476 NortH Carotina Troops, 1861-65.

ging of popular enthusiasm, no desertion, no Appomattox, no
military satrapies instead of States under the Constitution.
In the second place, the war once begun, our leaders either
did not grasp the magnitude of the struggle, or with an un-
wise want of candor concealed it as much as possible from
the popular intelligence, which reacted most injuriously upon
the cause. A frank avowal that the war would be long and
desperate, and a call for volunteers to serve through its whole
duration would have brought out the entire military strength
of our people as well as the call for six months. This short-
sighted policy had to be repaired by a conscript act, and
although it was necessary at the time the blunder of those
who created the necessity remains the same.* Our people
never recovered from the damper inflicted on their enthusi-
asm by the anomalous spectacle of beholding men hunted
down and tied to make them fight for freedom and independ-
ence!

Suffering and disappointment began to produce discontent
at home. Little was done to allay this feeling. All eyes
were turned to the army. The majority of our civic talent
took service there, where as a general thing exultant politi-
cians were buried without a corresponding resurrection of
great generals. The civic talent which remained at home
mistook to a wonderful extent, the temper of our people in
other respects. The Northern masses were kept up to the war
pitch by appeals for the preservation of the Union. It was a
stirring war ery; filled with the most sacred associations of
our fathers and their great deeds, and attuned to the proudest
glories moral, and physical, of the American citizen. We
had no slogan half so thrilling. Our denunciation of abo-
lition operated only upon the comparatively few who re-
flected upon its consequences and foresaw the evils of a vio-
lated Constitution. Seven-tenths of our people owned no
slaves, and to say the least of it, felt no great and endur-
ing enthusiasm for its preservation, especially when it seemed
to them that it was in no danger. Our statesmen were not
wise enough to put the issue on any other ground. In brief,
it was not so arranged as that the causes of the war took hold
upon the popular heart, and the real wonder is, that, sus-

NortuH Carouina’s Recorp. A417

tained mainly by sectional pride and a manly, war-like spirit,
the contest lasted so long as it did.

Again: when our currency depreciated so that it would not
pay the government which issued it, a tithe law was enacted,
seizing the people’s goods by way of taxes whilst their pockets
were filled with the government promises to pay. Then
there came another law exempting from militia duty those
who owned a certain number of slaves; an exceedingly inju-
rious measure for which no possible advantage could atone.
These sources of discontent, added to much suffering at home,
soon put matters beyond the remedial agency of the wisest
statesmanship. Enthusiasm died out; confidence fled. De-
sertion began, and the deserter’s place was filled by more con-
scripts. The result was that not only were the discontent
and suffering increased, but the just ratio between those who
labor at home and those who serve in the field and consume,
was destroyed ; so that the larger the army became the weaker
it grew; lacking the healthy strength of well organized com-
munities behind it. Since the formation of States on the
basis of civilization, and the barbarian tribes ceased to wage
war by migrating into the territory of their enemies, there is
perhaps no instance of a community stript so bare of its in-
dustrial and productive forces as was the South in 1864.
Prussia during the seven years war is perhaps an exception
to this assertion; I can not remember any other. From
many districts—county sub-divisions—in North Carolina, I
had, during 1864, petitions signed by women alone, praying
that A. B. might not be ordered away, as he was the only
able-bodied man in their district, to protect them, grind their
grain, ete. But for our slaves society could not then have
moved on at all.

I have dwelt thus long on the reasons for my assertion that
our cause was lost at home and not in the field, in order to ex-
euse the emphasis which I have given to domestic affairs in
North Carolina during this period, and the efforts which we
made to remove these springs of discontent. They are not
unworthy of your notice, though not so exciting as stories of
battles and sieges, because they go to the root of the matter.
And although we were not entirely successful in feeding all