GRANGER CAPTURES FORT MORGAN. 653 that they could not be opened, and one | the Rebel forts were intact. Farraof them battered to fragments, with the gut sent the wounded of both fleets Chickasaw boring away at her stern, to Pensacola in the Metacomet, and and four other great vessels coming prepared to resume operations. Durat her full speed-saw that the fight ing the ensuing night, Fort Powell was fairly out of her, with no chance was evacuated and blown up, so far of escape, and, hauling down her as it could be; but the guns were flag, ran up a white one, just in time left to fall into our hands. Fort to have the Ossipee back its engine Gaines was next day shelled by the ere it struck her; changing its heavy iron-clad Chickasaw, with such effect crash into a harmless glancing blow. that Col. Anderson, commanding On her surrender, Admiral Buchanan there, next morning sued for condiwas found severely wounded, with 6 tions. He might probably have held of his crew; 3 being killed. Of pri- out a little longer; but, being on an soners, we took 190 with the Ten- island, with the fleet on one side and nessce, and 90 with the Selma. Granger's army on the other, there was not a possibility of relief or protracted resistance. At 9 A. M., the Stars and Stripes were raised over the fort, and Anderson and his 600 men were prisoners of war. Our total loss in this desperate struggle was 165 killed (including the 113 who went down in the Tecumseh) and 170 wounded: the Hartford having 25 killed, 28 wounded, and the Brooklyn 11 killed and 43 wounded. The Oneida had 8 killed and 30 wounded, including her commander, Mullany, who lost an arm: most of them being scalded by the explosion, at 7:50, of her starboard boiler by a 7-inch shell, while directly under the fire of Fort Morgan. Nearly all her firemen and coalheavers on duty were killed or disabled in a moment; but, though another shell at that instant exploded in her cabin, cutting her wheel-ropes, her guns were loaded and fired, even while the steam was escaping, as if they had been practicing at a target. The Tennessee passed and raked her directly afterward, disabling two of her guns. A shell, in exploding, having started a fire on the top of her magazine, it was quietly extinguished; the serving out of powder going on as before. Gen. Page, commanding in Fort Morgan, had much stronger defenses, and was on the main land, where he had a chance of relief; at the worst, he might get away, while Anderson could not. He telegraphed the latter peremptorily, "Hold on to your fort!" and his representations doubtless did much to excite the clamor raised against that officer throughout Dixie as a coward or a traitor. But when his turn came-Granger's troops having been promptly transferred to the rear of Morgan, invested" it, and, after due preparation, opened fire in conjunction with the fleet-Page held out one day, and then surrendered at discretion. He doubtless was right in so doing; since-unless relieved by an adequate land force— his fall was but a question of time. Yet his prompt submission tallied badly with his censure of Anderson. 18 The Rebel fleet was no more; but Before surrendering, he had damaged extent of his power. year his guns and other material to the | taken 104 guns and 1,464 men—not without cost certainly; but there were few minor successes of the which were won more cheaply, or which contributed more directly and palpably to the downfall of the Rebellion. Thus fell the last of the defenses of Mobile bay; sealing that port against blockade-runners thenceforth, and endangering the Rebel hold on the city. With those defenses, we had As, since McClellan's recoil from | day. The victory of Mission ridge, the defenses of Richmond, the judgment of the loyal States was divided concerning the probabilities of National success or defeat, so the fortunes of the contending parties reflected closely the changing aspects of the military situation. The Fall elections of 1862 had resulted in a general Opposition triumph; because the reflecting and unimpassioned had been led, by our recent reverses and our general disappointment, to doubt the ability of the Government to put down the Rebellion. Those of 1863, on the other hand, had strongly favored the Administration; because the National successes at Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Port Hudson, Helena, &c., the reopening of the Mississippi, and the recovery of East Tennessee, with a good part of Arkansas, had induced a very general belief, which our reverse at the Chickamauga did not shake, that the Union would surely triumph, and at no distant 1 Total vote: Republican. Democratic. Governor...Gilmore, 37,006 Harrington, 31,340 followed by the appointment of Gen. Grant to the chief command of all the National forces, strengthened this belief into conviction; so that, though there were still those who did not desire the overthrow of the Rebellion, as there had been, even in the darkest hours, many whose faith in the National cause never faltered nor was shaded by a doubt-the strongly prevalent opinion of the loyal States, throughout the Spring of 1864, imported that Gen. Grant would make short work of what was left of the Confederacy. Hence, the Spring Elections were scarcely contested by the Opposition: New Hampshire opening them with an overwhelming Republican triumph;' Connecticut following.with one equally decided,' though her Democratic candidate for Governor was far less obnoxious to War Democrats than his predecessor had been; and, though Rhode Island showed a falling off in the Republi 2 Total rote: Republican Democratic. Governor..Buckingham, 39,520 O. 8. Seymour, 34,163 KENTUCKY AND PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 655 can majority,' it was simply because, | prehend that they must choose bein the absence of any election for tween Emancipation and Disunion. Congress, and in view of the certainty that the Republican ascendency would be maintained, no serious effort was made to call out a full vote, and personal considerations exerted their natural influence in so small a State when no special or urgent reason is presented for a rigid respect to party lines. So when, pursuant to the act of Congress' providing for the enrollment, as subject to military duty, of all ablebodied male slaves between the ages of 20 and 45, Federal officers commenced such enrollment, a fresh, intense excitement pervaded her slaveholding districts, which impelled her Governor, Thomas E. BramletteThe Presidential Election in im- (elected' as a Unionist by an overmediate prospect soon fixed that whelming majority over Charles A. share of public attention which could Wickliffe, the Democratic candidate, be diverted from the progress of hos- but not without great and apparently tilities wherein every one's hopes and well-grounded complaint of Military fears were largely involved, and interference at the polls, to the prewherein almost every one was, either judice of the Opposition)-to adhimself or in the persons of those dear dress' to the people of his State a to him, engaged. Among Republi- proclamation, counseling them not cans and those Democrats whom the to let their "indignation," provoked War had constrained to act with by this enrollment, impel them to them, there was a very considerable "acts of violence, nor to unlawful dissent from the policy of renomina- resistance." He continued:rönomina-resistance." ting Mr. Lincoln; but, as the canvass proceeded, the popular sentiment was found so unequivocally in his favor that no serious or concerted resistance to such rönomination was made: its advocates choosing delegates to the National Convention, with barely a show of resistance, from nearly every loyal State-Missouri, because of the intense Radicalism of her firetried Unionists, being the solitary exception. Kentucky, however, had a creed of her own. Professedly Union, as she had been proved by every test and at each succeeding election, she still remained pro-Slavery; unlike the other 'Border-States,' which had already been brought distinctly to com Total vote: Republican. "In the Union, under the Constitution, and in accordance with law, assert and urge your rights. It is our duty to obey the law until it is declared, by judicial decision, to be unconstitutional. The citizen, whose prowill be entitled, under the imperative nanperty may be taken under it for public use, date of the Constitution, to a just compensation for his private property so taken for public use. Although the present Congress may not do us justice, yet it is safe to rely upon the justice of the American people; and an appeal to them will not be unheeded or unanswered. Peace restored, and the unity of our Government preserved, will drive to ignominious disgrace those who, in the agony of our conflict, perverted their sacred trusts to the base uses of partisan ends and fanatical purposes." One immediate result of this enrollment and the consequent "indignation" was a call by the Union State Committee of a State Convention, to meet at Louisville, May Feb. 24, 186-4. the Democratic National Convention which was to assemble at Chicago for the nomination of a Presidential ticket-a call which insured the vote of this State in November to the candidates of the Opposition. Gov. Bramlette, accompanied by ex-Senator Dixon and Col. A. G. 25th, and there choose delegates to | Government-that nation, of which that Constitution was the organic law. Was it possible to lose the nation and yet preserve the Constitution? By general law, life and limb must be protected; yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life; but a life is never wisely given to save a limb. I felt that measures, otherwise unconstitutional, might become lawful, by becoming indispensable to the preservation of the Constitution, through the preservation of the nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this ground, and now avow it. I could not feel that, to the Hodges, soon visited Washington, ex-best of my ability, I had even tried to prepressly to protest against, and (if serve the Constitution, if, to save Slavery, possible) to obviate, this enrollment or any minor matter, I should permit the wreck of Government, country, and Constituof negroes, or at least to render its tion, altogether. When, early in the war, execution less offensive and annoying Gen. Fremont attempted military emanci to their masters-finding the Presi-pation, I forbade it, because I did not then think it an indispensable necessity. When, dent disposed to do whatever he could a little later, Gen. Cameron, then Secretary to reconcile the Kentuckians to the of War, suggested the arming of the Blacks, I objected, because I did not yet think it an bitter prescription. Mr. Lincoln was indispensable necessity. When, still later, induced to put the substance of his Gen. Hunter attempted military emancipaobservations at their interview into tion, I again forbade it, because I did not yet think the indispensable necessity had come. the following letter: When, in March, and May, and July, 1862, I made earnest and successive appeals to the Border States to favor compensated emancipation, I believed the indispensable necessity for military emancipation and arming the Blacks would come, unless averted by that measure. They declined the proposition; and I was, in my best judgment, driven to the alternative of either surrendering the Union, and, with it, the Constitution, or of laying a strong hand upon the colored element. I chose the latter. In choosing it, I hoped for greater gain than loss; but of this I was not entirely confident. More than a year of trial now shows no loss by it in our foreign relations, none in our home popular sentiment, none in our White military force-no loss by it anyhow, or anywhere. On the contrary, it shows a gain of quite 130,000 soldiers, seamen, and laborers. These are palpable facts, about which, as facts, there can be no caviling. We have the men; and we could not have had them without the measure. } "EXECUTIVE MANSION, "WASHINGTON, April 4, 1864. "A. G. HODGES, Esq., Frankfort, Ky. : "MY DEAR SIR: You ask me to put in writing the substance of what I verbally said the other day, in your presence, to Gov. Bramlette and Senator Dixon. It was about as follows: "I am naturally anti-Slavery. If Slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think and feel; and yet I have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling. It was in the oath I took that I would to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. I could not take the office without taking the oath. Nor was it my view that I might take an oath to get power, and break the oath in using the power. I understood, too, that, in ordinary and civil administration, this oath "And now let any Union man, who comeven forbade me to practically indulge my plains of this measure, test himself by writprimary, abstract judgment on the moraling down in one line, that he is for subduing question of Slavery. I had publicly declared this many times, and in many ways. And I aver that, to this day, I have done no official act in mere deference to my abstract judgment and feeling on Slavery. I did understand, however, that my oath to preserve the Constitution to the best of my ability imposed upon me the duty of preserving, by every indispensable means, that the Rebellion by force of arms; and in the next, that he is for taking 130,000 men from the Union side, and placing them where they would be but for the measure he condemns. If he can not face his case so stated, it is only because he can not face the truth. "I add a word which was not in the verbal conversation. In telling this tale, I attempt no compliment to my own sagacity. me. PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S ANTI-SLAVERY GROWTH. 657 God alone can claim it. Whither it is tend I claim not to have controlled events, but | Edward Everett was patiently listenconfess plainly that events have controlled ed to, while Cabinet Ministers and Now, at the end of three years' struggle, the nation's condition is not what either Governors were regarded with lively perty or any man devised or expected. curiosity, the central figure on the platform was the tall, plain, unpresuming, ungainly 'rail-splitter' from the prairies; and the only words uttered that the world cares to remember were those of the President, who -being required to say somethingthus responded: ing seems plain. If God now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also that we of the North, as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find therein new causes to attest and revere the justice and goodness of God. "Yours, truly, A. LINCOLN." Persuasive and cogent as this letter will now seem, it did not placate the indignation of the Kentuckians, nor change the destination of their delegates from the Chicago to the Baltimore Convention. "Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a cated to the proposition that all men are new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicreated equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battleThe careful reader will note in this field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place letter a decided advance Mr. upon for those who here gave their lives that that Lincoln's earlier allusions to Slavery nation might live. It is altogether fitting and in its necessary relations to our strug-proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not gle. By nature, slow, cautious, tenconsecrate, we can not hallow this ground. tative, and far from sanguine, he had The brave men, living and dead, who strugprofoundly distrusted the policy of gled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. The world will Emancipation; apprehending that its little note, nor long remember, what we say adoption would alienate from the here; but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be Union cause more strength than it dedicated here to the unfinished work which would bring to its support. This they who fought here have thus far so nodistrust yielded tardily to evidence, bly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before which (in fact) was slowly furnished; us, that from these honored dead we take but when at length it appeared that, increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; while very few original, hearty that we here highly resolve that these dead Unionists were repelled by it, the shall not have died in vain; that this naBlacks became day by day a more tion, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the peoactive and more efficient element of ple, by the people, and for the people, shall our National strength, his doubts not perish from the earth." were fully dispelled, and his faith was the firmer and clearer for his past skepticism. Hence, at the great gathering which inaugurated the National Cemetery carved from the battle-field of Gettysburg for the ashes of our brethren who there died that their country might live, though the elaborately polished oration of VOL. II.-42. 8 The first National Convention of 1864 met at Cleveland, May 31st, pursuant to a call "To the Radical Men of the Nation." About 350 persons were present; very few or none of them in the capacity of delegates. Ex-Gov. William F. Johnston, of Pa., was made temporary and Gen. John Cochrane, of N. Y., Nov. 19, 1863. |