CONFEDERATE STATES. 



203 



factions, tinder such restrictions was eventually 

 constrained, in October, 1857, to apply for 

 extraordinary powers. These were granted, 

 Nov. 4th, 1857, and, on the 1st of December, 

 he was proclaimed constitutional president. 

 Troubles were, however, multiplying around 

 him. The army, with the exception of a single 

 brigade, had been alienated from him ; and on 

 the 17th of December this brigade declared 

 against the new constitution, but named him 

 as chief of a new Government. On the llth 

 of January, 1858, however, they discarded him 

 altogether, and a bloody insurrection broke out 

 that day in the capital, which lasted for ten days. 

 Gen. Comonfort appointed Juarez, then presi- 

 dent of the Supreme Court, provisional presi- 

 dent, and attempted, by taking the field in per- 

 son, to retrieve his fortunes, but in vain. On the 

 21st of January, his capital was in the hands of 

 the insurgents, and he fled with Juarez to Guan- 

 ajuato, where the latter convened a Congress to 

 take measures to reinstate Comonfort. Mean- 

 time, the insurgents and church party had ap- 

 pointed Gen. Zuloaga provisional president, 

 and Comonfort, finding that he could do nothing 

 more for his country, escaped from Mexico, in 

 Feb. 1858, and sailed for the United States, and 

 thence repaired to France. Soon after the 

 success of his friend Juarez, who, in 1859, 

 triumphed over Miramon and the church party, 

 and upon the first movement of the French for 

 the invasion of his country, Comonfort return- 

 ed thither, and offered his services to Juarez, 

 who at once appointed him chief commander 

 of the troops. In this position, his skill, 

 bravery, and loyalty won him the respect of 

 the French forces, as well as of his own troops. 

 He was murdered by a gang of bandits while 

 on his way to San Luis Potosi. 



CONFEDERATE STATES. Most terrible 

 trials befell the Confederacy * in 1863, the like 



* OFFICERS OF THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT. 



EXECUTIVE: Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, President; 

 A. H. Stephens, of Georgia, Vice-President. 



Aids to President Col. Win. M. Browne, of Georgia; 

 Col. James Chestnut, of South Carolina; Col. Win. P. John- 

 ston, of Kentucky; Col. Joseph C. Ives, of Mississippi ; Col. 

 G. W. C. Loe, of Virginia; Col. John T. Wood. 



Private Secretary to President Burton N. Harrison, of 

 Mississippi. 



DEPARTMENT OF STATE: J. P. Benjamin, of Louisiana, 

 Secretary of State; L. Q. Washington, Chief Clerk. 



DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE : George Davis, of North Caro- 

 lina, Attorney- General; Wade Keyes, of Alabama, Assist- 

 ant Attorn-ey- General; Kufus R. Rhodes, of Mississippi, 

 Commissioner of Patents; G. E. Nelson, of Georgia, Su- 

 perintendent of Public Printing; R. M. Smith, of Vir- 

 ginia, Public Printer. 



TREASURY DEPARTMENT : C. G. Memminger, of South 

 Carolina, Secretary of Treasury; Robert Tyler, Register; 

 E. C. Elmore, Treasurer; J. M. Strother, of Virginia, Chief 

 Clerk; Lewis Cruger, of South Carolina, Comptroller; B. 

 Baker, of Florida, First Auditor ; W. H. S. Taylor, of Lou- 

 isiana, Second Auditor. 



WAR DEPARTMENT: James A. Seddon, of Virginia, Sec- 

 retary of War; Judge J. A. Campbell, of Alabama, Assist- 

 ant Secretary of War ; R. G. II. Kean, Chief Bureau of 

 War ; Gen. S. Cooper, Adjutant and Inspector-General; 

 Lieut-Col. J. Withers, Lieut-Col H. L. Clay, Major E. A. 

 Palfrey, Major Charles H. Lee, Major S. W. Melton, Cap- 

 tain Reilly, Assistant Adjutants and Inspector-Generals; 

 Brie.-Gen. A. R. Lawton, of Georgia. Quartermaster-Gen- 

 eral; Col. L. B. Northrop, of South Carolina, Commissary- 

 General; Col. J. Gorgas, Chief of Ordnance; S. P. Moore, 



of which have not happened to any such peo- 

 ple in modern days. With a currency which 

 had become nearly worthless, a Government 

 that seized upon supplies for the army with a 

 ruthless hand, a railway system so worn as to 

 be incapable of transporting troops and sup- 

 plies of food for the army and people promptly, 

 its most fertile regions desolated and a scarcity 

 in the entire crops, a blockade so stringent as 

 to cut off the outer world, a conscription that 

 took every man between eighteen and forty- 

 five into the army, a formidable power claim- 

 ing their allegiance, invading their towns and 

 States, offering liberty to their slaves, enrolling 

 them in its armies, and defying their retalia- 

 tion; their strongholds captured, their terri- 

 tory divided, their armies defeated in the field 

 with thousands slain, and the prisoners cap- 

 tured being large in numbers held without 

 exchange, the territory growing less and less, 

 themselves unrecognized among nations; any 

 other people than those reared under Ameri- 

 can institutions would have succumbed would 

 have proposed terms of peace. 



The currency of the Confederate States has, 

 during the year, exerted a most unfavorable in- 

 fluence on their internal affairs, and very seri- 

 ously diminished their hopes of ultimate suc- 

 cess in the war. 



At the commencement of hostilities, the im- 

 pression was universal that the war would be 

 short. The most distinguished politicians, the 

 wisest commercial men and capitalists of all 

 classes, indeed every household, acted upon this 

 view. Hence, every one was soon embarrassed 

 for the want of hundreds of small articles, 

 which might have been procured at cheap rates 

 if the parties had been able to look only a few 

 months into the future. This same short-sight- 

 edness controlled the financial affairs of the 

 Confederacy. Its loans were to be in bonds, 

 and its currency was to be paper. The capital 

 invested in the bonds was drawn principally 

 from banks, from merchants who had been 

 driven -out of business, and from trust estates 

 and charitable institutions. Such sources were 

 soon exhausted, and it became impossible to 

 make further progress in bonding by appeals to 

 the patriotism of the people, in consequence 

 of their peculiar habits. There were no great 

 money capitalists in the community. The cap- 

 ital of the people consisted mainly in lands 

 and negroes, and the habits of the wealthy 

 for generations had kept them in one chan- 

 nel that of producing cotton, tobacco, and 



M. D., Surgeon-General; C. II. Smith, M. D., Assistant 

 Surgeon-General. 



NAVY DEPARTMENT : S. B. Mallory, of Florida, Secretary 

 of theNa-ey; E. M. Tidball, Chief Clerk; Com. John M. 

 Brooke, Cliief of Ordnance ; Com. A. B. Fairfax, Inspector 

 of Ordnance ; Com. J. K. Mitchell, in charge of Orders and 

 Detail; Surgeon W. A. W. Spotswood, Chief of Jfedicine 

 and Surgery ; Paymaster J. DeBree, Chief of Clothing and 

 Provisions. 



POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT : J. II. Reagan, of Texas, Post- 

 master-General; H. St. George Offutt, "of Virginia, Chi,\f 

 of Conveyance Bureau ; B. N. Clements, Chief of Appoint- 

 ment Bureau; John L. Harrell, of Alabama, Cldefot 'Fi- 

 nance Bureau; B. Fuller, of North Carolina, Chief Clerk. 



