Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. 1 / From Lincoln to Garfield, with a Review of the Events Which Led to the Political Revolution of 1860

by James Gillespie Blaine

EFFECT OF REBEL VICTORY AT BULL RUN.

The Confederate victory at Bull Run produced great effect throughout the South. The fall of Sumter had been a signal encouragement to those who had joined the revolt against the Union, but as no blood had been spilled, and as the garrison had been starved out rather than shelled out, there was a limit to enthusiasm over the result. But now a pitched battle had been fought within cannon sound of the National Capital, and the forces of the Union had been put to flight. Jefferson Davis had come from Richmond during the battle, and telegraphed to the Confederate Congress that the night had "closed upon a hard-fought field," but that the enemy were routed, and had "precipitately fled, abandoning a large amount of arms, knapsacks, and baggage;" that "too high praise cannot be bestowed upon the skill of the Confederate officers or the gallantry of all their troops;" that "the Confederate force was fifteen thousand, and the Union army was thirty-five thousand." He evidently knew the effect which these figures would have upon the pride of the South, and he did not at the moment stop to verify his statements. The actual force under McDowell was much less, that under Beauregard much greater, than Mr. Davis stated. McDowell was certainly outnumbered after General Johnston's army arrived on the field. If General Patterson, who was in command in the Shenandoah Valley, had been able to engage or detain Johnston, the fate of the day might have been different. But Johnston outgeneraled Patterson, and achieved what military genius always does,—he had his force in the right place at the right time.

The effect of the Rebel victory at Bull Run was at once visible in the rigorous policy adopted by the Confederate Government. The people of the Confederacy knew that their numbers were less than those of the Union, but Jefferson Davis had in effect told them that fifteen Southern men might be relied upon to put to flight thirty-five Northern men, and on this ratio they felt equal to the contest. The Congress at Richmond went to every extreme in their legislation. A fortnight after the battle they passed "an Act respecting alien enemies," "warning and requiring every male citizen of the United States, fourteen years old and upwards, to depart from the Confederate States within forty days from the date of the President's Proclamation," which was issued on the 14th of August. Those only could remain who intended to become citizens of the Confederacy. With the obvious design of avoiding every thing which could chill the sympathy with the Confederacy so largely prevailing in the Border States, the Proclamation excepted from its operation the States of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, the District of Columbia, the Territories of New Mexico, Arizona, and the Indian Territory. This was a manifest declaration of what they expected to include in the Confederacy when the National Government should finally surrender. Wherever a slave was held, the Confederate leaders adjudged the people to be their friends and their future allies.

CONFEDERATE CONFISCATION BILL.

This warning to alien enemies could not however be regarded as a measure of special harshness, or one beyond the fair exercise of the war power. But the next step was of a different nature. A law was enacted sequestrating "the estates, property, and effects of alien enemies." Mr. Judah P. Benjamin, who was at the time Attorney-General of the Confederate Government, proceeded to enforce the Act with utmost rigidity. The exception of the Border States and Territories, already noted, was also made under this law, but towards the citizens of States of unquestioned loyalty no mercy was shown. A close search was instituted by Mr. Benjamin, in which agents, former partners, attorneys, trustees, and all who might have the slightest knowledge of a piece of property within the limits of the Confederacy, belonging to a loyal citizen of the United States, were compelled to give information under penalty of a fine which might be as high as five thousand dollars, and imprisonment which might last for six months. They were forced to tell of any lands, chattels, rights, interests, an alien enemy might have, and also of any debts which might be due to an alien enemy. Mr. Benjamin's letter of instruction included among alien enemies all "subjects of Great Britain, France, or other neutral nations, who have a domicile or are carrying on business or traffic within the States at war with the Confederacy." It was a scheme of wholesale, cruel confiscation of the property of innocent persons, and the most ingenious lawyer of the Confederacy was selected to enforce it by inquisitorial processes which disregarded the confidence of friendship, the ties of blood, and the loyalty of affection.

The National legislation had given no precedent or warrant for proceedings so harsh. At the extra session there had been no attempt at the confiscation of any property except that directly used in aid of the insurrection. Slaves were added to his class only after it was learned that they were thus employed by the Confederates. Not only therefore did the Confederacy introduce slaves as a component element of the military force, but it resorted to confiscation of a cruel and rigorous type as one of the sources of financial strength. If the Confederate authorities had not thus set the example, it would have been difficult, perhaps impracticable, to induce Congress to entertain such a line of policy. Many were in favor of it from the first, but so many were against it that the precedent thus established by the Confederacy was not only an irresistible temptation but a justifying cause for lines of National policy which were afterwards complained of as unusual and oppressive.

[* NOTE.—The following is a complete list of the Senators who served in the Thirty-seventh Congress. Republicans in Roman, Democrats in Italic, American or Old-Line Whigs in small capitals.

CALIFORNIA.—Milton S. Latham; James A. McDougall.
CONNECTICUT.—James Dixon; Lafayette S. Foster.
DELAWARE.—James A. Bayard; Willard Saulsbury.
ILLINOIS.—Stephen A. Douglas, died June 3, 1861; Lyman Trumbull;
Orville H. Browning, appointed in place of Douglas; William A.
Richardson, elected in place of Douglas.
INDIANA.—Jesse D. Bright, expelled Feb. 5, 1862; Henry S. Lane;
Joseph A. Wright, appointed in place of Bright; David Turpie,
elected in place of Bright.
IOWA.—James W. Grimes; James Harlan.
KANSAS.—James H. Lane; Samuel C. Pomeroy.
KENTUCKY.—Lazarus W. Powell; James C. Breckinridge, expelled
Dec. 4, 1861; GARRETT DAVIS, elected in place of Breckinridge.
MAINE.—Lot M. Morrill; William Pitt Fessenden.
MARYLAND.—ANTHONY KENNEDY; JAMES A. PEARCE, died Dec. 30, 1862;
Thomas H. Hicks, elected in place of Pearce.
MASSACHUSETTS.—Charles Sumner; Henry Wilson.
MICHIGAN.—Zachariah Chandler; Kinsley S. Bingham, died Oct. 5,
1861; Jacob M. Howard, elected in place of Bingham.
MINNESOTA.—Morton S. Wilkinson; Henry M. Rice.
MISSOURI.—Trusten Polk, expelled Jan. 10, 1862; John B. Henderson,
appointed in place of Polk; Waldo P. Johnson, expelled Jan. 10,
1862; Robert Wilson, appointed in place of Johnson.
NEW HAMPSHIRE.—John P. Hale; Daniel Clark.
NEW JERSEY.—John R. Thomson, died Sept. 12, 1862; John C. Ten
Eyck; Richard S. Field, appointed in place of Thomson; James W.
Wall, elected in place of Thomson.
NEW YORK.—Preston King; Ira Harris.
OHIO.—Benjamin F. Wade; Salmon P. Chase, resigned March 5, 1861,
to become Secretary of Treasury; John Sherman, elected in place of
Chase.
PENNSYLVANIA.—David Wilmot, elected in place of Cameron; Edgar
Cowan; Simon Cameron, resigned March 5, 1861.
RHODE ISLAND.—James F. Simmons, resigned December, 1862; Henry B.
Anthony; Samuel G. Arnold, elected in place of Simmons.
TENNESSEE.—Andrew Johnson, resigned March 4, 1862, to be military
governor of Tennessee.
VERMONT.—Solomon Foot; Jacob Collamer.
VIRGINIA.—Waitman T. Willey; John S. Carlile.
WISCONSIN.—James R. Doolittle; Timothy O. Howe.]

[** An anachronism occurs in stating that Senator Baker of Oregon had witnessed as a child the funeral pageant of Lord Nelson. He was not born for five years after Lord Nelson fell. The error was taken from a eulogy pronounced on Senator Baker after his death. The occurrence referred to was doubtless some one of the many military pageants in London at the close of the Napoleonic wars.]

[*** NOTE.—The following is a list of Representatives in the Thirty- seventh Congress. Republicans are given in Roman, Democrats in Italic, American or Old-Line Whigs in small capitals.

CALIFORNIA.—Aaron A. Sargent; Frederick F. Low; Timothy G. Phelps.
CONNECTICUT.—Dwight Loomis; James E. English; George C. Woodruff;
Alfred A. Burnham.
DELAWARE.—George P. Fisher.
ILLINOIS.—Eilhu B. Washburne; Isaac N. Arnold; Owen Lovejoy;
William Kellogg; William A. Richardson, elected Senator; John
A. McClernand, resigned 1861 to enter the army; James C. Robinson;
Philip B. Fouke; John A. Logan, resigned 1861 to enter the army;
William J. Allen, elected in place of Logan; Anthony L. Knapp,
elected in place of McClernand.
INDIANA.—John Law; James A. Cravens; William S. Holman; George
W. Julian; Albert G. Porter; Daniel W. Voorhees; Albert S. White;
Schuyler Colfax; William Mitchell; John P. C. Shanks; W. McKee Dunn.
IOWA.—Samuel R. Curtis, resigned Aug. 4, 1861, to enter the army;
William Vandever; James F. Wilson, elected in place of Curtis.
KANSAS.—Martin F. Conway.
KENTUCKY.—Henry C. Burnett, expelled Dec. 3, 1861; JAMES S.
JACKSON, died in 1862; HENRY GRIDER; Aaron Harding; Charles A.
Wickliffe; GEORGE W. DUNLAP; ROBERT MALLORY; John W. Menzies;
SAMUEL L. CASEY, elected in place of Burnett; WILLIAM H. WADSWORTH;
JOHN J. CRITTENDEN; GEORGE H. YEAMAN, elected in place of Jackson.
LOUISIANA.—BENJAMIN F. FLANDERS, seated in February, 1863; MICHAEL
HAHN, seated in February, 1863.
MAINE.—John N. Goodwin; Charles W. Walton, resigned May 26, 1862;
Samuel C. Fessenden; Anson P. Morrill; John H. Rice; Frederick A.
Pike; Thomas A. D. Fessenden, elected in place of Walton.
MARYLAND.—JOHN W. CRISFIELD; EDWIN H. WEBSTER; Cornelius L. L.
Learly; FRANCIS THOMAS; CHARLES B. CALVERT; Henry May.
MASSACHUSETTS.—Thomas D. Eliot; James Buffington; Benjamin F.
Thomas; Alexander H. Rice; William Appleton, resigned in 1861; John
B. Alley; Daniel W. Gooch; Charles R. Train; Goldsmith F. Bailey,
died May 8, 1862; Charles Delano; Henry L. Dawes; Samuel Hooper,
elected in place of Appleton; Amasa Walker, elected in place of
Bailey.
MICHIGAN.—Bradley F. Granger; Fernando C. Beaman; Francis W.
Kellogg; Rowland E. Trowbridge.
MINNESOTA.—Cyrus Aldrich; William Windom.
MISSOURI.—Francis P. Blair, Jr., resigned in 1862; JAMES S. ROLLINS;
Elijah H. Norton; John W. Reid, expelled Dec. 2, 1861; John W.
Noell; John S. Phelps; William A. Hall; Thomas L. Price, elected
in place of Reid.
NEW HAMPSHIRE.—Gilman Marston; Edward H. Rollins; Thomas M.
Edwards.
NEW JERSEY.—John T. Nixon; John L. N. Stratton; William G. Steele;
George T. Cobb; Nehemiah Perry.
NEW YORK.—E. Henry Smith; MOSES F. ODELL; Benjamin Wood; William
Wall; Frederick A. Conkling; Elijah Ward; Edward Haight; Charles
H. Van Wyck; John B. Steele; Stephen Baker; Abraham B. Olin;
James B. McKean; William A. Wheeler; Scorates N. Sherman; Chauncey
Vibbard; Richard Franchot; Roscoe Conkling; R. Holland Duell;
William E. Lansing; Ambrose W. Clark; Charles B. Sedgwick; Theodore
M. Pomeroy; John P. Chamberlain; Alexander S. Diven; Robert B. Van
Valkenburgh; Alfred Ely; Augustus Frank; Burt Van Horn; Elbridge
G. Spaulding; Reuben E. Fenton; Erastus Corning; James E. Kerrigan;
Isaac C. Delaplaine.
OHIO.—George H. Pendleton; John A. Gurley; Clement L. Vallandigham;
William Allen; James M. Ashley; Chilton A. White; Richard A.
Harrison; Samuel Shellabarger; Warren P. Noble; Carey A. Trimble;
Valentine B. Horton; Samuel S. Cox; Samuel T. Worcester; Harrison
G. Blake; William P. Cutler; James R. Morris; Sidney Edgerton;
Albert G. Riddle; John Hutchins; John A. Bingham; R. H. Nugen.
OREGON.—George K. Shiel.
PENNSYLVANIA.—William E. Lehman; John P. Verree; William D.
Kelley; William M. Davis; John Hickman; Thomas B. Cooper, died
April 4, 1862; John D. Stiles, elected in place of Cooper,
deceased; Sydenham E. Ancona; Thaddeus Stevens; John W. Killinger;
James H. Campbell; Hendrick R. Wright; Philip Johnson; Galusha
A. Grow, Speaker; James T. Hale; Joseph Bailey; Edward McPherson;
Samuel S. Blair; John Covode; Jesse Lazear; James K. Moorhead;
Robert McKnight; John W. Wallace; John Patton; Elijah Babbitt;
Charles J. Biddle.
RHODE ISLAND.—William P. Sheffield; George H. Browne.
TENNESSEE.—GEORGE W. BRIDGES; ANDREW J. CLEMENTS; HORACE MAYNARD.
VERMONT.—Portus Baxter; Justin S. Morrill; Ezekiel P. Walton.
VIRGINIA.—Jacob B. Blair, elected in place of Carlile; William G.
Brown, John S. Carlile, elected Senator July, 1861; Joseph E. Segar;
Charles H. Upton; Kililan V. Whaley.
WISCONSIN.—Luther Hanchett, died Nov. 24, 1862; Walter D. McIndoe,
elected in place of Hanchett; John F. Potter; A. Scott Sloan.

Territorial Delegates.—Colorado, Hiram P. Bennett; Dakota, John
B. S. Todd; Nebraska, Samuel G. Daily; Nevada, John Cradlebaugh;
New-Mexico, John S. Watts; Utah, John M. Bernhisel; Washington,
William H. Wallace.]

[**** It should be stated that the so-called "California" regiment of Colonel Baker was recruited principally in Philadelphia from the young men of that city.]