es
would hazard a conflict with the manufacturing nations of Europe,
by attempting a blockade that would prevent the export of the
staple; or if they did believe it, they looked upon it as the
fatuous step on the part of the National Government that would
promptly induce intervention by the combined power of England and
France. This reliance was explicitly stated in advance by Mr.
Hammond of South Carolina, who three years before the inauguration
of Mr. Lincoln, on the fourth day of March, 1858, made this
declaration in the United-States Senate:--

"Without firing a gun, without drawing a sword, should the North
make war on us, we could bring the whole world to our feet. What
would happen if no cotton was furnished for three years? I will
not stop to depict what every one can imagine, but this is certain,
England would topple headlong and carry the whole civilized world
with her. No, you dare not make war on cotton. No Power on earth
dares to make war upon cotton. _Cotton is King_."

EFFECTIVENESS OF THE BLOCKADE.

Boastful and impotent as the declaration of Mr. Hammond now seems,
it had a better basis of fact to stand upon than many of the fiery
predictions in which Southern statesmen were wont to indulge. The
importance of cotton to the civilized world could hardly be
exaggerated, and yet it was this very importance that forced the
United States to the course which was pursued. The National
Government could not permit the export of cotton without constantly
aggrandizing the power of the rebellion, and it could not prevent
its export without tempting the manufacturing nations of Europe to
raise the blockade. The Administration wisely prepared to enforce
the blockade and to meet all the consequences.

To accomplish its undertaking, the energy of the Nation was devoted
to the creation of a navy. By the end of the year 1863 the government
had six hundred vessels of war which were increased to seven hundred
before the rebellion was subdued. Of the total number at least
seventy-five were ironclad. It may be instanced with laudable
pride that one enterprising man, honorably distinguished as a
scientific engineer, constructed in less than a hundred days an
armored squadron of eight ships, in the aggregate of five thousand
tons burden, capable of steaming nine knots per hour and destined
for effective service upon the rivers of the South-West. When the
contractor,