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plans of the oligarchy were too successful, while the North would never for a moment give its money for anything other than but the absolute control of the territories. At the suggestion of giving its money for the purchase of slaves the anti-slavery factions became suddenly very revolutionary. Emerson wrote: "Pay ransom to the owner, ay! fill it up to the brim! Who is the owner? The slave is owner, and ever was. Pay him." But who was to pay?

All knew that the strong commercial classes of the East would not. The people were to pay by war. It was not the question of the condition of the negro or the condition of labour that was at stake, but the question of the form of ownership and labour in the new land. Not only would the North not give money to the negro, but it excluded him absolutely from the new territories opened after the war, and refused to go even as far as Russia did in her liberation of the serfs, and give him a strip of land, which, if money were not forthcoming, could have been taken from his erstwhile masters as a war indemnity.

But in paper rights the North had largess, and for the moment it was quite impatient with Lincoln's slowness in reprisals. Congress not only approved of Lincoln's acts, but for the 400,000 men which he asked it gave 500,000, and for the $400,000 it gave $500,000. Now the country wanted action. After the secession of Virginia, the Capitol of the Confederacy was moved from Montgomery, Alabama, to Richmond, Virginia. "On to Richmond! On to Richmond!" became the cry. The Tribune printed daily in large letters: "The Rebel Congress must not be allowed to meet there on

the 20th of July! By that date the place must be held by the national army."

The "national army" of three-month men was about to be dissolved with nothing done. This, to the excited state of the country, Lincoln knew would not have looked well. Lincoln, who, they say, had a fine eye for military tactics, and who certainly had a fine ear for the voice of politics, did for the first time what he was to do so often in the years of struggle to come-order a general movement of the army on a fixed day. On 9th July an advance must be made against Manassas Junction so that the Potomac would be free for Northern use!

By great exertion, M'Dowell, the General in command, issued his marching orders on 16th July, but even then with an insufficiency of supplies. Three things in M'Dowell's orders were to be held unpardonable: first, to come upon a battery or a breast work without a knowledge of its position; second, to be surprised; third, to fall back. They came upon the Southern army behind a winding, sluggish stream called Bull Run, three miles in front of Manassas Junction. The two sides began with a few skirmishes, which were to the advantage of the North. For two days the armies did nothing, the Northern army seeking an unfortified crossing over Bull Run. Finally, on the 20th, a ford was found, and it was decided to make an aggressive advance in the morning. The attack was made and the Confederate army fell back. In Washington all was joy. Members of Congress had ridden out to the rear of the lines to watch the battle. Suddenly, in the afternoon, the tide turned. The Confederates were reinforced, and the Northern men, with one

accord, threw down their arms and ran. The next day found them still running, and they did not stop until Washington was reached, thirty miles away.

Lincoln had been spending the day trying to understand the varied telegrams and reports which came in every ten or fifteen minutes. About six in the evening came the despatch announcing the panic and flight. They say he listened in silence, without any change of feature or expression, and then walked away to army headquarters. So often was that hasty, anxious walk repeated in the four years to come! There a telegram from M'Dowell confirmed the disaster. Lincoln went back to the Cabinet room in the White House, and there, lying on the couch, heard the news of the battle from eye-witnesses. All night he was up, listening to reports and making memoranda for future action.

What he had feared in his heart of hearts was to come true. To bring the seceded states back into the Union was not the gay and easy task the North had promised itself. To fight nine million men along a battle-line flung two thousand miles by land and as many by sea needed years and a well-organized equipment. With a heavy heart, and that melancholy which rested with him towards the end, for he felt that by both North and South not a national interest, not even expediency would be sought, but mastery of power, he wrote down his plans for an effective prosecution of the

war.

"23rd July 1861.

1. Let the plan for making the blockade effective be pushed forward with all possible despatch.

"

2. Let the volunteer forces at Fort Monroe and vicinity, under General Butler, be constantly drilled, disciplined and instructed, without more for the present.

"3. Let Baltimore be held as now, with a gentle but firm and certain hand.

"4. Let the force now under Patterson or Banks be strengthened and made secure in its position.

"5. Let the forces in Western Virginia act till further orders, according to instructions or orders from General M'Clellan.

"6. Let General Fremont push forward his organization and operations in the West as rapidly as possible, giving rather special attention to Missouri.

"7. Let the forces late from Manassas, except the three-month men, be reorganized as rapidly as possible in their camps here and about Arlington.

"8. Let the three-month forces who decline to enter the longer service be discharged as rapidly as circumstances will permit.

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9. Let the new volunteer forces be brought forward as fast as possible; and especially into the camps on the two sides of the river here."

On 27th July he added two more suggestions:

"27th July 1861.

When the foregoing shall have been substantially attended to:

"I. Let Manassas Junction (or some point on one or other of the railroads near it) and Strasburg be seized, and permanently held, with an open line from Washington to Manassas, and an open line from Harper's Ferry to Strasburg-the military men to find the way of doing these.

"2. This done, a joint movement from Cairo on Memphis; and from Cincinnati on East Tennessee."

But not all had the great determination of Lincoln. The failure at Bull Run caused a reaction to the ardour of the North. Already factional criticism ran high.

Stanton, who had been a member of the Buchanan Cabinet, said it was the " painful imbecility of Lincoln " which brought on the struggle. The catastrophe was due to Lincoln's "running the machine for five months." Greeley perhaps expressed the moneyed interests of the East best of all when he advised immediate surrender. After all, the lands of the West would compensate little to the great burden of a war which they feared might fall too heavily on their shoulders. Greeley wrote to Lincoln:

July 29, 1861, Midnight.

"DEAR SIR,-This is my seventh sleepless night—yours, too, doubtless-yet I think I shall not die, because I have no right to die. I must struggle to live, however bitterly. But to business. You are not considered a great man, and I am a hopelessly broken one. You are now undergoing a terrible ordeal, and God has thrown the gravest responsibilities upon you. Do not fear to meet them. Can the rebels be beaten after all that has occurred, and in view of the actual state of feeling caused by our late awful disaster? If they can-and it is your business to ascertain and decide-write me that such is your judgment, so that I may know and do my duty. And if they cannot be beatenif our recent disaster is fatal-do not fear to sacrifice yourself to your country. If the rebels are not to be beaten-if that is your judgment in view of all the light you can getthen every drop of blood henceforth shed in this quarrel will be wantonly, wickedly shed, and the guilt will rest heavily on the soul of every promoter of the crime. I pray you to decide quickly and let me know my duty.

"If the Union is irrevocably one, an armistice for thirty,

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