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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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