other were
betrayed or abandoned to the insurgents.

Congress had not anticipated, and so had not provided for, the emergency.
The municipal authorities were powerless and inactive. The judicial
machinery seemed as if it had been designed, not to sustain the
government, but to embarrass and betray it.

Foreign intervention, openly invited and industriously instigated by the
abettors of the insurrection, became imminent, and has only been prevented
by the practice of strict and impartial justice, with the most perfect
moderation, in our intercourse with nations.

The public mind was alarmed and apprehensive, though fortunately not
distracted or disheartened. It seemed to be doubtful whether the Federal
Government, which one year before had been thought a model worthy of
universal acceptance, had indeed the ability to defend and maintain
itself.

Some reverses, which, perhaps, were unavoidable, suffered by newly levied
and inefficient forces, discouraged the loyal and gave new hopes to the
insurgents. Voluntary enlistments seemed about to cease and desertions
commenced. Parties speculated upon the question whether conscription had
not become necessary to fill up the armies of the United States.

In this emergency the President felt it his duty to employ with energy the
extraordinary powers which the Constitution confides to him in cases of
insurrection. He called into the field such military and naval forces,
unauthorized by the existing laws, as seemed necessary. He directed
measures to prevent the use of the post-office for treasonable
correspondence. He subjected passengers to and from foreign countries to
new passport regulations, and he instituted a blockade, suspended the
writ of habeas corpus in various places, and caused persons who were
represented to him as being or about to engage in disloyal and treasonable
practices to be arrested by special civil as well as military agencies
and detained in military custody when necessary to prevent them and deter
others from such practices. Examinations of such cases were instituted,
and some of the persons so arrested have been discharged from time to time
under circumstances or upon conditions compatible, as was thought, with
the public safety.

Meantime a favorable change of public opinion has occurred. The line
between loyalty and disloyalty is plainly defined. The whole structure
of the government is firm and stable. Apprehension of public danger and
facilities