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 What May Happen in the Next 90 Days. 
 
 THE DISRUPTION 
 
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 xjisiiTEXD sa?^A^a?ii:;,s, 
 
 OB THE ORIGIN OF THE 
 
 SECOND CIVIL WAR. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 1877. 
 
 /■■•■. J 
 
COPYRIOHT IBTO 
 

 My Dear KcpJicw: 
 
 You express astonishment in the hist letter I re- 
 ceived from you at reading in your History of 
 America, that the Disruption of the United States 
 Eepublic should have taken place so short a time 
 after the celebration of their Centennial Anniversary. 
 The reason you assign as an excuse for your sur- 
 prise does credit to your sagacity, and confirms me 
 in the hope that you may yet live to be an honor to the 
 Eepublic of New Zealand, in which you live, where 
 happier conditions may spare you those miseries 
 which we Americans, with common ancestors of 
 British origin, have had to endure. You say that 
 it might have been supposed that the eulogies, the 
 patriotic memories, which such a celebration neces- 
 sarily must have inspired, would seem to have had 
 little effect if they did not interpose to such a result 
 a barrier which ought to have been insuperable. It 
 seems to me, that this must be the exclamation of 
 our posterity, when we who were actors in the great 
 tragedies of 1877 have passed away, when we are 
 no longer here to bear our personal testimony to the 
 corruption and the venality, the entire disregard of 
 all written forms of law which so early as its one 
 hundredth anniversary sapped the entire founda- 
 tions of the American Eepublic, and plunged it into 
 irretrievable ruin. 
 
4 THE DISllUPTION OF THE UlflTED STATES; 
 
 I am growing old, and am looking upon the 
 twentieth century as upon a scene opening before 
 me, in whose incidents I may not participate, but 
 there is that within me which forbids my leaving it 
 forever without adding my quota of personal ex- 
 peiience to that great aggregate we call the truth of 
 History. Let me then briefly narrate those causes 
 and their consequences, that together form what 
 you now call the Disruption of the Great American 
 Republic. If the perusal of these lines shall serve 
 as a beacon light to you in that far off Pacific home, 
 where the same great experiment is being tried, in 
 whose result I cannot help feeling so deep an inter- 
 est, (though I confess not without grave doubts of its 
 success, when the same dangers that befell us, shall 
 beset you) I shall have had more than the highest 
 revv'ard I dare to hope. 
 
 May the inhabitants of your now peaceful, pros- 
 perous, and happy land, never dare to presume that 
 national resources, however vast, or private wealth, 
 be it ev r so great, can ever be substitutes for a na- 
 tional integrity debauched, or an elective franchise 
 corrupted and debased. 
 
 Our Centennial Exposition was about to close. 
 It had been the greatest success of any of 
 the class to which it belonged, that is — a tem- 
 ple in which the Deification of the Genius of 
 the Nineteenth Century, Utility, had taken place to 
 the almost utter abnegation of the great truth 
 your great philosopher enounced — that there could 
 
OR, THE ORIGIN OF THE SECOND CIVIL WAR. 5 
 
 be no real utility which did not minister to the 
 Beautiful. 
 
 But this blind worship of utility iu itrelf and for 
 itself only was eminently the outgrowth of our false 
 system of so-called Republicanism, in which the 
 pyramid was made to stand on its apex, and a few 
 tliousand intelligent men were expected to counter- 
 balance an immense infusion of imported vice and 
 pauperism, to which had lately been added a vast 
 number of ignorant freed men. 
 
 We were about to enter upon our quadrennial 
 Presidential election; there was at first no indica- 
 tion that any occurrence other than had hitherto 
 usually distinguished other similar contests would 
 take place. It is true there were some who shook 
 their heads and said "it would be close," "perhaps it 
 will be decided by the House of Representatives." 
 But the majority of even the intelligent did not 
 feel any alarm, as it had not been unusual for all 
 sorts of gloomy vaticinations to be indulged in on 
 similar occtisions. The mercantile portion of the 
 community transacted their affairs as usual, at least 
 to the extent that the miserably restricting com- 
 mercial laws and the unusually depressed state of 
 commerce still permitted them. 
 
 The Customs laws had always been so devised as to 
 provide phices for the largest possible number of 
 poverty-stricken party followers, and the regularly 
 recurring mercantile depressions followed as conse- 
 quences of overtaxation. 
 
6 THE DISRUPTION^ OF THE UNITED STATES; 
 
 It had been the custom from the earliest period of 
 our Republic for the party in power to prophecy 
 most direful presages of what would take place if 
 they were ejected, and it had equally been the cus- 
 tom for the party Avho was out of power to accuse 
 their opponents of every crime that imagination 
 could conceive or malgnity assert. This, so greatly 
 had the public conscience become perverted, was 
 not considered shocking, and did not, in fact, shock 
 anybody, on the contrary it was thought to add to 
 the "excitement of the canvass." 
 
 But just prior to the actual casting of the ballots 
 which occurred on November 1th, an incident took 
 place, which, while it did not create any actual 
 alarm among even thougliLful men, caused some few 
 to have doubts whether Ave were to escape so easily 
 the perils to the public tranquility as had hitherto 
 usually been the case even in the exciting Presi- 
 dential contests. 
 
 You have doubtless read of the vast mass of legis- 
 lative iniquity which History calls by the generic 
 term of "Credit Mobilier," and that amongst the 
 later reputations sadly besmirched by these expo- 
 sures was a certain individual who was at the time 
 of which I write a Senator from the State of Maine, 
 by name Blaine. Although he had been at the 
 time of his alleged corrupt practices simply a mem- 
 ber of the lower House of Congress, so little effect 
 was produced upon the public mind by the exposure 
 that he had immediately thereafter been advanced 
 
OR, THE ORIGTX OF THE SECOND CIVIL WAK. 7 
 
 to the rank of Senator. It is a curious and sugges- 
 tive fact tliat so far from any disgrace attaching to 
 his name, although his complicity had been 
 clearly demonstrated, the people of his State 
 actually were somewhat proud of the spectacle of 
 one of their citizens being so notorious in contemp- 
 oraneous History, without attaching any regard to 
 the cause of this notoriety. 
 
 Will it be believed that this person had been a 
 
 candidate for the Presidency, and that his defeat 
 
 for the nomination was due more to a want of what 
 
 was known as "availability" than to any supposed 
 
 .want of personal character? 
 
 Notwithstanding this defeat he still continued by 
 force of mere boldness, and the audacity generally 
 possessed by such men, to be a prominent actor in 
 the canvass then progressing. He drew out the 
 plans by which the popular vote Avas expected to bo 
 gained, and if that theory of History be adopted, 
 which makes the individual a more considerable 
 factor than the race, ho must be considered as largely 
 responsible for the calamities following the election. 
 
 This man, pandering to the lowest attributes of 
 Humanity, appealing to the fast expiring hatreds 
 caused by the First Civil "War, immediately on going 
 upon the hustings, declared its results to be in dan- 
 ger of revocation or repeal, and., in an address made 
 in the State of New York, called upon the people to 
 prevect the inauguration of Tilden, the Democratic 
 candidate, should he be elected. This was the first 
 
8 TPIE DISRUPTION OF THE UNITED STATES; 
 
 public declaration that the result of the vote was to 
 be challenged and not peaceably acquiesced in as had 
 previously been the case with but a single exception. 
 
 The fearful contest that had on that occasion re- 
 sulted was sufficient cause for the alarm created in 
 the minds of the few wIm) saw anything in this 
 menace of Blaine but the heated utterance of an 
 angry and unscrupulous politician. 
 
 But, as I have said, these were few in number, and 
 they took care to confine their fears to their own 
 breasts. The mass of citizens, in number greater 
 than ever before, moved by a variety o^ causes, avail- 
 ed themselves of their franchises to the number in 
 aggregate of about nine millons. By the following 
 morning it was generally known that the Democratic 
 candidate had been elected and a general expression 
 of relief was felt througout nearly all the States. 
 
 Towards the evening of that day a rumor began to 
 prevail to the eSect that the result was doubtful, 
 but this at first received little credence. 
 
 In a few days, however, a universal feeling of dis- 
 may evidenced the general belief that wickedness and 
 fraud were about to be substituted for the results of 
 fairly oblained party victory. One heard, on every 
 hand, the expression of this popular conviction. 
 
 The primary honesty of all men was deeply wound- 
 ed, and condemnation of the conspiracy, now openly 
 disclosed by the Republican leaders, was freely vented 
 by persons of all parties. 
 
 But those who studied deeper than the sur- 
 
OR, THE ORIGIN OF THE SECOND CIVIL WAR. 9 
 
 face of popular sentiment, soon saw that the 
 dispute over the succesion to Grant had in it ele- 
 ments sutlicieiitly complicated to assure the con- 
 spirators of the reformation of sharp party lines 
 thrown down for the moment by the supposed 
 termination of the strife for the Presidency. 
 This is a condition that may always be relied on by 
 such men in Eepublics — a form of government where 
 parties usurp the position to which the nation alone 
 is entitled. 
 
 The States in which the conspiracy now develop- 
 ed itself were in an extremely remote portion of the 
 country, and one of them very sparsely inhabited. 
 
 The government of two was notoriously corrupt 
 and inefficient; both were financially bankrupt, in 
 fa3t they presented striking examples of constituen- 
 cies once represented by cultured and intellectual 
 men in their earlier days, now fallen into utter ruin 
 by the same process of degradation soon to overtake 
 from similar causes the entire Ecpublic. 
 
 The name of these were Louisiana and South 
 Carolina, and of the former Florida. The method 
 about to be adopted in order to defeat the expressed 
 will of the people Avas identical in spirit, though 
 varied in form, with that which had been employed, 
 though on a more limited theatre, on previous occa- 
 sions in several of the Northern States of the Union, 
 when Party had become an excuse for acts whose 
 natural ultimate effect was about to be a catastrophe, 
 in which not only th e long- deluded citizen should 
 
10 THE DISRUPTION OF THE U]sriTED STATES; 
 
 see his destructive Idol disappear, but the Nation as 
 well, in whoso name all such villainies were wont to 
 be practiced. 
 
 At the time of these events much clamor was 
 raised by the actors in the conspiracy, to the effect 
 that there had not been a free expression of the suf- 
 frages of the inhabitants of these States, and this 
 was the excuse by which popular indignation, at first 
 very great, was, at length smothered, if not allayed. 
 A large proportion of the population in question 
 consisted of freedmon, none of whom possessed the 
 smallest claim to consideration in this connection, a 
 fact the more evident .if we remember none could 
 read or write, so that to expect from them any intel- 
 ligent appreciation of the political issues involved in 
 the campaign, was to the last degree ridiculous, their 
 suffrages being as likely to be cast in one direction as 
 the other. But these partizan outcries of what was 
 then termed " intimidation," largely as they occupy 
 the annals of the time, have been treated by all His- 
 torians, who have fully considered the theme, as but 
 the thinly veiled excuse for a monstrous iiolitical 
 crime. Nothing ever has proved so convenient a 
 cloak for such work as the destroyers of our Union 
 had in hand as a cleverly devised mock sympathy 
 with those supposed to be oppressed. Abstractions 
 have a great hold upon the minds of men in Repub- 
 lics, and I have often seen elections turn upon ideal 
 issues of no practical importance, to the utter disre- 
 gard and neglect of tangible interests the most vital, 
 
OR, THE OIIIGIX OF THE SECOND CIVIL WAR. 11 
 
 The administration then in power, with Grant at the 
 head as President, had been, as you are aware, the 
 most corrupt, inefficient and expensive the country 
 had ever seen. Several of the Cabinet officers had 
 been driven into disgrace, not because they were any 
 worse than those who were still the President's official 
 advisers, but that they were less adroit. Belknap, 
 the Minister for War, had narrowly escaped im- 
 peachment through a cunningly devised technicality. 
 The Democratic candidate for President, Tilden, 
 had rendered himself justly distinguished as the 
 prosecutor of Tweed, the New York Treasury 
 embezzler, and the Washington office holders feared, 
 and not without reason, that his skill in the detec- 
 tion of clerical fraud might have occupation enough 
 if he should be allowed unchallenged to take his 
 seat of office and be peacefully inaugurated. 
 
 I have been thus explicit in describing ihe condi- 
 tion of affairs, because it is just this atmosphere of 
 the time, as it were, Avhich forms that most import- 
 ant link in Historical verity, only to be supplied by 
 contemporaneous narrative. The public reputation 
 of all political men was become so bad that nothing 
 was too base to be believed of any of them. Public 
 virtue was dead, and private morals were in a con- 
 dition of dissolution. There Avas no sanctity in the 
 Home and no morality abroad. Men disbelieved in 
 their neighbor and doubted themselves. 
 
 Many of the Peligious edifices were conducted on 
 the basis of commercial enterprises, and to be a man- 
 
12 THE disruption: of the united states; 
 
 aging ofScial in the more wealthy was the higlic.-t 
 ambition of the luxurious business man who desired 
 the opportunity such a position atforded, at once for 
 remuneration and social consideration. The times 
 were indeed ripe for a great political catastrophe. 
 
 When Congress met in December, 187(3, the 
 Democrats were in majority in the popular branch, 
 and the Republicans in the aristocratic, or Senate, as 
 it was styled. No sooner were both in session than 
 the outbreak came, and from that time up to 
 February, 1877, neither transacted any practical 
 business, but indulged in the most violent harangues 
 framed on both sides from the most extreme 
 partizan standpoint. These formed at first two of 
 the parties to the controversy, as representing the 
 two great political parties, but there was soon to be 
 interposed a third. The then President had at first 
 thrown the weight of the Army and Navy in the 
 direction of the conspiracy, and had taken the neces- 
 sary preliminary steps in Louisiana and Soutli Caro- 
 lina, by ejecting at the bayonet's point the Demo- 
 cratic members of the State's Legislature, but he 
 shortly perceived that while he was the chief per- 
 former of the necessary iniquity in these proceed- 
 ings, it behooved him that the results should be 
 turned in his direction if the affair promised to 
 succe d. It therefore happened hero, as has so 
 often been the case, that while the conspirators were 
 using him, as they fondly believed, he was, iufact, at 
 this time their master. 
 
OK, THE ORIGIJSr OF THE SECOND CIVIL AVAR. 13 
 
 The day ou which the Congress met to count the 
 votes cast at the Electoral Colleges was agreed by all 
 parties to be that on which the culmination of the 
 plots should take place. 
 
 Grant had been for some time collecting troops 
 from all parts of the country, and though but few 
 actually were in Washington, it was soon to be evi- 
 dent how thoroughly prepared the administration was 
 for all eventualities. The unbroken precedent had 
 always been that the two co-ordinate branches of the 
 Congress — Ilouse and Senate, met at noon after organi- 
 zing in their respective chambers, the place of holding 
 the joint session being the Hall of the Ilouse of 
 Representatives, though no written law existed on the 
 subject, it was considered ominous that the Senate 
 had announced their disinclination to conform to the 
 precedent. 
 
 They notified -the Ilouse to this effect some days 
 previous, and as their presiding officer became that 
 of the two houses for the time being, this decision 
 was acquiesced in, though not without grave misgiv- 
 ings. Tliis was indeed the condition into which the 
 public mind had grown suddenly disabused, as men 
 had become from the opinion that grave difficulties in- 
 volving considerations so weighty could be adjusted 
 when there existed in fact on the one hand no disposi- 
 tion to yield the right, on the other, an actual incli- 
 nation to push the power of possession to the very 
 utmost. 
 
 The financial barometer, undisturbed or slightly 
 
14 THE DISEUPTIOK OF THE UKITED STATES; 
 
 affected, so long during the turmoil of legislative 
 strife, lasting through the entire winter, had at last 
 reflected the now universal panic by immense pertur- 
 bations. In one day there were more suspensions of 
 mercantile firms in the city of New York tlum had 
 previously taken place in nine months. 
 
 The banks had notified their dealers that no 
 amount over one hundred dollars at one time Avould 
 be paid during the week in which the counting of 
 the electoral votes should take place. 
 
 This prudent course alone saved them from utter 
 destruction. All commercial business Avas at an 
 end. The foreign banking houses refused to sell 
 their bills on Europe, except for gold. Exports of 
 produce stopped entirely. No quotation existed for 
 any article in the paper money of the country, 
 which was uncurrent in any considerable amount. 
 
 In all the large cities immense , crowds of people 
 gathered in the streets and eagerly listened to the 
 declamations of excited orators. As an immense 
 majority of the common people were Democratic in 
 sentiment, these addresses were usually from that 
 point of view. 
 
 But this condition of affairs, when reported at the 
 Capitol, served only to increase the agitation and 
 excitement, without producing any effect upon the 
 calmer spirits there, if indeed any such existed, 
 where all was passion and frenzy. 
 
 At the appointed hour, the Representatives, headed 
 by the Speaker, filed slowly into the Senate Chamber. 
 
OR, THE ORIGIN OF THE SECOND CIVIL WAR. 15 
 
 The galleries had been crowded with anxious spec- 
 tators long before the hour for the meeting. When 
 the House entered, vociferous cheering broke forth, 
 and despite the efforts of the ushers, it was but too 
 evident the sympathies were with those elected 
 directly by the people. When order was restored, 
 the acting Vice-President, according to rule, was in- 
 formed the House was present to fulfill its duties 
 under the Constitution, the usual preliminaries 
 then took place in the appointment of tellers. 
 There existed no law as to how the electoral certifi- 
 cates should be read and counted, but it was agreed 
 that it should be al]3habetically. 
 
 Wlien the vote of Florida was reached, the tellers 
 for the House objected on the ground of a fraud in 
 the coant. 
 
 The Vice-President refused to entertain the objec- 
 tion, asserting the certificate was in due form, and 
 that there existed no right anywhere to examine 
 otherwise into its correctness. This was the care- 
 fully prepared rock on which the liberties of forty 
 millions of freemen Avere intended to be shattered. 
 
 At once confusion reigned supreme, gesticula- 
 tions, calls to order, and the shouts from the gal- 
 leries all combined to create a Bable of discord. 
 
 Daring a luU in this storm of voices, the Speaker 
 of the House directed it to withdraw, but the Vice- 
 President exclaimed that this would be obeyed only 
 at the personal peril of every Representative with- 
 drawing, as it would be considered, an overt act of 
 
IG THE DISRUPTION OF THE UNITED STATES; 
 
 Treason b}- the incoming administration. Disregartl- 
 ing these threats, the House hastily Avithdrew, with 
 tlic exception of about fovty members who were in 
 accord with the sentiments of the majority in the 
 Senate. When the House were about to reach the 
 main entrance to their chamber they found all the 
 doors guarded by soldiery, and entrance was forbid- 
 den by "order of the President of the United States, 
 to the end that an attempted act of Treason might 
 not be carried into effect. " 
 
 The members then withdrew from the Capitol, 
 never destined again to enclose the Congress of the 
 United States! 
 
 It Avas now four o'clock in the day, the streets were 
 lined with troops, and artillery commanded all the 
 public squares, the members of the House justly 
 fearing for their personal safety, as by one accord, 
 betook themselves to the terminus of the railroad 
 running north. 
 
 Previous to the departure of the train a meeting 
 was hastily organized and a resolution jiassed, that 
 in view of the circumstances, the Capitol being in 
 possession of an armed force, it did not comport 
 with the dignity of the House of Eepresentativcs to 
 attempt to deliberate further in the presence of 
 soldiers in time of peace, therefore, they would 
 adjourn to meet in the City of 'New York on the 
 following day. Shortly afterward they departed 
 on the outgoing train. 
 
 The proceedings in the Senate, interrupted for 
 
OE, THE ORIGIN OF THE SECOND CIVIL WA.B. 17 
 
 the moment by the scenes I have just depicted, were 
 carried out precisely as the conspirators had design- 
 ed, the Democratic minority of the Senate, object- 
 ing to the reception of all certificates for electors 
 from States where "intimidation" had furnished an 
 excuse for manipulating the election returns. At 
 every objection they were called to order by the 
 Vice-President, who finally informed them that if 
 he was further interfered with in the discharge of 
 his duty, he should call in the soldiery, who were 
 t>c!n present, and have any recalcitrant Senators 
 arrested ! 
 
 When the electoral vote of Oregon was reached, 
 from which there were two sots of electoral certificates, 
 a Senator from New York arose and called for an 
 adjudication of this point. The Vice-President in- 
 formed him that he was there, as was the Senate, 
 merely as a witness of the count. The Senator 
 appealed to the entire body, and was supported by 
 the Democratic Senators from other States, and 
 even by one or two Republicans and Independents, 
 the latter, alas ! but all too few ! 
 
 The Vice-President and those in the conspiracy 
 cried Sedition, and ordered in the troops, who, en- 
 tering, seized the refractory Senators, and marched 
 them between files of bayonets out of the Chamber ! 
 They were then hurried from the building and im- 
 mured in a military prison. 
 
 When Grant was apprised of what had taken 
 place at the Capitol, and of the escape of the Rep- 
 
18 THE DISRUPTION OF THE UNITED STATES; 
 
 resentatives, his rage was excessive, ho even at- 
 tempted to have the train" stopped, but the precau- 
 tion had been taken by some of the Democrats of 
 having the telegrapli wires cut a short distance out 
 of Washington. 
 
 At five o'clock the Vice-President declared the 
 Republican candidate for President elected, and 
 what was left of the Senate then adjourned. 
 
 At seven that night the Cabinet were called to- 
 gether by Grant, who had by this time determined 
 upon taking a personal interest in the aifair, con- 
 sidering, as I have said, that as he had taken all the 
 risk in the preparation and prosecution of what at 
 that hour had the appearance of a highly successful 
 conspiracy, he had a right to be in possession of 
 some of the benefits about to accrue. To this end a 
 proclamation was issued, that in view of the dan- 
 gerous condition of affairs, he, Ulysses S. Grant, pro- 
 claimed the Kepublic to be in danger of peril, and 
 to the end that the liberties of the people should be 
 preserved, and the Constitution be unimpaired, he, 
 moved by a sense of duty to both, proCiairaed him- 
 &cii "F7-otector of ilie Republic.^' He announced 
 the election of the Republican candidate Hayes, and 
 piomised that he should be inaugurated, closing by 
 threatening any person aiding or abetting the pre- 
 tended claims of any other individual with the pains 
 and penalties of Treason. 
 
 Upon the following day the Representatives met 
 in Xew York city and resumed' their session at the 
 
OR, THE ORIGIN OF THE SECOND CIVIL WAR. 19 
 
 Gity Hall, olTcrccl them by the IMunicipnlity for the 
 purpose. They proceeded to deckire that as there 
 had been no election by the people, by virtue of the 
 functions thereupon delegated to them, they would 
 proceed to ballot for President, and this having 
 been done, proclaimed Tilden, the Democratic can- 
 didate, duly elected President of the United States. 
 
 When the telegraphic report of these proceedings 
 appeared the same day in England, and in Continen- 
 tal Europe it may be easily conceived that it did not 
 reassure the holders of United States securities. 
 These had been constantly declining, until on the 
 10th of February, the five per cent, bonds of the 
 United States sold at 70 per cent. But when these 
 latter events were knoAvn, there was an absolute 
 panic; no one believed the Union could survive the 
 shock, and all endeavored to secure whatever might 
 then be saved. It was useless to attempt to find a 
 market for them in America, as the universal bank- 
 ruptcy and confusion rendered it impossible to obtain 
 any quotable price for securities of any kind there, 
 every one who possessed anythiug, hastening to sell 
 it for gold, which they transmitted to Europe. In 
 one week, over forty millions of Coin was exported, 
 and gold was nominally worth 90 percent, premium. 
 
 During the maturing of the entire conspiracy, the 
 attitude of the moneyed class had been what it so 
 often is in these crises — that of helpless imbecility. 
 
 The journalists, who take their tone so largely 
 from it, had, by the indisposition they manifested 
 
20 THE DISRUPTION OF THE UNITED STATES; 
 
 to consider the serious condition of public affairs, 
 largely contributed in producing precisely that situ- 
 ation they aiiected to deprecate. Every day they 
 filled their columns with appeals to every one to 
 *'kccp cool," and entreaties to all jaarties to 
 acquiesce and look to the ballot for the exercise of a 
 just retribution. As if the results of a conspiracy 
 against the verdict of the ballot, Avere any the less 
 likely to prevail by creating an impression in the 
 minds of the conspirators that they would cheer- 
 fully be acquiesced in. 
 
 These people ignored the entire teachings of Ilis- 
 tory, and worse — of that of their own country, 
 where acquiescence in wrong and compromicc with 
 injustice had already brought about one of the 
 bloodiest wars in the annals of the world. No 
 people so little understand the public temper as the 
 banking class; because in every country these are 
 nece-'sarily largely made up, from the nature of their 
 transactions, of foreigners. 
 
 "Whatever the cause, the critical situation of the 
 Nation had burst upon them with the suddcnessof a 
 revelation, and, as a result, their pecuniary loss was 
 immense. The newly declared President, Tilden, a 
 resident of the city of New York, received the con- 
 gratulations of numberless citizens; the serenity of 
 his visage, and his seeming comprehension of his 
 tremendous responsibilities, impressed the behold- 
 ers favorably, and many took occasion to hope that 
 something, they knew not what, might yet 
 
OR, THE ORIGIN OF THE SECOND CIVIL WAR. 21 
 
 install him the Chief Magistrate of a United 
 People. 
 
 Alas! corruption and venality soon proved to all 
 that the disease had its roots far too deep, and that 
 neither personal integrity nor intelligence were sufli- 
 cient to restore a people to imity whom these had 
 debased. 
 
 There remained but two weeks before the actual 
 inauguration, and it may be fancied what numbers 
 of schemes Avere proposed, what compromises sug- 
 gested, what endeavors, in short, by wed-meaning 
 men to adjust the fast widening seams of discord. 
 But the passions of people of all classes had render- 
 ed all of these impossible of execution, in fact, war 
 existed in all but the name. Grant, at Washington, 
 acting under the title of Protector, Tilden, at New 
 York, as a lawfully elected President by the Repre- 
 sentatives, and Hayes, in Ohio, under his title from 
 the Senate, and those members of the House who 
 had not retired with their fellows, were all busily at 
 work preparing for the bloody conflict wliich all now 
 recognized as inevitable, but which many were still 
 unwilling to bring themselves to admit. 
 
 The assumption by Grant of his self-imposed title 
 of Protector, seemed to be regarded by Hayes, and 
 as the result showed, very properly, as diminishing 
 his strength before the nation by jolacing before 
 them the figure of a great military reputation, as a 
 mask to him who had made little figure as a soldier, 
 being by profession a barrister. 
 
23 THE DISRUPTIOlsr OF THE UNITED STATES; 
 
 lie had been a candidate under onr peculiarly 
 American system, because he was as near nothing as 
 a living man could well be; why he received the 
 nomination jDrobably no one ever knew, except the 
 little knot of dextrous politicians who proposed to 
 utilize him, for purposes best known to themselves. 
 
 None of the parties to this triangular contest, as 
 it was to become, actually waited for the critical 
 day to arrive — that day which was to inaugurate 
 two officials into one and the same office, that it 
 yet remained to be seen was not 3-et vacated. In 
 Ohio, Hayes, who was Governor of that State, on 
 pretence of holding an inspection of the militia 
 force, commanded thiun to assemble at the Capital. 
 lie had joreviously purchased a quantity of anus 
 from Mexico, which had come by the Avay of the 
 Mississippi Kivcr, it being impossible to procure any 
 from Europe, as the Governor of New York had 
 seized some previously purchased there. 
 
 Tilden also ordered inspections and reviews of the 
 military forces of the State of New York, and had 
 been offered large bodies of volunteers from the 
 adjoining States. 
 
 At Washin2:ton, Grant was continuing to assemble 
 the forces of the United States, but it was doubt- 
 ful what reliance could be placed on these who had 
 not ceased to be citizens in becoming soldiers, and 
 possessed the same political passions and prejudices 
 as their fellow-citizens around them, who were now 
 so eager in offering their lives in support of their 
 
OR, THE ORIGIX OF THE SECOND CIVIL WAR. 23 
 
 principles. For a while all parties stood in an ex- 
 pectant position, eager for revenge on each other, 
 and anxious to do something, they cared not what, 
 toward the advancement of their cause. As yet no 
 act of war had taken place, though on every hand 
 the most careless observer might have seen indica- 
 tions that it was not far off. Grant could not take 
 legal cognizance of what was going on, and though 
 this would not have usually been an obstacle to him, 
 as the earlier stages of the conflict had shown, yet 
 he, as little- as the others, desired to precipitate a 
 struggle whose termination none could foresee. The 
 desire to have legal i-iglit on their side being a pecu- 
 liar characteristic of Anglo-Saxon races, (though 
 they show no more regard for law in the prosecu- 
 tion of civil broils than any other), it was deemed 
 most important by all that they should not bring on 
 the fighting, an accusation considered very weighty, 
 as it put the assaulted party in the strong position, 
 from an American point of view, of the oppressed 
 or long-enduring. 
 
 In civil wars, equally with all others, the supply 
 of money becomes the chief question. This un- 
 known quantity being given, the requisite amount 
 of loertinacity allowed all parties, a condition seldom 
 lacking in sectional or internecine strife, it is not 
 difficult to presage the result. 
 
 It was evident that the chief reliance of all, in 
 this respect, must be on the collection of import 
 duties, as the unpopularity of internal taxes, already 
 
24 THE DISRUPTION OF THE UNITED STATES; 
 
 burdensome, was likely to tell against the party at- 
 tempting to impose and collect them. Besides, it 
 did not seem probable that with armies moving over 
 all those sections of the country from which there 
 was any likelihood of taxing home products, there 
 would be anything produced at home that could be 
 taxed. 
 
 The most important thing was therefore, univer- 
 sally admitted to be the possession of the Custom 
 Houses. It was from this point of view that the 
 prospects of Tilden looked so bright, as well as 
 from the undoubted fact that, as I have said, what 
 was called "the bone and sinew" of the country 
 were enthusiastic in his cause, and eager to light, 
 and if need be, to die for it. 
 
 The Massachusetts Militia were early put in march- 
 ing order, and camp equipage being supplied them, 
 proceeded to rendezvous at Springfield, an important 
 town, from its railroad connections, and the iSiation- 
 al Arsenal being there located. They were under 
 the command of Butler, who was prominent in the 
 First Civil War as the "Hero of New Orleans." 
 Here they were soon joined by the military forces of 
 the adjoining New England States. The combined 
 forces soon amounted to some forty thousand men, 
 well armed as to infantry, but poorly provided with 
 artillery and very deficient in cavalry. 
 
 The New Jersey troops concentrated at Plainfield, 
 a point equally well adapted for operations, whether 
 the seat of war should be to the South, in Pennsyl- 
 
OR, IHE ORIGIN OF THE SECOND CIVIL WAR. ^\5 
 
 vanifi, (which did not seem iirobablc from thodividoxl 
 sentiment of that State.) or to the Northeast in Xew 
 York or Connecticut, both Democratic States, where 
 all considerations now seemed to point as the open- 
 ing scene of the great Di'ama. Operations, in fact, 
 commenced upon the very day of the dual inaugura- 
 tion at Columbus and in the city of New York. 
 
 Orders from Hayes, issued, as it afterwards ap- 
 peared, prior to the day from which he claimed to 
 date his authority, commanded the New England 
 troops to cross the Connecticut line and march on 
 New York. General Franklin, an officer of much 
 experience, immediately ordered liis forces, posted 
 as a corps of observation, to fall back after dcs: rov- 
 ing the railroad along Avhose line the Itopublicans 
 were advancing, known as the New York, New 
 Haven and Hartford. This having been done he 
 concentrated thi-m at Stamford, in the Soutliern part 
 of the State and a short distance from the New 
 York boundary line. Tlic news of the advance of 
 the Eastern States' army, a:id their entry in:o Con- 
 necticut, was the signal for the immediate movement 
 of the Democratic troops. Those of New Jersey on 
 advancing into Now York were there joined by the 
 forces of the latter. The railroads running North 
 being seized, soon transported the combined forces 
 into Connecticut. By this time the tv/o armies 
 occupied a line some liftceu miles in length and 
 about twenty-five miles distant from each other. 
 The Eepublicans were now south of Bridgeport, 
 
26 THE DISRiri'TIOX OF THE UNITED STATES; 
 
 advancing in a parallel direction to Long 
 Island iSound, the eastern boundary of Con- 
 necticut. The Connecticut Militia had fallen back 
 in order to be able to form a junction with their 
 allies from the two Democratic States to the South. 
 Their combined forces were nearly equal to their op- 
 ponents, but they were much better supplied with 
 artillery. As to cavalry, neither had much to be 
 proud of. 
 
 The news of the approaching encounter was soon 
 known all over the country, and the other States, 
 most of whom were equally ardent in the support of 
 the political chiefs they had respectively espoused, as 
 if by a common accord determined to await the re- 
 sult of the conflict before proceeding further. 
 
 The following day skirmishing took place at Xor- 
 walk without decisive result, except to demonstrate 
 the ferocity of both the combatants, an evil augury 
 for the perpetuity of that Union for which all pre- 
 tended to contend. 
 
 The toi>ography of the portion of Connecticut 
 where the preliminary movements of the Second 
 Civil War took place is naturally rugged and broken, 
 interspersed with small water courses, which mostly 
 empty into the Sound, and arc navigable for small 
 sailing craft only. 
 
 Franklin had been prompt to break up the rail- 
 road in front of his enemy, their advance was, 
 therefore, but slow, enabling the Democrats to have 
 their forces well in hand, their numbers being con- 
 
OR, THE OKIGIlsr OF THE SECOND CIVIL WAR. 27 
 
 stantly increased by the districts adjacent to their 
 operations, whose sentiments were entirely in accord 
 witli theirs. - 
 
 The Republicans, on the contrary, were in a coun- 
 try bitterly hostile to them in opinion, as well us in- 
 censed at the invasion of their State, consequently 
 they were harassed by petty encounters, and found 
 every village in arms against them, the necessities 
 of war compelling them to burn several of these 
 wdiose defense had been most obstinate, and as 
 usual in civil strife, this aggravated their opponents 
 without being of service to their cause. 
 
 The armies of New York, New Jersey and Con- 
 necticut, effected a junction at a vil:age called 
 Piound Hill, about equi-distant between Stamford 
 and White Plains, in New York, the latter town 
 memorable as a scene of a Revolutionary engage- 
 ment. The more thoughtful in both armies could 
 not restrain a creditable emotion, in their cotvtigaity 
 to this place under such circumstances as ihe pre- 
 sent, when all the sacrifices of Washington and his 
 comrades were about to become of no avail. 
 
 The Democratic forces were under the chief com- 
 mand of General Hooker, with Mott at the head of 
 the New Jersey troops; W. F. Smith of those of New 
 Y^ork, and Franklin of the forces of Connecticut. 
 Being well acquainted with the country, they de- 
 termined to aAvait the attack of the Republicans, 
 and posted their army behind a small stream called 
 the Byram River, their left slightly to the south of 
 
28 THE DISRUPTION OF THE UNITED STATES; 
 
 the hamlet of Roiind Hill, protccterl in front bj a 
 marsh, their right extended to the vilhtgc of Port- 
 chcstcr, wliere ii number of stone wareliouse served, 
 Avith a little exertion, to afford a strong jmint 
 d'r/ppui. 
 
 The obstacles presented by the ground favored 
 the Democrats very greatly. Along their entire 
 front, across which the IJepublicans must advance, 
 flowed the Byram, a deep and muddy stream. A 
 short distance east of Portchester it fell into the 
 Sound. Upon his right, in the village. Hooker 
 stationed two of the New Jersey divisions under 
 Runyon; upon their left the Ninth, Eighth and 
 Seventy-first New York, under General Hull; 
 slightly to the rear of these. General Porter with the 
 Ninety-sixth, Twenty-second and Third Regiments 
 of cavalry together with some artillery. 
 
 As it was believed the jorincipal attack would be 
 made to the left of Portchester, the remaining 
 troops were disposed in reserve to the left and rear, 
 this portion of the front being protected by breast- 
 works. The Republicans, on the morning of the 
 20th of March, advanced upon the stream under 
 cover of twenty-five pieces of artillery. Butler, at 
 their head, threw himself bravely on the Byram, 
 with two divisions directly opposite Portchester. 
 Runyon immediately sallying from the cover of the 
 village with bis two divisions opened fire on the Re- 
 publicans as they changed front, most injudiciously, 
 after crossing the river, fordable at this point. A 
 
OB, THE ORIGIN OF THE SECOND CIVIL WAR. 29 
 
 terrible struggle followed along the banks of the 
 Bynim. Butler returned again and again lo the 
 charge, but llunyon, holding his position obstinately, 
 under a heavy fire from the Itepublicau batteries in 
 position on some heights across the river, checked 
 Butler's advance by the precision and well sustained 
 fire of his troops. His enemy was thrown back on 
 the other side in some disorder. The unfortunate 
 Butler received a mortal wound while attcmjjtiiig to 
 rally his troops. His second in command, Pierce, 
 then ordered the Vermont and New llampshiro 
 divisions to advance, and directed the JIaine con- 
 tingent to follow the Byram to the west, crossing at 
 liound Ilill, so as to charge the Democratic left 
 with the Vermont cavalry, and so turn the position. 
 
 At this moment General Porter, on horseback, at 
 the head of his cavalry, observing this movement on 
 the opposite side of the stream, with Hull, who was 
 on his left, hastened to meet this new attack, and 
 received it witn the aplomb of veterans, as in fact, 
 many of their troops were, having fought in tho 
 First Civil War. The combat now resumed, was 
 being fought around a semi-circular bend in the 
 river, the Democrats being so placed as to pour a 
 converging fire on their enemy debouching from the 
 bridge across the Byram at this point. 
 
 No troops in the world could liave long withstood 
 such a storm of musketry. They gave way, and 
 the Democrats, with enthusiastic shouts, rushed 
 upon their already dispirited foe. 
 
30 THE DISRUPTION' OF THE UNITED STATES; 
 
 Hooker nou' advanced his "wholo line, and cr-'ss- 
 ing the river, forming three columns of attack, en- 
 gaged the Kepnblicans along their entire front. On 
 the north s do of the Byram are a range of low hills 
 which trend almost due northeast at right angles to 
 the river. The columns of Porter and Hull, which, 
 after so valorously engaging and defeating their 
 enemy, had crossed the river almost simultaneously 
 with them, now rushed impetuously upon the right 
 of the llepublican position. They pursued them up 
 to the crest of the hill, but were driven back by the 
 fire of their artillery massed at this point. Hooker 
 determined to turn this strongly intrenched battery, 
 and forming two divisions in masses of brigades, en- 
 gaged the left and centre, supported by Porter, 
 who, reforming his troops, now held them ii\ re- 
 serve. 
 
 The carnage had now become fearful, masses of 
 dead and dying lay in heai)s, the llepublicans, who 
 had lirst assumed the olTensivc, having suffered the 
 most. 
 
 At three in the afternoon. Hooker had succeeded, 
 by dint of herculean efforts, in piercing the centre 
 of the Republican position, and, having brought up 
 his artillery, the extreme left of their line soon gave 
 way and began to fall back in confusion. Tho 
 slaughter had been immense. The loss of the Demo- 
 crats was four thousand in killed and wounded; that 
 of the Kepublicans was nearly seven thousand. Of 
 the Democratic generals, Hull and liunyon were 
 
• OR, THE ORIGIN" OF THE SECOND CIVIL WAR. 31 
 
 killed. The Eepublicans suffered the loss of Butler, 
 Pierce and Robinsoii. 
 
 Thus opened with awful carnage that horrible in- 
 ternecine conflict which Avas to last so many years, 
 to sacrifice thousands of lives, devastate the enLire 
 country, and finally shatter into fragments a once 
 united and prosperous Iicpublic. 
 
 That which had seemed the most auspicious re- 
 alization of the dreams of idealists of all ages, a 
 Nation, the fundamental principles of which, were 
 that Liberty, Equality and Fraternity for which 
 Washington had fought, and Lincoln died, had at 
 last fallen a victim to the passions of Party and the 
 corruption of its Government. 
 
 It was not my intention to do more than simply 
 narrate, as an eye-witness of most of the scenes I 
 have described, and in some of them an actor, the 
 preliminary history of our Second Civil War. I 
 cannot bring myself to write with calmness of more 
 of these bloody tragedies in which such numbers of 
 my fellow-citizens fell in bloody conflict with their 
 brothers. 
 
 I might tell you of the frightful conflicts at Wash- 
 ington Avhen the city was burned to the ground, and 
 the burning Capitol shed its lurid flames over the 
 bloody scenes of carnage in its streets, or of the un- 
 happy and misguided Grant, who, abandoned by the 
 regular troops, on which he had relied, was forced 
 to quit, in merited disgrace, a land upon Avhich he 
 and his co-conspirators had brought such ruin. 
 
32 THE DISRUPTIOlSr OF THE UNTTED STATES; 
 
 History will inform you but too well of all these 
 sad events. I, who liave seen my once liappy coun- 
 try reduced to a condition to be pitied even by Mex- 
 ico, so long cited as an example of a disintegrated 
 Kepublic; I who have seen a once united nation of 
 forty-five millions of people broken into a dozen 
 petty sections, eternally warring and disrupting, one 
 with the other, cannot calmly describe them. 
 
 Let me only implore you, if you can read the les- 
 sons of these pages when you shall be called upon, 
 as I trust your abilities will entitle you, to take an 
 active part in political affairs in your Republic, to 
 lay to heart those cardinal principles, the results of 
 Avhosc disregard I have endeavored to present to 
 your consideration. 
 
 The one safeguard of all lieimblics is adherence 
 to those written forms of law embodied in its Con- 
 stitution. Departure from their precepts is the suro 
 precursor of decline. Xever forget that, in the lan- 
 guage of Lincoln, our great President, "<7 is to he 
 seen lohether the Nation is better worth saving than 
 a Parly." However much you may believe you and 
 your friends haive the welfare of the Nation at heart, 
 accord the same merit to your opponents- All Re- 
 publics have perished in the strife of parties! Ac- 
 quiescence in the prima facie results of the ballot- 
 box is safer than doubtful inquiries into the motives 
 of voters or the methods by which such results are 
 reached. Believe in the equal devotion to country 
 of opponents with yourself. 
 
OR, THE ORIGIN OF THE SECOND CIVIL WAR. 33 
 
 "Almost all men in this country, mid in any coun- 
 try where freedom of thought is tolerated, attach 
 themselves to political parties. It is but ordinary 
 charity to attribute this to the fact that in so attach- 
 ing himself to the party ivhich his judgment prefers, 
 the citizen believes he thereby promotes the best inter- 
 ests of the whole country; and lohen an election is 
 passed, it is altogether befitting a free people that un- 
 til the next election, they should be as one people. If 
 the election had resulted in the selectiofi of the other 
 candidate, the same cordiality should have been extend- 
 ed to him, as it is extended to me this day, in testi- 
 mony of the devotion of the whole people to the Consti- 
 tution, arid the whole Union, and of their desire to 
 perpetuate our institutioyis, and to hand them down 
 in their perfection to Succeeding generations. " 
 
 (Address of Abraham Lincoln, at Albany, N. Y., 
 February 18th, 1861.) 
 
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