which took a gambler's chance and often
succeeded in eluding the Federal patrol ships and in rushing their
cargoes safe into a Confederate port.

Obviously, it was a great disadvantage to the United States to allow
contraband supplies to be accumulated, without interference, close to
the blockaded coast, and the Lincoln Government determined to remove
this disadvantage. With this end in view it evoked the principle of the
continuous voyage, which indeed was not new, but which was destined to
become fixed in international law by the Supreme Court of the United
States. American cruisers were instructed to stop British ships sailing
between the British ports of Liverpool and Nassau; they were to use the
recognized international rights of visit and search; and if there was
evidence that the cargo was not destined for actual consumption at
Nassau, they were to bring the ship into an American port to be dealt
with by an American prize court. When such arrests began, the owners
clamored to the British Government, and both dealers in contraband and
professional blockade-runners worked themselves into a fury because
American cruisers watched British ports and searched British ships on
the high seas. With regard to this matter, the British Government and
the Government at Washington had their last important correspondence
during the war. The United States stood firm for the idea that when
goods were ultimately intended for the Confederacy, no matter how
roundabout the journey, they could be considered as making a single
continuous voyage and were liable to capture from the day they left
Liverpool. Early in 1865, the Supreme Court of the United States fully
developed the principle of continuous voyage in four celebrated cases
that are now among the landmarks of international law.*

* The Great war has once again led to controversy over this
subject, so vital to neutral states.

This was the last step in making the blockade effective. Thereafter, it
slowly strangled the South. The Federal armies enormously overmatched
the Southern, and from November, 1864, their continuance in the field
was made sure. Grim work still lay before Lincoln, but the day of
anxiety was past. In this moment of comparative ease, the aged Chief
Justice Taney died, and Lincoln appointed to that high position his
ungenerous rival, Chase.

Even now Lincoln had not established himself as a leader superior to
party, but he had the satisfaction, ea