The Fall of the Confederacy. 537 
would not stop to parley. They would not permit any con- 
stitutional formality, however good in its way, to hinder the 
momentous work. Didthe mace obstruct the march? Then 
away with the bauble. Did the House of Commons, which 
began the work, threaten to prevent its completion ? Away 
then, with the House of Commons. How different it was with 
the Confederacy. The vessel was in the midst of an awful 
storm, but not a spar must be cast overboard to lighten 
her. The vessel was fast drifting on the rocks but not a 
sail must be furled. Breakers were ahead, but the sailors 
must not move hand or foot to save the ship until they 
had been piped on deck and until their jackets and sou’- 
westers had been duly inspected according to the regula- 
tions. It was necessary to be excessively particular. The 
slightest infraction of official or constitutional etiquette 
might have raised a suspicion that to separate from an old 
Federation and to set up a new Confederaey was a some- 
what revolutionary proceeding. | 
Braver officers never drew sword than those who 
led the Confederate armies; yet some Confederate 
generals were of inferior capacity or, what is the same 
thing, they were unfortunate. Yet these were permitted 
to retain important commands. Ability had to give place 
to seniority. There was an outcry, but official etiquette 
was deaf to it. _The people were disgusted and the army 
was decimated by desertion. But secession was not a revolu- 
tion, and anything was better than a disregard of the latest 
edition of the United States’ army and navy lists, and that 
the ranking officer should be superseded by the best man. 
In the South, as in every other country, there was much 
human carrion, Never was corruption more rife or more 
impudent. The army of contractors and persons of that 
class plundered the people shamefully and openly. Bitter 
remonstrances from every State and from every county 
were unheeded. The Executive hated corruption, but how 
could it interfere? The government could not proceed 
except according to the forms of the constitution and in the 
midst of revolution, war, and invasion, the consti- 
tution was practically in abeyance. The Supreme 
Court was not even constituted. Jnuter arma silent leges. 
So the contractors robbed the people with impunity. 
Now the Confederate Administration would not have thus 
acted if the revolution had not been so hurried as to make 
it necessary to treat a revolution as a constitutional move- 
ment. 
