American Eloquence, Volume IV | Page 2

and Schurz are
deemed sufficient to set forth the merits of the movement for the
reform of the Civil Service. The magnitude of our financial
controversies during a century of our history precludes the possibility
of securing an adequate representation of them in speeches which
might come within the scope of such a volume as this. It has, therefore,
seemed best to the editor to confine the selections on Finance to the
period since the Civil War, and to the subject of coinage, rather than to
attempt to include also the kindred subjects of banking and paper
currency. The four representative speeches on the coinage will,
however, bring into view the various principles of finance which have
determined the differences and divisions in party opinion on all phases
of this great subject.
J. A. W.

VII.--CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION.
THE transformation of the original secession movement into a de facto
nationality made war inevitable, but acts of war had already taken place,
with or without State authority. Seizures of forts, arsenals, mints,
custom-houses, and navy yards, and captures of Federal troops, had
completely extinguished the authority of the United States in the
secession area, except at Fort Sumter in South Carolina, and Fort

Pickens and the forts at Key West in Florida; and active operations to
reduce these had been begun. When an attempt was made, late in
January, 1861, to provision Fort Sumter, the provision steamer, Star of
the West, was fired on by the South Carolina batteries and driven back.
Nevertheless, the Buchanan administration succeeded in keeping the
peace until its constitutional expiration in March, 1861, although the
rival and irreconcilable administration at Montgomery was busily
engaged in securing its exclusive authority in the seceding States.
Neither of the two incompatible administrations was anxious to strike
the first blow. Mr. Lincoln's administration began with the policy
outlined in his inaugural address, that of insisting on collection of the
duties on imports, and avoiding all other irritating measures. Mr.
Seward, Secretary of State, even talked of compensating for the loss of
the seceding States by admissions from Canada and elsewhere. The
urgent needs of Fort Sumter, however, soon forced an attempt to
provision it; and this brought on a general attack upon it by the
Confederate batteries around it. After a bombardment of two days, and
a vigorous defence by the fort, in which no one was killed on either
side, the fort surrendered, April 14, 1861. It was now impossible for the
United States to ignore the Confederate States any longer. President
Lincoln issued a call for volunteers, and a proclamation announcing a
blockade of the coast of the seceding States. A similar call on the other
side and the issue of letters of marque and reprisal against the
commerce of the United States were followed by an act of the
Confederate Congress formally recognizing the existence of war with
the United States. The two powers were thus locked in a struggle for
life or death, the Confederate States fighting for existence and
recognition, the United States for the maintenance of recognized
boundaries and jurisdiction; the Confederate States claiming to be at
war with a foreign power, the United States to be engaged in the
suppression of individual resistance to the laws. The event was to
decide between the opposing claims; and it was certain that the event
must be the absolute extinction of either the Confederate States or the
United States within the area of secession.
President Lincoln called Congress together in special session, July 4,
1861; and Congress at once undertook to limit the scope of the war in
regard to two most important points, slavery and State rights.

Resolutions passed both Houses, by overwhelming majorities, that
slavery in the seceding States was not to be interfered with, that the
autonomy of the States themselves was to be strictly maintained, and
that, when the Union was made secure, the war ought to cease. If the
war had ended in that month, these resolutions would have been of
some value; every month of the extension of the war made them of less
value. They were repeatedly offered afterward from the Democratic
side, but were as regularly laid on the table. Their theory, however,
continued to control the Democratic policy to the end of the war.
For a time the original policy was to all appearance unaltered. The war
was against individuals only; and peace was to be made with
individuals only, the States remaining untouched, but the Confederate
States being blotted out in the process. The only requisite to recognition
of a seceding State was to be the discovery of enough loyal or pardoned
citizens to set its machinery going again. Thus the delegates from the
forty western counties of Virginia were recognized as competent to
give the