are willing to contribute, with the condition + of emancipation to all enrolled, a sufficient number would + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">193</a></span> + be forthcoming + to enable us to try the experiment [of determining whether the slaves + would make good soldiers]. If it proved successful, most of the objections + to the measure would disappear, and if individuals still remained + unwilling to send their negroes to the army, the force of public opinion + in the States would soon bring about such legislation as would remove all + obstacles. I think the matter should be left, as far as possible, to the + people and to the States, which alone can legislate as the necessities of + this particular service may require. + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + The fact that Congress had before it this advice from Lee explains why all + factions accepted a compromise bill, passed on the 9th of March, approved + by the President on the 13th of March, and issued to the country in a + general order on the 23d of March. It empowered the President to "ask for + and accept from the owners of slaves" the service of such number of + negroes as he saw fit, and if sufficient number were not offered to "call + on each State … for her quota of 300,000 troops … to be + raised from such classes of the population, irrespective of color, in + each State as the proper authorities thereof may determine." However, + "nothing in this act shall be construed to authorize a change in the + relation which the said slaves shall bear toward their owners, except by + consent of the owners and of the States in which + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">194</a></span> + they may reside and in pursuance of the laws thereof." + </p> + <p> + The results of this act were negligible. Its failure to offer the + slave-soldier his freedom was at once seized upon by critics as evidence + of the futility of the course of the Administration. The sneer went round + that the negro was to be made to fight for his own captivity. + Pollard—whose words, however, must be taken with a grain of + salt—has left this account of recruiting under the new act: + "Two companies of blacks, organized from some negro vagabonds in + Richmond, were allowed to give balls at the Libby Prison and were + exhibited in fine fresh uniforms on Capitol Square as decoys to + obtain recruits. But the mass of their colored brethren looked on + the parade with unenvious eyes, and little boys + exhibited the early prejudices of race by pelting the fine uniforms with + mud." + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless both Davis and Lee busied themselves in the endeavor to raise + black troops. Governor Smith coöperated with them. And in the mind of the + President there was no abandonment of the program of emancipation, which + was now his cardinal policy. Soon after the passage of the act, he wrote + to Smith: "I am happy to receive your assurance of success [in raising + black troops], + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">195</a></span> + as well as your promise to seek legislation to secure + unmistakable freedom to the slave who shall enter the Army, with a right + to return to his old home, when he shall have been honorably discharged + from military service." + </p> + <p> + While this final controversy was being fought out in Congress, the + enthusiasm for the Administration had again ebbed. Its recovery of + prestige had run a brief course and was gone, and now in the midst of the + discussion over the negro soldiers' bills, the opposition once more + attacked the Cabinet, with its old enemy, Benjamin, as the target. + Resolutions were introduced into the Senate declaring that "the retirement + of the Honorable Judah P. Benjamin from the State Department will be + subservient of the public interests"; in the House resolutions were + offered describing his public utterances as "derogatory to his position as + a high public functionary of the Confederate Government, a reflection on + the motives of Congress as a deliberative body, and an insult to public + opinion." + </p> + <p> + So Congress wrangled and delayed while the wave of fire that was Sherman's + advance moved northward through the Carolinas. Columbia had gone up in + smoke while the Senate debated day + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">196</a></span> + after day—fifteen in all—what + to do with the compromise bill sent up to it from the House. It was during + this period that a new complication appears to have been added to a + situation which was already so hopelessly entangled, for this was the time + when Governor Magrath made a proposal to Governor Vance for a league + within the Confederacy, giving as his chief reason that Virginia's + interests were parting company with those of the lower South. The same + doubt of the upper South appears at various times in the <i>Mercury.</i> And + through all the tactics of the opposition runs the constant effort to + discredit Davis. The <i>Mercury</i> scoffed at the agitation for negro soldiers + as a mad attempt on the part of the Administration to remedy its "myriad + previous blunders." + </p> + <p> + In these terrible days, the mind of Davis hardened. He became possessed by + a lofty and intolerant confidence, an absolute conviction that, in spite + of all appearances, he was on the threshold of success. We may safely + ascribe to him in these days that illusory state of mind which has + characterized some of the greatest of men in their over-strained, + concluding periods. His extraordinary promises in his later messages, a + series of vain prophecies beginning with his speech at the African + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">197</a></span> + Church, remind one of Napoleon after Leipzig refusing the Rhine as a boundary. His + nerves, too, were all but at the breaking-point. He sent the Senate a + scolding message because of its delay in passing the Negro Soldiers' Bill. + The Senate answered in a report that was sharply critical of his own + course. Shortly afterward Congress adjourned refusing his request for + another suspension of the writ of <i>habeas corpus</i>. + </p> + <p> + Davis had hinted at important matters he hoped soon to be able to submit + to Congress. What he had in mind was the last, the boldest, stroke of this + period of desperation. The policy of emancipation he and Benjamin had + accepted without reserve. They had at last perceived, too late, the power + of the anti-slavery movement in Europe. Though they had already failed to + coerce England through cotton and had been played with and abandoned by + Napoleon, they persisted in thinking that there was still a chance for a + third chapter in their foreign affairs. + </p> + <p> + The agitation to arm the slaves, with the promise of freedom, had another + motive besides the reinforcement of Lee's army: it was intended to serve + as a basis for negotiations with England and France. To that end + D. J. Kenner was dispatched to Europe + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">198</a></span> + early in 1865. Passing through New York in + disguise, he carried word of this revolutionary program to the Confederate + commissioners abroad. A conference at Paris was held by Kenner, Mason, and + Slidell. Mason, who had gone over to England to sound Palmerston with + regard to this last Confederate hope, was received on the 14th of March. + On the previous day, Davis had accepted temporary defeat, by signing the + compromise bill which omitted emancipation. But as there was no cable + operating at the time, Mason was not aware of this rebuff. In his own + words, he "urged upon Lord P. that if the President was right in his + impression that there was some latent, undisclosed obstacle on the part of + Great Britain to recognition, it should be frankly stated, and we might, + if in our power to do so, consent to remove it." Palmerston, though his + manner was "conciliatory and kind," insisted that there was nothing + "underlying" his previous statements, and that he could not, in view of + the facts then existing, regard the Confederacy in the light of an + independent power. Mason parted from him convinced that "the most ample + concessions on our part in the matter referred to would have produced no + change in the course determined on by the British Government + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">199</a></span> + with regard to recognition." In a subsequent interview with Lord + Donoughmore, he was frankly told that the offer of emancipation had + come too late. + </p> + <p> + The dispatch in which Mason reported the attitude of the British + Government never reached the Confederate authorities. It was dated the + 31st of March. Two days later Richmond was evacuated by the Confederate + Government. + </p> + <hr> + + <div class="chapterhead"> + <p class="center"> + <br> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">200</a></span> + <a name="chap12" id="chap12"></a> + <br><br><br> + </p> + <h2> + <a href="#Contents">CHAPTER XII.</a> + </h2> + </div> + <p class="chaptertitle">The Last Word</p> + <p class="noindent"> + <span class="smcap">The</span> + evacuation of Richmond broke the back of the Confederate defense. + Congress had adjourned. The legislative history of the Confederacy was at + an end. The executive history still had a few days to run. After + destroying great quantities of records, the government officials had + packed the remainder on a long train that conveyed the President and what + was left of the civil service to Danville. During a few days, Danville was + the Confederate capital. There, Davis, still unable to conceive defeat, + issued his pathetic last <i>Address to the People of the Confederate States.</i> + His mind was crystallized. He was no longer capable of judging facts. In + as confident tones as ever he promised his people that they should yet + prevail; he assured Virginians that even if the Confederate army should + withdraw further south the withdrawal would be but temporary, and that + "again and + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">201</a></span> + again will we return until the baffled and exhausted enemy + shall abandon in despair his endless and impossible task of making slaves + of a people resolved to be free." + </p> + <p> + The surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, compelled another migration + of the dwindling executive company. General Johnston had not yet + surrendered. A conference which he had with the President and the Cabinet + at Greensboro ended in giving him permission to negotiate with Sherman. + Even then Davis was still bent on keeping up the fight; yet, though he + believed that Sherman would reject Johnston's overtures, he was overtaken + at Charlotte on his way South by the crushing news of Johnston's + surrender. There the executive history of the Confederacy came to an end + in a final Cabinet meeting. Davis, still blindly resolute to continue the + struggle, was deeply distressed by the determination of his advisers to + abandon it. In imminent danger of capture, the President's party made its + way to Abbeville, where it broke up, and each member sought safety as best + he could. Davis with a few faithful men rode to Irwinsville, Georgia, + where, in the early morning of the 10th of May, he was surprised and + captured. But the history of the Confederacy was not quite + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">202</a></span> + at an end. The + last gunshots were still to be fired far away in Texas on the 13th of May. + The surrender of the forces of the Trans-Mississippi on May 26, 1865, + brought the war to a definite conclusion. + </p> + <p> + There remains one incident of these closing days, the significance of + which was not perceived until long afterward, when it immediately took its + rightful place among the determining events of American history. The + unconquerable spirit of the Army of Northern Virginia found its last + expression in a proposal which was made to Lee by his officers. If he + would give the word, they would make the war a duel to the death; it + should drag out in relentless guerrilla struggles; and there should be no + pacification of the South until the fighting classes had been + exterminated. Considering what those classes were, considering the + qualities that could be handed on to their posterity, one realizes that + this suicide of a whole people, of a noble fighting people, would have + maimed incalculably the America of the future. But though the heroism of + this proposal of his men to die on their shields had its stern charm for + so brave a man as Lee, he refused to consider it. He would not admit that + he and his people had a right thus to extinguish their power + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">203</a></span> + to help mold + the future, no matter whether it be the future they desired or not. The + result of battle must be accepted. The Southern spirit must not perish, + luxuriating blindly in despair, but must find a new form of expression, + must become part of the new world that was to be, must look to a new birth + under new conditions. In this spirit he issued to his army his last + address: + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="noindent"> + After four years of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed courage and + fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to + overwhelming numbers and resources. I need not tell the survivors of so + many hard-fought battles, who have remained steadfast to the last, that I + have consented to the result from no distrust of them; but feeling that + valor and devotion could accomplish nothing that could compensate for the + loss that would have attended the continuation of the contest, I + determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past services + have endeared them to their countrymen.… I bid you an affectionate + farewell. + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + How inevitably one calls to mind, in view of the indomitable valor of + Lee's final decision, those great lines from Tennyson: + </p> +<div class="poem1"> + <p class="poem1">Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'</p> + <p class="poem1">We are not now that strength which in old days</p> + <p class="poem1">Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;</p> + <p class="poem1">One equal temper of heroic hearts,</p> + <p class="poem1">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will.</p> +</div> +<hr> + + <div class="chapterhead"> + <p class="center"> + <br> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">205</a></span> + <a name="biblio" id="biblio"></a> + <br><br><br> + </p> + <h2> + <a href="#Contents">BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE</a> + </h2> + </div> + + <p class="noindent"> + <span class="smcap">There</span> + is no adequate history of the Confederacy. It is rumored that a + distinguished scholar has a great work approaching completion. It is also + rumored that another scholar, well equipped to do so, will soon bring out + a monumental life of Davis. But the fact remains that as yet we lack a + comprehensive review of the Confederate episode set in proper perspective. + Standard works such as the <i>History of the United States from the + Compromise of 1850</i>, by J. F. Rhodes (7 vols., 1893-1906), even when + otherwise as near a classic as is the work of Mr. Rhodes, treat the + Confederacy so externally as to have in this respect little value. The one + searching study of the subject, <i>The Confederate States of America,</i> by + J. C. Schwab (1901), though admirable in its way, is wholly overshadowed by + the point of view of the economist. The same is to be said of the article + by Professor Schwab in the 11th edition of <i>The Encyclopædia Britannica.</i> + </p> + <p> + Two famous discussions of the episode by participants are: <i>The Rise and + Fall of the Confederate Government,</i> by the President of the Confederacy + (2 vols., 1881), and <i>A Constitutional View of the Late War Between the + States,</i> by Alexander H. Stephens (2 vols., 1870). Both works, though + invaluable to the student, are tinged with controversy, each of the + eminent + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">206</a></span> + authors aiming to refute the arguments of political antagonists. + </p> + <p> + The military history of the time has so overshadowed the civil, in the + minds of most students, that we are still sadly in need of careful, + disinterested studies of the great figures of Confederate civil affairs. + <i>Jefferson Davis,</i> by William E. Dodd (<i>American Crisis Biographies,</i> + 1907), is the standard life of the President, superseding older ones. Not + so satisfactory in the same series is <i>Judah P. Benjamin,</i> by Pierce + Butler (1907), and <i>Alexander H. Stephens,</i> by Louis Pendleton (1907). + Older works which are valuable for the material they contain are: <i>Memoir + of Jefferson Davis,</i> by his Wife (1890); <i>The Life and Times of Alexander + H. Stephens,</i> by R. M. Johnston and W. M. Browne (1878); <i>The Life and + Times of William Lowndes Yancey,</i> by J. W. Du Bose (1892); <i>The Life, + Times, and Speeches of Joseph E. Brown,</i> by Herbert Fielder (1883); + <i>Public Life and Diplomatic Correspondence of James M. Mason,</i> by his + Daughter (1903); <i>The Life and Time of C. G. Memminger,</i> by H. D. Capers + (1893). The writings of E. A. Pollard cannot be disregarded, but must be + taken as the violent expression of an extreme partizan. They include a + <i>Life of Jefferson Davis</i> (1869) and <i>The Lost Cause</i> (1867). A charming + series of essays is <i>Confederate Portraits,</i> by Gamaliel Bradford (1914). + Among books on special topics that are to be recommended are: <i>The + Diplomatic History of the Southern Confederacy</i> by J. M. Callahan (1901); + <i>France and the Confederate Navy,</i> by John Bigelow (1888); and <i>The Secret + Service of the Confederate States in Europe,</i> by J. D. Bulloch (2 vols., + 1884). There is a large number of contemporary accounts of life in the + Confederacy. Historians have + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">207</a></span> + generally given excessive attention to <i>A + Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital,</i> by J. B. Jones + (2 vols., 1866) which has really neither more nor less value than a + Richmond newspaper. Conspicuous among writings of this type is the + delightful <i>Diary from Dixie,</i> by Mrs. Mary B. Chestnut (1905) and <i>My + Diary, North and South,</i> by W. H. Russell (1862). + </p> + <p> + The documents of the civil history, so far as they are accessible to the + general reader, are to be found in the three volumes forming the fourth + series of the <i>Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies</i> (128 + vols., 1880-1901); the <i>Journals of the Congress of the Confederate + States</i> (8 vols., 1904) and <i>Messages and Papers of the Confederacy,</i> + edited by J. D. Richardson (2 vols., 1905). Four newspapers are of first + importance: the famous opposition organs, the Richmond <i>Examiner</i> and the + Charleston <i>Mercury,</i> which should be offset by the two leading organs of + the Government, the <i>Courier</i> of Charleston and the <i>Enquirer</i> of Richmond. + The Statutes of the Confederacy have been collected and published; most of + them are also to be found in the fourth series of the <i>Official Records</i>. + </p> + <p> + Additional bibliographical references will be found appended to the + articles on the <i>Confederate States of America,</i> <i>Secession,</i> and + <i>Jefferson Davis,</i> in <i>The Encyclopædia Britannica,</i> 11th edition. + </p> + <p> + <br><br><br><br> + </p> + <hr> + + <div class="chapterhead"> + <p class="center"> + <br> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">209</a></span> + <a name="index" id="index"></a> + <br><br><br> + </p> + <h2> + <a href="#Contents">INDEX</a> + </h2> + </div> + + + <h3>A</h3> + <div class="indexfont"> + Alabama, + represented at South Carolina convention, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>; + secedes, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>; + convention, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>; + situation in, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, + <a href="#Page_114">114</a>-<a href="#Page_120">120</a>; + iron for munitions from, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>; + questions of state sovereignty in, + <a href="#Page_116">116</a>-<a href="#Page_119">119</a>.<br> + <i>Alabama</i>, The (ship), <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, + <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.<br> + Anderson, Major Robert, + transfers garrison to Sumter, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>; + refuses Beauregard's demands, + <a href="#Page_15">15</a>-<a href="#Page_16">16</a>; + <i>see also</i> Sumter.<br> + Antietam campaign, + <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.<br> + Appomattox, surrender at, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br> + Arkansas, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, + <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, + <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>.<br> + Arman, + shipbuilder of Bordeaux, + <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, + <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, + <a href="#Page_143">143</a>-<a href="#Page_144">144</a>.<br> + Army, + composition and size of, + <a href="#Page_36">36</a>-<a href="#Page_37">37</a>; + state armies, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>; + difficulty of enlisting, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>; + lack of shoes for, + <a href="#Page_77">77</a>-<a href="#Page_78">78</a>; + desertion, + <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, + <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>; + surrenders, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>-<a href="#Page_202">202</a>; + <i>see also</i> Conscription, Military policy.<br> + Ayer, L. M., of South Carolina, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.<br> + <p><br></p> + </div> + <h3>B</h3> + <div class="indexfont"> + Baldwin, of Virginia, tells of martial law, + <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.<br> + Barksdale, Ethelbert, of Mississippi, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, + <a href="#Page_84">84</a>-<a href="#Page_85">85</a>, + <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.<br> + Beauregard, General P. G. T., + and the surrender of Fort Sumter, + <a href="#Page_15">15</a>-<a href="#Page_24">24</a>; + in Georgia, + <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.<br> + Benjamin, J. P., + signs <i>To Our Constituents</i>, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>; + Attorney-General, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>; + Secretary of War, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, + <a href="#Page_79">79</a> (note); + Secretary of State, + <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>; + complaints against, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, + <a href="#Page_63">63</a>-<a href="#Page_64">64</a>; + life and character, + <a href="#Page_69">69</a>-<a href="#Page_71">71</a>; + denounces Napoleon, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>; + on extraconstitutional power, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>; + attacked by Congress, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>; + accepts policy of emancipation, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.<br> + Blair, F. P., plan of reconciliation, + <a href="#Page_179">179</a>-<a href="#Page_180">180</a>.<br> + Blockade, + <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, + <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.<br> + Bocock, T. S., Speaker of House, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.<br> + Bonds, <i>see</i> Finance.<br> + Boyce, of South Carolina, argument for peace, + <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.<br> + Bragg, General Braxton, + plan to invade Kentucky, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>; + attitude toward press, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>; + Davis's confidence in, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>; + army conditions under, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>; + resigns command, + <a href="#Page_113">113</a>-<a href="#Page_114">114</a>.<br> + Breckinridge, General J. C., + Secretary of War, <a href="#Page_79">79</a> (note).<br> + Brown, J. E., + Governor of Georgia, on secession, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, + <a href="#Page_6">6</a>-<a href="#Page_7">7</a>; + on conscription, + <a href="#Page_65">65</a>-<a href="#Page_66">66</a>, + <a href="#Page_75">75</a>-<a href="#Page_76">76</a>; + opponent of Administration, + <a href="#Page_145">145</a>-<a href="#Page_149">149</a>; + motives, <a href="#Page_174">174</a> (note).<br> + Bull Run, Battle of, <i>see</i> Manassas.<br> + Bullock, Captain James, + <a href="#Page_135">135</a>-<a href="#Page_136">136</a>.<br> + Butler, A. P., of South Carolina, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.<br> + <p><br></p> + </div> + <h3>C</h3> + <div class="indexfont"> + Cabinet, + <a href="#Page_14">14</a>-<a href="#Page_15">15</a>, + <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, + <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.<br> + Campbell, J. A., + Confederate commissioner at Hampton Roads, + <a href="#Page_180">180</a>.<br> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">210</a></span> + Canada, Confederate agents in, + <a href="#Page_126">126</a>-<a href="#Page_127">127</a>.<br> + Chancellorsville, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.<br> + Charleston, <a href="#Page_15">15</a> <i>et seq.,</i> + <a href="#Page_97">97</a>.<br> + Charleston <i>Courier,</i> <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, + <a href="#Page_21">21</a>-<a href="#Page_22">22</a>, + <a href="#Page_61">61</a>-<a href="#Page_62">62</a>, + <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, + <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>.<br> + Charleston <i>Mercury,</i> + describes siege of Sumter, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>; + opposes Administration, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, + <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, + <a href="#Page_61">61</a>-<a href="#Page_62">62</a>, + <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, + <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>; + on conscription, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>; + on Seddon's appointment, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>; + on Impressment Act, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>; + on Tax Act, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>; + on suspension of <i>habeas corpus,</i> + <a href="#Page_82">82</a>-<a href="#Page_83">83</a>, + <a href="#Page_85">85</a>-<a href="#Page_86">86</a>; + issue of conduct of war, + <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>; + account of President's visit to Charleston, + <a href="#Page_97">97</a>; + on peace, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>; + doubts upper South, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>; + on negro soldiers, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.<br> + Chattanooga, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.<br> + Chestnut, James, <a href="#Page_18">18</a> (note).<br> + Chevalier, Michel, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.<br> + Chickamauga campaign, + <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.<br> + Clay, C. C., <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.<br> + Cobb, Howell, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, + <a href="#Page_154">154</a>-<a href="#Page_155">155</a>.<br> + Cold Harbor, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.<br> + Columbia and Augusta Railroad Company, + <a href="#Page_152">152</a>-<a href="#Page_153">153</a>.<br> + "Confederate Societies," <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.<br> + Confederate States, + provisional government organized, + <a href="#Page_10">10</a>-<a href="#Page_11">11</a>; + status of belligerent accorded by England, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>; + clash with state authority, + <a href="#Page_38">38</a>-<a href="#Page_40">40</a>; + archives threatened, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>; + period of elation, + <a href="#Page_43">43</a>-<a href="#Page_44">44</a>; + foreign affairs, + <a href="#Page_46">46</a> <i>et seq.;</i> + <a href="#Page_130">130</a> <i>et seq.;</i> + secrecy of government, + <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, + <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>; + divided into separate units, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>; + impotence of government, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>; + anti-war factions in, + <a href="#Page_165">165</a>-<a href="#Page_167">167</a>; + war ended, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>; + <i>see also</i> Davis, South.<br> + Congress, Confederate, + <a href="#Page_9">9</a>-<a href="#Page_11">11</a>.<br> + Congress, U. S., + House committee of thirty-three, + <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.<br> + Conscription, adopted, + <a href="#Page_37">37</a>-<a href="#Page_38">38</a>; + constitutionality attacked, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>; + Pollard's criticism of enforcement, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>; + correspondence of Davis and Brown on, + <a href="#Page_65">65</a>-<a href="#Page_66">66</a>; + Rhett's opinion of, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>; + opposition to, + <a href="#Page_75">75</a>-<a href="#Page_77">77</a>; + exemptions, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, + <a href="#Page_123">123</a>-<a href="#Page_124">124</a>; + hiring of substitutes, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>; + failure of State and Confederate + governments to coöperate, + <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>; + age limits, + <a href="#Page_122">122</a>-<a href="#Page_123">123</a>.<br> + Constitution, Confederate, + <a href="#Page_10">10</a>-<a href="#Page_11">11</a>.<br> + Corinth, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.<br> + Cotton, to solve financial problem, + <a href="#Page_45">45</a>-<a href="#Page_46">46</a>; + necessary to English, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>; + effect of blockade, + <a href="#Page_51">51</a>-<a href="#Page_57">57</a>; + powerless to coerce England, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.<br> + <p><br></p> + </div> + <h3>D</h3> + <div class="indexfont"> + Danville, Confederate capital, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.<br> + Davis, Jefferson, signs <i>To Our Constituents,</i> + <a href="#Page_3">3</a>; + elected President in provisional Government, + <a href="#Page_11">11</a>; + as President, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, + <a href="#Page_24">24</a> <i>et seq.;</i> + from Mississippi, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>; + born in Kentucky, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>; + early life, + <a href="#Page_31">31</a>-<a href="#Page_32">32</a>; + personal characteristics, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>; + military activities, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>; + criticism of, + <a href="#Page_33">33</a>-<a href="#Page_34">34</a>, + <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, + <a href="#Page_61">61</a>-<a href="#Page_65">65</a>, + <a href="#Page_89">89</a>-<a href="#Page_90">90</a>, + <a href="#Page_159">159</a>-<a href="#Page_160">160</a>, + <a href="#Page_175">175</a>; + President at first regular election, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>; + inauguration, + <a href="#Page_35">35</a>-<a href="#Page_36">36</a>; + message to Congress (1862), <a href="#Page_36">36</a>; + proposes conscription, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>; + vetoes Texas Regiment Bill, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>; + clash with state authority, + <a href="#Page_38">38</a>-<a href="#Page_40">40</a>; + use of martial law, + <a href="#Page_40">40</a>-<a href="#Page_42">42</a>; + at height of powers, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>; + shortcomings, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>-<a href="#Page_69">69</a>; + relations with Lee, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>; + Cabinet, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>; + personal loyalty, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>; + statecraft, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>; + endorses "Confederate Societies," <a href="#Page_95">95</a>; + journeys during Administration, + <a href="#Page_96">96</a>-<a href="#Page_97">97</a>; + message to Congress (1863), <a href="#Page_114">114</a>; + message to Congress (1864), + <a href="#Page_119">119</a>-<a href="#Page_120">120</a>; + in Georgia, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, + <a href="#Page_148">148</a>-<a href="#Page_149">149</a>; + forced to reorganize army, + <a href="#Page_163">163</a>-<a href="#Page_164">164</a>; + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">211</a></span> + confident of Confederate success, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, + <a href="#Page_196">196</a>-<a href="#Page_197">197</a>; + signs compromise bill, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>; + <i>Address to the People of the Confederate States,</i> + <a href="#Page_200">200</a>-<a href="#Page_201">201</a>; + resolute to continue struggle, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>; + capture at Irwinsville, Ga., <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br> + Davis, Mrs. Jefferson, quoted, + <a href="#Page_67">67</a>-<a href="#Page_68">68</a>, + <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.<br> + Davis, Reuben, quoted, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.<br> + Deserters, + <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, + <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.<br> + Desperadoes, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, + <a href="#Page_166">166</a>-<a href="#Page_167">167</a>.<br> + Donelson, Fort, + <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, + <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.<br> + Donoughmore, Lord, Mason interviews, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.<br> + Draft, <i>see</i> Conscription.<br> + <p><br></p> + </div> + <h3>E</h3> + <div class="indexfont"> + Egypt enters cotton competition, + <a href="#Page_56">56</a>-<a href="#Page_57">57</a>.<br> + Elmore, of Alabama, addresses South Carolina convention, + <a href="#Page_3">3</a>.<br> + Emancipation, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, + <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>; + Proclamation, + <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.<br> + England, attitude toward Confederacy, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, + <a href="#Page_46">46</a>-<a href="#Page_47">47</a>, + <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, + <a href="#Page_198">198</a>-<a href="#Page_199">199</a>; + mission to, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>; + effort to coerce, + <a href="#Page_51">51</a>-<a href="#Page_52">52</a>; + Mason in, + <a href="#Page_52">52</a>-<a href="#Page_53">53</a>; + cotton famine in, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>; + bitterness against, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, + <a href="#Page_137">137</a>-<a href="#Page_138">138</a>; + "Southern party," + <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>; + shipbuilding investigations, + <a href="#Page_135">135</a>-<a href="#Page_136">136</a>; + decides France's attitude, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.<br> + Erlanger, Émile, + <a href="#Page_54">54</a>-<a href="#Page_56">56</a>, + <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.<br> + Exemptions, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, + <a href="#Page_123">123</a>-<a href="#Page_124">124</a>.<br> + <p><br></p> + </div> + <h3>F</h3> + <div class="indexfont"> + Finance, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>; + specie seized, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>; + "fifteen million loan," <a href="#Page_49">49</a>; + war tax, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>-<a href="#Page_50">50</a>; + loans, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>; + note issues, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>; + "hundred million loan," <a href="#Page_51">51</a>; + "Erlanger bonds," <a href="#Page_54">54</a>-<a href="#Page_56">56</a>; + price fixing, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>; + <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, + <a href="#Page_90">90</a>-<a href="#Page_91">91</a>, + <a href="#Page_95">95</a>; + Impressment Act, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>; + tax in kind, + <a href="#Page_80">80</a>-<a href="#Page_81">81</a>, + <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, + <a href="#Page_125">125</a>; + licensing of occupations, + <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>; + income tax, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>; + property tax, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>; + Funding Act, <a href="#Page_81">81</a> (note), + <a href="#Page_125">125</a>; + financial breakdown, + <a href="#Page_157">157</a>-<a href="#Page_158">158</a>.<br> + Florida, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, + <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.<br> + <i>Florida,</i> The, Confederate cruiser, + <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.<br> + Floyd, J. B., U. S. Secretary of War, resignation, + <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.<br> + Food situation, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, + <a href="#Page_108">108</a>-<a href="#Page_109">109</a>, + <a href="#Page_160">160</a>-<a href="#Page_161">161</a>.<br> + Foote, H. S., <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, + <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, + <a href="#Page_179">179</a>-<a href="#Page_180">180</a>.<br> + Forey, General, dispatched to Mexico, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.<br> + France, <i>see</i> Napoleon.<br> + <i>France, Mexico, and the Confederate Slates,</i> + <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.<br> + <p><br></p> + </div> + <h3>G</h3> + <div class="indexfont"> + Georgia, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>; + secession issue in, + <a href="#Page_4">4</a>-<a href="#Page_8">8</a>; + state sovereignty in, + <a href="#Page_65">65</a>-<a href="#Page_66">66</a>, + <a href="#Page_75">75</a>-<a href="#Page_76">76</a>; + unrest in, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, + <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>; + invaded, + <a href="#Page_127">127</a>-<a href="#Page_129">129</a>, + <a href="#Page_145">145</a>-<a href="#Page_150">150</a>.<br> + Gettysburg, Battle of, + <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.<br> + Grant, General U. S., crosses Rapidan, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>; + at Cold Harbor, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.<br> + <p><br></p> + </div> + <h3>H</h3> + <div class="indexfont"> + <i>Habeas corpus</i> acts, + <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, + <a href="#Page_82">82</a>-<a href="#Page_86">86</a>, + <a href="#Page_116">116</a>-<a href="#Page_118">118</a>, + <a href="#Page_119">119</a>-<a href="#Page_120">120</a>; + <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.<br> + "Heroes of America," + <a href="#Page_120">120</a>-<a href="#Page_121">121</a>.<br> + Hindman, General T. C., <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.<br> + Holden, W. W., of North Carolina, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, + <a href="#Page_170">170</a>-<a href="#Page_171">171</a>.<br> + Hood, General J. B., + <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.<br> + Hooker, of Mississippi, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>.<br> + Houston, Sam, Governor of Texas, + <a href="#Page_8">8</a>-<a href="#Page_9">9</a>.<br> + Hunter, R. M. T., Secretary of State, + <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>; + in Senate, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>; + Confederate commissioner at Hampton Roads, + <a href="#Page_180">180</a>; + opposes levy of negro troops, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.<br> + Huntsville (Ala.), + <a href="#Page_118">118</a>-<a href="#Page_119">119</a>.<br> + <p><br></p> + </div> + <h3>I</h3> + <div class="indexfont"> + Impressment Act, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, + <a href="#Page_90">90</a>-<a href="#Page_91">91</a>, + <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<br> + <i>Index, The,</i> Confederate foreign organ, + <a href="#Page_62">62</a> (note).<br> + India begins to export cotton, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.<br> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">212</a></span> + Industries in the South, + <a href="#Page_105">105</a>-<a href="#Page_107">107</a>.<br> + Ismail Pasha, + <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.<br> + <p><br></p> + </div> + <h3>J</h3> + <div class="indexfont"> + Johnson, H. V., <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.<br> + Johnston, A. S., + <a href="#Page_42">42</a>-<a href="#Page_43">43</a>.<br> + Johnston, General J. E., <a href="#Page_69">69</a>; + succeeds Bragg in command, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>; + lower South demands removal of, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>; + superseded by Hood, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>; + appeals for restoration of, + <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>; + restored to command, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>; + surrenders, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.<br> + Johnston, Fort, + <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.<br> + <p><br></p> + </div> + <h3>K</h3> + <div class="indexfont"> + Kenesaw Mountain, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.<br> + Kenner, D. J., dispatched to Europe, + <a href="#Page_197">197</a>-<a href="#Page_198">198</a>.<br> + Kentucky, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>; + plan of Confederacy to win, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.<br> + <p><br></p> + </div> + <h3>L</h3> + <div class="indexfont"> + Labor, + <a href="#Page_100">100</a>-<a href="#Page_102">102</a>, + <a href="#Page_152">152</a>-<a href="#Page_153">153</a>.<br> + Laird rams controversy, + <a href="#Page_135">135</a>-<a href="#Page_136">136</a>, + <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.<br> + Lee, General R. E., inspires army, + <a href="#Page_43">43</a>-<a href="#Page_44">44</a>; + to invade Maryland, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>; + and Davis, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>-<a href="#Page_69">69</a>; + demand of full command for, + <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>; + conspiracy to set up as dictator, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>; + made commanding general, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>; + opinion of peace project, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>; + as statesman, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>-<a href="#Page_190">190</a>; + officers propose to continue fighting, + <a href="#Page_202">202</a>-<a href="#Page_203">203</a>; + address to army, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.<br> + Lee, Stephen, <a href="#Page_18">18</a> (note).<br> + Lincoln, Abraham, reëlection, + <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>; + conference at Hampton Roads, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>.<br> + Louisiana, + <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, + <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, + <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>.<br> + <p><br></p> + </div> + <h3>M</h3> + <div class="indexfont"> + McClellan, General G. B., + <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.<br> + Magrath, A. G., + Governor of South Carolina, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, + <a href="#Page_153">153</a>-<a href="#Page_154">154</a>, + <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.<br> + Manassas, Battle of, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>; + Second, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.<br> + Mann, A. D., + Confederate commissioner at Brussels, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, + <a href="#Page_132">132</a>-<a href="#Page_133">133</a>, + <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.<br> + Martial law, <i>see Habeas corpus.</i> + Maryland, plan of Confederate States to win, + <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.<br> + Mason, J. M., capture of, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>; + replaces Yancey as commissioner, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>; + in England, + <a href="#Page_52">52</a>-<a href="#Page_53">53</a>, + <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, + <a href="#Page_198">198</a>-<a href="#Page_199">199</a>; + in Paris, + <a href="#Page_137">137</a>-<a href="#Page_138">138</a>, + <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.<br> + Memminger, C. G., Secretary of Treasury, + attempts to establish foreign credit, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>; + resigns, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>; <i>see also</i> Finance.<br> + Mexico, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>; + Napoleon III and, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, + <a href="#Page_132">132</a>-<a href="#Page_133">133</a>, + <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, + <a href="#Page_139">139</a>; + Confederate negotiations with, + <a href="#Page_139">139</a>-<a href="#Page_140">140</a>, + <a href="#Page_144">144</a>; + project condemned by French people, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>; + expedition suggested, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.<br> + Military policy, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, + <a href="#Page_43">43</a>-<a href="#Page_44">44</a>.<br> + Mississippi, represented in South Carolina convention, + <a href="#Page_3">3</a>; + secedes, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>; + typical of new order in South, + <a href="#Page_29">29</a>-<a href="#Page_31">31</a>; + sense of Southern nationality, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>; + status of, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, + <a href="#Page_114">114</a>-<a href="#Page_115">115</a>.<br> + Mobile Bay, capture of, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.<br> + Montgomery (Ala.), general Congress of seceding States at, + <a href="#Page_9">9</a>-<a href="#Page_11">11</a>.<br> + <i>Montgomery Mail,</i> <a href="#Page_162">162</a>.<br> + Moultrie, Fort, + <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.<br> + Munitions, + <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, + <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, + <a href="#Page_105">105</a>-<a href="#Page_106">106</a>.<br> + <p><br></p> + </div> + <h3>N</h3> + <div class="indexfont"> + Napoleon III, offers mediation, + <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>; + intrigues with Confederacy, + <a href="#Page_130">130</a> <i>et seq.</i>; + Italian policy, + <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>; + purpose exposed, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>; + influence in Mexican policy of the South, + <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.<br> + New Orleans, loss of, + <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.<br> + <i>New York Herald,</i> <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.<br> + Niter and Mining Bureau supplies powder for South, + <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.<br> + North Carolina, + resolutions concerning Congress of seceding States, + <a href="#Page_9">9</a>-<a href="#Page_10">10</a>; + against secession, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>; + secedes, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>; + state rights, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">213</a></span> + <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>; + political life in, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>; + protests tithes, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>; + disorder in, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>-<a href="#Page_94">94</a>; + anti-Davis tendencies in, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>; + peace illusion in, + <a href="#Page_169">169</a>-<a href="#Page_170">170</a>; + <i>see also</i> Vance.<br> + <i>North Carolina Standard,</i> <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.<br> + <p><br></p> + </div> + <h3>P</h3> + <div class="indexfont"> + Palmerston, Lord, British Prime Minister, Mason interviews, + <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.<br> + Peace, + <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, + <a href="#Page_121">121</a>-<a href="#Page_122">122</a>, + <a href="#Page_126">126</a>-<a href="#Page_127">127</a>, + <a href="#Page_169">169</a>-<a href="#Page_170">170</a>, + <a href="#Page_175">175</a>-<a href="#Page_182">182</a>, + <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.<br> + Peace Convention, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.<br> + "Peace Society," + <a href="#Page_121">121</a>-<a href="#Page_122">122</a>.<br> + Peninsular campaign, + <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.<br> + Perryville, Battle of, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.<br> + Petersburg (Va.), + <a href="#Page_107">107</a>-<a href="#Page_108">108</a>.<br> + Pierce, Bishop, quoted, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.<br> + Pike, General Albert, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.<br> + Pollard, E. A., + <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, + <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>; + <i>The First Year of the War,</i> + <a href="#Page_62">62</a>-<a href="#Page_64">64</a>.<br> + Porcher, F. A., <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.<br> + Prentiss, S. S., <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.<br> + Press, Freedom of, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.<br> + Preston, General J. S., <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.<br> + Preston, General William, + <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>.<br> + Price-fixing, <i>see</i> Finance.<br> + Profiteering, + <a href="#Page_78">78</a>-<a href="#Page_79">79</a>, + <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, + <a href="#Page_108">108</a>-<a href="#Page_109">109</a>, + <a href="#Page_161">161</a>-<a href="#Page_162">162</a>.<br> + Pryor, R. A., <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, + <a href="#Page_17">17</a>-<a href="#Page_18">18</a> (note).<br> + Pulaski, Fort, seized, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.<br> + <p><br></p> + </div> + <h3>Q</h3> + <div class="indexfont"> + Quitman, J. A., <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.<br> + <p><br></p> + </div> + <h3>R</h3> + <div class="indexfont"> + <i>Raleigh Progress,</i> <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.<br> + Ramsdell, C. W., + <i>The Confederate Government and the Railroads,</i> + cited, <a href="#Page_108">108</a> (note).<br> + Randolph, G. W., Secretary of War, + <a href="#Page_79">79</a> (note).<br> + Refugees, + <a href="#Page_110">110</a>-<a href="#Page_111">111</a>.<br> + Rhett, R. B., + leader of secession movement of 1850-1851, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>; + candidate for President of Confederate States, + <a href="#Page_24">24</a>; + disappointment, + <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>; + on state army, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>-<a href="#Page_73">73</a>; + retires, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, + <a href="#Page_88">88</a>-<a href="#Page_89">89</a>; + on arming the negroes, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.<br> + Rhodes, J. F., <i>History of the United States,</i> cited, + <a href="#Page_6">6</a> (note).<br> + Richmond (Va.), capital of Confederacy, + <a href="#Page_34">34</a>-<a href="#Page_35">35</a>; + martial law in, + <a href="#Page_41">41</a>-<a href="#Page_42">42</a>, + <a href="#Page_85">85</a>; + evacuated, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.<br> + Richmond <i>Enquirer,</i> government organ, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, + <a href="#Page_82">82</a>-<a href="#Page_83">83</a>, + <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.<br> + Richmond <i>Examiner,</i> opposition newspaper, + <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, + <a href="#Page_64">64</a>-<a href="#Page_65">65</a>, + <a href="#Page_80">80</a>.<br> + Richmond <i>Sentinel,</i> government organ, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, + <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>.<br> + Richmond <i>Whig,</i> <a href="#Page_80">80</a>.<br> + Rives, W. C., <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.<br> + Roanoke Island, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, + <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.<br> + Roebuck, J. A., + <a href="#Page_136">136</a>-<a href="#Page_137">137</a>.<br> + Rost, Confederate commissioner to Europe, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.<br> + <p><br></p> + </div> + <h3>S</h3> + <div class="indexfont"> + Secession movement, <a href="#Page_1">1</a> <i>et seq.;</i> + of 1850-51, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>-<a href="#Page_4">4</a>.<br> + Secrecy of Administration, + <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, + <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.<br> + Seddon, J. A., + Secretary of War, + <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, + <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>; + resigns, + <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>.<br> + Selma (Ala.), foundry at, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.<br> + Seven Pines (Va.), <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.<br> + Seward, W. H., at Hampton Roads conference, + <a href="#Page_181">181</a>.<br> + Sherman, General W. T., + Georgia campaign, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, + <a href="#Page_127">127</a>-<a href="#Page_129">129</a>, + <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.<br> + Slaves, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>: + not directly taxed, + <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>; + relation of Government to, + <a href="#Page_99">99</a>-<a href="#Page_102">102</a>; + "Fifteen Slave" Law, + <a href="#Page_102">102</a>-<a href="#Page_103">103</a>; + arming of, <a href="#Page_183">183</a> <i>et seq.; + see also</i> Emancipation.<br> + Slave-trade, African, prohibited, <a href="#Page_11">11</a> (note), + <a href="#Page_99">99</a>-<a href="#Page_100">100</a>.<br> + Slidell, John, capture of, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>; + Confederate commissioner at Paris, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>; + and Napoleon, <a href="#Page_130">130</a> <i>et seq.;</i> + conference at Paris, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.<br> + Smith, G. W., <a href="#Page_79">79</a> (note).<br> + <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">214</a></span> + Smith, William, Governor of Virginia, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, + <a href="#Page_186">186</a>-<a href="#Page_187">187</a>.<br> + South, division in, <a href="#Page_28">28</a> <i>et seq.;</i> + life in, <a href="#Page_99">99</a> <i>et seq.</i><br> + South Carolina, convention (1860), + <a href="#Page_2">2</a>-<a href="#Page_4">4</a>; + secedes, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>; + community of aristocratic class, + <a href="#Page_28">28</a>-<a href="#Page_29">29</a>; + question of state sovereignty in, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>; + political life in, + <a href="#Page_73">73</a>-<a href="#Page_75">75</a>; + anti-Davis, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>; + situation in 1864, + <a href="#Page_150">150</a>-<a href="#Page_152">152</a>; + passes State Conscription Act, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.<br> + <i>Southern Advertiser</i>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.<br> + State sovereignty, + <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, + <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, + <a href="#Page_65">65</a>-<a href="#Page_66">66</a>, + <a href="#Page_71">71</a> <i>et seq.</i>, + <a href="#Page_116">116</a>-<a href="#Page_118">118</a>, + <a href="#Page_169">169</a>.<br> + Stephens, A. H., + leads opposition to secession, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>; + on state sovereignty, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>; + Vice-President in provisional Government, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>; + a conservative, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>; + elected Vice-President at first regular election, + <a href="#Page_34">34</a>; + as central figure in South, + <a href="#Page_172">172</a>-<a href="#Page_174">174</a>; + on question of peace, + <a href="#Page_175">175</a>-<a href="#Page_178">178</a>; + commissioner at Hampton Roads conference, + <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>.<br> + Stephens, Linton, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.<br> + Substitutes, Hiring, + <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.<br> + Sumter, Fort, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>; + attack on, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>-<a href="#Page_23">23</a>.<br> + <p><br></p> + </div> + <h3>T</h3> + <div class="indexfont"> + Taxation, <i>see</i> Finance.<br> + Tennessee, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.<br> + Texas, secedes, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>; + secession issue in, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>; + proposes regiment for home defense, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>; + last gunshots of war, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>; + <i>see also</i> Trans-Mississippi.<br> + Thompson, Jacob, + <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.<br> + <i>To Our Constituents,</i> + <a href="#Page_2">2</a>-<a href="#Page_3">3</a>.<br> + Toombs, Robert, gives information about Fort Pulaski, + <a href="#Page_6">6</a>; + a secessionist, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>; + Secretary of State, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, + <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>; + and Sumter, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>-<a href="#Page_15">15</a>; + candidate for President, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>; + leaves Cabinet, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.<br> + Trans-Mississippi, + <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, + <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>.<br> + Transportation, + <a href="#Page_107">107</a>-<a href="#Page_108">108</a>.<br> + Tredegar Iron Works, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.<br> + Trenholm, G. A., <a href="#Page_157">157</a>.<br> + <p><br></p> + </div> + <h3>V</h3> + <div class="indexfont"> + Vance, Z. B., Governor of North Carolina, + on military arrangements, + <a href="#Page_76">76</a>-<a href="#Page_77">77</a>; + seeks to regulate prices, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>; + proclamation to urge order, + <a href="#Page_93">93</a>-<a href="#Page_94">94</a>; + urges political changes, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>; + reëlection, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>-<a href="#Page_171">171</a>; + policy, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>-<a href="#Page_172">172</a>.<br> + Van Dorn, General Earl, + <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.<br> + Vicksburg (Miss.), + <a href="#Page_89">89</a>-<a href="#Page_90">90</a>, + <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, + <a href="#Page_112">112</a>-<a href="#Page_113">113</a>.<br> + Virginia, and secession, + <a href="#Page_11">11</a>-<a href="#Page_14">14</a>; + calls Peace Convention, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>; + political life in, + <a href="#Page_74">74</a>-<a href="#Page_75">75</a>, + <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, + <a href="#Page_186">186</a>-<a href="#Page_187">187</a>; + <i>see also</i> Richmond. <br> + Voruz, shipbuilder of Nantes, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.<br> + <p><br></p> + </div> + <h3>W</h3> + <div class="indexfont"> + Walker, L. P., <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, + <a href="#Page_79">79</a> (note).<br> + Walker, R. J., <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.<br> + Wheeler, Joseph, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.<br> + Winder, J. H., <a href="#Page_41">41</a>.<br> + Women, position in Confederacy, + <a href="#Page_104">104</a>-<a href="#Page_105">105</a>, + <a href="#Page_110">110</a>-<a href="#Page_111">111</a>.<br> + Worth, Jonathan, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, + <a href="#Page_169">169</a>.<br> + <p><br></p> + </div> + <h3>Y</h3> + <div class="indexfont"> + Yancey, W. L., influence of, + <a href="#Page_25">25</a>-<a href="#Page_26">26</a>, + commissioner to England, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, + <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>; + relieved by Mason, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>; + incident at Havana, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>; + attempts to abolish secrecy of Government, + <a href="#Page_59">59</a>-<a href="#Page_60">60</a>; + death, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.<br> + </div> + + <hr> + <div class="chapterhead"> + <br ><br ><br ><br > + </div> + <h2><a href="#Contents">The Chronicles of America Series</a></h2> + <ol> + <li>The Red Man's Continent<br> by Ellsworth Huntington</li> + <li>The Spanish Conquerors<br> by Irving Berdine Richman</li> + <li>Elizabethan Sea-Dogs<br> by William Charles Henry Wood</li> + <li>The Crusaders of New France<br> by William Bennett Munro</li> + <li>Pioneers of the Old South<br> by Mary Johnson</li> + <li>The Fathers of New England<br> by Charles McLean Andrews</li> + <li>Dutch and English on the Hudson<br> by Maud Wilder Goodwin</li> + <li>The Quaker Colonies<br> by Sydney George Fisher</li> + <li>Colonial Folkways<br> by Charles McLean Andrews</li> + <li>The Conquest of New France<br> by George McKinnon Wrong</li> + <li>The Eve of the Revolution<br> by Carl Lotus Becker</li> + <li>Washington and His Comrades in Arms<br> by George McKinnon Wrong</li> + <li>The Fathers of the Constitution<br> by Max Farrand</li> + <li>Washington and His Colleagues<br> by Henry Jones Ford</li> + <li>Jefferson and his Colleagues<br> by Allen Johnson</li> + <li>John Marshall and the Constitution<br> by Edward Samuel Corwin</li> + <li>The Fight for a Free Sea<br> by Ralph Delahaye Paine</li> + <li>Pioneers of the Old Southwest<br> by Constance Lindsay Skinner</li> + <li>The Old Northwest<br> by Frederic Austin Ogg</li> + <li>The Reign of Andrew Jackson<br> by Frederic Austin Ogg</li> + <li>The Paths of Inland Commerce<br> by Archer Butler Hulbert</li> + <li>Adventurers of Oregon<br> by Constance Lindsay Skinner</li> + <li>The Spanish Borderlands<br> by Herbert Eugene Bolton</li> + <li>Texas and the Mexican War<br> by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson</li> + <li>The Forty-Niners<br> by Stewart Edward White</li> + <li>The Passing of the Frontier<br> by Emerson Hough</li> + <li>The Cotton Kingdom<br> by William E. Dodd</li> + <li>The Anti-Slavery Crusade<br> by Jesse Macy</li> + <li>Abraham Lincoln and the Union<br> by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson</li> + <li><span class="smcap">The Day of the Confederacy<br> + by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson</span></li> + <li>Captains of the Civil War<br> by William Charles Henry Wood</li> + <li>The Sequel of Appomattox<br> by Walter Lynwood Fleming</li> + <li>The American Spirit in Education<br> by Edwin E. Slosson</li> + <li>The American Spirit in Literature<br> by Bliss Perry</li> + <li>Our Foreigners<br> by Samuel Peter Orth</li> + <li>The Old Merchant Marine<br> by Ralph Delahaye Paine</li> + <li>The Age of Invention<br> by Holland Thompson</li> + <li>The Railroad Builders<br> by John Moody</li> + <li>The Age of Big Business<br> by Burton Jesse Hendrick</li> + <li>The Armies of Labor<br> by Samuel Peter Orth</li> + <li>The Masters of Capital<br> by John Moody</li> + <li>The New South<br> by Holland Thompson</li> + <li>The Boss and the Machine<br> by Samuel Peter Orth</li> + <li>The Cleveland Era<br> by Henry Jones Ford</li> + <li>The Agrarian Crusade<br> by Solon Justus Buck</li> + <li>The Path of Empire<br> by Carl Russell Fish</li> + <li>Theodore Roosevelt and His Times<br> by Harold Howland</li> + <li>Woodrow Wilson and the World War<br> by Charles Seymour</li> + <li>The Canadian Dominion<br> by Oscar D. Skelton</li> + <li>The Hispanic Nations of the New World<br> by William R. Shepherd</li> + </ol> + + + + <hr> + <div class="chapterhead"> + <br> + <br><br><br> + <h2>Transcriber's Notes</h2> + <p><br></p> + <h3>Introduction:</h3> + </div> + <p> +The Chronicles of America Series has two similar editions of each volume in +the series. One version is the Abraham Lincoln edition of the series, a +premium version which includes full-page pictures. A textbook edition was also +produced, which does not contain the pictures and captions associated with +the pictures, but is otherwise the same book. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.</p> + +<p class="boilerplate"> +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:</p> + +<p class="boilerplate center"> +https://www.gutenberg.org +</p> + +<p class="boilerplate"> +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg™, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + </body> +</html> diff --git a/3035-h/images/cover.jpg b/3035-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5220c6d --- /dev/null +++ b/3035-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/3035.txt b/3035.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..54431bb --- /dev/null +++ b/3035.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4451 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Day of the Confederacy, by Nathaniel W. Stephenson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Day of the Confederacy + A Chronicle of the Embattled South, Volume 30 In The + Chronicles Of America Series + +Author: Nathaniel W. Stephenson + +Editor: Allen Johnson + +Posting Date: January 26, 2009 [EBook #3035] +Release Date: January, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAY OF THE CONFEDERACY *** + + + + +Produced by The James J. Kelly Library of St. Gregory's +University, and Alev Akman + + + + + + +THE DAY OF THE CONFEDERACY, + +A CHRONICLE OF THE EMBATTLED SOUTH + +By Nathaniel W. Stephenson + +Volume 30 In The Chronicles of America Series + + +New Haven: Yale University Press + +Toronto: Glasgow, Brook & Co. + +London: Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press + +1919 + + + +CONTENTS + + I. THE SECESSION MOVEMENT + + II. THE DAVIS GOVERNMENT + + III. THE FALL OF KING COTTON + + IV. THE REACTION AGAINST RICHMOND + + V. THE CRITICAL YEAR + + VI. LIFE IN THE CONFEDERACY + + VII. THE TURNING OF THE TIDE + + VIII. A GAME OF CHANCE + + IX. DESPERATE REMEDIES + + X. DISINTEGRATION + + XI. AN ATTEMPTED REVOLUTION + + XII. THE LAST WORD + + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + + + +THE DAY OF THE CONFEDERACY + + + +Chapter I. The Secession Movement + +The secession movement had three distinct stages. The first, beginning +with the news that Lincoln was elected, closed with the news, sent +broadcast over the South from Charleston, that Federal troops had taken +possession of Fort Sumter on the night of the 28th of December. During +this period the likelihood of secession was the topic of discussion +in the lower South. What to do in case the lower South seceded was the +question which perplexed the upper South. In this period no State +north of South Carolina contemplated taking the initiative. In the +Southeastern and Gulf States immediate action of some sort was expected. +Whether it would be secession or some other new course was not certain +on the day of Lincoln's election. Various States earlier in the year had +provided for conventions of their people in the event of a Republican +victory. The first to assemble was the convention of South Carolina, +which organized at Columbia, on December 17, 1860. Two weeks earlier +Congress had met. Northerners and Southerners had at once joined issue +on their relation in the Union. The House had appointed its committee +of thirty-three to consider the condition of the country. So unpromising +indeed from the Southern point of view had been the early discussions +of this committee that a conference of Southern members of Congress +had sent out their famous address To Our Constituents: "The argument is +exhausted. All hope of relief in the Union... is extinguished, and we +trust the South will not be deceived by appearances or the pretense +of new guarantees. In our judgment the Republicans are resolute in the +purpose to grant nothing that will or ought to satisfy the South. We +are satisfied the honor, safety, and independence of the Southern people +require the organization of a Southern Confederacy--a result to be +obtained only by separate state secession." Among the signers of this +address were the two statesmen who had in native talent no superiors +at Washington--Judah P. Benjamin of Louisiana and Jefferson Davis of +Mississippi. + +The appeal To Our Constituents was not the only assurance of support +tendered to the convention of South Carolina. To represent them at +this convention the governors of Alabama and Mississippi had appointed +delegates. Mr. Hooker of Mississippi and Mr. Elmore of Alabama made +addresses before the convention on the night of the 17th of December. +Both reiterated views which during two days of lobbying they had +disseminated in Columbia "on all proper occasions." Their argument, +summed up in Elmore's report to Governor Moore of Alabama, was "that +the only course to unite the Southern States in any plan of cooperation +which could promise safety was for South Carolina to take the lead and +secede at once without delay or hesitation... that the only effective +plan of cooperation must ensue after one State had seceded and presented +the issue when the plain question would be presented to the other +Southern States whether they would stand by the seceding State engaged +in a common cause or abandon her to the fate of coercion by the arms of +the Government of the United States." + +Ten years before, in the unsuccessful secession movement of 1850 and +1851, Andrew Pickens Butler, perhaps the ablest South Carolinian then +living, strove to arrest the movement by exactly the opposite argument. +Though desiring secession, he threw all his weight against it because +the rest of the South was averse. He charged his opponents, whose leader +was Robert Barnwell Rhett, with aiming to place the other Southern +States "in such circumstances that, having a common destiny, they would +be compelled to be involved in a common sacrifice." He protested that +"to force a sovereign State to take a position against its consent is +to make of it a reluctant associate.... Both interest and honor must +require the Southern States to take council together." + +That acute thinker was now in his grave. The bold enthusiast whom +he defeated in 1851 had now no opponent that was his match. No great +personality resisted the fiery advocates from Alabama and Mississippi. +Their advice was accepted. On December 20, 1860, the cause that ten +years before had failed was successful. The convention, having adjourned +from Columbia to Charleston, passed an ordinance of secession. + +Meanwhile, in Georgia, at a hundred meetings, the secession issue was +being hotly discussed. But there was not yet any certainty which way the +scale would turn. An invitation from South Carolina to join in a general +Southern convention had been declined by the Governor in November. +Governor Brown has left an account ascribing the comparative coolness +and deliberation of the hour to the prevailing impression that President +Buchanan had pledged himself not to alter the military status at +Charleston. In an interview between South Carolina representatives and +the President, the Carolinians understood that such a pledge was given. +"It was generally understood by the country," says Governor Brown, "that +such an agreement... had been entered Into... and that Governor Floyd +of Virginia, then Secretary of War, had expressed his determination +to resign his position in the Cabinet in case of the refusal of the +President to carry out the agreement in good faith. The resignation of +Governor Floyd was therefore naturally looked upon, should it occur, +as a signal given to the South that reinforcements were to be sent to +Charleston and that the coercive policy had been adopted by the Federal +Government." + +While the "canvass in Georgia for members of the State convention was +progressing with much interest on both sides," there came suddenly the +news that Anderson had transferred his garrison from Fort Moultrie to +the island fortress of Sumter. That same day commissioners from South +Carolina, newly arrived at Washington, sought in vain to persuade the +President to order Anderson back to Moultrie. The Secretary of War made +the subject an issue before the Cabinet. Unable to carry his point, two +days later he resigned. * + + + * The President had already asked for Floyd's resignation + because of financial irregularities, and Floyd was shrewd + enough to use Anderson's coup as an excuse for resigning. + See Rhodes, "History of the United States," vol. II pp. 225, + 236 (note). + + +The Georgia Governor, who had not hitherto been in the front rank of +the aggressives, now struck a great blow. Senator Toombs had telegraphed +from Washington that Fort Pulaski, guarding the Savannah River, was "in +danger." The Governor had reached the same conclusion. He mustered the +state militia and seized Fort Pulaski. Early in the morning on January +3,1861, the fort was occupied by Georgia troops. Shortly afterward, +Brown wrote to a commissioner sent by the Governor of Alabama to confer +with him: "While many of our most patriotic and intelligent citizens in +both States have doubted the propriety of immediate secession, I feel +quite confident that recent events have dispelled those doubts from +the minds of most men who have, till within the past few days, honestly +sustained them." The first stage of the secession movement was at an +end; the second had begun. + +A belief that Washington had entered upon a policy of aggression swept +the lower South. The state conventions assembling about this time passed +ordinances of secession--Mississippi, January 9; Florida, January 10; +Alabama, January 11; Georgia, January 19; Louisiana, January 26; Texas, +February 1. But this result was not achieved without considerable +opposition. In Georgia the Unionists put up a stout fight. The issue +was not upon the right to secede--virtually no one denied the right--but +upon the wisdom of invoking the right. Stephens, gloomy and pessimistic, +led the opposition. Toombs came down from Washington to take part with +the secessionists. From South Carolina and Alabama, both ceaselessly +active for secession, commissioners appeared to lobby at Milledgeville, +as commissioners of Alabama and Mississippi had lobbied at Columbia. +Besides the out-and-out Unionists, there were those who wanted to +temporize, to threaten the North, and to wait for developments. The +motion on which these men and the Unionists made their last stand +together went against them 164 to 133. Then at last came the square +question: Shall we secede? Even on this question, the minority +was dangerously large. Though the temporizers came over to the +secessionists, and with them came Stephens, there was still a minority +of 89 irreconcilables against the majority numbering 208. + +"My allegiance," said Stephens afterwards, "was, as I considered it, not +due to the United States, or to the people of the United States, but to +Georgia, in her sovereign capacity. Georgia had never parted with her +right to demand the ultimate allegiance of her citizens." + +The attempt in Georgia to restrain impetuosity and advance with +deliberation was paralleled in Alabama, where also the aggressives +were determined not to permit delay. In the Alabama convention, the +conservatives brought forward a plan for a general Southern convention +to be held at Nashville in February. It was rejected by a vote of 54 +to 45. An attempt to delay secession until after the 4th of March was +defeated by the same vote. + +The determination of the radicals to precipitate the issue received +interesting criticism from the Governor of Texas, old Sam Houston. To a +commissioner from Alabama who was sent out to preach the cause in Texas +the Governor wrote, in substance, that since Alabama would not wait to +consult the people of Texas he saw nothing to discuss at that time, and +he went on to say: + +Recognizing as I do the fact that the sectional tendencies of the Black +Republican party call for determined constitutional resistance at the +hands of the united South, I also feel that the million and a half of +noble-hearted, conservative men who have stood by the South, even to +this hour, deserve some sympathy and support. Although we have lost the +day, we have to recollect that our conservative Northern friends cast +over a quarter of a million more votes against the Black Republicans +than we of the entire South. I cannot declare myself ready to desert +them as well as our Southern brethren of the border (and such, I +believe, will be the sentiment of Texas) until at least one firm attempt +has been made to preserve our constitutional rights within the Union. + +Nevertheless, Houston was not able to control his State. Delegates from +Texas attended the later sessions of a general Congress of the seceding +States which, on the invitation of Alabama, met at Montgomery on the 4th +of February. A contemporary document of singular interest today is the +series of resolutions adopted by the Legislature of North Carolina, +setting forth that, as the State was a member of the Federal Union, it +could not accept the invitation of Alabama but should send delegates +for the purpose of persuading the South to effect a readjustment on the +basis of the Crittenden Compromise as modified by the Legislature of +Virginia. The commissioners were sent, were graciously received, were +accorded seats in the Congress, but they exerted no influence on the +course of its action. + +The Congress speedily organized a provisional Government for the +Confederate States of America. The Constitution of the United States, +rather hastily reconsidered, became with a few inevitable alterations +the Constitution of the Confederacy. * Davis was unanimously elected +President; Stephens, Vice-President. Provision was made for raising an +army. Commissioners were dispatched to Washington to negotiate a treaty +with the United States; other commissioners were sent to Virginia to +attempt to withdraw that great commonwealth from the Union. + + + * To the observer of a later age this document appears a + thing of haste. Like the framers of the Constitution of + 1787, who omitted from their document some principles which + they took for granted, the framers of 1861 left unstated + their most distinctive views. The basal idea upon which the + revolution proceeded, the right of secession, is not to be + found in the new Constitution. Though the preamble declares + that the States are acting in their sovereign and + independent character, the new Confederation is declared + "permanent." In the body of the document are provisions + similar to those in the Federal Constitution enabling a + majority of two-thirds of the States to amend at their + pleasure, thus imposing their will upon the minority. With + three notable exceptions the new Constitution, subsequent to + the preamble, does little more than restate the Constitution + of 1787 rearranged so as to include those basal principles + of the English law added to the earlier Constitution by the + first eight amendments. The three exceptions are the + prohibitions (1) of the payment of bounties, (2) of the + levying of duties to promote any one form of industry, and + (3) of appropriations for internal improvements. Here was a + monument to the battle over these matters in the Federal + Congress. As to the mechanism of the new Government it was + the same as the old except for a few changes of detail. The + presidential term was lengthened to six years and the + President was forbidden to succeed himself. The President + was given the power to veto items in appropriation bills. + The African slave-trade was prohibited. + + +The upper South was thus placed in a painful situation. Its sympathies +were with the seceding States. Most of its people felt also that if +coercion was attempted, the issue would become for Virginia and North +Carolina, no less than for South Carolina and Alabama, simply a matter +of self-preservation. As early as January, in the exciting days when +Floyd's resignation was being interpreted as a call to arms, the +Virginia Legislature had resolved that it would not consent to the +coercion of a seceding State. In May the Speaker of the North Carolina +Legislature assured a commissioner from Georgia that North Carolina +would never consent to the movement of troops "from or across" the State +to attack a seceding State. But neither Virginia nor North Carolina +in this second stage of the movement wanted to secede. They wanted to +preserve the Union, but along with the Union they wanted the principle +of local autonomy. It was a period of tense anxiety in those States of +the upper South. The frame of mind of the men who loved the Union but +who loved equally their own States and were firm for local autonomy is +summed up in a letter in which Mrs. Robert E. Lee describes the anguish +of her husband as he confronted the possibility of a divided country. + +The real tragedy of the time lay in the failure of the advocates of +these two great principles--each so necessary to a far-flung democratic +country in a world of great powers!--the failure to coordinate them +so as to insure freedom at home and strength abroad. The principle for +which Lincoln stood has saved Americans in the Great War from playing +such a trembling part as that of Holland. The principle which seemed +to Lee even more essential, which did not perish at Appomattox but +was transformed and not destroyed, is what has kept us from becoming a +western Prussia. And yet if only it had been possible to coordinate the +two without the price of war! It was not possible because of the stored +up bitterness of a quarter century of recrimination. But Virginia made +a last desperate attempt to preserve the Union by calling the Peace +Convention. It assembled at Washington the day the Confederate Congress +met at Montgomery. Though twenty-one States sent delegates, it was no +more able to effect a working scheme of compromise than was the House +committee of thirty-three or the Senate committee of thirteen, both of +which had striven, had failed, and had gone their ways to a place in the +great company of historic futilities. + +And so the Peace Convention came and went, and there was no consolation +for the troubled men of the upper South who did not want to secede but +were resolved not to abandon local autonomy. Virginia was the key to the +situation. If Virginia could be forced into secession, the rest of the +upper South would inevitably follow. Therefore a Virginia hothead, Roger +A. Pryor, being in Charleston in those wavering days, poured out his +heart in fiery words, urging a Charleston crowd to precipitate war, in +the certainty that Virginia would then have to come to their aid. When +at last Sumter was fired upon and Lincoln called for volunteers, the +second stage of the secession movement ended in a thunderclap. The third +period was occupied by the second group of secessions: Virginia on the +17th of April, North Carolina and Arkansas during May, Tennessee early +in June. + +Sumter was the turning-point. The boom of the first cannon trained on +the island fortress deserves all the rhetoric it has inspired. Who was +immediately responsible for that firing which was destiny? Ultimate +responsibility is not upon any person. War had to be. If Sumter had not +been the starting-point, some other would have been found. Nevertheless +the question of immediate responsibility, of whose word it was that +served as the signal to begin, has produced an historic controversy. + +When it was known at Charleston that Lincoln would attempt to provision +the fort, the South Carolina authorities referred the matter to +the Confederate authorities. The Cabinet, in a fateful session at +Montgomery, hesitated--drawn between the wish to keep their hold upon +the moderates of the North, who were trying to stave off war, and the +desire to precipitate Virginia into the lists. Toombs, Secretary of +State in the new Government, wavered; then seemed to find his resolution +and came out strong against a demand for surrender. "It is suicide, +murder, and will lose us every friend at the North.... It is +unnecessary; it puts us in the wrong; it is fatal," said he. But the +Cabinet and the President decided to take the risk. To General Pierre +Beauregard, recently placed in command of the militia assembled at +Charleston, word was sent to demand the surrender of Fort Sumter. + +On Thursday, the 7th of April, besides his instructions from +Montgomery, Beauregard was in receipt of a telegram from the Confederate +commissioners at Washington, repeating newspaper statements that the +Federal relief expedition intended to land a force "which will overcome +all opposition." There seems no doubt that Beauregard did not believe +that the expedition was intended merely to provision Sumter. Probably +every one in Charleston thought that the Federal authorities were trying +to deceive them, that Lincoln's promise not to do more than provision +Sumter was a mere blind. Fearfulness that delay might render Sumter +impregnable lay back of Beauregard's formal demand, on the 11th of +April, for the surrender of the fort. Anderson refused but "made some +verbal observations" to the aides who brought him the demand. In effect +he said that lack of supplies would compel him to surrender by the +fifteenth. When this information was taken back to the city, eager +crowds were in the streets of Charleston discussing the report that a +bombardment would soon begin. But the afternoon passed; night fell; and +nothing was done. On the beautiful terrace along the sea known as East +Battery, people congregated, watching the silent fortress whose brick +walls rose sheer from the midst of the harbor. The early hours of the +night went by and as midnight approached and still there was no flash +from either the fortress or the shore batteries which threatened it, the +crowds broke up. + +Meanwhile there was anxious consultation at the hotel where Beauregard +had fixed his headquarters. Pilots came in from the sea to report to the +General that a Federal vessel had appeared off the mouth of the harbor. +This news may well explain the hasty dispatch of a second expedition to +Sumter in the middle of the night. At half after one, Friday morning, +four young men, aides of Beauregard, entered the fort. Anderson repeated +his refusal to surrender at once but admitted that he would have to +surrender within three days. Thereupon the aides held a council of war. +They decided that the reply was unsatisfactory and wrote out a brief +note which they handed to Anderson informing him that the Confederates +would open "fire upon Fort Sumter in one hour from this time." The note +was dated 3:20 A.M. The aides then proceeded to Fort Johnston on the +south side of the harbor and gave the order to fire. + +The council of the aides at Sumter is the dramatic detail that has +caught the imagination of historians and has led them, at least in some +cases, to yield to a literary temptation. It is so dramatic--that +scene of the four young men holding in their hands, during a moment +of absolute destiny, the fate of a people; four young men, in the +irresponsible ardor of youth, refusing to wait three days and forcing +war at the instant! It is so dramatic that one cannot judge harshly +the artistic temper which is unable to reject it. But is the incident +historic? Did the four young men come to Sumter without definite +instructions? Was their conference really anything more than a careful +comparing of notes to make sure they were doing what they were intended +to do? Is not the real clue to the event a message from Beauregard to +the Secretary of War telling of his interview with the pilots? * + + + * A chief authority for the dramatic version of the council + of the aides is that fiery Virginian, Roger A. Pryor. He and + another accompanied the official messengers, the signers of + the note to Anderson, James Chestnut and Stephen Lee. Years + afterwards Pryor told the story of the council in a way to + establish its dramatic significance. But would there be + anything strange if a veteran survivor, looking back to his + youth, as all of us do through more or less of mirage + yielded to the unconscious artist that is in us all and + dramatized this event unaware? + + +Dawn was breaking gray, with a faint rain in the air, when the first +boom of the cannon awakened the city. Other detonations followed in +quick succession. Shells rose into the night from both sides of the +harbor and from floating batteries. How lightly Charleston slept that +night may be inferred from the accounts in the newspapers. "At the +report of the first gun," says the Courier, "the city was nearly emptied +of its inhabitants who crowded the Battery and the wharves to witness +the conflict." + +The East Battery and the lower harbor of the lovely city of Charleston +have been preserved almost without alteration. What they are today they +were in the breaking dawn on April 12, 1861. Business has gone up the +rivers between which Charleston lies and has left the point of the +city's peninsula, where East Battery looks outward to the Atlantic, +in its perfect charm. There large houses, pillared, with high piazzas, +stand apart one from another among gardens. With few exceptions they +were built before the middle of the century and all, with one exception, +show the classical taste of those days. The mariner, entering the +spacious inner sea that is Charleston Harbor, sights this row of stately +mansions even before he crosses the bar seven miles distant. Holding +straight onward up into the land he heads first for the famous little +island where, nowadays, in their halo of thrilling recollection, the +walls of Sumter, rising sheer from the bosom of the water, drowse idle. +Close under the lee of Sumter, the incoming steersman brings his ship +about and chooses, probably, the eastward of two huge tentacles of the +sea between which lies the city's long but narrow peninsula. To the +steersman it shows a skyline serrated by steeples, fronted by sea, +flanked southward by sea, backgrounded by an estuary, and looped about +by a sickle of wooded islands. This same scene, so far as city and +nature go, was beheld by the crowds that swarmed East Battery, a +flagstone marine parade along the seaward side of the boulevard that +faces Sumter; that filled the windows and even the housetops; that +watched the bombardment with the eagerness of an audience in an +amphitheater; that applauded every telling shot with clapping of hands +and waving of shawls and handkerchiefs. The fort lay distant from +them about three miles, but only some fifteen hundred yards from Fort +Johnston on one side and about a mile from Fort Moultrie on the other. +From both of these latter, the cannon of those days were equal to the +task of harassing Sumter. Early in the morning of the 12th of April, +though not until broad day had come, did Anderson make reply. All that +day, at first under heavily rolling cloud and later through curiously +misty sunshine, the fire and counterfire continued. "The enthusiasm and +fearlessness of the spectators," says the Charleston Mercury, "knew no +bounds." Reckless observers even put out in small boats and roamed about +the harbor almost under the guns of the fort. Outside the bar, vessels +of the relieving squadron were now visible, and to these Anderson +signaled for aid. They made an attempt to reach the fort, but only part +of the squadron had arrived; and the vessels necessary to raise the +siege were not there. The attempt ended in failure. When night came, a +string of rowboats each carrying a huge torch kept watch along the bar +to guard against surprise from the sea. + +On that Friday night the harbor was swept by storm. But in spite of +torrents of rain East Battery and the rooftops were thronged. "The wind +was inshore and the booming was startlingly distinct." At the height +of the bombardment, the sky above Sumter seemed to be filled with the +flashes of bursting shells. But during this wild night Sumter itself was +both dark and silent. Its casements did not have adequate lamps and +the guns could not be used except by day. When morning broke, clear and +bright after the night's storm, the duel was resumed. + +The walls of Sumter were now crumbling. At eight o'clock Saturday +morning the barracks took fire. Soon after it was perceived from +the shore that the flag was down. Beauregard at once sent offers of +assistance. With Sumter in flames above his head, Anderson replied that +he had not surrendered; he declined assistance; and he hauled up his +flag. Later in the day the flagstaff was shot in two and again the flag +fell, and again it was raised. Flames had been kindled anew by red-hot +shot, and now the magazine was in danger. Quantities of powder were +thrown into the sea. Still the rain of red-hot shot continued. About +noon, Saturday, says the Courier, "flames burst out from every quarter +of Sumter and poured from many of its portholes... the wind was from the +west driving the smoke across the fort into the embrasures where the +gunners were at work." Nevertheless, "as if served with a new impulse," +the guns of Sumter redoubled their fire. But it was not in human +endurance to keep on in the midst of the burning fort. This splendid +last effort was short. At a quarter after one, Anderson ceased firing +and raised a white flag. Negotiations followed ending in terms of +surrender--Anderson to be allowed to remove his garrison to the fleet +lying idle beyond the bar and to salute the flag of the United States +before taking it down. The bombardment had lasted thirty-two hours +without a death on either side. The evacuation of the fort was to take +place next day. + +The afternoon of Sunday, the 14th of April, was a gala day in the +harbor of Charleston. The sunlight slanted across the roofs of the city, +sparkled upon the sea. Deep and rich the harbor always looks in the +spring sunshine on bright afternoons. The filmy atmosphere of these +latitudes, at that time of year, makes the sky above the darkling, +afternoon sea a pale but luminous turquoise. There is a wonderful soft +strength in the peaceful brightness of the sun. In such an atmosphere +the harbor was flecked with brilliantly decked craft of every +description, all in a flutter of flags and carrying a host of passengers +in gala dress. The city swarmed across the water to witness the ceremony +of evacuation. Wherry men did a thriving business carrying passengers to +the fort. + +Anderson withdrew from Sumter shortly after two o'clock amid a salute of +fifty guns. The Confederates took possession. At half after four a new +flag was raised above the battered and fire-swept walls. + + + +Chapter II. The Davis Government + +It has never been explained why Jefferson Davis was chosen President +of the Confederacy. He did not seek the office and did not wish it. +He dreamed of high military command. As a study in the irony of fate, +Davis's career is made to the hand of the dramatist. An instinctive +soldier, he was driven by circumstances three times to renounce the +profession of arms for a less congenial civilian life. His final +renunciation, which proved to be of the nature of tragedy, was his +acceptance of the office of President. Indeed, why the office was given +to him seems a mystery. Rhett was a more logical candidate. And when +Rhett, early in the lobbying at Montgomery, was set aside as too much of +a radical, Toombs seemed for a time the certain choice of the majority. +The change to Davis came suddenly at the last moment. It was puzzling at +the time; it is puzzling still. + +Rhett, though doubtless bitterly disappointed, bore himself with the +savoir faire of a great gentleman. At the inauguration, it was on +Rhett's arm that Davis leaned as he entered the hall of the Confederate +Congress. The night before, in a public address, Yancey had said that +the man and the hour were met. The story of the Confederacy is filled +with dramatic moments, but to the thoughtful observer few are more +dramatic than the conjunction of these three men in the inauguration of +the Confederate President. Beneath a surface of apparent unanimity they +carried, like concealed weapons, points of view that were in deadly +antagonism. This antagonism had not revealed itself hitherto. It was +destined to reveal itself almost immediately. It went so deep and spread +so far that unless we understand it, the Confederate story will be +unintelligible. + +A strange fatality destined all three of these great men to despair. +Yancey, who was perhaps most directly answerable of the three for the +existence of the Confederacy, lost influence almost from the moment +when his dream became established. Davis was partly responsible, for he +promptly sent him out of the country on the bootless English mission. +Thereafter, until his death in 1863, Yancey was a waning, overshadowed +figure, steadily lapsing into the background. It may be that those +critics are right who say he was only an agitator. The day of the +mere agitator was gone. Yancey passed rapidly into futile but bitter +antagonism to Davis. In this attitude he was soon to be matched by +Rhett. + +The discontent of the Rhett faction because their leader was not given +the portfolio of the State Department found immediate voice. But the +conclusion drawn by some that Rhett's subsequent course sprang from +personal vindictiveness is trifling. He was too large a personality, +too well defined an intellect, to be thus explained. Very probably Davis +made his first great blunder in failing to propitiate the Rhett faction. +And yet few things are more certain than that the two men, the two +factions which they symbolized, could not have formed a permanent +alliance. Had Rhett entered the Cabinet he could not have remained in +it consistently for any considerable time. The measures in which, +presently, the Administration showed its hand were measures in which +Rhett could not acquiesce. From the start he was predestined to his +eventual position--the great, unavailing genius of the opposition. + +As to the comparative ignoring of these leaders of secession by the +Government which secession had created, it is often said that the +explanation is to be found in a generous as well as politic desire +to put in office the moderates and even the conservatives. Davis, +relatively, was a moderate. Stephens was a conservative. Many of the +most pronounced opponents of secession were given places in the +public service. Toombs, who received the portfolio of State, though a +secessionist, was conspicuously a moderate when compared with Rhett and +Yancey. The adroit Benjamin, who became Attorney-General, had few points +in common with the great extremists of Alabama and South Carolina. + +However, the dictum that the personnel of the new Government was a +triumph for conservatism over radicalism signifies little. There was +a division among Southerners which scarcely any of them had realized +except briefly in the premature battle over secession in 1851. It was +the division between those who were conscious of the region as a whole +and those who were not. Explain it as you will, there was a moment just +after the secession movement succeeded when the South seemed to realize +itself as a whole, when it turned intuitively to those men who, as time +was to demonstrate, shared this realization. For the moment it turned +away from those others, however great their part in secession, who +lacked this sense of unity. + +At this point, geography becomes essential. The South fell, +institutionally, into two grand divisions: one, with an old and firmly +established social order, where consciousness of the locality went back +to remote times; another, newly settled, where conditions were still +fluid, where that sense of the sacredness of local institutions had not +yet formed. + +A typical community of the first-named class was South Carolina. Her +people had to a remarkable degree been rendered state-conscious +partly by their geographical neighbors, and partly by their long and +illustrious history, which had been interwoven with great European +interests during the colonial era and with great national interests +under the Republic. It is possible also that the Huguenots, though +few in numbers, had exercised upon the State a subtle and pervasive +influence through their intellectual power and their Latin sense for +institutions. + +In South Carolina, too, a wealthy leisure class with a passion for +affairs had cultivated enthusiastically that fine art which is the pride +of all aristocratic societies, the service of the State as a profession +high and exclusive, free from vulgar taint. In South Carolina all things +conspired to uphold and strengthen the sense of the State as an object +of veneration, as something over and above the mere social order, as the +sacred embodiment of the ideals of the community. Thus it is fair to +say that what has animated the heroic little countries of the Old World +Switzerland and Serbia and ever-glorious Belgium--with their passion to +remain themselves, animated South Carolina in 1861. Just as Serbia was +willing to fight to the death rather than merge her identity in the +mosaic of the Austrian Empire, so this little American community saw +nothing of happiness in any future that did not secure its virtual +independence. + +Typical of the newer order in the South was the community that formed +the President of the Confederacy. In the history of Mississippi previous +to the war there are six great names--Jacob Thompson, John A. Quitman, +Henry S. Foote, Robert J. Walker, Sergeant S. Prentiss, and Jefferson +Davis. Not one of them was born in the State. Thompson was born in +North Carolina; Quitman in New York; Foote in Virginia; Walker in +Pennsylvania; Prentiss in Maine; Davis in Kentucky. In 1861 the State +was but forty-four years old, younger than its most illustrious sons--if +the paradox may be permitted. How could they think of it as an entity +existing in itself, antedating not only themselves but their traditions, +circumscribing them with its all-embracing, indisputable reality? These +men spoke the language of state rights. It is true that in politics, +combating the North, they used the political philosophy taught them by +South Carolina. But it was a mental weapon in political debate; it was +not for them an emotional fact. + +And yet these men of the Southwest had an ideal of their own as vivid +and as binding as the state ideal of the men of the eastern coast. +Though half their leaders were born in the North, the people themselves +were overwhelmingly Southern. From all the older States, all round the +huge crescent which swung around from Kentucky coastwise to Florida, +immigration in the twenties and thirties had poured into Mississippi. +Consequently the new community presented a composite picture of the +whole South, and like all composite pictures it emphasized only the +factors common to all its parts. What all the South had in common, what +made a man a Southerner in the general sense--in distinction from a +Northerner on the one hand, or a Virginian, Carolinian, Georgian, on +the other--could have been observed with clearness in Mississippi, just +before the war, as nowhere else. Therefore, the fulfillment of the ideal +of Southern life in general terms was the vision of things hoped for by +the new men of the Southwest. The features of that vision were common +to them all--country life, broad acres, generous hospitality, an +aristocratic system. The temperaments of these men were sufficiently +buoyant to enable them to apprehend this ideal even before it had +materialized. Their romantic minds could see the gold at the end of +the rainbow. Theirs was not the pride of administering a well-ordered, +inherited system, but the joy of building a new system, in their minds +wholly elastic, to be sure, but still inspired by that old system. + +What may be called the sense of Southern nationality as opposed to the +sense of state rights, strictly speaking, distinguished this brilliant +young community of the Southwest. In that community Davis spent the +years that appear to have been the most impressionable of his life. +Belonging to a "new" family just emerging into wealth, he began life +as a West Pointer and saw gallant service as a youth on the frontier; +resigned from the army to pursue a romantic attachment; came home +to lead the life of a wealthy planter and receive the impress of +Mississippi; made his entry into politics, still a soldier at heart, +with the philosophy of state rights on his lips, but in his heart that +sense of the Southern people as a new nation, which needed only the +occasion to make it the relentless enemy of the rights of the individual +Southern States. Add together the instinctive military point of view +and this Southern nationalism that even in 1861 had scarcely revealed +itself; join with these a fearless and haughty spirit, proud to the +verge of arrogance, but perfectly devoted, perfectly sincere; and you +have the main lines of the political character of Davis when he became +President. It may be that as he went forward in his great undertaking, +as antagonisms developed, as Rhett and others turned against him, Davis +hardened. He lost whatever comprehension he once had of the Rhett type. +Seeking to weld into one irresistible unit all the military power of the +South, he became at last in the eyes of his opponents a monster, while +to him, more and more positively, the others became mere dreamers. + +It took about a year for this irrepressible conflict within the +Confederacy to reveal itself. During the twelve months following Davis's +election as provisional President, he dominated the situation, though +the Charleston Mercury, the Rhett organ, found opportunities to be +sharply critical of the President. He assembled armies; he initiated +heroic efforts to make up for the handicap of the South in the +manufacture of munitions and succeeded in starting a number of munition +plants; though powerless to prevent the establishment of the blockade, +he was able during that first year to keep in touch with Europe, to +start out Confederate privateers upon the high seas, and to import a +considerable quantity of arms and supplies. At the close of the year the +Confederate armies were approaching general efficiency, for all their +enormous handicap, almost if not quite as rapidly as were the Union +armies. And the one great event of the year on land, the first battle of +Manassas, or Bull Run, was a signal Confederate victory. + +To be sure Davis was severely criticized in some quarters for not +adopting an aggressive policy. The Confederate Government, whether +wisely or foolishly, had not taken the people into its confidence and +the lack of munitions was not generally appreciated. The easy popular +cries were all sounded: "We are standing still!" "The country is being +invaded!" "The President is a do-nothing!" From the coast regions +especially, where the blockade was felt in all its severity, the outcry +was loud. + +Nevertheless, the South in the main was content with the Administration +during most of the first year. In November, when the general elections +were held, Davis was chosen without opposition as the first regular +Confederate President for six years, and Stephens became the +Vice-President. The election was followed by an important change in the +Southern Cabinet. Benjamin became Secretary of War, in succession to +the first War Secretary, Leroy P. Walker. Toombs had already left the +Confederate Cabinet. Complaining that Davis degraded him to the level of +a mere clerk, he had withdrawn the previous July. His successor in the +State Department was R. M. T. Hunter of Virginia, who remained in office +until February, 1862, when his removal to the Confederate Senate opened +the way for a further advancement of Benjamin. + +Richmond, which had been designated as the capital soon after the +secession of Virginia, was the scene of the inauguration, on February +22, 1862. Although the weather proved bleak and rainy, an immense crowd +gathered around the Washington monument, in Capitol Square, to listen +to the inaugural address. By this time the confidence in the Government, +which was felt generally at the time of the election, had suffered +a shock. Foreign affairs were not progressing satisfactorily. Though +England had accorded to the Confederacy the status of a belligerent, +this was poor consolation for her refusal to make full recognition of +the new Government as an independent power. Dread of internal distress +was increasing. Gold commanded a premium of fifty percent. Disorder was +a feature of the life in the cities. It was known that several recent +military events had been victories for the Federals. A rumor was +abroad that some great disaster had taken place in Tennessee. The crowd +listened anxiously to hear the rumor denied by the President. But it +was not denied. The tense listeners noted two sentences which formed an +admission that the situation was grave: "A million men, it is estimated, +are now standing in hostile array and waging war along a frontier +of thousands of miles. Battles have been fought, sieges have been +conducted, and although the contest is not ended, and the tide for the +moment is against us, the final result in our favor is not doubtful." + +Behind these carefully guarded words lay serious alarm, not only with +regard to the operations at the front but as to the composition of +the army. It had been raised under various laws and its portions were +subject to conflicting classifications; it was partly a group of state +armies, partly a single Confederate army. None of its members had +enlisted for long terms. Many enlistments would expire early in 1862. +The fears of the Confederate Administration with regard to this matter, +together with its alarm about the events at the front, were expressed by +Davis in a frank message to the Southern Congress, three days later. "I +have hoped," said he, "for several days to receive official reports +in relation to our discomfiture at Roanoke Island and the fall of Fort +Donelson. They have not yet reached Me.... The hope is still +entertained that our reported losses at Fort Donelson have been greatly +exaggerated...." He went on to condemn the policy of enlistments for +short terms, "against which," said he, "I have steadily contended"; and +he enlarged upon the danger that even patriotic men, who intended to +reenlist, might go home to put their affairs in order and that thus, at +a critical moment, the army might be seriously reduced. The accompanying +report of the Confederate Secretary of War showed a total in the army of +340,250 men. This was an inadequate force with which to meet the great +hosts which were being organized against it in the North. To permit the +slightest reduction of the army at that moment seemed to the Southern +President suicidal. + +But Davis waited some time longer before proposing to the Confederate +Congress the adoption of conscription. Meanwhile, the details of +two great reverses, the loss of Roanoke Island and the loss of Fort +Donelson, became generally known. Apprehension gathered strength. +Newspapers began to discuss conscription as something inevitable. +At last, on March 28, 1862, Davis sent a message to the Confederate +Congress advising the conscription of all white males between the ages +of eighteen and thirty-five. For this suggestion Congress was ripe, +and the first Conscription Act of the Confederacy was signed by the +President on the 16th of April. The age of eligibility was fixed as +Davis had advised; the term of service was to be three years; every one +then in service was to be retained in service during three years from +the date of his original enlistment. + +This statute may be thought of as a great victory on the part of the +Administration. It was the climax of a policy of centralization in the +military establishment to which Davis had committed himself by the veto, +in January, of "A bill to authorize the Secretary of War to receive into +the service of the Confederate States a regiment of volunteers for the +protection of the frontier of Texas." This regiment was to be under the +control of the Governor of the State. In refusing to accept such troops, +Davis laid down the main proposition upon which he stood as military +executive to the end of the war, a proposition which immediately set +debate raging: "Unity and cooperation by the troops of all the States +are indispensable to success, and I must view with regret this as well +as all other indications of a purpose to divide the power of States +by dividing the means to be employed in efforts to carry on separate +operations." + +In these military measures of the early months of 1862 Davis's purpose +became clear. He was bent upon instituting a strong government, able to +push the war through, and careless of the niceties of constitutional law +or of the exact prerogatives of the States. His position was expressed +in the course of the year by a Virginia newspaper: "It will be time +enough to distract the councils of the State about imaginary violations +of constitutional law by the supreme government when our independence is +achieved, established, and acknowledged. It will not be until then that +the sovereignty of the States will be a reality." But there were many +Southerners who could not accept this point of view. The Mercury was +sharply critical of the veto of the Texas Regiment Bill. In the interval +between the Texas veto and the passing of the Conscription Act, the +state convention of North Carolina demanded the return of North Carolina +volunteers for the defense of their own State. No sooner was the +Conscription Act passed than its constitutionality was attacked. As +the Confederacy had no Supreme Court, the question came up before state +courts. One after another, several state supreme courts pronounced the +act constitutional and in most of the States the constitutional issue +was gradually allowed to lapse. + +Nevertheless, Davis had opened Pandora's box. The clash between State +and Confederate authority had begun. An opposition party began to form. +In this first stage of its definite existence, the opposition made an +interesting attempt to control the Cabinet. Secretary Benjamin, though +greatly trusted by the President, seems never to have been a popular +minister. Congress attempted to load upon Benjamin the blame for Roanoke +Island and Fort Donelson. In the House a motion was introduced to +the effect that Benjamin had "not the confidence of the people of the +Confederate States nor of the army... and that we most respectfully +request his retirement" from the office of Secretary of War. Friends +of the Administration tabled the motion. Davis extricated his friend by +taking advantage of Hunter's retirement and promoting Benjamin to the +State Department. A month later a congressional committee appointed +to investigate the affair of Roanoke Island exonerated the officer +in command and laid the blame on his superiors, including "the late +Secretary of War." + +With Benjamin safe in the Department of State, with the majority in the +Confederate Congress still fairly manageable, with the Conscription +Act in force, Davis seemed to be strong enough in the spring of 1862 +to ignore the gathering opposition. And yet there was another measure, +second only in the President's eyes to the Conscription Act, that was to +breed trouble. This was the first of the series of acts empowering him +to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus. Under this act +he was permitted to set up martial law in any district threatened with +invasion. The cause of this drastic measure was the confusion and the +general demoralization that existed wherever the close approach of +the enemy created a situation too complex for the ordinary civil +authorities. Davis made use of the power thus given to him and +proclaimed martial law in Richmond, in Norfolk, in parts of South +Carolina, and elsewhere. It was on Richmond that the hand of the +Administration fell heaviest. The capital was the center of a great +camp; its sudden and vast increase in population bad been the signal for +all the criminal class near and far to hurry thither in the hope of a +new field of spoliation; to deal with this immense human congestion, the +local police were powerless; every variety of abominable contrivance to +entrap and debauch men for a price was in brazen operation. The first +care of the Government under the new law was the cleansing of the +capital. General John H. Winder, appointed military governor, did the +job with thoroughness. He closed the barrooms, disarmed the populace, +and for the time at least swept the city clean of criminals. The +Administration also made certain political arrests, and even imprisoned +some extreme opponents of the Government for "offenses not enumerated +and not cognizable under the regular process of law." Such arrests gave +the enemies of the Administration another handle against it. As we shall +see later, the use that Davis made of martial law was distorted by a +thousand fault-finders and was made the basis of the charge that the +President was aiming at absolute power. + +At the moment, however, Davis was master of the situation. The six +months following April 1, 1862, were doubtless, from his own point of +view, the most satisfactory part of his career as Confederate President. +These months were indeed filled with peril. There was a time when +McClellan's advance up the Peninsula appeared so threatening that the +archives of the Government were packed on railway cars prepared for +immediate removal should evacuation be necessary. There were the other +great disasters during that year, including the loss of New Orleans. The +President himself experienced a profound personal sorrow in the death +of his friend, Albert Sidney Johnston, in the bloody fight at Shiloh. It +was in the midst of this time that tried men's souls that the Richmond +Examiner achieved an unenvied immortality for one of its articles on +the Administration. At a moment when nothing should have been said to +discredit in any way the struggling Government, it described Davis as +weak with fear telling his beads in a corner of St. Paul's Church. This +paper, along with the Charleston Mercury, led the Opposition. Throughout +Confederate history these two, which were very ably edited, did the +thinking for the enemies of Davis. We shall meet them time and again. + +A true picture of Davis would have shown the President resolute and +resourceful, at perhaps the height of his powers. He recruited and +supplied the armies; he fortified Richmond; he sustained the great +captain whom he had placed in command while McClellan was at the gates. +When the tide had turned and the Army of the Potomac sullenly withdrew, +baffled, there occurred the one brief space in Confederate history that +was pure sunshine. In this period took place the splendid victory of +Second Manassas. The strong military policy of the Administration +had given the Confederacy powerful armies. Lee had inspired them with +victory. This period of buoyant hope culminated in the great offensive +design which followed Second Manassas. It was known that the Northern +people, or a large part of them, had suffered a reaction; the tide +was setting strong against the Lincoln Government; in the autumn, the +Northern elections would be held. To influence those elections and at +the same time to drive the Northern armies back into their own section; +to draw Maryland and Kentucky into the Confederate States; to fall upon +the invaders in the Southwest and recover the lower Mississippi--to +accomplish all these results was the confident expectation of the +President and his advisers as they planned their great triple offensive +in August, 1862. Lee was to invade Maryland; Bragg was to invade +Kentucky; Van Dorn was to break the hold of the Federals in the +Southwest. If there is one moment that is to be considered the climax +of Davis's career, the high-water mark of Confederate hope, it was the +moment of joyous expectation when the triple offensive was launched, +when Lee's army, on a brilliant autumn day, crossed the Potomac, singing +"Maryland, my Maryland". + + + +Chapter III. The Fall Of King Cotton + +While the Confederate Executive was building up its military +establishment, the Treasury was struggling with the problem of +paying for it. The problem was destined to become insoluble. From the +vantage-point of a later time we can now see that nothing could have +provided a solution short of appropriation and mobilization of the whole +industrial power of the country along with the whole military power--a +conscription of wealth of every kind together with conscription of men. +But in 1862 such an idea was too advanced for any group of Americans. +Nor, in that year, was there as yet any certain evidence that the +Treasury was facing an impossible situation. Its endeavors were taken +lightly--at first, almost gaily-because of the profound illusion which +permeated Southern thought that Cotton was King. Obviously, if the +Southern ports could be kept open and cotton could continue to go to +market, the Confederate financial problem was not serious. When Davis, +soon after his first inauguration, sent Yancey, Rost, and Mann as +commissioners to Europe to press the claims of the Confederacy for +recognition, very few Southerners had any doubt that the blockade, +would be short-lived. "Cotton is King" was the answer that silenced all +questions. Without American cotton the English mills would have to shut +down; the operatives would starve; famine and discontent would between +them force the British ministry to intervene in American affairs. There +were, indeed, a few far-sighted men who perceived that this confidence +was ill-based and that cotton, though it was a power in the financial +world, was not the commercial king. The majority of the population, +however, had to learn this truth from keen experience. + +Several events of 1861 for a time seemed to confirm this illusion. The +Queen's proclamation in the spring, giving the Confederacy the status of +a belligerent, and, in the autumn, the demand by the British Government +for the surrender of the commissioners, Mason and Slidell, who had been +taken from a British packet by a Union cruiser--both these events seemed +to indicate active British sympathy. In England, to be sure, Yancey +became disillusioned. He saw that the international situation was not so +simple as it seemed; that while the South had powerful friends abroad, +it also had powerful foes; that the British anti-slavery party was +a more formidable enemy than he had expected it to be; and that +intervention was not a foregone conclusion. The task of an unrecognized +ambassador being too annoying for him, Yancey was relieved at his own +request and Mason was sent out to take his place. A singular little +incident like a dismal prophecy occurred as Yancey was on his way home. +He passed through Havana early in 1862, when the news of the surrender +of Fort Donelson had begun to stagger the hopes and impair the prestige +of the Confederates. By the advice of the Confederate agent in Cuba, +Yancey did not call on the Spanish Governor but sent him word that +"delicacy alone prompted his departure without the gratification of +a personal interview." The Governor expressed himself as "exceedingly +grateful for the noble sentiment which prevented" Yancey from causing +international complications at Havana. + +The history of the first year of Confederate foreign affairs is +interwoven with the history of Confederate finance. During that year the +South became a great buyer in Europe. Arms, powder, cloth, machinery, +medicines, ships, a thousand things, had all to be bought abroad. To +establish the foreign credit of the new Government was the arduous task +of the Confederate Secretary of the Treasury, Christopher G. Memminger. +The first great campaign of the war was not fought by armies. It was +a commercial campaign fought by agents of the Federal and Confederate +governments and having for its aim the cornering of the munitions market +in Europe. In this campaign the Federal agents had decisive advantages: +their credit was never questioned, and their enormous purchases were +never doubtful ventures for the European sellers. In some cases their +superior credit enabled them to overbid the Confederate agents and to +appropriate large contracts which the Confederates had negotiated but +which they could not hold because of the precariousness of their credit. +And yet, all things considered, the Confederate agents made a good +showing. In the report of the Secretary of War in February, 1862, the +number of rifles contracted for abroad was put at 91,000, of which +15,000 had been delivered. The chief reliance of the Confederate +Treasury for its purchases abroad was at first the specie in the +Southern branch of the United States Mint and in Southern banks. The +former the Confederacy seized and converted to its own use. Of the +latter it lured into its own hands a very large proportion by what is +commonly called "the fifteen million loan"--an issue of eight percent +bonds authorized in February, 1861. Most of this specie seems to have +been taken out of the country by the purchase of European commodities. A +little, to be sure, remained, for there was some gold still at home when +the Confederacy fell. But the sum was small. + +In addition to this loan Memminger also persuaded Congress on August 19, +1861, to lay a direct tax--the "war tax," as it was called--of one-half +of one per cent on all property except Confederate bonds and money. As +required by the Constitution this tax was apportioned among the States, +but if it assumed its assessment before April 1, 1862, each State was to +have a reduction of ten per cent. As there was a general aversion to +the idea of Confederate taxation and a general faith in loans, what the +States did, as a rule, was to assume their assessment, agree to pay it +into the Treasury, and then issue bonds to raise the necessary funds, +thus converting the war tax into a loan. + +The Confederate, like the Union, Treasury did not have the courage to +force the issue upon taxation and leaned throughout the war largely upon +loans. It also had recourse to the perilous device of paper money, the +gold value of which was not guaranteed. Beginning in March, 1861, it +issued under successive laws great quantities of paper notes, some of +them interest bearing, some not. It used these notes in payment of its +domestic obligations. The purchasing value of the notes soon started +on a disastrous downward course, and in 1864 the gold dollar was worth +thirty paper dollars. The Confederate Government thus became involved in +a problem of self-preservation that was but half solved by the system of +tithes and impressment which we shall encounter later. The depreciation +of these notes left governmental clerks without adequate salaries and +soldiers without the means of providing for their families. During most +of the war, women and other noncombatants had to support the families or +else rely upon local charity organized by state or county boards. + +Long before all the evils of paper money were experienced, the North, +with great swiftness, concentrated its naval forces so as to dominate +the Southern ports which had trade relations with Europe. The shipping +ports were at once congested with cotton to the great embarrassment of +merchants and planters. Partly to relieve them, the Confederate Congress +instituted in May, 1861, what is known today as "the hundred million +loan." It was the first of a series of "produce loans." The Treasury was +authorized to issue eight percent bonds, to fall due in twenty +years, and to sell them for specie or to exchange them for produce or +manufactured articles. In the course of the remaining months of 1861 +there were exchanged for these bonds great quantities of produce +including some 400,000 bales of cotton. + +In spite of the distress of the planters, however, the illusion of King +Cotton's power does not seem to have been seriously impaired during +1861. In fact, strange as it now seems, the frame of mind of the leaders +appears to have been proof, that year, against alarm over the blockade. +For two reasons, the Confederacy regarded the blockade at first as a +blessing in disguise. It was counted on to act as a protective tariff +in stimulating manufactures; and at the same time the South expected +interruption of the flow of cotton towards Europe to make England feel +her dependence upon the Confederacy. In this way there would be exerted +an economic coercion which would compel intervention. Such reasoning +lay behind a law passed in May forbidding the export of cotton except +through the seaports of the Confederacy. Similar laws were enacted by +the States. During the summer, many cotton factors joined in advising +the planters to hold their cotton until the blockade broke down. In the +autumn, the Governor of Louisiana forbade the export of cotton from New +Orleans. So unshakeable was the illusion in 1861, that King Cotton had +England in his grip! The illusion died hard. Throughout 1862, and even +in 1863, the newspapers published appeals to the planters to give up +growing cotton for a time, and even to destroy what they had, so as to +coerce the obdurate Englishmen. + +Meanwhile, Mason had been accorded by the British upper classes that +generous welcome which they have always extended to the representative, +of a people fighting gallantly against odds. During the hopeful days of +1862--that Golden Age of Confederacy--Mason, though not recognized by +the English Government, was shown every kindness by leading members of +the aristocracy, who visited him in London and received him at their +houses in the country. It was during this period of buoyant hope that +the Alabama was allowed to go to sea from Liverpool in July, 1862. At +the same time Mason heard his hosts express undisguised admiration for +the valor of the soldiers serving under Jackson and Lee. Whether he +formed any true impression of the other side of British idealism, its +resolute opposition to slavery, may be questioned. There seems little +doubt that he did not perceive the turning of the tide of English public +opinion, in the autumn of 1862, following the Emancipation Proclamation +and the great reverses of September and October--Antietam-Sharpsburg, +Perryville, Corinth--the backflow of all three of the Confederate +offensives. + +The cotton famine in England, where perhaps a million people were in +actual want through the shutting down of cotton mills, seemed to Mason +to be "looming up in fearful proportions." "The public mind," he wrote +home in November, 1862, "is very much disturbed by the prospect for the +winter; and I am not without hope that it will produce its effects on +the councils of the government." Yet it was the uprising of the British +working people in favor of the North that contributed to defeat the one +important attempt to intervene in American affairs. Napoleon III +had made an offer of mediation which was rejected by the Washington +Government early the next year. England and Russia had both declined to +participate in Napoleon's scheme, and their refusal marks the beginning +of the end of the reign of King Cotton. + +At Paris, Slidell was even more hopeful than Mason. He had won over +Emile Erlanger, that great banker who was deep in the confidence of +Napoleon. So cordial became the relations between the two that it +involved their families and led at last to the marriage of Erlanger's +son with Slidell's daughter. Whether owing to Slidell's eloquence, +or from secret knowledge of the Emperor's designs, or from his own +audacity, Erlanger toward the close of 1862 made a proposal that is one +of the most daring schemes of financial plunging yet recorded. If the +Confederate Government would issue to him bonds secured by cotton, +Erlanger would underwrite the bonds, put the proceeds of their sale to +the credit of the Confederate agents, and wait for the cotton until +it could run the blockade or until peace should be declared. The +Confederate Government after some hesitation accepted his plan and +issued fifteen millions of "Erlanger bonds," bearing seven percent, and +put them on sale at Paris, London. Amsterdam, and Frankfort. + +As a purchaser of these bonds was to be given cotton eventually at a +valuation of sixpence a pound, and as cotton was then selling in +England for nearly two shillings; the bold gamble caught the fancy of +speculators. There was a rush to take up the bonds and to pay the first +installment. But before the second installment became due a mysterious +change in the market took place and the price of the bonds fell. Holders +became alarmed and some even proposed to forfeit their bonds rather +than pay on May 1, 1863, the next installment of fifteen percent of the +purchase money. Thereupon Mason undertook to "bull" the market. Agents +of the United States Government were supposed to be at the bottom of the +drop in the bonds. To defeat their schemes the Confederate agents bought +back large amounts in bonds intending to resell. The result was the +expenditure of some six million dollars with practically no effect on +the market. These "Erlanger bonds" sold slowly through 1863 and even +in 1864, and netted a considerable amount to the foreign agents of the +Confederacy. + +The comparative failure of the Erlanger loan marks the downfall of King +Cotton. He was an exploded superstition. He was unable, despite the +cotton famine, to coerce the English workingmen into siding with a +country which they regarded, because of its support of slavery, as +inimical to their interests. At home, the Government confessed the +powerlessness of King Cotton by a change of its attitude toward export. +During the latter part of the war, the Government secured the meager +funds at its disposal abroad by rushing cotton in swift ships through +the blockade. So important did this traffic become that the Confederacy +passed stringent laws to keep the control in its own hands. One more +cause of friction between the Confederate and the State authorities was +thus developed: the Confederate navigation laws prevented the States +from running the blockade on their own account. + +The effects of the blockade were felt at the ends of the earth. India +became an exporter of cotton. Egypt also entered the competition. That +singular dreamer, Ismail Pasha, whose reign made Egypt briefly an exotic +nation, neither eastern nor western, found one of his opportunities in +the American War and the failure of the cotton supply. + + + +Chapter IV. The Reaction Against Richmond + +A popular revulsion of feeling preceded and followed the great period of +Confederate history--these six months of Titanic effort which embraced +between March and September, 1862, splendid success along with +catastrophes. But there was a marked difference between the two tides of +popular emotion. The wave of alarm which swept over the South after +the surrender of Fort Donelson was quickly translated into such a high +passion for battle that the march of events until the day of Antietam +resounded like an epic. The failure of the triple offensive which closed +this period was followed in very many minds by the appearance of a new +temper, often as valiant as the old but far more grim and deeply seamed +with distrust. And how is this distrust, of which the Confederate +Administration was the object, to be accounted for? + +Various answers to this question were made at the time. The laws of +the spring of 1862 were attacked as unconstitutional. Davis was held +responsible for them and also for the slow equipment of the army. +Because the Confederate Congress conducted much of its business in +secret session, the President was charged with a love of mystery and an +unwillingness to take the people into his confidence. Arrests under +the law suspending the writ of habeas corpus were made the texts for +harangues on liberty. The right of freedom of speech was dragged in +when General Van Dorn, in the Southwest, threatened with suppression +any newspaper that published anything which might impair confidence in +a commanding officer. How could he have dared to do this, was the cry, +unless the President was behind him? And when General Bragg assumed a +similar attitude toward the press, the same cry was raised. Throughout +the summer of victories, even while the thrilling stories of Seven +Pines, the Peninsula, Second Manassas, were sounding like trumpets, +these mutterings of discontent formed an ominous accompaniment. + +Yancey, speaking of the disturbed temper of the time, attributed it to +the general lack of information on the part of Southern people as to +what the Confederate Government was doing. His proposed remedy was an +end of the censorship which that Government was attempting to maintain, +the abandonment of the secret sessions of its Congress, and the taking +of the people into its full confidence. Now a Senator from Alabama, he +attempted, at the opening of the congressional session in the autumn +of 1862, to abolish secret sessions, but in his efforts he was not +successful. + +There seems little doubt that the Confederate Government had blundered +in being too secretive. Even from Congress, much information was +withheld. A curious incident has preserved what appeared to the military +mind the justification of this reticence. The Secretary of War refused +to comply with a request for information, holding that he could not do +so "without disclosing the strength of our armies to many persons of +subordinate position whose secrecy cannot be relied upon." "I beg leave +to remind you," said he, "of a report made in response to a similar one +from the Federal Congress, communicated to them in secret session, and +now a part of our archives." + +How much the country was in the dark with regard to some vital matters +is revealed by an attack on the Confederate Administration which was +made by the Charleston Mercury, in February. The Southern Government was +accused of unpardonable slowness in sending agents to Europe to purchase +munitions. In point of fact, the Confederate Government had been more +prompt than the Union Government in rushing agents abroad. But the +country was not permitted to know this. Though the Courier was a +government organ in Charleston, it did not meet the charges of the +Mercury by disclosing the facts about the arduous attempts of the +Confederate Government to secure arms in Europe. The reply of the +Courier to the Mercury, though spirited, was all in general terms. "To +shake confidence in Jefferson Davis," said the Courier, "is... to +bring 'hideous ruin and combustion' down upon our dearest hopes and +interests." It made "Mr. Davis and his defensive policy" objects of all +admiration; called Davis "our Moses." It was deeply indignant because it +had been "reliably informed that men of high official position among +us" were "calling for a General Convention of the Confederate States +to depose him and set up a military Dictator in his place." The Mercury +retorted that, as to the plot against "our Moses," there was no evidence +of its existence except the Courier's assertion. Nevertheless, it +considered Davis "an incubus to the cause." The controversy between the +Mercury and the Courier at Charleston was paralleled at Richmond by the +constant bickering between the government organ, the Enquirer, and +the Examiner, which shares with the Mercury the first place among the +newspapers hostile to Davis. * + + + * The Confederate Government did not misapprehend the + attitude of the intellectual opposition. Its foreign organ, + The Index, published in London, characterized the leading + Southern papers for the enlightenment of the British public. + While the Enquirer and the Courier were singled out as the + great champions of the Confederate Government, the Examiner + and the Mercury were portrayed as its arch enemies. The + Examiner was called the "Ishmael of the Southern press." The + Mercury was described as "almost rabid on the subject of + state rights." + + +Associated with the Examiner was a vigorous writer having considerable +power of the old-fashioned, furious sort, ever ready to foam at the +mouth. If he had had more restraint and less credulity, Edward A. +Pollard might have become a master of the art of vituperation. Lacking +these qualities, he never rose far above mediocrity. But his fury was +so determined and his prejudice so invincible that his writings have +something of the power of conviction which fanaticism wields. In +midsummer, 1862, Pollard published a book entitled The First Year of +the War, which was commended by his allies in Charleston as showing +no "tendency toward unfairness of statement" and as expressing views +"mainly in accordance with popular opinion." + +This book, while affecting to be an historical review, was skillfully +designed to discredit the Confederate Administration. Almost every +disaster, every fault of its management was traceable more or less +directly to Davis. Kentucky had been occupied by the Federal army +because of the "dull expectation" in which the Confederate Government +had stood aside waiting for things somehow to right themselves. The +Southern Congress had been criminally slow in coming to conscription, +contenting itself with an army of 400,000 men that existed "on paper." +"The most distressing abuses were visible in the ill-regulated hygiene +of our camps." According to this book, the Confederate Administration +was solely to blame for the loss of Roanoke Island. In calling that +disaster "deeply humiliating," as he did in a message to Congress, +Davis was trying to shield his favorite Benjamin at the cost of gallant +soldiers who had been sacrificed through his incapacity. Davis's +promotion of Benjamin to the State Department was an act of "ungracious +and reckless defiance of popular sentiment." The President was "not the +man to consult the sentiment and wisdom of the people; he desired to +signalize the infallibility of his own intellect in every measure of +the revolution and to identify, from motives of vanity, his own personal +genius with every event and detail of the remarkable period of history +in which he had been called upon to act. This imperious conceit seemed +to swallow up every other idea in his mind." The generals "fretted +under this pragmatism" of one whose "vanity" directed the war "from his +cushioned seat in Richmond" by means of the one formula, "the defensive +policy." + +One of Pollard's chief accusations against the Confederate Government +was its failure to enforce the conscription law. His paper, the +Examiner, as well as the Mercury, supported Davis in the policy of +conscription, but both did their best, first, to rob him of the +credit for it and, secondly, to make his conduct of the policy appear +inefficient. Pollard claimed for the Examiner the credit of having +originated the policy of conscription; the Mercury claimed it for Rhett. + +In other words, an aggressive war party led by the Examiner and the +Mercury had been formed in those early days when the Confederate +Government appeared to be standing wholly on the defensive, and when it +had failed to confide to the people the extenuating circumstance that +lack of arms compelled it to stand still whether it would or no. And +yet, after this Government had changed its policy and had taken up in +the summer of 1862 an offensive policy, this party--or faction, or what +you will--continued its career of opposition. That the secretive habit +of the Confederate Government helped cement the opposition cannot be +doubted. It is also likely that this opposition gave a vent to certain +jealous spirits who had missed the first place in leadership. + +Furthermore, the issue of state sovereignty had been raised. In +Georgia a movement had begun which was distinctly different from the +Virginia-Carolina movement of opposition, a movement for which Rhett +and Pollard had scarcely more than disdainful tolerance, and not always +that. This parallel opposition found vent, as did the other, in a +political pamphlet. On the subject of conscription Davis and the +Governor of Georgia--that same Joseph E. Brown who had seized Fort +Pulaski in the previous year--exchanged a rancorous correspondence. +Their letters were published in a pamphlet of which Pollard said +scornfully that it was hawked about in every city of the South. Brown, +taking alarm at the power given the Confederate Government by the +Conscription Act, eventually defined his position, and that of a large +following, in the extreme words: "No act of the Government of the United +States prior to the secession of Georgia struck a blow at constitutional +liberty so fell as has been stricken by the conscript acts." + +There were other elements of discontent which were taking form as early +as the autumn of 1862 but which were not yet clearly defined. But the +two obvious sources of internal criticism just described were enough +to disquiet the most resolute administration. When the triple offensive +broke down, when the ebb-tide began, there was already everything that +was needed to precipitate a political crisis. And now the question +arises whether the Confederate Administration had itself to blame. Had +Davis proved inadequate in his great undertaking? + +The one undeniable mistake of the Government previous to the autumn of +1862 was its excessive secrecy. As to the other mistakes attributed to +it at the time, there is good reason to call them misfortunes. Today +we can see that the financial situation, the cotton situation, the +relations with Europe, the problem of equipping the armies, were all to +a considerable degree beyond the control of the Confederate Government. +If there is anything to be added to its mistaken secrecy as a definite +cause of irritation, it must be found in the general tone given to its +actions by its chief directors. And here there is something to be said. + +With all his high qualities of integrity, courage, faithfulness, and +zeal, Davis lacked that insight into human life which marks the genius +of the supreme executive. He was not an artist in the use of men. He had +not that artistic sense of his medium which distinguishes the +statesman from the bureaucrat. In fact, he had a dangerous bent toward +bureaucracy. As Reuben Davis said of him, "Gifted with some of the +highest attributes of a statesman, he lacked the pliancy which enables a +man to adapt his measures to the crisis." Furthermore, he lacked humor; +there was no safety-valve to his intense nature; and he was a man +of delicate health. Mrs. Davis, describing the effects which nervous +dyspepsia and neuralgia had upon him, says he would come home from +his office "fasting, a mere mass of throbbing nerves, and perfectly +exhausted." And it cannot be denied that his mind was dogmatic. Here +are dangerous lines for the character of a leader of revolution--the +bureaucratic tendency, something of rigidity, lack of humor, physical +wretchedness, dogmatism. Taken together, they go far toward explaining +his failure in judging men, his irritable confidence in himself. + +It is no slight detail of a man's career to be placed side by side with +a genius of the first rank without knowing it. But Davis does not seem +ever to have appreciated that the man commanding in the Seven Days' +Battles was one of the world's supreme characters. The relation between +Davis and Lee was always cordial, and it brought out Davis's character +in its best light. Nevertheless, so rooted was Davis's faith in his own +abilities that he was capable of saying, at a moment of acutest anxiety, +"If I could take one wing and Lee the other, I think we could between +us wrest a victory from those people." And yet, his military experience +embraced only the minor actions of a young officer on the Indian +frontier and the gallant conduct of a subordinate in the Mexican War. He +had never executed a great military design. His desire for the military +life was, after all, his only ground for ranking himself with the victor +of Second Manassas. Davis was also unfortunate in lacking the power +to overcome men and sweep them along with him--the power Lee showed +so conspicuously. Nor was Davis averse to sharp reproof of the highest +officials when he thought them in the wrong. He once wrote to Joseph +E. Johnston that a letter of his contained "arguments and statements +utterly unfounded" and "insinuations as unfounded as they were +unbecoming." + +Davis was not always wise in his choice of men. His confidence in +Bragg, who was long his chief military adviser, is not sustained by +the military critics of a later age. His Cabinet, though not the +contemptible body caricatured by the malice of Pollard, was not equal +to the occasion. Of the three men who held the office of Secretary of +State, Toombs and Hunter had little if any qualification for such a +post, while the third, Benjamin, is the sphinx of Confederate history. + +In a way, Judah P. Benjamin is one of the most interesting men in +American politics. By descent a Jew, born in the West Indies, he spent +his boyhood mainly at Charleston and his college days at Yale. He went +to New Orleans to begin his illustrious career as a lawyer, and from +Louisiana entered politics. The facile keenness of his intellect is +beyond dispute. He had the Jewish clarity of thought, the wonderful +Jewish detachment in matters of pure mind. But he was also an American +of the middle of the century. His quick and responsive nature--a +nature that enemies might call simulative--caught and reflected the +characteristics of that singular and highly rhetorical age. He lives in +tradition as the man of the constant smile, and yet there is no one in +history whose state papers contain passages of fiercer violence in days +of tension. How much of his violence was genuine, how much was a manner +of speaking, his biographers have not had the courage to determine. Like +so many American biographers they have avoided the awkward questions and +have glanced over, as lightly as possible, the persistent attempts of +Congress to drive him from office. + +Nothing could shake the resolution of Davis to retain Benjamin in the +Cabinet. Among Davis's loftiest qualities was his sense of personal +loyalty. Once he had given his confidence, no amount of opposition +could shake his will but served rather to harden him. When Benjamin as +Secretary of War passed under a cloud, Davis led him forth resplendent +as Secretary of State. Whether he was wise in doing so, whether the +opposition was not justified in its distrust of Benjamin, is still an +open question. What is certain is that both these able men, even before +the crisis that arose in the autumn of 1862, had rendered themselves and +their Government widely unpopular. It must never be forgotten that Davis +entered office without the backing of any definite faction. He was a +"dark horse," a compromise candidate. To build up a stanch following, to +create enthusiasm for his Administration, was a prime necessity of +his first year as President. Yet he seems not to have realized this +necessity. Boldly, firmly, dogmatically, he gave his whole thought and +his entire energy to organizing the Government in such a way that it +could do its work efficiently. And therein may have been the proverbial +rift within the lute. To Davis statecraft was too much a thing of +methods and measures, too little a thing of men and passions. + +During the autumn of 1862 and the following winter the disputes over +the conduct of the war began to subside and two other themes became +prominent: the sovereignty of the States, which appeared to be menaced +by the Government, and the personality of Davis, whom malcontents +regarded as a possible despot. Contrary to tradition, the first note +of alarm over state rights was not struck by its great apostle Rhett, +although the note was sounded in South Carolina in the early autumn. +There existed in this State at that time an extra assembly called the +"Convention," which had been organized in 1860 for the general purpose +of seeing the State through the "revolution." In the Convention, +in September, 1862, the question of a contest with the Confederate +Government on the subject of a state army was definitely raised. It was +proposed to organize a state army and to instruct the Legislature +to "take effectual measures to prevent the agents of the Confederate +Government from raising troops in South Carolina except by voluntary +enlistment or by applying to the Executive of the State to call out the +militia as by law organized, or some part of it to be mustered into the +Confederate service." This proposal brought about a sharp debate +upon the Confederate Government and its military policy. Rhett made a +remarkable address, which should of itself quiet forever the old +tale that he was animated in his opposition solely by the pique of +a disappointed candidate for the presidency. Though as sharp as ever +against the Government and though agreeing wholly with the spirit of +the state army plan, he took the ground that circumstances at the moment +rendered the organization of such an army inopportune. A year earlier he +would have strongly supported the plan. In fact, in opposition to Davis +he had at that time, he said, urged an obligatory army which the States +should be required to raise. The Confederate Administration, however, +had defeated his scheme. Since then the situation had changed and had +become so serious that now there was no choice but to submit to military +necessity. He regarded the general conscription law as "absolutely +necessary to save" the Confederacy "from utter devastation if not final +subjugation. Right or wrong, the policy of the Administration had left +us no other alternative...." + +The dominant attitude in South Carolina in the autumn of 1862 is in +strong contrast, because of its firm grasp upon fact, with the attitude +of the Brown faction in Georgia. An extended history of the Confederate +movement--one of those vast histories that delight the recluse and scare +away the man of the world--would labor to build up images of what might +be called the personalities of the four States that continued from +the beginning to the end parts of the effective Confederate +system--Virginia, the two Carolinas, and Georgia. We are prone to forget +that the Confederacy was practically divided into separate units as +early as the capture of New Orleans by Farragut, but a great history of +the time would have a special and thrilling story of the conduct of the +detached western unit, the isolated world of Louisiana, Arkansas, and +Texas--the "Department of the Trans-Mississippi"--cut off from the main +body of the Confederacy and hemmed in between the Federal army and +the deep sea. Another group of States--Tennessee, Mississippi, +Alabama--became so soon, and remained so long, a debatable land, on +which the two armies fought, that they also had scant opportunity for +genuine political life. Florida, small and exposed, was absorbed in its +gallant achievement of furnishing to the armies a number of soldiers +larger than its voting population. + +Thus, after the loss of New Orleans, one thing with another operated +to confine the area of full political life to Virginia and her three +neighbors to the South. And yet even among these States there was no +political solidarity or unanimity of opinion, for the differences in +their past experience, social structure, and economic conditions made +for distinct points of view. In South Carolina, particularly, the +prevailing view was that of experienced, disillusioned men who realized +from the start that secession had burnt their bridges, and that now they +must win the fight or change the whole current of their lives. In the +midst of the extraordinary conditions of war, they never talked as if +their problems were the problems of peace. Brown, on the other hand, +had but one way of reasoning--if we are to call it reasoning--and, with +Hannibal at the gates, talked as if the control of the situation were +still in his own hands. + +While South Carolina, so grimly conscious of the reality of war and +the danger of internal discord, held off from the issue of state +sovereignty, the Brown faction in Georgia blithely pressed it home. A +bill for extending the conscription age which was heartily advocated +by the Mercury was as heartily condemned by Brown. To the President he +wrote announcing his continued opposition to a law which he declared +"encroaches upon the reserved rights of the State and strikes down +her sovereignty at a single blow." Though the Supreme Court of Georgia +pronounced the conscription acts constitutional, the Governor and his +faction did not cease to condemn them. Linton Stephens, as well as his +famous kinsman, took up the cudgels. In a speech before the Georgia +Legislature, in November, Linton Stephens borrowed almost exactly the +Governor's phraseology in denying the necessity for conscription, and +this continued to be the note of their faction throughout the war. +"Conscription checks enthusiasm," was ever their cry; "we are invincible +under a system of volunteering, we are lost with conscription." + +Meanwhile the military authorities looked facts in the face and had a +different tale to tell. They complained that in various parts of the +country, especially in the mountain districts, they were unable to +obtain men. Lee reported that his army melted away before his eye and +asked for an increase of authority to compel stragglers to return. At +the same time Brown was quarreling with the Administration as to who +should name the officers of the Georgia troops. Zebulon B. Vance, the +newly elected Governor of North Carolina and an anti-Davis man, said +to the Legislature: "It is mortifying to find entire brigades of North +Carolina soldiers commanded by strangers, and in many cases our own +brave and war-worn colonels are made to give place to colonels from +distant States." In addition to such indications of discontent a vast +mass of evidence makes plain the opposition to conscription toward the +close of 1862 and the looseness of various parts of the military system. + +It was a moment of intense excitement and of nervous strain. The country +was unhappy, for it had lost faith in the Government at Richmond. The +blockade was producing its effect. European intervention was receding +into the distance. One of the characteristics of the editorials and +speeches of this period is a rising tide of bitterness against England. +Napoleon's proposal in November to mediate, though it came to naught, +somewhat revived the hope of an eventual recognition of the Confederacy +but did not restore buoyancy to the people of the South. The +Emancipation Proclamation, though scoffed at as a cry of impotence, none +the less increased the general sense of crisis. + +Worst of all, because of its immediate effect upon the temper of the +time, food was very scarce and prices had risen to indefensible heights. +The army was short of shoes. In the newspapers, as winter came on, were +to be found touching descriptions of Lee's soldiers standing barefoot in +the snow. A flippant comment of Benjamin's, that the shoes had probably +been traded for whiskey, did not tend to improve matters. Even though +short of supplies themselves, the people as a whole eagerly subscribed +to buy shoes for the army. + +There was widespread and heartless speculation in the supplies. +Months previous the Courier had made this ominous editorial remark: +"Speculators and monopolists seem determined to force the people +everywhere to the full exercise of all the remedies allowed by law." In +August, 1862, the Governor of Florida wrote to the Florida delegation at +Richmond urging them to take steps to meet the "nefarious smuggling" +of speculators who charged extortionate prices. In September, he wrote +again begging for legislation to compel millers, tanners, and saltmakers +to offer their products at reasonable rates. As these men were exempt +from military duty because their labor was held to be a public +service, feeling against them ran high. Governor Vance proposed a state +convention to regulate prices for North Carolina and by proclamation +forbade the export of provisions in order to prevent the seeking of +exorbitant prices in other markets. Davis wrote to various Governors +urging them to obtain state legislation to reduce extortion in the food +business. In the provisioning of the army the Confederate Government had +recourse to impressment and the arbitrary fixing of prices. Though the +Attorney-General held this action to be constitutional, it led to sharp +contentions; and at length a Virginia court granted an injunction to a +speculator who had been paid by the Government for flour less than it +had cost him. + +In an attempt to straighten out this tangled situation, the Confederate +Government began, late, in 1862, by appointing as its new Secretary of +War, * James A. Seddon of Virginia--at that time high in popular +favor. The Mercury hailed his advent with transparent relief, for no +appointment could have seemed to it more promising. Indeed, as the +new year (1863) opened the Mercury was in better humor with the +Administration than perhaps at any other time during the war. To +the President's message it gave praise that was almost cordial. This +amicable temper was short-lived, however, and three months later the +heavens had clouded. + + + * There were in all six Secretaries of War: Leroy P. Walker, + until September 16, 1861; Judah P. Benjamin, until March 18, + 1862; George W. Randolph, until November 17, 1868; Gustavus + W. Smith (temporarily), until November 21, 1862; James A. + Seddon, until February 6, 1865; General John C. + Breckinridge, again, for the Government had entered upon a + course that consolidated the opposition in anger and + distrust. + + +Early in 1863 the Confederate Government presented to the country a +program in which the main features were three. Of these the two which +did not rouse immediate hostility in the party of the Examiner and the +Mercury were the Impressment Act of March, 1863 (amended by successive +acts), and the act known as the Tax in Kind, which was approved the +following month. Though the Impressment Act subsequently made vast +trouble for the Government, at the time of its passage its beneficial +effects were not denied. To it was attributed by the Richmond Whig the +rapid fall of prices in April, 1863. Corn went down at Richmond from $12 +and $10 a bushel to $4.20, and flour dropped in North Carolina from $45 +a barrel to $25. Under this act commissioners were appointed in each +State jointly by the Confederate President and the Governor with the +duty of fixing prices for government transactions and of publishing +every two months an official schedule of the prices to be paid by the +Government for the supplies which it impressed. + +The new Tax Act attempted to provide revenues which should not be paid +in depreciated currency. With no bullion to speak of, the Confederate +Congress could not establish a circulating medium with even an +approximation to constant value. Realizing this situation, Memminger had +advised falling back on the ancient system of tithes and the support +of the Government by direct contributions of produce. After licensing a +great number of occupations and laying a property tax and an income tax, +the new law demanded a tenth of the produce of all farmers. On this +law the Mercury pronounced a benediction in an editorial on The Fall of +Prices, which it attributed to "the healthy influence of the tax bill +which has just become law." * + + + * The fall of prices was attributed by others to a funding + act,--one of several passed by the Confederate Congress-- + which, in March, 1863, aimed by various devices to contract + the volume of the currency. It was very generally condemned, + and it anticipated the yet more drastic measure, the Funding + Act of 1864, which will be described later. + + +Had these two measures been the whole program of the Government, the +congressional session of the spring of 1863 would have had a different +significance in Confederate history. But there was a third measure +that provoked a new attack on the Government. The gracious words of the +Mercury on the tax in kind came as an interlude in the midst of a bitter +controversy. An editorial of the 12th of March headed "A Despotism over +the Confederate States Proposed in Congress" amounted to a declaration +of war. From this time forward the opposition and the Government drew +steadily further and further apart and their antagonism grew steadily +more relentless. + +What caused this irrevocable breach was a bill introduced into the House +by Ethelbert Barksdale of Mississippi, an old friend of President Davis. +This bill would have invested the President with authority to +suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in any part of the +Confederacy, whenever in his judgment such suspension was desirable. +The first act suspending the privilege of habeas corpus had long +since expired and applied only to such regions as were threatened with +invasion. It had served usefully under martial law in cleansing Richmond +of its rogues, and also had been in force at Charleston. The Mercury had +approved it and had exhorted its readers to take the matter sensibly as +an inevitable detail of war. Between that act and the act now proposed +the Mercury saw no similarity. Upon the merits of the question it fought +a furious journalistic duel with the Enquirer, the government organ at +Richmond, which insisted that President Davis would not abuse his power. +The Mercury replied that if he "were a second Washington, or an angel +upon earth, the degradation such a surrender of our rights implies would +still be abhorrent to every freeman." In retort the Enquirer pointed +out that a similar law had been enacted by another Congress with no bad +results. And in point of fact the Enquirer was right, for in October, +1862, after the expiration of the first act suspending the privilege +of the writ of habeas corpus, Congress passed a second giving to the +President the immense power which was now claimed for him again. This +second act was in force several months. Then the Mercury made the +astounding declaration that it had never heard of the second act, and +thereupon proceeded to attack the secrecy of the Administration with +renewed vigor. + +On this issue of reviving the expired second Habeas Corpus Act, a +battle royal was fought in the Confederate Congress. The forces of +the Administration defended the new measure on the ground that various +regions were openly seditious and that conscription could not be +enforced without it. This argument gave a new text for the cry of +"despotism." The congressional leader of the opposition was Henry S. +Foote, once the rival of Davis in Mississippi and now a citizen of +Tennessee. Fierce, vindictive, sometimes convincing, always shrewd, he +was a powerful leader of the rough and ready, buccaneering sort. Under +his guidance the debate was diverted into a rancorous discussion of the +conduct of the general's in the execution of martial law. Foote pulled +out all the stops in the organ of political rhetoric and went in for a +chant royal of righteous indignation. The main object of this attack was +General Hindman and his doings in Arkansas. Those were still the days of +pamphleteering. Though General Albert Pike had written a severe pamphlet +condemning Hindman, to this pamphlet the Confederate Government had shut +its eyes. Foote, however, flourished it in the face of the House. He +thundered forth his belief that Hindman was worse even than the man most +detested in the South, than "beast Butler himself, for the latter is +only charged with persecuting and oppressing the avowed enemies of his +Government, while Hindman, if guilty as charged, has practised cruelties +unnumbered" on his people. Other representatives spoke in the same vein. +Baldwin of Virginia told harrowing tales of martial law in that State. +Barksdale attempted to retaliate, sarcastically reminding him of a +recent scene of riot and disorder which proved that martial law, in +any effective form, did not exist in Virginia. He alluded to a riot, +ostensibly for bread, in which an Amazonian woman had led a mob to the +pillaging of the Richmond jewelry shops, a riot which Davis himself had +quelled by meeting the rioters and threatening to fire upon them. But +sarcasm proved powerless against Foote. His climax was a lurid tale of +a soldier who while marching past his own house heard that his wife was +dying, who left the ranks for a last word with her, and who on rejoining +the command, "hoping to get permission to bury her," was shot as a +deserter. And there was no one on the Government benches to anticipate +Kipling and cry out "flat art!" Resolutions condemning martial law were +passed by a vote of 45 to 27. + +Two weeks later the Mercury preached a burial sermon over the Barksdale +Bill, which had now been rejected by the House. Congress was about to +adjourn, and before it reassembled elections for the next House would +be held. "The measure is dead for the present," said the Mercury, "but +power is ever restive and prone to accumulate power; and if the war +continues, other efforts will doubtless be made to make the President +a Dictator. Let the people keep their eyes steadily fixed on their +representatives with respect to this vital matter; and should the effort +again be made to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act, demand that a recorded +vote should show those who shall strike down their liberties." + + + +Chapter V. The Critical Year + +The great military events of the year 1863 have pushed out of men's +memories the less dramatic but scarcely less important civil events. To +begin with, in this year two of the greatest personalities in the South +passed from the political stage: in the summer Yancey died; and in the +autumn, Rhett went into retirement. + +The ever malicious Pollard insists that Yancey's death was due +ultimately to a personal encounter with a Senator from Georgia on +the floor of the Senate. The curious may find the discreditable story +embalmed in the secret journal of the Senate, where are the various +motions designed to keep the incident from the knowledge of the world. +Whether it really caused Yancey's death is another question. However, +the moment of his passing has dramatic significance. Just as the battle +over conscription was fully begun, when the fear that the Confederate +Government had arrayed itself against the rights of the States had +definitely taken shape, when this dread had been reenforced by the alarm +over the suspension of habeas corpus, the great pioneer of the secession +movement went to his grave, despairing of the country he had failed to +lead. His death occurred in the same month as the Battle of Gettysburg, +at the very time when the Confederacy was dividing against itself. + +The withdrawal of Rhett from active life was an incident of the +congressional elections. He had consented to stand for Congress in the +Third District of South Carolina but was defeated. The full explanation +of the vote is still to be made plain; it seems clear, however, that +South Carolina at this time knew its own mind quite positively. Five +of the six representatives returned to the Second Congress, including +Rhett's opponent, Lewis M. Ayer, had sat in the First Congress. The +subsequent history of the South Carolina delegation and of the State +Government shows that by 1863 South Carolina had become, broadly +speaking, on almost all issues an anti-Davis State. And yet the largest +personality and probably the ablest mind in the State was rejected as +a candidate for Congress. No character in American history is a finer +challenge to the biographer than this powerful figure of Rhett, who in +1861 at the supreme crisis of his life seemed the master of his world +and yet in every lesser crisis was a comparative failure. As in Yancey, +so in Rhett, there was something that fitted him to one great moment but +did not fit him to others. There can be little doubt that his defeat +at the polls of his own district deeply mortified him. He withdrew from +politics, and though he doubtless, through the editorship of one of +his sons, inspired the continued opposition of the Mercury to the +Government, Rhett himself hardly reappears in Confederate history except +for a single occasion during the debate a year later upon the burning +question of arming the slaves. + +The year was marked by very bitter attacks upon President Davis on +the part of the opposition press. The Mercury revived the issue of the +conduct of the war which had for some time been overshadowed by other +issues. In the spring, to be sure, things had begun to look brighter, +and Chancellorsville had raised Lee's reputation to its zenith. The +disasters of the summer, Gettysburg and Vicksburg, were for a time +minimized by the Government and do not appear to have caused the alarm +which their strategic importance might well have created. But when in +the latter days of July the facts became generally known, the Mercury +arraigned the President's conduct of the war as "a vast complication of +incompetence and folly"; it condemned the whole scheme of the Northern +invasion and maintained that Lee should have stood on the defensive +while twenty or thirty thousand men were sent to the relief of +Vicksburg. These two ideas it bitterly reiterated and in August went +so far as to quote Macaulay's famous passage on Parliament's dread of a +decisive victory over Charles and to apply it to Davis in unrestrained +language that reminds one of Pollard. + +Equally unrestrained were the attacks upon other items of the policy of +the Confederate Government. The Impressment Law began to be a target. +Farmers who were compelled to accept the prices fixed by the impressment +commissioners cried out that they were being ruined. Men of the stamp of +Toombs came to their assistance with railing accusations such as +this: "I have heard it said that we should not sacrifice liberty +to independence, but I tell you, my countrymen, that the two +are inseparable.... If we lose our liberty we shall lose our +independence.... I would rather see the whole country the cemetery of +freedom than the habitation of slaves." Protests which poured in upon +the Government insisted that the power to impress supplies did not carry +with it the power to fix prices. Worthy men, ridden by the traditional +ideas of political science and unable to modify these in the light of +the present emergency, wailed out their despair over the "usurpation" of +Richmond. + +The tax in kind was denounced in the same vein. The licensing provisions +of this law and its income tax did not satisfy the popular imagination. +These provisions concerned the classes that could borrow. The classes +that could not borrow, that had no resources but their crops, felt that +they were being driven to the wall. The bitter saying went around that +it was "a rich man's war and a poor man's fight." As land and slaves +were not directly taxed, the popular discontent appeared to have ground +for its anger. Furthermore, it must never be forgotten that this was the +first general tax that the poor people of the South were ever conscious +of paying. To people who knew the tax-gatherer as little more than a +mythical being, he suddenly appeared like a malevolent creature who +swept off ruthlessly the tenth of their produce. It is not strange +that an intemperate reaction against the planters and their leadership +followed. The illusion spread that they were not doing their share of +the fighting; and as rich men were permitted to hire substitutes to +represent them in the army, this really baseless report was easily +propped up in the public mind with what appeared to be reason. + +In North Carolina, where the peasant farmer was a larger political +factor than in any other State, this feeling against the Confederate +Government because of the tax in kind was most dangerous. In the course +of the summer, while the military fortunes of the Confederacy were +toppling at Vicksburg and Gettysburg, the North Carolina farmers in +a panic of self-preservation held numerous meetings of protest and +denunciation. They expressed their thoughtless terror in resolutions +asserting that the action of Congress "in secret session, without +consulting with their constituents at home, taking from the hard +laborers of the Confederacy one-tenth of the people's living, instead of +taking back their own currency in tax, is unjust and tyrannical." Other +resolutions called the tax "unconstitutional, anti-republican, and +oppressive"; and still others pledged the farmers "to resist to the +bitter end any such monarchical tax." + +A leader of the discontented in North Carolina was found in W. W. +Holden, the editor of the Raleigh Progress, who before the war had +attempted to be spokesman for the men of small property by advocating +taxes on slaves and similar measures. He proposed as the conclusion of +the whole matter the opening of negotiations for peace. We shall see +later how deep-seated was this singular delusion that peace could be had +for the asking. In 1863, however, many men in North Carolina took up the +suggestion with delight. Jonathan Worth wrote in his diary, on hearing +that the influential North Carolina Standard had come out for peace: +"I still abhor, as I always did, this accursed war and the wicked men, +North and South, who inaugurated it. The whole country at the North and +the South is a great military despotism." With such discontent in the +air, the elections in North Carolina drew near. The feeling was intense +and riots occurred. Newspaper offices were demolished--among them +Holden's, to destroy which a detachment of passing soldiers converted +itself into a mob. In the western counties deserters from the army, +combined in bands, were joined by other deserters from Tennessee, and +terrorized the countryside. Governor Vance, alarmed at the progress +which this disorder was making, issued a proclamation imploring his +rebellious countrymen to conduct in a peaceable manner their campaign +for the repeal of obnoxious laws. + +The measure of political unrest in North Carolina was indicated in the +autumn when a new delegation to Congress was chosen. Of the ten who +composed it, eight were new men. Though they did not stand for a clearly +defined program, they represented on the whole anti-Davis tendencies. +The Confederate Administration had failed to carry the day in the +North Carolina elections; and in Georgia there were even more sweeping +evidences of unrest. Of the ten representatives chosen for the Second +Congress nine had not sat in the First, and Georgia now was in the main +frankly anti-Davis. There had been set up at Richmond a new organ of +the Government called the Sentinel, which was more entirely under the +presidential shadow than even the Enquirer and the Courier. Speaking +of the elections, the Sentinel deplored the "upheaval of political +elements" revealed by the defeat of so many tried representatives whose +constituents had not returned them to the Second Congress. + +What was Davis doing while the ground was thus being cut from under +his feet? For one thing he gave his endorsement to the formation +of "Confederate Societies" whose members bound themselves to take +Confederate money as legal tender. He wrote a letter to one such society +in Mississippi, praising it for attempting "by common consent to bring +down the prices of all articles to the standard of the soldiers' wages" +and adding that the passion of speculation had "seduced citizens of all +classes from a determined prosecution of the war to an effort to amass +money." The Sentinel advocated the establishment of a law fixing maximum +prices. The discussion of this proposal seems to make plain the raison +d'etre for the existence of the Sentinel. Even such stanch government +organs as the Enquirer and the Courier shied at the idea, but the +Mercury denounced it vigorously, giving long extracts from Thiers, +and discussed the mistakes, of the French Revolution with its "law of +maximum." + +Davis, however, did not take an active part in the political campaign, +nor did the other members of the Government. It was not because of any +notion that the President should not leave the capital that Davis did +not visit the disaffected regions of North Carolina when the startled +populace winced under its first experience with taxation. Three times +during his Administration Davis left Richmond on extended journeys: late +in 1862, when Vicksburg had become a chief concern of the Government, he +went as far afield as Mississippi in order to get entirely in touch with +the military situation in those parts; in the month of October, 1863, +when there was another moment of intense military anxiety, Davis again +visited the front; and of a third journey which he undertook in 1864, +we shall hear in time. It is to be noted that each of these journeys was +prompted by a military motive; and here, possibly, we get an explanation +of his inadequacy as a statesman. He could not lay aside his interest in +military affairs for the supremely important concerns of civil office; +and he failed to understand how to ingratiate his Administration by +personal appeals to popular imagination. + +In October, 1863,--the very month in which his old rival Rhett suffered +his final defeat,--Davis undertook a journey because Bragg, after his +great victory at Chickamauga, appeared to be letting slip a golden +opportunity, and because there were reports of dissension among Bragg's +officers and of general confusion in his army. After he had, as he +thought, restored harmony in the camp, Davis turned southward on a tour +of appeal and inspiration. He went as far as Mobile, and returning bent +his course through Charleston, where, at the beginning of November, less +than two weeks after Rhett's defeat, Davis was received with all due +formalities. Members of the Rhett family were among those who formally +received the President at the railway station. There was a parade of +welcome, an official reception, a speech by the President from the steps +of the city hall, and much applause by friends of the Administration. +But certain ominous signs were not lacking. The Mercury, for example, +tucked away in an obscure column its account of the event, while its +rival, the Courier, made the President's visit the feature of the day. + +Davis returned to Richmond, early in November, to throw himself again +with his whole soul into problems that were chiefly military. He did +not realize that the crisis had come and gone and that he had failed +to grasp the significance of the internal political situation. The +Government had failed to carry the elections and to secure a working +majority in Congress. Never again was it to have behind it a firm and +confident support, The unity of the secession movement had passed away. +Thereafter the Government was always to be regarded with suspicion +by the extreme believers in state sovereignty and by those who +were sullenly convinced that the burdens of the war were unfairly +distributed. And there were not wanting men who were ready to construe +each emergency measure as a step toward a coup d'etat. + + + +Chapter VI. Life In The Confederacy + +When the fortunes of the Confederacy in both camp and council began to +ebb, the life of the Southern people had already profoundly changed. +The gallant, delightful, carefree life of the planter class had been +undermined by a war which was eating away its foundations. Economic no +less than political forces were taking from the planter that ideal of +individual liberty as dear to his heart as it had been, ages before, to +his feudal prototype. One of the most important details of the changing +situation had been the relation of the Government to slavery. The +history of the Confederacy had opened with a clash between the +extreme advocates of slavery--the slavery-at-any-price men--and the +Administration. The Confederate Congress had passed a bill ostensibly +to make effective the clause in its constitution prohibiting the +African slave-trade. The quick eye of Davis had detected in it a mode of +evasion, for cargoes of captured slaves were to be confiscated and sold +at public auction. The President had exposed this adroit subterfuge in +his message vetoing the bill, and the slavery-at-any-price men had +not sufficient influence in Congress to override the veto, though they +muttered against it in the public press. + +The slavery-at-any-price men did not again conspicuously show their +hands until three years later when the Administration included +emancipation in its policy. The ultimate policy of emancipation was +forced upon the Government by many considerations but more particularly +by the difficulty of securing labor for military purposes. In a country +where the supply of fighting men was limited and the workers were a +class apart, the Government had to employ the only available laborers +or confess its inability to meet the industrial demands of war. But the +available laborers were slaves. How could their services be secured? By +purchase? Or by conscription? Or by temporary impressment? + +Though Davis and his advisers were prepared to face all the hazards +involved in the purchase or confiscation of slaves, the traditional +Southern temper instantly recoiled from the suggestion. A Government +possessed of great numbers of slaves, whether bought or appropriated, +would have in its hands a gigantic power, perhaps for industrial +competition with private owners, perhaps even for organized military +control. Besides, the Government might at any moment by emancipating +its slaves upset the labor system of the country. Furthermore, the +opportunities for favoritism in the management of state-owned slaves +were beyond calculation. Considerations such as these therefore explain +the watchful jealousy of the planters toward the Government whenever it +proposed to acquire property in slaves. + +It is essential not to attribute this social-political dread of +government ownership of slaves merely to the clutch of a wealthy class +on its property. Too many observers, strangely enough, see the latter +motive to the exclusion of the former. Davis himself was not, it would +seem, free from this confusion. He insisted that neither slaves nor +land were taxed by the Confederacy, and between the lines he seems +to attribute to the planter class the familiar selfishness of massed +capital. He forgot that the tax in kind was combined with an income tax. +In theory, at least, the slave and the land--even non-farming land--were +taxed. However, the dread of a slave-owning Government prevented any +effective plan for supplying the army with labor except through the +temporary impressment of slaves who were eventually to be returned to +their owners. The policy of emancipation had to wait. + +Bound up in the labor question was the question of the control of slaves +during the war. In the old days when there were plenty of white men in +the countryside, the roads were carefully patrolled at night, and +no slave ventured to go at large unless fully prepared to prove his +identity. But with the coming of war the comparative smallness of the +fighting population made it likely from the first that the countryside +everywhere would be stripped of its white guardians. In that event, who +would be left to control the slaves? Early in the war a slave police +was provided for by exempting from military duty overseers in the +ratio approximately of one white to twenty slaves. But the marvelous +faithfulness of the slaves, who nowhere attempted to revolt, made these +precautions unnecessary. Later laws exempted one overseer on every +plantation of fifteen slaves, not so much to perform patrol duty as to +increase the productivity of plantation labor. + +This "Fifteen Slave" Law was one of many instances that were caught up +by the men of small property as evidence that the Government favored the +rich. A much less defensible law, and one which was bitterly attacked +for the same reason, was the unfortunate measure permitting the hiring +of substitutes by men drafted into the army. Eventually, the clamor +against this law caused its repeal, but before that time it had worked +untold harm as apparent evidence of "a rich man's war and a poor man's +fight." Extravagant stories of the avoidance of military duty by the +ruling class, though in the main they were mere fairy tales, changed the +whole atmosphere of Southern life. The old glad confidence uniting +the planter class with the bulk of the people had been impaired. +Misapprehension appeared on both sides. Too much has been said lately, +however, in justification of the poorer classes who were thus wakened +suddenly to a distrust of the aristocracy; and too little has been +said of the proud recoil of the aristocracy in the face of a sudden, +credulous perversion of its motives--a perversion inspired by the +pinching of the shoe, and yet a shoe that pinched one class as hard as +it did another. It is as unfair to charge the planter with selfishness +in opposing the appropriation of slaves as it is to make the same charge +against the small farmers for resisting tithes. In face of the record, +the planter comes off somewhat the better of the two; but it must be +remembered that he had the better education, the larger mental horizon. + +The Confederacy had long recognized women of all classes as the most +dauntless defenders of the cause. The women of the upper classes passed +without a tremor from a life of smiling ease to a life of extreme +hardship. One day, their horizon was without a cloud; another day, +their husbands and fathers had gone to the front. Their luxuries had +disappeared, and they were reduced to plain hard living, toiling in a +thousand ways to find provision and clothing, not only for their own +children but for the poorer families of soldiers. The women of the poor +throughout the South deserve similar honor. Though the physical shock +of the change may not have been so great, they had to face the same deep +realities--hunger and want, anxiety over the absent soldiers, solicitude +for children, grief for the dead. One of the pathetic aspects of +Confederate life was the household composed of several families, all +women and children, huddled together without a man or even a half-grown +lad to be their link with the mill and the market. In those regions +where there were few slaves and the exemption of overseers did not +operate, such households were numerous. + +The great privations which people endured during the Confederacy have +passed into familiar tradition. They are to be traced mainly to three +causes: to the blockade, to the inadequate system of transportation, and +to the heartlessness of speculators. The blockade was the real destroyer +of the South. Besides ruining the whole policy based on King Cotton, +besides impeding to a vast extent the inflow of munitions from Europe, +it also deprived Southern life of numerous articles which were hard +to relinquish--not only such luxuries as tea and coffee, but also +such utter necessities as medicines. And though the native herbs +were diligently studied, though the Government established medical +laboratories with results that were not inconsiderable, the shortage of +medicines remained throughout the war a distressing feature of Southern +life. The Tredegar Iron Works at Richmond and a foundry at Selma, +Alabama, were the only mills in the South capable of casting the heavy +ordnance necessary for military purposes. And the demand for powder +mills and gun factories to provide for the needs of the army was +scarcely greater than the demand for cotton mills and commercial +foundries to supply the wants of the civil population. The Government +worked without ceasing to keep pace with the requirements of the +situation, and, in view of the immense difficulties which it had to +face, it was fairly successful in supplying the needs of the army. +Powder was provided by the Niter and Mining Bureau; lead for Confederate +bullets was collected from many sources--even from the window-weights of +the houses; iron was brought from the mines of Alabama; guns came from +newly built factories; and machines and tools were part of the precious +freight of the blockade-runners. Though the poorly equipped mills turned +a portion of the cotton crop into textiles, and though everything that +was possible was done to meet the needs of the people, the supply of +manufactures was sadly inadequate. The universal shortage was betrayed +by the limitation of the size of most newspapers to a single sheet, and +the desperate situation clearly and completely revealed by the way in +which, as a last resort, the Confederates were compelled to repair their +railroads by pulling up the rails of one road in order to repair another +that the necessities of war rendered indispensable. + +The railway system, if such it can be called, was one of the weaknesses +of the Confederacy. Before the war the South had not felt the need of +elaborate interior communication, for its commerce in the main went +seaward, and thence to New England or to Europe. Hitherto the railway +lines had seen no reason for merging their local character in extensive +combinations. Owners of short lines were inclined by tradition to resist +even the imperative necessities of war and their stubborn conservatism +was frequently encouraged by the shortsighted parochialism of the towns. +The same pitiful narrowness that led the peasant farmer to threaten +rebellion against the tax in kind led his counterpart in the towns to +oppose the War Department in its efforts to establish through railroad +lines because they threatened to impair local business interests. A +striking instance of this disinclination towards cooperation is the +action of Petersburg. Two railroads terminated at this point but did not +connect, and it was an ardent desire of the military authorities to +link the two and convert them into one. The town, however, unable to +see beyond its boundaries and resolute in its determination to save its +transfer business, successfully obstructed the needs of the army. * + + + * See an article on "The Confederate Government and the + Railroads" in the "American Historical Review," July, 1917, + by Charles W. Ramsdell. + + +As a result of this lack of efficient organization an immense congestion +resulted all along the railroads. Whether this, rather than a failure in +supply, explains the approach of famine in the latter part of the war, +it is today very difficult to determine. In numerous state papers of the +time, the assertion was reiterated that the yield of food was abundant +and that the scarcity of food at many places, including the cities and +the battle fronts, was due to defects in transportation. Certain it is +that the progress of supplies from one point to another was intolerably +slow. + +All this want of coordination facilitated speculation. We shall see +hereafter how merciless this speculation became and we shall even hear +of profits on food rising to more than four hundred per cent. However, +the oft-quoted prices of the later years--when, for instance, a pair +of shoes cost a hundred dollars--signify little, for they rested on an +inflated currency. None the less they inspired the witticism that one +should take money to market in a basket and bring provisions home in +one's pocketbook. Endless stories could be told of speculators hoarding +food and watching unmoved the sufferings of a famished people. Said +Bishop Pierce, in a sermon before the General Assembly of Georgia, +on Fast Day, in March, 1863: "Restlessness and discontent prevail.... +Extortion, pitiless extortion is making havoc in the land. We are +devouring each other. Avarice with full barns puts the bounties of +Providence under bolts and bars, waiting with eager longings for higher +prices.... The greed of gain... stalks among us unabashed by the heroic +sacrifice of our women or the gallant deeds of our soldiers. Speculation +in salt and bread and meat runs riot in defiance of the thunders of +the pulpit, and executive interference and the horrors of threatened +famine." In 1864, the Government found that quantities of grain paid in +under the tax as new-grown were mildewed. It was grain of the previous +year which speculators had held too long and now palmed off on the +Government to supply the army. + +Amid these desperate conditions the fate of soldiers' families became +everywhere, a tragedy. Unless the soldier was a land-owner his family +was all but helpless. With a depreciated currency and exaggerated +prices, his pay, whatever his rank, was too little to count in providing +for his dependents. Local charity, dealt out by state and county boards, +by relief associations, and by the generosity of neighbors, formed the +barrier between his family and starvation. The landless soldier, with +a family at home in desperate straits, is too often overlooked when +unimaginative people heap up the statistics of "desertion" in the latter +half of the war. + +It was in this period, too, that amid the terrible shrinkage of the +defensive lines "refugeeing" became a feature of Southern life. From +the districts over which the waves of war rolled back and forth helpless +families--women, children, slaves--found precarious safety together with +great hardship by withdrawing to remote places which invasion was little +likely to reach. An Odyssey of hard travel, often by night and half +secret, is part of the war tradition of thousands of Southern families. +And here, as always, the heroic women, smiling, indomitable, are the +center of the picture. Their flight to preserve the children was no +small test of courage. Almost invariably they had to traverse desolate +country, with few attendants, through forests, and across rivers, where +the arm of the law was now powerless to protect them. Outlaws, defiant +of the authorities both civil and military,--ruthless men of whom we +shall hear again,--roved those great unoccupied spaces so characteristic +of the Southern countryside. Many a family legend preserves still the +sense of breathless caution, of pilgrimage in the night-time intently +silent for fear of these masterless men. When the remote rendezvous had +been reached, there a colony of refugees drew together in a steadfast +despair, unprotected by their own fighting men. What strange sad pages +in the history of American valor were filled by these women outwardly +calm, their children romping after butterflies in a glory of sunshine, +while horrid tales drifted in of deeds done by the masterless men in +the forest just beyond the horizon, and far off on the soul's horizon +fathers, husbands, brothers, held grimly the lines of last defense! + + + +Chapter VII. The Turning Of The Tide + +The buoyancy of the Southern temper withstood the shock of Gettysburg +and was not overcome by the fall of Vicksburg. Of the far-reaching +significance of the latter catastrophe in particular there was little +immediate recognition. Even Seddon, the Secretary of War, in November, +reported that "the communication with the Trans-Mississippi, while +rendered somewhat precarious and insecure, is found by no means cut off +or even seriously endangered." His report was the same sort of thing +as those announcements of "strategic retreats" with which the world has +since become familiar. He even went so far as to argue that on the whole +the South had gained rather than lost; that the control of the river was +of no real value to the North; that the loss of Vicksburg "has on our +side liberated for general operations in the field a large army, while +it requires the enemy to maintain cooped up, inactive, in positions +insalubrious to their soldiers, considerable detachments of their +forces." + +Seddon attempted to reverse the facts, to show that the importance of +the Mississippi in commerce was a Northern not a Southern concern. +He threw light upon the tactics of the time by his description of the +future action of Confederate sharpshooters who were to terrorize such +commercial crews as might attempt to navigate the river; he also told +how light batteries might move swiftly along the banks and, at +points commanding the channel, rain on the passing steamer unheralded +destruction. He was silent upon the really serious matter, the patrol +of the river by Federal gunboats which rendered commerce with the +Trans-Mississippi all but impossible. + +This report, dated the 26th of November, gives a roseate view of the war +in Tennessee and enlarges upon that dreadful battle of Chickamauga which +"ranks as one of the grandest victories of the war." But even as the +report was signed, Bragg was in full retreat after his great disaster +at Chattanooga. On the 30th of November the Administration at Richmond +received from him a dispatch that closed with these words: "I deem it +due to the cause and to myself to ask for relief from command and an +investigation into the causes of the defeat." In the middle of December, +Joseph E. Johnston was appointed to succeed him. + +Whatever had been the illusions of the Government, they were now at an +end. There was no denying that the war had entered a new stage and that +the odds were grimly against the South. Davis recognized the gravity +of the situation, and in his message to Congress in December, 1863, he +admitted that the Trans-Mississippi was practically isolated. This was +indeed a great catastrophe, for hereafter neither men nor supplies could +be drawn from the far Southwest. Furthermore, the Confederacy had now +lost its former precious advantage of using Mexico as a means of secret +trade with Europe. + +These distressing events of the four months between Vicksburg and +Chattanooga established also the semi-isolation of the middle region of +the lower South. The two States of Mississippi and Alabama entered upon +the most desperate chapter of their history. Neither in nor out of the +Confederacy, neither protected by the Confederate lines nor policed by +the enemy, they were subject at once to the full rigor of the financial +and military demands of the Administration of Richmond and to the +full ruthlessness of plundering raids from the North. Nowhere can the +contrast between the warfare of that day and the best methods of our +own time be observed more clearly than in this unhappy region. At the +opening of 1864 the effective Confederate lines drew an irregular +zigzag across the map from a point in northern Georgia not far below +Chattanooga to Mobile. Though small Confederate commands still operated +bravely west of this line, the whole of Mississippi and a large part of +Alabama were beyond aid from Richmond. But the average man did not +grasp the situation. When a region is dominated by mobile armies the +appearance of things to the civilian is deceptive. Because the powerful +Federal armies of the Southwest, at the opening of 1864, were massed at +strategic points from Tennessee to the Gulf, and were not extended along +an obvious trench line, every brave civilian would still keep up his +hope and would still insist that the middle Gulf country was far +from subjugation, that its defense against the invader had not become +hopeless. + +Under such conditions, when the Government at Richmond called upon the +men of the Southwest to regard themselves as mere sources of supply, +human and otherwise, mere feeders to a theater of war that did not +include their homes, it was altogether natural that they should resent +the demand. All the tragic confusion that was destined in the course of +the fateful year 1864 to paralyze the Government at Richmond was already +apparent in the middle Gulf country when the year began. Chief among +these was the inability of the State and Confederate Governments to +cooperate adequately in the business of conscription. The two powers +were determined rivals struggling each to seize the major part of the +manhood of the community. While Richmond, looking on the situation with +the eye of pure strategy, wished to draw together the full man-power +of the South in one great unit, the local authorities were bent on +retaining a large part of it for home defense. + +In the Alabama newspapers of the latter half of 1863 strange incidents +are to be found throwing light on the administrative duel. The writ of +habeas corpus, as was so often the case in Confederate history, was the +bone of contention. We have seen that the second statute empowering the +President to proclaim martial law and to suspend the operation of the +writ had expired by limitation in February, 1863. The Alabama courts +were theoretically in full operation, but while the law was in force the +military authorities had acquired a habit of arbitrary control. Though +warned from Richmond in general orders that they must not take unto +themselves a power vested in the President alone, they continued their +previous course of action. It thereupon became necessary to issue +further general orders annulling "all proclamations of martial law +by general officers and others" not invested by law with adequate +authority. + +Neither general orders nor the expiration of the statute, however, +seemed able to put an end to the interference with the local courts on +the part of local commanders. The evil apparently grew during 1863. A +picturesque instance is recorded with extreme fullness by the Southern +Advertiser in the autumn of the year. In the minutely circumstantial +account, we catch glimpses of one Rhodes moving heaven and earth to +prove himself exempt from military service. After Rhodes is enrolled by +the officers of the local military rendezvous, the sheriff attempts to +turn the tables by arresting the Colonel in command. The soldiers rush +to defend their Colonel, who is ill in bed at a house some distance +away. The judge who had issued the writ is hot with anger at this +military interference in civil affairs. Thereupon the soldiers seize +him, but later, recognizing for some unexplained reason the majesty of +the civil law, they release him. And the hot-tempered incident closes +with the Colonel's determination to carry the case to the Supreme Court +of the State. + +The much harassed people of Alabama had still other causes of complaint +during this same year. Again the newspapers illumine the situation. In +the troubled autumn, Joseph Wheeler swept across the northern counties +of Alabama and in a daring ride, with Federal cavalry hot on his trail, +reached safety beyond the Tennessee River. Here his pursuers turned back +and, as their horses had been broken by the swiftness of the pursuit, +returning slowly, they "gleaned the country" to replace their supplies. +Incidentally they pounced upon the town of Huntsville. "Their +appearance here," writes a local correspondent, "was so sudden and... the +contradictory reports of their whereabouts" had been so baffling +that the townspeople had found no time to secrete things. The whole +neighborhood was swept clean of cattle and almost clean of provision. +"We have not enough left," the report continues, "to haul and plow +with... and milch cows are non est." Including "Stanley's big raid in +July," this was the twenty-first raid which Huntsville had endured that +year. The report closes with a bitter denunciation of the people of +southern Alabama who as yet do not know what war means, who are accused +of complete hardness of heart towards their suffering fellow-countrymen +and of caring only to make money out of war prices. + +When Davis sent his message to the Southern Congress at the opening of +the session of 1864, the desperate plight of the middle Gulf country was +at once a warning and a menace to the Government. If the conditions of +that debatable land should extend eastward, there could be little doubt +that the day of the Confederacy was nearing its close. To remedy the +situation west of the main Confederate line, to prevent the growth of a +similar condition east of it, Davis urged Congress to revive the statute +permitting martial law and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. +The President told Congress that in parts of the Confederacy "public +meetings have been held, in some of which a treasonable design is masked +by a pretense of devotion of state sovereignty, and in others is openly +avowed... a strong suspicion is entertained that secret leagues and +associations are being formed. In certain localities men of no mean +position do not hesitate to avow their disloyalty and hostility to our +cause, and their advocacy of peace on the terms of submission and the +abolition of slavery." + +This suspicion on the part of the Confederate Government that it was +being opposed by organized secret societies takes us back to debatable +land and to the previous year. The Bureau of Conscription submitted to +the Secretary of War a report from its Alabama branch relative to "a +sworn secret organization known to exist and believed to have for its +object the encouragement of desertion, the protection of deserters from +arrest, resistance to conscription, and perhaps other designs of a still +more dangerous character." To the operations of this insidious foe were +attributed the shifting of the vote in the Alabama elections, the defeat +of certain candidates favored by the Government, and the return in their +stead of new men "not publicly known." The suspicions of the Government +were destined to further verification in the course of 1864 by the +unearthing of a treasonable secret society in southwestern Virginia, the +members of which were "bound to each other for the prosecution of their +nefarious designs by the most solemn oaths. They were under obligation +to encourage desertions from the army, and to pass and harbor all +deserters, escaped prisoners, or spies; to give information to the enemy +of the movements of our troops, of exposed or weakened positions, of +inviting opportunities of attack, and to guide and assist the enemy +either in advance or retreat." This society bore the grandiloquent name +"Heroes of America" and had extended its operations into Tennessee and +North Carolina. + +In the course of the year further evidence was collected which satisfied +the secret service of the existence of a mysterious and nameless society +which had ramifications throughout Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia. A +detective who joined this "Peace Society," as it was called, for +the purpose of betraying its secrets, had marvelous tales to tell of +confidential information given to him by members, of how Missionary +Ridge had been lost and Vicksburg had surrendered through the +machinations of this society. * + + + * What classes were represented in these organizations it is + difficult if not impossible to determine. They seem to have + been involved in the singular "peace movement" which is yet + to be considered. This fact gives a possible clue to the + problem of their membership. A suspiciously large number of + the "peace" men were original anti-secessionists, and though + many, perhaps most, of these who opposed secession became + loyal servants of the Confederacy, historians may have + jumped too quickly to the assumption that the sincerity of + all of these men was above reproach. + + +In spite of its repugnance to the suspension of the writ of habeas +corpus, Congress was so impressed by the gravity of the situation that +early in 1864 it passed another act "to suspend the privilege of the +writ of habeas corpus in certain cases." This was not quite the same +as that sweeping act of 1862 which had set the Mercury irrevocably in +opposition. Though this act of 1864 gave the President the power to +order the arrest of any person suspected of treasonable practices, and +though it released military officers from all obligation to obey the +order of any civil court to surrender a prisoner charged with treason, +the new legislation carefully defined a list of cases in which alone +this power could be lawfully used. This was the last act of the sort +passed by the Confederate Congress, and when it expired by limitation +ninety days after the next meeting of Congress it was not renewed. + +With regard to the administration of the army, Congress can hardly be +said to have met the President more than half way. The age of military +service was lowered to seventeen and was raised to fifty. But the +President was not given--though he had asked for it--general control +over exemptions. Certain groups, such as ministers, editors, physicians, +were in the main exempted; one overseer was exempted on each plantation +where there were fifteen slaves, provided he gave bond to sell to the +Government at official prices each year one hundred pounds of either +beef or bacon for each slave employed and provided he would sell all his +surplus produce either to the Government or to the families of soldiers. +Certain civil servants of the Confederacy were also exempted as well as +those whom the governors of States should "certify to be necessary for +the proper administration of the State Government." The President +was authorized to detail for nonmilitary service any members of +the Confederate forces "when in his judgment, justice, equity, and +necessity, require such details." + +This statute retained two features that had already given rise to much +friction, and that were destined to be the cause of much more. It was +still within the power of state governors to impede conscription +very seriously. By certifying that a man was necessary to the civil +administration of a State, a Governor could place him beyond the legal +reach of the conscripting officers. This provision was a concession to +those who looked on Davis's request for authority over exemption as the +first step toward absolutism. On the other hand the statute allowed +the President a free hand in the scarcely less important matter of +"details." Among the imperative problems of the Confederacy, where the +whole male population was needed in the public service, was the most +economical separation of the two groups, the fighters and the producers. +On the one hand there was the constant demand for recruits to fill up +the wasted armies; on the other, the need for workers to keep the shops +going and to secure the harvest. The two interests were never fully +coordinated. Under the act of 1864, no farmer, mechanic, tradesman, +between the ages of seventeen and fifty, if fit for military service, +could remain at his work except as a "detail" under orders of the +President: he might be called to the colors at a moment's notice. We +shall see, presently, how the revoking of details, toward the end +of what may truly be called the terrible year, was one of the major +incidents of Confederate history. + +Together with the new conscription act, the President approved on +February 17, 1864, a reenactment of the tax in kind, with some slight +concessions to the convenience of the farmers. The President's appeal +for a law directly taxing slaves and land had been ignored by Congress, +but another of his suggestions had been incorporated in the Funding Act. +The state of the currency was now so grave that Davis attributed to it +all the evils growing out of the attempts to enforce impressment. As the +value of the paper dollar had by this time shrunk to six cents in +specie and the volume of Confederate paper was upward of seven hundred +millions, Congress undertook to reduce the volume and raise the value +by compelling holders of notes to exchange them for bonds. By way of +driving the note-holders to consent to the exchange, provision was made +for the speedy taxation of notes for one-third their face value. + +Such were the main items of the government program for 1864. Armed with +this, Davis braced himself for the great task of making head against the +enemies that now surrounded the Confederacy. It is an axiom of military +science that when one combatant possesses the interior line, the other +can offset this advantage only by exerting coincident pressure all +round, thus preventing him from shifting his forces from one front +to another. On this principle, the Northern strategists had at last +completed their gigantic plan for a general envelopment of the whole +Confederate defense both by land and sea. Grant opened operations by +crossing the Rapidan and telegraphing Sherman to advance into Georgia. + +The stern events of the spring of 1864 form such a famous page in +military history that the sober civil story of those months appears by +comparison lame and impotent. Nevertheless, the Confederate Government +during those months was at least equal to its chief obligation: it +supplied and recruited the armies. With Grant checked at Cold Harbor, in +June, and Sherman still unable to pierce the western line, the hopes of +the Confederates were high. + +In the North there was corresponding gloom. This was the moment when +all Northern opponents of the war drew together in their last attempt to +shatter the Lincoln Government and make peace with the Confederacy. The +value to the Southern cause of this Northern movement for peace at +any price was keenly appreciated at Richmond. Trusted agents of the +Confederacy were even then in Canada working deftly to influence +Northern sentiment. The negotiations with those Northern secret +societies which befriended the South belong properly in the story of +Northern politics and the presidential election of 1864. They were +skillfully conducted chiefly by Jacob Thompson and C. C. Clay. The +reports of these agents throughout the spring and summer were all +hopeful and told of "many intelligent men from the United States" who +sought them out in Canada for political consultations. They discussed +"our true friends from the Chicago (Democratic) convention" and +even gave names of those who, they were assured, would have seats in +McClellan's Cabinet. They were really not well informed upon Northern +affairs, and even after the tide had turned against the Democrats +in September, they were still priding themselves on their diplomatic +achievement, still confident they had helped organize a great political +power, had "given a stronger impetus to the peace party of the North +than all other causes combined, and had greatly reduced the strength of +the war party." + +While Clay and Thompson built their house of cards in Canada, the +Richmond Government bent anxious eyes on the western battlefront. +Sherman, though repulsed in his one frontal attack at Kenesaw Mountain, +had steadily worked his way by the left flank of the Confederate army, +until in early July he was within six miles of Atlanta. All the lower +South was a-tremble with apprehension. Deputations were sent to Richmond +imploring the removal of Johnston from the western command. What had he +done since his appointment in December but retreat? Such was the tenor +of public opinion. "It is all very well to talk of Fabian policy," said +one of his detractors long afterward, "and now we can see we were +rash to say the least. But at the time, all of us went wrong together. +Everybody clamored for Johnston's removal." Johnston and Davis were not +friends; but the President hesitated long before acting. And yet, with +each day, political as well as military necessity grew more imperative. +Both at Washington and Richmond the effect that the fighting in Georgia +had on Northern opinion was seen to be of the first importance. Sherman +was staking everything to break the Confederate line and take Atlanta. +He knew that a great victory would have incalculable effect on the +Northern election. Davis knew equally well that the defeat of Sherman +would greatly encourage the peace party in the North. But he had no +general of undoubted genius whom he could put in Johnston's place. +However, the necessity for a bold stroke was so undeniable, and +Johnston appeared so resolute to continue his Fabian policy, that Davis +reluctantly took a desperate chance and superseded him by Hood. + +During August, though the Democratic convention at Chicago drew up +its platform favoring peace at any price, the anxiety of the Southern +President did not abate his activities. The safety of the western line +was now his absorbing concern. And in mid-August that line was turned, +in a way, by Farragut's capture of Mobile Bay. As the month closed, +Sherman, despite the furious blows delivered by Hood, was plainly +getting the upper hand. North and South, men watched that tremendous +duel with the feeling that the foundations of things were rocking. At +last, on the 2d of September, Sherman, victorious, entered Atlanta. + + + +Chapter VIII. A Game Of Chance + +With dramatic completeness in the summer and autumn of 1864, the +foundations of the Confederate hope one after another gave way. Among +the causes of this catastrophe was the failure of the second great +attempt on the part of the Confederacy to secure recognition abroad. +The subject takes us back to the latter days of 1862, when the center +of gravity in foreign affairs had shifted from London to Paris. Napoleon +III, at the height of his strange career, playing half a dozen dubious +games at once, took up a new pastime and played at intrigue with +the Confederacy. In October he accorded a most gracious interview to +Slidell. He remarked that his sympathies were entirely with the South +but added that, if he acted alone, England might trip him up. He spoke +of his scheme for joint intervention by England, France, and Russia. +Then he asked why we had not created a navy. Slidell snapped at the +bait. He said that the Confederates would be glad to build ships +in France, that "if the Emperor would give only some kind of verbal +assurance that the police would not observe too closely when we wished +to put on guns and men we would gladly avail ourselves of it." To this, +the imperial trickster replied, "Why could you not have them built as +for the Italian Government? I do not think it would be difficult but +will consult the Minister of Marine about it." + +Slidell left the Emperor's presence confident that things would happen. +And they did. First came Napoleon's proposal of intervention, which was +declined before the end of the year by England and Russia. Then came +his futile overtures to the Government at Washington, his offer of +mediation--which was rejected early in 1863. But Slidell remained +confident that something else would happen. And in this expectation also +he was not disappointed. The Emperor was deeply involved in Mexico +and was busily intriguing throughout Europe. This was the time when +Erlanger, standing high in the favor of the Emperor, made his gambler's +proposal to the Confederate authorities about cotton. Another of the +Emperor's friends now enters the play. On January 7, 1863, M. Arman, +of Bordeaux, "the largest shipbuilder in France," had called on the +Confederate commissioner: M. Arman would be happy to build ironclad +ships for the Confederacy, and as to paying for them, cotton bonds might +do the trick. + +No wonder Slidell was elated, so much so that he seems to have given +little heed to the Emperor's sinister intimation that the whole affair +must be subterranean. But the wily Bonaparte had not forgotten that six +months earlier he had issued a decree of neutrality forbidding Frenchmen +to take commissions from either belligerent "for the armament of vessels +of war or to accept letters of marque, or to cooperate in any way +whatsoever in the equipment or arming of any vessel of war or corsair of +either belligerent." He did not intend to abandon publicly this cautious +attitude--at least, not for the present. And while Slidell at Paris +was completely taken in, the cooler head of A. Dudley Mann, Confederate +commissioner at Brussels, saw what an international quicksand was +the favor of Napoleon. It was about this time that Napoleon, having +dispatched General Forey with a fresh army to Mexico, wrote the famous +letter which gave notice to the world of what he was about. Mann wrote +home in alarm that the Emperor might be expected to attempt recovering +Mexico's ancient areas including Texas. Slidell saw in the Forey +letter only "views... which will not be gratifying to the Washington +Government." + +The adroit Arman, acting on hints from high officers of the Government, +applied for permission to build and arm ships of war, alleging that he +intended to send them to the Pacific and sell them to either China or +Japan. To such a laudable expression of commercial enterprise, one of +his fellows in the imperial ring, equipped with proper authority under +Bonaparte, hastened to give official approbation, and Erlanger +came forward by way of financial backer. There were conferences of +Confederate agents; contracts were signed; plans were agreed upon; and +the work was begun. + +There was no more hopeful man in the Confederate service than Slidell +when, in the full flush of pride after Chancellorsville, he appealed +to the Emperor to cease waiting on other powers and recognize the +Confederacy. Napoleon accorded another gracious interview but still +insisted that it was impossible for him to act alone. He said that +he was "more fully convinced than ever of the propriety of a general +recognition by the European powers of the Confederate States but that +the commerce of France and the interests of the Mexican expedition would +be jeopardized by a rupture with the United States" and unless England +would stand by him he dared not risk such an eventuality. In point of +fact, he was like a speculator who is "hedging" on the stock exchange, +both buying and selling, and trying to make up his mind on which cast to +stake his fortune. At the same time he threw out once more the sinister +caution about the ships. He said that the ships might be built in France +but that their destination must be concealed. + +That Napoleon's choice just then, if England had supported him, would +have been recognition of the Confederacy, cannot be doubted. The tangle +of intrigue which he called his foreign policy was not encouraging. He +was deeply involved in Italian politics, where the daring of Garibaldi +had reopened the struggle between clericals and liberals. In France +itself the struggle between parties was keen. Here, as in the American +imbroglio, he found it hard to decide with which party to break. The +chimerical scheme of a Latin empire in Mexico was his spectacular device +to catch the imagination, and incidentally the pocketbook, of everybody. +But in order to carry out this enterprise he must be able to avert or +withstand the certain hostility of the United States. Therefore, as he +told Slidell, "no other power than England possessed a sufficient navy" +to pull his chestnuts out of the fire. The moment was auspicious, for +there was a revival of the "Southern party" in England. The sailing of +the Alabama from Liverpool during the previous summer had encouraged +the Confederate agents and their British friends to undertake further +shipbuilding. + +While M. Arman was at work in France, the Laird Brothers were at work +in England and their dockyards contained two ironclad rams supposed to +outclass any vessels of the United States navy. Though every effort had +been made to keep secret the ultimate destination of these rams, the +vigilance of the United States minister, reinforced by the zeal of +the "Northern party," detected strong circumstantial evidence pointing +toward a Confederate contract with the Lairds. A popular agitation +ensued along with demands upon the Government to investigate. To mask +the purposes of the Lairds, Captain James Bullock, the able special +agent of the Confederate navy, was forced to fall lack upon the same +tactics that were being used across the Channel, and to sell the rams, +on paper, to a firm in France. Neither he nor Slidell yet appreciated +what a doubtful refuge was the shadow of Napoleon's wing. + +Nevertheless the British Government, by this time practically alined +with the North, continued its search for the real owner of the Laird +rams. The "Southern party," however, had not quite given up hope, and +the agitation to prevent the sailing of the rams was a keen spur to its +flagging zeal. Furthermore the prestige of Lee never was higher than it +was in June, 1863, when the news of Chancellorsville was still fresh and +resounding in every mind. It had given new life to the Confederate hope: +Lee would take Washington before the end of the summer; the Laird rams +would go to sea; the Union would be driven to the wall. So reasoned +the ardent friends of the South. But one thing was lacking--a European +alliance. What a time for England to intervene! + +While Slidell was talking with the Emperor, he had in his pocket a +letter from J. A. Roebuck, an English politician who wished to force +the issue in the House of Commons. As a preliminary to moving the +recognition of the Confederacy, he wanted authority to deny a rumor +going the rounds in London, to the effect that Napoleon had taken +position against intervention. Napoleon, when he had seen the letter, +began a negotiation of some sort with this politician. It is needless to +enter into the complications that ensued, the subsequent recriminations, +and the question as to just what Napoleon promised at this time and how +many of his promises he broke. He was a diplomat of the old school, +the school of lying as a fine art. He permitted Roebuck to come over to +Paris for an audience, and Roebuck went away with the impression that +Napoleon could be relied upon to back up a new movement for recognition. +When, however, Roebuck brought the matter before the Commons at the +end of the month and encountered an opposition from the Government that +seemed to imply an understanding with Napoleon which was different from +his own, he withdrew his motion (in July). Once more the scale turned +against the Confederacy, and Gettysburg was supplemented by the seizure +of the Laird rams by the British authorities. These events explain the +bitter turn given to Confederate feeling toward England in the latter +part of 1863. On the 4th of August Benjamin wrote to Mason that "the +perusal of the recent debates in 'Parliament satisfies the President" +that Mason's "continued residence in London is neither conducive to +the interests nor consistent with the dignity of this government," and +directed him to withdraw to Paris. + +Confederate feeling, as it cooled toward England, warmed toward France. +Napoleon's Mexican scheme, including the offer of a ready-made imperial +crown to Maximilian, the brother of the Emperor of Austria, was fully +understood at Richmond; and with Napoleon's need of an American ally, +Southern hope revived. It was further strengthened by a pamphlet which +was translated and distributed in the South as a newspaper article +under the title France, Mexico, and the Confederate States. The reputed +author, Michel Chevalier, was an imperial senator, another member of the +Napoleon ring, and highly trusted by his shifty master. The pamphlet, +which emphasized the importance of Southern independence as a condition +of Napoleon's "beneficent aims" in Mexico, was held to have been +inspired, and the imperial denial was regarded as a mere matter of form. + +What appeared to be significant of the temper of the Imperial Government +was a decree of a French court in the case of certain merchants who +sought to recover insurance on wine dispatched to America and destroyed +in a ship taken by the Alabama. Their plea was that they were insured +against loss by "pirates." The court dismissed their suit and assessed +costs against them. Further evidence of Napoleon's favor was the +permission given to the Confederate cruiser Florida to repair at Brest +and even to make use of the imperial dockyard. The very general faith in +Napoleon's promises was expressed by Davis in his message to Congress +in December: "Although preferring our own government and institutions +to those of other countries, we can have no disposition to contest the +exercise by them of the same right of self-government which we assert +for ourselves. If the Mexican people prefer a monarchy to a republic, +it is our plain duty cheerfully to acquiesce in their decision and +to evince a sincere and friendly interest in their prosperity.... The +Emperor of the French has solemnly disclaimed any purpose to impose +on Mexico a form of government not acceptable to the nation...." In +January, 1864, hope of recognition through support of Napoleon's Mexican +policy moved the Confederate Congress to adopt resolutions providing for +a Minister to the Mexican Empire and giving him instructions with regard +to a presumptive treaty. To the new post Davis appointed General William +Preston. + +But what, while hope was springing high in America, was taking place in +France? So far as the world could say, there was little if anything to +disturb the Confederates; and yet, on the horizon, a cloud the size of +a man's hand had appeared. M. Arman had turned to another member of the +Legislative Assembly, a sound Bonapartist like himself, M. Voruz, of +Nantes, to whom he had sublet a part of the Confederate contract. The +truth about the ships and their destination thus became part of the +archives of the Voruz firm. No phase of Napoleonic intrigue could go +very far without encountering dishonesty, and to the confidential +clerk of M. Voruz there occurred the bright idea of doing something +for himself with this valuable diplomatic information. One fine day +the clerk was missing and with him certain papers. Then there ensued a +period of months during which the firm and their employers could only +conjecture the full extent of their loss. + +In reality, from the Confederate point of view, everything was lost. +Again the episode becomes too complex to be followed in detail. Suffice +it to say that the papers were sold to the United States; that the +secret was exposed; that the United States made a determined assault +upon the Imperial Government. In the midst of this entanglement, Slidell +lost his head, for hope deferred when apparently within reach of its end +is a dangerous councilor of state. In his extreme anxiety, Slidell sent +to the Emperor a note the blunt rashness of which the writer could not +have appreciated. Saying that he feared the Emperor's subordinates +might play into the hands of Washington, he threw his fat in the fire by +speaking of the ships as "now being constructed at Bordeaux and Nantes +for the government of the Confederate States" and virtually claimed of +Napoleon a promise to let them go to sea. Three days later the Minister +of Foreign Affairs took him sharply to task because of this note, +reminding him that "what had passed with the Emperor was confidential" +and dropping the significant hint that France could not be forced into +war by "indirection." According to Slidell's version of the interview +"the Minister's tone changed completely" when Slidell replied with "a +detailed history of the affair showing that the idea originated with the +Emperor." Perhaps the Minister knew more than he chose to betray. From +this hour the game was up. Napoleon's purpose all along seems to have +been quite plain. He meant to help the South to win by itself, and, +after it had won, to use it for his own advantage. So precarious was +his position in Europe that he dared not risk an American war without +England's aid, and England had cast the die. In this way, secrecy was +the condition necessary to continued building of the ships. Now that +the secret was out, Napoleon began to shift his ground. He sounded the +Washington Government and found it suspiciously equivocal as to Mexico. +To silence the French republicans, to whom the American minister had +supplied information about the ships, Napoleon tried at first muzzling +the press. But as late as February, 1864, he was still carrying water on +both shoulders. His Minister of Marine notified the builders that they +must get the ships out of France, unarmed, under fictitious sale to +some neutral country. The next month, reports which the Confederate +commissioners sent home became distinctly alarming. Mann wrote from +Brussels: "Napoleon has enjoined upon Maximilian to hold no official +relations with our commissioners in Mexico." Shortly after this Slidell +received a shock that was the beginning of the end: Maximilian, on +passing through Paris on his way to Mexico, refused to receive him. + +The Mexican project was now being condemned by all classes in France. +Nevertheless, the Government was trying to float a Mexican loan, and +it is hardly fanciful to think that on this loan the last hope of the +Confederacy turned. Despite the popular attitude toward Mexico, the loan +was going well when the House of Representatives of the United States +dealt the Confederacy a staggering blow. It passed unanimous resolutions +in the most grim terms, denouncing the substitution of monarchical +for republican government in Mexico under European auspices. When this +action was reported in France, the Mexican loan collapsed. + +Napoleon's Italian policy was now moving rapidly toward the crisis +which it reached during the following summer when he surrendered to the +opposition and promised to withdraw the French troops from Rome. In May, +when the loan collapsed, there was nothing for it but to throw over his +dear friends of the Confederacy. Presently he had summoned Arman before +him, "rated him severely," and ordered him to make bona fide sales of +the ships to neutral powers. The Minister of Marine professed surprise +and indignation at Arman's trifling with the neutrality of the Imperial +Government. And that practically was the end of the episode. + +Equally complete was the breakdown of the Confederate negotiations with +Mexico. General Preston was refused recognition. In those fierce days of +July when the fate of Atlanta was in the balance, the pride and despair +of the Confederate Government flared up in a haughty letter to Preston +reminding him that "it had never been the intention of this Government +to offer any arguments to the new Government of Mexico... nor to place +itself in any attitude other than that of complete equality," and +directing him to make no further overtures to the Mexican Emperor. + +And then came the debacle in Georgia. On that same 20th of September +when Benjamin poured out in a letter to Slidell his stored-up bitterness +denouncing Napoleon, Davis, feeling the last crisis was upon him, left +Richmond to join the army in Georgia. His frame of mind he had already +expressed when he said, "We have no friends abroad." + + + +Chapter IX. Desperate Remedies + +The loss of Atlanta was the signal for another conflict of authority +within the Confederacy. Georgia was now in the condition in which +Alabama had found herself in the previous year. A great mobile army +of invaders lay encamped on her soil. And yet there was still a state +Government established at the capital. Inevitably the man who thought +of the situation from the point of view of what we should now call the +general staff, and the man who thought of it from the point of view of +a citizen of the invaded State, suffered each an intensification of +feeling, and each became determined to solve the problem in his own way. +The President of the Confederacy and the Governor of Georgia represented +these incompatible points of view. + +The Governor, Joseph E. Brown, is one of the puzzling figures of +Confederate history. We have already encountered him as a dogged +opponent of the Administration. With the whole fabric of Southern life +toppling about his ears, Brown argued, quibbled, evaded, and became a +rallying-point of disaffection. That more eminent Georgian, Howell +Cobb, applied to him very severe language, and they became engaged in a +controversy over that provision of the Conscription Act which exempted +state officials from military service. While the Governor of Virginia +was refusing certificates of exemption to the minor civil officers +such as justices of the peace, Brown by proclamation promised his +"protection" to the most insignificant civil servants. "Will even your +Excellency," demanded Cobb, "certify that in any county of Georgia +twenty justices of the peace and an equal number of constables are +necessary for the proper administration of the state government?" +The Bureau of Conscription estimated that Brown kept out of the army +approximately 8000 eligible men. The truth seems to be that neither +by education nor heredity was this Governor equipped to conceive large +ideas. He never seemed conscious of the war as a whole, or of the +Confederacy as a whole. To defend Georgia and, if that could not be +done, to make peace for Georgia--such in the mind of Brown was the +aim of the war. His restless jealousy of the Administration finds its +explanation in his fear that it would denude his State of men. The +seriousness of Governor Brown's opposition became apparent within a week +of the fall of Atlanta. Among Hood's forces were some 10,000 Georgia +militia. Brown notified Hood that these troops had been called out +solely with a view to the defense of Atlanta, that since Atlanta had +been lost they must now be permitted "to return to their homes and +look for a time after important interests," and that therefore he did +"withdraw said organizations" from Hood's command. In other words, Brown +was afraid that they might be taken out of the State. By proclamation +he therefore gave the militia a furlough of thirty days. Previous to +the issue of this proclamation, Seddon had written to Brown making +requisition for his 10,000 militia to assist in a pending campaign +against Sherman. Two days after his proclamation had appeared, Brown, in +a voluminous letter full of blustering rhetoric and abounding in sneers +at the President, demanded immediate reinforcements by order of the +President and threatened that, if they were not sent, he would recall +the Georgia troops from the army of Lee and would command "all the sons +of Georgia to return to their own State and within their own limits to +rally round her glorious flag." + +So threatening was the situation in Georgia that Davis attempted to take +it into his own hands. In a grim frame of mind he left Richmond for +the front. The resulting military arrangements do not of course belong +strictly to the subject matter of this volume; but the brief tour of +speechmaking which Davis made in Georgia and the interior of South +Carolina must be noticed; for his purpose seems to have been to put the +military point of view squarely before the people. He meant them to +see how the soldier looked at the situation, ignoring all demands of +locality, of affiliation, of hardship, and considering only how to meet +and beat the enemy. In his tense mood he was not always fortunate in his +expressions. At Augusta, for example, he described Beauregard, whom he +had recently placed in general command over Georgia and South Carolina, +as one who would do whatever the President told him to do. But this idea +of military self-effacement was not happily worded, and the enemies of +Davis seized on his phraseology as further evidence of his instinctive +autocracy. The Mercury compared him to the Emperor of Russia and +declared the tactless remark to be "as insulting to General Beauregard +as it is false and presumptuous in the President." + +Meanwhile Beauregard was negotiating with Brown. Though they came to an +understanding about the disposition of the militia, Brown still tried +to keep control of the state troops. When Sherman was burning Atlanta +preparatory to the March to the Sea, Brown addressed to the Secretary of +War another interminable epistle, denouncing the Confederate authorities +and asserting his willingness to fight both the South and the North if +they did not both cease invading his rights. But the people of Georgia +were better balanced than their Governor. Under the leadership of such +men as Cobb they rose to the occasion and did their part in what proved +a vain attempt to conduct a "people's war." Their delegation at Richmond +sent out a stirring appeal assuring them that Davis was doing for them +all it was possible to do. "Let every man fly to arms," said the +appeal. "Remove your negroes, horses, cattle, and provisions from before +Sherman's army, and burn what you cannot carry. Burn all bridges and +block up the roads in his route. Assail the invader in front, flank, and +rear, by night and by day. Let him have no rest." + + +The Richmond Government was unable to detach any considerable force +from the northern front. Its contribution to the forces in Georgia was +accomplished by such pathetic means as a general order calling to the +colors all soldiers furloughed or in hospital, "except those unable to +travel"; by revoking all exemptions to farmers, planters, and mechanics, +except munitions workers; and by placing one-fifth of the ordnance and +mining bureau in the battle service. + +All the world knows how futile were these endeavors to stop the +whirlwind of desolation that was Sherman's march. He spent his Christmas +Day in Savannah. Then the center of gravity shifted from Georgia to +South Carolina. Throughout the two desperate months that closed 1864 the +authorities of South Carolina had vainly sought for help from Richmond. +Twice the Governor made official request for the return to South +Carolina of some of her own troops who were at the front in Virginia. +Davis first evaded and then refused the request. Lee had informed him +that if the forces on the northern front were reduced, the evacuation of +Richmond would become inevitable. + +The South Carolina Government, in December, 1864, seems to have +concluded that the State must save itself. A State Conscription Act was +passed placing all white males between the ages of sixteen and sixty at +the disposal of the state authorities for emergency duty. An Exemption +Act set forth a long list of persons who should not be liable to +conscription by the Confederate Government. Still a third act regulated +the impressment of slaves for work on fortifications so as to enable the +state authorities to hold a check upon the Confederate authorities. The +significance of the three statutes was interpreted by a South Carolina +soldier, General John S. Preston, in a letter to the Secretary of War +that was a wail of despair. "This legislation is an explicit declaration +that this State does not intend to contribute another soldier or slave +to the public defense, except on such terms its may be dictated by her +authorities. The example will speedily be followed by North Carolina +and Georgia, the Executives of those States having already assumed the +position." + +The division between the two parties in South Carolina had now become +bitter. To Preston the men behind the State Exemption Act appeared +as "designing knaves." The Mercury, on the other hand, was never more +relentless toward Davis than in the winter of 1864-1865. However, none +or almost none of the anti-Davis men in South Carolina made the least +suggestion of giving up the struggle. To fight to the end but also to +act as a check upon the central Government--as the new Governor, Andrew +G. Magrath, said in his inaugural address in December, 1864,--was +the aim of the dominant party in South Carolina. How far the State +Government and the Confederate Government had drifted apart is shown by +two comments which were made in January, 1865. Lee complained that the +South Carolina regiments, "much reduced by hard service," were not being +recruited up to their proper strength because of the measures adopted +in the southeastern States to retain conscripts at home. About the same +date the Mercury arraigned Davis for leaving South Carolina defenseless +in the face of Sherman's coming offensive, and asked whether Davis +intended to surrender the Confederacy. + +And in the midst of this critical period, the labor problem pushed to +the fore again. The revocation of industrial details, necessary as it +was, had put almost the whole male population--in theory, at least--in +the general Confederate army. How far-reaching was the effect of this +order may be judged from the experience of the Columbia and Augusta +Railroad Company. This road was building through the interior of the +State a new line which was rendered imperatively necessary by Sherman's +seizure of the lines terminating at Savannah. The effect of the +revocation order on the work in progress was described by the president +of the road in a letter to the Secretary of War: + +"In July and August I made a fair beginning and by October we had about +600 hands. General Order No. 77 took off many of our contractors and +hands. We still had increased the number of hands to about 400 when +Sherman started from Atlanta. The military authorities of Augusta took +about 300 of them to fortify that city. These contractors being from +Georgia returned with their slaves to their homes after being discharged +at Augusta. We still have between 500 and 600 hands at work and are +adding to the force every week. + +"The great difficulty has been in getting contractors exempt or +definitely detailed since Order No. 77. I have not exceeded eight or +nine contractors now detailed. The rest are exempt from other causes or +over age." + +It was against such a background of economic confusion that Magrath +wrote to the Governor of North Carolina making a revolutionary proposal. +Virtually admitting that the Confederacy had been shattered, and knowing +the disposition of those in authority to see only the military aspects +of any given situation, he prophesied two things: that the generals +would soon attempt to withdraw Lee's army south of Virginia, and that +the Virginia troops in that army would refuse to go. "It is natural +under the circumstances," said he, "that they would not." He would +prepare for this emergency by an agreement among the Southeastern and +Gulf States to act together irrespective of Richmond, and would thus +weld the military power of these States into "a compact and organized +mass." + +Governor Vance, with unconscious subtlety, etched a portrait of his own +mind when he replied that the crisis demanded "particularly the skill of +the politician perhaps more than that of the great general." He adroitly +evaded saying what he really thought of the situation but he made two +explicit counter-proposals. He suggested that a demand should be made +for the restoration of General Johnston and for the appointment of +General Lee to "full and absolute command of all the forces of the +Confederacy." On the day on which Vance wrote to Magrath, the Mercury +lifted up its voice and cried out for a Lee to take charge of the +Government and save the Confederacy. About the same time Cobb wrote +to Davis in the most friendly way, warning him that he had scarcely +a supporter left in Georgia, and that, in view of the great popular +reaction in favor of Johnston, concessions to the opposition were an +imperative necessity. "By accident," said he, "I have become possessed +of the facts in connection with the proposed action of the Governors of +certain States." He disavowed any sympathy with the movement but warned +Davis that it was a serious menace. + +Two other intrigues added to the general political confusion. One of +these, the "Peace Movement," will be considered in the next chapter. The +other was closely connected with the alleged conspiracy to depose Davis +and set up Lee as dictator. If the traditional story, accepted by +able historians, may be believed, William C. Rives, of the Confederate +Congress, carried in January, 1865, to Lee from a congressional cabal +an invitation to accept the role of Cromwell. The greatest difficulty in +the way of accepting the tradition is the extreme improbability that any +one who knew anything of Lee would have been so foolish as to make such +a proposal. Needless to add, the tradition includes Lee's refusal to +overturn the Government. There can be no doubt, however, that all the +enemies of Davis in Congress and out of it, in the opening months of +1865, made a determined series of attacks upon his Administration. Nor +can there be any doubt that the popular faith in Lee was used as their +trump card. To that end, a bill was introduced to create the office of +commanding general of the Confederate armies. The bill was generally +applauded, and every one assumed that the new office was to be given +to Lee. On the day after the bill had passed the Senate the Virginia +Legislature resolved that the appointment of General Lee to supreme +command would "reanimate the spirit of the armies as well as the people +of the several States and... inspire increased confidence in the final +success of the cause." When the bill was sent to the President, it was +accompanied by a resolution asking him to restore Johnston. While Davis +was considering this bill, the Virginia delegation in the House, headed +by the Speaker, Thomas S. Bocock, waited upon the President, informed +him what was really wanted was a change of Cabinet, and told him +that three-fourths of the House would support a resolution of want of +confidence in the Cabinet. The next day Bocock repeated the demand in a +note which Davis described as a "warning if not a threat." + +The situation of both President and country was now desperate. The +program with which the Government had entered so hopefully upon this +fated year had broken down at almost every point. In addition to the +military and administrative disasters, the financial and economic +situation was as bad as possible. So complete was the financial +breakdown that Secretary Memminger, utterly disheartened, had resigned +his office, and the Treasury was now administered by a Charleston +merchant, George A. Trenholm. But the financial chaos was wholly beyond +his control. The government notes reckoned in gold were worth about +three cents on the dollar. The Government itself avoided accepting them. +It even bought up United States currency and used it in transacting the +business of the army. The extent of the financial collapse was to be +measured by such incidents as the following which is recounted in a +report that had passed under Davis's eye only a few weeks before +the "threat" of Bocock was uttered: "Those holding the four per cent +certificates complain that the Government as far as possible discredits +them. Fractions of hundreds cannot be paid with them. I saw a widow +lady, a few days since, offer to pay her taxes of $1,271.31 with a +certificate of $1,300. The tax-gatherer refused to give her the change +of $28.69. She then offered the whole certificate for the taxes. This +was refused. This apparent injustice touched her far more than the +amount of the taxes." + +A letter addressed to the President from Griffin, Georgia, contained +this dreary picture: + +"Unless something is done and that speedily, there will be thousands +of the best citizens of the State and heretofore as loyal as any in the +Confederacy, that will not care one cent which army is victorious in +Georgia.... Since August last there have been thousands of cavalry +and wagon trains feeding upon our cornfields and for which our +quartermasters and officers in command of trains, regiments, battalions, +companies, and squads, have been giving the farmers receipts, and we +were all told these receipts would pay our government taxes and tithing; +and yet not one of them will be taken by our collector.... And yet we +are threatened with having our lands sold for taxes. Our scrip for +corn used by our generals will not be taken.... How is it that we have +certified claims upon our Government, past due ten months, and when we +enter the quartermaster's office we see placed up conspicuously in large +letters "no funds." Some of these said quartermasters [who] four years +ago were not worth the clothes upon their backs, are now large dealers +in lands, negroes, and real estate." + +There was almost universal complaint that government contractors +were speculating in supplies and that the Impressment Law was used by +officials to cover their robbery of both the Government and the people. +Allowing for all the panic of the moment, one is forced to conclude that +the smoke is too dense not to cover a good deal of fire. In a word, +at the very time when local patriotism everywhere was drifting into +opposition to the general military command and when Congress was +reflecting this widespread loss of confidence, the Government was loudly +charged with inability to restrain graft. In all these accusations there +was much injustice. Conditions that the Government was powerless to +control were cruelly exaggerated, and the motives of the Government were +falsified. For all this exaggeration and falsification the press was +largely to blame. Moreover, the press, at least in dangerously +large proportion, was schooling the people to hold Davis personally +responsible for all their suffering. General Bragg was informed in a +letter from a correspondent in Mobile that "men have been taught to look +upon the President as an inexorably self-willed man who will see the +country to the devil before giving up an opinion or a purpose." This +deliberate fostering of an anti-Davis spirit might seem less malicious +if the fact were not known that many editors detested Davis because of +his desire to abolish the exemption of editors from conscription. +Their ignoble course brings to mind one of the few sarcasms recorded of +Lee--the remark that the great mistake of the South was in making all +its best military geniuses editors of newspapers. But it must be added +in all fairness that the great opposition journals, such as the Mercury, +took up this new issue with the President because they professed to see +in his attitude toward the press a determination to suppress freedom of +speech, so obsessed was the opposition with the idea that Davis was +a monster! Whatever explanations may be offered for the prevalence of +graft, the impotence of the Government at Richmond contributed to +the general demoralization. In regions like Georgia and Alabama, the +Confederacy was now powerless to control its agents. Furthermore, +in every effort to assume adequate control of the food situation the +Government met the continuous opposition of two groups of opponents--the +unscrupulous parasites and the bigots of economic and constitutional +theory. Of the activities of the first group, one incident is sufficient +to tell the whole story. At Richmond, in the autumn of 1864, the grocers +were selling rice at two dollars and a half a pound. It happened that +the Governor of Virginia was William Smith, one of the strong men of +the Confederacy who has not had his due from the historians. He saw +that even under the intolerable conditions of the moment this price was +shockingly exorbitant. To remedy matters, the Governor took the State of +Virginia into business, bought rice where it was grown, imported it, and +sold it in Richmond at fifty cents a pound, with sufficient profit to +cover all costs of handling. + +Nevertheless, when Smith urged the Virginia Legislature to assume +control of business as a temporary measure, he was at once assailed by +the second group--those martinets of constitutionalism who would not +give up their cherished Anglo-Saxon tradition of complete individualism +in government. The Administration lost some of its staunchest supporters +the moment its later organ, the Sentinel, began advocating the general +regulation of prices. With ruin staring them in the face, these devotees +of tradition could only reiterate their ancient formulas, nail their +colors to the mast, end go down, satisfied that, if they failed with +these principles, they would have failed still more terribly without +them. Confronting the practical question how to prevent speculators from +charging 400 per cent profit, these men turned grim but did not abandon +their theory. In the latter part of 1864 they aligned themselves with +the opposition when the government commissioners of impressment fixed +an official schedule that boldly and ruthlessly cut under market prices. +The attitude of many such people was expressed by the Montgomery Mail +when it said: + +"The tendency of the age, the march of the American people, is toward +monarchy, and unless the tide is stopped we shall reach something worse +than monarchy. + +"Every step we have taken during the past four years has been in the +direction of military despotism. + +"Half our laws are unconstitutional." + +Another danger of the hour was the melting away of the Confederate army +under the very eyes of its commanders. The records showed that there +were 100,000 absentees. And though the wrathful officials of the Bureau +of Conscription labeled them all "deserters," the term covered great +numbers who had gone home to share the sufferings of their families. + +Such in brief was the fateful background of the congressional attack +upon the Administration in January, 1865. Secretary Seddon, himself a +Virginian, believing that he was the main target of the hostility of +the Virginia delegation, insisted upon resigning. Davis met this +determination with firmness, not to say infatuation, and in spite of +the congressional crisis, exhausted every argument to persuade Seddon +to remain in office. He denied the right of Congress to control his +Cabinet, but he was finally constrained to allow Seddon to retire. The +bitterness inspired by these attempts to coerce the President may be +gauged by a remark attributed to Mrs. Davis. Speaking of the action +of Congress in forcing upon him the new plan for a single commanding +general of all the armies, she is said to have exclaimed, "I think I am +the proper person to advise Mr. Davis and if I were he, I would die or +be hung before I would submit to the humiliation." + +Nevertheless the President surrendered to Congress. On January 26, 1865, +he signed the bill creating the office of commanding general and at once +bestowed the office upon Lee. It must not be supposed, however, that Lee +himself had the slightest sympathy with the congressional cabal which +had forced upon the President this reorganization of the army. In +accepting his new position he pointedly ignored Congress by remarking, +"I am indebted alone to the kindness of His Excellency, the President, +for my nomination to this high and arduous office." + +The popular clamor for the restoration of Johnston had still to be +appeased. Disliking Johnston and knowing that the opposition was using +a popular general as a club with which to beat himself, Davis hesitated +long but in the end yielded to the inevitable. To make the reappointment +himself, however, was too humiliating. He left it to the new +commander-in-chief, who speedily restored Johnston to command. + + + +Chapter X. Disintegration + +While these factions, despite their disagreements, were making valiant +efforts to carry on the war, other factions were stealthily cutting +the ground from under them. There were two groups of men ripe for +disaffection--original Unionists unreconciled to the Confederacy and +indifferentists conscripted against their will. + +History has been unduly silent about these disaffected men. At the +time so real was the belief in state rights that contemporaries were +reluctant to admit that any Southerner, once his State had seceded, +could fail to be loyal to its commands. Nevertheless in considerable +areas--such, for example, as East Tennessee--the majority remained to +the end openly for the Union, and there were large regions in the +South to which until quite recently the eye of the student had not been +turned. They were like deep shadows under mighty trees on the face of a +brilliant landscape. When the peasant Unionist who had been forced +into the army deserted, however, he found in these shadows a nucleus +of desperate men ready to combine with him in opposition to the local +authorities. + +Thus were formed local bands of free companions who pillaged the +civilian population. The desperadoes whom the deserters joined have been +described by Professor Dodd as the "neglected byproducts" of the old +regime. They were broken white men, or the children of such, of the sort +that under other circumstances have congregated in the slums of great +cities. Though the South lacked great cities, nevertheless it had its +slum--a widespread slum, scattered among its swamps and forests. In +these fastnesses were the lowest of the poor whites, in whom hatred of +the dominant whites and vengeful malice against the negro burned like +slow fires. When almost everywhere the countryside was stripped of its +fighting men, these wretches emerged from their swamps and forests, +like the Paris rabble emerging from its dens at the opening of the +Revolution. But unlike the Frenchmen, they were too sodden to be capable +of ideas. Like predatory wild beasts they revenged themselves upon the +society that had cast them off, and with utter heartlessness they +smote the now defenseless negro. In the old days, with the country well +policed, the slaves had been protected against their fury, but war now +changed all. The negro villages--or "streets," as the term was--were +without arms and without white police within call. They were ravaged +by these marauders night after night, and negroes were not the only +victims, for in remote districts even murder of the whites became a +familiar horror. + +The antiwar factions were not necessarily, however, users of +violence. There were some men who cherished a dream which they labeled +"reconstruction"; and there were certain others who believed in separate +state action, still clinging to the illusion that any State had it in +its power to escape from war by concluding a separate peace with the +United States. + +Yet neither of these illusions made much headway in the States that +had borne the strain of intellectual leadership. Virginia and South +Carolina, though seldom seeing things eye to eye and finally drifting in +opposite directions, put but little faith in either "reconstruction" +or separate peace. Their leaders had learned the truth about men and +nations; they knew that life is a grim business; they knew that war had +unloosed passions that had to spend themselves and that could not be +talked away. + +But there was scattered over the Confederacy a population which lacked +experience of the world and which included in the main those small +farmers and semi-peasants who under the old regime were released from +the burden of taxation and at the same time excluded from the benefits +of education. Among these people the illusions of the higher classes +were reflected without the ballast of mentality. Ready to fight on any +provocation, yet circumscribed by their own natures, not understanding +life, unable to picture to themselves different types and conditions, +these people were as prone as children to confuse the world of their own +desire with the world of fact. When hardship came, when taxation fell +upon them with a great blow, when the war took a turn that necessitated +imagination for its understanding and faith for its pursuit, these +people with childlike simplicity immediately became panic-stricken. +Like the similar class in the North, they had measureless faith in talk. +Hence for them, as for Horace Greeley and many another, sprang up the +notion that if only all their sort could be brought together for talk +and talk and yet more talk, the Union could be "reconstructed" just as +it used to be, and the cruel war would end. Before their eyes, as before +Greeley in 1864, danced the fata morgana of a convention of all the +States, talking, talking, talking. + +The peace illusion centered in North Carolina, where the people were +as enthusiastic for state sovereignty as were any Southerners. They had +seceded mainly because they felt that this principle had been attacked. +Having themselves little if any intention to promote slavery, they +nevertheless were prompt to resent interference with the system or with +any other Southern institution. Jonathan Worth said that they looked on +both abolition and secession as children of the devil, and he put the +responsibility for the secession of his State wholly upon Lincoln +and his attempt to coerce the lower South. This attitude was probably +characteristic of all classes in North Carolina. There also an unusually +large percentage of men lacked education and knowledge of the world. We +have seen how the first experience with taxation produced instant and +violent reaction. The peasant farmers of the western counties and the +general mass of the people began to distrust the planter class. They +began asking if their allies, the other States, were controlled by that +same class which seemed to be crushing them by the exaction of tithes. +And then the popular cry was raised: Was there after all anything in the +war for the masses in North Carolina? Had they left the frying-pan for +the fire? Could they better things by withdrawing from association with +their present allies and going back alone into the Union? The delusion +that they could do so whenever they pleased and on the old footing +seems to have been widespread. One of their catch phrases was "the +Constitution as it is and the Union as it was." Throughout 1863, when +the agitation against tithes was growing every day, the "conservatives" +of North Carolina, as their leaders named them, were drawing together +in a definite movement for peace. This project came to a head during the +next year in those grim days when Sherman was before Atlanta. Holden, +that champion of the opposition to tithes, became a candidate for +Governor against Vance, who was standing for reelection. Holden stated +his platform in the organ of his party "If the people of North Carolina +are for perpetual conscriptions, impressments and seizures to keep up +a perpetual, devastating and exhausting war, let them vote for Governor +Vance, for he is for`fighting it out now; but if they believe, from the +bitter experience of the last three years, that the sword can never +end it, and are in favor of steps being taken by the State to urge +negotiations by the general government for an honorable and speedy +peace, they must vote for Mr. Holden." + +As Holden, however, was beaten by a vote that stood about three to one, +Governor Vance continued in power, but just what he stood for and just +what his supporters understood to be his policy would be hard to say. +A year earlier he was for attempting to negotiate peace, but though +professing to have come over to the war party he was never a cordial +supporter of the Confederacy. In a hundred ways he played upon the +strong local distrust of Richmond, and upon the feeling that North +Carolina was being exploited in the interests of the remainder of the +South. To cripple the efficiency of Confederate conscription was one of +his constant aims. Whatever his views of the struggle in which he +was engaged, they did not include either an appreciation of Southern +nationalism or the strategist's conception of war. Granted that the +other States were merely his allies, Vance pursued a course that might +justly have aroused their suspicion, for so far as he was able he +devoted the resources of the State wholly to the use of its own +citizens. The food and the manufactures of North Carolina were to be +used solely by its own troops, not by troops of the Confederacy raised +in other States. And yet, subsequent to his reelection, he was not a +figure in the movement to negotiate peace. + +Meanwhile in Georgia, where secession had met with powerful opposition, +the policies of the Government had produced discontent not only with +the management of the war but with the war itself. And now Alexander +H. Stephens becomes, for a season, very nearly the central figure of +Confederate history. Early in 1864 the new act suspending the writ of +habeas corpus had aroused the wrath of Georgia, and Stephens had become +the mouthpiece of the opposition. In an address to the Legislature, he +condemned in most exaggerated language not only the Habeas Corpus Act +but also the new Conscription Act. Soon afterward he wrote a long +letter to Herschel V. Johnson, who, like himself, had been an enemy +of secession in 1861. He said that if Johnson doubted that the Habeas +Corpus Act was a blow struck at the very "vitals of liberty," then +he "would not believe though one were to rise from the dead." In this +extraordinary letter Stephens went on "most confidentially" to state his +attitude toward Davis thus "While I do not and never have regarded him +as a great man or statesman on a large scale, or a man of any marked +genius, yet I have regarded him as a man of good intentions, weak and +vacillating, timid, petulant, peevish, obstinate, but not firm. Am +now beginning to doubt his good intentions.... His whole policy on the +organization and discipline of the army is perfectly consistent with the +hypothesis that he is aiming at absolute power." + +That a man of Stephens's ability should have dealt in fustian like this +in the most dreadful moment of Confederate history is a psychological +problem that is not easily solved. To be sure, Stephens was an extreme +instance of the martinet of constitutionalism. He reminds us of those +old-fashioned generals of whom Macaulay said that they preferred to lose +a battle according to rule than win it by an exception. Such men find +it easy to transform into a bugaboo any one who appears to them to be +acting irregularly. Stephens in his own mind had so transformed +the President. The enormous difficulties and the wholly abnormal +circumstances which surrounded Davis counted with Stephens for nothing +at all, and he reasoned about the Administration as if it were operating +in a vacuum. Having come to this extraordinary position, Stephens passed +easily into a role that verged upon treason. * + + + * There can be no question that Stephens never did anything + which in his own mind was in the least disloyal. And yet it + was Stephens who, in the autumn of 1864, was singled out by + artful men as a possible figurehead in the conduct of a + separate peace negotiation with Sherman. A critic very + hostile to Stephens and his faction might here raise the + question as to what was at bottom the motive of Governor + Brown, in the autumn of 1864, in withdrawing the Georgia + militia from Hood's command. Was there something afoot that + has never quite revealed itself on the broad pages of + history? As ordinarily told, the story is simply that + certain desperate Georgians asked Stephens to be their + ambassador to Sherman to discuss terms; that Sherman had + given them encouragement; but that Stephens avoided the + trap, and so nothing came of it. The recently published + correspondence of Toombs, Stephens, and Cobb, however, + contains one passage that has rather a startling sound. + Brown, writing to Stephens regarding his letter refusing to + meet Sherman, says, "It keeps the door open and I think this + is wise." At the same time he made a public statement that + "Georgia has power to act independently but her faith is + pledged by implication to her Southern sisters... will + triumph with her Southern sisters or sink with them in + common ruin." It is still to be discovered what "door" + Stephens was supposed to have kept open. Peace talk was now + in the air, and especially was there chatter about + reconstruction. The illusionists seemed unable to perceive + that the reelection of Lincoln had robbed them of their last + card. These dreamers did not even pause to wonder why after + the terrible successes of the Federal army in Georgia, + Lincoln should be expected to reverse his policy and restore + the Union with the Southern States on the old footing. The + peace mania also invaded South Carolina and was espoused by + one of its Congressmen, Mr. Boyce, but he made few converts + among his own people. The Mercury scouted the idea; clear- + sighted and disillusioned, it saw the only alternatives to + be victory or subjugation. Boyce's argument was that the + South had already succumbed to military despotism and would + have to endure it forever unless it accepted the terms of + the invaders. News of Boyce's attitude called forth vigorous + protest from the army before Petersburg, and even went so + far afield as New York, where it was discussed in the + columns of the Herald. + + +In the midst of the Northern elections, when Davis was hoping great +things from the anti-Lincoln men, Stephens had said in print that +he believed Davis really wished the Northern peace party defeated, +whereupon Davis had written to him demanding reasons for this astounding +charge. To the letter, which had missed Stephens at his home and had +followed him late in the year to Richmond, Stephens wrote in the middle +of December a long reply which is one of the most curious documents +in American history. He justified himself upon two grounds. One was +a statement which Davis had made in a speech at Columbia, in October, +indicating that he was averse to the scheme of certain Northern peace +men for a convention of all the States. Stephens insisted that such a +convention would have ended the war and secured the independence of the +South. Davis cleared himself on this charge by saying that the speech +at Columbia "was delivered after the publication of McClellan's +letter avowing his purpose to force reunion by war if we declined +reconstruction when offered, and therefore warned the people against +delusive hopes of peace from any other influence than that to be exerted +by the manifestation of an unconquerable spirit." + +As Stephens professed to have independence and not reconstruction for +his aim, he had missed his mark with this first shot. He fared still +worse with the second. During the previous spring a Northern soldier +captured in the southeast had appealed for parole on the ground that he +was a secret emissary to the President from the peace men of the North. +Davis, who did not take him seriously, gave orders to have the case +investigated, but Stephens, whose mentality in this period is so +curiously overcast, swallowed the prisoner's story without hesitation. +He and Davis had a considerable amount of correspondence on the subject. +In the fierce tension of the summer of 1864 the War Department went +so far as to have the man's character investigated, but the report was +unsatisfactory. He was not paroled and died in prison. This episode +Stephens now brought forward as evidence that Davis had frustrated +an attempt of the Northern peace party to negotiate. Davis contented +himself with replying, "I make no comment on this." + +The next step in the peace intrigue took place at the opening of +the next year, 1865. Stephens attempted to address the Senate on his +favorite topic, the wickedness of the suspension of habeas corpus; was +halted by a point of parliamentary law; and when the Senate sustained +an appeal from his decision, left the chamber in a pique. Hunter, now +a Senator, became an envoy to placate him and succeeded in bringing him +back. Thereupon Stephens poured out his soul in a furious attack upon +the Administration. He ended by submitting resolutions which were just +what he might have submitted four years earlier before a gun had been +fired, so entirely had his mind crystallized in the stress of war! These +resolutions, besides reasserting the full state rights theory, assumed +the readiness of the North to make peace and called for a general +convention of all the States to draw up some new arrangement on a +confessed state rights basis. More than a month before, Lincoln had been +reelected on an unequivocal nationalistic platform. And yet Stephens +continued to believe that the Northerners did not mean what they said +and that in congregated talking lay the magic which would change the +world of fact into the world of his own desire. + +At this point in the peace intrigue the ambiguous figure of Napoleon the +Little reappears, though only to pass ghostlike across the back of the +stage. The determination of Northern leaders to oppose Napoleon had +suggested to shrewd politicians a possible change of front. That +singular member of the Confederate Congress, Henry S. Foote, thought +he saw in the Mexican imbroglio means to bring Lincoln to terms. In +November he had introduced into the House resolutions which intimated +that "it might become the true policy of... the Confederate States to +consent to the yielding of the great principle embodied in the Monroe +Doctrine." The House referred his resolutions to the Committee on +Foreign Affairs, and there they slumbered until January. + +Meanwhile a Northern politician brought on the specter of Napoleon for +a different purpose. Early in January, 1865, Francis P. Blair made +a journey to Richmond and proposed to Davis a plan of reconciliation +involving the complete abandonment of slavery, the reunion of all the +States, and an expedition against Mexico in which Davis was to play the +leading role. Davis cautiously refrained from committing himself, though +he gave Blair a letter in which he expressed his willingness to enter +into negotiations for peace between "the two countries." The visit of +Blair gave new impetus to the peace intrigue. The Confederate House +Committee on Foreign Affairs reported resolutions favoring an attempt +to negotiate with the United States so as to "bring into view" the +possibility of cooperation between the United States and the Confederacy +to maintain the Monroe Doctrine. The same day saw another singular +incident. For some reason that has never been divulged Foote determined +to counterbalance Blair's visit to Richmond by a visit of his own to +Washington. In attempting to pass through the Confederate lines he was +arrested by the military authorities. With this fiasco Foote passes from +the stage of history. + +The doings of Blair, however, continued to be a topic of general +interest throughout January. The military intrigue was now simmering +down through the creation of the office of commanding general. The +attempt of the congressional opposition to drive the whole Cabinet from +office reached a compromise in the single retirement of the Secretary +of War. Before the end of the month the peace question was the paramount +one before Congress and the country. Newspapers discussed the movements +of Blair, apparently with little knowledge, and some of the papers +asserted hopefully that peace was within reach. Cooler heads, such +as the majority of the Virginia Legislature, rejected this idea as +baseless. The Mercury called the peace party the worst enemy of the +South. Lee was reported by the Richmond correspondent of the Mercury as +not caring a fig for the peace project. Nevertheless the rumor persisted +that Blair had offered peace on terms that the Confederacy could +accept. Late in the month, Davis appointed Stephens, Hunter, and John +A. Campbell commissioners to confer with the Northern authorities with +regard to peace. + +There followed the famous conference of February 3, 1865, in the cabin +of a steamer at Hampton Roads, with Seward and Lincoln. The +Confederate commissioners represented two points of view: that of the +Administration, unwilling to make peace without independence; and that +of the infatuated Stephens who clung to the idea that Lincoln did not +mean what he said, and who now urged "an armistice allowing the States +to adjust themselves as suited their interests. If it would be to their +interests to reunite, they would do so." The refusal of Lincoln to +consider either of these points of view--the refusal so clearly foreseen +by Davis--put an end to the career of Stephens. He was "hoist with his +own petard." + +The news of the failure of the conference was variously received. +The Mercury rejoiced because there was now no doubt how things stood. +Stephens, unwilling to cooperate with the Administration, left the +capital and went home to Georgia. At Richmond, though the snow lay thick +on the ground, a great public meeting was held on the 6th of February +in the precincts of the African Church. Here Davis made an address which +has been called his greatest and which produced a profound impression. +A wave of enthusiasm swept over Richmond, and for a moment the President +appeared once more to be master of the situation. His immense audacity +carried the people with him when, after showing what might be done by +more drastic enforcement of the conscription laws, he concluded: "Let us +then unite our hands and our hearts, lock our shields together, and we +may well believe that before another summer solstice falls upon us, it +will be the enemy that will be asking us for conferences and occasions +in which to make known our demands." + + + +Chapter XI. An Attempted Revolution + +Almost from the moment when the South had declared its independence +voices had been raised in favor of arming the negroes. The rejection of +a plan to accomplish this was one of the incidents of Benjamin's tenure +of the portfolio of the War Department; but it was not until the early +days of 1864, when the forces of Johnston lay encamped at Dalton, +Georgia, that the arming of the slaves was seriously discussed by +a council of officers. Even then the proposal had its determined +champions, though there were others among Johnston's officers who +regarded it as "contrary to all true principles of chivalric warfare," +and their votes prevailed in the council by a large majority. + +From that time forward the question of arming the slaves hung like a +heavy cloud over all Confederate thought of the war. It was discussed in +the army and at home around troubled firesides. Letters written from the +trenches at Petersburg show that it was debated by the soldiers, and the +intense repugnance which the idea inspired in some minds was shown by +threats to leave the ranks if the slaves were given arms. + +Amid the pressing, obvious issues of 1864, this project hardly appears +upon the face of the record until it was alluded to in Davis's message +to Congress in November, 1864, and in the annual report of the Secretary +of War. The President did not as yet ask for slave soldiers. He did, +however, ask for the privilege of buying slaves for government use--not +merely hiring them from their owners as had hitherto been done--and for +permission, if the Government so desired, to emancipate them at the +end of their service. The Secretary of War went farther, however, and +advocated negro soldiers, and he too suggested their emancipation at the +end of service. + +This feeling of the temper of the country, so to speak, produced an +immediate response. It drew Rhett from his retirement and inspired a +letter in which he took the Government severely to task for designing +to remove from state control this matter of fundamental importance. +Coinciding with the cry for more troops with which to confront Sherman, +the topic of negro soldiers became at once one of the questions of the +hour. It helped to focus that violent anti-Davis movement which is +the conspicuous event of December, 1864, and January, 1865. Those who +believed the President unscrupulous trembled at the thought of putting +into his hands a great army of hardy barbarians trained to absolute +obedience. The prospect of such a weapon held in one firm hand at +Richmond seemed to those opponents of the President a greater menace to +their liberties than even the armies of the invaders. It is quite likely +that distrust of Davis and dread of the use he might make of such a +weapon was increased by a letter from Benjamin to Frederick A. Porcher +of Charleston, a supporter of the Government, who had made rash +suggestions as to the extra-constitutional power that the Administration +might be justified by circumstances in assuming. Benjamin deprecated +such suggestions but concluded with the unfortunate remark: "If the +Constitution is not to be our guide I would prefer to see it suppressed +by a revolution which should declare a dictatorship during the war, +after the manner of ancient Rome, leaving to the future the care of +reestablishing firm and regular government." In the State of Virginia, +indeed, the revolutionary suggestions of the President's message and +the Secretary's report were promptly taken up and made the basis of a +political program, which Governor Smith embodied in his message to the +Legislature--a document that will eventually take its place among the +most interesting state papers of the Confederacy. It should be noted +that the suggestions thrown out in this way by the Administration to +test public feeling involved three distinct questions: Should the slaves +be given arms? Should they, if employed as soldiers, be given their +freedom? Should this revolutionary scheme, if accepted at all, be +handled by the general Government or left to the several States? On +the last of the three questions the Governor of Virginia was silent; by +implication he treated the matter as a concern of the States. Upon the +first and second questions, however, he was explicit and advised arming +the slaves. He then added: + +"Even if the result were to emancipate our slaves, there is not a man +who would not cheerfully put the negro into the Army rather than become +a slave himself to our hated and vindictive foe. It is, then, simply a +question of time. Has the time arrived when this issue is fairly before +us?... For my part standing before God and my country, I do not hesitate +to say that I would arm such portion of our able-bodied slave population +as may be necessary, and put them in the field, so as to have them ready +for the spring campaign, even if it resulted in the freedom of those +thus organized. Will I not employ them to fight the negro force of the +enemy? Aye, the Yankees themselves, who already boast that they have +200,000 of our slaves in arms against us. Can we hesitate, can we doubt, +when the question is, whether the enemy shall use our slaves against us +or we use them against him; when the question may be between liberty and +independence on the one hand, or our subjugation and utter ruin on the +other?" + +With their Governor as leader for the Administration, the Virginians +found this issue the absorbing topic of the hour. And now the great +figure of Lee takes its rightful place at the very center of Confederate +history, not only military but civil, for to Lee the Virginia +politicians turned for advice. * In a letter to a State Senator of +Virginia who had asked for a public expression of Lee's views because +"a mountain of prejudices, growing out of our ancient modes of regarding +the institution of Southern slavery will have to be met and overcome" in +order to Attain unanimity, Lee discussed both the institution of slavery +and the situation of the moment. He plainly intimated that slavery +should be placed under state control; and, assuming such control, be +considered "the relation of master and slave... the best that can exist +between the black and white races while intermingled as at present in +this country." He went on to show, however, that military necessity now +compelled a revolution in sentiment on this subject, and he came at last +to this momentous conclusion: + + * Lee now revealed himself in his previously overlooked + capacity of statesman. Whether his abilities in this respect + equaled his abilities as a soldier need not here be + considered; it is said that he himself had no high opinion + of them. However, in the advice which he gave at this final + moment of crisis, he expressed a definite conception of the + articulation of civil forces in such a system as that of the + Confederacy. He held that all initiative upon basal matters + should remain with the separate States, that the function of + the general Government was to administer, not to create + conditions, and that the proper power to constrain the State + Legislatures was the flexible, extra-legal power of public + opinion. + +"Should the war continue under existing circumstances, the enemy may in +course of time penetrate our country and get access to a large part of +our negro population. It is his avowed policy to convert the able-bodied +men among them into soldiers, and to emancipate all.... His progress +will thus add to his numbers, and at the same time destroy slavery in a +manner most pernicious to the welfare of our people. Their negroes will +be used to hold them in subjection, leaving the remaining force of the +enemy free to extend his conquest. Whatever may be the effect of our +employing negro troops, it cannot be as mischievous as this. If it end +in subverting slavery it will be accomplished by ourselves, and we can +devise the means of alleviating the evil consequences to both races. I +think, therefore, we must decide whether slavery shall be extinguished +by our enemies and the slaves be used against us, or use them ourselves +at the risk of the effects which may be produced upon our social +institutions..." + +"The reasons that induce me to recommend the employment of negro troops +at all render the effect of the measures... upon slavery immaterial, and +in my opinion the best means of securing the efficiency and fidelity +of this auxiliary force would be to accompany the measure with a +well-digested plan of gradual and general emancipation. As that will be +the result of the continuance of the war, and will certainly occur if +the enemy succeed, it seems to me most advisable to adopt it at once, +and thereby obtain all the benefits that will accrue to our cause..." + +"I can only say in conclusion, that whatever measures are to be adopted +should be adopted at once. Every day's delay increases the difficulty. +Much time will be required to organize and discipline the men, and +action may be deferred until it is too late." + +Lee wrote these words on January 11, 1865. At that time a fresh wave of +despondency had gone over the South because of Hood's rout at Nashville; +Congress was debating intermittently the possible arming of the slaves; +and the newspapers were prophesying that the Administration would +presently force the issue. It is to be observed that Lee did not advise +Virginia to wait for Confederate action. He advocated emancipation +by the State. After all, to both Lee and Smith, Virginia was their +"country." + +During the next sixty days Lee rejected two great opportunities--or, +if you will, put aside two great temptations. If tradition is to be +trusted, it was during January that Lee refused to play the role of +Cromwell by declining to intervene directly in general Confederate +politics. But there remained open the possibility of his intervention in +Virginia politics, and the local crisis was in its own way as momentous +as the general crisis. What if Virginia had accepted the views of Lee +and insisted upon the immediate arming of the slaves? Virginia, however, +did not do so; and Lee, having made public his position, refrained from +further participation. Politically speaking, he maintained a splendid +isolation at the head of the armies. + +Through January and February the Virginia crisis continued undetermined. +In this period of fateful hesitation, the "mountains of prejudice" +proved too great to be undermined even by the influence of Lee. When +at last Virginia enacted a law permitting the arming of her slaves, no +provision was made for their manumission. + +Long before the passage of this act in Virginia, Congress had become +the center of the controversy. Davis had come to the point where no +tradition however cherished would stand, in his mind, against the needs +of the moment. To reinforce the army in great strength was now his +supreme concern, and he saw but one way to do it. As a last resort +he was prepared to embrace the bold plan which so many people still +regarded with horror and which as late as the previous November he +himself had opposed. He would arm the slaves. On February 10, 1865, +bills providing for the arming of the slaves were introduced both in the +House and in the Senate. + +On this issue all the forces both of the Government and the opposition +fought their concluding duel in which were involved all the other basal +issues that had distracted the country since 1862. Naturally there was +a bewildering criss-cross of political motives. There were men who, +like Smith and Lee, would go along with the Government on emancipation, +provided it was to be carried out by the free will of the States. There +were others who preferred subjugation to the arming of the slaves; and +among these there were clashings of motive. Then, too, there were those +who were willing to arm the slaves but were resolved not to give them +their freedom. + +The debate brings to the front of the political stage the figure of +R. M. T. Hunter. Hitherto his part has not been conspicuous either as +Secretary of State or as Senator from Virginia. He now becomes, in the +words of Davis, "a chief obstacle" to the passage of the Senate bill +which would have authorized a levy of negro troops and provided for +their manumission by the War Department with the consent of the State in +which they should be at the time of the proposed manumission. After +long discussion, this bill was indefinitely postponed. Meanwhile a very +different bill had dragged through the House. While it was under debate, +another appeal was made to Lee. Barksdale, who came as near as any one +to being the leader of the Administration, sought Lee's aid. Again +the General urged the enrollment of negro soldiers and their eventual +manumission, but added this immensely significant proviso: + +"I have no doubt that if Congress would authorize their [the negroes'] +reception into service, and empower the President to call upon +individuals or States for such as they are willing to contribute, with +the condition of emancipation to all enrolled, a sufficient number +would be forthcoming to enable us to try the experiment [of determining +whether the slaves would make good soldiers]. If it proved successful, +most of the objections to the measure would disappear, and if +individuals still remained unwilling to send their negroes to the army, +the force of public opinion in the States would soon bring about such +legislation as would remove all obstacles. I think the matter should be +left, as far as possible, to the people and to the States, which +alone can legislate as the necessities of this particular service may +require." + +The fact that Congress had before it this advice from Lee explains why +all factions accepted a compromise bill, passed on the 9th of March, +approved by the President on the 13th of March, and issued to the +country in a general order on the 23d of March. It empowered the +President to "ask for and accept from the owners of slaves" the service +of such number of negroes as he saw fit, and if sufficient number +were not offered to "call on each State... for her quota of 300,000 +troops... to be raised from such classes of the population, irrespective +of color, in each State as the proper authorities thereof may +determine." However, "nothing in this act shall be construed to +authorize a change in the relation which the said slaves shall bear +toward their owners, except by consent of the owners and of the States +in which they may reside and in pursuance of the laws thereof." + +The results of this act were negligible. Its failure to offer the +slave-soldier his freedom was at once seized upon by critics as evidence +of the futility of the course of the Administration. The sneer went +round that the negro was to be made to fight for his own captivity. +Pollard--whose words, however, must be taken with a grain of salt--has +left this account of recruiting under the new act: "Two companies of +blacks, organized from some negro vagabonds in Richmond, were allowed to +give balls at the Libby Prison and were exhibited in fine fresh uniforms +on Capitol Square as decoys to obtain recruits. But the mass of their +colored brethren looked on the parade with unenvious eyes, and little +boys exhibited the early prejudices of race by pelting the fine uniforms +with mud." + +Nevertheless both Davis and Lee busied themselves in the endeavor to +raise black troops. Governor Smith cooperated with them. And in the +mind of the President there was no abandonment of the program of +emancipation, which was now his cardinal policy. Soon after the passage +of the act, he wrote to Smith: "I am happy to receive your assurance +of success [in raising black troops], as well as your promise to seek +legislation to secure unmistakable freedom to the slave who shall enter +the Army, with a right to return to his old home, when he shall have +been honorably discharged from military service." + +While this final controversy was being fought out in Congress, the +enthusiasm for the Administration had again ebbed. Its recovery of +prestige had run a brief course and was gone, and now in the midst of +the discussion over the negro soldiers' bills, the opposition once +more attacked the Cabinet, with its old enemy, Benjamin, as the +target. Resolutions were introduced into the Senate declaring that "the +retirement of the Honorable Judah P. Benjamin from the State Department +will be subservient of the public interests"; in the House resolutions +were offered describing his public utterances as "derogatory to his +position as a high public functionary of the Confederate Government, +a reflection on the motives of Congress as a deliberative body, and an +insult to public opinion." + +So Congress wrangled and delayed while the wave of fire that was +Sherman's advance moved northward through the Carolinas. Columbia had +gone up in smoke while the Senate debated day after day--fifteen in +all--what to do with the compromise bill sent up to it from the House. +It was during this period that a new complication appears to have been +added to a situation which was already so hopelessly entangled, for this +was the time when Governor Magrath made a proposal to Governor Vance +for a league within the Confederacy, giving as his chief reason that +Virginia's interests were parting company with those of the lower +South. The same doubt of the upper South appears at various times in the +Mercury. And through all the tactics of the opposition runs the constant +effort to discredit Davis. The Mercury scoffed at the agitation for +negro soldiers as a mad attempt on the part of the Administration to +remedy its "myriad previous blunders." + +In these terrible days, the mind of Davis hardened. He became possessed +by a lofty and intolerant confidence, an absolute conviction that, in +spite of all appearances, he was on the threshold of success. We may +safely ascribe to him in these days that illusory state of mind which +has characterized some of the greatest of men in their over-strained, +concluding periods. His extraordinary promises in his later messages, +a series of vain prophecies beginning with his speech at the African +Church, remind one of Napoleon after Leipzig refusing the Rhine as a +boundary. His nerves, too, were all but at the breaking point. He sent +the Senate a scolding message because of its delay in passing the +Negro Soldiers' Bill. The Senate answered in a report that was sharply +critical of his own course. Shortly afterward Congress adjourned +refusing his request for another suspension of the writ of habeas +corpus. + +Davis had hinted at important matters he hoped soon to be able to submit +to Congress. What he had in mind was the last, the boldest, stroke of +this period of desperation. The policy of emancipation he and Benjamin +had accepted without reserve. They had at last perceived, too late, the +power of the anti-slavery movement in Europe. Though they had already +failed to coerce England through cotton and had been played with and +abandoned by Napoleon, they persisted in thinking that there was still a +chance for a third chapter in their foreign affairs. + +The agitation to arm the slaves, with the promise of freedom, had +another motive besides the reinforcement of Lee's army: it was intended +to serve as a basis for negotiations with England and France. To that +end D. J. Kenner was dispatched to Europe early in 1865. Passing through +New York in disguise, he carried word of this revolutionary program to +the Confederate commissioners abroad. A conference at Paris was held by +Kenner, Mason, and Slidell. Mason, who had gone over to England to sound +Palmerston with regard to this last Confederate hope, was received on +the 14th of March. On the previous day, Davis had accepted temporary +defeat, by signing the compromise bill which omitted emancipation. But +as there was no cable operating at the time, Mason was not aware of this +rebuff. In his own words, he "urged upon Lord P. that if the President +was right in his impression that there was some latent, undisclosed +obstacle on the part of Great Britain to recognition, it should be +frankly stated, and we might, if in our power to do so, consent to +remove it." Palmerston, though his manner was "conciliatory and kind," +insisted that there was nothing "underlying" his previous statements, +and that he could not, in view of the facts then existing, regard the +Confederacy in the light of an independent power. Mason parted from him +convinced that "the most ample concessions on our part in the matter +referred to would have produced no change in the course determined on +by the British Government with regard to recognition." In a subsequent +interview with Lord Donoughmore, he was frankly told that the offer of +emancipation had come too late. + +The dispatch in which Mason reported the attitude of the British +Government never reached the Confederate authorities. It was dated the +31st of March. Two days later Richmond was evacuated by the Confederate +Government. + + + +Chapter XII. The Last Word + +The evacuation of Richmond broke the back of the Confederate defense. +Congress had adjourned. The legislative history of the Confederacy was +at an end. The executive history still had a few days to run. After +destroying great quantities of records, the government officials had +packed the remainder on a long train that conveyed the President and +what was left of the civil service to Danville. During a few days, +Danville was the Confederate capital. There, Davis, still unable to +conceive defeat, issued his pathetic last Address to the People of the +Confederate States. His mind was crystallized. He was no longer capable +of judging facts. In as confident tones as ever he promised his people +that they should yet prevail; he assured Virginians that even if the +Confederate army should withdraw further south the withdrawal would +be but temporary, and that "again and again will we return until the +baffled and exhausted enemy shall abandon in despair his endless and +impossible task of making slaves of a people resolved to be free." + +The surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, compelled another +migration of the dwindling executive company. General Johnston had not +yet surrendered. A conference which he had with the President and the +Cabinet at Greensboro ended in giving him permission to negotiate with +Sherman. Even then Davis was still bent on keeping up the fight; yet, +though he believed that Sherman would reject Johnston's overtures, he +was overtaken at Charlotte on his way South by the crushing news of +Johnston's surrender. There the executive history of the Confederacy +came to an end in a final Cabinet meeting. Davis, still blindly resolute +to continue the struggle, was deeply distressed by the determination +of his advisers to abandon it. In imminent danger of capture, the +President's party made its way to Abbeville, where it broke up, and each +member sought safety as best he could. Davis with a few faithful men +rode to Irwinsville, Georgia, where, in the early morning of the 10th of +May, he was surprised and captured. But the history of the Confederacy +was not quite at an end. The last gunshots were still to be fired far +away in Texas on the 13th of May. The surrender of the forces of +the Trans-Mississippi on May 26, 1865, brought the war to a definite +conclusion. + +There remains one incident of these closing days, the significance of +which was not perceived until long afterward, when it immediately took +its rightful place among the determining events of American history. +The unconquerable spirit of the Army of Northern Virginia found its last +expression in a proposal which was made to Lee by his officers. If he +would give the word, they would make the war a duel to the death; it +should drag out in relentless guerrilla struggles; and there should +be no pacification of the South until the fighting classes had been +exterminated. Considering what those classes were, considering the +qualities that could be handed on to their posterity, one realizes that +this suicide of a whole people, of a noble fighting people, would have +maimed incalculably the America of the future. But though the heroism of +this proposal of his men to die on their shields had its stern charm +for so brave a man as Lee, he refused to consider it. He would not admit +that he and his people had a right thus to extinguish their power to +help mold the future, no matter whether it be the future they desired or +not. The result of battle must be accepted. The Southern spirit must +not perish, luxuriating blindly in despair, but must find a new form of +expression, must become part of the new world that was to be, must look +to a new birth under new conditions. In this spirit he issued to his +army his last address: + +"After four years of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed courage and +fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to +overwhelming numbers and resources. I need not tell the survivors of so +many hard-fought battles, who have remained steadfast to the last, that +I have consented to the result from no distrust of them; but feeling +that valor and devotion could accomplish nothing that could compensate +for the loss that would have attended the continuation of the contest, +I determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past services +have endeared them to their countrymen.... I bid you an affectionate +farewell." + +How inevitably one calls to mind, in view of the indomitable valor of +Lee's final decision, those great lines from Tennyson: + + "Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho' + We are not now that strength which in old days + Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are; + One equal temper of heroic hearts, + Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will." + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + +There is no adequate history of the Confederacy. It is rumored that a +distinguished scholar has a great work approaching completion. It is +also rumored that another scholar, well equipped to do so, will soon +bring out a monumental life of Davis. But the fact remains that as yet +we lack a comprehensive review of the Confederate episode set in proper +perspective. Standard works such as the "History of the United States +from the Compromise of 1850", by J. F. Rhodes (7 vols., 1893-1908), even +when otherwise as near a classic as is the work of Mr. Rhodes, treat the +Confederacy so externally as to have in this respect little value. The +one searching study of the subject, "The Confederate States of +America," by J. C. Schwab (1901), though admirable in its way, is wholly +overshadowed by the point of view of the economist. The same is to be +said of the article by Professor Schwab in the 11th edition of "The +Encyclopaedia Britannica." + +Two famous discussions of the episode by participants are: "The Rise and +Fall of the Confederate Government," by the President of the Confederacy +(2 vols., 1881), and "A Constitutional View of the Late War Between the +States," by Alexander H. Stephens (2 vols., 1870). Both works, though +invaluable to the student, are tinged with controversy, each of the +eminent authors aiming to refute the arguments of political antagonists. + +The military history of the time has so overshadowed the civil, in the +minds of most students, that we are still sadly in need of careful, +disinterested studies of the great figures of Confederate civil affairs. +"Jefferson Davis," by William E. Dodd ("American Crisis Biographies," +1907), is the standard life of the President, superseding older ones. +Not so satisfactory in the same series is "Judah P. Benjamin," by Pierce +Butler (1907), and "Alexander H. Stephens," by Louis Pendleton (1907). +Older works which are valuable for the material they contain are: +"Memoir of Jefferson Davis," by his Wife (1890); "The Life and Times of +Alexander H. Stephens," by R. M. Johnston and W. M. Browne (1878); "The +Life and Times of William Lowndes Yancey," by J. W. Du Bose (1891); +"The Life, Times, and Speeches of Joseph E. Brown," by Herbert Fielder +(1883); "Public Life and Diplomatic Correspondence of James M. Mason," +by his Daughter (1903); "The Life and Time of C. G. Memminger," by H. D. +Capers (1893). The writings of E. A. Pollard cannot be disregarded, but +must be taken as the violent expression of an extreme partisan. They +include a "Life of Jefferson Davis" (1869) and "The Lost Cause" (1867). +A charming series of essays is "Confederate Portraits," by Gamaliel +Bradford (1914). Among books on special topics that are to be +recommended are: "The Diplomatic History of the Southern Confederacy" +by J. M. Callahan (1901); "France and the Confederate Navy," by John +Bigelow (1888); and "The Secret Service of the Confederate States in +Europe," by J. D. Bulloch (2 vols., 1884). There is a large number +of contemporary accounts of life in the Confederacy. Historians have +generally given excessive attention to "A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the +Confederate States Capital," by J. B. Jones (2 vols., 1866) which +has really neither more nor less value than a Richmond newspaper. +Conspicuous among writings of this type is the delightful "Diary from +Dixie," by Mrs. Mary B. Chestnut (1905) and "My Diary, North and South," +by W. H. Russell (1861). + +The documents of the civil history, so far as they are accessible to the +general reader, are to be found in the three volumes forming the fourth +series of the "Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies" +(128 vols., 1880-1901); the "Journals of the Congress of the Confederate +States" (8 vols., 1904) and "Messages and Papers of the Confederacy," +edited by J. D. Richardson (2 vols., 1905). Four newspapers are of first +importance: the famous opposition organs, the Richmond Examiner and the +Charleston Mercury, which should be offset by the two leading organs of +the Government, the Courier of Charleston and the Enquirer of Richmond. +The Statutes of the Confederacy have been collected and published; +most of them are also to be found in the fourth series of the Official +Records. + +Additional bibliographical references will be found appended to the +articles on the "Confederate States of America," "Secession," and +"Jefferson Davis," in "The Encyclopaedia Britannica," 11th edition. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Day of the Confederacy, by +Nathaniel W. Stephenson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAY OF THE CONFEDERACY *** + +***** This file should be named 3035.txt or 3035.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/3/3035/ + +Produced by The James J. 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If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain etexts, and royalty free copyright licenses. +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.07.00*END* + + + + +Title: The Day of the Confederacy, A Chronicle of the Embattled South + +Author: Nathaniel W. Stephenson + +THIS BOOK, VOLUME 30 IN THE CHRONICLES OF AMERICA SERIES, ALLEN +JOHNSON, EDITOR, WAS DONATED TO PROJECT GUTENBERG BY THE JAMES J. +KELLY LIBRARY OF ST. GREGORY'S UNIVERSITY; THANKS TO ALEV AKMAN. + +THE DAY OF THE CONFEDERACY, A CHRONICLE OF THE EMBATTLED SOUTH +BY NATHANIEL W. STEPHENSON + +New Haven: Yale University Press +Toronto: Glasgow, Brook & Co. +London: Humphrey Milford +Oxford University Press + +1919 + + +CONTENTS + +I. THE SECESSION MOVEMENT + +II. THE DAVIS GOVERNMENT + +III. THE FALL OF KING COTTON + +IV. THE REACTION AGAINST RICHMOND + +V. THE CRITICAL YEAR + +VI. LIFE IN THE CONFEDERACY + +VII. THE TURNING OF THE TIDE + +VIII. A GAME OF CHANCE + +IX. DESPERATE REMEDIES X. DISINTEGRATION + +XI. AN ATTEMPTED REVOLUTION + +XII. THE LAST WORD + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + + +THE DAY OF THE CONFEDERACY + +Chapter I. The Secession Movement + +The secession movement had three distinct stages. The first, +beginning with the news that Lincoln was elected, closed with the +news, sent broadcast over the South from Charleston, that Federal +troops had taken possession of Fort Sumter on the night of the +28th of December. During this period the likelihood of secession +was the topic of discussion in the lower South. What to do in +case the lower South seceded was the question which perplexed the +upper South. In this period no State north of South Carolina +contemplated taking the initiative. In the Southeastern and Gulf +States immediate action of some sort was expected. Whether it +would be secession or some other new course was not certain on +the day of Lincoln's election. Various States earlier in the year +had provided for conventions of their people in the event of a +Republican victory. The first to assemble was the convention of +South Carolina, which organized at Columbia, on December 17, +1860. Two weeks earlier Congress had met. Northerners and +Southerners had at once joined issue on their relation in the +Union. The House had appointed its committee of thirty-three to +consider the condition of the country. So unpromising indeed from +the Southern point of view had been the early discussions of this +committee that a conference of Southern members of Congress had +sent out their famous address To Our Constituents: "The argument +is exhausted. All hope of relief in the Union . . . is +extinguished, and we trust the South will not be deceived by +appearances or the pretense of new guarantees. In our judgment +the Republicans are resolute in the purpose to grant nothing that +will or ought to satisfy the South. We are satisfied the honor, +safety, and independence of the Southern people require the +organization of a Southern Confederacy--a result to be obtained +only by separate state secession." Among the signers of this +address were the two statesmen who had in native talent no +superiors at Washington--Judah P. Benjamin of Louisiana and +Jefferson Davis of Mississippi. + +The appeal To Our Constituents was not the only assurance of +support tendered to the convention of South Carolina. To +represent them at this convention the governors of Alabama and +Mississippi had appointed delegates. Mr. Hooker of Mississippi +and Mr. Elmore of Alabama made addresses before the convention on +the night of the 17th of December. Both reiterated views which +during two days of lobbying they had disseminated in Columbia "on +all proper occasions." Their argument, summed up in Elmore's +report to Governor Moore of Alabama, was "that the only course to +unite the Southern States in any plan of cooperation which could +promise safety was for South Carolina to take the lead and secede +at once without delay or hesitation...that the only effective +plan of cooperation must ensue after one State had seceded and +presented the issue when the plain question would be presented to +the other Southern States whether they would stand by the +seceding State engaged in a common cause or abandon her to the +fate of coercion by the arms of the Government of the United +States." + +Ten years before, in the unsuccessful secession movement of 1850 +and 1851, Andrew Pickens Butler, perhaps the ablest South +Carolinian then living, strove to arrest the movement by exactly +the opposite argument. Though desiring secession, he threw all +his weight against it because the rest of the South was averse. +He charged his opponents, whose leader was Robert Barnwell Rhett, +with aiming to place the other Southern States "in such +circumstances that, having a common destiny, they would be +compelled to be involved in a common sacrifice." He protested +that "to force a sovereign State to take a position against its +consent is to make of it a reluctant associate.... Both +interest and honor must require the Southern States to take +council together." + +That acute thinker was now in his grave. The bold enthusiast whom +he defeated in 1851 had now no opponent that was his match. No +great personality resisted the fiery advocates from Alabama and +Mississippi. Their advice was accepted. On December 20, 1860, +the cause that ten years before had failed was successful. The +convention, having adjourned from Columbia to Charleston, passed +an ordinance of secession. + +Meanwhile, in Georgia, at a hundred meetings, the secession issue +was being hotly discussed. But there was not yet any certainty +which way the scale would turn. An invitation from South Carolina +to join in a general Southern convention had been declined by the +Governor in November. Governor Brown has left an account +ascribing the comparative coolness and deliberation of the hour +to the prevailing impression that President Buchanan had pledged +himself not to alter the military status at Charleston. In an +interview between South Carolina representatives and the +President, the Carolinians understood that such a pledge was +given. "It was generally understood by the country," says +Governor Brown, "that such an agreement...had been entered +Into...and that Governor Floyd of Virginia, then Secretary of +War, had expressed his determination to resign his position in +the Cabinet in case of the refusal of the President to carry out +the agreement in good faith. The resignation of Governor Floyd +was therefore naturally looked upon, should it occur, as a signal +given to the South that reinforcements were to be sent to +Charleston and that the coercive policy had been adopted by the +Federal Government." + +While the "canvass in Georgia for members of the State convention +was progressing with much interest on both sides," there came +suddenly the news that Anderson had transferred his garrison from +Fort Moultrie to the island fortress of Sumter. That same day +commissioners from South Carolina, newly arrived at Washington, +sought in vain to persuade the President to order Anderson back +to Moultrie. The Secretary of War made the subject an issue +before the Cabinet. Unable to carry his point, two days later he +resigned.* + +* The President had already asked for Floyd's resignation because +of financial irregularities, and Floyd was shrewd enough to use +Anderson's coup as an excuse for resigning. See Rhodes, "History +of the United States," vol. II pp. 225, 236 (note). + +The Georgia Governor, who had not hitherto been in the front rank +of the aggressives, now struck a great blow. Senator Toombs had +telegraphed from Washington that Fort Pulaski, guarding the +Savannah River, was "in danger." The Governor had reached the +same conclusion. He mustered the state militia and seized Fort +Pulaski. Early in the morning on January 3,1861, the fort was +occupied by Georgia troops. Shortly afterward, Brown wrote to a +commissioner sent by the Governor of Alabama to confer with him: +"While many of our most patriotic and intelligent citizens in +both States have doubted the propriety of immediate secession, I +feel quite confident that recent events have dispelled those +doubts from the minds of most men who have, till within the past +few days, honestly sustained them." The first stage of the +secession movement was at an end; the second had begun. + +A belief that Washington had entered upon a policy of aggression +swept the lower South. The state conventions assembling about +this time passed ordinances of secession--Mississippi, January 9; +Florida, January 10; Alabama, January 11; Georgia, January 19; +Louisiana, January 26; Texas, February 1. But this result was not +achieved without considerable opposition. In Georgia the +Unionists put up a stout fight. The issue was not upon the right +to secede--virtually no one denied the right--but upon the wisdom +of invoking the right. Stephens, gloomy and pessimistic, led the +opposition. Toombs came down from Washington to take part with +the secessionists. From South Carolina and Alabama, both +ceaselessly active for secession, commissioners appeared to lobby +at Milledgeville, as commissioners of Alabama and Mississippi had +lobbied at Columbia. Besides the out-and-out Unionists, there +were those who wanted to temporize, to threaten the North, and to +wait for developments. The motion on which these men and the +Unionists made their last stand together went against them 164 to +133. Then at last came the square question: Shall we secede? Even +on this question, the minority was dangerously large. Though the +temporizers came over to the secessionists, and with them came +Stephens, there was still a minority of 89 irreconcilables +against the majority numbering 208. + +"My allegiance," said Stephens afterwards, "was, as I considered +it, not due to the United States, or to the people of the United +States, but to Georgia, in her sovereign capacity. Georgia had +never parted with her right to demand the ultimate allegiance of +her citizens." + +The attempt in Georgia to restrain impetuosity and advance with +deliberation was paralleled in Alabama, where also the +aggressives were determined not to permit delay. In the Alabama +convention, the conservatives brought forward a plan for a +general Southern convention to be held at Nashville in February. +It was rejected by a vote of 54 to 45. An attempt to delay +secession until after the 4th of March was defeated by the same +vote. + +The determination of the radicals to precipitate the issue +received interesting criticism from the Governor of Texas, old +Sam Houston. To a commissioner from Alabama who was sent out to +preach the cause in Texas the Governor wrote, in substance, that +since Alabama would not wait to consult the people of Texas he +saw nothing to discuss at that time, and he went on to say: + +Recognizing as I do the fact that the sectional tendencies of the +Black Republican party call for determined constitutional +resistance at the hands of the united South, I also feel that the +million and a half of noble-hearted, conservative men who have +stood by the South, even to this hour, deserve some sympathy and +support. Although we have lost the day, we have to recollect that +our conservative Northern friends cast over a quarter of a +million more votes against the Black Republicans than we of the +entire South. I cannot declare myself ready to desert them as +well as our Southern brethren of the border (and such, I believe, +will be the sentiment of Texas) until at least one firm attempt +has been made to preserve our constitutional rights within the +Union. + +Nevertheless, Houston was not able to control his State. +Delegates from Texas attended the later sessions of a general +Congress of the seceding States which, on the invitation of +Alabama, met at Montgomery on the 4th of February. A contemporary +document of singular interest today is the series of resolutions +adopted by the Legislature of North Carolina, setting forth that, +as the State was a member of the Federal Union, it could not +accept the invitation of Alabama but should send delegates for +the purpose of persuading the South to effect a readjustment on +the basis of the Crittenden Compromise as modified by the +Legislature of Virginia. The commissioners were sent, were +graciously received, were accorded seats in the Congress, but +they exerted no influence on the course of its action. + +The Congress speedily organized a provisional Government for the +Confederate States of America. The Constitution of the United +States, rather hastily reconsidered, became with a few inevitable +alterations the Constitution of the Confederacy.* Davis was +unanimously elected President; Stephens, Vice-President. +Provision was made for raising an army. Commissioners were +dispatched to Washington to negotiate a treaty with the United +States; other commissioners were sent to Virginia to attempt to +withdraw that great commonwealth from the Union. + +* To the observer of a later age this document appears a thing of +haste. Like the framers of the Constitution of 1787, who omitted +from their document some principles which they took for granted, +the framers of 1861 left unstated their most distinctive views. +The basal idea upon which the revolution proceeded, the right of +secession, is not to be found in the new Constitution. Though the +preamble declares that the States are acting in their sovereign +and independent character, the new Confederation is declared +"permanent." In the body of the document are provisions similar +to those in the Federal Constitution enabling a majority of +two-thirds of the States to amend at their pleasure, thus +imposing their will upon the minority. With three notable +exceptions the new Constitution, subsequent to the preamble, does +little more than restate the Constitution of 1787 rearranged so +as to include those basal principles of the English law added to +the earlier Constitution by the first eight amendments. The three +exceptions are the prohibitions (1) of the payment of bounties, +(2) of the levying of duties to promote any one form of industry, +and (3) of appropriations for internal improvements. Here was a +monument to the battle over these matters in the Federal +Congress. As to the mechanism of the new Government it was the +same as the old except for a few changes of detail. The +presidential term was lengthened to six years and the President +was forbidden to succeed himself. The President was given the +power to veto items in appropriation bills. The African +slave-trade was prohibited. + +The upper South was thus placed in a painful situation. Its +sympathies were with the seceding States. Most of its people felt +also that if coercion was attempted, the issue would become for +Virginia and North Carolina, no less than for South Carolina and +Alabama, simply a matter of self-preservation. As early as +January, in the exciting days when Floyd's resignation was being +interpreted as a call to arms, the Virginia Legislature had +resolved that it would not consent to the coercion of a seceding +State. In May the Speaker of the North Carolina Legislature +assured a commissioner from Georgia that North Carolina would +never consent to the movement of troops "from or across" the +State to attack a seceding State. But neither Virginia nor North +Carolina in this second stage of the movement wanted to secede. +They wanted to preserve the Union, but along with the Union they +wanted the principle of local autonomy. It was a period of tense +anxiety in those States of the upper South. The frame of mind of +the men who loved the Union but who loved equally their own +States and were firm for local autonomy is summed up in a letter +in which Mrs. Robert E. Lee describes the anguish of her husband +as he confronted the possibility of a divided country. + +The real tragedy of the time lay in the failure of the advocates +of these two great principles--each so necessary to a far-flung +democratic country in a world of great powers!--the failure to +coordinate them so as to insure freedom at home and strength +abroad. The principle for which Lincoln stood has saved Americans +in the Great War from playing such a trembling part as that of +Holland. The principle which seemed to Lee even more essential, +which did not perish at Appomattox but was transformed and not +destroyed, is what has kept us from becoming a western Prussia. +And yet if only it had been possible to coordinate the two +without the price of war! It was not possible because of the +stored up bitterness of a quarter century of recrimination. But +Virginia made a last desperate attempt to preserve the Union by +calling the Peace Convention. It assembled at Washington the day +the Confederate Congress met at Montgomery. Though twenty-one +States sent delegates, it was no more able to effect a working +scheme of compromise than was the House committee of thirty-three +or the Senate committee of thirteen, both of which had striven, +had failed, and had gone their ways to a place in the great +company of historic futilities. + +And so the Peace Convention came and went, and there was no +consolation for the troubled men of the upper South who did not +want to secede but were resolved not to abandon local autonomy. +Virginia was the key to the situation. If Virginia could be +forced into secession, the rest of the upper South would +inevitably follow. Therefore a Virginia hothead, Roger A. Pryor, +being in Charleston in those wavering days, poured out his heart +in fiery words, urging a Charleston crowd to precipitate war, in +the certainty that Virginia would then have to come to their aid. +When at last Sumter was fired upon and Lincoln called for +volunteers, the second stage of the secession movement ended in a +thunderclap. The third period was occupied by the second group of +secessions: Virginia on the 17th of April, North Carolina and +Arkansas during May, Tennessee early in June. + +Sumter was the turning-point. The boom of the first cannon +trained on the island fortress deserves all the rhetoric it has +inspired. Who was immediately responsible for that firing which +was destiny? Ultimate responsibility is not upon any person. War +had to be. If Sumter had not been the starting-point, some other +would have been found. Nevertheless the question of immediate +responsibility, of whose word it was that served as the signal to +begin, has produced an historic controversy. + +When it was known at Charleston that Lincoln would attempt to +provision the fort, the South Carolina authorities referred the +matter to the Confederate authorities. The Cabinet, in a fateful +session at Montgomery, hesitated--drawn between the wish to keep +their hold upon the moderates of the North, who were trying to +stave off war, and the desire to precipitate Virginia into the +lists. Toombs, Secretary of State in the new Government, wavered; +then seemed to find his resolution and came out strong against a +demand for surrender. "It is suicide, murder, and will lose us +every friend at the North.... It is unnecessary; it puts us +in the wrong; it is fatal," said he. But the Cabinet and the +President decided to take the risk. To General Pierre Beauregard, +recently placed in command of the militia assembled at +Charleston, word was sent to demand the surrender of Fort Sumter. + +On Thursday, the 7th of April, besides his instructions from +Montgomery, Beauregard was in receipt of a telegram from the +Confederate commissioners at Washington, repeating newspaper +statements that the Federal relief expedition intended to land a +force "which will overcome all opposition." There seems no doubt +that Beauregard did not believe that the expedition was intended +merely to provision Sumter. Probably every one in Charleston +thought that the Federal authorities were trying to deceive them, +that Lincoln's promise not to do more than provision Sumter was a +mere blind. Fearfulness that delay might render Sumter +impregnable lay back of Beauregard's formal demand, on the 11th +of April, for the surrender of the fort. Anderson refused but +"made some verbal observations" to the aides who brought him the +demand. In effect he said that lack of supplies would compel him +to surrender by the fifteenth. When this information was taken +back to the city, eager crowds were in the streets of Charleston +discussing the report that a bombardment would soon begin. But +the afternoon passed; night fell; and nothing was done. On the +beautiful terrace along the sea known as East Battery, people +congregated, watching the silent fortress whose brick walls rose +sheer from the midst of the harbor. The early hours of the night +went by and as midnight approached and still there was no flash +from either the fortress or the shore batteries which threatened +it, the crowds broke up. + +Meanwhile there was anxious consultation at the hotel where +Beauregard had fixed his headquarters. Pilots came in from the +sea to report to the General that a Federal vessel had appeared +off the mouth of the harbor. This news may well explain the hasty +dispatch of a second expedition to Sumter in the middle of the +night. At half after one, Friday morning, four young men, aides +of Beauregard, entered the fort. Anderson repeated his refusal to +surrender at once but admitted that he would have to surrender +within three days. Thereupon the aides held a council of war. +They decided that the reply was unsatisfactory and wrote out a +brief note which they handed to Anderson informing him that the +Confederates would open "fire upon Fort Sumter in one hour from +this time." The note was dated 3:20 A.M. The aides then proceeded +to Fort Johnston on the south side of the harbor and gave the +order to fire. + +The council of the aides at Sumter is the dramatic detail that +has caught the imagination of historians and has led them, at +least in some cases, to yield to a literary temptation. It is so +dramatic--that scene of the four young men holding in their +hands, during a moment of absolute destiny, the fate of a people; +four young men, in the irresponsible ardor of youth, refusing to +wait three days and forcing war at the instant! It is so dramatic +that one cannot judge harshly the artistic temper which is unable +to reject it. But is the incident historic? Did the four young +men come to Sumter without definite instructions? Was their +conference really anything more than a careful comparing of notes +to make sure they were doing what they were intended to do? Is +not the real clue to the event a message from Beauregard to the +Secretary of War telling of his interview with the pilots? * + +*A chief authority for the dramatic version of the council of the +aides is that fiery Virginian, Roger A. Pryor. He and another +accompanied the official messengers, the signers of the note to +Anderson, James Chestnut and Stephen Lee. Years afterwards Pryor +told the story of the council in a way to establish its dramatic +significance. But would there be anything strange if a veteran +survivor, looking back to his youth, as all of us do through more +or less of mirage yielded to the unconscious artist that is in us +all and dramatized this event unaware? + +Dawn was breaking gray, with a faint rain in the air, when the +first boom of the cannon awakened the city. Other detonations +followed in quick succession. Shells rose into the night from +both sides of the harbor and from floating batteries. How lightly +Charleston slept that night may be inferred from the accounts in +the newspapers. "At the report of the first gun," says the +Courier, "the city was nearly emptied of its inhabitants who +crowded the Battery and the wharves to witness the conflict." + +The East Battery and the lower harbor of the lovely city of +Charleston have been preserved almost without alteration. What +they are today they were in the breaking dawn on April 12, 1861. +Business has gone up the rivers between which Charleston lies and +has left the point of the city's peninsula, where East Battery +looks outward to the Atlantic, in its perfect charm. There large +houses, pillared, with high piazzas, stand apart one from another +among gardens. With few exceptions they were built before the +middle of the century and all, with one exception, show the +classical taste of those days. The mariner, entering the spacious +inner sea that is Charleston Harbor, sights this row of stately +mansions even before he crosses the bar seven miles distant. +Holding straight onward up into the land he heads first for the +famous little island where, nowadays, in their halo of thrilling +recollection, the walls of Sumter, rising sheer from the bosom of +the water, drowse idle. Close under the lee of Sumter, the +incoming steersman brings his ship about and chooses, probably, +the eastward of two huge tentacles of the sea between which lies +the city's long but narrow peninsula. To the steersman it shows a +skyline serrated by steeples, fronted by sea, flanked southward +by sea, backgrounded by an estuary, and looped about by a sickle +of wooded islands. This same scene, so far as city and nature +go, was beheld by the crowds that swarmed East Battery, a +flagstone marine parade along the seaward side of the boulevard +that faces Sumter; that filled the windows and even the +housetops; that watched the bombardment with the eagerness of an +audience in an amphitheater; that applauded every telling shot +with clapping of hands and waving of shawls and handkerchiefs. +The fort lay distant from them about three miles, but only some +fifteen hundred yards from Fort Johnston on one side and about a +mile from Fort Moultrie on the other. From both of these latter, +the cannon of those days were equal to the task of harassing +Sumter. Early in the morning of the 12th of April, though not +until broad day had come, did Anderson make reply. All that day, +at first under heavily rolling cloud and later through curiously +misty sunshine, the fire and counterfire continued. "The +enthusiasm and fearlessness of the spectators," says the +Charleston Mercury, "knew no bounds." Reckless observers even put +out in small boats and roamed about the harbor almost under the +guns of the fort. Outside the bar, vessels of the relieving +squadron were now visible, and to these Anderson signaled for +aid. They made an attempt to reach the fort, but only part of the +squadron had arrived; and the vessels necessary to raise the +siege were not there. The attempt ended in failure. When night +came, a string of rowboats each carrying a huge torch kept watch +along the bar to guard against surprise from the sea. + +On that Friday night the harbor was swept by storm. But in spite +of torrents of rain East Battery and the rooftops were thronged. +"The wind was inshore and the booming was startlingly distinct." +At the height of the bombardment, the sky above Sumter seemed to +be filled with the flashes of bursting shells. But during this +wild night Sumter itself was both dark and silent. Its casements +did not have adequate lamps and the guns could not be used except +by day. When morning broke, clear and bright after the night's +storm, the duel was resumed. + +The walls of Sumter were now crumbling. At eight o'clock Saturday +morning the barracks took fire. Soon after it was perceived from +the shore that the flag was down. Beauregard at once sent offers +of assistance. With Sumter in flames above his head, Anderson +replied that he had not surrendered; he declined assistance; and +he hauled up his flag. Later in the day the flagstaff was shot in +two and again the flag fell, and again it was raised. Flames had +been kindled anew by red-hot shot, and now the magazine was in +danger. Quantities of powder were thrown into the sea. Still the +rain of red-hot shot continued. About noon, Saturday, says the +Courier, "flames burst out from every quarter of Sumter and +poured from many of its portholes...the wind was from the +west driving the smoke across the fort into the embrasures where +the gunners were at work." Nevertheless, "as if served with a new +impulse," the guns of Sumter redoubled their fire. But it was not +in human endurance to keep on in the midst of the burning fort. +This splendid last effort was short. At a quarter after one, +Anderson ceased firing and raised a white flag. Negotiations +followed ending in terms of surrender--Anderson to be allowed to +remove his garrison to the fleet lying idle beyond the bar and to +salute the flag of the United States before taking it down. The +bombardment had lasted thirty-two hours without a death on either +side. The evacuation of the fort was to take place next day. + +The afternoon of Sunday, the 14th of April, was a gala day in the +harbor of Charleston. The sunlight slanted across the roofs of +the city, sparkled upon the sea. Deep and rich the harbor always +looks in the spring sunshine on bright afternoons. The filmy +atmosphere of these latitudes, at that time of year, makes the +sky above the darkling, afternoon sea a pale but luminous +turquoise. There is a wonderful soft strength in the peaceful +brightness of the sun. In such an atmosphere the harbor was +flecked with brilliantly decked craft of every description, all +in a flutter of flags and carrying a host of passengers in gala +dress. The city swarmed across the water to witness the ceremony +of evacuation. Wherry men did a thriving business carrying +passengers to the fort. + +Anderson withdrew from Sumter shortly after two o'clock amid a +salute of fifty guns. The Confederates took possession. At half +after four a new flag was raised above the battered and +fire-swept walls. + + + +Chapter II. The Davis Government + +It has never been explained why Jefferson Davis was chosen +President of the Confederacy. He did not seek the office and did +not wish it. He dreamed of high military command. As a study in +the irony of fate, Davis's career is made to the hand of the +dramatist. An instinctive soldier, he was driven by circumstances +three times to renounce the profession of arms for a less +congenial civilian life. His final renunciation, which proved to +be of the nature of tragedy, was his acceptance of the office of +President. Indeed, why the office was given to him seems a +mystery. Rhett was a more logical candidate. And when Rhett, +early in the lobbying at Montgomery, was set aside as too much of +a radical, Toombs seemed for a time the certain choice of the +majority. The change to Davis came suddenly at the last moment. +It was puzzling at the time; it is puzzling still. + +Rhett, though doubtless bitterly disappointed, bore himself with +the savoir faire of a great gentleman. At the inauguration, it +was on Rhett's arm that Davis leaned as he entered the hall of +the Confederate Congress. The night before, in a public address, +Yancey had said that the man and the hour were met. The story of +the Confederacy is filled with dramatic moments, but to the +thoughtful observer few are more dramatic than the conjunction of +these three men in the inauguration of the Confederate President. +Beneath a surface of apparent unanimity they carried, like +concealed weapons, points of view that were in deadly antagonism. +This antagonism had not revealed itself hitherto. It was destined +to reveal itself almost immediately. It went so deep and spread +so far that unless we understand it, the Confederate story will +be unintelligible. + +A strange fatality destined all three of these great men to +despair. Yancey, who was perhaps most directly answerable of the +three for the existence of the Confederacy, lost influence almost +from the moment when his dream became established. Davis was +partly responsible, for he promptly sent him out of the country +on the bootless English mission. Thereafter, until his death in +1863, Yancey was a waning, overshadowed figure, steadily lapsing +into the background. It may be that those critics are right who +say he was only an agitator. The day of the mere agitator was +gone. Yancey passed rapidly into futile but bitter antagonism to +Davis. In this attitude he was soon to be matched by Rhett. + +The discontent of the Rhett faction because their leader was not +given the portfolio of the State Department found immediate +voice. But the conclusion drawn by some that Rhett's subsequent +course sprang from personal vindictiveness is trifling. He was +too large a personality, too well defined an intellect, to be +thus explained. Very probably Davis made his first great blunder +in failing to propitiate the Rhett faction. And yet few things +are more certain than that the two men, the two factions which +they symbolized, could not have formed a permanent alliance. Had +Rhett entered the Cabinet he could not have remained in it +consistently for any considerable time. The measures in which, +presently, the Administration showed its hand were measures in +which Rhett could not acquiesce. From the start he was +predestined to his eventual position--the great, unavailing +genius of the opposition. + +As to the comparative ignoring of these leaders of secession by +the Government which secession had created, it is often said that +the explanation is to be found in a generous as well as politic +desire to put in office the moderates and even the conservatives. +Davis, relatively, was a moderate. Stephens was a conservative. +Many of the most pronounced opponents of secession were given +places in the public service. Toombs, who received the portfolio +of State, though a secessionist, was conspicuously a moderate +when compared with Rhett and Yancey. The adroit Benjamin, who +became Attorney-General, had few points in common with the great +extremists of Alabama and South Carolina. + +However, the dictum that the personnel of the new Government was +a triumph for conservatism over radicalism signifies little. +There was a division among Southerners which scarcely any of them +had realized except briefly in the premature battle over +secession in 1851. It was the division between those who were +conscious of the region as a whole and those who were not. +Explain it as you will, there was a moment just after the +secession movement succeeded when the South seemed to realize +itself as a whole, when it turned intuitively to those men who, +as time was to demonstrate, shared this realization. For the +moment it turned away from those others, however great their part +in secession, who lacked this sense of unity. + +At this point, geography becomes essential. The South fell, +institutionally, into two grand divisions: one, with an old and +firmly established social order, where consciousness of the +locality went back to remote times; another, newly settled, where +conditions were still fluid, where that sense of the sacredness +of local institutions had not yet formed. + +A typical community of the first-named class was South Carolina. +Her people had to a remarkable degree been rendered +state-conscious partly by their geographical neighbors, and +partly by their long and illustrious history, which had been +interwoven with great European interests during the colonial era +and with great national interests under the Republic. It is +possible also that the Huguenots, though few in numbers, had +exercised upon the State a subtle and pervasive influence through +their intellectual power and their Latin sense for institutions. + +In South Carolina, too, a wealthy leisure class with a passion +for affairs had cultivated enthusiastically that fine art which +is the pride of all aristocratic societies, the service of the +State as a profession high and exclusive, free from vulgar taint. +In South Carolina all things conspired to uphold and strengthen +the sense of the State as an object of veneration, as something +over and above the mere social order, as the sacred embodiment of +the ideals of the community. Thus it is fair to say that what has +animated the heroic little countries of the Old World Switzerland +and Serbia and ever-glorious Belgium--with their passion to +remain themselves, animated South Carolina in 1861. Just as +Serbia was willing to fight to the death rather than merge her +identity in the mosaic of the Austrian Empire, so this little +American community saw nothing of happiness in any future that +did not secure its virtual independence. + +Typical of the newer order in the South was the community that +formed the President of the Confederacy. In the history of +Mississippi previous to the war there are six great names--Jacob +Thompson, John A. Quitman, Henry S. Foote, Robert J. Walker, +Sergeant S. Prentiss, and Jefferson Davis. Not one of them was +born in the State. Thompson was born in North Carolina; Quitman +in New York; Foote in Virginia; Walker in Pennsylvania; Prentiss +in Maine; Davis in Kentucky. In 1861 the State was but forty-four +years old, younger than its most illustrious sons--if the paradox +may be permitted. How could they think of it as an entity +existing in itself, antedating not only themselves but their +traditions, circumscribing them with its all-embracing, +indisputable reality? These men spoke the language of state +rights. It is true that in politics, combating the North, they +used the political philosophy taught them by South Carolina. But +it was a mental weapon in political debate; it was not for them +an emotional fact. + +And yet these men of the Southwest had an ideal of their own as +vivid and as binding as the state ideal of the men of the eastern +coast. Though half their leaders were born in the North, the +people themselves were overwhelmingly Southern. From all the +older States, all round the huge crescent which swung around from +Kentucky coastwise to Florida, immigration in the twenties and +thirties had poured into Mississippi. Consequently the new +community presented a composite picture of the whole South, and +like all composite pictures it emphasized only the factors common +to all its parts. What all the South had in common, what made a +man a Southerner in the general sense--in distinction from a +Northerner on the one hand, or a Virginian, Carolinian, Georgian, +on the other--could have been observed with clearness in +Mississippi, just before the war, as nowhere else. Therefore, the +fulfillment of the ideal of Southern life in general terms was +the vision of things hoped for by the new men of the Southwest. +The features of that vision were common to them all--country +life, broad acres, generous hospitality, an aristocratic system. +The temperaments of these men were sufficiently buoyant to enable +them to apprehend this ideal even before it had materialized. +Their romantic minds could see the gold at the end of the +rainbow. Theirs was not the pride of administering a +well-ordered, inherited system, but the joy of building a new +system, in their minds wholly elastic, to be sure, but still +inspired by that old system. + +What may be called the sense of Southern nationality as opposed +to the sense of state rights, strictly speaking, distinguished +this brilliant young community of the Southwest. In that +community Davis spent the years that appear to have been the most +impressionable of his life. Belonging to a "new" family just +emerging into wealth, he began life as a West Pointer and saw +gallant service as a youth on the frontier; resigned from the +army to pursue a romantic attachment; came home to lead the life +of a wealthy planter and receive the impress of Mississippi; made +his entry into politics, still a soldier at heart, with the +philosophy of state rights on his lips, but in his heart that +sense of the Southern people as a new nation, which needed only +the occasion to make it the relentless enemy of the rights of the +individual Southern States. Add together the instinctive military +point of view and this Southern nationalism that even in 1861 had +scarcely revealed itself; join with these a fearless and haughty +spirit, proud to the verge of arrogance, but perfectly devoted, +perfectly sincere; and you have the main lines of the political +character of Davis when he became President. It may be that as he +went forward in his great undertaking, as antagonisms developed, +as Rhett and others turned against him, Davis hardened. He lost +whatever comprehension he once had of the Rhett type. Seeking to +weld into one irresistible unit all the military power of the +South, he became at last in the eyes of his opponents a monster, +while to him, more and more positively, the others became mere +dreamers. + +It took about a year for this irrepressible conflict within the +Confederacy to reveal itself. During the twelve months following +Davis's election as provisional President, he dominated the +situation, though the Charleston Mercury, the Rhett organ, found +opportunities to be sharply critical of the President. He +assembled armies; he initiated heroic efforts to make up for the +handicap of the South in the manufacture of munitions and +succeeded in starting a number of munition plants; though +powerless to prevent the establishment of the blockade, he was +able during that first year to keep in touch with Europe, to +start out Confederate privateers upon the high seas, and to +import a considerable quantity of arms and supplies. At the +close of the year the Confederate armies were approaching +general efficiency, for all their enormous handicap, almost if +not quite as rapidly as were the Union armies. And the one great +event of the year on land, the first battle of Manassas, or Bull +Run, was a signal Confederate victory. + +To be sure Davis was severely criticized in some quarters for +not adopting an aggressive policy. The Confederate Government, +whether wisely or foolishly, had not taken the people into its +confidence and the lack of munitions was not generally +appreciated. The easy popular cries were all sounded: "We are +standing still!" "The country is being invaded!" "The President +is a do-nothing!" From the coast regions especially, where the +blockade was felt in all its severity, the outcry was loud. + +Nevertheless, the South in the main was content with the +Administration during most of the first year. In November, when +the general elections were held, Davis was chosen without +opposition as the first regular Confederate President for six +years, and Stephens became the Vice-President. The election was +followed by an important change in the Southern Cabinet. Benjamin +became Secretary of War, in succession to the first War +Secretary, Leroy P. Walker. Toombs had already left the +Confederate Cabinet. Complaining that Davis degraded him to the +level of a mere clerk, he had withdrawn the previous July. His +successor in the State Department was R. M. T. Hunter of +Virginia, who remained in office until February, 1862, when his +removal to the Confederate Senate opened the way for a further +advancement of Benjamin. + +Richmond, which had been designated as the capital soon after the +secession of Virginia, was the scene of the inauguration, on +February 22, 1862. Although the weather proved bleak and rainy, +an immense crowd gathered around the Washington monument, in +Capitol Square, to listen to the inaugural address. By this time +the confidence in the Government, which was felt generally at the +time of the election, had suffered a shock. Foreign affairs were +not progressing satisfactorily. Though England had accorded to +the Confederacy the status of a belligerent, this was poor +consolation for her refusal to make full recognition of the new +Government as an independent power. Dread of internal distress +was increasing. Gold commanded a premium of fifty percent. +Disorder was a feature of the life in the cities. It was known +that several recent military events had been victories for the +Federals. A rumor was abroad that some great disaster had taken +place in Tennessee. The crowd listened anxiously to hear the +rumor denied by the President. But it was not denied. The tense +listeners noted two sentences which formed an admission that the +situation was grave: "A million men, it is estimated, are now +standing in hostile array and waging war along a frontier of +thousands of miles. Battles have been fought, sieges have been +conducted, and although the contest is not ended, and the tide +for the moment is against us, the final result in our favor is +not doubtful." + +Behind these carefully guarded words lay serious alarm, not only +with regard to the operations at the front but as to the +composition of the army. It had been raised under various laws +and its portions were subject to conflicting classifications; it +was partly a group of state armies, partly a single Confederate +army. None of its members had enlisted for long terms. Many +enlistments would expire early in 1862. The fears of the +Confederate Administration with regard to this matter, together +with its alarm about the events at the front, were expressed by +Davis in a frank message to the Southern Congress, three days +later. "I have hoped," said he, "for several days to receive +official reports in relation to our discomfiture at Roanoke +Island and the fall of Fort Donelson. They have not yet reached +Me.... The hope is still entertained that our reported losses +at Fort Donelson have been greatly exaggerated...." He went +on to condemn the policy of enlistments for short terms, "against +which," said he, "I have steadily contended"; and he enlarged +upon the danger that even patriotic men, who intended to +reenlist, might go home to put their affairs in order and that +thus, at a critical moment, the army might be seriously reduced. +The accompanying report of the Confederate Secretary of War +showed a total in the army of 340,250 men. This was an inadequate +force with which to meet the great hosts which were being +organized against it in the North. To permit the slightest +reduction of the army at that moment seemed to the Southern +President suicidal. + +But Davis waited some time longer before proposing to the +Confederate Congress the adoption of conscription. Meanwhile, the +details of two great reverses, the loss of Roanoke Island and the +loss of Fort Donelson, became generally known. Apprehension +gathered strength. Newspapers began to discuss conscription as +something inevitable. At last, on March 28, 1862, Davis sent a +message to the Confederate Congress advising the conscription of +all white males between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five. For +this suggestion Congress was ripe, and the first Conscription Act +of the Confederacy was signed by the President on the 16th of +April. The age of eligibility was fixed as Davis had advised; the +term of service was to be three years; every one then in service +was to be retained in service during three years from the date of +his original enlistment. + +This statute may be thought of as a great victory on the part of +the Administration. It was the climax of a policy of +centralization in the military establishment to which Davis had +committed himself by the veto, in January, of "A bill to +authorize the Secretary of War to receive into the service of the +Confederate States a regiment of volunteers for the protection of +the frontier of Texas." This regiment was to be under the control +of the Governor of the State. In refusing to accept such troops, +Davis laid down the main proposition upon which he stood as +military executive to the end of the war, a proposition which +immediately set debate raging: "Unity and cooperation by the +troops of all the States are indispensable to success, and I must +view with regret this as well as all other indications of a +purpose to divide the power of States by dividing the means to be +employed in efforts to carry on separate operations." + +In these military measures of the early months of 1862 Davis's +purpose became clear. He was bent upon instituting a strong +government, able to push the war through, and careless of the +niceties of constitutional law or of the exact prerogatives of +the States. His position was expressed in the course of the year +by a Virginia newspaper: "It will be time enough to distract the +councils of the State about imaginary violations of +constitutional law by the supreme government when our +independence is achieved, established, and acknowledged. It will +not be until then that the sovereignty of the States will be a +reality." But there were many Southerners who could not accept +this point of view. The Mercury was sharply critical of the veto +of the Texas Regiment Bill. In the interval between the Texas +veto and the passing of the Conscription Act, the state +convention of North Carolina demanded the return of North +Carolina volunteers for the defense of their own State. No sooner +was the Conscription Act passed than its constitutionality was +attacked. As the Confederacy had no Supreme Court, the question +came up before state courts. One after another, several state +supreme courts pronounced the act constitutional and in most of +the States the constitutional issue was gradually allowed to +lapse. + +Nevertheless, Davis had opened Pandora's box. The clash between +State and Confederate authority had begun. An opposition party +began to form. In this first stage of its definite existence, the +opposition made an interesting attempt to control the Cabinet. +Secretary Benjamin, though greatly trusted by the President, +seems never to have been a popular minister. Congress attempted +to load upon Benjamin the blame for Roanoke Island and Fort +Donelson. In the House a motion was introduced to the effect that +Benjamin had "not the confidence of the people of the Confederate +States nor of the army...and that we most respectfully +request his retirement" from the office of Secretary of War. +Friends of the Administration tabled the motion. Davis extricated +his friend by taking advantage of Hunter's retirement and +promoting Benjamin to the State Department. A month later a +congressional committee appointed to investigate the affair of +Roanoke Island exonerated the officer in command and laid the +blame on his superiors, including "the late Secretary of War." + +With Benjamin safe in the Department of State, with the majority +in the Confederate Congress still fairly manageable, with the +Conscription Act in force, Davis seemed to be strong enough in +the spring of 1862 to ignore the gathering opposition. And yet +there was another measure, second only in the President's eyes to +the Conscription Act, that was to breed trouble. This was the +first of the series of acts empowering him to suspend the +privilege of the writ of habeas corpus. Under this act he was +permitted to set up martial law in any district threatened with +invasion. The cause of this drastic measure was the confusion and +the general demoralization that existed wherever the close +approach of the enemy created a situation too complex for the +ordinary civil authorities. Davis made use of the power thus +given to him and proclaimed martial law in Richmond, in Norfolk, +in parts of South Carolina, and elsewhere. It was on Richmond +that the hand of the Administration fell heaviest. The capital +was the center of a great camp; its sudden and vast increase in +population bad been the signal for all the criminal class near +and far to hurry thither in the hope of a new field of +spoliation; to deal with this immense human congestion, the local +police were powerless; every variety of abominable contrivance to +entrap and debauch men for a price was in brazen operation. The +first care of the Government under the new law was the cleansing +of the capital. General John H. Winder, appointed military +governor, did the job with thoroughness. He closed the barrooms, +disarmed the populace, and for the time at least swept the city +clean of criminals. The Administration also made certain +political arrests, and even imprisoned some extreme opponents of +the Government for "offenses not enumerated and not cognizable +under the regular process of law." Such arrests gave the enemies +of the Administration another handle against it. As we shall see +later, the use that Davis made of martial law was distorted by a +thousand fault-finders and was made the basis of the charge that +the President was aiming at absolute power. + +At the moment, however, Davis was master of the situation. The +six months following April 1, 1862, were doubtless, from his own +point of view, the most satisfactory part of his career as +Confederate President. These months were indeed filled with +peril. There was a time when McClellan's advance up the Peninsula +appeared so threatening that the archives of the Government were +packed on railway cars prepared for immediate removal should +evacuation be necessary. There were the other great disasters +during that year, including the loss of New Orleans. The +President himself experienced a profound personal sorrow in the +death of his friend, Albert Sidney Johnston, in the bloody fight +at Shiloh. It was in the midst of this time that tried men's +souls that the Richmond Examiner achieved an unenvied +immortality for one of its articles on the Administration. At a +moment when nothing should have been said to discredit in any way +the struggling Government, it described Davis as weak with fear +telling his beads in a corner of St. Paul's Church. This paper, +along with the Charleston Mercury, led the Opposition. Throughout +Confederate history these two, which were very ably edited, did +the thinking for the enemies of Davis. We shall meet them time +and again. + +A true picture of Davis would have shown the President resolute +and resourceful, at perhaps the height of his powers. He +recruited and supplied the armies; he fortified Richmond; he +sustained the great captain whom he had placed in command while +McClellan was at the gates. When the tide had turned and the Army +of the Potomac sullenly withdrew, baffled, there occurred the one +brief space in Confederate history that was pure sunshine. In +this period took place the splendid victory of Second Manassas. +The strong military policy of the Administration had given the +Confederacy powerful armies. Lee had inspired them with victory. +This period of buoyant hope culminated in the great offensive +design which followed Second Manassas. It was known that the +Northern people, or a large part of them, had suffered a +reaction; the tide was setting strong against the Lincoln +Government; in the autumn, the Northern elections would be held. +To influence those elections and at the same time to drive the +Northern armies back into their own section; to draw Maryland and +Kentucky into the Confederate States; to fall upon the invaders +in the Southwest and recover the lower Mississippi--to accomplish +all these results was the confident expectation of the President +and his advisers as they planned their great triple offensive in +August, 1862. Lee was to invade Maryland; Bragg was to invade +Kentucky; Van Dorn was to break the hold of the Federals in the +Southwest. If there is one moment that is to be considered the +climax of Davis's career, the high-water mark of Confederate +hope, it was the moment of joyous expectation when the triple +offensive was launched, when Lee's army, on a brilliant autumn +day, crossed the Potomac, singing "Maryland, my Maryland". + + + +Chapter III. The Fall Of King Cotton + +While the Confederate Executive was building up its military +establishment, the Treasury was struggling with the problem of +paying for it. The problem was destined to become insoluble. From +the vantage-point of a later time we can now see that nothing +could have provided a solution short of appropriation and +mobilization of the whole industrial power of the country along +with the whole military power--a conscription of wealth of every +kind together with conscription of men. But in 1862 such an idea +was too advanced for any group of Americans. Nor, in that year, +was there as yet any certain evidence that the Treasury was +facing an impossible situation. Its endeavors were taken +lightly--at first, almost gaily-because of the profound illusion +which permeated Southern thought that Cotton was King. Obviously, +if the Southern ports could be kept open and cotton could +continue to go to market, the Confederate financial problem was +not serious. When Davis, soon after his first inauguration, sent +Yancey, Rost, and Mann as commissioners to Europe to press the +claims of the Confederacy for recognition, very few Southerners +had any doubt that the blockade, would be short-lived. "Cotton is +King" was the answer that silenced all questions. Without +American cotton the English mills would have to shut down; the +operatives would starve; famine and discontent would between them +force the British ministry to intervene in American affairs. +There were, indeed, a few far-sighted men who perceived that this +confidence was ill-based and that cotton, though it was a power +in the financial world, was not the commercial king. The majority +of the population, however, had to learn this truth from keen +experience. + +Several events of 1861 for a time seemed to confirm this +illusion. The Queen's proclamation in the spring, giving the +Confederacy the status of a belligerent, and, in the autumn, the +demand by the British Government for the surrender of the +commissioners, Mason and Slidell, who had been taken from a +British packet by a Union cruiser--both these events seemed to +indicate active British sympathy. In England, to be sure, Yancey +became disillusioned. He saw that the international situation was +not so simple as it seemed; that while the South had powerful +friends abroad, it also had powerful foes; that the British +anti-slavery party was a more formidable enemy than he had +expected it to be; and that intervention was not a foregone +conclusion. The task of an unrecognized ambassador being too +annoying for him, Yancey was relieved at his own request and +Mason was sent out to take his place. A singular little incident +like a dismal prophecy occurred as Yancey was on his way home. He +passed through Havana early in 1862, when the news of the +surrender of Fort Donelson had begun to stagger the hopes and +impair the prestige of the Confederates. By the advice of the +Confederate agent in Cuba, Yancey did not call on the Spanish +Governor but sent him word that "delicacy alone prompted his +departure without the gratification of a personal interview." The +Governor expressed himself as "exceedingly grateful for the noble +sentiment which prevented" Yancey from causing international +complications at Havana. + +The history of the first year of Confederate foreign affairs is +interwoven with the history of Confederate finance. During that +year the South became a great buyer in Europe. Arms, powder, +cloth, machinery, medicines, ships, a thousand things, had all to +be bought abroad. To establish the foreign credit of the new +Government was the arduous task of the Confederate Secretary of +the Treasury, Christopher G. Memminger. The first great campaign +of the war was not fought by armies. It was a commercial campaign +fought by agents of the Federal and Confederate governments and +having for its aim the cornering of the munitions market in +Europe. In this campaign the Federal agents had decisive +advantages: their credit was never questioned, and their enormous +purchases were never doubtful ventures for the European sellers. +In some cases their superior credit enabled them to overbid the +Confederate agents and to appropriate large contracts which the +Confederates had negotiated but which they could not hold because +of the precariousness of their credit. And yet, all things +considered, the Confederate agents made a good showing. In the +report of the Secretary of War in February, 1862, the number of +rifles contracted for abroad was put at 91,000, of which 15,000 +had been delivered. The chief reliance of the Confederate +Treasury for its purchases abroad was at first the specie in the +Southern branch of the United States Mint and in Southern banks. +The former the Confederacy seized and converted to its own use. +Of the latter it lured into its own hands a very large proportion +by what is commonly called "the fifteen million loan"--an issue +of +eight percent bonds authorized in February, 1861. Most of this +specie seems to have been taken out of the country by the +purchase of European commodities. A little, to be sure, remained, +for there was some gold still at home when the Confederacy fell. +But the sum was small. + +In addition to this loan Memminger also persuaded Congress on +August 19, 1861, to lay a direct tax--the "war tax," as it was +called--of one-half of one per cent on all property except +Confederate bonds and money. As required by the Constitution this +tax was apportioned among the States, but if it assumed its +assessment before April 1, 1862, each State was to have a +reduction of ten per cent. As there was a general aversion to the +idea of Confederate taxation and a general faith in loans, what +the States did, as a rule, was to assume their assessment, agree +to pay it into the Treasury, and then issue bonds to raise the +necessary funds, thus converting the war tax into a loan. + +The Confederate, like the Union, Treasury did not have the +courage to force the issue upon taxation and leaned throughout +the war largely upon loans. It also had recourse to the perilous +device of paper money, the gold value of which was not +guaranteed. Beginning in March, 1861, it issued under successive +laws great quantities of paper notes, some of them interest +bearing, some not. It used these notes in payment of its domestic +obligations. The purchasing value of the notes soon started on a +disastrous downward course, and in 1864 the gold dollar was worth +thirty paper dollars. The Confederate Government thus became +involved in a problem of self-preservation that was but half +solved by the system of tithes and impressment which we shall +encounter later. The depreciation of these notes left +governmental clerks without adequate salaries and soldiers +without the means of providing for their families. During most of +the war, women and other noncombatants had to support the +families or else rely upon local charity organized by state or +county boards. + +Long before all the evils of paper money were experienced, the +North, with great swiftness, concentrated its naval forces so as +to dominate the Southern ports which had trade relations with +Europe. The shipping ports were at once congested with cotton to +the great embarrassment of merchants and planters. Partly to +relieve them, the Confederate Congress instituted in May, 1861, +what is known today as "the hundred million loan." It was the +first of a series of "produce loans." The Treasury was authorized +to issue eight percent bonds, to fall due in twenty years, and +to sell them for specie or to exchange them for produce or +manufactured articles. In the course of the remaining months of +1861 there were exchanged for these bonds great quantities of +produce including some 400,000 bales of cotton. + +In spite of the distress of the planters, however, the illusion +of King Cotton's power does not seem to have been seriously +impaired during 1861. In fact, strange as it now seems, the frame +of mind of the leaders appears to have been proof, that year, +against alarm over the blockade. For two reasons, the Confederacy +regarded the blockade at first as a blessing in disguise. It was +counted on to act as a protective tariff in stimulating +manufactures; and at the same time the South expected +interruption of the flow of cotton towards Europe to make England +feel her dependence upon the Confederacy. In this way there would +be exerted an economic coercion which would compel intervention. +Such reasoning lay behind a law passed in May forbidding the +export of cotton except through the seaports of the Confederacy. +Similar laws were enacted by the States. During the summer, many +cotton factors joined in advising the planters to hold their +cotton until the blockade broke down. In the autumn, the Governor +of Louisiana forbade the export of cotton from New Orleans. So +unshakeable was the illusion in 1861, that King Cotton had +England in his grip! The illusion died hard. Throughout 1862, and +even in 1863, the newspapers published appeals to the planters to +give up growing cotton for a time, and even to destroy what they +had, so as to coerce the obdurate Englishmen. + +Meanwhile, Mason had been accorded by the British upper classes +that generous welcome which they have always extended to the +representative, of a people fighting gallantly against odds. +During the hopeful days of 1862--that Golden Age of +Confederacy--Mason, though not recognized by the English +Government, was shown every kindness by leading members of the +aristocracy, who visited him in London and received him at their +houses in the country. It was during this period of buoyant hope +that the Alabama was allowed to go to sea from Liverpool in July, +1862. At the same time Mason heard his hosts express undisguised +admiration for the valor of the soldiers serving under Jackson +and Lee. Whether he formed any true impression of the other side +of British idealism, its resolute opposition to slavery, may be +questioned. There seems little doubt that he did not perceive the +turning of the tide of English public opinion, in the autumn of +1862, following the Emancipation Proclamation and the great +reverses of September and October--Antietam-Sharpsburg, +Perryville, Corinth--the backflow of all three of the Confederate +offensives. + +The cotton famine in England, where perhaps a million people were +in actual want through the shutting down of cotton mills, seemed +to Mason to be "looming up in fearful proportions." "The public +mind," he wrote home in November, 1862, "is very much disturbed +by the prospect for the winter; and I am not without hope that it +will produce its effects on the councils of the government." Yet +it was the uprising of the British working people in favor of the +North that contributed to defeat the one important attempt to +intervene in American affairs. Napoleon III had made an offer of +mediation which was rejected by the Washington Government early +the next year. England and Russia had both declined to +participate in Napoleon's scheme, and their refusal marks the +beginning of the end of the reign of King Cotton. + +At Paris, Slidell was even more hopeful than Mason. He had won +over Emile Erlanger, that great banker who was deep in the +confidence of Napoleon. So cordial became the relations between +the two that it involved their families and led at last to the +marriage of Erlanger's son with Slidell's daughter. Whether owing +to Slidell's eloquence, or from secret knowledge of the Emperor's +designs, or from his own audacity, Erlanger toward the close of +1862 made a proposal that is one of the most daring schemes of +financial plunging yet recorded. If the Confederate Government +would issue to him bonds secured by cotton, Erlanger would +underwrite the bonds, put the proceeds of their sale to the +credit of the Confederate agents, and wait for the cotton until +it could run the blockade or until peace should be declared. The +Confederate Government after some hesitation accepted his plan +and issued fifteen millions of "Erlanger bonds," bearing seven +percent, and put them on sale at Paris, London. Amsterdam, and +Frankfort. + +As a purchaser of these bonds was to be given cotton eventually +at a valuation of sixpence a pound, and as cotton was then +selling in England for nearly two shillings; the bold gamble +caught the fancy of speculators. There was a rush to take up the +bonds and to pay the first installment. But before the second +installment became due a mysterious change in the market took +place and the price of the bonds fell. Holders became alarmed and +some even proposed to forfeit their bonds rather than pay on May +1, 1863, the next installment of fifteen percent of the purchase +money. Thereupon Mason undertook to "bull" the market. Agents of +the United States Government were supposed to be at the bottom of +the drop in the bonds. To defeat their schemes the Confederate +agents bought back large amounts in bonds intending to resell. +The result was the expenditure of some six million dollars with +practically no effect on the market. These "Erlanger bonds" sold +slowly through 1863 and even in 1864, and netted a considerable +amount to the foreign agents of the Confederacy. + +The comparative failure of the Erlanger loan marks the downfall +of King Cotton. He was an exploded superstition. He was unable, +despite the cotton famine, to coerce the English workingmen into +siding with a country which they regarded, because of its support +of slavery, as inimical to their interests. At home, the +Government confessed the powerlessness of King Cotton by a change +of its attitude toward export. During the latter part of the war, +the Government secured the meager funds at its disposal abroad by +rushing cotton in swift ships through the blockade. So important +did this traffic become that the Confederacy passed stringent +laws to keep the control in its own hands. One more cause of +friction between the Confederate and the State authorities was +thus developed: the Confederate navigation laws prevented the +States from running the blockade on their own account. + +The effects of the blockade were felt at the ends of the earth. +India became an exporter of cotton. Egypt also entered the +competition. That singular dreamer, Ismail Pasha, whose reign +made Egypt briefly an exotic nation, neither eastern nor western, +found one of his opportunities in the American War and the +failure of the cotton supply. + + + +Chapter IV. The Reaction Against Richmond + +A popular revulsion of feeling preceded and followed the great +period of Confederate history--these six months of Titanic effort +which embraced between March and September, 1862, splendid +success along with catastrophes. But there was a marked +difference between the two tides of popular emotion. The wave of +alarm which swept over the South after the surrender of Fort +Donelson was quickly translated into such a high passion for +battle that the march of events until the day of Antietam +resounded like an epic. The failure of the triple offensive which +closed this period was followed in very many minds by the +appearance of a new temper, often as valiant as the old but far +more grim and deeply seamed with distrust. And how is this +distrust, of which the Confederate Administration was the object, +to be accounted for? + +Various answers to this question were made at the time. The laws +of the spring of 1862 were attacked as unconstitutional. Davis +was held responsible for them and also for the slow equipment of +the army. Because the Confederate Congress conducted much of its +business in secret session, the President was charged with a love +of mystery and an unwillingness to take the people into his +confidence. Arrests under the law suspending the writ of habeas +corpus were made the texts for harangues on liberty. The right of +freedom of speech was dragged in when General Van Dorn, in the +Southwest, threatened with suppression any newspaper that +published anything which might impair confidence in a commanding +officer. How could he have dared to do this, was the cry, unless +the President was behind him? And when General Bragg assumed a +similar attitude toward the press, the same cry was raised. +Throughout the summer of victories, even while the thrilling +stories of Seven Pines, the Peninsula, Second Manassas, were +sounding like trumpets, these mutterings of discontent formed an +ominous accompaniment. + +Yancey, speaking of the disturbed temper of the time, attributed +it to the general lack of information on the part of Southern +people as to what the Confederate Government was doing. His +proposed remedy was an end of the censorship which that +Government was attempting to maintain, the abandonment of the +secret sessions of its Congress, and the taking of the people +into its full confidence. Now a Senator from Alabama, he +attempted, at the opening of the congressional session in the +autumn of 1862, to abolish secret sessions, but in his efforts he +was not successful. + +There seems little doubt that the Confederate Government had +blundered in being too secretive. Even from Congress, much +information was withheld. A curious incident has preserved what +appeared to the military mind the justification of this +reticence. The Secretary of War refused to comply with a request +for information, holding that be could not do so "without +disclosing the strength of our armies to many persons of +subordinate position whose secrecy cannot be relied upon." "I beg +leave to remind you," said he, "of a report made in response to a +similar one from the Federal Congress, communicated to them in +secret session, and now a part of our archives." + +How much the country was in the dark with regard to some vital +matters is revealed by an attack on the Confederate +Administration which was made by the Charleston Mercury, in +February. The Southern Government was accused of unpardonable +slowness in sending agents to Europe to purchase munitions. In +point of fact, the Confederate Government had been more prompt +than the Union Government in rushing agents abroad. But the +country was not permitted to know this. Though the Courier was a +government organ in Charleston, it did not meet the charges of +the Mercury by disclosing the facts about the arduous attempts of +the Confederate Government to secure arms in Europe. The reply of +the Courier to the Mercury, though spirited, was all in general +terms. "To shake confidence in Jefferson Davis," said the +Courier, "is...to bring 'hideous ruin and combustion' down +upon our dearest hopes and interests." It made "Mr. Davis and his +defensive policy" objects of all admiration; called Davis "our +Moses." It was deeply indignant because it had been "reliably +informed that men of high official position among us" were +"calling for a General Convention of the Confederate States to +depose him and set up a military Dictator in his place." The +Mercury retorted that, as to the plot against "our Moses," there +was no evidence of its existence except the Courier's assertion. +Nevertheless, it considered Davis "an incubus to the cause." The +controversy between the Mercury and the Courier at Charleston was +paralleled at Richmond by the constant bickering between the +government organ, the Enquirer, and the Examiner, which shares +with the Mercury the first place among the newspapers hostile to +Davis.* + +* The Confederate Government did not misapprehend the attitude of +the intellectual opposition. Its foreign organ, The Index, +published in London, characterized the leading Southern papers +for the enlightenment of the British public. While the Enquirer +and the Courier were singled out as the great champions of the +Confederate Government, the Examiner and the Mercury were +portrayed as its arch enemies. The Examiner was called the +"Ishmael of the Southern press." The Mercury was described as +"almost rabid on the subject of state rights." + +Associated with the Examiner was a vigorous writer having +considerable power of the old-fashioned, furious sort, ever ready +to foam at the mouth. If he had had more restraint and less +credulity, Edward A. Pollard might have become a master of the +art of vituperation. Lacking these qualities, he never rose far +above mediocrity. But his fury was so determined and his +prejudice so invincible that his writings have something of the +power of conviction which fanaticism wields. In midsummer, 1862, +Pollard published a book entitled The First Year of the War, +which was commended by his allies in Charleston as showing no +"tendency toward unfairness of statement" and as expressing views +"mainly in accordance with popular opinion." + +This book, while affecting to be an historical review, was +skillfully designed to discredit the Confederate Administration. +Almost every disaster, every fault of its management was +traceable more or less directly to Davis. Kentucky had been +occupied by the Federal army because of the "dull expectation" in +which the Confederate Government had stood aside waiting for +things somehow to right themselves. The Southern Congress had +been criminally slow in coming to conscription, contenting itself +with an army of 400,000 men that existed "on paper." "The most +distressing abuses were visible in the ill-regulated hygiene of +our camps." According to this book, the Confederate +Administration was solely to blame for the loss of Roanoke +Island. In calling that disaster "deeply humiliating," as he did +in a message to Congress, Davis was trying to shield his favorite +Benjamin at the cost of gallant soldiers who had been sacrificed +through his incapacity. Davis's promotion of Benjamin to the +State Department was an act of "ungracious and reckless defiance +of popular sentiment." The President was "not the man to consult +the sentiment and wisdom of the people; he desired to signalize +the infallibility of his own intellect in every measure of the +revolution and to identify, from motives of vanity, his own +personal genius with every event and detail of the remarkable +period of history in which he had been called upon to act. This +imperious conceit seemed to swallow up every other idea in his +mind." The generals "fretted under this pragmatism" of one whose +"vanity" directed the war "from his cushioned seat in Richmond" +by means of the one formula, "the defensive policy." + +One of Pollard's chief accusations against the Confederate +Government was its failure to enforce the conscription law. His +paper, the Examiner, as well as the Mercury, supported Davis in +the policy of conscription, but both did their best, first, to +rob him of the credit for it and, secondly, to make his conduct +of the policy appear inefficient. Pollard claimed for the +Examiner the credit of having originated the policy of +conscription; the Mercury claimed it for Rhett. + +In other words, an aggressive war party led by the Examiner and +the Mercury had been formed in those early days when the +Confederate Government appeared to be standing wholly on the +defensive, and when it had failed to confide to the people the +extenuating circumstance that lack of arms compelled it to stand +still whether it would or no. And yet, after this Government had +changed its policy and had taken up in the summer of 1862 an +offensive policy, this party--or faction, or what you +will--continued its career of opposition. That the secretive +habit of the Confederate Government helped cement the opposition +cannot be doubted. It is also likely that this opposition gave a +vent to certain jealous spirits who had missed the first place in +leadership. + +Furthermore, the issue of state sovereignty had been raised. In +Georgia a movement had begun which was distinctly different from +the Virginia-Carolina movement of opposition, a movement for +which Rhett and Pollard had scarcely more than disdainful +tolerance, and not always that. This parallel opposition found +vent, as did the other, in a political pamphlet. On the subject +of conscription Davis and the Governor of Georgia--that same +Joseph E. Brown who had seized Fort Pulaski in the previous +year--exchanged a rancorous correspondence. Their letters were +published in a pamphlet of which Pollard said scornfully that it +was hawked about in every city of the South. Brown, taking alarm +at the power given the Confederate Government by the Conscription +Act, eventually defined his position, and that of a large +following, in the extreme words: "No act of the Government of the +United States prior to the secession of Georgia struck a blow at +constitutional liberty so fell as has been stricken by the +conscript acts." + +There were other elements of discontent which were taking form as +early as the autumn of 1862 but which were not yet clearly +defined. But the two obvious sources of internal criticism just +described were enough to disquiet the most resolute +administration. When the triple offensive broke down, when the +ebb-tide began, there was already everything that was needed to +precipitate a political crisis. And now the question arises +whether the Confederate Administration had itself to blame. Had +Davis proved inadequate in his great undertaking? + +The one undeniable mistake of the Government previous to the +autumn of 1862 was its excessive secrecy. As to the other +mistakes attributed to it at the time, there is good reason to +call them misfortunes. Today we can see that the financial +situation, the cotton situation, the relations with Europe, the +problem of equipping the armies, were all to a considerable +degree beyond the control of the Confederate Government. If there +is anything to be added to its mistaken secrecy as a definite +cause of irritation, it must be found in the general tone given +to its actions by its chief directors. And here there is +something to be said. + +With all his high qualities of integrity, courage, faithfulness, +and zeal, Davis lacked that insight into human life which marks +the genius of the supreme executive. He was not an artist in the +use of men. He had not that artistic sense of his medium which +distinguishes the statesman from the bureaucrat. In fact, he had +a dangerous bent toward bureaucracy. As Reuben Davis said of him, +"Gifted with some of the highest attributes of a statesman, he +lacked the pliancy which enables a man to adapt his measures to +the crisis." Furthermore, he lacked humor; there was no +safety-valve to his intense nature; and he was a man of delicate +health. Mrs. Davis, describing the effects which nervous +dyspepsia and neuralgia had upon him, says he would come home +from his office "fasting, a mere mass of throbbing nerves, and +perfectly exhausted." And it cannot be denied that his mind was +dogmatic. Here are dangerous lines for the character of a leader +of revolution--the bureaucratic tendency, something of rigidity, +lack of humor, physical wretchedness, dogmatism. Taken together, +they go far toward explaining his failure in judging men, his +irritable confidence in himself. + +It is no slight detail of a man's career to be placed side by +side with a genius of the first rank without knowing it. But +Davis does not seem ever to have appreciated that the man +commanding in the Seven Days' Battles was one of the world's +supreme characters. The relation between Davis and Lee was always +cordial, and it brought out Davis's character in its best light. +Nevertheless, so rooted was Davis's faith in his own abilities +that he was capable of saying, at a moment of acutest anxiety, +"If I could take one wing and Lee the other, I think we could +between us wrest a victory from those people." And yet, his +military experience embraced only the minor actions of a young +officer on the Indian frontier and the gallant conduct of a +subordinate in the Mexican War. He had never executed a great +military design. His desire for the military life was, after all, +his only ground for ranking himself with the victor of Second +Manassas. Davis was also unfortunate in lacking the power to +overcome men and sweep them along with him--the power Lee showed +so conspicuously. Nor was Davis averse to sharp reproof of the +highest officials when he thought them in the wrong. He once +wrote to Joseph E. Johnston that a letter of his contained +"arguments and statements utterly unfounded" and "insinuations as +unfounded as they were unbecoming." + +Davis was not always wise in his choice of men. His confidence in +Bragg, who was long his chief military adviser, is not sustained +by the military critics of a later age. His Cabinet, though not +the contemptible body caricatured by the malice of Pollard, was +not equal to the occasion. Of the three men who held the office +of Secretary of State, Toombs and Hunter had little if any +qualification for such a post, while the third, Benjamin, is the +sphinx of Confederate history. + +In a way, Judah P. Benjamin is one of the most interesting men in +American politics. By descent a Jew, born in the West Indies, he +spent his boyhood mainly at Charleston and his college days at +Yale. He went to New Orleans to begin his illustrious career as a +lawyer, and from Louisiana entered politics. The facile keenness +of his intellect is beyond dispute. He had the Jewish clarity of +thought, the wonderful Jewish detachment in matters of pure mind. +But he was also an American of the middle of the century. His +quick and responsive nature--a nature that enemies might call +simulative--caught and reflected the characteristics of that +singular and highly rhetorical age. He lives in tradition as the +man of the constant smile, and yet there is no one in history +whose state papers contain passages of fiercer violence in days +of tension. How much of his violence was genuine, how much was a +manner of speaking, his biographers have not had the courage to +determine. Like so many American biographers they have avoided +the awkward questions and have glanced over, as lightly as +possible, the persistent attempts of Congress to drive him from +office. + +Nothing could shake the resolution of Davis to retain Benjamin in +the Cabinet. Among Davis's loftiest qualities was his sense of +personal loyalty. Once he had given his confidence, no amount of +opposition could shake his will but served rather to harden him. +When Benjamin as Secretary of War passed under a cloud, Davis led +him forth resplendent as Secretary of State. Whether he was wise +in doing so, whether the opposition was not justified in its +distrust of Benjamin, is still an open question. What is certain +is that both these able men, even before the crisis that arose in +the autumn of 1862, had rendered themselves and their Government +widely unpopular. It must never be forgotten that Davis entered +office without the backing of any definite faction. He was a +"dark horse," a compromise candidate. To build up a stanch +following, to create enthusiasm for his Administration, was a +prime necessity of his first year as President. Yet he seems not +to have realized this necessity. Boldly, firmly, dogmatically, he +gave his whole thought and his entire energy to organizing the +Government in such a way that it could do its work efficiently. +And therein may have been the proverbial rift within the lute. To +Davis statecraft was too much a thing of methods and measures, +too little a thing of men and passions. + +During the autumn of 1862 and the following winter the disputes +over the conduct of the war began to subside and two other themes +became prominent: the sovereignty of the States, which appeared +to be menaced by the Government, and the personality of Davis, +whom malcontents regarded as a possible despot. Contrary to +tradition, the first note of alarm over state rights was not +struck by its great apostle Rhett, although the note was sounded +in South Carolina in the early autumn. There existed in this +State at that time an extra assembly called the "Convention," +which had been organized in 1860 for the general purpose of +seeing the State through the "revolution." In the Convention, in +September, 1862, the question of a contest with the Confederate +Government on the subject of a state army was definitely raised. +It was proposed to organize a state army and to instruct the +Legislature to "take effectual measures to prevent the agents of +the Confederate Government from raising troops in South Carolina +except by voluntary enlistment or by applying to the Executive of +the State to call out the militia as by law organized, or some +part of it to be mustered into the Confederate service." This +proposal brought about a sharp debate upon the Confederate +Government and its military policy. Rhett made a remarkable +address, which should of itself quiet forever the old tale that +he was animated in his opposition solely by the pique of a +disappointed candidate for the presidency. Though as sharp as +ever against the Government and though agreeing wholly with the +spirit of the state army plan, he took the ground that +circumstances at the moment rendered the organization of such an +army inopportune. A year earlier he would have strongly supported +the plan. In fact, in opposition to Davis he had at that time, he +said, urged an obligatory army which the States should be +required to raise. The Confederate Administration, however, had +defeated his scheme. Since then the situation had changed and had +become so serious that now there was no choice but to submit to +military necessity. He regarded the general conscription law as +"absolutely necessary to save" the Confederacy "from utter +devastation if not final subjugation. Right or wrong, the policy +of the Administration had left us no other alternative...." + +The dominant attitude in South Carolina in the autumn of 1862 is +in strong contrast, because of its firm grasp upon fact, with the +attitude of the Brown faction in Georgia. An extended history of +the Confederate movement--one of those vast histories that +delight the recluse and scare away the man of the world--would +labor to build up images of what might be called the +personalities of the four States that continued from the +beginning to the end parts of the effective Confederate +system--Virginia, the two Carolinas, and Georgia. We are prone to +forget that the Confederacy was practically divided into separate +units as early as the capture of New Orleans by Farragut, but a +great history of the time would have a special and thrilling +story of the conduct of the detached western unit, the isolated +world of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas--the "Department of the +Trans-Mississippi"--cut off from the main body of the Confederacy +and hemmed in between the Federal army and the deep sea. Another +group of States--Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama--became so soon, +and remained so long, a debatable land, on which the two armies +fought, that they also had scant opportunity for genuine +political life. Florida, small and exposed, was absorbed in its +gallant achievement of furnishing to the armies a number of +soldiers larger than its voting population. + +Thus, after the loss of New Orleans, one thing with another +operated to confine the area of full political life to Virginia +and her three neighbors to the South. And yet even among these +States there was no political solidarity or unanimity of opinion, +for the differences in their past experience, social structure, +and economic conditions made for distinct points of view. In +South Carolina, particularly, the prevailing view was that of +experienced, disillusioned men who realized from the start that +secession had burnt their bridges, and that now they must win the +fight or change the whole current of their lives. In the midst of +the extraordinary conditions of war, they never talked as if +their problems were the problems of peace. Brown, on the other +hand, had but one way of reasoning--if we are to call it +reasoning--and, with Hannibal at the gates, talked as if the +control of the situation were still in his own hands. + +While South Carolina, so grimly conscious of the reality of war +and the danger of internal discord, held off from the issue of +state sovereignty, the Brown faction in Georgia blithely pressed +it home. A bill for extending the conscription age which was +heartily advocated by the Mercury was as heartily condemned by +Brown. To the President he wrote announcing his continued +opposition to a law which he declared "encroaches upon the +reserved rights of the State and strikes down her sovereignty at +a single blow." Though the Supreme Court of Georgia pronounced +the conscription acts constitutional, the Governor and his +faction did not cease to condemn them. Linton Stephens, as well +as his famous kinsman, took up the cudgels. In a speech before +the Georgia Legislature, in November, Linton Stephens borrowed +almost exactly the Governor's phraseology in denying the +necessity for conscription, and this continued to be the note of +their faction throughout the war. "Conscription checks +enthusiasm," was ever their cry; "we are invincible under a +system of volunteering, we are lost with conscription." + +Meanwhile the military authorities looked facts in the face and +had a different tale to tell. They complained that in various +parts of the country, especially in the mountain districts, they +were unable to obtain men. Lee reported that his army melted away +before his eye and asked for an increase of authority to compel +stragglers to return. At the same time Brown was quarreling with +the Administration as to who should name the officers of the +Georgia troops. Zebulon B. Vance, the newly elected Governor of +North Carolina and an anti-Davis man, said to the Legislature: +"It is mortifying to find entire brigades of North Carolina +soldiers commanded by strangers, and in many cases our own brave +and war-worn colonels are made to give place to colonels from +distant States." In addition to such indications of discontent a +vast mass of evidence makes plain the opposition to conscription +toward the close of 1862 and the looseness of various parts of +the military system. + +It was a moment of intense excitement and of nervous strain. The +country was unhappy, for it had lost faith in the Government at +Richmond. The blockade was producing its effect. European +intervention was receding into the distance. One of the +characteristics of the editorials and speeches of this period is +a rising tide of bitterness against England. Napoleon's proposal +in November to mediate, though it came to naught, somewhat +revived the hope of an eventual recognition of the Confederacy +but did not restore buoyancy to the people of the South. The +Emancipation Proclamation, though scoffed at as a cry of +impotence, none the less increased the general sense of crisis. + +Worst of all, because of its immediate effect upon the temper of +the time, food was very scarce and prices had risen to +indefensible heights. The army was short of shoes. In the +newspapers, as winter came on, were to be found touching +descriptions of Lee's soldiers standing barefoot in the snow. A +flippant comment of Benjamin's, that the shoes had probably been +traded for whiskey, did not tend to improve matters. Even though +short of supplies themselves, the people as a whole eagerly +subscribed to buy shoes for the army. + +There was widespread and heartless speculation in the supplies. +Months previous the Courier had made this ominous editorial +remark: "Speculators and monopolists seem determined to force the +people everywhere to the full exercise of all the remedies +allowed by law." In August, 1862, the Governor of Florida wrote +to the Florida delegation at Richmond urging them to take steps +to meet the "nefarious smuggling" of speculators who charged +extortionate prices. In September, he wrote again begging for +legislation to compel millers, tanners, and saltmakers to offer +their products at reasonable rates. As these men were exempt from +military duty because their labor was held to be a public +service, feeling against them ran high. Governor Vance proposed a +state convention to regulate prices for North Carolina and by +proclamation forbade the export of provisions in order to prevent +the seeking of exorbitant prices in other markets. Davis wrote to +various Governors urging them to obtain state legislation to +reduce extortion in the food business. In the provisioning of the +army the Confederate Government had recourse to impressment and +the arbitrary fixing of prices. Though the Attorney-General held +this action to be constitutional, it led to sharp contentions; +and at length a Virginia court granted an injunction to a +speculator who had been paid by the Government for flour less +than it had cost him. + +In an attempt to straighten out this tangled situation, the +Confederate Government began, late, in 1862, by appointing as its +new Secretary of War,* James A. Seddon of Virginia--at that time +high in popular favor. The Mercury hailed his advent with +transparent relief, for no appointment could have seemed to it +more promising. Indeed, as the new year (1863) opened the Mercury +was in better humor with the Administration than perhaps at any +other time during the war. To the President's message it gave +praise that was almost cordial. This amicable temper was +short-lived, however, and three months later the heavens had +clouded + +* There were in all six Secretaries of War: Leroy P. Walker, +until September 16, 1861; Judah P. Benjamin, until March 18, +1862; George W. Randolph, until November 17, 1868; Gustavus W. +Smith (temporarily), until November 21, 1862; James A. Seddon, +until February 6, 1865; General John C. Breckinridge, again, for +the Government had entered upon a course that consolidated the +opposition in anger and distrust. + + +Early in 1863 the Confederate Government presented to the country +a program in which the main features were three. Of these the two +which did not rouse immediate hostility in the party of the +Examiner and the Mercury were the Impressment Act of March, 1863 +(amended by successive acts), and the act known as the Tax in +Kind, which was approved the following month. Though the +Impressment Act subsequently made vast trouble for the +Government, at the time of its passage its beneficial effects +were not denied. To it was attributed by the Richmond Whig the +rapid fall of prices in April, 1863. Corn went down at Richmond +from $12 and $10 a bushel to $4.20, and flour dropped in North +Carolina from $45 a barrel to $25. Under this act commissioners +were appointed in each State jointly by the Confederate President +and the Governor with the duty of fixing prices for government +transactions and of publishing every two months an official +schedule of the prices to be paid by the Government for the +supplies which it impressed. + +The new Tax Act attempted to provide revenues which should not be +paid in depreciated currency. With no bullion to speak of, the +Confederate Congress could not establish a circulating medium +with even an approximation to constant value. Realizing this +situation, Memminger had advised falling back on the ancient +system of tithes and the support of the Government by direct +contributions of produce. After licensing a great number of +occupations and laying a property tax and an income tax, the new +law demanded a tenth of the produce of all farmers. On this law +the Mercury pronounced a benediction in an editorial on The Fall +of Prices, which it attributed to "the healthy influence of the +tax bill which has just become law."* + +* The fall of prices was attributed by others to a funding act, +--one of several passed by the Confederate Congress--which, in +March, 1863, aimed by various devices to contract the volume of +the currency. It was very generally condemned, and it anticipated +the yet more drastic measure, the Funding Act of 1864, which will +be described later. + + +Had these two measures been the whole program of the Government, +the congressional session of the spring of 1863 would have had a +different significance in Confederate history. But there was a +third measure that provoked a new attack on the Government. The +gracious words of the Mercury on the tax in kind came as an +interlude in the midst of a bitter controversy. An editorial of +the 12th of March headed "A Despotism over the Confederate States +Proposed in Congress" amounted to a declaration of war. From this +time forward the opposition and the Government drew steadily +further and further apart and their antagonism grew steadily more +relentless. + +What caused this irrevocable breach was a bill introduced into +the House by Ethelbert Barksdale of Mississippi, an old friend of +President Davis. This bill would have invested the President with +authority to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus +in any part of the Confederacy, whenever in his judgment such +suspension was desirable. The first act suspending the privilege +of habeas corpus had long since expired and applied only to such +regions as were threatened with invasion. It had served usefully +under martial law in cleansing Richmond of its rogues, and also +had been in force at Charleston. The Mercury had approved it and +had exhorted its readers to take the matter sensibly as an +inevitable detail of war. Between that act and the act now +proposed the Mercury saw no similarity. Upon the merits of the +question it fought a furious journalistic duel with the Enquirer, +the government organ at Richmond, which insisted that President +Davis would not abuse his power. The Mercury replied that if he +"were a second Washington, or an angel upon earth, the +degradation such a surrender of our rights implies would still be +abhorrent to every freeman." In retort the Enquirer pointed out +that a similar law had been enacted by another Congress with no +bad results. And in point of fact the Enquirer was right, for in +October, 1862, after the expiration of the first act suspending +the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, Congress passed a +second giving to the President the immense power which was now +claimed for him again. This second act was in force several +months. Then the Mercury made the astounding declaration that it +had never heard of the second act, and thereupon proceeded to +attack the secrecy of the Administration with renewed vigor. + +On this issue of reviving the expired second Habeas Corpus Act, a +battle royal was fought in the Confederate Congress. The forces +of the Administration defended the new measure on the ground +that various regions were openly seditious and that conscription +could not be enforced without it. This argument gave a new text +for the cry of "despotism." The congressional leader of the +opposition was Henry S. Foote, once the rival of Davis in +Mississippi and now a citizen of Tennessee. Fierce, vindictive, +sometimes convincing, always shrewd, he was a powerful leader of +the rough and ready, buccaneering sort. Under his guidance the +debate was diverted into a rancorous discussion of the conduct of +the general's in the execution of martial law. Foote pulled out +all the stops in the organ of political rhetoric and went in for +a chant royal of righteous indignation. The main object of this +attack was General Hindman and his doings in Arkansas. Those were +still the days of pamphleteering. Though General Albert Pike had +written a severe pamphlet condemning Hindman, to this pamphlet +the Confederate Government had shut its eyes. Foote, however, +flourished it in the face of the House. He thundered forth his +belief that Hindman was worse even than the man most detested in +the South, than "beast Butler himself, for the latter is only +charged with persecuting and oppressing the avowed enemies of his +Government, while Hindman, if guilty as charged, has practised +cruelties unnumbered" on his people. Other representatives spoke +in the same vein. Baldwin of Virginia told harrowing tales of +martial law in that State. Barksdale attempted to retaliate, +sarcastically reminding him of a recent scene of riot and +disorder which proved that martial law, in any effective form, +did not exist in Virginia. He alluded to a riot, ostensibly for +bread, in which an Amazonian woman had led a mob to the pillaging +of the Richmond jewelry shops, a riot which Davis himself had +quelled by meeting the rioters and threatening to fire upon them. +But sarcasm proved powerless against Foote. His climax was a +lurid tale of a soldier who while marching past his own house +heard that his wife was dying, who left the ranks for a last word +with her, and who on rejoining the command, "hoping to get +permission to bury her," was shot as a deserter. And there was no +one on the Government benches to anticipate Kipling and cry out +"flat art!" Resolutions condemning martial law were passed by a +vote of 45 to 27. + +Two weeks later the Mercury preached a burial sermon over the +Barksdale Bill, which had now been rejected by the House. +Congress was about to adjourn, and before it reassembled +elections for the next House would be held. "The measure is dead +for the present," said the Mercury, "but power is ever restive +and prone to accumulate power; and if the war continues, other +efforts will doubtless be made to make the President a Dictator. +Let the people keep their eyes steadily fixed on their +representatives with respect to this vital matter; and should the +effort again be made to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act, demand +that a recorded vote should show those who shall strike down +their liberties." + + + + Chapter V. The Critical Year + +The great military events of the year 1863 have pushed out of +men's memories the less dramatic but scarcely less important +civil events. To begin with, in this year two of the greatest +personalities in the South passed from the political stage: in +the summer Yancey died; and in the autumn, Rhett went into +retirement. + +The ever malicious Pollard insists that Yancey's death was due +ultimately to a personal encounter with a Senator from Georgia on +the floor of the Senate. The curious may find the discreditable +story embalmed in the secret journal of the Senate, where are the +various motions designed to keep the incident from the knowledge +of the world. Whether it really caused Yancey's death is another +question. However, the moment of his passing has dramatic +significance. Just as the battle over conscription was fully +begun, when the fear that the Confederate Government had arrayed +itself against the rights of the States had definitely taken +shape, when this dread had been reenforced by the alarm over the +suspension of habeas corpus, the great pioneer of the secession +movement went to his grave, despairing of the country he had +failed to lead. His death occurred in the same month as the +Battle of Gettysburg, at the very time when the Confederacy was +dividing against itself. + +The withdrawal of Rhett from active life was an incident of the +congressional elections. He had consented to stand for Congress +in the Third District of South Carolina but was defeated. The +full explanation of the vote is still to be made plain; it seems +clear, however, that South Carolina at this time knew its own +mind quite positively. Five of the six representatives returned +to the Second Congress, including Rhett's opponent, Lewis M. +Ayer, had sat in the First Congress. The subsequent history of +the South Carolina delegation and of the State Government shows +that by 1863 South Carolina had become, broadly speaking, on +almost all issues an anti-Davis State. And yet the largest +personality and probably the ablest mind in the State was +rejected as a candidate for Congress. No character in American +history is a finer challenge to the biographer than this powerful +figure of Rhett, who in 1861 at the supreme crisis of his life +seemed the master of his world and yet in every lesser crisis was +a comparative failure. As in Yancey, so in Rhett, there was +something that fitted him to one great moment but did not fit him +to others. There can be little doubt that his defeat at the polls +of his own district deeply mortified him. He withdrew from +politics, and though he doubtless, through the editorship of one +of his sons, inspired the continued opposition of the Mercury to +the Government, Rhett himself hardly reappears in Confederate +history except for a single occasion during the debate a year +later upon the burning question of arming the slaves. + +The year was marked by very bitter attacks upon President Davis +on the part of the opposition press. The Mercury revived the +issue of the conduct of the war which had for some time been +overshadowed by other issues. In the spring, to be sure, things +had begun to look brighter, and Chancellorsville had raised Lee's +reputation to its zenith. The disasters of the summer, Gettysburg +and Vicksburg, were for a time minimized by the Government and do +not appear to have caused the alarm which their strategic +importance might well have created. But when in the latter days +of July the facts became generally known, the Mercury arraigned +the President's conduct of the war as "a vast complication of +incompetence and folly"; it condemned the whole scheme of the +Northern invasion and maintained that Lee should have stood on +the defensive while twenty or thirty thousand men were sent to +the relief of Vicksburg. These two ideas it bitterly reiterated +and in August went so far as to quote Macaulay's famous passage +on Parliament's dread of a decisive victory over Charles and to +apply it to Davis in unrestrained language that reminds one of +Pollard. + +Equally unrestrained were the attacks upon other items of the +policy of the Confederate Government. The Impressment Law began +to be a target. Farmers who were compelled to accept the prices +fixed by the impressment commissioners cried out that they were +being ruined. Men of the stamp of Toombs came to their assistance +with railing accusations such as this: "I have heard it said that +we should not sacrifice liberty to independence, but I tell you, +my countrymen, that the two are inseparable.... If we lose +our liberty we shall lose our independence.... I would rather +see the whole country the cemetery of freedom than the habitation +of slaves." Protests which poured in upon the Government insisted +that the power to impress supplies did not carry with it the +power to fix prices. Worthy men, ridden by the traditional ideas +of political science and unable to modify these in the light of +the present emergency, wailed out their despair over the +"usurpation" of Richmond. + +The tax in kind was denounced in the same vein. The licensing +provisions of this law and its income tax did not satisfy the +popular imagination. These provisions concerned the classes that +could borrow. The classes that could not borrow, that had no +resources but their crops, felt that they were being driven to +the wall. The bitter saying went around that it was "a rich man's +war and a poor man's fight." As land and slaves were not directly +taxed, the popular discontent appeared to have ground for its +anger. Furthermore, it must never be forgotten that this was the +first general tax that the poor people of the South were ever +conscious of paying. To people who knew the tax-gatherer as +little more than a mythical being, he suddenly appeared like a +malevolent creature who swept off ruthlessly the tenth of their +produce. It is not strange that an intemperate reaction against +the planters and their leadership followed. The illusion spread +that they were not doing their share of the fighting; and as rich +men were permitted to hire substitutes to represent them in the +army, this really baseless report was easily propped up in the +public mind with what appeared to be reason. + +In North Carolina, where the peasant farmer was a larger +political factor than in any other State, this feeling against +the Confederate Government because of the tax in kind was most +dangerous. In the course of the summer, while the military +fortunes of the Confederacy were toppling at Vicksburg and +Gettysburg, the North Carolina farmers in a panic of +self-preservation held numerous meetings of protest and +denunciation. They expressed their thoughtless terror in +resolutions asserting that the action of Congress "in secret +session, without consulting with their constituents at home, +taking from the hard laborers of the Confederacy one-tenth of the +people's living, instead of taking back their own currency in +tax, is unjust and tyrannical." Other resolutions called the tax +"unconstitutional, anti-republican, and oppressive"; and still +others pledged the farmers "to resist to the bitter end any such +monarchical tax." + +A leader of the discontented in North Carolina was found in W. W. +Holden, the editor of the Raleigh Progress, who before the war +had attempted to be spokesman for the men of small property by +advocating taxes on slaves and similar measures. He proposed as +the conclusion of the whole matter the opening of negotiations +for peace. We shall see later how deep-seated was this singular +delusion that peace could be had for the asking. In 1863, +however, many men in North Carolina took up the suggestion with +delight. Jonathan Worth wrote in his diary, on hearing that the +influential North Carolina Standard had come out for peace: "I +still abhor, as I always did, this accursed war and the wicked +men, North and South, who inaugurated it. The whole country at +the North and the South is a great military despotism." With such +discontent in the air, the elections in North Carolina drew near. +The feeling was intense and riots occurred. Newspaper offices +were demolished--among them Holden's, to destroy which a +detachment of passing soldiers converted itself into a mob. In +the western counties deserters from the army, combined in bands, +were joined by other deserters from Tennessee, and terrorized the +countryside. Governor Vance, alarmed at the progress which this +disorder was making, issued a proclamation imploring his +rebellious countrymen to conduct in a peaceable manner their +campaign for the repeal of obnoxious laws. + +The measure of political unrest in North Carolina was indicated +in the autumn when a new delegation to Congress was chosen. Of +the ten who composed it, eight were new men. Though they did not +stand for a clearly defined program, they represented on the +whole anti-Davis tendencies. The Confederate Administration had +failed to carry the day in the North Carolina elections; and in +Georgia there were even more sweeping evidences of unrest. Of the +ten representatives chosen for the Second Congress nine had not +sat in the First, and Georgia now was in the main frankly +anti-Davis. There had been set up at Richmond a new organ of the +Government called the Sentinel, which was more entirely under the +presidential shadow than even the Enquirer and the Courier. +Speaking of the elections, the Sentinel deplored the "upheaval of +political elements" revealed by the defeat of so many tried +representatives whose constituents had not returned them to the +Second Congress. + +What was Davis doing while the ground was thus being cut from +under his feet? For one thing he gave his endorsement to the +formation of "Confederate Societies" whose members bound +themselves to take Confederate money as legal tender. He wrote a +letter to one such society in Mississippi, praising it for +attempting "by common consent to bring down the prices of all +articles to the standard of the soldiers' wages" and adding that +the passion of speculation had "seduced citizens of all classes +from a determined prosecution of the war to an effort to amass +money." The Sentinel advocated the establishment of a law fixing +maximum prices. The discussion of this proposal seems to make +plain the raison d'etre for the existence of the Sentinel. Even +such stanch government organs as the Enquirer and the Courier +shied at the idea, but the Mercury denounced it vigorously, +giving long extracts from Thiers, and discussed the mistakes, of +the French Revolution with its "law of maximum." + +Davis, however, did not take an active part in the political +campaign, nor did the other members of the Government. It was not +because of any notion that the President should not leave the +capital that Davis did not visit the disaffected regions of North +Carolina when the startled populace winced under its first +experience with taxation. Three times during his Administration +Davis left Richmond on extended journeys: late in 1862, when +Vicksburg had become a chief concern of the Government, he went +as far afield as Mississippi in order to get entirely in touch +with the military situation in those parts; in the month of +October, 1863, when there was another moment of intense military +anxiety, Davis again visited the front; and of a third journey +which he undertook in 1864, we shall hear in time. It is to be +noted that each of these journeys was prompted by a military +motive; and here, possibly, we get an explanation of his +inadequacy as a statesman. He could not lay aside his interest in +military affairs for the supremely important concerns of civil +office; and he failed to understand how to ingratiate his +Administration by personal appeals to popular imagination. + +In October, 1863,--the very month in which his old rival Rhett +suffered his final defeat,--Davis undertook a journey because +Bragg, after his great victory at Chickamauga, appeared to be +letting slip a golden opportunity, and because there were reports +of dissension among Bragg's officers and of general confusion in +his army. After he had, as he thought, restored harmony in the +camp, Davis turned southward on a tour of appeal and inspiration. +He went as far as Mobile, and returning bent his course through +Charleston, where, at the beginning of November, less than two +weeks after Rhett's defeat, Davis was received with all due +formalities. Members of the Rhett family were among those who +formally received the President at the railway station. There was +a parade of welcome, an official reception, a speech by the +President from the steps of the city hall, and much applause by +friends of the Administration. But certain ominous signs were not +lacking. The Mercury, for example, tucked away in an obscure +column its account of the event, while its rival, the Courier, +made the President's visit the feature of the day. + +Davis returned to Richmond, early in November, to throw himself +again with his whole soul into problems that were chiefly +military. He did not realize that the crisis had come and gone +and that he had failed to grasp the significance of the internal +political situation. The Government had failed to carry the +elections and to secure a working majority in Congress. Never +again was it to have behind it a firm and confident support, The +unity of the secession movement had passed away. Thereafter the +Government was always to be regarded with suspicion by the +extreme believers in state sovereignty and by those who were +sullenly convinced that the burdens of the war were unfairly +distributed. And there were not wanting men who were ready to +construe each emergency measure as a step toward a coup d'etat. + + + +Chapter VI. Life In The Confederacy + +When the fortunes of the Confederacy in both camp and council +began to ebb, the life of the Southern people had already +profoundly changed. The gallant, delightful, carefree life of the +planter class had been undermined by a war which was eating away +its foundations. Economic no less than political forces were +taking from the planter that ideal of individual liberty as dear +to his heart as it had been, ages before, to his feudal +prototype. One of the most important details of the changing +situation had been the relation of the Government to slavery. The +history of the Confederacy had opened with a clash between the +extreme advocates of slavery--the slavery-at-any-price men--and +the Administration. The Confederate Congress had passed a bill +ostensibly to make effective the clause in its constitution +prohibiting the African slave-trade. The quick eye of Davis had +detected in it a mode of evasion, for cargoes of captured slaves +were to be confiscated and sold at public auction. The President +had exposed this adroit subterfuge in his message vetoing the +bill, and the slavery-at-any-price men had not sufficient +influence in Congress to override the veto, though they muttered +against it in the public press. + +The slavery-at-any-price men did not again conspicuously show +their hands until three years later when the Administration +included emancipation in its policy. The ultimate policy of +emancipation was forced upon the Government by many +considerations but more particularly by the difficulty of +securing labor for military purposes. In a country where the +supply of fighting men was limited and the workers were a class +apart, the Government had to employ the only available laborers +or confess its inability to meet the industrial demands of war. +But the available laborers were slaves. How could their services +be secured? By purchase? Or by conscription? Or by temporary +impressment? + +Though Davis and his advisers were prepared to face all the +hazards involved in the purchase or confiscation of slaves, the +traditional Southern temper instantly recoiled from the +suggestion. A Government possessed of great numbers of slaves, +whether bought or appropriated, would have in its hands a +gigantic power, perhaps for industrial competition with private +owners, perhaps even for organized military control. Besides, the +Government might at any moment by emancipating its slaves upset +the labor system of the country. Furthermore, the opportunities +for favoritism in the management of state-owned slaves were +beyond calculation. Considerations such as these therefore +explain the watchful jealousy of the planters toward the +Government whenever it proposed to acquire property in slaves. + +It is essential not to attribute this social-political dread of +government ownership of slaves merely to the clutch of a wealthy +class on its property. Too many observers, strangely enough, see +the latter motive to the exclusion of the former. Davis himself +was not, it would seem, free from this confusion. He insisted +that neither slaves nor land were taxed by the Confederacy, and +between the lines he seems to attribute to the planter class the +familiar selfishness of massed capital. He forgot that the tax in +kind was combined with an income tax. In theory, at least, the +slave and the land--even non-farming land--were taxed. However, +the dread of a slave-owning Government prevented any effective +plan for supplying the army with labor except through the +temporary impressment of slaves who were eventually to be +returned to their owners. The policy of emancipation had to wait. + +Bound up in the labor question was the question of the control of +slaves during the war. In the old days when there were plenty of +white men in the countryside, the roads were carefully patrolled +at night, and no slave ventured to go at large unless fully +prepared to prove his identity. But with the coming of war the +comparative smallness of the fighting population made it likely +from the first that the countryside everywhere would be stripped +of its white guardians. In that event, who would be left to +control the slaves? Early in the war a slave police was provided +for by exempting from military duty overseers in the ratio +approximately of one white to twenty slaves. But the marvelous +faithfulness of the slaves, who nowhere attempted to revolt, made +these precautions unnecessary. Later laws exempted one overseer +on every plantation of fifteen slaves, not so much to perform +patrol duty as to increase the productivity of plantation labor. + +This "Fifteen Slave" Law was one of many instances that were +caught up by the men of small property as evidence that the +Government favored the rich. A much less defensible law, and one +which was bitterly attacked for the same reason, was the +unfortunate measure permitting the hiring of substitutes by men +drafted into the army. Eventually, the clamor against this law +caused its repeal, but before that time it had worked untold harm +as apparent evidence of "a rich man's war and a poor man's +fight." Extravagant stories of the avoidance of military duty by +the ruling class, though in the main they were mere fairy tales, +changed the whole atmosphere of Southern life. The old glad +confidence uniting the planter class with the bulk of the people +had been impaired. Misapprehension appeared on both sides. Too +much has been said lately, however, in justification of the +poorer classes who were thus wakened suddenly to a distrust of +the aristocracy; and too little has been said of the proud recoil +of the aristocracy in the face of a sudden, credulous perversion +of its motives--a perversion inspired by the pinching of the +shoe, and yet a shoe that pinched one class as hard as it did +another. It is as unfair to charge the planter with selfishness +in opposing the appropriation of slaves as it is to make the same +charge against the small farmers for resisting tithes. In face of +the record, the planter comes off somewhat the better of the two; +but it must be remembered that he had the better education, the +larger mental horizon. + +The Confederacy had long recognized women of all classes as the +most dauntless defenders of the cause. The women of the upper +classes passed without a tremor from a life of smiling ease to a +life of extreme hardship. One day, their horizon was without a +cloud; another day, their husbands and fathers had gone to the +front. Their luxuries had disappeared, and they were reduced to +plain hard living, toiling in a thousand ways to find provision +and clothing, not only for their own children but for the poorer +families of soldiers. The women of the poor throughout the South +deserve similar honor. Though the physical shock of the change +may not have been so great, they had to face the same deep +realities--hunger and want, anxiety over the absent soldiers, +solicitude for children, grief for the dead. One of the pathetic +aspects of Confederate life was the household composed of several +families, all women and children, huddled together without a man +or even a half-grown lad to be their link with the mill and the +market. In those regions where there were few slaves and the +exemption of overseers did not operate, such households were +numerous. + +The great privations which people endured during the Confederacy +have passed into familiar tradition. They are to be traced mainly +to three causes: to the blockade, to the inadequate system of +transportation, and to the heartlessness of speculators. The +blockade was the real destroyer of the South. Besides ruining the +whole policy based on King Cotton, besides impeding to a vast +extent the inflow of munitions from Europe, it also deprived +Southern life of numerous articles which were hard to +relinquish--not only such luxuries as tea and coffee, but also +such utter necessities as medicines. And though the native herbs +were diligently studied, though the Government established +medical laboratories with results that were not inconsiderable, +the shortage of medicines remained throughout the war a +distressing feature of Southern life. The Tredegar Iron Works at +Richmond and a foundry at Selma, Alabama,were the only mills in +the South capable of casting the heavy ordnance necessary for +military purposes. And the demand for powder mills and gun +factories to provide for the needs of the army was scarcely +greater than the demand for cotton mills and commercial foundries +to supply the wants of the civil population. The Government +worked without ceasing to keep pace with the requirements of the +situation, and, in view of the immense difficulties which it had +to face, it was fairly successful in supplying the needs of the +army. Powder was provided by the Niter and Mining Bureau; lead +for Confederate bullets was collected from many sources--even +from +the window-weights of the houses; iron was brought from the mines +of Alabama; guns came from newly built factories; and machines +and tools were part of the precious freight of the +blockade-runners. Though the poorly equipped mills turned a +portion of the cotton crop into textiles, and though everything +that was possible was done to meet the needs of the people, the +supply of manufactures was sadly inadequate. The universal +shortage was betrayed by the limitation of the size of most +newspapers to a single sheet, and the desperate situation clearly +and completely revealed by the way in which, as a last resort, +the Confederates were compelled to repair their railroads by +pulling up the rails of one road in order to repair another that +the necessities of war rendered indispensable. + +The railway system, if such it can be called, was one of the +weaknesses of the Confederacy. Before the war the South had not +felt the need of elaborate interior communication, for its +commerce in the main went seaward, and thence to New England or +to Europe. Hitherto the railway lines had seen no reason for +merging their local character in extensive combinations. Owners +of short lines were inclined by tradition to resist even the +imperative necessities of war and their stubborn conservatism was +frequently encouraged by the shortsighted parochialism of the +towns. The same pitiful narrowness that led the peasant farmer to +threaten rebellion against the tax in kind led his counterpart in +the towns to oppose the War Department in its efforts to +establish through railroad lines because they threatened to +impair local business interests. A striking instance of this +disinclination towards cooperation is the action of Petersburg. +Two railroads terminated at this point but did not connect, and +it was an ardent desire of the military authorities to link the +two and convert them into one. The town, however, unable to see +beyond its boundaries and resolute in its determination to save +its transfer business, successfully obstructed the needs of the +army.* + +* See an article on "The Confederate Government and the +Railroads" in the "American Historical Review," July, 1917, by +Charles W. Ramsdell. + + +As a result of this lack of efficient organization an immense +congestion resulted all along the railroads. Whether this, rather +than a failure in supply, explains the approach of famine in the +latter part of the war, it is today very difficult to determine. +In numerous state papers of the time, the assertion was +reiterated that the yield of food was abundant and that the +scarcity of food at many places, including the cities and the +battle fronts, was due to defects in transportation. Certain it +is that the progress of supplies from one point to another was +intolerably slow. + +All this want of coordination facilitated speculation. We shall +see hereafter how merciless this speculation became and we shall +even hear of profits on food rising to more than four hundred per +cent. However, the oft-quoted prices of the later years--when, +for instance, a pair of shoes cost a hundred dollars--signify +little, for they rested on an inflated currency. None the less +they inspired the witticism that one should take money to market +in a basket and bring provisions home in one's pocketbook. +Endless stories could be told of speculators hoarding food and +watching unmoved the sufferings of a famished people. Said Bishop +Pierce, in a sermon before the General Assembly of Georgia, on +Fast Day, in March, 1863: "Restlessness and discontent +prevail.... +Extortion, pitiless extortion is making havoc in the land. +We are devouring each other. Avarice with full barns puts the +bounties of Providence under bolts and bars, waiting with eager +longings for higher prices.... The greed of gain...stalks +among us unabashed by the heroic sacrifice of our women or the +gallant deeds of our soldiers. Speculation in salt and bread and +meat runs riot in defiance of the thunders of the pulpit, and +executive interference and the horrors of threatened famine." In +1864, the Government found that quantities of grain paid in under +the tax as new-grown were mildewed. It was grain of the previous +year which speculators had held too long and now palmed off on +the Government to supply the army. + +Amid these desperate conditions the fate of soldiers' families +became everywhere, a tragedy. Unless the soldier was a land-owner +his family was all but helpless. With a depreciated currency and +exaggerated prices, his pay, whatever his rank, was too little to +count in providing for his dependents. Local charity, dealt out +by state and county boards, by relief associations, and by the +generosity of neighbors, formed the barrier between his family +and starvation. The landless soldier, with a family at home in +desperate straits, is too often overlooked when unimaginative +people heap up the statistics of "desertion" in the latter half +of the war. + +It was in this period, too, that amid the terrible shrinkage of +the defensive lines "refugeeing" became a feature of Southern +life. From the districts over which the waves of war rolled back +and forth helpless families--women, children, slaves--found +precarious safety together with great hardship by withdrawing to +remote places which invasion was little likely to reach. An +Odyssey of hard travel, often by night and half secret, is part +of the war tradition of thousands of Southern families. And here, +as always, the heroic women, smiling, indomitable, are the center +of the picture. Their flight to preserve the children was no +small test of courage. Almost invariably they had to traverse +desolate country, with few attendants, through forests, and +across rivers, where the arm of the law was now powerless to +protect them. Outlaws, defiant of the authorities both civil and +military,--ruthless men of whom we shall hear again,--roved those +great unoccupied spaces so characteristic of the Southern +countryside. Many a family legend preserves still the sense of +breathless caution, of pilgrimage in the night-time intently +silent for fear of these masterless men. When the remote +rendezvous had been reached, there a colony of refugees drew +together in a steadfast despair, unprotected by their own +fighting men. What strange sad pages in the history of American +valor were filled by these women outwardly calm, their children +romping after butterflies in a glory of sunshine, while horrid +tales drifted in of deeds done by the masterless men in the +forest just beyond the horizon, and far off on the soul's +horizon fathers, husbands, brothers, held grimly the lines of +last defense! + + + +Chapter VII. The Turning Of The Tide + +The buoyancy of the Southern temper withstood the shock of +Gettysburg and was not overcome by the fall of Vicksburg. Of the +far-reaching significance of the latter catastrophe in particular +there was little immediate recognition. Even Seddon, the +Secretary of War, in November, reported that "the communication +with the Trans-Mississippi, while rendered somewhat precarious +and insecure, is found by no means cut off or even seriously +endangered." His report was the same sort of thing as those +announcements of "strategic retreats" with which the world has +since become familiar. He even went so far as to argue that on +the whole the South had gained rather than lost; that the control +of the river was of no real value to the North; that the loss of +Vicksburg "has on our side liberated for general operations in +the field a large army, while it requires the enemy to maintain +cooped up, inactive, in positions insalubrious to their soldiers, +considerable detachments of their forces." + +Seddon attempted to reverse the facts, to show that the +importance of the Mississippi in commerce was a Northern not a +Southern concern. He threw light upon the tactics of the time by +his description of the future action of Confederate sharpshooters +who were to terrorize such commercial crews as might attempt to +navigate the river; he also told how light batteries might move +swiftly along the banks and, at points commanding the channel, +rain on the passing steamer unheralded destruction. He was silent +upon the really serious matter, the patrol of the river by +Federal gunboats which rendered commerce with the +Trans-Mississippi all but impossible. + +This report, dated the 26th of November, gives a roseate view of +the war in Tennessee and enlarges upon that dreadful battle of +Chickamauga which "ranks as one of the grandest victories of the +war." But even as the report was signed, Bragg was in full +retreat after his great disaster at Chattanooga. On the 30th of +November the Administration at Richmond received from him a +dispatch that closed with these words: "I deem it due to the +cause and to myself to ask for relief from command and an +investigation into the causes of the defeat." In the middle of +December, Joseph E. Johnston was appointed to succeed him. + +Whatever had been the illusions of the Government, they were now +at an end. There was no denying that the war had entered a new +stage and that the odds were grimly against the South. Davis +recognized the gravity of the situation, and in his message to +Congress in December, 1863, he admitted that the +Trans-Mississippi was practically isolated. This was indeed a +great catastrophe, for hereafter neither men nor supplies could +be drawn from the far Southwest. Furthermore, the Confederacy had +now lost its former precious advantage of using Mexico as a means +of secret trade with Europe. + +These distressing events of the four months between Vicksburg and +Chattanooga established also the semi-isolation of the middle +region of the lower South. The two States of Mississippi and +Alabama entered upon the most desperate chapter of their history. +Neither in nor out of the Confederacy, neither protected by the +Confederate lines nor policed by the enemy, they were subject at +once to the full rigor of the financial and military demands of +the Administration of Richmond and to the full ruthlessness of +plundering raids from the North. Nowhere can the contrast between +the warfare of that day and the best methods of our own time be +observed more clearly than in this unhappy region. At the opening +of 1864 the effective Confederate lines drew an irregular zigzag +across the map from a point in northern Georgia not far below +Chattanooga to Mobile. Though small Confederate commands still +operated bravely west of this line, the whole of Mississippi and +a large part of Alabama were beyond aid from Richmond. But the +average man did not grasp the situation. When a region is +dominated by mobile armies the appearance of things to the +civilian is deceptive. Because the powerful Federal armies of the +Southwest, at the opening of 1864, were massed at strategic +points from Tennessee to the Gulf, and were not extended along an +obvious trench line, every brave civilian would still keep up his +hope and would still insist that the middle Gulf country was far +from subjugation, that its defense against the invader had not +become hopeless. + +Under such conditions, when the Government at Richmond called +upon the men of the Southwest to regard themselves as mere +sources of supply, human and otherwise, mere feeders to a theater +of war that did not include their homes, it was altogether +natural that they should resent the demand. All the tragic +confusion that was destined in the course of the fateful year +1864 to paralyze the Government at Richmond was already apparent +in the middle Gulf country when the year began. Chief among these +was the inability of the State and Confederate Governments to +cooperate adequately in the business of conscription. The two +powers were determined rivals struggling each to seize the major +part of the manhood of the community. While Richmond, looking on +the situation with the eye of pure strategy, wished to draw +together the full man-power of the South in one great unit, the +local authorities were bent on retaining a large part of it for +home defense. + +In the Alabama newspapers of the latter half of 1863 strange +incidents are to be found throwing light on the administrative +duel. The writ of habeas corpus, as was so often the case in +Confederate history, was the bone of contention. We have seen +that the second statute empowering the President to proclaim +martial law and to suspend the operation of the writ had expired +by limitation in February, 1863. The Alabama courts were +theoretically in full operation, but while the law was in force +the military authorities had acquired a habit of arbitrary +control. Though warned from Richmond in general orders that they +must not take unto themselves a power vested in the President +alone, they continued their previous course of action. It +thereupon became necessary to issue further general orders +annulling "all proclamations of martial law by general officers +and others" not invested by law with adequate authority. + +Neither general orders nor the expiration of the statute, +however, seemed able to put an end to the interference with the +local courts on the part of local commanders. The evil apparently +grew during 1863. A picturesque instance is recorded with extreme +fullness by the Southern Advertiser in the autumn of the year. In +the minutely circumstantial account, we catch glimpses of one +Rhodes moving heaven and earth to prove himself exempt from +military service. After Rhodes is enrolled by the officers of the +local military rendezvous, the sheriff attempts to turn the +tables by arresting the Colonel in command. The soldiers rush to +defend their Colonel, who is ill in bed at a house some distance +away. The judge who had issued the writ is hot with anger at this +military interference in civil affairs. Thereupon the soldiers +seize him, but later, recognizing for some unexplained reason the +majesty of the civil law, they release him. And the hot-tempered +incident closes with the Colonel's determination to carry the +case to the Supreme Court of the State. + +The much harassed people of Alabama had still other causes of +complaint during this same year. Again the newspapers illumine +the situation. In the troubled autumn, Joseph Wheeler swept +across the northern counties of Alabama and in a daring ride, +with Federal cavalry hot on his trail, reached safety beyond the +Tennessee River. Here his pursuers turned back and, as their +horses had been broken by the swiftness of the pursuit, returning +slowly, they "gleaned the country" to replace their supplies. +Incidentally they pounced upon the town of Huntsville. "Their +appearance here," writes a local correspondent, "was so sudden +and...the contradictory reports of their whereabouts" had +been so baffling that the townspeople had found no time to +secrete things. The whole neighborhood was swept clean of cattle +and almost clean of provision. "We have not enough left," the +report continues, "to haul and plow with...and milch cows are +non est." Including "Stanley's big raid in July," this was the +twenty-first raid which Huntsville had endured that year. The +report closes with a bitter denunciation of the people of +southern Alabama who as yet do not know what war means, who are +accused of complete hardness of heart towards their suffering +fellow-countrymen and of caring only to make money out of war +prices. + +When Davis sent his message to the Southern Congress at the +opening of the session of 1864, the desperate plight of the +middle Gulf country was at once a warning and a menace to the +Government. If the conditions of that debatable land should +extend eastward, there could be little doubt that the day of the +Confederacy was nearing its close. To remedy the situation west +of the main Confederate line, to prevent the growth of a similar +condition east of it, Davis urged Congress to revive the statute +permitting martial law and the suspension of the writ of habeas +corpus. The President told Congress that in parts of the +Confederacy "public meetings have been held, in some of which a +treasonable design is masked by a pretense of devotion of state +sovereignty, and in others is openly avowed...a strong +suspicion is entertained that secret leagues and associations are +being formed. In certain localities men of no mean position do +not hesitate to avow their disloyalty and hostility to our cause, +and their advocacy of peace on the terms of submission and the +abolition of slavery." + +This suspicion on the part of the Confederate Government that it +was being opposed by organized secret societies takes us back to +debatable land and to the previous year. The Bureau of +Conscription submitted to the Secretary of War a report from its +Alabama branch relative to "a sworn secret organization known to +exist and believed to have for its object the encouragement of +desertion, the protection of deserters from arrest, resistance to +conscription, and perhaps other designs of a still more dangerous +character." To the operations of this insidious foe were +attributed the shifting of the vote in the Alabama elections, the +defeat of certain candidates favored by the Government, and the +return in their stead of new men "not publicly known." The +suspicions of the Government were destined to further +verification in the course of 1864 by the unearthing of a +treasonable secret society in southwestern Virginia, the members +of which were "bound to each other for the prosecution of their +nefarious designs by the most solemn oaths. They were under +obligation to encourage desertions from the army, and to pass and +harbor all deserters, escaped prisoners, or spies; to give +information to the enemy of the movements of our troops, of +exposed or weakened positions, of inviting opportunities of +attack, and to guide and assist the enemy either in advance or +retreat." This society bore the grandiloquent name "Heroes of +America" and had extended its operations into Tennessee and North +Carolina. + +In the course of the year further evidence was collected which +satisfied the secret service of the existence of a mysterious and +nameless society which had ramifications throughout Tennessee, +Alabama, and Georgia. A detective who joined this "Peace +Society," as it was called, for the purpose of betraying its +secrets, had marvelous tales to tell of confidential information +given to him by members, of how Missionary Ridge had been lost +and Vicksburg had surrendered through the machinations of this +society.* + +* What classes were represented in these organizations it is +difficult if not impossible to determine. They seem to have been +involved in the singular "peace movement" which is yet to be +considered. This fact gives a possible clue to the problem of +their membership. A suspiciously large number of the "peace" men +were original anti-secessionists, and though many, perhaps most, +of these who opposed secession became loyal servants of the +Confederacy, historians may have jumped too quickly to the +assumption that the sincerity of all of these men was above +reproach. + +In spite of its repugnance to the suspension of the writ of +habeas corpus, Congress was so impressed by the gravity of the +situation that early in 1864 it passed another act "to suspend +the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in certain cases." +This was not quite the same as that sweeping act of 1862 which +had set the Mercury irrevocably in opposition. Though this act of +1864 gave the President the power to order the arrest of any +person suspected of treasonable practices, and though it released +military officers from all obligation to obey the order of any +civil court to surrender a prisoner charged with treason, the new +legislation carefully defined a list of cases in which alone this +power could be lawfully used. This was the last act of the sort +passed by the Confederate Congress, and when it expired by +limitation ninety days after the next meeting of Congress it was +not renewed. + +With regard to the administration of the army, Congress can +hardly be said to have met the President more than half way. The +age of military service was lowered to seventeen and was raised +to fifty. But the President was not given--though he had asked +for it--general control over exemptions. Certain groups, such as +ministers, editors, physicians, were in the main exempted; one +overseer was exempted on each plantation where there were fifteen +slaves, provided he gave bond to sell to the Government at +official prices each year one hundred pounds of either beef or +bacon for each slave employed and provided he would sell all his +surplus produce either to the Government or to the families of +soldiers. Certain civil servants of the Confederacy were also +exempted as well as those whom the governors of States should +"certify to be necessary for the proper administration of the +State Government." The President was authorized to detail for +nonmilitary service any members of the Confederate forces "when +in his judgment, justice, equity, and necessity, require such +details." + +This statute retained two features that had already given rise to +much friction, and that were destined to be the cause of much +more. It was still within the power of state governors to impede +conscription very seriously. By certifying that a man was +necessary to the civil administration of a State, a Governor +could place him beyond the legal reach of the conscripting +officers. This provision was a concession to those who looked on +Davis's request for authority over exemption as the first step +toward absolutism. On the other hand the statute allowed the +President a free hand in the scarcely less important matter of +"details." Among the imperative problems of the Confederacy, +where the whole male population was needed in the public service, +was the most economical separation of the two groups, the +fighters and the producers. On the one hand there was the +constant demand for recruits to fill up the wasted armies; on the +other, the need for workers to keep the shops going and to secure +the harvest. The two interests were never fully coordinated. +Under the act of 1864, no farmer, mechanic, tradesman, between +the ages of seventeen and fifty, if fit for military service, +could remain at his work except as a "detail" under orders of the +President: he might be called to the colors at a moment's notice. +We shall see, presently, how the revoking of details, toward the +end of what may truly be called the terrible year, was one of the +major incidents of Confederate history. + +Together with the new conscription act, the President approved on +February 17, 1864, a reenactment of the tax in kind, with some +slight concessions to the convenience of the farmers. The +President's appeal for a law directly taxing slaves and land had +been ignored by Congress, but another of his suggestions had been +incorporated in the Funding Act. The state of the currency was +now so grave that Davis attributed to it all the evils growing +out of the attempts to enforce impressment. As the value of the +paper dollar had by this time shrunk to six cents in specie and +the volume of Confederate paper was upward of seven hundred +millions, Congress undertook to reduce the volume and raise the +value by compelling holders of notes to exchange them for bonds. +By way of driving the note-holders to consent to the exchange, +provision was made for the speedy taxation of notes for one-third +their face value. + +Such were the main items of the government program for 1864. +Armed with this, Davis braced himself for the great task of +making head against the enemies that now surrounded the +Confederacy. It is an axiom of military science that when one +combatant possesses the interior line, the other can offset this +advantage only by exerting coincident pressure all round, thus +preventing him from shifting his forces from one front to +another. On this principle, the Northern strategists had at last +completed their gigantic plan for a general envelopment of the +whole Confederate defense both by land and sea. Grant opened +operations by crossing the Rapidan and telegraphing Sherman to +advance into Georgia. + +The stern events of the spring of 1864 form such a famous page in +military history that the sober civil story of those months +appears by comparison lame and impotent. Nevertheless, the +Confederate Government during those months was at least equal to +its chief obligation: it supplied and recruited the armies. With +Grant checked at Cold Harbor, in June, and Sherman still unable +to pierce the western line, the hopes of the Confederates were +high. + +In the North there was corresponding gloom. This was the moment +when all Northern opponents of the war drew together in their +last attempt to shatter the Lincoln Government and make peace +with the Confederacy. The value to the Southern cause of this +Northern movement for peace at any price was keenly appreciated +at Richmond. Trusted agents of the Confederacy were even then in +Canada working deftly to influence Northern sentiment. The +negotiations with those Northern secret societies which +befriended the South belong properly in the story of Northern +politics and the presidential election of 1864. They were +skillfully conducted chiefly by Jacob Thompson and C. C. Clay. +The reports of these agents throughout the spring and summer were +all hopeful and told of "many intelligent men from the United +States" who sought them out in Canada for political +consultations. They discussed "our true friends from the Chicago +(Democratic) convention" and even gave names of those who, they +were assured, would have seats in McClellan's Cabinet. They were +really not well informed upon Northern affairs, and even after +the tide had turned against the Democrats in September, they were +still priding themselves on their diplomatic achievement, still +confident they had helped organize a great political power, had +"given a stronger impetus to the peace party of the North than +all other causes combined, and had greatly reduced the strength +of the war party." + +While Clay and Thompson built their house of cards in Canada, the +Richmond Government bent anxious eyes on the western battlefront. +Sherman, though repulsed in his one frontal attack at Kenesaw +Mountain, had steadily worked his way by the left flank of the +Confederate army, until in early July he was within six miles of +Atlanta. All the lower South was a-tremble with apprehension. +Deputations were sent to Richmond imploring the removal of +Johnston from the western command. What had he done since his +appointment in December but retreat? Such was the tenor of public +opinion. "It is all very well to talk of Fabian policy," said one +of his detractors long afterward, "and now we can see we were +rash to say the least. But at the time, all of us went wrong +together. Everybody clamored for Johnston's removal." Johnston +and Davis were not friends; but the President hesitated long +before acting. And yet, with each day, political as well as +military necessity grew more imperative. Both at Washington and +Richmond the effect that the fighting in Georgia had on Northern +opinion was seen to be of the first importance. Sherman was +staking everything to break the Confederate line and take +Atlanta. He knew that a great victory would have incalculable +effect on the Northern election. Davis knew equally well that the +defeat of Sherman would greatly encourage the peace party in the +North. But he had no general of undoubted genius whom he could +put in Johnston's place. However, the necessity for a bold stroke +was so undeniable, and Johnston appeared so resolute to continue +his Fabian policy, that Davis reluctantly took a desperate chance +and superseded him by Hood. + +During August, though the Democratic convention at Chicago drew +up its platform favoring peace at any price, the anxiety of the +Southern President did not abate his activities. The safety of +the western line was now his absorbing concern. And in mid-August +that line was turned, in a way, by Farragut's capture of Mobile +Bay. As the month closed, Sherman, despite the furious blows +delivered by Hood, was plainly getting the upper hand. North and +South, men watched that tremendous duel with the feeling that the +foundations of things were rocking. At last, on the 2d of +September, Sherman, victorious, entered Atlanta. + + + +Chapter VIII. A Game Of Chance + +With dramatic completeness in the summer and autumn of 1864, the +foundations of the Confederate hope one after another gave way. +Among the causes of this catastrophe was the failure of the +second great attempt on the part of the Confederacy to secure +recognition abroad. The subject takes us back to the latter days +of 1862, when the center of gravity in foreign affairs had +shifted from London to Paris. Napoleon III, at the height of his +strange career, playing half a dozen dubious games at once, took +up a new pastime and played at intrigue with the Confederacy. In +October he accorded a most gracious interview to Slidell. He +remarked that his sympathies were entirely with the South but +added that, if he acted alone, England might trip him up. He +spoke of his scheme for joint intervention by England, France, +and Russia. Then he asked why we had not created a navy. Slidell +snapped at the bait. He said that the Confederates would be glad +to build ships in France, that "if the Emperor would give only +some kind of verbal assurance that the police would not observe +too closely when we wished to put on guns and men we would gladly +avail ourselves of it." To this, the imperial trickster replied, +"Why could you not have them built as for the Italian Government? +I do not think it would be difficult but will consult the +Minister of Marine about it." + +Slidell left the Emperor's presence confident that things would +happen. And they did. First came Napoleon's proposal of +intervention, which was declined before the end of the year by +England and Russia. Then came his futile overtures to the +Government at Washington, his offer of mediation--which was +rejected early in 1863. But Slidell remained confident that +something else would happen. And in this expectation also he was +not disappointed. The Emperor was deeply involved in Mexico and +was busily intriguing throughout Europe. This was the time when +Erlanger, standing high in the favor of the Emperor, made his +gambler's proposal to the Confederate authorities about cotton. +Another of the Emperor's friends now enters the play. On January +7, 1863, M. Arman, of Bordeaux, "the largest shipbuilder in +France," had called on the Confederate commissioner: M. Arman +would be happy to build ironclad ships for the Confederacy, and +as to paying for them, cotton bonds might do the trick. + +No wonder Slidell was elated, so much so that he seems to have +given little heed to the Emperor's sinister intimation that the +whole affair must be subterranean. But the wily Bonaparte had not +forgotten that six months earlier he had issued a decree of +neutrality forbidding Frenchmen to take commissions from either +belligerent "for the armament of vessels of war or to accept +letters of marque, or to cooperate in any way whatsoever in the +equipment or arming of any vessel of war or corsair of either +belligerent." He did not intend to abandon publicly this cautious +attitude--at least, not for the present. And while Slidell at +Paris was completely taken in, the cooler head of A. Dudley Mann, +Confederate commissioner at Brussels, saw what an international +quicksand was the favor of Napoleon. It was about this time that +Napoleon, having dispatched General Forey with a fresh army to +Mexico, wrote the famous letter which gave notice to the world of +what he was about. Mann wrote home in alarm that the Emperor +might be expected to attempt recovering Mexico's ancient areas +including Texas. Slidell saw in the Forey letter only "views... +which will not be gratifying to the Washington Government." + +The adroit Arman, acting on hints from high officers of the +Government, applied for permission to build and arm ships of war, +alleging that he intended to send them to the Pacific and sell +them to either China or Japan. To such a laudable expression of +commercial enterprise, one of his fellows in the imperial ring, +equipped with proper authority under Bonaparte, hastened to give +official approbation, and Erlanger came forward by way of +financial backer. There were conferences of Confederate agents; +contracts were signed; plans were agreed upon; and the work was +begun. + +There was no more hopeful man in the Confederate service than +Slidell when, in the full flush of pride after Chancellorsville, +he appealed to the Emperor to cease waiting on other powers and +recognize the Confederacy. Napoleon accorded another gracious +interview but still insisted that it was impossible for him to +act alone. He said that he was "more fully convinced than ever of +the propriety of a general recognition by the European powers of +the Confederate States but that the commerce of France and the +interests of the Mexican expedition would be jeopardized by a +rupture with the United States" and unless England would stand +by him he dared not risk such an eventuality. In point of fact, +he was like a speculator who is "hedging" on the stock exchange, +both buying and selling, and trying to make up his mind on which +cast to stake his fortune. At the same time he threw out once +more the sinister caution about the ships. He said that the +ships might be built in France but that their destination must +be concealed. + +That Napoleon's choice just then, if England had supported him, +would have been recognition of the Confederacy, cannot be +doubted. The tangle of intrigue which he called his foreign +policy was not encouraging. He was deeply involved in Italian +politics, where the daring of Garibaldi had reopened the struggle +between clericals and liberals. In France itself the struggle +between parties was keen. Here, as in the American imbroglio, he +found it hard to decide with which party to break. The chimerical +scheme of a Latin empire in Mexico was his spectacular device to +catch the imagination, and incidentally the pocketbook, of +everybody. But in order to carry out this enterprise he must be +able to avert or withstand the certain hostility of the United +States. Therefore, as he told Slidell, "no other power than +England possessed a sufficient navy" to pull his chestnuts out +of the fire. The moment was auspicious, for there was a revival +of the "Southern party" in England. The sailing of the Alabama +from Liverpool during the previous summer had encouraged the +Confederate agents and their British friends to undertake +further shipbuilding. + +While M. Arman was at work in France, the Laird Brothers were at +work in England and their dockyards contained two ironclad rams +supposed to outclass any vessels of the United States navy. +Though every effort had been made to keep secret the ultimate +destination of these rams, the vigilance of the United States +minister, reinforced by the zeal of the "Northern party," +detected strong circumstantial evidence pointing toward a +Confederate contract with the Lairds. A popular agitation ensued +along with demands upon the Government to investigate. To mask +the purposes of the Lairds, Captain James Bullock, the able +special agent of the Confederate navy, was forced to fall lack +upon the same tactics that were being used across the Channel, +and to sell the rams, on paper, to a firm in France. Neither he +nor Slidell yet appreciated what a doubtful refuge was the shadow +of Napoleon's wing. + +Nevertheless the British Government, by this time practically +alined with the North, continued its search for the real owner of +the Laird rams. The "Southern party," however, had not quite +given up hope, and the agitation to prevent the sailing of the +rams was a keen spur to its flagging zeal. Furthermore the +prestige of Lee never was higher than it was in June, 1863, when +the news of Chancellorsville was still fresh and resounding in +every mind. It had given new life to the Confederate hope: Lee +would take Washington before the end of the summer; the Laird +rams would go to sea; the Union would be driven to the wall. So +reasoned the ardent friends of the South. But one thing was +lacking--a European alliance. What a time for England to +intervene! + +While Slidell was talking with the Emperor, he had in his pocket +a letter from J. A. Roebuck, an English politician who wished to +force the issue in the House of Commons. As a preliminary to +moving the recognition of the Confederacy, he wanted authority to +deny a rumor going the rounds in London, to the effect that +Napoleon had taken position against intervention. Napoleon, when +he had seen the letter, began a negotiation of some sort with +this politician. It is needless to enter into the complications +that ensued, the subsequent recriminations, and the question as +to just what Napoleon promised at this time and how many of his +promises he broke. He was a diplomat of the old school, the +school of lying as a fine art. He permitted Roebuck to come over +to Paris for an audience, and Roebuck went away with the +impression that Napoleon could be relied upon to back up a new +movement for recognition. When, however, Roebuck brought the +matter before the Commons at the end of the month and encountered +an opposition from the Government that seemed to imply an +understanding with Napoleon which was different from his own, he +withdrew his motion (in July). Once more the scale turned against +the Confederacy, and Gettysburg was supplemented by the seizure +of the Laird rams by the British authorities. These events +explain the bitter turn given to Confederate feeling toward +England in the latter part of 1863. On the 4th of August Benjamin +wrote to Mason that "the perusal of the recent debates in +'Parliament satisfies the President" that Mason's "continued +residence in London is neither conducive to the interests nor +consistent with the dignity of this government," and directed him +to withdraw to Paris. + +Confederate feeling, as it cooled toward England, warmed toward +France. Napoleon's Mexican scheme, including the offer of a +ready-made imperial crown to Maximilian, the brother of the +Emperor of Austria, was fully understood at Richmond; and with +Napoleon's need of an American ally, Southern hope revived. It +was further strengthened by a pamphlet which was translated and +distributed in the South as a newspaper article under the title +France, Mexico, and the Confederate States. The reputed author, +Michel Chevalier, was an imperial senator, another member of the +Napoleon ring, and highly trusted by his shifty master. The +pamphlet, which emphasized the importance of Southern +independence as a condition of Napoleon's "beneficent aims" in +Mexico, was held to have been inspired, and the imperial denial +was regarded as a mere matter of form. + +What appeared to be significant of the temper of the Imperial +Government was a decree of a French court in the case of certain +merchants who sought to recover insurance on wine dispatched to +America and destroyed in a ship taken by the Alabama. Their plea +was that they were insured against loss by "pirates." The court +dismissed their suit and assessed costs against them. Further +evidence of Napoleon's favor was the permission given to the +Confederate cruiser Florida to repair at Brest and even to make +use of the imperial dockyard. The very general faith in +Napoleon's promises was expressed by Davis in his message to +Congress in December: "Although preferring our own government and +institutions to those of other countries, we can have no +disposition to contest the exercise by them of the same right of +self-government which we assert for ourselves. If the Mexican +people prefer a monarchy to a republic, it is our plain duty +cheerfully to acquiesce in their decision and to evince a sincere +and friendly interest in their prosperity.... The Emperor of +the French has solemnly disclaimed any purpose to impose on +Mexico a form of government not acceptable to the nation...." +In January, 1864, hope of recognition through support of +Napoleon's Mexican policy moved the Confederate Congress to adopt +resolutions providing for a Minister to the Mexican Empire and +giving him instructions with regard to a presumptive treaty. To +the new post Davis appointed General William Preston. + +But what, while hope was springing high in America, was taking +place in France? So far as the world could say, there was little +if anything to disturb the Confederates; and yet, on the horizon, +a cloud the size of a man's hand had appeared. M. Arman had +turned to another member of the Legislative Assembly, a sound +Bonapartist like himself, M. Voruz, of Nantes, to whom he had +sublet a part of the Confederate contract. The truth about the +ships and their destination thus became part of the archives of +the Voruz firm. No phase of Napoleonic intrigue could go very far +without encountering dishonesty, and to the confidential clerk of +M. Voruz there occurred the bright idea of doing something for +himself with this valuable diplomatic information. One fine day +the clerk was missing and with him certain papers. Then there +ensued a period of months during which the firm and their +employers could only conjecture the full extent of their loss. + +In reality, from the Confederate point of view, everything was +lost. Again the episode becomes too complex to be followed in +detail. Suffice it to say that the papers were sold to the United +States; that the secret was exposed; that the United States made +a determined assault upon the Imperial Government. In the midst +of this entanglement, Slidell lost his head, for hope deferred +when apparently within reach of its end is a dangerous councilor +of state. In his extreme anxiety, Slidell sent to the Emperor a +note the blunt rashness of which the writer could not have +appreciated. Saying that he feared the Emperor's subordinates +might play into the hands of Washington, he threw his fat in the +fire by speaking of the ships as "now being constructed at +Bordeaux and Nantes for the government of the Confederate States" +and virtually claimed of Napoleon a promise to let them go to +sea. Three days later the Minister of Foreign Affairs took him +sharply to task because of this note, reminding him that "what +had passed with the Emperor was confidential" and dropping the +significant hint that France could not be forced into war by +"indirection." According to Slidell's version of the interview +"the Minister's tone changed completely" when Slidell replied +with "a detailed history of the affair showing that the idea +originated with the Emperor." Perhaps the Minister knew more than +he chose to betray. From this hour the game was up. Napoleon's +purpose all along seems to have been quite plain. He meant to +help the South to win by itself, and, after it had won, to use it +for his own advantage. So precarious was his position in Europe +that he dared not risk an American war without England's aid, and +England had cast the die. In this way, secrecy was the condition +necessary to continued building of the ships. Now that the secret +was out, Napoleon began to shift his ground. He sounded the +Washington Government and found it suspiciously equivocal as to +Mexico. To silence the French republicans, to whom the American +minister had supplied information about the ships, Napoleon tried +at first muzzling the press. But as late as February, 1864, he +was still carrying water on both shoulders. His Minister of +Marine notified the builders that they must get the ships out of +France, unarmed, under fictitious sale to some neutral country. +The next month, reports which the Confederate commissioners sent +home became distinctly alarming. Mann wrote from Brussels: +"Napoleon has enjoined upon Maximilian to hold no official +relations with our commissioners in Mexico." Shortly after this +Slidell received a shock that was the beginning of the end: +Maximilian, on passing through Paris on his way to Mexico, +refused to receive him. + +The Mexican project was now being condemned by all classes in +France. Nevertheless, the Government was trying to float a +Mexican loan, and it is hardly fanciful to think that on this +loan the last hope of the Confederacy turned. Despite the popular +attitude toward Mexico, the loan was going well when the House of +Representatives of the United States dealt the Confederacy a +staggering blow. It passed unanimous resolutions in the most grim +terms, denouncing the substitution of monarchical for republican +government in Mexico under European auspices. When this action +was reported in France, the Mexican loan collapsed. + +Napoleon's Italian policy was now moving rapidly toward the +crisis which it reached during the following summer when he +surrendered to the opposition and promised to withdraw the French +troops from Rome. In May, when the loan collapsed, there was +nothing for it but to throw over his dear friends of the +Confederacy. Presently he had summoned Arman before him, "rated +him severely," and ordered him to make bona fide sales of the +ships to neutral powers. The Minister of Marine professed +surprise and indignation at Arman's trifling with the neutrality +of the Imperial Government. And that practically was the end of +the episode. + +Equally complete was the breakdown of the Confederate +negotiations with Mexico. General Preston was refused +recognition. In those fierce days of July when the fate of +Atlanta was in the balance, the pride and despair of the +Confederate Government flared up in a haughty letter to Preston +reminding him that "it had never been the intention of this +Government to offer any arguments to the new Government of Mexico +...nor to place itself in any attitude other than that of +complete equality," and directing him to make no further +overtures to the Mexican Emperor. + +And then came the debacle in Georgia. On that same 20th of +September when Benjamin poured out in a letter to Slidell his +stored-up bitterness denouncing Napoleon, Davis, feeling the last +crisis was upon him, left Richmond to join the army in Georgia. +His frame of mind he had already expressed when he said, "We have +no friends abroad." + + + +Chapter IX. Desperate Remedies + +The loss of Atlanta was the signal for another conflict of +authority within the Confederacy. Georgia was now in the +condition in which Alabama had found herself in the previous +year. A great mobile army of invaders lay encamped on her soil. +And yet there was still a state Government established at the +capital. Inevitably the man who thought of the situation from the +point of view of what we should now call the general staff, and +the man who thought of it from the point of view of a citizen of +the invaded State, suffered each an intensification of feeling, +and each became determined to solve the problem in his own way. +The President of the Confederacy and the Governor of Georgia +represented these incompatible points of view. + +The Governor, Joseph E. Brown, is one of the puzzling figures of +Confederate history. We have already encountered him as a dogged +opponent of the Administration. With the whole fabric of Southern +life toppling about his ears, Brown argued, quibbled, evaded, and +became a rallying-point of disaffection. That more eminent +Georgian, Howell Cobb, applied to him very severe language, and +they became engaged in a controversy over that provision of the +Conscription Act which exempted state officials from military +service. While the Governor of Virginia was refusing certificates +of exemption to the minor civil officers such as justices of the +peace, Brown by proclamation promised his "protection" to the +most insignificant civil servants. "Will even your Excellency," +demanded Cobb, "certify that in any county of Georgia twenty +justices of the peace and an equal number of constables are +necessary for the proper administration of the state +government?" The Bureau of Conscription estimated that Brown +kept out of the army approximately 8000 eligible men. The truth +seems to be that neither by education nor heredity was this +Governor equipped to conceive large ideas. He never seemed +conscious of the war as a whole, or of the Confederacy as a +whole. To defend Georgia and, if that could not be done, to make +peace for Georgia--such in the mind of Brown was the aim of the +war. His restless jealousy of the Administration finds its +explanation in his fear that it would denude his State of men. +The seriousness of Governor Brown's opposition became apparent +within a week of the fall of Atlanta. Among Hood's forces were +some 10,000 Georgia militia. Brown notified Hood that these +troops had been called out solely with a view to the defense of +Atlanta, that since Atlanta had been lost they must now be +permitted "to return to their homes and look for a time after +important interests," and that therefore he did "withdraw said +organizations" from Hood's command. In other words, Brown was +afraid that they might be taken out of the State. By proclamation +he therefore gave the militia a furlough of thirty days. Previous +to the issue of this proclamation, Seddon had written to Brown +making requisition for his 10,000 militia to assist in a pending +campaign against Sherman. Two days after his proclamation had +appeared, Brown, in a voluminous letter full of blustering +rhetoric and abounding in sneers at the President, demanded +immediate reinforcements by order of the President and threatened +that, if they were not sent, he would recall the Georgia troops +from the army of Lee and would command "all the sons of Georgia +to return to their own State and within their own limits to rally +round her glorious flag." + +So threatening was the situation in Georgia that Davis attempted +to take it into his own hands. In a grim frame of mind he left +Richmond for the front. The resulting military arrangements do +not of course belong strictly to the subject matter of this +volume; but the brief tour of speechmaking which Davis made in +Georgia and the interior of South Carolina must be noticed; for +his purpose seems to have been to put the military point of view +squarely before the people. He meant them to see how the soldier +looked at the situation, ignoring all demands of locality, of +affiliation, of hardship, and considering only how to meet and +beat the enemy. In his tense mood he was not always fortunate in +his expressions. At Augusta, for example, he described +Beauregard, whom he had recently placed in general command over +Georgia and South Carolina, as one who would do whatever the +President told him to do. But this idea of military +self-effacement was not happily worded, and the enemies of Davis +seized on his phraseology as further evidence of his instinctive +autocracy. The Mercury compared him to the Emperor of Russia and +declared the tactless remark to be "as insulting to General +Beauregard as it is false and presumptuous in the President." + +Meanwhile Beauregard was negotiating with Brown. Though they +came to an understanding about the disposition of the militia, +Brown still tried to keep control of the state troops. When +Sherman was burning Atlanta preparatory to the March to the Sea, +Brown addressed to the Secretary of War another interminable +epistle, denouncing the Confederate authorities and asserting +his willingness to fight both the South and the North if they +did not both cease invading his rights. But the people of +Georgia were better balanced than their Governor. Under the +leadership of such men as Cobb they rose to the occasion and did +their part in what proved a vain attempt to conduct a "people's +war." Their delegation at Richmond sent out a stirring appeal +assuring them that Davis was doing for them all it was possible +to do. "Let every man fly to arms," said the appeal. "Remove +your negroes, horses, cattle, and provisions from before +Sherman's army, and burn what you cannot carry. Burn all bridges +and block up the roads in his route. Assail the invader in +front, flank, and rear, by night and by day. Let him have no +rest." + + +The Richmond Government was unable to detach any considerable +force from the northern front. Its contribution to the forces in +Georgia was accomplished by such pathetic means as a general +order calling to the colors all soldiers furloughed or in +hospital, "except those unable to travel"; by revoking all +exemptions to farmers, planters, and mechanics, except munitions +workers; and by placing one-fifth of the ordnance and mining +bureau in the battle service. + +All the world knows how futile were these endeavors to stop the +whirlwind of desolation that was Sherman's march. He spent his +Christmas Day in Savannah. Then the center of gravity shifted +from Georgia to South Carolina. Throughout the two desperate +months that closed 1864 the authorities of South Carolina had +vainly sought for help from Richmond. Twice the Governor made +official request for the return to South Carolina of some of her +own troops who were at the front in Virginia. Davis first evaded +and then refused the request. Lee had informed him that if the +forces on the northern front were reduced, the evacuation of +Richmond would become inevitable. + +The South Carolina Government, in December, 1864, seems to have +concluded that the State must save itself. A State Conscription +Act was passed placing all white males between the ages of +sixteen and sixty at the disposal of the state authorities for +emergency duty. An Exemption Act set forth a long list of persons +who should not be liable to conscription by the Confederate +Government. Still a third act regulated the impressment of slaves +for work on fortifications so as to enable the state authorities +to hold a check upon the Confederate authorities. The +significance of the three statutes was interpreted by a South +Carolina soldier, General John S. Preston, in a letter to the +Secretary of War that was a wail of despair. "This legislation +is an explicit declaration that this State does not intend to +contribute another soldier or slave to the public defense, except +on such terms its may be dictated by her authorities. The example +will speedily be followed by North Carolina and Georgia, the +Executives of those States having already assumed the position." + +The division between the two parties in South Carolina had now +become bitter. To Preston the men behind the State Exemption Act +appeared as "designing knaves." The Mercury, on the other hand, +was never more relentless toward Davis than in the winter of +1864-1865. However, none or almost none of the anti-Davis men in +South Carolina made the least suggestion of giving up the +struggle. To fight to the end but also to act as a check upon the +central Government--as the new Governor, Andrew G. Magrath, said +in his inaugural address in December, 1864,--was the aim of the +dominant party in South Carolina. How far the State Government +and the Confederate Government had drifted apart is shown by two +comments which were made in January, 1865. Lee complained that +the South Carolina regiments, "much reduced by hard service," +were not being recruited up to their proper strength because of +the measures adopted in the southeastern States to retain +conscripts at home. About the same date the Mercury arraigned +Davis for leaving South Carolina defenseless in the face of +Sherman's coming offensive, and asked whether Davis intended to +surrender the Confederacy. + +And in the midst of this critical period, the labor problem +pushed to the fore again. The revocation of industrial details, +necessary as it was, had put almost the whole male population--in +theory, at least--in the general Confederate army. How +far-reaching was the effect of this order may be judged from the +experience of the Columbia and Augusta Railroad Company. This +road was building through the interior of the State a new line +which was rendered imperatively necessary by Sherman's seizure of +the lines terminating at Savannah. The effect of the revocation +order on the work in progress was described by the president of +the road in a letter to the Secretary of War: + +"In July and August I made a fair beginning and by October we had +about 600 hands. General Order No. 77 took off many of our +contractors and hands. We still had increased the number of hands +to about 400 when Sherman started from Atlanta. The military +authorities of Augusta took about 300 of them to fortify that +city. These contractors being from Georgia returned with their +slaves to their homes after being discharged at Augusta. We still +have between 500 and 600 hands at work and are adding to the +force every week. + +"The great difficulty has been in getting contractors exempt or +definitely detailed since Order No. 77. I have not exceeded eight +or nine contractors now detailed. The rest are exempt from other +causes or over age." + +It was against such a background of economic confusion that +Magrath wrote to the Governor of North Carolina making a +revolutionary proposal. Virtually admitting that the Confederacy +had been shattered, and knowing the disposition of those in +authority to see only the military aspects of any given +situation, he prophesied two things: that the generals would soon +attempt to withdraw Lee's army south of Virginia, and that the +Virginia troops in that army would refuse to go. "It is natural +under the circumstances," said he, "that they would not." He +would prepare for this emergency by an agreement among the +Southeastern and Gulf States to act together irrespective of +Richmond, and would thus weld the military power of these States +into "a compact and organized mass." + +Governor Vance, with unconscious subtlety, etched a portrait of +his own mind when he replied that the crisis demanded +"particularly the skill of the politician perhaps more than that +of the great general." He adroitly evaded saying what he really +thought of the situation but he made two explicit +counter-proposals. He suggested that a demand should be made for +the restoration of General Johnston and for the appointment of +General Lee to "full and absolute command of all the forces of +the Confederacy." On the day on which Vance wrote to Magrath, the +Mercury lifted up its voice and cried out for a Lee to take +charge of the Government and save the Confederacy. About the same +time Cobb wrote to Davis in the most friendly way, warning him +that he had scarcely a supporter left in Georgia, and that, in +view of the great popular reaction in favor of Johnston, +concessions to the opposition were an imperative necessity. "By +accident," said he, "I have become possessed of the facts in +connection with the proposed action of the Governors of certain +States." He disavowed any sympathy with the movement but warned +Davis that it was a serious menace. + +Two other intrigues added to the general political confusion. One +of these, the "Peace Movement," will be considered in the next +chapter. The other was closely connected with the alleged +conspiracy to depose Davis and set up Lee as dictator. If the +traditional story, accepted by able historians, may be believed, +William C. Rives, of the Confederate Congress, carried in +January, 1865, to Lee from a congressional cabal an invitation to +accept the role of Cromwell. The greatest difficulty in the way +of accepting the tradition is the extreme improbability that any +one who knew anything of Lee would have been so foolish as to +make such a proposal. Needless to add, the tradition includes +Lee's refusal to overturn the Government. There can be no doubt, +however, that all the enemies of Davis in Congress and out of it, +in the opening months of 1865, made a determined series of +attacks upon his Administration. Nor can there be any doubt that +the popular faith in Lee was used as their trump card. To that +end, a bill was introduced to create the office of commanding +general of the Confederate armies. The bill was generally +applauded, and every one assumed that the new office was to be +given to Lee. On the day after the bill had passed the Senate the +Virginia Legislature resolved that the appointment of General Lee +to supreme command would "reanimate the spirit of the armies as +well as the people of the several States and...inspire +increased confidence in the final success of the cause." When the +bill was sent to the President, it was accompanied by a +resolution asking him to restore Johnston. While Davis was +considering this bill, the Virginia delegation in the House, +headed by the Speaker, Thomas S. Bocock, waited upon the +President, informed him what was really wanted was a change of +Cabinet, and told him that three-fourths of the House would +support a resolution of want of confidence in the Cabinet. The +next day Bocock repeated the demand in a note which Davis +described as a "warning if not a threat." + +The situation of both President and country was now desperate. +The program with which the Government had entered so hopefully +upon this fated year had broken down at almost every point. In +addition to the military and administrative disasters, the +financial and economic situation was as bad as possible. So +complete was the financial breakdown that Secretary Memminger, +utterly disheartened, had resigned his office, and the Treasury +was now administered by a Charleston merchant, George A. +Trenholm. But the financial chaos was wholly beyond his control. +The government notes reckoned in gold were worth about three +cents on the dollar. The Government itself avoided accepting +them. It even bought up United States currency and used it in +transacting the business of the army. The extent of the financial +collapse was to be measured by such incidents as the following +which is recounted in a report that had passed under Davis's eye +only a few weeks before the "threat" of Bocock was uttered: +"Those holding the four per cent certificates complain that the +Government as far as possible discredits them. Fractions of +hundreds cannot be paid with them. I saw a widow lady, a few days +since, offer to pay her taxes of $1,271.31 with a certificate of +$1,300. The tax-gatherer refused to give her the change of +$28.69. She then offered the whole certificate for the taxes. +This was refused. This apparent injustice touched her far more +than the amount of the taxes." + +A letter addressed to the President from Griffin, Georgia, +contained this dreary picture: + +"Unless something is done and that speedily, there will be +thousands of the best citizens of the State and heretofore as +loyal as any in the Confederacy, that will not care one cent +which army is victorious in Georgia.... Since August last +there have been thousands of cavalry and wagon trains feeding +upon our cornfields and for which our quartermasters and officers +in command of trains, regiments, battalions, companies, and +squads, have been giving the farmers receipts, and we were all +told these receipts would pay our government taxes and tithing; +and yet not one of them will be taken by our collector.... +And yet we are threatened with having our lands sold for taxes. +Our scrip for corn used by our generals will not be taken.... +How is it that we have certified claims upon our Government, past +due ten months, and when we enter the quartermaster's office we +see placed up conspicuously in large letters "no funds." Some of +these said quartermasters [who] four years ago were not worth the +clothes upon their backs, are now large dealers in lands, +negroes, and real estate." + +There was almost universal complaint that government contractors +were speculating in supplies and that the Impressment Law was +used by officials to cover their robbery of both the Government +and the people. Allowing for all the panic of the moment, one is +forced to conclude that the smoke is too dense not to cover a +good deal of fire. In a word, at the very time when local +patriotism everywhere was drifting into opposition to the general +military command and when Congress was reflecting this widespread +loss of confidence, the Government was loudly charged with +inability to restrain graft. In all these accusations there was +much injustice. Conditions that the Government was powerless to +control were cruelly exaggerated, and the motives of the +Government were falsified. For all this exaggeration and +falsification the press was largely to blame. Moreover, the +press, at least in dangerously large proportion, was schooling +the people to hold Davis personally responsible for all their +suffering. General Bragg was informed in a letter from a +correspondent in Mobile that "men have been taught to look upon +the President as an inexorably self-willed man who will see the +country to the devil before giving up an opinion or a purpose." +This deliberate fostering of an anti-Davis spirit might seem less +malicious if the fact were not known that many editors detested +Davis because of his desire to abolish the exemption of editors +from conscription. Their ignoble course brings to mind one of the +few sarcasms recorded of Lee--the remark that the great mistake +of the South was in making all its best military geniuses editors +of newspapers. But it must be added in all fairness that the +great opposition journals, such as the Mercury, took up this new +issue with the President because they professed to see in his +attitude toward the press a determination to suppress freedom of +speech, so obsessed was the opposition with the idea that Davis +was a monster! Whatever explanations may be offered for the +prevalence of graft, the impotence of the Government at Richmond +contributed to the general demoralization. In regions like +Georgia and Alabama, the Confederacy was now powerless to control +its agents. Furthermore, in every effort to assume adequate +control of the food situation the Government met the continuous +opposition of two groups of opponents--the unscrupulous parasites +and the bigots of economic and constitutional theory. Of the +activities of the first group, one incident is sufficient to tell +the whole story. At Richmond, in the autumn of 1864, the grocers +were selling rice at two dollars and a half a pound. It happened +that the Governor of Virginia was William Smith, one of the +strong men of the Confederacy who has not had his due from the +historians. He saw that even under the intolerable conditions of +the moment this price was shockingly exorbitant. To remedy +matters, the Governor took the State of Virginia into business, +bought rice where it was grown, imported it, and sold it in +Richmond at fifty cents a pound, with sufficient profit to cover +all costs of handling. + +Nevertheless, when Smith urged the Virginia Legislature to assume +control of business as a temporary measure, be was at once +assailed by the second group--those martinets of +constitutionalism who would not give up their cherished +Anglo-Saxon tradition of complete individualism in government. +The Administration lost some of its staunchest supporters the +moment its later organ, the Sentinel, began advocating the +general regulation of prices. With ruin staring them in the face, +these devotees of tradition could only reiterate their ancient +formulas, nail their colors to the mast, end go down, satisfied +that, if they failed with these principles, they would have +failed still more terribly without them. Confronting the +practical question how to prevent speculators from charging 400 +per cent profit, these men turned grim but did not abandon their +theory. In the latter part of 1864 they aligned themselves with +the opposition when the government commissioners of impressment +fixed an official schedule that boldly and ruthlessly cut under +market prices. The attitude of many such people was expressed by +the Montgomery Mail when it said: + +"The tendency of the age, the march of the American people, is +toward monarchy, and unless the tide is stopped we shall reach +something worse than monarchy. + +"Every step we have taken during the past four years has been in +the direction of military despotism. + +"Half our laws are unconstitutional." + +Another danger of the hour was the melting away of the +Confederate army under the very eyes of its commanders. The +records showed that there were 100,000 absentees. And though the +wrathful officials of the Bureau of Conscription labeled them all +"deserters," the term covered great numbers who had gone home to +share the sufferings of their families. + +Such in brief was the fateful background of the congressional +attack upon the Administration in January, 1865. Secretary +Seddon, himself a Virginian, believing that he was the main +target of the hostility of the Virginia delegation, insisted upon +resigning. Davis met this determination with firmness, not to say +infatuation, and in spite of the congressional crisis, exhausted +every argument to persuade Seddon to remain in office. He denied +the right of Congress to control his Cabinet, but he was finally +constrained to allow Seddon to retire. The bitterness inspired by +these attempts to coerce the President may be gauged by a remark +attributed to Mrs. Davis. Speaking of the action of Congress in +forcing upon him the new plan for a single commanding general of +all the armies, she is said to have exclaimed, "I think I am the +proper person to advise Mr. Davis and if I were he, I would die +or be hung before I would submit to the humiliation." + +Nevertheless the President surrendered to Congress. On January +26, 1865, he signed the bill creating the office of commanding +general and at once bestowed the office upon Lee. It must not be +supposed, however, that Lee himself had the slightest sympathy +with the congressional cabal which had forced upon the President +this reorganization of the army. In accepting his new position he +pointedly ignored Congress by remarking, "I am indebted alone to +the kindness of His Excellency, the President, for my nomination +to this high and arduous office." + +The popular clamor for the restoration of Johnston had still to +be appeased. Disliking Johnston and knowing that the opposition +was using a popular general as a club with which to beat himself, +Davis hesitated long but in the end yielded to the inevitable. To +make the reappointment himself, however, was too humiliating. He +left it to the new commander-in-chief, who speedily restored +Johnston to command. + + + +Chapter X. Disintegration + +While these factions, despite their disagreements, were making +valiant efforts to carry on the war, other factions were +stealthily cutting the ground from under them. There were two +groups of men ripe for disaffection--original Unionists +unreconciled to the Confederacy and indifferentists conscripted +against their will. + +History has been unduly silent about these disaffected men. At +the time so real was the belief in state rights that +contemporaries were reluctant to admit that any Southerner, once +his State had seceded, could fail to be loyal to its commands. +Nevertheless in considerable areas--such, for example, as East +Tennessee--the majority remained to the end openly for the Union, +and there were large regions in the South to which until quite +recently the eye of the student had not been turned. They were +like deep shadows under mighty trees on the face of a brilliant +landscape. When the peasant Unionist who had been forced into the +army deserted, however, he found in these shadows a nucleus of +desperate men ready to combine with him in opposition to the +local authorities. + +Thus were formed local bands of free companions who pillaged the +civilian population. The desperadoes whom the deserters joined +have been described by Professor Dodd as the "neglected +byproducts" of the old regime. They were broken white men, or the +children of such, of the sort that under other circumstances have +congregated in the slums of great cities. Though the South lacked +great cities, nevertheless it had its slum--a widespread slum, +scattered among its swamps and forests. In these fastnesses were +the lowest of the poor whites, in whom hatred of the dominant +whites and vengeful malice against the negro burned like slow +fires. When almost everywhere the countryside was stripped of its +fighting men, these wretches emerged from their swamps and +forests, like the Paris rabble emerging from its dens at the +opening of the Revolution. But unlike the Frenchmen, they were +too sodden to be capable of ideas. Like predatory wild beasts +they revenged themselves upon the society that had cast them off, +and with utter heartlessness they smote the now defenseless +negro. In the old days, with the country well policed, the slaves +had been protected against their fury, but war now changed all. +The negro villages--or "streets," as the term was--were without +arms and without white police within call. They were ravaged by +these marauders night after night, and negroes were not the only +victims, for in remote districts even murder of the whites became +a familiar horror. + +The antiwar factions were not necessarily, however, users of +violence. There were some men who cherished a dream which they +labeled "reconstruction"; and there were certain others who +believed in separate state action, still clinging to the illusion +that any State had it in its power to escape from war by +concluding a separate peace with the United States. + +Yet neither of these illusions made much headway in the States +-that had borne the strain of intellectual leadership. Virginia +and South Carolina, though seldom seeing things eye to eye and +finally drifting in opposite directions, put but little faith in +either "reconstruction" or separate peace. Their leaders had +learned the truth about men and nations; they knew that life is a +grim business; they knew that war had unloosed passions that had +to spend themselves and that could not be talked away. + +But there was scattered over the Confederacy a population which +lacked experience of the world and which included in the main +those small farmers and semi-peasants who under the old regime +were released from the burden of taxation and at the same time +excluded from the benefits of education. Among these people the +illusions of the higher classes were reflected without the +ballast of mentality. Ready to fight on any provocation, yet +circumscribed by their own natures, not understanding life, +unable to picture to themselves different types and conditions, +these people were as prone as children to confuse the world of +their own desire with the world of fact. When hardship came, when +taxation fell upon them with a great blow, when the war took a +turn that necessitated imagination for its understanding and +faith for its pursuit, these people with childlike simplicity +immediately became panic-stricken. Like the similar class in the +North, they had measureless faith in talk. Hence for them, as for +Horace Greeley and many another, sprang up the notion that if +only all their sort could be brought together for talk and talk +and yet more talk, the Union could be "reconstructed" just as it +used to be, and the cruel war would end. Before their eyes, as +before Greeley in 1864, danced the fata morgana of a convention +of all the States, talking, talking, talking. + +The peace illusion centered in North Carolina, where the people +were as enthusiastic for state sovereignty as were any +Southerners. They had seceded mainly because they felt that this +principle had been attacked. Having themselves little if any +intention to promote slavery, they nevertheless were prompt to +resent interference with the system or with any other Southern +institution. Jonathan Worth said that they looked on both +abolition and secession as children of the devil, and he put the +responsibility for the secession of his State wholly upon Lincoln +and his attempt to coerce the lower South. This attitude was +probably characteristic of all classes in North Carolina. There +also an unusually large percentage of men lacked education and +knowledge of the world. We have seen how the first experience +with taxation produced instant and violent reaction. The peasant +farmers of the western counties and the general mass of the +people began to distrust the planter class. They began asking if +their allies, the other States, were controlled by that same +class which seemed to be crushing them by the exaction of tithes. +And then the popular cry was raised: Was there after all anything +in the war for the masses in North Carolina? Had they left the +frying-pan for the fire? Could they better things by withdrawing +from association with their present allies and going back alone +into the Union? The delusion that they could do so whenever they +pleased and on the old footing seems to have been widespread. One +of their catch phrases was "the Constitution as it is and the +Union as it was." Throughout 1863, when the agitation against +tithes was growing every day, the "conservatives" of North +Carolina, as their leaders named them, were drawing together in a +definite movement for peace. This project came to a head during +the next year in those grim days when Sherman was before Atlanta. +Holden, that champion of the opposition to tithes, became a +candidate for Governor against Vance, who was standing for +reelection. Holden stated his platform in the organ of his party +"If the people of North Carolina are for perpetual conscriptions, +impressments and seizures to keep up a perpetual, devastating and +exhausting war, let them vote for Governor Vance, for he is +for`fighting it out now; but if they believe, from the bitter +experience of the last three years, that the sword can never end +it, and are in favor of steps being taken by the State to urge +negotiations by the general government for an honorable and +speedy peace, they must vote for Mr. Holden." + +As Holden, however, was beaten by a vote that stood about three +to one, Governor Vance continued in power, but just what he stood +for and just what his supporters understood to be his policy +would be hard to say. A year earlier he was for attempting to +negotiate peace, but though professing to have come over to the +war party he was never a cordial supporter of the Confederacy. In +a hundred ways he played upon the strong local distrust of +Richmond, and upon the feeling that North Carolina was being +exploited in the interests of the remainder of the South. To +cripple the efficiency of Confederate conscription was one of his +constant aims. Whatever his views of the struggle in which he was +engaged, they did not include either an appreciation of Southern +nationalism or the strategist's conception of war. Granted that +the other States were merely his allies, Vance pursued a course +that might justly have aroused their suspicion, for so far as he +was able he devoted the resources of the State wholly to the use +of its own citizens. The food and the manufactures of North +Carolina were to be used solely by its own troops, not by troops +of the Confederacy raised in other States. And yet, subsequent to +his reelection, he was not a figure in the movement to negotiate +peace. + +Meanwhile in Georgia, where secession had met with powerful +opposition, the policies of the Government had produced +discontent not only with the management of the war but with the +war itself. And now Alexander H. Stephens becomes, for a season, +very nearly the central figure of Confederate history. Early in +1864 the new act suspending the writ of habeas corpus had aroused +the wrath of Georgia, and Stephens had become the mouthpiece of +the opposition. In an address to the Legislature, he condemned in +most exaggerated language not only the Habeas Corpus Act but also +the new Conscription Act. Soon afterward he wrote a long letter +to Herschel V. Johnson, who, like himself, had been an enemy of +secession in 1861. He said that if Johnson doubted that the +Habeas Corpus Act was a blow struck at the very "vitals of +liberty," then he "would not believe though one were to rise from +the dead." In this extraordinary letter Stephens went on "most +confidentially" to state his attitude toward Davis thus "While I +do not and never have regarded him as a great man or statesman on +a large scale, or a man of any marked genius, yet I have regarded +him as a man of good intentions, weak and vacillating, timid, +petulant, peevish, obstinate, but not firm. Am now beginning to +doubt his good intentions.... His whole policy on the +organization and discipline of the army is perfectly consistent +with the hypothesis that he is aiming at absolute power." + +That a man of Stephens's ability should have dealt in fustian +like this in the most dreadful moment of Confederate history is a +psychological problem that is not easily solved. To be sure, +Stephens was an extreme instance of the martinet of +constitutionalism. He reminds us of those old-fashioned generals +of whom Macaulay said that they preferred to lose a battle +according to rule than win it by an exception. Such men find it +easy to transform into a bugaboo any one who appears to them to +be acting irregularly. Stephens in his own mind had so +transformed the President. The enormous difficulties and the +wholly abnormal circumstances which surrounded Davis counted +with Stephens for nothing at all, and he reasoned about the +Administration as if it were operating in a vacuum. Having come +to this extraordinary position, Stephens passed easily into a +role that verged upon treason.* + +* There can be no question that Stephens never did anything which +in his own mind was in the least disloyal. And yet it was +Stephens who, in the autumn of 1864, was singled out by artful +men as a possible figurehead in the conduct of a separate peace +negotiation with Sherman. A critic very hostile to Stephens and +his faction might here raise the question as to what was at +bottom the motive of Governor Brown, in the autumn of 1864, in +withdrawing the Georgia militia from Hood's command. Was there +something afoot that has never quite revealed itself on the broad +pages of history? As ordinarily told, the story is simply that +certain desperate Georgians asked Stephens to be their ambassador +to Sherman to discuss terms; that Sherman had given them +encouragement; but that Stephens avoided the trap, and so nothing +came of it. The recently published correspondence of Toombs, +Stephens, and Cobb, however, contains one passage that has rather +a startling sound. Brown, writing to Stephens regarding his +letter refusing to meet Sherman, says, "It keeps the door open +and I think this is wise." At the same time he made a public +statement that "Georgia has power to act independently but her +faith is pledged by implication to her Southern sisters... +will triumph with her Southern sisters or sink with them in +common ruin." It is still to be discovered what "door" Stephens +was supposed to have kept open. Peace talk was now in the air, +and especially was there chatter about reconstruction. The +illusionists seemed unable to perceive that the reelection of +Lincoln had robbed them of their last card. These dreamers did +not even pause to wonder why after the terrible successes of the +Federal army in Georgia, Lincoln should be expected to reverse +his policy and restore the Union with the Southern States on the +old footing. The peace mania also invaded South Carolina and was +espoused by one of its Congressmen, Mr. Boyce, but he made few +converts among his own people. The Mercury scouted the idea; +clear-sighted and disillusioned, it saw the only alternatives to +be victory or subjugation. Boyce's argument was that the South +had already succumbed to military despotism and would have to +endure it forever unless it accepted the terms of the invaders. +News of Boyce's attitude called forth vigorous protest from the +army before Petersburg, and even went so far afield as New York, +where it was discussed in the columns of the Herald. + +In the midst of the Northern elections, when Davis was hoping +great things from the anti-Lincoln men, Stephens had said in +print that he believed Davis really wished the Northern peace +party defeated, whereupon Davis had written to him demanding +reasons for this astounding charge. To the letter, which had +missed Stephens at his home and had followed him late in the year +to Richmond, Stephens wrote in the middle of December a long +reply which is one of the most curious documents in American +history. He justified himself upon two grounds. One was a +statement which Davis had made in a speech at Columbia, in +October, indicating that he was averse to the scheme of certain +Northern peace men for a convention of all the States. Stephens +insisted that such a convention would have ended the war and +secured the independence of the South. Davis cleared himself on +this charge by saying that the speech at Columbia "was delivered +after the publication of McClellan's letter avowing his purpose +to force reunion by war if we declined reconstruction when +offered, and therefore warned the people against delusive hopes +of peace from any other influence than that to be exerted by the +manifestation of an unconquerable spirit." + +As Stephens professed to have independence and not reconstruction +for his aim, he had missed his mark with this first shot. He +fared still worse with the second. During the previous spring a +Northern soldier captured in the southeast had appealed for +parole on the ground that he was a secret emissary to the +President from the peace men of the North. Davis, who did not +take him seriously, gave orders to have the case investigated, +but Stephens, whose mentality in this period is so curiously +overcast, swallowed the prisoner's story without hesitation. He +and Davis had a considerable amount of correspondence on the +subject. In the fierce tension of the summer of 1864 the War +Department went so far as to have the man's character +investigated, but the report was unsatisfactory. He was not +paroled and died in prison. This episode Stephens now brought +forward as evidence that Davis had frustrated an attempt of the +Northern peace party to negotiate. Davis contented himself with +replying, "I make no comment on this." + +The next step in the peace intrigue took place at the opening of +the next year, 1865. Stephens attempted to address the Senate on +his favorite topic, the wickedness of the suspension of habeas +corpus; was halted by a point of parliamentary law; and when the +Senate sustained an appeal from his decision, left the chamber in +a pique. Hunter, now a Senator, became an envoy to placate him +and succeeded in bringing him back. Thereupon Stephens poured out +his soul in a furious attack upon the Administration. He ended by +submitting resolutions which were just what he might have +submitted four years earlier before a gun had been fired, so +entirely had his mind crystallized in the stress of war! These +resolutions, besides reasserting the full state rights theory, +assumed the readiness of the North to make peace and called for a +general convention of all the States to draw up some new +arrangement on a confessed state rights basis. More than a month +before, Lincoln had been reelected on an unequivocal +nationalistic platform. And yet Stephens continued to believe +that the Northerners did not mean what they said and that in +congregated talking lay the magic which would change the world of +fact into the world of his own desire. + +At this point in the peace intrigue the ambiguous figure of +Napoleon the Little reappears, though only to pass ghostlike +across the back of the stage. The determination of Northern +leaders to oppose Napoleon had suggested to shrewd politicians a +possible change of front. That singular member of the Confederate +Congress, Henry S. Foote, thought he saw in the Mexican imbroglio +means to bring Lincoln to terms. In November he had introduced +into the House resolutions which intimated that "it might become +the true policy of...the Confederate States to consent to the +yielding of the great principle embodied in the Monroe Doctrine." +The House referred his resolutions to the Committee on Foreign +Affairs, and there they slumbered until January. + +Meanwhile a Northern politician brought on the specter of +Napoleon for a different purpose. Early in January, 1865, Francis +P. Blair made a journey to Richmond and proposed to Davis a plan +of reconciliation involving the complete abandonment of slavery, +the reunion of all the States, and an expedition against Mexico +in which Davis was to play the leading role. Davis cautiously +refrained from committing himself, though he gave Blair a letter +in which he expressed his willingness to enter into negotiations +for peace between "the two countries." The visit of Blair gave +new impetus to the peace intrigue. The Confederate House +Committee on Foreign Affairs reported resolutions favoring an +attempt to negotiate with the United States so as to "bring into +view" the possibility of cooperation between the United States +and the Confederacy to maintain the Monroe Doctrine. The same day +saw another singular incident. For some reason that has never +been divulged Foote determined to counterbalance Blair's visit to +Richmond by a visit of his own to Washington. In attempting to +pass through the Confederate lines he was arrested by the +military authorities. With this fiasco Foote passes from the +stage of history. + +The doings of Blair, however, continued to be a topic of general +interest throughout January. The military intrigue was now +simmering down through the creation of the office of commanding +general. The attempt of the congressional opposition to drive the +whole Cabinet from office reached a compromise in the single +retirement of the Secretary of War. Before the end of the month +the peace question was the paramount one before Congress and the +country. Newspapers discussed the movements of Blair, apparently +with little knowledge, and some of the papers asserted hopefully +that peace was within reach. Cooler heads, such as the majority +of the Virginia Legislature, rejected this idea as baseless. The +Mercury called the peace party the worst enemy of the South. Lee +was reported by the Richmond correspondent of the Mercury as not +caring a fig for the peace project. Nevertheless the rumor +persisted that Blair had offered peace on terms that the +Confederacy could accept. Late in the month, Davis appointed +Stephens, Hunter, and John A. Campbell commissioners to confer +with the Northern authorities with regard to peace. + +There followed the famous conference of February 3, 1865, in the +cabin of a steamer at Hampton Roads, with Seward and Lincoln. The +Confederate commissioners represented two points of view: that of +the Administration, unwilling to make peace without independence; +and that of the infatuated Stephens who clung to the idea that +Lincoln did not mean what he said, and who now urged "an +armistice allowing the States to adjust themselves as suited +their interests. If it would be to their interests to reunite, +they would do so." The refusal of Lincoln to consider either of +these points of view--the refusal so clearly foreseen by +Davis--put an end to the career of Stephens. He was "hoist with +his own petard." + +The news of the failure of the conference was variously received. +The Mercury rejoiced because there was now no doubt how things +stood. Stephens, unwilling to cooperate with the Administration, +left the capital and went home to Georgia. At Richmond, though +the snow lay thick on the ground, a great public meeting was held +on the 6th of February in the precincts of the African Church. +Here Davis made an address which has been called his greatest and +which produced a profound impression. A wave of enthusiasm swept +over Richmond, and for a moment the President appeared once more +to be master of the situation. His immense audacity carried the +people with him when, after showing what might be done by more +drastic enforcement of the conscription laws, he concluded: "Let +us then unite our hands and our hearts, lock our shields +together, and we may well believe that before another summer +solstice falls upon us, it will be the enemy that will be asking +us for conferences and occasions in which to make known our +demands." + + + +Chapter XI. An Attempted Revolution + +Almost from the moment when the South had declared its +independence voices had been raised in favor of arming the +negroes. The rejection of a plan to accomplish this was one of +the incidents of Benjamin's tenure of the portfolio of the War +Department; but it was not until the early days of 1864, when the +forces of Johnston lay encamped at Dalton, Georgia, that the +arming of the slaves was seriously discussed by a council of +officers. Even then the proposal had its determined champions, +though there were others among Johnston's officers who regarded +it as "contrary to all true principles of chivalric warfare," and +their votes prevailed in the council by a large majority. + +From that time forward the question of arming the slaves hung +like a heavy cloud over all Confederate thought of the war. It +was discussed in the army and at home around troubled firesides. +Letters written from the trenches at Petersburg show that it was +debated by the soldiers, and the intense repugnance which the +idea inspired in some minds was shown by threats to leave the +ranks if the slaves were given arms. + +Amid the pressing, obvious issues of 1864, this project hardly +appears upon the face of the record until it was alluded to in +Davis's message to Congress in November, 1864, and in the annual +report of the Secretary of War. The President did not as yet ask +for slave soldiers. He did, however, ask for the privilege of +buying slaves for government use--not merely hiring them from +their owners as had hitherto been done--and for permission, if +the Government so desired, to emancipate them at the end of their +service. The Secretary of War went farther, however, and +advocated negro soldiers, and he too suggested their emancipation +at the end of service. + +This feeling of the temper of the country, so to speak, produced +an immediate response. It drew Rhett from his retirement and +inspired a letter in which he took the Government severely to +task for designing to remove from state control this matter of +fundamental importance. Coinciding with the cry for more troops +with which to confront Sherman, the topic of negro soldiers +became at once one of the questions of the hour. It helped to +focus that violent anti-Davis movement which is the conspicuous +event of December, 1864, and January, 1865. Those who believed +the President unscrupulous trembled at the thought of putting +into his hands a great army of hardy barbarians trained to +absolute obedience. The prospect of such a weapon held in one +firm hand at Richmond seemed to those opponents of the President +a greater menace to their liberties than even the armies of the +invaders. It is quite likely that distrust of Davis and dread of +the use he might make of such a weapon was increased by a letter +from Benjamin to Frederick A. Porcher of Charleston, a supporter +of the Government, who had made rash suggestions as to the +extra-constitutional power that the Administration might be +justified by circumstances in assuming. Benjamin deprecated such +suggestions but concluded with the unfortunate remark: "If the +Constitution is not to be our guide I would prefer to see it +suppressed by a revolution which should declare a dictatorship +during the war, after the manner of ancient Rome, leaving to the +future the care of reestablishing firm and regular government." +In the State of Virginia, indeed, the revolutionary suggestions +of the President's message and the Secretary's report were +promptly taken up and made the basis of a political program, +which Governor Smith embodied in his message to the +Legislature--a document that will eventually take its place among +the most interesting state papers of the Confederacy. It should +be noted that the suggestions thrown out in this way by the +Administration to test public feeling involved three distinct +questions: Should the slaves be given arms? Should they, if +employed as soldiers, be given their freedom? Should this +revolutionary scheme, if accepted at all, be handled by the +general Government or left to the several States? On the last of +the three questions the Governor of Virginia was silent; by +implication he treated the matter as a concern of the States. +Upon the first and second questions, however, he was explicit and +advised arming the slaves. He then added: + +"Even if the result were to emancipate our slaves, there is not a +man who would not cheerfully put the negro into the Army rather +than become a slave himself to our hated and vindictive foe. It +is, then, simply a question of time. Has the time arrived when +this issue is fairly before us? ...For my part standing before +God and my country, I do not hesitate to say that I would arm +such portion of our able-bodied slave population as may be +necessary, and put them in the field, so as to have them ready +for the spring campaign, even if it resulted in the freedom of +those thus organized. Will I not employ them to fight the negro +force of the enemy? Aye, the Yankees themselves, who already +boast that they have 200,000 of our slaves in arms against us. +Can we hesitate, can we doubt, when the question is, whether the +enemy shall use our slaves against us or we use them against him; +when the question may be between liberty and independence on the +one hand, or our subjugation and utter ruin on the other?" + +With their Governor as leader for the Administration, the +Virginians found this issue the absorbing topic of the hour. And +now the great figure of Lee takes its rightful place at the very +center of Confederate history, not only military but civil, for +to Lee the Virginia politicians turned for advice.* In a letter +to a State Senator of Virginia who had asked for a public +expression of Lee's views because "a mountain of prejudices, +growing out of our ancient modes of regarding the institution of +Southern slavery will have to be met and overcome" in order to +Attain unanimity, Lee discussed both the institution of slavery +and the situation of the moment. He plainly intimated that +slavery +should be placed under state control; and, assuming such control, + +he considered "the relation of master and slave...the best that +can exist between the black and white races while intermingled as +at present in this country." He went on to show, however, that +military necessity now compelled a revolution in sentiment on +this subject, and he came at last to this momentous conclusion: + +* Lee now revealed himself in his previously overlooked capacity +of statesman. Whether his abilities in this respect equaled his +abilities as a soldier need not here be considered; it is said +that he himself had no high opinion of them. However, in the +advice which he gave at this final moment of crisis, he expressed +a definite conception of the articulation of civil forces in such +a system as that of the Confederacy. He held that all initiative +upon basal matters should remain with the separate States, that +the function of the general Government was to administer, not to +create conditions, and that the proper power to constrain the +State Legislatures was the flexible, extra-legal power of public +opinion. + +"Should the war continue under existing circumstances, the enemy +may in course of time penetrate our country and get access to a +large part of our negro population. It is his avowed policy to +convert the able-bodied men among them into soldiers, and to +emancipate all.... His progress will thus add to his numbers, +and at the same time destroy slavery in a manner most pernicious +to the welfare of our people. Their negroes will be used to hold +them in subjection, leaving the remaining force of the enemy free +to extend his conquest. Whatever may be the effect of our +employing negro troops, it cannot be as mischievous as this. If +it end in subverting slavery it will be accomplished by +ourselves, and we can devise the means of alleviating the evil +consequences to both races. I think, therefore, we must decide +whether slavery shall be extinguished by our enemies and the +slaves be used against us, or use them ourselves at the risk of +the effects which may be produced upon our social +institutions..." + +"The reasons that induce me to recommend the employment of negro +troops at all render the effect of the measures...upon +slavery immaterial, and in my opinion the best means of securing +the efficiency and fidelity of this auxiliary force would be to +accompany the measure with a well-digested plan of gradual and +general emancipation. As that will be the result of the +continuance of the war, and will certainly occur if the enemy +succeed, it seems to me most advisable to adopt it at once, and +thereby obtain all the benefits that will accrue to our cause..." + +"I can only say in conclusion, that whatever measures are to be +adopted should be adopted at once. Every day's delay increases +the difficulty. Much time will be required to organize and +discipline the men, and action may be deferred until it is too +late." + +Lee wrote these words on January 11, 1865. At that time a fresh +wave of despondency had gone over the South because of Hood's +rout at Nashville; Congress was debating intermittently the +possible arming of the slaves; and the newspapers were +prophesying that the Administration would presently force the +issue. It is to be observed that Lee did not advise Virginia to +wait for Confederate action. He advocated emancipation by the +State. After all, to both Lee and Smith, Virginia was their +"country." + +During the next sixty days Lee rejected two great +opportunities--or, if you will, put aside two great temptations. +If tradition is to be trusted, it was during January that Lee +refused to play the role of Cromwell by declining to intervene +directly in general Confederate politics. But there remained open +the possibility of his intervention in Virginia politics, and the +local crisis was in its own way as momentous as the general +crisis. What if Virginia had accepted the views of Lee and +insisted upon the immediate arming of the slaves? Virginia, +however, did not do so; and Lee, having made public his position, +refrained from further participation. Politically speaking, he +maintained a splendid isolation at the head of the armies. + +Through January and February the Virginia crisis continued +undetermined. In this period of fateful hesitation, the +"mountains of prejudice" proved too great to be undermined even +by the influence of Lee. When at last Virginia enacted a law +permitting the arming of her slaves, no provision was made for +their manumission. + +Long before the passage of this act in Virginia, Congress had +become the center of the controversy. Davis had come to the point +where no tradition however cherished would stand, in his mind, +against the needs of the moment. To reinforce the army in great +strength was now his supreme concern, and he saw but one way to +do it. As a last resort he was prepared to embrace the bold plan +which so many people still regarded with horror and which as late +as the previous November he himself had opposed. He would arm the +slaves. On February 10, 1865, bills providing for the arming of +the slaves were introduced both in the House and in the Senate. + +On this issue all the forces both of the Government and the +opposition fought their concluding duel in which were involved +all the other basal issues that had distracted the country since +1862. Naturally there was a bewildering criss-cross of political +motives. There were men who, like Smith and Lee, would go along +with the Government on emancipation, provided it was to be +carried out by the free will of the States. There were others who +preferred subjugation to the arming of the slaves; and among +these there were clashings of motive. Then, too, there were those +who were willing to arm the slaves but were resolved not to give +them their freedom. + +The debate brings to the front of the political stage the figure +of R. M. T. Hunter. Hitherto his part has not been conspicuous +either as Secretary of State or as Senator from Virginia. He now +becomes, in the words of Davis, "a chief obstacle" to the passage +of the Senate bill which would have authorized a levy of negro +troops and provided for their manumission by the War Department +with the consent of the State in which they should be at the time +of the proposed manumission. After long discussion, this bill was +indefinitely postponed. Meanwhile a very different bill had +dragged through the House. While it was under debate, another +appeal was made to Lee. Barksdale, who came as near as any one to +being the leader of the Administration, sought Lee's aid. Again +the General urged the enrollment of negro soldiers and their +eventual manumission, but added this immensely significant +proviso: + +"I have no doubt that if Congress would authorize their [the +negroes'] reception into service, and empower the President to +call upon individuals or States for such as they are willing to +contribute, with the condition of emancipation to all enrolled, a +sufficient number would be forthcoming to enable us to try the +experiment [of determining whether the slaves would make good +soldiers]. If it proved successful, most of the objections to the +measure would disappear, and if individuals still remained +unwilling to send their negroes to the army, the force of public +opinion in the States would soon bring about such legislation as +would remove all obstacles. I think the matter should be left, as +far as possible, to the people and to the States, which alone can +legislate as the necessities of this particular service may +require." + +The fact that Congress had before it this advice from Lee +explains why all factions accepted a compromise bill, passed on +the 9th of March, approved by the President on the 13th of March, +and issued to the country in a general order on the 23d of March. +It empowered the President to "ask for and accept from the owners +of slaves" the service of such number of negroes as he saw fit, +and if sufficient number were not offered to "call on each State +...for her quota of 300,000 troops...to be raised from +such classes of the population, irrespective of color, in each +State as the proper authorities thereof may determine." However, +"nothing in this act shall be construed to authorize a change in +the relation which the said slaves shall bear toward their +owners, except by consent of the owners and of the States in +which they may reside and in pursuance of the laws thereof." + +The results of this act were negligible. Its failure to offer the +slave-soldier his freedom was at once seized upon by critics as +evidence of the futility of the course of the Administration. The +sneer went round that the negro was to be made to fight for his +own captivity. Pollard--whose words, however, must be taken with +a +grain of salt--has left this account of recruiting under the new +act: "Two companies of blacks, organized from some negro +vagabonds in Richmond, were allowed to give balls at the Libby +Prison and were exhibited in fine fresh uniforms on Capitol +Square as decoys to obtain recruits. But the mass of their +colored brethren looked on the parade with unenvious eyes, and +little boys exhibited the early prejudices of race by pelting the +fine uniforms with mud." + +Nevertheless both Davis and Lee busied themselves in the endeavor +to raise black troops. Governor Smith cooperated with them. And +in the mind of the President there was no abandonment of the +program of emancipation, which was now his cardinal policy. Soon +after the passage of the act, he wrote to Smith: "I am happy to +receive your assurance of success [in raising black troops], as +well as your promise to seek legislation to secure unmistakable +freedom to the slave who shall enter the Army, with a right to +return to his old home, when he shall have been honorably +discharged from military service." + +While this final controversy was being fought out in Congress, +the enthusiasm for the Administration had again ebbed. Its +recovery of prestige had run a brief course and was gone, and now +in the midst of the discussion over the negro soldiers' bills, +the opposition once more attacked the Cabinet, with its old +enemy, Benjamin, as the target. Resolutions were introduced into +the Senate declaring that "the retirement of the Honorable Judah +P. Benjamin from the State Department will be subservient of the +public interests"; in the House resolutions were offered +describing his public utterances as "derogatory to his position +as a high public functionary of the Confederate Government, a +reflection on the motives of Congress as a deliberative body, and +an insult to public opinion." + +So Congress wrangled and delayed while the wave of fire that was +Sherman's advance moved northward through the Carolinas. Columbia +had gone up in smoke while the Senate debated day after +day--fifteen in all--what to do with the compromise bill sent up +to it from the House. It was during this period that a new +complication appears to have been added to a situation which was +already so hopelessly entangled, for this was the time when +Governor Magrath made a proposal to Governor Vance for a league +within the Confederacy, giving as his chief reason that +Virginia's interests were parting company with those of the lower +South. The same doubt of the upper South appears at various times +in the Mercury. And through all the tactics of the opposition +runs the constant effort to discredit Davis. The Mercury scoffed +at the agitation for negro soldiers as a mad attempt on the part +of the Administration to remedy its "myriad previous blunders." + +In these terrible days, the mind of Davis hardened. He became +possessed by a lofty and intolerant confidence, an absolute +conviction that, in spite of all appearances, he was on the +threshold of success. We may safely ascribe to him in these days +that illusory state of mind which has characterized some of the +greatest of men in their over-strained, concluding periods. His +extraordinary promises in his later messages, a series of vain +prophecies beginning with his speech at the African Church, +remind one of Napoleon after Leipzig refusing the Rhine as a +boundary. His nerves, too, were all but at the breaking point. He +sent the Senate a scolding message because of its delay in +passing the Negro Soldiers' Bill. The Senate answered in a report +that was sharply critical of his own course. Shortly afterward +Congress adjourned refusing his request for another suspension of +the writ of habeas corpus. + +Davis had hinted at important matters he hoped soon to be able to +submit to Congress. What he had in mind was the last, the +boldest, stroke of this period of desperation. The policy of +emancipation he and Benjamin had accepted without reserve. They +had at last perceived, too late, the power of the anti-slavery +movement in Europe. Though they had already failed to coerce +England through cotton and had been played with and abandoned by +Napoleon, they persisted in thinking that there was still a +chance for a third chapter in their foreign affairs. + +The agitation to arm the slaves, with the promise of freedom, had +another motive besides the reinforcement of Lee's army: it was +intended to serve as a basis for negotiations with England and +France. To that end D. J. Kenner was dispatched to Europe early +in 1865. Passing through New York in disguise, he carried word of +this revolutionary program to the Confederate commissioners +abroad. A conference at Paris was held by Kenner, Mason, and +Slidell. Mason, who had gone over to England to sound Palmerston +with regard to this last Confederate hope, was received on the +14th of March. On the previous day, Davis had accepted temporary +defeat, by signing the compromise bill which omitted +emancipation. But as there was no cable operating at the time, +Mason was not aware of this rebuff. In his own words, he "urged +upon Lord P. that if the President was right in his impression +that there was some latent, undisclosed obstacle on the part of +Great Britain to recognition, it should be frankly stated, and we +might, if in our power to do so, consent to remove it." +Palmerston, though his manner was "conciliatory and kind," +insisted that there was nothing "underlying" his previous +statements, and that he could not, in view of the facts then +existing, regard the Confederacy in the light of an independent +power. Mason parted from him convinced that "the most ample +concessions on our part in the matter referred to would have +produced no change in the course determined on by the British +Government with regard to recognition." In a subsequent interview +with Lord Donoughmore, he was frankly told that the offer of +emancipation had come too late. + +The dispatch in which Mason reported the attitude of the British +Government never reached the Confederate authorities. It was +dated the 31st of March. Two days later Richmond was evacuated by +the Confederate Government. + + + +Chapter XII. The Last Word + +The evacuation of Richmond broke the back of the Confederate +defense. Congress had adjourned. The legislative history of the +Confederacy was at an end. The executive history still had a few +days to run. After destroying great quantities of records, the +government officials had packed the remainder on a long train +that conveyed the President and what was left of the civil +service to Danville. During a few days, Danville was the +Confederate capital. There, Davis, still unable to conceive +defeat, issued his pathetic last Address to the People of the +Confederate States. His mind was crystallized. He was no longer +capable of judging facts. In as confident tones as ever he +promised his people that they should yet prevail; he assured +Virginians that even if the Confederate army should withdraw +further south the withdrawal would be but temporary, and that +"again and again will we return until the baffled and exhausted +enemy shall abandon in despair his endless and impossible task of +making slaves of a people resolved to be free." + +The surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, compelled another +migration of the dwindling executive company. General Johnston +had not yet surrendered. A conference which he had with the +President and the Cabinet at Greensboro ended in giving him +permission to negotiate with Sherman. Even then Davis was still +bent on keeping up the fight; yet, though he believed that +Sherman would reject Johnston's overtures, he was overtaken at +Charlotte on his way South by the crushing news of Johnston's +surrender. There the executive history of the Confederacy came to +an end in a final Cabinet meeting. Davis, still blindly resolute +to continue the struggle, was deeply distressed by the +determination of his advisers to abandon it. In imminent danger +of capture, the President's party made its way to Abbeville, +where it broke up, and each member sought safety as best he +could. Davis with a few faithful men rode to Irwinsville, +Georgia, where, in the early morning of the l0th of May, he was +surprised and captured. But the history of the Confederacy was +not quite at an end. The last gunshots were still to be fired far +away in Texas on the 13th of May. The surrender of the forces of +the Trans-Mississippi on May 26, 1865, brought the war to a +definite conclusion. + +There remains one incident of these closing days, the +significance of which was not perceived until long afterward, +when it immediately took its rightful place among the determining +events of American history. The unconquerable spirit of the Army +of Northern Virginia found its last expression in a proposal +which was made to Lee by his officers. If he would give the word, +they would make the war a duel to the death; it should drag out +in relentless guerrilla struggles; and there should be no +pacification of the South until the fighting classes had been +exterminated. Considering what those classes were, considering +the qualities that could be handed on to their posterity, one +realizes that this suicide of a whole people, of a noble fighting +people, would have maimed incalculably the America of the future. +But though the heroism of this proposal of his men to die on +their shields had its stern charm for so brave a man as Lee, he +refused to consider it. He would not admit that he and his people +had a right thus to extinguish their power to help mold the +future, no matter whether it be the future they desired or not. +The result of battle must be accepted. The Southern spirit must +not perish, luxuriating blindly in despair, but must find a new +form of expression, must become part of the new world that was to +be, must look to a new birth under new conditions. In this spirit +he issued to his army his last address: + +"After four years of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed +courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has been +compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources. I need +not tell the survivors of so many hard-fought battles, who have +remained steadfast to the last, that I have consented to the +result from no distrust of them; but feeling that valor and +devotion could accomplish nothing that could compensate for the +loss that would have attended the continuation of the contest, I +determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past +services have endeared them to their countrymen.... I bid you +an affectionate farewell." + +How inevitably one calls to mind, in view of the indomitable +valor of Lee's final decision, those great lines from Tennyson: + +"Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho' + +We are not now that strength which in old days + +Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are; + +One equal temper of heroic hearts, + +Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will." + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + +There is no adequate history of the Confederacy. It is rumored +that a distinguished scholar has a great work approaching +completion. It is also rumored that another scholar, well +equipped to do so, will soon bring out a monumental life of +Davis. But the fact remains that as yet we lack a comprehensive +review of the Confederate episode set in proper perspective. +Standard works such as the "History of the United States from the +Compromise of 1850", by J. F. Rhodes (7 vols., 1893-1908), even +when otherwise as near a classic as is the work of Mr. Rhodes, +treat the Confederacy so externally as to have in this respect +little value. The one searching study of the subject, "The +Confederate States of America," by J. C. Schwab (1901), though +admirable in its way, is wholly overshadowed by the point of view +of the economist. The same is to be said of the article by +Professor Schwab in the 11th edition of "The Encyclopaedia +Britannica." + +Two famous discussions of the episode by participants are: "The +Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government," by the President of +the Confederacy (2 vols., 1881), and "A Constitutional View of +the Late War Between the States," by Alexander H. Stephens (2 +vols., 1870). Both works, though invaluable to the student, are +tinged with controversy, each of the eminent authors aiming to +refute the arguments of political antagonists. + +The military history of the time has so overshadowed the civil, +in the minds of most students, that we are still sadly in need of +careful, disinterested studies of the great figures of +Confederate civil affairs. "Jefferson Davis," by William E. Dodd +("American Crisis Biographies," 1907), is the standard life of +the President, superseding older ones. Not so satisfactory in the +same series is "Judah P. Benjamin," by Pierce Butler (1907), and +"Alexander H. Stephens," by Louis Pendleton (1907). Older works +which are valuable for the material they contain are: "Memoir of +Jefferson Davis," by his Wife (1890); "The Life and Times of +Alexander H. Stephens," by R. M. Johnston and W. M. Browne +(1878); "The Life and Times of William Lowndes Yancey," by J. W. +Du Bose (1891); "The Life, Times, and Speeches of Joseph E. +Brown," by Herbert Fielder (1883); "Public Life and Diplomatic +Correspondence of James M. Mason," by his Daughter (1903); "The +Life and Time of C. G. Memminger," by H. D. Capers (1893). The +writings of E. A. Pollard cannot be disregarded, but must be +taken as the violent expression of an extreme partisan. They +include a "Life of Jefferson Davis" (1869) and "The Lost Cause" +(1867). A charming series of essays is "Confederate Portraits," +by Gamaliel Bradford (1914). Among books on special topics that +are to be recommended are: "The Diplomatic History of the +Southern Confederacy" by J. M. Callahan (1901); "France and the +Confederate Navy," by John Bigelow (1888); and "The Secret +Service of the Confederate States in Europe," by J. D. Bulloch (2 +vols., 1884). There is a large number of contemporary accounts of +life in the Confederacy. Historians have generally given +excessive attention to "A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the +Confederate States Capital," by J. B. Jones (2 vols., 1866) which +has really neither more nor less value than a Richmond newspaper. +Conspicuous among writings of this type is the delightful "Diary +from Dixie," by Mrs. Mary B. Chestnut (1905) and "My Diary, North +and South," by W. H. Russell (1861). + +The documents of the civil history, so far as they are accessible +to the general reader, are to be found in the three volumes +forming the fourth series of the "Official Records of the Union +and Confederate Armies" (128 vols., 1880-1901); the "Journals of +the Congress of the Confederate States" (8 vols., 1904) and +"Messages and Papers of the Confederacy," edited by J. D. +Richardson (2 vols., 1905). Four newspapers are of first +importance: the famous opposition organs, the Richmond Examiner +and the Charleston Mercury, which should be offset by the two +leading organs of the Government, the Courier of Charleston and +the Enquirer of Richmond. The Statutes of the Confederacy have +been collected and published; most of them are also to be found +in the fourth series of the Official Records. + +Additional bibliographical references will be found appended to +the articles on the "Confederate States of America," "Secession," +and "Jefferson Davis," in "The Encyclopaedia Britannica," 11th +edition. + + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Day of the Confederacy +by Nathaniel W. Stephenson + diff --git a/old/dayco10.zip b/old/dayco10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2aedf74 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/dayco10.zip |
