APPEAL OF JEFFERSON DAVIS.

known, when giving them his views, that it was out of the power of the Confederate Government to act on the subject of the domestic institutions of the several States, cach State having exclusive jurisdiction on that point, still less to commit the decision of such a question to the vote of a foreign people; that the separation of the States was an accomplished fact; that he had no authority to receive proposals for negotiations except by virtue of his office as President of an independent Confederacy, and on this basis alone must proposals be made to him." The result was that the travellers returned the next day to the Union lines with the full impression that the government at Richmond would receive proposals for peace only on the basis of the recognition of their independence. As this had often been avowed before by the rebel authorities, and was, in fact, a necessity of their position, the issue before the country was stripped of all possible ambiguity. The war must be maintained or the Union abandoned.

483

als of its patrons and supporters, of the
worse than
than Egyptian bondage that
awaits them in the event of their sub-
jugation."

This confidence in the Confederate resources seemed, indeed, to be somewhat impaired, if we may judge from the language and temper of a speech delivered a few months later, in September, after the fall of Atlanta, by President Jefferson Davis at Macon, Georgia, while on a visit to the Southern States; but new efforts were made, though the old strength was palpably diminished. Governor Brown of Georgia, had just withdrawn the militia of the State from Hood's army. "What, though misfortune," said Davis, "has befallen our arms from Decatur to Jonesboro, our cause is not lost. Sherman cannot keep up his long line of communication and retreat. Sooner or later he must fall back, and when that day comes, the fate that befel the army of the French Empire in its retreat from Moscow will be reacted. Our cavalry and our people will harIt needed no indirect communications ass and destroy his army as did the with Richmond to ascertain this. The Cossacks that of Napoleon; and the resolve of the Confederates to fight on Yankee General, like him, will escape till their Independence should be se- with only a body-guard. How can this cured had been persistently declared. be the most speedily effected? By the It had been set forth in a studied mani- absentees of Hood's army returning to festo of the rebel Congress in June, in their posts; and will they not? Can which, while deprecating the horrors they see the banished exiles; can they and responsibilities of the war, and hear the wail of their suffering countryprofessing a desire for peace, that body women and children, and not come? asserted its right and determination to By what influence they are made to maintain the liberties which it assumed stay away it is not necessary to speak. to be invaded. 'For ourselves," said If there is one who will stay away at they, "we have no fear for the result. this hour, he is unworthy the name of The wildest pictures ever drawn of a Georgian. To the women no appeal is disordered imagination, comes short of necessary. They are like the Spartan the extravagance which could dream of mothers of old. I know of one who the conquest of eight millions of people, has lost all her sons, except one of eight resolved with one mind to die free-years. She wrote that she wanted me men rather than to live slaves,' and to reserve a place for him in the ranks. forewarned by the savage and extermi- The venerable General Polk, to whom nating spirit in which this war has been I read the letter, knew that woman waged upon them, and by the mad avow- well, and said it was characteristic of

*

* *

*

her; but I will not weary you by turn- If an exchange could be effected, I don't ing aside to relate the various incidents know but that I might be induced to of giving up the last son to the cause recognize Butler. But in the future, of our country, known to me. Wher- every effort will be given, as far as ever we go we find the hearts and possible, to effect the end. We want hands of our noble women enlisted. our soldiers in the field, and we want They are seen wherever the eye may the sick and wounded to return home. fall or the step turn. They have one It is not proper for me to speak of the duty to perform; to buoy up the hearts number of men in the field, but this I of the people. I know the deep dis- will say, that two-thirds of our men are grace felt by Georgia at our army fall- absent, some sick, some wounded, but ing back from Dalton to the interior of most of them absent without leave. our State. But I was not of those who. * If one half of the men now considered Atlanta lost when our army absent without leave will return to duty, crossed the Chattahoochee. I resolved we can defeat the enemy. With that that it should not, and then I put a man hope I am going to the front. I may in command who I knew would strike not realize this hope, but I know there a manly blow for the city, and many are men there who have looked death a Yankee's blood was made to nourish in the face too often to despond now. the soil before the prize was won. It Let no one despond. Let no one disdoes not become us to revert to disas- trust and remember that if genius is the ter. Let the dead bury the dead. Let beau ideal, hope is the reality." us, with one arm and one effort, endeavor to crush Sherman. You have not many men between eighteen and forty-five left. The boys, God bless the boys, are, as rapidly as they become old enough, going to the field. The city of Macon is filled with stores, sick and wounded. It must not be abandoned when threatened, but when the enemy come, instead of calling upon Hood's army for defence, the old men must fight, and when the enemy is driven beyond Chattanooga, they too can join in the general rejoicing. Your prisoners are kept as a sort of Yankee capital. I have heard that one of their Generals said, that their exchange would defeat Sherman. I have tried every means, conceded every thing to effect an exchange, but to no purpose. Butler, the beast, with whom no Commissioner of Exchange would hold intercourse, had published in the newspapers that if we would consent to the exchange of negroes, all difficulties might be removed. This is reported as an effort of his to get himself whitewashed by holding intercourse with gentlemen.

In his Annual Message to the Confederate Congress at Richmond, in November, President Davis reviewed the situation more calmly. He claimed various successes in Louisiana and Texas, and the recovery of extensive districts of Territory to the East of the Mississippi. "The army of General Sherman," he said, "although succeeding at the end of the summer in obtaining possession of Atlanta, has been unable to secure any ultimate advantage from this success." The result, he said, would not have been different if Richmond also had been evacuated. "The Confederacy would have remained as erect and defiant as ever. Nothing could have been changed in the purpose of its Government, in the indomitable valor of its troops, or in the unquenchable spirit of its people. The baffled and disappointed foe would in vain have scanned the reports of your proceedings, at some new Legislative seat, for any indication that progress had been made in his gigantic task of conquering a free people. The truth so patent to us must, ere long, be forced

EMPLOYMENT OF SLAVES.

the negro, and forms so powerful an incentive to his action. The policy of engaging to liberate the negro on his discharge after service faithfully rendered, seems to me preferable to that of granting immediate manumission, or that of retaining him in servitude. If this policy should recommend itself to the judgment of Congress, it is suggested that, in addition to the duties heretofore performed by the slave, he might be advantageously employed as a pioneer and engineer laborer; and, in that event, that the number should be augmented to forty thousand."

Of the general arming of the slaves, which was now being freely discussed in the Confederacy, he said, "The subject is to be viewed by us, therefore,

solely in the light of policy and our social economy. When so regarded, must dissent from those who advise a general levy and arming of the slaves for the duty of soldiers. Until our white population shall prove insufficient for the armies we require, and can afford to keep in the field, to employ as a soldier, the negro who has merely been trained to labor, and as a laborer, the white man, accustomed from his youth to the use of fire-arms, would scarcely be deemed wise or advantageous by any; and this is the question now before us. But should the alternative ever be presented, of a subjugation or of the employment of the slave, as a soldier, there seems no reason to doubt what should then be our decision "

CHAPTER CVIII.

NATIONAL AFFAIRS TO CLOSE OF 1864. - CONTINUED.

SEVERAL important changes in the Mr. Fessenden, a native of New HampCabinet occurred during the year. At shire, now at the age of fifty-eight, had the end of June, Salmon P. Chase, Sec- early settled as a lawyer in Portland, retary of the Treasury, tendered his re- Maine, where he had acquired a high signation of his office to the President, reputation in his profession. After by whom it was promptly accepted. serving in the State Legislature, he had The immediate cause of this proceeding been sent to Congress, and since 1854 was stated to be a conflict of opinion be- had been a member of the Senate. His tween the President and Mr. Chase in nomination was at once ratified by his reference to appointments to office in the associates in that body, while it was reTreasury Department; but other unex- ceived with satisfaction by the country. plained motives doubtless entered into Mr. Fessenden, who had given a cordial the affair. The President immediately support to the financial measures of Secsent in a message to the Senate, then in retary Chase, upon entering on his new session, nominating David Tod, the re- office pursued the policy of his predecent Governor of Ohio, to the office. cessor with judgment and discretion. Before this nomination was acted upon Indispensable new loans were regulated Mr. Tod declined to accept the appoint- according to the exigency of the moment ment, which was presently conferred with due regard to the interests of the upon the Hon. William Pitt Fessenden, State, and the public credit was, as far a member of the United States Senate, as possible, maintained by avoiding an and holding the important position of expansion of the popular currency. In Chairman of its Finance Committee. giving notice of the readiness of the

DEATH OF CHIEF JUSTICE TANEY.

487

Treasury Department to receive sub- all the material elements of power. It scriptions to a new issue of $200,000,000 has at the present moment great armies seven-thirties, convertible into bonds, in the field, facing an enemy apparently redeemable after five and payable twen- approaching a period of utter exhausty years from 1867, he issued with the tion, but still struggling with a force the proposal an appeal to the People of the greater and more desperate as it sees, United States, in which, while setting and because it sees, the near approach forth various financial inducements, of a final and fatal consummation." he presented this encouraging view of Montgomery Blair, of Maryland, who the national resources and prosperity. had held the position of Postmaster"The circumstances," said he, "under General since the commencement of which this loan is asked for and your President Lincoln's Administration, and aid invoked, though differing widely discharged the duties of the office with from the existing state of affairs three eminent ability, resigned in September, years ago, are such as afford equal en- and was succeeded by William Dennison, couragement and security. Time, while Ex-Governor of Ohio. In December, proving that the struggle for national on the eve of the meeting of Congress, unity was to exceed in duration and se- another change occurred in the resignaverity our worst anticipations, has test- tion of the Attorney-General, Edward ed the national strength and national re- Bates, of Missouri. He was succeeded sources to an extent alike unexpected and by Judge-Advocate-General Holt. remarkable, exciting equal astonishment at home and abroad. Three years of war have burdened you with a debt which but three years since would have seemed beyond your ability to meet. Yet the accumulated wealth and productive energies of the nation have proved to be so vast, that it has been borne with comparative ease, and a peaceful future would hardly feel its weight. As a price paid for national existence and the preservation of free institutions, it does not deserve a moment's consideration. Thus far, the war has been supported and carried on as it only could have been by a people resolved, at whatever cost of blood and treasure, to transmit unimpaired to posterity the system of free Government bequeathed to them by the great men who framed it. This deliberate and patriotic resolve has developed a power surprising even to themselves. It has shown that in less than a century a nation has arisen unsurpassed in vigor and exhaustless in resources, able to conduct through a series of years, war on its most gigantic scale, and finding itself when near its close almost unimpaired in

An important appointment was thrown into the hands of the President by the decease, on the 12th of October, of Roger Brook Taney, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Born in Calvert County, Maryland, in 1777, his life had been coeval with the existence of the nation. He was educated as a lawyer, and in his earlier years served in the Legislature of his State. General Jackson made him a member of his Cabinet as AttorneyGeneral of the United States, in 1831, and two years after transferred him to the post of Secretary of the Treasury as successor to Mr. Duane, who was displaced for his refusal to remove the Government deposits from the United States Bank. The Senate, on meeting, refused to confirm the appointment, and also rejected his appointment as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. On the death of Chief Justice Marshall he was appointed his successor by President Jackson and confirmed, and since 1837 had discharged the duties of this high office. The vacancy created by his death was filled by the appointment by President Lincoln of Mr. Chase, the recent Secretary of the Treasury. The