But General Grant with his immense army sat down to the siege of Petersburg-a position which he might have taken at first without firing a shot or losing a man-and with illimitable resources of men and supplies continued his campaign of "attrition" all of the summer and autumn and winter, until our army dwindled to 35,000 men to guard forty miles of breastworks and oppose 140,000 splendidly equipped and abundantly supplied men, and our thin lines "were stretched until they broke," and the sad end came. Meantime Sherman's capture of Atlanta and march through Georgia and the Carolinas, and Hood's disastrous campaign into Tennessee had sealed the fate of the Confederacy.

But amid all of these disasters President Davis was calm, brave, and determined.

We give as illustrating his view of the situation in March, 1865, the last message he ever sent to Congress⚫

PRESIDENT DAVIS'S LAST MESSA

"To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Confederate States of America:

"When informed on Thursday last that it was the intention of Congress to adjourn sine die on the ensuing Saturday, I. deemed it my duty to request a postponement of the adjournment, in order that I might submit for your consideration, certain matters of public interest which are now laid before you. When that request was made, the most important measures that had occupied your attention during the session had not been so far advanced as to be submitted for Executive action, and the state of the country had been so materially affected by the events of the last four months as to evince the necessity of further and more energetic legislation than was contemplated in November last.

"Our country is now environed with perils which it is our duty calmly to contemplate. Thus alone can the measures necessary to avert threatened calamities be wisely and efficiently enforced,

"Recent military operations of the enemy have been successful in the capture of some of our seaports, in interrupting some of our lines of communication, and in devastating large districts of our country. These events have had the natural effect of encouraging our foes and dispiriting many of our people. The capital of the Confederate States is now threatened, and is in greater danger than it has heretofore been during the war. The fact is stated without reserve or concealment, as due to the people whose servants we are, and in whose courage and constancy entire trust is reposed as due to you, in whose wisdom and resolute spirit the people have confided for the adoption of the measures required to guard them from threatened perils.

"While stating to you that our country is in danger, I desire also to state my deliberate conviction that it is within our power to avert the calamities which menace us, and to secure the triumph of the sacred cause for which so much sacrifice has been made, so much suffering endured, so many precious lives been lost. This result is to be obtained by fortitude, by courage, by constancy in enduring the sacrifices still needed; in a word, by the prompt and resolute devotion of the whole resources of men and money in the Confederacy to the achievement of our liberties and independence.

"The measures now required, to be successful, should be prompt. Long deliberation and protracted debate over important measures are not only natural, but laudable, in representative assemblies under ordinary circumstances; but in moments of danger, when action becomes urgent, the delay thus caused is itself a new source of peril. Thus it has unfortunately happened that some of the measures passed by you in pursuance of the recommendations contained in my message of November last, have been so retarded as to lose much of their value, or have, for the same reason, been abandoned after being matured, because no longer applicable to our altered condition; and others have not been brought under examination. In making these remarks, it is far from my intention to attribute the loss of time to any other causes than those inherent in deliberative assemblies, but only urgently to recommend prompt action upon the measures now submitted. "We need, for carrying on the war successfully, men and supplies for the army. We have both within our country sufficient to attain success.

"To obtain the supplies it is necessary to protect productive districts, guard our lines of communication by an increase in the number of our forces; and hence it results, that with a large augmentation in the number of men in the army, the facility of supplying the troops would be greater than with our recent reduced strength.

"For the purchase of supplies now required, especially for the armies in Virginia and North Carolina, the treasury must be provided with means, and a modification in the impressment law is required. It has been ascertained by examination that we have within our reach a sufficiency of what is most needed for the army, and without having recourse to the ample provision existing in those parts of the Confederacy with which our communication has been partially interrupted by hostile operations. But in some districts from which supplies are to be drawn the inhabitants, being either within the enemy's lines or in very close proximity, are unable to make use of Confederate treasury notes for the purchase of articles of prime necessity; and it is necessary that, to some extent, coin be paid in order to obtain supplies. It is, therefore, recommended that Congress devise the means for making available the coin within the Confederacy for the purpose of supplying the army. The officers of the supply departments report that, with two millions of dollars in coin, the armies in Virginia and North Carolina can be amply supplied for the remainder of the year; and the knowledge of this fact should suffice to insure the adoption of the measures necessary to obtain this moderate

sum.

"The impressment law, as it now exists, prohibits the public officers from impressing supplies without making payment of the valuation at the time of impressment. The limit fixed for the issue of treasury notes has been nearly reached, and the treasury cannot easily furnish the funds necessary for prompt payment, while the law for raising revenue, which would have afforded means for diminishing, if not removing this difficulty, was unfortunately delayed for several months, and has just been signed. In this condition of things it is impossible to supply the army, although ample stores may exist in the country, whenever the owners refuse to give credit to the public officer. It is necessary that this restriction on the power of impressment be removed. The power is admitted to be objectionable, liable to abuse, and unequal in its opera

tion on individuals; yet all these objections must yield to absolute necessity. It is also suggested that the system of valuation now established ought to be radically changed. Tho legislation requires, in such cases of impressment, that the market price be paid; but there is really no market price in many cases, and then valuation is made arbitrarily and in a depreciated currency. The result is that the most extravagant prices are fixed, such as no one expects ever to be paid in coin. None believe that the government can ever redeem in coin the obligation to pay fifty dollars a bushel for corn, or seven hundred dollars a barrel for flour. It would seem to be more just and appropriate to estimate the supplies impressed at their value in coin, to give the obligation of the government for the payment of the price in coin, with reasonable interest, or, the option of the creditor, to return in kind the wheat and corn impressed, with a reasonable interest, also payable in kind; and to make the obligations thus issued receivable for all payments due in coin to the government. Whatever be the value attached by Congress to these suggestions, it is hoped that there will be no hesitation in so changing the law as to render it possible to supply the army in case of necessity by the impressment of provisions for that purpose.

at

"The measure adopted to raise revenue, though liberal in its provisions, being clearly inadequate to meet the arrears of debt and current expenditures, some degree of embarrassment in the management of the finances must continue to be felt. It is to be regretted, I think, that the recommendation of the Secretary of the Treasury of a tax on agricultural income equal to the augmented tax on other incomes, payable in treasury notes, was rejected by Congress. This tax would have contributed materially to facilitate the purchase of provisions and diminish the necessity that is now felt for a supply of coin.

"The measures passed by Congress during the session for recruiting the army and supplying the additional force needed for the public defense have been, in my judgment, insufficient, and I am impelled by a profound conviction of duty, and stimulated by a sense of the perils which surround our country, to urge upon you additional legislation upon this subject.

"The bill for employing negroes for soldiers has not yet reached me, though the printed journals of your proceedings inform

me of its passage. Much benefit is anticipated from this measure, though far less than would have resulted from its adoption at an earlier date, so as to afford time for their organization and instruction during the winter months.

"The bill for diminishing the number of exempts has just been made the subject of a special message, and its provisions are such as would add no strength to the army. The recommendation to abolish all class exemptions has not met your favor, although still deemed by me a valuable and important measure; and the number of men exempted by a new clause in the act thus passed is believed to be quite equal to that of throse whose exemption is revoked. A law of a few lines repealing all class exemptions would not only strengthen the forces in the field, but be still more beneficial by abating the natural discontent and jealousy created in the army by the existence of classes privileged by law to remain in places of safety while their fellow-citizens are exposed in the trenches and the field. "The measure most needed, however, at the present time, for affording an effective increase to our military strength, is a general militia law, such as the constitution authorizes Congress to pass, by granting to it power 'to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the Confederate States,' and the further power 'to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Confederate States, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions.' The nocessity for the exercise of this power can never exist if not in the circumstances that now surround us. The security of the States against any encroachment by the Confederate government is amply provided for by the constitution, by 'reserving to the States, respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.'

"A law is needed to prescribe not only how, and of what persons, the militia are to be organized, but to provide the mode of calling them out. If instances be required to show the necessity of such general law, it is sufficient to mention that, in one case, I have been informed by the governor of a State that the law does not permit him to call the militia from one county for service in another; so that a single brigade of the enemy could traverse the State, and devastate each county in turn,