296

RECEPTION OF THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS.

and because of his known eminent ability, and unswerving fidelity to his country and the principles of justice and right, his appointment was acceptable to all loyal people, and especially to his political friends. How well he performed the very important and delicate duties of prime minister during the four succeeding years, let the recorded diplomacy of the Republic for that time answer.

The ship of State was now fairly launched upon the tide under the guidance of the new pilot. It was evident that terribly stormy seas were before it. Premonitions of tempests were darkening the air, alarming the timid, and filling the hearts of the brave with anxiety. There was peril on every side.

The President's Inaugural Address, calm, dignified, conciliatory even to pathos in tone, clear in its enunciation of the great truths concerning the political construction and character of the nation, and as clear in its annunciation of the duties and determination of the Chief Magistrate, satisfied the loyal people of the country everywhere. It promised peace, security, and justice to every law-abiding citizen and community. It was a pledge that the integrity of the territory of the Republic should be maintained, and its laws executed. It denied the existence of State supremacy, but not of State rights. It denied the right of secession, and plainly told the advocates of such pretended right that to attempt it would be an essay at criminal revolution, that would be resisted with all the powers of the Government. It was denounced by the conspirators and their partisans, South and North, as belligerent as threatening war, because it contemplated the "coercion" of law-breakers into submission.' It was mutilated and interpolated while passing through the newspapers in the interest of the conspirators; and the

1 That conspicuous counterfeit of a statesman, Senator Wigfall, whose mendacity and cowardice at Fort Sumter, a month later, were as prominent as his vulgarity and bluster in Congress, kept his seat in the Senate, in defiance of all decency; and on the last days of its session uttered his treasonable words more insolently than ever. He took it upon himself to treat the Inaugural with scorn. "It is easy to talk about enforcing the laws, and holding, occupying, and possessing the forts," he said. "When you come to do this, bayonets, and not words, must settie the question. And he would here say, that Fort Pickens and the Administration will soon be forced to construe the Inaugural. Forts Moultrie, and Johnston, and Castle Pinckney are in possession of the Confederate States; but the confederated States will not leave Fort Sumter in possession of the Federal Government. . . . Seven Southern States have formed a confederation, and to tell them, as the President has done, that the acts of secession are no more than blank paper, is an insult." He repeated: "There is no Union left; the seceded States will never surely come back under any circumstances. They will not live under this Administration. Withdraw your troops. Make no attempt to collect tribute, and enter into a treaty with those States. Do this, and you will have peace. Send your flag of thirty-four stars thither, and it will be fired into, and war will ensue. Divide the public property; make a fair assessment of the public debt; or will you sit stupidly and idly till there shall be a conflict of arms, because you cannot compromise with traitors? Let the remaining States reform their government, and if it is acceptable, the Confederacy will enter into a treaty of commerce and amity with them. If you want peace, you shall have it. If war, you shall have it. The time for platforms and demagogism has passed. Treat with the Confederate States as independent, and you will have peace. Treat with them as States of this Union, and you will have war. Mr. Lincoln has to remove the troops from Forts Pickens and Sumter, or they will be removed for him. He has to collect the revenue at Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans, or it will be collected for him. If he attempts to do so, resistance will be made. It is usless to blind your eyes. No compromise or amendment to the Constitution, no arrangement you may enter into, will satisfy the South, unless you recognize slaves as property. and protect it as any other species of property.”

Senator Douglas reminded Wigfall that, according to his own doctrine, he was “a foreigner," and yet he retained his seat in the Senate of the United States. The insolent conspirator replied:-"It was because he had no official information that Texas has abolished the office of United States Senator. When he should be so notified, he would file a notice of his withdrawal at the desk; and if after being so informed, his name should continue to be called, he should answer to it, if it suited his convenience; and if called upon to vote, he would probably give his reasons for voting, and regard this as a very respectable public meeting."

ASPECT OF THE NATIONAL FINANCES.

991

297

misled and excited people were made to believe that a war for subjugation was about to be waged against them. "It is our wisest policy," said the satanic Charleston Mercury, "to accept it, as a declaration of war;" and urged its readers not to waste time in thinking, but to raise the arm of resistance immediately. The conspirators were most afraid of deliberation. They would not allow the people to reflect, but hurried them on, willing or unwilling, into open armed rebellion. "To carry out his threats," they said, "not only on the forts now in possession of the Federal Government to be held, but fortresses along the coast, and owned [by virtue of unlawful seizure] by the Confederate States Government, are to be 'possessed' and 'held' by the United States Government. This warns us that our course now must be entirely one of policy and war strategy.' A member (Mr. Harvie, of Amelia) of the politicians' convention in Virginia, then in session in Richmond, introduced a resolution declaring that it was Mr. Lincoln's purpose to plunge the country into civil war by "coercive policy,” and asked the Legislature to take measures for resistance; and some were so indiscreet as to rejoice because the Inaugural seemed to give a pretext for rebellion. Every thing that unholy ambition and malice could devise was used to distort the plain meaning of the address, and inflame the passions of the people against those of the Free-labor States. It was falsely asserted that it breathed hostility to the people of the Slave-labor States, when it was only hostile to the conspirators and their friends. For that reason they sought to blind and mislead the people; and they illustrated the truth, that

"No rogue e'er felt the halter draw
With good opinion of the law."

The first business of the President and his Cabinet was to inform themselves about the condition of public affairs, the resources of the Government, and the powers at its command. They first turned to the Treasury Department, and there found, under the skillful management of Secretary Dix, cheerful promises, because of evidences of renewed public confidence. The national debt was something more than sixty millions of dollars, and was slowly increasing, because of the necessity for loans. After the Presidential election, in November, 1860, as we have seen, the public inquietude and the dishonest operations of Secretary Cobb caused much distrust among capitalists, and they were loth to buy Government stocks. Of a loan of twenty millions of dollars, authorized by Congress in June, one- a 1860. half of it was asked for in October. It was readily subscribed

for, but only a little more than seven millions of dollars were paid in. A few days after Cobb left the Treasury, Congress authorized the issue of treasury notes to the amount of ten millions of dollars, pay- December 14. able in one year, at the lowest rates of interest offered. Of

b

these, five millions of dollars were offered on the 28th of December.

1 Charleston Mercury, March 6, 1861.

2 The Richmond newspapers were specially incendiary. "No action of our Convention can now maintain the peace, and Virginia must fight," said the Enquirer. “Every Border State ought to go out within twentyfour hours," said the Despatch. "The positions taken are a declaration of war, laying down doctrines which would reduce the Southern section to the unquestioned dominion of the North, as a section,” said the Sentinel. Even the conservative Whig blazed with indignation. "The policy indicated toward the seceding States will meet with stern, unyielding resistance by the united South," said this professedly Union paper.

298

CONDITION OF THE ARMY AND Navy.

The buoyancy of feeling in financial circles, after the retirement of Cobb, had now given way to temporary despondency because of a want of confidence in Thomas, his immediate successor, and the robbery of the Indian Trust-Fund.' There were bids for only five hundred thousand dollars. The semi-annual interest on the national debt would be due on the first of January, and the Government would be greatly embarrassed. Loyal bankers stepped forward, and took a sufficient quantity of the treasury notes to relieve the pressing wants of the Government. Nothing was now needed to inspire capitalists with confidence but the appointment of General Dix to the head of the Treasury, which was made soon afterward." When he offered the remaining five millions of dollars of the author* January 11, ized loan, it was readily taken, but at the high average rate of 1861. interest of ten and five-eighths per centum.

Congress perceived the necessity for making provision for strengthening the Government financially. By far the larger proportion of all the expenses of the Government, from its foundation, had been paid from customs' revenue. To this source of supply the National Legislature now directed their attention, and the tariff was revised so that it would produce a much larger revenue. An act passed Congress on the 2d of March, to go into effect on the 1st of April, which restored the highest protective character to the tariff. A bill was also passed on the 8th of February, authorizing a loan of twenty-five millions of dollars, to bear six per cent. interest, to run not less than ten, nor more than twenty years, the stock to be sold to the highest bidder. The Secretary offered eight millions of dollars of this stock on the 27th of February, when there were bids to the amount of fourteen millions three hundred and fifty-five thousand dollars, ranging from seventy-five to ninety-six. All bids below ninety were refused. The new tariff bill, and the faith in the Government shown by the eagerness to lend money on its securities, were the cheerful promises found in the Treasury Department.

The President and his Cabinet turned to the Army and Navy, and saw little in that direction to encourage them. The total regular force was sixteen thousand men, and these were principally in the Western States and Territories, guarding the frontier settlers against the Indians. The forts and arsenals on the seaboard, especially those within the Slave-labor States, were so weakly manned, or really not manned at all, that they became an easy prey to the insurgents. The consequence was, that they were seized; and when the new Administration came into power, of all the fortifications within the Slave-labor States, only Fortress Monroe, and Forts Jefferson, Taylor, and Pickens, remained in possession of the Government. The seized forts were sixteen in number. They had cost the Government about seven millions of dollars, and bore an aggregate of one thousand two hundred and twenty-six guns. All the arsenals in the Cotton-growing States had been seized. That at Little Rock, the capital of the State of

1 See page 144.

2 The following are the names and locations of the seized forts:-Pulaski and Jackson, at Savannah: Morgan and Gaines, at Mobile; Macon, at Beaufort, North Carolina; Caswell, at Oak Island, North Carolina: Moultrie and Castle Pinckney, at Charleston; St. Philip, Jackson, Pike, Macomb, and Livingston, in Louisiana; and McRee, Barrancas, and a redoubt in Florila.

THE NAVY MADE UNAVAILABLE.

299

Arkansas, was taken possession of by the militia of that State, under the direction of the disloyal Governor Rector, on the 5th of February. They came from Helena, and readily obtained the Governor's sanction to the movement. Far-off Fort Kearney, on Grand Island, in the Platte River,

was also seized on the 19th of February, and a Palmetto flag was raised over it. It was soon retaken by the Union men.

The little Navy of the United States, like the Army, had been placed far beyond the reach of the Government for immediate use. The total number of vessels of all classes belonging to the Navy was ninety, carrying or designed to carry two thousand four hundred and fifteen guns. Of this number, only forty-two were in commission. Twenty-eight ships, bearing in the aggregate eight hundred and seventy-four guns, were lying in ports, dismantled, and none of them could be made ready for sea in less than several weeks' time; some of them would require at least six months. The most of those in commission had been sent to distant seas; and the entire available force for the defense of the whole Atlantic coast of the Republic was the Brooklyn, of twenty-five guns, and the store-ship Relief, of two guns. The Brooklyn drew too much water to enter Charleston harbor, where war had been commenced, with safety; and the Relief had been ordered to the coast of Africa with stores for the squadron there. Many of the officers of the Navy were born in Slave-labor States, and a large number of them abandoned their flag at this critical moment. No less than sixty of them, including eleven at the Naval Academy at Annapolis, had resigned their commissions.

Such was the utterly powerless condition of the Navy to assist in the preservation of the life of the Republic, when Isaac Toucey, of Connecticut, for four years at the head of the Navy Department, handed the seals,of his office to his successor, Gideon Welles, of the same State. The amazing fact stands upon official record, that Mr. Buchanan's Secretaries of War and of the Navy had so disposed the available military forces of the Republic that it could not command their services at the critical moment when the assassin was to strike it a deadly blow.

The public offices were found to be swarming with disloyal men. It was difficult to decide as to who were or were not trustworthy. It was necessary for the President to have proper instruments to work with; and

300

GOVERNMENT OFFICES PURIFIED.

for a month after his inauguration, he was busily engaged in relieving the Government of unfaithful servants, and supplying their places with true So intent was he upon the thorough performance of this work before he should put forth the arm of power to maintain the laws and keep down

men.

rising rebellion, that many of his best friends were filled with apprehensions. They thought they discovered signs of that weakness which had characterized the late Administration, and began to seriously doubt the ability of the Republic to preserve its own life. They did not know the man. Like a prudent warrior of old, he was unwilling to go out to battle before he should prove his armor. He would be sure of the temper of his blade before he unsheathed it. Mr. Lincoln wisely strengthened the Executive arm, by calling to its aid loyal men, before he ventured to speak out with authority. The rebellion could not be put down by proclamations, unless the insurgents saw behind them the invincible power of the State, ready to be wielded by the President with trusty instrumentalities.

ISAAC TOUCEY.

The firmness of the new Administration was soon put upon its trial. We have already observed that three Commissioners were appointed by the confederated conspirators at Montgomery to proceed to Washington, for the alleged purpose of treating with the National Government upon various.

topics of mutual interest, that there might be a "settlement of all questions of disagreement between the Government of the United States and that of the Confederate States, upon principles of right, justice, equity, and good faith." Two of these Commissioners (John Forsyth, of Alabama, who had been a Minister of the United States in Mexico a few years before, and Martin J. Crawford, of Georgia, a member of Congress from that State) arrived in Washington on the 5th of March. On the 11th they made a formal application, through "a distinguished Senator," for an unofficial interview with the Secretary of State. It was declined, and on the 13th they sent to the Secretary a sealed communication, in which they set forth the object of their mission, and asked the appointment of an early day on which to present their credentials to the President.2

MARTIN J. CRAWFORD.

2 See Secretary Seward's Memorandum for Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford, dated March 15, 1861.