In the meanwhile the result of the elections terminated generally in favour of the Democrats, and owing possibly to fear, possibly to the fact that freedom of discussion had been necessarily permitted during the period of the elections, and could not again be totally repressed, the severe and illegal system adopted by Government officials towards political offenders was in some degree modified. The gates of Fort Warren, M'Henry, and Lafayette were thrown open, and many persons who had been imprisoned without trial, or even without any specified charges having been preferred against them, were allowed to go free.

There was much at this time calculated to cause alarm and disquietude in the North: the armies had not been successful, the pressure of the war was severely felt by some portions of the people, there were strikes among the labouring population of the large cities, the currency was in a most unsatisfactory state, great frauds and peculations had been discovered in some of the Government departments, and rumours of foreign intervention, which it was believed would not be unpalatable to certain classes, were in circulation. A proposal of mediation had indeed been made by the French Government to those of England and Russia, but declined by both, for the reasons, as stated by Lord Russell, that there was no ground at that time to hope that the Federal Government would accept the proposed suggestions, and as set forth by Prince Gortschakoff, that a combined step between France, England, and Russia, no matter how conciliatory or how cautiously made, would run the risk of causing precisely the very opposite of the object of pacification. Thus the Americans were left to fight out their own quarrel.

In the South, although the results of the summer

campaigns had partially compensated for the losses in the spring, there was still much suffering, and new causes of sorrow and anxiety. Provisions were dear, the currency was depreciated so as scarcely to serve the purpose of a medinm of exchange, forgeries of the badly executed notes were common, and among a portion of the commercial population, immorality in their dealings with the Government was rife. The conscription pressed heavily on the people, the price of substitutes was very high, and the crime of desertion was only too common among the newly raised troops,-desertion, not to the enemy, but to their own homes.

In October, the Confederate Congress passed a bill to authorise President Davis to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, and in the House of Representatives the punishment of death was decreed to Union soldiers who might have in their possession, or might endeavour to pass, counterfeit Confederate treasury notes. The Military Exemption Act was also passed, decreeing that the police for sections of the country with dense negro population should be exempt from conscription; also editors of newspapers, employés of telegraphs and transportation companies, ministers of the gospel, physicians, shoemakers, tanners, blacksmiths, waggon makers, millers, superintendents and employés of Government works, overseers of plantations, and one man to every five hundred head of cattle.

The labours of the white troops were in a great degree lessened by the employment of negroes to work on the fortifications, obtained either by impressment, or by the voluntary contributions of their owners, although there is evidence in the Governor of Georgia's proclamation of November 3rd, that some of the wealthy planters did not show sufficient readiness in affording

this assistance to the State. This was, however, an exception to the usual patriotism of the Southern people: their unanimity in supporting their Government cannot be sufficiently admired; they had imbibed fresh confidence from the results of the autumn campaigns, and were now bracing themselves up for the renewed struggle which on all sides appeared imminent.

Neither did the heat of summer nor the cold of winter bring any cessation to the war. As we have seen the battles of the Chickahominy fought under a sultry July sun, so shall we see the soil of Virginia stained with the blood of her children and her enemies contrasting with the white hoar frost which covered her fields.

CHAPTER X.

BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG.

SINCE the campaign of Maryland the army of the Potomac had remained encamped on the banks of that river, recruiting from the severe losses incurred in the several battles of the Chickahominy, of the second Bull Run, and of Antietam. Elated by the absence of defeat in the last of these battles, the President and his advisers urged General M'Clellan to an immediate recommencement of active hostilities; General Lee was to be driven back, forced to accept battle, and to be not only defeated but crushed. They ignored the demoralisation of the army consequent on the terrible campaigns in which it had been engaged; they showed little zeal in furnishing its general with stores, army equipments, and horses; but sending repeated orders for him to advance, seemed to seek an opportunity to represent him as slow and wanting in energy, and thus gradually to sap his greatly increased popularity. In all political principles M'Clellan was strongly opposed to the party to which the advisers of the President belonged and to which he himself inclined; and at a time when this party was incurring defeat in the elections, it appeared dangerous to allow a political opponent to possess the confidence and to hold the chief command of the main army. Thus whilst policy led many members of Mr. Lincoln's cabinet to wish for General M'Clellan's re

moval, his own slowness of action and perhaps over great caution gave them not only a handle which they could use in biassing public opinion, but also a cloak which would conceal from themselves their own motives. The army under General M'Clellan continued to hold the left bank of the Potomac during the greater part of the month of October, whilst continuous correspondence passed between him and General Halleck, the commander-in chief; the latter urging an advance, the former repeating his requisitions for supplies and cavalry horses.

Two lines of march were open for the adoption of the general, either to advance up the Shenandoah Valley, in which case from 12,000 to 15,000 additional men would be furnished him, or crossing the Blue Ridge to interpose between the Confederates and Washington, when 30,000 would be sent as reinforcements. M'Clellan inclined to the first-mentioned plan, as by it he would cover Maryland, as well as have the advantage of the Harper's Ferry and Winchester rail for the conveyance of his supplies. The President was in favour of the latter, as he would then be relieved from all anxiety with regard to Washington. As however, from several causes, the army delayed its advance, and the fine weather of early autumn changed to the rain of a later period of the year, circumstances altered. The waters of the Potomac rose, the river became unfordable, and the roads into Maryland were rendered difficult for the movements of troops. These natural causes were considered sufficient to protect Maryland and the country bordering on the upper Potomac, and General M'Clellan therefore resolved to cross over to the south side of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and advancing parallel with the range and seizing each pass with detachments, to protect his own