Beginnings of Political Agitation.

145

offices of responsibility under the government were compelled to the exercise of constant watchfulness from foes within and without. The trial time, in fact, of this government was approaching. It was to be proved whether a republic was a strong or a weak government. It was to be proved whether there existed a principle of vital national unity, or whether this nation was but a loose confederation of independent States, bound together by a mere selfish tie easily dissolved. There is a principle of growth in a nation as in a man-an aspiration toward a higher civilization; in fact, a true moral lifeand it was to be seen if a century's apparent growth were no true life after all, but a false existence and progress. Was it a social compact or a living state? Could the republic die by simple disintegration or falling away of disaffected portions? Had it a life which was strong enough to throw off corruption, and which contained within itself the means of its own cure and preservation?

The election of Abraham Lincoln on the 6th of November, 1860, to the Presidency, brought an end to the hopes of plotters in regard to the future control of the national government; but they had still six months to work out their schemes during the waning administration of an imbecile executive, who held the view that it was constitutionally forbidden to protect the government against rebellion. Men in high official position were busily engaged in secretly undermining the national power. While faithful servants, of whom Commander Foote was one, were almost despairingly striving for the upbuilding and concentration of the Navy, the Secretary of the Navy was sending off our ships to distant regions, or rendering them useless for defense, and an easy prey to conspirators. Both in the Army and in the Navy there were treacherous men, who at heart were traitors while they nominally remained in the pay of a government they had deliberately resolved to destroy. Then came in rapid succession the actual events of the

Secession drama-the withdrawal of the Southern States one after another from the Union; the seizing upon navy yards, arsenals, and forts; the inauguration of a Southern Confederacy; and the open insults offered to the national flag. At the North as well as the South the atmosphere was surcharged with disloyal sentiment. Even good men were in a state of hallucination in regard to duty. One hardly knew his neighbor for a friend or a foe. Compromise was still the cry when the sacred treasures and household gods were stolen away by bold enemies of the state.

President Lincoln was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1861, in the deepest period of gloom. He came to the administration of a government whose resources were crippled, and which, indeed, had been rendered almost powerless in every department. Not to speak of the Army, the Navy was at an extremely low ebb. Its vessels of war were either away at foreign ports, or those at home were unready for action and but half-manned. "At the beginning of the year 1861, the total Navy of the United States was ninety vessels, carrying, or designed to carry, 2415 guns. Of this number only fortytwo were in commission. Twenty-eight ships, bearing in the aggregate 874 guns, were lying in ports dismantled, and none of them could be made ready for sea in less than several weeks' time; some of them would require at least six months."* The most of those in commission had been sent away to distant. seas, and, with the exception of the store-ship Relief, of 2 guns, the steam-frigate Brooklyn, of 25 guns, which had just before arrived at Norfolk after a three-years' cruise, was absolutely the only armed vessel on the Atlantic coast; and the Brooklyn, moreover, drew too much water to enter Southern harbors, or to operate with efficiency in the first scenes of the war. Many of the naval officers, who were born at the South

*"Lossing's Civil War in America," vol. i., p. 299.

Letter of S. F. Dupont.

147

left their posts at the critical moment. No less than sixty, including eleven at the Naval Academy at Annapolis, resigned their commissions; and there were also continual desertions. In the Report of the Secretary of the Navy for the next year there were two hundred and fifty-nine desertions and dismissals of officers from the Navy alone. At length the thirteenth of April and the surrender of Sumter awoke the country, and the war began. These are facts fresh in the memory of this generation; and we live now to bless the day when the first gun was fired on Sumter, whose flash opened the eyes of the nation to see its peril.

We subjoin two or three letters addressed to Commander Foote while at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, from fellow-officers, which go to show the intense disturbance in the Navy before the war had actually commenced and at its earliest beginning, and which also show that there were noble and loyal souls in the Navy as well as in the Army:

"NAVY YARD, PHILADELPHIA, January 25, 1861. "MY DEAR FOOTE,-I had intended writing you a 'New-Year's' letter, but about that time I had many irons in the fire.

"A previous order to that which brought me here carried me immediately after to Annapolis as president of an examination board. From this duty I only returned home last Saturday, finding our whole family circle in deep grief from the loss of Mrs. Dupont's eldest sister, who had been for many years a second mother to her.

"On reaching here on Tuesday I found your letter of the 16th instant, which should have been forwarded to me at Annapolis. At that place I saw your friends the Rodgerses and Simpson, who always spoke of you with earnest admiration, and seemed to think the coast was clear for you to come to the academy when Blake left.

"But, alas! my dear friend, are we to have any academy? My own belief is that the drift is all one way. I have very little more faith in the Border States than in the Cotton States; there are any number of traitors in Maryland. The Chief Justice is a Secessionist.

"I still hope against conviction, and that is about all that is left for a man to do.

"We have been living under a delusion that we had a national government, which has toppled over at the first breeze; and secession, disunion, and treachery are made the rule instead of the exception-so safe has it been made for a state to go out that the novelty alone encourages the attempt.

"What has made me most sick at heart is to see the resignations from the Navy. I had occasion to go to Washington the last week in November, and was astounded to find the extent of the demoralization, not only in every department of the government, but among the officers of the Navy. I spoke out plainly, I tell you; told them I had never believed that I had been serving two masters; that I had been nourished, fed, and clothed by the general government for over forty years; paid whether employed or not; and for what?-why, to stand by the country, whether assailed by enemies from without or from within; that my state had had no part or lot in this support; that my oath declared allegiance to the United States as one to support the Constitution.

"But if I feel sore at these resignations, what should a decent man feel at the doings in the Pensacola Navy Yard? Here I can not trust myself to speak; and the Department accepting these resignations, not waiting for a single particular after hearing that the Yard had been surrendered! So that, on a reconstruction, these two affairs will come back into the Navy by treaty, of course.

"Thank you for your kind congratulations about my orders here; they are very acceptable, particularly if we hold together.

"I stick by the flag and the national government as long as we have one, whether my state do or not, and well she knows it.

"I have Lardner and Drayton in the Yard with me-nice men; there is no nonsense about the latter, though he is from South Carolina. “I have a thousand things to tell you, but must close for the present. Please remember me to Commodore Breese.

"Ever yours most truly,

S. F. DUPONT.

66

'Captain Foote, U. S. N.

"I see you had no idea of being surprised by mobs. Oh, why was not some one like you at Pensacola? I pass no judgment on the old commodore; he was in a tight place, and if he had only ironed well the traitors under him before he gave up, I should have been thankful.”

Letter of Samuel Mercer.

149

"U. S. FRIGATE 'WABASH,' HAMPTON ROADS, August 7, 1861. "MY DEAR FOOTE,—I received your kind and very welcome letter by the Rhode Island, and am thankful to you for it. We met the Rhode Island off the Frying-Pan Shoals, while we were securing two vessels by getting prize-masters and crews on board of them. One was the Mary Allen, a prize to the rebel privateer Dixie, and the other an American vessel under English colors, just out from Wilmington, North Carolina. These Englishmen in the rebel states are playing a deep game. The consuls of Her Majesty are giving American vessels provisional registers, and are loading them for English ports with the products of these Southern States. I sent both vessels to New York, but fear they will be recaptured before they get there. The papers we received previous to these captures led me to believe that our coast from the capes of Virginia to Cape Fear was lined with our cruisers in consequence of the excitement occasioned by the depredations of the Jeff Davis. But on my arrival here I learn such is not the case. Acting under my false impression, I directed the vessels to keep in shore, and if they are not captured it will be a miracle, as I learn that small privateers are ready at every inlet along the whole coast of North Carolina to run out in a moment and capture any poor devil who may show himself along the coast. I begin to believe that our press is a curse to our country. lign influence which caused our disaster at Bull Run. tures and touching on Frying-Pan Shoals without damage are the events of the passage from Charleston. I think if we could hang about half a dozen editors and as many members of Congress, we should get along better. I am afraid our President is not equal to the times, and I begin to think the Cabinet is badly constructed. Seward seems to be disposed to truckle to the English, and the President made a great mistake that he did not close all the rebel ports entirely by an edict forbidding all commercial intercourse with them whatever. This would have prevented Lord Lyons and Mr. Mercier troubling us about the blockade. It seems to me that the results of our exertions are by no means commensurate with the enthusiasm of our people and the unlimited means placed at the disposition of our government. But I will growl no more.

It was its maThese two cap

"I congratulate you most heartily, my dear Foote, on your promotion. Get a smart, active vessel at once, and come and help us. I wish you would give my love to Mrs. Foote and Miss Josephine, not forgetting the smaller fry, and believe me most truly your friend,

"SAMUEL MERCER.

"To Captain A. H. Foote, Navy Yard, New York."