Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/718

 DAVIS ion resulted in an estrangement between Mr. Davis and Generals Beauregard and Johnston, which continued through the war. Mr. Hun- ter of Virginia, who in the summer of 1861 had succeeded Mr. Toombs as the confederate secretary of state, and who was a person of the highest consideration, having during the ensu- ing winter offered some advice about the con- duct of the war, was haughtily reminded that his department did not comprise military affairs ; he sent in his resignation next day, and was succeeded by Mr. Benjamin, who, originally attorney general, had been temporarily assign- ed to the war department upon the resigna- tion of Mr. Walker. In November, 1861, a presidential election was held throughout the confederacy, and Mr. Davis was chosen presi- dent for the full term of six years, and Mr. Stephens vice president. On Feb. 18, 1862, the first congress under the permanent consti- tution of the Confederate States assembled in Richmond. On the 22d Mr. Davis was inau- gurated president. His inaugural address, and his subsequent message, sent to the congress a few days afterward, were largely devoted to ex- planations of the recent disasters to the con- federate arms at Roanoke island and Fort Donelson, and to confident predictions that the period was near at hand " when our foes must sink under the immense load of debt which they have incurred." One of the first mea- sures of the confederate congress after the in- auguration was the passage of a conscription law, to which Mr. Davis reluctantly assented. The conscription undoubtedly saved the con- federacy for a time ; but it established at Rich- mond a military despotism, which was warmly opposed in many quarters of the south, and es- pecially in Georgia, whose governor, Joseph Brown, came out against the measure in proc- lamations and speeches, and drew Mr. Davis into a correspondence which lasted several months. On the approach of McClellan's army to Richmond in the spring of 1862, President Davis declared martial law for ten miles around the city, and supplanted the civil authorities by a military police, under Gen. Winder, which continued in power to the end of the war. The reason given for this step was that a Union sentiment was being developed as McClellan advanced, which made summary arrests of sus- pected persons necessary, and that a new po- lice was required to guard against political con- spiracies. In December, 1862, Mr. Davis vis- ited the confederate camps in the western de- partment, spending several weeks in obtaining information as to the conditions and wants of that section of the confederacy. During this excursion he visited the capital of Mississippi, and made an address to the legislature, defend- ing the conscription law, and ending with the declaration that " in all respects, moral as well as physical, the confederacy was better pre- pared for war than it was a year previous." This declaration was justified by the facts of the case. The confederacy was undoubtedly in its best estate and strongest condition at the end of 1862 and the beginning of 1863. The proc- lamation of emancipation by President Lincoln, to take effect Jan. 1, 1863, called out from Mr. Davis, in his next message to the confederate congress, an indignant commentary on the cruelty of a measure by which "several mil- lions of human beings of an inferior race, peaceful and contented laborers in their sphere, are doomed to extermination." He pronounced the emancipation proclamation " the most ex- ecrable measure recorded in the history of guilty man." In April,' 1863, in compliance with a request of the confederate congress, he issued an address to the people of the south, in which he said: "Alone and unaided we have met and overthrown the most formidable combinations of naval and military armaments that the lust of conquest ever gathered together for the subjugation of a free people. We be- gan this struggle without a single gun afloat, while the resources of our enemy enabled them to gather fleets which, according to their offi- cial list, published in August last, consisted of 437 vessels, measuring 840,000 tons, and carry- ing 3,026 guns. To oppose invading forces composed of levies which have already exceed- ed 1,300,000 men, we had no resources but the unconquerable valor of a people determined to be free The contrast between our past and present condition is well calculated to in- spire full confidence in the triumph of our arms. At no previous period of the war have our forces been so numerous, so well organ- ized, and so thoroughly disciplined, armed, and equipped as at present." Three months later these brilliant prospects were clouded by the defeat of Gen. Lee at Gettysburg on July 8, and the equally disastrous surrender on the fol- lowing day of Gen. Pemberton at Vicksburg, with 27,000 men, soon followed by that of Port Hudson with 6,000. These conspicuous failures were the signal for a fierce arraignment of the administration of President Davis in all parts of the Confederate States. He was held re- sponsible for the advance into Pennsylvania, though it had been advised by Gen. Lee, and had been made with the exultant approval of the whole south. He was charged with un- worthy partiality in appointing his personal fa- vorite Pemberton to the command in the south- west ; and Pemberton himself, a northerner by birth, was accused of having betrayed his com- mand. To add to the discontent produced by these severe military reverses, the finances of the confederacy became in 1863 hopelessly de- preciated. They had never been on a sound basis, nor were they ever well managed ; but the disasters of July, 1863, caused such a de- cline in confederate currency that it became almost worthless. The annual message of President Davis to congress in December, 1863, frankly stated the peril of the position, and indicated as the three great wants of his government men, money, and food. The army of northern Virginia had lost more than a