CHAPTER XXVIII.

COST OF THE WAR-LINCOLN'S "POLICY"-HIS ASSASSINATION FUNERAL-THE GRIEF OF THE PEOPLE.

NUMBER OF TROOPS FURNISHED BY THE SEVERAL STATES-COST IN MEN AND MONEY OF THE WAR-COLORED TROOPS-LINCOLN'S "POLICY"-HIS VIEWS OF THE POWERS OF CONGRESS OVER THE REBELLIOUS STATES-NO RIGHT TO VOTE IN THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE-LOYALTY SHOULD BE THE BASIS OF RECONSTRUCTION

LINCOLN'S VIEWS OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE-FAITH MUST BE KEPT WITH THE NEGRO RACE THE ASSASSINATION -FUNERALNATIONAL GRIEF.

THE

HE military power of the rebellion was now crushed. Looking over the Republic from North to South, from East to West, it is difficult to realize fully the immense cost of this slaveholders' war. A great price, a terrible retribution had been visited upon the people, for the existence of slavery. Perhaps it is not extravagant to say, in the language of Mr. Lincoln's second inaugural, that "the war had continued, until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil had been sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash had been paid by another drawn with the sword."

With the war, the cause of the war disappeared. Some few dry statistics and considerations, will aid in the realization of the magnitude of the conflict. The population of the twenty-three loyal States, and which, during the war, constituted the United States, was 22,046,472. This includes Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland, which furnished soldiers for the armies on both sides, and which had a population of

3,025,745; and, also, California and Oregon, on the Pacific, and so distant from the scene of conflict, that they contributed comparatively few men, leaving a population from which the soldiers were mainly taken, at 18,588,268. The population of the eleven seceding States was 9,103,333. The war was mainly fought by American citizens, although there were some German and Irish regiments, and many of Irish, German, Norwegian, and other nationalities, in the ranks of the regiments made up mainly of American birth. There was no large accession to the population by emigration during the war. The number of emigrants in 1860 was 153,000, and it decreased during the first two years of the war; and the increase in 1863 and 1864 was to fill up the vacancies in the ranks of laborers. The emigrant was not enroled, nor drafted into the military service. The whole numler of Union soldiers mustered into service during the war, vas 2,690,401-fourteen and a half per cent. of the whole population.* The number of deaths in battle, and

*The folowing table shows the number of troops furnished by each State, as reported to Congress by the War Department:

from wounds, was 96,089; from disease, 184,331; total, 280,420, or about ten and a half per cent. This is according to the records of the War Department. The actual number is a little higher. Fifty-seven Generals died during the war; thirty-seven of them in battle or from wounds; twenty from disease. The cost of the war to the United States was $3,098,233,078. The States expended in bounties, &c., as estimated by committee of Congress, $500,000,000.

The call for troops made by the President in all amounted to 2,042,748, and the numbered obtained was 2,690,401.*

The whole number of colored troops enlisted into the military service during the war, was 178,975, and the losses these troops sustained during that period by sickress, wounds, killed in battle, and other casualties incident to war, was 68,178. The aggregate of colored population in the United States in 1860, was 4,449,201, of which 3,90,531 were slaves. Under all the circumstances, the colored race furnished a fair proportion of soldiers.

It is certain, considering the desperate and despotic means resorted to by the Confederates to fill up the armies of the rebellion, that a much larger proportion of the people were forced into the military service, in the rebel, than in the loyal States. The number of rebel troops finally surrendered, was in round numbers, 175,000. The rumber of

*The following table shows the date of the several calls for troops by the President, the number required at each call, the period of service, and the number obtained. The table is compiled from data in the War Departmen:

280,420 died in battle or hospital; 22,281 officers resigned; privates not allowed to resign.

+ Census of 1860, p. 595.

prisoners in the hands of the National authorities, during the last year of the war, was 98,802. These were all sent to their homes by the United States.

The theatre of war was in the rebellious States. Their cities were besieged and captured; their territory desolated, and their people suffered all the evils of war at their own homes. The heroism of the Confederates was worthy of men who fought for liberty instead of slavery. The defence of Richmond required four years of fighting, and in all 700,000 men, before it was captured. In what modern war, has any fortress, city, or capital, made a defense more heroic, and persistent?

This gigantic contest has been carried through to final success by a people previously absorbed in trade, and agriculture, and charged to have been enervated by wealth and prosperity. The American people, great in the war, were greater in their forbearance in the hour of victory. The supremacy of the law, of the civil power, had never been disregarded. The Republic comes out of the conflict with no security of civil liberty encroached upon, none of the guaranties of Magna Charta, and the Constitution broken down. No military commander ever dreamed of subverting the supreme civil authority. The greatest captain of the war, rebuked those who urged him to be a candidate for the Presidency against Lincoln. All, military men not less than civilians, have recognized in the law and the Constitution, the sovereign of the Union. Even when the assassin struck down the Chief Magistrate, and it was known that conspirators were at the capital, seeking to destroy the high officials, the machinery of the Government went on without a jar; the Constitution and the laws were still supreme. The people exhibited as much moderation and humanity, as courage and persistence. The hour of victory, under the inspiration of Lincoln, was not the hour of vengeance, but of forgiveness. The war carried on by the Republic against slavery and rebellion, was a Christian war, conducted upon principles of Christian civilization.

It is this combination of martial and civic virtues, which inspire hopes that the people will be equal to the great duties

yet before them, and by the exhibition of which they have compelled their recognition by the candid world, as one of the great peoples of modern times.

And now came the grave and difficult work of building up the shattered fragments of the Republic; the broken columns of the temple must be reconstructed, with their foundations resting firmly upon liberty. To this work of reconstruction Mr. Lincoln now addressed himself. He was no theorist, but a practical statesman, looking ever to the wisest means, to secure the end. In justice to him, it must ever be borne in mind that he lived less than ten days after the surrender of Lee; not long enough to construct a policy. Much has been said in regard to his views on this subject, by his successor, and those who follow him. They have attempted to shield the "Johnson policy" so emphatically condemned by the loyal people of the United States, under the great name of Lincoln.

Let us see what are the facts. The efforts of Mr. Lincoln to restore certain rebellious States to their former relations to the Union, were made in the midst of war, when he was seeking, by every possible means, to detach those States from the rebellion, and was anxious to secure the moral influence of the return to the Union of a former slaveholding and rebellious State, emancipated and loyal. He had not time before his death to develope any settled policy in regard to what securities and guarantees the safety of the Republic might require, before restoring to power, those who had sought its overthrow. Philosophers and thinkers had speculated and written upon the subject, but Mr. Lincoln, as a statesman, a man of affairs, had not committed himself, because the subject had but just come before him as a practical question, at the time of his death. Yet it is interesting and instructive to learn his views as far as developed, and the indications of what his policy would have been had he lived; and at the hazard of repetition, I will recall his acts and declarations heretofore mentioned in this volume, and add such others as are within my knowledge, that the people may have before them the means of forming an intelligent judgment on the subject.