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

[565] per cent., and exchangeable at the will of the holders for the treasury notes of the first-named issue.

The Secretary of the Navy, who had been compelled to employ extraordinary measures to meet the demands imposed by treason, asked Congress to sanction his acts, and recommended various measures for the increase of the efficiency of his department. He also recommended the appointment of an Assistant Secretary of the Navy; an increase of the clerical force of the department; and the appointment of commissioners to inquire into the expediency of iron-clad steamers or floating batteries.

With the President's Message and the reports of Cabinet ministers before it, Congress prepared to enter upon its solemn and important duties with industry and vigor, after disposing of several claims for seats in dispute in the House of Representatives. And in that chamber, one of the first acts was to provide for checking irrelevant discussion, by the adoption of a resolution that only bills relating to the military, naval, and financial affairs of the Government at that crisis should be considered, and that all other business should be referred to appropriate committees, to be acted upon at the next regular session.

It was very important that Congress should confine its efforts to the one great object of furnishing the Executive with ample powers for suppressing the rebellion speedily, for its magnitude and promises of success were so great and hopeful, that a recognition of the independence of the “Confederate States,” and armed interference in their favor by powerful foreign governments, seemed to be not only possible but probable. From the time when South Carolinians declared their State withdrawn from the Union,

December 20, 1860.

there had been observed in most of the European courts, and in the public journals in their interest, an unfriendliness of spirit toward the National Government, and a willingness to encourage its enemies in their revolutionary measures. At these courts, and at the ear of these journals, emissaries of the conspirators had already been engaged in magnifying the strength of the Slave-labor States; in promising great benefits to European friends and helpers; and in misrepresenting the character, temper, and resources of the National Government. And at the powerful French court, the source of much of the political opinion of the ruling classes of Continental Europe, Charles J. Faulkner, of Virginia, the American Minister Plenipotentiary, it was believed, was an efficient accomplice of the conspirators in the work of misrepresenting their Government, and maturing plans for securing the recognition of the independence of the “Seceded” States. This suspicion of Mr. Faulkner was unfounded in truth.

When, during the month of January, the politicians of several of the Slave-labor States declared those States separated from the Union, and, early in February, proceeded to form a League of so-called Seceded States, Europe was prepared to accept the hopeless dissolution of the Republic as a fact accomplished. This belief was strengthened by the dispatches of most of the foreign ministers at Washington to their respective governments, early in February, who announced the practical dissolution of the Union; and some affected to be amazed at the folly of Congress in legislating concerning the tariff and other National measures, when the Nation was hopelessly expiring!