mself to contract for arms in advance of
instructions. He wrote to Seward: "Aware of the degree to which I exceed
my authority in taking such a step, nothing but a conviction of the need
in which the country stands of such assistance and the joint opinion of
all the diplomatic agents of the United States...in Paris, has induced
me to overcome my scruples." How real was the necessity of which this
able diplomat was so early conscious, is demonstrated at every turn
in the papers of the War Department. Witness this brief dispatch from
Harrisburg: "All ready to leave but no arms. Governor not willing to
let us leave State without them, as act of Assembly forbids. Can arms
be sent here?" When this appeal was made, in December, 1861, arms were
pouring into the country from Europe, and the crisis had passed. But if
this appeal had been made earlier in the year, the inevitable answer may
be guessed from a dispatch which the Ordnance Office sent, as late as
September, to the authorities of West Virginia, refusing to supply
them with arms because the supplies were exhausted, and adding, "Every
possible exertion is being made to obtain additional supplies by
contract, by manufacture, and by purchase, and as soon as they can be
procured by any means, in any way, they will be supplied."

Curiously enough, not only the Confederacy but various States of the
North were more expeditious in this all-important matter than Cameron
and the War Department. Schuyler's first dispatch from London gives
this singular information: "All private establishments in Birmingham
and London are now working for the States of Ohio, Connecticut, and
Massachusetts, except the London Armory, whose manufacture is supposed
to go to the Rebels, but of this last fact I am not positively informed.
I am making arrangements to secure these establishments for our
Government, if desirable after the present State contracts expire. On
the Continent, Messrs, Dayton and Sanford...have been making contracts
and agreements of various kinds, of which you are by this time
informed." Soon afterward, from Paris, he made a long report detailing
the difficulties of his task, the limitations of the existing munitions
plants in Europe, and promising among other things those "48,000 rifles
from the French government arsenals" for which, in the letter already
quoted, the War Department yearned. It was an enormous labor; and,
strive as he would, Schuyler found American mail continuing