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PROJECTED CONQUEST OF WASHINGTON.

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tion of the South desired, with the utmost unanimity, the achievement of that enterprise. It was a singular fact that, when the troops of North Carolina proceeded to join the Rebel camp in Virginia, it was with the express expectation that their destination was an immediate attack on the Federal capital. Other southern journals were still more sanguine The Milledgeville Recorder endeavored to incite the Rebel Government to immediate action; declared that the Confederate States must possess Washington; and insisted that it was folly to imagine that it could bet permitted to remain any longer the headquarters of the "Lincoln Government." Southern pride demanded that that city should not continue under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government. The Charleston Courier asserted, on the 14th of April, that the desire to capture Washington increased every hour among the valiant and patriotic citizens of the South. Similar authorities might be accumulated to a very large extent, to show how widely diffused and how intensely ardent this wish to possess the Federal city was throughout the Southern States. That the Rebel armies, therefore, did not make the attempt, was evidently the result not of a want of inclination, but of a want of ability; and it is equally plain that this achievement formed a prominent element in the colossal plan of resistance, disorganization and ruin, which their leaders conceived, and which they were able to some extent to realize.

Immediately after the proclamation of President Lincoln calling out seventy-five thousand men, the Rebel Congress, then in session at Montgomery, authorized the raising of an additional force of thirty-two thousand men. Of this number, General Pillow declared that Teunessee alone would willingly furnish ten thousand. Alexander H. Stephens uttered the formidable boast that it would require seventy-five times seventy-five thousand soldiers to intimidate the South, and that even then "they would not stay intimidated." Jefferson Davis inflamed the warlike spirit of the Rebels to a still intenser pitch by issuing, on the 17th of April, a proclamation, in which he invites all those who might desire, by service in private armed vessels on the high seas, to aid the Rebel Government in resisting what he termed a wanton and wicked aggression, to make application for letters of marque and reprisal, which would be issued under the seal of the Confederate States, and would be freely granted to those who furnished the necessary securities for the observance of the laws of those States. The result of this proclamation was, that an eager host of thieves and pirates immediately sprang forward to obtain the benefit of the proclamation, and enrich themselves by plundering under the cover of law and public justice.

The Legislature of Virginia was at this period in session. That ancient commonwealth had long hesitated as to the policy which she would pursue in reference to secession. Many potent considerations bound her to the old Union, with which all her most glorious and honorable asso

ciations were connected. But her present interests, and especially the identity of her sympathies with the South in reference to slavery, led her to cling to the faction of the Rebels. In addition to this, her people were greatly influenced by the intrigues of a number of detestable traitors, of whom Ex-Secretary Floyd was the chief, who were active in their efforts to alienate the minds of the people from the Union. On the 18th of April, John Letcher, Governor of the State, issued a proclamation, in which he declared that the action of Mr. Lincoln in calling for an armed force of seventy-five thousand men was in effect a declaration of war; that the President possessed no power to issue such a proclamation ; that Congress alone was competent to declare war; that therefore this act was illegal and unconstitutional; and that the General Assembly of that State having so pronounced it, he, the Governor, then and there ordered all the armed volunteers within the State to hold themselves in readiness to enter upon military duty against the threatened encroachments of the Federal Government. At the same period the convention which had been summoned for the purpose of determining whether the State would join the Southern Confederacy or not, voted in favor of secession. There were but seven members who opposed the measure, and four of those seven came from Western Virginia.

It had now become evident to the most obtuse and the most unwilling observer that the day of reconciliation had passed by; and that the Federal Government had no other alternative left, in order to vindicate its own honor and suppress the rebellion, than the adoption of the most stringent and hostile measures. The blockade of all the southern ports was immediately ordered and immediately executed. The great steamship Niagara, the pride of the American navy, was stationed off Charleston harbor, where her heavy guns and her gallant crew would effectually suspend the commerce of that city, the virulent hot-bed of secession. The blockade of the Chesapeake was maintained by the steam-frigate Minnesota, off Old Point Comfort; by the Dawn and the Yankee, off Fortress Monroe; by the Quaker City, off the mouth of the Chesapeake bay; by the Montecello, off York river; by the Harriet Lane, off the mouth of James river. Other vessels were dispatched to Savannah, to Mobile, and to New Orleans, whose trade was effectually sealed and suspended by the terror of their guns.

At this period the loyal States presented to the eye of an observer a strange and unaccustomed spectacle. Their vast and rich domains, usually the scenes of peaceful pursuits, of manufacturing industry, of • agricultural thrift, were now teeming with those incidents which are connected with warlike operations. The proclamation of Mr. Lincoln, summoning seventy-five thousand men to the field, infused into the nation a new spirit. That number of men, which, in comparison with the more colossal requisitions of later times, seems insignificant, then

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