. The people of the North took heart, especially the
stiff-backed Republicans who during the two years preceding had found
little to approve in the measures of the Government. Sumner, who had
called Lincoln the American Louis XVI; Thaddeus Stevens, who had
declared that he knew only one Lincoln man in the House of
Representatives; Horace Greeley, Secretary Chase, and even Governor
Andrew of Massachusetts, all united now to praise the President and urge
his cause before the country. The last great crisis of the war in the
North had been passed. A decisive victory at the polls was the verdict
of the people, and the homely, honest, and kindly Lincoln was
commissioned to bring the war to a conclusion and then to reconstruct
the Union.

The South observed movements in the North now with hopeful, now with
regretful, scrutiny. As a desperate stroke Davis had sent Jacob Thompson
to Canada to assist in the release of Confederate prisoners and to stir
up the Sons of Liberty to rise against the Federal Government. In
October raiding parties were sent into New England, and an effort was
made to set fire to New York City in retaliation for the destruction of
Southern property by order of Federal generals. These efforts proved
abortive, perhaps adding many votes to the majority with which Lincoln
was reelected. And when the Confederate Congress reassembled in November
the fortunes of the South were recognized as almost past remedy. Georgia
did not rise to overwhelm Sherman; the supplies painfully collected in
thousands of _depots_ could not be carried to Lee's army in Petersburg;
the railroads were almost useless, and starvation confronted those who
lived in the larger towns. Only a great and overwhelming victory over
Grant could save the South, and that seemed impossible when thousands of
Confederate soldiers had deserted their standards. With 40,000 men it
was not likely that Lee could raise the siege of Petersburg or capture
any large part of Grant's army of nearly 140,000.

In the hope of filling the thin ranks of the Southern armies, President
Davis recommended to Congress the enlistment of the blacks; and to
secure foreign recognition, he sent Duncan F. Kenner to Europe to offer
emancipation of the slaves. But Congress regarded these moves with
ill-concealed contempt and offered counter-solutions. Alexander
Stephens, the Vice-President, led a movement to impeach Davis. Powerful
influences in Virginia supported Stephens; in Nor