ld be returned; another portion insisted that
there should be no rendition of servants of rebel masters, even in loyal
or border States, who, by resisting the laws and setting the authorities
at defiance, had forfeited their rights and all Governmental protection.
Questions in regard to the treatment of captured rebels, and the
confiscation of all property of rebels, were agitated. What was the
actual condition of the seceding States, and what would be their status
when the rebellion should be suppressed, were also beginning to be
controverted points, especially among members of Congress. On these and
other questions which the insurrection raised, novel, perplexing, and
without law or precedent to guide or govern it, the Administration had
developed no well defined policy when Congress convened in December,
1861, but it was compelled to act, and that in such a manner as not to
alienate friends or give unnecessary offence, while maintaining the
Government in all its Federal authority and rights for the preservation
of the Union and the suppression of the rebellion.

The character and duration of the war, which many had supposed would be
brief, was still undetermined. While affairs were in this uncertain and
inchoate condition, and the Administration had no declared policy on
some of the most important questions, Congress came together fired with
indignation and revenge for a war so causeless and unprovoked. A large
portion of the members, exasperated toward the rebels by reason of the
war, and dissatisfied with delays and procrastination, which they
imputed chiefly to the Administration, were determined there should be
prompt and aggressive action against the persons, property,
institutions, and the States which had confederated to break up the
Union. There was, however, little unity among the complaining members as
to the mode and method of prosecuting the war. It was not difficult to
find fault with the Administration, but it was not easy for the
discontented to settle on any satisfactory plan of continuing it. The
Democrats complained that the President transcended his rightful
authority; the radical portion of the Republicans that he was not
sufficiently aggressive; that he was deficient in energy and too tender
of the rebels. It was at this period, after Congress had been in session
two months, and opinions were earnest but diverse and factious, with a
progeny of crude and mischievous schemes as to the conduct of aff