properly place here a brief record of what was the most important of the detached military operations of 1864. This was a movement in the TransMississippi, the invasion of Missouri by Gen. Price. It appears to have been altogether a detached operation, having no relation to the campaigns east of the Mississippi, and with but little effect on the general issues of the war. It is therefore narrated in a small space.

About the middle of September, Gen. Price entered Missouri, crossing the State line from Arkansas, by the way of Pocahontas and Poplar Bluff. He had about ten thousand men under the command of Gens. Shelby, Marmaduke, and Fagan. From Poplar Bluff, Price advanced, by the way of Bloomfield, to Pilot Knob, driving before him the various outpost garrisons, and threatening Cape Girardeau. Pilot Knob was evacuated, and Price thus obtained a strongly fortified position, eighty-six miles south of St. Louis, the terminus of the railroad, and the depot for supply of the lower outposts.

Gen. Rosecrans, the Federal commander in the Department of Missouri, was largely superiour in force to Price; but he appears to have been unable to concentrate or handle his troops, and the country was surprised to find Gen. Price moving almost without molestation through the large State of Missouri, doing incalculable mischief, and kindling the hopes of the Confederates with another campaign of wonders in this remote region of the war. From Pilot Knob Gen. Price moved north to the Missouri River, and continued up that river towards Kansas. Gen. Custis, commanding the Department of Kansas, immediately collected such forces as he could to repel the invasion; while four brigades of Federal cavalry, numbering about eight thousand men and eight rifled guns, were operating in Price's rear. On the 23d October, Gen. Price was brought to battle on the Big Blue, and defeated, Gens. Marmaduke and Cabell being taken prisoners, and the Confederates losing nearly all of their artillery. On the following day, Price was again attacked, near Fort Scott, and obliged hurriedly to retreat into Kansas. He then turned down to the south, and crossed the Arkansas River, above Fort Smith, into the Indian Territory. He subsequently went into winter quarters in the south of Arkansas, his men in worse plight than when they started from that State, and the conclusion of his campaign an undoubted failure.

The fact is that Gen. Price had retreated from Missouri, not so much under the stress of the enemy's arms as from inherent faults in his own enterprise. He had declared that his invasion was not a raid, that he came to possess Missouri; but the breadth of the excursion, its indefiniteness, and the failure to concentrate on important points, ruined him. While his command roamed through the State, his men, brought to the vicinity of their old homes, which they had not seen for several years, were ex

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posed to unusual temptations to desert; and instead of being reinforced by recruits, his command was diminished by desertions at every step of the march, and almost ran through his fingers before he left the State. With this sad conclusion of Gen. Price's expedition, the last hope was banished from the Southern mind of possessing Missouri; and the operations of the Trans-Mississippi may be said now to have made their last figure of importance in the war.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

THE PRESIDENTIAL CANVASS OF 1864 IN THE NORTH.-ITS RELATIONS TO THE MILITARY CAMPAIGN.-REVIEW OF PARTIES IN THE NORTH.-A GENERAL DISTINCTION FOUNDED ON TWO QUESTIONS.-COMPOSITION OF THE PARTY OPPOSING MR. LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION.THE DOCTRINES OF THE BLACK REPUBLICAN PARTY IMPOSSIBLE TO BE DEFINED.-HOW THE PARTY CHANGED AND SHIFTED THROUGH THE WAR.-OPINIONS OF MR. WEBSTER AND 66

MR. CLAY.-MODERN VERIFICATION OF MR. CLAY'S CHARGE OF AMALGAMATION.".

66

POLICY OF THE BLACK REPUBLICAN PARTY AT THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR.-MR. LINCOLN'S INSTINCTS OF UNWORTHINESS.-HOW THE PEACE PARTY IN THE NORTH MADE THE FIRST FALSE STEP.-GROWTH OF THE POWER OF LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. ITS MEASURES OF TERROUR.-MODERATION OF THE CONFEDERACY TOWARDS UNION MEN AND DISSENTIENTS. SOME ACCOUNT OF ARRESTS IN THE NORTH.-LINCOLN'S DETECTIVE SYSTEM.-COMPARATIVE IMPOSSIBILITY OF MAINTAINING AN OPPOSITION PARTY IN THE NORTH.-INFAMOUS CONDUCT OF WAR DEMOCRATS."-THE CONSERVATIVE PHALANX IN THE CONGRESS AT WASHINGTON.-A RECORD OF ITS VOTES.-REASSURANCE OF THE CON(6 SERVATIVE PARTY IN 1864.-THE PARTY ISSUES OF 1864, WITH REFERENCE TO RECONSTRUCTION."-CONVENTION OF THE GOVERNMENT PARTY AT BALTIMORE.-ITS PLATFORM."-PRETERMISSION OF THE CONDITION OF STATE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY.—HOW THIS CONDITION WAS AFTERWARDS INSERTED.-MR. LINCOLN'S RESCRIPT, TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN."-HISTORY OF THE NIAGARA FALLS COMMISSION.-HOW MR. LINCOLN'S PASSPORT WAS MADE A POLITICAL CARD.-DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION AT CHICAGO.-ITS DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES.-M'OLELLAN'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE.-SLAVERY NO LONGER AN ISSUE IN THE WAR.-THE CONSTITUTIONAL POINT AT ISSUE BETWEEN M'OLELLAN AND LINCOLN.-THE RADICAL WING OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.-THE CLEVELAND CONVENTION. THE ISSUES OF THE CANVASS AS BETWEEN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, THE GOVERNMENT PARTY, AND THE RADICAL PARTY.-HOW THE TWO LAST INSTEAD OF THE TWO FIRST COALESCED.- RECONSTRUCTION ANTE-DATED.-A FAINT HINT OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE. THE WRITTEN ISSUES OF THE CANVASS BUT LITTLE CONSIDERED. THE CONTEST MAINLY ON THE FOURTH RESOLUTION OF THE CHICAGO "PLATFORM."—ELOQUENCE OF THE M'CLELLAN CAMPAIGN PAPERS. THE ELECTION OF M'CLELLAN IMPOSSIBLE IN VIEW OF THE FEDERAL VICTORIES OF 1864.-TRIUMPH OF MR. LINCOLN AND HIS PARTY.— ANALYSIS OF THE POPULAR VOTE IN HIS ELECTION. A LARGE ELEMENT OF ENCOURAGEMENT IN IT.-THE VICTORY OF THE CONSTITUTION POSTPONED.

We have already referred to the great consideration which attached to the Presidential contest in the North which was now to take place; we have stated that it gave a new hope for the South in 1864; and we have

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indicated that the political campaign of this year was, in the minds of the Confederate leaders, scarcely less important than the military. Indeed, the two were indissolubly connected; and the calculation in Richmond was that if military matters could even be held in a negative condition, the Democratic party in the North would have the opportunity of appealing to the popular impatience of the war, and bringing it to a close on terms acceptable to the great mass of the Southern people.

For a thorough discussion of this political campaign it will be well to make a rapid review and analysis of parties in the North, even at the risk of some repetition to the reader.

Parties in the North were divided by very distinct lines. There were two questions upon which the division took place. One of these referred to the supremacy of the Constitution as opposed to military necessity-real or pretended. The other had reference to the relative powers of the Union and the States. On both these questions the party in power held loose and careless opinions, employing force wherever it would avail for military or partisan advantage. The opposition contended for a strict observance of the provisions of the Constitution and of the rights of the States. This was the general distinction.

But widely as the theories of these two parties separated them on questions touching the sanctity and scope of the Constitution, there was still a margin of difference left between the views of the Northern Democratic party and the Southern doctrines upon which the right of Secession was founded. The difference, however, concerned only the last alternative of Secession. According to the Northern view, the Union was inviolable and perpetual, and all grievances must be redressed within the Union by remedies which respected its integrity. According to the Southern view, Secession was a rightful remedy for evils otherwise incurable, sanctioned by the precedent and precepts of the men of 1776.

This latter doctrine had so limited a support at the North, however, that it was totally unknown in the controversies of parties. There, all, or nearly all, assumed that the Union was permanent and inviolable-differences of opinion turning upon the powers of the Union; the powers of the Federal Government; the rightfulness of extra-constitutional measures in time of war; and the expediency, and most judicious means of coercion.

The party in opposition to Mr. Lincoln's Administration-most properly designated as the Constitutional party-was composed chiefly of Democrats, but largely interspersed with Whigs of the stamp of Wm. B. Reed of Philadelphia, Robert C. Winthrop of Massachusetts, Reverdy Johnson of Maryland, Wm. B. Crittenden, and the like. In partisan parlance they were called "Copperheads," and they were reinforced in the debates, though generally opposed in the votes, by a class of men who had split away from the Democratic party, called "War Democrats."

It would be difficult to state in precise terms the political doctrines confessedly held by the Black Republican party. After a patient effort we have desisted from the attempt. The more responsible avowals and professions of its leaders cannot be reconciled with the fanatical utterances of its less conspicuous and more active representatives. Its policy as well as its professions were shaped to suit the hour; and changed with evey varying phase of the war. The party was conservative and apologetic in moments of distrust and apprehension; but always ready to overstep the limitations of the Constitution, and to burst through the restraints of law, in seasons of confidence and success. It was as unfaithful to its own promulgated schedules of faith, and programmes of policy, as to the laws of the land. It alike disregarded its oaths of fidelity to the Constitution and pledges of adherence to specific lines of policy. It would, therefore, be quite useless to quote from its several creeds and platforms, to ascertain its principles as a party; for it would be folly to judge of its character by its professions.

In sketching the career of one of the parties of the North, we necessarily present a history of that which constantly opposed it. The immediate subject of our review will, therefore, be the Black Republican party; which had absolute control of the war throughout, and which, in claiming the credit of its results, assumes the responsibility of its transactions.

As composed at the time of the election of Mr. Lincoln, this party was not precisely the same as it had been during the first years of its career. It was a party built up, as we have seen, through many years of effort, upon the agitation against slavery. In the beginning it was despised alike for its weakness in numbers and for its fanaticism. It received its ideas from the Anti-Slavery Society of England, and there is no doubt it was fostered during its early career by pecuniary subsidies from that same organization. After a few years, it began to acquire importance in the political contests of the country, as holding a balance of votes capable of turning the scales in several of the Northern States, where the great parties were nearly equipoised. Although it finally absorbed the great mass of the Northern Whig party, it was characterized in terms of severe reprobation by both Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster. The latter said, with prophetic truth: "If these fanatics and Abolitionists get power into their hands, they will override the Constitution, set the Supreme Court at defiance, change and make laws to suit themselves. Finally, they will bankrupt the country, and deluge it with blood."

Mr. Clay, in describing its purposes, said of it, in words well nigh veri-. fied already: "The ultras go for abolition and amalgamation, and their object is to unite in marriage the laboring white man and the black woman, and to reduce the white laboring man to the despised and degraded condition of the black man."