ast of undefended shore was pierced by river after river
whose broad, deep waters would carry the gunboats of an enemy into the
heart of the South.

The audacity of our fathers in challenging the power of Great Britain
was reasonable in comparison with the madness of the South's challenge
to the North. Three thousand miles of storm-tossed ocean defended our
Revolutionary ancestors from the base of the enemy supplies. Three
thousand miles of undefended coast invited the attack of the U. S. Navy,
while twenty million Northerners stood with their feet on the borders of
the South ready to advance without the possibility of hindrance save the
bare breasts of the men who might oppose them.

The difference between the sections in material resources was absurd.
The North was rich and powerful Her engines of war were exhaustless and
under perfect control. The railroads of the South were few and poorly
equipped, with no work shops from which to renew their equipment when
exhausted. The railroad system of the entire country was absolutely
dependent on the North for supplies. The Missouri River was connected
with the Northern seaboard by the finest system of railways in the
world, with a total mileage of over thirty thousand. Its annual tonnage
was thirty-six million and its revenue valued at four thousand millions
of dollars. The annual value of the manufactures of the North was over
two thousand millions, and their machinery was complete for the
production of all the material of war. Her ships sailed every sea and
she could draw upon the resources of the known world. Her manufacturing
power compared to the South was five hundred to one.

No leader in the history of his race was ever confronted by such
insuperable difficulties as faced Jefferson Davis.

He had been called to direct the government of a proud, sensitive,
jealous people thrown without preparation into a position which
threatened their existence, without an army, without arms, or the means
to manufacture them, without even powder, or the means to make it, or
the material out of which it must be made, without a navy or a single
ship-yard in which to build one, and three thousand miles of coast to be
defended against a navy which had whipped the greatest maritime nation
of the world. His genius must meet every difficulty and supply every
want or his Confederacy would fall at the first shock of war.

The one tremendous and apparently insuperable difficulty in case of