THE GREAT REBELLION; A HISTORY OF THE Civil War in the United States. BY J. T. HEADLEY, AUTHOR OF "NAPOLEON AND HIS MARSHALS," "WASHINGTON AND HIS GENERALS," WITH NUMEROUS FINE STEEL ENGRAVINGS. In Two Volumes: Volume I. Hartford, Conn. AMERICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY, BRANCH OFFICE, COLUMBUS, OHIO. R. C. TREAT, CHICAGO, ILL. SOLD BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY. 1866. ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, IN THE YEAR 1866, BY AMERICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY, IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT COURT OF CONNECTICUT. 100 8 Se P.RE FACE. THE earth has been cursed with civil wars from the earliest times in which we have records of the race Though characterized by more or less ferocity, and assuming various shapes, they all may be divided into two general classes. Those that occur under a despotic form of government, spring from oppression which the people, no longer able to bear, venture all the terrible hazard of a revolution to throw off. Those that take place under a democratic form of government, are brought about by a few ambitious men, who seek by faction to obtain power. Those of the former class possess dignity and grandeur, from the fact that >they are based on the great doctrine of human rights. Man asserting his inherent, God-given rights on the battle field. against overwhelming odds, is a sublime spectacle. The GEN. 3 01919 The latter are based on falsehoods, and kept alive by deception. Such were the civil wars of the early Republics. In the time of Cromwell, both religious and civil liberty were the grand prizes of the struggle; and whether we look at Hampden, calmly suffering for the sake of liberty, or at Cromwell's Ironsides, sweeping like a thunder cloud to battle, with the fearful war cry "RELIGION" on their lips, our deep 156222 The University of lowa LIBRARIES 10 THE GREAT REBELLION. est sympathies and admiration are excited, and we forget the horrors of the carnage in the mighty stake at issue. So in the bloody revolution of France; though the views of the masses were vague, and their speech often incoherent, yet when we behold inscribed on their banner, the great charter of human rights, and the head of a king thrown down as the gage of battle, we no longer see the crimson field with its "garments rolled in blood," we see only the divine image of human liberty hovering over t Ours is of a mixed character, and hence in some respects unlike all others that have preceded it; but like all civil wars in Republics, it sprung from a faction who sought only political power. Those make a great mistake who suppose it grew out of a desire merely to perpetuate slavery. Slavery was used as a means to an end-a bugbear to frighten the timid into obedience, and a rallying cry for the ignorant, deluded masses. The accursed lust of power lay at the bottom of it. The entire north, including the Republican party, had repeatedly declared, in the most emphatic manner, that it had no intention to interfere with slavery in the states where it existed; for they had no right to do so under the Constitution. Its perpetuity there was conceded, until the states themselves should get rid of it. Hence, the southern conspirators had no fear on that point, but they knew they could not carry the people with them unless they convinced them that slavery was to be assailed in their very homes, to be followed by a servile insurrection. They desired, of course, to extend slavery, because in that way alone they |