sufficient to set forth the merits of the movement for the reform of
the Civil Service. The magnitude of our financial controversies during a
century of our history precludes the possibility of securing an adequate
representation of them in speeches which might come within the scope of
such a volume as this. It has, therefore, seemed best to the editor to
confine the selections on Finance to the period since the Civil War, and
to the subject of coinage, rather than to attempt to include also the
kindred subjects of banking and paper currency. The four representative
speeches on the coinage will, however, bring into view the various
principles of finance which have determined the differences and
divisions in party opinion on all phases of this great subject.

J. A. W.




VII.--CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION.

THE transformation of the original secession movement into a _de facto_
nationality made war inevitable, but acts of war had already taken
place, with or without State authority. Seizures of forts, arsenals,
mints, custom-houses, and navy yards, and captures of Federal troops,
had completely extinguished the authority of the United States in
the secession area, except at Fort Sumter in South Carolina, and Fort
Pickens and the forts at Key West in Florida; and active operations to
reduce these had been begun. When an attempt was made, late in January,
1861, to provision Fort Sumter, the provision steamer, Star of the
West, was fired on by the South Carolina batteries and driven back.
Nevertheless, the Buchanan administration succeeded in keeping the peace