Mr. Davis and his
"pets"--nothing was done to combine and strengthen the rapidly
sundering elements of Confederate strength. Long debates on General
Pemberton; weighty disquisitions on such grave subjects as the number
of pounds of pork on hand when Vicksburg was surrendered; and violent
attacks on the whole _past_ course of the administration, occupied
the minds of those lawgivers. But at this time there was no single
measure originated that proposed to stop the troubles in the future.

Therefore, the people lost confidence in the divided Government; and
losing it began to distrust themselves. Suffering so for it, they could
not fail to know the terrible strain to which the country had been
subjected. They knew that her resources in men and material had been
taxed to the limit; that there was no fresh supply of either upon which
to draw. This was the forlorn view that greeted them when they looked
within. And outside, fresh armies faced and threatened them on every
side--increased rather than diminished, and better armed and provided
than ever before.

This state of things was too patent not to be seen by the plainest men;
and seeing it, those became dispirited who never had doubted before.
And this time, the gloom did not lift; it became a settled and dogged
conviction that we were fighting the good fight almost against hope.
Not that this prevented the army and the people from working still,
with every nerve strained to its utmost tension; but they worked
without the cheery hopefulness of the past.

Fate seemed against them. Had they been Turks they would have said: "It
is _kismet_! Allah is great!" As they were only staunch patriots, they
reasoned: "It is fearful odds--but we _may_ win." And so solemnly,
gloomily--but none the less determined--the South again prepared for
the scarcely doubtful strife.

The stringent addenda to the Conscription law--that had come too
late--were put into force. All men that could possibly be spared--and
whom the trickery of influence could not relieve--were sent to the
front; and their places in the Government were filled by the aged, the
disabled, and by women. In the Government departments of Richmond--and
in their branches further South--the first ladies of the land took
position as clerks--driven to it by stress of circumstances. And now as
ever--whether in the arsenals, the factories, or the accountant's
desk--the women of the South performed their labor faithfully,
earnest