Of course mistakes
occurred, and subordinates made some arrests which had better have been
left unmade; but these bore only upon discretion in individual cases,
not upon inherent right. The topic, however, was in itself a tempting
one, not only for the seriously disaffected, but for the far larger body
of the quarrelsome, who really wanted the government to do its work, yet
maliciously liked to make the process of doing it just as difficult and
as disagreeable as possible. Later on, when the malcontent class
acquired the organization of a distinct political body, no other charge
against the administration proved so plausible and so continuously
serviceable as this. It invited to florid declamation profusely
illustrated with impressive historical allusions, and to the free use of
vague but grand and sonorous phrases concerning "usurpation," "the
subjection of the life, liberty, and property of every citizen to the
mere will of a military commander," and other like terrors.
Unfortunately men much more deserving of respect than the Copperheads,
men of sound loyalty and high ability, but of anxious and conservative
temperament, were led by their fears to criticise severely arrests of
men who were as dangerous to the government as if they had been soldiers
of the Confederacy.
May 3, 1861, by which time military exigencies had become better
understood, Mr. Lincoln called "into the service of the United States
42,034 volunteers," and directed that the regular army should be
increased by an aggregate of 22,714 officers and enlisted men.
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