Brief reflection on McClellan's despatch of June 281 which showed him to be thoroughly demoralized, convinced President Lincoln that the plan for taking Richmond had failed, and that the Union armies must be increased if the end were to be attained towards which the Northern people strove. With a view to starting fresh enlistments, Secretary Seward, furnished with a letter in which the President made clear the need of additional troops, went to New York City, Boston, and Cleveland to confer with men of influence and with as many governors of States as possible. In this letter Lincoln declared: "I expect to maintain this contest until successful, or till I die, or am conquered, or my term expires, or Congress or the country forsakes me; and I would publicly appeal to the country for this new force, were it not that I fear a general panic and stampede would follow, so hard is it to have a thing understood as it really is."2 After Seward had conferred in New York City with men of weight and taken counsel by wire in cipher with the President and Secretary of War, it was determined to issue a circular to the governors of the States of the Union, exposing the situation and asking them to offer the President the needed reinforcements. On July 2, in accordance with the secret arrangements, there appeared in the newspapers, in the words of the draft which Seward had made, a letter from the governors requesting the President to call upon the several States for men enough "to speedily crush the rebellion." The President's reply, which was also printed, follows substantially Seward's draft, except that during the negotiations the necessity of the country on one hand and the willing co-operation of the governors on the other had combined to increase the number of troops at first proposed, and the call went forth for 300,000 three. years' men. Sumner wrote John Bright: "The last call for

1 Ante, p. 43.

2 Nicolay and Hay, vol. vi. p. 116.

xiii.; Nicolay and Hay,

3 Life of Seward, F. W. Seward, vol. iii. chap. vol. vi. p. 116 et seq.; N. Y. Tribune, Herald, July 2. For the reason why the names of the governors of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Iowa, and Dela

66

three hundred thousand men is received by the people with enthusiasm, because it seems to them a purpose to push the war vigorously. There is no thought in the Cabinet or the President of abandoning the contest." 1 We shall easily obtain the new levy," said Lincoln in a private letter. It was evident from the first that the people would give the government efficient support,3 although the call came upon them during a period of painful suspense when they were without news from McClellan's army. The War Department did not hear from McClellan from June 28 to July 1, and not until July 3 could the President have felt sure that his ariny was safe. Lincoln grew thin and haggard, and his despatches from the first of these days are an avowal of defeat. Stanton, on the other hand, did not realize the truth. June 29 he telegraphed Seward, "My inference is that General McClellan will probably be in Richmond within two days." Had the Secretary of War been given to dissimulation, or had he not sent a similar despatch to General Wool at Baltimore, we might suppose that he intended to mislead the men of influence and the governors with whom Seward was conferring, in order that the promise for additional troops might be more easily

ware were not affixed at that time to the letter, see Life of Seward, p. 110; N. Y. Herald, July 9.

1 Aug. 5, Pierce's Sumner, vol. iv. p. 83.

2 To Count Gasparin, Aug. 4, Lincoln, Complete Works, vol. ii. p. 218. "The enlistment of recruits is now much more rapid than ever before. Our people are beginning to feel a little more serious about the war, but the determination to wage it to a successful termination is stronger and firmer than ever." - John Sherman to his brother, Aug. 8, The Sherman Letters, p. 156. "It would have done your heart good to see the procession of day before yesterday and to-day, the air all aflame with flags, the streets shaking with the tramp of long-stretched lines, and only one feeling showing itself, the passion of the first great uprising, only the full flower of which that was the opening bud." - Holmes to Motley, Aug. 29, Motley's Letters, vol. ii. p. 86. See letter of Louis Agassiz, Life and Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 577; Letters of Asa Gray, vol. ii. pp. 482, 487. Under this call there were furnished 421,465 men. Phisterer's Statistical Record, p. 5.

3 N. Y. Evc. Post, July 2, Tribune, July 4, World, July 2, 3, Herald, July 3.

obtained. Seward took the cue readily, and in his draft of the governors' letter explained that the fresh recruits were needed to follow up "the recent successes of the Federal arms.' 2 But the Northern people were not deceived. Learning after five days of suspense that McClellan's army had reached the James River, they recognized that it had been defeated and forced to retreat. The event was spoken of as a disaster, the news of it causing at once a panic in Wall Street. Days of gloom followed. "Give me a victory and I will give you a poem," wrote Lowell to his publisher; "but I am now clear down in the bottom of the well, where I see the Truth too near to make verses of." 3 There was a noticeable disposition to find fault with Stanton, whose folly in stopping recruiting at the time of the Union successes in the spring was bewailed. Not nearly so marked was the disposition to censure McClellan for the misfortune that had befallen the North, while Lincoln escaped with less criticism from the country at large than either.5

Meanwhile Congress was in session, an observer of military events and a diligent worker in its sphere, though exercising less relative sway and attracting less attention than in a time of peace, for the war caused the executive to trench upon its power and directed all eyes to his acts and the work of his armies. Nevertheless the senators and representatives labored

1 See the despatches, O. R.. vol. xi. part iii. p. 270 et seq.; Julian's Political Recollections, p. 218; Pope's article, Century War Book, vol. ii. p. 455. 2 Life of Seward, vol. iii. p. 104. This was written as early as June 30, before the full tidings of McClellan's retreat were known, but Seward's diplomatic circular of July 7 would have done credit to McClellan himself. See p. 111.

5 New York Times, July 3, 4, Herald, July 4, 6, 8, 10, Tribune, July 4, 5, World, July 4, Eve. Post, July, 3, 5; Pierce's Sumner, vol. iv. p. 83; The Sherman Letters, p. 156; August Belmont to Thurlow Weed, July 20, Belmont's Letters, privately printed, p. 66; Julian, Political Recollections, p. 218; Chandler's Senate speech of July 16, Life of Chandler, Detroit Post and Tribune, p. 234; Letters of Asa Gray to Darwin, July 3, 29.

with zeal, sagacity, and effect. The laws of this session show how much an able and honest Congress may accomplish when possessed of an earnestness and singleness of purpose that will prevail against the cumbrous rules which hedge about the action of a democracy's legislative body, unfitting it for the management of a war.'

Congress at this session 2 authorized the President to take possession of the railroads and the telegraph lines when the public safety required it, recognized the governments of Hayti and Liberia, passed a Homestead Act, established a Department of Agriculture, donated public lands to the several States and Territories for the purpose of founding agricultural colleges, and authorized the construction of a railroad to the Pacific Ocean, giving it aid in land and in government bonds. It created a comprehensive and searching scheme of internal taxation which became a law by the President's approval July 1. This might be briefly described with a near approach to accuracy as an act which taxed everything. So impressed are two writers with its burdensome character that they have added to their summary of its provisions, as an apt description of it, Sydney Smith's well-known humorous account of British taxation in 1820.4 Under this act of Con

1 This was the 2d sess. of the 37th Congress, which lasted from Dec. 2, 1861, to July 17, 1862. Of the nature of its work in general, see Julian, May 23, Speeches, p. 182; Sumner, June 27, Works, vol. vii. p. 144; Wade, June 28, Globe, pp. 3000, 3002; Pierce's Sumner, vol. iv. p. 80 et ante; Nicolay and Hay, vol. vi. chap. v.; Riddle, Life of Wade, p. 318.

2 For important work of this session already mentioned, see vol. iii. p. 630.

3 Approved Jan. 31.

Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress, vol. i. p. 433; W. C. Ford, Lalor's Cyclopædia, vol. ii. p. 577. Their citation is from Sydney Smith's article on America, Edinburgh Review, Jan., 1820. Smith wrote: "Taxes upon every article which enters into the mouth, or covers the back, or is placed under the foot-taxes upon everything which it is pleasant to see, hear, feel, smell, or taste - taxes upon warmth, light, and locomotion taxes on everything on earth, and the waters under the earth on everything that comes from abroad, or is grown at home- taxes on the raw material - taxes on every fresh value that is added to it by the industry of man- taxes on the sauce which pampers man's appetite, and the drug that restores him to

gress, distillers of spirits, brewers of ale, beer, and porter, all other manufacturers, wholesale and retail dealers, men in all kinds of business, whether their trade was to supply necessaries or luxuries, or to furnish amusements (such as proprietors of theatres and circuses and jugglers), lawyers, physicians, surgeons, and dentists were required to pay for licenses. A duty of twenty cents per gallon was imposed on spirits, one dollar per barrel on malt liquors, and that on tobacco and cigars was heavy. Many products and nearly all manufactures and articles were taxed, and carriages, yachts, billiardtables, and plate, also slaughtered cattle, hogs, and sheep, railroad bonds, passports, legacies, and distributive shares of personal property. A duty of three per cent. was laid on the gross receipts of railroads, steamboats, and toll-bridges, on dividends of banks, savings institutions, trust and insurance companies, on the gross receipts from advertisements in newspapers, etc., and on the salaries and pay of officers and persons in the service of the United States above an exemption of $600. On the gross receipts of railroads using other power than steam and of ferry-boats the duty was one and one-half per cent. One tenth of one per cent. was exacted on the gross amount of auction sales. A tax of three per cent. on incomes less than $10,000, and of five per cent. on incomes over $10,000 with an exemption of $600 was imposed,1 although certain deductions were allowable in making the return. Upon the income of citizens residing abroad, there was laid a tax of five per cent. without the usual exemption. Stamp duties were imposed upon every species of paper used

health on the ermine which decorates the judge, and the rope which hangs the criminal on the poor man's salt, and the rich man's spice - on the brass nails of the coffin, and the ribands of the bride at bed or board, couchant or levant, we must pay." - P. 77. Cæsar wrote of Scipio's taxation in Asia: "In capita singula servorum ac liberorum tributum imponebatur; columnaria, ostiaria, frumentum, milites, arma, remiges, tormenta, vecturæ imperabantur; cuius modo rei nomen reperiri poterat, hoc satis esse ad cogendas pecunias Bello Civili, III., xxxii.

1 Income derived from interest on notes or bonds of the United States was only taxed one and one-half per cent.