"[127]
Persistent and to a great extent successful efforts were made to inflame
the minds of the people of the Northwestern States by representing to
them that, in consequence of the separation of the States, they would
lose the free navigation of the Mississippi River. At that early period
in the life of the Confederacy, the intercourse between the North and
South had been so little interrupted, that the agitators, whose vocation
it was to deceive the masses of the people, could not, or should not,
have been ignorant that, as early as the 25th of February, 1861, an act
was passed by the Confederate Congress, and approved by the President,
"to declare and establish the free navigation of the Mississippi River."
That act began with the announcement that "the peaceful navigation of
the Mississippi River is hereby declared free to the citizens of any of
the States upon its borders, or upon the borders of its navigable
tributaries," and its provisions secure that freedom for "all ships,
boats, or vessels," with their cargoes, "without any duty or hindrance,
except light-money, pilotage, and other like charges."[128]
By an act approved on the 26th of February, all laws which forbade the
employment in the coasting-trade of vessels not enrolled or licensed,
and all laws imposing discriminating duties on foreign vessels or goods
imported in them, were repealed.[129] These acts and all other
indications manifest the well-known wish of the people of the
Confederacy to preserve the peace and encourage the most unrestricted
commerce with all nations, surely not least with their late associates,
the Northern States.
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