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openly and very freely. In their eyes, and as expressed by their tongues and pens, it was the unscrupulous deed of a tyrant, a dictator, a would-be autocrat. There was in it, indeed, a good deal of that patriotic autocracy which refused to let the nation lie still and be murdered while thousands of willing hearts were offering strong hands to defend it.

The acceptances of men were by no means rigidly limited to the terms of the first War Office orders, and it was soon safe to say that there would be an army in the field after the militia regiments should serve their time and go home.

After all, one of the most important matters was that nothing should be done too audaciously startling and suggestive of "aggression and invasion.”

The incipient rebellion in Maryland was now completely crushed. The dangerous elements were weeded out of the State Legislature, a little, by a few salutary arrests. There was no longer any peril threatening the city of Washington in the rear. Nevertheless, the Confederate flag still flaunted in the face of the national capital from the roof of Arlington House as late as May 23, eighty days after President Lincoln's inauguration. There was nothing except the date of the Virginia election to prevent the planting of a rebel battery in General Lee's front yard. Such a battery would have been within easy range of all the government buildings, and would have commanded the Long Bridge over the Potomac, with all its northern approaches. The range of low elevations on the Virginia shore of the Potomac was evidently calling loudly for occupation. Advices from the South added strength to all considerations based upon military science, but not one step was visibly taken which could appear to threaten, much less to assail, "the rights of a sovereign State," until she should formally divest herself of them. No solitary Virginia voter was afforded a fresh pretext for casting his misguided ballot in favor of the "Ordinance of Secession."

CHAPTER XXX.

OVER THE LONG BRIDGE.

Respects for State Rights-Secession of Virginia-Union Advance across the Potomac-Death of Ellsworth-The Beginning in West Virginia -The Old Flag disappears from the South-White House Life-Wartime Illusions-Studies of future Battle-grounds-A Funeral in the East Room.

NOTHING Could well exceed the closeness with which Mr. Lincoln watched the course of events at the South, or the logical sequence of the steps which he took in pursuance of each and every movement made by his adversaries. Up to this last hour, he had neither done nor authorized any proceeding, as to Virginia, which the most fanatical expounder of "State rights" could reasonably call in question.

There was a small guard kept, to be sure, at the Long Bridge over the Potomac, to prevent its very possible destruction, but there was no vexatious interference with travel and traffic or even with the passage of Maryland stray volunteers for the rebel army. More than once, after nightfall, the squad of Union soldiers in charge at that point went hilariously over and hobnobbed with the Virginia State militia similarly posted at the old tavern on the other shore, and were hardly reprimanded by their officers for so doing. Even in the serious matters of the Gosport navy-yard and the Harper's Ferry arsenal, all pains were taken to avoid any open collision with the forces sent by the governor of Virginia for their seizure. Forbearance was carried to the utmost limit of endurance, but there it expired, strictly by limitation.

In accordance with the action of the Virginia State Conven

Bay. They set out at once by different routes, Gen. Butler arriving at Annapolis on the 21st, and Colonel Lefferts on the 22d. As a matter of course they were met by a protest from the governor of Maryland warning them not to land; but the protest had no troops behind it and occasioned no delay in getting the two regiments on shore. The governor also at once addressed a letter to the President, asking that the troops should be promptly removed. He also betrayed his bewildered state of mind by suggesting that the British Minister should be requested to "mediate" between the national government and its rebels in arms.

Through windows like this insane suggestion it is possible to obtain a view of the existing vagueness of ideas, in the minds of even educated men, as to the very first principles of national entity and human government. An answer was sent through the Secretary of State, and the troops were not removed.

come.

The New York Seventh was ordered to Washington, and General Butler remained to keep open the gateway to the North. He made it much wider in a few days. So small was the disposable force at Washington that Mr. Lincoln had few men to spare to hold the road by which the Seventh was to There was a serious doubt if the District militia, now sworn in as three-months volunteers, could be depended upon for service outside of the narrow area they supposed themselves sworn to defend. Two companies only, "A” and “B,” of the third battalion, the National Rifles and the German company before mentioned, volunteered their services, and those who saw them march away looked upon their undertaking as a sort of "forlorn hope." They did their duty without discovering any danger, and the Seventh arrived in safety on the 25th. The exuberant hopes of the Washington secessionists went down somewhat as those faultless lines of bayonets came glittering down the avenue to pass in review before the President. Still, as before, so then and afterwards, the secessionists were freely permitted to speak treason and write it, and to

come and go unhindered. Nothing else really galled some of them quite so much as this feature of indifference in Mr. Lincoln's policy.

During all this time the rebel flag floated from the roof of Arlington House, the family mansion of General Lee, just across the Potomac, in full view of the city. The proposal of

a squad of the District militia to go and take it down was instantly negatived as an unwise irritation of the people of Virginia. The "guard" for the defense of the Long Bridge over the Potomac never numbered more than twenty men at a time, prior to the 25th of April.

On the 20th, with or without good reason, the great navyyard at Gosport, Virginia, was burned and abandoned by the small national force in charge of it, with all its costly appliances and a number of ships upon which the rebel government had securely counted as the commencement of its "navy." A similar fate had overtaken the United States arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, on the 18th. In the West a state of affairs existed which imitated remarkably the local chaos at the corresponding points in the East. Everywhere Mr. Lincoln was appealed to by both friends and enemies, and at every point he exhibited the same steadiness, good temper, and sound judgment. It was a task of extraordinary difficulty, and the results obtained bear striking witness of its wise and faithful performance.

The Annapolis route to Washington continued open, nor could there now be any successful effort on the part of the Maryland secessionists to prevent further reinforcements of all sorts from pouring into the city they had so narrowly failed to win. They still retained undisputed control of Baltimore and of the greater part of the State, but were not able to receive further supplies of military material from the South. At the same time, numbers of their most active and dangerous spirits were continually leaving them to seek employment in the army under Jefferson Davis. The State Legislature was in session

at Frederick, but contained just enough of loyal leaven, acting with and upon its "conservative" and timid elements, to induce delay and irresolution in all its action until the hour for successful treason had gone by.

President Lincoln authorized General Butler to suspend the writ of habeas corpus in certain districts, but no strictly military movement was attempted until May 13. Then, under cover of a storm and the approach of night, General Butler, with less than a thousand men, suddenly entered Baltimore, seized a position from which his guns commanded the city, and effected a complete capture of it without the loss of a man. It was a deed the success of which justified its apparently reckless daring.

The "siege of Washington" was raised, the State of Maryland was forever lost to the Confederacy, and its population generally, if slowly, ranged themselves among the assured supporters of the national authority. The possible line of subsequent conflict at once drifted Southward from the banks of the Chesapeake to those of the Potomac, and the entire aspect of affairs changed.

A striking illustration of the difficulty under which Mr. Lincoln began his work and the darkness he was in as to whom he could employ and trust as servants of the new government is afforded by the case of Colonel Robert E. Lee, of the regular army. So complete had been the confidence reposed in this man's honor and patriotism, and so carefully had he abstained from giving any token of disloyalty, that, as late as April 20, he was informally offered the command of the Union forces about to take the field. His response was a resignation of his commission in the army, dated the same day. Three days later he was formally installed as commander of the State forces of Virginia. These were turned over to the "Army of the Confederacy" on the 24th of May, and he with them, to receive at once a commission as full "general" under the Rebel flag. No doubt he acted in accordance with his ideas of his duty to the

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