viously taken, his captures since the 1st of May were swelled to forty-two thousand and fifty-nine men."

Thirty millions of loyal people thanked God in earnest prayer that His almighty wisdom had given us such a victory, and a military leader great enough to surmount every peril with which he had_grappled.

CHAPTER VI.

WHAT VICKSBURG SETTLED.

GRANT once wrote to his father, "The government asks a good deal of me, but not more than I feel fully able to perform." Vicksburg settled that the country could put no load upon Grant that he could not lift. As Donelson settled it beyond controversy that the early boast of martial superiority on the part of the South was "as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal," so Vicksburg settled several weighty matters that only successful battle could determine. It hopelessly divided the area of rebellion. The "lordly Mississippi" was in loyal control, never again to be wrested from us. The granary of the rebel army, the source from which its sustenance was mainly drawn, was sealed against it. With the Atlantic coast blockaded, and the rich pastures and storehouses of the trans-Mississippi closed, the Confederacy itself was in a state of siege; and, without foreign intervention, its downfall was but a question of time. The Confederacy was severed, never to be rejoined. Vicksburg vindicated the policy of emancipation, and added the mighty power of moral greatness to the war.

This victory had justified the absorption into loyal ranks of a race that by the magic of enfranchisement was rising in the scale of human dignity. It welcomed from the fields of the South the black hands that, unpaid, tilled the soil, owned as they were by human masters, and placed within those swarthy hands muskets that were to establish their fitness for freedom and their title to manhood. By our thus proclaiming liberty universal, and identifying the cause of loyalty with the cause of religion and humanity, the malicious spirit of our enemies and the vacillating spirit of our questionable friends in England were alike rebuked, and our cause was strengthened throughout the world.1

The lofty spirit of devotion to just principles of government which guided the pen of Milton, and animated the tongue of Hampden, in the days of

"1 Adjutant-Gen. Lorenzo Thomas now came from Washington to organize negro regiments. Grant had already paved the way for this in obedience to the President's wish that commanders should help remove the prejudices of our white troops against them. He had issued an order adding three hundred contrabands to the pioneer corps of each division.

"Grant did nothing in a half-hearted way, but entered zealously into the movement, and reported to Halleck,

"At least three of my corps commanders take hold of the new policy of arming the negroes, and using them against the enemy, with a will. They at least are so much of soldiers as to feel themselves under obliga tions to carry out a policy which they would not inaugurate in the same good faith and with the same zeal as if it were of their own choosing. You may rely on my carrying out any policy ordered by proper authority to the best of my ability.""

This extract shows what an important influence on this question came out of the necessities of Vicksburg.

the Commonwealth; the sublime sentiment which found echo in all true English hearts, that the air of England was too pure for any slave to breathe, -aroused Englishmen in 1863 to resist the efforts of British toryism and British selfishness to interfere for Southern benefit. The fall of Vicksburg insured the final extinction of the slave-owners' empire, and linked together the triumph of the American flag and the full freedom of the American slave. A sympathetic spirit was awakened in the mother-country, and smote down with righteous indignation all efforts to break the embargo on Southern ports. It was no trifling contribution to the national cause that Grant at Vicksburg settled forever the likelihood of foreign intermeddling with the blockade. We cannot wonder, then, that "Grant became henceforth the central figure in our military history," or that "the country hailed him with unfeigned delight and sincerity as the only general who was always successful."

Lincoln wrote him, "When you turned northward, east of Big Black, I feared it was a mistake. I now wish to make a personal acknowledgment that you were right, and I was wrong."

Amid all the congratulations and honors that crowded upon him as hero of Vicksburg, Grant maintained a quiet, simple, unostentatious dignity. Declining a public ovation tendered him, he concluded his letter with the patriotic sentiment, "The stability of this government and the unity of this nation depend solely on the cordial support and earnest loyalty of the people."

Of all men, living or dead, who have ever contributed by their acts to uphold the unity and stability now represented by our invincible flag, none ever did more than Grant by the capture of Vicksburg. Placing on sure ground the non-intervention of Europe, vindicating the hallowed policy of human freedom, raising up the bond race, unfettering the Father of Waters, and giving it back to interstate commerce, it made certain to the calculation of the world that the national flag would yet wave for a country stronger than when the eagles of Rome soared from the "Pillars of Hercules to the walls of Antoninus."