hostile mission. On the analogy of despatches | determined on a desperate struggle, while the they should be contraband. The difficulty of victory gave immense encouragement to the amicable settlement at that time, however, lay insurgents. not so much in the point of law as in the intensity of popular feeling on both sides of the

Atlantic.

Page 245. Belligerent rights. One month after Sumter was attacked, on May 13, 1861, the Queen issued a proclamation of neutrality, according belligerent rights to the Confederacy. This was done even before Mr. Adams, the new minister from the Lincoln administration, could reach England. Commercial interest cannot excuse so precipitate a recognition. It cannot be regarded as anything but a deliberate expression of unfriendliness towards the United States. It coldly contemplated the dissolution of the Union, favored the establishment of an independent slave-empire, and by its moral support strengthened the hands of the Rebellion and prolonged the war.

Page 245. Confederate privateers. It is notorious that Confederate cruisers were built, equipped, and even partially manned in England in open disregard of the international law respecting neutrals. Mr. Adams protested constantly and emphatically against this, but in vain for the time. No notice was taken officially of the matter until it was forced on the British government in 1864. The subsequent negotiations concerning the Alabama claims, the Treaty of Washington in 1871, and the Geneva award to the United States of some fifteen million dollars, are too well known to require any mention.

Page 257.

Onesimus. The "Scriptural" view, according to the mind of Mr. Sawin, would have been that of Jeremiah S. Black, who saw in the case of Onesimus St. Paul's express approval of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.

Page 258. Debow. De Bow's Commerical Review, published in New Orleans, Louisiana, was for some years before the war very bitter against the North, its institutions, and its society in general.

Page 258. Simms and Maury. William Gilmore Simms, the South Carolina novelist and poet, is here referred to. Matthew Fontaine Maury, of Virginia, naval officer and hydrographer, was a man of some scientific attainments. He was the author of several works on the physical geography of the sea, navigation, and astronomy. Both men were born in the same year, 1806.

Page 259. "Arms an' cannon." John B. Floyd, while Secretary of War in Mr. Buchanan's Cabinet, was detected in the act of stripping Northern arsenals of arms and ammunition to supply the South. He began this work as early as December, 1859, and it is not known to what extent he carried it. Pollard, a Southern historian, says the South entered the war with 150,000 small-arms of the most approved modern pattern, all of which it owed to the government at Washington. Floyd resigned because some forts and posts in the South were not given up to the rebels.

Page 259. "Admittin' we wuz nat'lly right." President Buchanan's message of the first Monday of December, 1860, declared "the longcontinued and intemperate interference of the Northern people with the question of slavery in the Southern States" had at last produced its natural effect; disunion was impending, and if those States could not obtain redress by consti

Page 245. The Caroline. In 1837 an insurrection broke out in Canada, and armed bodies of men styling themselves "patriots" were in open rebellion against the government. In spite of the President's message exhorting citizens of the United States not to interfere, and in defiance of the troops sent to Buffalo to carry out his orders, numbers of sympathizers from New York crossed the Niagara River and gave assist-tutional means, secession was justifiable and the ance to the insurgents. The British authorities would have been warranted in seizing the American vessel Caroline, which was used to transport citizens to the Canadian shore, had the Beizure been made in flagrante delicto, or out of our territorial waters. But in crossing to the American side of the river and taking the offending vessel from her moorings these authorities committed a grave breach of neutrality. After five years of negotiation the English government finally apologized and made reparation for the injury.

Page 247. "Seward sticks a three-months' pin." Mr. W. H. Seward, Lincoln's Secretary of State, was at the outbreak of the Rebellion an earnest advocate of conciliation. He seemed to think that if war could be averted for a time until the people of the seceding States perceived the true intention of the administration to be the preservation of the Union, not the promoting of Abolitionism, the Southern movement would fail. In this belief he frequently declared that the trouble would all be over in sixty days.

Page 251. Bull Run. On the 21st of July, 1861, the Union troops under General McDowell were completely routed by Beauregard at Bull Run in Virginia. The North was finally convinced that the South was equipped for and

general government had no power to prevent it. The effect these utterances had in spreading and intensifying the spirit of secession is incalculable.

Page 259. "On the jump to interfere." Dur ing the larger part of the war great apprehension of attempts on the part of foreign powers to interfere prevailed in the Northern States. With the exception of Russia and Denmark, all Europe inclined toward the South. Our form of government was not favored by them, and they were not unwilling to see its failure demonstrated by a complete disruption. For a long time it was very generally believed that the South would be victorious in the end. Had the Confederacy at any time had a bright prospect of success, it is likely that England or France might have offered to interfere. Indeed, the success of the French scheme to set up a military empire in Mexico in defiance of the Monroe doctrine entirely depended on the contingency of a victory for secession. Napoleon therefore was urgent for mediation. The subject was suggested several times by the French foreign minister in his correspondence with Mr. Seward, and was pressed on the British government by France.

Page 262. The Border States. The Border States, by the contiguity to the North and their

natural unfitness for a very profitable system of news of Gettysburg. Certainly if it had, France slave-labor, were slow to take a definite stand. would not have been slow to follow. It is difPresident Lincoln's policy was to proceed cau- ficult to overestimate the disastrous effect such tiously at first, keep the slavery question in the events would have had on the Northern cause. background, and enlist the sympathies of these Page 266. Belmont. Mr. August Belmont, States by appeals to their attachment to the of New York, Chairman of the Democratic Na Union. Although the people of Delaware, tional Committee from 1860 to 1872, although Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri were pretty opposed to secession, still attributed the cause evenly divided, the State governments were kept and the responsibility for the continuance of the from seceding. Without the support of the Re-war to the Republican Administration. He led publican Congressmen from this section, Lincoln could not have carried out his abolition policy.

his party in clamoring for peace and conciliation, especially in 1864, and bitterly opposed reconstruction.

Page 266. Vallandigham. Clement L. Vallandigham, of Dayton, Ohio, was the most conspicuous and noisy one of the Peace Democrats during the war. His treasonable and seditious utterances finally led to his banishment to the South in May, 1863. Thence he repaired to Canada, where he remained while his party made him their candidate in the next gubernatorial campaign, in which he was ignominiously dePage 266.

Page 263. Hampton Roads. The battle of Hampton Roads, at the entrance of Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, is remarkable for the revolution naval warfare which it began. The utter worthlessness of wooden against armored vessels was suddenly and convincingly demonstrated. On the 8th of March, 1862, the Confederate armored ram Virginia, formerly Merrimac, made terrible havoc among the old wooden men-of-war stationed about Fortress Monroe.feated. But at nine o'clock that night the little Monitor steamed into the Roads to the assistance of the shattered Federal navy. The next day's battle is one of the romances of war. Had Mr. Wilbur waited for the next Southern mail before writing this letter, the Devil might have had less credit given him.

Page 265. "From the banks o' my own Massissippi." In the period from 1830 to 1840, the sudden and healthy increase of immigration and the flattering industrial prospect induced many Western and Southern States to make lavish expenditures for internal improvements. Their credit was good and they borrowed too largely. After the financial crisis of 1837, insolvency stared them in the face. A number repudiated, among whom Mississippi in particular was heavily indebted. Her securities were largely held in England. It added nothing to the credit of the Confederacy that Jefferson Davis had been an earnest advocate of repudiation.

Page 265. Manassas, or Bull Run. Cf. note to p. 251.

Page 266. Roanoke. The loss of Roanoke Island, on the coast of North Carolina, February 8, 1862, was a severe one to the South. Page 266. "Bufort." The finest harbor on the Southern coast was that of Port Royal, South Carolina, in the centre of the sea-island cotton district. This point the North fixed on as the best for a base of operations, and on October 29, 1861, a fleet of fifty vessels, including thirty-three transports, was sent against it. A fierce attack was begun on November 7, and on the next day the two forts, Walker and Beauregard, capitulated. Without encountering further opposition the Federal troops took possession of the town of Beaufort on an island in the barbor.

Page 266. Millspring. January 19, 1862, the Confederates under Crittenden were defeated with considerable loss at Millspring, Kentucky, by General G. H. Thomas.

Woodses. This refers to the brothers Benjamin and Fernando Wood, prominent Democrats of New York city. The former was editor of the Daily News and a Representative in Congress. The latter was several times Mayor of New York, and for twelve years a Representative in Congress.

Page 267. Columbus. After the fall of Fort Donelson, Columbus, Kentucky, was no longer tenable, and Beauregard ordered General Polk to evacuate it. March 3, 1862, a scouting party of Illinois troops, finding the post deserted, occupied it, and when Sherman approached the next day he found the Union flag flying over the town.

Page 267.

Donelson. The capture of Fort Donelson, in Tennessee, February 16, 1862, by General Grant, was one of several Union successes in the West, whose value was almost entirely neutralized by McClellan's dilatory conduct of the Army of the Potomac. General John B. Floyd's precipitate retreat from the fort as the Union forces approached was afterwards represented in one of his official reports as an heroic exploit.

Page 279. Taney. Roger B. Taney, of Maryland, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1836 to 1864. He is chiefly notable for the Dred Scott decision, in 1857, in which he held that a negro was not a "person in the contemplation of the Constitution, and hence "had no rights a white man was bound to respect"; that the Constitution recognized property in slaves, and that this ownership was as much entitled to protection in the Territories as any other species of property. According to this, all legislation by Congress on slavery, except in its aid, was unconstitutional.

Page 270. Compromise System. Henry Clay was the "great compromiser.' The aim of his life was the preservation of the Union even at the cost of extending slave territory. The three compromises for which he is famous were the Page 266. "Recognition." Recognition of Missouri in 1820, the Tariff in 1833, and the Callindependence by the European powers, partic-fornia or "Omnibus" Compromise in 1850, the ularly France and England, would of course most conspicuous feature of which was the Fugihave been of the greatest value to the South. tive Slave Law. It is said that Mr. Roebuck's motion in the House of Commons to recognize the Confederate States would have passed but for the timely

Page 271. "S. J. Court." At the beginning of Lincoln's administration, five of the Supreme Court Justices, an absolute majority, were from

the South, and had always been State-rights | 1852, Secretary of War in Buchanan's Cabinet, Democrats.

and a brigadier in the Confederate service.

Page 273. "The Law-'n'-Order Party of ole Page 283. "Extra ordine Billis." William Cincinnater." In Cincinnati, on March 24, 1862, Smith, of King George County, Virginia, was Wendell Phillips, while attempting to deliver the proprietor of an old line of coaches running one of his lectures on slavery and the war, through Virginia and the Carolinas. He was was attacked by a mob and very roughly han- called " Extra Billy" because he charged extra dled. for every package, large or small, which his pas Page 281. Gov'nor Seymour. Horatio Sey-sengers carried. Mr. Smith himself, however, mour (1810-1886), of Utica, New York, was one attributed his nickname to his extra service to of the most prominent and respected men in the the State. He was several times a Congressman, Democratic party, and a bitter opponent of Lin- twice Governor of Virginia, and a Confederate coln. He had at this time been recently elected Brigadier-General. Governor of New York on a platform that de- Page 295. Seward. Under the influence of nounced almost every measure the government Mr. Seward, President Andrew Johnson develhad found it necessary to adopt for the suppres-oped a policy of reconstruction directly opposed sion of the Rebellion. His influence contributed to the views of Congress and the mass of the not a little to the encouragement of that spirit Republican party. He believed in punishing inwhich inspired the Draft Riot in the city of New dividuals, if necessary, but that all the States York in July, 1863. ought to be re-installed at once in the position Page 282. "Pres'dunt's Proclamation." In they had occupied in 1860. The guarantees the autumn of 1862 Mr. Lincoln saw that he against disloyalty he proposed to exact from the must either retreat or advance boldly against South were few and feeble. Congress, on the slavery. He had already proceeded far enough other hand, determined to keep the subdued against it to rouse a dangerous hostility among States in a position somewhat resembling that of Northern Democrats, and yet not far enough to territories and under military surveillance until injure the institution or enlist the sympathy of it could be satisfied that four years' war would pronounced anti-slavery men. He determined not be without good results. Its chief aim was on decisive action. On September 22, 1862, he to secure the safety of the negro, who had been issued a monitory proclamation giving notice freed by the thirteenth Amendment in Decem. that on the first day of the next year he would, ber, 1865. These differences of plan led to a in the exercise of his war-power, emancipate all protracted and bitter contest between the execuslaves of those States or parts of States in rebel- tive and legislative departments, culminating in lion, unless certain conditions were complied the unsuccessful attempt to impeach Johnson in with. This proclamation was at once violently March, 1868. The Congressional policy was carassailed by the Democrats, led by such men as ried out over the President's vetoes. Among Seymour, and for a time the opposition threat- other conditions the Southern States were re ened disaster to the administration. The elec- quired to ratify the fourteenth and fifteenth tions in the five leading free States-New York, Amendments, giving citizenship and suffrage to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois - went the blacks, before being qualified for readmission against the Republicans. But with the aid of to the Union. New England, the West, and, not least of all, the Border Slave States, the President was assured a majority of about twenty in the new House to carry out his abolition policy.

Page 283. "Kettelopotomachia." The incident furnishing the occasion for this poem was a Virginia duel, or rather a free fight. Mr. H. R. Pollard, of the Richmond Examiner, had some difficulty with Messrs. Coleman and N. P. Tyler, of the Enquirer, concerning the public printing. On Friday, January 5, 1866, all three gentlemen met in the rotunda of the Virginia Capitol, and proceeded to settle their dispute by an appeal to revolvers. Six shots were fired, but no damage resulted, except to a marble statue of Washington.

Page 284. "Letcheris." John Letcher (18131884), a Virginia lawyer and politician, was several times in Congress, and was Governor of his State from 1860 to 1864. Page 284. "Floydis." John B. Floyd (18051863) was Governor of Virginia from 1849 to

Page 298. "Mac." General George B. McClellan was one of the leaders of the Northern Democracy during the war, and the presidential nominee against Lincoln in 1864.

Page 299. "Johnson's speech an' veto message." The Civil Rights Act of March, 1866, had just been the occasion of an open rupturc between Congress and the President. The bill, conferring extensive rights on freedmen, passed both Houses, but was vetoed by Johnson. It was quickly passed again over his veto.

Page 299. "A temp'ry party can be based on 't." Johnson's plan of reconstruction did, indeed, furnish the material for the next Democratic platform in the presidential campaign of 1868.

Page 299. Tyler. John Tyler, who had been chosen Vice-President in 1840, succeeded to the Presidency on the death of Harrison one month after the inauguration. He abandoned the policy of the party that elected him, and provoked just such a contest with it as Johnson did.