This  property  thus  destroyed  had  been  accumulated  and
constructed  with  laborious  care  and  skillful  ingenuity  during  a
course  of  years  to  fulfill  one  of  the  objects  of  the  Constitution,
which  was  expressed  in  these  words,  "  To  provide  for  the  com-
mon defense  "  (see  Preamble  of  the  Constitution).  It  had  be-
longed to  all  the  States  in  common,  and  to  each  one  equally
with  the  others.  If  the  Confederate  States  were  still  members
of  the  Union,  as  the  President  of  the  United  States  asserted,
where  can  he  find  a  justification  of  these  acts  ?

In  explanation  of  his  policy  to  the  Commissioners  sent  to
him  by  the  Virginia  State  Convention,  he  said,  referring  to  his
inaugural  address,  "  As  I  then  and  therein  said,  I  now  repeat,
the  power  confided  in  me  will  be  used  to  hold,  occupy,  and  pos-
sess property  and  places  belonging  to  the  Government."  Yet
he  tendered  the  thanks  of  the  Government  to  those  who  ap-
plied the  torch  to  destroy  this  property  belonging,  as  he  regard-
ed it,  to  the  Government.
How  unreasonable,  how  blind  with  rage  must  have  been
that  administration  of  affairs  which  so  quickly  brought  the  Gov-
ernment to  the  necessity  of  destroying  its  own  means  of  defense
in  order,  as  it  publicly  declared,  "  to  maintain  its  life " !  It
would  seem  as  if  the  passions  that  rule  the  savage  had  taken
possession  of  the  authorities  at  the  United  States  capital !  In
the  conflagrations  of  vast  structures,  the  wanton  destruction  of
public  property,  and  still  more  in  the  issue  of  lettres  de  cachet


330      RISE  AND  FALL   OF  THE   CONFEDERATE   GOVERNMENT.
