LVIII. 1861. 6-23. CHAP. authorities made the most strenuous exertions to increase and organize an army. Jefferson Davis first called for 22,000 men, and soon again for 20,000 more. Their Congress met in called session, and resolved to remove their seat of government from Montgomery to Richmond, intending, no doubt, to "coerce" Virginia to pass an ordinance May of secession, which the majority of the people of the State in an impartial vote would evidently oppose. Virginia's self-constituted authorities handed her over, and she was graciously received into the Confederacy by this Congress, just assembled at Richmond. But the people were promised the privilege of voting on this illegal ordinance of secession on the 23d instant; however, before that day came, all persons expressing Union sentiments were either driven out of the eastern portion of the State or compelled to hold their peace. Even the Mayor of Richmond, by proclamation, enjoined the people to inform him of any persons suspected of being Union in their sympathies (and Northern female teachers were advised by one of the newspapers not to talk). The election by the people was a farce. The portion of the State west of the Blue Ridge was almost free of slaves and could not be "dragooned" into secession; the people there understood the question, and did not choose to fight in the cause, hence they refused to answer the call for troops by Governor Letcher for the Southern confederacy; they also took measures to become separate from the Eastern portion, and in a short time formed a new State known as West Virginia, which as such June in due time was admitted into the Union. The national government threw a protecting force into the new State under General George B. McClellan, and speedily West Vir ginia was as free from armed secessionists as old Virginia of Unionists. 11. In Tennessee the people's vote was disregarded, though by a majority of 50,000 they had decided against secession, yet the legislature led by Isham G. Harris, the governor, in secret session adopted the Constitution of the Confederate WEST VIRGINIA'S LOYALTY-OUTRAGES. LVIII. 1861. 825 States: Upon this act the people were invited to vote on CHAP. the 8th of the next month. Meantime, as .customary, a series of outrages were perpetrated on the Union men, to prevent their voting against the usurpation. Arkansas also May by resolution of a Convention declared herself out of the Union. The Convention proceeded to pass laws by which all moneys due Northern creditors were to be paid into the treasury of the State. The governor of Missouri-Claiborne F. Jackson—was a secessionist, and refused to furnish troops in response to President Lincoln's requisition. But the people themselves, under the leadership of Frank P. Blair and B. Gratz Brown, raised in two months nearly 10,000 men. Captain Nathaniel Lyon, who was in command at St. Louis, suddenly surrounded a rebel camp-Fort Jackson-and captured every man. These had assembled under the pretence of preserving the peace of the State, and had been drilling for weeks; their arms having been secretly sent them from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, whence they had been taken from the United States Arsenal. Previous to this, the energetic Captain Lyon, under orders from Washington, had transferred the arms and war material from the arsenal at St. Louis to Springfield, Illinois. The German element in the population of St. Louis stood bravely for the Union in this crisis. Kentucky hesitated. She wanted to be neutral, but that policy was soon seen to be impossible. Under the influence of John C. Breckenridge, her young men were, for the most part, in favor of aiding the insurgent States. Mass meetings were, however, held in different places, and the most influential men of middle life and upward came out in favor of the Union. Kentucky was only saved by the presence of nearly 20,000 volunteers from the free States over the Ohio river; in truth Maryland and Missouri were also saved to the Union by their nearness to the free States. From the frequent reconnoisances and surveys made by the confederates it was evident they intended to fortify the 6. LVIII. 1861. CHAP. heights of Arlington, of Georgetown and Alexandria, across the river from Washington; they had already occupied many points on the upper Potomac, ready to pass over into Maryland. The insurgent leaders in the Cotton States had sent several thousand soldiers to this army now threatening the National Capital. These leaders had determined, as some of their papers indiscreetly stated, to make the border States, especially Virginia, the battle ground. They were willing to plunge the nation into war, but were anxious to have others suffer the consequences. Howell Cobb, the recent Secretary of the Treasury under Buchanan, said in a speech: The people of the Gulf States need have no apprehension; they might go on with their planting and their other business as usual; the war would not come to their section; its theater would be along the borders of the Ohio river and in Virginia." In truth the Old Dominion was sadly desolated; for four years, over her soil army after army passed and repassed. The devastation was inaugurated by the Confederates themselves, lest any sustenance or shelter should be found for the Union soldiers. 24. General Scott anticipated the movements of the enemy by sending 10,000 troops in three divisions at 2 A. M. to seize the heights and fortify them. The Orange and Manassas railroad was seized, and on it a train having on board 300 Confederate soldiers, who were captured. AlexMay andria was also occupied. In this town over the "Marshall House" had floated for weeks a secession flag, which could be seen from the President's mansion, and to which it was given out the flag was designed as a taunt. Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, of the Zouaves, seeing the flag floating, deter mined to get possession of it. He ascended to the roof, pulled down the flag, and when descending was shot and instantly killed by the proprietor of the house, who a moment after was shot dead by a private soldier who had accompanied the Colonel. The death of young Ellsworth was felt throughout the land, as he possessed remarkable qualities as a commander and disciplinarian. CONCILIATORY SPIRIT-BEAUREGARD'S PROCLAMATION. 827 LVIII. 1861. General Irwin McDowell, in command of the Union CHAP. forces, issued a proclamation in which he enjoined all the officers to make "statements of the amount, kind and value of all private property taken or used for government purposes, and the damage done in any way to private property, that justice may be done alike to private citizens and government." This is given to show the conciliatory spirit of the National Government; these regulations were enforced. Beauregard, in command of the Confederates, a few days later issued a counter-proclamation to the Virginia people in which he said: "A reckless and unprincipled tyrant has invaded your soil. Abraham Lincoln, regardless of all moral, legal and constitutional restraints, has thrown his Abolition hosts among you, who are murdering and impressing your citizens, confiscating and destroying your property, and committing other acts of violence and outrage too shocking and revolting to humanity to be enumcrated." It is due to the truth of history that these facts should be noticed, as it was by such gross misrepresentations the mass of the people of the South were deceived before and during the war. The Secretary of State, Mr. Seward, announced to our ministers abroad the policy of the Government in relation to foreign intervention. To Charles Francis Adams, at the British Court, he wrote: "You will make no admissions of weakness in our Constitution, or any apprehensions on the "You will in no case listen to part of the Government." any suggestions of compromises by this Government under foreign auspices with its discontented citizens." To Mr. Dayton, Minister to France, he said: "The President neither expects nor desires any intervention, nor even any favor, from the government of France or any other in the emergency." "If several European States should combine in that intervention, the President and the people of the United States deem the Union, which would then be at stake, worth all the cost and all the sacrifice of a contest May 11. CHAP. with all the world in arms if such a contest should prove inevitable." LVIII. 1861. May 21. In respect to the blockade the Secretary wrote to Mr. Adams: "You say that by our own laws, and the laws of nations, this Government has a clear right to suppress insurrection. An exclusion of commerce from National ports, which have been seized by insurgents in the equitable form of blockade, is a proper means to that end. You will not insist that our blockade is to be respected if it is not maintained by a competent force; you will add that the blockade is now, and it will continue to be so maintained, and therefore we expect it to be respected by Great Britain." The astonishment of the American people at the posi tion taken by England almost equaled their indignation. For many years invectives without number were thrown upon them, especially those of the free States, by influential persons in England, because they did not take political measures to abolish slavery, and thus violate the compromises of the Constitution made in other days, when the moral, political and economical evils of the system were not so well known. But now, when the slave States had entered upon a war to protect and extend slavery, they had, with few exceptions, the full sympathy of the ruling class of England. Swift sailing vessels and steamers, with little hindrance on the part of the government, were fitted out from her ports laden with munitions of war to aid the Rebellion. The Queen, or rather the government, issued a proclamation of professed neutrality, putting the Confederates on the same footing as the United States Government. The cotton manufacturers and the iron interests, representing many millions of money, and employing several hundred thousand operatives, were in favor of recognizing the Confederacy. The former of these were nearly ruined by the want of cotton, which was cut off by the blockade, and the latter by the loss of the American market, as the tariffs |