ernment of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons."

Effect of

Those few words lifted the load under which the proc- the nation had staggered from its birth. The lamation. slaves in the states which had rebelled would be free at the beginning of another year, and it could not be long after when the slaves in the slaveholding states which had not rebelled would also be free. Men could look into an early future, and see no slave in all the national domain. It did not please them all; for the moment, it did not please most of them. In the elections which soon followed throughout the loyal states, the republican majorities of the presidential vote were changed to a democratic majority against the administration; and though various causes were assigned, such as the condition of trade and the currency, the growing taxes, the arrests on political charges, and the reverses of the campaign, there can be no doubt that the most effective cause of all was the emancipation policy to which the administration stood committed. The British minister, Lord Lyons, wrote home of "a change in public feeling among the most rapid and complete that have ever been witnessed even in this country." Moreover the army and navy, or many officers and men, grumbled that the war for the Union should be turned into a war for the slave. As the president afterwards said, the good results of emancipation were not so immediate as was expected. But he stood firm, and though it was often predicted that the first of January would come and go without a second proclamation from him to give effect to the first, it brought out the following: "I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated states and parts of states [that is, under confederate rule] are, and henceforward shall be,

free. . . . And I hereby enjoin upon the people so de clared to be free to abstain from all violence unless in necessary self-defence. . . And I further declare and make known that such persons, of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States. And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God."

Finances.

CHAPTER XIII.

CIVIL WAR CONTINUED.

SECOND PERIOD.-JANUARY, 1863, TO APRIL, 1865.

LONG before this, the means of paying for the war became a serious question. Prosperous as was the nation, particularly the loyal part of it, when the conflict began, it could not continue so, while wealth was poured out on every side, and labor was largely turned to the battle-field. The banks sounded the first note of alarm by suspending specie payments in 1861. Congress gave the next in February, 1862, by authorizing the issue of United States treasury notes, without redemption, to the amount of $150,000,000 at first, and afterwards of $400,000,000; and these notes were declared to be legal tenders in payment of debts. The volume of irredeemable currency, thus expanding, produced its inevitable effects. In order to obviate them in very small degree, the national bank system was established early in 1863. By this the banks, hitherto state institutions, became national, and their notes were secured by deposits of government bonds at Washington. The circulation was thus materially improved, and bank notes from all parts of the country passed current every where. But the value of the currency remained that of mere paper money, irredeemed and irredeemable. It therefore soon declined. More paper dollars were needed to buy what was before bought by gold and silver, or by paper redeemable in gold and silver. Prices therefore rose, and

persons of limited income found it more limited than ever, while some sank gradually into poverty. On the other hand, those who could profit by the times rose to sudden Government contracts, and the speculations encouraged by the unsettled state of the money market, were turned to the creation of new fortunes. Many made money by dealing in government bonds, of which millions followed millions, as loan followed loan. By March, 1864, the national debt had reached fifteen hundred millions, and this proved just about one half of the amount expended by the nation, not counting state or local expenditures, upon the war. The secretary of the treasury, Mr. Chase, thought his operations highly successful; but the price of gold reached 195 (paper dollars for one hundred gold) in May, 1864, and 285 in July, declining afterwards.

Of all the military and naval movements of the Vicksburg. war, none had hitherto come nearer its object than that which aimed at getting possession of the Mississippi River. One great obstacle remained, indeed more than one; but if one could be overcome, no other would cause any serious difficulty. This one was Vicksburg, once a quiet town, now a noisy stronghold, with long lines of batteries upon its cliffs, and earthworks in its rear, on the holding of which the confederates set a very high value, but not at all higher than its strategic importance merited. General Grant had failed, as we have seen, in his attempt at the close of 1862; but the new year found him intent upon the same object, and after sending a successful expedition up Arkansas River, (January, 1863,) he concentrated his efforts upon Vicksburg. All that he could do on the north and west, or river, sides of the place seemed unavailing, and when he had met with more than enough disappointment to check a commander of average firmness, he resolved upon trying an approach upon the

south and east. This was so hazardous a plan that his most trusted subordinate, General Sherman, protested against it, while Grant delayed reporting it to Washington until interference from that quarter would be too late. He proposed carrying his army down the river, landing on the eastern bank, marching towards the interior, aud then back towards Vicksburg, without any line of communication with the point from which he started, or any other point which he could fix upon as a base of operations. To do this merely with an army was impossible, but with the gunboats on the river, and aid from them throughout the movement, it might be executed. On two different nights, several gunboats ran the confederate batteries, eight miles long, and though suffering from the fire, were soon repaired and ready for service below the fortifications. At the same time, cavalry to the number of seventeen hundred, under Colonel Grierson, were sent to break up the railroads and telegraphs connecting with Vicksburg, and those brave riders made their way through six hundred miles of a hostile country, arriving at Baton Rouge in sixteen days from La Grange, Tennessee. "The Confederacy is a mere shell," reported Grierson. General Sherman was next directed to make a feint of attacking Vicksburg on the north, and then to join Grant on the south. All these precautions having been taken, Grant led his army down the western bank of the Mississippi, crossed at Bruinsburg, (April 30,) defeated the confederates in five battles, (May 2-17,) on the march, first to Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, then to Vicksburg, and more than all prevented General Johnston, commanding the army outside, from effecting a junction with General Pemberton, commanding inside the fortress. On gaining the position which had been intended, Sherman had the magnanimity to confess his mistake in having opposed the plan of his