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of the North, openly advocated concession; the Secretary of the Treasury resigned his place in the cabinet; gold was sold in the market at a premium of 290 per cent.; and during Early's raid Halleck reported to Grant that ‘not a man responded to the President's call for militia,1 from New York, Pennsylvania, or the North.’
This dissatisfaction was steadily fostered by those who preferred disunion to war. No one can appreciate the difficulties of the national commanders at this critical period who fails to remember the malignant detraction they suffered at home; the persistent efforts to blacken their reputations, to misrepresent their movements, to belittle their successes, and magnify their losses—in order to depress the spirit of the North.
A continuous battle was thus carried on at the rear while the soldiers were fighting at the front; and the enemies of the nation at home did it nearly as much harm as Lee. They stimulated the South in its resistance, they invited foreign sympathizers to active interference, and did their best to hinder recruiting, to withhold supplies, to damage the financial credit of the country, and to discourage the armies in the field.
The near approach of the Presidential elections reminded this party that it had still another
1 The militia, it may be necessary to say, were state troops, summoned for a particular emergency, and entirely distinct from the Volunteers, who were enlisted for definite periods.
New York Appleton 1885.
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