; every variety of abominable contrivance to
entrap and debauch men for a price was in brazen operation. The first
care of the Government under the new law was the cleansing of the
capital. General John H. Winder, appointed military governor, did the
job with thoroughness. He closed the barrooms, disarmed the populace,
and for the time at least swept the city clean of criminals. The
Administration also made certain political arrests, and even imprisoned
some extreme opponents of the Government for "offenses not enumerated
and not cognizable under the regular process of law." Such arrests gave
the enemies of the Administration another handle against it. As we shall
see later, the use that Davis made of martial law was distorted by a
thousand fault-finders and was made the basis of the charge that the
President was aiming at absolute power.

At the moment, however, Davis was master of the situation. The six
months following April 1, 1862, were doubtless, from his own point of
view, the most satisfactory part of his career as Confederate President.
These months were indeed filled with peril. There was a time when
McClellan's advance up the Peninsula appeared so threatening that the
archives of the Government were packed on railway cars prepared for
immediate removal should evacuation be necessary. There were the other
great disasters during that year, including the loss of New Orleans. The
President himself experienced a profound personal sorrow in the death
of his friend, Albert Sidney Johnston, in the bloody fight at Shiloh. It
was in the midst of this time that tried men's souls that the Richmond
Examiner achieved an unenvied immortality for one of its articles on
the Administration. At a moment when nothing should have been said to
discredit in any way the struggling Government, it described Davis as
weak with fear telling his beads in a corner of St. Paul's Church. This
paper, along with the Charleston Mercury, led the Opposition. Throughout
Confederate history these two, which were very ably edited, did the
thinking for the enemies of Davis. We shall meet them time and again.

A true picture of Davis would have shown the President resolute and
resourceful, at perhaps the height of his powers. He recruited and
supplied the armies; he fortified Richmond; he sustained the great
captain whom he had placed in command while McClellan was at the gates.
When the tide had turned and the Army of the Potomac sullenly withdrew,