CHAPTER XIX.

PERPLEXITIES OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE " CONFEDERACY."-HIS MESSAGE TO CONGRESS.-HE RELIES UPON THE “UNQUENCHABLE" SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE. HE IS GRIEVED AT THE NON-RECOGNITION OF HIS GOVERNMENT BY OTHER NATIONS.-HIS VIEWS UPON PLACING THE NEGRO IN THE ARMY.-PEACE COMMISSIONERS FROM THE SOUTH.-SECOND INAUGURATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN AS PRESIDENT.-HIS INAUGURAL ADDRESS.-HOPEFUL PROSPECTS OF THE UNION CAUSE.-STRENGTII OF AND OPERATIONS OF THE NAVY.—ATTACK ON AND FALL OF FORT FISHER.REBEL PRIVATEERS. —WHERE BUILT.-CAPTURE OF.-SINKING OF THE "ALABAMA" BY THE "KEARSARGE."-UNITED STATES NAVY IN THE WAR OF 1812.-COLORED SOLDIERS IN THE ARMY.

THE next message of the President of the Southern Confederacy was delivered at Richmond, on the 7th day of November, 1864. The "President" was still hopeful of ultimate success. Still the reader cannot but perceive a wavering in the mind of Mr. Davis. His calls upon Divine power are louder and oftener repeated than at any previous time. His tone, both in the praises of the Confederate Armies and his denunciation of the "barbarities" of the invader, is much subdued. His disgust at the non-recognition of the independence of the Confederacy by foreign nations is very great. His views of placing negroes in the army in the service of the Government, and their "chattel" status, are happily conformable to the true spirit of Democracy as practiced by the party to which he belongs. Still he thinks that if the negro would do good service in fighting the "invader," that it would be well to offer him his liberty, and he is in favor of making them prisoners and "augmenting their num

pers in the scrvice.

How little did the "President" dream that in five

inonths from that very day the Capitol of the Confederate Government, wherein he delivered that message, should serve as a banquet hall for the victorious legions of the North, and that he himself should be escaping for his life in the guise of another sex. And yet this was so. A little more than five months and he was in a felon's cell; the armies of his "Government" dispersed; their arms parked; the American flag floating triumphantly over the dome of his late Capitol, and the war ended.

Following are extracts from Jefferson Davis' message, dated November 7th, 1864, alluded to:

"It is with satisfaction that I welcome your presence at an earlier day than that usual for your session, and with confidence that I invoke the aid of your counsel at a time of such public exigency. The campaign which was commenced almost simultaneously with your session in May last, and which was still in progress at your adjournment in the middle of June, has not yet reached its close. It has been prosecuted on a scale and with an energy heretofore unequaled. When we revert to the condition of our country at the inception of the operations of the present year, to the magnitude of the preparations made by the enemy, the number of his forces, the accumulation of his warlike supplies, and the prodigality with which his vast resources have been lavished in the attempt to render success assured; when we contrast the numbers and means at our disposal for resistance, and when we contemplate the results of a struggle apparently so unequal, we cannot fail, while rendering the full meed of deserved praise to our Generals and soldiers, to perceive that a power higher than man has willed our deliverance, and gratefully to recognize that the protection of a kind Providence in enabling us successfully to withstand the utmost efforts of the enemy for our subjugation. If we now turn to the results accomplished by the two great armies, so confidently relied on by the invaders as sufficient to secure the subversion of our Government and the subjection of our people to foreign domination, we have still greater cause for evout gratitude to Divine power. In Southwestern Virginia successive

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armies, which threatened the capture of Lynchburg and Saltville, have been routed and driven out of the country, and a portion of Eastern Tennessee reconquered by our troops. In Northern Virginia, extensive districts formerly occupied by the enemy are now free from their presence. In the lower valley, their General, rendered desperate by his inability to maintain a hostile occupation, has resorted to the infamous expedient of converting a fruitful land into a desert by burning its mills, granaries, and homesteads, and destroying the food, standing crops, live stock, and agricultural implements of peaceful noncombatants. The main army, after a series of defeats in which its losses have been enormous; after attempts, by raiding parties, to break up our railroad communications, which have resulted in the destruction of a large part of the cavalry engaged in the work; after constant repulse of repeated assaults on our defensive lines is, with the aid of heavy reinforcements, but with, it is hoped, waning prospect of further progress in the design, still engaged in an effort, commenced more than four months ago, to capture the town of Petersburg.

"The army of Gen. Sherman, although succeeding at the end of the summer in obtaining possession of Atlanta, has been unable to secure any ultimate advantage from this success. The same General who, in February last, marched a large army from Vicksburg to Meridan with no other result than to be forced to march back again, was able, by the aid of greatly increased numbers, and after much delay, to force a passage from Chattanooga to Atlanta, only to be for the second time compelled to withdraw on the line of his advance, without obtaining control of a single mile of territory beyond the narrow track of his march, and without gaining aught beyond the precarious possession of a few fortified points, in which he is compelled to maintain heavy garrisons, and which are menaced with recapture.

"The lessons afforded by the history of this war are fraught with instruction and encouragement. Repeatedly during the war have formidable expeditions been directed by the enemy against points ignorantly supposed to be of vital importance to the Confederacy. Some of these expeditions have, at immense cost, been successful; but in no instance have the promised fruits been reaped. Again, in the present campaign, was the delusion fondly cherished that the capture of Atlanta and Richmond would, if effected, end the war by the overthrow of our Govern

ment and the submission of our people. We can now judge by experience how unimportant is the influence of the former event upon our capacity for defense, upon the courage and spirit of the people, and the stability of the Government. We may, in like manner, judge that if the campaign against Richmond had resulted in success instead of failure; if the valor of the army, under the leadership of its accomplished Commander, had resisted in vain the overwhelming masses which were, on the contrary, decisively repulsed; if we had been compelled to evacuate Richmond as well as Atlanta, the Confederacy would have remained as erect and defiant as ever. Nothing could have been changed in the purpose of its Government, in the indomitable valor of its troops, or in the unquenchable spirit of its people. The baffled and disappointed foe would in vain have scanned the reports of your proceedings, at some new legislative seat, for any indication that progress had been made in his gigantic task of conquering a free people. The truth, so patent to us, must ere long be forced upon the reluctant Northern mind. There are no vital points on the preservation of which the continued existence of the Confederacy depends. There is no military success of the enemy which can accomplish its destruction. Not the fall of Richmond, nor Wilmington, nor Charleston, nor Savannah, nor Mobile, nor of all combined, can save the enemy from the constant and exhaustive drain of blood and treasure, which must continue until he shall discover that no peace is attainable unless based on the recognition of our indefeasible rights. * * We seek no favor, we wish no intervention; we know ourselves fully competent to maintain our own rights and independence against the invaders of the country, and we feel justified in asserting that, without the ad derived from recruiting their armies from foreign countries, they would, ere this, have been driven from our soil. When the Confederacy was refused recognition by Great Britain, in the fall of 1862, the refusal was excused on the ground that any action of Her Majesty's Government would have the effect of inflaming the passions of the belligerents, and of preventing the return of peace. It is assumed that this opinion was sincerely entertained, but the experience of two years of unequal carnage shows that it was erroneous, and the result was the reverse of what the British ministry humanely desired. A contrary policy, a policy just to us, a policy diverging from an unvarying course of concession to all the demands of our enemies, is still within the

power of her Majesty's Government, and would, it is fair to presume, be productive of consequences the opposite to those which have, unfortunately, followed its whole course of conduct from the commencement of the war to the present time. In a word, peace is impossible without independence, and it is not to be expected that the enemy will anticipate neutrals in the recognition of that independence. When the history of this war shall be fully disclosed, the calm judgment of the impartial publicist will, for these reasons, be unable to absolve the neutral nations of Europe from a share in the moral responsibility for the myriads of human lives that have been unnecessarily sacrificed during its progress.

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"The renewed instances in which foreign power have given us just cause of complaint need not here be detailed. The extracts from the correspondence of the State Department, which accompany this message, will afford such further information as can be given without detriment to the public interest, and we must reserve for the future such action as may then be deemed advisable to secure redress. * * The employment of slaves for service with the army as teamsters, or cooks, or in the way of work upon fortifications, or in the Government workshops, or in hospitals, and other similar duties, was authorized by the Act of the 17th of February last, and provision was made for their impressment, to a number not exceeding twenty thousand, if it should be found impracticable to obtain them by contract with the owners. The law contemplated the hiring only of the labors of these slaves, and imposed on the Government the liability to pay for the value of such as might be lost to the owners from casualties resulting from their employment in the service.

"The Act has produced less result than was anticipated, and further provision is required to render it efficacious. But my present purpose is to invite your consideration to the propriety of a radical modification in the theory of the law.

Viewed merely as property, and therefore as the subject of imprisonment, the service or labor of the slave has been frequently claimed for short periods, in the construction of defesive works. The slave, however, bears another relation to the State-that of a person. The law of last February contemplates the relation of the slave to the master, and limits the impressment to a certain term of service. But for the purposen enu