on several of these occasions. speech of the 10th of July is noticeable for its unhesitating confidence in the appeal to arms. "I approve," said he, "as a personal and political friend of the President, of every measure of his administration in relation to the rebellion at present raging in this country. I propose to ratify whatever needs ratification. I propose to render my clear and distinct approval not only of the measure, but of the motive which prompted it. I propose to lend the whole power of the country-arms, men, money-and place them in his hands, with authority almost unlimited, until the conclusion of this struggle. He has asked for $400,000,000. We propose to give him $500,000,000. He has asked for 400,000 men. We propose to give him half a million; and for my part, if, as I do not apprehend, the emergency should be still greater, I will cheerfully add a cypher to either of these figures. But, sir, while I do that, I desire, by my word and my vote, to have it clearly understood that I do that as a measure of war. As I had occasion to say, in a very early discussion of this question, I want sudden, bold, forward, determined war; and I not think any-year, loyal States sending members to body can conduct war of that kind as well as a dictator. But, as a Senator, I deem it my duty to look forward to returning peace. I do not believe that it will be longer than next February His people of this country-all its treasure, all its arms, all its blood, all its enthusiasm, kindled, concentrated, poured out into one mass of living valor upon any foe-will conquer." In his concluding remarks he struck upon a vein of thought which might then. have been regarded as a random speculation, but which, in the strange experiences which the country was soon to undergo, became familiar enough as a practical necessity-that of providing an intermediate government for States subjugated by the Union arms. "I believe," said he, "with most gentlemen that the Union sentiment will yet prevail in the southern States. Bayonets are sharp remedies, but they are very powerful. I am one of those who believe that there may be reverses. I am not quite confident that we shall overrun the southern States, as we shall have to overrun them, without severe trials of our courage and our patience. I believe they are a brave, determined people, filled with their enthusiasm, false in its purposes, as I think, but still one which animates almost all classes of their population. But, however that may be, it may be that instead of finding, within a "Till danger's troubled night is o'er, Whether that peace shall be conquered Congress, and replacing their Senators upon this floor, we may have to reduce them to the condition of Territories, and send from Massachusetts or from Illinois Governors to control them. It may be ; and, sir, if need come, I am one of those who would be willing to do it. I would do that. I would risk even the stigma of being despotic and oppressive, rather than risk the perpetuity of the Union of these States. I repeat, and with that repetition I close: fight the war through; accomplish a peace; make it so perfect MILITARY CALCULATIONS. and so permanent that a boy may preserve it; and when you have done that, you have no more need for a standing army. Patch up a peace; if you make it before you are ready; if you imagine them conquered before they really submit; if you treat with rebels and confederate States, you may need a standing army forever; but if you really conquer a peace; if your bayonets gleam in every city in this Union; if you hold them by the strong hand of power; if you tell them, 'Gentlemen, you have been regardless of the great blessings of free government under which you lived and rejoiced for over seventy years; now as you have sought the despotism of arms, we will show you what arms are when you really do that, and break their spirit, when Toombs and Davis are wandering in exite, despised and almost forgotten among men, except by the enormity of their crime, then, sir, you want no standing army." 365 men recognized as men of talent, and they have given them important appointments; but when those men seceded from the Army of the United States they did not take all the talent or all the experience from the army. Far more talent and far more experience were left in the Army of the United States than those gentlemen took away with them. In regard to these appointments generally, men have everywhere been sought who have heretofore served in the army, or who have had a military education. In spite of all our shortcomings-which are great, and I admit them to be greatthe Senator will find, if he consults men who know very well the condition of the confederates in the field, that they have men of inexperience; men of as little experience in regard to field duties as can be found in the regiments that have been raised to support the Government of the country. The truth is, that, in bringing into the field-as we have today-two hundred and forty-odd thousand men, brought in in less than ninety days, we must necessarily have a great many men of inexperience; but in spite of that, and of the suddenness of this movement, we have many men of a great deal of experience and ability; and there never was a time in the history of the country when men of talent, men of culture, men of experience, men of fortune, men who have mastered all that could be mastered in the colleges and institutions of learning of the country, are seeking, as they are now seeking, admission into the army. There are today pending before the War Office many As the time rapidly approached, the memorable trial of arms between the two divided portions of the country in the fatal day at Manassas, it is curious to note the speculations of prominent members in reference to the military conditions of the war. On the 13th of July Senator Wilson of Massachusetts, in a discussion on the appointments for the army, said, "The Senator (Mr. Nesmith of Oregon) talks about the policy of the Southern confederacy. I say to that Senator that there is no comparison whatever between the officers of the Southern confederacy and the officers now in the service of this Government. They cannot compare a moment in talent or ex-hundreds, and I may say many thousands, perience. They have some ten or a dozen officers formerly of the Army of the United States who are men of talent, of applications; I have seen it estimated as high as seven thousand. I know that from my own State, where men generally have avoided seeking the army, we have from one to two hundred men who are asking for admissions; who would take a second lieutenant's commission and rejoice over it; some of them men who are distinguished for their scholarship, for their attainments, for personal character; men who do not go into the army for any other purpose than to serve the country; men who have fortunes of hundreds of thousands of dollars to live upon. Why, sir, some gentlemen of that kind have been appointed; men who do not go in the army for pay, but who go into it because they want to serve the country in this great crisis; and they prefer to go into the army rather than to go into the volunteers; and I must confess, myself, that I sympathize in that; for, if I had to be pressed into the service, I would rather go into the army and serve five years than into the volunteers and serve three years, at the same pay, for the comforts of life, for safety, for everything connected with a soldier." Two days after, on the eve of the advance of the Army of the Potomac, Senator Dixon of Connecticut seconded the demand for action, and glancing into the future saw all obstacles rapidly yielding to the one indomitable principle of the territorial integrity of the Union. "Men and money," said he, "in any number and to any amount it is our business to grant to the Administration. That being done no halting, no delay, no thought of peace, till the supremacy of the Government of the United States shall be an acknowledged fact throughout our entire domain. I rejoice at the signs which indicate early and energetic action on the part of the Government; for of all things, in my judgment, delay is most to be dreaded. Temporary defeat may not be fatal; but the slow canker of tardy inaction will rust into the very heart and spirit of the people. This war is to them a serious and costly business. They demand that it be short, decisive, terrific and overwhelming; and if in any quarter they are thwarted of this purpose, their indignation will be proportioned to their disappointment. The events of the day are marked by rapidity of movement. At the commencement of the last session of Congress, little more than six months ago, the great rebellion which has now reached its height, involving no less than eleven States, was only threatened. To-day, whatever may be its continuance in point of time, we may feel assured that, if the popular will shall be carried into execution, it is already more than half suppressed. That it cannot, if properly treated, grow from a rebellion into a successful revolution, is already decided. Its end is certain, though its length of duration may be uncertain. The United States of America are to remain one nation. The territorial integrity of the Union is to be preserved inviolate. This is what the people of the United States mean by the immense sacrifices they are now making this and nothing less. Whatever stands in the way of this, whether it be a political creed or a vested right, whether it be democracy or slavery, must go down and perish. And this is true, not merely because twenty millions of people have so determined, but because, in the nature of things, a great nation like this cannot be overthrown and destroyed, without, in its dying struggles, if die it must, overwhelming all the institutions created by its laws in a common ruin. How, then, can the peculiar institution ADVANCE OF THE ARMY. 367 of the South escape destruction, when Yet, in utter blindness to this obvious it shall be found to stand in the way of idea, the maddened South is rushing the preservation of the Government? upon its fate." CHAPTER XXV. THE MOVEMENT TOWARD MANASSAS. At the beginning of July, six weeks to believe in its realities till they were after the first formal entrance of the na- forced upon their attention at the point tional army upon the soil of Virginia, of the bayonet. "Fearing no evil bethere were indications at Washington cause they meant none," they made no and the camps in its vicinity of the ex- preparation for a struggle for which their pected grand attack upon the enemy, assailants, strong in their inveterate purand loudly called for advance toward pose of alienation, were fully equipping the seat of the rebel government at themselves; and when the conflict was Richmond. It was one of the striking commenced it seemed an easy matter, circumstances of this early period of the in the name of Justice and Freedom, to war that all its movements were watched overcome an enemy pronounced essenwith a jealous impatience, and a demand tially weak in the utter unreasonablefor immediate action quite dispropor- ness and futility of his cause. When it tioned to the means and opportunities was understood, therefore, that the safety for preparation. If it had been simply of the capital was provided for, and that a border foray which had been deter- an army of fifty thousand men was gathmined upon, the issue of which would ered at Washington, the cry was urgent have decided the questions at stake, the that they should be at once led against cagerness of the public would have been the enemy. This must be a short war, better justified; but they had yet to learn, said the politicians and moneyed men notwithstanding the alarming symptoms who would avoid the hazard to their which had shown themselves, the enor- cause and the public welfare of its gimous magnitude of the rebellion, and the gantic expenses. The statesmen also necessity of taking corresponding means felt the importance of bringing to a for its suppression. It was only by slow speedy termination a struggle which in degrees that the majority of the people its interruption of the commerce of the at the North could be brought to contem-world was fast endangering the peace of plate the real nature and spirit of the the nation with foreign countries. Strike great conspiracy suddenly attacking the a prompt and decisive blow at the rebelnational Constitution and liberties. Ac- lion, or it will gain its ends simply by customed to freedom of debate and the time, was the advice of disinterested license of electioneering oratory, they spectators of the position. These and had grown indifferent to the language other general considerations of the kind of treason, and could hardly be brought were now enforced with additional spirit by the northern and western representa- and vigorous policy. One member of the tives who had just assembled at Washington, in the extra session of Congress which had met at the call of the President on the day of Independence. The army authorities might have hesitated, but they also felt the necessity for action, and there was moreover a special motive for an immediate movement, in the near approach of the expiration of the term of service of the three months militia who had been first called into the field. So an advance with a view to an engagement was resolved upon. Cabinet has publicly declared that General Scott is utterly incompetent to the conduct of the war-that he never was a soldier-that he blundered all through the Mexican war, and is about to close his career by compromising the honor and welfare of the country now. All this sounds incredible. But it is actually true, and shows to what a degree men's judgments have been warped by the startling events of the day, and how far passion and zeal will lead to the most cruel injustice. There is not a man on An acute observer at Washington at this continent more anxious to sustain this period, the Hon. Henry J. Ray- the authority of the Government and mond, in his editorial correspondence crush this rebellion, thoroughly and forwith the New York Times, has given ever, than General Scott; not one more us a vivid picture of the motives and in-hostile to every attempt at compromise, fluences, the doubts, the difficulties and or more fertile in suggestions for efficient necessities by which the Administration and the War Department were hampered and controlled. Writing from the capital on the 14th of July, on the eve of the advance of the Army of the Potomac, he says, "The whole country is impatient for a vigorous prosecution of the war. This impatience finds vent in all the leading public journals, and is fully shared by Congress. In some quarters it takes the shape of direct and bitter censure of the Administration, or some influential member of it, who is supposed to be responsible for the tardy progress of events. There are plenty of men who declare, and a few, doubtless, who believe, that Mr. Seward still cherishes the hope of compromising our present difficulties, and is using all his influence to retard the progress of our armies with a view to that end. Others are confident that the President does not comprehend the real nature of the crisis which is upon the country, or the necessity of a prompt action, than Mr. Seward; nor one who more thoroughly understands the wide sweep of the issues involved, and the deadly nature of the warfare waged upon the American Republic, than President Lincoln. The Administration has no reason to complain of the impatience of the people, but it has a right to ask that it shall not prompt to rash or uncharitable accusations. They assert that the movement of the main army is quite as rapid as consists with its safety, and that it is much better to advance slowly, holding every foot of ground once occupied, than to push on recklessly, and be compelled, even in a single instance, to retrace its steps. Probably this is true. But it must be borne in mind that public sentiment is a powerful element of strength in this war-that it must be secured and kept in full vigor even at some expense of scientific routine, and that the present temper of our people demands swift and sudden blows-a bold and dashing poli |