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These energetic and able movements cleared Western Virginia of Confederate forces, and exposed Johnston, who was then in front of Patterson. They closed General McClellan's career in the Department of the Ohio, within a few days of the disastrous events which disorganized the Army of the Potomac, and the prestige which he thus acquired seeming to indicate his ability to reorganize and consolidate the Army of the North, he was transferred to the command of the Army of the Potomac.

CHAPTER IX.

Effect of the Battle of Bull Run.-Confederate Congress.-Davis's Message.-Privateering.-Affairs in Missouri.-Commissioners to Europe.-Southern Armies and Finances.

We have now brought our history to the close of its first period, when the impatience of the people, and the imperfect preparation and training of the troops, hitherto unskilled in the art of war, led to the disastrous battle of Bull Run. From the humiliation which followed that defeat, the North emerged with a purer patriotism, a courage and zeal which rose above defeat, and a determination to put forth all her energies to crush out the rebellion. The work of enlistment went on with great rapidity, and before the Confederate forces had recovered from the terrible havoc made in their ranks, the danger which for a few days after the battle had threatened the Federal capital was past, and new regiments were stretching their lines of defence in every direction around it. At the South the effect was different; it seemed to sustain the views there held, that the Northern troops could not withstand the shock of arms when opposed to the South. This impression, it has been alleged, was of great detriment to the Southern cause, since it prevented that persevering and energetic preparation which was indispensable even to a defensive policy, and which the North undertook with vigorous determination and patient perseverance.

The Confederate Congress, which had adjourned May 20th, at Montgomery, to meet in Richmond, assembled July 20th, in the hall of the House of Delegates. The names of the executive, cabinet, and members of Congress of all the States except Tennessee, Texas, and Arkansas, are embraced in the following list:

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Virginia.-James A. Seddon, Wm. Ballard Preston, R. M. T. Hunter, John Tyler, Wm. H. Macfarland, Roger A. Pryor, Thomas S. Bococke, Wm. S. Rives, Robert E. Scott, James M. Mason, J. W. Brockenbrough, Chas. W. Russell, Robert Johnson, Walter R. Staples, Walter Preston.

North Carolina.-Geo. Davis, W. W. Avery, W. N. H. Smith, Thomas Ruffin, T. D. McDowell, A. W. Venable, J. M. Morehead, R. C. Puryear, Burton Craige, E. A. Davidson.

Alabama.-R. W. Walker, R. H. Smith, J. L. M. Curry, W. P. Chilton, S. F. Hale, Colin J. McRae, John Gill Shorter, David P. Lewis, Thomas Fearn.

Florida.-Jackson Morton, J. P. Anderson, J. Powers.

Jefferson Davis was born June 8d, 1808, in Christian County, Kentucky, but removed with his family in childhood to Mississippi. He entered Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky, in 1822 or 1823, and in 1524 left the University to enter the Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated in 1828. He remained in the army sever. years, was promoted to a first-lieutenancy, served in the Black Hawk war, and in 1835 resigned his commission and retired to a plantation in Mississippi. In 1844 he was one of the Democratic Presidential electors. In 1845 he was elected a Representative in Congress, and in July, 1846, resigned his seat. and took command of the First Regiment of Mississippi Volunteers in the Mexican war, distinguished himself at Monterey and at Buena Vista, and in the latter battle was severely wounded. He was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers by President Polk, but declined on State Rights grounds. He was elected to the United States Senate in January, 1848, to fill an unexpired time, and in 1830 re-elected. He resigned in 1851, to run as candidate for Governor of Mississippi, but was defeated by Henry S. Foote, the Union candidate. In 1858 he was called into President Pierce's cabinet as Secretary of War, and in 1857 returned again to the Senate. He resigned his seat in the Senate on the 21st of January. 1861, on the occasion of the secession of Mississippi, and in February was elected provisional President of the Confederate States. In the succeeding November he was elected first permanent President under the regnlar constitution, and retained that office until captured at Irwinsville, Georgia, in May, 1565, and conveyed to Fortress Monroe. On May 26th,❘

he was indicted for treason by the grand jury of the District of Columbia.

+ Alexander H. Stephens was born in Georgis on the 11th of February, 1812. Assisted by friends, he entered the University of Georgia in 1828, and in 1832 graduated at the head of his class. In 1834 he commenced the study of the law, and soon entered upon a lucrative practice. From 1837 to 1840 he was a member of the Georgia Legislature. In 1842 he was elected to the State Senate, and in 1943 was elected to Congress as a Whig, retaining his seat unti 1859. In 1854 he was Chairman of the Committee on Territories, and effected the pessage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill through the House. He was at first a strenuous opponent of secession, but nevertheless was elected provisional Vice-President of the Confederate States in February, 1861, and in November permanent VicePresident. In May, 1865, he was arrested in Georgia, and imprisoned in Fort Warren, Boston harbor.

Robert Toombs was born in Washington, Wilkes County, Georgia, July 2d, 1510, graduated at Union College, Schenectady, New York, in 1825, and studied law at the University of Virginia. In 1836 he served as captain of volunteers under General Seott, in the Creek war. He was elected to the State Legislature in 1887, to Congress in 1845, to the United States Senate in 1858, and re-elected in 1859. He withdrew from the Senate January 234, 1861, on the secession of Georgia, was appointed Secretary of State of the Confederate States, February 21st, and in July resigned, and was soon after appointed a brizadier-general in the Confederate army. In this capacity he never rose above mediocrity.

Georgia.-Robert Toombs, Howell Cobb, Pres't, Francis S. Bartow, Martin J. Crawford, Eugenius A. Nisbett, Benjamin H. Hill, A. B. Wright, Thomas R. R. Cobb, Augustus H. Keenan, Alex. H. Stephens.

Louisiana.-John Perkins, Jr., A. Declouet, Charles M. Conrad, D. F. Kenner, Edward Sparrow, Henry Marshall.

Mississippi.-Willie P. Harris, Walker Brooke, W. S. Wilson, A. M. Clayton, W. S. Barry, James T. Harrison, J. A. P. Campbell.

South Carolina.-R. B. Rhett, Sr., R. W. Barnwell, L. M. Keitt, James Chesnut, Jr., C. G. Memminger, W. Porcher Miles, Thomas J. Withers, W. W. Boyce.

Mr. Davis sent in a message, in which he congratulated the Congress on the accession of new members from North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas. He criticised with great severity the message of President Lincoln recently communicated to Congress, and charged that the acts of the Federal authorities implied a recognition of the Confederate Government; also that the war was waged with a savage ferocity unknown in modern civilization; that grain crops and private houses, deserted by peaceable citizens flying from the outrages of a brutal soldiery, were consumed by the torch; and that property respected by British and Hessians in 1781, was pillaged and destroyed by people pretending to be fellow-citizens. "Mankind," he said, "will shudder at the tales of outrages committed on defenceless families by soldiers of the United States ;" and he complained that special war was made upon the sick women and children by seeking to deprive them of medicines. He referred to the Border States and their sympathies with the South; to the suspension of the habeas corpus by the Federal executive, and other measures.

"We may well rejoice," said he, "that we have forever severed our connection with a Government that thus tramples on all principles of constitutional liberty, and with a people in whose presence such avowals could be hazarded."

He alluded to the additional force required; to the abundance of the crops; and stated that fifty millions had been subscribed in cotton. The proceedings of the Congress were mostly conducted in secret session, and among its first acts was the ratification of the convention of Paris in 1856 in respect to maritime law. The interpolations of the Paris convention into maritime law had been a subject of discussion between the foreign powers and Mr. Pierce's cabinet. The proposition had been made that enemies' goods should be respected in neutral ships, and that neutral ships and goods should be free from the belligerent right of search. To this was added the abolition of privateering in time of war. Mr. Marcy, then Secretary of State, replied that the United States Government would accept the proposition in all respects except in relation to privateers. He stated that it was not the policy of the United States to maintain large standing armies or navies, which were opposed to the genius of our institutions; that the United States depended in time of war upon militia for protection; that merchant vessels or privateers were our "militia of the seas," and we could not be expected to deprive ourselves of that arm. Never

theless, if the governments would consent that all private property should be exempt from capture in time of war, he would consent to abolish privateering. When men-of-war are empowered to capture and destroy merchant vessels, they only do what privateers are commissioned for, and there was no justice in doing away with the latter, unless the former were restricted to public ships in their operations. To this proposition Great Britain and France refused their assent, and the matter remained in abeyance. Soon after Mr. Seward entered upon his duties as Secretary of State, he renewed the proposition, but it was again rejected. He then proposed to accede to the principles laid down by the Paris convention, including privateering. Earl Russell signified his willingness to sign the convention when the Emperor of the French had consented to it; but on the 29th of July, he stated to Mr. Adams, the American minister, that "on the part of Great Britain the engagement would be prospective, and would not invalidate any thing already done." An explanation of this statement being sought, he gave it in the form of a declaration, that her majesty did not intend thereby to undertake any engagement which should have a bearing, direct or indirect, on the internal differences now prevailing in the United States. As this left Southern privateering untouched, Mr. Seward refused to assent to the convention.

In Missouri, Governor Jackson demanded that no United States troops should be quartered in or marched through the State; but General Lyon asserted the right of the Government to send troops into any part of the State, and his forces continued to gather strength. On the 13th of June, Jackson fled from the capital, and gathered what secession force he could in the south-west part of the State. The State convention reassembled at the capital on the 25th of July, and on the 30th, by a vote of fifty-six to twenty-five, passed a resolution vacating the State offices, and appointed a new election to be held in November. Hamilton R. Gamble was appointed Provisional Governor. He issued a proclamation enjoining all citizens to enroll themselves for the defence of the State, and ordering Confederate troops to quit it.

The Confederate Congress now passed a law to admit Missouri into the Confederacy, on condition that she should duly ratify the constitution of the Southern Confederacy through her legally constituted authority, which authority was declared to be the government of Governor Jackson, who was deposed by the State convention. Mr. Davis was also authorized to muster into the Confederate service, in Missouri, such troops as should volunteer to serve in the Southern army. The bill likewise empowered the President of the Confederate States, at his discretion, at any time prior to the admission of Missouri as a member of the Confederacy, to perfect and proclaim an alliance, offensive and defensive, with the said government, limited to the period of the existing war between the Confederacy and the United States; the said treaty or alliance to be in force from the date thereof, and until the same should be disaffirmed or rejected by the Congress.

Early in the year there had been appointed two Commissioners to Europe, Mr. Rost and Mr. Yancey, to negotiate a recognition of the

Southern Confederacy, and also, if practicable, treaties or commerce. As these persons did not meet with the desired success, the Confederate Congress empowered the President to appoint two more, with full powers. The arrest at a subsequent period of these agents upon the high seas gave rise to very serious complications.

The Confederate Congress now passed another act of great importance, ordering all citizens of the United States to depart the country within forty days. The essential part of it was as follows:

"SEC. 3. Immediately after the passage of this act, the President of the Confederate States shall, by proclamation, require all citizens of the United States, being males of fourteen years and upward, within the Confederate States, and adhering to the Govern.. ment of the United States, to depart from the Confederate States, within forty hours from the date of such proclamation; and such persons remaining within the Confederate States after that time shall become liable to be treated as alien enemies."

This law fell with particular hardship upon many Northerners, and such of them as had ventured into the Confederate States to secure property were arrested. It was of the same nature as the alien and sedition law enacted by the Adams Administration in 1798, which had excited the ire of the State-rights men of that time, and it invested the executive with discretionary power to order aliens whom he might deem dangerous out of the country. With the same scope and intent as this act was the "Sequestration Act," passed August 30th, of which the title was as follows: "A Bill to be entitled an Act for the sequestration of the estate, property, and effects of alien enemies, and for indemnity of citizens of the Confederate States, and persons aiding the same in the existing war with the United States."

The bill recited in its preamble the departure of the Government and the people of the United States from the usages of civilized warfare, in confiscating and destroying the property of the people of the Confederate States, of all kinds, whether used for military purposes or not; and the necessity of retaliation to restrain the wanton excesses of the enemy, and proceeded as follows:

"Be it enacted by the Congress of the Confederate States, that all lands, goods, rights, and credits within these Confederate States, owned by any alien enemy since the 21st day of May, 1861, be sequestrated by the Confederate States of America, and shall be held for the full indemnity of any citizen and a resident of these Confederate States, or other person aiding said Confederate States in the prosecution of the present war, and for which he may suffer any loss or injury under the act of the United States to which this act is retaliatory, authorizing the seizure or confiscation of the property of citizens or residents of the Confederate States, and the same shall be seized and disposed of as provided for in this act.”

This law was meant to indemnify such persons as suffered through the confiscations made by the United States under the law of August 6th.

The military legislation was actively pushed. The Secretary of War had reported that the number of troops raised amounted to ninety-four regiments and thirty-four battalions, with some additional cavalry troops, and he advised the further raising of the number to three hundred regiments. The Southern forces consisted of two distinct armies-the provisional and the regular Confederate armies.

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