having been made in her sides and between decks. He now turned his
vessel towards the French coast, hoping to reach it under a full head of
steam and a crowd of sail. It was too late ; the ship was evidently
doomed ; the fires were extinguished in the furnaces ; and when the Kear-
sarge, which pursued her, was four hundred yards distant, Capt. Semmes
hauled down his colours, and prepared to surrender. His vessel was evi-
dently settling under him, and he looked with anxiety to the Kearsarge
for her boats to put out to receive the surrender and rescue her prisoners
from the fate of drowning. No boat came. Instead of despatching relief,
the Kearsarge fired five times upon the Alabama after her colours had been
struck. " It is charitable to suppose," says Capt. Semmes, " that a ship
of war of a Christian nation could not have done this intentionally." But
there is another explanation of this act. It has since become known to
the world that in a certain diplomatic letter from Secretary Seward on
questions growing out of this battle, he has taken the position that the
Federal vessel had choice of a capture of prisoners, or " of sinking the
crew of the pirate ! "

It appeared that nothing but a watery grave awaited the officers and
crew of the Alabama. As the vessel was on the point of sinking, the un-
happy and desperate men leaped overboard, and the waves were soon filled
with drowning men. Happily an English yacht, the Deerhound, was
upon the scene, and having been allowed by the Kearsarge to go to the
rescue, steamed up in the midst of the drowning men, and rescued most
of them from the water. Capt. Semmes was taken by the Deerhound's
boat from the water, as he was sinking for the last time. He turned his
face to the rescuing party, and said : " I am Capt. Semmes — save rae."
He was eagerly taken aboard when his rank was thus known, and, being
covered with a tarpaulin, he was carried to the English yacht, directly
under the guns of the Kearsarge, without attracting any attention from the
vessel.

The loss of the Alabama, in killed and wounded, was thirty ; and on
the Kearsarge not a single life had been lost. But there was another in-
equality of results of n)uch more curious interest. The hull of the Ala-
bama had been fearfully opened by the enemy's shot and shell, and yet the
Kearsarge, after the contest, showed such little evidence of serious damage,
that it did not appear even ne<;essary for her to come into port to repair.



652 THE LOST CAUSE.

The secret came out after the engagement. Tlie Kearsarge had a concealed
armour, that completely protected her from the thirteen or fourteen shots
received in or about her hull. Her midship section, on both sides, waa
thoroughlj iron-coated. This had been done with chain constructed for the
purpose, placed perpendicularly from the rail to the water's edge, the
whole covered over by a thin outer planking, which gave no indication of
the armour beneath. This planking had been ripped oft* in every direc-
tion by the shot and shell of the Alabama, the chain broken and indented
in many places, and forced partly into the ship's side. She was most
effectually guarded, however, in this section from penetration ; and in the
hour's contest the Alabama little knew that she was fighting a mailed
enemy, with scarcely a single chance in her favour.

In commenting on this discovery, the E-ichmond Dispatch referred to
a certain custom of chivalry, that when a knight was discovered in con-
cealed armour his spurs were hacked off by the public hangman. The
Northern public, however, could scarcely be expected to take so fine a
notion ; and Capt. Winslow, the North Carolinian, who commanded the
Kearsarge, easily entitled his exploit among the sensations of the day,
reached the American coast to find himself famous, was overwhelmed with
receptions and dinners in Boston, and had his physiognomy recorded on
the first pages of the New York pictorials.



CAPTURE OF THE PEIVATEEK FLORIDA.

A few weeks later another naval exploit of the enemy was practically
to terminate the privateering service of the Confederates, and to give one
of the most extraordinary illustrations of the enemy's utter disregard of
means in obtaining any desirable result in the war. An account of this
event is properly preceded by an anecdote told in the New York news-
papers, of Admiral Farragut, the naval hero of the North. "When the
Russian Admiral, in 1863, wintered in New York with his fleet, it was an
occasion of receptions and banquets, at one of which occurred the follow-
ing conversation with Admiral Farragut. The latter was complaining
of the American officer who did not capture a Confederate steamer in a
neutral port. " Why, would you have done it ? " asked the Russian.
" Yes, sir," was the prompt reply. " But," ^aid the Russian, " your Gov-
ernment would have broken you." " Of course it would," replied Ad-
miral F. ; " hut wouldnH I have had her ! " The New York journals re-
ported this among the heroic anecdotes of their heroic men ; when it was
simply the brutal expression of advantage, the disowning of all interna-
tional conscience, the characteristic Yankee bluster of might against right.

This curious exposition of international law by the Federal Admiral



OAPTUKE OF " THE FLOKIDA." 553

did not have to wait long for a practical illustration. After the capture of
the Alabama, the enemy appears to have had an increased desire for tho
other important Confederate cruiser, the Florida, carrying eight guns. She
had eluded the Kearsarge at Brest, and since then had ventured within
sixty miles of New York, chasing the war steamer Ericsson, and capturing
the steamer Electric Spark on the route to New Orleans. She was next
heard from at Tenerifie, and subsequently entered the Bay of San Salvador,
Brazil.

The Wachusett, a Federal steamer, was also in this neutral port ; and
her commander. Napoleon Collins, conceived the utterly outrageous and das-
tardly design of sinking the Confederate vessel at her anchorage, or captur-
ing her by stealing upon her in an vmguarded moment, and towing her out to
sea. The circumstances of the outrage were of peculiar atrocity. A little
past midnight of 6th October, the "Wachusett slipped her cables, and bore
down upon the Florida, when about one half the crew of the unsuspecting
vessel were ashore. The Florida's officer on deck, when he saw the ap-
proach of the Wachusett, actually hailed her to avoid an accidental col-
lision as he feared ; little supposing that the Federal vessel was coming
down under a fall head of steam with the diabolical design of sinking
a defenceless vessel with her crew asleep beneath her decks. The blow,
however, was not well delivered, striking the Florida in the stern and not
amidships as intended. As the Wachusett drew off, she demanded the
surrender of the vessel, incapable of resistance, and having in a few mo-
ments boarded her, attached a hawser, and moving at the top of her speed,
towed the Florida rapidly out to sea. Tlie outrage was not discovered by
the Brazilian fleet until the Wachusett with her prize had got out to sea,
and then some harmless shots were fired, which passed over her
pennant.

Of course Mr. Seward had to apologize to the Brazilian Government,
and Capt. Collins had to go through certain forms of censure. But this
was of no importance. Tlie diplomatic apology did not prevent the Florida
fiom being held as a prize, and afterwards being " accidentally " sunk in
Hampton Roads. Aud the official afl;ectation with Capt. Collins did
not prevent the press from lauding him, and the New York Herald from
saying : " Certainly, no page of history can show a more daring achieve-
ment " — another illustration, by the way, of how the North has measured
glory in the war by the very degrees of wantonness and outrage.



INVASION OF MISSOURI BY GEN. PEICE.

In the close of this chay»ter and in the group of events of the war, in
I864j outside of the grand campaigns of Yirginia and Georgia, we may



554: THE LOST CAUSE.

properly place here a brief record of what was the most important of the
detached military operations of 1864. This was a niovement in the Trans-
Mississippi, the invasion of Missouri by Gen, Price. It appears to have
been altogether a detached operation, having no relation to the campaigna
east of the Mississippi, and with but little effect on the general issues of
the Avar. It is therefore narrated in a small space.

About the middle of September, Gen. Price entered Missouri, crossing
the State line from Arkansas, by the way of Pocahontas and Poplar Bluff.
He had about ten thousand men under the command of Gens. Shelby,
Marmadukc, and Fagan. From Poplar Bluff, Price advanced, by the
way of Bloomfield, to Pilot Knob, driving before him the various outpost
garrisons, and threatening Cape Girardeau. Pilot Knob was evacuated,
and Price thus obtained a strongly fortified position, eighty-six miles south
of St. Louis, the terminus of the railroad, and the depot for supply of the
lower outposts.

Gen. Rosecrans, the Federal commander in the Department of Mis-
souri, was largely superiour in force to Price ; but he appears to have
been unable to concentrate or handle his troops, and the country was sur-
prised to find Gen. Price moving almost without molestation through the
large State of Missouri, doing incalculable mischief, and kindling the hopes
of the Confederates with another campaign of wonders in this remote re-
2:iou 6f the war. From Pilot Knob Gen. Price moved north to the Mis-
souri River, and continued up that river towards Kansas. Gen. Custis,
commanding the Department of Kansas, immediatel}^ collected such forces
as he could to repel the invasion ; while four brigades of Federal cavalry,
numbering about eight thousand men and eight rifled guns, were operat-
ing in Price's rear. On the 23d October, Gen. Price was brought to bat-
tle on the Big Blue, and defeated. Gens. Marmaduke and Cabell being
taken prisoners, and the Confederates losing nearly all of their artil-
lery. On the following day. Price was again attacked, near Fort
ocott, and obliged hurriedly to retreat into Kansas. He then turned
down to the south, and crossed the Arkansas River, above Fort Smith,
into the Indian Territory, He subsequently went into winter quar-
ters in the south of Arkansas, his men in worse plight than when they
started from that State, and the conclusion of his campaign an undoubted
failure.

The fact is that Gen, Price had retreated from Missouri, not so much
under the stress of the enemy's arms as from inherent faults in his own
entei-prise. He had declared that his invasion was not a raid, that he came
to possess Missouri ; but the breadth of the excursion, its indefinitencss,
and the failure to concentrate on important points, ruined him. While
his command roamed through the State, his men, brought to the vicinity
of their old homes, which they had not seen for several years, were ex-



price's eetkeat feom anssouKi. 555

posed to unusual temptations to desert ; and instead of being reinforced
by recruits, his command was diminislied by desertions at every step of
the march, and almost ran through his fingers before he left the State.
With this sad conclusion of Gen. Price's expedition, the last hope was
banished from the Soutliern mind of possessing Missouri ; and the opera-
tions of the Trans-Mississippi may be said now to have made their laet
figure of importance in the war.



CHAPTER XXXIY.

THE PKE8IDENTIA.L CANVASS OF 1864 IN" THE NORTH, — ITS RELATIONS TO THK MILITARY 0AM*
PAIGN. — REVIEW OF PARTIES IN THE NORTH. — A GENERAL DISTINCTION FOUNDED ON TWO
QUESTIONS. — COMPOSITION OF THE PARTY OPPOSING MR. LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION.—

THE DOCTRINES OF THE BLACK REPUBLICAN PARTY IMPOSSIBLE TO BE DEFINED. HOW

THE PARTY CHANGED AND SHIFTED THROUGH THE WAR. OPINIONS OF MR. WEBSTER AND

MR. CLAY. — MODERN VERIFICATION OF MR. CLAy's CHARGE OP " AMALGAMATION."

POLICY OF THE BLACK REPUBLICAN PARTY AT THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR. MR. LIN-
COLN'S INSTINCTS OF UNWORTHINESS. — HOW THE PEACE PARTY IN THE NORTH MADE THE
FIRST FALSE STEP. — GROWTH OF THE POWER OF LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. — ITS MEAS-
URES OF TERROUR. MODERATION OF THE CONFEDERACY TOWARDS " UNION MEN " AND

DISSENTIENTS. SOME ACCOUNT OF ARRESTS IN THE NORTH. LINCOLN'S DETECTIVE SYS-
TEM. COMPARATIVE IMPOSSIBILITY OF MAINTAINING AN OPPOSITION PARTY IN THE

NORTH. INFAMOUS CONDUCT OF " WAR DEMOCRATS." THE CONSERVATIVE PHALANX IN

THE CONGRESS AT WASHINGTON. — A RECORD OF ITS VOTES. — REASSURANCE OF THE CON-
SERVATIVE PARTY IN 1864. — THE PARTY ISSUES OF 1864, WITH REFERENCE TO "RECON-
STRUCTION." — CONVENTION OF THE GOVERNiVIENT PARTY AT BALTIMORE. — ITS " PLAT-
FORM." PRETERMISSION OF THE CONDITION OF STATE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. HOW

THIS CONDITION WAS AFTERWARDS INSERTED. MR. LINCOLN'S RESCRIPT, " TO WHOM IT

MAY CONCERN." HISTORY OF THE NIAGARA FALLS COMMISSION. HOW MR. LINCOLN'S

PASSPORT WAS MADE A POLITICAL CARD. — DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION AT CHICAGO. — ITS
DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES. — m'cLELLAN's LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. — SLAVERY NO
LONGER AN ISSUE IN THE WAR. — THE CONSTITUTIONAL POINT AT ISSUE BETWEEN m'cLEL-

LAN AND LINCOLN. THE RADICAL WING OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. THE CLEVELAND

CONVENTION. THE ISSUES OF THE CANVASS AS BETWEEN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, THE

GOVERNMENT PARTY, AND THE RADICAL PARTY. — HOW THE TWO LAST INSTEAD OF THE
TWO FIRST COALESCED. — " RECONSTRUCTION " ANTE-DATED. — A FAINT HINT OF NEGRO
SUFFRAGE. — THE WRITTEN ISSUES OF THE CANVASS BUT LITTLE CONSIDERED. — THE CON-
TEST MAINLY ON THE FOURTH RESOLUTION OF THE CHICAGO " PLATFORM." — ELOQUENCE
OF THE m'cLELLAN CAMPAIGN PAPERS. — THE ELECTION OF m'CLELLAN IMPOSSIBLE IN

VIEW OF THE FEDERAL VICTORIES OF 1864. — TRIUMPH OF MR. LINCOLN AND HIS PARTY.

ANALYSIS OF THE POPULAR VOTE IN HIS ELECTION. A LARGE ELEMENT OF ENCOURAOB-

MENT IN IT. — THE VICTORY OF THE CONSTITUTION POSTPONED.

"We have already referred to the great consideration which attached to
the Presidential contest in the North which was now to take place ; we
have stated that it gave a new hope for the South in 1864 ; and we have



POLrnCAL PARTIES IN THE NOKTH. 557

indicated that the political campaign of this year was, in the minds of the
Confederate leaders, scarcely less important than the military. Indeed, the
two were indissolubly connected ; and the calculation in Richmond was
that if military matters could even be held in a negative condition, the
Democratic party in the North would have tlie opportunity of appealing
to the popular impatience of the war, and bringing it to a close on terms
acceptable to the great mass of the Southern people.

For a thorough discussion of this political campaign it will be well to
make a rapid review and analysis of parties in the North, even at the risk
of some repetition to the reader.

Parties in the North were divided by very distinct lines. There
w^ere two questions upon which the division took place. One of these
referred to the supremacy of the Constitution as opposed to military neces-
sity — real or pretended. The other had reference to the relative powers
of the Union and the States. On both these questions the party in power
held loose and careless opinions, employing force wherever it would avail
for military or partisan advantage. The opposition contended for a strict
observance of the provisions of the Constitution and of the rights of the
States. This was the general distinction.

But widely as the theories of these two parties separated them on
questions touching the sanctity and scope of the Constitution, there was
still a margin of difference left between the views of the Northern Demo-
cratic party and the Southern doctrines upon which the right of Secession
was founded. The difference, however, concerned only the last alternative
of Secession. According to the Northern view, the Union was inviolable
and perpetual, and all grievances must be redressed within the Union by
remedies which respected its integrity. According to the Southern view,
Secession was a rightful remedy for evils otherwise incurable, sanctioned
by the precedent and precepts of the men of 1776.

This latter doctrine had so limited a support at the North, however,
that it was totally unknown in the controversies of parties. There, all, or
nearly all, assumed that the Union was permanent and inviolable — differ-
ences of opinion turning upon the powers of the Union ; the powers of the
Federal Government ; the rightfulness of extra-constitutional measures in
time of war ; and the expediency, and most judicious means of coercion.

The party in opposition to Mr. Lincoln's Administration — most properly
designated as the Constitutional party — was composed chiefly of Demo-
crats, but largely interspersed with Whigs of the stamp of Wm. B. Reed
of Philadelphia, Robert C. Winthrop of Massachusetts, Reverdy Johnson
of Maryland, "Wm. B. Crittenden, and the like. In partisan pariance they
were called " Copperheads," and they were reinforced in the debates,
though generally opposed in the votes, by a class of men who had split
away from the Democratic party, called " War Democrats."



558 ' THE LOST CAUSE.

It would be difficult to state in precise terms the political doctrines
confessedly held by the Black Republican party. After a patient effort
we have desisted from, the attempt. The more responsible avowals and
professions of its leaders cannot be reconciled with the fanatical utter-
ances of its less conspicuous and more active representatives. Its po'-icy as
well as its professions were shaped to suit the liour ; and changed with
evey varying phase of the war. The party was conservative and apolo-
getic in moments of distrust and apprehension ; but always ready to over-
step the limitations of the Constitution, and to burst through the restraints
of law, in seasons of confidence and success. It was as unfaithful to its
own promulgated schedules of faith, and programmes of policy, as to the
laws of the land. It alike disregarded its oaths of fidelity to the Constitu-
tion and pledges of adherence to specific lines of policy. It would, there-
fore, be quite useless to quote from its several creeds and platforms, to
ascertain its principles as a party ; for it would be folly to judge of its
character by its professions.

In sketching the career of one of the parties of the North, we neces-
sarily present a history of that which constantly opposed it. Tlie imme-
diate subject of our review will, therefore, be the Black Republican party ;
which had absolute control of the war throughout, and which, in claim-
ing the credit of its results, assumes the responsibility of its transactions.

As composed at the time of the election of Mr, Lincoln, this party was
not precisely the same as it had been during the first years of its career.
It was a party built up, as we have seen, through many years of efibrt,
upon the agitation against slavery. In the beginning it was despised alike
for its weakness in numbers and for its fanaticism. It received its ideas
from the Anti-Slavery Society of England, and there is no doubt it was
fostered during its early career by pecuniary subsidies from that same
organization. After a few years, it began to acquire importance in the
political contests of the country, as holding a balance of votes capable of
turning the scales in several of the Northern States, where the great par-
ties were nearly equipoised. Although it finally absorbed the great mass
of the Northern Whig party, it was characterized in terms of severe repro-
bation by both Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster. The latter said, with
prophetic truth : " If these fanatics and Abolitionists get power into their
hands, they will override the Constitution, set the Supreme Court at de-
fiance, change and make laws to suit themselves. Finally, they will bank-
rupt the country, and deluge it with blood."

Mr. Clay, in describing its purposes, said of it, in words well nigh veri-
fied already : " The ultras go for abolition and amalgamation, and their
object is to unite in marriage the laboring white man and the black
woman, and to reduce the white laboring man to the despised and de-
graded condition of the black man."



NOKTHERN DOCTKINE OF " AMALGAMATION." 559

The proclaimed purpose of the war of tlie Black Kepublican jarty
npon the Constitution, and of the organization which they proposed of the
Union, was the abolition of slavery, and the securing of equal rights be-
fore the law to the African race. It is difficult to conceive how a party
sliould meditate and plan a revolution of the Government and a radical
rovisal of the Constitution for such a purpose, without desiring to elevate
the negro to a platform of social as well as political equality with the
•white man. 'Nor is proof wanting of the truth of Mr. Clay's grave impu-
tation in this regard. The organs of the party have not been very reticent
or secretive on this subject. From a vast multitude of similar utterances
we quote a few. Tlie New York Tribune often iterates the assertion that
" if a white man pleases to marry a "black woman, the mere fact that she is
black gives no one a right to prevent or set aside such a marriage." The
New York Independent is fond of a theory, that the German, Irish, negro,
and other races have come to America, not for the purpose, each, of propa-
gating its distinct species, " but each to join itself to each, till all together
shall be built up into the monumental nation of the earth ; " " the negro
of the South growing paler with every generation, till at last he com-
pletely hides his face under the snow." Enamoured with the character of
Toussaint L'Ouverture, it says to those who cherish the prejudice of colour
and caste, that " they must cease to call unclean those whom God has
cleansed, that they must acknowledge genius whatever be the colour of
the skin that enwraps it ; and that they must prepare themselves to wel-
come to the leadership of our armies and our senate, as Southern substi-
tutes for Jeff Davis and his drunken Comus-like crew, that have so long
bewitched and despoiled us, black Toussaints, who, by their superiour
talents and principles, shall receive the grateful homage of an appreciative
and admiring nation." Gen. Banks said, when in the House of Repre-
sentatives, that " iu regard to whether the white or black race was su-
periour, he proposed to wait till time should develop whether the white
race should absorb the black, or the black the white." "Wendell Phillips,
the ablest and the boldest of them all, said, in 1863 : "Bemember this,
the youngest of you, that on the 4th day of July, 18G3, you heard a man
say, that in the light of all history, in virtue of every page he ever read, he
was an amalgamationist to the utmost extent. I have no hope for the
future, as this country has no past, but in that sublime mingling of races,
which is God's own method of civilizing and elevating the w^orld. God,
by the events of His providence, is crushing out the hatred of race that
has crippled this country until to-day." Theodore Tilton also said, that,
" the history of the world's civilization is written in one word — which
many are afraid to speak, and many more afraid to hear — and that is,
amalgamation."

These citations are abundant to show the animus and purposes of the



560 THE LOST CAUSE.

men in tbe front rank of the Republican party, who have always brouglit
their colleagues, when necessary, np to their own standard and position.
It is not pretended, however, to deny that there were milder phases of
opinion in the Republican party. There were those who aimed only at
the abolition of 'slavery ; on the idea expressed years before by Mr. Sew-
ard, and reiterated by Mr. Lincoln, that an irrepressible conflict existed in
the Union between slave society and free society, which could only be
allayed by making the Union all slave or all free. There were very few,
if any, who were not determined to use the war as an instniment of aboli-
tion, and to prosecute it, not merely for restoring the authority of the
Union, but also for securing the extinction of slavery in the South. No
such purpose was responsibly avowed in the beginning ; but it was fully
developed by the summer of 1864, when it became, as we shall see, very
soon a leading issue between the Lincoln and M'Clellan parties.

Such were the antecedents, character, and composition of the party
which had succeeded in the Presidential election of 1860. The shock
which the announcement of the result gave to the country was very great ;