must be considered insurrectionary or revolutionary. All that Mr. Lincoln claimed was merely the support of the status quo; and this proclamation of the principles which were to actuate the conduct of the government, seemed of good augury to the friends of peace. A door even seemed to be opened to pacific negotiations on the subject of the dissolution of the Federal compact. This at least was a prevalent idea in England up to the time when the warlike impetuosity of South Carolina suddenly put an end to all hopes of peace. This state had been the first to proclaim the principle of secession. The inhabitants of Charleston, her capital city, beheld daily just at the entrance of their harbor a little artificial island, upon which the heavy mass of Fort Sumter reared itself. Like all the forts in the land, this post was garrisoned by federal troops, and, in presence of the excitement prevailing in South Carolina, the general government had deemed it advisable to send thither additional troops. The vessel bringing reinforcements was fired upon, and on the 12th of April, the fort itself was bombarded. The little garrison could not oppose any prolonged resistance to the batteries on the shore; it surrendered, and the war was begun.

On the 15th of April, President Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for seventy-five thousand volunteers to protect the national capital and to suppress such combinations as had been made to resist the enforcement of the laws of the United States. At the same moment, the southern leaders were intriguing to obtain the control in the convention of Virginia, then in session, and at first indisposed to join in the rebellion. This attempt was successful; on the 17th of April, the State of Virginia seceded. Meanwhile, the Confederate government had organized and sent into the field a force of twenty thousand men. The city of Washington was at this time nearly defenceless, but the energy and ardor of the Northern States at once came to its aid. Several companies from Pennsylvania reached Washington on the

16th; the Massachusetts Sixth, a regiment of volunteers, passing through Baltimore, (where they were attacked by a mob) arrived in Washington a few days later; and, being soon followed by others, the capital was speedily in a state of excellent defence.

Immediately upon the fall of Fort Sumter, Mr. Davis issued a proclamation inviting applications for privateering service in which, under letters of marque and reprisal, private vessels might be fitted out to prey upon the commerce of the United States. On the 29th of April he wrote to the Confederate Congress that "it is proposed to organize and hold in readiness for instant action, in view of the present exigencies of the country, an army of one hundred thousand men." Between the 6th and 21st of May, three other states, Tennessee, Arkansas and North Carolina, solemnly separated from the Union and cast in their fortunes with the Confederacy.

The war opened amid the greatest excitement on both sides: the two parties seemed to be of nearly equal strength. In England, from an instinct of ancient jealousy, of secret rancor, and of commercial rivalry, the general inclination was favorable to the southern cause, a cause morally difficult to defend, but wearing upon its exterior the air of a chivalrous impulse against the oppression and tyranny of the North. "The gentlemen of the South have risen against the northern shopkeepers," said the English newspapers; and the people of England did not stop to inquire whether the southern gentlemen had risen in defence of their personal liberty, or merely in defence of their right to keep their fellow-creatures in slavery; the English nation did not at all measure the sovereign importance of the struggle now beginning in the New World, upon the great question of free labor, or slave labor. The hour was come, in their judgment, when America was about to pay dearly for her separation from the English crown, her abandonment of the mother-country.

Neutrality did not exist in the spirit of the English nation at the time when the English government officially proclaimed it. On the 8th of May, 1861, Lord John Russell announced in Parliament that, after consulting the law-officers of the crown, her Majesty's government were of opinion that the Southern Confederacy must be recognized as a belligerent power. On the 13th of May, neutrality was proclaimed by England, and all English subjects were forbidden to enlist, either for sea or land, in the service of either party, to furnish munitions of war, to equip vessels for privateering, to engage in transport-service, or in any manner to afford assistance either to Federals or Confederates. England thus publicly recognized the existence of the Southern Confederacy. The promptness with which this recognition was made, rendered it still more offensive to the United States. Lord John Russell had not even waited the arrival of the American minister, then daily expected, who had been sent out expressly charged to explain to the English government the condition of affairs beyond

sea.

On the other hand, it was urged that this recognition had been made in no spirit unfriendly towards America, but had been rendered imperatively necessary and urgent by a Union measure adopted upon the very outbreak of the war. This was the blockade of the ports of the seceded states, proclaimed by Mr. Lincoln on the 19th of April. The very fact of this proclamation was a recognition by the United States of the Southern Confederacy as a belligerent power, inasmuch as a government cannot blockade its own ports. All that England had done was to accept the situation which the President of the United States had himself admitted. Later, and under the pressure of the growing excitement in England, the English Cabinet was to have great difficulty in supporting this blockade against those who claimed that it ought to be broken in the interests of European commerce. France was even more sympathetic than England in

the cause of the seceded states, and the Emperor Napoleon III. would have very gladly persuaded England to join with him in recognizing the government of the Southern Confederation. But the attitude of the Radical party in the House of Commons, and the general sentiment of the working-classes in favor of the North, held back the Cabinet from this disastrous mistake. France, as well as England, was obliged to content itself with proclaiming its neutrality.

The fortunes of war seemed at this moment to be on the side of the Confederacy. More accustomed than the " 'shopkeepers of the North to the duties and fatigues of war, and animated by an ardor which rapidly recruited their ranks, the "gentlemen of the South had not, however, begun by assuming the offensive. On the 21st of July, General Beauregard, on the plateau of Manassas near a little stream known as Bull Run, awaited the attack of the federal troops, under the command of General McDowell. This officer, who had been in part educated in France, was well informed in the art of war; he knew perfectly that the forces under his command were but a crowd of men just taken from their fields, their workshops, their countingrooms, and that he needed time to drill them, to discipline them, and to teach them how to employ their courage and their enthusiasm. He saw himself compelled by the exigencies of the situation and the insistance of government to engage at once in the struggle. General Beauregard's position was strong; the result of the battle was doubtful until three o'clock in the afternoon, when reinforcements arrived for the Confederate troops. The Federal army was seized with panic, the defeat became a rout, and, disorganized and demoralized, the survivors retreated upon Washington. The alarm was extreme in the capital, which believed itself once more in danger, and the distress and anger of the North was unbounded. A corresponding triumph was felt through the South, their cause had received the consecra

tion of victory, and their popularity increased with their success. In France, and still more in England, a cry went up against the weakness and cowardice of "the Yankees." Everywhere, the victory of Bull Run was regarded as the assurance of the ultimate victory of the South.

The men of the North had not lost courage; and they had learned their lesson; they perceived that their forces were not yet ready for battle; time must be spent in preparing them. The very prolongation of the war was in itself useful to the North, richer, more populous, and better able to sustain that long effort, without which all its courage and indomitable perseverance would not be able to triumph over the heroic resolution of the Confederates.

Congress was in session when the battle of Bull Run took place, and it promptly acceded to Mr. Lincoln's request for men and money. It even did more than he asked. Instead of four hundred million dollars and four hundred thousand men, there was placed at his disposal five hundred millions of money, and five hundred thousand men. The first Union army sent into the field, an inconsiderable and ill-prepared force, had been routed by the rebels; in future, the federal government would see to it that its volunteers were well-trained, and the first care was to reorganize those forces which had suffered defeat at Bull Run. On the 25th of July, General McClellan was appointed to reconstruct and organize the army of the Potomac; he acquitted himself of this task with such ability that his soldiers and his operations became the foundation of the great manœuvres of the succeeding campaign. For several months, during this period in which new armies were forming, the war remained in some degree suspended; it was incessantly threatening and imminent, but did not break out in violent activity, for the southern leaders still retained their attitude of defence. Arms as well as armies were being made ready; an indescribable