vor.

gress.

sage made a bid, at the practiced by a few men. The announcement The Purposes of the

propitious moment, for the made above was the first knowledge the Message.

Queen's and Emperor's fa- great mass of the Missouri people had of Its tone of pious confidence in the ways their State's secession! It answered the pur. of Providence-its calm audacity in mis- pose of strengthening the Confederate “ Constatement and misconstruction-its spirit of gress” by the addition of several self-constidefiance toward the Federal Government-its tuted “members” from Missouri, and the suppression of the truth in regard to the pro- State, therefore, was in the Southern Confed. gress of the Federal arms—all were harmless eracy whether the people would or not. in American circles, and, equally so in Euro-What sublime assurance—what infamous dispean circles when the whole truth became regard of the first principles of republican known; but, the document served its tempo- government ! rary purpose of inspiriting Davis' friends December 11th another batch of laws passabroad to renewed exertions in behalf of the ed in secret session was made public, when embryo Slave Republic, and that was the se- the world was informed that Kentucky was, cret of its promulgation.

also, a member of the Confederacy-admitted The Confederate Con- to full equality with the other States of the Doings of the Con

gress still sat in secret ses- Confederation. Here, again came Satan's

sion. No legislation of gospel doubly sealed." The Russellville Conany public importance was done openly. All vention, (see page 420,) composed of about was a Star Chamber to the people, who only forty renegades from loyalty, instituted a knew of what had been done for them, or to provisional government,” elected a Goverthem, when the laws were promulgated for nor and Council, and these eleren functionatheir enforcement. The Czar of the Russias ries, in turn, elected Kentucky's members to never exercised a more autocratic prerogative the Confederate Congress. These members, over the serfs of his realm than the Con- thus delegated, were received“ upon an equal gress of the South over the Southern people. footing” with the representatives of other That the entire parliament was a mockery, States, and Kentucky became a constituent will appear from the confessions of Southern of the Southern Confederacy. journals. Thus the Richmond Dispatch of

It will be a painful task

A Reign of Ty. November 28th, said:

for any Staté Rights advo" The Provisional Congress still holds its sessions cate to give the Confedewith closed doors, and we are unable to furnish our rate Congress a legal status even under the readers with any detail of the proceedings. The State sovereignty doctrine. It was, in no President sent in on Tuesday a message concerning manner, chosen by the people; it was, in a the secession of Missouri. It was accompanied by great measure, self-constituted, and, in its inan able letter from Governor Jackson, and also by flexible secret legislation, ignored States as an act dissolving the Union with the United States, well as the people. If the States were soverand an act ratifying the Constitution of the Provi- eign, it was supreme ; if“ provisional," it arsional Government of the Confederate States ; also, rogated permanent power. Embittered by the Convention between the Commissioners of Mis- designing leaders, intlamed by a wicked souri and the Commissioners of the Confederate States. Congress unanimously ratified the Conven- press, misinformed, misdirected, the people

of the South gave themselves over to the tytion entered into between the Hon. R. M. T. Hun. ter, for this Government, and the commissioners for ranny of Conventions and Congress, to beMissouri. On yesterday we understand that Con- come instruments for their own persecution.* gress passed a law admittig Missouri into the Con

* See Appendix, page for the Report of the federacy. Congress refused to make any advances Special Comunittee, appointed by the Virginia State on, or the purchase of, the produce of planters, and Convention, to consider and report amendments to much surprise was expressed that such a proposi- the State Organic law. This document, startling tion should have been made."

as were its recommendations and views, fully repre. This “secession" of Missouri illustrates our sented the influence paramount in every Southern iuferences regarding the usurpation of power State Convention and in the Confederate Congress,

ranny.

INTERESTING

REVELATIONS.

435

*

*

Yet, the Southern Executive and his agents | was not so well prepared as was desirable, still she incessantly reviled the President and Con- was better prepared than most of her Southern sis. gress of the United States for their “ usurpa- ters—better perhaps than any one of them. For tions and their disregard of the Constitu

some time anterior to the secession she had been engaged in tion!" It was Satan anathematizing Ga- the purchase of arms of different kinds, ammunition, and

other necessary articles, and in mounting artillery, in anbriel.

ticipation of the event which subsequently occurred. Danton, being asked to define the best pol

“Prior to the secession of the State, icy to insure the success of the French Revo- indeed, from the commencement of my Gubernatolution, answered : “ Be audacious !!” The rial term, I used all proper means within my reach, Southern leaders had learned a lesson from aided and supported by the military commission, to Danton,

prepare the State for defense.

In an. We need not refer to the swer to this recommendation, the General Assembly Southern Currency.

legislation of the Confede-appropriated one hundred and eighty thousand dol. rate Congress up to the date of Davis' in- lars in bonds, to be expended in the purchase of stallation, (February 22d, 1862.)

It was

arms, equipments and munitions of war. If we could

then have purchased all the arms which we desired chiefly devoted to strengthening the hands

to obtain, our State would have been in better con. of the Government and the War Department. dition to repel the assaults of the Federal Executive. The utter failure of its schemes for raising at the time we made the purchase of five thousand mus. means-of the “National Loan” fund, the kets from the Federal Gwernment we desired to purchase Cotton and Produce loan fund, &c.-com- ten thousand additional, but the authorities declined pelled the direct resort to Government issues to sell them to us, although five times the number of script, bonds and demand notes, in quan- were then in the Arsenal at Washington." tities to meet the requirements of their ex- These “purchases" were, it will be underchequer. These were floated if not funded, stood, in addition to the large amount of arms and their value soon became apparent in the in the Arsenal, supplied by the Federal Gov. rise of every species of property except that ernment. Secretary of War, Floyd, was busy of slaves and taxable estate. These appear- during the spring and summer of 1860 in dis. ed to depreciate in price, in proportion to patching to the Southern State Arsenals their their liability, the first to escape and the quotas for 1861 as well as for 1860. Evidence, second to taxation. The blockade had little also, is not wanting to show that, during the to do with the prices of home produce. That summer of 1860, not only State authorities soon reached enormous prices—in Confeder- but leading men of the South made large purate money, reminding us of the days when a chases in the North of rifles, revolvers and hat full of Continental currency was paid for English muskets. These purchases were a dinner.

very secretly made, and the amount of arms The messages of Governors Letcher, of Vir- so secured may never be correctly ascertainginia (Dec. 2d), Brown, of Georgia (Nov. ed; but, that it was large was evident from 19th), Moore, of Louisiana (Nov. 28th), and the generous supply of good field arms held the inaugural address of Pettus, of Mississip- by the several rebellious States at the moment pi, of Pickens, of South Carolina, (November | their quotas were put in service. Of artillery 10)—all breathed the spirit of resistance to the only a small supply was available until the last extremity. Some of the revelations made Harper's Ferry seizure and the Norfolk (Gosby Letcher were particularly significant, as. port) Navy Yard disaster placed the rebels in showing that the Southern leaders had, as possession of a superb field and fort armaearly as the summer of 1860, resolved upon ment. So inefficient was the destruction of

their course; and, so far as property at Norfolk that Governor Letcher Interesting Revela

secresy would permit, had confessed the great portion of the ammuni

prepared the materiel for a tion“ used in the war” was secured there. successful defense against coercion. He said : That Norfolk “disaster" certainly was a God.

“ For this struggle, so suddenly commenced, Vir- send to the rebels. Without it the entire ginia had for some time been making suoh preparations South could not have mustered a dozen effie her means enabled her to make; and although she I cient batteries over and above what was

tions.

tions.

secured in the seized forts with the force then in the Fortress, it would be useInteresting Revela

and arsenals, but which were less to attempt its capture without a large force,

required for local defense. thoronghly equipped and well appointed. At no The Governor, as if to ease his mind of its time previous to the secession of Virginia had we a load of secrets, also confessed to his designs military organization sufficient to justify an attempt

to take it, and events since that occurrence demonagainst Fortress Monroe, where the vigilant and resolute Colonel Dimmick was in com

strate very clearly that with our military organiza

tion since, and now existing, it has not been deemed mand, nuch to the discomfiture of treason. prudent to make the attempt.” He said:

As Virginia did not secede until April 17th, “ It is to be regretted that Fortress Monroe is not in our

1861, the Governor's confessions are refreshpossession; that it was not as easily captured as the Navy Yard and Harper's Ferry. As fur back as the ingly redolent of the treason which presided 8th of Junuary last, I consulted with a gentleman whose

over Virginia's destiny. Macbeth's witches position enabled him to know the strength of that fortress, would have to learn new powers of incantaand whose experience in military matters enabled him to tion to preside fittingly over the artifice and form an opinion as to the number of men that would be diabolism which the conspirators against the required to capture it. He represented it to be one General Government practiced in the incipiof the strongest fortifications in the world, and ex. ent stages of the revolution. Were the Great pressed his doubts whether it could be taken, unless Poet now alive with what zest would his assailed by water as well as by land, and simultane- quick intuitions seize upon the conspirators ously. He stated, emphatically and distinctly, that for his dramatis persona !

CHAPTER VL

MEETING OF THE FEDERAL CONGRESS (DECEMBER, 1861.) THE ANTI SL A VERY ELEMENT. MR.

LINCOLN'S CONSERVATISM. THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AND DEPARTMENT REPORTS. LEGISLATION OF THE SESSION.

gress.

gress.

The Federal Congress is understood, "assumed Assemblage of Con

Assemblage of Con (XXXVII. 2d Session) as- the responsibility," and

sembled at Washington, himself modified the reMonday, December 20, 1861. Its organization port, excising its entire conclusion and sub was not followed by the reception of the Pre- stituting in its steal the closing paragraph sident's annual Message and the accompany, as it was submitted to Congress. ing department reports. The delay in their The first day's session made manifest the transmission was understood to arise from strong set of the current in the direction of the discovery, in the Report of the Secretary negro emancipation and confiscation of rebel of War, of passages enunciating a policy in estates. Cameron's original report, in a great regard to slaves fleeing to the Federal lines, degree, represented this feeling, and became which the Executive was not ready to adopt. its official exponent. When it was ascertainA cabinet meeting was called on the subject, ed that the President had determined to make Monday afternoon, at which the President a stand against the “radical" programme, expressed his dissent. Mr. Cameron regarded the two Houses betrayed unmistakeable signs his original recommendations of vital impor- of the ferment to follow. In the Senate, Mr. tance and is reported to have been unwilling Trumbull, of Illinois, as spokesman of the to modify them. Whereupon Mr. Lincoln, it State which Jr. Lincoln called his own, gave

TIE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.

437

The President's Meg.

sage.

commerce.

notice of a resolution to be unfortunate and injurious to Assemblage of Con

confiscate the property of those adopting them. The disgress.

persons in rebellion and to loyal citizens of the United give freedom to persons in the Slave States. States, who have offered the ruin of our country in In the House, several resolutions looking to return for the aid and comfort they have invoked the same end were offered.

abroad, have received less patronage and encourage. The spirit of

ment than they probably expected. If it were just to anti-slavery, taking alarm at the slow

progress of our arms, and viewing the ' peculiar that foreign nations in this case, discarding all

suppose, as the insurgents have seemed to assume, institution’ as the right hand of the rebellion, moral, social and treaty obligations, would act had silently yet decidedly gathered its forces solely and selfishly for the most speedy restoration for an assault

upon

the “Border State policy,” | of commerce, including, especially, the acquisition which aimed to prosecute the war so as to of cotton, those nations appear as yet not to have leave slavery unharmed. Here came the seen their way to their object more directly or shadow of a palpable issue; and the Presi- clearly through the destruction than through the dent soon found opponents to his “conserva preservation of the Union. If we could dare to be. tive" policy even in those who were his sup- lieve that foreign nations are actuated by no higher porters in a vigorous prosecution of the war.

principle than this, I am quite sure a second argu. The second session of the Thirty-seventh

ment could be made to show them that they can

reach their aim more readily and easily by aiding to Congress therefore assumes an importance in

crush this rebellion than by giving encouragement the history of the war second only to the to it. The principal lever relied on by the insurmemorable session of 1860–61. It inaugu- gents for exciting foreign nations to hostility against rated the great movement which, while it

us, as already intimated, is the embarrassment of made the war one for the restoration of the

Those nations. however, not improb. Union to its old integrity and solidarity, also ably saw from the first that it was the Union which made it a war against the principle of human made as well our foreign as our domestic commerce. slavery. Though not avowed, this yet was They can scarcely have failed to perceive that the the actual, form which the opposition to the effort for disunion produces the existing difficulty, Border State policy assumed ; and it consum- and that one strong nation promises more durable mated its final triumph in the passage of the peace, and a more extensive, valuable and reliable

than can the same nation broken into Emancipation act of 1862, and the issue of the

hostile fragments. Decree of January 1st, 1863.

“It is not my purpose to review our discussions The Message and reports with foreign States, because, whatever might be The President's Mes

were sent in on the morning their wishes or dispositions, the integrity of our

of December 3d. We sub-country and the stability of our Government mainly join such portions of these documents as have depend, not upon them, but on the loyalty, virtue, historical significance and value :

patriotism and intelligence of the American people. “ In the midst of unprecedented political troubles, | The correspondence itself, with the usual reserva we bave cause of great gratitude to God for unusual | tions, is herewith submitted. I venture to hope it good health and most abundant harvests.

will appear that we have practiced prudence and “ You will not be surprised to learn that, in the liberality toward foreign powers, averting causes peculiar exigencies of the times, our intercourse of irritation, and, with firmness, maintaining our with foreign nations has been attended with pro- own rights and honor. Since, however, it is appafound solicitude, chiefly turning upon our own do. rent that here, as in every other State, foreign dan. mestic affairs. A disloyal portion of the American gers necessarily attend domestic difficulties, I repeople have, during the whole year, been engaged commend that adequate and ample measures be in an attempt to divide aná destroy the Union. A adopted for maintaining the public defenses on nation which endures factious domestic divisions is every side. While, under this general recommen. exposed to disrespect abroad, and one party, if not dation, provision for defending our coast line readily both, is sure, sooner or later, to invoke foreign in- occurs to the mind, I also, in the same connection, tervention. Nations, thus tempted to interfere, are ask the attention of Congress to our great lakes and not always able to resist the counsels of seeming rivers. It is believed that some fortifications and expediency and ungenerous ambition, although mea- depots of arms and munitions, with harbor and navi. eres adopted under such influences seldom fail to gation improvements, at well-selected points upon

commerce,

sage.

these, would be of great impor. | the commanders of sailing vegThe President's Mes.

The President's Mos tance to the National defense sels to recapture any prizes sage.

sage. and preservation.

which pirates may make of “ I ask attention to the views of the Secretary of United States vessels and their cargoes, and the War, expressed in his Report, upon the same gen. Consular Courts established by law in Eastern coun. eral subjects.

tries to adjudicate the cases, in the event that this “I deem it of importance that the loyal regions should not be objected to by the local authorities. of East Tennessee and Western North Carolina be connected with Kentucky and other faithful “ The operations of the Treasury during the pe. parts of the Union by railroad; I therefore recom- riod which has elapsed since your adjournment, mend, as a military measure, that Congress pro- have been conducted with signal success. The pa. vide for the construction of such road as speedily as triotism of the people has placed at the disposal of possible.

the Government the large means demanded by the “Kentucky will, no doubt, co-operate, and, public exigencies. Much of the National loan bas through her Legislature, make the most judicious been taken by citizens of the industrial classes, selection of a line. The Northern terminus must whose confidence in their country's faith, and zeal connect with some existing railroad, and, whether for their country's deliverance from its present the route shall be from Lexington or Nicholasville peril, have induced them to contribute to the supto the Cumberland Gap, or from Lebanon to the port of the Government the whole of their limited Tennessee line in the direction of Knoxville, or on acquisitions. This fact imposes peculiar obligasome still different line, can easily be determined. tions to economy in disbursement and energy in Kentucky and the General Government co-operat

action. ing, the work can be completed in a very ort “ The revenue from all sources, including loans, time, and when done it will be not only of vast pre- for the financial year ending on the 30th of June, , sent usefulness, but also a valuable, permanent im- | 1861, was $86,835,900.27, and the expenditures for provement, worth its cost in all the future.

the same period, including payments on account of Some treaties, designed chiefly for the interests the public debt, were $84,578,834.47, leaving a balof commerce, and having no grave political importance in the Treasury on the 1st of July, of anco, bave been negotiated, and will be submitted $2,257,065.80. For the first quarter of the financial to the Senate for their consideration. Although we year ending on the 30th of September, 1861, the have failed to induce some of the commercial pow. receipts from all sources, including the balance of ers to adopt a desirable melioration of the rigor of July 1st, were $102,532,509.27, and the expenses maritime war, we have removed all obstructions $98,239,733.09, leaving a balance on the 1st of Oc. from the way of this humane reform, except such tober, 1861, of $4,292,776.18. as are merely of temporary and accidental occur- “ Estimates for the remaining three quarters of rence. I invite your attention to the correspond. the year, and for the financial year of 1863, together ence between her Britannic Majesty's Minister, ac. with his views of the ways and means for meeting credited to this Government, and the Secretary of the demands contemplated by them, will be subState, relative to the detention of the British ship mitted to Congress by the Secretary of the TresPerthshire, in June last, by the United States stea- sury. It is gratifying to know that the expenses mer Massachusetts, for a supposed breach of the made necessary by the rebellion are not beyond the blockade. As this detention was occasioned by an resources of the loyal people, and to believe that obvious misapprehension of the facts, and as justice the same patriotism which has thus far sustained requires that we sbould commit no belligerent act the Government will continue to sustain it till peace not founded in strict right as sanctioned by public and union shall again bless the land. law, I recommend that an appropriation be made to “I respectfully refer to the report of the Secresatisfy the reasonable demand of the owners of the tary of War for information respecting the numer vessel for her detention.

ical strength of the army, and for recommendations · By the act of the 5th of August last, Congress having in view an increase of its efficiency, and the authorized the President to instruct the command well being of the various branches of the service ers of suitable vessels to defend themselves against intrusted to his care. It is gratifying to know that and to capture pirates. This authority has been ex- the patriotism of the people has proved equal to ercised in a single instance only. For the more the occasion, and that the number of troops tendereffectual protection of our extensive and valuable ed greatly exceeds the forces which Congress aucommerce in the Eastern seas, especially, it seems thorized me to call into the field. I refer with pleso to me that it would also be advisable to authorize sure to those portions of his report which make

+

*

*