exultant plaudits of men and angels. Our hopes had not then grown into
victory, and we looked forward anxiously to the terrible march from the
Rappahannock to Richmond. Thinking that perhaps our army stood appalled
before the great duty required of it, and that the people might be
diverted from their purpose to crush the rebellion when they saw that it
could only be accomplished at the cost of an ocean of human blood, a
call was made on the floor of the American Congress for a recognition of
the southern confederacy. Speaking for the nation, Mr. DAVIS said:

"But, Mr. Speaker, if it be said that a time may come when the
question of recognizing the southern confederacy will have to be
answered, I admit it. * * * * When the people, exhausted by
taxation, weary of sacrifices, drained of blood, betrayed by their
rulers, deluded by demagogues into believing that peace is the way
to union, and submission the path to victory, shall throw down
their arms before the advancing foe; when vast chasms across every
State shall make it apparent to every eye, when too late to remedy
it, that division from the south is anarchy at the north, and that
peace without union is the end of the Republic; _then_ the
independence of the south will be an accomplished fact, and
gentlemen may, without treason to the dead Republic, rise in this
migratory house, wherever it may then be in America, and declare
themselves for recognizing their masters at the south rather than
exterminating them. Until that day, in the name of the American
nation; in the name of every house in the land where there is one
dead for the holy cause; in the name of those who stand before us
in the ranks of battle; in the name of the liberty our ancestors
have confided to us, I devote to eternal execration the name of him
who shall propose to destroy this blessed land rather than its
enemies.

"But until that time arrive it is the judgment of the American
people there shall be no compromise; that ruin to ourselves or ruin
to the southern rebels are the only alternatives. It is only by
resolutions of this kind that nations can rise above great dangers
and overcome them in crises like this. It was only by turning
France into a camp, resolved that Europe might exterminate but
should not subjugate her, that France is the leading empire of