the banks it made its loans at what should be considered a low rate of interest, and attempted to provide for the payment of that interest by special tax of fifty cents upon each one hundred dollars in value upon nearly all real and personal property.
The United States Congress met in extra session "in a fortified city" on the 4th of July, 1861. Among the distinguished leaders who supported war measures with vigor were Sumner, Fessenden, Chandler, Trumbull, Wade, Hale, Wilson, Sherman and Chase. The conservatives were represented by Pearce, Polk, Richardson of Illinois, Saulsbury, Bayard and Bright. Every New England senator except Morrill was given chairmanship of some committee. Sixteen States were put in complete control of the government. By a political understanding during these early months of the war, neither party was to take political advantage and endeavor to gain party credit by the success of coercion. Hence it happened that the disturbing slavery question was kept in abeyance except to agree by resolutions that the war was not waged to emancipate the slaves. The public declaration was to be made that the safety of the capital from the assaults of the insurgents, the saving of the Union, the rescue of Southern Union people from the control of the disunionists, the recovery of the forts and the honor of the flag, were to be the grounds of armed invasion in the Southern States. (Blaine, "Twenty Years," pp. 323, 353.) The House organized by electing Mr. Grow, speaker, defeating Mr. F. P. Blair, of Missouri. The war leaders were Stevens, Conkling, Washburne, Lovejoy, Morrill and Colfax. Opposed to them were English, Voorhees, Pendleton, Corning, Richardson, Cox, Vallandigham, and Crittenden.
The message of President Lincoln related almost wholly to matters of the war then in progress. The two things uppermost for earnest consideration were the armies and the money necessary to conduct a vigorous war.
