young history of the South has abundantly shown.  To obtain experienced and trusty seamen was easier to him in such a crisis than to give them a command.  The Atlantic and the ports of America were ruled at that time absolutely by President Lincoln.  The South had not a voice upon the sea.  The merchants of New York and Boston looked upon the war as something which concerned them very little.  Not a dream of any damage possibly to be inflicted on them, disturbed the serenity of their votes for the invasion of the South.  Their fleets entered harbour proudly; their marine swam the ocean unmolested.  Though there was war imminent, the insurance offices were content to maintain their terms upon a peace standard.  What, indeed, was to be feared?  The South had not a single vessel.  Here and there a packet-steamer might be caught up and armed, but what would they avail against such fleet and powerful ships as the Brooklyn, the Powhattan, and dozens of others?  There was, then, a condition of perfect security, according to the ideas of all American commercial men.  The arrangement, as they understood it, was that they were to strike the blow, and that no one was to give them the value in return.

It happened that Mr. Davis was of another mind.  He perceived where a blow could be struck, on his part, with terrible emphasis, and how.  The obstacles in his way were colossal; but we have learnt that obstacles do not appal his indomitable genius.  On the 14th February, 1861, Captain Semmes, being then at his residence in the city of Washington, a Commander in the Federal navy, received the following telegram from Montgomery:—­

   Sir,—­On behalf of the Committee on Naval Affairs, I beg
   leave to request that you will repair to this place at your earliest
   convenience.

   Your obedient servant,

   C.M.  Conrad, Chairman.

The selection of Captain Semmes for the first hazardous service, whatsoever it might be, was due to his reputation and patriotism, as well as to the sagacity of the Confederate chief.  He had already, in a letter to the Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, expressed his willingness to fight for the South:  “his judgment, his inclinations, and his affections,” all hurrying him, as he says, to link his fate with the first movement of the South.  “My fate,” he pursues, “is cast with the South; but I should be unwilling, unless invited, to appear to thrust myself upon the new Government until my own State has moved.”  This was at that time the feeling of many border statesmen.  In another letter to Mr. Curry he had exposed sound practical views of the situation of the Confederates, as regards their marine, for defence and means of inflicting damage on their opponents.