The minister’s arrest took place on the second of September. When Parliament met on the third, the Government announced that war existed between Great Britain and the United States by the act of the latter Power, and asked a credit of twenty millions sterling to maintain British prestige and avenge British wrongs. The few Irish members who retained seats in Parliament attempted to use their customary dilatory tactics. For once they were cowed by the roar of indignant derision which greeted them from floor and galleries. In actual fear of personal peril, they gave over their “filibustering,” and shortly slunk out of the House. There was no division. Without a single dissentient voice the credit asked for by the Government was voted. When the Speaker declared it carried, the Secretary of War rose and stated that the utmost exertions of the Government had been set in motion, even before the vote was taken, to put every war vessel in its possession in readiness for service, and that over three thousand active seamen had volunteered that day to serve on the expedition which would shortly be sent across the Atlantic. The news flew to every hamlet in the United Kingdom, and the next day saw an outburst of loyal zeal such as was never witnessed in England before. Within four days more than two thousand steam ocean-going vessels had been offered to the Government for use as troop-ships in conveying soldiers across the Atlantic. The same spirit which actuated the ship-owners moved every other class, and the Government found all the wealth of the nation and all its men freely dedicated to the war.
The very day that witnessed the British Government’s acceptance of the war saw another complication added to affairs at Washington. The two ministers of France and Germany visited the White House, where the triumvirate, O’Halloran, Wagner, and Herr Liest, had taken up their quarters, to urge upon them the folly of their course in arresting the English minister, and to plead for his release and dismissal from the country. It happened that Liest and Kopf were angrily reproaching O’Halloran, at the very moment of their arrival, for his action in involving the revolutionists in a war with Great Britain while the cause of their brethren in Germany was utterly neglected.
When the German minister entered and began his plea for his English colleague, Herr Liest took the answer out of O’Halloran’s mouth, and began a fiery tirade against Germany and the German Government. The diplomat listened in amazement for a few minutes; then, without deigning a word of reply, turned his back on the party and stalked haughtily out of the room, followed by his French colleague. The moment they had gone, Herr Liest, with his voice rising to a shriek, in a frenzy of anger demanded that they both be treated as the English minister had been. Kopf seconded the demand with a vehemence as great as Liest’s. O’Halloran attempted to calm their passion and point out to them the impolicy of angering at the same moment three of the strongest Powers of the world. They would not listen to him. Instead, they taunted him with showing weakness in the common cause. Wagner sided with them, though less violently. O’Halloran saw that it would not be safe for him to give them the chance to accuse him of lack of energy or zeal. A guard was hastily sent after the diplomats, and they were incarcerated in the same jail which held the British minister.
The moment this was done, the revolutionists saw that they must hasten, if they were to strike the first blow against their old-time European “oppressors,” before attack should be made on them from abroad. Acting under orders sent out by the three self-appointed dictators, detachments from various revolutionary organizations at the different seaports seized possession of all foreign vessels lying at their wharves. The officers were put in confinement and the crews sent ashore, except such as chose to enlist in the revolutionary service. Cannon of every sort were dragged aboard them, and they set out in fleets from every Atlantic port to prey on whatever commerce might fall in their path.
The moment he had assumed the duties of secretary of war, Mr. Wagner had set about the organization of an army. He passed over the usual authorities. Not a message was sent to the governor of a single State. Nowhere was the militia ordered out, nor volunteers asked for, nor a draft ordered. The various Irish and socialistic societies were notified that men were wanted, and their answers were prompt. Camps were formed near New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and other cities. In them rapidly gathered motley armies of Irish dynamiters, German socialists, French and Italian communists, with here and there Russian nihilists, Swiss anarchists, and outlaws of every nationality. With these mingled a larger proportion than two years before would have been regarded as possible, of native-born workmen who had been inveigled into the revolutionary ranks by the plausible pleadings of agitators, or driven into them by their own sufferings and wrongs. Among the Irish were a few who had served in the armies of 1861–1865; but in the main these camps were noticeable for the absence of men who had seen service in the cause of their country during the civil war. Still their numbers were formidable. Altogether, they mustered something over five hundred thousand men, armed with such weapons as the arsenals which they had looted could furnish, and obedient enough to the orders sent out from Washington, so long as those orders did not conflict with those of “the Old Man.” And it was no longer a secret that such conflict was impossible, inasmuch as the triumvirate there were known to be but puppets in the hand of that mysterious central authority.
Meanwhile, in several quarters attempts to organize bodies from the population opposed to the revolutionists had been crushed with terrible cruelty. Except such weapons as chanced to be in their possession before the outbreak, it was impossible for the really patriotic people of the land to find arms and ammunition, or even to organize. Every attempt on their part to meet in large numbers was prevented. Guerilla bands lurked among the mountains in States which afforded them such shelter. Thence they maintained a desultory warfare on such small bodies of revolutionists as they could safely attack. No quarter was shown them; they showed none in return. Civil war raged in every congressional district,—it might almost be said in every town. But all the great centres of communication were in the undisputed possession of the revolutionists. The depots of supplies were in their hands; they held all the arsenals; they had confiscated the public treasure. It is probable that the patriots really outnumbered the revolutionists; but they were without arms, they lacked money, they lacked supplies, they lacked organization. The revolutionists spared no pains, hesitated at no tyranny, forbore no cruelty which promised to keep them deprived of arms and to prevent combinations among them.
XIII.
CAPTURE OF BOSTON.
The month of September wore away. October came, and with it the opening of the “peace convention” which O’Halloran had called on the first day of his power at Washington. But its sessions were cut short by the unexpectedly speedy action of England. On the declaration of the British Government that war existed with the United States, cable communication between the United Kingdom and the United States had been broken. The arrest of the French and German ministers had caused irrepressible indignation in the Governments they represented, and the refusal of the triumvirate in power at Washington to heed their demands for reparation and apology had been followed by almost simultaneous declarations of war from Paris and Berlin. All communication with the United States from any part of their dominions was peremptorily forbidden. No news could be received from Europe except by roundabout and tedious routes, and little was known of what was being done there; but no one among the revolutionary leaders dreamed of a blow being struck before the opening of the ensuing spring.