amount of money.

Congress was willing to do more than the President asked for or even desired. They voted five hundred millions of money and authorized him to call out half a million of men. The financial recommendations of Secretary Chase were adopted and a moderate confiscation act was passed. Congress also legalized all measures taken by the President for the suppression of the rebellion, and labored in all ways to strengthen his hands and encourage his heart. A resolution offered by Senator Crittenden of Kentucky, which was adopted, asserting that the war was forced upon the country by the disunionists of the South; that Congress, with no feeling of resentment, would only recollect its duty to the whole country; that the war is not waged in the spirt of oppression or subjugation or of interfering with the established institutions, but to defend and maintain the Constitution and preserve the Union with all the equality and rights of all the States unimpaired, and that as soon as these objects were accomplished the war would cease. This resolution was adopted with only two dissenting votes. It was received with favor by the loyal citizens of the border States, but with the rebels it was like pouring water on a red-hot iron-a hiss only was returned.

To the disinterested observer it would seem that the apothegm, “ Whom the Gods will to destroy, they first make mad," would apply with peculiar force and significance to the leaders of the rebel conspiracy. They were now standing before the world and in the light of history without a reasonable excuse or apology that would be received as a justification or a vindication before an impartial tribunal. The President, by his christian forbearance, by his acts as well as his words, had said to the rebels: "The Government will not assail you." From the time he uttered those words and took his solemn oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and Government, his words and actions had been pacific. He claimed only that the Union of the States must be preserved and that the laws must be respected and observed, and if a war came to secure this, upon the conspirators and leaders of the rebellion must rest the responsibility for a civil war, with all the terrible train of violence, sorrow and suffering, and the devastation of country and homes which would follow in a war thus inaugurated.

CHAPTER XXI.

CALIFORNIA LOYALTY TO THE UNION.

The position that California would take in the great national struggle for the perpetuity of the Union was to the President, at the outbreak of the rebellion, a matter of much anxiety and solicitude. How far the insidious and seductive proposals of a Pacific republic, or the more unnatural project of a Southern confederation for the propogation of slavery would lead her citizens had yet to be demonstrated. The vote at the Presidential election being nearly equally divided between the three great parties rendered the question a matter of some uncertainty. That there was a strong party in the State hostile to the administration and in sympathy with the South and the rebellion, was as well known at Washington as in the Golden State. And it was also well known that the leaders of that party were in favor of disunion, and were taking measures to carry into effect their nefarious designs in that direction. The loyal citizens fully realized the condition of affairs. They were also apprized that the chief officer of the Federal troops in command on the Pacific Coast was in full sympathy with the seditious sentiments. The President was early apprized of the disloyal sentiments of the commanding officer, and measures were at once taken to relieve him, and place the department in charge of one whose loyalty to the Union was known and undoubted.

Early in March, General Sumner, under instructions from the war department, was ordered to proceed at once by steamer to San Francisco, and immediately on his arrival there, to relieve A. S. Johnson of his command of the department of the Pacific. The sudden arrival of the old general and the prompt and abrupt discharge of his orders was at the time a subject of much comment. The loyal citizens were elated and jubilant, while the disloyal were equally silent and despondent. General Johnson was ordered to report at the headquarters of the military department at Washington, but he chose rather to resign his commission in the army, which he did in May, and made his way through the wilderness of Arizona and New Mexico to join the

Southern confederacy; and in April, 1862, he fell mortally wounded in the battle of Shiloh. The fires of patriotism which had been fanned to a flame in the Atlantic States by the bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumpter, were burning brilliantly and lighting up the valleys and plains of the Golden State. The Union party in California was gathering strength every day. The Douglas Democrats, following the example of their illustrious and patriotic leader, were taking sides for the Union, the Constitution and the enforcement of the laws, and all were anxiously awaiting the State election which was to take place in September. The State was fully canvassed, and the result was that Leland Stanford, Republican candidate for Governor, received 55,935 votes; John Conness, Union Democrat, received 30,954 votes, and J. R. McConnell, secessionist, 32,782 votes. A Legislature was elected nearly Union, as will be seen by the vote for Speaker of the House and for President of the Senate pro tem. A short extract from Governor Stanford's inaugural will indicate the Union sentiment in the State at that period. He said: "Every citizen of California must remember his duty, and in remembering discharge it faithfully. Our fellow citizens are now in the field armed against traitors and treason, and for the preservation of the Union and the national Government. The whole power of the State should, if necessary, be wielded to encourage, support and sustain their patriotic citizens and their compatriots. Let treason meet a just and speedy punishment, and may we soon, as I doubt not we shall, see peace restored to our beloved Union, our institutions more firmly implanted than ever, and sustained by a national sentiment that shall pervade every section of our country." The members of the Legislature elected at the election before mentioned, and the succeeding one, fully represented the Union sentiment in California. The Union Democracy represented by Conness of El Dorado, Higby of Calaveras, Shannon of Plumas, McNabb of Sonoma, Hill of Santa Barbara and others equally loyal to the Union, with the Republicans, February 10, 1863, elected Hon. John Conness United States Senator, he receiving ninety-eight votes; opposition sixteen votes.

This wonderful uprising of the people of California in favor of the Union and the enforcement of the laws of the nation was a subject of exultation and gladness in the loyal States. At the outbreak of the rebellion loyalty was a latent, not an active sentiment in California. Separated from the Atlantic States by magnificent distances and by barriers almost insurmountable, the people on the Pacific shore were in a measure isolated from their Eastern friends, unacquainted with the immediate causes, and had comparatively a limited knowledge of the questions which in the Eastern States so stirred the public mind. The admission of California into the Union as a free State had settled at once and for all time the question of slavery on the shores of the

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Pacific; and consequently, the people felt less interest in the extension of slavery than was manifested by the people of the Western and Atlantic States. In this apparent want of interest and concern in that question, paramount to all others, the people were not wanting in their devotion to the Union, their reverence for the laws and their veneration for the old flag, the national emblem of our country's grandeur and greatness. When the Union was menaced, the flag dishonored and the laws of the nation violated and disregarded, there came a burst of patriotic resentment and love of country which made us an undivided nation. The people were being moved and their patriotism stirred by the loyal eloquence of freedom's champion, Colonel E. D. Baker. From one of his many speeches delivered to interested multitudes in California, we give an extract, a tribute to freedom. He said: Here, then, long years ago I took my stand for freedom, and where in my youth my feet were planted, there my manhood and my age shall march; and for one, I am not ashamed of freedom, I know her power. I rejoice in her majesty. I walk beneath her banner. I glory in her strength. I have seen her again and again struck down on a hundred chosen battlefields. I have seen her friends fly from her. I have seen her foes gather around her. I have seen them bind her to the stake. I have seen them give her ashes to the winds, regathering them again that they might scatter them more widely. But when they turned to exult, I have seen her meet them face to face, clad in complete armor of steel and brandishing in her strong right hand a flaming sword, red with unsufferable light; and therefore, I take courage in the thought that the people have gathered around her once more. The genuis of America will at last lead her sons to freedom." This extract is from his last speech in California, delivered while on his way from Oregon to Washington to battle in the Senate, and to lead the brave sons of New York on the battlefield in defense of freedom which he had so beautifully eulogized.

Again, at a Union mass meeting held in New York, he said: "And if, from the far Pacific, a voice feebler than the feeblest murmur upon its shores may be heard to give you encouragement and hope in the contest, that voice is yours to-day. And if a man, whose hair is gray, who is well worn out in the battle of life, may pledge himself on such an occasion as this and before such an audience, let me say as my last word, that when amid sheeted fire and flame I saw and led the hosts of New York (at the battle of Cerro Gordo) as they charged in contest upon a foreign soil for the honor of your flag, so again, if Providence shall will it, these feeble hands shall draw a sword never yet dishonored-not to fight for distant honor in a foreign land—but to fight for country, home, for law, for Government, for Constitution, for right, for freedom, for humanity, and in hope that the banner of my country may advance, and

wheresoever that banner waves there glory may pursue and freedom be established." These thrilling words of patriotic eloquence of the "Gray Eagle of Republicanism' (a title earned and given in California) will long be remembered by those that heard them.

Three months from that time, at the head of his regiment raised in New York city, he fell in the battle of Ball's Bluff in the defense of freedom, and that flag and country which had honored him so highly and which he loved so well. On the death of Senator Baker, President Lincoln suffered keenly and deeply, as he was an intimate and valued friend. The President said: "The keenest blow of all the war was at an early stage, when the disaster of Ball's Bluff and the death of his beloved Baker smote him like a whirlwind from the desert." He who had so eloquently and loyally represented the Union party and sentiment on the Pacific Coast was borne back on "his shield" to the Pacific shore, his home and the land of his adoption, and the people he loved so well. And as the impressive furneral cortege of the gallant soldier and statesman passed through the silent and solemn streets of San Francisco to Lone Mountain cemetery, the mournful stillness, the solemn sternness which rested on the people indicated the causes which had produced this sorrowful occasion, and told how deeply his memory and the principles for which he gave his life were enshrined in their hearts.

The fires of patriotism and freedom were burning brightly on California's golden shores, when the apostle and advocate of liberty and humanity, Starr King, whose eloquence fanned into a flame more bright and effulgent the loyal patriotic sentiments of the people as they had never been stirred before. He visited different parts of the State, and before large, attentive and interested audiences he kindled anew the fires of patriotism in all places he visited by his patriotic eloquence and unanswerable arguments. He labored with all the energy and powers of his great humane and comprehensive mind for the unity of the republic and the maintenance of its laws. His labors in the cause of the United States sanitary commission were equally earnest and effective. He considered it the most humane and most magnificant scheme of charity the world had ever known, and efficiently labored to advance and promote its success and interests. Here was the opportunity by which the loyal citizens manifested their devotion and love for their country. Long will be remembered his patriotic and eloquent speeches in Platt's Hall, San Francisco, and in other places in the State in behalf of this noble charity, and the loyal liberality of the people in pouring into the lap of this grand commission their hundreds of thousands of golden eagles. The munificent liberality of the citizens of California won the admiration of the loyal States, and the wonder of the civilized world. This noble generosity of the golden States and the firm union stand taken by the California representatives,