of the navy. It was not till the military movements attending the evacuation of Manassas occurred, nearly a year after the events we have just related, that the rebel batteries on the banks were deserted by the enemy or taken possession of by the Union forces, and the navigation of the river was once more entirely without impediment.

he was appointed a major-general of volunteers by President Polk, and served with General Taylor in his advance on the Rio Grande, and led an important expedition against Tampico. He then joined the line of General Scott and landed with that officer at Vera Cruz, when he rendered material service at the head of his volunteer division in the reWith these notices of affairs in the duction of the city. The term of enlistimmediate vicinity of Washington we ment of his men having expired, he may conveniently associate the move-accompanied them home, but soon rements going on at the right extremity turned to Mexico, taking command of the of the line of defence at Harper's Ferry. volunteer division at the capital, where An important division of the national he remained till the establishment of army, chiefly composed of regiments from peace. After the war he again resumed Pennsylvania, early assembled at Cham- his mercantile pursuits. At the outbersburg, in that State, a position from break of the rebellion he was summoned which there was an easy approach by Governor Curtin to the service of the through Maryland, by way of Hagerstown, to the Potomac. They were under the command of Major-General Patterson, to whom the Department of Pennsylvania had been assigned by the Gov

ernment.

Government, and in a patriotic spirit immediately entered upon his new duties. On the 3d of June we find General Patterson in command of the Department of Pennsylvania issuing the following order to his troops from his head-quarThis officer, born in Ireland, had been ters at Chambersburg, on the eve of his brought in his boyhood to America by advance into Maryland :-"The restraint his father, who came with his family to which has necessarily been imposed upon Pennsylvania in consequence of his you, impatient to overcome those who implication in the rebellion of 1798. In have raised their parricidal hands against 1811 the parent further emigrated to our country, is about to be removed. Tennessee, leaving his son in the count-You will soon meet the insurgents. You ing-house of a wealthy East India mer- are not the aggressors. A turbulent chant at Philadelphia. The war with faction, misled by ambitious rulers, in England breaking out the following year, a time of profound peace and national young Patterson entered the army as a prosperity, have occupied your forts, and lieutenant of the 22d Infantry, and re- turned the guns against you; have seized tiring on its close with the rank of cap- your arsenals and armories and approtain, resumed his occupation in the count-priated to themselves government suping house. He did not abandon, how-plies; have arrested and held prisoners ever, his military pursuits, but devoting your companions marching to their homes himself to the volunteer service rose to the rank of a major-general of militia. On the breaking out of the Mexican war

under State pledge of security; have captured vessels and provisions voluntarily assured by State legislation from

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213

molestation, and now seek to perpetuate General Joseph E. Johnston, the Cona reign of terror over loyal citizens. federate commander, prudently resolved They have invaded a loyal State and entrenched themselves within its boundaries in defiance of its constituted authorities. You are going on American soil to sustain the civil power, to relieve the oppressed, and to retake that which is unlawfully held. You must bear in mind you are going for the good of the whole country, and that, while it is your duty to punish sedition, you must protect the loyal, and, should occasion offer, at once suppress servile insurrection. Success will crown your efforts; a grateful country and a happy people will reward you."

The advance of the Union army into Virginia, at the end of May, found the rebels in possession of the important position of Harper's Ferry, which they had held since its evacuation and the partial destruction of the government building by Lieutenant Jones. Various defensive works were erected by them on the hills adjoining the town, and the opposite heights in Maryland were occupied by a camp of Kentuckians. The line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad which crosses the river at this point and traverses a portion of Virginia, was thus under their control and communication between its eastern and western portions cut off. Affairs remained in this situation till the middle of June when, in view of the armies gathering on all sides, the rapid accumulation of troops in Western Virginia, the advance of the Pennsylvania division, under General Patterson, in front and a movement from the camps at Washington, under Colonel Stone, on his flank, threatening the safety of the force at Harper's Ferry, and its communication with the main army at Manassas,

to abandon the position. On the 14th accordingly he withdrew his troops in the direction of Winchester, after a complete destruction of the Baltimore and Ohio railway bridge over the Potomac, a portion of the track and other property belonging to the company. The piers only were left standing-a ghastly memorial of the fine and costly work. Two other bridges at Martinsburg and Shepherdstown, commanding the approaches from the west, were likewise destroyed. What had been left of the machinery at the national manufactories which could be transported was removed, and the arsenal buildings, which had hitherto escaped, were burnt. Not content with this work of devastation, a few days after à party of the insurgent army returned and set fire to the bridge crossing the Shenandoah and continued the injuries to the railway company, throwing into the river a valuable locomotive engine which had been left on the iron span of the Potomac bridge nearest the town.

General Patterson meanwhile having advanced his forces above to Williamsport, remained in that vicinity till the 2d of July, when he crossed the river with his command, numbering some 15,000 men, mostly Pennsylvanians, with one Wisconsin regiment, Colonel Thomas' United States cavalry, and two batteries of artillery. The advance of this army, consisting of the Wisconsin and two Pennsylvania regiments, with McMullen's Rangers, the Philadelphia City Troop, and Perkins' Battery, immediately fell in with a considerable body of the enemy under Colonel Jackson, estimated at four regiments of infantry and one of horse, with four guns,

when the Union artillery opened fire and a skirmishing fight ensued, ending in the retreat of the rebels. This encounter was in the neighborhood of Falling Waters, near the Potomac, on the road to Martinsburg. The union loss was reported by General Patterson at three killed and ten wounded. On the 9th he was joined by General Sandford with the New York 5th and 12th regi

ments.

The main force of General Johnston was now established at Winchester, with their outposts towards Martinsburg, whither they were followed by General Patterson on the 16th, a fortnight after he had crossed the Potomac, as far as

Bunker Hill, where there was some slight skirmishing within twelve miles of their position. Unhappily they were pressed no further. Had they been vigorously pushed and brought to action, we might perhaps have been spared the recital of the disastrous event which immediately ensued in front of Washington. As it was, General Patterson, turning from Winchester, withdrew his forces the next day, the 17th, to Charlestown, in communication with Harper's Ferry, while General Johnston rapidly conducted a large portion of his army to the line of the railway communicating by way of Manassas Gap with the camp at Manassas Junction.

CHAPTER XV.

MOVEMENTS OF THE CONFEDERATES.

FROM these scenes before Washington | opening of the session, President Davis we turn to the movements of the Confed- began by presenting a formal declaration erate Government, which, a few days of the political circumstances and princibefore the advance of the Union troops ples which constituted, in his mind, a jusacross the Potomac, by a resolution of tification of the course pursued in the the Congress at Montgomery, was trans- formation of the Confederate Governferred to Richmond, Virginia. Of the ment. As a manifesto to the world, this proceedings of that second session, con- portion of the document became of conducted as they were, for the most part, siderable importance. It was undoubtin secrecy, we have but imperfect ac- edly greatly influential in creating in counts. It was called by President Davis many quarters in Europe opinions in to meet on the 29th of April, in conse- favor of the pretensions of the new govquence of the events growing out of the ernment. attack upon Sumter, in advance of the day to which it had been adjourned, and its deliberations were doubtless mainly, if not altogether, confined to devising the means of carrying on the long and serious war with the North in prospect. In the Message which he delivered at the

"The occasion," said he, "is indeed an extraordinary one. It justifies me in giving a brief review of the relations heretofore existing between us and the States which now unite in warfare against us, and a succinct statement of the events which have resulted to the end, that

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215

Congress, and confirmed by the States, render the Federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of the Government and the preservation of the Union. It was by the delegates, chosen by the several States under the resolution just quoted, that the Constitution of the United States was formed in 1787, and submitted to the several States for ratification, as shown by the seventh article, which is in these words: The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same.' I have italicised certain words in the resolutions just made for the purpose of attracting attention to the singular and marked caution with which the States endeavored in every possible form to exclude the idea that the separate and in

mankind may pass intelligent and impartial judgment on our motives and objects. During the war waged against Great Britain by her colonies on this continent, a common danger impelled them to a close alliance, and to the formation of a Confederation by the terms of which the colonies, styling themselves States, entered severally into a firm league of friendship with each other for their common defence, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretence whatever. In order to guard against any misconstruction of their compact, the several States made an explicit declaration in a distinct article—that each State retain its sovereign-dependent sovereignty of each State was ty, freedom and independence, and every power of jurisdiction and right which is not by this said Confederation expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled under this contract of alliance. The war of the Revolution was successfully waged, and resulted in the treaty of peace with Great Britain in 1783, by the terms of which the several States were each by name recognized to be independent. The articles of confederation contained a clause whereby all alterations were prohibited, unless confirmed by the Legislatures of every State after being agreed to by the Congress; and in obedience to this provision, under the resolution of Congress of the 21st of February, 1787, the several States appointed delegates for the purpose of revising the articles of confederation, and reporting to Congress and the several Legislatures such alterations and provisions therein as shall, when agreed to in

merged into one common government or nation; and the earnest desire they evinced to impress on the Constitution its true character-that of a compact between independent States-the Constitution of 1787, however, admitting the clause already recited from the articles of confederation, which provided in explicit terms that each State reclaimed its sovereignty and independence. Some alarm was felt in the States, when invited to ratify the Constitution, lest this omission should be construed into an abandonment of their cherished principles, and they refused to be satisfied until amendments were added to the Constitution placing beyond any pretence of doubt the reservation by the States of their sovereign rights and powers not expressly delegated to the United States by the Constitution.

'Strange, indeed, must it appear to the impartial observer, but it is none the

im which he plainly deems to be undeniable, that the theory of the Constitution requires, in all cases, that. the majority shall govern. And in another memorable instance the same Chief Magistrate did not hesitate to liken the relations between States and the United States to those which exist between the county and the State in wlrich it is situated, and by which it was created. This is the lamentable and fundamental error in which rests the policy that has culminated in his declaration of war against these Confederate States.

less true that all these carefully worded clauses proved unavailing to prevent the rise and growth in the Northern States of a political school which has persistently claimed that the Government set above and over the States, an organization created by the States, to secure the blessings of liberty and independence against foreign aggression, has been gradually perverted into a machine for their control in their domestic affairs. The creature has been exalted above its Creator-the principals have been made subordinate to the agent appointed by themselves. The people of the Southern "In addition to the long-continued States, whose almost exclusive occupa- and deep-seated resentment felt by the tion was 'agriculture, early perceived a Southern States at the persistent abuse tendency in the Northern States to ren- of the powers they had delegated to the der a common government subservient Congress for the purpose of enriching the to their own purposes by imposing bur-manufacturing and shipping classes of the dens on commerce as protection to their North at the expense of the South, there manufacturing and shipping interests. has existed for nearly half a century anLong and angry controversies grew out other subject of discord, involving interof these attempts, often successful, to ests of such transcendent magnitude as benefit one section of the country at the at all times to create apprehension in the expense of the other, and the danger of minds of many devoted lovers of the disruption arising from this cause was Union that its permanence was impossienhanced by the fact that the Northern ble. When the several States delegated population was increasing, by emigration certain powers to the United States Conand other causes, more than the popula-gress, a large portion of the laboring tion of the South. By degrees, as the population were imported into the coloNorthern States gained preponderance nies by the mother country. In twelve in the National Congress, self-interest out of the fifteen States, negro slavery taught their people to yield ready assent existed, and the right of property existto any plausible advocacy of their right ing in slaves was protected by law; this as majority to govern the minority. property was recognized in the ConstituWithout control, they learn to listen with tion, and provision was made against its impatience to the suggestion of any con- loss by the escape of the slave. The institutional impediment to the exercise of crease in the number of slaves by foreign their will, and so utterly have the prin- importation from Africa was also secured ciples of the Constitution been corrupted by a clause forbidding Congress to proin the Northern mind that, in the inau-hibit the slave trade anterior to a certain gural address delivered by President date, and in no clause can there be found Lincoln in March last, he asserts a max- any delegation of power to the Congress

e