lines or camps, except when specially ordered by the general commanding."

The general sentiment of the North was decidedly adverse to this order, as it deprived our soldiers of the aid of strong and willing hands, and excluded those from whom alone we could obtain, in many cases, valuable information respecting the movements of the enemy. Still the order met with the cordial approval of the Border States, and of all those who feared that slavery might get harm from the progress of the war. When, subsequently, the whole rebel army at Corinth escaped the outnumbering troops of Gen. Halleck, without the loss of a gun, a wagon, or a man, and our generals, who were facing them, were all left as much bewildered as if the rebels had vanished into air, no one knowing where they had gone, or where they would strike the next blow,-it was said, that had not our faithful allies, the colored men, been excluded from our lines, we should have been thoroughly informed of all their movements. The fidelity and sagacity of these contrabands in communicating intelligence, is quite too firmly established to be questioned.

To meet the vast expenses now accruing, the President was authorized by Congress to issue a National currency of notes, of the denomination of five dollars and upward, to the amount of one hundred and fifty millions of dollars, and also to effect a loan of $500,000,000. Measures were also adopted for a direct tax, and other means of raising a revenue, to pay the interest on this sum.

Early in November, the City Council of Philadelphia presented Gen. McClellan with a sword, in testimony of their confidence in his ability, and their admiration of his conduct of the war. In a beautiful response,

he said,

"I ask you to give my warmest and deep thanks to the honorable body you represent, for this entirely unmerited compliment. I could thank you better if I thought I deserved it, but I do not feel that I do. Nothing that I have yet accomplished would warrant this high compliment. It is for the future to determine, whether I shall realize the expectations and hopes that have been centred in me. The war can not last long. It may be desperate. I ask, in the future, forbearance, patience, and confidence. again thank you, and ask you to convey to the Council my most sincere thanks for the sword. Say to them that it will be my ambition to deserve it hereafter. I know I do not now."

I

The contrabands at Beaufort County, S. C., were a remarkably simple, confiding, docile people, in the most childish state of ignorance, as a body, imaginable. Their condition created great sympathy at the North. A society was organized for their benefit, called the "National Freedman's Relief Association." Under the auspices of this society, early in March, 1862, sixty persons were sent to aid in their material, intellectual, and spiritual elevation. Fifteen of this party were ladies, and some from fami- : lies of the highest rank. There were farmers, mechanics of several kinds, teachers, several physicians, and one or two clergymen. It was a noble enterprise, and one upon which God smiled. The success which attended these labors was wonderful. The testimony is uncontradicted, that the

freedmen were all ready to work, and that their eagerness to learn letters was insatiable.

On the 14th of March, Gen. McClellan, who had secured to a wonderful degree the confidence and affection of his soldiers, issued a very spirited address to the army of the Potomac, announcing his reasons for retaining them so long unemployed. The battle of Bull Run was fought in July, 1861. It was now March, 1862. During all this time the army of the Potomac, numbering not less than 250,000 men, had been kept inactive, save their daily drills behind their intrenchments. From their ramparts the flags of the rebels, in inferior numbers, could be seen. Washington was in a state of siege, and not a transport could ascend the river without running the gauntlet of the rebel batteries. The popular but very unsatisfactory reason which had been assigned for this long slumber was, that Virginia mud forbade the army to advance. In the following brief and spirited address, Gen. McClellan announced his reasons for thus holding the army in repose. The uneasiness of the country, daily growing more intense in view of this long slumber of eight months, rendered it necessary that some explanation should break the silence.

"Soldiers of the Army of the Potomac: For a long time I have kept you inactive, but not without a purpose. You were to be disciplined, armed and instructed. The formidable artillery you now have, had to be created. Other armies were to move and accomplish certain results. I have held you back that you might give the death-blow to the rebellion that has distracted our once happy country. The patience you have. shown, and your confidence in your general are worth a dozen victories. These preliminary results are now accomplished. I feel that the patient labors of many months have produced their fruit. The army of the Potomac is now a real army, magnificent in material, admirable in discipline and instruction, excellently equipped and armed: your commanders are all that I could wish. The moment for action has arrived, and I know that I can trust in you to save our country. As I ride through your ranks I see, in your faces, the sure presage of victory. I feel that you will do whatever I ask of you. The period of inaction has passed. I will bring you now face to face with the rebels, and only pray that God may defend the right."

On the 2d of December Congress met. The President, in his message, said that he did not deem the slavery question of "vital military importance," and accordingly left it "to the more deliberate action of the Legislature." In speaking of the war, he said that he "had in every case thought it proper to keep the integrity of the Union prominent as the primary object of the contest." The Secretary of the Treasury estimated that the public debt, which, on the 1st of July, 1861, was $91,000,000, would, on the 1st of July, 1862, amount to $517,000,000. It was esti mated that the current receipts for the year would amount to $329,500,000, and the expenditure $543,000,000, leaving $200,000,000 to be provided for by loans. The Secretary of War reported that the army consisted of 660,971 men. In four months from the rebel assault upon Sumter, this number of volunteers had been raised. Such a prompt uprising of a great

nation, history has seldom recorded. Of this force, 59,398 were cavalry, 24,688 artillery, 8,397 riflemen and sharp-shooters, and 107 engineers. The increase of the navy was still more astonishing. Notwithstanding the impatience of the public led to continual murmurs, it must be the verdict of history, that on the whole, wonderful energy and wisdom marked the acts of the Navy Department. On the 4th of March, when the new administration assumed power, there were but twelve National vessels in service on the coast, all counted. On the 1st of December there were two hundred and sixty-four war vessels afloat, bearing 2,557 guns, and 22,000 sailors. Of these one hundred and thirty-six had been purchased and one hundred and twenty-eight had been built. Nearly half this fleet were steamers, including three iron-clads, and twenty-three first-class gun-boats. The blockading squadron was divided into three departments. One, under Louis M. Goldsborough, guarded the shores of Virginia and North Carolina. Another, under Samuel F. Dupont, took South Carolina, Georgia and Florida to the Cape, a distance including innumerable inlets of more than a thousand miles. The third, under Wm. W. McKean, took the whole width of the Gulf, from the Capes of Florida to the Rio Grande. Calmly, quietly, resolutely, heedless of 'murmuring storms, Secretary Welles pressed on his way, accomplishing results such as never had been accomplished before. And the navy, true to its pristine renown, achieved triumphs which never had been and never can be exceeded. The eagerness of our countrymen for action was so intense, that even with these achievements, they were dissatisfied. But the sober second thoughts of all will be that the Navy Department, from Gideon Welles, the Secretary of the Navy, to the humblest cabin boy, crowned themselves with honor imperishable.*

* Major John J. Key was asked why the rebel army was not pursued after the battle of Antietam. It is now well known, that had the rebels then been followed up, their whole army could have been easily captured or destroyed, and thus the war would have been virtually ended. He replied: "That is not the game. The object is, that neither army shall get much advantage of the other; that both shall be kept in the field till they are exhausted, when we will make a compromise and save slavery.” For avowing this principle, upon which many of his superiors in office acted, Major Key was very properly dismissed from service. It is in this sentiment that our readers will find the key to many of the mysteries in this most lethargic warfare. Where this spirit did not prevail, there were fightings and victories; where it did prevail, our sons and brothers perished by thousands amidst the miasma of marshes, under the toil of the trenches, and in the gloom of the hospital. It should be remarked that Major Key was an earnest Union man; that he had never been heard to utter a sentiment that could be called disloyal. He wished only to save slavery, with the Union, and deemed its preservation sufficiently important to warrant the sacrifice of armies of patriots.

CHAPTER XVII.

CAMPAIGN OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI.

RIGHT OF SECESSION.-ITS ACCOMPLISHMENT IN LOUISIANA.-BLOCKADING THE MISSISSIPPI.STEAM RAM MANASSAS.-NAVAL EXPEDITION.-GEN. B. F. BUTLER.-SHIP ISLAND.- -PORTER'S MORTAR FLOTILLA.-PILOT TOWN.-ANECDOTE.-FORMIDABLE PREPARATIONS OF THE REBELS.ATTACK OF THE ENGLISH IN 1814 UPON NEW ORLEANS.-PREPARATIONS ON BOARD THE UNION FLEET.-TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEY.-RECONNOISSANCE.-YANKEE INGENUITY.-FORCE OF THE

UNION FLEET.-THRILLING INCIDENT.

THE slaveholders' doctrine of secession, which was got up merely to serve a temporary purpose, is the most insane idea ever cherished outside of a mad-house. That there is a natural right of revolution, no one denies. But that there is a right, under the law, for the state to secede from the nation, involving the right of the county to secede from the state, and the town from the county, and the individual from the town, is a sentiment too absurd for respectful consideration. Nothing but the audacity which slavery engenders would embolden a man to utter it. When England consents to the secession of the county of Kent, taking with it the mouth of the Thames, and France assents to the secession of the province of Lamanche, taking with it the fortresses of Cherbourg, to be ceded at pleasure to England or Russia, then may American statesmen begin to consider the question, whether 376,913 free whites, scattered over the sugar and cotton plantations of Louisiana, may secede from the United States, take with them the mouths of a river which open to an internal navigation of more than 50,000 miles, along majestic streams where hundreds of millions are soon to dwell. According to this doctrine, Fortress Monroe belongs to Virginia, the immense National works at Newport to the little State of Rhode Island, which she can take possession of at any time and cede to England with herself as a naval depot. The vast fortifications at Key West and the Tortugas, reared at an enormous National expense, to protect our limitless commerce in the Gulf, belong to the petty State of Florida, with not 80,000 white inhabitants, and whose naval marine consists of scarcely a dozen fishing smacks. Cherbourg, in France, the wonder of the world, upon this theory, belongs not to the Empire, but to Lamanche; England's great naval depot, at Portsmouth, belongs not to the kingdom, but to the county of Hants. What reply would England make, should that county revolt, and remonstrating against "subjugation," say that all that she wanted was to be "let alone."

The United States purchased Louisiana for $15,000,000; expended countless millions in clearing out the river, constructing forts, light-houses, and all the conveniences for the extensive commerce of the millions soon to throng the most magnificent valley upon this globe. They surveyed the land, and sold it to settlers for a merely nominal price. Three hundred and seventy-seven thousand white people, in the course of half a century, were scattered along the banks of its great central stream, and upon the rich soil which fringed its swamps. They were prosperous in the culture of cotton, and especially of sugar. They were left unrestricted, to form and execute all their local laws. To aid these planters, a tariff was enacted, protecting sugar, that they might compete more successfully with the West Indies. According to the census of 1860, 70,000 of these free whites could neither read nor write.

Under these circumstances, less than one-half of these people decide that they will secede from the United States, take possession of the National forts, arsenals, custom-houses, and mint, and raise the banner of a foreign power over the forts, after having plunged the dishonored Stars and Stripes into the ditch. To these pretenders, thirty millions of Americans to be three hundred millions within the lives of some now born--are to lower their flag, whenever their ships enter the Mississippi River, the great thoroughfare to the commerce of this new world. The man who deems that such a doctrine deserves regard, is a fit candidate for a madhouse.

The act of secession was consummated in the following way. The Governor convened an extra session of the legislature. They voted to call a Convention of the representatives of the people, to be held at Baton Rouge, Jan. 23, 1861. The New Orleans Picayune, of Dec. 23, said, in reference to this Convention: "No plan of conciliation, short of a final settlement of the slavery agitation, by amendments to the Constitution, can, we think, be satisfactory." At the meeting of the Convention, exGovernor Morton, an avowed Secessionist, was chosen chairman, by vote of 81 to 41. A committee of fifteen was nominated by the chair to report an ordinance of secession. The report was accepted, by a vote of 113 to 17. It was also voted that the ordinance should go into immediate effect, without waiting for the ratification of the people, it being assumed that the people would ratify it. When, two months after this Convention had declared, "that Louisiana hereby resumes the rights and powers heretofore delegated to the Government of the United States of America, and its citizens are absolved from allegiance to the said Government, and she is in full possession of all the rights and sovereignty that appertain to a free and independent State," the ordinance was submitted to the people, the vote stood, for secession, 20,448; against it, 17,296. The most intelligent men in the State have declared, that beyond all question, this act of treason would, even then, have been repudiated by the people, had not, in many places, as in New Orleans, the polls been seized by armed mobs, and thousands of peaceable citizens been deprived of their right of voting. As it was, less than 21,000 men assumed to wrest from the control of the United States, the mouths of the Mississippi.