Page images
PDF
EPUB

CHAPTER X.

THE CONGRESS IN WASHINGTON.-NEW DEVELOPMENT OF NORTHERN POLICY.-LINCOLN'S POLITICAL DISCOVERY.-HIS REMARKABLE MEASURES OF WAR.-AN ERA OF DESPOTISM. -VIOLENT ACTS OF CONGRESS.-THE SEED OF ABOLITION.-SUSPENSION OF THE HABEAS

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

66

CORPUS.-CURIOUS APOLOGY FOR IT.-MILITARY ARRESTS.-A CONFIDENTIAL" DOCUMENT FROM M'CLELLAN.-CURIOUS DISPOSITION OF THE NORTHERN PEOPLE TO SURRENDER THEIR LIBERTIES.-CONSERVATISM OF THE CONFEDERATE CAUSE.-LINCOLN'S VIEW OF STATE NEUTRALITY IN THE WAR.-APPLICATION OF IT TO KENTUCKY.THE ELECTIONS IN KENTUCKY.-THE CONFEDERATES ANTICIPATE THE FEDERAL OCCUPATION OF KENTUCKY.-ZOLLICOFFER'S COMMAND.-POLK'S COMMAND.-JUSTIFICATION OF THE CONFEDERATE OCCUPATION.-CLAIMS AND DESIGNS OF THE FEDERALS IN KENTUCKY.—POLK'S OCCUPATION OF COLUMBUS.-HIS PROFFER OF WITHDRAWAL.—ARRESTS IN KENTUCKY.-DESPOTIC AND BRUTAL LEGISLATION.-DISTINGUISHED REFUGEES.-BRECKINRIDGE'S ADDRESS.-EARLY MILITARY MOVEMENTS IN KENTUCKY.-ZOLLICOFFER'S OPERATIONS.-BUCKNER'S OCCUPATION OF BOWLING GREEN.—THE BATTLE OF BELMONT.-MOVEMENT OF U. 8. GRANT.-GEN. PILLOW'S COMMAND ENGAGED AT DISADVANTAGE.—the CONFEDERATES DRIVEN BACK.-TIMELY REINFORCEMENTS.-SUDDEN CONVERSION OF A DEFEAT INTO A VICTORY.-RETREAT OF GRANT.-HIS OFFICIAL MISREPRESENTATION OF THE DAY.-PROSPECT OF THE WAR IN THE WEST.

THE new Federal Congress, pursuant to the summons of President Lincoln, met in Washington on the 4th of July. The event was the occasion of a new development of the Northern policy, and a remarkable enlargement of the operations of the war.

In his message, Mr. Lincoln announced a great political discovery. It was that all former statesmen of America had lived, and written, and labored under a great delusion; that the States, instead of having created the Union, were its creatures; that they obtained their sovereignty and independence from it, and never possessed either until the Convention of 1787. This singular doctrine of consolidation was the natural preface to a series of measures to strengthen the Government, to enlarge the Executive power, and to conduct the war with new decision, and on a most unexpected scale of magnitude.

President Lincoln had already instituted certain remarkable measures of war. He had published his proclamation declaring the ports of the

Southern Confederacy in a state of blockade, and denouncing any molestation of Federal vessels on the high seas as piracy, having reference to letters of marque issued by the Confederate authority. He had prohibited all commercial intercourse with the States composing the new confederation. And although he insisted on referring to the belligerent powers in the flippant and unimportant words of "persons engaged in disorderly proceedings," he had found it advisable, as early as the 3d of May, in addition to his first requisition for seventy-five thousand men to operate against these disorderly persons, to call for forty-odd thousand additional volunteers to enlist for the war, and eighteen thousand seamen, besides increasing the regular army by the addition of ten regiments. He now wrote to Congress: "It is recommended that you give the legal means for making this contest a short and a decisive one; that you place at the control of the Government, for the work, at least four hundred thousand men, and four hundred millions of dollars." The recommendation was a singular commentary on the prospect that had been held out of subduing the Confederate power by three months' levies, before the Congress should meet in the month of July to determine the disposition of the conquered States and the fate of the leaders. But Congress was generous; and, in excess of Mr. Lincoln's demand, voted him five hundred thousand men, to serve for a period not exceeding three years.

But the interest of the first Congress, under Mr. Lincoln's administration, is not confined to its military legislation. It is a period from whick we may trace a spirit that essentially tended to revolutionize the political system and ideas of the North itself, and to erect on the ruins of the Constitution a despotic authority, whose consequences ran all through the

war.

The first sessions of this Congress were signalized by a resolution refusing to consider any propositions but those looking to a continued and vigorous prosecution of the war, and confining all business to the military and naval operations of the Government; by a general approval of the acts done by the President without constitutional authority, including his suspension of the habeas corpus; and by the initiation of a barbarous policy of confiscation in a bill declaring free whatever slaves were employed in the service of "the rebellion," thus evidently containing the seed of that thick crop of Abolition legislation which was to ensue.

Mr. Lincoln had suspended the writ of habeas corpus without the constitutional concurrence of Congress, and under a claim of authority to arrest without process of law all persons "dangerous to the public safety." This remarkable usurpation was tolerated by the country. Indeed, it obtained many ingenious defences in Northern newspapers. It was declared that the privilege of habeas corpus was really in the interest of no one but quasi criminals; and that what had been esteemed for centuries as the

[graphic][merged small]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small]
[graphic][merged small]
« PreviousContinue »