n masterly style--the
Washington government simply collected and sifted the varied mass of
opinion and material--to form from it a composite amalgam-policy that
proved its only salvation. Through every change in that policy--through
every gradation of animus that affected the complexion of the war--the
masses of the North really believed they were fighting for the
Constitution--for the flag, and for the Union!

Whether they were so tightly blindfolded as not yet to see their error,
is no question to be discussed here.

No sooner had the howl gone up through the North, against the General
who--spite of refused re-enforcements, jealousy and intrigue behind his
back, and the terrible enemy before him--had saved his army, than the
Government responded to it. Large numbers of men were sent from
Harrison's Landing to Acquia Creek; the Federal forces at Warrentown,
Alexandria and Fredericksburg were mobilized and strengthened; and the
baton of command was wrenched from the hand of McClellan to be placed
in that of Major-General John Pope!

The history of this new popular hero, to this time, may be summed up by
saying that he had been captain of Topographical Engineers; and that
the books of that bureau showed he had prosecuted his labors with
perhaps less economy than efficiency.

Rapidly promoted for unknown reasons in the western armies, the public
hit upon him as the right man at last; and the complaisant Government
said: "Lo! the man is here!" and made him general-in-chief of the Army
of Virginia.

From the command of Pope dates a new era in the war. No longer a
temperate struggle for authority, it became one for conquest and
annihilation. He boldly threw off the mask that had hitherto concealed
its uglier features, and commenced a systematic course of pillage and
petty plundering--backed by a series of curiously bombastic and windy
orders.

Calmly to read these wonderful effusions--dated from "Headquarters in
the saddle"--by the light of his real deeds, one could only conceive
that General Pope coveted that niche in history filled by Thackeray's
_O'Grady Gahagan_; and that much of his reading had been confined to
the pleasant rambles of Gulliver and the doughty deeds of Trenck and
Munchausen.

To sober second thought, the sole reason for his advancement might seem
his wonderful power as a braggart. He blustered and bragged until the
North was bullied into admiration; and his sounding boasts that he had
"only see