"We'll bring England to her
knees if there is a war. Cotton is the King of Commerce, and we hold the
key of his empire. The population of England will starve without our
cotton. If we need them they've got to come to our rescue, sir!"
Socola did not argue the point. It was amazing how widespread was this
idea in the South. He wrote his Government again and again that the
whole movement of secession was based on this conception.
There was one man in Washington who read these warnings with keen
insight--Gideon Welles, the Secretary of the Navy. The part this quiet,
unassuming man was preparing to play in the mighty drama then unfolding
its first scene was little known or understood by those who were filling
the world with the noise of their bluster.
Jefferson Davis at his desk in Montgomery saw with growing anxiety the
confidence of his people in immediate and overwhelming success. In
answer to Abraham Lincoln's proclamation calling for 75,000 volunteers
to fight the South, he called for 100,000 to defend it. The rage for
volunteering in the South was even greater than the North. An army of
five hundred thousand men could have been enrolled for any length of
service if arms and equipment could have been found. It was utterly
impossible to arm and equip one hundred thousand, before the first
battle would be fought.
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