North were not willing to invade the sister States of the South for any
other cause than to restore the Union. Wealthy bankers, industrial
leaders, and railway magnates might be kept together on a platform of
enlarging the area of their operations, but never on a program which
proposed the confiscation of billions of dollars' worth of property,
which the slaves represented. In this hour of trial the supreme need was
cooeperation and union among the diverse elements of the North, for in
1862 another Congress would be chosen, and if party lines were suffered
to be drawn, the South would certainly gain her independence.

[Illustration: One Nation, or Two?]

With this Unionist program perfectly understood, Lincoln asked Congress
for 400,000 men. Congress gave him 500,000. A second wave of warlike
enthusiasm swept over the North, and men enlisted not for three months,
but for three years. The zeal and _abandon_ of the South was hardly
matched, but there was no lack of men or support. With a few exceptions
the newspapers, the pulpits, and the lecture platforms urged most ardent
support of the common cause. But the more difficult problem of finding
money for the vast armies that moved upon the South was not so quickly
solved. Secretary Chase reported the expenditure in the three months of
June, July, and August of a hundred millions--an amount greater far than
the total national debt. Before another three months had passed this
expenditure had doubled, and the Secretary estimated that $500,000,000
would be needed before the end of June, 1862! These were astounding
figures to a country whose normal annual income was about $50,000,000.
And what was worse, the financial men refused to take government bonds
at par, as they had done during the war with Mexico, although they were
now offered interest at the rate of six to eight per cent. The country
had recovered from the panic of 1857, and as business activity increased
and the general prosperity became certain, it was more difficult for the
Government to borrow money. The suspension of specie payments by all the
banks before the end of the year did not mean panic or severe economic
crisis, as had hitherto been the case; rather, a change from metallic to
paper money. Secretary Chase was told by New York leaders in December,
1862, that government bonds bearing six per cent interest would hardly
bring sixty cents on the dollar. Yet business men borrowed money at four
per cent and th