io8

THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT AT MONTGOMERY.

The Secretary of War has stated that before the Government moved fromMontgomery 360,000 men, the flower of the South, had tendered their servicesin the army. Only a small fraction of the number were received. The Secretarywas worn out with personal applications of ardent officers, and himselfstated that in May, 1861, he was constantly waylaid, in walking the hackway from his office to the ExchangeHotel, by men offering their lives inthe Confederate cause.

Another instance of narrowness maybe named in the case of William Cut-ting Heyward. He was a wealthy rice-planter and an eminently practical andefficient man, a graduate at West Pointin the class with Mr. Davis. He wentto Montgomery to tender a regiment.

He sent in his card to the Presidentand waited for days in the lobby with-out obtaining an interview, and thenreturned home. He finally died fromexposure, performing the duties of aprivate in the Home Guard at Charles-ton . The reason alleged for not ac-cepting more men was the want ofarms, and Mr. Davis’s book is an apol-ogy for not procuring them. Insistingthat a great war was probable, and in-augurated on the 18th of February,— there was no declaration of war beforethe middle of April and no efficient blockade of the ports for many months,—yet it was in May that he started Major Iiuse over to England with instruc-tions to purchase 10,000 Enfield rifles! By these facts may be gauged hisestimate of the emergency or of the purchasing ability of the ConfederateStates. The provisional constitution provided that “ Congress shall appro-priate no money from the Treasury unless it be asked and estimated for bythe President or some one of the heads of departments, except for the purposeof paying its own expenses and contingencies.” The Congress could, therefore,do nothing about the purchase of arms without a call from the executive.

But for the Treaty of Paris in 1778, made by Benjamin Franklin, SilasDean, and Arthur Lee, with France , the independence of the thirteen originalStates would not have been established. It was deemed important in the Pro-visional Congress of the Confederate States to send commissioners abroad tonegotiate for a recognition of their independence, and, in case of war with theStates of the North, perhaps for assistance. The chairman of the Committeeon Foreign Affairs, Mr. Khett, reported such a resolution, which was unani-mously adopted. As the treaty-making power of the Government belongedto the President, Congress could not dictate to him the limit of authority thatshould be conferred upon the commissioners, in the negotiations desired. But

M

CHRISTOPHER G. MEMA1INGER, FIRST SECRETARY OFTHE TREASURY OF THE CONFEDERACY.