President--"
"Thank you, my dear. I'll take your word for it."
Jennie walked home on air. She had made history. How tragic its sequel
was destined to be, a kind Providence concealed.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE FATAL BLUNDER
On February 22, 1862, Jefferson Davis committed the one irretrievable
mistake of his administration. He consented to his inauguration as
permanent President of the Confederacy under the strict forms of
Constitutional law.
The South was entering the shadows of the darkest hour of her new life.
A military dictator clothed with autocratic power could have subdued the
discordant elements and marshaled the resources of the country to meet
the crisis. A constitutional President would bind himself hand and foot
with legal forms. A military dictator might ride to victory and carry
his country with him.
His two Commanding Generals had allowed the victorious army of Manassas
to drift into a rabble while they wrangled for position, precedence and
power.
The swift and terrible blows which the navy had dealt the South,
delivered so silently and yet with such deadly effect that the people
had not yet realized their import, had convinced the President that the
war would be one of the bloodiest in history.
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