on:

"_Resolved_, That the maintenance of the Constitution, the
preservation of the Union, and the enforcement of the laws, are
sacred trusts which must be executed; that no disaster shall
discourage us from the most ample performance of this high duty;
and that we pledge to the Country and the world the employment
of every resource, national and individual, for the suppression,
overthrow and punishment of rebels in arms."

To the dismay of the far-seeing Southern leader in Richmond the press
and people of the South received this resolution with shouts of
derision. In vain did he warn his own Congress that the North was
multiplying its armies, and building two navies with furious energy.

The people of the South went mad over their amazing victory. Davis saw
their deliverance suddenly develop into the most appalling disaster.

The decisive battle of the war was fought and won. The European powers
must immediately recognize the new Nation. In this hope their President
could reasonably share. Their other delusions he knew to be madness.

The Southern press without a dissenting voice proclaimed that the
question of manhood between the North and South was settled and settled
forever. From the hustings the demagogue shouted:

"One Southerner is the equal anywhere of five Yankees."

Manassas, with its insignificant record of killed and wounded, was
compared with the decisive battles of the world. The war was over. There
might still be fought a few insignificant skirmishes before peace was
proclaimed but that auspicious event could not be long delayed.

The fatal victory was followed by a period of fancied security and
deadly inactivity. Exertions ceased. Volunteers were few. The volatile,
sanguine people laughed at the fears of their croaking President.

So firmly had they established the new Nation that politicians began to
plot and scheme for control of the Confederate Government on the
expiration of the Davis term of office.

R. M. T. Hunter, the foremost statesman of Virginia, resigned his
position in the Cabinet to be unembarrassed in his fight for the
presidency.

Beauregard had been promoted to the full rank of general and his tent
was now a bower of roses. Around the figure of the little fiery,
impulsive, boastful South Carolinian gathered a group of ambitious
schemers who determined to make him President. They filled the
newspapers with such fulsome praise that the popular