Their power for evil had been greatly diminished by the pressure of the swiftly moving tragedy of the war.
The appearance of this Congress was curiously3 plain and uninteresting. With the exception of J. L. M. Curry4 of Alabama and Barksdale of Mississippi there was not a man among them of constructive5 ability as a statesman. Foote of Tennessee was noted6 for his high-flown English, his endless harangues7 and his elaborate historical illustrations. Had his ability been equal to the intensity8 of his hatred9 for Davis he would have been a dangerous man to the administration. James Lyons of Virginia stood six feet three in his stockings, had fine, even, white teeth, and was considered the handsomest man in the assembly.
Yancey, the fierce, uncompromising agitator10 of secession, was too violent to command the influence to which his genius entitled him.
Senator Barton, fierce, impatient, bombastic11, had long ago exhausted12 the vocabulary of invective13 and could only repeat himself in descending14 anti-climax.
Hill of Georgia was a young man of ability who gave promise of greater things under more favorable conditions.
The real business of this Congress was transacted15 in secret executive sessions. When the public was admitted, the people of Richmond generally looked on with contempt. They sneeringly16 referred to them as "the College Debating Society, on Capitol Hill."
The surroundings of their halls added to the impression of inefficiency—dingy17, dirty and utterly18 lacking in the luxuries which the mind associates with the exercise of sovereign power.
The Senate was forced to find quarters in the third story of the "State House." There was no gallery and the spectators were separated from the members by an improvised19 railing. The only difference noticeable between the Senators and the spectators was that the members had seats and the listeners and loafers had standing20 room only behind the rail.
The House of Representatives had a better chamber21. But its walls were bare of ornament22 or paintings, its chairs were uncushioned, its desks dingy and slashed23 with pocket knives. Its members sat with their heels in the air and their bodies sprawled24 in every conceivable attitude of ugly indifference25.
The heart and brains of the South were on the field of battle—her noblest sons destined26 to sleep in unmarked graves.
The scenes of personal violence which disgraced the sittings of this nondescript body of law makers27 did much to relieve the President of the burden of their hostility28.
Foote of Tennessee provoked an encounter with Judge Dargan of Alabama which came near a tragic29 ending. The Judge was an old man of eccentric dress, much given to talking to himself—particularly as he wandered about the streets of Richmond. The gallery of the House loved him from the first for his funny habit of scratching his arm when the itch30 of eloquence31 attacked him. And he always addressed the Speaker as "Mr. Cheerman." They loved him particularly for that. The eccentric Judge had a peculiarly fierce antipathy32 to Foote. Words of defiance33 had passed between them on more than one occasion. The House was in secret night session. The Judge was speaking.
Foote sitting near, glanced up at his enemy and muttered:
"Damned old scoundrel—"
The Judge's gray head suddenly lifted, he snatched a bowie knife from his pocket and dashed for the man who had insulted him.
From every direction rose the shouts and cries of the excited House.
"Stop him!"
"Hold him!"
"Great God!"
"Judge—Judge!"
The wildest uproar34 followed. Half a dozen members threw themselves on the old man, dragged him to the floor, pinned him down and wrested35 the knife from his grasp.
When the eloquent36 gentleman from Tennessee saw that his assailant was disarmed37 and safely guarded by six stalwart men he struck an attitude, expanded his chest, smote38 it with both hands and exclaimed with melodramatic gusto:
"I defy the steel of the assassin!"
The House burst into shouts of uncontrollable laughter, and adjourned39 for the night.
Another scene of more tragic violence occurred in the Senate—a hand to hand fight between William L. Yancey and Ben Hill. The Senator from Georgia threw his antagonist40 across a desk, held him there in a grip of steel and pounded his face until dragged away by friends. Yancey's spine41 was wrenched42 in the struggle, and it was rumored43 that this injury caused his death. It possibly hastened the end already sure from age, disease and careless living.
Committees from this assembly of law makers who attempted to instruct the conscientious44, hard-working man of genius the Southern people had made their President found little comfort in their efforts.
Davis received them with punctilious45 ceremony. His manners were always those of a gentleman—but he never allowed them to return to their onerous46 work in the Debating Society without a clear idea of his views. They were never expressed with violence. But the ice sometimes formed on the window panes47 if he stood near while talking.
A Congressional Committee were demanding the restoration of Beauregard to command.
"General Beauregard asked me to relieve him, gentlemen—"
"Only on furlough for illness," interrupted the Chairman.
"And you have forced him into retirement48!" added a member.
The President rose, walked to the window, gazed out on the crowded street for a moment and turned, suddenly confronting his tormentors. He spoke49 with quiet dignity, weighing each word with cold precision:
"If the whole world asked me to restore General Beauregard to the command which I have given to Braxton Bragg, I would refuse." He resumed his seat and the Committee retired50 to Senator Barton's house where they found a sympathetic ear.
Bragg was preparing to fight one of the greatest battles of the war. At Chickamauga, the "River of Death," he encountered Rosecrans. At the end of two days of carnage the union army was totally routed, right, left, and center and hurled51 back from Georgia into Chattanooga. Polk's wing captured twenty-eight pieces of artillery52 and Longstreet's twenty-one. Eight thousand prisoners of war were taken, fifteen thousand stand of arms and forty regimental colors.
Rosecrans' army of eighty thousand men was literally53 cut to pieces by Bragg's fifty thousand Southerners. No more brilliant achievement of military genius illumines history. Chickamauga was in every way as desperate a battle as Arcola—and in all Napoleon's Italian campaigns nothing more daring and wonderful was accomplished54 by the Man of Destiny.
Bragg had justified55 the faith of Davis. Rosecrans was hemmed56 in in Chattanooga, his supplies cut off and his army facing starvation when he was relieved of his command, Thomas succeeding him. Grant was hurried to Chattanooga with two army corps57 to raise the siege.
With his re?nforcements Grant raised the siege, surprised and defeated Bragg's army which had been weakened by the detachment of Longstreet's corps for a movement on Knoxville.
Bragg withdrew his army again into Georgia and resigned his command. The stern, irritable58 Confederate fighter was disgusted with the constant attacks on him by peanut politicians and refused to hear Davis' plea that he remain at the head of the Western army. The President called him to Richmond and made him his Chief of Staff.
The disaster to the Confederacy at Chattanooga which gave General Grant supreme59 command of the union forces, brought to the Johnston junta at Richmond its opportunity to once more press their favorite to the front. Since his Vicksburg fiasco the President had isolated60 him. Davis resisted this appointment with deep foreboding of its possible disaster to the South.
In the midst of this bitter struggle over the selection of a Western Field Commander, the President of the Confederacy received the first and only recognition of his Government accorded by any European power.
His early education at the St. Thomas Monastery61 had given the Southern leader a lofty opinion of the Roman Catholic Church. Davis had always seen in the members of this faith in America friends who could not be alienated62 from the oppressed.
Failing to receive recognition from the great powers of Europe, he dispatched his diplomatic representative to Rome with a carefully worded letter to the Pope in which he expressed his gratitude64 to Pius IX for his efforts in behalf of peace. The Pope had urged his bishops65 in New Orleans and New York to strive to end the war.
The Vatican received the Confederate diplomat63 with every mark of courtesy and every expression of respect accorded the most powerful nations of the world. The Dominican friars had not forgotten the wistful, eager boy they had taught, and loved in Kentucky.
The Pope replied to this communication in an official letter which virtually recognized the Confederacy—both in his capacity as a temporal sovereign and as the head of the Roman Catholic Church.
The President read this letter with renewed hope of favorable action abroad.
"ILLUSTRIOUS AND HONORABLE PRESIDENT:
"Salutation:
"We have just received with all suitable welcome the persons sent by you to place in our hands your letter dated twenty-third of September last.
"Not slight was the pleasure we experienced when we learned from those persons and the letter, with what feelings of joy and gratitude you were animated66, illustrious and honorable President, as soon as you were informed of our letters to our venerable brother John, Archbishop of New York, and John, Archbishop of New Orleans, dated the eighteenth of October of last year, and in which we have with all our strength excited and exhorted67 these venerable brothers, that in their episcopal piety68 and solicitude69, they should endeavor, with the most ardent70 zeal71, and in our name, to bring about the end of the fatal civil war which has broken out in those countries, in order that the American people may obtain peace and concord72, and dwell charitably together.
"It is particularly agreeable to us to see that you, illustrious and honorable President, and your good people, are animated with the same desire of peace and tranquillity73 which we have in our letters inculcated upon our venerable brothers. May it please God at the same time to make the other people of America and their ruler, reflecting seriously how terrible is civil war, and what calamities74 it engenders75, listen to the inspiration of a calm spirit, and adopt resolutely76 the part of peace.
"As for us, we shall not cease to offer up the most fervent77 prayers to God Almighty78 that He may pour out upon all the people of America the Spirit and peace and charity, and that He will stop the great evils which afflict79 them. We at the same time beseech80 the God of pity to shed abroad upon you the light of His countenance81 and attach you to us by a perfect friendship.
"Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, the third of December, 1863, of our Pontificate 18.
"(Signed)
Pius IX."
The dark hour was swiftly approaching when the South and her leader would need the prayers of all God's saints.
Failing to persuade Bragg to reconsider his resignation, Davis appointed General Hardee as his successor to command the Western army. Hardee declared the responsibility was more than he could assume.
Under the urgent necessity of driving the union army back from its position at Chattanooga and heartsick with eternal wrangling82 of the opposition83, Davis reluctantly ordered Joseph E. Johnston personally to assume command of the Army of Tennessee—and the fatal deed was done.
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1
junta
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| n.团体；政务审议会 | |
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harass
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| vt.使烦恼，折磨，骚扰 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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curry
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| n.咖哩粉，咖哩饭菜；v.用咖哩粉调味，用马栉梳，制革 | |
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constructive
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| adj.建设的，建设性的 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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harangues
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| n.高谈阔论的长篇演讲( harangue的名词复数 )v.高谈阔论( harangue的第三人称单数 ) | |
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intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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10
agitator
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| n.鼓动者；搅拌器 | |
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11
bombastic
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| adj.夸夸其谈的，言过其实的 | |
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12
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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13
invective
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| n.痛骂，恶意抨击 | |
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14
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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15
transacted
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| v.办理（业务等）( transact的过去式和过去分词 )；交易，谈判 | |
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16
sneeringly
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| 嘲笑地，轻蔑地 | |
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dingy
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| adj.昏暗的，肮脏的 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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improvised
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| a.即席而作的,即兴的 | |
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20
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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21
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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22
ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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23
slashed
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| v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减 | |
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24
sprawled
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| v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的过去式和过去分词)；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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25
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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26
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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27
makers
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| n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式） | |
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28
hostility
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| n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争 | |
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29
tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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30
itch
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| n.痒，渴望，疥癣；vi.发痒，渴望 | |
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31
eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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32
antipathy
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| n.憎恶；反感，引起反感的人或事物 | |
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33
defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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34
uproar
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| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
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35
wrested
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| （用力）拧( wrest的过去式和过去分词 )； 费力取得； （从…）攫取； （ 从… ） 强行取去… | |
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36
eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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37
disarmed
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| v.裁军( disarm的过去式和过去分词 )；使息怒 | |
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38
smote
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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39
adjourned
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| （使）休会， （使）休庭( adjourn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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40
antagonist
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| n.敌人，对抗者，对手 | |
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41
spine
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| n.脊柱，脊椎；(动植物的)刺；书脊 | |
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42
wrenched
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| v.（猛力地）扭( wrench的过去式和过去分词 )；扭伤；使感到痛苦；使悲痛 | |
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43
rumored
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| adj.传说的，谣传的v.传闻( rumor的过去式和过去分词 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
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44
conscientious
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| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
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45
punctilious
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| adj.谨慎的，谨小慎微的 | |
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46
onerous
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| adj.繁重的 | |
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47
panes
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| 窗玻璃( pane的名词复数 ) | |
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48
retirement
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| n.退休，退职 | |
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49
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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50
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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51
hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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52
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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53
literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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54
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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55
justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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56
hemmed
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| 缝…的褶边( hem的过去式和过去分词 )； 包围 | |
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57
corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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58
irritable
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| adj.急躁的；过敏的；易怒的 | |
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59
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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60
isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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61
monastery
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| n.修道院，僧院，寺院 | |
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62
alienated
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| adj.感到孤独的，不合群的v.使疏远( alienate的过去式和过去分词 )；使不友好；转让；让渡（财产等） | |
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63
diplomat
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| n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人 | |
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64
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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65
bishops
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| （基督教某些教派管辖大教区的）主教( bishop的名词复数 )； （国际象棋的）象 | |
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66
animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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exhorted
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| v.劝告，劝说( exhort的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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68
piety
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| n.虔诚，虔敬 | |
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solicitude
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| n.焦虑 | |
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70
ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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72
concord
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| n.和谐；协调 | |
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73
tranquillity
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| n. 平静, 安静 | |
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74
calamities
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| n.灾祸，灾难( calamity的名词复数 )；不幸之事 | |
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engenders
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| v.产生（某形势或状况），造成，引起( engender的第三人称单数 ) | |
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resolutely
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| adj.坚决地，果断地 | |
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fervent
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| adj.热的，热烈的，热情的 | |
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almighty
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| adj.全能的，万能的；很大的，很强的 | |
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afflict
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| vt.使身体或精神受痛苦，折磨 | |
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beseech
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| v.祈求，恳求 | |
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81
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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82
wrangling
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| v.争吵，争论，口角( wrangle的现在分词 ) | |
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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