law a matter so
essentially discretionary, and every dollar's worth of property had been
pledged to the cause, how different might have been the result? All this
could have been done in the then condition of public sentiment; not a
dissentient voice would have been heard. It would have been far more
popular than the "Conscript Act" was a year later, and that caused
little complaint.

Let any man think of what might have been done in May, 1861, with all
the men, which were subsequently in the Confederate army, arrayed and
pressed on the front. If unarmed, they would have met opponents also
unarmed. Men followed the armies in Missouri and picked up guns on the
battle field, while the Government was rejecting regiments because it
had not arms to give them. Subsequently it found arms easier to be
gotten than men.

If Jefferson Davis had possessed one tithe of the unscrupulous ambition
of which he has been accused, he would not now be the inmate of a
prison. He could have made, with all ease his Government a
dictatorate--or turning off the useless and clamorous Congress, as an
incumbrance to a Government which (until the war was won) was an
experiment, have ruled during the war with a "committee of public
safety."

To excite the energies of the people to the utmost, and then direct and
employ them by means of some such machinery, was the way to win. But he
preferred to believe that the danger was not great. He would have died
sooner than assume unconstitutional power. The ardor of the people was
rebuffed, and they sank into an apathy, from which they were awakened by
terrible disasters, to find themselves encompassed by fierce and hostile
armies.

CHAPTER V.

In 1857, the company of volunteer militia called the "Lexington Rifles"
was organized with John H. Morgan as Captain, it subsequently, upon the
organization of the State-guard, became incorporated in that body. It
was composed of the finest and most spirited young men of Lexington, and
soon won a high reputation for proficiency in drill, and in all the
duties taught in the camps of the State-guards, as well as for the
intelligence and daring of its members.

From the hour of its organization the men of this company seemed to
entertain the profoundest love and admiration for their Captain, and the
influence and control they accorded him was not too strongly expressed
in the words of their motto, which, written in large letters, framed and
hung up in thei