nfederate prisoners as outlaws, no matter where taken by land or sea.
Davis had established the legality of his letters of marque and reprisal
beyond question.

The United States Navy in the first flood of its victories made another
false step which brought to the South an hour of brilliant hope. Captain
Wilkes overhauled a British steamer carrying the royal mail and took
from her decks by force the Commissioners Mason and Slidell whom Davis
had dispatched to Europe to plead for the recognition of the
Confederacy. The North had gone wild with joy over the act and Congress
voted Wilkes the thanks of the nation as its hero.

Great Britain demanded an apology and the restoration of the prisoners,
put her navy on a war footing and dispatched a division of her army to
Canada to strike the North by land as well as sea.

The hard common sense of Abraham Lincoln rescued the National Government
from a delicate and dangerous situation. Lincoln apologized to Great
Britain, restored the Confederate Commissioners and returned with
redoubled energy to the prosecution of the war. In answer to the shouts
of demagogues and the reproaches of both friend and foe, the homely
rail-splitter from the West had a simple answer.

"One war at a time."

Jefferson Davis watched this threat of British invasion with breathless
intensity. He saw the hope of thus breaking the power of the navy fade
with sickening disappointment.

There was one more hope. The hull of the _Merrimac_ had been raised from
the bottom of the harbor of Norfolk and the work of transforming her
into a giant iron-clad ship capable of carrying a fighting crew of three
hundred men had been completed, though her engines were slow.

But the enthusiastic men set to this task by Davis had accomplished
wonders. Their reports to him had raised high hopes of a sensation. If
this new monster of the sea should succeed single handed in destroying
the fleet of six vessels lying in Hampton Roads, the naval warfare of
the world would be revolutionized in a day and overtures for peace might
be within sight.

The Norfolk newspapers, under instructions from the Confederate
Commandant, pronounced the experiment of the _Merrimac_ a stupid and
fearful failure. Her engines were useless. Her steering gear wouldn't
work. Her armament was so heavy she couldn't be handled. These papers
were easily circulated at Newport News and Old Point Comfort among the
officers and men of the Federal fleet.