Davis.*

* The Confederate Government did not misapprehend the attitude of
the intellectual opposition. Its foreign organ, The Index,
published in London, characterized the leading Southern papers
for the enlightenment of the British public. While the Enquirer
and the Courier were singled out as the great champions of the
Confederate Government, the Examiner and the Mercury were
portrayed as its arch enemies. The Examiner was called the
"Ishmael of the Southern press." The Mercury was described as
"almost rabid on the subject of state rights."

Associated with the Examiner was a vigorous writer having
considerable power of the old-fashioned, furious sort, ever ready
to foam at the mouth. If he had had more restraint and less
credulity, Edward A. Pollard might have become a master of the
art of vituperation. Lacking these qualities, he never rose far
above mediocrity. But his fury was so determined and his
prejudice so invincible that his writings have something of the
power of conviction which fanaticism wields. In midsummer, 1862,
Pollard published a book entitled The First Year of the War,
which was commended by his allies in Charleston as showing no
"tendency toward unfairness of statement" and as expressing views
"mainly in accordance with popular opinion."

This book, while affecting to be an historical review, was
skillfully designed to discredit the Confederate Administration.
Almost every disaster, every fault of its management was
traceable more or less directly to Davis. Kentucky had been
occupied by the Federal army because of the "dull expectation" in