itting them
out. Despite the protests of Minister Adams, many of these were allowed
to put to sea. One of the first was the _Oreto_, afterward known as the
_Florida_. She succeeded in eluding the blockade at Mobile, through
flying the British flag, delivered her valuable freight, received her
armament, and came forth again in the latter part of December and began
her wholesale destruction of American merchantmen.

The privateer _Sumter_ was driven into Gibraltar, and so closely watched
by the _Tuscarora_ that Captain Semmes, her commander, sold her, and
made his way to England, where the English built for him the most famous
privateer the Confederacy ever had--the _Alabama_--of which much more
will be told further on.

THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.

The national government had learned by this time the full measurement
of the gigantic task before it. By the close of the year, 1,300,000
volunteers had been called for, and the daily expenses amounted to
$3,000,000. The conviction, too, was growing that slavery was the real
cause of the war, and the time had come to treat it with less
consideration than many leading officers and men whose patriotism could
not be doubted were disposed to show toward the "peculiar institution."
President Lincoln was one of the wisest men who ever sat in the
executive chair, and none read so unerringly the signs of the times as
he. The Abolitionists were impatient with his slowness, while many of
the doubting thought he went too fast. He waited until the right hour,
and then issued his Emancipation Proclamation.

[Illustration: UNITED STATES MILITARY TELEGRAPH WAGON.]

This appeared soon after the battle of Antietam, and it is said was the
fulfillment of the pledge President Lincoln had made to heaven that, if
Lee's invasion was turned back, he would issue the great paper, which,
in effect, would see free 4,000,000 bondsmen. In it he warned the
seceding States that in every one which failed to return to its
allegiance by the first of January, 1863, he would declare the slaves
free. The warning was received with scorn, as was expected. From the
date named, therefore, all the armed forces of the Union treated the
slaves as free wherever encountered. Before long colored men were
enlisted as soldiers and sailors, and they bore no inconsiderable part
in the prosecution of the war.

"GREENBACKS."

It will be understood that the revenue of the government was altogether
unequal to the va