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conclusion of the war, though only, it appeared, upon sufficient testimony being furnished that such owners had been loyal citizens of the United States since the date of the vouchers. In another General Order, it was stated that no supply or baggagetrains of any description would accompany the cavalry forces in that command, unless so stated in the order for the movement. Two days' cooked rations would be carried on the persons of the men, and all villages and neighbourhoods through which they might pass would be laid under contribution in the manner already specified. This was a heavy blow against the people of the Confederate States, as distinguished from the armies themselves, and was the extreme measure of a man of extreme opinions, bent on striking terror as a means of ensuring victory. Another order made the people along the railways and telegraphic lines responsible for any damage done to them, and liable to be called upon for their repair. If a soldier was fired upon from any house, that house was to be razed to the ground. All disloyal citizens within the power of the army were to be arrested at once, and, unless they took the oath of allegiance, and gave sufficient security for its observance, were to be conducted beyond the extreme pickets. If again found within the lines, they were to be treated as spies, and subjected to the extreme rigour of military law. These and similar orders led to much pillaging of private property, and to some arbitrary and cruel acts, that exasperated instead of quelling the South. The Confederate Government retaliated by an order declaring that General Pope, and the commissioned officers serving under him, were not entitled to be considered as soldiers, and would therefore not be admitted to the benefit of cartel for the parole of future prisoners of war. In the event of an unarmed citizen or inhabitant of the Confederacy being murdered by virtue of the orders issued by General Pope, it was declared to be the duty of the General commanding the forces of the Confederacy to cause to be immediately hanged, out of the commissioned officers of the Federal army who might happen to be prisoners at the time, a number equal to that of the Southern citizens or inhabitants who had in this way been put to death. By his ill-judged orders, Pope had contrived to give the struggle a character of deliberate ferocity, such as it had not hitherto possessed.

The main divisions of General Pope's army were now stationed partly at Culpepper Court House (distant about seventy miles both from Washington and Richmond), and partly at Fredericksburg, which was connected with Washington by steamboat navigation and railway. The total strength of his

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army he estimated at 38,000 men, and one part of his design was to cover Washington, while at the same time he diverted a portion of the Confederate army then threatening McClellan. His line extended from the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, on the right, to the lower fords of the Rappahannock, on the left; and on the 14th of July he pushed forward his cavalry towards Gordonsville, on the Virginia Central Railway, at the same time directing General King, at Falmouth, to make a reconnaissance in force along the Rich mond and Fredericksburg Railway. Very little resulted from these movements, and for a while nothing of importance was attempted on either side. But at the beginning of August the Federal out-pickets reported that the enemy was advancing in the direction of Madison Court House, and also from Gordonsville towards Culpepper Court House. On the 8th of that month, Jackson crossed the Rapidan, and took up a position near the main road from Gordonsville to Culpepper. Fighting did not occur until the following day, but an obstinatelycontested action then took place in the vicinity of a hill called Cedar Mountain. The battle commenced at five P.M., and continued until late in the evening, by which time the Federals had been driven back about a mile. The action might perhaps have been resumed on the following day, but for a disastrous incident which occurred late at night. The light of a bright moon showed the Confederate artillerymen that their adversaries, as they bivouacked on the ground, were within range of their guns. They at once opened fire, and a panic spread through a portion of the Federal army. Some of the Confederate cavalry then charged the weary and dispirited troops, and Pope himself, with the officers of his staff, narrowly escaped capture. The loss on both sides was very serious, especially on that of the Federals; but, the latter having been reinforced, General Jackson retreated during the night of the 11th, and, re-crossing the Rapidan, got safely off. The Federal Government was so much alarmed at this exploit of the redoubtable "Stonewall" Jackson, that McClellan was ordered to detach the divisions under General Burnside (who had recently been recalled from North Carolina), and send them to Aquia Creek. At the same time, McClellan himself was to retreat to Yorktown and Fortress Monroe with a view to ulterior movements. The stores, baggage, and sick, belonging to the sometime Army of the Potomac, were shipped on board the transports at Harrison's Landing, and from the 17th to the 20th of August the army marched by way of Williamsburg to Yorktown and Newport News. The defences at

MARCH PAST OF THE GARIBALDI GUARD BEFORE PRESIDENT LINCOLN.

for nine months, unless sooner discharged, a body of 300,000 militia. It was at the same time decreed that if any State should not by the 15th of August have furnished its quota of the additional 300,000 men thus authorised, the deficiency in that State would be made up by special draft. It was likewise ordered that regulations should be prepared by the War Department, with the object of securing the promotion of officers for meritorious and dis

tinguished services, of preventing the nomination and appointment of unworthy officers, and of ridding the service of such incompetent persons as then held commissions, of whom, it is to be feared, there were at that time not a few. President Lincoln was resolved to win, if only the people were alike determined. He believed their determination was equal to his own, and, after many trials, the end justified his view.

IN the conflict of embattled hosts now going on over a large part of what had once been the American Union, the contentions of party were to a great extent allayed. Yet this can never be entirely the case in countries that are governed on the representative system; and although, in the political circles of the United States, there was no longer the broad distinction of North and South, the Democratic and Republican parties yet existed, and made themselves felt in the conduct of affairs. The Government was in truth influenced by both, and stood in a sort of medium position which gave satisfaction to neither. Mr. Lincoln, although elected by the Republicans, leant so far towards the policy of their rivals as to be unwilling to handle, in any bold or revolutionary style, the institution of the South out of which the civil war had grown. On the other hand, he acknowledged the pressure of the political bodies who had sent him to the White House, by approximating in some degree towards their views, so as to be constantly meddling with the question of slavery in a tentative and hesitating way. On the 7th of April, Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State, and Lord Lyons, the British Ambassador at Washington, had signed a treaty (ratified and exchanged at London on the 20th of May) by which rovision we male for the

suppression of the African slave-trade, and a mutual right of search, as respected merchant-vessels, was established. In home affairs, the position of the negro was constantly receiving some favourable interpretation. Taken altogether, as regarded their influence on the President, the Republicans were in the more powerful position, and especially the extreme section of that party-the Abolitionists. The future was clearly theirs, for they alone stood on the ground of broad and intelligible principles. All the highest forces of modern opinion fought on their side, and guaranteed their ultimate success; yet they had still to overcome the jealousy of the Democrats, the fears of the timid, and the conservative inclinations of the office-holders. The Democrats were beginning to get alarmed, and on the 1st of July held a meeting at the Cooper Institute, New York, at which "the Union as it was, and the Constitution as it is," were declared to be the objects of the party. It was desired to conciliate the South; but the South was not to be conciliated, except at the price of granting every one of her demands, and in that case what had the North been fighting for? The day of compromises was past, and it was manifest that the Union could never be reconstructed on the old lines.

1862.]

People now began to talk of employing the negro in the making of entrenchments, and the execution of other laborious works, as, indeed, the Southerners had already done. To this effect, measures were passed through Congress in the summer of 1862; but that was not all. A Bill to amend the Militia Act of 1795 was discussed about the same time, when it was proposed to include men of colour in the ranks of the non-professional army; but the suggestion met with much opposition. Still, the views of the extreme party found plain expression, and one member of the Senate went so far as to say that he would organise a great army of black men, and desolate every Southern State, rather than that the Union should be destroyed. By an Act which came into operation on the 17th of July, it was decreed that any coloured man or boy rendering service to the Federal armies, and belonging to a rebel owner, should at once and for ever be made free, together with his mother, wife, and children, supposing the latter to belong also to active enemies of the Union. Another Bill approved on the same day, and entitled "An Act to suppress insurrection, to punish treason and rebellion, to seize and confiscate property of rebels, and for other purposes," enacted that all slaves of rebels who might come within the power of the Federal authorities should receive their freedom, and that no fugitive negro should be hindered of his liberty, unless it could be shown that his owner was loyal to the Government of the United States. The President was at the same time empowered to employ as many persons of African descent as he might deem necessary for the suppression of the rebellion, and might organise and use them in such manner as he should judge best for the public welfare. The feeling, however, was so strong against making soldiers of black men, that little was then done in the way of recruiting. With respect to the last-named Act there was some difficulty. Mr. Lincoln objected that it was beyond the power of Congress to free a slave within a Slave State; but ultimately, on a clause being introduced, somewhat qualifying the original measure, yet leaving untouched the provisions having reference to the slaves of rebel proprietors, the President signed the Bill, and it became law.

Nevertheless, the President was far from being a convert to Abolitionism. His views on this subject were tersely expressed in a letter to the late Mr. Horace Greeley, written on the 22nd of August in reply to some remarks addressed to him by that gentleman in the columns of his journal, the New York Tribune. Mr. Lincoln here said:"As to the policy I seem to be pursuing,' as you say, I

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have not meant to leave any one in doubt. I would save the Union. I would save it in the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored, the nearer the Union will be-the Union as it was. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object is to save the Union, and not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the coloured race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and shall do more whenever I believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views. I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty, and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free." Nothing could be clearer than the statement of principles here set forth. Mr. Lincoln was, so to speak, in charge of the United States, and he made it his first of duties not to be false to his trust.

It was commonly objected at the time, by those who were eager to say anything that might damage the Northern cause, and help the fortunes of the Confederacy, that the President exhibited in this letter an almost cynical indifference to the future of the slaves, and made the preservation of the Union his one great end; and it was insinuated that, such being the case, the quarrel of the North was no better than that of the South. These writers put entirely out of view the highly important fact that Mr. Lincoln, like all his predecessors, had been elected to the Presidency for the very purpose of upholding the Union during his term of office, and not at all for the purpose doing away with slavery. The progress of events -the pressure of absolute necessity-might compel him to adopt the latter course as a revolutionary measure; indeed, it was evident that everything was tending to that result at the time when the President wrote his letter to Mr. Greeley. But, as a constitutional ruler, he was bound to forbear from revolutionary acts as long as he could-until, in

of