Lincoln calls for 42K more for Army, 18K for Navy

Lincoln: The Imperial President

• Now in full preparation for the War which he inaugurated, President Abraham Lincoln, wanting to bring the US Army to a total of 156,861 and the US Navy to 25,000, calls for an increase in the regular army by ten regiments, for a total 22,714 men, for 42,034 volunteers, and for enlistments of 18,000 seamen. He has already angered the Upper South with his call for 75,000 volunteers from the state militias for three months. Now Lincoln is expanding the size of the regular Army from 16,000 to nearly 23,000, which will be under his direct control and free from considerations of state governors. The War Department also forms the US Department of the Ohio, which will be commanded by George Brinton McClellan. All these war orders are being made by the Administration without any authorization from Congress, which alone has the power to make war under the US Constitution. The President is Constitutionally only the Commander-in-Chief of what the Congress provides, but Lincoln continues to offend the Founding Fathers’ system of checks and balances by acting in the role of a Caesar before Congress reconvenes July 4./1861
• Notwithstanding the Kentucky governor’s refusal, fourteen companies of Kentucky volunteers offer their services to the United States Secretary of War while the Connecticut legislature appropriates $2,000,000 for military purposes./1861
• General-in-Chief of the US Army Winfield Scott presents his Anaconda Plan which includes a powerful blockade to “envelop” the seceded states along the entire length of the Mississippi River and subjugate the insurgents. At first jeered, the Anaconda Plan eventually works with great effect to strangle the Southern Confederacy. He also orders US troops to seize Arlington Heights, overlooking Washington D. C./1861 
• The Confederate government has sent three commissioners, Ambrose Dudley Mann, Pierre Rost, and William Lowndes Yancey, to London to lobby the British Government for recognition and support for the Confederacy.  This afternoon they meet in an informal meeting with British Prime Minister Lord Russell at 10 Downing Street. They were introduced to Lord Russell through Southern sympathizer Sir William Gregory, MP for County Galway. The Prime Minister leaves the meeting looking flustered and insiders say that the reason for Lord Russell’s bright apparent frustration is thought to be that the commissioners tried to use cotton as a bargaining chip for recognition.The US State Department immediately complains to the British Ministry about their meeting with them, although the British say it was unofficial. The British do not want to upset their relations with the United States government./1861

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