Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

[298] The buoyancy of feeling in financial circles, after the retirement of Cobb, had now given way to temporary despondency because of a want of confidence in Thomas, his immediate successor, and the robbery of the Indian Trust-Fund.¹ There were bids for only five hundred thousand dollars. The semi-annual interest on the national debt would be due on the first of January, and the Government would be greatly embarrassed. Loyal bankers, stepped forward, and took a sufficient quantity of the treasury notes to relieve the pressing wants of the Government. Nothing was now needed to inspire capitalists with confidence but the appointment of General Dix to the head of the Treasury, which was made soon afterward.

January 11, 1861.

When he offered the remaining five millions of dollars of the authorized loan, it was readily taken, but at the high average rate of interest of ten and five-eighths per centum.

Congress perceived the necessity for making provision for strengthening the Government financially. By far the larger proportion of all the expenses of the Government, from its foundation, had been paid from customs' revenue. To this source of supply the National Legislature now directed their. attention, and the tariff was revised so that it would produce a much larger revenue. An act passed Congress on the 2d of March, to go into effect on the 1st of April, which restored the highest protective character to the tariff. A bill was also passed on the 8th of February, authorizing a loan of twenty-five millions of dollars, to bear six per cent. interest, to run not less than ten, nor more than twenty years, the stock to be sold to the highest bidder. The Secretary offered eight millions of dollars of this stock on the 27th of February, when there were bids to the amount of fourteen millions three hundred and fifty-five thousand dollars, ranging from seventy-five to ninety-six. All bids below ninety were refused. The new tariff bill, and the faith in the Government shown by the eagerness to lend money on its securities, were the cheerful promises found in the Treasury Department.

The President and his Cabinet turned to the Army and Navy, and saw little in that direction to encourage them. The total regular force was sixteen thousand men, and these were principally in the Western States and Territories, guarding the frontier settlers against the Indians. The forts and arsenals on the seaboard, especially those within the Slave-labor States, were so weakly manned, or really not manned at all, that they became an easy prey to the insurgents. The consequence was, that they were seized; and when the new Administration came into power, of all the fortifications within the Slave-labor States, only Fortress Monroe, and Forts Jefferson, Taylor, and Pickens, remained in possession of the Government. The seized forts were sixteen in number.² They had cost the Government about seven millions of dollars, and bore an aggregate of one thousand two hundred and twenty-six guns. All the arsenals in the Cotton-growing States had been seized. That at Little Rock, the capital of the State of