CH. III.] POSITION OF LOYAL MEN AND REBELS. 47 Brownlow, Nelson and others, Andrew prepared themselves for this issue by Johnson stood prominently forward. many years' laborious efforts; they had The high position attained by this last, forced it upon the loyal supporters of in consequence of the assassination of the Constitution and laws of the United President Lincoln, in 1865, will justify States; they had driven up to the a brief notice here of his life and career. point of fury and hatred the larger porAndrew Johnson was born at tion of the people of the South, and had Raleigh, N. C., in 1808. While very compelled them to face the inevitable young he lost his father, and was de- result. And now it was to be tested, prived of all advantages of education. whether this great Republic was worthy He was apprenticed to a tailor, and of its name and place in the family served out his full term, seven years. of nations, or whether it was to be In 1826, he removed to Greenville, broken in pieces, and become a subject Tennessee, where he served in several for scorn and contempt among the local offices. Having, by the severest enemies of freedom throughout the labor and determination, improved him world. self in every possible way, reading and studying at night, he was advanced still further in popular favor. In 1841, he went into the state senate; two years later, he entered Congress; was elected governor of Tennessee in 1853, and again in 1855; and in 1857, was chosen United States Senator for the long term, six years. In politics, Johnson ranked among the old Jacksonian democracy; and when the rebellion broke out, he took his stand firmly on the side of law and order. Such being the issue, and such, as all men now saw, being the only mode of settlement, it may be well here to note briefly the relative position of the parties concerned in this memorable conflict, and to seek to form a clear concep tion of the prospects of those who had ranged themselves on the side of law and order, and on the side of disunion and revolution. As regards population, according to the census of 1860 (see vol. iii., p. 553), the free states and territories contained nineteen millions, the slave states something over twelve In addition to all 1861. Evidently, the sword was now fully drawn. The question at issue was to be settled, not by words, not by appeals millions. on either hand, not by menaces or the free states, which were for the threatenings, not at all, in fact, but by Union, of course, Delaware, Mary. the stern, fearful, last arbitrament, that land, Kentucky and Missouri were of blood. They who loved their country, and its honor and integrity, had no alternative; they had but to accept the issue thrust upon them, or see the Union rent in pieces, and national prosperity swallowed up in the abyss. The leaders in the southern conspiracy had ranked in the same connection; the population of the loyal over the seceding states was, consequently, rather more than two to one. In the arts of industry, in commerce, trade, manufac tures, shipping, etc., the free states were largely superior. In these respects, and in the universally recognized claim to those particular things in which which all established governments have southern men excelled. The citizen upon the fealty of their people, there soldiers were excellent in their way can be no doubt that the loyal states but they were bred in time of peace, stood, not only before the world, but in and never expected to be employed fact, in the position best calculated to otherwise than in the customary discommand sympathy and enforce the plays in time of peace. requirements of the supreme law of the land. But, while all this was true, and no less important than true, it must be borne in mind, that the so-called "Confederacy" had several very decided advantages over the Union and its defenders. To this must be added the fact of the vastly superior position of the "Confederacy" for self-defence, for direct communication with each and all its parts, and for facility of intercourse by means of railroads and telegraphs. The secessionists had long been preparing for the contest; they understood thoroughly the topography of the country; they had made their calculations with great shrewdness and ability; and, counting largely upon the sympathy and co-operation of many in the North as well as in the old world, they were ready to enter with all their heart and soul into the war for disunion and separation from those whom they professed to, and probably did, hate and despise. The North was wholly un-prepared for war; the government had everything, almost, to learn armies had to be created, in fact; and the vast distances between various points of attack, where to pierce the confederacy and break down its military power, increased immensely the difficulties in the way of Mr. Lincoln and his advisers. And further, believ ing, as the rebels did, that "cotton was king," they were so persuaded of its importance to the world, especially to England and France, that they expected the great powers of Europe to break up directly any blockade which might The people of the South, principally owing to the fact of their being slaveholders, were not only bred up in aristocratic notions of superiority, and in contemptuous disregard for labor and its adjuncts, but were trained from boyhood in the use of fire-arms, and in various kinds of exercises fitting them for military life and its excitements. In the war of 1812, and in that with Mexico, the South furnished nearly twice as many soldiers as the North. So long as the system of slavery prevailed, and the class of laborers was such as rendered it degrading, in their eyes, for a white man to work, the masters were of course at liberty to devote themselves to the fascinating employments of hunting, racing, contests of skill, and the like; and "the chivalry" of the South was rarely deficient in zeal and spirit where its peculiar qualifications had room for display. At the North, on the other hand, the great mass of the population were engaged in the peaceful avocations of life, and had no time, even if they had the inclination, to devote attention be attempted to be put in force by the CH. IV.] THIRTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION. United States. It is true that this result did not take place, as they confidently looked for; but it is equally true, that the South obtained a great amount of sympathy and help from abroad, and the government was very seriously hampered and injured by the doings of the partisans for disunion on the other side of the Atlantic. 49 On subsequent pages we shall have occasion to speak more fully of several points, which require careful examination' in order rightly to comprehend the state of affairs in this great struggle for national existence.* *See Greeley's "American Conflict," vol. i., pp. 498-516, in which is a carefully prepared estimate of "the relative strength of the opposing parties about to grapple in mortal combat." The reader will find We need not, however, enlarge further on this topic at this time. these pages worth consulting and examining. CHAPTER IV. 1861. CONGRESS IN SESSION: BULL RUN DISASTER. Thirty-seventh Congress, extra session- President Lincoln's message. course Extracts from - General object of message - Concluding words - Reports from the secretaries as to the army, navy, and treasury-Spirit of Congress - Special points of interest Debate on the army bill Resolution of the House and Senate after Bull Run defeat - Bill for confiscating the property of the rebels - Enacting clause approving the president's acts, proclamations, etc. — Adjournment of Congress Confederate Congress - Davis's message Its bitter tone- Various measures adopted -"On to Richmond!"- Impatience of the people - Gen. Patterson and his Gen. McDowell in command of Army of the Potomac - Force under his command-March of the Grand Army from Washington - Tyler at Blackburn's Ford-Change of plan-Vexatious and fatal delays - Extracts from McDowell's report, describing the battle of Bull Run - Jefferson Davis on the field - Num bers of the troops engaged on both sides - Losses at Bull Run according to the Union and rebel accounts; Beauregard's and Johnson's reasons for not pursuing the routed army - Rebel outrages- Effect of the disaster at Bull Run - Depression and discouragement - Criticism on the battle-Mr. Greeley's statements - Bitter but salutary lesson for the future. -- On the 4th of July, 1861, in compli- | large, working majority of republicans. ance with the president's proclamation The next day, Mr. Lincoln sent in his (see p. 19), the Thirty-seventh Congress met in Washington for its first session. Senators from twenty-five states were present, soon after the opening; in the House 159 representatives ans1861. wered to their names; and Mr. Grow, of Pennsylvania, was elected Speaker, on the second ballot. In both the Senate and the House there was a VOL. IV.-7. first message to Congress. It was a document looked for with no ordinary interest in every part of the country, and was eagerly read and commented upon. In it the president discussed, at some length, the questions requiring speedy attention and action, and on account of which this extra session of the national legislature was called. A preserve our liberties, as each had then to establish them. A right result, at this time, will be worth more to the world than ten times the men and ten times the money. The evidence reaching us from the country leaves no doubt that the material for the work is abundant; and that it needs only the hand of legis lation to give it legal sanction, and the hand of the executive to give it practi review of matters connected with the outbreak of the rebellion, and a brief statement of the policy of the new administration, were given in clear precise terms.* Inasmuch, however, as the secessionists were determined to force upon the country the issue, "immediate dissolution or blood," he stated distinctly what, in his judgment, Congress ought to do. "It is now recommended that you give the legal means for mak-cal shape and efficiency." ing this contest a short and decisive The latter part of the message was one; that you place at the control of the devoted to arguing again the question government, for the work, at least 400, of secession and rebellion, and the 000 men and $400,000,000. That num- president, in characteristic terms, de ber of men is about one tenth of those nounced the folly and wickedness of of proper ages within the regions where, those who, for thirty years, had been apparently, all are willing to engage; drugging the public mind with the and the sum is less than a twenty-third sophism, "that any state of the Union part of the money-value owned by the may, consistently with the National men who seem ready to devote the Constitution, and therefore lawfully whole. A debt of $600,000,000 now, and peaceably, withdraw from the is a less sum per head than was the Union, without the consent of the debt of our Revolution when we came Union or of any other state." "The out of that struggle; and the money states," as he justly said, "have their value in the country now bears even a status IN the Union, and they have no greater proportion to what it was then, other legal status. If they break from than does the population. Surely each this, they can only do so against law man has as strong a motive now, to and by revolution. The Union, and * In view of the objections made by Chief-justice not themselves separately, procured Taney and others (see p. 29) on the subject of suspend their independence and their liberty. ing habeas corpus, Mr. Lincoln briefly argued the legality of his course on the ground of pressing necessity: By conquest, or purchase, the Union "The provision of the Constitution that the privilege gave each of them whatever of independence and liberty it has. of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended un less when, in case of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it,' is equivalent to a provision-is a provision-that such privilege may be suspended when, in case of rebellion or invasion, the public safety does require it. . . . . The Constitution itself is silent as to which, or who, is to exercise the power; and as the provision was plainly made for a dangerous emergency, it cannot be believed that the framers of the instrument intended that, in every case, the danger should run its course, until Congress could be called together; the very assembling of which might be pre The Union is older than any of the states, and, in fact, it created them as states. Originally some dependent colonies made the Union, and, in turn, the Union threw off their old dependence for them, and made them states such as they are. Not one of them ever had vented, as was intended in this case, by the rebellion." a state constitution independent of the |