The Fall of the Confederacy. 605 
said if the Federal government had decreed that no men of 
a less stature than 5ft. 6in., or that no men with black hair, 
or that no men with names of two syllables should be en- 
listed ? Such a decree would have been greeted with shouts 
of derision, and the Federal administration would have been 
faumted as madmen. Yet the practical result of the 
non-emancipation policy of the South was precisely what 
would have happened in the North if such a mad decree had 
emanated from the White House. There were 400,000 
negroes in the South capable of bearing arms, and the 
exemption of negroes from military service deprived the 
Confederacy of not less than 300,000 soldiers. Now, when 
we reflect how often Southern victories were barren because 
there was no reserve force to reap the harvest, how troops 
needed in the field were obliged to remain in garrison, and 
how long the issue seemed doubtful, it is hardly presump- 
tuous to assert that if the Confederacy had been supported 
by 300,000 negro troops that, even if it had not been 
ultimately successful, the conflict would have lasted for 
twice four years, and every year of war multiplied the 
chances of foreign intervention. If anything were needed 
to make the military loss sustained by the South through 
the policy of non-emancipation more striking we have it 
in the fact that the North adopted a policy of eman- 
cipation, and that the Northern armies were recruited 
with Southern negroes. But it is superfluous to recite 
any other than the one fact that because the Con- 
federate administration did not emancipate the negroes 
the Confederate armies were deprived of the aid of 300,000 
soldiers. 
But the physical loss entailed by the non-emancipation 
policy was small compared with other losses. Was the 
North to be divided? Was the West to be tempted to 
forsake the Union? Was the Northern people to give up 
the costly struggle? Then one obstacle must be removed. 
The West had no quarrel with the South on fiscal ques- 
tions, but the West was devoted to the cause of Aboli- 
tionism and would not forsake the North so long as the 
North included emancipation in its programme and the 
South adhered to its non-emancipation policy. It might 
have been that the North would grow weary of the war 
and rather than incur the risk of European interven- 
tion would recognize the Confederacy, hoping that in the 
days to come there might be reunion. But if so, one 
obstacle must be removed. So long as emancipation was 
