CHAPTER XX. NINETEENTH ADMINISTRATION, 1861-1865. Abraham Lincoln, President. Hannibal Hamlin, Vice-President. XXXVIIth and XXXVIIIth Congresses. Popular vote for President in 1860: Rep. 1,866,352, Const. Union 589,581, Dem. 2,220,920 (Douglas 1,375,157, Breckinridge 845,763). 1. WHEN the New Administration entered office affairs seemed almost desperate. Seven States had already revolted, and others were notoriously ready to join them upon the first attempt to exert the National authority. Part of the Federal army had surrendered, and most of the remainder were beleaguered in isolated forts. The Federal ships of war had generally been sent to distant seas. Many of the experienced officers of the army and navy had taken service under the rebellious Confederacy. A large part of the Federal munitions of war, having been previously transferred to Southern arsenals, had fallen into the hands of the insurgents. The Federal Treasury, by defalcation and peculation, was nearly bankrupt. The public servants, like those of a dying king, seemed anxious only to secure as much plunder as possible and decamp. In the South the numbers of those who desired a permanent Southern Confederacy were being increased daily by accessions from those who had at first intended only to remain out of the Union long enough to secure guarantees for the future safety of Slavery. And yet men of all parties in the North, blind to the certainty of approaching war, were still busied with plans to conciliate the revolted States by any concession except that of nationalizing Slavery. 2. The announced purpose of the President to re-supply Fort Sumter precipitated an attack upon it by the rebel forces around it. After a bombardment of thirty hours, the American flag, for the first time in its history, was lowered under the fire of insurgent citizens, and the fort surrendered, April 14th, 1861. The news woke the North as if from a trance. The mass of the Democracy were even more furious than the Republicans. The Southern States were no longer " erring sisters," to be gently conciliated. The whole North clamored for arms, for leaders, for legal authorization to bring the South back to law, order, and obedience, at the point of the bayonet. 3. Civil War had fairly begun. For the first time the government, in time of war, was under the control of a loose constructionist party, for the war Democrats soon became absorbed into the Republican organization, and the resulting fusion frequently took the name of the Union Party. The experiment was hazardous. In previous wars 1861.] Civil War. 199 the Democratic party, though trammeled by its strict constructionist theories, had been driven to strain the Constitution to conform to the necessities of the hour. But the sobering responsibilities of power, and the active (though often ill-timed) opposition of the Peace Democrats, checked the loose constructionist theories of the dominant party, and brought the Constitution through a dreadful struggle of four years with less change than might have been anticipated. 4. The President at once called for 75,000 volunteers, and summoned an Extra Session of Congress. Through the spring of 1861 the State governments of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas, which had hitherto refused to secede, followed the same general line of action. Military Leagues were made with the Confederacy; Confederate troops were then allowed to swarm over their territory; and finally, by their aid and countenance, Ordinances of Secession were passed. Efforts to carry out this plan in Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, were not successful. By the time set for the meeting of Congress the line had been distinctly drawn, and the rebellion was general in the States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and Ten nessee.1 I About 40 Counties of Western Virginia refused to be bound by the action of the rest of the State, and formed a Legislature which claimed to 5. Congress met July 4th, 1861, with a RepubliXXXVIIth Congress, can majority in both Extra Session. branches.1 Only the Free States and the Border States were represented. In the House Galusha A. Grow, of Pennsylvania, a Republican, was chosen Speaker. In the Senate three Senators, who had absented themselves to take part in the rebellion, were expelled. The House voted to consider at this Session only bills concerning the military, naval, and financial operations of the Government. The energy of the proceedings was only stimulated by the disastrous battle of Bull Run, July 21st. Bills were passed by both Houses to close the Southern ports against commerce, to authorize a loan, to appropriate money for the army and navy, to call out 500,000 volunteers, to define and punish conspiracy against the United States, and to confiscate all private property, including slaves, employed against the United States. The Tariff Act of August 5th, 1861, again increased the duties on imports. The House, by a heavy majority (121-5), pledged itself to vote any amount of money and any number of men necessary to put down the rebellion. Propositions looking to negotiations for peace were constantly offered. be the real Legislature of Virginia. This body gave the assent required by the Constitution to the formation of a new State, at first called Kanawha, afterwards West Virginia. Congress recognized their right to do so, and admitted the new State in 1862. 1 Senate, Rep. 31, Dem. 11, Union 5. House, Rep. 106, Dem. 42, Union 28. 1861.] War Measures. 201 by extreme Democrats, and as constantly voted down by heavy majorities on the ground that negotiation with armed rebellion was unconstitutional. Congress adjourned August 6th, 1861. 6. From the beginning of the war the Federai Government was embarrassed by the question of Fugitive Slaves. August 31st General John C. Fremont had declared the slaves of Missouri rebels free men, but this was overruled and annulled by the President. In Virginia General Benjamin F. Butler had announced that slaves were 66 contraband of war," and consequently liable to confiscation by military law. Elsewhere in the Federal lines slave-owners, on proving property, were generally given possession of their fugitive slaves. The disposition of the North was to put down the rebellion, without any interference with the Southern "institution" of Slavery. But it was plain that any long continuance of the rebellion would inevitably rouse the temper of the Free States, and provoke hostility to Slavery itself. 7. Congress met December 2d, 1861. Slavery XXXVIIth Congress, and The ProsecuIst Session. tion of the War occupied the Session. Bills were passed by both Houses to punish treason, to free slaves employed against the Government, to provide for the construction of a Pacific Railway and Telegraph, and to donate public lands to the various States for the benefit of Agricultural Colleges. The army was |