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the Confederate States sealed up, foreign powers looked upon it as a mere "paper blockade," which any daring vessel might break through at will. But gradually upwards of three thousand miles of coast were brought under patrol, and more than 1500 blockade-runners were captured, destroyed or driven ashore and wrecked.

In time the blockade had a twofold effect; first, it shut out foreign supplies and so threw the Confederates entirely upon their own limited resources. Next, it made it impossible for them to export their cotton, and it converted the slaves, who had been wealth producers, into mere food producers. This prevented Jefferson Davis from getting money to keep up the contest, so that when the war ended, cotton worth $300,000,ooo in gold was found stored away in different parts of the South.

On land military operations never stopped, and fighting was taking place somewhere along the line every day.

The total number of engagements, great and small, count up over 2000. On the Union side the loss of life reached a total of over 360,000, of whom the greater part are buried in the national cemeteries at Gettysburg and elsewhere. Probably the South lost as many as the North; if so, we have a total of over 720,000." At the North more than two-thirds of the men * who entered the ranks were American-born; at the

1256

The total number of men who entered the Union army and navy is given by Phisterer, in his "Statistical Record" of the Civil War, at somewhat over 2,850,000 (counting those who reënlisted, and including 186,097 colored troops). The border States of Delaware, Maryland, Missouri, and Kentucky furnished no less than 252,122 men to the Union Army; Tennessee (mainly eastern Tennessee) 31,092; and West Virginia 32,068. On April 15, 1861, President Lincoln called for 75,000 three-months' men; between May and July, 1861, he called for 500,000 men for from six months to three years; in July, 1862, he called for 300,000 three-years' men, and in August, 1862, for 300,000 militia for nine months' service, but obtained only 87,588; in June, 1863, a call for militia for six months' service brought 16,361. In October, 1863, and February, 1864, he called for 500,000 men,

South nearly all were so. The average age, at enlistment, of those who entered the Union army is said to have not exceeded twenty-two.1257 The expense of the war to the national Government, above the ordinary expenses, was about $3,250,000,000;1258 but allowance must be made for the fact that the Government settled most of its bills, including those due the army and navy, in "greenbacks " which were worth much less than gold.

The United States, says Colonel Dodge, 1259 paid its soldiers more liberally than any other nation ever did before; besides this they received $300,000,000 in bounties, and the Government has since paid them over $2,000,000,000 in pensions (554); including the pensions still to be disbursed, the sum may reach a total of nearly $3,000,000,000. If we should add the amounts spent by States and towns for the war, the grand total would probably exceed $8,000,000,000 than the entire assessed valuation of the loyal States at the outbreak of the contest ($ 453).

or more

The expenditure on the secession side cannot be reckoned; but it may be said with entire truth that the people of the South stripped themselves bare, and spent their last dollar in their desperate effort to tear the Union asunder. In addition to these losses, the Union armies destroyed property in that section to an incalculable amount.

509. Results of the war. But however enormous the expenditure of life and treasure, the economic, political, and moral results of the war for the Union have fully justified the cost. It is true that it entailed serious evils on the country, for it begot extravagance, speculation, gigantic frauds, and political corruption; it disorganized regular labor to a considerable extent, and temporarily increased pauperism; but in the end the good it achieved far outbalanced these evils.

in the aggregate for three years. In these calls the men raised by draft in 1863 are included. In March, 1864, he called for 200,000 three-years' men; in July, 1864, for 500,000; and finally in December, 1864, for 300,000.

1. The war freed not only the South, but the whole country, from the burden and curse of slavery. It made it possible to develop the immense natural resources of that section, which had in great measure lain dormant since colonization began. New energy, new life, new enterprises have sprung up, which have stimulated industry, disseminated education, and re-created the South. These influences are fast making it one of the most prosperous and wealthy parts of the Republic. The negro shares in this new life. A little more than a generation ago, he was so poor that he did not own himself; to-day he is a free laborer the maker of his own future, and the possessor of property assessed at many millions.

2. The war not only saved the Union, but perfected it. It prohibited the secession principle forever, and stamped that prohibition ineffaceably upon the Constitution "by blood and iron." "1260 The South accepts this fact, and nine of the States which seceded have adopted new constitutions or amended old ones, repudiating disunion as treason.1261 Thus the terrible struggle completed the work of the founders of the Republic, and, in the words of the Supreme Court (1868), it made the nation "an indestructible Union " of "indestructible States." 1262 In doing this the war showed the world that there is nothing stronger or more stable than what President Lincoln called "Government of the people, by the people," and "for the people."

3. Finally, the contest lifted the whole nation to a higher moral level. In doing away with slavery and with the evils which slavery inflicted on black and white alike, it made the Declaration of Independence true, not of one favored race, but of all who to-day claim the name and the rights of American citizens. By accomplishing this great work, the war has made North and South one in purpose, in patriotism, in brotherhood. It has established a Union resting on mutual respect, and on heart and conscience, which will stand as long as heart and conscience are obeyed.

VII.

RECONSTRUCTION, THE NEW NATION.

(1865 to the Present Time.)

For Authorities for this Chapter, see Appendix, page xxiv.

The small figures in the

text refer to Authorities cited on page xxx of the Appendix.

510.

President Johnson; his previous record; attitude toward the South. A few hours after the death of Lincoln (April 15, 1865), Vice-President Johnson took the oath of office which made him head of the Republic. Like Lincoln, Johnson sprang from the class then known at the South as "Poor Whites." He began the practical work of life at the tailor's board in a log-cabin in eastern Tennessee. He had never attended school, but taught himself to read, and his wife taught him to write. His ambition and force of character led him to enter the field of local politics. He became one of the leaders of the workingmen in his section in their contest with the slaveholding aristocracy. He rose step by step until he became Governor of his State; soon afterward the Democrats elected him (1857) to the United States Senate. He was the only Southern man in the Senate who stood resolutely by the Union and openly denounced secession as "unholy rebellion." 1263

In the spring of 1862 President Lincoln appointed Senator Johnson military governor of Tennessee. He greatly strengthened the Union cause in that State, and when the Republicans renominated Lincoln to the presidency (1864), they recognized the services of the "War Democrats " by putting Johnson on the ticket as Vice-President. When the assassination of the

President raised Johnson to the highest office in the nation, he entered upon its duties with the declaration: "The American people must be taught to know and understand that treason is a crime." "It must not be regarded as a mere difference of political opinion." 1264 Again he said: "Treason must be made infamous, and traitors must be impoverished." 1265

511. The "freedmen"; plans for reconstruction. — Two political questions of prime importance pressed for settlement: 1. What should be done to aid and protect the "freedmen"? 2. What action should be taken respecting the restoration or reconstruction of the seceded States?

At the close of the war the Government was confronted with the stupendous problem of providing for several millions of negroes. Tens of thousands of them had followed the Union armies and had been gathered into camps at different points. These poor people were legally free; but that was all. They were "landless, homeless, helpless," and there was danger that many of them would sink into a state of permanent pauperism. One of President Lincoln's last acts was to sign a bill (March 3, 1865) creating the "Freedmen's Bureau." The bureau was to continue for one year; its object was to place the freedmen, as far as practicable, on abandoned or confiscated lands at the South, and render them self-supporting. General O. O. Howard was appointed commissioner, and was invested, he says, with "almost unlimited authority."

The second problem that of reconstruction was even more formidable than the negro question, which was necessarily closely bound up with it.

The Constitution was silent in regard to secession and civil war; it threw no light on the delicate, difficult, and dangerous work of restoring or reconstructing the Southern States. Three questions arose : 1. What was the condition of the seceded States, were they still members of the Union, as a dislocated arm is still a member of the body, or had secession put them wholly out of the Union and were they now simply conquered

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