The Southern States, having always been the producing portion of the Union, had trusted to the North, and to Europe for its manufactures.

Thus, when they were shut out by land and by sea from the outer world, their raw material was of but little service to them.

This fact tended, more than is generally believed, to weaken the Southern people in the glorious struggle they made for what they called and believed to be their rights,--a struggle, the horrors of which are only half understood by those who were not eye-witnesses of it.

Whether the cause was good, whether armed secession was justifiable or not, is a matter regarding which opinions differ.

But it is undeniable that all fought and endured in a manner worthy of a good and a just cause, and many were thoroughly and conscientiously convinced it was so.