denounced as the tool of the Southern slave-holders, was spending the closing days of life in expressing the determination of the North-West that it would never submit to have “a line of custom-houses” between it and the ocean. The batteries which Confederate authority was erecting on the banks of the Mississippi were fuel to the flame. Far-off California, which had been considered neutral by all parties, pronounced as unequivocally for the national authority.
232. The shock of arms put an end to opposition in the South as well. The peculiar isolation of life in the South “Following the State.” precluded the more ignorant voter from any comparisons of the power of his state with any other; to him it was almost inconceivable that his state should own or have a superior. The better educated men, of wider experience, had been trained to think state sovereignty the foundation of civil liberty, and, when their state spoke, they felt bound to “follow their state.” The president of the Confederate States issued his call for men, and it also was more than met.
233. Lincoln's call for troops met with an angry reception wherever the doctrine of state sovereignty had a foothold. The Border States. The governors of the Border states generally returned it with a refusal to furnish any troops. Two states, North Carolina and Arkansas, seceded and joined the Confederate States. In two others, Virginia and Tennessee, the state politicians formed “military leagues” with the Confederacy, allowing Confederate troops to take possession of the states, and then submitted the question of secession to “popular vote.” The secession of these states was thus accomplished, and Richmond became the Confederate capital. The same process was attempted in Missouri, but failed, and the state remained loyal. The politician class in Maryland and Kentucky took the extraordinary course of attempting to maintain neutrality; but the growing power of the Federal government soon enabled the people of the two states to resume control of their governments and give consistent support to the Union. Kentucky, however, had troops in the Confederate armies; and one of her citizens, the late vice-president, John C. Breckinridge, left his place in the Senate and became an officer in the Confederate service. Delaware cast her lot from the first with the Union.
234. The first blood of the war was shed in the streets of Baltimore, when a mob attempted to stop Massachusetts troops Civil War. on their way to Washington (April 19). For a time there was difficulty in getting troops through Maryland because of the active hostility of a part of its people, but this was overcome, and the national capital was made secure. The Confederate lines had been pushed up to Manassas Junction, about 30 m. from Washington. When Congress, called into special session by the president for the 4th of July, came together, the outline of the Confederate States had been fixed. Their line of defence held the left bank of the Potomac from Fortress Monroe nearly to Washington; thence, at a distance of some 30 m. from the river, to Harper's Ferry; thence through the mountains of western Virginia and the southern part of Kentucky, crossing the Mississippi a little below Cairo; thence through southern Missouri to the eastern border of Kansas; and thence south-west through the Indian Territory and along the northern boundary of Texas to the Rio Grande. The length of the line, including also the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, has been estimated at 11,000 m. The territory within it comprised about 800,000 sq. m., with a population of over 9,000,000 and great natural resources. Its cotton was almost essential to the manufactories of the world; in exchange for it every munition of war could be procured; and it was hardly possible to The Blockade. blockade a coast over 3000 m. in length, on which the blockading force had but one port of refuge, and that about the middle of the line. Nevertheless President Lincoln issued his first call for troops on the 15th of April, President Davis then issued a proclamation (on the 17th) offering letters of marque and reprisal against the commerce of the United States to private vessels, and on the 19th Lincoln answered with a proclamation announcing the blockade of the Southern coast. The news brought out proclamations of neutrality from Great Britain and France, and, according to subsequent decisions of the Supreme Court, made the struggle a civil war, though the minority held that this did not occur legally until the act of Congress of the 13th of July 1861, authorizing the president, in case of insurrection, to shut up ports and suspend commercial intercourse with the revolted district.
235. The president found himself compelled to assume powers never granted to the executive authority, trusting to Suspension of “Habeas Corpus.” the subsequent action of Congress to validate his action. He had to raise and support armies and navies; he even had to authorize seizures of necessary property, of railroad and telegraph lines, arrests of suspected persons, and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in certain districts. Congress supported him, and proceeded in 1863 to give the president power to suspend the writ anywhere in the United States; this power he promptly exercised. The Supreme Court, after the war, in the Milligan case (4 Wallace, 133) decided that no branch of the government had power to suspend the writ in districts where the courts were open—that the privilege of the writ might be suspended as to persons properly involved in the war, but that the writ was still to issue, the court deciding whether the person came within the classes to whom the suspension applied. This decision, however, did not come until “arbitrary arrests,” as they were called, had been a feature of the entire war. A similar suspension took place in the Confederate States.
236. When Congress met (July 4, 1861) the absence of Southern members had made it heavily Republican. It Congress. decided to consider no business but that connected with the war, authorized a loan and the raising of 500,000 volunteers, and made confiscation of property a penalty of rebellion. While it was in session the first serious battle of the war—Bull Run, or Manassas—took Bull Run. place (July 21), and resulted in the defeat of the Federal army. (For this and the other battles of the war see American Civil War, and the supplementary articles dealing with particular battles and campaigns.) The over-zealous action of a naval officer in taking the Confederate The “Trent” Case. envoys James M. Mason and John Slidell out of the British steamer “ Trent ” sailing between two neutral ports almost brought about a collision between the United States and Great Britain in November. But the American precedents were all against the United States, and the envoys were given up.
237. The broad-construction tendencies of the Republican
party showed themselves more plainly as the war grew more
Paper Currency;
Slavery.
serious; there was an increasing disposition to cut
every knot by legislation, with less regard to the
constitutionality of the legislation. A paper
currency, commonly known as “greenbacks” (q.v.), was adopted and
made legal tender (Feb. 25, 1862). The first symptoms of a
disposition to attack slavery appeared: slavery was prohibited
(April 16) in the District of Columbia and the Territories (June
19); the army was forbidden to surrender escaped slaves to
their owners; and slaves of insurgents were ordered to be
confiscated. In addition to a homestead act (see
Homestead and Exemption Laws) giving public lands to actual settlers
at reduced rates, Congress began a further development of the
system of granting public lands to railways. Another important
act (1862) granted public lands for the establishment of
agricultural and mechanical colleges (see Morrill, J. S.).
238. The railway system of the United States was but twenty years old in 1850, but it had begun to assume some Railways in 1850. consistency. The day of short and disconnected lines had passed, and the connexions which were to develop into railway systems had appeared. Consolidation of smaller companies had begun; the all-rail route across the state of New York was made up of more than a dozen original companies at its consolidation in 1853. The Erie railway, chartered in 1832, was completed from
