but it was not greater than that which was felt by the successful party itself.
Composed of extreme fanatical elements, and brought for the first time
face to face Mith the serious and grave responsibilities of oflice, under that
Union to which so many of them had avowed a bitter hostility, and under
that Constitution to which they were obliged to swear support, and which
they designed to subvert, they at once began to realize the serious diffi-
culty of their position. That which most added to their embarrassment,
however, was the fact that they had carried the election by only a plural-
ity vote. They had received no support in one half of the Union ; and
in the other half, they had triumphed by only a majority of suffrages.
They could not command a majority in either House of Congress ; and
they felt that if the election could be held over again, the classes which
were esteemed to embrace the intelligence, worth, and patriotism of the
country, would rally together, make common cause against them, and de-
feat their accession to power.

Thus circumstanced, it was the interest of the Republican party, as a
party, that the secession movement should go on, and that the threatened
dissolution of the Union should be consummated. We have already seen
signs of their policy secretly to exasperate the feelings and confirm the
purposes of the South ; and, with professions of conservatism and devotion
to the Union, to secure to themselves in administering the Government
the support of the classes who had opposed them at the North.

We might make here a large accumulation of proofs of the fact that
the Black Republican party, on its accession to power, wanted dissolution
and wanted war ; but we are not aware that it is now denied. It is a his-
torical truth. It is a historical conviction, confirmed alike by the action



HTPOCEISY OF THE EEPUBLICAN PARTY. 561

the interests, and the avowals of the party. It is indeed a fact which they
have taken no pains to conceal.

Although this party, after securing unrestrained command of the power
and patronage of Government, shaped its policy at will throughout the
war, and prosecuted their measures with haughty and arrogant indiffer-
ence to the protests and resistance of the opposition, yet they had coma
into posesssion of office with alarm and humility. Not only were they in
a minority of numbers, but they felt that they were hostile to the Constitu-
tion to which they were about to swear fidelity, and to the principles on
which it had been administered from its foundation. They felt conscious
that their success in the election had given a shock to the institutions of
the country, and that both their capacity for administering the Govern-
ment in the spirit of its institutions, and their fidelity to the Union and to
the organic law were greatly, and with reason, distrusted. Mr. Lincoln's
personal conduct in the emergency betrayed these instincts of unworthi-
ness. His speeches during the progress from Springfield to Washington
were a continual apology for his party and for his election ; and his well-
remembered inaugural address was an appeal to the country against being
judged by the avowals and proclaimed tenets of the party which had
elected him. It may be said that by the moderate declarations of the
Republican party at the outset of the war, the suspicions of the conserva-
tive classes of the IS^orth were allayed, and the opposition party completely
disarmed. Care had been taken to withhold these pacific utterances until
too late for them to reclaim the South. The ITorth placed entire faith in
them ; the South placed none at all. They failed to save Virginia, North
Carolina, and Tennessee ; and it required the most energetic employment
of force, threat, and cajolery, even to retain Maryland and Kentucky. To
reclaim the South, however, was not the object. The aim was to yoke
the whole North into support of the measures which were meditated, and
which it was intended gradually to develop. The scheme completely suc-
ceeded. The Constitutional peace party were silenced everywhere. The
war feeling grew with astonishing rapidity. It carried away many of the
more prominent men of the opposition. But it is to be admitted that from
the reduction of Sumter down to the close of the war there was a Con-
stitutional party in the North, which, although unable to do more than to
make continual protest against the conduct of the ruling party, yet did
make this protest with ability, manliness, consistency, and dignity. The
difiicTJilty was, it had not power during the war to put any check upon its
career.

Those who have studied the characteristics and idiosyncracies of the
Northern people, and have observed their fondness for an affected enthu-
siasm, and their proneness to give way to gregarious impulses, however
absm-d and reprehensible, were not surprised at the alacrity with which
36



562 THE LOST CAUSE.

the masses of even moderate men ruslied into the war movement, at the
piping of the war party, and at the appeal of the drum and fife. So soon
as individuals found the throng tending that way, they rushed enthusiasti-
cally into what seemed the popular current ; and the very men who but
yesterday were loud in condemnation of the aggressive and incendiary
purposes of the Kepublicans, to-day made amends for their tardy Unionism,
by a precipitate enlistment in the ranks of the Administration.

It is the first step which costs. The peace party was a peace party no
longer. A few consistent men remained, but the party disappeared for a
period. Conservatism underwent almost a total eclipse. Opposed to war ;
averse to the principle of coercion ; believing in the superiour efl&cacy of
pacific over belligerent measures for restoring the Union ; regretting every
blow that was struck and every drop of blood that was shed in the contest,
the party of the Constitution, of fraternal Union, of law, of order, and of
peace, found itself compelled, first in one step, then in another, then in all,
to support the war, to vote men and means for its vigorous prosecution, for
sixty days, for ninety days, for the first campaign, and then, on and on, to
a successful conclusion. They thought to bide their time, and to employ
every opportunity that should ofier in the interests of peace ; but the op-
portunity never came ; the fury of the war-storm, increasing as it pro-
gressed, and engulfing and carrying away everything in its course, swept
down all who talked of peace. The vast patronage brought to the Admin-
istration made it omnipotent, and enabled it to appeal with efi"ect to the
passions alike of the avaricious, the ambitious, the adventurous of all sorts
and conditions of men. As the costliness of the war increased, and tlie
number of offices and the profitableness of contracts augmented, so its
powoi* in the country grew and waxed more and more irresistible.

We are not inclined to judge the peace party of the ITorth too harshly.
The arguments which led them to sanction and sustain the first measures
of the Administration were such as could not well be resisted by a party
believing in the inviolability of the Union, and the duty of suppressing
all attempt at disruption. They were beguiled into the first belligerent
measures by the conservative tone and pledges of Mr. Lincoln and Mr.
Seward ; and they were, moreover, deceived into the belief that prompt
and vigorous steps were the surest means of preventing a protracted, ex-
pensive, and bloody war. It was these first steps, taken under a sense of
duty to the Union, taken, as they thought, really in the interests of peace,
that involved them inextricably in the war. They ought to have remem-
bered that all negotiation ends with the first blow and the flow of blood ;
that, then, it is a question of force, and no longer one of right and reason ;
that war is like that cave of bones and carcases in mythology into which
led many tracks, but out of it, none.

Much of the apparent unanimity which prevailed in favour of the war



MODERATION OF THE CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES. 563

was the result of terroiir. The people of the North seem to have a pecu-
liar dread of public opinion. The great majority will not only surrender
their own convictions to what happens to be the popular caprice, but they
will join the populace in persecuting those who entertain their own pre-
vious convictions. It was so in the crisis under consideration. But very
effective measures were taken by the Government in aid of this spontane-
ous instinct of terrour. They revived the system of espionage and arrests
which had been employed in France by Robespierre and Fouche. At
first, it was pretended that the arrested persons held secret correspondence
with the Southern authorities ; but soon all disguise and hypocrisy were
thrown off, and arrests were made on charges, even suspicion, of mere dis-
loyalty. It was held that the safeguards which the Constitution threw
around citizens, protecting them " in their persons, houses, papers, and
effects against unreasonable searches and seizures ; " guarantying them a
speedy trial in open court of law, and giving them by the writ of habeas
corpus the right to know at once the charge against them, and to have the
validity of that charge examined by a judge having power to discharge ; —
it was held that these provisions were put in abeyance by the state of war,
and that the liberty of the citizen was not to be considered when the na-
tion's life was at stake.

At the South, where great armies were penetrating and beleaguering
the country, where public and domestic danger were everywhere and at
all hours present, and where disaffection could at any moment bring fear-
ful calamity upon the community, these arrests by order of Government
were rare. It was a constant complaint of Generals in the field, and of
civil officers in the municipal service, that when dangerous persons guilty
of overt acts of treason to the Confederacy, were arrested and sent to Rich-
mond, they were, as a general rule, released on the most rm satisfactory
explanations, and let loose again upon the country. Much has been said
of the sufferings, humiliations, and spoliations inflicted upon " Union " men
in the South ; and infinite, ingenious, and unblushing falsehoods have been
published on the subject ; but when the period arrives for a dispassionate
examination of real facts, the reader of the history will be amazed at the
moderation which was observed by the Southern people, more especially
by the Confederate Government, towards a class of persons capable of so
much mischief in a society threatened by imminent and fearful peril from
within and without.

But at the North, there was no necessity for arbitrary arrests. The
country was not invaded. The war was at a distance ; and was offensive,
not defensive. Except in portions of the Border States, the public sentiment
was unanimous as against the South ; opinions only differing as to the
best means of reducing the distant " rebellion." Yet a system of terrour
was established, which could only have been warrantable at the South,



6Qi: THE LOST CAUSE.

aud was held to be unnecessary even there, l^o shadow of excuse existed
for considering the North or any State of the North as disloyal ; on the
contrary, Democrats and Republicans poured out their money by millions,
and sent their young men by hundreds of thousands to the support of the
flag. Yet in the first weeks of the war, a system of arbitrary and despotic
seizure and imprisonment was inaugurated, which continued even after the
surrenders of Lee and Johnston. The number of arbitrary arrests that
were made in the whole period of the war is variously estimated at from
ten to thirty thousand. The great mass of arrested persons never had a
trial, and knew nothing of the charges, if any at all, on which they were
imprisoned. In the great majority of cases, not only was the writ of habe-
as corpus refused, but applications to be examined by officers selected by
the Government itself were refused. Prisoners, suddenly arrested and
dragged to prison, without an opportunity of seeing their families or
arranging for the continuance of their business, after long incarcerations,
were not only denied an examination of their cases, but they were offi-
cially informed that the employment of counsel was distasteful to the
Government, and would prejudice their applications for trial and release.
Though arrests were made at the suggestion of anonymous letters, yet
letters from the persons imprisoned applying for release or for trial were
left unopened, and often returned in that condition to their authors.
Finally, it was determined, that not only should the ground of arrest be
withheld from the imprisoned, but the fact of arrest be withheld from the
public ; detective officers being prohibited from reporting the cases of
arrest to the press, or permitting an inspection of their books. Of course
under this system, the number of denunciations against suspected persons
became burdensome to the Central Government ; and such paragraphs as
the following began to appear in the official newspapers :

" Eight hundred names are now entered on the hooks of the secret police in New-
York city, of persons suspected of treason, and many arrests will be made." — H. Y.
Tribune, Sept. 6, 1861.

" A large number of arrests ai'e daily made at the North, the number averaging ten or
twelve a day. These are made generally on complaints lodged with the departments at
Washington. The Government is somewhat annoyed and astonished that petty cases of
treason should be sent there for consideration. Any military commander can commit for
treasonable acts, and the local officers should promptly act themselves." — Hartford
Courant, Sept. 6, ISG-i.

The arrests soon became very flagrant in their manner and character.
Clergymen were seized while at prayer at the altar on the sabbath-day.
Judges were seized for judicial opinions rendered on the bench. Ladies
were seized and imprisoned, subjected to nameless insults, forbidden the
visits of friends, hurried from prison to prison, and indecently treated by



KEIGN OF TERKOUK IN THE NORTH. 665

officers. Mourners were seized at funerals, while burying their dead
Young children were arrested and imprisoned for months, in some cases
for years. The victims of these proceedings were in many iustancea
driven to lunacy and to suicide, some of them dying under their severe
usage. Tlie detective system took the feature of eaves-dropping, and
domestic servants were enlisted in the pay of Government. Arrests wei-e
often made on the most frivolous and contemptible pretences. A father,
hearing that his son was shot instantly dead in battle, exclaimed, "That ia
good," meaning to express his relief at the thought that he had escaped
the agonies of a lingering, painful death ; he was arrested for the " dis-
loyal " expression, hurried precipitately to Camp Chase, and imprisoned
for two months before the privilege of explanation was accorded him.
Two ladies of undoubted loyalty were arrested in a carriage in the streets,
for raising their handkerchiefs, and passing them several times over their
months. They were suspected of making signs to prisoners ; whereas they
had been eating an orange. The system of terrour was employed not only
in the Border States, but was put in practice everywhere. In far in-
teriour towns, where the idea of danger from the rebels was supremely
ridiculous, it was as active as in Washington city or 'New Orleans. A
single clergyman in Central ISTew York, wrote thirty letters in two months,
sending lists of his neighbours whose arrest he demanded. An order was
issued by the President to all policemen in the country, commanding their
services in these seizures. State machinery was thus brought to tlie help
of this nefarious business. The system was vigorously employed for parti-
san purposes. " Democrat " was held to be synonymous with " traitor,"
and being a " Democrat " was often the only ground for arrest.

We make this recital to show how impossible it was, for a while, to
maintain an opposition party at the North. The power of a Government,
wielding a patronage of many hundred millions of dollars per annum, and
supported by an army of more than a million of soldiers, half of them kept
habitually in the North, and allowed to resolve themselves into a mob on
the slightest pretence, was too great to be opposed by reason and argu-
ment, when brought to bear without scruple and with despotic ferocity
upon a helpless and paralyzed op2>osition. Passive submission to despotic
rule, being a necessity, became a temporary dutj'. We have no heart nor
right to censure those who remained consistent though often silent oppo-
nents of the Administration, during such a period of force and terrourism.
But there was a class of original conservatives, who did not remain pas-
sive ; who went over heart and hand and soul to the Eepublican party ;
and who vied with the minions of power in intemperance of speech and
violence of action. The principal authors of the enormities that were
pei-petrated will receive the due sentence of history ; but what will be the
ignominy that will attach to the names of men, who, in the character of



566 THE LOST CAUSE.

" "War Democrats," deserted their political associations, apostatized from
the principles which they had all their lives upheld ; espoused the arbi-
trary doctrines, seconded the despotic practices, imbibed the truculent ani-
mosities of the ascendant party ; and prosecuted the war in the vindictive
spirit and for the revolutionary purposes avowed by the worst enemies of
the Union and the Constitution !

In spite, however, of the ferocity of the Government and its minions,
there was never a day during the war in which the conservative party
failed to present a small phalanx in Congress to make opposition to the poli-
cy of the Government, and to raise a continual protest against its uncon-
stitutional proceedings. Did sj)ace suffice, it would be interesting to re-
capitulate here the several votes which this small party gave upon succes-
Bive measures considered by Congress. A very few instances must serve
to illustrate their courage and fidelity to the Constitution.

Against the Confiscation Bill, the vote in the House of Representatives
was 42 ; in the Senate, 13. Against the emancipation of the slaves of
persons engaging in the rebellion, the vote in the House was 66 ; in the
Senate, 11. Against striking out from the Confiscation Act the clause
limiting the forfeiture to the ofi'ender's natural life, the vote in the House
was 76 ; in the Senate, 13. The vote in the House against the resolution
declaring that the United States ought to co-operate with any States in
gradually abolishing slavery, was 36 ; in the Senate it was 10. Against
the scheme of compensated emancipation in the District of Columbia, the
vote in the Senate was 19, in the House 39. Against the proposition of
ouquiry into the practicability of inaugurating a scheme of compensated
emancipation in the Border States, the vote in the House was 52, Against
the bill repealing the Fugitive Slave Act, the vote in the House was 62 ;
in the Senate, 12, Against the bill authorizing a suspension of the writ of
habeas corpus the vote (March 3, 1863) was 45, in the House ; in the
Senate it would have been 13, but failed by accident to be taken by roll-
call. This bill also indemnified the President and other officers of Govern-
ment for arrests and seizures, not only in respect to subsequent but pre-
vious acts. An eloquent protest against the bill was signed by thirty-six
members, who moved ineffectually to have it placed on the journal. The
Government frequently suiDpressed newspapers ; and the Postmaster-
General forbade the transmission of journals characterized as disloyal
through the mails. An effort to bring this subject before Congress was
resisted by a majority of the House ; the vote in favour of considering
some action in favour of the liberty of the press, was 54. Against the
resolution in favour of submitting the Amendments for the abolition of
slavery in the United States, the final vote in the House (January 3, 1865),
was 56 ; in the Senate, 6. Against the bill by which it was proposed to
limit the action of the President in the readmissioc of insurgent States,



PABTT ISSUES OF lS6i m THE NOETH. 567

overrun and subdued bj the Federal power, and to subject these States tc
extra Constitutional conditions before readmission into the Union, the vote
in the House was 60 ; in the Senate, 14.

These examples are sufficient to show how a small Constitutional party
in the IS^ortli held to their principles throughout the dark period of usur-
patioii and despotism. As the conservative party became less awed by
'■.errourism, they became less restrained in speech and action. In the
progress of time, divisions began to arise in the Black Republican party,
and protests to proceed from Black Republican politicians. Democrats,
•who, absorl:)ed in military operations in the distant fields of campaign, had
for some time given no attention to internal and domestic concerns, having
the indisputable right of soldiers to speak their sentiments, began to give
expression to the disgust and alarm" which the arbitrary proceedings of the
Administration had naturally excited. Thus tlie opposition grew formi-
dable as the term of Mr. Lincoln drew towards a close ; and parties for and
against the Administration began to be organized, and issues of iDrinciple to
be evolved and defined, for the approaching Presidential canvass.

The party issues for 1864 turned in a measure upon the conditions of
reconstruction ; and three sets of opinion on this subject were developed
in the course of the canvass. The Constitutional party held to the ground
that the sole rightful object of the war had been the suppression of the
rebellion ; and that, so soon as the power of the rebel authorities in any
State was crushed, the State was by that fact already restored to the
Union, from which it had never been legally separated ; and nothing re-
mained to be done but the restoration of the lawful State Government.
This position was afterwards compendiously expressed by their candidate,
Gen. McClellan, in the declaration : " The Union is the sole condition of
peace — we ask no more."

As will be seen in the sequel, the Administration or Government party
went into the canvass on the issue of simple coercion ; proposing indeed to
bring the insurgent States into the Union divested of slavery ; but divested
by the expedient of an amendment of the Constitution. But the pressure
of the contest forced them into the necessity of adding to their platform a
requirement, upon States returning to the Union, that they should them-
Belves abolish slavery as a condition precedent to readmission. They were,
in other words, forced to abandon a Constitutional measure, and to sub-
stitute an extra-constitutional one in its stead.

The programme of the radical branch of the Black Republican party
had been developed, some short time before, in the bill which passed Con-
gress on the 3d of July, 1864, but which the President failed to sign,
prescribing these three conditions as necessary preliminaries to the restora-
tion of a seceded State to the Union : to wit, the disfranchisement by the
States of the guilty leaders of the rebellion as to State officers ; the aboli-



568 THE LOST CAUSE.

tion of slavery by the act of the returning States themselves ; and the
repudiation of the rebel debt, also by the act of these States.

Another feature of this radical programme, but which had failed to be
incorporated into the bill just mentioned, was, that no seceded State should
vote in the Electoral College, nor be admitted to representation in Con-
gress, until after proclamation by the President of its obedience to the laws
of the United States, especially authorized by act of Congress passed ex
pressly for the purpose. The project of requiring the admission of negroes
tc full citizenship and suffrage, had not then taken the form of a distinct,
express additional exaction.

The ITational Convention of the Government party was held at Balti-
more on the 7th of June, 1864. The votes were all given for Mr. Lincoln,
except that of Missouri, which was cast for Gen. Grant. The ballot on the
Vice-Presidency was nearly unanimous in favour of Mr. Andrew Johnson.
A platform was unanimously adopted declaring in favour of maintaining
the Union in its integrity and supreme authority against all enemies ; of