sion of a comparatively insignificant point, and then march back again.

The truth was, Grant's grand combination in the West had completely broken down; and Sherman's defeat had given the Confederacy two months more time to prepare for the great campaign of 1864.

While the events we have been narrating were transpiring in the Southwest, as part of the grand plan, there had been a movement on the lines in North Georgia. Thomas, in immediate command of the Yankee forces there, had attempted an advance on the 25th of February. For a whole day he attempted to penetrate our lines, but was compelled suddenly to fall back upon his base at Chickamauga. The "On-to-Atlanta" was a programme all parts of which had been disconcerted, and to amend which the campaign in the West had to be put over until the fighting month of May.

CHAPTER X.

Auspicious Signs of the Spring of 1864.-Military Successes of the Confederates.— Improvements in the Internal Polity of the Confederacy-Two Important Measures of Legislation.-Revolution of our Finances.-Enlargement of the Conscription.Theory of the New Military Law.--A Blot on the Political Record of the Confederacy.-Qualified Suspension of the Habeas Corpus.-An Infamous Edict, but a "Deadletter."-An Official Libel upon the Confederacy.-The Real Condition of Civil Liberty in the South.-The Conscription not properly a Measure of Force.-Impressments but a System of Patriotic Contribution.--Development of the Yankee Government into Despotism.-An Explanation of this.-The Essence of Despotism in One Yankee Statute.-MILITARY RESOURCES OF THE CONFEDERACY.-Its Military System, the Best and Most Elastic in the World.-The War Conducted on A Volun tary Basis. Supplies.--Scarcity of Meat.-The Grain Product.-Two Centres of Supplies.-A Dream of Yankee Hate.--Great Natural Resources of the North.-Summary of the Yankee Military Drafts.-Tonnage of the Yankee Navy.-The Yankee War Debt.--Economic Effects of the War.-Its Effects on European Industry.-Yankee Conquest of the South an Impossibility.-A Remarkable Incident of the War.— DAHLGREN'S RAID AROUND RICHMOND.-Kilpatrick's and Custar's Parts of the Expedition.-Dahlgren and his Negro Guide.-His "Braves" Whipped by the Richmond Clerks and Artisans.-Death of the Marauder.-Revelation of his Infamous Designs. -Copy and History of "the Dahlgren Papers."--A Characteristic Yankee Apotheosis. Ridiculous and Infamous Behavior of the Confederate Authorities.--A Brutal and Savage Threat.-President Davis in Melodrama.

THE auspicious signs of the spring of 1864 was the theme. everywhere of the Confederate press. We have seen how a current of success had set in for the South. Mr. Lincoln's shocking experiment in Florida; Thomas's disastrous repulse in North Georgia; Sherman's magnificent failure, were glad auguries for the Confederate arms in the coming campaigns. The situation was being rapidly improved. Not to speak just yet of our achievements in Texas, in Western Louisiana, and along the banks of the Mississippi, we could refer with satisfaction to Longstreet's exploits in East Tennessee, subsequent to the raising of the siege of Knoxville, and fancied permanent occupation of East Tennessee by the enemy. The siege of Charleston had proven only a running sore, where the strength and wealth of the enemy were wasted without the slightest prospect of advancing one step beyond the landward beach of Morris Island. Florida had afforded nothing but disaster to them and glory to us. The rainy season would soon render it

as uninhabitable to a Northern army as it has hitherto been unconquerable. "Dixie," said the Yankee papers, was "in fine feather."

This period of military success was coincident, too, with certain important improvements in the internal polity of the Confederacy. The Confederate Congress of 1863-64, had accomplished two important measures of legislation. It had revolutionized the Confederate finances by a law which required the currency to be funded, under the penalty, within certain dates, of thirty-three and a third per cent., stopped further issues of paper money, and provided for the public revenues by heavy taxation, and the sale of five hundred millions of six per cent. bonds. It had enlarged the conscription and qualified it by a system of details, the administration of which, though it properly resided in Congress, and should not have been delegated to the Executive branch of the Confederacy, which was notoriously corrupted by favoritism, was especially designed to compose and protect the vexed industry and resources of the country.

The new military law was designed to devote to the army, directly or indirectly, the whole physical power and energy of the country. Providing, first, recruits for the ranks by an extended conscription, it then organized the remaining labor of the country, for the sole use and benefit of the army and the country's cause. The great pervading principle of this military bill was that every man owed to his country the duty of defending it, either in or out of the ranks, and the law provided for the discharge of this paramount duty by putting in the ranks all men capable of bearing arms, except certain persons who could be of more service to the cause out of, than in the army. Exemptions and details were to be permitted upon the great and important principle of promoting the public service. Recognizing the absolute dependence of the country's cause upon the great agricultural interest, the Confederate Congress, while protecting this great interest, had made it contribute to the support of the army, for the privilege of its exemption— thus protecting the production of the country, without depriving the army of the recruits necessary to its reinforcement.

It is, however, to be confessed, with pain, that the Confederate Congress of 1863-64, marred the work of this legislative

year by a base imitation of the Washington despotism in a suspension of the habeas corpus. It was an act of criminal stu pidity, the fruit of an inferiority of mind in our legislators that aped the precedents of the Yankee. It is true that the law authorizing the suspension of the great writ of liberty was qualified by a stringent bill of particulars.* But what can be

* The following is a copy of this unfortunate law:

A bill to suspend the privilege of the writ of HABEAS CORPUS in certain cases. Whereas, the Constitution of the Confederate States of America provides, in article 1, section 9, paragraph 3, that "the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when, in case of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it;" and, whereas the power of suspending the privilege of said writ, as recognized in said article 1, is vested solely in the Congress, which is the exclusive judge of the necessity of such suspension; and, whereas, in the opinion of the Congress, the public safety requires the suspension of said writ in the existing case of the invasion of these States by the armies of the United States; and, whereas the President has asked for the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, and informed Congress of conditions of public danger which render the suspension of the writ a measure proper for the public defence against invasion and insurrection; now, therefore:

1. That during the present invasion of the Confederate States, the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus be, and the same is hereby, suspended; but such suspension shall apply only to the cases of persons arrested or detained by order of the President, Secretary of War, or the general officer commanding the Trans-Mississippi Military Department, by the authority and under the control of the President. It is hereby declared that the purposes of Congress in the passage of this act is to provide more effectually for the public safety by suspending the writ of habeas corpus in the following cases, and no other:

I. Of treason or treasonable efforts or combinations to subvert the Government of the Confederate States.

II. Of conspiracies to overthrow the Government, or conspiracies to resist the lawful authority of the Confederate States.

III. Of combining to assist the enemy or of communicating intelligence to the enemy, or giving him aid and comfort.

IV. Of conspiracies, preparations and attempts to incite servile insurrection. V. Of desertions or encouraging desertions, of harboring deserters, and of attempts to avoid military service; Provided, that in cases of palpable wrong and oppression by any subordinate officer, upon any party who does not legally owe military service, his superior officer shall grant prompt relief to the oppressed party, and the subordinate shall be dismissed from office.

VI. Of spies and other emissaries of the enemy.

VII. Of holding correspondence or intercourse with the enemy, without necessity, and without the permission of the Confederate States.

VIII. Of unlawful trading with the enemy and other offences against the laws of the Confederate States, enacted to promote their success in the war. IX. Of conspiracies, or attempts to liberate prisoners of war held by the Confederate States.

most said, to wipe from the record of the Confederacy the stain of this infamous edict, is, that it was never put into practice. It was not put into practice for the simple reason that there was no occasion for it; no one doubted the integrity and patriotism of our judiciary; that branch of the government was practically permitted to continue its dispensations of law and justice; and the worst that can be said of the law suspending the habeas corpus was, that it was a stain upon our political history. It was an uncalled for libel upon the Confederacy; but although it might blacken our reputation, yet it is a satisfaction to know that it did not practically affect our system of liberties.

In contrasting the political systems of the North and South in this war, we find an invariable superiority in the latter with respect to all questions of civil liberty. This, indeed, is to be taken as the most striking and significant moral phenomenon of the war.

Despite the conscription and other harsh necessities of legislation, the principles of liberty were yet substantially secure in the Confederacy. The spirit of the devotion of the people was, in most instances, in advance of the demands of the gov

X. Of conspiracies, or attempts or preparations to aid the enemy. XI. Of persons aiding or inciting others to abandon the Confederate cause, or to resist the Confederate States, or to adhere to the enemy.

XII. Of unlawfully burning, destroying, or injuring, or attempting to burn, destroy, or injure any bridge or railroad, or telegraph line of communication, or other property with the intent of aiding the enemy.

XIII. Of treasonable designs to impair the military power of the Government by destroying or attempting to destroy the vessels, or arms, or munitions of war, or arsenals, foundries, workshops, or other property of the Confederate States.

SEC. 2. The President shall cause proper officers to investigate the cases of all persons so arrested or detained, in order that they may be discharged if improperly detained, unless they can be speedily tried in the due course of law.

SEC. 3. That during the suspension aforesaid, no military or other officer shall be compelled, in answer to any writ of habeas corpus, to appear in person, or to return the body of any person detained by him by the authority of the President, Secretary of War, or the general officer commanding the TransMississippi Department; but upon the certificate, under oath, of the officer having charge of any one so detained that such person is detained by him as a prisoner under the authority aforesaid, further proceedings under the writ of habeas corpus, shall immediately cease and remain suspended so long as this act shall continue in force.

SEC. 4. This act shall continue in force for ninety days after the next meeting of Congress, and no longer.