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Chap. IV. ground which slopes westward to the hills, and which was afterwards the scene of the battle of Manassas Gap or Bull Run; the other, west of the Blue Ridge and, therefore, within the Alleghany ranges, held the line of the Shenandoah, and manœuvred, when it was judged expedient, on that of the Upper Potomac, above Harper's Ferry.

On the 17th April, two days after President Lincoln's call for troops, Mr. Davis issued a Proclamation inviting applications for letters of marque and reprisal :

"PROCLAMATION.

"Whereas Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, has by proclamation announced the intention of invading the Confederacy with an armed force for the purpose of capturing its fortresses, and thereby subverting its independence and subjecting the free people thereof to the dominion of a foreign power; and whereas it has thus become the duty of this Government to repel the threatened invasion and defond the rights and liberties of the people by all the means which the laws of nations and usages of civilized warfare place at its disposal.

"Now, therefore, I, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, do issue this my proclamation, inviting all those who may desire by service in private armed vessels on the high seas to aid this Government in resisting so wanton and wicked an aggression, to make application for commissions or letters of marque and reprisal, to be issued under the seal of these Confederate States; and I do further notify all persons applying for letters of marque to make a statement in writing, giving the name and suitable description of the character, tonnage, and force of the vessel, name of the place of residence of each owner concerned therein, and the intended number of crew, and to sign such statement, and deliver the same to the Secretary of State or Collector of the Port of Entry of these Confederate States, to be by him transmitted to the Secretary of State; and I do further notify all applicants aforesaid, that before any commission or letter of marque is issued to any vessel or the owner or the owners thereof and the commander for the time being, they will be required to give bond to the Confederate States, with at least two responsible sureties not interested in such vessel, in the penal sum of 5,000 dollars, or, if such vessel be provided with more than 150 men, then in the penal sum of 10,000 dollars, with the condition that the owners, officers, and crew who shall be employed on board such commissioned vessel shall observe the laws of these Confederate States and the instructions given them for the regulation of their conduct, and shall satisfy all damages done contrary to the tenor thereof by such vessel during her commission, and deliver up the same

when revoked by the President of the Confederate States; and I do Chap. IV.
further specially enjoin on all persons holding offices, civil and military,
under the authority of the Confederate States, that they be vigilant and
zealous in the discharge of the duties incident thereto; and I do, more-
over, exhort the good people of these Confederate States, as they love
their country, as they prize the blessings of free Government, as they
feel the wrongs of the past and those now threatened in an aggravated
form by those whose enmity is more implacable because unprovoked,
that they exert themselves in preserving order, in promoting concord, in
maintaining the authority and efficacy of the laws, and in supporting and
invigorating all the measures which may be adopted for a common
defence, and by which, under the blessing of Divine Providence, we
may hope for a speedy, just, and honourable peace.

"In witness whereof, I have set my hand and have caused
the seal of the Confederate States of America to be
attached this 17th day of April, in the year of our
Lord, 1861.
"JEFFERSON DAVIS."

(Signed)

At the time when this Proclamation was issued, the Confederate Congress was not in Session. It met on the 29th April, and on the 6th May passed an Act "recognizing the Existence of War between the United States and the Confederate States, and concerning Letters of Marque, Prizes, and Prize Goods." 1 This was followed on the 14th May by "An Act regulating the sale of Prizes and the distribution thereof."

On the 19th April the following Proclamation was issued by President Lincoln :—

"PROCLAMATION.

"Whereas an insurrection against the Government of the United States has broken out in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, and the laws of the United States for the collection of the revenue cannot be effectually executed therein conformably to that provision of the Constitution which requires duties to be uniform throughout the United States;

"And whereas a combination of persons, engaged in such insurrection, have threatened to grant pretended letters of marque to authorize the bearers thereof to commit assaults on the lives, vessels, and property of good citizens of the country lawfully engaged in commerce on the high seas, and in waters of the United States;

1 See Note II at the end of the Chapter.

Chap. IV.

"And whereas an Executive Proclamation has been already issued, requiring the persons engaged in these disorderly proceedings to desist therefrom, calling out a militia force for the purpose of repressing the same, and convening Congress in extraordinary session to deliberate and determine thereon:

"Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, with a view to the same purposes before mentioned, and to the protection of the public peace, and the lives and property of quiet and orderly citizens pursuing their lawful occupations, until Congress shall have assembled and deliberated on the said unlawful proceedings, or until the same shall have ceased, have further deemed it advisable to set on foot a blockade of the ports within the States aforesaid, in pursuance of the laws of the United States and of the Law of Nations in such case provided. For this purpose a competent force will be posted so as to prevent entrance and exit of vessels from the ports aforesaid. If, therefore, with a view to violate such blockade, a vessel shall approach, or shall attempt to leave, any of the said ports, she will be duly warned by the commander of one of the blockading vessels, who will endorse on her register the fact and date of such warning, and if the same vessel shail again attempt to enter or leave the blockaded port, she will be captured and sent to the nearest convenient port, for such proceedings against her and her cargo as prize as may be deemed advisable.

"And I hereby proclaim and declare that if any person, under the pretended authority of the said States, or under any other pretence, shall molest a vessel of the United States, or the persons or cargo on board of her, such person will be held amenable to the laws of the United States for the prevention and punishment of piracy.

"In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

"Done at the City of Washington, this 19th day of April, in the year our Lord 1861, and of the Independence of the United States the 85th.

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The blockade thus declared was extended by Proclamation, on the 27th April, to the ports of North Virginia.

The naval resources of the United States were at this time very limited. At the date of Mr. Lincoln's accession, the whole naval force, excluding ships unfinished or otherwise useless for war, consisted of 69 vessels of all classes, only three of which were of the rank of frigates. Of the 69, 42 only were in commission, and of these again the great bulk were on foreign stations. The home squadron numbered 12 vessels, carrying Chap. IV. 187 guns. The available force was subsequently reduced by the loss of the ships destroyed at Norfolk, and of a steamer seized by the Confederates at Pensacola. This small marine was utterly out of proportion to the demands about to be made on it, and no exertion was spared to increase it as rapidly as possible. The East India, Mediterranean, Brazil, and African squadrons were brought home, ships unfinished were pressed on to completion, a great number of vessels, from first-class steamers to ferry-boats and tugboats, were bought or chartered, and such as could be made serviceable for enforcing the blockade were manned, armed, and sent with all speed to the South.1 The naval force employed on this service was divided into two squadrons, one for the Atlantic and the other for the Gulf of Mexico.

Of the blockade itself I shall have occasion to speak hereafter. Here it is enough to say

1. That it was set on foot, as regards the ports of Virginia, on the 30th April, and was extended to the principal ports of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts before the end of May.

2. That it was enforced from first to last as international blockades are enforced. The rules of international, not of municipal, law were invoked and applied. Neutral ships and cargoes were captured, not only at the mouths of blockaded ports, but on the high seasan exercise of force which no municipal law can possibly warrant, and which international law permits only in time of war, and to belligerent Powers. And this exercise of power was sustained by the Courts of the

1 The total number of vessels purchased for the naval service in 1861 was 137; the total number of steamers built and contracted for was 52, of which three were iron-clads. At the close of 1863 the naval force of the United States numbered 588 vessels, complete or in course of completion. Of these 75 were iron-clads.

G

Chap. IV. United States against the complaints of neutral shipowners and merchants, on the express ground that it was a belligerent right, and that the United States were a belligerent Power.1

If at the beginning of the war the naval force at the disposal of the Federal Government was insignificant, compared with the work expected of it and the dimensions it afterwards assumed, it must be added that the revolted States had at the same time no naval force at all. They had, as we have seen, a Naval Department, and had made considerable appropriations for the support of a navy and the purchase of gun-boats, and they had at their command many capable officers who were eager for employment. But they had not a single ship constructed for war, nor had they a large mercantile marine to draw upon. The Southerners were not a seafaring race. Their carrying trade had been divided between foreign shipowners and those of the North; and though their forests yielded ship-timber in abundance, few ships were either built or owned in Southern seaports. All that the Confederate Government could do was to arm as many vessels as it could find, capable of being employed in that predatory warfare which has

3

1 See Note I at the end of this Chapter.

Between the 11th November and the 4th March 56 officers of the United States' Navy resigned their commissions. The number of those who resigned or were dismissed between the 4th March and the 4th June was 259.

3 The tonnage built in Southern ports in 1854 was as follows :

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The total was less than was built in the small State of New Hampshire

alone.

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