while the capture and defense of Washington, which was the gage of battle, was not won by the South. Had the Union forces inflicted a crushing defeat upon the Confederates, a truce probably would have been brought about, and some more compromises agreed upon, to have put off the final settlement of the great issue for another generation or two, and then with what hope of getting rid of slavery and at the same time of preserving the Union. As it was, it made the South more self-confident and arrogant than ever, and no arrangement was to be thought of which did not give slavery all the privileges of freedom everywhere, and change this from a free republic to a slave republic. Then the idea of so many at the North, that "in three months or sooner," the conflict would end, was shown to be a delusion, while the South were made so confident of their final success, the North found that if their republic was to be preserved it must be by a patriotism and by sacrifices such as they had not yet dreamed of. We can see now that we were all under higher tutelage than our own wisdom, or any human statesmanship, and that God was leading us in this dreary way to the land of peacepermanent peace.

The extra Congress was in session when the battle of Bull Run was fought. And this body, instead of taking counsel of their fears, or of the fears of others, rose with heroic spirit and wonderful unanimity to the height of their great enterprise, and led the way which proved to be the right one, and which the nation bravely followed. Though the Secession States were no longer represented, there were enough left who sympathized with the South, or were opposed to coercion, or were afraid that slavery would be harmed, to throw every obstruction in the way of any vigorous prosecution of the war.

The resolution in the Senate expelling from that body Messrs. Mason, Clingman, Wigfall and others, who were openly attempting the overthrow of the government, was vigorously resisted. An attempt was made to attach to the Army Appropriation bill the proviso, "that no part of the money hereby appropriated shall be employed in subjugating or holding as a conquered province any sovereign State now or lately one of the United States, nor in abolishing or interfering with African slavery in any of the States." Resolutions were offered condemning as unconstitutional the increase of the army, the blockade of the Southern ports, the seizure of telegraphic dispatches, the arrest of persons suspected of treason. As had been the case in the House in the instance just referred to, so in the Senate on the occasion of the bill for the reorganization of the army, an amendment was proposed "that the army and navy should not be employed for the purpose of subjugating any State, or reducing it to the condition of a territory or province, or to abolish slavery therein." This was by Mr. Breckinridge, recently vice-president of the United States, and shortly to be a general in the Confederate service. When the bill freeing slaves who had been used in aid of the insurrection was before the Senate, it met with earnest opposition because "it will inflame suspicions which have had much to do with producing our present evils; it will disturb those who are now calm and quiet, inflame those who are restless, irritate numbers who would not be exasperated by anything else, and will in all probability have no other effect than this. It is therefore useless, unnecessary, irritating, unwise."-Draper's "Civil War," Vol. II, p. 184.

In spite of all such obstructionists, and as putting an end forever to all further attempts to give rebels the rights and privileges of loyal citizens, Mr. McClernand, a Democrat of Illinois, offered this resolution in the House of Representatives: "This House hereby pledges itself to vote for any amount of money and any number of men which may be necessary to insure a speedy and effectual suppression of the rebellion, and the permanent restoration of the Federal authority everywhere within the limits and jurisdiction of the United States, "-which was passed by a vote of 121 to five. The spirit of the Senate was represented by Senator Baker, the patriotic and brilliant representative of California, who fell a few weeks later at Ball's Bluff, when he said: "I propose to put the whole

power of this country, arms, men and money, into the hands of the President. He has asked for $400,000,000; we will give him $500,000,000. He has asked for 400,000 men; we will give him 500,000"-which was done. The work of the special sessions is thus summed up in "Draper's History of Our Civil War"

After a session of thirty-three days Congress had accomplished its work. It had approved and legalized the acts and orders of the President; it had authorized him to accept half a million of volunteers; it had added eleven regiments to the regular army; it had raised the pay of the soldier to thirteen dollars a month, with a bounty of one hundred acres of land at the close of the war; it had authorized the building and arming of as many ships as might be found requisite; it had appointed a committee to take charge of the construction of ironclads and floating batteries; it had facilitated the importing of arms from abroad by the loyal States; voted $10,000,000 for the purchase of arms, and undertaken to indemnify the States for all expenses they might incur in raising, paying, subsisting and transporting troops; it had authorized the President to close the ports of entry at his discretion; to declare any community to be in a state of insurrection and to prohibit commercial intercourse with it; it had provided that, after proclamation by him, all property used or intended to be used in aid of the insurrection should be seized and confiscated, and especially if the owner of any slave should require or permit such slave to be in any way employed in military or naval service against the United States, all claim to him or his services should be forfeited by such owner; it had appropriated $227,938,000 for the army and $42,938,000 for the navy, and it had made provision for these appropriations by imports and taxation, and authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to borrow $250,000,000.

With a firmness which recalls the action of the Roman senate, on the day after the disastrous battle of Bull Run, while the demoralized wreck of the national army was filling the streets of Washington, and the victorious Confederate troops were momentarily expected, the House of Representatives resolved "that the maintenance of the Constitution, the preservation of the Union, and the enforcement of the laws are sacred trusts which must be executed; that no disaster shall discourage us from the most ample performance of this high duty; and that we pledge to the country and the world the employment of every resource, national and individual, for the suppression, overthrow and punishment of rebels in arms. A few days later (July 29) the Senate passed a resolution to the same effect.

This must always seem the noblest position a people ever took, or could have taken under the circumstances. With the general government so nearly broken down, and so many, even at the North, opposed to using force to uphold it and prevent secession; with the preparation of the South to secede if Mr. Lincoln were elected, as he was, upon an anti-slavery platform; with the North stripped of arms, the treasury robbed, the fortifications and munitions of war and navy yards either seized or destroyed, our army reduced to next to nothing, the best part of our navy scattered over the world where it could not be used when needed; when the war was inaugurated and Sumter assaulted and taken, and the first well-organized battle proved a disastrous defeat, and the very capital of the nation was in danger of destruction; then to have sat in that Capitol building, as Congress did for a month, within hearing as it were of the enemy's cannon, and inhaling the very smoke of the battlefield, and resolving as a body, come what might, to maintain the government and the Union, and laying out such wise and broad legislation to effect this object, was more than Roman firmness, noble as that was, in merely sitting still to face the inevitable.

CHAPTER XI.

AFTER THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN..

Governor Buckingham Authorized to Raise More Troops—Volunteering Checked by Distrust of the Conduct of the War and the Influence of the "Peace Democrats "-The Magnificent Troops that Volunteered in Spite of all such Influence-Character and Destination of the Regiments-The First Heavy Artillery and the First Light Battery.

The battle of Bull Run put a new aspect upon the war, both at the North and at the South. It put an end at the North to the idea that the war would be over in sixty or ninety days; it put a stop to the senseless cry, "On to Richmond!" before we had any properly organized army, or suitable commander. It satisfied the North that the South meant not only to threaten but to fight, and had long been preparing for it, and was in possession of resources which, in addition to the sympathy they had at the North, and the co-operation they might expect from abroad, threatened no ordinary war. The effect also upon the South of success in their first battle, was to give them exaggerated ideas of their own martial qualities, disparage the principle, spirit, and resources of the North, and make them strongly confident of success in such a desperate undertaking. They would capture Washington; they would invade the Northern States; foreign nations would now recognize the Confederacy; the blockade would be broken; their new slave empire would be established with unlimited development toward Mexico and South America;-so the dream of the South for more than a generation would be realized. Such was the influence of that battle. But