announced: "No grave inconvenience need be apprehended from this increased issue, as the provision of law by which these notes are converted into eight per cent. bonds, forms an efficient and permanent safeguard against any serious depreciation of the currency." Thus it was explained, that without any basis for bonds or currency, in a foreign commerce or interior commerce, the public appreciation alone would continue to preserve a wholesome equilibrium between the two descriptions of paper, calling out treasury notes when currency was needed and retiring them for bonds, when a plethora menaced their value. The immediate result of the financial policy of the Confederacy was the outbreak of speculation which, in no small degree, embarrassed the government. A single instance will suffice. A ship arrived at Savannah contemporaneous with the receipt by Secretary Benjamin of a demand for arms from General A. S. Johnston. The Secretary informed General Johnston that 1,800 stand of arms had come for government account on that vessel and that the government had been able to buy from private parties more than 1,700 stand of the same cargo. Gambling and speculation, rather than conversion into interest bearing government stocks, employed the currency of a government whose financial wreck every financier of ordinary sagacity foretold. But, in the elections in the States of the Confederacy, no dissatisfaction with the most vigorous war measures were expressed. The civil officers best prepared to promote the pursuit of war was the only issue involved in those elections. Thomas H. Watts was summoned, without notice, from the command of his Regiment in the field to the Cabinet and, against his wish, was elected Governor of Alabama, from that position, because the people knew his fidelity and capacity pre-eminently fitted him to sustain the war upon the resources of the State; while the State itself should undertake under a humane and firm Chief Executive to adopt the extraordinary measures required of it for the collection and distribution of bread for the dependent families of soldiers, living or dead.

CHAPTER 27.

Senator Yancey.

1862-1863.

Mr. Yancey's oratorical labors in the free States, in 1860, enlarged his sympathies and cultivated his intellectual discrimination. Trained already, as were his mental faculties, to quick apprehension and prompt decision, he had time, brief as were the hours, to draw inspiration from great libraries and to study the organization of the most potential and the most unsettled social conditions of the world, as he moved in their midst. Learned and polite men of all political parties had opened their hospitality to him. The time spent in Europe was his first holiday in many years. The results of his observation and reflection there were apparent in his short but brilliant career in the Senate — the befitting crown of his fame. Arduous as were his official labors in this capacity, he did not neglect the social duties of his station. "To those who saw him socially, he was the gentlest, the most exquisitely refined of men; the most considerate, well bred of gentlemen was the embodiment of the highest type of Southern chivalry."

Mr. Yancey, upon landing at New Orleans, was invited by merchants and others to appear in the rotunda of the St. Charles Hotel to speak a few words touching the feeling of the commercial powers of Europe. Complying with the request, he warned the audience that the Confederacy must rely upon *Cosmopolitan Magazine, December, 1891.

itself; that foreign assistance was not probable. The President's secret knowledge that Yancey referred, in his own mind, to the failure of the Administration to attempt what the returned Commissioner believed to be a promising foreign diplomacy, angered him not a little. Immediately upon Sen ator Yancey taking his seat, he explored the records of the Treasury and War Departments, seeking to discover why the Confederate States had fallen so far behind the enterprise displayed by the United States in maintaining a paper currency and in the purchase of arms and munitions of war, in Europe. Meanwhile, the alarming unhappy personal relations of the President to the great men, civilians and soldiers, of the Confederacy and his fateful reliance upon weaker men revealed itself. The two leading newspapers, the Richmond Examiner and the Charleston Mercury, edited by Daniels and Rhett, respectively, were pronounced in opinion that the Confederacy was in great peril from mal-administration. The impression made on Mr. Yancey's mind by the condition of affairs in the government, is expressed by the following extract from a private letter:

"I vividly recall the very last time I ever saw the great orator and parliamentarian, and I can never forget the peculiar impression his appearance made on my mind. It was in my parlor at Richmond, that I last saw him, soon after his return from abroad, in a private interview in which he related the details of his fruitless mission. Hopeless despair was written on his fine face, ah, and wailed out in every tone of his voice. The doom of his beloved South was to him a personal execution. He seemed literally to have perished with his hopes."

Having made a thorough examination of the acts of Congress, the condition of the Departments and the course of the President, Mr. Yancey from his private apartments, on Sunday, wrote to the President a confidential letter:

"RICHMOND, April 6, 1862.

"Sir: I have had occasion, very recently, to examine with some care the instructions of the War Department to Captain Huse, and the letters of that officer to the Secretary of War.* The finished military education of Captain Huse naturally inclines him to buy none but the most superior rifled arms.

*Caleb Huse, a native of New England, a graduate of West Point, was elevated from the station of commandant, or drill master, at the University of Alabama, to Confederate Agent in Europe, with plenary control of purchases of war material.

"The instructions of the government strengthen him in that inclination.

"The markets of Europe at this time can afford few rifled muskets.

"Many very fair smooth bore muskets can be bought in Europe, if pains are taken to find them.

"The appointment of, at least, two additional officers to make different sections of the continent of Europe their spheres of action, would facilitate the acquisition of such

arms.

"Instructions to each officer, to confine his operations to the section allotted to him, would avoid conflict with others and also would be some protection against speculative prices.

"The manufacturers of rifled and other muskets, as well as carbines, are now pretty much open to the monopoly of your contractor. But to this end a large amount of cash, in hand, is absolutely necessary. Forfeit money must be deposited with the contract. Cash is absolutely required on delivery of the arms which would be monthly.

-

"I notice, in Mr. Meminger's statement of the amount of money sent to the agent of the War Department, that in the most critical period of your contracts, in England, between September 25, 1861, and January 19, 1862, nearly four months, he only sent $1,031. The consequence was, Captain Huse had to beg an advance from Sir Isaac Campbell and Company, to the amount of a half-million of dollars. Had this house not come generously to his relief, we should have lost every contract; and also some fifty thousand muskets, delivered in that period and since.

"The funds sent, up to March 1, ultimo, will only pay for deliveries under old contracts; which do not, I believe, call for more than 10,000 muskets per month.

"If we are to arm 200,000 additional men, or rather obtain 200,000 or 300,000 additional muskets, by fall, not only will you be compelled to send additional officers, imbued fully with your ideas, but a million dollars, a month, also.

"Pardon me for the suggestions. They are dictated by a solemn sense of duty. I address them to you because I believe, from the immense pressure upon you of every public

interest, you cannot comprehend all, unless with the aid of some plain spoken friends.

"I have spoken of what I know, and submit it for what it may be worth to your consideration.

"Respectfully, your obedient servant,

"To His Excellency, the President."

"W. L. YANCEY.

The informal character of this letter was justified in the past intimacy of the parties to the correspondence. It was a frank and even bold impeachment of the Secretaries. It went so far as to prove the inefficiency of their administration, by specific allegations of duty neglected. But it marked the termination of the President's kindly feeling toward Yancey. The explorations of the Departments, by a Senator, in advance of the President, as Yancey had explored and then criticised, was held to be an unpardonable impertinence. So long as Yancey was content to remain in Europe, acknowledging his instructions, and obeying them, the President's warmth of friendship remained unabated. But, from the counsel of a friend, who saw further than the Administration, he turned in lofty scorn and bitter irony. The President replied and the Senator rejoined:

SENATE CHAMBER, April 17, 1862. "Dear Sir: I did not expect a reply to my letter of the 6th instant.

"I regret that I cannot comply with your request to furnish you with information in respect to smooth bore muskets, the places where and the parties from whom they may be obtained.

"I kept no memoranda of the facts, as they occurred, and am away from my correspondence, which might aid me somewhat.

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'My object in writing upon the subject was: 1. To assure you that you could have obtained, and can now obtain, a serviceable arm in Europe, such as your agent has not deemed proper to buy, under his view of his instructions; 2-to suggest my opinion that other-I mean a greater number of— agents, assigned to distinct territory, in Europe, would facilitate purchase of such arms; 3-and chiefly, that a more regular