ored; and the wishes of the whole people
were disregarded, that the line begun upon, should not be deviated
from. There may have been something deeply underlying this policy; for
Secretary Benjamin was clear-sighted, shrewd and well-informed. But
what that something was has never been divulged; and the
people--believing the Secretary too able to be deluded by his
subordinate--revolted.

The foreign policy grew more and more into popular disfavor; the press
condemned it, in no stinted terms; it permeated the other branches of
the government and, finally, reacted upon the armies in the field. For
the growing dislike of his most trusted adviser began to affect Mr.
Davis; his ready assumption of all responsibility at the beginning
having taught the people to look direct to him for all of good, or of
evil, alike.

As disaster followed disaster to southern arms; as one fair city after
another fell into the lap of the enemy; as the blockade drew its coil
tighter and tighter about the vitals of the Confederacy--the cry of the
people was raised to their chief; demanding the cause of it all. The
first warm impulses of patriotic and inflammable masses had pedestaled
him as a demigod. The revulsion was gradual; but, with the third year
of unrelieved blockade, it became complete. And this was due, in part,
to that proclivity of masses to measure men by results, rather than by
their means for accomplishment; it was due in greater part, perhaps, to
the President's unyielding refusal to sacrifice either his convictions,
or his favorites, to popular clamor, however re-enforced by argument,
or reason.

Mr. Davis certainly seemed to rely more upon Mr. Benjamin than any
member of his Cabinet; and the public laid at that now unpopular
official's door all errors of policy--domestic as well as foreign.
Popular wrath ever finds a scape-goat; but in the very darkest hour Mr.
Benjamin remained placid and smiling, his brow unclouded and his sleek,
pleasant manner deprecating the rumbling of the storm he had raised, by
his accomplishments and sophistries. When his removal was clamorously
demanded by popular voice, his chief closed his ears and moved on
unheeding--grave--defiant!

Calm retrospect shows that the Confederacy's commissioners were, from
first to last, only played with by the skilled sophists of Europe. And,
ere the end came, that absolute conviction penetrated the blockade;
convincing the South that her policy would remain one of