Edward Alfred Pollard, The lost cause; a new Southern history of the War of the Confederates ... Drawn from official sources and approved by the most distinguished Confederate leaders.

[508] at Richmond the opinion that the coming campaign was more likely to accomplish the independence of the Southern Confederacy than any preceding one of the war. These opinions were probably equally sincere and intelligent. Some special explanation must be found for a conflict of judgment so sharp and decided. The North trusted to its accumulation of men and material to make the fourth year of the war the triumphant one for its cause. The South, to a certain extent, had been encouraged by the series of successes we have remarked in the first months of this year; but this animation is not sufficient to account for the large measure of expectation and confidence with which she entered upon the dominant campaign of 1864. There was a special occasion of hope and reassurance.

Despite the little benefit, beyond verbal assistance, which the Confederate cause had derived from the Democratic party in the North, and despite the losses of that party in the elections of 1863, it was observed, in the spring of 1864, that it was beginning to raise a peace platform for the next Presidential election. That critical election was the point of a new prospect for the South. It was evident that there was a serious impatience in the North at the prolongation of the war; and it was probable that if the South could maintain the status quo through another campaign, and put before the North the prospect of another and indefinite term of hostilities, the present rulers at Washington would be discredited, the Democratic party get into power, and the Northern public be persuaded to accept as the conclusion of the war some favourable treaty, league, or other terms short of an actual restoration of the Union. It was said, with reason, in Richmond, that such was Northern impatience that the question of the war had simply become one of endurance on the part of the South; that even without positive victories in the field, and merely by securing negative results in the ensuing campaign, the Democratic party would be able to overthrow the Administration at Washington, and to open negotiations with Richmond as between government and government.

How seriously this argument was entertained in Richmond, may be understood from the fact that, simultaneously with the opening of the campaign in Virginia, President Davis prepared a mission to open communication with the Democratic party in the North, and to conduct in pace with the military campaign whatever political negotiation might be practicable in the North. The commissioners entrusted with this intrigue were Messrs. Thompson, of Mississippi, Holcombe, of Virginia, and Clay, of Alabama; and they were to proceed to a convenient place on the Northern frontier, and use whatever political opportunities the military events of the war might develop. They ran the blockade at Wilmington on the night of the day that the first gun on the Rapidan opened the momentous campaign of 1864.

The bloody drama of the war was to recommence on the banks of this