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The political advantage to the North.

(2.) The object of the national government in its of fensive movement was so to use its threemonths' militia before the expiration of their term as to paralyze the enemy's force at Manassas, and relieve Washington of all danger from them. Events showed that, though its army suffered defeat on the field of Bull Run, the political intention was secured. A blow so staggering was dealt at the Confederate force, that, as its commanding general declares, it was found to be wholly unable to undertake any thing serious against the city.

The military tri

South.

If, then, the South had reason to be vain of her vic tory, the more grave and reflective North umph was to the might also congratulate herself on a substantial result. Fortune, who, as the Romans used to say, directs all the affairs of men, divided in this instance her favors, giving to one the military, to the other the political advantage.

From this time the Mexicanization of the republic ceased to be possible. The Civil War presented another phase.

SECTION VIII.

VAST DEVELOPMENT OF THE WARLIKE OPERATIONS. CORRESPONDING LEGISLATIVE AND MILITARY PREPARATIONS.

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CHAPTER XLI.

OF THE FORM ASSUMED BY THE WAR.

From the beginning of the war the South was forced to take the defensive. The chief offensive operations on the part of the National Government at this time were of three kinds :

1st. A blockade of the Southern sea and land frontier; the recapture of the seacoast forts; and the restoration of the authority of the republic in New Orleans. 2d. Expeditions in the rear of the Mississippi for the opening of that river; breaking the Memphis and Charleston Railroad; and having in view the strategic point Chattanooga.

3d. Operations in contemplation of the capture of Richmond, and the destruction of the army defending it.

FROM the history of the Conspiracy which culminated in the Southern victory at Bull Run, we have now to turn to the details of the sec

The second phase of the war.

ond phase of the war.

To the tumultuary rush of brave but inexperienced levies the deliberate movement of powerful armies succeeds. I have now to describe how great military and naval forces were brought into existence, and the manner in which they were used.

In this section there are five points presented for consideration: (1.) The form assumed by the war; (2.) The legislative measures of the Confederate Congress; (3.) Those of the national Congress; (4.) The creation of the national army; (5.) The creation of the national navy. To cach of these I shall devote a chapter.

"Let us alone!"

South.

That was the passionate cry of the people of the South The demand of the the insincere demand of their authorities. It had become clear that Washington could neither be seized by a band of conspirators, nor captured by an army such as could then be brought into the field. After her overthrow at Bull Run the republic was stun ned for a moment, but it was only for a moment. Any observer of what she forthwith prepared to do might be satisfied that it was no longer a battle, but a war that was at hand.

Davis.

While the Confederate troops were commencing their The protestations of movement toward Manassas, the President of the Confederacy, in a message to his Congress, declared: "We feel that our cause is just and holy. We protest solemnly, in the face of mankind, that we desire peace at any sacrifice save that of honor. In independence we seek no conquest, no aggrandizement, no cession of any kind from the states with which we have lately confederated. All we ask is to be let alone."

But Davis and his co-laborers for many months past— Report of the Com- as was declared by the national Congresmittee of Congress sional Committee on the Conduct of the War-"had been actively and openly making preparations to defy the jurisdiction of the government, and resist its authority. They had usurped the control of the machinery of one state government after another, and had overawed the loyal people of those states. They had even so far control of the national government itself as to make it not only acquiesce for the time being in measures for its own destruction, but to contribute to that end. They had seized its arms and munitions of war. They had that the South is not scattered and demoralized its army. They had sent its navy to the most distant parts of the world. They had put treason in the executive

unoffending,

CHAP. XLI.] REPORT OF CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE.

but has done what

war,

133

mansion, treason in the cabinet, treason in the Senate and House of Representatives, treason in the army and navy, treason in every department, bureau, and office. They had taken possession, almost without resistance, of every fort and harbor on their sea-coast, Fort Pickens at Pensacola, and the isolated fortifications and it could to provoke harbors of Tortugas and Key West, being the only exceptions. They were masters of the territory of the revolted states, much of which had been purchased with the national money, and for part of which the nation still remained in debt-a debt which they rejected. Dépôts, arsenals, fortifications had been seized by them. A speedy march upon the capital, a speedy overthrow of the legal government, a speedy submission of a people too pusillanimous to maintain its rights, and a speedy subjection of the whole country to their assumptions, were their expectations."

and had even commenced it.

Such was the accusation brought against them in the Congress of the nation. It denied that they were an oppressed, a much-enduring, an innocent people. It declared that they had themselves initiated war, and had made resistance not only necessary, but unavoidable. Government does not mean influenceit means force; a government which has neither the resolution nor the power to prevent itself being assassinated has no right to live.

The North is com

So thought the free North. She foresaw that the partition of the republic meant the end of all pelled to resist. representative government on this continent. It meant a cordon of custom-houses on the boundary-line, and, more than that, vast standing armies. If friends could not make laws without their being nullified, could aliens make treaties without their being broken? The history of the republic had demonstrated that the power, in the necessities of its existence, was essen

slave

The slave power essentially aggress

ive.

tially aggressive; to invigorate it would not deprive it of that quality. Self-preservation compelled the North to resist. She saw that every thing she prized was at stake. Peace based upon partition was, in the very nature of things, illusory. In the former and happier days of the Union, nothing had given rise to more bitterness of feeling than the escape and non-restoration of fugitive slaves. Across the separating line of the two nations would they cease to flee? and was it to be supposed that they would ever be returned? But if not-what then? Very clearly the condition of the slave power in America was this-it must either dominate all over the continent or die. But in the clamor, "Let us alone," there was something deeply connected with the topic which has to be considered in this, chapter-the form of the war. It needed but little penetration to perceive that the South had already intuitively discovered her inevitable position in the coming contest. Whatever her wishes, her passions might be, in the momentous conflict she had provoked she was compelled to take the defensive.

The South, from the beginning, on the defensive.

It is the autumn after Bull Run. Let us scale, in any View of the interior place that we may, the rampart of the Borof the Confederacy. der States, and peer into the recesses of the Confederacy beyond. Confederacy of states! is that what we see? Are there governors, and Senates, and Houses of Representatives enacting and executing independent laws? No! but sitting in Richmond there is one man who is holding the telegraphs and railroads. Along the former he is sending forth his mandates which no one A despotism is al- may disobey; along the latter he is drawing ready inaugurated. from places near or distant their reluctant men and bounteous means. The aristocracy that lords it

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