CHAPTER XV.

THE WAR FOR THE UNION (Continued)—REPUBLICAN LEGISLATION AND DIPLOMACY-CONVENTIONS of 1864

AND RE-ELECTION OF LINCOLN.

HE second session of the Thirty-seventh Congress had

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closed on the 17th of July. The record made was both wise and important. Slavery had been abolished from the District of Columbia, and forbidden in the Territories of the United States. Liberia and Hayti were recognized as independent republics. All persons in the army and navy were prohibited from returning slaves or sitting in judgment on the claim of their masters, and furthermore it had been declared that the slaves of the seceding masters were emancipated on coming within the lines of the Federal army. The resolution tendering compensation to loyal masters on the voluntary emancipation of their slaves was also adopted at this session.

The third session of the Thirty-seventh Congress convened at Washington on the first day of December, 1862. The annual message of the President was a most able paper, covering every feature of the military and financial condition of the country. The preliminary Emancipation Proclamation had been issued, and in another month the slaves would be free. In concluding his message the President said:

Fellow citizens we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this Administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how

to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We even we here-hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free-honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just-a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud and God must forever bless.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

December 1, 1862.

The most important legislation of this session was the enactment of a law providing a national currency through a national banking system. It authorized the issue of circulating notes by banking houses throughout the country organized in conformity to law. These banks were to buy United States bonds, which being deposited with the Government, the banks were then entitled to receive and circulate notes to the value of ninety per cent. of the bonds deposited. These notes then became guaranteed by the Government, which had the bonds for security. A national currency was now established and given to the country, based on the credit of the Government. The advantageous effect of the act was twofold: first in giving the country a safe and suitable circulating medium, and, in addition to this, creating and maintaining a demand for the United States bonds. Renewed confidence in the financial stability of the country was shown at once. By the act of March 3d, the Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to issue $300,000,000 for the current fiscal year, and $600,000,000 for the next fiscal year, of six per cent. 10-40 bonds. The Secretary was also authorized to issue $400,000,000 of six per cent. treasury notes, payable within three years, and to be a legal tender for their face value, excluding interest, and exchangeable for and redeemable by government notes, for which purpose alone an issue of $150,000,000 of the latter was authorized. He was also authorized to issue $150,000,000 of government notes, including $100,000,000 authorized in January; also to issue $50,000,000 of fractional notes in lieu

Finances of the War.

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of the postage and revenue stamps for fractional currency. By the 1st of May about $64,000,000 of the 5-20 bonds had been taken, and from that time forward the sales averaged about $50,000,000 a month, until the entire loan was taken.

The first of the internal revenue laws was passed July 1, 1862, and although the continually increasing taxation, both direct and indirect, bore heavily upon individuals and corporations and every branch of trade and industry, nevertheless the burden was borne with most surprising willingness by all, almost without exception. The heavy Tariff duties which had been laid had the effect of stimulating industry to a wonderful degree, and the demand for labor in the North was everywhere unprecedented. We were beginning again to manufacture for ourselves, and the result was new industries and increased facilities of the old established plants on every side, and in almost every State.

The financial history of the War of the Rebellion would itself fill several volumes if exhaustively treated. It is enough

to say here, midway between the opening and closing of the great rebellion, that, in the very darkest hour, the finances of the country, its methods of taxation, the loans and credits and payments, were as near perfect as human wisdom could devise. Secretary Chase vindicated fully the wisdom of his selection by the President to be at the head of the nation's finances at such a critical period in our history. His grasp of the situation; his lucid method of transmitting his recommendations to Congress, and in return the prompt acquiescence by our national legislators in the suggestions of the Secretary, as found in about twenty-five fiscal and financial acts during the war, all did much towards maintaining our national credit both at home and abroad, and in securing to our industries and for our people security and safety for property and investments. The expenses growing out of the war were enormous, and required prompt and effective action, but they were met, as far as was consistent with proper debate over measures and careful consideration, as promptly as both the President and Secretary, as well as the great mass of financial institutions, could desire. The Republicans in both Senate and House were

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harmonious in favor of sound financiering, and to their number, it is a pleasure to say, were added the votes of many loyal Democrats. The Thirty-seventh Congress expired on March 4, 1863, having confined its legislation almost entirely to revenue and financial measures, and to laws otherwise upholding the President.

From the commencement of the war till the early part of 1863 our armies had been made up entirely of volunteers. The continued defeats of the fall and winter of 1862 had, however, such a dispiriting effect that voluntary enlistment almost ceased. It was, therefore, thought necessary to follow the example of other governments, and provide for the lack of a quota from any section at any time. On March 3, 1863, the so-called "Conscription bill" became a law, which provided for the enlistment of all able-bodied citizens between the ages of eighteen and forty-five. In case there should be a default of volunteers from any congressional district, then the deficiency was to be supplied by drafts upon the enrolled citizens. Persons refusing the summons were to be treated as deserters. In May, the President called for three hundred thousand troops, and in some places riots followed the drafts. In October, 1863, another call was made for three hundred thousand men, and a draft was ordered for the following January to supply any and all deficiencies. The voluntary enlistments, however, seemed to increase, and although there were in several instances most serious outbreaks on account of the drafts, the victories of Northern armies soon overcame the reluctance on the part of volunteers to enlist. The Confederate States were obliged to enforce several times their very severe "Conscription Laws.'

In the field in the extreme East, and on the Mississippi, and at the South, the most important engagements of the whole war took place during the year 1863, and particularly in the month of July. In the early part of the year the Union army had suffered several small defeats in the East. General Hooker was put in command of the Eastern army, and after the battle of Chancellorsville, in May, his removal took place, and General Meade was put in his place. Lee now began to

Battle of Gettysburg.

419 assume the offensive, and crossing the Potomac, marched north into Southeastern Pennsylvania. Here at Gettysburg, July 1-3, was fought, not only the fiercest and bloodiest battle of our Civil War, but one of the mightiest conflicts in all history. General Lee, at the head of the very flower of Southern troops, had advanced to Chambersburg, followed by the Union army along the east side of Blue Ridge and South Mountain. Just westward from Gettysburg on the Chambersburg road, the Confederate advance met the Union cavalry. A battle ensued, both sides being joined by reinforcements; but the Federal troops were finally forced back. All that night troops for both sides were constantly arriving, and taking their positions by moonlight in anticipation of the conflict that would surely take place on the morrow.

In the afternoon of the second day, Longstreet led a grand charge against the left of the Union lines, in order to secure the position called Little Round Top. Here General Sickles had taken a position in front of the line of battle intended by the leader of the Union forces, General Meade. It seemed as if the Confederate forces were on the point of success, when their attempt was defeated by a brigade, although Sickles was driven back to Cemetery Ridge.

While the success of the Confederates was not as yet material, still General Lee felt enough encouraged to continue the conflict. At one o'clock on the third day Cemetery Ridge was the point upon which one hundred and fifty of the Confederate guns were trained. The fusillade was kept up for two hours, and then out of the woods slowly crept the Confederate double battle line fully a mile long. Under the leadership of General Pickett, those eighteen thousand Confederate soldiers, after crossing a mile of open ground, moved slowly up the slope of Cemetery Ridge. It was the grandest and bravest charge of all history, but the hundred guns of the Federal forces ploughed into their ranks till they were compelled to fall back entirely defeated, and the end of the great battle of Gettysburg was at hand, where nearly fifty thousand brave men had fallen, fully twenty-three thousand Union men and twenty-five thousand Confederates. At the beginning of the