could be elected, and there were many reasons to believe that such a thing would be possible, a speedy wind-up of the war, on terms satisfactory to the Confederates, would almost certainly follow his inauguration.
This being the situation, it was as much for the interest of the Richmond government that the political dissensions existing within the Federal lines should be kept alive, and the success of the anti-war party promoted by every possible means, as it was to win victories on the battle-field. Indeed, it was much more important ; for victories cost men and treasure, which the Confederacy could not well spare, and even more was to be gained by fighting the enemy on his own ground with the ballot, than there was by shooting him on Confederate soil with the bullet.
It was an important part of the duty of the Confederate agents at the North to aid, by every possible means, the success of the anti-war party, and to this end they labored incessantly and effectively in various ways; but, outside of the field of politics, there was an immense amount of highly important work being done, the like of which my brief experiences in New Orleans had barely given me a hint of.
Confederate Spies and Agents in Governemnt Employ.
Many officials in the government employ were either secret service agents of the Confederacy, or were in the pay of such. There was not a public building at Washington that did not contain a person or persons who was not only willing, but eager to do much more than furnish information to the commanders of the Confederate armies and to the Richmond authorities, as far as it was possible to do so with out placing themselves in peril. In all of the large cities were men and women, many of them in government employ, who were in constant communication with the Confederate agents, and in all of them were merchants who were rapidly growing wealthy by sending goods of all kinds, including arms and ammunition, to the South, either by having them smuggled through the lines, or by shipping them to some neutral port for the purpose of having them transferred to blockade-runners.
Some of these merchants made no pretensions, but sold to whoever would buy, having the avowed intention of making
