insult to injury. The people of this Commonwealth are freemen, not slaves, and will defend, to the last extremity, their honor, their lives and property against Northern mendacity and usurpation." Governor Jackson of Missouri responded: "There can be, I apprehend, no doubt that these men are intended to make war on the seceded States. Your requisition, in my judgment, is illegal, unconstitutional and revolting in its objects, inhuman and diabolical, and cannot be complied with. Not one man will the State of Missouri furnish to carry on such an unholy crusade."

It was reported from Montgomery that Mr. Davis and his compeers received Mr. Lincoln's call for troops "with derisive laughter." Mr. Hooper, the Secretary of the Montgomery Convention, in reply to the question of the agent of the Associated Press at Washington, "What is the feeling there?" said:

"Davis answers, rough and curt,

With Paixhan and petard,
Sumter is ours and nobody hurt,

We tender old Abe our Beau-regard."

And on the day after the call was made (April 16), the Mobile Advertiser contained the following advertisement in one of its inside business columns:

"PROPO

"75,000 COFFINS WANTED."

ROPOSALS will be received to supply the Confederacy with 75,000 black coffins.
No proposals will be entertained coming north of Mason and Dixon's line.
"Direct to JEFF. DAVIS, Montgomery, Alabama.”

This ghastly joke showed the temper of the political leaders in that region. But this feeling of boastfulness and levity was soon changed to seriousness, for there were indications of a wonderful uprising of the loyal people of the free-labor States in defence of the Union. Men, women, and children shared in the general enthusiasm. Loyalty was everywhere expressed, as if by preconcert, by the unfurling of the National flag. That banner was seen all over the land in attestation of devotion to the Union— in halls of justice and places of public worship. It was displayed from flagstaffs, balconies, windows, and even from the spires of churches and cathedrals. It was seen at all public gatherings, where cannon roared and orators spoke eloquently for the preservation of the Republic; and red, white, and blue-the colors of our flag in combination—were the hues of ornaments worn by women in attestation of their loyalty. And when it was evident to the people of the free-labor States that the National capital

CHAP. VII.

BOASTINGS OF NORTHERN NEWSPAPERS.

1475

was in danger, organized military bands were seen hurrying to the banks of the Potomac for the defence of Washington city.

The foolish boastings of the Southern newspapers were imitated by some of the members of the Northern press. "The nations of Europe," one said, "may rest assured that Jeff. Davis & Co. will be swinging from the battlements at Washington, at least by the 21st of July. We spit upon a later or longer-deferred justice." Another said: "Let us make quick work. The

' rebellion,' as some people term it, is an unborn tadpole. Let us not fall into the delusion, noted by Hallam, of mistaking a 'local commotion' for revolution. A strong, active 'pull together' will do our work effectually in thirty days." And still another said: "No man of sense can for a moment doubt that this much-ado-about-nothing will end in a month. The Northern people are simply invincible. The rebels-a mere band of ragamuffinswill fly like chaff before the wind, on our approach." And a Chicago paper, with particular craziness of speech, said: "Let the East get out of the way; this is a war of the West. We can fight the battle, and successfully, within two or three months at the farthest. Illinois can whip the

South by herself. We insist on this matter being turned over to us.
The rebellion will be crushed out before the assemblage of Congress.'

Neither section comprehended the earnestness and prowess of the other --the pluck that always distinguished the American people, North and South. Each, in its pride, felt a contempt for the other, each believing the other would not fight. This was a fatal misapprehension, and led to sad results. Each party appealed to the Almighty to witness the rectitude of its intentions, and each was quick to discover omens of Heaven's approval of its course. When, on the Sunday after the President's call for troops went forth, the first lesson in the morning service in the Protestant Episcopal churches of the land on that day contained this battle-call of the Prophet: "Prociaim ye this among the Gentiles: Prepare for war; wake up the mighty men; let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears; let the weak say, I am strong," the loyal people of Boston, New York, and Cincinnati said: "See! how Revelation summons us to the conflict! and the insurgents of Charleston, Mobile, and New Orleans answered: "It is equally a call for us," adding: "See how specially we are promised victory in another Scripture lesson in the same church, which says; I will remove off from you the Northern Army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the East sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea. Fear not, O land! be glad and rejoice; for the Lord

will do great things.""

Two days after the President's call was promulgated, the chief of the Southern Confederacy issued a proclamation, in which, after declaring that Mr. Lincoln had announced the intention of invading the "Confederate States" for "the purpose of capturing its fortresses and thereby subverting its independence, and subjecting the free people thereof to the dominion of a foreign power," he invited all persons who felt so disposed to enter upon a course of legalized piracy called “privateering," and to depredate on the commerce of the United States. This proclamation was immediately followed by another from the President, declaring his intention to employ a competent force to blockade all the ports which were claimed to belong to the Southern Confederacy; also warning all persons who should engage in privateering under the sanction of a commission from the insurgent chief, that they would be held amenable to the laws of the United States for the prevention and punishment of piracy.

The "Congress of the Confederate States" had been summoned to meet at Montgomery on the 29th of April (1861), and a few days after the session began, an act was passed declaring that war existed between the

CHAP. VII.

PRIVATEERING AUTHORIZED BY DAVIS.

1477 seven "seceded" States and the United States, and authorized Mr. Davis to employ the power of their section to "meet the war thus commenced, and to issue to private armed vessels commissions or letters of marque and general reprisal, in such form as he shall think proper, under the seal of the Confederate States, against the vessels, goods, and effects of the Government of the United States, and of the citizens or inhabitants of the States and Territories thereof." They also offered a bounty of twenty dollars for each person who might be on board of an armed vessel of the United States that should be destroyed by a Confederate privateer-in other words, a reward for the destruction of men, women, and children. 'Happily for the credit of humanity," says a historian of the war, "this act has no parallel on the statute-book of any civilized nation." Mr. Davis did not wait for this authority, but several days before the assembling of his "Congress," he issued commissions for privateering, signed by himself, and Robert Toombs, as secretary. With these hostile proclamations of Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Davis, the great Conflict was fairly begun.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE VIRGINIA CONVENTION -UNION SENTIMENTS SUPPRESSED BY VIOLENCE- ORDINANCE OF SECESSION PASSED-BAD FAITH-VIRGINIA ANNEXED TO THE CONFEDERACY-THE PEOPLE DISFRANCHISED THE NATIONAL CAPITAL TO BE SEIZED — DAVIS'S PROFESSIONS - POETIC COMMENTS ON THEM-EVENTS AT HARPER'S FERRY AND GOSPORT NAVY-YARD-RESPONSE TO THE CALL FOR TROOPS-MASSACHUSETTS SENDS TROOPS TO WASHINGTON-ATTACK UPON THEM IN BALTIMORE-CRITICAL SITUATION OF THE CAPITAL-THE PRESIDENT AND MARYLAND SECESSIONISTS-PROMPT AND EFFICIENT ACTION OF GENERAL WOOL-UNION DEFENCE COMMITTEE - GENERAL BUTLER'S OPERATIONS IN MARYLAND HE TAKES POSSESSION OF BALTIMORE-EVENTS AT THE CAPITAL-PREPARATIONS FOR THE STRUGGLE.

T this time Virginia had passed through a fiery ordeal and lay prostrate, bound hand and foot by her disloyal sons, at the feet of the Southern Confederacy. A State Convention assembled at the middle of February, and remained in session more than two months. A large majority of the members were animated by a sincere love for the Union, especially those from the mountain districts in Western Virginia; and even so late as a fortnight before its adjournment, an Ordinance of Secession was defeated by a vote of eighty-nine against forty-five. Yet the conspirators persevered with hope, for they saw one after another of weak Union members converted by their sophistry.

"The war

The crisis was reached when Edmund Ruffin fired his gun at Fort Sumter. "That gun," said a telegraphic despatch from Charleston, "will do more in the cause of secession in Virginia, than volumes of stump speeches." So it did. It set bells ringing, and cannon thundering in the Virginia capital, and produced the wildest excitement in and out of the Convention." has begun; what will Virginia do?" asked Governor Pickens, by telegraph. Governor Letcher replied, "The Convention will determine." That determination was speedily made. When, on Monday the 15th of April, the President's call for troops to suppress the rising rebellion was read in the Conventic, that body was shaken by a fierce tempest of contending passions. Reason and judgment fled, and the stoutest Union men bent before the storm like reeds in a gale. Yet when the Convention adjourned that even. ing, and the question was pending, Shall Virginia secede at once? there was a strong majority in favor of Union.