of America. [Authorizes a loan of 15,000,000 Chap. III. February 28.-To raise Provisional Forces for the Confederate States March 33 6. To provide for the Public Defence. [Authorizes Presi- 6. To provide for the registration of vessels owned by 6. 6. To establish a Light-house Bureau. For the establishment and organization of the Army of 7 & 8. To create the clerical force of the Executive Depart- 9. To authorize the issue of Treasury Notes. for twelve months, to be called into service at 15. To authorize the appointment of Commercial Agents 15. To authorize the construction or purchase of ten steam : "1st. For the pay of officers of the navy on duty and off duty, based upon the presumption that all the grades authorized by the Act of 1861 will be filled, 131,750 dollars. "2nd. For the pay of officers, non-commissioned officers, musicians, and privates of the marine corps, 175,512 dollars. "3rd. For provisions and clothing and contingencies in paymaster's department, 133,860 dollars. "4th. For the pay of warrant and petty officers, and of seamen, ordinary seamen, landsmen, and boys, and engineer's department, 168,000 dollars. "5th. For expenditures which will be required for coal for the use of steamers, 235,000 dollars. "6th. For the probable cost of 10 steam-gunboats for coast defences of the Confederate States, to be built or purchased as may be most convenient, 1,100,000 dollars. NOTE. Chap. III. NOTE. "7th. For the probable cost of completing and equipping the steam sloop Fulton, now at the Pensacola navy yard, 25,000 dollars. "8th. For the pay of officers and others at the navy yard, Pensacola, 54,363 dollars. 9th. For compensation of four clerks on duty at the Navy Department as per Act of 11th March, at 1,500 dollars each, 6,000 dollars.”] March 16.-To provide for the organization of the Navy. [Authorizes President to appoint 4 Captains, 4 Commanders, 30 Lieutenants, &c., and to employ as masters, midshipmen, naval constructors, warrant and petty officers, and seamen, any number not exceeding 3,000.] 16. To establish the Judicial Courts of the Confederate States of America. [This Act, of 54 sections, provides a complete judicial machinery, modelled on that of the United States. The District Courts to have admiralty and maritime jurisdiction.] CHAPTER IV. Accession of President Lincoln.-His Character, and the Commencement of his Administration.-Attempt to provision Fort Sumter; followed by the Bombardment and Reduction of the Fort.-Proclamation calling for 75,000 Men.-Revolt of Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Tennessee.-Attitude of Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware.-Events in Missouri.-The Arsenal at Harper's Ferry and the Norfolk Navy Yard fall into the hands of the Confederates.Troops raised for the Defence of the Confederacy.—Mr. Davis's Proclamation offering Letters of Marque.-President Lincoln's Proclamations of Blockade.-Naval Resources of the United States; of the Confederacy.-Successive Levies of Troops by the Federal Government.-Military Operations.-Campaign on the Potomac.Observations on the Character and Magnitude of the Revolt. ON the 4th March, 1861, Mr. Lincoln took office as President of the United States. A native of Kentucky, born of poor parents, and bred up in a log cabin in what was then the Far West, he had struggled in early years for a livelihood, trying, as was common in that rough and primitive society, one occupation after another, until he finally attained the position of a country lawyer in good practice. He had been elected, when twenty-five years old, to the Legislature of his own State, Illinois; had sat for three years in Congress and been a candidate against Mr. Douglas for the Senatorship; and was known as a terse and ready speaker. The obscurity of his birth and early life, his homely air and rough humour, created, on his sudden elevation to the highest dignity in the United States, a prejudice against him which was really injurious to his office, and was never quite overcome. F Chap. IV. Nor does he appear to have been a man of quick or commanding judgment. But his understanding was robust, his character straightforward and steadfast, his sense of public duty keen and high; and these qualities, joined to a serene temper and a disposition singularly gentle and kind, enabled him to serve his country better than she might have been served by a far abler man. In politics he had been an "old Whig" and fervent admirer of Henry Clay, and was now a staunch but sober Republican. "I have no purpose," he had said, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." And he repeated these words in his Inaugural Address. But no man had more firmly opposed the extension of slavery into the Territories, or more unreservedly expressed the conviction that sooner or later it must perish in the States themselves. His Cabinet, formed immediately after his accession to office, was, of course, Republican; four of its members, indeed, had been proposed at the Chicago Convention as candidates for the Presidency; and the Secretaryship of State was assigned to Mr. Seward, a man of shining ability, who had headed the list of candidates until the third ballot, when the choice of the party fell on Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln found the seven Confederated States in open and flagrant revolt from the Union. They had usurped its powers, removed its officers, seized its forts, stores, and money, and were levying and appropriating the duties which should have found their way into its treasury; they had organized a Government of their own, and insisted on their right to treat the United States as a foreign Power. They were preparing to raise an army and navy, and one of their forts had opened fire on a steam-ship hoisting the American ensign. To enforce the authority of the Union, or to garri- Chap. IV. surrender it altogether, withdraw the remaining garrisons, and rest in the hope that time might dissolve the Confederacy and bring the seceders back again, were the two alternatives between which the choice really lay. Yet for a little while, perhaps, it might still be possible to temporize. Mr. Lincoln proposed to temporize; but his plan of action, which was stated somewhat obscurely in his Inaugural Address, was one which could hardly fail to lead straight to war : "I consider that, in view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken, and, to the extent of my ability, I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the law of the Union is faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part; and I shall perform it, so far as practicable, unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisite means, or, in some authoritative manner, direct the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself. In doing this there need be no bloodshed or violence; and there shall be none, unless it be forced upon the national authority. The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the Government, and to collect the duties and imposts; but, beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere. Where hostility to the United States, in any interior locality, shall be so great and universal as to prevent competent resident citizens from holding the Federal offices, there will be no obnoxious strangers among the people for that object. legal right may exist in the Government to enforce the offices, the attempt to do so would be so irritating, and so nearly impracticable withal, I deem it better to forego, for the time, the uses of such offices. attempt to force "The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished in all parts of the Union." In pursuance of this plan, he resolved, instead of withdrawing the garrison from Fort Sumter,-a place ascertained to be indefensible,-to provision it, or at least to make the attempt to do so. It is uncertain at what time this decision was formed. Early in March, the Confederate Government |