Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

THE END OF THE WAR

503

Lee appeared in a new uniform, the very embodiment of military dignity. Grant came in the uniform of a private, with nothing but his general's stars to distinguish him from a common soldier. Always considerate and gentle in his personal dealings, the Union commander could not bring himself to refer to the occasion which brought him face to face with his great opponent. There was no trace of bitterness in his attitude, no suggestion of arrogance in his manner; those signs of littleness were as foreign to Grant as they were to Lee. The two men had met before, during the Mexican War, and Grant tactfully found in this an opening for their conversation. For half an hour they chatted pleasantly about those earlier campaigns, until Lee finally reminded Grant of the business at hand. The terms of surrender were then drawn up and signed. At Lee's request, Grant allowed the Confederate cavalrymen and artillerymen to keep their horses, as a help in their spring ploughing.

On April 26, Johnston surrendered his army of thirty-seven thousand to General Sherman. Their agreement also included some fifty thousand more, subject to Johnston's orders, in Georgia. The surrender of Lee and Johnston had ended the war, although Kirby Smith, the last Confederate commander in the field, did not give in until May 26, at Shreveport, Louisiana.

Jefferson Davis fled to Georgia, where he was captured on May 10. At the time of his capture he was wearing his wife's cloak, with a shawl over his head. Out of this incident the newspapers worked up a highly sensational account of his attempt to escape disguised as a woman. The President of the Confederacy was then imprisoned at Fortress Monroe.

Less than a week after Lee's surrender, while the whole North was rejoicing at the end of the war, and when it seemed that the heaviest trials were nearly over, President Lincoln was assassinated. On the evening of April 14 with a small party he went to a play in Ford's theater. Shortly before the end of the performance, John Wilkes Booth, an actor by profession, and a fanatic by temperament, gained access to the President's box. Before any one was really aware of the interruption, he placed a pistol directly against Lincoln's head, and killed him. Then he leaped to the stage, breaking his leg in the fall, but because of the general confusion he succeeded in making his escape. He took refuge in Virginia, but his hiding place was discovered, and upon his refusal to come out and surrender, he was shot.

Then his fellow conspirators were tried, convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, and hanged.

In the United States at the time there was one man who might have guided the difficult course of reconstruction through to a conclusion satisfactory to both sides, had he lived. That man was Abraham Lincoln. Possessed of an extraordinary understanding of human nature, and of wide sympathies, he could perhaps have compelled Congress to forego its punitive program. No one else could do it; perhaps even Lincoln would have failed, but he would at least have made the attempt. Before taking up that story there are other aspects of the war to be covered.

CHAPTER XLV

THE CIVIL WAR; NONMILITARY ASPECTS

FINANCE

During the Civil War, as in wars generally, the government found it easier to keep the ranks filled with men than to raise the necessary funds to carry the contest through. When the glamour of military service fails to make the country respond, a government can generally resort to conscription. But in the task of filling the treasury there is little opportunity to use the glamour of war as a means of appeal. Paying taxes is an unromantic business anyway, even in war time, and Americans always have been sensitive on that score. It is not as easy to conscript wealth as men. It can be done, but always at the risk of seriously upsetting the business world, on which private incomes depend. Convinced that the war would be short, Congress at first preferred to rely upon loans, by means of which the burden could be shifted forward to the shoulders of later generations. In July, 1861, Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury, was authorized to borrow $250,000,000. At the same time Congress levied a direct tax of $20,000,000, imposed an income tax of three per cent on incomes above $800, and increased the tariff rates. From time to time Congress either raised the rates on taxes already in existence, such as the tariff, or imposed new taxes in the form of stamp duties. It took time to realize the returns from these various sources, and Congress bridged the gap by authorizing the famous "Greenback" issues, that is legal tender, non-interest-bearing Treasury notes. The amount issued at first was $ 150,000,000, but before the end of the war they had been increased to $449,000,000. These followed the inevitable course of unsecured issues of paper money, and in 1864 when the Confederate General Early threatened Washington, their value dropped to thirty-five cents in gold. Throughout the war they fluctuated, as reports from the front were favorable or otherwise.

In the course of the war the government raised approximately $667,000,000 in taxes, $ 2,140,000,000 in loans, and the amount given

above in Greenbacks. Because the bonds did not sell as rapidly as necessary, in February, 1863, Chase induced Congress to pass the National Banking Act. This provided for the incorporation of banks throughout the country, the note issues of which were to be secured by government bonds. Every bank chartered under the Act was required to purchase bonds equal in amount to at least one third of its paid-up capital. These were deposited with the Treasurer of the United States, and held by him. Then the banks were allowed to issue notes equal in amount to ninety per cent of the market value of the bonds. This measure therefore provided a much-needed currency, and at the same time created a dependable market for the loans. In 1865 state bank notes were driven out of circulation with a ten per cent tax.

This bank note currency was fully secured, as long as the federal government survived, and it proved to be unusually helpful after the Greenbacks drove specie out of circulation. From the middle of the war on to 1879 the ordinary citizen saw no coin. Even the fractional silver currency disappeared, and its place was taken by fractional notes, known in the picturesque language of the day as “shin plasters." By these various expedients the Union raised the necessary funds for pushing the war through to a satisfactory ending.

ECONOMIC PROSPERITY

The success of federal finance was made possible by the extraordinary business "boom" which the North enjoyed during the war. Once the initial shock was over, business promptly recovered, and then it entered upon a period of expansion that was not checked until the great panic of 1873. This prosperity extended to all parts of the Union, and affected every phase of its economic life. The nation was still primarily agricultural, and the heavy increase in farm produce was a material factor in winning the war. There were good harvests every year, especially of wheat and corn, and in 1862 and 1863 there were "bumper crops" of wheat. In 1862 the Union states raised one hundred seventy-seven million bushels of wheat, four million more than the whole country had raised in its best year before the war.

This great agricultural activity was made possible by a number of factors. In 1862 Congress passed a homestead act, by which farms from the public domain were given away to actual settlers. This

ECONOMIC PROSPERITY

507

tended to increase the acreage under cultivation. Then too in spite of the constant demands of the army, there was no serious shortage of labor because of the widespread introduction of labor-saving machinery. With the help of the machines women could take the place of men in the fields, and they did so, especially in the West. Markets for the heavy agricultural output were found in various quarters. The army required more food than would have been necessary for the same number of men in civil life because of the wastefulness, inevitable and otherwise, inseparably connected with military life. There were also increasing demands for American wheat abroad. In 1861 crops failed all over Europe, while England suffered a second failure the very next year. In 1862 the United States exported sixty million bushels of wheat, three times as much as the average annual export for the preceding ten years.

The manufacturing sections were adding their increased demands for food, while every branch of industry was undergoing a remarkable expansion. The woolen mills were apparently the most flourishing of all. They were rushed to fullest capacity throughout the war, and for those days the profits were enormous. One manufacturer said

that in the first few months of the war he had cleared $ 200,000, and he was then making $2,000 a day. The dividends paid by the woolen mills ranged from ten to forty per cent. Under the circumstances mushroom factories sprang up wherever there was available water power. In some parts of Vermont it is possible now to find the ruins of some of those little mills, ten miles away from any railroad. When the war came to an end they went out of business, and the only owners who got anything out of them after that were the more enterprising ones who were able to burn them for the insurance.

In Pennsylvania and the other states where iron and steel manufacturing plants were located, there were signs of prosperity almost equaling those in the woolen centers. The demand for farm implements, farm machines, textile machinery, and of course munitions kept them busy. In Philadelphia fifty-eight new factories were built in 1862, fifty-seven in 1863, sixty-five in 1864. Other cities reported equally interesting figures. It is worth noting that during the war years, more patents were issued than had ever been before in the whole Union. Five thousand were issued in 1864 alone, as against forty-two in the Confederacy.

This expansion in agriculture and in industry, added to the activity

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »