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CH. XIX.]

UNION LEAGUES

241

giving the President extraordinary powers, and both senators and representatives perceived the inevitable and submitted to it.1

The country's response to the work of Congress was heard in enthusiastic "war" or "Union" meetings held in many cities and towns in divers States. Those in New York were characteristic. Noted and popular Democrats addressed a "magnificent uprising of the people" at Cooper Institute. "Loyal National Leagues " or " Union Leagues" were formed, of which the test for membership was a brief emphatic pledge that was subscribed to by many thousands. These leagues held one large meeting at the Academy of Music, another at Cooper Institute, and still another to celebrate the anniversary of the firing on Fort Sumter. To this period belong the organization and the furthering of the Union League Clubs

1 That this was also the case with other leaders of public opinion is shown by a private letter of Joseph Medill from Chicago to A. S. Hill, dated March 20: "Our view is, that we ought to do all we can to strengthen the hands of the administration until the crisis is past. . . . An awful responsibility rests upon our party. If it carries the war to a successful close, the people will continue it in power. If it fails, all is lost, Union, party, cause, freedom, and abolition of slavery. Hence we sustain Chase and his National Bank scheme, Stanton and his impulsiveness, Welles and his senility, and Lincoln and his slowness. Let us first get the ship out of the breakers; then court-martial the officers if they deserve it."—A. S. Hill papers, MS.

John Sherman's letter of March 20 to his brother as a summary of his work and opinion is interesting. "I opposed arbitrary arrests, general confiscation, the destruction of State lines and other extreme measures, and thereby have lost the confidence of some of my old friends. On the other hand, I have taken my full share in framing and supporting other great measures that have proved a success, and think I may fairly claim credit for many of the most valuable features of our financial system, which has been wonderfully sustained under enormous expenditure. I can also claim the paternity of the Bank Law yet to be tested by experience, and for the main features of the Conscription Law. This latter law is vital to our success, and although it was adopted with fear and trembling and only after all other expedients failed, yet I am confident it will be enforced with the general acquiescence of the people, and that through it we see the road to peace. But, after all, Congress cannot help us out of our difficulties. It may by its acts and omissions prolong the war, but there is no solution to it except through the military forces." - Sherman Letters, p. 195.

of Philadelphia and New York, and the Union Club of Boston, the object of their formation being distinctly patriotic.1 There prevailed a feeling of comparative cheerfulness due to the energy with which Congress had buckled to the task of rescuing the country from the depression that followed Fredericksburg, to the excellent reorganization of the Army of the Potomac, and to the known confidence of the President and his cabinet in ultimate success.

When Congress assembled, the finances were at a low ebb. Many of the soldiers had not been paid for five months, and to all of them the paymaster was at least three months in arrears,2 so that by January 7, 1863, the amount due the army and navy had probably reached the sum of sixty millions.3 The bonds of the government were not selling. Now all was changed. The Secretary of the Treasury had devised a plan of offering the five-twenty bonds to popular subscription through the employment of a competent and energetic general agent, who, by a system of sub-agencies, wide advertising, and

1 The Union League Club of Philadelphia was organized December, 1862, and occupied the "League House," 1118 Chestnut Street, Feb. 23, 1863; the Union League Club of New York was organized Feb. 6, 1863; its club-house, No. 26 E. 17th Street, was opened May 12. The formal inception of the Union Club, Boston, was Feb. 4. "We want," said one of its founders, a place where gentlemen may pass an evening without hearing copperhead talk." The club-house, No. 8 Park Street, was occupied Oct. 15. See Hist. of the Union League of Philadelphia, Lathrop; A Brief Sketch of the Hist. of the Union Club, Boston, Thorndike; N. Y. Eve. Post, May 16, 1863; Boston Herald, Jan. 8, 1899.

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2 "The troops have been paid with punctuality whenever funds were furnished for the purpose, nearly all having been paid to June 30, 1862, and many to Aug. 31." Report of acting Paymaster-General U. S. Army; see, also, report of Secretary of War, Dec. 2, 1862. General Rosecrans wrote to Stanton from Nashville, Nov. 23, 1862: "Maj. Larned informs me that he needs $1,000,000 to complete payment to this corps to Aug. 31. Many have been led by lack of pay to temporarily desert, to look after their families. They are poor men and much in need of money. Officers are without the means of subsistence. . . . Many regiments have received no pay for six months."-O. R., vol. xx. part ii. p. 91.

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3 Letter of Chase to Fessenden, chairman of Senate committee on finance, Globe, p. 270.

• Authorized by the Act of Feb. 25, 1862, see vol. iii. pp. 563, 572.

CH XIX.]

SUCCESS OF THE POPULAR LOAN

243

other business methods, appealed to the mingled motives of patriotism and self-interest and induced the people to lend. large amounts of money to the government. An impetus was given to this process by the general character of the financial legislation of Congress, and in particular by the clause in the nine hundred million dollar loan act which limited to July 1st the privilege of exchanging legal-tender notes for five-twenty bonds. Immediately after the adjournment of Congress the confidence of the people began to show itself by the purchase of these securities. By the end of March Chase told Sumner that he was contented with the condition of the finances,' and ere three months more had passed by, he could see that his popular loan was an assured success. The subscriptions averaged over three million dollars a day. The Germans were likewise buying our bonds. April 26, Sumner wrote to the Duchess of Argyll: "The Secretary of War told me yesterday that our rolls showed eight hundred thousand men under arms, — all of them paid to February 28, better clothed and better fed than any soldiers ever before. . . . Besides our army, we have a credit which is adequate to all our needs; and we have powder and saltpetre sufficient for three years even if our ports should be closed, and five hundred thousand unused muskets in our arsenals, and the best armorers of the world producing them at the rate of fifty thousand a month."3 Again he wrote to John Bright: "The Democracy is falling into line with the government and insisting upon the most strenuous support of the war." In view of succeeding events this last is too strong for a historical statement, but it is undeniable that during the months of March and April there was a lull in the bitter opposition of the Democrats to the administration.5

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1 Pierce's Sumner, vol. iv. p. 130.

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2 Belmont to Lord Rokeby, May 7, Letters privately printed, p. 85. Pierce's Sumner, vol. iv. p. 137.

March 30, ibid., p. 130.

The "feeling for a vigorous prosecution of the war [is] stronger than ever, and [there is] a complete unanimity of feeling against foreign interven.

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Yet all was not bright. The iron-clad fleet, which had been carefully and expensively fitted out, failed to reduce Fort Sumter to ruins and to take the city of Charleston, — a result confidently expected by the naval officers engaged, the department in Washington, and the people at large.1 The tidings which came from another movement against Vicksburg, under the personal command of Grant, are spoken of as "bad news.' "2 "But," Sumner wrote to Bright, "we are not disheartened. These are the vicissitudes of war. Our only present anxiety comes from England. If England were really neutral,' our confidence would be complete." The intelligence came that more cruisers for the Confederates were being built in British ports with the design of preying upon our mercantile marine. This news, together with the frequent reports of the capture and burning of our vessels by the Alabama, whose escape through the negligence, or as most people then believed through the unfriendly animus, of the British government, made the links of "England and our blazing ships" complete, and caused emotions of sorrow, anger, and bitterness which long endured.5

tion and any peace except upon the basis of a reconstruction of the Union. The violent language of Jefferson Davis and his organs has produced quite a reaction at the North, and has silenced entirely the few peace-at-any-price men who had sprung up after the elections of last November."-Belmont to Lionel de Rothschild, April 3, Letters, p. 77. See, also, Belmont to Rokeby, May 7, ibid., p. 84.

1 The attack was made April 7.

2 Sumner to Bright, April 7, Pierce's Sumner, vol. iv. p. 131.

8 Ibid.

4 The heading of an article in N. Y. Times, March 7.

Bryant wrote to Bigelow, Dec. 3, 1862: "The English have lost more ground in public opinion in America within the past year and a half than they can redeem in a century."-Life of Bryant, Godwin, vol. ii. p. 183. August Belmont wrote Lord Rokeby, May 7: "The fitting out of armed war vessels like the Alabama and Florida. . . in your ports in open violation of the Queen's proclamation and the foreign enlistment act have produced a most painful feeling here."-Letters privately printed, p. 83.

My authorities for this account other than those mentioned are: N. Y. Tribune, March 7, 10, 16, 21, April 13; N. Y. World, March 16; see, especially, articles in the Boston Advertiser of March 19, and the Phila.

CH. XIX.]

VALLANDIGHAM

245

We now come to the most celebrated case of arbitrary arrests during the war. Vallandigham is not an attractive character. Had his vehement opposition to the war been the bursting out of a soul which could not contain itself in view of the growing militant spirit of the people, of the corrupt and arbitrary methods of many in power, our sympathy might in a measure be drawn to him, as it goes out to many who in history have stood up for the rights of the minority. But his efforts were not spontaneous; indeed, if the traditions be true, he was cold, calculating, selfish, ambitious, vindictive. He lacked generous impulses. He accepted favors of pecuniary and other character, and when the chance came to return them which a gentleman of ordinary sense of gratitude would eagerly have embraced, he turned the cold shoulder. In any leader of men it is difficult to say how much is self-seeking, how much is patriotism; but there is reason to believe that in Vallandigham's mind the advancement of self dominated all other motives. His speeches and his action lend themselves to such a construction. In the first part of 1863 Horatio Seymour was the leader of the democracy. Had Vallandigham been content to follow, he would have taken the same line, acting in union with his colleagues in Congress, Pendleton and Cox, whose course approached the ideal of an opposition that I have set forth. But in that there was no leadership. By a violent and sensational antagonism, by making himself the exponent of the extreme Democrats of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, he might draw the party to him, he might become the chief of the Copperheads of the West. Such was his course, such the result. He was a man of parts, an attractive and bright public speaker. If it be true that he lacked sincerity, he imposed upon his fellowcitizens by the intensity of his utterances, the earnestness of

Inquirer, June 24; Chicago Tribune, May 16; Moore's Reb. Rec., vol. vi. Diary, pp. 45, 48, 59, 62; Pierce's Sumner, vol. iv. p. 129 et seq.; Diplomatic Correspondence, 1863, part i.; Nicolay and Hay, vol. vii.; the Atlantic Coast, Ammen; The Mississippi, Greene; Schuckers's Chase; Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, Dec. 10, 1863.

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