natural unfitness for a very profitable system of slave-labor, were slow to take a definite stand. President Lincoln's policy was to proceed cautiously at first, keep the slavery question in the background, and enlist the sympathies of these States by appeals to their attachment to the Union. Although the people of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri were pretty evenly divided, the State governments were kept from seceding. Without the support of the Re publican Congressmen from this section, Lincoln could not have carried out his abolition policy. Page 263. Hampton Roads. The battle of Hampton Roads, at the entrance of Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, is remarkable for the revolution in naval warfare which it began. The utter worthlessness of wooden against armored vessels was suddenly and convincingly demonstrated. On the 8th of March, 1862, the Confederate armored ram Virginia, formerly Merrimac, made terrible havoc among the old wooden men-of-war stationed about Fortress Monroe. But at nine o'clock that night the little Monitor steamed into the Roads to the assistance of the shattered Federal navy. The next day's battle is one of the romances of war. Had Mr. Wilbur waited for the next Southern mail before writing this letter, the Devil might have had less credit given him. Page 265. "From the banks o' my own Massissippi." In the period from 1830 to 1840, the sudden and healthy increase of immigration and the flattering industrial prospect induced many Western and Southern States to make lavish expenditures for internal improvements. Their credit was good and they borrowed too largely. After the financial crisis of 1837, insolvency stared them in the face. A number repudiated, among whom Mississippi in particular was heavily indebted. Her securities were largely held in England. It added nothing to the credit of the Confederacy that Jefferson Davis had been an earnest advocate of repudiation. Page 265. Manassas, or Bull Run. Cf. note to p. 251. Page 266. Roanoke. The loss of Roanoke Island, on the coast of North Carolina, February 8, 1862, was a severe one to the South. Page 266. "Bufort." The finest harbor on the Southern coast was that of Port Royal, South Carolina, in the centre of the sea-island cotton district. This point the North fixed on as the best for a base of operations, and on October 29, 1861, a fleet of fifty vessels, including thirty-three transports, was sent against it. A fierce attack was begun on November 7, and on the next day the two forts, Walker and Beauregard, capitulated. Without encountering further opposition the Federal troops took possession of the town of Beaufort on an island in the harbor. Page 266. Millspring. January 19, 1862, the Confederates under Crittenden were defeated with considerable loss at Millspring, Kentucky, by General G. H. Thomas. news of Gettysburg. Certainly if it had, France would not have been slow to follow. It is difficult to overestimate the disastrous effect such events would have had on the Northern cause. Page 266. Belmont. Mr. August Belmont, of New York, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1860 to 1872, although opposed to secession, still attributed the cause and the responsibility for the continuance of the war to the Republican Administration. He led his party in clamoring for peace and conciliation, especially in 1864, and bitterly opposed reconstruction. Page 266. Vallandigham. Clement L. Vallandigham, of Dayton, Ohio, was the most conspicuous and noisy one of the Peace Democrats during the war. His treasonable and seditious utterances finally led to his banishment to the South in May, 1863. Thence he repaired to Canada, where he remained while his party made him their candidate in the next gubernatorial campaign, in which he was ignominiously defeated. Page 266. Woodses. This refers to the brothers Benjamin and Fernando Wood, prominent Democrats of New York city. The former was editor of the Daily News and a Representative in Congress. The latter was several times Mayor of New York, and for twelve years a Representative in Congress. Page 267. Columbus. After the fall of Fort Donelson, Columbus, Kentucky, was no longer tenable, and Beauregard ordered General Połk to evacuate it. March 3, 1862, a scouting party of Illinois troops, finding the post deserted, occupied it, and when Sherman approached the next day he found the Union flag flying over the town. Page 267. Donelson. The capture of Fort Donelson, in Tennessee, February 16, 1862, by General Grant, was one of several Union successes in the West, whose value was almost entirely neutralized by McClellan's dilatory conduct of the Army of the Potomac. General John B. Floyd's precipitate retreat from the fort as the Union forces approached was afterwards represented in one of his official reports as an heroic exploit. 66 Page 279. Taney. Roger B. Taney, of Maryland, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1836 to 1864. He is chiefly notable for the Dred Scott decision, in 1857, in which he held that a negro was not a person in the contemplation of the Constitution, and hence "had no rights a white man was bound to respect"; that the Constitution recognized property in slaves, and that this ownership was as much entitled to protection in the Territories as any other species of property. According to this, all legislation by Congress on slavery, except in its aid, was unconstitutional. Page 270. Compromise System. Henry Clay was the "great compromiser." The aim of his life was the preservation of the Union even at the cost of extending slave territory. The three compromises for which he is famous were the Page 266. "Recognition." Recognition of Missouri in 1820, the Tariff in 1833, and the Caliindependence by the European powers, partic-fornia or " Omnibus" Compromise in 1850, the ularly France and England, would of course have been of the greatest value to the South. It is said that Mr. Roebuck's motion in the House of Commons to recognize the Confederate States would have passed but for the timely most conspicuous feature of which was the Fugitive Slave Law. Page 271. "S. J. Court." At the beginning of Lincoln's administration, five of the Supreme Court Justices, an absolute majority, were from the South, and had always been State-rights | 1852, Secretary of War in Buchanan's Cabinet, Democrats. and a brigadier in the Confederate service. Page 273. "The Law-'n'-Order Party of ole Cincinnater." In Cincinnati, on March 24, 1862, Wendell Phillips, while attempting to deliver one of his lectures on slavery and the war, was attacked by a mob and very roughly handled. Page 283. "Extra ordine Billis." William Smith, of King George County, Virginia, was the proprietor of an old line of coaches running through Virginia and the Carolinas. He was called "Extra Billy" because he charged extra for every package, large or small, which his passengers carried. Mr. Smith himself, however, attributed his nickname to his extra service to the State. He was several times a Congressman, twice Governor of Virginia, and a Confederate Brigadier-General. Page 281. Gov'nor Seymour. Horatio Seymour (1810-1886), of Utica, New York, was one of the most prominent and respected men in the Democratic party, and a bitter opponent of Lincoln. He had at this time been recently elected Governor of New York on a platform that de- Page 295. Seward. Under the influence of nounced almost every measure the government Mr. Seward, President Andrew Johnson develhad found it necessary to adopt for the suppres-oped a policy of reconstruction directly opposed sion of the Rebellion. His influence contributed to the views of Congress and the mass of the not a little to the encouragement of that spirit Republican party. He believed in punishing inwhich inspired the Draft Riot in the city of New dividuals, if necessary, but that all the States York in July, 1863. ought to be re-installed at once in the position Page 282. "Pres'dunt's Proclamation." In they had occupied in 1860. The guarantees the autumn of 1862 Mr. Lincoln saw that he against disloyalty he proposed to exact from the must either retreat or advance boldly against South were few and feeble. Congress, on the slavery. He had already proceeded far enough other hand, determined to keep the subdued against it to rouse a dangerous hostility among States in a position somewhat resembling that of Northern Democrats, and yet not far enough to territories and under military surveillance until injure the institution or enlist the sympathy of it could be satisfied that four years' war would pronounced anti-slavery men. He determined not be without good results. Its chief aim was on decisive action. On September 22, 1862, he to secure the safety of the negro, who had been issued a monitory proclamation giving notice freed by the thirteenth Amendment in Decem. that on the first day of the next year he would, ber, 1865. These differences of plan led to a in the exercise of his war-power, emancipate all protracted and bitter contest between the execuslaves of those States or parts of States in rebel- tive and legislative departments, culminating in lion, unless certain conditions were complied the unsuccessful attempt to impeach Johnson in with. This proclamation was at once violently March, 1868. The Congressional policy was carassailed by the Democrats, led by such men as ried out over the President's vetoes. Among Seymour, and for a time the opposition threat- other conditions the Southern States were reened disaster to the administration. The elec- quired to ratify the fourteenth and fifteenth tions in the five leading free States-New York, Amendments, giving citizenship and suffrage to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois - went the blacks, before being qualified for readmission against the Republicans. But with the aid of to the Union. New England, the West, and, not least of all, the Border Slave States, the President was assured a majority of about twenty in the new House to carry out his abolition policy. Page 283. "Kettelopotomachia." The incident furnishing the occasion for this poem was a Virginia duel, or rather a free fight. Mr. H. R. Pollard, of the Richmond Examiner, had some difficulty with Messrs. Coleman and N. P. Tyler, of the Enquirer, concerning the public printing. On Friday, January 5, 1866, all three gentlemen met in the rotunda of the Virginia Capitol, and proceeded to settle their dispute by an appeal to revolvers. Six shots were fired, but no damage resulted, except to a marble statue of Washington. Page 284. "Letcheris." John Letcher (18131884), a Virginia lawyer and politician, was several times in Congress, and was Governor of his State from 1860 to 1864. Page 284. "Floydis." John B. Floyd (18051863) was Governor of Virginia from 1849 to Page 298. "Mac." General George B. McClellan was one of the leaders of the Northern Democracy during the war, and the presidential nominee against Lincoln in 1864. Page 299. "Johnson's speech an' veto message. The Civil Rights Act of March, 1866, had just been the occasion of an open rupture between Congress and the President. The bill, conferring extensive rights on freedmen, passed both Houses, but was vetoed by Johnson. It was quickly passed again over his veto. Page 299. "A temp'ry party can be based on 't." Johnson's plan of reconstruction did, indeed, furnish the material for the next Democratic platform in the presidential campaign of 1868. Page 299. Tyler. John Tyler, who had been chosen Vice-President in 1840, succeeded to the Presidency on the death of Harrison one month after the inauguration. He abandoned the policy of the party that elected him, and provoked just such a contest with it as Johnson did. Caleb, a turncoat. Cal'late, calculate. Cass, a person with two lives. Close, clothes. Cockerel, a young cock. Cocktail, a kind of drink; also, an ornament peculiar to soldiers. Convention, a place where people are imposed on; a juggler's show. Coons, a cant term for a now defunct party; derived, perhaps, from the fact of their being commonly up a tree. Cornwallis, a sort of muster in masquerade; supposed to have had its origin soon after the Revolution, and to commemorate the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. It took the place of the old Guy Fawkes procession. Crooked stick, a perverse, froward person. Cunnle, a colonel. Cus, a curse; also, a pitiful fellow. D. Darsn't, used indiscriminately, either in singular or plural number, for dare not, dares not, and dared not. Deacon off, to give the cue to; derived from a custom, once universal, but now extinct, in our New England Congregational churches. An important part of the office of deacon was |