CH. III] SEVEN DAYS' BATTLES 143 should his communications with White House be severed. On the night of Gaines's Mill, he gave the necessary orders to his corps commanders, who began their preparations next morning and wrought the whole day without molestation. Six hundred tons of ammunition, food, forage, medical and other supplies were the daily requirements of this army 1 and the change of base in presence of a victorious foe of equal number was attended with great difficulty and could not have been made had not the United States had the command of the sea. By sunrise of June 29, the Confederates discovered that the Union Army had fled toward the James river, and they started in immediate pursuit, bringing on a fight at Savage's Station in which they were repulsed. Next day was fought the stubborn battle of Glendale or Frayser's Farm, in which neither side prevailed, although the Union troops continued their retreat in good order. It was thought that, if Jackson had come up at the time he was expected, a portion of McClellan's army would have been destroyed or captured.2 The morning of July 1 found the whole Union Army posted on Malvern Hill, a strong position near the James river. By noon the Confederates appeared and attacked with bravery but were mowed down by the fire of the splendid artillery and the efficiently directed infantry of the Union Army. Porter was in the fight and his generalship was of a high order. The Confederates were repulsed at all points with a loss double that of the Federals.3 McClellan was not with his fighting troops in any one of the battles during the retreat, but was doing engineer's work in preparing the position for the next day. In the Seven Days' Battles, as the fighting is called from June 25 to July 1 inclusive, McClellan's 1 Lieut.-Col. Henderson, II, 37. 2 Dabney, 466; Allan, 121; Ropes, II, 195; Lieut.-Col. Henderson, 59 et seq. 3 Sometimes used for the Union troops. 144 SEVEN DAYS' BATTLES [1862 loss was 15,849, Lee's 20,614.1 Lee's was naturally the greater as he fought constantly on the offensive, but the victory was his, as he had driven the enemy away from Richmond. In these seven days Lee's soldiers began to love him and to acquire a belief that he was invincible, a belief which lasted almost to the very end of the war. Next day after Malvern Hill, McClellan with his army retired to Harrison's Landing, a safe position on the James river, where he might have the help of gunboats and where the navy ensured him constant communication with the North. But from being in sight of the steeples of Richmond, he was now twenty to twenty-five miles away. His Peninsular campaign had been a failure. McClellan, wrote Meade privately of his friend six months later, "was always waiting to have everything just as he wanted before he would attack, and before he could get things arranged as he wanted them, the enemy pounced on him and thwarted all his plans. Such a general will never command success, though he may avoid disaster." 2 On July 8, Lee fell back to his old quarters in the vicinity of Richmond. "Our success," he wrote to his wife, "has not been so great or complete as we could have desired, but God knows what is best for us." 3 Nevertheless all conditions united to brighten the hopes of the South. To the work of conscription which was urged with vigor, a response seemed assured that would show the enthusiasm of the people to have been quickened by their army's success." 4 1 T. L. Livermore, 86. There was a skirmish in front of Seven Pines on June 25. 2 General Meade, I, 345. 3 Lee's Recollections, 75. 4 Authorities: O. R., XI, Pts. I, II, III, IV; Lieut.-Col. Henderson, II; Ropes, II; B. & L., II; McClellan; Allan; N. & H., V; Long; Fitzhugh Lee; Johnston; Chesnut; Hosmer's Appeal; Lee's Recollections. CHAPTER IV THAT war is an economic waste is a commonplace; that the man is much more valuable than the dollar a truism, for the great evil of war is the killing of men. Homer's thought when speaking of a lusty stripling who was smitten to the death cannot fail to occur, "He repaid not his dear parents the recompense of his nurture." 1 It is the tragedy of war that the high-spirited men are at the front and the skulkers in the rear; that the hearts of a large number of men are not in the fight. And these flee from danger, saying with Falstaff, "The better part of valor is discretion; in the which better part I have saved my life." 2 In the course of this story we have seen how civilians were made into soldiers to fight bloody battles which presaged still greater sacrifices and a carnage of nearly three more years. We have now to consider another factor in the situation: to wit, money, which has come to mean the sinews of war. It was indispensable that the United States should keep up its credit among nations, and this, in view of its daily expenditure having increased from $178,000 to a million and a half dollars,3 was work requiring the highest kind of financial ability. Until December 31, 1861, the war had been carried on by the placing of loans through the coöperation of the United States Treasury and the banks and by the issue of about 25 millions of United States notes payable on demand without interest; all transactions had been on a specie basis. But the loans had exhausted 1 Iliad, IV. 2 I Henry IV, V, 4. 3 Dewey, 267, 329. 146 LEGAL-TENDER [1862 the resources of the banks and at the end of the year 1861, they were obliged to suspend specie payments, leaving the government in the same plight. At home and in England it was thought that national bankruptcy was threatened. By the end of January, 1862, there were 100 million of accrued indebtedness and further requirements to June 30 of 250 to 300 millions. Both popular sentiment and congressional resolution approved heavy direct and indirect taxation, but it was certain that no tax bill could be framed and got to work in time to meet the pressing exigency. The expedient finally adopted was a striking innovation in finance. Congress authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to issue 150 million United States treasury notes, payable to bearer, not bearing interest, and made these notes a legal-tender for all debts public and private.1 Action so unprecedented was not taken without serious consideration and debate. Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury, "came with reluctance to the conclusion that the legal-tender clause is a necessity." 2 The two best financial authorities in the Senate, John Sherman and William Pitt Fessenden, the chairman of the Committee on Finance, differed, Sherman favoring the clause, Fessenden opposing it. Fessenden wrote in a private letter: "This legaltender clause is opposed to all my views of right and expediency. It shocks all my notions of political, moral and national honor.” 3 The argument which prevailed was urged by Thaddeus Stevens, chairman of the House Committee of Ways and Means, "This bill is a measure of necessity, not of choice." Sumner came to its support, but warned 1 Except duties on imports which should be paid in coin; this coin was pledged for the payment of the interest on the bonds. Included in the 150 millions were 50 million United States notes, authorized in July, of which about 25 millions had been issued. 2 Spaulding, 59. 3 Fessenden, I, 194. CH. IV] LEGAL-TENDER ACT 147 the Senate that "the medicine of the Constitution must not become its daily bread." Sumner, Sherman and many others, perhaps most of the senators and representatives favoring it, regarded the measure as only "a temporary expedient." But the apparent ease of solving a financial difficulty by making irredeemable paper a legal-tender acted like a stimulant which called for repeated doses; additional legal-tenders, which became known as greenbacks, were authorized and issued until January 3, 1864, when the amount reached but a little short of 450 millions.1 The act of February 25, 1862, under which the first legal-tenders were issued, authorized also the issue of 500 millions 5-20 six per cent bonds, into which these legal-tender notes might be funded; interest on these bonds was payable in coin, for which the duties on foreign imports, payable in the same medium, were pledged. It is impossible to read the debates covering the legaltender act without recognizing the patriotic note. The advocates felt that it was necessary to avoid bankruptcy and to carry on the military and naval operations. True enough, we see its ill effects in increasing the cost of the war and in debauching the public mind with the idea that the government could create money by its fiat; and we know not what would have been the result of the alternative scheme. But as the legal-tender clause was opposed to sound principles of finance and to valuable precedent, it might have been worth while to try the other plan first. It was generally conceded that Treasury notes must be issued ; the difference arose on the proposition to make them a full legal-tender. With the issue of the amount deemed necessary, and made legal-tender only as between the government and the public, even as Pitt had restricted that quality 1 $449,338,902. Knox United States notes, 139. |
