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THE SITUATION AT THE CLOSE OF 1861.

with not less than 150,000 sabers and bayonets, eagerly awaited the longexpected permission to prove itself but fairly represented in that casual detachment which had fought and won at Dranesville.

In every other quarter, our arms were in the ascendant. The blow well struck by Butler and Stringham at Hatteras, had never been retaliated. The Rebels' attempt to cut off Brown's regiment at Chicamicomico had resulted in more loss to them than to us. Du Pont's triumph at Port Royal had dealt a damaging blow to our foes, and inflicted signal injury on the original plotters of treason, without loss to our side. In West Virginia, the campaign was closing with the prestige of success and superiority gilding our standards, and with at least nine-tenths of the whole region securely in our hands. In Missouri, Gen. Fremont-though vehemently reproached for not advancing and fighting sooner, and though never enjoying facilities for obtaining arms, munitions, or any material of war, at all comparable to those at all times eagerly accorded to McClellan-had collected, organized, armed, and provided, a movable column of nearly 40,000 men, at whose head he had pushed Price-one of the very ablest of the Rebel chieftains-to the furthest corner of the State, and was on the point of hunting him thence into Arkansas or eternity, when the order which deprived him of his command was received at Springfield on the 2d of November. Yet then and throughout the Winter, Gen. McClellan, who

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had been called to command at Washington on the same day that Fremont left New York for St. Louis, stood cooped up and virtually besieged in the defenses of Washington, holding barely ground enough in Virginia to encamp and maneuver his army; while the Rebels impudently obstructed the navigation of the lower Potomac, on one hand, by batteries erected at commanding points on the Virginia shore, while the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was dismantled and obstructed by them at Harper's Ferry and further west on the other; leaving the city of Washington, as well as his vast army, dependent on the single track of the Branch Railroad for all their subsistence and supplies, throughout the tedious Winter that followed.

The Confederates had not yet enforced a general Conscription; and, though volunteering was widely stimulated by Police discipline and Lynch law, while the more ignorant and illinformed young women of many slaveholding localities were envenomed Secessionists, refusing to give any but the most furious countenance to young men who hesitated to enlist, yet the white population of the States actually controlled by the Rebels was so very far inferior in numbers to that of the loyal North and West, that the Rebel armies were necessarily and vastly the less numerous likewise.

Gen. McClellan, indeed, appears to have estimated their numbers in Eastern Virginia at 150,000; but the information on which he acted differed

169,452 were “fit for duty." This does not include Gen. Wool's command at and near Fortress Monroe. On the 1st of January following, he makes his total 219,707; on the 1st of February,

states the force under his more immediate com-
mand on the 1st of December-that is, the force
then in the Federal District, Maryland, Delaware,
and the small patch of Eastern Virginia opposite
Washington held by him-at 198,213; whereof | 222,196.

628

widely from that of his subordinates | wore heavily away, and saw nothing

who spent the Winter in camp in Virginia, while he remained snugly housed in Washington. Gen. Wadsworth, who saw and (until forbidden) questioned the 'contrabands' and other deserters who came within our lines from Centerville and vicinity that Autumn and Winter, was confident that 60,000 was the highest number they ever had encamped in our front; and these we might have assailed at a day's notice with 120,000; and, by taking three days for preparation, with 150,000. Why not?

The weather was magnificent; the roads hard and dry, till far into Winter. An artillery officer wonderingly inquired: "What is such weather for, if not fighting?"

The loyal masses-awed by the obloquy heaped on those falsely accused of having caused the disaster at Bull Run by their ignorant impatience and precipitancy—stood in silent expectation. They still kept raising regiment after regiment, battery after battery, and hurrying them forward to the allingulfing Army of the Potomac, to be in time for the decided movement that must be just at hand-but the torrent was there drowned in a lake of Lethean stagnation. First, we were waiting for reënforcements-which was most reasonable; then, for the requisite drilling and fitting for service-which was just as helpful to the Rebels as to us; then, for the leaves to fall-so as to facilitate military movements in a country so wooded and broken as Virginia; then, for cannon-whereof we had already more than 200 first-rate field-guns in Virginia, ready for instant service: and so the long, bright Autumn, and the colder but still favorable December,

of moment attempted. Even the
Rebel batteries obstructing the lower
Potomac were not so much as men-
aced-the Navy laying the blame on
the Army; the Army throwing it
back on the Navy-probably both
right, or, rather, both wrong: but the
net result was nothing done; until
the daily repetition of the stereotyped
"All quiet on
telegraphic bulletin,
the Potomac"-which had at first
been received with satisfaction; after-
ward with complacency; at length
evoked a broad and general roar of
disdainful merriment.

And so, Winter at last settled down upon that vast, gallant, most effective army, Two Hundred Thousand strong, able and ready, on any fair field, to bear down at a charge all the Rebels in their front without coming to a stand; yet lying thus beleaguered and paralyzed, shivering and dying in the tents to which they had been so suddenly transferred from their comfortable homes-not allowed to build themselves huts, such as the Rebels had, because that would reveal to the country the fact that nothing was to be attempted till Spring or later; expecting, hoping every day to receive the long-awaited order to advance; but seeing night after night close in without it; and sinking into homesickness and disease, which employment for body and mind would readily have repelled and dissipated.

Is this obstinate fixity, this rooted neglect and waste of the grandest opportunities, explicable? Not by the hypothesis of a constitutional aversion to the shedding of blood—that is, of other men's-on the part of our Young Napoleon;' for he was at that moment among the most eager

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MCCLELLAN'S TORPOR-FITFULLY BROKEN.

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The Rebels, so vastly outnumbered and overmatched in every thing but leadership, were, of course, too glad to be allowed to maintain a virtual siege of Washington, with all but one of its lines of communication with the loyal States obstructed, to make any offensive movement; and the only assault made that Winter upon our General-in-Chief's main position was repelled with prompt, decided energy. The circumstances were as follows:

to have our country involved in still | frontier, and a perpetual interdict of another great war, by a refusal, on all Anti-Slavery discussion and effort the part of our Government, to sur- throughout the Republic. On this render Mason and Slidell. Not even hypothesis, and on this alone, Gen. Vallandigham was more belligerent McClellan's course while in high in that direction. Constitutional command, but especially during that timidity and irresolution-an over- long Autumn and Winter, becomes whelming sense of responsibility and coherent and comprehensible. inadequacy to so stupendous a trustwere probably not without their influence in the premises. But, beyond and above all these, there was doubtless a slowly awakened consciousness that Slavery was the real assailant of our National existence, and that to put down the Rebellion by a positive, determined exertion of force, was to seal the doom of its inciting cause, which had so recently transformed into downright traitors so many high officers who once honored and loved our Union and its flag. It was hard for one who had long been arguing and voting that, in our current polities, Slavery was not the aggressor, but the innocent victim, to unlearn. this gross error in a year; and Gen. McClellan is essentially slow. But, in the high position to which he had been so suddenly exalted, it was hard also not to see that, in order to save both Slavery and the Union, there must be little fighting and a speedy compromise that fighting must be postponed, and put off, and avoided, in the hope that financial embarrassment, a foreign war, or some other complication, would compel the mutual adoption of some sort of Crittenden Compromise, or kindred 'adjustment,' whereby the Slave Power would graciously condescend to take the Union afresh into its keeping, and consent to a reünion, which would be, in effect, an extension of the empire of Jefferson Davis to the Canada

A portion of the melodious Hutchinson family, having been attracted to Washington by the novelty of finding the public halls of that city no longer barricaded against the utterance of humane and generous sentiments, had there solicited of the Secretary of War permission to visit the camps across the Potomac, in order to break the monotony and cheer the ruggedness of Winter with the spontaneous, unbought _carol of some of their simple, heartfelt songs. Gen. Cameron gave their project not merely his cordial assent, but his emphatic commendation; and, thus endorsed, they received Gen. McClellan's gracious permission. So they passed over to the camps, and were singing to delighted crowds of soldiers, when an officer's quick ear caught the drift of what sounded like Abolition! Forthwith, there were commotion, and effervescence, and indignation, rising from circle to circle of the military aristocracy, until they reached the

very highest, drawing thence the following order:

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By direction of Maj.-Gen. McClellan, the permit given to the Hutchinson Family to sing in the camps, and their pass to cross the Potomac, are revoked, and they will not be allowed to sing to the troops."

As the then freshly uttered stanzas of JOHN G. WHITTIER, which thus caused the peremptory, ignominious suppression and expulsion of the Hutchinsons, are of themselves a memorable and stirring portion of the history of our time, they may fitly-as they will most worthily-close this volume:

"EIN FESTE BURG IST UNSER GOTT." 12 (Luther's Hymn.)

WE wait beneath the furnace-blast
The pangs of transformation:
Not painlessly doth God recast

And mold anew the nation.
Hot burns the fire
Where wrongs expire;
Nor spares the hand
That from the land
Uproots the ancient evil.

The hand-breadth cloud the sages feared
Its bloody rain is dropping;

The poison-plant the fathers spared

All else is overtopping.

East, West, South, North,
It curses earth;

All justice dies,

And fraud and lies

Live only in its shadow.

What gives the wheat-field blades of steel?
What points the rebel cannon?
What sets the roaring rabble's heel
On th' old star-spangled pennon?
What breaks the oath

Of th' men o' th' South?
What whets the knife

For the Union's life?-
Hark to the answer: SLAVERY!

Then waste no blows on lesser foes,
In strife unworthy freemen:
God lifts to-day the vail, and shows
The features of the demon!

O North and South,

Its victims both,

Can ye not cry,

"Let Slavery die!"

And Union find in Freedom?

What though the cast-out spirit tear

The nation in his going?

We, who have shared the guilt, must share
The pang of his o'erthrowing!
Whate'er the loss,
Whate'er the cross,
Shall they complain
Of present pain

Who trust in God's hereafter?

For who that leans on His right arm
Was ever yet forsaken?
What righteous cause can suffer harm
If He its part has taken?
Though wild and loud
And dark the cloud,
Behind its folds

His hand upholds

The calm sky of To-Morrow!

Above the madd'ning cry for blood,
Above the wild war-drumming,
Let Freedom's voice be heard, with good
The evil overcoming.

Give prayer and purse
To stay the Curse
Whose wrong we share,
Whose shame we bear,

Whose end shall gladden Heaven!

In vain the bells of war shall ring
Of triumphs and revenges,
While still is spared the evil thing
That severs and estranges.

But blest the ear
That yet shall hear
The jubilant bell

That rings the knell
Of Slavery forever!

Then let the selfish lip be dumb,

And hushed the breath of sighing:
Before the joy of peace must come
The pains of purifying.

God give us grace,
Each in his place,

To bear his lot.

And, murmuring not,
Endure and wait and labor!

12 'Our God is a strong fortress,' (or castle.)

I.

ADDITIONAL NOTES.

IT is stated on page 119 that "the Synod of Kentucky adopted a report on Slavery which condenined slaveholding broadly and thoroughly," etc. That statement is not literally accurate. The Synod met at Danville, in the Autumn of 1835, and appointed a Committee of ten-five ministers and five elders-who were instructed to "digest and prepare a plan for the moral and religious instruction of our slaves, and for their future emancipation," etc. The Committee did its duty faithfully, and the report in due time appeared-its character being such as is indicated in the text. The result was duly submitted to the Synod at its next meeting, at Bardstown, in 1836; but no action was taken thereon, beyond noting on the Synod's records the reception of the report, which had meantime been printed, and had excited some feeling among the slaveholders.

II.,

The statement on page 120, respecting the attitude of the New School Presbyterian Church toward Slavery, is held by members of that Church to require qualification, in view of its more recent action on the subject. The material facts are as follows:

At the session of the General Assembly at Cleveland, Ohio, for 1857, a report on Slavery of the Committee on Bills and Overtures, after having been debated with great animation for the better part of a week, was finally adopted (June 3d), by the decisive majority of 169 yeas to 26 nays. This report is largely devoted to a recital of the former testimonies of the Presbyterian Church on the general subject, and is leveled at the new Southern doctrine that Slavery is essentially beneficent and just-a doctrine notoriously at variance with that originally maintained by this Church. The Report says: "We are especially pained by the fact that the Presbytery of Lexington, South, have given official notice to us that a number of ministers and ruling elders, as well as many church-members, in their connection, hold slaves 'from principle' and 'of choice,' 'believing it to be, according to the Bible, right,' and have, without any qualifying explanation, assumed the responsibility of sustaining such ministers, elders, and church-members, in their position. We deem it our duty, in the exercise of our constitutional authority, 'to bear testimony against error in doctrine, or immorality in practice, in any church, Presbytery, or Synod,' to disapprove and earnestly condemn the position which has been thus assumed by the Presbytery of Lexington, South, as one which is opposed to the established con

Such

victions of the Presbyterian Church, and must operate to mar its peace and seriously hinder its prosperity, as well as bring reproach on our holy religion; and we do hereby call on the Presbytery to review and rectify their position. doctrine and practice cannot be permanently tolerated in the Presbyterian Church. May they speedily melt away under the illuminating and mellowing influence of the Gospel and grace of God our Saviour!

"We do not, indeed, pronounce a sentence of indiscriminate condemnation upon all our brethren who are, unfortunately, connected with the system of Slavery. We tenderly sympathize with all those who deplore the evil, and are honestly doing all in their power for the present well-being of their slaves, and for their complete emancipation. We would aid, and not embarrass, such brethren. And yet, in the language of the General Assembly of 1818, we would 'earnestly warn them against unduly extending the plea of necessity; against making it a cover for the love and practice of Slavery, or a pretense for not using efforts that are lawful and practicable to extinguish this evil.'"

Upon the announcement of this vote, Rev. James G. Hamner, of the Synod of Virginia, presented the protest of twenty-two Southern members of the Assembly against this doctrine of the Report, saying:

"We protest-Because, while past General Assemblies have asserted that the system of Slavery is wrong, they have heretofore affirmed that the slaveholder was so controlled by State laws, obligations of guardianship, and humanity, that he was, as thus situated, without censure or odium as the master. This averment in the testimony of past Assemblies has so far satisfied the South, as to make it unnecessary to do more than protest against the mere anti-Slavery part of such testimony.

"We protest, then, now, That the present act of the Assembly is such an assertion, without authority from the word of God, or the organic law of the Presbyterian body.

We protest that such action is, under present conditions, the virtual exscinding of the South, whatever be the motives of those who vote the deed.

"We protest, that such indirect excision is unrighteous, oppressive, uncalled for-the exercise of usurped power-destructive of the unity of the Church-hurtful to the North and the South-and adding to the peril of the Union of these United States."

From the date of this action-which seems to have been but a more explicit reäffirmance of the older testimonies of the Church against Slavery, and to have stopped far short of declaring slaveholding inconsistent with the Christian character-the New School Presbyterian Church had hardly a foothold in the Slave States.

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