the Nation and the world was far-reaching indeed. It marks the end of uncertainty as to the final outcome of the Civil War. From this moment it required but little prophetic vision to foresee that the Union would survive the dreadful shock of arms, and that slavery must perish.1

1 The space just west of the old cemetery was set apart for a National cemetery. This was dedicated on November 19, 1863, when President Lincoln made his memorable address, which is pronounced one of the brightest literary gems in the language. In this cemetery 3564 bodies were interred, some of which have since been removed. The entire battle-ground has in recent years become the property of the Government, and scattered over it are some five hundred monuments, statues, and markers, many of rare beauty. The macadamized drives about the grounds aggregate about twenty-two miles.

weaker side may win through greater devotion to a cause, through superior leadership and the like. Many instances in history have proved that the victory is not always to the strong. Had this criterion of strength alone been taken in our late Civil War, the North must necessarily have been successful, for it was immeasurably stronger than the South. There were twenty-two States against eleven, twenty-two million people against nine million, one-third of whom were slaves. And further, it was the manufacturer and the farmer against the planter. This want of manufactories in the South constituted the most vital difference in the material strength of the combatants. The resources of the South, while inferior to those

of the North, were nevertheless vast and practically inexhaustible. The soil of the southern States was capable of feeding its armies for any length of time; its mineral wealth was inexhaustible; as to men for the army, the boy of twelve years in 1860 was able to bear arms in 1865, and thus the depleted ranks might have been refilled and the war prolonged for indefinite years, but for the one thing needful- the South could not work its own materials. Could the South have worked its own cotton, could it have made its munitions of war and its machinery, who can tell how long the struggle might have continued or how it might have ended? for it had all the material at hand and lacked only the ability to use it.

The South owed its inability to manufacture its own goods to slavery. Slave labor had not the brains to manufacture; it could only delve the soil. Free labor could not exist by the side of slave labor, hence the rich minerals of the South were left in the earth, and the cotton mills were built in New England and Liverpool.

Thus slavery not only brought about secession and the war, but, the war once begun, it

insured the ultimate success of the North. But the difference in resources between the two sections did not alone bring about the result. Nor was it superior generalship, or greater devotion of its soldiery. The North was vaster in extent than the South; it had more men and more money; it could work its own mines, make its own guns and clothing and machinery. These were valuable factors indeed in bringing victory; but there were other causes that contributed very greatly to northern success, the most important of which

was

The Blockade.

It was on April the 19th, that ominous date in American history which witnessed the first bloodshed of the Revolution and of the Civil War, which witnessed also the proclamation of peace by General Washington in 1783, and the resolution by Congress in 1898 authorizing the President to make war upon Spain in defence of downtrodden Cuba- it was on this day in 1861 that Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a blockade of the ports of the seceded States.

The blockade seemed at first almost ridicu

The

lous; many did not take it seriously, and there was adequate ground for such a view of it. The United States navy at that time consisted of but forty-two wooden vessels, three-fourths of which were in foreign waters - scattered through various parts of the world. blockade certainly seemed open to the charge of being a paper blockade. Three thousand miles of coast to be blockaded by a nation whose entire navy could not have withstood one modern first-class battleship! Was it a great game of bluff? or was it the deliberate decision of a great mind?

Cortez, lying half dead with wounds and surrounded by a few half-hearted, defeated fol- · lowers, was planning to take the Mexican capital and he did it. His decision would have seemed folly to one who did not know the Hannibal determined to conquer Rome with a single army — and almost accomplished it.

man.

Lincoln proclaimed a blockade of three thousand miles of coast, and had no means to

carry it into effect. The South laughed at his pretensions. The world was undecided whether it was the work of a dreamer or of a