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600 The Fall of the Confederacy. 
Confederacy, and that they might grow rich by supplying 
the South with bread-stuffs, whilst the South devoted her 
labour and skill to the cultivation of exportable produce. 
Simultaneously the Western States were selected for raid- 
ing expeditions, which alarm and irritate but do not 
weaken. The West was to desert the North and side with 
the Confederacy, and yet it was the West that suffered 
most from hostile incursions. It is not very extraordinary 
that the West became peculiarly vindictive against the 
Confederacy. 
One more illustration of this perverse policy. The 
Northern peace party, nearly destroyed by the fall of Fort 
Sumter, gradually revived during the years 1862 and 1863. 
It was perhaps never so formidable as some thought it 
to be; yet it was powerful enough to make the war party 
uneasy. It was spreading in the West as well as in the 
Atlantic cities. The Knights of the Golden Circle were a 
dangerous organization. The peace party did not pro- 
pose, and we may add, did not contemplate, complete sepa- 
ration of North and South. It stoutly opposed the 
policy of the Federal administration, and clamoured fora 
truce and negotiations. Nowa truce would have been of 
immense value to the Confederacy. The pause would have 
given the South an opportunity to recruit its strength, for 
the Confederate armies were depleted more by want of 
rest than by death and wounds. The moral and political 
effect of a truce would have been favourable to the Con- 
federacy both in America and in Europe. It would have 
been indeed a qguasz recognition of the Confederacy asa 
de facto Power, since a truce for negotiation is not usual in 
rebellion or civil war. Besides, any negotiation must have 
induced violent differences in the North. ‘The peace party 
were for peace on any terms short of complete separation. 
They were ready to uphold all the rights and privileges of 
the South, and to offer fresh guarantees for the mainten- 
ance of the institution of negro slavery. It was so notorious 
that the New England States would not consent to any 
such terms that there was talk of the secession of New 
England—of leaving New England out in the cold. It 
was certain that the peace party would have been too 
feeble to carry out its programme, and the defeat of its 
candidate for the Presidency, General McClellan, was a 
foregone conclusion; yet it was of importance to the Con- 
federacy to help the peace party, and so as far as possible 
to divide the North. But what was the course of the 
