Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/607



The Confederate States of America soon ceased to exist. The overthrow and disbanding of its armies destroyed its belligerency; its civil authority becoming scattered and powerless could not operate, and therefore its position as a government de facto became untenable; what it still was de jure on account of the demands of Constitutional law was practically determined by the necessary resort to State action for the abrogation of the secession ordinances, also to State consent to the Constitutional amendments then proposed. Thus it was dissolved by war and by the action of the States which had formed it. The Confederacy had won the encomium of eminent publicists as having the best form of Constitutional government the world ever saw. Its administration had been able, humane, and considerate of the common welfare. Its leaders were among the most intellectual, cultured and patriotic of mankind. Its people enjoyed the highest civilization, and its soldiers were as brave as any legions ever led in patriotic war. It now ceased to have political existence, but remaining as a memory of noble things; well deserving the esteem which great nations gave it, and the fame which history preserves.

The course to be pursued in restoring all the States to their true relations in the Union was indicated by the Constitution of the United States, and this method was so obvious to the Southern seceded States that they proceeded at once to resume their practical duties which the Union under the Constitution required. Unfortunately, a theory of Reconstruction was adopted by Congress, in the place of Restoration, which led to consequences deplored by the best citizens of the whole country,