CH. XVII.]

GLOOM AT THE NORTH

57

obtained. Seward took the cue readily, and in his draft of the governors' letter explained that the fresh recruits were needed to follow up "the recent successes of the Federal arms."2 But the Northern people were not deceived. Learning after five days of suspense that McClellan's army had reached the James River, they recognized that it had been defeated and forced to retreat. The event was spoken of as a disaster, the news of it causing at once a panic in Wall Street. Days of gloom followed. "Give me a victory and I will give you a poem," wrote Lowell to his publisher; "but I am now clear down in the bottom of the well, where I see the Truth too near to make verses of." There was a noticeable disposition to find fault with Stanton, whose folly in stopping recruiting at the time of the Union successes in the spring was bewailed. Not nearly so marked was the disposition to censure McClellan for the misfortune that had befallen the North, while Lincoln escaped with less criticism from the country at large than either.5

Meanwhile Congress was in session, an observer of military events and a diligent worker in its sphere, though exercising less relative sway and attracting less attention than in a time of peace, for the war caused the executive to trench upon its power and directed all eyes to his acts and the work of his armies. Nevertheless the senators and representatives labored

1 See the despatches, O. R., vol. xi. part iii. p. 270 et seq.; Julian's Political Recollections, p. 218; Pope's article, Century War Book, vol. ii. p. 455. 2 Life of Seward, vol. iii. p. 104. This was written as early as June 30, ' before the full tidings of McClellan's retreat were known, but Seward's diplomatic circular of July 7 would have done credit to McClellan himself. See p. 111.

3 Lowell's Letters, vol. i. p. 322.

4 See vol. iii. p. 636.

5 New York Times, July 3, 4, Herald, July 4, 6, 8, 10, Tribune, July 4, 5, World, July 4, Eve. Post, July, 3, 5; Pierce's Sumner, vol. iv. p. 83; The Sherman Letters, p. 156; August Belmont to Thurlow Weed, July 20, Belmont's Letters, privately printed, p. 66; Julian, Political Recollections, p. 218; Chandler's Senate speech of July 16, Life of Chandler, Detroit Post and Tribune, p. 234; Letters of Asa Gray to Darwin, July 3, 29.

with zeal, sagacity, and effect. The laws of this session show how much an able and honest Congress may accomplish when possessed of an earnestness and singleness of purpose that will prevail against the cumbrous rules which hedge about the action of a democracy's legislative body, unfitting it for the management of a war.1

Congress at this session 2 authorized the President to take possession of the railroads and the telegraph lines when the public safety required it, recognized the governments of Hayti and Liberia, passed a Homestead Act, established a Department of Agriculture, donated public lands to the several States and Territories for the purpose of founding agricultural colleges, and authorized the construction of a railroad to the Pacific Ocean, giving it aid in land and in government bonds. It created a comprehensive and searching scheme of internal taxation which became a law by the President's approval July 1. This might be briefly described with a near approach to accuracy as an act which taxed everything. So impressed are two writers with its burdensome character that they have added to their summary of its provisions, as an apt description of it, Sydney Smith's well-known humorous account of British taxation in 1820.4 Under this act of Con

1 This was the 2d sess. of the 37th Congress, which lasted from Dec. 2, 1861, to July 17, 1862. Of the nature of its work in general, see Julian, May 23, Speeches, p. 182; Sumner, June 27, Works, vol. vii. p. 144; Wade, June 28, Globe, pp. 3000, 3002; Pierce's Sumner, vol. iv. p. 80 et ante; Nicolay and Hay, vol. vi. chap. v.; Riddle, Life of Wade, p. 318.

2 For important work of this session already mentioned, see vol. iii. p. 630.

3 Approved Jan. 31.

Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress, vol. i. p. 433; W. C. Ford, Lalor's Cyclopædia, vol. ii. p. 577. Their citation is from Sydney Smith's article on America, Edinburgh Review, Jan., 1820. Smith wrote: "Taxes upon every article which enters into the mouth, or covers the back, or is placed under the foot-taxes upon everything which it is pleasant to see, hear, feel, smell, or taste taxes upon warmth, light, and locomotion-taxes on everything on earth, and the waters under the earth-on everything that comes from abroad, or is grown at home-taxes on the raw material- taxes on every fresh value that is added to it by the industry of man-taxes on the sauce which pampers man's appetite, and the drug that restores him to

CH. XVII.]

TAX ACT OF 1862

69

59

gress, distillers of spirits, brewers of ale, beer, and porter, all other manufacturers, wholesale and retail dealers, men in all kinds of business, whether their trade was to supply necessaries or luxuries, or to furnish amusements (such as proprietors of theatres and circuses and jugglers), lawyers, physicians, surgeons, and dentists were required to pay for licenses. A duty of twenty cents per gallon was imposed on spirits, one dollar per barrel on malt liquors, and that on tobacco and cigars was heavy. Many products and nearly all manufactures and articles were taxed, and carriages, yachts, billiardtables, and plate, also slaughtered cattle, hogs, and sheep, railroad bonds, passports, legacies, and distributive shares of personal property. A duty of three per cent. was laid on the gross receipts of railroads, steamboats, and toll-bridges, on dividends of banks, savings institutions, trust and insurance companies, on the gross receipts from advertisements in newspapers, etc., and on the salaries and pay of officers and persons in the service of the United States above an exemption of $600. On the gross receipts of railroads using other power than steam and of ferry-boats the duty was one and one-half per cent. One tenth of one per cent. was exacted on the gross amount of auction sales. A tax of three per cent. on incomes less than $10,000, and of five per cent. on incomes over $10,000 with an exemption of $600 was imposed,1 although certain deductions were allowable in making the return. Upon the income of citizens residing abroad, there was laid a tax of five per cent. without the usual exemption. Stamp duties were imposed upon every species of paper used

health - on the ermine which decorates the judge, and the rope which hangs the criminal on the poor man's salt, and the rich man's spice - on the brass nails of the coffin, and the ribands of the bride - at bed or board, couchant or levant, we must pay." - P. 77. Cæsar wrote of Scipio's taxation in Asia: "In capita singula servorum ac liberorum tributum imponebatur; columnaria, ostiaria, frumentum, milites, arma, remiges, tormenta, vecturæ imperabantur; cuius modo rei nomen reperiri poterat, hoc satis esse ad cogendas pecunias videbatur."- De Bello Civili, III., xxxii.

1 Income derived from interest on notes or bonds of the United States was only taxed one and one-half per cent.

to represent or transfer property, on medicines or preparations, perfumery, cosmetics, and playing-cards. The duties on imports were increased by an act approved by the President, July 14.

Next to the tax and appropriation bills, the most important measure of this session of Congress, the Confiscation Act, dealt with a subject which attracted during the whole course of its consideration much attention from both Senate and House. The act as finally passed and approved iterated the penalty of death for treason, but allowed the court at its discretion to commute the punishment to fine and imprisonment; defined the crime of rebellion and annexed a penalty to it; directed the President "to cause the seizure of all the estate and property, money, stocks, credits, and effects," of all military and civil officers of the Southern Confederacy or of any of the States thereof, and, after sixty days of public warning, confiscated likewise the property of all "engaged in armed rebellion" against the United States "or aiding or abetting such rebellion;" freed forever the slaves of those convicted of treason or rebellion, and also the slaves of "rebel owners" who took refuge within the lines of the [Union] army" or in any way came under the control of the Federal government; denied the protection of the Fugitive Slave Act to any owners of escaped slaves except those loyal to the Union, and forbade any military or naval officer to surrender any fugitive to the claimant;1 gave authority for the colonization

"

1 This result had been aimed at by an act to make an additional article of war approved March 13, but it had not been fully accomplished (see speech of Grimes in the Senate, April 14, Life of Grimes, Salter, p. 186). Sumner declared in the Senate, July 16: "The infamous order No. 3 which has been such a scandal to the Republic is now rescinded. The slave everywhere can hope." Reference is made to order No. 3 of General Halleck, issued from St. Louis Nov. 20, 1861, which was obnoxious to the radical Republicans. It forbade fugitive slaves "to enter the lines of any camp or of any forces on the march.”—O. R., vol. viii. p. 370. Halleck maintained that "it was a military and not a political order.” — Letter to F. P. Blair, Greeley, American Conflict, vol. ii. p. 241.

Congress did not repeal the Fugitive Slave Law, although Sumner would have been glad to propose it had there been a chance of success. - Pierce's

CH. XVII.]

THE CONFISCATION ACT

61

of "persons of the African race made free" by this act; authorized the President to employ negroes as soldiers; and gave him power to amnesty the rebels by proclamation and to make exceptions from a general pardon.

The bill which had been reported by Senator Trumbull from the Judiciary Committee and the one which the House had originally passed were more stringent in their provisions, and therefore more satisfactory to the radicals of the Senate, of whom Sumner, Wade, and Chandler were the leaders, than the act finally agreed to; but even this act was more acceptable to them than the measure which the conservative Republicans of the Senate with the aid of the Democrats and the Unionists of the border States, had, on a decisive vote, succeeded in adopting. Of this Chandler declared, June 28, the day on which McClellan began his retreat to the James: "I do not believe the bill is worth one stiver. It is utterly worthless as a bill to confiscate property." The subject went to a committee of conference, and while it was pending, senators and representatives were in gloom over the misfortune and failure of the Army of the Potomac.

The bill "was at last passed," wrote Sumner, "under the

Sumner, vol. iv. p. 71. June 9 Julian offered a resolution in the House instructing the Judiciary Committee to report a bill to repeal it, and, although the House was disposed to go further in striking at slavery than the Senate, this resolution was laid on the table, 17 Republicans voting with 19 Unionists (all but two of these from the border slave States) and 30 Democrats, making a total of 66 for such action to 51 against. Cong. Globe, p. 2623; Julian's Polit. Rec., p. 218.

The Fugitive Slave Law continued to be enforced where legal processes could apply. The Washington despatch to the New York Herald, May 16, said: "The Fugitive Slave Law is being quietly enforced in this district to-day, the military authorities not interfering with the judicial process. There are at least four hundred cases pending." See Life of Garrison, vol. iv. p. 51, note 1. General J. D. Cox writes me, under date of March 26, 1896: "The anti-slavery sentiment grew so rapidly in the field that the right to reclaim a fugitive slave in camp was never of any use to slaveholders. Officers said 'You may take him if you can find him,' but the rank and file took care that he should not be found." See paper "Dealing with Slavery," by Channing Richards, Sketches of War History, vol. iv., Ohio Com. mandery of the Loyal Legion.