cted regions of North Carolina when the startled
populace winced under its first experience with taxation. Three times
during his Administration Davis left Richmond on extended journeys: late
in 1862, when Vicksburg had become a chief concern of the Government, he
went as far afield as Mississippi in order to get entirely in touch with
the military situation in those parts; in the month of October, 1863,
when there was another moment of intense military anxiety, Davis again
visited the front; and of a third journey which he undertook in 1864,
we shall hear in time. It is to be noted that each of these journeys was
prompted by a military motive; and here, possibly, we get an explanation
of his inadequacy as a statesman. He could not lay aside his interest in
military affairs for the supremely important concerns of civil office;
and he failed to understand how to ingratiate his Administration by
personal appeals to popular imagination.

In October, 1863,--the very month in which his old rival Rhett suffered
his final defeat,--Davis undertook a journey because Bragg, after his
great victory at Chickamauga, appeared to be letting slip a golden
opportunity, and because there were reports of dissension among Bragg's
officers and of general confusion in his army. After he had, as he
thought, restored harmony in the camp, Davis turned southward on a tour
of appeal and inspiration. He went as far as Mobile, and returning bent
his course through Charleston, where, at the beginning of November, less
than two weeks after Rhett's defeat, Davis was received with all due
formalities. Members of the Rhett family were among those who formally
received the President at the railway station. There was a parade of
welcome, an official reception, a speech by the President from the steps
of the city hall, and much applause by friends of the Administration.
But certain ominous signs were not lacking. The Mercury, for example,
tucked away in an obscure column its account of the event, while its
rival, the Courier, made the President's visit the feature of the day.

Davis returned to Richmond, early in November, to throw himself again
with his whole soul into problems that were chiefly military. He did
not realize that the crisis had come and gone and that he had failed
to grasp the significance of the internal political situation. The
Government had failed to carry the elections and to secure a working
majority in Congress. Never again was it t