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diff --git a/12285-0.txt b/12285-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e7b9af7 --- /dev/null +++ b/12285-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8154 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12285 *** + +THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY + +A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS. + +VOL. VII.--JUNE, 1861.--NO. XLIV. + + + + +AGNES OF SORRENTO. + + +CHAPTER V. + +IL PADRE FRANCESCO. + + +The next morning Elsie awoke, as was her custom,--when the very faintest +hue of dawn streaked the horizon. A hen who has seen a hawk balancing +his wings and cawing in mid-air over her downy family could not have +awakened with her feathers, metaphorically speaking, in a more bristling +state of caution. + +"Spirits in the gorge, quotha?" said she to herself, as she vigorously +adjusted her dress. "I believe so,--spirits in good sound bodies, +I believe; and next we shall hear, there will be rope-ladders, and +climbings, and the Lord knows what. I shall go to confession this very +morning, and tell Father Francesco the danger; and instead of taking her +down to sell oranges, suppose I send her to the sisters to carry the +ring and a basket of oranges?" + +"Ah, ah!" she said, pausing, after she was dressed, and addressing a +coarse print of Saint Agnes pasted against the wall,--"you look very +meek there, and it was a great thing no doubt to die as you did; but if +you'd lived to be married and bring up a family of girls, you'd have +known something greater. Please, don't take offence with a poor old +woman who has got into the way of speaking her mind freely! I'm foolish, +and don't know much,--so, dear lady, pray for me!" And old Elsie bent +her knee and crossed herself reverently, and then went out, leaving her +young charge still sleeping. + +It was yet dusky dawn when she might have been seen kneeling, with her +sharp, clear-cut profile, at the grate of a confession-box in a church +in Sorrento. Within was seated a personage who will have some influence +on our story, and who must therefore be somewhat minutely introduced to +the reader. + +Il Padre Francesco had only within the last year arrived in the +neighborhood, having been sent as superior of a brotherhood of +Capuchins, whose convent was perched on a crag in the vicinity. With +this situation came a pastoral care of the district; and Elsie and her +grand-daughter found in him a spiritual pastor very different from the +fat, jolly, easy Brother Girolamo, to whose place he had been appointed. +The latter had been one of those numerous priests taken from the +peasantry, who never rise above the average level of thought of the body +from which they are drawn. Easy, gossipy, fond of good living and good +stories, sympathetic in troubles and in joys, he had been a general +favorite in the neighborhood, without exerting any particularly +spiritualizing influence. + +It required but a glance at Father Francesco to see that he was in all +respects the opposite of this. It was evident that he came from one of +the higher classes, by that indefinable air of birth and breeding which +makes itself felt under every change of costume. Who he might be, what +might have been his past history, what rank he might have borne, what +part played in the great warfare of life, was all of course sunk in the +oblivion of his religious profession, where, as at the grave, a man laid +down name and fame and past history and worldly goods, and took up a +coarse garb and a name chosen from the roll of the saints, in sign that +the world that had known him should know him no more. + +Imagine a man between thirty and forty, with that round, full, evenly +developed head, and those chiselled features, which one sees on ancient +busts and coins no less than in the streets of modern Rome. The checks +were sunken and sallow; the large, black, melancholy eyes had a wistful, +anxious, penetrative expression, that spoke a stringent, earnest spirit, +which, however deep might be the grave in which it lay buried, had not +yet found repose. The long, thin, delicately formed hands were emaciated +and bloodless; they clasped with a nervous eagerness a rosary and +crucifix of ebony and silver,--the only mark of luxury that could be +discerned in a costume unusually threadbare and squalid. The whole +picture of the man, as he sat there, had it been painted and hung in a +gallery, was such as must have stopped every person of a certain amount +of sensibility before it with the conviction that behind that strong, +melancholy, earnest figure and face lay one of those hidden histories of +human passion in which the vivid life of medieval Italy was so fertile. + +He was listening to Elsie, as she kneeled, with that easy air of +superiority which marks a practised man of the world, yet with a grave +attention which showed that her communication had awakened the deepest +interest in his mind. Every few moments he moved slightly in his seat, +and interrupted the flow of the narrative by an inquiry concisely put, +in tones which, clear and low, had a solemn and severe distinctness, +producing, in the still, dusky twilight of the church, an almost ghostly +effect. + +When the communication was over, he stepped out of the confessional and +said to Elsie in parting,--"My daughter, you have done well to take this +in time. The devices of Satan in our corrupt times are numerous and +artful, and they who keep the Lord's sheep must not sleep. Before +many days I will call and examine the child; meanwhile I approve your +course." + +It was curious to see the awe-struck, trembling manner in which old +Elsie, generally so intrepid and commanding, stood before this man in +his brown rough woollen gown with his corded waist; but she had an +instinctive perception of the presence of the man of superior birth no +less than a reverence for the man of religion. + +After she had departed from the church, the Capuchin stood lost in +thought; and to explain his reverie, we must throw some further light on +his history. + +Il Padre Francesco, as his appearance and manner intimated, was in truth +from one of the most distinguished families of Florence. He was one of +those whom an ancient writer characterizes as "men of longing desire." +Born with a nature of restless stringency that seemed to doom him never +to know repose, excessive in all things, he had made early trial +of ambition, of war, and of what the gallants of his time called +love,--plunging into all the dissipated excesses of a most dissolute +age, and outdoing in luxury and extravagance the foremost of his +companions. + +The wave of a great religious impulse--which in our times would have +been called a revival--swept over the city of Florence, and bore him, +with multitudes of others, to listen to the fervid preaching of the +Dominican monk, Jerome Savonarola; and amid the crowd that trembled, +wept, and beat their breasts under his awful denunciations, he, too, +felt within himself a heavenly call,--the death of an old life, and the +uprising of a new purpose. + +The colder manners and more repressed habits of modern times can give +no idea of the wild fervor of a religious revival among a people so +passionate and susceptible to impressions as the Italians. It swept +society like a spring torrent from the sides of the Apennines, bearing +all before it. Houses were sacked with religious fervor by penitent +owners, and licentious pictures and statuary and books, and all the +thousand temptations and appliances of a luxurious age, were burned in +the great public square. Artists convicted of impure and licentious +designs threw their palettes and brushes into the expiatory flames, and +retired to convents, till called forth by the voice of the preacher, +and bid to turn their art into higher channels. Since the days of Saint +Francis no such profound religious impulse had agitated the Italian +community. + +In our times a conversion is signalized by few outward changes, however +deep the inner life; but the life of the Middle Ages was profoundly +symbolical, and always required the help of material images in its +expression. + +The gay and dissolute young Lorenzo Sforza took leave of the world with +rites of awful solemnity. He made his will and disposed of all his +worldly property, and assembling his friends, bade them the farewell of +a dying man. Arrayed as for the grave, he was laid in his coffin, +and thus carried from his stately dwelling by the brethren of the +Misericordia, who, in their ghostly costume, with mournful chants and +lighted candles, bore him to the tomb of his ancestors, where the coffin +was deposited in the vault, and its occupant passed the awful hours of +the night in darkness and solitude. Thence he was carried, the next day, +almost in a state of insensibility, to a neighboring convent of the +severest order, where, for some weeks, he observed a penitential retreat +of silence and prayer, neither seeing nor hearing any living being but +his spiritual director. + +The effect of all this on an ardent and sensitive temperament can +scarcely be conceived; and it is not to be wondered at that the once +gay and luxurious Lorenzo Sforza, when emerging from this tremendous +discipline, was so wholly lost in the worn and weary Padre Francesco +that it seemed as if in fact he had died and another had stepped into +his place. The face was ploughed deep with haggard furrows, and the eyes +were as those of a man who has seen the fearful secrets of another life. +He voluntarily sought a post as far removed as possible from the scenes +of his early days, so as more completely to destroy his identity +with the past; and he devoted himself with enthusiasm to the task of +awakening to a higher spiritual life the indolent, self-indulgent monks +of his order, and the ignorant peasantry of the vicinity. + +But he soon discovered, what every earnest soul learns who has been +baptized into a sense of things invisible, how utterly powerless and +inert any mortal man is to inspire others with his own insights and +convictions. With bitter discouragement and chagrin, he saw that the +spiritual man must forever lift the dead weight of all the indolence and +indifference and animal sensuality that surround him,--that the curse of +Cassandra is upon him, forever to burn and writhe under awful visions of +truths which no one around him will regard. In early life the associate +only of the cultivated and the refined, Father Francesco could not +but experience at times an insupportable _ennui_ in listening to the +confessions of people who had never learned either to think or to feel +with any degree of distinctness, and whom his most fervent exhortations +could not lift above the most trivial interests of a mere animal life. +He was weary of the childish quarrels and bickerings of the monks, of +their puerility, of their selfishness and self-indulgence, of their +hopeless vulgarity of mind, and utterly discouraged with their +inextricable labyrinths of deception. A melancholy deep as the grave +seized on him, and he redoubled his austerities, in the hope that by +making life painful he might make it also short. + +But the first time that the clear, sweet tones of Agnes rang in his +ears at the confessional, and her words, so full of unconscious poetry +and repressed genius, came like a strain of sweet music through the +grate, he felt at his heart a thrill to which it had long been a +stranger, and which seemed to lift the weary, aching load from off his +soul, as if some invisible angel had borne it up on his wings. + +In his worldly days he had known women as the gallants in Boccaccio's +romances knew them, and among them one enchantress whose sorceries had +kindled in his heart one of those fatal passions which burn out the +whole of a man's nature, and leave it, like a sacked city, only a +smouldering heap of ashes. Deepest, therefore, among his vows of +renunciation had been those which divided him from all womankind. The +gulf that parted him and them was in his mind deep as hell, and he +thought of the sex only in the light of temptation and danger. For the +first time in his life, an influence serene, natural, healthy, and sweet +breathed over him from the mind of a woman,--an influence so heavenly +and peaceful that he did not challenge or suspect it, but rather opened +his worn heart insensibly to it, as one in a fetid chamber naturally +breathes freer when the fresh air is admitted. + +How charming it was to find his most spiritual exhortations seized upon +with the eager comprehension of a nature innately poetic and ideal: Nay, +it sometimes seemed to him as if the suggestions which he gave her dry +and leafless she brought again to him in miraculous clusters of flowers, +like the barren rod of Joseph, which broke into blossoms when he was +betrothed to the spotless Mary; and yet, withal, she was so humbly +unconscious, so absolutely ignorant of the beauty of all she said and +thought, that she impressed him less as a mortal woman than as one of +those divine miracles in feminine form of which he had heard in the +legends of the saints. + +Thenceforward his barren, discouraged life began to blossom with wayside +flowers,--and he mistrusted not the miracle, because the flowers were +all heavenly The pious thought or holy admonition that he saw trodden +under the swinish feet of the monks he gathered up again in hope,--she +would understand it; and gradually all his thoughts became like +carrier-doves, which, having once learned the way to a favorite haunt, +are ever fluttering to return thither. + +Such is the wonderful power of human sympathy, that the discovery even +of the existence of a soul capable of understanding our inner life often +operates as a perfect charm; every thought, and feeling, and aspiration +carries with it a new value, from the interwoven consciousness that +attends it of the worth it would bear to that other mind; so that, while +that person lives, our existence is doubled in value, even though oceans +divide us. + +The cloud of hopeless melancholy which had brooded over the mind of +Father Francesco lifted and sailed away, he knew not why, he knew not +when. A secret joyfulness and alacrity possessed his spirits; his +prayers became more fervent and his praises more frequent. Until now, +his meditations had been most frequently those of fear and wrath,--the +awful majesty of God, the terrible punishment of sinners, which he +conceived with all that haggard, dreadful sincerity of vigor which +characterized the modern Etruscan phase of religion of which the +"Inferno" of Dante was the exponent and the out-come. His preachings +and his exhortations had dwelt on that lurid world seen by the severe +Florentine, at whose threshold hope forever departs, and around whose +eternal circles of living torture the shivering spirit wanders dismayed +and blasted by terror. + +He had been, shocked and discouraged to find how utterly vain had been +his most intense efforts to stem the course of sin by presenting these +images of terror: how hard natures had listened to them with only a +coarse and cruel appetite, which seemed to increase their hardness and +brutality; and how timid ones had been withered by them, like flowers +scorched by the blast of a furnace; how, in fact, as in the case of +those cruel executions and bloody tortures then universal in the +jurisprudence of Europe, these pictures of eternal torture seemed to +exert a morbid demoralizing influence which hurried on the growth of +iniquity. + +But since his acquaintance with Agnes, without his knowing exactly why, +thoughts of the Divine Love had floated into his soul, filling it with a +golden cloud like that which of old rested over the mercy-seat in that +sacred inner temple where the priest was admitted alone. He became more +affable and tender, more tolerant to the erring, more fond of little +children; would stop sometimes to lay his hand on the head of a child, +or to raise up one who lay overthrown in the street. The song of little +birds and the voices of animal life became to him full of tenderness; +and his prayers by the sick and dying seemed to have a melting power, +such as he had never known before. It was spring in his soul,--soft, +Italian spring,--such as brings out the musky breath of the cyclamen, +and the faint, tender perfume of the primrose, in every moist dell of +the Apennines. + +A year passed in this way, perhaps the best and happiest of his troubled +life,--a year in which, insensibly to himself, the weekly interviews +with Agnes at the confessional became the rallying-points around which +the whole of his life was formed, and she the unsuspected spring of his +inner being. + +It was his duty, he said to himself, to give more than usual time and +thought to the working and polishing of this wondrous jewel which had +so unexpectedly been intrusted to him for the adorning of his Master's +crown; and so long as he conducted with the strictest circumspection of +his office, what had he to fear in the way of so delightful a duty? He +had never touched her hand; never had even the folds of her passing +drapery brushed against his garments of mortification and renunciation; +never, even in pastoral benediction, had he dared lay his hand on that +beautiful head. It is true, he had not forbidden himself to raise his +glance sometimes when he saw her coming in at the church-door and +gliding up the aisle with downcast eyes, and thoughts evidently so far +above earth, that she seemed, like one of Frà Angelico's angels, to be +moving on a cloud, so encompassed with stillness and sanctity that he +held his breath as she passed. + +But in the confession of Dame Elsie that morning he had received a shock +which threw his whole interior being into a passionate agitation which +dismayed and astonished him. + +The thought of Agnes, his spotless lamb, exposed to lawless and +licentious pursuit, of whose nature and probabilities his past life +gave him only too clear an idea, was of itself a very natural source of +anxiety. But Elsie had unveiled to him her plans for her marriage, and +consulted him on the propriety of placing Agnes immediately under the +protection of the husband she had chosen for her; and it was this part +of her communication which had awakened the severest internal recoil, +and raised a tumult of passions which the priest vainly sought either to +assuage or understand. + +As soon as his morning duties were over, he repaired to his convent, +sought his cell, and, prostrate on his face before the crucifix, began +his internal reckoning with himself. The day passed in fasting and +solitude. + +It is now golden evening, and on the square, flat roof of the convent, +which, high-perched on a crag, overlooks the bay, one might observe a +dark figure slowly pacing backward and forward. It is Father Francesco; +and as he walks up and down, one could see by his large, bright, dilated +eye, by the vivid red spot on either sunken cheek, and by the nervous +energy of his movements, that he is in the very height of some mental +crisis,--in that state of placid _extase_ in which the subject supposes +himself perfectly calm, because every nerve is screwed to the highest +point of tension and can vibrate no more. + +What oceans had that day rolled over him and swept him, as one may see a +little boat rocked on the capricious surges of the Mediterranean! Were, +then, all his strivings and agonies in vain? Did he love this woman with +any earthly love? Was he jealous of the thought of a future husband? +Was it a tempting demon that said to him, "Lorenzo Sforza might have +shielded this treasure from the profanation of lawless violence, from +the brute grasp of an inappreciative peasant, but Father Francesco +cannot"? There was a moment when his whole being vibrated with a +perception of what a marriage bond might have been that was indeed a +sacrament, and that bound together two pure and loyal souls who gave +life and courage to each other in all holy purposes and heroic deeds; +and he almost feared that he had cursed his vows,--those awful vows, at +whose remembrance his inmost soul shivered through every nerve. + +But after hours of prayer and struggle, and wave after wave of agonizing +convulsion, he gained one of those high points in human possibility +where souls can stand a little while at a time, and where all things +seem so transfigured and pure that they fancy themselves thenceforward +forever victorious over evil. + +As he walks up and down in the gold-and-purple evening twilight, his +mind seems to him calm as that glowing sea that reflects the purple +shores of Ischia, and the quaint, fantastic grottos and cliff's of +Capri. All is golden and glowing; he sees all clear; he is delivered +from his spiritual enemies; he treads them under his feet. + +Yes, he says to himself, he loves Agnes,--loves her all-sacredly as +her guardian angel does, who ever beholdeth the face of her Father in +Heaven. Why, then, does he shrink from her marriage? Is it not evident? +Has that tender soul, that poetic nature, that aspiring genius, anything +in common with the vulgar, coarse details of a peasant's life? Will not +her beauty always draw the eye of the licentious, expose her artless +innocence to solicitation which will annoy her and bring upon her head +the inconsiderate jealousy of her husband? Think of Agnes made subject +to the rude authority, to the stripes and correction, which men of the +lower class, under the promptings of jealousy, do not scruple to inflict +on their wives! What career did society, as then organized, present to +such a nature, so perilously gifted in body and mind? He has the answer. +The Church has opened a career to woman which all the world denies her. + +He remembers the story of the dyer's daughter of Siena, the fair Saint +Catharine. In his youth he had often visited the convent where one +of the first artists of Italy has immortalized her conflicts and her +victories, and knelt with his mother at the altar where she now communes +with the faithful. He remembered how, by her sanctity, her humility, and +her holy inspirations of soul, she had risen to the courts of princes, +whither she had been sent as ambassadress to arrange for the interests +of the Church; and then rose before his mind's eye the gorgeous picture +of Pinturicchio, where, borne in celestial repose and purity amid all +the powers and dignitaries of the Church, she is canonized as one of +those that shall reign and intercede with Christ in heaven. + +Was it wrong, therefore, in him, though severed from all womankind by a +gulf of irrevocable vows, that he should feel a kind of jealous property +in this gifted and beautiful creature? and though he might not, even in +thought, dream of possessing her himself, was there sin in the vehement +energy with which his whole nature rose up in him to say that no other +man should,--that she should be the bride of Heaven alone? + +Certainly, if there were, it lurked far out of sight; and the priest had +a case that might have satisfied a conscience even more fastidious;--and +he felt a sort of triumph in the results of his mental scrutiny. + +Yes, she should ascend from glory to glory,--but _his_ should be the +hand that should lead her upward. _He_ would lead her within the +consecrated grate,--he would pronounce the awful words that should make +it sacrilege for all other men to approach her; and yet through life +_he_ should be the guardian and director of her soul, the one being to +whom she should render an obedience as unlimited as that which belongs +to Christ alone. + +Such were the thoughts of this victorious hour,--which, alas! were +destined to fade as those purple skies and golden fires gradually went +out, leaving, in place of their light and glory, only the lurid glow of +Vesuvius. + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE WALK TO THE CONVENT. + + +Elsie returned from the confessional a little after sunrise, much +relieved and satisfied. Padre Francesco had shown such a deep interest +in her narrative that she was highly gratified. Then he had given her +advice which exactly accorded with her own views; and such advice is +always regarded as an eminent proof of sagacity in the giver. + +On the point of the marriage he had recommended delay,--a course quite +in accordance with Elsie's desire, who, curiously enough, ever since her +treaty of marriage with Antonio had been commenced, had cherished the +most whimsical, jealous dislike of him, as if he were about to get away +her grandchild from her; and this rose at times so high that she could +scarcely speak peaceably to him,--a course of things which caused +Antonio to open wide his great soft ox-eyes, and wonder at the ways of +woman-kind; but he waited the event in philosophic tranquillity. + +The morning sunbeams were shooting many a golden shaft among the +orange-trees when Elsie returned and found Agnes yet kneeling at her +prayers. + +"Now, my little heart," said the old woman, when their morning meal was +done, "I am going to give you a holiday to-day. I will go with you to +the Convent, and you shall spend the day with the sisters, and so carry +Saint Agnes her ring." + +"Oh, thank you, grandmamma! how good you are! May I stop a little on the +way, and pick some cyclamen and myrtles and daisies for her shrine?" + +"Just as you like, child; but if you are going to do that, we must be +off soon, for I must be at my stand betimes to sell oranges: I had them +all picked this morning while my little darling was asleep." + +"You always do everything, grandmamma, and leave me nothing to do: it is +not fair. But, grandmamma, if we are going to get flowers by the +way, let us follow down the stream, through the gorge, out upon the +sea-beach, and so walk along the sands, and go by the back path up the +rocks to the Convent: that walk is so shady and lovely at this time in +the morning, and it is so fresh along by the sea-side!" + +"As you please, dearie; but first fill a little basket with our best +oranges for the sisters." + +"Trust me for that!" And the girl ran eagerly to the house, and drew +from her treasures a little white wicker basket, which she proceeded +to line curiously with orange-leaves, sticking sprays of blossoms in a +wreath round the border. + +"Now for some of our best blood-oranges!" she said;--"old Jocunda says +they put her in mind of pomegranates. And here are some of these little +ones,--see here, grandmamma!" she exclaimed, as she turned and held up +a branch just broken, where five small golden balls grew together with a +pearly spray of white buds just beyond them. + +The exercise of springing up for the branch had sent a vivid glow into +her clear brown cheek, and her eyes were dilated with excitement and +pleasure; and as she stood joyously holding the branch, while the +flickering shadows fell on her beautiful face, she seemed more like a +painter's dream than a reality. + +Her grandmother stood a moment admiring her. + +"She's too good and too pretty for Antonio or any other man: she ought +to be kept to look at," she said to herself. "If I could keep her +always, no man should have her; but death will come, and youth and +beauty go, and so somebody must care for her." + +When the basket was filled and trimmed, Agnes took it on her arm. Elsie +raised and poised on her head the great square basket that contained her +merchandise, and began walking erect and straight down the narrow rocky +stairs that led into the gorge, holding her distaff with its white flax +in her hands, and stepping as easily as if she bore no burden. + +Agnes followed her with light, irregular movements, glancing aside +from time to time, as a tuft of flowers or a feathery spray of leaves +attracted her fancy. In a few moments her hands were too full, and her +woollen apron of many-colored stripes was raised over one arm to hold +her treasures, while a hymn to Saint Agnes, which she constantly +murmured to herself, came in little ripples of sound, now from behind a +rock, and now out of a tuft of bushes, to show where the wanderer was +hid. The song, like many Italian ones, would be nothing in English, +--only a musical repetition of sweet words to a very simple and +childlike idea, the _bella, bella, bella_ ringing out in every verse +with a tender joyousness that seemed in harmony with the waving ferns +and pendent flowers and long ivy-wreaths from among which its notes +issued. "Beautiful and sweet Agnes," it said, in a thousand tender +repetitions, "make me like thy little white lamb! Beautiful Agnes, take +me to the green fields where Christ's lambs are feeding! Sweeter than +the rose, fairer than the lily, take me where thou art!" + +At the bottom of the ravine a little stream tinkles its way among stones +so mossy in their deep, cool shadow as to appear all verdure; for seldom +the light of the sun can reach the darkness where they lie. A little +bridge, hewn from solid rock, throws across the shrunken stream an arch +much wider than its waters seem to demand; for in spring and autumn, +when the torrents wash down from the mountains, its volume is often +suddenly increased. + +This bridge was so entirely and evenly grown over with short thick moss +that it might seem cut of some strange kind of living green velvet, and +here and there it was quaintly embroidered with small blossoming tufts +of white alyssum, or feathers of ferns and maiden's-hair which shook +and trembled to every breeze. Nothing could be lovelier than this mossy +bridge, when some stray sunbeam, slanting up the gorge, took a fancy +to light it up with golden hues, and give transparent greenness to the +tremulous thin leaves that waved upon it. + +On this spot Elsie paused a moment, and called back after Agnes, who had +disappeared into one of those deep grottos with which the sides of +the gorge are perforated, and which are almost entirely veiled by the +pendent ivy-wreaths. + +"Agnes! Agnes! wild girl! come quick!" + +Only the sound of "_Bella, bella Agnella_" came out of the ivy-leaves to +answer her; but it sounded so happy and innocent that Elsie could not +forbear a smile, and in a moment Agnes came springing down with a +quantity of the feathery lycopodium in her hands, which grows nowhere so +well as in moist and dripping places. + +Out of her apron were hanging festoons of golden broom, crimson +gladiolus, and long, trailing sprays of ivy; while she held aloft in +triumph a handful of the most superb cyclamen, whose rosy crowns rise so +beautifully above their dark quaint leaves in moist and shady places. + +"See, see, grandmother, what an offering I have! Saint Agnes will be +pleased with me to-day; for I believe in her heart she loves flowers +better than gems." + +"Well, well, wild one,--time flies, we must hurry." And crossing the +bridge quickly, the grandmother struck into a mossy foot-path that led +them, after some walking, under the old Roman bridge at the gateway of +Sorrento. Two hundred feet above their heads rose the mighty arches, +enamelled with moss and feathered with ferns all the way; and below this +bridge the gorge grew somewhat wider, its sides gradually receding +and leaving a beautiful flat tract of land, which was laid out as an +orange-orchard. The golden fruit was shut in by rocky walls on either +side which here formed a perfect hot-bed, and no oranges were earlier or +finer. + +Through this beautiful orchard the two at length emerged from the gorge +upon the sea-sands, where lay the blue Mediterranean swathed in bands +of morning mist, its many-colored waters shimmering with a thousand +reflected lights, and old Capri panting through sultry blue mists, and +Vesuvius with his cloud-spotted sides and smoke-wreathed top burst into +view. At a little distance a boatload of bronzed fishermen had just +drawn in a net, from which they were throwing out a quantity of +sardines, which flapped and fluttered in the sunshine like scales of +silver. The wind blowing freshly bore thousands of little purple waves +to break one after another at the foamy line which lay on the sand. + +Agnes ran gayly along the beach with her flowers and vines fluttering +from her gay striped apron, and her cheeks flushed with exercise +and pleasure,--sometimes stopping and turning with animation to her +grandmother to point out the various floral treasures that enamelled +every crevice and rift of the steep wall of rock which rose +perpendicularly above their heads in that whole line of the shore which +is crowned with the old city of Sorrento: and surely never did rocky +wall show to the open sea a face more picturesque and flowery. The deep +red cliff was hollowed here and there into fanciful grottos, draped with +every varied hue and form of vegetable beauty. Here a crevice high in +air was all abloom with purple gillyflower, and depending in festoons +above it the golden blossoms of the broom; here a cleft seemed to be a +nestling-place for a colony of gladiolus, with its crimson flowers +and blade-like leaves; here the silver-frosted foliage of the +miller-geranium, or of the wormwood, toned down the extravagant +brightness of other blooms by its cooler tints. In some places it seemed +as if a sort of floral cascade were tumbling confusedly over the rocks, +mingling all hues and all forms in a tangled mass of beauty. + +"Well, well," said old Elsie, as Agnes pointed to some superb +gillyflowers which grew nearly half-way up the precipice,--"is the +child possessed? You have all the gorge in your apron already. Stop +looking, and let us hurry on." + +After a half-hour's walk, they came to a winding staircase cut in the +rock, which led them a zigzag course up through galleries and grottos +looking out through curious windows and loop-holes upon the sea, till +finally they emerged at the old sculptured portal of a shady garden +which was surrounded by the cloistered arcades of the Convent of Saint +Agnes. + +The Convent of Saint Agnes was one of those monuments in which the piety +of the Middle Ages delighted to commemorate the triumphs of the new +Christianity over the old Heathenism. + +The balmy climate and paradisiacal charms of Sorrento and the adjacent +shores of Naples had made them favorite resorts during the latter period +of the Roman Empire,--a period when the whole civilized world seemed +to human view about to be dissolved in the corruption of universal +sensuality. The shores of Baiae were witnesses of the orgies and +cruelties of Nero and a court made in his likeness, and the palpitating +loveliness of Capri became the hot-bed of the unnatural vices of +Tiberius. The whole of Southern Italy was sunk in a debasement of +animalism and ferocity which seemed irrecoverable, and would have been +so, had it not been for the handful of salt which a Galilean peasant had +about that time cast into the putrid, fermenting mass of human society. + +We must not wonder at the zeal which caused the artistic Italian nature +to love to celebrate the passing away of an era of unnatural vice and +demoniac cruelty by visible images of the purity, the tenderness, the +universal benevolence which Jesus had brought into the world. + +Some time about the middle of the thirteenth century, it had been a +favorite enterprise of a princess of a royal family in Naples to erect a +convent to Saint Agnes, the guardian of female purity, out of the wrecks +and remains of an ancient temple of Venus, whose white pillars and +graceful acanthus-leaves once crowned a portion of the precipice on +which the town was built, and were reflected from the glassy blue of +the sea at its feet. It was said that this princess was the first lady +abbess. Be that as it may, it proved to be a favorite retreat for many +ladies of rank and religious aspiration, whom ill-fortune in some of its +varying forms led to seek its quiet shades, and it was well and richly +endowed by its royal patrons. + +It was built after the manner of conventual buildings generally,--in a +hollow square, with a cloistered walk around the inside looking upon a +garden. + +The portal at which Agnes and her grandmother knocked, after ascending +the winding staircase cut in the precipice, opened through an arched +passage into this garden. + +As the ponderous door swung open, it was pleasant to hear the lulling +sound of a fountain, which came forth with a gentle patter, like that +of soft summer rain, and to see the waving of rose-bushes and golden +jessamines, and smell the perfumes of orange-blossoms mingling with +those of a thousand other flowers. + +The door was opened by an odd-looking portress. She might be +seventy-five or eighty; her cheeks were of the color of very yellow +parchment drawn in dry wrinkles; her eyes were those large, dark, +lustrous ones so common in her country, but seemed, in the general decay +and shrinking of every other part of her face, to have acquired a wild, +unnatural appearance; while the falling away of her teeth left nothing +to impede the meeting of her hooked nose with her chin. Add to this, she +was hump-backed, and twisted in her figure; and one needs all the force +of her very good-natured, kindly smile to redeem the image of poor old +Jocunda from association with that of some Thracian witch, and cause one +to see in her the appropriate portress of a Christian institution. + +Nevertheless, Agnes fell upon her neck and imprinted a very fervent kiss +upon what was left of her withered cheek, and was repaid by a shower of +those epithets of endearment which in the language of Italy fly thick +and fast as the petals of the orange-blossom from her groves. + +"Well, well," said old Elsie,--"I'm going to leave her here to-day. +You've no objections, I suppose?" + +"Bless the sweet lamb, no! She belongs here of good right. I believe +blessed Saint Agnes has adopted her; for I've seen her smile, plain as +could be, when the little one brought her flowers." + +"Well, Agnes," said the old woman, "I shall come for you after the Ave +Maria." Saying which, she lifted her basket and departed. + +The garden where the two were left was one of the most peaceful retreats +that the imagination of a poet could create. + +Around it ran on all sides the Byzantine arches of a cloistered walk, +which, according to the quaint, rich fashion of that style, had been +painted with vermilion, blue, and gold. The vaulted roof was spangled +with gold stars on a blue ground, and along the sides was a series of +fresco pictures representing the various scenes in the life of Saint +Agnes; and as the foundress of the Convent was royal in her means, there +was no lack either of gold or gems or of gorgeous painting. + +Full justice was done in the first picture to the princely wealth and +estate of the fair Agnes, who was represented as a pure-looking, pensive +child, standing in a thoughtful attitude, with long ripples of golden +hair flowing down over a simple white tunic, and her small hands +clasping a cross on her bosom, while, kneeling at her feet, obsequious +slaves and tire-women were offering the richest gems and the most +gorgeous robes to her serious and abstracted gaze. + +In another, she was represented as walking modestly to school, and +winning the admiration of the son of the Roman Praetor, who fell +sick--so says the legend--for the love of her. + +Then there was the demand of her hand in marriage by the princely father +of the young man, and her calm rejection of the gorgeous gifts and +splendid gems which he had brought to purchase her consent. + +Then followed in order her accusation before the tribunals as a +Christian, her trial, and the various scenes of her martyrdom. + +Although the drawing of the figures and the treatment of the subjects +had the quaint stiffness of the thirteenth century, their general +effect, as seen from the shady bowers of the garden, was of a solemn +brightness, a strange and fanciful richness, which was poetical and +impressive. + +In the centre of the garden was a fountain of white marble, which +evidently was the wreck of something that had belonged to the old Greek +temple. The statue of a nymph sat on a green mossy pedestal in the midst +of a sculptured basin, and from a partially reversed urn on which she +was leaning a clear stream of water dashed down from one mossy fragment +to another, till it lost itself in the placid pool. + +The figure and face of this nymph, in their classic finish of outline, +formed a striking contract to the drawing of the Byzantine pairings +within the cloisters, and their juxtaposition in the same inclosure +seemed a presentation of the spirit of a past and present era: the past +so graceful in line, so perfect and airy in conception, so utterly +without spiritual aspiration or life; the present limited in artistic +power, but so earnest, so intense, seeming to struggle and burn, amid +its stiff and restricted boundaries, for the expression of some diviner +phase of humanity. + +Nevertheless, the nymph of the fountain, different in style and +execution as it was, was so fair a creature, that it was thought best, +after the spirit of those days, to purge her from all heathen and +improper histories by baptizing her in the waters of her own fountain, +and bestowing on her the name of the saint to whose convent she was +devoted. The simple sisterhood, little conversant in nice points of +antiquity, regarded her as Saint Agnes dispensing the waters of purity +to her convent; and marvellous and sacred properties were ascribed to +the water, when taken fasting with a sufficient number of prayers and +other religious exercises. All around the neighborhood of this fountain +the ground was one bed of blue and white violets, whose fragrance filled +the air, and which were deemed by the nuns to have come up there +in especial token of the favor with which Saint Agnes regarded the +conversion of this heathen relic to pious and Christian uses. + +This nymph had been an especial favorite of the childhood of Agnes, and +she had always had a pleasure which she could not exactly account for in +gazing upon it. It is seldom that one sees in the antique conception of +the immortals any trace of human feeling. Passionless perfection and +repose seem to be their uniform character. But now and then from the +ruins of Southern Italy fragments have been dug, not only pure in +outline, but invested with a strange pathetic charm, as if the calm, +inviolable circle of divinity had been touched by some sorrowing sense +of that unexplained anguish with which the whole lower creation groans. +One sees this mystery of expression in the face of that strange and +beautiful Psyche which still enchants the Museum of Naples. Something of +this charm of mournful pathos lingered on the beautiful features of this +nymph,--an expression so delicate and shadowy that it seemed to address +itself only to finer natures. It was as if all the silent, patient woe +and discouragement of a dumb antiquity had been congealed into this +memorial. Agnes was often conscious, when a child, of being saddened by +it, and yet drawn towards it with a mysterious attraction. + +About this fountain, under the shadow of bending rose-trees and yellow +jessamines, was a circle of garden-seats, adopted also from the ruins +of the past. Here a graceful Corinthian capital, with every white +acanthus-leaf perfect, stood in a mat of acanthus-leaves of Nature's own +making, glossy green and sharply cut; and there was a long portion of a +frieze sculptured with graceful dancing figures; and in another place a +fragment of a fluted column, with lycopodium and colosseum vine hanging +from its fissures in graceful draping. On these seats Agnes had dreamed +away many a tranquil hour, making garlands of violets, and listening to +the marvellous legends of old Jocunda. + +In order to understand anything of the true idea of conventual life in +those days, we must consider that books were as yet unknown, except +as literary rarities, and reading and writing were among the rare +accomplishments of the higher classes; and that Italy, from the time +that the great Roman Empire fell and broke into a thousand shivers, had +been subject to a continual series of conflicts and struggles, which +took from life all security. Norman, Dane, Sicilian, Spaniard, +Frenchman, and German mingled and struggled, now up and now down; and +every struggle was attended by the little ceremonies of sacking towns, +burning villages, and routing out entire populations to utter misery and +wretchedness. During these tumultuous ages, those buildings consecrated +by a religion recognized alike by all parties afforded to misfortune the +only inviolable asylum, and to feeble and discouraged spirits the only +home safe from the prospect of reverses. + +If the destiny of woman is a problem that calls for grave attention even +in our enlightened times, and if she is too often a sufferer from the +inevitable movements of society, what must have been her position and +needs in those ruder ages, unless the genius of Christianity had opened +refuges for her weakness, made inviolable by the awful sanctions of +religion? + +What could they do, all these girls and women together, with the +twenty-four long hours of every day, without reading or writing, and +without the care of children? Enough: with their multiplied diurnal +prayer periods, with each its chants and ritual of observances,--with +the preparation for meals, and the clearing away thereafter,--with the +care of the chapel, shrine, sacred gifts, drapery, and ornaments,--with +embroidering altar-cloths and making sacred tapers,--with preparing +conserves of rose-leaves and curious spiceries,--with mixing drugs for +the sick,--with all those mutual offices and services to each other +which their relations in one family gave rise to,--and with divers +feminine gossipries and harmless chatterings and cooings, one can +conceive that these dove-cots of the Church presented often some of the +most tranquil scenes of those convulsive and disturbed periods. + +Human nature probably had its varieties there as otherwhere. There were +there the domineering and the weak, the ignorant and the vulgar and the +patrician and the princess, and though professedly all brought on the +footing of sisterly equality, we are not to suppose any Utopian degree +of perfection among them. The way of pure spirituality was probably, in +the convent as well as out, that strait and narrow one which there be +few to find. There, as elsewhere, the devotee who sought to progress +faster toward heaven than suited the paces of her fellow--travellers was +reckoned a troublesome enthusiast, till she got far enough in advance to +be worshipped as a saint. + +Sister Theresa, the abbess of this convent, was the youngest daughter in +a princely Neapolitan family, who from her cradle had been destined to +the cloister, in order that her brother and sister might inherit more +splendid fortunes and form more splendid connections. She had been sent +to this place too early to have much recollection of any other mode of +life; and when the time came to take the irrevocable step, she renounced +with composure a world she had never known. + +Her brother had endowed her with a _livre des heures_, illuminated with +all the wealth of blue and gold and divers colors which the art of those +times afforded,--a work executed by a pupil of the celebrated Frà +Angelico; and the possession of this treasure was regarded by her as +a far richer inheritance than that princely state of which she knew +nothing. Her neat little cell had a window that looked down on the +sea,--on Capri, with its fantastic grottos,--on Vesuvius, with its +weird daily and nightly changes. The light that came in from the joint +reflection of sea and sky gave a golden and picturesque coloring to the +simple and bare furniture, and in sunny weather she often sat there, +just as a lizard lies upon a wall, with the simple, warm, delightful +sense of living and being amid, scenes of so much beauty. Of the life +that people lived in the outer world, the struggle, the hope, the fear, +the vivid joy, the bitter sorrow, Sister Theresa knew nothing. She could +form no judgment and give no advice founded on any such experience. + +The only life she knew was a certain ideal one, drawn from, the legends +of the saints; and her piety was a calm, pure enthusiasm which had never +been disturbed by a temptation or a struggle. Her rule in the Convent +was even and serene; but those who came to her flock from the real +world, from the trials and temptations of a real experience, were always +enigmas to her, and she could scarcely comprehend or aid them. + +In fact, since in the cloister, as everywhere else, character will find +its level, it was old Jocunda who was the real governess of the Convent. +Jocunda was originally a peasant woman, whose husband had been drafted +to some of the wars of his betters, and she had followed his fortunes in +the camp. In the sack of a fortress, she lost her husband and four sons, +all the children she had, and herself received an injury which distorted +her form, and so she took refuge in the Convent. Here her energy and +_savoir-faire_ rendered her indispensable in every department. She made +the bargains, bought the provisions, (being allowed to sally forth for +these purposes,) and formed the medium by which the timid, abstract, +defenceless nuns accomplished those material relations with the world +with which the utmost saintliness cannot afford to dispense. Besides and +above all this, Jocunda's wide experience and endless capabilities of +narrative made her an invaluable resource for enlivening any dull +hours that might be upon the hands of the sisterhood; and all these +recommendations, together with a strong mother-wit and native sense, +soon made her so much the leading spirit in the Convent that Mother +Theresa herself might be said to be under her dominion. + +"So, so," she said to Agnes, when she had closed the gate after +Elsie,--"you never come empty-handed. What lovely oranges!--worth double +any that one can buy of anybody else but your grandmother." + +"Yes, and these flowers I brought to dress the altar." + +"Ah, yes! Saint Agnes has given you a particular grace for that," said +Jocunda. + +"And I have brought a ring for her treasury," said Agnes, taking out the +gift of the Cavalier. + +"Holy Mother! here is something, to be sure!" said Jocunda, catching it +eagerly. "Why, Agnes, this is a diamond,--and as pretty a one as ever +I saw. How it shines!" she added, holding it up. "That's a prince's +present. How did you get it?" + +"I want to tell our mother about it," said Agnes. + +"You do?" said Jocunda. "You'd better tell me. I know fifty times as +much about such things as she." + +"Dear Jocunda, I will tell you, too; but I love Mother Theresa, and I +ought to give it to her first." + +"As you please, then," said Jocunda. "Well, put your flowers here by the +fountain, where the spray will keep them cool, and we will go to her." + + * * * * * + + +GREEK LINES. + + +Blessed are the shadows of porches and cloisters! Blessed the walls that +shut us out from the dusty, dazzling world, and shed upon us the repose +and consolation of our own serene humanity! We, harassed among the base +utilities of life, made weary and sore by the ceaseless struggles of +emulation and daily warfare, turn wistfully to the Peripatetic among the +shady groves of Athens,--dream of quiet Saracenic courts, echoing with +plashy fountains,--of hooded monks, pacing away their cloistered lives +beneath storied vaults and little patches of sky,--knowing, while we +dream, that out of these came of yore the happiness of the old _eurekas_ +and the deep sweetness of ancient knowledge. And then, away from the +city of our toil, the tumult of our ambitions, we gratefully find +Vallombrosas of our own, where we walk not alone, but in the pleasant +companionship of elevated thoughts, and of old sages and masters, long +passed away, but still wise and gentle to those who approach them with +faith and simplicity. Here, like those chimes which wander unheeded over +the house-tops of the roaring town, till they drop down blessed dews of +Heaven into still, grass-grown courts and deserted by-ways, the great +universal human heart beats closer to our own, and our whole being +palpitates with almost ethereal sympathies. Voices of old minstrels, +wandering down to us on loving lips through the generations, murmur in +our ears the dear burden of human, affection for men and things; and +the same tale is poured abundantly into our hearts by all those great +masters who, through their Art, have become to us oracles of Beauty and +eloquent interpreters of the Love of God. + +There are few persons so hardened in the practical life as not to have +recognized that in these moments of large and spiritual stillness all +the processes of the mind seem to be instinctively attuned to harmonies +almost celestial. Experience and memory present their pictures softened +and made gentle by some mysterious power. The imagination is swayed by +the sweetest impulses of humanity; and the whole man is changed. The +mere instincts of affinity are purified and deepened into tenderest +affection, and all the external relations of existence + + "come apparelled in more precious habit, + More moving delicate and full of life, + Into the eye and prospect of the soul," + +than when they offered themselves to the ordinary waking senses. This is +a wonder and a mystery. I sometimes believe, thinking on these things, +that we have inherited from our father Adam a habit of day-dreaming; +that in this exile of coarse and work-day life our heated brows are +sometimes fanned with breezes from some half-remembered Araby the Blest, +and there instinctively come over us such visions of beatitude that the +Paradise we have lost is recalled to us, and we live once more among the +dreamy and grateful splendors of Eden. These moods come upon us so like +memories! But you, graybeard travellers in the Desert of Life, you are +not to be deceived by the trickery of the elements; you know the moist +_mirage_; you are not to be beguiled by it from your track; let the +unwary dream dreams of bubbling wellsprings and pleasant shade, of palmy +oases and tranquil repose; as for you, you must goad your camels and +press onward for Jerusalem. + +But I like to chase phantoms; I hate the plodding of the caravans. I +turn aside and spread my own tent apart. Will you tarry awhile under its +shadow, O serious and gentle stranger, and listen to some poor words of +mine? + +These memories of Eden! Let us cherish them, for they are not worthless +or deceitful. We, who, when we can, carry our hearts in our eyes, know +very well, and have often said it before, that Eden is not so many days' +journey away from our feet that we may not inhale its perfumes and press +our brows against its sod whenever we wish. It is not cant, I hope, to +say that Eden is not lost entirely. There stands no angel at its gates +with flaming sword; nor did it fade away with all its legendary beauties, +drop its leaves into the melancholy streams, leaving no trace behind of +its glades and winding alleys, its stretches of flowery mead, its sunny +hill-sides, and valleys of happiness and peace. But Eden still blooms +wherever Beauty is in Nature; and Beauty, we know, is everywhere. We +cannot escape from it, if we would. It is ever knocking at the door of +our hearts in sweet and unexpected missions of grace and tenderness. We +are haunted by it in our loneliest walks. Almost unconsciously, out of +flowers and trees, earth and sky, sunrises and sunsets,--out of mosses +under the feet, mosses and pebbles and grasses,--out of the loveliness +of moon and stars, their harmonies and changes,--out of sea-foam, and +what sea-foam reveals to us of the rich and strange things beneath the +waters far down,--out of sweet human eyes,--out of all these things +creeps into our spirits the knowledge that God is Love, and His +handiwork the expression of ineffable tenderness and affection. I +believe, indeed, that the principle of Beauty, philosophically speaking, +pervades all material objects, all motions and sounds in Nature,--that +it enters intimately into the very idea of Creation. But we, poor finite +beings, do not seek for it, as we do for gold and gems. We remain +content with those conventional manifestations of it which are +continually and instinctively touching our senses as we walk the earth. +Fearfully and wonderfully as we are made, there is no quality in our +being so blessed as this sensitiveness to Beauty. All the organs of our +life are attuned by it to that vast universal symphony which, in spite +of the warring elements of passion and prejudice, unites us in friendly +sympathies with all mankind. If + + "the meanest flower that blows can bring + Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears,"-- + +if it can so move some of us, who have cared to open the portals of our +hearts to receive and cherish the little waif,--why, verily, the simple +violet that blooms alike under every sky, the passing cloud that floats +changing ever over every land, gathering equal glories from the sunsets +of Italy and Labrador, are more potent missionaries of peace and +good-will to all the earth than the most persuasive accents of human +eloquence. + +These are familiar truths. Like + + "The stretchèd metre of an antique song," + +they flow from our grateful lips in ready words. But we do not suspect +how these manifestations of material Beauty are received by the +mysterious alembic of the soul,--how they are worked up there by +exquisite and subtile processes of moral chemistry, humanized, +spiritualized, and appropriated unconsciously to sweet uses of piety and +affection. We do not know how the star, the flower, the dear human face, +the movement of a wave, the song of a bird,--we do not know how these +things enter into the heart, become ideal, mingle with human emotions, +consecrate and are consecrated, and come forth once more into light, but +transfigured into tenderest sympathies and the gentle offices of charity +and grace. There was Wordsworth,--he knew something of this still +machinery, this "kiss of toothèd wheels" within the soul of man. Listen +to him,--he had been to Tintern Abbey and heard once more the "soft +inland murmur" of the Wye;-- + + "These beauteous forms, + Through a long absence, have not been to me + As is a landscape to a blind man's eye: + But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din + Of towns and cities, I have owed to them, + In hours of weariness, sensations sweet, + Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart, + And passing even into my purer mind, + With tranquil restoration:--_feelings, too, + Of unremembered pleasure:_ such, perhaps, + As have no slight or trivial influence + On that best portion of a good man's life, + His little, nameless, unremembered acts + Of kindness and of love." + +And then who that has ever read it can forget his exquisite picture in +the "Education of a little Child"?-- + + "And she shall lean her ear + In many a secret place, + Where rivulets dance their wayward round, + _And beauty burn of murmuring sound + Shall pass into her face!_" + +The material Beauty of the world, as exhibited in the manifold objects, +sounds, perfumes, motions of Nature, is created for a nobler purpose +than only to delight the senses and please the aesthetic faculties. +I believe it is the distant source whence flow all our dear daily +affections. We know, that, according to the suggestions of our merely +human passions and instincts, we ease our hearts of Love by heaping +treasures and the choicest gifts of fancy in the laps of those whom we +most dearly cherish. We take no credit to ourselves for such precious +prodigalities; for they are the inevitable and disinterested outpourings +of affection. They are received as such. And when we cast our eyes +abroad and behold the loving prodigality of a divine hand, we accept the +manifestation, are made happy in the consciousness of being beloved, +and, constituted as we are in the image and likeness of God, express our +instinctive gratitude in those fine human sympathies which impress the +seal of Truth on the primary idea of our creation. + +And so, blessed are the shadows of porches and cloisters! Blessed the +hours of serene meditation, when the "tender grace of days that are +dead," of flowers that have faded, of scenes "gone glimmering through +the dream of things that were," comes back to us with a new meaning, +softening and refining the heart to unexpected capacities of affection. +But how they fade away, these ghostly and unsubstantial pageants, when +they "scent the morning air"! How they leave in our hearts nought but +the dim consciousness that we are capable of an existence ineffably +deeper and vaster than that which we lead in the visible world! Nought +but this? Alas, poor human nature! do we leave the casket of Pandora +open in wanton carelessness, and let all escape but the mere scent of +the roses? Or does there not remain, behind an indefinable presence to +comfort and console us,--the precious _Ideal of Beauty_,-- + + "The light that never was on sea or land, + The inspiration and the poet's dream"? + +The human heart forever yearns _to create_,--this is the pure antique +word for it,--to give expression and life to an evasive loveliness that +haunts the soul in those moments when the body is laid asleep and the +spirit walks. There is a continual and godlike longing to embody these +elusive phantoms of Beauty. But the immortal songs which remain unsung, +the exquisite idyls which gasp for words, the bewildering and restless +imagery which seeks in vain the eternal repose of marble or of +canvas,--while these confess the affectionate and divine desires of +humanity, they prove how few there are to whom it is given to learn the +great lesson of Creation. When one arises among us, who, like Pygmalion, +makes no useless appeal to the Goddess of Beauty for the gift of life +for his Ideal, and who creates as he was created, we cherish him as a +great interpreter of human love. We call him poet, composer, artist, and +speak of him reverently as _Master_. We say that his lips have been wet +with dews of Hybla,--that, like the sage of Crotona, he has heard the +music of the spheres,--that he comes to us, another Numa, radiant and +inspired from the kisses of Egeria. + +Thus, as infinite Love begets infinite Beauty, so does infinite Beauty +reflect into finite perceptions that image of its divine parentage which +the antique world worshipped under the personification of Astarte, +Aphrodite, Venus, and recognized as the _great creative principle_ lying +at the root of all high Art. + +There is a curious passage in Boehme, which relates how Satan, when +asked the cause of the enmity of God and his own consequent downfall, +replied,--"I wished to be an Artist." So, according to antique +tradition, Prometheus manufactured a man and woman of clay, animated +them with fire stolen from the chariot of the Sun, and was punished for +the crime of Creation; Titans chained him to the rocks of the Indian +Caucasus for thirty thousand years! + +This Ideal, this Aphrodite of old mythologies, still reigns over the +world of Art, and every truly noble effort of the artist is saturated +with her spirit, as with a religion. It is impossible for a true work of +Art to exist, unless this great creative principle of Love be present in +its inception, in its execution, in its detail. It must be pervaded with +the warmth of human, passionate affection. The skill which we are so apt +to worship is but the instrument in the hands of Love. It is the means +by which this humanity is transferred to the work, and there idealized +in the forms of Nature. Thus the test of Art is in our own hearts. It +is not something far away from us, throwing into our presence gleaming +reflections from some supernal source of Light and Beauty; but it is +very near to us,--so near, that, like the other blessings which lie +at our feet, we overlook it in our far-reaching searches after the +imaginary good. We, poor underlings, have been taught in the school of +sad experience the mortal agony of Love without Skill,--the power of +perception, without the power of utterance. We know how dumb are the +sweet melodies of our souls,--how fleeting their opulent and dreamy +pageantries. But we have not fully learned the utter emptiness and +desolation of Skill without Love. We accept its sounding brass and +tinkling cymbals for immortal harmonies. We look reverently upon its +tortured marbles and its canvases stained with academic knowledge as +revelations of higher intelligence; forgetting, that, if we go down to +the quiet places of our own souls, we shall find there the universe +reflected, like a microcosm, in the dark well-springs, and that out +of these well-springs in the deep silence rises the beautiful Ideal, +Anadyomene, to compensate and comfort us for the vacancy of Life. If we +know ourselves, it is not to the dogmas of critics, the artificial rules +of aesthetics, that we most wisely resort for judgments concerning works +of Art. Though technical externals and the address of manipulation +naturally take possession of our senses and warp our opinions, there are +depths of immortal Truth within us, rarely sounded, indeed, but which +can afford a standard and a criterion far nobler than the schools can +give us. + +The broken statues and columns and traditions and fragmentary classics +which Greece has left us are so still and tranquil to the eye and ear, +that we search in vain for the Delphic wisdom they contain, till we find +it echoed in the sympathetic depths of our souls, and repeated in the +half-impalpable Ideals there. It is to Greece that we must look for +the external type of these Ideals, whose existence we but half suspect +within us. It is not pleasant, perhaps, to think that we were nearly +unconscious of the highest capacities of our humanity, till we +recognized their full expression in the ashes of a distant and dead +civilization,--that we did not know ourselves, till + + "The airy tongues that syllable men's names + In pathless wildernesses" + +uttered knowledge to us among the ghastly ruins of Hellas. It is good +for us to lend a spiritual ear to these ancient whisperings, and hear +nymph calling to nymph and faun to faun, as they caper merrily with +the god Pan through the silence. It is good for us to listen to that +"inextinguishable laughter" of the happy immortals of Olympus, ever +mingling with all the voices of Nature and setting them to the still +sweet music of humanity,--good, because so we are reminded how close we +are to the outward world, and how all its developments are figurative +expressions of our near relationships with the visible Beauty of things. +Thus it is that the poetic truths of old religions exquisitely vindicate +themselves; thus we find, even we moderns, with our downward eyes and +our wrinkled brows, that we still worship at the mythological altars +of childlike divinities; and when we can get away from the distracting +Bedlam of steam-shrieks and machinery, we behold the secrets of our own +hearts, the Lares and Penates of our own households, reflected in the +"white ideals" on antique vases and medallions. + + +Abstract lines are the most concentrated expressions of human ideas, +and, as such, are peculiarly sensitive to the critical tests of all +theories of the Beautiful. Distinguished from the more usual and direct +means by which artists express their inspirations and appeal to the +sympathies of men, distinct from the common language of Art, which +contents itself with conveying merely local and individual ideas, +abstract lines are recognized as the grand hieroglyphic symbolism of the +aggregate of human thought, the artistic manifestations of the great +human Cosmos. The natural world, passing through the mind of man, is +immediately interpreted and humanized by his creative power, and assumes +the colors, forms, and harmonies of Painting, Sculpture, and Music. But +abstract lines, as we find them in Architecture and in the ceramic arts, +are the independent developments of this creative power, coming directly +from humanity itself, and obtaining from the outward world only the most +distant motives of composition. Thus it is an inevitable deduction that +Architecture is the most _human_ of all arts, and its lines the most +_human_ of all lines. + + "A thing of beauty is a joy forever"; + +and the affectionate devotion with which this gift is received by +finite intelligences from the hand of God is expressed in Art, when its +infinite depth _can_ be so expressed at all, in a twofold language,-- +the one objective, the other subjective; the one recalling the immediate +source of the emotion, and presenting it palpably to the senses, arrayed +in all the ineffable tenderness of Art, which is Love,--the other, +portraying rather the emotion than the cause of it, and by an +instinctive and universal symbolism expressing the deep and serious joy +with which the "thing of beauty" is welcomed to the heart. Hence come +those lines which aesthetic writers term "Lines of Beauty," so eloquent +to us with an uncomprehended meaning,--so near, and yet so far,--so +simple, and yet so mysterious,--so animated with life and thought and +musical motion, and yet so still and serene and spiritual. Links which +bind us fraternally to old intelligences, tendrils by which the soul +climbs up to a wider view of the glimmering landscape, they are grateful +and consoling to us. We look with cognizant eyes at their subtile +affinities with some unexpressed part of human life, and, turning one to +another, are apt to murmur, + + "We cannot understand: we love." + +The mysteries of orb and cycle, with which old astrologers girded human +life, and sought to define from celestial phenomena the horoscope +of man, have been brought down to modern applications by learned +philosophers and mathematicians. These have labored with a godlike +energy and skill to trace the interior relationships existing between +the recondite revelations of their Geometry, their wonderful laws of +mathematical harmonies and unities, and those lines which by common +consent are understood to be exponential of certain phases of our own +existence. No well-organized intellect can fail to perceive that a +sublime and immortal Truth underlies these speculations. Undoubtedly, in +the straight line, in the conic sections, in the innumerable composite +curves of the mathematician, lie the germs of all these symbolic +expressions. But the artist, whose lines of Beauty vary continually with +the emotions which produce them, who feels in his own human heart the +irresistible impulse which gives an exquisite balance and poise to those +lines, cannot allow that the _spirit_ of his compositions is governed by +the exact and rigid formula; of the philosopher to any greater extent +or in any other manner than as the numbers of the poet are ruled by the +grammar of his language. These formulae may be applied as a curious test +to ascertain what strange sympathies there may be between such lines and +the vast organic harmonies of Nature and the Universe; but they do not +enter into the soul of their creation any more than the limitations of +counterpoint and rhythm laid their incubus on the lyre of Apollo. The +porches where Callicrates, Hermogenes, and Callimachus walked were +guarded by no such Cerberus as the disciples of Plato encountered at the +entrance of the groves of the Academy,-- + + "[Greek: Oudeis ageometraetos eisito]," + + "Let no one ignorant of Geometry enter here"; + +but the divine Aphrodite welcomed all mankind to the tender teachings of +the Wild Acanthus, the Honeysuckle, and the Sea-Shell, and all the deep +utterances of boundless Beauty. + +Truly, it is sad and dispiriting to the artist to find that all modern +aesthetical writings limit and straiten the free walks of highest +Art with strict laws deduced from rigid science, with mathematical +proportions and the formal restrictions of fixed lines and curves, +nicely adapted from the frigidities of Euclid. The line A B must equal +the line C D; somewhere in space must be found the centre or the focus +of every curve; and every angle must subtend a certain arc, to be easily +found on reference to the tables of the text-books. "The melancholy +days have come" for Art, when the meditative student finds his early +footsteps loud among these dry, withered, and sapless leaves, instead of +brushing away the dews by the fountains of perpetual youth. I am aware +of no extant English work on Greek Lines which does not aim to reduce +that magnificent old Hellenic poetry to the cold, hard limitations of +Geometry. Modern Pharisees nail that antique Ideal of loveliness and +purity to a mathematical cross. + +Now it is capable of distinct proof, that abstract Lines of Beauty, even +in a greater degree than any other expressions of Art, are born and +baptized in Love. Because parabolic curves frequently _coincide_ with +these lines, it is no proof that they _created_ them. + +The Water-Lily, or Lotus, perpetually occurs in Oriental mythology as +the sublime and hallowed symbol of the productive power in Nature,--the +emblem of that great life-giving principle which the Hindu and the +Egyptian and all early nations instinctively elevated to the highest and +most cherished place in their Pantheons. Payne Knight, quoted in Mr. +Squier's work on the "Antiquities of America," ingeniously attributes +the adoption of this symbol to the fact, that the Lotus, instead +of rejecting its seeds from the vessels where they are germinated, +nourishes them in its bosom till they have become perfect plants, when, +arrayed in all the irresistible panoply of grace and beauty, they spring +forth, Minerva-like, float down the current, and take root wherever +deposited. And so it was used by nearly all the early peoples to express +the creative spirit which gives life and vegetation to matter. Lacshmi, +the beautiful Hindu goddess of abundance, corresponding to the Venus +Aphrodite of the Greeks, was called "the Lotus-born," as having +ascended from the ocean in this flower. Here, again, is the inevitable +intermingling of the eternal principles of Beauty, Love, and the +Creative Power in that pure triune medallion image which the ancients so +tenderly cherished and so exquisitely worshipped with vestal fires and +continual sacrifices of Art. Old Father Nile, reflecting in his deep, +mysterious breast the monstrous temples of Nubia and Pylae, bears +eloquent witness to the earnestness and sincerity of the old votive +homage to Isis, "the Lotus-crowned" Venus of Egypt. For the symbolic +Water-Lily, _recreated_ by human Art, blooms forever in the capitals of +Karnac and Thebes, and wherever columns were reared and lintels laid +throughout the length and breadth of the "Land of Bondage." It is the +key-note of all that architecture; and a brief examination into +the principles of this, new birth of the Lotus, of the monumental +straightening and stiffening of its graceful and easy lines, will afford +some insight into the strange processes of the human mind, when it +follows the grandest impulse of Love, and out of the material beauties +of Nature creates a work of Art. + +It is well known that the religion of the old Egyptians led them to +regard this life as a mere temporary incident, an unimportant phase of +their progress toward that larger and grander state imaged to them with +mysterious sublimity in the idea of Death or Eternity. In accordance +with this belief, they expressed in their dwellings the sentiment of +transitoriness and vicissitude, and in their tombs the immortality of +calm repose. And so their houses have crumbled into dust ages ago, but +their tombs are eternal. In all the relations of Life the sentiment of +Death was present in some form or other. The hallowed mummies of their +ancestors were the most sacred mortgages of their debts, and to redeem +them speedily was a point of the highest honor. They had corpses at +their feasts to remind them how transitory were the glory and happiness +of the world, how eternal the tranquillity of Death. + +Now, how was this prevailing idea expressed in their Art? They looked +around them and saw that all Organic Life was full of movement and wavy +lines; their much-loved Lotus undulated and bent playfully to the solemn +flow of the great Nile; the Ibis fluttered with continual motion; their +own bodies were full of ever-changing curves; and their whole visible +existence was unsteady, like the waves of the sea. But when the +temporary Life was changed, and "this mortal put on immortality," their +eyes and souls were filled with the utter stillness and repose of its +external aspects; its features became rigid and fixed, and were settled +to an everlasting and immutable calm; the vibrating grace of its lines +departed, and their ever-varying complexity became simplified, and +assumed the straightness and stiffness of Death. So the straight line, +the natural expression of eternal repose, in contradistinction to the +wavy line, which represents the animal movements of Life, became the +motive and spirit of their Art. The anomaly of Death in Life was present +in every development of the creative faculty, and no architectural +feature could be so slight and unimportant as not to be thoroughly +permeated with this sentiment. The tender and graceful lines of the +Lotus became sublime and monumental under the religious loyalty of +Egyptian chisels; and these lines, whether grouped or single, in the +severity of their fateful repose, in their stateliness and immobility, +wherever found, are awful with the presence of a grand serious humanity +long passed away from any other contact with living creatures. The +rendering of the human form, under this impulse of Art, produced results +in which the idea of mutability was so overwhelmed in this grandeur of +immortality, that we cry + + "O melancholy eyes! + O vacant eyes! from which the soul has gone + To gaze in other lands," + +bend not upon us, living and loving mortals, that stony stare of +death,--lest we too, as smit with the basilisk, be turned into +monumental stone, and all the dear grace and movement of life be lost +forever! + + "Solid-set, + And moulded in colossal calm," + +all the lines of this lost Art thus recall the sentiment of endless +repose, and even the necessary curves of its mouldings are dead with +straightness. The Love which produced these lines was not the passionate +Love which we understand and feel; they were not the result of a +sensuous impulse; but the Egyptian artist seemed ever to be standing +alone in the midst of a trackless and limitless desert,--around him +earth and sky meeting with no kiss of affection, no palpitating embrace +of mutual sympathy; he felt himself encircled by a calm and pitiless +Destiny, the cold expression of a Fate from which he could not flee, and +in himself the centre and soul of it all. Oppressed thus with a vast +sense of spiritual loneliness, when he uttered the inspirations of Art, +the memories of playful palms and floating lilies and fluttering wings, +though they came warm to the Love of his heart, were attuned in the +outward expression to the deep, solemn, prevailing monotone of his +humanity. His Love for the Lotus and the Ibis, more profound than the +passion of the senses, dwelt serene in the bottom of his soul, and +thence came forth transfigured and dedicated to the very noblest uses of +Life. And this is the Art of Egypt. + +But among all the old nations which have perished with their gods, +Greece appeals to our closest sympathies. She looks upon us with +the smile of childhood, free, contented, and happy, with no ascetic +self-denials to check her wild-flower growth, no stern religion to bind +the liberty of her actions. All her external aspects are in harmony with +the weakness and the strength of human nature. We recognize ourselves +in her, and find all the characteristics of our own humanity there +developed into a theism so divine, clothed with a personification so +exquisite and poetical, that the Hellenic mythology seems still to live +in our hearts, a silent and shadowy religion without ceremonies or +altars or sacrifices. The festive gods of the "Iliad" made man a deity +to himself, and his soul the dwelling-place of Ideal Beauty. In this +Ideal they lived, and moved and had their being, and came forth thence, +bronze, marble, chryselephantine, a statuesque and naked humanity, +chaste in uncomprehended sin and glorified in antique virtue. The Beauty +of this natural Life and the Love of it was the soul of the Greek Ideal; +and the nation continually cherished and cultivated and refined this +Ideal with impulses from groves of Arcadia, vales of Tempe, and flowery +slopes of Attica, from the manliness of Olympic Games and the loveliness +of Spartan Helens. They cherished and cultivated and refined it, because +here they set up their altars to known gods and worshipped attributes +which they could understand. The Ideal was their religion, and the Art +which came from it the expression of their highest aspiration. + +Lines of Beauty, produced in such a soil, were not, as might at first +be supposed, tropic growths of wanton and luxurious curves, wild, +spontaneous utterances of superabundant Life. The finely-studied +perception of the Greek artist admitted no merely animal, vegetable, +instinctive, licentious renderings of what Nature was ever giving him +with a liberal hand in the whorls of shells, the veins of leaves, the +life of flames, the convolutions of serpents, the curly tresses of +woman, the lazy grace of clouds, the easy sway of tendrils, flowers, and +human motion. He was no literal interpreter of her whispered secrets. +But the Grace of his Art was a _deliberate grace_,--a grace of +thought and study. His lines were _creations_, and not _instincts_ or +_imitations_. They came from the depth of his Love, and it was his +religion so to nurture and educate his sensitiveness to Beauty and his +power to love and create it, that his works of Art should be deeds of +passionate worship and expressions of a godlike humanity. Unlike the +Egyptian's, there was nothing in _his_ creed to check the sweet excess +of Life, and no grim shadow, "feared of man," scared him in his walks, +or preached to him sermons of mortality in the stones and violets of the +wayside. Life was hallowed and dear to him for its own sake. He saw +it was lovable, and he made it the theme of his noblest poems, his +subtilest philosophies, and his highest Art. Hence the infinite joy and +endless laughter on Olympus, the day-long feasting, _the silver stir of +strings_ in the hollow shell of the exquisite Phoebus, "the soft song of +the Muse with voices sweetly replying." + +I believe that all true Lines of Grace and Beauty, in their highest, +_intellectual, human_ significance, may be concentrated and expressed in +one; not a _precise_ and _exact_ line, like a formula of mathematics, +to which the neophyte can refer for deductions of Grace to suit any +premises or conditions. This, of course, is contrary to the spirit +of beautiful design; and the ingenious Hay,--who maintains that his +"composite ellipse" is capable of universal application in the arts +of ornamental composition, and that by its use any desirable lines in +mouldings or vases can be mechanically produced, especially Greek lines, +falls into the grave error of endeavoring to materialize and fix that +_animula vagula, blandula_, that coy and evasive spirit of Art, which +is its peculiar characteristic, and gives to its works inspiration, +harmony, and poetic sentiment. Ideal Beauty can be hatched from no +geometrical eggs. But the line which I refer to, as the expression of +most subtile Grace, pretends to be merely a type of that large language +of forms with which the most refined intellects of antiquity uttered +their Love, and their joyful worship of Aphrodite. This line, of course, +is Greek. + +[Illustration] + +The three great distinctive eras of Art, in a purely +psychological sense, have been the Egyptian, the Grecian, and the +Romanesque,--including in the latter term both Roman Art itself and all +subsequent Art, whether derived directly or indirectly from Rome, as the +Byzantine, the Moresque, the Mediaeval, and the Renaissance. Selecting +the most characteristic works to which these great eras respectively +gave birth, it is not difficult, by comparison, to ascertain the +master-spirit, or type, to which each of these three families may be +reduced. If we place these types side by side, the result will be as in +the diagram, presenting to the eye, at one view, the concentration +of three civilizations, DESTINY, LOVE, and LIFE;--Destiny, finding +utterance in the stern and inflexible simplicity of the tombs and +obelisks of Egypt; Love, expressing itself in the statuesque and +thoughtful grace of Grecian temples, statues, and urns; Life, in the +sensuous and impulsive change, evident in all the developments of Art, +since Greece became Achaia, a province of the Roman Empire. Here we +behold the perpetual youth, the immortal genius of Hellas, tempering the +solid repose of Egypt with the passion of Life. This intermediate Beauty +is the essence of the age of Pericles; and in it "the capable eye" may +discover the pose of the Cnidian Venus of Praxiteles, of the Jupiter +Olympius of Phidias, and the other lost wonders of ancient chisels, and, +more directly, the tender severity of Doric capitals, and the secret +grace of the shafts of the Parthenon. + +You remember Pliny's account of the visit of Apelles to the great +painter Protogenes, at Rhodes;--how, not finding him at home, Apelles +inscribed a line upon a board, assuring the slave that this line would +signify to the master who had been to see him. Whatever the line was, +Protogenes, we hear, recognized in it the hand of the greatest limner of +Greece. It was the signature of that Ideal, known to the antique +world by its wider developments in the famous pictures of the Venus +Anadyomene, and Alexander with the Thunderbolt, hung in the temple of +Diana at Ephesus. + +The gravity with which this apparently trifling anecdote is given us +from antiquity evidently proves that it was one of the household tales +of old Greece. It did not seem absurd in those times, when Art was +recognized as a great Unity, an elaborate system of infinite language +founded on the simplest elements of Life, and in its grandest and widest +flowings bearing ever in its bosom, like a great river, the memory +of the little weeping Naiad far up among the mountains with her +"impoverished urn." And so every great national Art, growing up +naturally out of the necessities of an earnest people, expressing the +grand motives of their Life, as that of the Greeks and the Egyptians and +the mediaeval nations of Europe, is founded on the simplest laws. So +long as these laws are obeyed in simplicity and Love, Art is good +and true; so long as it remembers the purity and earnestness of its +childhood, the strength that is ordained out of the mouth of babes is +present in all its expressions; but when it spreads itself abroad in the +fens and marshes of humanity, it has lost the purity of its aim, the +singleness and unity of its action,--it becomes stagnant, and sleeps in +the Death of Idleness. + +Therefore I believe in the expressiveness of single lines as symbols of +the grandest phases of human Life. And when one studies Greek Art, the +whole motive of it seems so childlike and so simple that the impulse to +seek for that little Naiad which is the fountain and source of it all is +irresistible. Look at the line I have traced, and see if there is not a +curious humanity about it. It is impossible to produce it with a wanton +flourish of the pencil, as I have done in that wavy, licentious curve, +which Hogarth, in his quaint "Analysis of Beauty," assumes as the line +of true Grace; nor yet are its infinite motions governed by any cold +mathematical laws. In it is the earnest and deliberate labor of Love. +There are thought and tenderness in every instant of it; but this +thought is grave and almost solemn, and this tenderness is chastened and +purified by wise reserve. Measure it by time, and you will find it +no momentary delight, no voluptuous excess which comes and goes in a +breath; but there is a whole cycle of deep human feeling in it. It is +the serene joy of a nation, and not the passionate impulse of a man. +Observe, from beginning to end, its intention is to give expression by +the serpentine line to that sentiment of beautiful Life which was the +worship of the Greeks; but they did not toss it off, like a wine-cup at +a feast. They prolonged it through all the varied emotions of a lifetime +with exquisite art, making it the path of their education in childhood +and of their wider experience as men. All the impulses of humanity they +bent to a kindly parallelism with it. This is that famous principle of +Variety in Unity which St. Augustine and hosts of other philosophers +considered the true Ideal of Beauty. Start with this line from the top +upon its journeying: look at the hesitation of it, ere it launches into +action; how it cherishes its resources, and gathers up its strength!-- +with a confidence in its beautiful Destiny, and yet a chaste shrinking +from the full enjoyment of it, how inevitably, but how purely, it yields +itself up to the sudden curve! It does not embrace this curve with +a sensuous sweep, nor does it, like Sappho, throw itself with quick +passion into the tide. It enters with maidenly and dignified reserve +into its new Life; and then how is this new Life spent? As you glance at +it, it seems almost ascetic, and reminds you of the rigid fatalism of +Egypt. Its grace is almost strangled, as those other serpents were in +the grasp of the child Hercules. But if you watch it attentively, you +will find it ever changing, though with subtilest refinement, ever +human, and true to the great laws of emotion. There is no straight +line here,--no Death in Life,--but the severity and composure of +intellectual meditation,--meditation, moving with serious pleasure +along the grooves of happy change,-- + + "As all the motions of its + Were governed by a strain + Of music, audible to it alone!" + +As the eye is cheated out of its rectitude, following this grave +delight, and seems to dilate and grow dreamy in the cool shade of +imaginative cloisters and groves, the wanton joyousness of Life, with +its long waving lily-stems and the luscious pending of vines, comes with +dim recollections into the mind, but modified by a certain habitual +chastity of thought. Follow the line still farther, and you will find +it grateful to the sight, neither fatiguing with excess of monotony nor +cloying the appetite with change. And when the round hour is full and +the end comes, this end is met by a Fate, which does not clip with +the shears of Atropos and leave an aching void, but fulfils itself in +gentleness and peace. The line bends quietly and unconsciously towards +the beautiful consummation, and then dies, because its work is done. + +This is the way the Greeks made that Line which represents to "the +capable eye" the true Attic civilization. And when we examine the +innumerable lines of Grecian architecture, we find that they never +for an instant lost sight of this Ideal. The fine humanity of it was +everywhere present, and mingled not only with such grand and heroic +lines as those of the sloping pediments and long-drawn entablatures +of the Parthenon and Theseion, bending them into curves so subtilely +modulated that our coarse perceptions did not perceive the variations +from the dead straight lines till the careful admeasurements of +Penrose and Cockerel and their _confrères_ of France assured us of the +fact,--not only did it make these enormous harp-strings vibrate with +deep human soul-music, but there is not an abstract line in moulding, +column, or vase, belonging to old Greece or the islands of the Aegean or +Ionia or the colonies of Italy, which does not have the same intensity +of meaning, the same statuesque Life of thought. Besides, I very much +doubt if the same line, in all its parts and proportions, is ever +repeated twice,--certainly not with any emphasis; and this is following +out the great law of our existence, which varies the emotion infinitely +with the occasion which produced it. Let us suppose, for example, that a +moulding was needed to crown a column with fitting glory and grace. +Now the capital of a column may fairly be called the throne of Ideal +expression; it is the _cour d'honneur_ of Art. The architect in +this emergency did not set himself at "the antique," and seek for +authorities, and reproduce and copy; for he desired not only an abstract +line of Beauty there, but a line which in every respect should answer +all the requirements of its peculiar position, a line which should have +its individual and essential relationships with the other lines around +it, those of shaft, architrave, frieze, and cornice, should swell its +fitting melody into the great _fugue_. And so, between the summit of the +long shaft and that square block, the abacus, on which reposes the dead +weight of the lintel of Greece, the Doric _echinus_ was fashioned, +crowning the serene Atlas-labor of the column with exquisite glory, and +uniting the upright and horizontal masses of the order with a marriage +ring, whose beauty is its perfect fitness. The profile of this moulding +may be rudely likened to the upper and middle parts of the line assumed +as the representative of the Greek Ideal. But it varied ever with the +exigency of circumstances. Over the short and solid shafts of Paestum, +it became flat and almost horizontal; they needed there an expression +of emphatic and sudden grace; they meet the _abacus_ with a moulding of +passionate energy, in which the soft undulations of Beauty are nearly +lost in a masculine earnestness of purpose. On the other hand, the more +slender and feminine columns of the Parthenon glide into the _echinus_ +with gentleness and sweetness, crown themselves with a diadem of +chastity, as if it grew there by Fate, preordained from the base of the +shaft, like a flower from the root. It was created as with "the Dorian +mood of soft recorders." Between these two extremes there is an +infinity of change, everywhere modified and governed by "the study of +imagination." + +The same characteristics of nervous grace and severe intellectual +restraint are found wherever the true Greek artist put his hand and his +heart to work. Every moulding bears the impress of utter refinement, and +modulates the light which falls upon it with exquisite and harmonious +gradations of shade. The sun, as it touches it, makes visible music +there, as if it were the harp of Memnon,--now giving us a shadow-line +sharp, strict, and defined, now drawing along a beam of quick and +dazzling light, and now dying away softly and insensibly into cool shade +again. All the phenomena of reflected lights, half lights, and broken +lights are brought in and attuned to the great daedal melody of +the edifice. The antiquities of Attica afford nothing frivolous or +capricious or merely fanciful, no playful extravagances or wanton +meanderings of line; but ever loyal to the purity of a high Ideal, they +present to us, even from their ruins, a wonderful and very evident Unity +of expression, pervading and governing every possible mood and manner of +thought. No phase of Art that ever existed gives us a line so very human +and simple in itself as this Greek type, and so pliable to all the uses +of monumental language. If this type were a mere mathematical type, its +applicability to the expression of human emotions would be limited to a +formalism absolutely fatal to the freedom of thought in Art. But because +it has its birth in intense Love, in refined appreciation of all the +movements of Life and all the utterances of Creation, because it is the +humanized essence of these motions and developments, it becomes thus an +inestimable Unity, containing within itself the germs of a new world of +ever new delight. + +When this type in Greek Art was brought to bear on the interpretation of +natural forms into architectural language, we shall curiously discover +that the creative pride of the artist and his reverence for the +integrity of his Ideal were so great, that he not only subjected these +forms to a rigid subservience to the abstract line till Nature was +nearly lost in Art, but the immediate adoption of these forms under any +circumstances was limited to some three or four of the most ordinary +vegetable productions of Greece and to one sea-shell. This wise reserve +and self-restraint, among the boundless riches of a delicious climate +and a soil teeming with fertility, present to us the best proof of the +fastidious purity of artistic intentions. Nature poured out at the feet +of the Greek artist a most plenteous offering, and the lap of Flora +overflowed for him with tempting garlands of Beauty; but he did not +gather these up with any greedy and indiscriminate hand, he did not +intoxicate himself at the harvest of the vineyard. Full of the divinity +of high purpose, and intent upon the nobler aim of creating a pure work +of Art, he considered serenely what were his needs for decoration, took +lovingly a few of the most ordinary forms, and, studying the creative +sentiment of them, breathed a new and immortal life into them, and +tenderly and hesitatingly applied them to the work of illustrating his +grand Ideal. These leaves and flowers were selected not for their own +sake, though he felt them to be beautiful, but for the decorative motive +they suggested, the humanity there was in them, and the harmony they +had with the emergencies of his design. The design was not bent to +accommodate them, but they were translated and lifted up into the sphere +of Art. + +A drawing of the Ionic capitals of the temple of Minerva Polias in the +Erechtheum is accessible to nearly everybody. It is well to turn to +it and see what use the Greeks, under such impulses, made of the Wild +Honeysuckle and of Sea-Shells. Perhaps this capital affords one of the +most instructive epitomes of Greek Art, inasmuch as in its composition +use is made of so much that Nature gave, and those gifts are so tenderly +modelled and wrought into such exquisite harmony and eloquent repose. +Examine the volute: this is the nearest approach to a mathematical +result that can be found in Grecian architecture; yet this very +approximation is one of the greatest triumphs of Art. No geometrical +rule has been discovered which can exactly produce the spirals of the +Erechtheum, nor can they be found in shells. In avoiding the exuberance +of the latter and the rigid formalism of the former, a work of human +thought and Love has been evolved. Follow one of these volutes with your +eye from its centre outwards, taking all its congeries of lines into +companionship; you find your sympathies at once strangely engaged. There +is an intoxication in the gradual and melodious expansion of these +curves. They seem to be full of destiny, bearing you along, as upon an +inevitable tide, towards some larger sphere of action. Ere you have +grown weary with the monotony of the spiral, you find that the system +of lines which compose it gradually leave their obedience to the +centrifugal forces of the volute, and, assuming new relationships of +parts, sweep gracefully across the summit of the shaft, and become +presently entangled in the reversed motion of the other volute, at whose +centre Ariadne seems to stand, gathering together all the clues of this +labyrinth of Beauty. This may seem fanciful to one who regards these +things as matters of formalism. But inasmuch as, to the studious eye of +affection, they suggest human action and human sympathies, this is a +proof that they had their birth in some corresponding affection. It is +the inanimate body of Geometry made spiritual and living by the Love of +the human heart. And when a later generation reduced the Ionic volutes +to rule, and endeavored to inscribe them with the gyrations of the +compass, they have no further interest for us, save as a mathematical +problem with an unknown value equal to a mysterious symbol _x_, in which +the soul takes no comfort. But true Art, using the volute, inevitably +makes it eloquent with an intensity of meaning, a delicacy of +expression, which awaken certain very inward and very poetic sentiments, +akin to those from which it was evolved in the process of creation. When +we reasonably regard the printed words of an author, we not only behold +an ingenious collection of alphabetical symbols, but are placed by them +in direct contact with the mind which brought them together, and, for +the moment, our train of thought so entirely coincides with that of the +writer, that, though perhaps he died centuries ago, he may be said to +live again in us. This great work of architectural Art has the same +immortal life; and though it may not so often find a heart capable of +discerning the sentiment and intention of it under the outward lines, +yet that heart, when found, is touched very deeply and very tenderly. We +imbibe the creative impulse of the artist, and the beautiful thing has a +new life in our affections. Studying it, we become artists and poets ere +we are aware. The alphabet becomes a living soul. + +Under the volutes of this capital, and belting the top of the shaft, is +a broad band of ornamentation, so happy and effectual in its uses, and +so pure and perfect in its details, that a careful examination of it +will, perhaps, afford us some knowledge of that spiritual essence in the +antique Ideal out of which arose the silent and motionless Beauty of +Greek marbles. + +Here are brought together the _sentiments_ of certain vegetable +productions of Greece, but sentiments so entirely subordinated to the +flexure of the abstract line, that their natural significance is almost +lost in a new and more human meaning. Here is the Honeysuckle, the +wildest, the most elastic and undulating of plants, under the severe +discipline of order and artistic symmetry, assuming a strict and chaste +propriety, a formal elegance, which render it at once monumental and +dignified. The harmonious succession and repetition of parts, the +graceful contrasts of curves and the strict poise and balance of them, +their unity in variety, their entire subjection to aesthetic laws, their +serious and emphatic earnestness of purpose,--these qualities combine +in the creation of one of the purest works of Art ever conceived by the +human mind. It is called the Ionic _Anthemion_, and suggests in its +composition all the creative powers of Greece. Its value is not alone in +the sensuous gratification of the eye, as with the Arabesque tangles of +the Alhambra, but it is more especially in its complete intellectual +expression, the evidence there is in it of thoughtfulness and judgment +and deliberate care. The inventor studied not alone the plant, but his +own spiritual relationships with it; and ere he made his interpretation, +he considered how, in mythological traditions, each flower once bore +a human shape, and how Daphne and Syrinx, Narcissus and Philemon, and +those other idyllic beings, were eased of the stress of human emotions +by becoming Laurels and Reeds and Daffodils and sturdy Oaks, and how +human nature was thus diffused through all created things and was +epigrammatically expressed in them. + + "And he, with many feelings, many thoughts, + Made up a meditative joy, and found + Religious meanings in the forms of Nature." + +Like Faustus, he was permitted to look into her deep bosom, as into the +bosom of a friend,--to find his brothers in the still wood, in the air, +and in the water,--to see himself and the mysterious wonders of his own +breast in the movements of the elements. And so he took Nature as a +figurative exponent of humanity, and extracted the symbolic truths from +her productions, and used them nobly in his Art. + +Garbett, an English aesthetical writer, assures us that the _Anthemion_ +bears not the slightest resemblance to the Honeysuckle or any other +plant, "being no representation of anything in Nature, but simply the +necessary result of the complete and systematic attempt to combine unity +and variety by the principle of _gradation_." But here he speaks like a +geometer, and not like an artist. He seeks rather for the resemblance of +form than the resemblance of spirit, and, failing to realize the object +of his search, he endeavors to find a cause for this exquisite effect +in pure reason. With equal perversity, Poe endeavored to persuade the +public that his "Raven" was the result of mere aesthetical deductions! + +And here the old burden of our song must once again be heard: If we +would know the golden secret of the Greek Ideal, we must ourselves +first learn how to _love_ with the wisdom and chastity of old Hellenic +passion. We must sacrifice Taste and Fancy and Prejudice, whose specious +superficialities are embodied in the errors of modern Art,--we must +sacrifice these at the shrine of the true Aphrodite; else the modern +Procrustes will continue to stretch and torture Greek Lines on +geometrical beds, and the aesthetic Pharisees around us will still +crucify the Greek Ideal. + +[To be continued.] + + + + +THE ROSE ENTHRONED. + + + It melts and seethes, the chaos that shall grow + To adamant beneath the house of life: + In hissing hatred atoms clash, and go + To meet intenser strife. + + And ere that fever leaves the granite veins, + Down thunders o'er the waste a torrid sea: + Now Flood, now Fire, alternate despot reigns,-- + Immortal foes to be. + + Built by the warring elements, they rise, + The massive earth-foundations, tier on tier, + Where slimy monsters with unhuman eyes + Their hideous heads uprear. + + The building of the world is not for you + That glare upon each other, and devour: + Race floating after race fades out of view, + Till beauty springs from power + + Meanwhile from crumbling rocks and shoals of death + Shoots up rank verdure to the hidden sun; + The gulfs are eddying to the vague, sweet breath + Of richer life begun,-- + + Richer and sweeter far than aught before, + Though rooted in the grave of what has been. + Unnumbered burials yet must heap Earth's floor, + Ere she her heir shall win; + + And ever nobler lives and deaths more grand + For nourishment of that which is to come: + While 'mid the ruins of the work she planned + Sits Nature, blind and dumb. + + For whom or what she plans, she knows no more + Than any mother of her unborn child; + Yet beautiful forewarnings murmur o'er + Her desolations wild. + + Slowly the clamor and the clash subside: + Earth's restlessness her patient hopes subdue: + Mild oceans shoreward heave a pulse-like tide: + The skies are veined with blue. + + And life works through the growing quietness + To bring some darling mystery into form: + Beauty her fairest Possible would dress + In colors pure and warm. + + Within the depths of palpitating seas + A tender tint;--anon a line of grace + Some lovely thought from its dull atom frees, + The coming joy to trace;-- + + A pencilled moss on tablets of the sand, + Such as shall veil the unbudded maiden-blush + Of beauty yet to gladden the green land;-- + A breathing, through the hush, + + Of some sealed perfume longing to burst out + And give its prisoned rapture to the air;-- + A brooding hope, a promise through a doubt + Is whispered everywhere. + + And, every dawn a shade more clear, the skies + A flush as from the heart of heaven disclose: + Through earth and sea and air a message flies, + Prophetic of the Rose. + + At last a morning comes of sunshine still, + When not a dew-drop trembles on the grass; + When all winds sleep, and every pool and rill + Is like a burnished glass + + Where a long-looked-for guest may lean to gaze; + When day on earth rests royally,--a crown + Of molten glory, flashing diamond rays, + From heaven let lightly down. + + In golden silence, breathless, all things stand. + What answer meets this questioning repose? + A sudden gush of light and odors bland, + And, lo! the Rose! the Rose! + + The birds break into canticles around; + The winds lift Jubilate to the skies: + For, twin-born with the rose on Eden-ground, + Love blooms in human eyes. + + Life's marvellous queen-flower blossoms only so, + In dust of low ideals rooted fast. + Ever the Beautiful is moulded slow + From truth in errors past. + + What fiery fields of Chaos must be won, + What battling Titans rear themselves a tomb, + What births and resurrections greet the sun, + Before the rose can bloom! + + And of some wonder-blossom yet we dream, + Whereof the time that is infolds the seed,-- + Some flower of light, to which the rose shall seem + A fair and fragile weed. + + + + +A BAG OF MEAL. + + +I often wonder what was the appearance of Saul's mother, when she walked +up the narrow aisle of the meeting-house and presented her boy's brow +for the mystic drops that sealed him with the name of Saul. + +Saul isn't a common name. It is well,--for Saul is not an ordinary +man,--and--Saul is my husband. + +We came in the cool of an evening upon the brink of the swift river that +flows past the village of Skylight. + +The silence of a nearing experience brooded over my spirit; for Saul's +home was a vast unknown to me, and I fain would have delayed awhile its +coming. + +I wonder if the primal motion of unknown powers, like electricity, for +instance, is spiral. Have you ever seen it winding out of a pair of +human eyes, knowing that every fresh coil was a spring of the soul, and +felt it fixing itself deeper and deeper in your own, until you knew that +you were held by it? + +Perhaps not. I have: as when Saul turned to me in the cool of that +evening, and drew my eyes away, by the power I have spoken of, from the +West, where the orange of sunset was fading into twilight. + +I have felt it otherwise. A horse was standing, surrounded by snow; the +biting winds were cutting across the common, and the blanket with which +he had been covered had fallen from him, and lay on the snow. He had +turned his head toward the place where it lay, and his eyes were fixed +upon it with such power, that, if that blanket had been endowed with one +particle of sensation, it would have got up, and folded itself, without +a murmur, around the shivering animal. Such a picture as it was! Just +then, I would have been Rosa Bonheur; but being as I was, I couldn't be +expected to blanket a horse in a crowded street, could I? + +We were on the brink of the river. Saul drew my eyes away, and said,-- + +"You are unhappy, Lucy." + +"No," I answered,--"not that." + +"That does not content me. May I ask what troubles you?" + +I aroused myself to reason. Saul is never satisfied, unless I assign a +reason for any mood I am in. + +"Saul!" I questioned, "why do the mortals that we call Poets write, +and why do non-Poets, like ourselves, sigh over the melancholy days of +autumn, and why are we silent and thoughtful every time we think enough +of the setting sun to watch its going down?" + +"Simply because the winter coming is cold and dreary, in the one +case,--and in the other, there are several reasons. Some natures dread +the darkness; others have not accomplished the wishes or the work of the +day." + +"I don't think you go below the surface," I ventured. "It seems to me +that the entire reason is simple want of faith, a vague uncertainty as +to the coming back of the dried-up leaf and flower, when they perish, +and a fear, though unexpressed, that the sun is going down out of your +sight for the last time, and you would hold it a little longer." + +"Would you now to-night, Lucy?" + +"If I could." + +My husband did not speak again for a long time, and gradually I went +back into my individuality. + +We came upon an eminence outside the river-valley, and within sight of +the village. + +"Is it well? do you like it?" asked Saul. + +The village was nested in among the elms to such a degree that I could +only reply,-- + +"I am certain that I shall, when I find out what it is." + +Saul stayed the impatient horse at the point where we then were, and, +indicating a height above and a depth below, told me the legend of the +naming of his village. + +It was given thus:-- + +"A long time ago, when the soundless tread of the moccason walked +fearlessly over the bed of echoes in this valley, two warriors, Wabausee +and Waubeeneemah, came one day upon the river, at its opposite sides. +Both were, weary with the march; both wore the glory of many scalps. +Their belts were heavy with wampum, their hearts were heavy with hate. +Wabausee was down amid the dark pines that grew beside the river's +brink. Waubeeneemah was upon the high land above the river. With folded +arms and unmoved faces they stood, whilst in successive flashes across +the stream their eyes met, until Wabausee slowly opened out his +arms, and, clasping a towering tree, cried out, 'I see sky!' and he +steadfastly fixed his gaze upon the crevices of brightness that urged +their way down amid the pines over his head. + +"Waubeeneemah turned his eyes over the broad valley, and answered the +cry with, 'I see light!' + +"Thus they stood, one with his eyes downward, the other with his intent +on the sky, and fast and furious ran the river, swollen with the +meltings of many snows, and fierce and quick rang the battle-cries of 'I +see sky!' 'I see light!' + +"A white man was near; his cabin lay just below; he had climbed a tree +above Waubeeneemah and remained a silent witness of this wordy war, +until, looking up the river, he saw a canoe that had broken from its +fastenings and was rushing down to the rapids below. It contained the +families of the two warriors, who were helplessly striving against the +swift flow of waters. + +"The white man spoke, and the warriors listened. He cried, 'Look to your +canoe! and see Skylight!' + +"Through the pines rushed Wabausee, and down the river-bank +Waubeeneemah, and into the tide, until they met the coming canoe, across +whose birchen bow they gave the grasp of peace, and ever since that time +Indian and white man have called this place Skylight." + +"Where are the Indians now?" I could not help asking,--and yet with no +purpose, beyond expression of the thought question. + +The shadows were gathering, the eyelids of the day were closing. Saul +caught me up again through the shadows into those eyes of his, and +answered,-- + +"Here, Lucy! I am a pale form of Waubeeneemah! I know it! I feel it now! +I sometimes ache for foemen and the wilds." + +Why do I think of that time to-night on the Big Blue, far away from +Skylight, and imagine that the prairie airs are ringing with the echoes +of the great cries that are heard in my native land, "I see North!" and +"I see South!" and there is no white man of them all high enough to see +the United States? + +I've wandered! Let me think,--yes, I have it! My thought began with +trying to fancy Saul's mother taking him to baptism. + +She was dead, when I went to Skylight, her son's wife. + +She went into the higher life at thirty-three of the threescore-and-ten +cycle of the human period. How young to die! + +The longer we live, the stronger grows the wish to live. And why +not? When the circle is almost ended, and all the momentum of +threescore-and-ten is gained, why not pass the line and enter into +second childhood? What more beautiful truth in Nature's I Am, than +obedience to this law? + +I've another fancy on the Big Blue to-night. It is a place for fancies. +I remember--a long time ago it seems, and yet I am not so old as Saul's +mother--the first knowledge that I had of life. I saw the sun come up +one morning out of the sea, and with it there came out of the night of +my past a consciousness. I was a soul, and held relations separate from +other souls to that risen sun and that sea. From that hour I grew into +life. A growth from the Unseen came to me with every day, born I knew +not how into my soul. I sent out nothing to people the future. All came +to me. + +Is this true, this faith or fancy that God sends a tidal wave through +man, bringing with it from Heaven's ocean fragments set afloat from its +shore to lodge in our lives, until there comes an ebb, and then begin +our hopes and desires all to tend heavenward, or _elsewhere?_ Have +you never felt, do you not now feel, that there is more of yourself +_somewhere else_ than there is upon the Earth? + +I like to think thus, when I see a person ill, or in sorrow, or weighed +down with weary griefs. I like to think that that which is ebbing here +is flowing and ripening into fitness for the freed soul in that land +where there shall be "no more sea." + +In insanity, does the kind Lord remove _all_ from this world in order +to fit up the new life more gloriously? and are those whom most we pity +clasped the closest in the Living Arms? + +It may be,--there is such comfort in possibilities. + +Will Saul come to-night? I am all alone on the Big Blue. There's not +another settled claim for miles away. + +The August sun drank up the moisture from our corn-fields, took out the +blood of our prairie-grasses, and God sent no cooling rains. Why? + +Skylight was charmful for a while. I had forgotten Saul's assertion that +he was a pale shadow of Waubeeneemah, as we forget a dream of our latest +sleep. + +At my home Aunt Carter appeared one day, and said she had "come to spend +the afternoon and stay to tea"; and she seated her amplitude of being in +Saul's favorite chair, and began to count the stitches in the heel of +the twenty-fourth stocking that she assured me "she had knit every +stitch of since the night she saw my husband lift me down at the gate +just outside the window." Her blue eyes went down deeper and deeper +into the bluer yarn her fingers were threading; and after a long pause, +during which I had forgotten her presence, and was counting out the +hours on the face of the clock which the slow hands must travel over +before Saul would be at home, suddenly she looked up and began with,-- + +"Mrs. Monten!" + +There was something startling in her voice. I knew it was the first drop +of a coming flood, and I fortified myself. She went on repeating,-- + +"Mrs. Monten! I've been thinking, for a great long while, that it isn't +right for you to go on living with that man, without knowing what he is. +And I for one have got up to the point of coming right over here and +telling you of it to once." + +I could not help the involuntary question of-- + +"Is my husband an evil man?" + +"Evil! I should think he might be, when he has got"---- + +"Stay, Mrs. Carter!" I interrupted. "I will hear no news of my husband +that he does not choose to give me. Only one question,--Do you know of +any action that my husband has done that is wrong or wicked?" + +Aunt Carter forgot her blue eyes and her bluer yarn, for she stopped her +knitting, and her eyes changed to gray in my sight, as she ejaculated,-- + +"He's got Indian blood in him! I should think you'd be afraid he'd scalp +you, if you didn't do just as he told you to. Everybody in Skylight is +just as sorry for you as ever they can be." + +Aunt Carter paused. An open door announced my husband's unexpected +presence. + +Aunt Carter rolled up her twenty-fourth twin of a stocking, and, hastily +declaring that "she'd always noticed that 't was better to visit people +when they was alone," she made all possible effort to escape before Saul +came in. + +My husband an Indian! I looked at him anew. He wore the same presence +that he did when first I saw him, a twelve-month before. There was no +outward trace of the savage, as he came to welcome me; and I forgot my +thought presently, as I listened to his words. + +"I am tired of this life," he said; "let us go." + +"Where, Saul?" + +"Anywhere, where we can breathe. I feel pent up here. I long to hunt +something wild and free as I would be. Shall it be to the prairies, +Lucy?" + +"Will you live on the hunt?" I asked. + +"I had not thought of that. No; I'll build you a"----And he paused. + +I laughed, and added,-- + +"Let us have it, Saul. A wigwam?" + +"Why not?" + +"Why not, indeed, Saul? I am content,--let us go." + +On the morrow I began the work of preparation. I was sitting upon the +carpet, where I had cast all our treasures of knowledge, in the various +guises of the printer's and binder's art, and was selecting the books +that I fondly thought would be essential to my existence, when Saul came +in. + +He looked down upon me with that look that always drinks up my sight +into his, and said,-- + +"You are sorry to go, Lucy. I will stay." + +"No, Saul, I wish to go. You shall teach me the pleasures of wild +life; and who knows but I shall like it so well that we will give up +civilization for it? Where shall I pack all these books?" + +"Leave them all," he said. "We will close the house as it is, until we +come back." And I left them all at home. + +In the heart of these preparations an insane desire came into my mind to +know something of Saul's ancestors, and there was but one way to know, +namely, by asking, which I would not do of human soul. Thus it came to +pass that I was driven out, between this would of my mind and wouldn't +of my soul, to search for some knowledge from inanimate things. The +last night before our departure I became particularly restless and +unsatisfied. I went to the place of burial of the villagers, where I +found duly recorded on two stones the names of Saul's parents, Richard +Monten and Agnes Monten, his wife. + +There was nothing Indian there, and I went home once more to the place +that had been so happy until the spirit of inquiry grew stronger than I. +That night I watched Saul, until he grew restless, and asked me why I +did so. + +I evaded direct reply, and on the morrow we were wheeling westward. + +From the instant we left the line of man's art, Saul became another +person. All the romance and the glory in his nature blossomed out +gorgeously, and I grew glad and gay with him. We crossed the Missouri. +We traversed the river-land to Fort Leavenworth, amid cottonwoods, oaks, +and elms which it would have done Dr. Holmes's heart and arms good to +see and measure. + +"Will you ride, Lucy? will you try the prairie?" asked Saul, the morning +following our arrival in Fort Leavenworth. + +I signified my pleasure, and mounted a brave black mustang, written all +over with liberty. We had ridden out the dew of the morning, and for +miles not one word had been spoken, the only sound in the stillness +having been the hoofs' echo on the prairie-grass, when Saul rode close +to me, and, laying his hand on my pony's head, spoke in a deep, strange +voice that put my soul into expectancy, for I had heard the same once +before in my life. + +"Lucy," he said, "I sometimes think that I have done a great wrong in +taking you into my keeping; for I _must_ accept these calls to wildness +that come over me at intervals." + +"Have you ever been here before?" I asked. + +"Twice, Lucy, I have crossed the American Desert, and lain down to sleep +at the foot of the Rocky Mountains." + +"You are not going there now?" I almost gasped. + +"Why not? Can't you go with me?" + +Oh, how my spirit recoiled at the thought of the Desert! Wild animals +processioned through my brain in endless circles. All the stories of +Indian ferocity that ever I had heard came into my consciousness, as it +is said all the past events of life do in the drowning, and I had +no time to hesitate. The decision of my lifetime gathered into that +instant. Saul or nothing; and bravely I answered,--did I not?--when, +with brightening eyes, I said, "Let us on!"--and shaking the hand from +my saddle-bow, I gave my prairie friend leave to fly. + +"Lucy! Lucy!" cried Saul, and he soon overtook me,--"Lucy, I sought you +as the thirsting man seeks water on the desert; and I _have_ sought to +bless you, almost as Hagar blessed the Angel,--almost as the devout soul +blesses God, when it finds a spring that He has made to rise out of the +sands. Having found you, I was content. I thought that I could live +always, as other men do, in the tameness of Town and Law; but I could +not, unless you refused to go with me into the Nature that my spirit +demands as a part of its own life." + +"Saul, you know that you _can_ go without me,--else I should not wish +to go. I go, not because I am a necessity to you, but a free-born soul, +that wills to go where you go." + +The grave Professor (for I whisper it here to-night, with only the wind +to hear, that Saul _is_ a Professor in a famed seat of learning not many +leagues away from the Atlantic coast) looked down at me with a vague, +puzzled air, for an instant, then said,-- + +"I see! It is so, Lucy. You have divined the secret. I am not to let you +know that I cannot live without you,--and, if you can, you are to make +me think that you only tolerate me." + +"What of it? Isn't it almost true? I sometimes think, that, if ever we +are in heaven, effort to remain there will be necessary to its full joy. +We are always crying for rest, when effort is the only pleasure worth +possessing." + +"You are right, and you are wrong. Let us leave mental philosophy with +mankind, who have to do with it. Just now, I am willing to confess that +I need you, and you are to do as you will. Come! let us look into this +thicket." + +And leading the way, Saul rode presently under a tall cotton wood-tree, +and, lifting for me the low-hanging branches of a black-jack, I entered +an amphitheatre whose walls were leaves of living green domed in blue, +with a river-aisle winding through. + +I had not time to take in all the joy of the circle, before it was +evidenced that Saul had premeditated the scene. A fire of twigs sent up +a spicy perfume. A camp-kettle stood beside the fire, and a creature +stood beside it. A yellow savage I should have said, but for my +husband's welcome. Never in our home library did brother-professor ever +receive warmer grasp of hand than I knew this Indian met. They used +words, in speaking, that were unknown to me. Presently I perceived that +an introduction was pending. That being over, the Indian, Meotona, +pointed to a swinging-chair, built for me out of the wealth of +grapevine. It was cushioned with the velvet of the buffalo-grass. + +"Tell me how to thank him," I said to Saul. + +Meotona immediately replied,--"Me no thank,--him," pointing to Saul. + +I laid my sun-wearied head against the vine, and through half-closed +eyes watched in delicious rest the preparations for dinner. My +prairie-horse mistook my comfort for his own. I found his length of +liberty included my chair-cushion, and I gave him tuft after tuft, +until something like justice seemed to penetrate into his soul,--for he +heroically refused the last morsel, and wandered away into the next arc +of his liberty. + +"If all the days are to be like this, how delicious it will be!" I said, +as Saul came to me with choice bits of prairie fare. + +"Not this," he said. "Wait until we hunt the buffalo!--that wakes up the +spirit of man!" + +"But I am not a man, and you must excuse me from hunting buffalo," I +could not help saying, as I slid out of the grapevine chair to the +grass, beside Saul; for verily, I believed that he had forgotten that I +was a woman, and a child of the Puritans. + +No more words were spoken until our repast was over. Meotona gathered +up the furniture of our dining-room, and with us returned toward Fort +Leavenworth. The summer sun was setting when we drew near the Missouri. +I thought I had disappointed Saul. At the last moment I ventured to +ask,-- + +"Why did you return? I would have gone on. I wished it." + +My husband's face lit into a quick smile, then gloomed as quickly, and +he said,-- + +"I smile at your simplicity in imagining that I ventured out, without +consulting you, for the Rocky Mountains. I frown to think that my wife +believes that I could go into danger with her, and only one right arm to +defend her. No! I went to-day to try you. I couldn't ask you within any +four-walled shelter. I wanted the wide expanse to be your only shield +before I could trust you. I wanted you to face the foe. Again I ask, +Shall we go? Answer from your own individuality, not mine." + +"I will go." + +It was the spirit that spoke; for neither heart nor flesh could have +braved the fancied dangers. + +A week went by, and every moment of the time Saul was elate and busy, +providing for me in every possible way, devising comforts that exceeded +my imagination, remembering every idiosyncrasy that I had given +expression to in his hearing. Under the guard of the United States mail, +we left Fort Leavenworth. Meotona, the yellow savage, went with us. Oh, +the delight of those days! it comes to me now, and I almost forget that +I am alone on the Big Blue, and that those hours have gone down among +"the froth and rainbows" of the past, bearing with them a part of my +life. There were nights when I was afloat in the bark of my spirit, and +wandering up and on, until I met Half-Way Angels that bade me back to +Earth; and then I would wander away into dreams, watched by the stars +and Saul,--for in those first days he never wearied in his care. By +day I wandered through a garden of flowers untended by man, whose only +keepers were butterflies and birds. Indian faces and forms no longer +made me tremble. I grew to see beauty in them, as they dashed by the +train, intent on the hunt. + +We encamped beside Stranger Creek, on the banks of the Wakarusa, and on +the Great Divide separating the Osage from the Wakarusa Valley. + +After we left Council Grove, Meotona, I noticed, was on the watch, +constantly peering off into the illimitable distance. One day I learned +the cause. An exclamation from the Indian led me to look at him. For +once, fire flashed out of his eyes,--he had forgotten himself. He was in +ecstasy as he saw a party advancing over the prairie. + +"Here they come! Now for the heart of the wilderness!" exclaimed my +husband, as they rode up. + +"We are not going away from the guard?" I ventured to suggest, as chief +after chief came up. I knew them in their wild orders, having by this +time learned something of Indian customs. They were equipped for the +Plains, and among their number I distinguished two white men. + +"I know them,--they are safe and true, Lucy,--fear nothing!" whispered +Saul close to my whitening cheek; and afterwards we turned aside from +the Santa Fe trail to the north of the American Desert. + +My husband did not leave me for an instant that afternoon; and I, +simple-minded woman, tried to look as happy--well, as a woman and a +professor's wife could look under the circumstances. The wings of my +tent that night were spread to the breeze that swept low and cool across +the Divide. + +The next day we came to the lodges of the Indians. Swarthy-faced girls +and women came to greet us. It was evident that many of them had never +before seen a white woman. As evening came on, I noticed in one group +outside the principal lodge an unusual amount of grimace that was +incomprehensible, until, very timidly, a little girl left the crowd. +Half-way toward me she stopped and turned back, but again the violent +gesticulations were enacted, when the child made a sudden evolution in +my direction, and with one hard finger rubbed the back of my hand, +until I thought myself quite a Spartan; then looking at her own finger, +doubtfully at first, she ran back, and went from one to another, showing +her finger. The design was evident. Indians (the women, at least) have +some curiosity;--they thought _me painted white_. I forgave them. + +We went five hundred miles from this lodge into the wilderness,--two of +the squaws accompanying us, for my comfort. + +At last came the sight of buffaloes, feeding on the short tufts of grass +on the Grand Prairie. My heart grew sick with the shout that rang from a +hundred Indian throats, and--must I write it?--from Saul's. + +"Stay!" said Saul, and he left me a guard, and was away without one word +of farewell. + +Night came down, and he was not returned. The stars shone out of the +vault like "red-hot diamonds," and on the sight no vision, to the ear no +sound. + +The women pitched my tent. The guard lit the fire. They brought me +savory bits of food, and coffee. My throat was tightened, I could not +eat, and I arose and went out into the night alone. I lost all sense of +fear, as I wandered away. The prairie had just been burned, and I knew +must be free from serpents and other reptiles: beyond these I had no +thought. I turned once to see the little dot of fire-light, to see the +one point of canvas, my shelter and my home. At last I grew very weary, +and remember having lain down, and having thought that the stars were +raining down upon me, so near did they seem,--and one after one, +constellation mingled with constellation, until I fancied a storm of +stars was circling over my head. + +I started with a sudden spasm, as a sound burst upon me, wild, ringing, +dreadful. A hundred Indians were uttering a war-cry, and, as I lay +there, with my head pressed to the burnt sod, I felt the shudder of +earth from many hoofs. I turned in the direction whence they were +coming;--raise my head from the ground I dared not. All was darkness. +Could I possibly escape? Not if I moved. Where I was, there might be a +chance that they would pass to the right or the left. On, on they came, +and I knew the cry,--it was for vengeance. Feebly, like a setting star, +gleamed the watch-fire of my guard in the distance. Suddenly it went +down. They had heard the alarm. How awfully my heart kept time to the +nearing echo of the many footfalls! My eyes must have been fastened on +the West. I saw dark heads rise first above the earth-line, then the +moving arms of the horsemen. I heard the ring of weapons, and saw them +coming directly over the place where I lay; but I did not stir,--it was +as if I had been bound with an equator to the ground. Something struck +my arm and was gone. The troop passed by. + +It was morning. A low, deep breathing betokened something near me. I +opened my eyes, and saw the face of my husband,--but, oh, how changed! I +heard him say, "The Lord hear my vow, and record my prayer!" + +All that day I lay there, on the prairie, Saul sitting beside me, +shielding me from, the sun, and giving me drops of coolness, which the +Indians pressed from herbs and shrubs that grew not far away. I was in +a dream, and when the stars arose they lifted me up and bore me away. +I knew it was to the eastward. I felt no resistance in my nature, as I +always do when going to the west, either voluntarily or otherwise. We +came, after many days, to the Indian lodge. I never saw the guard again, +that I left in peace, when I was _driven_ out to wander, because I felt +wretched and lonely to be deserted for the chase by my husband. They +were carried into captivity by the hostile Sioux. There was mourning in +the lodge. An Indian mother, whose daughter had gone with me, sat down +in the ashes of sorrow, and moved not for two days; then she arose, and, +scattering dust from the earth toward the setting sun, she went into her +wigwam and they gave her food. + +It was September before I was able to leave the place whither they +carried me. My arm was cut with the hoof of the flying horse, and when +Saul found me, I had fainted; I was dying from loss of blood, which his +coming only had stayed. After I grew stronger, I closely observed my +husband. + +I never saw such an ache, such a strife, as week after week +hunting-parties went out in the morning and returned at evening with +their game. Saul grew reserved and silent when I begged him to go, to +leave me for a day. + +"It is of no use, Lucy; I made a vow, and I must keep it. This Indian +blood within me must be subdued; it has met a stronger current on the +way, and _must_ mingle with it." + +He said no more on the subject, and I would not question him. We took +our last walk on the prairie. Everything was in readiness for our +departure to meet the expected United States mail-train. We returned +to the lodge, and Saul left me for a few minutes to make some last +arrangements with Meotona. An old Indian woman, whose eyes I had often +noticed on me, crept stealthily in at my tent-door, and said to me in +English,-- + +"Let me be welcome; I come to teach you." + +I knew that among her tribe she had the reputation of a prophetess, but +I had never heard her speak English. + +"I am waiting to hear," I said; and this woman fixed her sad, solemn +eyes on me and said,-- + +"Child of the pale man, a great many moons ago, when my eyes were bright +like the little quiver-flower, and the young warriors sought me in my +father's wigwam, I had a sister. Her name _he_ called Luella. The +chiefs of the tribe were going for a grand hunt on the Huron. Some +pale men from across the lake came to join them. One of them looked on +Luella, and her eyes grew soft and sad. She wrapped her blanket about +her, and walked often under the stars at night. Through the winter, she +would not talk with the young chiefs; and when the leaves grew again, +the pale men came back, and Luella walked again under the stars. She +learned English, and no one knew who taught her. + +"The hunt went on again until the snow came; and when the pale men +left the lodge, Luella was lost from the wigwam. The warriors went +in pursuit, but they came back without Luella. She was not with the +pale-faces. Many moons came and went, and one night I heard a voice +singing in the distance. I knew it was Luella, and she led a child by +her side, and he said soft English words. She would not come into the +lodge. She only came to tell me that she was with the white man who +loved her, that she was content, and to show me her boy; and Luella +walked away into the night again, and I told no one. + +"I made many moccasons, and wove baskets of twigs; and when Uncas, the +chief of the tribe, my father, went to the great hunting-ground beyond +the Sun, then I gathered up my moccasons, and went out before the gate +opened to let the light through. I left the wigwam for Luella. I hated +white people; I hated the white man who stole Luella from me; but the +pale-faces took my moccasons, and gave me white wampum, and with that I +crossed the lake, and went from town to town, and everywhere I showed +the people this,"--and the wrinkled woman extended her hand to me; but, +at the instant, Saul lifted the tent-curtain and came in. She hid her +hand under her blanket, and, wrapping it closely about her, walked out +without a glance to testify that ever she had spoken. + +Saul asked me the cause of this visit, and I was about to tell him, when +there arose in the lodges without such screams and cries as brought all +the population into the air. The Indian woman who so lately had left my +tent lay on the ground, in the apparent extreme of agony. + +"Let the pale-face come," said the knot of savages around her; "it is +for her she calls." + +My husband interpreted the words for me, and in doubt and fear I went to +her. Her screams had ceased; she held her hands tightly over her heart, +as if there had been the spasms of pain. She rolled her eyes around to +see if any one was within hearing, and then said,-- + +"I had fear that you would tell him; stay a little, and let me tell you +now. I went on after Luella until I found her. I had the name of the +white man to guide me. She was living as the pale-faces live, in a great +town of many lodges. + +"I saw with my eyes that she was happy, and then I walked many moons +back to the Huron, and rowed across the lake in a canoe that I found in +the woods. + +"Luella came back again. I don't know how she found the way alone, but +she came into the wigwam when the leaves were falling, and before the +buds grew again she went to Uncas in the West. I asked her about the +white man, and she shook her head and hid her eyes. I asked her for the +boy, and she threw open her arms wide, to show me he was not there. +Look!" said the woman, "I am dying; I'm very old; I ought to have walked +with Luella this long time. Listen,--let me teach you. The pale face +that you look into has eyes like my Luella. Take care! When he would +walk under the stars alone, go not with him. When he would hunt bison, +give him all the prairie; don't stand at the wigwam-door to keep him +in. And when you are far away beyond my people, you may see this,"--and +she handed to me the small parcel from close to her wild heart. I took +it. + +"You'll keep it for Luella's sake. She held it close when she went away; +now I'm going, there's no one else to care. Bring it with you, when the +Great Spirit calls." + +I could win no more words from the woman. She spoke to those who came to +her, and Saul said she told them that I had "taken away the torment." + +"I shall think my Lucy witches somebody beside poor Saul," said my +husband; and he gave a sigh as he stood in the tent-door, and watched +the westering moon for the last time. + +In the morning they told us that the Prophetess had gone into the light +beyond the Sun. + +Saul went in to see her, and as he came back to me I saw that he was not +in a mood for words. Our farewell was very silent. Meotona went with us. +Once again, bounding over the prairie, my heart grew lighter than it +had been for many days; but I had no opportunity to examine Luella's +treasure. + +We met the long caravan of wagons on the summit of the Great Divide, and +it was joy to unite my fate once more with that of my countrymen. Saul +saw this, and said,-- + +"Know now, Lucy, that you have the portion meted out to me, when I saw +the freemen of the wild coming. Your pleasure is that of civilization; +mine was that of barbaric life. I bid adieu to it henceforth,"--and my +brave husband, at this instant, looked out upon the head-waters of the +Neosho, where Nature, when she built up the world, must have made a +storehouse of material, and never came back for her treasures, they lie +so magnificently rolled over the land. + +Saul's eyes gathered up the view, as if they were, what they are, +memory's absorbents, and said, sadly,-- + +"It is for the last time, Lucy!" + +We went into corral the next evening by the side of a grassy mound +covered with low-growing shrubs. + +Afterwards Saul wandered out alone. I would have gone with him; but +at the instant I put my face outside the tent-door, the memory of the +Indian woman's caution came to me, and with it the opportunity to +examine Luella's secret. + +I entered my tent, lighted the little lamp that had travelled a thousand +miles and never done service till now, and opened Luella's treasure. It +was wrapped in soft white fur, bound about with the long, dried grass +that grows beside the Huron. A scroll of parchment was rolled within +it, faded, yellow, and old. I opened it, with a smile at my strange +inheritance. + +At the first glance, I thought I had before me some Indian +hieroglyphics; but bringing back from the place of its long obscurity +the little knowledge of the French language that I held in possession, I +deciphered, that, "fourscore years before, beside the froth of the Huron +Water, Father Kino had performed the marriage-rite upon Luella, daughter +of Uncas, of the Dacotahs, and Richard Monten, of Montreal." Below the +certificate of the priest of the Church were strange characters beyond +my power to decipher. + +With trembling I looked out for Saul's return. Here, upon the banks +of the Neosho, I had learned the secret which my life in the East had +hidden so long. + +A certain kind, of guiltiness came over me, as Saul drew near, breaking +down with every tread the sun-cured grass,--a sense of unworthiness, to +hold in my hand a possession which essentially was his, and which he had +not freely given me. + +"I will not look into his eyes with a veil lying in the air," I said, +very quietly to myself; and so, when my husband saw the burning of the +little lamp and asked the cause, I told him all the story of the +Indian woman, and put into his hand her gift to me. Saul's mind was +preoccupied; he paid very little attention to the story; but when I +gave him the white-furred scroll, and he opened it, then the grave +professor----Well, it is better that I do not put into words what +followed, even here, on the Big Blue. + +An hour afterwards Saul spoke. He said,-- + +"Lucy, you have given me the key of my life, I knew my Indian blood, but +I knew not whence it came; therefore I said nothing to you. I remember +being tormented by it, when a boy, but never knew by what right. Let me +translate for you this Indian register of--let me see--my grandmother's +marriage. 'Ten moons from the lost moon, and many sleeps from the life +of the big Huron Water, the Great Spirit called Luella to walk with a +son of the Pale-Faces. The mystery [the priest] met them, and told them +to go on to the Sun. They are gone in the path of the lost moons.'" + +"Let us go to Skylight by the way of Montreal," I suggested. + +Saul said, "It is well." + +At the Missouri I laid aside my prairie costume, and assumed the raiment +of fashion. + +We found in Canada pleasant people bearing our name, and they welcomed +us as relatives. + +Richard Monten lay beside a fixed cloud of marble; and although Luella's +sister had said she died far away, yet her name was beneath her +husband's. + +Tradition told us of the beautiful Indian wife with eyes like +light,--and how her husband took her, every year, alone with him into +the wilds,--and how, when they came back, and the winter snows fell, +she would sit all day beside him, with her eyes on figures and letters, +whilst her impatient fingers were threading her long hair, and memory +shook her head at the attempted education, perhaps wisely and well. + +When Mr. Monten died, and left her houses and lands, she turned away +from them all, and, leading her boy by the hand, went out of her home +and was seen no more until long after, when Father Kino, a kind old +priest, going home late one night from a dying soul, in passing the +cloud of marble, heard faint moans coming out of it, and, going near, +found an Indian woman, in festive dress, like a chief's daughter, +kneeling there. A few minutes afterwards, when Father Kino came back +with an assistant, there were no more moans, for Luella had "gone on to +the Sun." + +The fate of the little boy was never known until then, and then it was +only known that he had lived and died and was buried in Skylight. + +We found houses and lands, but no record that they were ours. So we left +them under British rule, and returned to Skylight, to our cottage and +duty. + +Aunt Carter came in before we had been an hour at home. I think she +watched the opportunity of Saul's absence to find me alone. + +"See!" she exclaimed, holding up to my view a small eminence of +stockings, "see what I have done, while you've just been going about the +world doing nothing at all!" And with a really warm shake of my hand, +Aunt Carter seated herself, for the second time, in Saul's chair. + +"Why, I've been knitting too!" I said, in extenuation. + +"What?" asked Aunt Carter. "Some new-fashioned thing or other, I'll +warrant." + +"No,--something that is as old as Eve." + +"Who ever heard of Eve's knitting? The Bible doesn't say one word about +it, Mrs. Monten. Besides, I don't think little Cain and Abel wore +stockings at all." + +"I did not say that Eve knit in Paradise. I only said I'd been knitting +at something as old as Eve. I meant the thread of life. Here comes my +husband to tell you how industrious I have been." + +Saul led Aunt Carter on to talk of her youth, and gradually of his +father, until he had learned all that she knew of his history. It was +very little: only that a fur-trader and a party of Dacotahs came to the +village, she had heard her father say, to sell their skins, bringing a +brown little boy with them; that the child fell sick with scarlet fever, +and they left him to the mercy of the village people, and never came +back for him, although they had said they would. + +Did Luella give her boy away?--Never, I was convinced, and Saul +likewise. + +Saul went back into his round of professional duties, and with much +heart for a while. + +Delighted with civilization, and peopled with memories, and joyous with +the divine plumage ever hovering around me, my life ran on. I watched +Saul narrowly. He would often take up his hat, after hours of +application to science, and rush out of the house, as if a mission lay +before him. He would come back, and devote himself to me, as if he were +conscious of some neglect in his absence. I planned short excursions all +over the adjacent country. I became addicted to angling, because I saw +Saul liked it. There were many righteous eyeballs that reproved me +for wandering in places not fit for a woman, and Aunt Carter became +exceedingly disturbed, even to the point of remonstrance. + +"You're spoiling your husband," she would say,--"he'll not know but what +you are a squaw," she said to me one day, in true distress. + +However, I endured it delightfully for three years. Saul received in one +week four letters, each containing the offer of a professor's chair in a +desirable institution. + +For many months I had seen the spell weaving around my good husband; +I had seen it flash out of his eyes; I had heard its undertone in his +voice; I had felt it in his whole manner, and I knew the hour of battle +was near. + +I was strong, and I came to the rescue. It was on this wise. Hearken! is +he coming? No, it is only the wind coming up the Big Blue. + +We sat in our Skylight door in an April evening,--unwise, perhaps,--but +we were there. Saul had taken down that wild warble of Longfellow's, +"Hiawatha." He read to me until the moon came up; then he threw down the +book, and said, "Pshaw!" + +"What is that for, Saul?" I asked, in some surprise. + +"It is not for the book,--for myself, Lucy. I had better not have opened +it Let us go and talk with the Doctor." And we went. + +Saul had not answered his letters on the chair question, and I put up a +petition. + +"I think I never felt so well as when I was in Kansas," I said. "Really, +Saul, I've felt a strong inclination to cough for some time, every +morning. The climate of Kansas is wonderfully curative for pulmonary +difficulties. I wish you would go out there now, and build a log cabin, +plant a few miles of maize, gather it in, and then, when the season is +over, come back and go to ----. You know they value you too highly not +to wait your time." + +I saw a slow kindling up in Saul's eyes, but an instant later it had +gone down, and he said, looking into mine,-- + +"Do you really and truly wish this, Lucy?" + +And Lucy answered,-- + +"I really and truly wish it, Saul." + +We came hither with the violets and bluebirds. My wigwam points to the +sky. We have roamed on the prairies, and wandered in the timber-lands. +Under the heavens of the Big Blue we have drunk "the wine of life all +day," and "been lighted off" to hemlock-boughs "by the jewels in the +cup." + +Oh, this life that is passing, passing in unseen marches on to the Great +Plains where we shall corral forever! I've just opened my cabin-door +to look for Saul; he's been gone ten days. The drought came; our maize +withered and died. Ten miles away, there is a town; two houses are +there. We left our vast-wilderness lodge to Nature in October, and +turned our faces eastward. Reaching the town, we found Azrael hovering +there. It was impossible to go on and leave such suffering, and we +stayed. While we waited, winter came along, tossing her white mail +over the prairie, and we were prisoned. Azrael folded his pinions, and +carried in them two souls out of the town of two houses. Afterward, Saul +and I came back to our home. I kindled the fire, and Saul went forth to +earn our daily food. Life began to grow painfully earnest. The supply of +wheaten flour waxed less and less, and I sometimes wished--no, I _did +not wish_ that I was a widow, I only wished for flour. + +I began to look for manna, and it came,--not "small and white, about +the size of coriander-seed," but in the form of the flying life of +yesterday. + +I have cried many tears over eyes that were shut for me, but I've never +been sorry that I came hither. + +At last, no more wings came flying over the prairie. Saul came home +without food. That was ten days ago. He carried me the next morning to +the village, to leave me there, till he should return,--then retraced +the ten miles through the snow, and went for food. + +I stayed until there was no more for the children to eat. I could not +abide that, and this morning I stole away. I've come the ten miles +through the snow to light the fire, that Saul may not pass by, and go on +to the town this cold night. Where is he now? Not perishing, dying on +the prairie, as I was once, when he found me? I'll walk and see. It +is so lone outside, there is such an _awful sound_ in the _voice of +stillness,_ and Saul is not in sight! + +Where is my life now? Since Saul went away, so much of it has gone, I +feel as if more of myself were there than here. Why couldn't I go on +thinking? It was such relief! The moon is up at last. A low rumble over +the dried grass, like a great wave treading on sand. I am faint. I have +tightened my dress, to keep out hunger, every hour of this day. Those +starving children! God pity them! A higher wave of sound,--surely 'tis +not fancy. I will look out. The moon shines on a prairie sail, a gleam +of canvas. Another roll of the broad wheel, and Saul is here. + +"Send the man on quickly," I cried; "the children are starving in the +town." + +"And you?" said Saul. + +The power of his eyes is almost gone. I scarcely heed them. I see--a bag +of meal. + + + + +NAPOLEON THE THIRD + + +On the 6th of October, 1840, a young man was brought up for sentence in +one of the highest courts of Europe, before which he had been tried, and +by which he had been found guilty of one of the greatest crimes that can +be charged upon any human being, though the world seldom visits it with +moral condemnation. The young man was Prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, +the court was the French Chamber of Peers, and the sentence was +imprisonment for life. Had the French government of that day felt strong +enough to act strongly, the condemned would have been treated as the +Neapolitans treated Murat, and as the Mexicans treated Yturbide. He +would have been perpetually imprisoned, but his prison would have been +"that which the sexton makes." But the Orleans dynasty was never strong, +and its head was seldom able to act boldly. To execute a Bonaparte, +the undoubted heir of the Emperor, required nerve such as no French +government had exhibited since that day on which Maréchal Ney had been +shot; and there were seven hundred thousand foreign soldiers in France +when that piece of judicial butchery was resolved upon. The army might +not be ready to join a Bonaparte, but it could not be relied upon to +guard the scaffold on which he should be sent to die. The people might +not be ready to overthrow Louis Philippe, to give his place to Louis +Napoleon, but it did not follow that they would have seen the latter's +execution with satisfaction, because they desired peace, and he had +fallen into the habit of breaking it. The enthusiasm that was created in +France by the arrival in that country of the remains of Napoleon I., +not three months after the coming Napoleon III. had been sent to the +fortress of Ham, showed how difficult a matter it would have been to +proceed capitally against the Prince. Louis Philippe has been praised +for sparing him; but the praise is undeserved. Certainly, the King of +the French was not a cruel man, and it was with sincere regret that he +signed the death-warrants of men who had sought his own life, and who +had murdered his friends; but it would have been no act of cruelty, had +he sent his rival to the guillotine. When a man makes a throw for a +crown, he accepts what is staked, against it,--a coffin. Nothing is +better established than this, that, when a sovereign is assailed, the +intention of the assailant being his overthrow, that sovereign has a +perfect right to put his rival to death, if he succeed in obtaining +possession of his person. The most confirmed believer in Richard III.'s +demoniac character would not think of adding the execution of Richmond +to his crimes, had Plantagenet, and not Tudor, triumphed on Bosworth +Field. James II. has never been blamed for causing Monmouth to be put to +death, but for having complied with his nephew's request for a personal +interview, at which he refused to grant his further request for a +mitigation of punishment. Murat's death was an unnecessary act, but +Ferdinand of Naples has never been censured for it. Had Louis Philippe +followed these examples, and those of a hundred similar cases, he could +not have been charged with undue severity in the exercise of his power +for the conservation of his own rights, and the maintenance of the +tranquillity, not of France alone, but of Europe, and of the world, +which the triumph of a Bonaparte might have perilled. He spared the +future Emperor's life, not from any considerations of a chivalric +character, but because he durst not take it. He feared that the blood +of the offender would more than atone for his offence, and he would +not throw into the political caldron so rich a material, dreading the +effects of its presence there. Then the Orléans party and the Imperial +party not only marched with each other, but often crossed and ran into +each other; and it was not safe to run the risk of offending the first +by an attempt to punish its occasional ally. There was, too, something +of the ludicrous in the Boulogne affair, which enabled government to +regard the chief offender with cheap compassion. Louis Philippe is +entitled to no credit, on the score of mercy, for his conduct in +1840,--for the decision of the Court of Peers was his inspiration; but +he acted wisely,--so wisely, that, if he had done as well in 1848, his +grandson would at this moment have been King of the French, and the +Emperor that is a wanderer, with nothing but a character for flightiness +and a capacity for failure to distinguish him from the herd, while many +would have regarded him as a madman. But the end was not then, and the +hand of Fate was not even near that curtain which was to be raised for +the disclosure of events destined to shake and to change the world. + +The defence of Louis Napoleon was conducted by M. Berryer, the great +leader of the Legitimists, who, twenty-five years before, had aided +in the defence of Ney, and who, nearly twenty years later, defended +Montalembert, his client of 1840 being in this last case the prosecutor. +In his speech in defence of the Prince, this first of French orators and +advocates made use of language, the recollection of which in after-days +must have been attended with very conflicting emotions. Addressing +himself to the judges, he said,--"Standing where I do, I do not think +that the claims of the name in which this project was attempted can +possibly fall humiliated by the disdainful expressions of the _Procureur +Général_. You make remarks upon the weakness of the means employed, of +the poverty of the whole enterprise, which made all hope of success +ridiculous. Well, if success is anything, I will say to you who are +men,--you, who are the first men in the state,--you, who are members of +a great political body,--there is an inevitable and eternal Arbitrator +between every judge and every accused who stands before him;--before +giving your judgment, now, being in presence of this Arbitrator, and in +face of the country, which will hear your decrees, tell me this, without +regard now to weakness of means, but with the rights of the case, the +laws, and the institution before your eyes, and with your hands upon +your hearts, as standing before your God, and in presence of us, who +know you, will you say this:--'If he had succeeded, if his pretended +right had triumphed, I would have denied him and it,--I would have +refused all share in his power,--I would have denied and rejected him'? +For my part, I accept the supreme arbitration I have mentioned; and +whoever there may be amongst you, who, before their God, and before +their country, will say to me,--'If he had succeeded, I would have +denied him,'--such a one will I accept for judge in this case." In +making this sweeping challenge, M. Berryer knew that he was hitting +the Court of Peers hard, for it contained men who had been leading +Napoleonists in the days of the Empire, and others who were ready to +join any government which should be powerful enough to establish itself; +while it left the Legitimists, the orator's own party, unharmed. They +were the only men, according to M. Berryer's theory of defence, who +would have furnished an impartial tribunal for the trial of his client; +for they alone, with strict truth, could have said that they would deny +his right, and refuse to share in his power, no matter at what time he +should succeed in accomplishing his designs. + +Had the French Peers been gifted with that power of mental vision which +enables men to see into the future, they would not have been disposed to +condemn the man who stood before them in 1840. Could it have been made +known to them that in eight years he would be elected President of the +French Republic by nearly five and a half millions of votes,--that in +twelve years he would become Emperor of the French,--that in fifteen +years he would, as the ally of England, have struck down the Russian +hegemony,--and that in twenty years he would be the conqueror of +Austria, and have called the Kingdom of Italy into existence, while his +enmity was dreaded and his friendship desired by all the nations of the +earth, and the fate of the Popedom was in his hands,--had these things +been so much as dreamed of by his judges, they would have formed the +most lenient of tribunals, and have suffered him to depart in peace. +They are not to be charged with a lack of wisdom in not foreseeing what +must have appeared to be the ravings of lunacy, had it been deliberately +set down by some inspired prophet. Neither the man nor his cause +commanded much respect. We, who know that the French Emperor is the +first man of the age, as well in intellect as in position, have no right +to sneer at the men of 1840 because they looked upon him as a feeble +pretender. He had made two attempts to place himself at the head of the +French nation, and in each instance his failure had been so signal, and +in some respects so ridiculous, that it was impossible to regard him as +the representative of a living principle. Even those who thought him a +man of talent could account for his want of success only by supposing +that Imperialism was no longer powerful in France, and that his appeals +were made to an extinct party. The soldiery, amongst whom the traditions +of the Empire were supposed to be strong, had evinced no desire to +substitute a Bonaparte for a Bourbon of the younger branch; and as to +the peasantry, who showed themselves so fanatically Bonapartean in 1848, +and in 1851-2, they were never thought of at all. France consisted of +the government, the army, the _bourgeoisie_, and the skeleton colleges +of electors; and so long as they were agreed, nothing was to be feared +either from Prince Louis Napoleon or from the Comte de Chambord. We +think this was a sound view of affairs, and that the French government +of 1841 might have been the French government of 1861, had not the +parties to the combination that ruled France in 1841 quarrelled. It was +the loss of the support of the middle class that caused Louis Philippe +to lose his throne in the most ignominious manner; and that support the +monarch would not have forfeited, but for the persistence of M. Guizot +in a policy which it would have been difficult to maintain under any +circumstances, and which was enfeebled in 1847-8 by the gross corruption +of some of its principal supporters. That the _bourgeoisie_ intended to +subvert the throne they had established, for the benefit of either +the Republicans or the Imperialists, is not to be supposed; but their +natural disgust with the wickedness of the government as it was at the +beginning of 1848, and with the refusal of the minister to allow even +the peaceful discussion of the reform question, was the occasion of the +kingdom's fall, and of the establishment, first of the shadowy Republic, +and then of the solid Empire. + +The events of 1848 furnished to Louis Napoleon the place whereon to +stand, whence to move the French world. He must have lived and died an +exile, but for the Revolution of February. The ability with which he +profited by events suffices to show that he is entitled to be considered +a great man as well as a great sovereign. That he had been born in the +purple, and that he bore a great name, and that through the occurrence +of several deaths he had become the legitimate heir of Napoleon, were +favorable circumstances, and helped not a little to promote his purpose; +but they could not alone have made him Emperor of the French, and the +world's arbiter. There must have been extraordinary talent in the man +who aspired as he did, or he would have failed as completely in 1848 as +he had failed in 1836 and in 1840. But the real power of the man came +out as soon as he found a standing-place. Previously to 1848, he could +act only as a criminal in seeking his proper place, as he believed it to +be. He had first to conquer before he could attempt to govern,--and to +conquer, too, with the means of his enemy. All this was changed in 1848. +Then he was safe in France, as he had been in England, and began +the political race on equal terms with such men as Cavaignac and +Ledru-Rollin. That he soon passed far ahead of them was, perhaps, as +much due to circumstances as to his political abilities. The name of +Bonaparte was associated with the idea of the restoration of order +and prosperity, and this helped him with that large class of persons, +embracing both rich men and poor men, who not only believe that "order +is Heaven's first law," but that under certain conditions it is the +supreme law, for the maintenance of which all other laws are to be set +aside and disregarded. These men, whose organ and exponent was M. +César Romieu, who called so loudly for cannon to put down the +revolutionists,--"even if it should come from Russia!"--and whose type +of perfection is the churchyard, were all fanatical supporters of "the +coming man," and they assisted him along the course with all their might +and strength. No matter how swiftly he drove, his chariot-wheels seemed +to them to tarry. The very arguments that were made use of to induce +other men to act against the rising Bonaparte were those which had +the most effect in binding them to his cause. He would establish a +cannonarchy, would he? Well, a cannonarchy was exactly what they +desired, provided its powers should be directed, not against foreign +monarchs, but against domestic Republicans. That a government of which +he should be the head would disregard the constitution, would shackle +the press, would limit speech, and would suppress the Assembly, was an +argument in his favor, that, to their minds, was irresistible. Had +they thought of the Russian War, and of the Italian War, and of the +extinction of the Pope's temporal power, and of the liberal home-policy +that was adopted in 1860, as things possible to occur, Louis Napoleon +would have remained Louis Napoleon to the end of his days, for all the +support he would have received at their hands. They wished for a sort +of high-constable, whose business it should be to maintain order by +breaking the heads or seizing the persons of all who did not take their +view of men's political duties. It is the custom to speak of this +class of men as if they were peculiar to France, and to say that their +existence there is one of the many reasons why that country can never +long enjoy a period of constitutional liberty. This is not just to +France. The French are a great people, who have their faults, but who +are in no sense more servile than are Americans, or Englishmen, or +Germans. Extreme disciples of order, men who are ready to sacrifice +everything else for the privileges of making and spending or hoarding +money in peace, are to be found in all countries; and nowhere are they +more numerous, and nowhere is their influence greater or more noxious, +than in the United States. The difference of populations considered, +there are as many of them in Boston as in Paris; and our breed is +ready to go as far in sacrificing freedom, and in treating right with +contempt, as were their French brothers of 1848. The infirmity belongs, +not to French nature, but to human nature. + +Louis Napoleon received not a little assistance, in the early part of +his French career, from the strongest of his political enemies. The +friends of both branches of the Bourbons were his friends--at that time, +and for their own purposes. A restoration was what they desired, and +they held that it would be easier to convert the Comte de Chambord or +the Comte de Paris into a king as the consequence of another Bonapartean +usurpation, than as the consequence of the Republic's continuance. Louis +Napoleon was to destroy the Republic, and they were to destroy him, with +the aid of foreign armies. The fate which Cicero wished for Octavius, +that he should be elevated and then destroyed, was what they meant for +him. They counted upon the effect of that reaction which so soon set in +against the revolutions of 1848, and which they did not believe +would spare any government which had grown out of any one of those +revolutions. They also believed the Prince to be a fool, and thought +he would be a much easier person to be disposed of, after he had been +sufficiently used, than any one of his rivals. They overrated their own +power as much as they underrated his abilities; and down to the last +moment, and when the contest had become one for life or death, they bore +themselves as if they were sure that they were acting against a man who +had been elevated solely through the force of circumstances, and who +could not maintain his position. The _coup d'état_ opened their eyes, +but it was not until the event of the Russian War had secured for the +Emperor the first place in Europe, that they became convinced that in +the man who was the ruler of France they had a master. Even now, when +the condition of every country within the circle of civilization bears +evidence to the vast weight of Imperial France, it is not difficult to +find Frenchmen who declare that the Emperor is a mere adventurer, and +that he is only "a lucky fellow." If they are right, what shall we think +of all France? Does the reign of Napoleon III. serve only to illustrate +the proverb, that among the blind the one-eyed man is a king? + +The manner in which the French President became Emperor of the French +has been much criticized. That some of his deeds, at the close of 1851, +and in the early part of 1852, deserve censure, few of his intelligent +admirers will be disposed to deny. His defence is, that it was +impossible for him to act differently without forfeiting his life. The +contest, in 1851, had assumed such a character, that it was evident +that the one party or the other must be destroyed. We have M. Guizot's +authority for saying that in French political contests no quarter is +ever given, and that the vanquished become as the dead. French history +shows that there is no exaggeration in this statement, and that every +political leader in France must fight for his life as well as for his +post, the loss of the latter placing the former in great peril. This is +a characteristic of French politics to which sufficient attention has +not been paid, in discussing the morality of French statesmen. In +England, for many generations, and in the United States, down to the +decision of the last Presidential election, a constitutional opposition +was as much a political institution, and as completely a part of the +machinery of government, as the administration itself. Formerly, +opposition was not without its dangers in England, and, whichever party +had possession of the government, it sought to crush out its opponents +with all the vigor and venom of an American slavocrat. Charles I. sent +Sir John Eliot to the Tower, by way of punishing him for the opposition +he had made to unconstitutional government; and there he died, and there +he was buried. The execution of Strafford, though as just a deed as ever +was performed, must be allowed to have resulted from proceedings that +belong to French politics rather than to those of England since the +times of the Tudors. All through the reigns of the Stuart kings, and +down to the Revolution, parties fought for safety as well as for spoils. +A defeat was then often followed by a butchery. Hume, speaking of the +political warfare that happened just before the Revolution of 1688, says +that the "two parties, actuated by mutual rage, but cooped up within the +narrow limits of the law, levelled with poisoned daggers the most +deadly blows against each other's breast, and buried in their factious +divisions all regard to truth, honor, and humanity." This evil was +gradually, but surely, removed from English politics by the triumph of +the constitutional party. It lingered, however, for half a century, and +after the accession of the House of Hanover caused the impeachment of +Oxford and the exile of Bolingbroke and Ormond. The last pronounced +appearance of it was in 1742, when Sir Robert Walpole's enemies, not +content with his political fall, sought his life. They failed utterly, +and for one hundred and twenty years the course of English politics has +been strictly constitutional, an opposition party being, as it were, the +complement of the administration or ministry. The same party divisions +that existed in England under George II. substantially exist under the +grand-daughter of his grandson. So has it been in the United States, +though it would not be difficult to show that none of our parties have +been so free from approaching to the verge of illegality as English +parties have been since 1714; and the conduct of the present American +opposition is simply detestable, and has destroyed the national +constitution. + +The French began their political imitation of the English in 1789. As +in most imitations, caricature has largely predominated in it. The one +thing that might advantageously have been imitated they have altogether +neglected. They never have been able to comprehend the nature and the +purpose of an opposition party, and hence every such party that has come +into existence in France has been treated by the governing party as if +it were composed of enemies of the State. When the Jacobins sent the +Girondins to the scaffold, and when Robespierre and St. Just sent Danton +and Desmoulins to the same place, and when the Thermidorians so disposed +of Robespierre and St. Just, they did no more than has been done by +other French political leaders, except that their measures were more +trenchant than have been those of later statesmen of their country. The +reason why the Revolution led to a military despotism was, that no +party would tolerate its political foes, much less protect them in the +exercise of the right of free discussion and legal action. The execution +of Louis XVI. was but a solitary incident in the game that was played by +the most excitable political gamblers that ever converted a nation into +a card-table. He was slain, not so much because he was a king, or had +been one, as because he was the natural chief of the Royal party, a +party which the Republicans would not spare. Party after party rose and +fell, the leaders perishing under the guillotine, or flying from their +country, or being sent to Guiana. Despotism came as a relief to the +people who were thus tormented by the bloody freaks of men who were +energetic only as murderers. There probably never was a more popular +government than Bonaparte's Consulship, in its first days. Soon, +however, the old evil renewed itself in full force. A few men, the most +conspicuous of whom was Carnot, confined their opposition to the policy +of the government, and kept themselves within the limits of the law; +but others were less scrupulous, and labored for the destruction of the +government, and compassed the death of the governors. Jacobins were as +bad as Royalists, and Royalists were no better than Jacobins. Confusion +was as much the object of the party of order as it was that of the party +of disorder. Men of all ranks, opinions, parties, and conditions were +among the conspirators of those days, or in some way encouraged the +conspirators, from Cadoudal, a hero of the Vendée, to Moreau, the hero +of the Black Forest and Hohenlinden. The vigorous, and in some instances +tyrannical, action of the government put a stop to this kind of +opposition for some years. The seizure and execution of the Duc +d'Enghien, though in itself not to be approved, was followed by a +cessation of Royalist attempts against the person of the chief of the +State. It was one of those terrible lessons by which constituted power +sometimes teaches its enemies that the force of lawlessness is not +necessarily confined to one side in a political controversy. Nothing +contributed more to the establishment of the Empire than the violence +of Bonaparte's enemies, as they favored the plan of establishing an +hereditary monarchy, the existence of which should not be bound up with +the existence of an individual. During the reign of Napoleon I. the +opposition was quiet, but it was organized, and its conduct was from +first to last illegal, as it corresponded with the banished princes, and +with the foreign enemies of France. The Mallet affair, in 1812, which +came so very near effecting the Emperor's dethronement when he was in +the midst of his Russian disasters, shows how frail was his tenure +of power when he was absent from Paris, and how extensive were the +ramifications of the informal conspiracy that existed against him. "You +have found the tail, but not the head," were the words in which the +bold conspirator let his judges know that the danger was not over. The +Legislative Body endeavored to act as an opposition party in France +after the disasters of 1813, and the Emperor, after giving them a +lecture, dismissed them. The Allies would never have dared to cross +the French frontier, had they not been advised of the existence of +disaffection, which was ready to become treason, in their enemy's +country. The opposition to Louis XVIII.'s government was highly +treasonable in its character; and so was that which Napoleon encountered +during the Hundred Days. When the second Restoration had been effected, +the French government found itself in a strange predicament. The +extraordinary Chamber of Deputies which then met, "the Impracticable +Chamber," was so intensely royalist in its sentiments, that it alarmed +every reasonable friend of monarchy in Europe. It would have subjected +the king himself to its will, in order that it might be free to punish +the enemies of royalty with even more vigor and cruelty than the +Jacobins had punished its friends. There was to be a revival of the +Terror by the party which had suffered in 1793, and for the purpose of +exterminating imperialists, republicans, and moderate monarchists. Lord +Macaulay has compared this Chamber with the first English Parliament +that was called after the restoration of the House of Stuart. The +comparison is unfair to the Parliament. There had been a long and a +bitter war between parties in England, and the Cavaliers remembered, +because they were events of yesterday, the terrible series of defeats +they had experienced, from Edgehill to Worcester. Between the date of +the Battle of Worcester and the date of the Restoration there were less +than nine years. The same generation that saw Charles I. beheaded saw +Charles II. enter Whitehall. England had changed but little in the +twenty years that elapsed between the meeting of the Long Parliament and +the dissolution of the Convention Parliament. Very different was it in +France. There parties had had no fighting in the field, save in Brittany +and the Vendée. There the change had been as complete as if it had been +half a century in the making. Twenty-three years had passed away since +the fall of the monarchy, when the Impracticable Chamber met, to +legislate for a new France in the spirit of the worst period of the +reigns of the worst Bourbons. These ultra-royalists would have had their +way, and the massacres of the Protestants would have been accompanied or +followed by the destruction of all parties save the victors, but for the +existence of circumstances which it is even now painful for Frenchmen +to think of. The Allies occupied the country, and their influence was +thrown in behalf of moderate counsels. The good-nature of Louis XVIII. +was supported by the sound common-sense of Wellington, and by the +humanity of Alexander; and so but few persons were punished for +political offences. The conduct of the Chamber showed that the Deputies +had no just conception of the nature either of a ministry or of an +opposition. So it was, though with less violence, throughout the period +known as the Restoration; and the Polignac movement of 1830, which led +to the fall of the elder Bourbons, was a _coup d'état_, the object being +the destruction of the Charter. In Louis Philippe's reign, there were +facts upon facts that establish the proposition that no French party +then clearly comprehended the character of a political opposition; and +it was the attempt of M. Guizot to prevent even the discussion of the +reform question that was the occasion, though not the cause, of the +Revolution of 1848. No sooner had the Republic been established than the +Royalists began to conspire against its existence, while the Republicans +themselves were far from being united, the _Reds_ hating the _Blues_ +quite as intensely as they hated the _Whites_, or old Royalists; and +beyond even the _Reds_ were large numbers of men who, for the lack of a +more definite name, have been called Socialists, who wanted something as +vehemently as Brutus desired his purposes, but who would probably have +been much puzzled to say what that something was, had the question been +put to them by the agent of a power willing and able to gratify their +wish. + +It was into such a political chaos as this that Louis Napoleon found +himself plunged in 1848. He had a difficult part to fill; and that he +did not succeed in satisfying most of those who had been most prominent +in elevating him was inevitable from the discrepancy between his views +of his position and their views of it. They had intended him to be a +tool, and he was determined to be master of all the land. There was a +contest for power, which ended in the _coup d'état_ of 1851. Victory +waited on the heir of her old favorite. The contest was marked by many +deeds, on both sides, not defensible on strict moral grounds, but which +bear too close a resemblance to the ordinary course of French politics +to admit of the actors being sweepingly condemned, as if they had +poisoned a pure fountain. Neither party could afford to act with +fairness, because each party was convinced that the other was seeking +its destruction, according to the usual rule of Gallic political +warfare. That the world should have heard much of the errors of the +victor, while those of the vanquished have been charitably passed over, +is but natural. Victors become objects of envy, while pity is the +feeling that is created by thoughts of their foes. It is only in America +that the beaten party is so insolent that the conquerors are fairly +over-crowed by it. All the blunders, all the acts of violence of which +the other side were guilty, have been forgotten, or are not alluded +to, because parties are not held accountable for evils that never were +perpetrated, though it was intended that they should take form and shape +and bear fruit. It is charged against the Emperor, that he deliberately +planned the destruction of the Republic, and that he ceased not to +labor until his purpose had been effected. Admitting this charge to be +strictly well founded, what is it more than can be brought against the +very men who are so loud in preferring it? The Republic was doomed from +the hour of its birth, and the final struggle between the Imperialists +and the Royalists was made over its carcass. That struggle was neither a +Pharsalia, in which two great men contended for supremacy in a republic, +nor a Philippi, in which parties fought deliberately in support of +certain principles, but an Actium; and the question to be decided was, +With which of two energetic forms of force should the victory be? Louis +Napoleon contended for the imperial form, for the rehabilitation of the +scheme of his uncle, and for an opportunity to develop the Napoleonic +ideas. The other side sought the restoration of the monarchy as it had +been between 1814 and 1830, with Henry V. for their idol, as any attempt +to make the Comte de Paris king must have failed, though in due time +Henry V. might have been displaced, if not succeeded regularly, by the +head of the Orléans family. Of the two parties to the struggle that +followed the election of Louis Napoleon to the Presidency, that of the +President was the more friendly to liberal institutions, and the most +disposed to govern in accordance with modern sentiments. The President +himself was attached to the liberal party, and leaned decidedly to +the left wing of it. Circumstances had all tended to make him a +Constitutionalist. His connections had been principally with those +countries in which liberty is best understood, and whose histories are +the histories of freedom. By birth he was a prince of Holland. He had +lived much in Switzerland and in England, and he had visited the United +States. That part of his youth in which the mind is formed he had passed +in those years in which the Bonapartists and Liberals had been allies. +His writings prove that he both understood and appreciated the +constitutional system of government. Such a man was not likely to become +a despot merely from choice, though circumstances might make him one +for the time, as they made Fabius a dictator. His recent action, in +extensively liberalizing the imperial system, and in providing for +perfect freedom of discussion in the Senate and the Legislative Body,--a +freedom of which the supporters of the Pope have thoroughly availed +themselves,--confirms the belief that his original intention was to +provide a free constitution for France. Had he done so, there would +have been civil war in that country within a year from the time that he +became master of it. He could not trust his enemies, who, could they +have obtained power, would have granted him no mercy, and therefore had +no right to expect it from him. Had they been successful, we should have +heard much of their acts of usurpation and cruelty, and of the injustice +with which the President and his party and policy had been treated. +Severe criticism, often unfair both in matter and in manner, is that +which every victorious party must experience, not only from those whom +it has defeated, but from the world at large. This is one of the items +in the details of the heavy price which the victors must pay for their +victory, no matter where it is won, or what the character of the contest +the issue of which it has decided. Men worship success, but they worship +it much after the fashion that some savage tribes worship the gods +created by their own hands, tearing and rending at one time the images +that at another had been objects of their most abject devotion. + +If we judge the conduct of Louis Napoleon by reference only to Napoleon +III., we shall not be inclined to condemn it. His rule has not been a +perfect one, but it has been the best that France has known for fifty +years, not only for the French themselves, but for foreign peoples. He +has lifted France out of that slough in which she had floundered under +both branches of the Bourbons, and he has done so without being guilty +of any act of injustice toward other nations. The greatness of the +France of Napoleon I. was unpleasingly associated with the idea of the +degradation of neighboring countries, which implied the ultimate fall of +the Empire, as it could not be expected that Russians and Germans would +be governed from Paris. Independence is what every people strong enough +to vindicate its rights will have; and hence the men at St. Petersburg +and Vienna and Berlin were certain to act against the men of Paris +at the first favorable opportunity that should present itself. Their +dependent state was an unnatural state, and when the reaction came, the +torrent swept all before it. The fall of Napoleon I. was the consequence +of the manner in which he rose to the greatest height ever achieved by +a man in modern days. Napoleon III., whose power is really greater than +that of his uncle, has incurred the enmity of no foreign people. He +has led his armies into no European capital city, and he has levied no +foreign contributions. When it was in his power to dictate terms to +Russia, he astonished men, and even made them angry, by the extent of +his moderation. His abrupt pause in his career of Italian success, no +matter what the motive of it, enabled Austria to retire from a war in +which she had found nothing but defeat, with the air of a victor. The +only additions he has made to the territory of France--Savoy, Nice, and +Monaco--were obtained by the fair consent of all those who had any right +to be consulted on the changes that were made. We find nothing in his +conduct that betrays any desire to humiliate his contemporaries, and a +superiority to vulgar ideas of what constitutes triumph that is +almost without a parallel. No man was ever treated more insolently by +hereditary sovereigns, from Czar and Kaiser and King to petty German +princelings; and this insolence he has never repaid in kind, nor sought +to repay in any manner. He has foregone occasions for vengeance that +legitimate monarchs would have turned to the fullest account for the +gratification of their hatred. He has, apparently, none of that vanity +which led Napoleon I. to be pleased with having his antechamber full of +kings whose hearts were brimful of hatred of their lord and master. +If he were to have an Erfurt Congress, it would be as plain and +unostentatious an affair as that of his uncle was superficially grand +and striking. He seems perpetually to have before his mind's eye what +the Greeks called _the envy of the gods_, the divine Nemesis, to which +he daily makes sacrifice. He is the most prosperous of men, but he is +determined not to be prosperity's spoiled child. If the truth were +known, it would probably be found that he has not a single personal +enemy among the monarchs, all of whom would, as politicians, be glad +to witness his fall. In their secret hearts they say that "Monsieur +Bonaparte is a well-behaved man, to whom they could wish well in any +other part than that which he prefers to hold." Their predecessors hated +Napoleon I. personally, and with intense bitterness, which accounts for +the readiness with which they took parts in the hunting of the eagle, +and for the rancor with which they treated him when his turn came to +drain the cup of humiliation to the very dregs. The dislike felt for +Napoleon III. is simply political, and such dislike is not incompatible +with liberality in judgment and generosity of action. Should it be his +fortune to fall, there would be no St. Helena provided for him. + +The domestic rule of the Emperor of the French will bear comparison +with that of any monarch which that people have ever had. It is not +faultless, but it is as little open to criticism of a just nature as +that of any European sovereign, and with reference to the changed +position of sovereigns. We are not to compare Napoleon III. with Louis +XIV., that sublime and ridiculous egotist, who seems never to have had a +human feeling, except those feelings which humanity would be the better +without. The French Revolution banished that breed of kings from +Christendom, if not from the world. He must be compared with monarchs +who have felt the responsibilities of their trust very differently from +the man who called himself the State, who thought that twenty millions +of people had been made to minister to his vanity, and who gently +reproached God with ingratitude because of the victories of Eugène +and Marlborough. "God, it appears, is forgetting us," he said, +"notwithstanding all that we have done for Him." A monarch of this class +is now as extinct as the mammoth, and traces of his footsteps excite the +wonder of the disciples of political science. In these days, a monarch +must rule mostly for the people, and largely by the people. He is only +the popular chief in a country which has not a well-defined constitution +over which time has thrown the mantle of reverence. The course of +Napoleon III. has been in accordance with this view of his position. He +is not the State, but he is the first man in the State. Under his lead +and direction the French have known much material prosperity, and have +added not a little to that wealth which, when judiciously used as a +means, and not worshipped as the end of human exertion, is the source of +so much happiness. The readiness with which the people, the masses +of his subjects, subscribed to the great war-loans, contending for +subscriptions as for valuable privileges, establishes both their +prosperity under his government, and their confidence in that +government's strength and permanence. That he has not made use of his +power to stifle the expression of thought is clear from the numerous +works that have been published, some of which were written for the +purpose of attacking his dynasty,--authors of eminence choosing to +pervert history by converting its volumes into huge partisan pamphlets, +in which the subject handled and the object aimed at are alike libelled. +He has kept the press, meaning the journals, more sharply reined up than +Englishmen and Americans have approved or can approve; but as French +journalists, instead of confining their political warfare to its proper +use, are in the habit, when free to publish what they please, of +assailing the very existence of the government itself, he has some +excuse for his conduct. An English journal which should recommend the +dethronement of Victoria would be as summarily silenced as ever was +a French White, Blue, or Red paper. The most determined advocate of +freedom of discussion must find it hard to disapprove of the suppression +of the "Univers," which, while availing itself of every possible license +to advocate the extremest doctrines of despotism in Church and State, +demanded the suppression of freedom of all kinds in every other quarter. +It is an advantage to the enemies of free speech, that they can avail +themselves of its existence to advocate restriction in its comprehensive +sense, while their opponents cannot consistently demand that they shall +be silenced. Under the liberal policy which has just been inaugurated +in France, great advantages will be enjoyed by the enemies of the +government, and of free principles generally; and the Emperor is +reported to have said that he shall accept the logical consequences of +that policy, let the result be what it may. What has thus far happened +confirms this report; but it ought not to surprise us, if he should find +himself compelled to have resort to measures of restriction not much +different from those "warnings" that have been fatal to more than one +journal in times past. The tendency in the French mind to illegal +opposition, and of the French government to meet such opposition by +harsh action, will not allow us to be very sanguine as to the workings +of the experiment upon which the Emperor has entered. His chief object +is to establish his dynasty, and he cannot tolerate attacks upon that; +and attacks of that kind would form the staple of the opposition press, +were it permitted to become as free as the press is in England and in +the Northern States of America. + +One of the charges that have been made against the Imperial system is, +that it is a stratocracy, a mere government by the sword, and that it +must pass away with the Emperor himself, or be continued in the person +of some military man; so that France must degenerate into a vast +Algiers, and be ruled by a succession of Deys. There is something +plausible in this view of the subject, which has imposed upon many +persons, and which is all the more imposing because the Emperor is +fifty-three years old, while his only son has but completed his fifth +year; and Prince Napoleon is not popular with the army, and is an object +of both fear and dislike to the members of several powerful interests. +The Imperialists have themselves principally to blame for this state of +things, as they have encouraged and promulgated opinions that favor +its existence. Clever historical writers have discovered a remarkable +resemblance between the France of to-day and the Roman Empire of the +days of Augustus. Napoleon I. was the modern Julius Caesar, and Napoleon +III. is Octavius. The Emperor is writing a Life of Julius Caesar, and it +is believed that it is his purpose to establish the fact that his family +is playing the part which the family of Caesar played more than eighteen +centuries ago. If one were disposed to be critical, it would not be +difficult to point out, that, as the first Roman imperial dynasty became +Claudian rather than Julian in its blood and character, after the death +of Augustus, so has the French imperial dynasty a better claim to be +considered of the family of Beauharnais than of the family of Bonaparte. +This Caesarian game is a foolish one, and may be played to an ultimate +loss. Of the difference between France as she is and Rome as she was in +the times of the first Caesars it is not necessary to say much, for +it presents itself to every cultivated mind. The Roman Empire was an +aggregation of various nations, including the highest and lowest forms +of human development then known, and stretching from the Atlantic to the +Euphrates, and from the forests of Germany to the deserts of Africa. +Over that vast and various collection of peoples a portion of Italy bore +sway; and it was to break down the tyranny of that Italian rule that the +Julian rule was created, and that the Republic was made to give way to +the Empire. + +The cause of the Caesars was the cause of the provincials against the +Italians, of the masses in twenty lands against the aristocracy of but a +part of one land, of many millions of sheep against a few select wolves. +The revolution that was effected through the agency of Julius and +Octavius was necessary for the continuance of civilization, which +was threatened with extinction through the plundering processes of +proprietors and proconsuls. The Roman Emperor was the shepherd, +who, though he might shear his sheep close to their skins, and not +unfrequently convert many of them into mutton, for his own profit or +pleasure, would nevertheless protect them against the wolves. He stood +between the imperial race, of which he was himself the first member, +and all the other races that were to be found in his extensive and +diversified dominions. The question that he settled was one of races, +not merely one of parties and political principles. What resemblance, +then, can there be between the French Emperor and the Roman Imperator, +or between the quarrel decided by the Napoleons and that which was +decided by the first two Caesars? There may be said to be some +resemblance between them, from the fact that the French aristocracy, as +a body, belong to the party that is hostile to the Bonapartes, and +that it was the Roman aristocracy who were beaten at Pharsalia and +politically destroyed at Philippi; but the nobility of France were +ruined before the name of Bonaparte had been raised from obscurity, and +the first Napoleon sought to please and to conciliate the remnants of +that once brilliant order. There can be no comparison made between the +two aristocracies; as the Roman was one of the ablest and most ferocious +bodies of men that the world has ever seen, and made a long and +desperate fight for the maintenance of its power,--while the French is +effete, and it is difficult to believe that in the veins of its members +runs the blood of the heroes of the days of the League, or even that of +the _Frondeurs_. Their political action reminds us of nothing but the +playing of children; and the best of the leaders of the opposition to +the Imperial _régime_ are new men, most of whose names were never heard +of until the present century. The Imperial family, too, unlike that of +Rome, is a new family. The democratic revolution of Rome, which led +to the fall of the Republic, was enabled to triumph only because the +movement was headed by one of the noblest-born of Romans, a patrician of +the bluest blood, who claimed descent from Venus, and from the last +of the Trojan heroes. No Roman had a loftier lineage than "the mighty +Julius"; and when the place of Augustus passed to Tiberius, the third +Emperor represented the Claudian _gens_, the most arrogant, overbearing, +haughty, and cruel of all those patrician _gentes_ that figure in the +history of the republican times. He belonged, too, to the family of +Nero, which was to the rest of the Claudian _gens_ what that _gens_ was +to other men,--the representative of all that is peculiarly detestable +in an oligarchical fraternity. The French Caesars are emphatically +_novi homines_, the founder of their greatness not being in existence +a century ago, and born of a poor family, which had never made any +impression on history. There are abundant points of contrast to be +found, when we examine the origin of Imperial Rome in connection with +the origin of Imperial France, but few of resemblance. + +Even in the bad elements of the modern Imperial rule there is little +imitation of that of the Caesars. "The ordinary notion of absolute +government, derived from the form it assumes in Europe at the present +day," says Merivale, "is that of a strict system of prevention, which, +by means of a powerful army, an ubiquitous police, and a censorship +of letters, anticipates every manifestation of freedom in thought or +action, from whence inconvenience may arise to it. But this was not the +system of the Caesarean Empire. Faithful to the traditions of the Free +State, Augustus had quartered all his armies on the frontiers, and his +successors were content with concentrating, cohort by cohort, a small, +though trusty force, for their own protection in the capital. The +legions were useful to the Emperor, not as instruments for the +repression of discontent at home, but as faithful auxiliaries among whom +the most dangerous of his nobles might be relegated, in posts which were +really no more than honorable exiles. Nor was the regular police of the +city an engine of tyranny. Volunteers might be found in every rank +to perform the duty of spies; but it was apparently no part of the +functions of the enlisted guardians of the streets to watch the +countenances of the citizens, or beset their privacy. We hear of no +intrusion into private assemblies, no dispersion of crowds in the +streets...... They [the Emperors] made no effort to impose restraints +upon thought. Freedom of thought may be checked in two ways, and modern +despotism resorts in its restless jealousy to both. The one is, to guide +ideas by seizing on the channels of education; the other, to subject +their utterance to the control of a censorship. In neither one way nor +the other did Augustus or Nero interfere at all. From the days of the +Republic the system of education had been perfectly untrammelled. It was +simply a matter of arrangement between the parties directly interested, +the teacher and the learner. Neither State nor Church pretended to take +any concern in it: neither priest nor magistrate regarded it with the +slightest jealousy. Public opinion ranged, under ordinary circumstances, +in perfect freedom, and under its unchecked influence both the aims and +methods of education continued long to be admirably adapted to make +intelligent men and useful citizens...... The same indulgence which +was extended to education smiled upon the literature which flowed so +copiously from it. There was no restriction upon writing or publication +at Rome analogous to our censorships and licensing acts. The fact that +books were copied by the hand, and not printed for general circulation, +seems to present no real difficulty to the enforcement of such +restrictions, had it been the wish of the government to enforce them. +The noble Roman, indeed, surrounded by freedmen and clients of various +ability, by rhetoricians and sophists, poets and declaimers, had within +his own doors private aid for executing his literary projects; and when +his work was compiled, he had in the slaves of his household the hands +for multiplying copies, for dressing and binding them, and sending forth +an edition, as we should say, of his work to the select public of his +own class or society. The circulation of compositions thus manipulated +might be to some extent surreptitious and secret. But such a mode of +proceeding was necessarily confined to few. The ordinary writer must +have had recourse to a professional publisher, who undertook, as a +tradesman, to present his work for profit to the world. Upon these +agents the government might have had all the hold it required: yet it +never demanded the sight beforehand of any speech, essay, or satire +which was advertised as about to appear. It was still content to punish +after publication what it deemed to be censurable excesses. Severe and +arbitrary as some of its proceedings were in this respect,... it must +be allowed that these prosecutions of written works were rare and +exceptional, and that the traces we discover of the freedom of letters, +even under the worst of the Emperors, leave on the whole a strong +impression of the general leniency of their policy in this +particular."[A] This correct picture of the policy of Imperial Rome on +this point shows that the ancient sovereigns of the first of empires +were more liberal than are modern rulers of their class, and that the +Caesars scorned to do that which has been common with the Bonapartes. +The changes in the direction of freedom which Napoleon III. has recently +made are really more Caesarean in their character than anything that he +had previously done in connection with thought and public discussion. It +ought to be added, however, that the Romans had no daily press, and that +journalism, as we understand it, was as unknown to the Caesars as were +steamships and rifled cannon. Had they been troubled with those daily +showers of Sibylline leaves that so vex modern potentates, their +magnanimity would have been severely tested, and they might have +established as severe censorships as ever have been known in Paris or +Vienna. + +[Footnote A: _A History of the Romans under the Empire_. By CHARLES +MERIVALE, B.D., late Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. Vol. VI., +pp. 224-231.] + +Flattery has discovered a resemblance between the career of Napoleon +III. and the career of Augustus, and it required the eyes of flattery +to make such a discovery. The Frenchman is the equal of the Roman in +talent, but the resemblance goes no farther. What resemblance can there +be between the boy who became a statesman at twenty and the man who +began his career at forty? between the youth who made himself master of +the Roman situation in a few months and the elderly man whose position +at fifty-three is by no means an assured one? between the man who at +thirty-three had destroyed all rivals and competitors, and gathered into +his person all the powers of the State, and the man who at a much later +period of life is still engaged upon an experiment in politics? Augustus +avenged the murder of Julius within a brief time after it had been +perpetrated; Napoleon III. has never avenged the fall of _his_ +uncle, but has refrained from injuring his uncle's destroyers, when, +apparently, he might have done so with profit to himself, and with the +general approbation of the world. Augustus's public life knew but one +signal calamity, the loss of the legions of Varus, which happened toward +its close, and in his dying moments he could congratulate himself on +having played well, which meant successfully, his part in the drama of +life. Napoleon III.'s life has been full of calamities, and it remains +yet to be seen whether history shall have to rank him among its +favorites, or high in the list of those unfortunates against whom it +has recorded sentence of everlasting condemnation. Should he live, and +maintain his place, and bequeath his throne to his son, and that son be +of an age to appreciate his position, and possessed of fair talent, +he may pass for the modern Augustus; but thinking of him, and of the +strange reverses of fortune that have happened since 1789 to men and to +nations, we subscribe to the wisdom of the hackneyed Greek sentiment, +that no man should be called fortunate until the seal of death shall +have placed an everlasting and an impassable barrier between him and the +cruel sports of Mutabilities which are played "to many men's decay." + +In one respect it will be allowed by all but absolutists that the +condition of Europe has changed greatly for the better in the last +eleven years, as a consequence of the triumphs of the French Emperor. +From the year 1815 to 1850, national independence was in its true sense +unknown to Continental Europe. The ascendency of Napoleon I. had small +claim to faultlessness, but the men who led in the work of his overthrow +proceeded as if they meant to make the world regret his fall. This is +the secret--which secret is none--of the reaction that speedily took +place in his favor, and which caused an alliance of Liberals and +Jacobins and Imperialists to do honor to his memory; so that, being +dead, he was from his island-sepulchre a more effective foe to +legitimacy and the established order of things than he had been from St. +Cloud and the Tuileries. It has been satirically said that a mythical +Napoleon rose from the dust of the dead Emperor, who bore no moral +resemblance to Europe's master of 1812. As to the resemblance between +the master of a hundred legions and "the dead but sceptred sovereign" of +1824, who ruled men's spirits from his urn, we will not stop to inquire; +but it can be positively asserted that the mythical Napoleon, if any +such creation there was, was the work of the true Napoleon's destroyers. +They earned the hatred and detestation of the greater part of the better +classes in the civilized world; and as it is the nature of men to love +those who have warred against the objects of their hate, nothing was +more natural than for Europeans and Americans to turn fondly to the +memory of one who had beaten and trampled upon every member of the Holy +Alliance, and who had carried the tricolor, that emblem of revolution, +to Vienna and Berlin and Moscow. Men wished to have their own feet upon +the necks of Francis and Frederick William and Alexander, and therefore +they were ready to forget the faults, and to remember only the virtues, +of one who had enjoyed the luxury they so much coveted. It would be +unreasonable to complain of that disposition of the public mind toward +Napoleon I. which prevailed from about the date of his death to that of +the restoration of his dynasty in the person of his nephew, or to sneer +at the inconsistency of "that many-headed monster thing," the people, +who had shouted over the decisions of Vittoria and Leipsic, and before +a decade had expired were regretting that those decisions could not be +reversed; for the change was the consequence of the operations of an +immutable law, of that reaction which dogs the heels of all conquerors. +The legitimate despots, whose union had been too much for the parvenu +despot, established a tyranny over Europe that threatened to stunt the +human mind, and which would have left the world hopeless, if England +had not resolved to part company with her military allies. But her +condemnation of their policy did not prevent its development. Even the +events of 1830 did not restore national freedom to the Continent; +and fifteen years after the overthrow of the elder Bourbons, the +partitioners of Poland could unite, in defiance of their plighted faith, +to destroy the independence of Cracow, the last shadowy remnant of old +and glorious Poland. The ascendency of Napoleon III. has put a stop to +such proceedings as were common from the invasion of France, in 1815, to +the invasion of Hungary, in 1849. He has, to be sure, interfered in the +affairs of foreign countries, but his acts of interference have been +made against the strong, and not against the weak. He interfered to +protect Turkey when she was threatened with destruction by Russia, and +he did so with success. He interfered to protect the Italians against +the hordes of Austria, and with such effect that the _Kingdom of Italy_ +has been called into existence through his action, when there was not +another sovereign in the world who would have fired a shot to prevent +the whole Italian Peninsula, and the great islands of Sicily and +Sardinia, from becoming Austrian provinces. He interfered to protect the +Christians of the East against the fire and sword of the Mussulmans, and +it is under the shadow of the French flag alone that Christianity can be +preached in the Lebanon and in the Hollow Syria, in the aged Damascus +and in the historical Sidon. He has interfered to assist England in +China, whereby there has been a new world, as it were, opened to the +enterprise of commerce. He has falsified the predictions of those who +have seen in him only the enemy of England, and who have told us twice +a year, for nine years past, that he would attempt to throw his legions +into Kent, and to march them upon London. He has added nothing to the +territory of France that has not been honorably acquired. Having thus +redeemed Europe from degradation, and not having justified the fears of +those who expected him to renew the old duel between France and +England, his continued prosperity may be earnestly desired by Liberals +everywhere, and with perfect consistency; for can any intelligent man +venture to say that there would be any hope for a better state of +things, either for France or for Europe at large, should his rule be +changed for that of either branch of the Bourbons, or for that of the +Republicans, Red or Blue? Considering the good that he has done, and the +evil that he might have done, and yet has refrained from doing, he will +compare advantageously with any living ruler; and mankind can overlook +his errors in view of his virtues,--save and except those men whom he +vanquished at their own weapons, and whose chief regret it is, that, +being no better political moralists than was the Prince-President, their +immorality was fruitless, while his, according to their interpretation +of his history, gave him empire. Other men, whom his success has not +consigned to partisan darkness, will judge him more justly, and say that +his victory was the proper meed of superior ability, and that whatever +was vicious in his manner of acquiring power has been redeemed by the +use he has almost invariably made of that power. He is not without sin; +but if he shall not die until he shall be stoned by saints selected from +governments and parties, his existence will be prolonged until doomsday. + + * * * * * + + +CONCERNING THINGS SLOWLY LEARNT. + + +You will see in a little while what sort of things they are which I +understand by _Things Slowly Learnt_. Some are facts, some are moral +truths, some are practical lessons; but the great characteristic of all +those which are to be thought of in this essay is, that we have to learn +them and act upon them in the face of a strong bias to think or act in +an opposite way. It is not that they are so difficult in themselves, +not that they are hard to be understood, or that they are supported by +arguments whose force is not apparent to every mind. On the contrary, +the things which I have especially in view are very simple, and for the +most part quite unquestionable. But the difficulty of learning them lies +in this: that, as regards them, the head seems to say one thing and the +heart another. We see plainly enough what we ought to think or to do; +but we feel an irresistible inclination to think or to do something +else. It is about three or four of these things that we are going, my +friend, to have a little quiet talk. We are going to confine our view +to a single class, though possibly the most important class, in the +innumerable multitude of Things Slowly Learnt. + +The truth is, a great many things are slowly learnt. I have lately had +occasion to observe that the Alphabet is one of these. I remember, +too, in my own sorrowful experience, how the Multiplication Table was +another. A good many years since, an eminent dancing-master undertook +to teach a number of my schoolboy companions a graceful and easy +deportment; but comparatively few of us can be said as yet to have +thoroughly attained it. I know men who have been practising the art of +extempore speaking for many years, but who have reached no perfection in +it, and who, if one may judge from their confusion and hesitation +when they attempt to speak, are not likely ever to reach even decent +mediocrity in that wonderful accomplishment. Analogous statements might +be made, with truth, with regard to my friend Mr. Snarling's endeavors +to produce magazine articles; likewise concerning his attempts to skate, +and his efforts to ride on horseback unlike a tailor. Some folk learn +with remarkable slowness that Nature never intended them for wits. There +have been men who have punned, ever more and more wretchedly, to the end +of a long and highly respectable life. People submitted in silence to +the infliction; no one liked to inform those reputable individuals that +they had better cease to make fools of themselves. This, however, is +part of a larger subject, which shall be treated hereafter. + +On the other hand, there are things which are very quickly +learnt,--which are learnt by a single lesson. One liberal tip, or even +a few kind words heartily said, to a manly little schoolboy, will +establish in his mind the rooted principle that the speaker of the words +or the bestower of the tip is a jolly and noble specimen of humankind. +Boys are great physiognomists: they read a man's nature at a glance. +Well I remember how, when going to and from school, a long journey of +four hundred miles, in days when such a journey implied travel by sea as +well as by land, I used to know instantly the gentlemen or the railway +officials to whom I might apply for advice or information. I think that +this intuitive perception of character is blunted in after years. A man +is often mistaken in his first impression of man or woman; a boy hardly +ever. And a boy not only knows at once whether a human being is amiable +or the reverse, he knows also whether the human being is wise or +foolish. In particular, he knows at once whether the human being always +means what he says, or says a great deal more than he means. Inferior +animals learn some lessons quickly. A dog once thrashed for some offence +knows quite well not to repeat it. A horse turns for the first time down +the avenue to a house where he is well fed and cared for; next week, +or next month, you pass that gate, and though the horse has been long +taught to submit his will to yours, you can easily see that he knows the +place again, and that he would like to go back to the stable with which, +in his poor, dull, narrow mind, there are pleasant associations. I +would give a good deal to know what a horse is thinking about. There is +something very curious and very touching about the limited intelligence +and the imperfect knowledge of that immaterial principle in which the +immaterial does not imply the immortal. And yet, if we are to rest +the doctrine of a future life in any degree upon the necessity of +compensation for the sufferings and injustice of the present, I think +the sight of the cab-horses of any large town might plead for the +admission of some quiet world of green grass and shady trees, where +there should be no cold, starvation, over-work, or flogging. Some one +has said that the most exquisite material scenery would look very +cold and dead in the entire absence of irrational life. Trees suggest +singing-birds; flowers and sunshine make us think of the drowsy bees. +And it is curious to think how the future worlds of various creeds are +described as not without their lowly population of animals inferior to +man. We know what the "poor Indian" expects shall bear him company in +his humble heaven; and possibly various readers may know some dogs who +in certain important respects are very superior to certain men. You +remember how, when a war-chief of the Western prairies was laid by +his tribe in his grave, his horse was led to the spot in the funeral +procession, and at the instant when the earth was cast upon the dead +warrior's dust, an arrow reached the noble creature's heart, that in the +land of souls the man should find his old friend again. And though it +has something of the grotesque, I think it has more of the pathetic, the +aged huntsman of Mr. Assheton Smith desiring to be buried by his master, +with two horses and a few couples of dogs, that they might all be ready +to start together when they met again far away. + +This is a deviation; but that is of no consequence. It is of the essence +of the present writer's essays to deviate from the track. Only we must +not forget the thread of the discourse; and after our deviation we must +go back to it. All this came of our remarking that some things are +very quickly learnt; and that certain inferior classes of our +fellow-creatures learn them quickly. But deeper and larger lessons are +early learnt. Thoughtful children, a very few years old, have their own +theory of human nature. Before studying the metaphysicians, and indeed +while still imperfectly acquainted with their letters, young children +have glimpses of the inherent selfishness of humanity. I was recently +present when a small boy of three years old, together with his sister, +aged five, was brought down to the dining-room at the period of dessert. +The small boy climbed upon his mother's knee, and began by various +indications to display his affection for her. A stranger remarked what +an affectionate child he was. "Oh," said the little girl, "he suspects +(by which she meant _expects_) that he is going to get something to +eat!" Not Hobbes himself had reached a clearer perception or a firmer +belief of the selfish system in moral philosophy. "He is always very +affectionate," the youthful philosopher proceeded, "when he suspects he +is going to get something good to eat!" + +By _Things Slowly Learnt_ I mean not merely things which are in their +nature such that it takes a long time to learn them,--such as the Greek +language, or the law of vendors and purchasers. These things indeed take +long time and much trouble to learn; but once you have learnt them, you +know them. Once you have come to understand the force of the second +aorist, you do not find your heart whispering to you, as you are lying +awake at night, that what the grammar says about the second aorist is +all nonsense; you do not feel an inveterate disposition, gaining force +day by day, to think concerning the second aorist just the opposite of +what the grammar says. By _Things Slowly Learnt_, I understand things +which it is very hard to learn at the first, because, strong as the +reasons which support them are, you find it so hard to make up your mind +to them. I understand things which you can quite easily (when it is +fairly put to you) see to be true, but which it seems as if it would +change the very world you live in to accept. I understand things you +discern to be true, but which you have all your life been accustomed to +think false, and which you are extremely anxious to think false. And by +_Things Slowly Learnt_ I understand things which are not merely very +hard to learn at the first, but which it is not enough to learn for once +ever so well. I understand things which, when you have made the bitter +effort and admitted to be true and certain, you put into your mind to +keep (so to speak); and hardly a day has passed, when a soft, quiet hand +seems to begin to crumble them down and to wear them away to nothing. +You write the principle which was so hard to receive upon the tablet of +your memory; and day by day a gentle hand comes over it with a bit of +india-rubber, till the inscription loses its clear sharpness, grows +blurred and indistinct, and finally quite disappears. Nor is the gentle +hand content even then; but it begins, very faintly at first, to trace +letters which bear a very different meaning. Then it deepens and darkens +them day by day, week by week, till at a month's or a year's end the +tablet of memory bears, in great, sharp, legible letters, just the +opposite thing to that which you had originally written down there. +These are my _Things Slowly Learnt_: things you learn at first in the +face of a strong bias against them; things, when once taught, you +gradually forget, till you come back again to your old way of thinking. +Such things, of course, lie within the realm to which extends the +influence of feeling and prejudice. They are things in the accepting of +which both head and heart are concerned. Once convince a man that two +and two make four, and he learns the truth without excitement, and +he never doubts it again. But prove to a man that he is of much less +importance than he has been accustomed to think,--or prove to a woman +that her children are very much like those of other folk,--or prove to +the inhabitant of a country parish that Britain has hundreds of parishes +which in soil and climate and production are just as good as his +own,--or prove to the great man of a little country town that there +are scores of towns in this world where the walks are as pleasant, +the streets as well paved, and the population as healthy and as well +conducted; and in each such case you will find it very hard to convince +the individual at the time, and you will find that in a very short space +the individual has succeeded in entirely escaping from the disagreeable +conviction. You may possibly find, if you endeavor to instil such belief +into minds of but moderate cultivation, that your arguments will be +met less by force of reason than by roaring of voice and excitement of +manner; you may find that the person you address will endeavor to change +the issue you are arguing, to other issues, wholly irrelevant, touching +your own antecedents, character, or even personal appearance; and you +may afterwards be informed by good-natured friends, that the upshot of +your discussion had been to leave on the mind of your acquaintance the +firm conviction that you yourself are intellectually a blockhead and +morally a villain. And even when dealing with human beings who have +reached that crowning result of a fine training, that they shall have +got beyond thinking a man their "enemy because he tells them the truth," +you may find that you have rendered a service like that rendered by the +surgeon's amputating knife,--salutary, yet very painful,--and leaving +forever a sad association with your thought and your name. For among the +things we slowly learn are truths and lessons which it goes terribly +against the grain to learn at first, which must be driven into us time +after time, and which perhaps are never learnt completely. + +One thing very slowly learnt by most human beings is, that they are +of no earthly consequence beyond a very small circle indeed, and +that really nobody is thinking or talking about them. Almost every +commonplace man and woman in this world has a vague, but deeply-rooted +belief that they are quite different from anybody else, and of course +quite superior to everybody else. It may be in only one respect they +fancy they are this, but that one respect is quite sufficient. I +believe, that, if a grocer or silk-mercer in a little town has a hundred +customers, each separate customer lives on under the impression that +the grocer or the silk-mercer is prepared to give to him or her certain +advantages in buying and selling which will not be accorded to the other +ninety-nine customers. "Say it is for Mrs. Brown," is Mrs. Brown's +direction to her servant, when sending for some sugar; "say it is for +Mrs. Brown, and he will give it a little better." The grocer, keenly +alive to the weaknesses of his fellow-creatures, encourages this notion. +"This tea," he says, "would be four-and-sixpence a pound _to any one +else_, but _to you_ it is only four-and-threepence." Judging from my own +observation, I should say that retail dealers trade a good deal upon +this singular fact in the constitution of the human mind, that it is +inexpressibly bitter to most people to believe that they stand on the +ordinary level of humanity,--that, in the main, they are just like their +neighbors. Mrs. Brown would be filled with unutterable wrath, if it were +represented to her that the grocer treats her precisely as he does Mrs. +Smith, who lives on one side of her, and Mrs. Snooks, who lives on the +other. She would be still more angry, if you asked her what earthly +reason there is why she should in any way be distinguished beyond Mrs. +Snooks and Mrs. Smith. She takes for granted she is quite different +from them, quite superior to them. Human beings do not like to be +classed,--at least, with the class to which in fact they belong. To be +classed at all is painful to an average mortal, who firmly believes +that there never was such a being in this world. I remember one of +the cleverest friends I have--one who assuredly cannot be classed +intellectually, except in a very small and elevated class--telling +me how mortified he was, when a very clever boy of sixteen, at being +classed at all. He had told a literary lady that he admired Tennyson. +"Yes," said the lady, "I am not surprised at that: there is a class of +young men who like Tennyson at your age." It went like a dart to my +friend's heart. _Class of young men_, indeed! Was it for _this_ that I +outstripped all competitors at school, that I have been fancying myself +a unique phenomenon in Nature, _different_ at least from every other +being that lives, that I should be spoken of as one of _a class of +young men_? Now in my friend's half-playful reminiscence I see the +exemplification of a great fact in human nature. Most human beings fancy +themselves, and all their belongings, to be quite different from all +other beings and the belongings of all other beings. I heard an old +lady, whose son is a rifleman, and just like all the other volunteers +of his corps, lately declare, that, on the occasion of a certain grand +review, her Tom looked so entirely different from all the rest. No doubt +he did to her, poor old lady,--for he was her own. But the irritating +thing was, that the old lady wished it to be admitted that Tom's +superiority was an actual fact, equally patent to the eyes of all +mankind. Yes, my friend: it is a thing very slowly learnt by most men, +that they are very much like other people. You see the principle which +underlies what you hear so often said by human beings, young and old, +when urging you to do something which it is against your general rule to +do. "Oh, but you might do it _for me_!" Why for you more than for any +one else? would be the answer of severe logic. But a kindly man would +not take that ground: for doubtless the _Me_, however little to every +one else, is to each unit in humankind the centre of all the world. + +Arising out of this mistaken notion of their own difference from all +other men is the fancy entertained by many, that they occupy a much +greater space in the thoughts of others than they really do. Most folk +think mainly about themselves and their own affairs. Even a matter which +"everybody is talking about" is really talked about by each for a +very small portion of the twenty-four hours. And a name which is "in +everybody's mouth" is not in each separate mouth for more than a few +minutes at a time. And during those few minutes, it is talked of with an +interest very faint, when compared with that you feel for yourself. You +fancy it a terrible thing, when you yourself have to do something which +you would think nothing about, if done by anybody else. A lady grows +sick, and has to go out of church during the sermon. Well, you remark +it; possibly, indeed, you don't; and you say, "Mrs. Thomson went out of +church to-day; she must be ill"; and there the matter ends. But a day +or two later you see Mrs. Thomson, and find her quite in a fever at the +awful fact. It was a dreadful trial, walking out, and facing all the +congregation: they must have thought it so strange; she would not run +the risk of it again for any inducement. The fact is just this: Mrs. +Thomson thinks a great deal of the thing, because it happened to +herself. It did not happen to the other people, and so they hardly think +of it at all. But nine in every ten of them, in Mrs. Thomson's place, +would have Mrs. Thomson's feeling; for it is a thing which you, my +reader, slowly learn, that people think very little about you. + +Yes, it is a thing slowly learnt,--by many not learnt at all. How many +persons you meet walking along the street who evidently think that +everybody is looking at them! How few persons can walk through an +exhibition of pictures at which are assembled the grand people of the +town and all their own grand acquaintances, in a fashion thoroughly free +from self-consciousness! I mean without thinking of themselves at all, +or of how they look; but in an unaffected manner, observing the objects +and beings around them. Men who have attained recently to a moderate +eminence are sometimes, if of small minds, much affected by this +disagreeable frailty. Small literary men, and preachers with no great +head or heart, have within my own observation suffered from it severely. +I have witnessed a poet, whose writing I have never read, walking along +a certain street. I call him a poet to avoid periphrasis. The whole +get-up of the man, his dress, his hair, his hat, the style in which he +walked, showed unmistakably that he fancied that everybody was looking +at him, and that he was the admired of all admirers. In fact, nobody was +looking at him at all. Some time since I beheld a portrait of a very, +very small literary man. It was easy to discern from it that the small +author lives in the belief, that, wherever he goes, he is the object of +universal observation. The intense self-consciousness and self-conceit +apparent in that portrait were, in the words of Mr. Squeers, "more +easier conceived than described." The face was a very commonplace and +rather good-looking one: the author, notwithstanding his most strenuous +exertions, evidently could make nothing of the features to distinguish +him from other men. But the length of his hair was very great: and, oh, +what genius he plainly fancied glowed in those eyes! I never in my life +witnessed such an extraordinary glare. I do not believe that any human +being ever lived whose eyes habitually wore that expression: only by a +violent effort could the expression be produced, and then for a very +short time, without serious injury to the optic nerves. The eyes were +made as large as possible; and the thing after which the poor fellow +had been struggling was that peculiar look which may be conceived to +penetrate through the beholder, and pierce his inmost thoughts. I never +beheld the living original, but, if I saw him, I should like in a kind +way to pat him on the head, and tell him that _that_ sort of expression +would produce a great effect on the gallery of a minor theatre. The +other day I was at a public meeting. A great crowd of people was +assembled in a large hall: the platform at one end of it remained +unoccupied till the moment when the business of the meeting was to +begin. It was an interesting sight for any philosophic observer seated +in the body of the hall to look at the men who by-and-by walked in +procession on to the platform, and to observe the different ways in +which they walked in. There were several very great and distinguished +men: every one of these walked on to the platform and took his seat in +the most simple and unaffected way, as if quite unconscious of the many +eyes that were looking at them with interest and curiosity. There were +many highly respectable and sensible men, whom nobody cared particularly +to see, and who took their places in a perfectly natural manner, as +though well aware of the fact. But there were one or two small men, +struggling for notoriety; and I declare it was pitiful to behold their +entrance. I remarked one, in particular, who evidently thought that +the eyes of the whole meeting were fixed upon himself, and that, as +he walked in, everybody was turning to his neighbor, and saying with +agitation, "See, that's Snooks!" His whole gait and deportment testified +that he felt that two or three thousand eyes were burning him up: you +saw it in the way he walked to his place, in the way he sat down, in the +way he then looked about him. If anyone had tried to get up three cheers +for Snooks, Snooks would not have known that he was being made a fool +of. He would have accepted the incense of fame as justly his due. There +once was a man who entered the Edinburgh theatre at the same instant +with Sir Walter Scott. The audience cheered lustily; and while Sir +Walter modestly took his seat, as though unaware that those cheers were +to welcome the Great Magician, the other man advanced with dignity +to the front of the box, and bowed in acknowledgment of the popular +applause. This of course was but a little outburst of the great tide of +vain self-estimation which the man had cherished within his breast for +years. Let it be said here, that an affected unconsciousness of the +presence of a multitude of people is as offensive an exhibition of +self-consciousness as any that is possible. Entire naturalness, and a +just sense of a man's personal insignificance, will produce the right +deportment. It is very irritating to see some clergymen walk into church +to begin the service. They come in, with eyes affectedly cast down, and +go to their place without ever looking up, and rise and begin without +one glance at the congregation. To stare about them, as some clergymen +do, in a free and easy manner, befits not the solemnity of the place +and the worship; but the other is the worse thing. In a few cases it +proceeds from modesty; in the majority from intolerable self-conceit. +The man who keeps his eyes downcast in that affected manner fancies that +everybody is looking at him; there is an insufferable self-consciousness +about him; and he is much more keenly aware of the presence of other +people than the man who does what is natural, and looks at the people +to whom he is speaking. It is not natural nor rational to speak to +one human being with your eyes fixed on the ground; and neither is +it natural or rational to speak to a thousand. And I think that the +preacher who feels in his heart that he is neither wiser nor better than +his fellow-sinners to whom he is to preach, and that the advices he +addresses to them are addressed quite as solemnly to himself, will +assume no conceited airs of elevation above them, but will unconsciously +wear the demeanor of any sincere worshipper, somewhat deepened in +solemnity by the remembrance of his heavy personal responsibility in +leading the congregation's worship; but assuredly and entirely free +from the vulgar conceit which may be fostered in a vulgar mind by the +reflection, "Now everybody is looking at me!" I have seen, I regret to +say, various distinguished preachers whose pulpit demeanor was made to +me inexpressibly offensive by this taint of self-consciousness. And I +have seen some, with half the talent, who made upon me an impression a +thousandfold deeper than ever was made by the most brilliant eloquence; +because the simple earnestness of their manner said to every heart, "Now +I am not thinking in the least about myself, or about what you may think +of me: my sole desire is to impress on your hearts these truths I +speak, which I believe will concern us all forever!" I have heard great +preachers, after hearing whom you could walk home quite at your ease, +praising warmly the eloquence and the logic of the sermon. I have heard +others, (infinitely greater in my poor judgment,) after hearing whom you +would have felt it profanation to criticize the literary merits of their +sermon, high as those were: but you walked home thinking of the lesson +and not of the teacher, solemnly revolving the truths you had heard, and +asking the best of all help to enable you to remember them and act upon +them. + +There are various ways in which self-consciousness disagreeably evinces +its existence; and there is not one, perhaps, more disagreeable than the +affected avoidance of what is generally regarded as egotism. Depend upon +it, my reader, that the straightforward and natural writer who frankly +uses the first person singular, and says, "I think thus and thus," "I +have seen so and so," is thinking of himself and his own personality +a mighty deal less than the man who is always employing awkward and +roundabout forms of expression to avoid the use of the obnoxious _I_. +Every such periphrasis testifies unmistakably that the man was thinking +of himself; but the simple, natural writer, warm with his subject, eager +to press his views upon his readers, uses the _I_ without a thought of +self, just because it is the shortest, most direct, and most natural way +of expressing himself. The recollection of his own personality probably +never once crossed his mind during the composition of the paragraph from +which an ill-set critic might pick out a score of _I_-s. To say, "It is +submitted" instead of "I think," "It has been observed" instead of "I +have seen," "The present writer" instead of "I," is much the more really +egotistical. Try to write an essay without using that vowel which +some men think the very shibboleth of egotism, and the remembrance of +yourself will be in the background of your mind all the time you are +writing. It will be always intruding and pushing in its face, and you +will be able to give only half your mind to your subject. But frankly +and naturally use the _I_, and the remembrance of yourself vanishes. You +are grappling with the subject; you are thinking of it, and of nothing +else. You use the readiest and most unaffected mode of speech to set out +your thoughts of it. You have written _I_ a dozen times, but you have +not thought of yourself once. + +You may see the self-consciousness of some men strongly manifested +in their handwriting. The handwriting of some men is essentially +affected,--more especially their signature. It seems to be a very +searching test whether a man is a conceited person or an unaffected +person, to be required to furnish his autograph to be printed underneath +his published portrait. I have fancied I could form a theory of a man's +whole character from reading, in such a situation, merely the words, +"Very faithfully yours, Eusebius Snooks," You could see that Mr. Snooks +was acting, when he wrote that signature. He was thinking of the +impression it would produce on those who saw it. It was not the thing +which a man would produce who simply wished to write his name legibly in +as short a time and with as little needless trouble as possible. Let me +say with sorrow that I have known even venerable bishops who were not +superior to this irritating weakness. Some men aim at an aristocratic +hand; some deal in vulgar flourishes. These are the men who have reached +no farther than that stage at which they are proud of the dexterity with +which they handle their pen. Some strive after an affectedly simple and +student-like hand; some at a dashing and military style. But there may +be as much self-consciousness evinced by handwriting as by anything +else. Any clergyman who performs a good many marriages will be impressed +by the fact that very few among the humbler classes can sign their name +in an unaffected way. I am not thinking of the poor bride who shakily +traces her name, or of the simple bumpkin who slowly writes his, making +no secret of the difficulty with which he does it. These are natural +and pleasing. You would like to help and encourage them. But it is +irritating, when some forward fellow, after evincing his marked contempt +for the slow and cramped performances of his friends, jauntily takes up +the pen and dashes off his signature at a tremendous rate and with the +air of an exploit, evidently expecting the admiration of his rustic +friends, and laying a foundation for remarking to them on his way home +that the parson could not touch him at penmanship. I have observed with +a little malicious satisfaction that such persons, arising in their +pride from the place where they wrote, generally smear their signature +with their coat-sleeve, and reduce it to a state of comparative +illegibility. I like to see the smirking, impudent creature a little +taken down. + +But it is endless to try to reckon up the fashions in which people show +that they have not learnt the lesson of their own unimportance. Did you +ever stop in the street and talk for a few minutes to some old bachelor? +If so, I dare say you have remarked a curious phenomenon. You have found +that all of a sudden the mind of the old gentleman, usually reasonable +enough, appeared stricken into a state approaching idiocy, and that +the sentence which he had begun in a rational and intelligible way was +ending in a maze of wandering words, signifying nothing in particular. +You had been looking in another direction, but in sudden alarm you look +straight at the old gentleman to see what on earth is the matter; and +you discern that his eyes are fixed on some passer-by, possibly a young +lady, perhaps no more than a magistrate or the like, who is by this +time a good many yards off, with the eyes still following, and slowly +revolving on their axes so as to follow without the head being turned +round. It is this spectacle which has drawn off your friend's attention; +and you notice his whole figure twisted into an ungainly form, intended +to be dignified or easy, and assumed because he fancied that the +passerby was looking at him. Oh the pettiness of human nature! Then you +will find people afraid that they have given offence by saying or doing +things which the party they suppose offended had really never observed +that they had said or done. There are people who fancy that in church +everybody is looking at them, when in truth no mortal is taking the +trouble to do so. It is an amusing, though irritating sight, to behold +a weak-minded lady walking into church and taking her seat under this +delusion. You remember the affected air, the downcast eyes, the demeanor +intended to imply a modest shrinking from notice, but through which +there shines the real desire, "Oh, for any sake, look at me!" There are +people whose voice is utterly inaudible in church six feet off, who will +tell you that a whole congregation of a thousand or fifteen hundred +people was listening to their singing. Such folk will tell you that they +went to a church where the singing was left too much to the choir, and +began to sing as usual, on which the entire congregation looked round +to see who it was that was singing, and ultimately proceeded to sing +lustily too. I do not remember a more disgusting exhibition of vulgar +self-conceit than I saw a few months ago at Westminster Abbey. It was a +weekday afternoon service, and the congregation was small. Immediately +before me there sat an insolent boor, who evidently did not belong to +the Church of England. He had walked in when the prayers were half over, +having with difficulty been made to take off his hat, and his manifest +wish was to testify his contempt for the whole place and service. +Accordingly he persisted in sitting, in a lounging attitude, when the +people stood, and in standing up and staring about with an air of +curiosity while they knelt. He was very anxious to convey that he was +not listening to the prayers; but rather inconsistently, he now and then +uttered an audible grunt of disapproval. No one can enjoy the choral +service more than I do, and the music that afternoon was very fine; but +I could not enjoy it or join in it as I wished, for the disgust I felt +at the animal before me, and for my burning desire to see him turned out +of the sacred place he was profaning. But the thing which chiefly struck +me about the individual was not his vulgar and impudent profanity; it +was his intolerable self-conceit. He plainly thought that every eye +under the noble old roof was watching all his movements. I could see +that he would go home and boast of what he had done, and tell his +friends that all the clergy, choristers, and congregation had been +awestricken by him, and that possibly word had by this time been +conveyed to Lambeth or Fulham of the weakened influence and approaching +downfall of the Church of England. I knew that the very thing he +wished was that some one should rebuke his conduct, otherwise I should +certainly have told him either to behave with decency or to be gone. + +I have sometimes witnessed a curious manifestation of this vain sense of +self-importance. Did you ever, my reader, chance upon such a spectacle +as this: a very commonplace man, and even a very great blockhead, +standing in a drawing-room where a large party of people is assembled, +with a grin of self-complacent superiority upon his unmeaning face? I +am sure you understand the thing I mean. I mean a look which conveyed, +that, in virtue of some hidden store of genius or power, he could survey +with a calm, cynical loftiness the little conversation and interests of +ordinary mortals. You know the kind of interest with which a human being +would survey the distant approaches to reason of an intelligent dog or a +colony of ants. I have seen this expression on the face of one or two +of the greatest blockheads I ever knew. I have seen such a one wear it +while clever men were carrying on a conversation in which he could not +have joined to have saved his life. Yet you could see that (who can tell +how?) the poor creature had somehow persuaded himself that he occupied a +position from which he could look down upon his fellow-men in general. +Or was it rather that the poor creature knew he was a fool, and fancied +that thus he could disguise the fact? I dare say there was a mixture of +both feelings. + +You may see many indications of vain self-importance in the fact that +various persons, old ladies for the most part, are so ready to give +opinions which are not wanted, on matters of which they are not +competent to judge. Clever young curates suffer much annoyance from +these people: they are always anxious to instruct the young curates how +to preach. I remember well, ten years ago, when I was a curate (which in +Scotland we call an _assistant_) myself, what advices I used to receive +(quite unsought by me) from well-meaning, but densely stupid old ladies. +I did not think the advices worth much, even then; and now, by longer +experience, I can discern that they were utterly idiotic. Yet they were +given with entire confidence. No thought ever entered the heads of +these well-meaning, but stupid individuals, that possibly they were not +competent to give advice on such subjects. And it is vexatious to think +that people so stupid may do serious harm to a young clergyman by +head-shakings and sly innuendoes as to his orthodoxy or his gravity of +deportment. In the long run they will do no harm, but at the first start +they may do a good deal of mischief. Not long since, such a person +complained to me that a talented young preacher had taught unsound +doctrine. She cited his words. I showed her that the words were +taken _verbatim_ from the "Confession of Faith," which is our Scotch +Thirty-Nine Articles. I think it not unlikely that she would go on +telling her tattling story just the same. I remember hearing a stupid +old lady say, as though her opinion were quite decisive of the question, +that no clergyman ought to have so much as a thousand a year; for, if he +had, he would be sure to neglect his duty. You remember what Dr. Johnson +said to a woman who expressed some opinion or other upon a matter she +did not understand. "Madam," said the moralist, "before expressing your +opinion, you should consider what your opinion is worth." But this shaft +would have glanced harmlessly from off the panoply of the stupid and +self-complacent old lady of whom I am thinking. It was a fundamental +axiom with her that her opinion was entirely infallible. Some people +would feel as though the very world were crumbling away under their +feet, if they realized the fact that they could go wrong. + +Let it here be said, that this vain belief of their own importance, +which most people cherish, is not at all a source of unmixed happiness. +It will work either way. When my friend, Mr. Snarling, got his beautiful +poem printed in the county newspaper, it no doubt pleased him to think, +as he walked along the street, that every one was pointing him out as +the eminent literary man who was the pride of the district, and that the +whole town was ringing with that magnificent effusion. Mr. Tennyson, it +is certain, felt that his crown was being reft away. But, on the other +hand, there is no commoner form of morbid misery than that of the poor +nervous man or woman who fancies that he or she is the subject of +universal unkindly remark. You will find people, still sane for +practical purposes, who think that the whole neighborhood is conspiring +against them, when in fact nobody is thinking of them. + +All these pages have been spent in discussing a single thing slowly +learnt: the remaining matters to be considered in this essay must be +treated briefly. + +Another thing slowly learnt is that we have no reason or right to be +angry with people because they think poorly of us. This is a truth which +most people find it very hard to accept, and at which, probably, very +few arrive without pretty long thought and experience. Most people are +angry, when they are informed that some one has said that their ability +is small, or that their proficiency in any art is limited. Mrs. Malaprop +was very indignant, when she found that some of her friends had spoken +lightly of her parts of speech. Mr. Snarling was wroth, when he learned +that Mr. Jollikin thought him no great preacher. Miss Brown was so, on +hearing that Mr. Smith did not admire her singing; and Mr. Smith, on +learning that Miss Brown did not admire his horsemanship. Some authors +feel angry, on reading an unfavorable review of their book. The present +writer has been treated very, very kindly by the critics,--far more so +than he ever deserved; yet he remembers showing a notice of him, which +was intended to extinguish him for all coming time, to a warm-hearted +friend, who read it with gathering wrath, and, vehemently starting up at +its close, exclaimed, (we knew who wrote the notice,)--"Now I shall +go straight and kick that fellow!" Now all this is very natural; but +assuredly it is quite wrong. You understand, of course, that I am +thinking of unfavorable opinions of you, honestly held, and expressed +without malice. I do not mean to say that you would choose for your +special friend or companion one who thought meanly of your ability or +your sense; it would not be pleasant to have him always by you; and the +very fact of his presence would tend to keep you from doing justice to +yourself. For it is true, that, when with people who think you very +clever and wise, you really are a good deal cleverer and wiser than +usual; while with people who think you stupid and silly, you find +yourself under a malign influence which tends to make you actually so +for the time. If you want a man to gain any good quality, the way is to +give him credit for possessing it. If he has but little, give him credit +for all he has, at least; and you will find him daily get more. You know +how Arnold made boys truthful; it was by giving them credit for truth. +Oh that we all fitly understood that the same grand principle should +be extended to all good qualities, intellectual and moral! Diligently +instil into a boy that he is a stupid, idle, bad-hearted blockhead, and +you are very likely to make him all _that_. And so you can see that it +is not judicious to choose for a special friend and associate one who +thinks poorly of one's sense or one's parts. Indeed, if such a one +honestly thinks poorly of you, and has any moral earnestness, you could +not get him for a special friend, if you wished it. Let us choose for +our companions (if such can be found) those who think well and kindly of +us, even though we may know within ourselves that they think too kindly +and too well. For that favorable estimation will bring out and foster +all that is good in us. There is between this and the unfavorable +judgment all the difference between the warm, genial sunshine, that +draws forth the flowers and encourages them to open their leaves, +and the nipping frost or the blighting east-wind, that represses and +disheartens all vegetable life. But though thus you would not choose +for your special companion one who thinks poorly of you, and though you +might not even wish to see him very often, you have no reason to have +any angry feeling towards him. He cannot help his opinion. His opinion +is determined by his lights. His opinion, possibly, founds on those +aesthetic considerations as to which people will never think alike, with +which there is no reasoning, and for which there is no accounting. God +has made him so that he dislikes your book, or at least cannot heartily +appreciate it; and that is not his fault. And, holding his opinion, he +is quite entitled to express it. It may not be polite to express it to +yourself. By common consent it is understood that you are never, +except in cases of absolute necessity, to say to any man that which is +disagreeable to him. And if you go, and, without any call to do so, +express to a man himself that you think poorly of him, he may justly +complain, not of your unfavorable opinion of him, but of the malice +which is implied in your needlessly informing him of it. But if any one +expresses such an unfavorable opinion of you in your absence, and some +one comes and repeats it to you, be angry with the person who repeats +the opinion to you, not with the person who expressed it. For what you +do not know will cause you no pain. And all sensible folk, aware how +estimates of any mortal must differ, will, in the long run, attach +nearly the just weight to any opinion, favorable or unfavorable. + +Yes, my friend, utterly put down the natural tendency in your heart to +be angry with the man who thinks poorly of you. For you have, in sober +reason, no right to be angry with him. It is more pleasant, and indeed +more profitable, to live among those who think highly of you--It makes +you better. You actually grow into what you get credit for. Oh, how much +better a clergyman preaches to his own congregation, who listen with +kindly and sympathetic attention to all he says, and always think too +well of him, than to a set of critical strangers, eager to find faults +and to pick holes! And how heartily and pleasantly the essayist covers +his pages which are to go into a magazine whose readers have come to +know him well, and to bear with all his ways! If every one thought him a +dull and stupid person, he could not write at all: indeed, he would bow +to the general belief, and accept the truth that he is dull and stupid. +But further, my reader, let us be reasonable, when it is pleasant; and +let us sometimes be irrational, when _that_ is pleasant too. It is +natural to have a very kindly feeling to those who think well of us. +Now, though, in severe truth, we have no more reason for wishing to +shake hands with the man who thinks well of us than for wishing to shake +the man who thinks ill of us, yet let us yield heartily to the former +pleasant impulse. It is not reasonable, but it is all right. You cannot +help liking people who estimate you favorably and say a good word of +you. No doubt we might slowly learn not to like them more than anybody +else; but we need not take the trouble to learn _that_ lesson. Let us +all, my readers, be glad if we can reach that cheerful position of mind +at which my eloquent friend SHIRLEY and I have long since arrived: that +we are extremely gratified when we find ourselves favorably reviewed, +and not in the least angry when we find ourselves reviewed unfavorably; +that we have a very kindly feeling towards such as think well of us, and +no unkind feeling whatever to those who think ill of us. Thus, at the +beginning of the month, we look with equal minds at the newspaper +notices of our articles; we are soothed and exhilarated when we find +ourselves described as sages, and we are amused and interested when we +find ourselves shown up as little better than geese. + +Of course, it makes a difference in the feeling with which you ought to +regard any unfavorable opinion of you, whether spoken or written, if the +unfavorable opinion which is expressed be plainly not honestly held, and +be maliciously expressed. You may occasionally hear a judgment expressed +of a young girl's music or dancing, of a gentleman's horses, of a +preacher's sermons, of an author's books, which is manifestly dictated +by personal spite and jealousy, and which is expressed with the +intention of doing mischief and giving pain to the person of whom +the judgment is expressed. You will occasionally find such judgments +supported by wilful misrepresentation, and even by pure invention. In +such a case as this, the essential thing is not the unfavorable opinion; +it is the malice which leads to its entertainment and expression. And +the conduct of the offending party should be regarded with that feeling +which, on calm thought, you discern to be the right feeling with which +to regard malice accompanied by falsehood. Then, is it well to be +angry here? I think not. You may see that it is not safe to have any +communication with a person who will abuse and misrepresent you; it is +not safe, and it is not pleasant. But don't be angry. It is not worth +while. That old lady, indeed, told all her friends that you said, in +your book, something she knew quite well you did not say. Mr. Snarling +did the like. But the offences of such people are not worth powder and +shot; and besides this, my friend, if you saw the case from their point +of view, you might see that they have something to say for themselves. +You failed to call for the old lady so often as she wished you should. +You did not ask Mr. Snarling to dinner. These are bad reasons for +pitching into you; but still they are reasons; and Mr. Snarling and the +old lady, by long brooding over them, may have come to think that they +are very just and weighty reasons. And did you never, my friend, speak +rather unkindly of these two persons? Did you never give a ludicrous +account of their goings-on, or even an ill-set account, which some kind +friend was sure to repeat to them? + +Ah, my reader, don't be too hard on Snarling; possibly you have yourself +done something very like what he is doing now. Forgive, as you need to +be forgiven! And try to attain that quite attainable temper in which you +will read or listen to the most malignant attack upon you with curiosity +and amusement, and with no angry feeling at all. I suppose great people +attain to this: I mean cabinet-ministers and the like, who are daily +flayed in print somewhere or other. They come to take it all quite +easily. And if they were pure angels, somebody would attack them. Most +people, even those who differ from him, know, that, if this world has +a humble, conscientious, pious man in it, that man is the present +Archbishop of Canterbury: yet last night I read in a certain powerful +journal, that the great characteristics of that good man are cowardice, +trickery, and simple rascality! Honest Mr. Bumpkin, kind-hearted Miss +Goodbody, do you fancy that _you_ can escape? + +Then we ought to try to fix it in our mind, that, in all matters into +which taste enters at all, the most honest and the most able men may +hopelessly, diametrically, differ: original idiosyncrasy has so much to +say here; and training has also so much. One cultivated and honest +man has an enthusiastic and most real love and enjoyment of Gothic +architecture, and an absolute hatred for that of the classic revival; +another man, equally cultivated and honest, has tastes which are the +logical contradictory of these. No one can doubt the ability of Byron, +or of Sheridan; yet each of them thought very little of Shakspeare. The +question is, _What suits you_? You may have the strongest conviction +that you ought to like an author; you may be ashamed to confess that you +don't like him; and yet you may feel that you detest him. For myself, I +confess with shame, and I know the reason is in myself, I cannot for my +life see anything to admire in the writings of Mr. Carlyle. His style, +both of thought and language, is to me insufferably irritating. I tried +to read the "Sartor Resartus," and could not do it. So if all people who +have learned to read English were like me, Mr. Carlyle would have no +readers. Happily, the majority, in most cases, possesses the normal +taste. At least there is no further appeal than to the deliberate +judgment of the majority of educated men. I confess, further, that I +would rather read Mr. Helps than Milton: I do not say that I think Mr. +Helps the greater man, but that I feel he suits me better. I value the +"Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table" more highly than all the writings of +Shelley put together. It is a curious thing to read various reviews of +the same book,--particularly if it be one of those books which, if you +like at all, you will like very much, and which, if you don't like, +you will absolutely hate. It is curious to find opinions flatly +contradictory of one another set forth in those reviews by very able, +cultivated, and unprejudiced men. There is no newspaper published in +Britain which contains abler writing than the "Edinburgh Scotsman." And +of course no one need say anything as to the literary merits of the +"Times." Well, one day within the last few months, the "Times" and the +"Scotsman" each published a somewhat elaborate review of a certain book. +The reviews were flatly opposed to one another; they had no common +ground at all; one said the book was extremely good, and the other that +it was extremely bad. You must just make up your mind that in matters of +taste there can be no unvarying standard of truth. In aesthetic matters, +truth is quite relative. What is bad to you is good to me, perhaps. And +indeed, if one might adduce the saddest of all possible proofs how even +the loftiest and most splendid genius fails to commend itself to every +cultivated mind, it may suffice to say, that that brilliant "Scotsman" +has on several occasions found fault with the works of A.K.H.B.! + +If you, my reader, are a wise and kind-hearted person, (as I have no +doubt whatever but you are,) I think you would like very much to meet +and converse with any person who has formed a bad opinion of you. You +would take great pleasure in overcoming such a one's prejudice against +you; and if the person were an honest and worthy person, you would be +almost certain to do so. Very few folk are able to retain any bitter +feeling towards a man they have actually talked with, unless the bitter +feeling be one which is just. And a very great proportion of all the +unfavorable opinions which men entertain of their fellow-men found on +some misconception. You take up somehow an impression that such a one is +a conceited, stuck-up person: you come to know him, and you find he is +the frankest and most unaffected of men. You had a belief that such +another was a cynical, heartless being, till you met him one day coming +down a long black stair, in a poor part of the town, from a bare chamber +in which is a little sick child, with two large tears running down his +face; and when you enter the poor apartment, you learn certain facts as +to his quiet benevolence which compel you suddenly to construct a new +theory of that man's character. It is only people who are radically and +essentially bad whom you can really dislike after you come to know +them. And the human beings who are thus essentially bad are very few. +Something of the original Image lingers yet in almost every human soul: +and in many a homely, commonplace person, what with vestiges of the old, +and a blessed planting-in of something new, there is a vast deal of +it. And every human being, conscious of honest intention and of a kind +heart, may well wish that the man who dislikes and abuses him could just +know him. + +But there are human beings whom, if you are wise, you would not wish to +know you too well: I mean the human beings (if such there should be) who +think very highly of you,--who imagine you very clever and very amiable. +Keep out of the way of such! Let them see as little of you as possible. +For, when they come to know you well, they are quite sure to be +disenchanted. The enthusiastic ideal which young people form of any +one they admire is smashed by the rude presence of facts. I have got +somewhat beyond the stage of feeling enthusiastic admiration, yet there +are two or three living men whom I should be sorry to see: I know I +should never admire them so much any more. I never saw Mr. Dickens: I +don't want to see him. Let us leave Yarrow unvisited: our sweet ideal is +fairer than the fairest fact. No hero is a hero to his valet: and it may +be questioned whether any clergyman is a saint to his beadle. Yet the +hero may be a true hero, and the clergyman a very excellent man: but no +human being can bear too close inspection. I remember hearing a clever +and enthusiastic young lady complain of what she had suffered, on +meeting a certain great bishop at dinner. No doubt he was dignified, +pleasant, clever; but the mysterious halo was no longer round his head. +Here is a sad circumstance in the lot of a very great man: I mean such +a man as Mr. Tennyson or Professor Longfellow. As an elephant walks +through a field, crushing the crop at every step, so do these men +advance through life, smashing, every time they dine out, the +enthusiastic fancies of several romantic young people. + +This was to have been a short essay. But you see it is already long; and +I have treated only two of the four Things Slowly Learnt which I had +noted down. After much consideration I discern several courses which are +open to me:-- + +1. To ask the editor to allow me forty or fifty pages of the magazine +for my essay. + +2. To stop at once, and allow it to remain forever a secret what the two +remaining things are. + +3. To stop now, and continue my subject in a future number of the +magazine. + +4. To state briefly what the two things are, and get rid of the subject +at once. + +The fundamental notion of Course No. 1 is manifestly vain. The editor is +doubtless well aware that about sixteen pages is the utmost length +of essay which his readers can stand. Nos. 2 and 3, for reasons too +numerous to state, cannot be adopted. And thus I am in a manner +compelled to adopt Course No. 4. + +The first of the two things is a practical lesson. It is this: to allow +for human folly, laziness, carelessness, and the like, just as you allow +for the properties of matter, such as weight, friction, and the like, +without being surprised or angry at them. You know, that, if a man +is lifting a piece of lead, he does not think of getting into a rage +because it is heavy; or if a man is dragging a tree along the ground, he +does not get into a rage because it ploughs deeply into the earth as it +comes. He is not surprised at these things. They are nothing new. It is +just what he counted on. But you will find that the same man, if his +servants are lazy, careless, and forgetful, or if his friends are +petted, wrong-headed, and impracticable, will not only get quite angry, +but will get freshly angry at each new action which proves that his +friends or servants possess these characteristics. Would it not be +better to make up your mind that such things are characteristic of +humanity, and so that you must look for them in dealing with human +beings? And would it not be better, too, to regard each new proof of +laziness, not as a new thing to be angry with, but merely as a piece of +the one great fact that your servant is lazy, with which you get angry +once for all, and have done with it? If your servant makes twenty +blunders a day, do not regard them as twenty separate facts at which to +get angry twenty several times: regard them just as twenty proofs of the +one fact that your servant is a blunderer; and be angry just once, and +no more. Or if some one you know gives twenty indications in a day that +he or she (let us say she) is of a petted temper, regard these merely as +twenty proofs of one lamentable fact, and not as twenty different facts +to be separately lamented. You accept the fact that the person is petted +and ill-tempered: you regret it and blame it once for all. And after +this once you take as of course all new manifestations of pettedness and +ill-temper. And you are no more surprised at them, or angry with them, +than you are at lead for being heavy, or at down for being light. It is +their nature, and you calculate on it, and allow for it. + +Then the second of the two remaining things is this,--that you have no +right to complain, if you are postponed to greater people, or if you are +treated with less consideration than you would be, if you were a greater +person. Uneducated people are very slow to learn this most obvious +lesson. I remember hearing of a proud old lady who was proprietor of a +small landed estate in Scotland. She had many relations,--some greater, +some less. The greater she much affected, the less she wholly ignored. +But they did not ignore _her_; and one morning an individual arrived at +her mansion-house, bearing a large box on his back. He was a travelling +peddler; and he sent up word to the old lady that he was her cousin, and +hoped she would buy something from him. The old lady indignantly refused +to see him, and sent orders that he should forthwith quit the house. +The peddler went; but, on reaching the courtyard, he turned to the +inhospitable dwelling, and in a loud voice exclaimed, in the ears of +every mortal in the house, "Ay, if I had come in my carriage-and-four, +ye wad have been proud to have ta'en me in!" The peddler fancied that he +was hurling at his relative a scathing sarcasm: he did not see that he +was simply stating a perfectly unquestionable fact. No doubt earthly, if +he had come in a carriage-and-four, he would have got a hearty welcome, +and he would have found his claim of kindred eagerly allowed. But he +thought he was saying a bitter and cutting thing, and (strange to say) +the old lady fancied she was listening to a bitter and cutting thing. +He was merely expressing a certain and innocuous truth. But though all +mortals know that in this world big people meet greater respect than +small, (and quite right too,) most mortals seem to find the principle a +very unpleasant one, when it comes home to themselves. And we learn but +slowly to acquiesce in seeing ourselves plainly subordinated to other +people. Poor Oliver Goldsmith was very angry, when at the club one night +he was stopped in the middle of a story by a Dutchman, who had noticed +that the Great Bear was rolling about in preparation for speaking, and +who exclaimed to Goldsmith, "Stop, stop! Toctor Shonson is going to +speak!" Once I arrived at a certain railway station. Two old ladies were +waiting to go by the same train. I knew them well, and they expressed +their delight that we were going the same way. "Let us go in the same +carriage," said the younger, in earnest tones; "and will you be so very +kind as to see about our luggage?" After a few minutes of the lively +talk of the period and district, the train came up. I feel the tremor +of the platform yet. I handed my friends into a carriage, and then saw +their baggage placed in the van. It was a station at which trains +stop for a few minutes for refreshments. So I went to the door of the +carriage into which I had put them, and waited a little before taking +my seat. I expected that my friends would proceed with the conversation +which had been interrupted; but to my astonishment I found that I had +become wholly invisible to them. They did not see me and speak to me at +all. In the carriage with them was a living peer, of wide estates and +great rank, whom they knew. And so thoroughly did he engross their eyes +and thoughts and words, that they had become unaware of my presence, or +even my existence. The stronger sensation rendered them unconscious of +the weaker. Do you think I felt angry? No, I did not. I felt very much +amused. I recognized a slight manifestation of a grand principle. It was +a straw showing how a current sets, but for which Britain would not be +the country it is. I took my seat in another carriage, and placidly read +my "Times." There was one lady in that carriage. I think she inferred, +from the smiles which occasionally for the first few miles overspread +my countenance without apparent cause, that my mind was slightly +disordered. + +These are the two things already mentioned. But you cannot understand, +friendly reader, what an effort it has cost me to treat them so briefly, +The experienced critic will discern at a glance that the author could +easily have made sixteen pages out of the material you have here in two. +The author takes his stand upon this,--that there are few people who can +beat out thought so thin, or say so little in such a great number of +words. But I remember how a very great prelate (who could compress all I +have said into a page and a half) once comforted me by telling me that +for the consumption of many minds it was desirable that thought should +be very greatly diluted; that quantity as well as quality is needful +in the dietetics both of the body and the mind. With this soothing +reflection I close the present essay. + + + + +AMERICAN NAVIGATION: + +ITS CHECKS, ITS PROGRESS, ITS DANGERS.--THE BIRTH OF THE NAVY.--THE +EMBARGO. + + +In these palmy days of Commerce it is difficult to conceive the distress +which attended the Embargo. To form some idea of its effects at a period +when the nation engrossed most of the carrying trade of the world, let +us imagine a message from Washington announcing that Congress, after a +few midnight-sessions, has suddenly resolved to withdraw our ships from +the ocean, and to export nothing from New York, or any other seaport; +that it requires the merchant to dismantle his ships and leave them to +decay at the wharves; that it calls upon two hundred thousand masters +and mariners, who now plough the main, to seek their bread ashore; that +it forbids even the fisherman to launch his chebacco-boat or follow his +gigantic prey upon the deep; that it subjects the whole coastwise trade +to onerous bonds and the surveillance of custom-house officers; that it +interdicts all exports by land to Canada, New Brunswick, or Mexico. + +Imagine for a moment five million tons of shipping detained, thousands +of seamen reduced to want, the trades of the ship-builder, joiner, +rigger, and sail-maker stopped, the masses of produce now seeking the +coast for shipment arrested on their way by the entire cessation of +demand, the banker and insurer idle, the commissioners of bankruptcy, +the sheriff, and the jailer busy. Imagine the whole country, in the +midst of a prosperous commerce, thus suddenly brought to a stand. +Imagine the navigation, the produce, and the merchandise of the nation +thus suddenly embargoed by one great seizure, upon the plea that they +might possibly be seized abroad, and some faint idea may be formed of +the alarm, distress, and indignant feeling which pervaded the entire +seaboard under the Embargo of 1807. At the period in question the +distressed seamen and ruined merchants had no railways, scarcely an +ordinary road to the West. Manufactures were almost unknown, the +mechanic arts were undeveloped, and consequently the exclusion from the +sea was felt with double force. + +Why, urged the merchant and the mariner, should our property perish and +our children go supperless to bed, when we can insure our ships and +still make large profits? Would the planter reconcile himself to a law +which forbade him to harness his teams or use the hoe or the plough, and +bade him lie down and die of hunger beside fruitful fields? Does the +Constitution of the Union, which empowers Congress to regulate commerce, +authorize its destruction? And if it is the intent of Government merely +to protect our ships abroad, why are foreign vessels forbidden to +purchase or export our perishing fish and provisions? and why is our +property to be confiscated and heavy fines to be imposed, if we send it +across the Canada line, where there is no risk of seizure?--And when, in +the progress of events, it became apparent that France approved of our +Embargo, and that England, opening new marts for her trade and new +sources of supplies in Russia, Spain, India, and Spanish America, was +without a rival on the ocean, monopolizing the trade and becoming the +carrier of the world, it was impossible to reconcile the Eastern States +to this general interdict. + +Many a rich man was ruined, many a prosperous town was utterly +prostrated by the shock. Property, real and personal, fell from thirty +to sixty per cent., affecting by its fall all classes of society. +A spirit of hostility to the party in power was engendered, which +outlasted the war with England, and continued to glow until Monroe had +adopted the great Federal measures of a navy, a military academy, and an +enlarged system of coast-defence. + +Half a century has now elapsed since the signal failure of the Embargo. +The theorists who planned it, the cabinet that adopted it, the +politicians who blindly sustained it have passed from the stage. Angry +feelings have subsided. The measure itself has become a part of the +history of the country; but now that our commerce has again expanded, +now that our navigation, for at least a quarter of a century, has +continued to progress until it has outstripped that of Great Britain in +speed, despatch, and capacity to carry, now that it knows no superior +either in ancient or modern times, it is a fitting moment to investigate +the causes and effects of the measure which once arrested its progress. +Its history is replete with lessons; and if our late President has +failed in other particulars, he at least cautioned us, in his inaugural +address, "that our commerce and navigation are again exceeding the means +provided for their defence," and recommended "an increase of a navy now +inadequate to the protection of our vast tonnage afloat," greater than +that of any other nation, "as well as to the defence of our extended +sea-coast." To ascertain and appreciate the true causes of the Embargo, +we must ascend to the origin of our commerce and trace it downward. + +The Pilgrims who sought freedom in New England were enterprising men. +The country in which they landed kindled a commercial spirit. Natural +ports and havens, vast forests of pine and oak suitable for spars and +timber, abundance of fish and whales, and the occasional failure of +their crops, all invited them to the deep. Under the rule of Governor +Winthrop, the shallop Blessing of the Bay was built at his Ten Hills +farm, and made a voyage to Virginia. Boats, soon followed by sloops, +engaged in the fisheries; brigs and ships were built for the trade with +England. Boston became noted for ship-building, and Portsmouth supplied +the royal navy with spars. The fleet which took Port Royal in 1710 was +composed principally of American ships. The New England volunteers who +in 1745 captured the fortress of Louisburg from the veteran troops of +France were conveyed by ten American ships of war. + +As early as 1765, six hundred sail from Massachusetts were engaged in +the fisheries, and many American vessels pursued the trade to England, +Spain, and the West Indies. The towns of Salem, Marblehead, and +Gloucester were almost surrounded by fish-flakes. Fish, lumber, and +provisions were the great basis of trade. Ships were built and laden +with timber, and sold with their lading in English ports. Cargoes were +made up of fish, live stock, and boards, for the West India Islands. +The returns were shipped to Spain and Portugal, and there exchanged +for silk, iron, fruit, wines, and bills on England. Occasionally ships +joined the Jamaica fleet, or adventured on bolder voyages to the French +islands; but the admiralty courts at Tortola and New Providence, often +supposed to be in league with English admirals, repressed the spirit of +adventure, and annually condemned American ships on the most frivolous +pretences. The fame of American whalers had already reached England. +Burke, in his celebrated speech on America, alludes to their enterprise. +"We find them," he says, "in the deepest frozen recesses of Hudson's +Bay, and again beneath the frozen serpent of the South.....What sea +is not vexed by their fisheries? what climate is not witness to their +toils?" + +No record is to be found of the shipping of the Colonies prior to the +Revolution, but there is reason to suppose that it must have exceeded +two hundred thousand tons. During the Revolution the merchantmen went +generally to decay or were captured. Some were equipped as privateers. +But after seven years a ship is in its dotage. New vessels were built +and armed. The models which figure in old pictures, with high sterns and +bows, proved too clumsy for war, and modern forms were adopted. At least +five hundred armed vessels were fitted out in the commercial States, and +among them one hundred and fifty-eight from the single port of Salem. +Some of these vessels mounted twenty guns; they captured large numbers +of English vessels, and performed feats on the ocean as brilliant as +any upon the land. At the close of the war, our shipping, although it +included many prizes, was undoubtedly reduced; but it had changed its +character. Our ships had improved in size and speed, and were manned by +officers and seamen who had measured their strength with Englishmen, +and acknowledged no superiors. From the Peace of 1783 to the Embargo +of 1807, a period of twenty-four years, is a remarkable epoch in the +history of American navigation. + +At the close of the war, the country was exhausted by its long and +protracted struggle with the colossal power of England. The Eastern +States, which furnished most of the shipping, had made great sacrifices, +and had contributed more than their share in men, money, and ships to +the common defence. They were creditor States, and their means +were locked up in "final settlements." Their remaining capital was +insufficient to equip their vessels and give them full cargoes. The +country was impoverished, too, by the suits of foreign creditors, to +whom our merchants had become deeply indebted before the war. Under +these circumstances, commerce was slowly resumed. For several years +our exports did not exceed ten millions. But our merchants were not +disheartened; they gradually enlarged their trade and extended their +field of adventure; privateers were put into the India trade, and +entered into successful rivalry with the more cumbrous ships of the +East India Companies. The new Constitution was adopted, the public debt +funded, and duties imposed to meet the interest. The war-worn officer, +the patriotic merchant, and the humble capitalist, who had relied on the +honor and justice of the country, were paid in public stocks which found +favor abroad. Old capital was resuscitated and became the basis of +commerce. + +In 1793 our tonnage had risen to 488,000 tons; and in 1799 it had grown +to 939,488 tons, and was still increasing. The aggressions of France +in 1798 and 1799 were met with a bold spirit and proved of brief +continuance, a proper chastisement was inflicted on the corsairs of +Africa, the honor of the flag was maintained, our commerce moved onward +until the close of 1807, and by the official report of that year our +tonnage had increased to 1,208,735 tons, or at least five hundred per +cent. in the first twenty-four years after the close of the war. The +revenue had risen to fifteen millions, and the official report of the +Treasurer showed a balance in the Treasury of eighteen millions in bonds +and money; it stated, also, that twenty-six millions of the public debt +had been extinguished in the seven years preceding. Our ships, too, +had become the great carriers of the deep; our exports for 1807 were +$108,343,750, of which $59,622,558 were of foreign origin; our ports, +remote from the seat of war, had become the depots of goods; and our +commerce, whitening the surface of every ocean, had begun to tempt the +cupidity of contending nations. In 1807, the United States, in addition +to its domestic produce, which went principally to English ports, +exported of foreign goods, in round numbers, to + + Holland, . . . . . . . . $14,000,000 + French ports, . . . . . . 13,000,000 + Spanish " . . . . . . 14,000,000 + Italian " . . . . . . 5,500,000 + Danish " . . . . . . 2,500,000 + English and other ports,. 10,000,000 + +In those prosperous days of navigation, during the first period of +twenty-four years after the Peace of 1783, the merchants of our country +were accumulating riches; but a check was given to their prosperity by +the Embargo, closely followed by acts of non-intercourse, by war, and +by sixteen years of debility which ensued. In 1814, our tonnage was +diminished to 1,159,288 tons, a point actually below that of 1807; and +at the close of the second epoch of twenty-four years, in 1831, during +which our population had doubled, the tonnage remained at 1,267,846 +tons, having virtually made no progress in the second epoch of +twenty-four years, commencing with the Embargo. + +We now enter upon the third epoch of equal length, from 1831 to 1855, +which stands out in bold relief a striking contrast to the gloomy +period which it followed, and bears some resemblance to the epoch which +preceded the Embargo, showing the recuperative power of a commerce +destined to float after the most disastrous shipwreck. + +Peace had continued down to 1831; the debt incurred during the war was +at length reduced; new breeds of sheep were imported, and manufactures, +aided by new inventions, were established on a permanent basis; our new +fabrics began to demand more raw material; the culture of cotton +was thus extended; railways were constructed; England, relaxing her +commercial code, opened her marts to our breadstuffs; the great +discovery of gold followed. Each of these causes gave an impulse to +navigation, and at the close of the third epoch of twenty-four years, +in 1855, our tonnage had outstripped that of England both in amount and +effective power, and had risen by the official report to 5,212,000 tons, +exhibiting a gain of more than three hundred per cent. The ratio of its +advance may be inferred from the following table:-- + + Tonnage of ships built in 1818 55,856 + do. do. 1831 85,962 + do. do. 1832 144,539 + do. do. 1848 318,072 + do. do. 1855 583,451 + +Let us contrast these three epochs we have named. During the first, our +navigation sprang from infancy to manhood, surmounting all obstacles and +bidding defiance to all foes. In the second, in the vigor of manhood, it +was withdrawn by a mysterious and pusillanimous policy from the ocean. +This very timidity invited aggression, seizures and war followed, and +the growth was checked for nearly the fourth of a century. In the third +epoch it resumed its onward march, stimulating improvement, and thereby +accelerating its own progress, until at length the offspring has +surpassed the parent and taken the lead in navigation. Mark the +contrast: the three epochs were of equal length: the first witnessed +a growth of five hundred per cent.; in the second there was an entire +paralysis; in the third, renewed progress of more than three hundred per +cent. + +What were the causes that confined the young giant to a Procrustean bed +for a quarter of a century? + +The subject has become history, and we can now calmly investigate it +by the light of the past and the present. May not this investigation +illumine the path of the future? Let us examine the maritime policy of +our nation during each period. + +At the close of the Revolution there was no navy, and few ships to be +protected. Our private armed vessels were converted into merchantmen, +our solitary ship of the line was presented to France, and we had no +frigates worth preserving. + +The first great effort of the country was to form a constitution; the +second, to provide for the creditors who had sustained the nation; the +third, to provide a revenue to meet expenses and interest. And these +were all successful. As commerce advanced, the Federal party under +Washington revived the idea of a navy, and on March 11th, 1794, against +the opposition of Madison, they carried a bill through Congress for +the construction of six frigates. Under this bill, the Constitution, +Constellation, and United States, all since identified with the fame +of our country, were commenced, but they were not launched until the +accession of John Adams in 1797. + +Washington, in his Farewell Address, gave the sanction of his name to +a navy, as well as to the West Point Academy, and to a system of +harbor-defence. He thus marked out the great outlines; but the +founder of the navy was John Adams. Nurtured among the hardy sons of +Massachusetts, familiar with their exploits upon the ocean during the +war both in private and public service, he felt assured of their ability +to cope with the Mistress of the Seas. When France seized our ships and +undertook to involve us in European wars, Adams renounced her alliance +and called for the creation of a navy. In his annual message in 1797, +he spoke of "a navy as next to the militia the natural defence of the +United States." In 1798 the three frigates above-mentioned were +finished and sent to sea, and soon after the Constellation captured the +Insurgent. During the same year Congress voted to construct six +more frigates, twelve sloops-of-war, and six smaller vessels, and +appropriated a million for the frames of six ships of the line, two +millions for timber, and fifty thousand dollars for two dock-yards. +At the same time, in response to a vote of Congress authorizing the +acceptance of additional ships, $711,700 were subscribed, and the +frigates Essex, Connecticut, Merrimack, and other vessels, constructed +and turned over to the Government by the merchants of Salem, +Newburyport, Hartford, and other seaports. + +To illustrate the spirit with which the merchants responded to the call +for a navy, we may cite the action of the Federal county of Essex, none +of whose towns at that period contained over ten thousand inhabitants. +This county had contributed more armed ships and men to the War of the +Revolution than any other county in the Union, and was conspicuous for +its enterprise and patriotism before the embargo, non-intercourse, and +war had crushed its commerce. + +The merchants of Essex assembled and subscribed the funds for the +frigates Essex and Merrimack, the first of which was built at Salem and +the other at Newburyport, and both of New-England oak; and this effort +was the more remarkable, as they advanced the money while the Government +found it difficult to borrow at eight per cent., and these patriotic men +afterwards took their pay in depreciated six per cent. stock at par. + +We have not the history of the Merrimack; but the Essex, a frigate of +thirty-two guns, begun in April, was launched in September, 1799, and +the best commentary upon the policy of the measure and upon the skill +and fidelity of her builders is the fact that she proved the fastest +ship in the navy, that she lasted thirty-eight years, namely, till 1837, +that she cost for hull, spars, sails, and rigging, when ready to receive +her armament and stores, but $75,473.59, and that under the gallant +Porter, in the War of 1812, she captured the British corvette Alert, of +twenty guns, a transport with one hundred and ninety-seven troops +for Canada, and twenty-three other prizes, valued at two millions of +dollars; she also broke up the British whale-fishing in the Pacific; and +when finally captured at Valparaiso by two ships of superior force, who +would not venture within reach of her carronades, she fought a battle +of three hours' duration, which does honor to the country. While this +frigate was building, so fast did the timber come in, that the spirited +contractor, Mr. Briggs, was obliged to insert the following notice in +the Salem paper to check the supply. + +"THE SALEM FRIGATE. + +"Through the medium of the Gazette the subscriber pays his +acknowledgments to the good people of the County of Essex, for their +spirited exertions in bringing down the trees of the Forest for building +the Frigate. + +"In the short space of four weeks the full complement of timber has been +furnished. Those who have contributed to their country's defence are +invited to come forward and receive the reward of their patriotism. They +are informed that with the permission of a kind Providence who hath +hitherto favored the undertaking, that + + "Next September is the time + When we'll launch her from the strand, + And our cannon load and prime + With tribute due to Talleyrand." + +The promise was fulfilled on September 30th, 1799. The hills in the +vicinity and the rocks upon the shores were covered with people +assembled to witness the launch, and the guns of the frigate were +planted on an eminence "to speak aloud the joy of the occasion." + +A correspondent of the "Gazette" gave the following jubilant account of +the affair. + +"And Adams said, Let there be a Navy, and there was a Navy. To build a +navy was the advice of our venerable sage. How far it has been adhered +to is demonstrated by almost every town' in the United States that is +capable of floating a Galley or Gunboat. Salem has not been backward in +this laudable design; impressed with a due sense of the importance of +a Navy, the patriotic citizens of this town put out a subscription and +thereby obtained an equivalent for building a vessel of force. Among +the foremost in this good work were Messrs. Derby & Gray, who set the +example by subscribing ten thousand dollars each,--but, alas, the former +is no more; we trust his good deeds follow him. Yesterday the stars and +stripes were unfurled on board the Frigate Essex, and at twelve o'clock +she made a majestic movement into her destined element, there to join +her sister-craft in repelling foreign invasion and maintaining the +rights and liberties of 'a great, free, peaceful, and independent +Republic.'" + +The early reports under Adams give the estimated cost of a ship of the +line as $400,000; and the first frigates actually cost as follows:-- + + Constellation $314,212 + Constitution 302,718 + United States 299,336 + President 220,910 + Chesapeake 220,679 + Congress 197,246 + Essex, with armament and stores 139,202 + +In 1799 the estimates for the navy were raised to four millions and +a half, and large appropriations were continued in 1800. Under these +appropriations several navy-yards were established, and frames of +live-oak and cedar were furnished for eight ships of the line. The +energy of the Administration produced corresponding effects, convoys +were provided for our merchantmen, insurance fell from twenty to ten per +cent., and France, impressed by our spirit and armament, retired from +the contest. + +At the close of 1800 the navy had made great progress; and the Secretary +of the Navy, Hon. Benjamin Stoddard of Baltimore, proposed in 1801 an +annual appropriation of one million for its increase. + +But in 1801 the spirited administration of Adams came to an end. He had +favored the payment of the national debt; he had dared to anticipate the +future, to impose taxes and provide ships; he had aided the formation +of a military academy and advocated a system of coast-defence, and had +boldly asserted our national rights against the French Republic; and yet +he loved peace so well, that, against the advice and wishes of his party +and his cabinet, he sent a minister to France, who made an honorable +treaty. Posterity sees little to censure in all these measures, for +they evince the courage and forecast of the great Statesman of the +Revolution; but they were assailed by his opponents, and aided in +effecting his defeat. + +Jefferson came into power as the advocate of retrenchment and +reform,--captivating terms! Under his administration the military +academy was thrown into the shade, the coast-defences were forgotten, +most of the new frigates and sloops built by patriotic citizens were +sold, the navy reduced to ten frigates, half of which were suffered to +decay, the frames of the ships of the line were used for repairs, and +the appropriations for the increase of the navy were reduced to the +pitiful sum of a quarter of a million, which was applied principally to +gunboats. Of these Jefferson built no less than one hundred and seventy, +at a cost of $10,500 each,--incurring for the construction and +maintenance of this flotilla an expense of nearly three millions, +without a particle of benefit to the country. + +We would not detract from the services of Jefferson. Posterity will +honor him as the Patriot of the Revolution, as the champion of the +rights of man; but will it not trace to his policy as a statesman, in +the cabinet of Washington, in the opposition to Adams, and in the +office of President, the grave errors from which sprang the embargo, +non-intercourse, and the second war with England? At the close of his +administration in 1809, he claimed credit for having left eighteen +millions in the Treasury after payment of twenty-six millions of the +debt of the Revolution in less than seven years, and his successor, +Madison, in 1812, had over eleven millions in funds and cash in the +Treasury after the extinguishment of forty-nine millions of the +Revolutionary debt,--the expenses of Government, in the mean time, +exclusive of the debt, having averaged from five to seven millions only. +But parsimony is not always economy. + +The embargo cost the nation at least forty millions; non-intercourse +twenty more; the war in three years added one hundred and thirteen +millions to the debt, with at least an equal loss by the sacrifice of +commerce and heavy drafts by taxes: and if the embargo, non-intercourse, +and war can be traced to the loss of the navy, we find a saving of a +million per annum in ships dearly purchased by a loss of capital which, +at compound interest, would exceed to-day one-third the computed wealth +of the nation. + +Had the policy of Adams been continued from 1800 to 1808, the annual +million, aided by the live-oak and cedar frames, the three millions paid +for gun-boats, and the frigates on hand when Jefferson came into power, +would have provided or placed upon the stocks ten ships of the line, +forty frigates, and ten sloops-of-war. If with the increase of revenue +this estimate had been doubled in 1808, the material collected and the +ships held back until the latter part of 1812, the country would have +been supplied with twenty sail of the line, fifty frigates, and thirty +sloops-of-war,--a force which would have employed at least threefold its +number of English ships, upon our coast, upon the passage, and in the +dock-yards. Impressment, orders in council, paper blockades, would have +gone down before such a force of American ships ere one-tenth of it had +left our harbors; for England, distressed for men and at war with the +Continent, could not have spared the ships required to meet such a navy. +The reports of Jefferson and Madison now make it apparent, that, without +omitting to pay one instalment of the debt, they could have carried out +the policy of Adams and provided a navy the very aspect of which would +have commanded the respect and deference of the only foe we had occasion +to dread. + +This point is most forcibly illustrated by the speeches of Lowndes and +Cheves of South Carolina in Congress a few years later, cited by Henry +Clay in 1812, in which they very justly say,--"If England should +determine to station permanently on our coast a squadron of twelve ships +of the line, she would require for this service thirty-six ships of +the line, one-third in port repairing, one-third on the passage, and +one-third on the station; but that is a force which it has been shown +England, with her limited navy, could not spare for the American +service." For once, at least, two of the gifted sons of South Carolina +sustained the views of Massachusetts. The War of the Revolution and +the War of 1812 have both demonstrated that England can maintain no +permanent blockade through the winter on our waters, and the largest +fleet upon our Atlantic coast during the last war did not exceed twenty +sail of armed vessels of all sizes. + +Jefferson, in his "Notes on Virginia," in 1785 had expressed his views +on our maritime policy in the following terms:-- + +"You ask me what I think of the expediency of encouraging our States +to become commercial. Were I to indulge my own theory, I wish them to +practise neither commerce or navigation, but to stand with respect to +Europe precisely on the footing of China." + +We have seen the commercial policy of Adams illustrated by the +creation of a navy; we now see the anti-commercial theory of Jefferson +illustrated by its overthrow. + +He was once tempted to concede that we might apply a year's revenue to +a navy, but that year he never designated. Perhaps, if he could have +foreseen the unceremonious way in which a few English frigates have +of late years dealt with China, or the facility with which they have +compelled her to pay millions for a drug alike pernicious to character +and health, or the report of the treaty and tribute dictated from +the walls of Pekin,--or could he have foreseen the progress of Lord +Cochrane's frigates up the Potomac, regardless of his gunboats,--could +he have foreshadowed the conflagration of the Capitol and the exit of +the Cabinet,--he would perhaps have attached more importance to a navy +and found less to admire in the policy of China, and doubtless his +immediate successor would not have aimed a side-blow at our army and +navy, as he did, in suggesting "that the fifteenth century was the +unhappy epoch of military establishments in the time of peace." + +But our country, under Jefferson and Madison, for twelve years adopted +the blind policy of China. The navy was suffered to decay. In 1807 but +one frigate and five sloops-of-war were in commission. The Federal +party, however, although in a weak minority, did not tamely submit to +the unhappy policy of Southern statesmen; and individuals even of the +dominant party opposed it. Among these, the late Justice Story, who in +1807 represented the County of Essex in Congress, made an effort for +the revival of the navy. But it was objected, on the part of the +Administration, that such a force would be impotent against Great +Britain. Williams, subsequently Governor of South Carolina, insisted, +that, if we built ships, they would all fall into the hands of the +British; and the capture of the Danish fleet at Copenhagen was +instanced,--the fall of Genoa, Venice, and Carthage, notwithstanding +their navies, being also cited. Story, with almost a prescience of the +future, urged in its favor,--"I was born among the hardy sons of the +ocean, and I cannot doubt their courage or their skill; if Great Britain +ever gets possession of our present little navy, it will be at the +expense of the best blood of the country, and after a struggle which +will call for more of her strength than she has ever found necessary for +a European enemy." To which Williams replied,--"If our rights are only +so to be saved, I would abandon the ocean." And in December, 1807, the +ocean was abandoned. + +No additions were made to the navy during the period of the embargo or +non-intercourse, nor was a new ship sent to sea until after the peace; +and at the commencement of the war, in June, 1812, the country had +neither navy, fortifications, nor disciplined troops. The relics of the +Federal navy then consisted of five frigates and seven sloops and brigs +in commission, and three frigates under repair,--a feeble force, indeed, +with which to meet the Mistress of the Seas, but which demonstrated by +its achievements what fifty or a hundred sail might have accomplished. + +In 1812, Quincy, in the House, and Lloyd, in the Senate, both from +Massachusetts, advocated a navy, and Clay and Davies, of the West, +raised their voices in its support; but their efforts were unavailing. + +James Lloyd, who combined the intelligent merchant with the statesman, +thus addressed the Senate:--"To make an impression on England, we must +have a navy. Give us thirty swift-sailing, well-appointed frigates. In +line-of-battle ships and fleet engagements, skill and experience would +decide the victory. We are not ripe for them; but bolt together a +British and American frigate side by side, and though we should lose +sometimes, we should win as often. Give us this little fleet. Place your +Navy Department under an able and spirited administration; cashier every +officer who strikes his flag; and you will soon have a good account of +your navy. This may be thought a hard tenure of service; but, hard or +easy, I will engage in five weeks, yes, in five days, to officer this +fleet from New England alone. Give us this little fleet, and in a +quarter of the time in which you would operate upon her in any other +way, we would bring Great Britain to terms. To terms, not to your feet. +No, Sir! Great Britain is at this moment the most colossal power the +world ever saw. It is true she has an enormous national debt. Her daily +expenditure would in six short weeks wipe off all we owe. But will these +millstones sink her? will they subject her to the power of France? No, +Sir! let the bubble burst to-morrow,--destroy the fragile basis on which +her public credit stands,--sponge out her national debt,--and, dreadful +as would be the process, she would rise with renewed vigor from the +fall, and present to her enemy a more imposing, irresistible front than +ever. No, Sir! Great Britain cannot be subjected by France. The genius +of her institutions, the genuine game-cock, bulldog spirit of her +people, will lift her head above the waves. From this belief I +acknowledge I derive a satisfaction. In New England our blood is +unmixed. We are the direct descendants of Englishmen. We are natives of +the soil. In the Legislature, now in session, of the once powerful and +still respectable State of Massachusetts, composed of more than seven +hundred members, to my knowledge not a single foreigner holds a seat. As +Great Britain wrongs us, I would fight her. Yet I should be worse than +a barbarian, did I not rejoice that the sepulchres of our forefathers, +which are in that country, shall remain unsacked, and their coffins rest +undisturbed, by the unhallowed rapacity of the Goths and Saracens of +modern Europe. Let us have these thirty frigates. Powerful as Great +Britain is, she could not blockade them; with our hazardous shores and +tempestuous northwest gales, from November to March, all the navies in +the world could not blockade them. Divide them into six squadrons; place +those squadrons in the Northern ports, ready for sea; and at favorable +moments we would pounce upon her West India Islands,--repeating the game +of De Grasse and D'Estaing in '79 and '80. By the time she was ready to +meet us there, we would be round Cape Horn, cutting up her whalemen. +Pursued thither, we could skim away to the Indian Seas, and would give +an account of her China and India ships very different from that of the +French cruisers. Now we would follow her Quebec, and now her Jamaica +convoys; sometimes make our appearance in the chops of the Channel, and +even sometimes wind north about into the Baltic. It would require a +hundred British frigates to watch the movements of these thirty. Such +are the means by which I would bring Great Britain to her senses. By +harassing her commerce with this fleet, we could make the people ask the +Government why they continued to violate our rights; whether it were for +her interest to sever the chief tie between her and us, by compelling +us to become a manufacturing people (and on this head we could make an +exhibition that would astonish both friends and foes); what she was to +gain by forcing us prematurely to become a naval power, destined one +day or other to dispute with her the sceptre of the ocean? We could, in +short, bring the people to ask the Government, For whose benefit is this +war? And the moment this is brought about on both sides of the water, +the business is finished; you would only have to agree on fair and equal +terms of peace." + +And Daniel Webster, just entering upon public life, made one of his +earliest efforts in Congress for a navy. In his characteristic manner, +he urged, in 1814,--"If war must continue, go to the ocean; let it no +longer be said, not one ship of force built by your hands since the war +yet floats; if you are seriously contending for maritime rights, go to +the theatre where alone those rights can be defended. Thither every +indication of your future calls you. There the united wishes and +exertions of the nation will go with you." + +But a Southern Cabinet still clung to the Chinese policy, and the war +for maritime rights was confided to a raw militia upon the land, while +Hull, Bainbridge, Stewart, Porter, and Barney were performing the very +feats which Lloyd had pictured to the Senate. A vote, it is true, was at +length passed, to build four ships of the line, six frigates, and six +sloops; but none were finished before the close of the war; and it +was not until after its conclusion that the Democratic party, so long +opposed to Federal measures, and triumphant from their very opposition, +after a loss of at least three hundred millions, caused by their +abandonment, gave the most conclusive proof of their value by funding +the debt, re-establishing the navy, reviving the Military Academy at +West Point, fortifying the coast, and making a tariff for revenue with +incidental protection. Well might party-strife cease under the veteran +Monroe; for Democracy had become Federalized. + +The sketch thus given of the rise and progress of our navigation, and of +the origin and decline of our navy, affords us a commanding view of the +position of our nation when it adopted the Chinese policy and withdrew +from the ocean. + +Let us now glance for a moment at the state of Europe at the close +of 1807. The great struggle of England and France was in progress. +Napoleon, by his brilliant exploits, had subdued Italy and Holland, +established the Empire, and by the battles of Marengo, Jena, Austerlitz, +and Friedland, humbled Austria, overwhelmed Prussia, and conquered a +peace with Russia. The Continent, from the Pyrenees to the Vistula, was +subject to his sway, and he had closed it against the manufactures +of England. This nation, alike victorious on the sea, had nearly +annihilated the navy of France, captured the fleet of Denmark, swept +the French and Dutch ships from the ocean, and was now seizing the +possessions of France and Holland in the Indies. Regardless of neutral +rights, she had declared every part of the Continent, from the Pyrenees +to the Elbe, in a state of blockade. + +To escape impressment, or to obtain higher wages, many of her seamen +enlisted in our service. Anxious to reclaim them and to man all her +ships, she followed them into American vessels, and impressed American +seamen as Englishmen, without the least respect to the rights of a +neutral that did not assert by arms the dignity of its flag. + +Neither of the parties in the excitement of the great conflict was +disposed to respect the rights of the United States, a neutral without +an army or a fleet, and too timid to arm its own merchantmen; and the +purpose of both seemed to be to compel these merchantmen to contribute +to the war. England, in addition to her blockade, required all neutrals +bound for the Continent to pay duties in her ports; and France +retaliated by declaring all neutral ships which had paid such tribute +denationalized and subject to confiscation, and without a frigate on the +ocean declared all the ports of England in a state of blockade. There +can be no question now that the acts of both parties were a violation of +the rights of every neutral. + +England, in her sober moments, has tacitly relinquished her claim to +impress beneath the American flag; paper blockades and the right of +search are no longer recognized in the maritime code of either England +or France; and there can be no doubt that our country could, at a later +period, have made reclamation on England for seizures, as she has done +upon France, Naples, and Denmark; but the policy of our rulers had left +us destitute of means either of offence or defence, and of the power to +resent any indignity. Three courses were open to us. The first was to +devote the funds in the Treasury at once to the creation of a navy; to +commence ten or twelve ships of the line in our dock-yards, and twenty +frigates in the ship-yards of Boston, Salem, Portsmouth, New York, and +Philadelphia; to build them as the Constitution and Constellation were +built before; and to appeal to the merchants who built the Essex and +Connecticut to build more, and to take their pay in certificates of +stock. In one twelvemonth a navy might have been created; and the note +of preparation sounded by a nation enriched by the peaceful commerce of +a quarter of a century, and now refreshed for a new struggle, would have +been most influential with the conflicting powers. + +Another course was open to us. More than two-thirds of our commerce was +with English ports, or ports remote from France; for England, Spain, +Sweden, Norway, Russia, the Indies were open to our commerce. The +premium of insurance against French capture was but five per cent, on +ships bound to those ports; for scarcely a French privateer dared show +itself on the ocean. + +Our nation had cause of war with France, for France was at war with +commerce and had invaded her rights; and our little navy, small as it +was, and our merchantmen, if allowed to arm, might have bid defiance to +France. England, then, would have respected our rights as allies; or, +as our commerce was lucrative and paid profits that would cover an +occasional seizure, we might have put our merchants on their guard, +allowed them to arm their ships, and have temporized until the +conflicting powers of the Old World had exhausted their strength, and we +had grown strong enough to demand reparation. + +We owned at this period from eight to ten thousand vessels, and built +annually nearly a thousand more. All the ships seized from 1800 to +1812 did not average one hundred and fifty yearly, of which more than +one-third were released, and indemnity finally paid for half the +residue: namely, there were 917 seized by England, more than half +released; 558 seized by France, one-fourth released; 70 seized by +Denmark; 47 seized by Naples, and more property was detained by France +than England. But the sympathies of our Cabinet were with Napoleon; a +moment had arrived when he had determined to reverse the laws of trade +and exclude the exports of England from the Continent; and our rulers, +regardless of our own commerce, determined to withhold all our produce, +to cut off the raw material from England at the moment she had lost +the sale of her exports, and by this combined process to bring her to +submission. They forgot, for the moment, how impossible it is to reverse +the great laws of trade; that we thus gratuitously resigned to her the +commerce of the globe; that China, the Indies, with their inexhaustible +supplies, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Russia, and Africa, were open to her +ships and might fill the vacuum. The hazardous experiment was made. Let +us trace the progress of events. + +May 16, 1806, England passed her Orders in Council, declaring the ports +and rivers from Brest to the Elbe in a state of blockade. November 21, +1806, Napoleon issued his Berlin Decree, declaring the British ports +blockaded. January 6, 1807, England prohibited all coastwise trade with +France, and November 11, 1807, prohibited all neutrals from trading with +France or her allies, except on payment of duties to England. December +17, 1807, Napoleon issued his Milan Decree, confiscating all neutral +vessels that had been searched by English cruisers, or had paid duties +to England. December 16, 1807, the day preceding the date of the Milan +Decree, President Jefferson submitted to Congress the Embargo. The +Democratic party was then all-powerful, and the measure, after being +debated for a few days and nights in the House, and a few hours in the +Senate with closed doors, was adopted. This gratuitous surrender to +England of the commerce of the world, this measure whose objects were +veiled in mystery, conjectured, but not understood, became a law +December 22, 1807. + +A leader of the Democratic party, in urging its passage, said,--"The +President has recommended the measure on his high responsibility. I +would not consider, I would not deliberate, I would act; doubtless the +President possesses such further information as would justify such a +measure." And the pliant majority acquiesced. + +After the passage of the Embargo Act, other acts were speedily passed +to give it efficacy. By these, forfeitures of threefold the value of +merchandise were imposed on those who violated its provisions, vessels +were obliged to give heavy bonds to land their cargoes in the United +States, and all shipments to frontier posts were prohibited. Under these +acts the shipment of flour coastwise was forbidden, except upon permits +issued at the pleasure of the President, upon the requisition of +Governors of States, most of whom were members of the dominant party. +And last of all came the Enforcing Act, under the provisions of which +the collectors were armed with power to call out the militia at their +discretion and upon suspicion of an intent to violate the law, to +require vessels that had given bonds to discharge their cargoes, and +to detain every suspected vessel engaged in the coasting-trade. These +measures did not pass without opposition. Although the minority was weak +in numbers, it was not deficient in talent. + +In the House, Josiah Quincy of Massachusetts, at that period the great +commercial State, was the Federal leader; and he now, after the lapse +of half a century, still survives in a green old age to see his policy +vindicated by the verdict of history. + +Quincy, in various speeches, urged upon Congress,-- + +"You undertake to protect better the property of the merchant than his +own sense of personal interest would induce him to protect it. + +"Suppose the embargo passes; will France forego a policy designed to +crush Great Britain and secure her way to universal empire, or England a +policy essential to her national existence? It is all very well to talk +of the patriotism and quiet submission of the people of the interior; +they cannot help submitting, they will have no opportunity to break the +embargo. But they whose ships lie on the edge of the ocean laden with +produce, with the alternative before them of total ruin or a rich +market, are in a totally different condition." + +Again said Quincy,-- + +"Never before did society witness a total prohibition of all intercourse +like this in a commercial nation. But it has been asked in debate, 'Will +not Massachusetts, the Cradle of Liberty, submit to such privations?' An +Embargo Liberty was never cradled in Massachusetts. Our Liberty was not +so much a mountain-nymph as a sea-nymph. She was free as air. She could +swim, or she could run. The ocean was her cradle. Our fathers met her as +she came, like the Goddess of Beauty, from the waves. They caught her as +she was sporting on the beach. They courted her while she was spreading +her nets upon the rocks. But an Embargo Liberty, a handcuffed Liberty, +Liberty in fetters, a Liberty traversing between the four sides of a +prison and beating her head against the walls, is none of our offspring. +We abjure the monster! Its parentage is all inland. + +"Is embargo independence? Deceive not yourselves! it is palpable +submission! France and Great Britain require you to relinquish a part of +your commerce, and you relinquish it entirely! At every corner of this +great city we meet some gentlemen of the majority wringing their hands +and exclaiming, 'What shall we do? nothing but an embargo will save us; +remove it, and what shall we do?' Sir, it is not for me, an humble and +uninfluential individual, at an awful distance from the predominant +influences, to suggest plans for Government. But, to my eye, the path +of duty is as distinct as the Milky Way,--all studded with living +sapphires, glowing with light. It is the path of active preparation, of +dignified energy. It is the path of 1776. It consists not in abandoning +our rights, but in supporting them as they exist and where they +exist,--_on the ocean as well as on the land_." + +Troup of Georgia, one of the champions of the Democratic party, replied +to the Opposition,--"Shall we sacrifice the honor and independence of +the nation for a little trade in codfish and potash? Permission to arm +is equivalent to a declaration of war; make the embargo effective, and +it will show what all the great commercial politicians have said +is true,--it will vitally affect the manufacturing and commercial +interests of England." + +As one coercive measure after another was proposed, John Randolph of +Roanoke, who had at first favored an embargo, came out against the +measure, and "warned the Administration that they were fast following in +the fatal footsteps of Lord North." + +But one of the most effective speeches against the Democratic policy was +made in February, 1809, by Gardinier, who represented New York, a city +the creation of commerce. + +"The avowed object of this policy," he said, "was to save our vessels +and property from capture; the real one seemed to be to establish a +total non-intercourse with the whole world. We are engaged perpetually +in making additions and supplements to the embargo. Wherever we can spy +a hole, although it be no bigger than a wheat-straw, at which industry +and enterprise can find vent, all our powers are called in requisition +to stop it. The people of the country shall sell nothing but what they +can sell to each other. All our surplus produce shall rot on our hands. +God knows what all this means; I cannot understand it. I see effects, +but I can trace them to no cause. I fear there is an unknown hand +guiding us to the most dreadful destinies, unseen, because it cannot +endure the light. Darkness and mystery overshadow the House and the +whole nation. We know nothing, we are permitted to know nothing. We sit +here as mere automata." + +This speech nearly cost Gardinier his life, for he was in consequence of +it challenged and dangerously wounded; but the embargo was permitted to +continue. + +The produce of the country fell sixty to seventy per cent. in value, and +much of it passed at low prices into the hands of British agents. Armed +ships from England appeared on the coast of Georgia and loaded with +cotton from lighters in defiance of Government, and Northern ships in +the outports occasionally eluded the vigilance of collectors or escaped +by their collusion; but the measure pressed with a crushing weight upon +the honest merchants and ship-owners. + +When news of the Enforcing Act reached Boston, it was received with such +indignation, that General Lincoln, the collector of the port, resigned, +and the flags of the dismantled ships were hoisted at half-mast, +processions of starving sailors and mechanics passed through the +streets, and the whole community was highly excited; an excitement +increased by an order from the Cabinet to the commandant of the fort to +allow no vessel whatever to proceed to sea. + +But the end of Jefferson's administration was approaching. He had come +in as the advocate of popular rights; and now at the close of his term +was enforcing measures more arbitrary than those which preceded the +Revolution. Madison was nominated as his successor. All New England, +save the inland State of Vermont, was revolutionized and voted against +him, while Maryland and New York chose Federal Assemblies. The South, +however, gave him its votes, and he was elected; but the tide of public +opinion was rolling strongly against the Embargo. + +The new legislature of Massachusetts was convened; Governor Gore, +who had displaced Gerry, drew their attention to the arbitrary and +oppressive measures of Government; and the General Court, in their +reply, after denouncing those measures as illegal and unconstitutional, +used the memorable words, that "_they would be true to the Union, +although they had fallen under the ban of the Empire_." + +The merchants determined to test the legality of the Enforcing Act; but +John Quincy Adams and Joseph Story repaired to Washington, and urged the +necessity of a repeal. Their representations, and the signal defeat of +the Democracy at the North, proved irresistible; and the Embargo, after +a protracted struggle, fell before them. + +From this glance at the history of the Embargo we can account for the +asperity of feeling towards the Democratic leaders, and the distrust of +their measures and men, which pervaded New England from the passage of +the Embargo Act until the close of the war. + +New England, and more especially Massachusetts, commercial from its +infancy, did not come into the Union to surrender its commerce, +navigation, or seamen to any visionary theories of the South. For nearly +two centuries it had struggled for all its liberties with the parent +empire. It had learned in the cruel school of oppression that the price +of freedom is perpetual vigilance. + +Fifteen months had now elapsed since the laying of the embargo, and it +had more than realized all the presages of its opponents. Our minister, +Armstrong, had written from France, that it had produced no effect in +France and was forgotten in England. Pinckney, in England, did all in +his power to save the Administration, by offering to end the embargo, if +England would relax her policy; but Canning replied, that England had no +complaints to make, that Spain and Russia had been opened to her, and +the measure would serve to convince her that she was not absolutely +dependent on the trade of America; with cutting irony, he added, he +would make but one concession to America: she had complained that +England drew a tribute from her merchandise, when shipped to the +Continent; he would, out of deference to American delicacy, substitute a +total prohibition. He had the tact, also, to draw from Pinckney a letter +offering to concede many of the points in dispute, and published it with +an insolent commentary. + +Jefferson still clung to the embargo; but Madison and his friends, +deferring to the reasons of Story and Adams, and yielding to the adverse +current now setting strongly against Democracy, March 9, 1809, repealed +the obnoxious act. Such was the end and signal failure of a measure +alike disastrous at home and abroad, a measure which had falsified all +the predictions of its author. Its avowed object was to secure our +seamen from impressment, to protect our commerce, and preserve our +ships; its presumed object was to coöperate with France, and starve +England into submission: but none, of these objects were effected. +Instead of rescuing our seamen, it imprisoned them all at home, and +deprived them of the food which they found even in the prisons of the +enemy. Instead of protecting our commerce, it tamely resigned it to +England, and either left our exports to perish or reduced their value +sixty per cent. It seized all our ships at home, and left most of them +to decay, without giving the sufferer the claim to ultimate redress +which consoled him in cases of foreign seizure. It aided France so +little, that this "deed of magnanimity" was in a few months forgotten. +Instead of impoverishing or humbling England, it poured into her lap the +riches of the world, and increased the insolence of her tone; while it +impoverished our own nation, broke the spirit of the commercial classes +and alienated them from Government, and gave the first of a series of +blows to the nation from which it did not recover for a quarter of a +century. + +But the pusillanimous policy which prompted the embargo survived its +repeal. The Chinese theory still showed itself, not in measures for +defence, but in impotent measures for restriction or prohibition, and +finally in a declaration of war against England on the very eve of her +triumph by the power of her navy and commerce over the greatest captain +of the age: a war declared by our rulers without an army, navy, +officers, coast-defence, or national credit, for the avowed purpose of +securing free trade and sailors' rights by measures which the mercantile +community rejected. In its progress, the want of discipline, forts, +ships, munitions of war, credit abroad, and frugality at home, was most +severely felt; and the principal honor derived from it arose from the +exploits of the few frigates left to us by improvidence and parsimony, +from the achievements of the Northern troops of Scott, Brown, and +Miller, disciplined during the war, and the courage and sagacity of the +veteran Jackson and his Western volunteers behind their cotton ramparts +at New Orleans. + +If, during the seven years of trial and suffering, from 1808 to 1815, in +which nearly one-half of the wealth of New England was extinguished, her +citizens became indignant at the wanton sacrifice of their means and +of the best opportunity Fortune ever gave them to gain riches by +commerce,--if the public sentiment found expression alike through +the press, in town-meetings, in legislative halls, and even in the +pulpit,--if the capitalists lost confidence in a government which +trifled with its own resources,--if the merchant refused all countenance +to those who had wrought his ruin,--let the blame fall on the +originators of the evil. Lord North did but impose a few light taxes, +place a few restrictions upon commerce, and make a few other inroads on +freedom; but he set a nation in flames. The Cabinets of 1807 and 1812 +warred against commerce itself, and placed an interdict on every harbor; +and which of the measures of the British statesman was more arbitrary +in its character, more repugnant to the spirit of freemen, or more +questionable as to its legality, than the Enforcing Act of 1808? And +if the men of New England, who had in their colonial weakness met both +France and England by sea and land without a fear, saw the fruits of +their industry sacrificed and the bread taken from their children's +mouths by the Chinese policy of a Southern cabinet, might they not well +chafe under measures so oppressive and so unnecessary that they were +ingloriously abandoned? Under a dynasty whose policy had closed their +ports, silenced their cannon, nearly ruined their commerce, and left +their country without a navy, army, coast-defences, or national credit, +could they be expected to rush with ardor into a war with the greatest +naval power of the age, elated with her triumph over Napoleon,--into a +war to be prosecuted on land by raw recruits against the veteran troops +of England, for the avowed purpose of protecting the commerce of those +who opposed it, and in which munitions of war were to be dragged at +their expense across pathless forests,--into a war whose burdens were +to fall either in present or prospective charges upon their surviving +trade? Must they not have deeply felt that they were still under +"the ban of the Empire"? and is it not proof of the extent of their +patriotism and intense love of country, that under such trials and +adverse policy they were still "true to the Union"? + +If Canada were desired, how easily might it have been acquired by a +wiser policy! A small loan to the State of New York, from surplus funds, +might have opened the Erie and Champlain Canals twenty years in advance +of their completion. A little aid to men of genius might have placed +Fulton's steamers, then navigating the Hudson, on the Lakes. + +A dozen frigates to cruise in the Gulf of St. Lawrence would have cut +off supplies from England. The attractions of a new outlet for commerce, +aided by a few disciplined regiments, the command of the Lakes, +facilities for moving munitions of war and for intercepting supplies, +would have settled the question in advance. And instead of a series of +measures which embittered parties, created a jealousy between North +and South, called into the field one hundred and twenty thousand raw +militia, and absorbed in wasteful expenses nearly half our resources, we +should have reaped a golden harvest in commerce, preserved our wealth, +and have either avoided war, or terminated it in the same style in which +the Constitution, Constellation, and United States terminated their +conflicts on the deep, or as France and England terminated their recent +war with Russia, arresting their foe in his march of conquest, closing +his ports, destroying his fleet, seamen, and chief military station, and +nearly exhausting his resources,--and drawing the means of war from +commerce, have at the same time expanded our commerce, cities, and +wealth to a degree unparalleled in our history. + +The past, however, is gone, and the future is before us. England, +conscious of her naval power, of her vast steam-marine, and of our +deficiencies, has not acceded to our proposal to exempt merchantmen from +seizure in future wars. Is it not now our policy to provide in advance +for the contingencies of the future,--to obtain the live-oak and cedar +frames, the engines, boilers, Paixhan guns for at least one hundred +steam-frigates, with coats of mail for some of them,--so that, instead +of spending years in their construction, launching them when the war is +over, and then leaving them to decay, we may, as the crisis approaches, +be able in a few months to fit out a fleet which, if not irresistible, +shall at least command respect? Accomplished officers and men can be +drawn from the merchant-service at short notice; but we cannot create +steamers in a moment. + +The appropriations by Congress of late years for steam--frigates and +sloops-of-war, and for the defence of New York, New Bedford, Portland, +Bath, and Bangor,--for Bath, in particular, which owns nearly two +hundred thousand tons of shipping, and which builds more ships annually +than any other port in the Union, Boston excepted,--are most judicious; +but are there not other points which deserve the attention of +Government? Should not a few thousand rifled cannon, a good supply of +rifles, and a proportionate amount of powder and ball be deposited near +San Francisco, to enable us, in case of war, to convert our clipper +ships and steamers in the Pacific into cruisers? Should not batteries of +Paixhan guns be erected at the outlet of Long Island Sound, upon Gull +and Fisher's Islands and the opposite points, to convert the whole +Sound above into a fortified harbor, and thus defend New York and the +important seaports upon the Sound, and by these fortresses and a few +coast-batteries between Stonington and Newport, like those on the coast +of France, keep open during war an inland navigation for coal and flour +between the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, Pennsylvania, New York, +Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts? Should not these and +similar questions of national defence, in these days of extended +commerce, command the attention of the nation? + + * * * * * + + +DENMARK VESEY. + + +On Saturday afternoon, May 25th, 1822, a slave named Devany, belonging +to Colonel Prioleau of Charleston, South Carolina, was sent to market by +his mistress.--the Colonel being absent in the country. After doing his +errands, he strolled down upon the wharves, in the enjoyment of +that magnificent wealth of leisure which usually characterizes the +"house-servant" of the South, when once beyond hail of the street-door. +He presently noticed a small vessel lying in the stream, with a peculiar +flag flying; and while looking at it, he was accosted by a slave named +William, belonging to Mr. John Paul, who remarked to him,--"I have often +seen a flag with the number 76, but never one with the number 96 upon +it before." After some further conversation on this trifling point, he +continued with earnestness,--"Do you know that something serious is +about to take place?" Devany disclaiming the knowledge of any graver +impending crisis than the family dinner, the other went on to inform him +that many of the slaves were "determined to right themselves." "We are +determined," he added, "to shake off our bondage, and for that purpose +we stand on a good foundation; many have joined, and if you will go with +me, I will show you the man who has the list of names, and who will take +yours down." + +This startling disclosure was quite too much for Devany; he was made of +the wrong material for so daring a project; his genius was culinary, not +revolutionary. Giving some excuse for breaking off the conversation, he +went forthwith to consult a free colored man, named Pensil or Pencell, +who advised him to warn his master instantly. So he lost no time in +telling the secret to his mistress and her young son; and on the return +of Colonel Prioleau from the country, five days afterward, it was at +once revealed to him. Within an hour or two he stated the facts to Mr. +Hamilton, the Intendant, or, as we should say, Mayor; Mr. Hamilton at +once summoned the Corporation, and by five o'clock Devany and William +were under examination. + +This was the first warning of a plot which ultimately filled Charleston +with terror. And yet so thorough and so secret was the organization of +the negroes, that a fortnight passed without yielding the slightest +information beyond the very little which was obtained from these two. +William Paul was, indeed, put in confinement and soon gave evidence +inculpating two slaves as his employers,--Mingo Harth and Peter Poyas. +But these men, when arrested, behaved with such perfect coolness and +treated the charge with such entire levity, their trunks and premises, +when searched, were so innocent of all alarming contents, that they were +soon discharged by the Wardens. William Paul at length became alarmed +for his own safety, and began to let out further facts piecemeal, and to +inculpate other men. But some of those very men came voluntarily to the +Intendant, on hearing that they were suspected, and indignantly offered +themselves for examination. Puzzled and bewildered, the municipal +government kept the thing as secret as possible, placed the city guard +in an efficient condition, provided sixteen hundred rounds of ball +cartridges, and ordered the sentinels and patrols to be armed with +loaded muskets. "Such had been our fancied security, that the guard had +previously gone on duty without muskets and with only sheathed bayonets +and bludgeons." + +It has since been asserted, though perhaps on questionable authority, +that the Secretary of War was informed of the plot, even including +some details of the plan and the leader's name, before it was known in +Charleston. If so, he utterly disregarded it; and, indeed, so well +did the negroes play their part, that the whole report was eventually +disbelieved, while (as was afterwards proved) they went on to complete +their secret organization, and hastened by a fortnight the appointed day +of attack. Unfortunately for their plans, however, another betrayal +took place at the very last moment, from a different direction. A +class-leader in a Methodist church had been persuaded or bribed by his +master to procure further disclosures. He at length came and stated, +that, about three months before, a man named Rolla, slave of Governor +Bennett, had communicated to a friend of his the fact of an intended +insurrection, and had said that the time fixed for the outbreak was the +following Sunday night, June 16th. As this conversation took place on +Friday, it gave but a very short time for the city authorities to act, +especially as they wished neither to endanger the city nor to alarm it. + +Yet so cautiously was the game played on both sides, that the whole +thing was still kept hushed up from the Charleston public; and some +members of the city government did not fully appreciate their danger +till they had passed it. "The whole was concealed," wrote the Governor +afterwards, "until the time came; but secret preparations were made. +Saturday night and Sunday morning passed without demonstrations; doubts +were excited, and counter orders issued for diminishing the guard." It +afterwards proved that these preparations showed to the slaves that +their plot was betrayed, and so saved the city without public alarm. +Newspaper correspondence soon was full of the story,--each informant of +course hinting plainly that he had been behind the scenes all along, +and had withheld it only to gratify the authorities in their policy of +silence. It was "now no longer a secret," they wrote,--adding, that for +five or six weeks but little attention had been paid by the community to +these rumors, the city council having kept it carefully to themselves, +until a number of suspicious slaves had been arrested. This refers to +ten prisoners who were seized on June 18th,--an arrest which killed +the plot, and left only the terrors of what might have been. The +investigation, thus publicly commenced, soon revealed a free colored man +named Denmark Vesey as the leader of the enterprise,--among his chief +coadjutors being that innocent Peter and that unsuspecting Mingo who had +been examined and discharged nearly three weeks before. + +It is matter of demonstration, that, but for the military preparations +on the appointed Sunday night, the attempt would have been made. The +ringleaders had actually met for their final arrangements, when, by +comparing notes, they found themselves foiled; and within another week +they were prisoners on trial. Nevertheless, the plot which they had laid +was the most elaborate insurrectionary project ever formed by American +slaves, and came the nearest to a terrible success. In boldness of +conception and thoroughness of organization there has been nothing +to compare with it, and it is worth while to dwell somewhat upon its +details, first introducing the _Dramatis Personae_. + +Denmark Vesey had come very near figuring as a revolutionist in Hayti, +instead of South Carolina. Captain Vesey, an old resident of Charleston, +commanded a ship that traded between St. Thomas and Cape Français, +during our Revolutionary War, in the slave-transportation line. In the +year 1781 he took on board a cargo of three hundred and ninety slaves, +and sailed for the Cape. On the passage, he and his officers were much +attracted by the beauty and intelligence of a boy of fourteen, whom they +unanimously adopted into the cabin as a pet. They gave him new clothes +and a new name, Télémaque, which was afterwards gradually corrupted into +Telmak and Denmark. They amused themselves with him until their arrival +at Cape Français, and then, "having no use for the boy," sold their pet +as if he had been a macaw or a monkey. Captain Vesey sailed for St. +Thomas, and presently making another trip to Cape Français, was +surprised to hear from his consignee that Télémaque would be returned +on his hands as being "unsound,"--not in theology nor in morals, but in +body,--subject to epileptic fits, in fact. According to the custom of +that place, the boy was examined by the city physician, who required +Captain Vesey to take him back; and Denmark served him faithfully, with +no trouble from epilepsy, for twenty years, travelling all over the +world with him, and learning to speak various languages. In 1800, he +drew a prize of fifteen hundred dollars in the East Bay Street Lottery, +with which he bought his freedom from his master for six hundred +dollars,--much less than his market value. From that time, the official +report says, he worked as a carpenter in Charleston, distinguished for +physical strength and energy. "Among those of his color he was looked up +to with awe and respect. His temper was impetuous and domineering in the +extreme, qualifying him for the despotic rule of which he was ambitious. +All his passions were ungovernable and savage; and to his numerous wives +and children he displayed the haughty and capricious cruelty of an +Eastern bashaw." + +"For several years before he disclosed his intentions to any one, he +appears to have been constantly and assiduously engaged in endeavoring +to embitter the minds of the colored population against the white. +He rendered himself perfectly familiar with all those parts of the +Scriptures which he thought he could pervert to his purpose; and would +readily quote them, to prove that slavery was contrary to the laws of +God,--that slaves were bound to attempt their emancipation, however +shocking and bloody might be the consequences,--and that such efforts +would not only be pleasing to the Almighty, but were absolutely enjoined +and their success predicted in the Scriptures. His favorite texts, when +he addressed those of his own color, were Zechariah, xiv. 1-3, and +Joshua, vi. 21; and in all his conversations he identified their +situation with that of the Israelites. The number of inflammatory +pamphlets on slavery brought into Charleston from some of our sister +States within the last four years, (and once from Sierra Leone,) and +distributed amongst the colored population of the city, for which, there +was a great facility, in consequence of the unrestricted intercourse +allowed to persons of color between the different States in the Union, +and the speeches in Congress of those opposed to the admission of +Missouri into the Union, perhaps garbled and misrepresented, furnished +him with ample means for inflaming the minds of the colored population +of this State; and by distorting certain parts of those speeches, or +selecting from them particular passages, he persuaded but too many that +Congress had actually declared them free, and that they were held in +bondage contrary to the laws of the land. Even whilst walking through +the streets in company with another, he was not idle; for if his +companion bowed to a white person, he would rebuke him, and observe that +all men were born equal, and that he was surprised that any one would +degrade himself by such conduct,--that he would never cringe to the +whites, nor ought any one who had the feelings of a man. When answered, +'We are slaves,' he would sarcastically and indignantly reply, 'You +deserve to remain slaves'; and if he were further asked, 'What can we +do?' he would remark, 'Go and buy a spelling-book and read the fable of +Hercules and the Wagoner,' which he would then repeat, and apply it +to their situation. He also sought every opportunity of entering into +conversation with white persons, when they could be overheard by negroes +near by, especially in grogshops,--during which conversation he would +artfully introduce some bold remark on slavery; and sometimes, when, +from the character he was conversing with, he found he might be still +bolder, he would go so far, that, had not his declarations in such +situations been clearly proved, they would scarcely have been credited. +He continued this course until some time after the commencement of the +last winter; by which time he had not only obtained incredible influence +amongst persons of color, but many feared him more than their owners, +and, one of them declared, even more than his God." + +It was proved against him that his house had been the principal place of +meeting for the conspirators, that all the others habitually referred to +him as the leader, and that he had shown great address in dealing with +different temperaments and overcoming a variety of scruples. One +witness testified that Vesey had read to him from the Bible about the +deliverance of the Children of Israel; another, that he had read to him +a speech which had been delivered "in Congress by a Mr. King" on the +subject of slavery, and Vesey had said that "this Mr. King was the black +man's friend,--that he, Mr. King, had declared he would continue to +speak, write, and publish pamphlets against slavery the longest day he +lived, until the Southern States consented to emancipate their slaves, +for that slavery was a great disgrace to the country." But among all the +reports there are only two sentences which really reveal the secret soul +of Denmark Vesey, and show his impulses and motives. "He said he did not +go with Creighton to Africa, because he had not a will; _he wanted to +stay and see what he could do for his fellow-creatures_." The other +takes us still nearer home. Monday Gell stated in his confession, that +Vesey, on first broaching the plan to him, said "he was satisfied with +his own condition, being free, _but, as all his children were slaves, he +wished to see what could be done for them._" + +It is strange to turn from this simple statement of a perhaps +intelligent preference, on the part of a parent, for seeing his +offspring in a condition of freedom, to the _naïve_ astonishment of +his judges. "It is difficult to imagine," says the sentence finally +passed on Denmark Vesey, "what _infatuation_ could have prompted you +to attempt an enterprise so wild and visionary. You were a free man, +comparatively wealthy, and enjoyed every comfort compatible with your +situation. You had, therefore, much to risk and little to gain." Is +slavery, then, a thing so intrinsically detestable, that a man thus +favored will engage in a plan thus desperate merely to rescue his +children from it? "Vesey said the negroes were living such an abominable +life, they ought to rise. I said, I was living well; he said, though I +was, others were not, and that 't was such fools as I that were in the +way and would not help them, and that after all things were well he +would mark me." "His general conversation," said another witness, a +white boy, "was about religion, which he would apply to slavery; as, for +instance, he would speak of the creation of the world, in which he would +say all men had equal rights, blacks as well as whites, etc.; all his +religious remarks were mingled with slavery." And the firmness of this +purpose did not leave him, even after the betrayal of his cherished +plans. "After the plot was discovered," said Monday Gell, in his +confession, "Vesey said it was all over, unless an attempt were made to +rescue those who might be condemned, by rushing on the people and saving +the prisoners, or all dying together." + +The only person to divide with Vesey the claim of leadership was +Peter Poyas. Vesey was the missionary of the cause, but Peter was the +organizing mind. He kept the register of "candidates," and decided who +should or should not be enrolled. "We can't live so," he often reminded +his confederates; "we must break the yoke." "God has a hand in it; we +have been meeting for four years and are not yet betrayed." Peter was a +ship-carpenter, and a slave of great value. He was to be the military +leader. His plans showed some natural generalship; he arranged the +night-attack; he planned the enrolment of a mounted troop to scour the +streets; and he had a list of all the shops where arms and ammunition +were kept for sale. He voluntarily undertook the management of the +most difficult part of the enterprise,--the capture of the main +guard-house,--and had pledged himself to advance alone and surprise +the sentinel. He was said to have a magnetism in his eye, of which his +confederates stood in great awe; if he once got his eye upon a man, +there was no resisting it. A white witness has since narrated, that, +after his arrest, he was chained to the floor in a cell, with another of +the conspirators. Men in authority came and sought by promises, threats, +and even tortures, to ascertain the names of other accomplices. His +companion, wearied out with pain and suffering, and stimulated by the +hope of saving his own life, at last began to yield. Peter raised +himself, leaned upon his elbow, looked at the poor fellow, saying +quietly, "Die like a man," and instantly lay down again. It was enough; +not another word was extorted. + +One of the most notable individuals in the plot was a certain Jack +Purcell, commonly called Gullah Jack,--Gullah signifying Angola, the +place of his origin. A conjurer by profession and by lineal heritage in +his own country, he had resumed the practice of his vocation on this +side the Atlantic. For fifteen years he had wielded in secret an immense +influence among a sable constituency in Charleston; and as he had the +reputation of being invulnerable, and of teaching invulnerability as +an art, he was very good at beating up recruits for insurrection. Over +those of Angolese descent, especially, he was a perfect king, and made +them join in the revolt as one man. They met him monthly at a place +called Bulkley's Farm, selected because the black overseer on that +plantation was one of the initiated, and because the farm was accessible +by water, thus enabling them to elude the patrol. There they prepared +cartridges and pikes, and had primitive banquets, which assumed a +melodramatic character under the inspiriting guidance of Jack. If a fowl +was privately roasted, that mystic individual muttered incantations over +it, and then they all grasped at it, exclaiming, "Thus we pull Buckra +to pieces!" He gave them parched corn and ground-nuts to be eaten as +internal safeguards on the day before the outbreak, and a consecrated +_cullah_, or crab's claw, to be carried in the mouth by each, as an +amulet. These rather questionable means secured him a power which was +very unquestionable; the witnesses examined in his presence all showed +dread of his conjurations, and referred to him indirectly, with a kind +of awe, as "the little man who can't be shot." + +When Gullah Jack was otherwise engaged, there seems to have been a sort +of deputy seer employed in the enterprise, a blind man named Philip. He +was a preacher, was said to have been born with a caul on his head, and +so claimed the gift of second-sight. Timid adherents were brought to his +house for ghostly counsel. "Why do you look so timorous?" he said to +William Garner, and then quoted Scripture, "Let not your hearts be +troubled." That a blind man should know how he _looked_ was beyond the +philosophy of the visitor, and this piece of rather cheap ingenuity +carried the day. + +Other leaders were appointed also. Monday Gell was the scribe of the +enterprise; he was a native African, who had learned to read and write. +He was by trade a harness-maker, working chiefly on his own account. He +confessed that he had written a letter to President Boyer of the new +black republic; "the letter was about the sufferings of the blacks, and +to know if the people of St. Domingo would help them, if they made an +effort to free themselves." This epistle was sent by the black cook of a +Northern schooner, and the envelope was addressed to a relative of the +bearer. + +Tom Russell was the armorer, and made pikes "on a very improved model," +the official report admits. Polydore Faber fitted the weapons with +handles. Bacchus Hammett had charge of the firearms and ammunition, not +as yet a laborious duty. William Garner and Mingo Harth were to lead the +horse-company. Lot Forrester was the courier, and had done, no one ever +knew how much, in the way of enlisting country negroes, of whom Ned +Bennett was to take command when enlisted. Being the Governor's servant, +Ned was probably credited with some official experience. These were the +officers: now for the plan of attack. + +It was the custom then, as now, for the country negroes to flock largely +into Charleston on Sunday. More than a thousand came, on ordinary +occasions, and a far larger number might at any time make their +appearance without exciting any suspicion. They gathered in, especially +by water, from the opposite sides of Ashley and Cooper Rivers, and from +the neighboring islands; and they came in a great number of canoes of +various sizes,--many of which could carry a hundred men,--which were +ordinarily employed in bringing agricultural products to the Charleston +market. To get an approximate knowledge of the number, the city +government once ordered the persons thus arriving to be counted,--and +that during the progress of the trials, at a time when the negroes were +rather fearful of coming into town,--and it was found, that, even then, +there were more than five hundred visitors on a single Sunday. This +fact, then, was the essential point in the plan of insurrection. Whole +plantations were found to have been enlisted among the "candidates," +as they were termed; and it was proved that the city negroes who lived +nearest the place of meeting had agreed to conceal these confederates in +their houses to a large extent, on the night of the proposed outbreak. + +The details of the plan, however, were not rashly committed to the mass +of the confederates; they were known only to a few, and were finally to +have been announced after the evening prayer-meetings on the appointed +Sunday. But each leader had his own company enlisted, and his own work +marked out. When the clock struck twelve, all were to move. Peter Poyas +was to lead a party ordered to assemble at South Bay, and to be joined +by a force from James' Island; he was then to march up and seize the +arsenal and guard-house opposite St. Michael's Church, and detach a +sufficient number to cut off all white citizens who should appear at the +alarm-posts. A second body of negroes, from the country and the Neck, +headed by Ned Bennett, was to assemble on the Neck and seize the arsenal +there. A third was to meet at Governor Bennett's Mills, under command of +Rolla, and, after putting the Governor and Intendant to death, to march +through the city, or be posted at Cannon's Bridge, thus preventing the +inhabitants of Cannonsborough from entering the city. A fourth, partly +from the country and partly from the neighboring localities in the city, +was to rendezvous on Gadsden's Wharf and attack the upper guard-house. +A fifth, composed of country and Neck negroes, was to assemble at +Bulkley's Farm, two miles and a half from the city, seize the upper +powder-magazine and then march down; and a sixth was to assemble at +Denmark Vesey's and obey his orders. A seventh detachment, under Gullah +Jack, was to assemble in Boundary Street, at the head of King Street, +to capture the arms of the Neck company of militia, and to take an +additional supply from Mr. Duquercron's shop. The naval stores on Mey's +Wharf were also to be attacked. Meanwhile a horse-company, consisting +of many draymen, hostlers, and butcher-boys, was to meet at Lightwood's +Alley and then scour the streets to prevent the whites from assembling. +Every white man coming out of his own door was to be killed, and, if +necessary, the city was to be fired in several places,--slow-match for +this purpose having been purloined from the public arsenal and placed in +an accessible position. + +Beyond this, the plan of action was either unformed or undiscovered; +some slight reliance seems to have been placed on English aid,--more on +assistance from St. Domingo; at any rate, all the ships in the harbor +were to be seized, and in these, if the worst came to the worst, those +most deeply inculpated could set sail, bearing with them, perhaps, the +spoils of shops and of banks. It seems to be admitted by the official +narrative, that, they might have been able, at that season of the year, +and with the aid of the fortifications on the Neck and around the +harbor, to retain possession of the city for some time. + +So unsuspicious were the authorities, so unprepared the citizens, so +open to attack lay the city, that nothing seemed necessary to the +success of the insurgents except organization and arms. Indeed, the +plan of organization easily covered a supply of arms. By their own +contributions they had secured enough to strike the first blow,--a +few hundred pikes and daggers, together with swords and guns for the +leaders. But they had carefully marked every place in the city where +weapons were to be obtained. On King-Street Road, beyond the municipal +limits, in a common wooden shop, were left unguarded the arms of the +Neck company of militia, to the number of several hundred stand; and +these were to be secured by Bacchus Hammett, whose master kept the +establishment. In Mr. Duquercron's shop there were deposited for sale +as many more weapons; and they had noted Mr. Schirer's shop in Queen +Street, and other gunsmiths' establishments. Finally, the State arsenal +in Meeting Street, a building with no defences except ordinary wooden +doors, was to be seized early in the outbreak. Provided, therefore, that +the first moves proved successful, all the rest appeared sure. + +Very little seems to have been said among the conspirators in regard to +any plans of riot or debauchery, subsequent to the capture of the city. +Either their imaginations did not dwell on them, or the witnesses did +not dare to give testimony, or the authorities to print it. Death was to +be dealt out, comprehensive and terrible; but nothing more is mentioned. +One prisoner, Rolla, is reported in the evidence to have dropped hints +in regard to the destiny of the women; and there was a rumor in the +newspapers of the time, that he, or some other of Governor Bennett's +slaves, was to have taken the Governor's daughter, a young girl of +sixteen, for his wife, in the event of success; but this is all. On the +other hand, Denmark Vesey was known to be for a war of immediate and +total extermination; and when some of the company opposed killing "the +ministers and the women and children," Vesey read from the Scriptures +that all should be cut off, and said that "it was for their safety not +to leave one white skin alive, for this was the plan they pursued at St. +Domingo." And all this was not a mere dream of one lonely enthusiast, +but a measure which had been maturing for four full years among several +confederates, and had been under discussion for five months among +multitudes of initiated "candidates." + +As usual with slave-insurrections, the best men and those most trusted +were deepest in the plot. Rolla was the only prominent conspirator who +was not an active Church-member. "Most of the ringleaders," says a +Charleston letter-writer of that day, "were the rulers or class-leaders +in what is called the African Society, and were considered faithful, +honest fellows. Indeed, many of the owners could not be convinced, till +the fellows confessed themselves, that they were concerned, and that the +first object of all was to kill their masters." And the first official +report declares that it would not be difficult to assign a motive for +the insurrectionists, "if it had not been distinctly proved, that, with +scarcely an exception, they had no individual hardship to complain +of, and were among the most humanely treated negroes in the city. The +facilities for combining and confederating in such a scheme were amply +afforded by the extreme indulgence and kindness which characterizes +the domestic treatment of our slaves. Many slave-owners among us, not +satisfied with ministering to the wants of their domestics by all the +comforts of abundant food and excellent clothing, with a misguided +benevolence have not only permitted their instruction, but lent to such +efforts their approbation and applause." + +"I sympathize most sincerely," says the anonymous author of a pamphlet +of the period, "with the very respectable and pious clergyman whose +heart must still bleed at the recollection that his confidential +class-leader, but a week or two before his just conviction, had received +the communion of the Lord's Supper from his hand. This wretch had +been brought up in his pastor's family, and was treated with the same +Christian attention as was shown to their own children." "To us who are +accustomed to the base and proverbial ingratitude of these people this +ill return of kindness and confidence is not surprising; but they who +are ignorant of their real character will read and wonder." + +One demonstration of this "Christian attention" had lately been the +closing of the African Church,--of which, as has been stated, most of +the leading revolutionists were members,--on the ground that it tended +to spread the dangerous infection of the alphabet. On January 15th, +1821, the City Marshal, John J. Lafar, had notified "ministers of the +gospel and others who keep night- and Sunday-schools for slaves, that +the education of such persons is forbidden by law, and that the city +government feel imperiously bound to enforce the penalty." So that there +were some special, as well as general grounds for disaffection among +these ungrateful favorites of Fortune, the slaves. Then there were +fancied dangers. An absurd report had somehow arisen--since you cannot +keep men ignorant without making them unreasonable also--that on the +ensuing Fourth of July the whites were to create a false alarm, and that +every black man coming out was to be killed, "in order to thin them"; +this being done to prevent their joining an imaginary army supposed to +be on its way from Hayti. Others were led to suppose that Congress had +ended the Missouri Compromise discussion by making them all free, and +that the law would protect their liberty, if they could only secure it. +Others again were threatened with the vengeance of the conspirators, +unless they also joined; on the night of attack, it was said, the +initiated would have a countersign, and all who did not know it would +share the fate of the whites. Add to this the reading of Congressional +speeches, and of the copious magazine of revolution to be found in the +Bible,--and it was no wonder, if they for the first time were roused, +under the energetic leadership of Vesey, to a full consciousness of +their own condition. + +"Not only were the leaders of good character and very much indulged by +their owners, but this was very generally the case with all who were +convicted,--many of them possessing the highest confidence of their +owners, and not one of bad character." In one case it was proved that +Vesey had forbidden his followers to trust a certain man, because he had +once been seen intoxicated. In another case it was shown that a slave +named George had made every effort to obtain their confidence, but was +constantly excluded from their meetings as a talkative fellow who could +not be trusted,--a policy which his levity of manner, when examined in +court, fully justified. They took no women into counsel,--not from any +distrust apparently, but in order that their children might not be left +uncared-for, in case of defeat and destruction. House-servants were +rarely trusted, or only when they had been carefully sounded by the +chief leaders. Peter Poyas, in commissioning an agent to enlist men, +gave him excellent cautions: "Don't mention it to those waiting-men who +receive presents of old coats, etc., from their masters, or they'll +betray us; _I will speak to them_." When he did speak, if he did not +convince them, he at least frightened them; but the chief reliance was +on the slaves hired out and therefore more uncontrolled,--and also upon +the country negroes. + +The same far-sighted policy directed the conspirators to disarm +suspicion by peculiarly obedient and orderly conduct. And it shows the +precaution with which the thing was carried on, that, although Peter +Poyas was proved to have had a list of some six hundred persons, yet not +one of his particular company was ever brought to trial. As each leader +kept to himself the names of his proselytes, and as Monday Gell was the +only one of these who turned traitor, any opinion as to the numbers +actually engaged must appear altogether conjectural. One witness said +nine thousand; another, six thousand six hundred. These statements +were probably extravagant, though not more so than Governor Bennett's +assertion, on the other side, that "all who were actually concerned had +been brought to justice,"--unless by this phrase he designates only the +ringleaders. The avowed aim of the Governor's letter, indeed, is to +smooth the thing over, for the credit and safety of the city; and +its evasive tone contrasts strongly with the more frank and thorough +statements of the Judges, made after the thing could no longer be hushed +up. These best authorities explicitly acknowledge that they had failed +to detect more than a small minority of those concerned in the project, +and seem to admit, that, if it had once been brought to a head, the +slaves generally would have joined in. + +"We cannot venture to say," says the Intendant's pamphlet, "to how many +the knowledge of the intended effort was communicated, who, without +signifying their assent, or attending any of the meetings, were yet +prepared to profit by events. That there are many who would not have +permitted the enterprise to have failed at a critical moment, for the +want of their coöperation, we have the best reason for believing." So +believed the community at large; and the panic was in proportion, when +the whole danger was finally made public. "The scenes I witnessed," says +one who has since narrated the circumstances, "and the declaration of +the impending danger that met us at all times and on all occasions, +forced the conviction that never were an entire people more thoroughly +alarmed than were the people of Charleston at that time.... During the +excitement and the trial of the supposed conspirators, rumor proclaimed +all, and doubtless more than all, the horrors of the plot. The city was +to be fired in every quarter, the arsenal in the immediate vicinity was +to be broken open and the arms distributed to the insurgents, and an +universal massacre of the white inhabitants to take place. Nor did there +seem to be any doubt in the mind of the people that such would actually +have been the result, had not the plot fortunately been detected before +the time appointed for the outbreak. It was believed, as a matter of +course, that every black in the city would join in the insurrection, and +that, if the original design had been attempted, and the city taken by +surprise, the negroes would have achieved a complete and easy victory. +Nor does it seem at all impossible that such might have been or yet +may be the case, if any well-arranged and resolute rising should take +place." + +Indeed, this universal admission, that all the slaves were ready to take +part in any desperate enterprise, was one of the most startling aspects +of the affair. The authorities say that the two principal State's +evidence declared that "they never spoke to any person of color on the +subject, or knew of any one who had been spoken to by the other leaders, +who had withheld his assent." And the conspirators seem to have been +perfectly satisfied that all the remaining slaves would enter their +ranks upon the slightest success. "Let us assemble a sufficient number +to commence the work with spirit, and we'll not want men; they'll fall +in behind us fast enough." And as an illustration of this readiness, +the official report mentions a slave who had belonged to one master for +sixteen years, sustaining a high character for fidelity and affection, +who had twice travelled with him through the Northern States, resisting +every solicitation to escape, and who yet was very deeply concerned in +the insurrection, though knowing it to involve the probable destruction +of the whole family with whom he lived. + +One singular circumstance followed the first rumors of the plot. Several +white men, said to be of low and unprincipled character, at once began +to make interest with the supposed leaders among the slaves, either from +genuine sympathy, or with the intention of betraying them for money, or +of profiting by the insurrection, should it succeed. Four of these were +brought to trial; but the official report expresses the opinion that +many more might have been discovered but for the inadmissibility of +slave-testimony against whites. Indeed, the evidence against even +these four was insufficient for a capital conviction, although one was +overheard, through stratagem, by the Intendant himself, and arrested +on the spot. This man was a Scotchman, another a Spaniard, a third a +German, and the fourth a Carolinian. The last had for thirty years kept +a shop in the neighborhood of Charleston; he was proved to have asserted +that "the negroes had as much right to fight for their liberty as the +white people," had offered to head them in the enterprise, and had said +that in three weeks he would have two thousand men. But in no case, it +appears, did these men obtain the confidence of the slaves, and the +whole plot was conceived and organized, so far as appears, without the +slightest coöperation from any white man. + +The trial of the conspirators began on Wednesday, June 19th. At the +request of the Intendant, Justices Kennedy and Parker summoned five +freeholders (Messrs. Drayton, Heyward, Pringle, Legaré, and Turnbull) +to constitute a court, under the provisions of the act "for the better +ordering and governing negroes and other slaves." The Intendant laid the +case before them, with a list of prisoners and witnesses. By a vote of +the Court, all spectators were excluded, except the owners and counsel +of the slaves concerned. No other colored person was allowed to enter +the jail, and a strong guard of soldiers was kept always on duty around +the building. Under these general arrangements the trials proceeded +with elaborate formality, though with some variations from ordinary +usage,--as was, indeed, required by the statute. + +For instance, the law provided that the testimony of any Indian or slave +could be received, _without oath_, against a slave or free colored +person, although it was not valid, even under oath, against a white. +But it is best to quote the official language in respect to the rules +adopted. "As the Court had been organized under a statute of a peculiar +and local character, and intended for the government of a distinct +class of persons in the community, they were bound to conform their +proceedings to its provisions, which depart in many essential features +from the principles of the Common Law and some of the settled rules of +evidence. The Court, however, determined to adopt those rules, whenever +they were not repugnant to nor expressly excepted by that statute, nor +inconsistent with the local situation and policy of the State; and laid +down for their own government the following regulations: First, that +no slave should be tried except in the presence of his owner or his +counsel, and that notice should be given in every case at least one day +before the trial; second, that the testimony of one witness, unsupported +by additional evidence or by circumstances, should lead to no conviction +of a _capital_ nature; third, that the witnesses should be confronted +with the accused and with each other in every case, except where +testimony was given under a solemn pledge that the names of the +witnesses should not be divulged,--as they declared, in some instances, +that they apprehended being murdered by the blacks, if it was known that +they had volunteered their evidence; fourth, that the prisoners might be +represented by counsel, whenever this was requested by the owners of +the slaves, or by the prisoners themselves, if free; fifth, that the +statements or defences of the accused should be heard in every case, +and they be permitted themselves to examine any witness they thought +proper." + +It is singular to observe how entirely these rules seem to concede that +a slave's life has no sort of value to himself, but only to his master. +His master, not he himself, must choose whether it be worth while to +employ counsel. His master, not his mother or his wife, must be present +at the trial. So far is this carried, that the provision to exclude +"persons who had no particular interest in the slaves accused" seems to +have excluded every acknowledged relative they had in the world, and +admitted only those who had invested in them so many dollars. And yet +the very first section of that part of the statute under which they were +tried lays down an explicit recognition of their humanity. "And whereas +natural justice forbids that any _person_, of what condition soever, +should be condemned unheard." So thoroughly, in the whole report, are +the ideas of person and chattel intermingled, that, when Governor +Bennett petitions for mitigation of sentence in the case of his slave +Batteau, and closes, "I ask this, gentlemen, as an individual incurring +a severe and distressing loss," it is really impossible to decide +whether the predominant emotion be affectional or financial. + +It is a matter of painful necessity to acknowledge that the proceedings +of all slave-tribunals justify the honest admission of Governor Adams of +South Carolina, in his legislative message of 1855:--"The administration +of our laws, in relation to our colored population, by our courts of +magistrates and freeholders, as these courts are at present constituted, +calls loudly for reform. Their decisions are rarely in conformity +with justice or humanity." This trial, as reported by the justices +themselves, seems to have been no worse than the average,--perhaps +better. In all, thirty-five were sentenced to death, thirty-four to +transportation, twenty-seven acquitted by the Court, and twenty-five +discharged without trial, by the Committee of Vigilance, making in all +one hundred and twenty-one. + +The sentences pronounced by Judge Kennedy upon the leading rebels, while +paying a high tribute to their previous character, of course bring all +law and all Scripture to prove the magnitude of their crime. "It is a +melancholy fact," he says, "that those servants in whom we reposed the +most unlimited confidence have been the principal actors in this wicked +scheme." Then he rises into earnest appeals. "Are you incapable of the +heavenly influence of that gospel all whose paths are peace? It was to +reconcile us to our destiny on earth, and to enable us to discharge +with fidelity all our duties, whether as master or servant, that those +inspired precepts were imparted by Heaven to fallen man." And so on. + +To these reasonings the prisoners had, of course, nothing to say; but +the official reports bear the strongest testimony to their fortitude. +"Rolla, when arraigned, affected not to understand the charge against +him, and when it was at his request further explained to him, assumed, +with wonderful adroitness, astonishment and surprise. He was remarkable, +throughout his trial, for great presence and composure of mind. When he +was informed he was convicted, and was advised to prepare for death, +though he had previously (but after his trial) confessed his guilt, he +appeared perfectly confounded, but exhibited no signs of fear. In Ned's +behavior there was nothing remarkable; but his countenance was stern and +immovable, even whilst he was receiving the sentence of death: from +his looks it was impossible to discover or conjecture what were his +feelings. Not so with Peter; for in his countenance were strongly marked +disappointed ambition, revenge, indignation, and an anxiety to know how +far the discoveries had extended; and the same emotions were exhibited +in his conduct. He did not appear to fear personal consequences, for his +whole behavior indicated the reverse; but exhibited an evident anxiety +for the success of their plan, in which his whole soul was embarked. His +countenance and behavior were the same when he received his sentence, +and his only words were, on retiring, 'I suppose you'll let me see my +wife and family before I die?' and that not in a supplicating tone. +When he was asked, a day or two after, if it was possible he could wish +to see his master and family murdered, who had treated him so kindly, +he only replied to the question by a smile. Monday's behavior was not +peculiar. When he was before the Court, his arms were folded; he heard +the testimony given against him, and received his sentence with the +utmost firmness and composure. But no description can accurately convey +to others the impression which the trial, defence, and appearance of +Gullah Jack made on those who witnessed the workings of his cunning and +rude address. When arrested and brought before the Court, in company +with another African named Jack, the property of the estate of +Pritchard, he assumed so much ignorance, and looked and acted the fool +so well, that some of the Court could not believe that this was the +necromancer who was sought after. This conduct he continued when on +his trial, until he saw the witnesses and heard the testimony as it +progressed against him, when, in an instant, his countenance was lighted +up as if by lightning, and his wildness and vehemence of gesture, and +the malignant glance with which he eyed the witnesses who appeared +against him, all indicated the savage, who, indeed, had been caught, +but not tamed. His courage, however, soon forsook him. When he received +sentence of death, he earnestly implored that a fortnight longer might +be allowed him, and then a week longer, which he continued earnestly to +solicit until he was taken from the court-room to his cell; and when +he was carried to execution, he gave up his spirit without firmness or +composure." + +Not so with Denmark Vesey. The plans of years were frustrated; his own +life and liberty were thrown away; many others were sacrificed through +his leader ship; and one more added to the list of unsuccessful +insurrections. All these disastrous certainties he faced calmly, and +gave his whole mind composedly to the conducting of his defence. With +his arms tightly folded and his eyes fixed on the floor, he attentively +followed every item of the testimony. He heard the witnesses examined by +the Court, and cross-examined by his own counsel, and it is evident from +the narrative of the presiding judge that he showed no small skill and +policy in the searching cross-examination which he then applied. The +fears, the feelings, the consciences of those who had betrayed him, all +were in turn appealed to; but the facts were too overpowering, and it +was too late to aid his comrades or himself. Then turning to the Court, +he skilfully availed himself of the point which had so much impressed +the community, the intrinsic improbability that a man in his position of +freedom and prosperity should sacrifice everything to free other people. +If they thought it so incredible, why not give him the benefit of the +incredibility? The act being, as they stated, one of infatuation, why +convict him of it on the bare word of men who, by their own showing, had +not only shared the infatuation, but proved traitors to it? An ingenious +defence,--indeed, the only one which could by any possibility be +suggested, anterior to the days of Choate and somnambulism; but in vain. +He was sentenced, and it was not, apparently, till the judge reproached +him for the destruction he had brought on his followers that he showed +any sign of emotion. Then the tears came into his eyes. But he said not +another word. + +The executions took place on five different days, and, bad as they were, +they might have been worse. After the imaginary Negro Plot of New York, +in 1741, thirteen negroes had been judicially burned alive; two had +suffered the same sentence at Charleston in 1808; and it was undoubtedly +some mark of progress that in this case the gallows took the place +of the flames. Six were hanged on July 2d, upon Blake's lands, near +Charleston,--Denmark Vesey, Peter Poyas, Jess, Ned, Rolla, and +Batteau,--the last three being slaves of the Governor himself. Gullah +Jack and John were executed "on the Lines," near Charleston, on July +12th, and twenty-two more on July 26th. Four others suffered their fate +on July 30th; and one more, William Garner, effected a temporary escape, +was captured and tried by a different court, and was finally executed on +August 9th. + +The self-control of these men did not desert them at their execution. +When the six leaders suffered death, the report says, Peter Poyas +repeated his charge of secrecy. "Do not open your lips; die silent, as +you shall see me do"; and all obeyed. And though afterwards, as the +particulars of the plot became better known, there was less inducement +to conceal, yet every one of the thirty-five seems to have met his fate +bravely, except the conjurer. Governor Bennett, in his letter, expresses +much dissatisfaction at the small amount learned from the participators. +"to the last hour of the existence of several who appeared to be +conspicuous actors in the drama, they were pressingly importuned to make +farther confessions,"--this "importuning" being more clearly defined in +a letter of Mr. Ferguson, owner of two of the slaves, as "having them +severely corrected." Yet so little was obtained, that the Governor was +compelled to admit at last that the really essential features of the +plot were not known to any of the informers. + +It is to be remembered that the plot failed because a man unauthorized +and incompetent, William Paul, undertook to make enlistments on his own +account. He blundered on one of precisely that class of men--favored +house-servants--whom his leaders had expressly reserved for more skilful +manipulations. He being thus detected, one would have supposed that the +discovery of many accomplices would at once have followed. + +The number enlisted was counted by thousands; yet for twenty-nine +days after the first treachery, and during twenty days of official +examination, only fifteen of the conspirators were ferreted out. +Meanwhile the informers' names had to be concealed with the utmost +secrecy,--they were in peril of their lives from the slaves,--William +Paul scarcely dared to go beyond the door-step,--and the names of +important witnesses examined in June were still suppressed in the +official report published in October. That a conspiracy on so large a +scale should have existed in embryo during four years, and in an active +form for several months, and yet have been so well managed, that, after +actual betrayal, the authorities were again thrown off their guard +and the plot nearly brought to a head again,--this certainly shows +extraordinary ability in the leaders, and a talent for concerted action +on the part of slaves generally with which they have hardly been +credited. + +And it is also to be noted, that the range of the conspiracy extended +far beyond Charleston. It was proved that Frank, slave of Mr. Ferguson, +living nearly forty miles from the city, had boasted of having enlisted +four plantations in his immediate neighborhood. It was in evidence that +the insurgents "were trying all round the country, from Georgetown and +Santee round about to Combahee, to get people"; and after the trials, it +was satisfactorily established that Vesey "had been in the country as +far north as South Santee, and southwardly as far as the Euhaws, which +is between seventy and eighty miles from the city." Mr. Ferguson himself +testified that the good order of any gang was no evidence of their +ignorance of the plot, since the behavior of his own initiated slaves +had been unexceptionable, in accordance with Vesey's directions. + +With such an organization and such materials, there was nothing in the +plan which could be pronounced incredible or impracticable. There is no +reason why they should not have taken the city. After all the Governor's +entreaties as to moderate language, the authorities were obliged to +admit that South Carolina had been saved from a "horrible catastrophe." +"For although success could not possibly have attended the conspirators, +yet, before their suppression, Charleston would probably have been +wrapped in flames, many valuable lives would have been sacrificed, and +an immense loss of property sustained by the citizens, even though +no other distressing occurrences were experienced by them, while the +plantations in the lower country would have been disorganized, and the +agricultural interests have sustained an enormous loss." The Northern +journals had already expressed still greater anxieties. "It appears," +said the "New York Commercial Advertiser," "that, but for the timely +disclosure, the whole of that State would in a few days have witnessed +the horrid spectacle once witnessed in St. Domingo." + +My friend David Lee Child has kindly communicated to me a few memoranda +of a conversation held long since with a free colored man who had worked +in Vesey's shop during the time of the insurrection, and these generally +confirm the official narratives. "I was a young man then," he said, +"and, owing to the policy of preventing communication between free +colored people and slaves, I had little opportunity of ascertaining how +the slaves felt about it. I know that several of them were abused in the +street, and some put in prison, for appearing in sack-cloth. There was +an ordinance of the city, that any slave who wore a badge of mourning +should be imprisoned and flogged. They generally got the law, which is +thirty-nine lashes, but sometimes it was according to the decision of +the Court." "I heard, at the time, of arms being buried in coffins at +Sullivan's Island." "In the time of the insurrection, the slaves were +tried in a small room, in the jail where they were confined. No colored +person was allowed to go within two squares of the prison. Those two +squares were filled with troops, five thousand of whom were on duty, day +and night. I was told, Vesey said to those that tried him, that the +work of insurrection would go on; but as none but white persons were +permitted to be present, I cannot tell whether he said it." + +During all this time there was a guarded silence in the Charleston +journals, which strongly contrasts with the extreme publicity at +last given to the testimony. Even the "National Intelligencer," +at Washington, passed lightly over the affair, and deprecated the +publication of particulars. The Northern editors, on the other hand, +eager for items, were constantly complaining of this reserve, and +calling for further intelligence. "The Charleston papers," said the +"Hartford Courant" of July 16th, "have been silent on the subject of the +insurrection, but letters from this city state that it has created much +alarm, and that two brigades of troops were under arms for some time to +suppress any risings that might have taken place." "You will doubtless +hear," wrote a Charleston correspondent of the same paper, just before, +"many reports, and some exaggerated ones." "There was certainly a +disposition to revolt, and some preparations made, principally by the +plantation negroes, to take the city." "We hoped they would progress so +far as to enable us to ascertain and punish the ringleaders." "Assure my +friends that we feel in perfect security, although the number of nightly +guards and other demonstrations may induce a belief among strangers to +the contrary." + +The strangers would have been very blind strangers, if they had not +been more influenced by the actions of the Charlestonians than by their +words. The original information was given on May 25th. The time passed, +and the plot failed on June 16th. A plan for its revival on July 2d +proved abortive. Yet a letter from Charleston in the "Hartford Courant" +of August 6th, represented the panic as unabated: "Great preparations +are making, and all the military are put in preparation to guard against +any attempt of the same kind again; but we have no apprehension of its +being repeated." On August 10th, Governor Bennett wrote the letter +already mentioned, which was printed and distributed as a circular, its +object being to deprecate undue alarm. "Every individual in the State is +interested, whether in regard to his own property or the reputation +of the State, in giving no more importance to the transaction than it +justly merits." Yet five days after this,--two months after the first +danger had passed,--a reinforcement of United States troops arrived at +Port Moultrie. And during the same month, several different attempts +were made by small parties of armed negroes to capture the mails between +Charleston and Savannah, and a reward of two hundred dollars was offered +for their detection. + +The first official report of the trials was prepared by the Intendant, +by request of the city council. It passed through four editions in a few +months,--the first and fourth being published in Charleston, and the +second and third in Boston. Being, however, but a brief pamphlet, it +did not satisfy the public curiosity, and in October of the same +year, (1822,) a larger volume appeared at Charleston, edited by the +magistrates who presided at the trials, Lionel H. Kennedy and Thomas +Parker. It contains the evidence in full, and a separate narrative of +the whole affair, more candid and lucid than any other which I have +found in the newspapers or pamphlets of the day. It exhibits that rarest +of all qualities in a slave-community, a willingness to look facts in +the face. This narrative has been faithfully followed, with the aid +of such cross-lights as could be secured from many other quarters, in +preparing the present history. + +The editor of the first official report racked his brains to discover +the special causes of the revolt, and never trusted himself to allude +to the general one. The negroes rebelled because they were deluded +by Congressional eloquence, or because they were excited by a Church +squabble, or because they had been spoilt by mistaken indulgences, such +as being allowed to learn to read, "a misguided benevolence," as he +pronounces it. So the Baptist Convention seems to have thought it was +because they were not Baptists, and an Episcopal pamphleteer because +they were not Episcopalians. It never seems to occur to any of these +spectators that these people rebelled simply because they were slaves +and wished to be free. + +No doubt, there were enough special torches with which a man so skilful +as Denmark Vesey could kindle up these dusky powder-magazines; but, +after all, the permanent peril lay in the powder. So long as that +existed, everything was incendiary. Any torn scrap in the street might +contain a Missouri-Compromise speech, or a report of the last battle in +St. Domingo, or one of those able letters of Boyer's which were winning +the praise of all, or one of John Randolph's stirring speeches in +England against the slave-trade. The very newspapers which reported +the happy extinction of the insurrection by the hanging of the +last conspirator, William Garner, reported also, with enthusiastic +indignation, the massacre of the Greeks at Constantinople and at Scio; +and then the Northern editors, breaking from their usual reticence, +pointed out the inconsistency of Southern journals in printing, side +by side, denunciations of Mohammedan slave-sales and advertisements of +Christian ones. + +Of course, the insurrection threw the whole slavery question open to +the public. "We are sorry to see," said the "National Intelligencer" +of August 31st, "that a discussion of the hateful Missouri question is +likely to be revived, in consequence of the allusions to its supposed +effect in producing the late servile insurrection in South Carolina." A +member of the Board of Public Works of South Carolina published in the +Baltimore "American Farmer" an essay urging the encouragement of white +laborers, and hinting at the ultimate abolition of slavery, "if it +should ever be thought desirable." More boldly still, a pamphlet +appeared in Charleston under the signature of "Achates," arguing with +remarkable sagacity and force against the whole system of slave-labor +_in towns_, and proposing that all slaves in Charleston should be sold +or transferred to the plantations, and their places supplied by white +labor. It is interesting to find many of the facts and arguments of +Helper's "Impending Crisis" anticipated in this courageous tract, +written under the pressure of a crisis which had just been so narrowly +evaded. The author is described in the preface as "a soldier and patriot +of the Revolution, whose name, did we feel ourselves at liberty to use +it, would stamp a peculiar weight and value on his opinions." It was +commonly attributed to General Thomas Pinckney. + +Another pamphlet of the period, also published in Charleston, +recommended as a practical cure for insurrection the copious +administration of Episcopal Church services, and the prohibition of +negroes from attending Fourth-of-July celebrations. On this last point +it is more consistent than most pro-slavery arguments. "The celebration +of the Fourth of July belongs _exclusively_ to the white population of +the United States. The American Revolution was a _family-quarrel among +equals_. In this the negroes had no concern; their condition remained, +and must remain, unchanged. They have no more to do with the celebration +of that day than with the landing of the Pilgrims on the rock at +Plymouth. It therefore seems to me improper to allow these people to +be present on these occasions. In our speeches and orations, much, and +sometimes more than is politically necessary, is said about personal +liberty, which negro auditors know not how to apply, except by running +the parallel with their own condition. They therefore imbibe false +notions of their own personal rights, and give reality in their minds to +what has no real existence. The peculiar state of our community must +be steadily kept in view. This, I am gratified to learn, will in +some measure be promoted by the institution of the South Carolina +Association." + +On the other hand, more stringent laws became obviously necessary to +keep down the advancing intelligence of the Charleston slaves. Dangerous +knowledge must be excluded from without and from within. For the first +end, the South Carolina legislature passed, in December, 1822, the +act for the imprisonment of Northern colored seamen, which has since +produced so much excitement. For the second object, the Grand Jury, +about the same time, presented as a grievance "the number of schools +which are kept within the city by persons of color," and proposed their +prohibition. This was the encouragement given to the intellectual +progress of the slaves; while, as a reward for betraying them, Pensil, +the free colored man who advised with Devany, received a present of one +thousand dollars, and Devany himself had what was rightly judged to +be the higher gift of freedom, and was established in business, with +liberal means, as a drayman. He is still living in Charleston, has +thriven greatly in his vocation, and, according to the newspapers, +enjoys the privilege of being the only man of property in the State whom +a special statute exempts from taxation. It is something of a privilege, +especially with secession impending. But those whom he betrayed to death +have been exempt from taxation longer than be has. + +More than a third of a century has passed since the incidents of this +true story closed. It has not vanished from the memories of South +Carolinians, though the printed pages which once told it have been +gradually withdrawn from sight. The intense avidity which at first +grasped at every incident of the great insurrectionary plot was +succeeded by a distaste for the memory of the tale; and the official +reports which told what slaves had once planned and dared have now come +to be among the rarest of American historical documents. In 1841, a +friend of the writer, then visiting South Carolina, heard from her +hostess for the first time the events which are recounted here. On +asking to see the reports of the trials, she was cautiously told that +the only copy in the house, after being carefully kept for years under +lock and key, had been burnt at last, lest it should reach the dangerous +eyes of the slaves. The same thing had happened, it was added, in many +other families. This partially accounts for the great difficulty now to +be found in obtaining a single copy of either publication; and this is +why, to the readers of American history, Denmark Vesey and Peter Poyas +have been heretofore but the shadows of names. + + * * * * * + + +NEW YORK SEVENTH REGIMENT. + +OUR MARCH TO WASHINGTON. + + +THROUGH THE CITY. + + +At three o'clock in the afternoon of Friday, April 19th, we took our +peacemaker, a neat twelve-pound brass howitzer, down from the Seventh +Regiment Armory, and stationed it in the rear of the building. The twin +peacemaker is somewhere near us, but entirely hidden by this enormous +crowd. + +An enormous crowd! of both sexes, of every age and condition. The men +offer all kinds of truculent and patriotic hopes; the women shed tears, +and say, "God bless you, boys!" + +This is a part of the town where baddish cigars prevail. But good or +bad, I am ordered to keep all away from the gun. So the throng stands +back, peers curiously over the heads of its junior members, and seems to +be taking the measure of my coffin. + +After a patient hour of this, the word is given, we fall in, our two +guns find their places at the right of the line of march, we move on +through the thickening crowd. + +At a great house on the left, as we pass the Astor Library, I see a +handkerchief waving for me. Yes! it is she who made the sandwiches in my +knapsack. They were a trifle too thick, as I afterwards discovered, +but otherwise perfection. Be these my thanks and the thanks of hungry +comrades who had bites of them! + +At the corner of Great Jones Street we halted for half an hour,--then, +everything ready, we marched down Broadway. + +It was worth a life, that march. Only one who passed, as we did, through +that tempest of cheers, two miles long, can know the terrible +enthusiasm of the occasion. I could hardly hear the rattle of our own +gun-carriages, and only once or twice the music of our band came to me +muffled and quelled by the uproar. We knew now, if we had not before +divined it, that our great city was with us as one man, utterly united +in the great cause we were marching to sustain. + +This grand fact I learned by two senses. If hundreds of thousands roared +it into my ears, thousands slapped it into my back. My fellow-citizens +smote me on the knapsack, as I went by at the gun-rope, and encouraged +me each in his own dialect. "Bully for you!" alternated with +benedictions, in the proportion of two "bullies" to one blessing. + +I was not so fortunate as to receive more substantial tokens of +sympathy. But there were parting gifts showered on the regiment, enough +to establish a variety-shop. Handkerchiefs, of course, came floating +down upon us from the windows, like a snow. Pretty little gloves pelted +us with love-taps. The sterner sex forced upon us pocket-knives new and +jagged, combs, soap, slippers, boxes of matches, cigars by the dozen +and the hundred, pipes to smoke shag and pipes to smoke Latakia, fruit, +eggs, and sandwiches. One fellow got a new purse with ten bright +quarter-eagles. + +At the corner of Grand Street, or thereabouts, a "bhoy" in red flannel +shirt and black dress pantaloons, leaning back against the crowd with +Herculean shoulders, called me,--"Saäy, bully! take my dorg! he's one of +the kind that holds till he draps." This gentleman, with his animal, was +instantly shoved back by the police, and the Seventh lost the "dorg." + +These were the comic incidents of the march, but underlying all was the +tragic sentiment that we might have tragic work presently to do. The +news of the rascal attack in Baltimore on the Massachusetts Sixth had +just come in. Ours might be the same chance. If there were any of us +not in earnest before, the story of the day would steady us. So we said +goodbye to Broadway, moved down Cortlandt Street under a bower of flags, +and at half-past six shoved off in the ferry-boat. + +Everybody has heard how Jersey City turned out and filled up the +Railroad Station, like an opera-house, to give Godspeed to us as a +representative body, a guaranty of the unquestioning loyalty of the +"conservative" class in New York. Everybody has heard how the State of +New Jersey, along the railroad line, stood through the evening and +the night to shout their quota of good wishes. At every station the +Jerseymen were there, uproarious as Jerseymen, to shake our hands and +wish us a happy despatch. I think I did not see a rod of ground without +its man, from dusk till dawn, from the Hudson to the Delaware. + +Upon the train we made a jolly night of it. All knew that the more a man +sings, the better he is likely to fight. So we sang more than we slept, +and, in fact, that has been our history ever since. + + +PHILADELPHIA. + + +At sunrise we were at the station in Philadelphia, and dismissed for an +hour. Some hundreds of us made up Broad Street for the Lapierre House +to breakfast. When I arrived, I found every place at table filled +and every waiter ten deep with orders. So, being an old campaigner, I +followed up the stream of provender to the fountain-head, the kitchen. +Half a dozen other old campaigners were already there, most hospitably +entertained by the cooks. They served us, hot and hot, with the best of +their best, straight from the gridiron and the pan. I hope, if I live +to breakfast again in the Lapierre House, that I may be allowed to help +myself and choose for myself below-stairs. + +When we rendezvoused at the train, we found that the orders were for +every man to provide himself three days' rations in the neighborhood, +and be ready for a start at a moment's notice. + +A mountain of bread was already piled up in the station. I stuck my +bayonet through a stout loaf, and, with a dozen comrades armed in the +same way, went foraging about for other _vivers_. + +It is a poor part of Philadelphia; but whatever they had in the shops or +the houses seemed to be at our disposition. + +I stopped at a corner shop to ask for pork, and was amicably assailed by +an earnest dame,--Irish, I am pleased to say. She thrust her last loaf +upon me, and sighed that it was not baked that morning for my "honor's +service." + +A little farther on, two kindly Quaker ladies compelled me to step in. +"What could they do?" they asked eagerly. "They had no meat in the +house; but could we eat eggs? They had in the house a dozen and a half, +new-laid." So the pot to the fire, and the eggs boiled, and bagged by +myself and that tall Saxon, my friend E., of the Sixth Company. While +the eggs simmered, the two ladies thee-ed us prayerfully and tearfully, +hoping that God would save our country from blood, unless blood must be +shed to preserve Law and Liberty. + +Nothing definite from Baltimore when we returned to the station. We +stood by, waiting orders. About noon the Eighth Massachusetts Regiment +took the train southward. Our regiment was ready to a man to try its +strength with the Plug Uglies. If there had been any voting on the +subject, the plan to follow the straight road to Washington would have +been accepted by acclamation. But the higher powers deemed that "the +longest way round was the shortest way home," and no doubt their +decision was wise. The event proved it. + +At two o'clock came the word to "fall in." We handled our howitzers +again, and marched down Jefferson Avenue to the steamer "Boston" to +embark. + +To embark for what port? For Washington, of course, finally; but by what +route? That was to remain in doubt to us privates for a day or two. + +The Boston is a steamer of the outside line from Philadelphia to New +York. She just held our legion. We tramped on board, and were allotted +about the craft from the top to the bottom story. We took tents, traps, +and grub on board, and steamed away down the Delaware in the sweet +afternoon of April. If ever the heavens smiled fair weather on any +campaign, they have done so on ours. + + +THE "BOSTON." + + +Soldiers on shipboard are proverbially fish out of water. We could not +be called by the good old nickname of "lobsters" by the crew. Our gray +jackets saved the _sobriquet_. But we floundered about the crowded +vessel like boiling victims in a pot. At last we found our places, +and laid ourselves about the decks to tan or bronze or burn scarlet, +according to complexion. There were plenty of cheeks of lobster-hue +before next evening on the Boston. + +A thousand young fellows turned loose on shipboard were sure to make +themselves merry. Let the reader imagine that! We were like any other +excursionists, except that the stacks of bright guns were always present +to remind us of our errand, and regular guard-mounting and drill went +on all the time. The young citizens growled or laughed at the minor +hardships of the hasty outfit, and toughened rapidly to business. + +Sunday, the 21st, was a long and somewhat anxious day. While we were +bowling along in the sweet sunshine and sweeter moonlight of the halcyon +time, Uncle Sam might be dethroned by somebody in buckram, or Baltimore +burnt by the boys from Lynn and Marblehead, revenging the massacre of +their fellows. Every one begins to comprehend the fiery eagerness of men +who live in historic times. "I wish I had control of chain-lightning for +a few minutes," says O., the droll fellow of our company. "I'd make it +come thick and heavy and knock spots out of Secession." + +At early dawn of Monday the 22d, after feeling along slowly all night, +we see the harbor of Annapolis. A frigate with sails unbent lies at +anchor. She flies the stars and stripes. Hurrah! + +A large steamboat is aground farther in. As soon as we can see anything, +we catch the glitter of bayonets on board. + +By-and-by boats come off, and we get news that the steamer is the +"Maryland," a ferry-boat of the Philadelphia and Baltimore Railroad. The +Massachusetts Eighth Regiment had been just in time to seize her on the +north side of the Chesapeake. They learned that she was to be carried +off by the crew and leave them blockaded. So they shot their Zouaves +ahead as skirmishers. The fine fellows rattled on board, and before +the steamboat had time to take a turn or open a valve, she was held by +Massachusetts in trust for Uncle Sam. Hurrah for the most important +prize thus far in the war! It probably saved the "Constitution," "Old +Ironsides," from capture by the traitors. It probably saved Annapolis, +and kept Maryland open without bloodshed. + +As soon as the Massachusetts Regiment had made prize of the ferry-boat, +a call was made for engineers to run her. Some twenty men at once +stepped to the front. We of the New York Seventh afterwards concluded +that whatever was needed in the way of skill or handicraft could be +found among those brother Yankees. They were the men to make armies +of. They could tailor for themselves, shoe themselves, do their own +blacksmithing, gunsmithing, and all other work that calls for sturdy +arms and nimble fingers. In fact, I have such profound confidence in the +universal accomplishment of the Massachusetts Eighth, that I have no +doubt, if the order were, "Poets to the front!" "Painters present arms!" +"Sculptors charge bagonets!" a baker's dozen out of every company would +respond. + +Well, to go on with their story,--when they had taken their prize, +they drove her straight down-stream to Annapolis, the nearest point to +Washington. There they found the Naval Academy in danger of attack, +and Old Ironsides--serving as a practice-ship for the future +midshipmen--also exposed. The call was now for seamen to man the old +craft and save her from a worse enemy than her prototype met in the +"Guerrière." Seamen? Of course! They were Marblehead men, Gloucester +men, Beverly men, seamen all, _par excellence_! They clapped on the +frigate to aid the middies, and by-and-by started her out into the +stream. In doing this their own pilot took the chance to run them +purposely on a shoal in the intricate channel. A great error of judgment +on his part! as he perceived, when he found himself in irons and in +confinement. "The days of trifling with traitors are over!" think the +Eighth Regiment of Massachusetts. + +But there they were, hard and fast on the shoal, when we came up. +Nothing to nibble on but knobs of anthracite. Nothing to sleep on softer +or cleaner than coal-dust. Nothing to drink but the brackish water under +their keel. "Rather rough!" as they afterward patiently told us. + +Meantime the Constitution had got hold of a tug, and was making her way +to an anchorage where her guns commanded everything and everybody. Good +and true men chuckled greatly over this. The stars and stripes also were +still up at the fort at the Naval Academy. + +Our dread, that, while we were off at sea, some great and perhaps fatal +harm had been suffered, was greatly lightened by these good omens. If +Annapolis was safe, why not Washington safe also? If treachery had got +head at the capital, would not treachery have reached out its hand +and snatched this doorway? These were our speculations as we began to +discern objects, before we heard news. + +But news came presently. Boats pulled off to us. Our officers were put +into communication with the shore. The scanty facts of our position +became known from man to man. We privates have greatly the advantage in +battling with the doubt of such a time. We know that we have nothing to +do with rumors. Orders are what we go by. And orders are Facts. + +We lay a long, lingering day, off Annapolis. The air was full of doubt, +and we were eager to be let loose. All this while the Maryland stuck +fast on the bar. We could see them, half a mile off, making every effort +to lighten her. The soldiers tramped forward and aft, danced on her +decks, shot overboard a heavy baggage-truck. We saw them start the truck +for the stern with a cheer. It crashed down. One end stuck in the mud. +The other fell back and rested on the boat. They went at it with axes, +and presently it was clear. + +As the tide rose, we gave our grounded friends a lift with a hawser. No +go! The Boston tugged in vain. We got near enough to see the whites of +the Massachusetts eyes, and their unlucky faces and uniforms all grimy +with their lodgings in the coal-dust. They could not have been blacker, +if they had been breathing battle-smoke and dust all day. That +experience was clear gain to them. + +By-and-by, greatly to the delight of the impatient Seventh, the Boston +was headed for shore. Never speak ill of the beast you bestraddle! +Therefore _requiescat_ Boston! may her ribs lie light on soft sand when +she goes to pieces! may her engines be cut up into bracelets for the +arms of the patriotic fair! good-bye to her, dear old, close, dirty, +slow coach! She served her country well in a moment of trial. Who +knows but she saved it? It was a race to see who should first get to +Washington,--and we and the Virginia mob, in alliance with the District +mob, were perhaps nip and tuck for the goal. + + +ANNAPOLIS. + + +So the Seventh Regiment landed and took Annapolis. We were the first +troops ashore. + +The middies of the Naval Academy no doubt believe that they had their +quarters secure. The Massachusetts boys are satisfied that they first +took the town in charge. And so they did. + +But the Seventh took it a little more. Not, of course, from its loyal +men, but _for_ its loyal men,--for loyal Maryland, and for the Union. + +Has anybody seen Annapolis? It is a picturesque old place, sleepy +enough, and astonished to find itself wide-awaked by a war and obliged +to take responsibility and share for good and ill in the movement of its +time. The buildings of the Naval Academy stand parallel with the river +Severn, with a green plateau toward the water and a lovely green lawn +toward the town. All the scene was fresh and fair with April, and I +fancied, as the Boston touched the wharf, that I discerned the sweet +fragrance of apple-blossoms coming with the spring-time airs. + +I hope that the companies of the Seventh, should the day arrive, will +charge upon horrid batteries or serried ranks with as much alacrity +as they marched ashore on the greensward of the Naval Academy. We +disembarked, and were halted in line between the buildings and the +river. + +Presently, while we stood at ease, people began to arrive,--some with +smallish fruit to sell, some with smaller news to give. Nobody knew +whether Washington was taken. Nobody knew whether Jeff. Davis was now +spitting in the Presidential spittoon, and scribbling his distiches with +the nib of the Presidential goose-quill. We were absolutely in doubt +whether a seemingly inoffensive knot of rustics, on a mound without +the inclosure, might not, at tap of drum, unmask a battery of giant +columbiads, and belch blazes at us, raking our line. + +Nothing so entertaining happened. It was a parade, not a battle. At +sunset our band played strains sweet enough to pacify all Secession, if +Secession had music in its soul. Coffee, hot from the coppers of the +Naval School, and biscuit were served out to us; and while we supped, we +talked with our visitors, such as were allowed to approach. + +First the boys of the School--fine little blue-jackets--had their story +to tell. + +"Do you see that white farm-house, across the river?" says a brave pigmy +of a chap in navy uniform. "That is head-quarters for Secession. They +were going to take the School from us, Sir, and the frigate; but +we've got ahead of 'em, now you and the Massachusetts boys have come +down,"--and he twinkled all over with delight. "We can't study any more. +We are on guard all the time. We've got howitzers, too, and we'd like +you to see, to-morrow, on drill, how we can handle 'em. One of their +boats came by our sentry last night," (a sentry probably five feet +high,) "and he blazed away, Sir. So they thought they wouldn't try us +that time." + +It was plain that these young souls had been well tried by the treachery +about them. They, too, had felt the pang of the disloyalty of comrades. +Nearly a hundred of the boys had been spoilt by the base example of +their elders in the repudiating States, and had resigned. + +After the middies, came anxious citizens from the town. Scared, all of +them. Now that we were come and assured them that persons and property +were to be protected, they ventured to speak of the disgusting tyranny +to which they, American citizens, had been subjected. We came into +contact here with utter social anarchy. No man, unless he was ready +to risk assault, loss of property, exile, dared to act or talk like a +freeman. "This great wrong must be righted," think the Seventh Regiment, +as one man. So we tried to reassure the Annapolitans that we meant to do +our duty as the nation's armed police, and mob-law was to be put down, +so far as we could do it. + +Here, too, voices of war met us. The country was stirred up. If the +rural population did not give us a bastard imitation of Lexington and +Concord, as we tried to gain Washington, all Pluguglydom would treat +us _à la_ Plugugly somewhere near the junction of the Annapolis and +Baltimore and Washington Railroad. The Seventh must be ready to shoot. + +At dusk we were marched up to the Academy and quartered about in the +buildings,--some in the fort, some in the recitation-halls. We lay down +on our blankets and knapsacks. Up to this time our sleep and diet had +been severely scanty. + +We stayed all next day at Annapolis. The Boston brought the +Massachusetts Eighth ashore that night. Poor fellows! what a figure they +cut, when we found them bivouacked on the Academy grounds next morning! +To begin: They had come off in hot patriotic haste, half-uniformed and +half-outfitted. Finding that Baltimore had been taken by its own loafers +and traitors, and that the Chesapeake ferry was impracticable, had +obliged them to change line of march. They were out of grub. They were +parched dry for want of water on the ferry-boat. Nobody could decipher +Caucasian, much less Bunker-Hill Yankee, in their grimy visages. + +But, hungry, thirsty, grimy, these fellows were GRIT. + +Massachusetts ought to be proud of such hardy, cheerful, faithful sons. + +We of the Seventh are proud, for our part, that it was our privilege to +share our rations with them, and to begin a fraternization which grows +closer every day and will be _historical_. + +But I must make a shorter story. We drilled and were reviewed that +morning on the Academy parade. In the afternoon the Naval School paraded +their last before they gave up their barracks to the coming soldiery. So +ended the 23d of April. + +Midnight, 24th. We were rattled up by an alarm,--perhaps a sham one, to +keep us awake and lively. In a moment, the whole regiment was in order +of battle in the moonlight on the parade. It was a most brilliant +spectacle, as company after company rushed forward, with rifles +glittering, to take their places in the array. + +After this pretty spirt, we were rationed with pork, beef, and bread for +three days, and ordered to be ready to march on the instant. + + +WHAT THE MASSACHUSETTS EIGHTH HAD BEEN DOING. + + +Meantime General Butler's command, the Massachusetts Eighth, had been +busy knocking disorder in the head. + +Presently after their landing, and before they were refreshed, they +pushed companies out to occupy the railroad-track beyond the town. + +They found it torn up. No doubt the scamps who did the shabby +job fancied that there would be no more travel that way until +strawberry-time. They fancied the Yankees would sit down on the fences +and begin to whittle white-oak toothpicks, darning the rebels, through +their noses, meanwhile. + +I know these men of the Eighth can whittle, and I presume they can say +"Darn it," if occasion requires; but just now track-laying was the +business on hand. + +"Wanted, experienced track-layers!" was the word along the files. + +All at once the line of the road became densely populated with +experienced track-layers, fresh from Massachusetts. + +Presto change! the rails were relaid, spiked, and the roadway levelled +and better ballasted than any road I ever saw south of Mason and Dixon's +line. "We must leave a good job for these folks to model after," say the +Massachusetts Eighth. + +A track without a train is as useless as a gun without a man. Train and +engine must be had. "Uncle Sam's mails and troops cannot be stopped +another minute," our energetic friends conclude. So--the railroad +company's people being either frightened or false--in marches +Massachusetts to the station. "We, the People of the United States, want +rolling-stock for the use of the Union," they said, or words to that +effect. + +The engine--a frowzy machine at the best--had been purposely disabled. + +Here appeared the _deus ex machina_, Charles Homans, Beverly Light +Guard, Company E, Eighth Massachusetts Regiment. + +That is the man, name and titles in full, and he deserves well of his +country. + +He took a quiet squint at the engine,--it was as helpless as a boned +turkey,--and he found "Charles Homans, his mark," written all over it. + +The old rattletrap was an old friend. Charles Homans had had a share +in building it. The machine and the man said, "How d'y' do?" at once. +Homans called for a gang of engine-builders. Of course they swarmed out +of the ranks. They passed their hands over the locomotive a few times, +and presently it was ready to whistle and wheeze and rumble and gallop, +as if no traitor had ever tried to steal the go and the music out of it. + +This had all been done during the afternoon of the 23d. During the +night, the renovated engine was kept cruising up and down the track to +see all clear. Guards of the Eighth were also posted to protect passage. + +Our commander had, I presume, been cooperating with General Butler in +this business. The Naval Academy authorities had given us every despatch +and assistance, and the middies, frank, personal hospitality. The day +was halcyon, the grass was green and soft, the apple-trees were just in +blossom: it was a day to be remembered. + +Many of us will remember it, and show the marks of it for months, as the +day we had our heads cropped. By evening there was hardly one poll in +the Seventh tenable by anybody's grip. Most sat in the shade and were +shorn by a barber. A few were honored with a clip by the artist hand of +the _petit caporal_ of our Engineer Company. + +While I rattle off these trifling details, let me not fail to call +attention to the grave service done by our regiment, by its arrival, at +the nick of time, at Annapolis. No clearer special Providence could have +happened. The country-people of the traitor sort were aroused. Baltimore +and its mob were but two hours away. The Constitution had been hauled +out of reach of a rush by the Massachusetts men,--first on the +ground,--but was half-manned and not fully secure. And there lay the +Maryland, helpless on the shoal, with six or seven hundred souls on +board, so near the shore that the late Captain Rynders's gun could have +sunk her from some ambush. + +Yes! the Seventh Regiment at Annapolis was the Right Man in the Right +Place! + + +OUR MORNING MARCH. + + +Reveille. As nobody pronounces this word _à la française_, as everybody +calls it "Revelee," why not drop it, as an affectation, and translate +it the "Stir your Stumps," the "Peel your Eyes," the "Tumble Up," or +literally the "Wake"? + +Our snorers had kept up this call so lustily since midnight, that, when +the drums sounded it, we were all ready. + +The Sixth and Second Companies, under Captain Nevers, are detached to +lead the van. I see my brother Billy march off with the Sixth, into +the dusk, half-moonlight, half-dawn, and hope that no beggar of a +Secessionist will get a pat shot at him, by the roadside, without +his getting a chance to let fly in return. Such little possibilities +intensify the earnest detestation we feel for the treasons we come to +resist and to punish. There will be some bitter work done, if we ever +get to blows in this war,--this needless, reckless, brutal assault upon +the mildest of all governments. + +Before the main body of the regiment marches, we learn that the "Baltic" +and other transports came in last night with troops from New York and +New England, enough to hold Annapolis against a square league of Plug +Uglies. We do not go on without having our rear protected and our +communications open. It is strange to be compelled to think of these +things in peaceful America. But we really knew little more of the +country before us than Cortes knew of Mexico. I have since learned from +a high official, that thirteen different messengers were despatched +from Washington in the interval of anxiety while the Seventh was not +forthcoming, and only one got through. + +At half-past seven we take up our line of march, pass out of the +charming grounds of the Academy, and move through the quiet, rusty, +picturesque old town. It has a romantic dulness--Annapolis--which +deserves a parting compliment. + +Although we deem ourselves a fine-looking set, although our belts are +blanched with pipe-clay and our rifles shine sharp in the sun, yet the +townspeople stare at us in a dismal silence. They have already the air +of men quelled by a despotism. None can trust his neighbor. If he dares +to be loyal, he must take his life into his hands. Most would be loyal, +if they dared. But the system of society which has ended in this present +chaos has gradually eliminated the bravest and best men. They have gone +in search of Freedom and Prosperity; and now the bullies cow the weaker +brothers. "There must be an end of this mean tyranny," think the +Seventh, as they march through old Annapolis and see how sick the town +is with doubt and alarm. + +Outside the town, we strike the railroad and move along, the howitzers +in front, bouncing over the sleepers. When our line is fully disengaged +from the town, we halt. + +Here the scene is beautiful. The van rests upon a high embankment, with +a pool surrounded by pine-trees on the right, green fields on the +left. Cattle are feeding quietly about. The air sings with birds. The +chestnut-leaves sparkle. Frogs whistle in the warm spring morning. +The regiment groups itself along the bank and the cutting. Several +Marylanders of the half-price age--under twelve--come gaping up to see +us harmless invaders. Each of these young gentry is armed with a dead +spring frog, perhaps by way of tribute. And here--hollo! here comes +Horace Greeley _in propria persona_! He marches through our groups with +the Greeley walk, the Greeley hat on the back of his head, the Greeley +white coat on his shoulders, his trousers much too short, and an +absorbed, abstracted demeanor. Can it be Horace, reporting for himself? +No; this is a Maryland production, and a little disposed to be sulky. + +After a few minutes' halt, we hear the whistle of the engine. This +machine is also an historic character in the war. + +Remember it! "J.H. Nicholson" is its name. Charles Homans drives, and +on either side stands a sentry with fixed bayonet. New spectacles for +America! But it is grand to know that the bayonets are to protect, not +to assail, Liberty and Law. + +The train leads off. We follow, by the track. Presently the train +returns. We pass it and trudge on in light marching order, carrying +arms, blankets, haversacks, and canteens. Our knapsacks are upon the +train. + +Fortunate for our backs that they do not have to bear any more burden! +For the day grows sultry. It is one of those breezeless baking days +which brew thunder-gusts. We march on for some four miles, when, coming +upon the guards of the Massachusetts Eighth, our howitzer is ordered to +fall out and wait for the train. With a comrade of the Artillery, I am +placed on guard over it. + + +ON GUARD WITH HOWITZER NO. TWO. + + +Henry Bonnell is my fellow-sentry. He, like myself, is an old campaigner +in such campaigns as our generation has known. So we talk California, +Oregon, Indian life, the Plains, keeping our eyes peeled meanwhile, and +ranging the country. Men that will tear up track are quite capable of +picking off a sentry. A giant chestnut gives us little dots of shade +from its pigmy leaves. The country about us is open and newly ploughed. +Some of the worm-fences are new, and ten rails high; but the farming is +careless, and the soil thin. + +Two of the Massachusetts men come back to the gun while we are standing +there. One is my friend Stephen Morris, of Marblehead, Sutton Light +Infantry. I had shared my breakfast yesterday with Stephe. So we +refraternize. + +His business is,--"I make shoes in winter and fishin' in summer." He +gives me a few facts,--suspicious persons seen about the track, men on +horseback in the distance. One of the Massachusetts guard last night +challenged his captain. Captain replied, "Officer of the night" +Whereupon, says Stephe, "The recruit let squizzle and jest missed his +ear." He then related to me the incident of the railroad station. "The +first thing they know'd," says he, "we bit right into the depot and took +charge." "I don't mind," Stephe remarked,--"I don't mind life, nor yit +death; but whenever I see a Massachusetts boy, I stick by him, and if +them Secessionists attackt us to-night, or any other time, they'll git +in debt." + +Whistle, again! and the train appears. We are ordered to ship our +howitzer on a platform car. The engine pushes us on. This train brings +our light baggage and the rear guard. + +A hundred yards farther on is a delicious fresh spring below the bank. +While the train halts, Stephe Morris rushes down to fill my canteen. +"This a'n't like Marblehead," says Stephe, panting up; "but a man that +can shin up _them_ rocks can git right over _this_ sand." + +The train goes slowly on, as a rickety train should. At intervals we see +the fresh spots of track just laid by our Yankee friends. Near the sixth +mile, we began to overtake hot and uncomfortable squads of our fellows. +The unseasonable heat of this most breathless day was too much for many +of the younger men, unaccustomed to rough work, and weakened by want of +sleep and irregular food in our hurried movements thus far. + +Charles Homans's private carriage was, however, ready to pick up tired +men, hot men, thirsty men, men with corns, or men with blisters. They +tumbled into the train in considerable numbers. + +An enemy that dared could have made a moderate bag of stragglers at this +time. But they would not have been allowed to straggle, if any enemy +had been about. By this time we were convinced that no attack was to be +expected in this part of the way. + +The main body of the regiment, under Major Shaler, a tall, soldierly +fellow, with a moustache of the fighting-color, tramped on their own +pins to the watering-place, eight miles or so from Annapolis. There +troops and train came to a halt, with the news that a bridge over a +country road was broken a mile farther on. + +It had been distinctly insisted upon, in the usual Southern style, that +we were not to be allowed to pass through Maryland, and that we were to +be "welcomed to hospitable graves." The broken bridge was a capital spot +for a skirmish. Why not look for it here? + +We looked; but got nothing. The rascals could skulk about by night, tear +up rails, and hide them where they might be found by a man with half an +eye, or half-destroy a bridge; but there was no shoot in them. They have +not faith enough in their cause to risk their lives for it, even behind +a tree or from one of these thickets, choice spots for ambush. + +So we had no battle there, but a battle of the elements. The volcanic +heat of the morning was followed by a furious storm of wind and a smart +shower. The regiment wrapped themselves in their blankets and took their +wetting with more or less satisfaction. They were receiving samples of +all the different little miseries of a campaign. + +And here let me say a word to my fellow-volunteers, actual and +prospective, in all the armies of all the States:-- + + A soldier needs, besides his soldierly + drill, + + I. Good FEET. + + II. A good Stomach. + + III. And after these, come the good + Head and the good Heart. + +But Good Feet are distinctly the first thing. Without them you cannot +get to your duty. If a comrade, or a horse, or a locomotive, takes you +on its back to the field, you are useless there. And when the field is +lost, you cannot retire, run away, and save your bacon. + +Good shoes and plenty of walking make good feet. A man who pretends to +belong to an infantry company ought always to keep himself in training, +so that any moment he can march twenty or thirty miles without feeling a +pang or raising a blister. Was this the case with even a decimation +of the army who rushed to defend Washington? Were you so trained, my +comrades of the Seventh? + +A captain of a company, who will let his men march with such shoes as +I have seen on the feet of some poor fellows in this war, ought to be +garroted with shoestrings, or at least compelled to play Pope and wash +the feet of the whole army of the Apostles of Liberty. + +If you find a foot-soldier lying beat out by the roadside, desperate as +a sea-sick man, five to one his heels are too high, or his soles too +narrow or too thin, or his shoe is not made straight on the inside, so +that the great toe can spread into its place as he treads. + +I am an old walker over Alps across the water, and over Cordilleras, +Sierras, Deserts, and Prairies at home; I have done my near sixty miles +a day without discomfort,--and speaking from large experience, and with +painful recollections of the suffering and death I have known for want +of good feet on the march, I say to every volunteer:-- + +Trust in God; BUT KEEP YOUR SHOES EASY! + + +THE BRIDGE. + + +When the frenzy of the brief tempest was over, it began to be a +question, "What to do about the broken bridge?" The gap--was narrow; but +even Charles Homans could not promise to leap the "J.H. Nicholson" over +it. Who was to be our Julius Caesar in bridge-building? Who but Sergeant +Scott, Armorer of the Regiment, with my fellow-sentry of the morning, +Bonnell, as First Assistant? + +Scott called for a working party. There were plenty of handy fellows +among our Engineers and in the Line. Tools were plenty in the Engineers' +chest. We pushed the platform car upon which howitzer No. 1 was mounted +down to the gap, and began operations. + +"I wish," says the _petit caporal_ of the Engineer Company, patting his +howitzer gently on the back, "that I could get this Putty Blower pointed +at the enemy, while you fellows are bridge-building." + +The inefficient destructives of Maryland had only half spoilt the +bridge. Some of the old timbers could be used,--and for new ones, there +was the forest. + +Scott and his party made a good and a quick job of it. Our friends of +the Massachusetts Eighth had now come up. They lent a ready hand, as +usual. The sun set brilliantly. By twilight there was a practicable +bridge. The engine was despatched back to keep the road open. The two +platform cars, freighted with our howitzers, were rigged with the +gun-ropes for dragging along the rail. We passed through the files of +the Massachusetts men, resting by the way, and eating by the fires of +the evening the suppers we had in great part provided them; and so +begins our night-march. + + +THE NIGHT-MARCH. + + +O Gottschalk! what a poetic _Marche de Nuit_ we then began to play, with +our heels and toes, on the railroad track! + +It was full-moonlight and the night inexpressibly sweet and serene. The +air was cool and vivified by the gust and shower of the afternoon. Fresh +spring was in every breath. Our fellows had forgotten that this morning +they were hot and disgusted. Every one hugged his rifle as if it +were the arm of the Girl of his Heart, and stepped out gayly for the +promenade. Tired or foot-sore men, or even lazy ones, could mount upon +the two freight-cars we were using for artillery-wagons. There were +stout arms enough to tow the whole. + +The scouts went ahead under First Lieutenant Farnham of the Second +Company. We were at school together,--I am afraid to say how many years +ago. He is just the same cool, dry, shrewd fellow he was as a boy, and a +most efficient officer. + +It was an original kind of march--I suppose a battery of howitzers never +before found itself mounted upon cars, ready to open fire at once +and bang away into the offing with shrapnel or into the bushes with +canister. Our line extended a half-mile along the track. It was +beautiful to stand on the bank above a cutting and watch the files +strike from the shadow of a wood into a broad flame of moonlight, every +rifle sparkling up alert as it came forward. A beautiful sight to see +the barrels writing themselves upon the dimness, each a silver flash. + +By-and-by, "Halt!" came, repeated along from the front, company after +company. "Halt! a rail gone." + +It was found without difficulty. The imbeciles who took it up probably +supposed we would not wish to wet our feet by searching for it in the +dewy grass of the next field. With incredible dollishness they had also +left the chairs and spikes beside the track. Bonnell took hold, and in +a few minutes had the rail in place and firm enough to pass the engine. +Remember, we were not only hurrying on to succor Washington, but opening +the only convenient and practicable route between it and the loyal +States. + +A little farther on, we came to a village,--a rare sight in this +scantily peopled region. Here Sergeant Keeler, of our company, the +tallest man in the regiment, and one of the handiest, suggested that we +should tear up the rails at a turnout by the station, and so be prepared +for chances. So "Out crowbars!" was the word. We tore up and bagged half +a dozen rails, with chairs and spikes complete. Here, too, some of the +engineers found a keg of spikes. This was also bagged and loaded on our +cars. We fought the chaps with their own weapons, since they would not +meet us with ours. + +These things made delay, and by-and-by there was a long halt, while the +Colonel communicated, by orders sounded along the line, with the engine. +Homans's drag was hard after us, bringing our knapsacks and traps. + +After I had admired for some time the beauty of our moonlit line, and +listened to the orders as they grew or died along the distance, I began +to want excitement. Bonnell suggested that he and I should scout up the +road and see if any rails were wanting. We travelled along into the +quiet night. + +A mile ahead of the line we suddenly caught the gleam of a rifle-barrel. +"Who goes there?" one of our own scouts challenged smartly. + +We had arrived at the nick of time. Three rails were up. Two of them +were easily found. The third was discovered by beating the bush +thoroughly. Bonnell and I ran back for tools, and returned at full trot +with crowbar and sledge on our shoulders. There were plenty of +willing hands to help,--too many, indeed,--and with the aid of a huge +Massachusetts man we soon had the rail in place. + +From this time on we were constantly interrupted. Not a half-mile passed +without a rail up. Bonnell was always at the front laying track, and +I am proud to say that he accepted me as aide-de-camp. Other fellows, +unknown to me in the dark, gave hearty help. The Seventh showed that it +could do something else than drill. + +At one spot, on a high embankment over standing water, the rail was +gone, sunk probably. Here we tried our rails brought from the turn-out. +They were too short. We supplemented with a length of plank from our +stores. We rolled our cars carefully over. They passed safe. But Homans +shook his head. He could not venture a locomotive on that frail +stuff. So we lost the society of the "J.H. Nicholson." Next day the +Massachusetts commander called for some one to dive in the pool for the +lost rail. Plump into the water went a little wiry chap and grappled the +rail. "When I come up," says the brave fellow afterwards to me, "our +officer out with a twenty-dollar gold piece and wanted me to take it. +'That a'n't what I come for,' says I. 'Take it,' says he, 'and share +with the others.' 'That a'n't what they come for,' says I. But I took a +big cold," the diver continued, "and I'm condemned hoarse yit,"--which +was the fact. + +Farther on we found a whole length of track torn up, on both sides, +sleepers and all, and the same thing repeated with alternations of +breaks of single rails. Our howitzer-ropes came into play to hoist and +haul. We were not going to be stopped. + +But it was becoming a _Noche Triste_ to some of our comrades. We had now +marched some sixteen miles. The distance was trifling. But the men had +been on their legs pretty much all day and night. Hardly any one had had +any full or substantial sleep or meal since we started from New York. +They napped off, standing, leaning on their guns, dropping down in their +tracks on the wet ground, at every halt. They were sleepy, but plucky. +As we passed through deep cuttings, places, as it were, built for +defence, there was a general desire that the tedium of the night should +be relieved by a shindy. + +During the whole night I saw our officers moving about the line, doing +their duty vigorously, despite exhaustion, hunger, and sleeplessness. + +About midnight our friends of the Eighth had joined us, and our whole +little army struggled on together. I find that I have been rather +understating the troubles of the march. It seems impossible that such +difficulty could be encountered within twenty miles of the capital of +our nation. But we were making a rush to put ourselves in that capital, +and we could not proceed in the slow, systematic way of an advancing +army. We must take the risk and stand the suffering, whatever it was. So +the Seventh Regiment went through its bloodless _Noche Triste_. + + +MORNING. + + +At last we issued from the damp woods, two miles below the railroad +junction. Here was an extensive farm. Our vanguard had halted and +borrowed a few rails to make fires. These were, of course, carefully +paid for at their proprietor's own price. The fires were bright in the +gray dawn. About them the whole regiment was now halted. The men tumbled +down to catch forty winks. Some, who were hungrier for food than sleep, +went off foraging among the farm-houses. They returned with appetizing +legends of hot breakfasts in hospitable abodes, or scanty fare given +grudgingly in hostile ones. All meals, however, were paid for. + +Here, as at other halts below, the country-people came up to talk to us. +The traitors could easily be distinguished by their insolence disguised +as obsequiousness. The loyal men were still timid, but more hopeful at +last. All were very lavish with the monosyllable, Sir. It was an odd +coincidence, that the vanguard, halting off at a farm in the morning, +found it deserted for the moment by its tenants, and protected only by +an engraved portrait of our (former) Colonel Duryea, serenely smiling +over the mantel-piece. + +From this point, the railroad was pretty much all gone. But we were +warmed and refreshed by a nap and a bite, and besides had daylight and +open country. + +We put our guns on their own wheels, all dropped into ranks as if on +parade, and marched the last two miles to the station. We still had no +certain information. Until we actually saw the train awaiting us, and +the Washington companies, who had come down to escort us, drawn up, we +did not know whether our Uncle Sam was still a resident of the capital. + +We packed into the train, and rolled away to Washington. + + +WASHINGTON. + + +We marched up to the White House, showed ourselves to the President, +made our bow to him as our host, and then marched up to the Capitol, our +grand lodgings. + +There we are now, quartered in the Representatives Chamber. + +And here I must hastily end this first sketch of the Great Defence. May +it continue to be as firm and faithful as it is this day! + +I have scribbled my story with a thousand men stirring about me. If any +of my sentences miss their aim, accuse my comrades and the bewilderment +of this martial crowd. For here are four or five thousand others on the +same business as ourselves, and drums are beating, guns are clanking, +companies are tramping, all the while. Our friends of the Eighth, +Massachusetts are quartered under the dome, and cheer us whenever we +pass. + +Desks marked John Covode, John Cochran, and Anson Burlingame, have +allowed me to use them as I wrote. + + + + +ARMY-HYMN. + + + "Old Hundred." + + O Lord of Hosts! Almighty King! + Behold the sacrifice we bring! + To every arm Thy strength impart, + Thy spirit shed through every heart! + + Wake in our breasts the living fires, + The holy faith that warmed our sires; + Thy hand hath made our Nation free; + To die for her is serving Thee. + + Be Thou a pillared flame to show + The midnight snare, the silent foe; + And when the battle thunders loud, + Still guide us in its moving cloud. + + God of all Nations! Sovereign Lord! + In Thy dread name we draw the sword, + We lift the starry flag on high + That fills with light our stormy sky. + + From treason's rent, from murder's stain + Guard Thou its folds till Peace shall reign,-- + Till fort and field, till shore and sea + Join our loud anthem, PRAISE TO THEE! + + * * * * * + + +THE PICKENS-AND-STEALIN'S REBELLION. + + +Had any one ventured to prophesy on the Fourth of March that the +immediate prospect of Civil War would be hailed by the people of the +Free States with a unanimous shout of enthusiasm, he would have been +thought a madman. Yet the prophecy would have been verified by what we +now see and hear in every city, town, and hamlet from Maine to Kansas. +With the advantage of three months' active connivance in the cabinet of +Mr. Buchanan, with an empty treasury at Washington, and that reluctance +to assume responsibility and to inaugurate a decided policy, the common +vice of our politicians, who endeavor to divine and to follow popular +sentiment rather than to lead it, it seemed as if Disunion were +inevitable, and the only open question were the line of separation. So +assured seemed the event, that English journalists moralized gravely on +the inherent weakness of Democracy. While the leaders of the Southern +Rebellion did not dare to expose their treason to the risk of a popular +vote in any one of the seceding States, the "Saturday Review," one of +the ablest of British journals, solemnly warned its countrymen to learn +by our example the dangers of an extended suffrage. + +Meanwhile the conduct of the people of the Free States, during all these +trying and perilous months, had proved, if it proved anything, the +essential conservatism of a population in which every grown man has +a direct interest in the stability of the national government. So +abstinent are they by habit and principle from any abnormal intervention +with the machine of administration, so almost superstitious in adherence +to constitutional forms, as to be for a moment staggered by the claim to +a _right_ of secession set up by all the Cotton States, admitted by the +Border Slave-States, which had the effrontery to deliberate between +their plain allegiance and their supposed interest, and but feebly +denied by the Administration then in power. The usual panacea of palaver +was tried; Congress did its best to add to the general confusion of +thought; and, as if that were not enough, a Convention of Notables +called simultaneously to thresh the straw of debate anew, and to +convince thoughtful persons that men do not grow wiser as they grow +older. So in the two Congresses the notables talked,--in the one, +those who ought to be shelved, in the other, those who were shelved +already,--while those who were too thoroughly shelved for a seat in +either addressed Great Union Meetings at home. Not a man of them but had +a compromise in his pocket, adhesive as Spalding's glue, warranted to +stick the shattered Confederacy together so firmly, that, if it over +broke again, it must be in a new place, which was a great consolation. +If these gentlemen gave nothing very valuable to the people of the Free +States, they were giving the Secessionists what was of inestimable +value to them,--Time. The latter went on seizing forts, navy-yards, and +deposits of Federal money, erecting batteries, and raising and arming +men at their leisure; above all, they acquired a prestige, and +accustomed men's minds to the thought of disunion, not only as possible, +but actual. They began to grow insolent, and, while compelling absolute +submission to their rebellious usurpation at home, decried any exercise +of legitimate authority on the part of the General Government as +_Coercion_,--a new term, by which it was sought to be established as a +principle of constitutional law, that it is always the Northern bull +that has gored the Southern ox. + +During all this time, the Border Slave-States, and especially Virginia, +were playing a part at once cowardly and selfish. They assumed the right +to stand neutral between the Government and rebellion, to contract a +kind of morganatic marriage with Treason, by which they could enjoy the +pleasant sin without the tedious responsibility, and to be traitors in +everything but the vulgar contingency of hemp. Doubtless the aim of the +political managers in these States was to keep the North amused with +schemes of arbitration, reconstruction, and whatever other fine +words would serve the purpose of hiding the real issue, till the new +government of Secessia should have so far consolidated itself as to +be able to demand with some show of reason a recognition from foreign +powers, and to render it politic for the United States to consent to +peaceable secession. They counted on the self-interest of England and +the supineness of the North. As to the former, they were not wholly +without justification,--for nearly all the English discussions of +the "American Crisis" which we have seen have shown far more of the +shop-keeping spirit than of interest in the maintenance of free +institutions; but in regard to the latter they made the fatal mistake of +believing our Buchanans, Cushings, and Touceys to be representative men. +They were not aware how utterly the Democratic Party had divorced itself +from the moral sense of the Free States, nor had they any conception +of the tremendous recoil of which the long-repressed convictions, +traditions, and instincts of a people are capable. + +Never was a nation so in want of a leader; never was it more plain, +that, without a head, the people "bluster abroad as beasts," with plenty +of the iron of purpose, but purpose without coherence, and with no +cunning smith of circumstance to edge it with plan and helve it with +direction. What the country was waiting for showed itself in the +universal thrill of satisfaction when Major Anderson took the +extraordinary responsibility of doing his duty. But such was the general +uncertainty, so doubtful seemed the loyalty of the Democratic Party as +represented by its spokesmen at the North, so irresolute was the tone +of many Republican leaders and journals, that a powerful and wealthy +community of twenty millions of people gave a sigh of relief when they +had been permitted to install the Chief Magistrate of their choice in +their own National Capital. Even after the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, +it was confidently announced that Jefferson Davis, the Burr of the +Southern conspiracy, would be in Washington before the month was out; +and so great was the Northern despondency, that the chances of such an +event were seriously discussed. While the nation was falling to pieces, +there were newspapers and "distinguished statesmen" of the party so +lately and so long in power base enough to be willing to make political +capital out of the common danger, and to lose their country, if +they could only find their profit. There was even one man found in +Massachusetts, who, measuring the moral standard of his party by his +own, had the unhappy audacity to declare publicly that there were +friends enough of the South in his native State to prevent the march of +any troops thence to sustain that Constitution to which he had sworn +fealty in Heaven knows how many offices, the rewards of almost as many +turnings of his political coat. There was one journal in New York which +had the insolence to speak of _President_ Davis and _Mister_ Lincoln in +the same paragraph. No wonder the "dirt-eaters" of the Carolinas could +be taught to despise a race among whom creatures might be found to do +that by choice which they themselves were driven to do by misery. + +Thus far the Secessionists had the game all their own way, for +their dice were loaded with Northern lead. They framed their sham +constitution, appointed themselves to their sham offices, issued their +sham commissions, endeavored to bribe England with a sham offer of +low duties and Virginia with a sham prohibition of the slave-trade, +advertised their proposals for a sham loan which was to be taken up +under intimidation, and levied real taxes on the people in the name +of the people whom they had never allowed to vote directly on their +enormous swindle. With money stolen from the Government, they raised +troops whom they equipped with stolen arms, and beleaguered national +fortresses with cannon stolen from national arsenals. They sent out +secret agents to Europe, they had their secret allies in the Free +States, their conventions transacted all important business in secret +session;--there was but one exception to the shrinking delicacy becoming +a maiden government, and that was the openness of the stealing. We had +always thought a high sense of personal honor an essential element of +chivalry; but among the _Romanic_ races, by which, as the wonderful +ethnologist of "De Bow's Review" tells us, the Southern States were +settled, and from which they derive a close entail of chivalric +characteristics, to the exclusion of the vulgar Saxons of the North, +such is by no means the case. For the first time in history the +deliberate treachery of a general is deemed worthy of a civic ovation, +and Virginia has the honor of being the first State claiming to be +civilized that has decreed the honors of a triumph to a cabinet officer +who had contrived to gild a treason that did not endanger his life with +a peculation that could not further damage his reputation. Rebellion, +even in a bad cause, may have its romantic side; treason, which had not +been such but for being on the losing side, may challenge admiration; +but nothing can sweeten larceny or disinfect perjury. A rebellion +inaugurated with theft, and which has effected its entry into national +fortresses, not over broken walls, but by breaches of trust, should +take Jonathan Wild for its patron saint, with the run of Mr. Buchanan's +cabinet for a choice of sponsors,--godfathers we should not dare to call +them. + +Mr. Lincoln's Inaugural Speech was of the kind usually called "firm, but +conciliatory,"--a policy doubtful in troublous times, since it commonly +argues weakness, and more than doubtful in a crisis like ours, since it +left the course which the Administration meant to take ambiguous, and, +while it weakened the Government by exciting the distrust of all +who wished for vigorous measures, really strengthened the enemy by +encouraging the conspirators in the Border States. There might be a +question as to whether this or that attitude were expedient for the +Republican Party; there could be none as to the only safe and dignified +one for the Government of the Nation. Treason was as much treason in the +beginning of March as in the middle of April; and it seems certain now, +as it seemed probable to many then, that the country would have sooner +rallied to the support of the Government, if the Government had shown an +earlier confidence in the loyalty of the people. Though the President +talked of "repossessing" the stolen forts, arsenals, and custom-houses, +yet close upon this declaration followed the disheartening intelligence +that the Cabinet were discussing the propriety of evacuating not only +Fort Sumter, which was of no strategic importance, but Fort Pickens, +which was the key to the Gulf of Mexico, and to abandon which was almost +to acknowledge the independence of the Rebel States. Thus far the Free +States had waited with commendable patience for some symptom of vitality +in the new Administration, something that should distinguish it from the +piteous helplessness of its predecessor. But now their pride was too +deeply outraged for endurance, indignant remonstrances were heard from +all quarters, and the Government seemed for the first time fairly to +comprehend that it had twenty millions of freemen at its back, and that +forts might be taken and held by honest men as well as by knaves and +traitors. The nettle had been stroked long enough; it was time to try +a firm grip. Still the Administration seemed inclined to temporize, so +thoroughly was it possessed by the notion of conciliating the Border +States. In point of fact, the side which those States might take in the +struggle between Law and Anarchy was of vastly more import to them than +to us. They could bring no considerable reinforcement of money, credit, +or arms to the rebels; they could at best but add so many mouths to an +army whose commissariat was already dangerously embarrassed. They could +not even, except temporarily, keep the war away from the territory of +the seceding States, every one of which had a sea-door open to the +invasion of an enemy who controlled the entire navy and shipping of the +country. + +The position assumed by Eastern Virginia and Maryland was of consequence +only so far as it might facilitate a sudden raid on Washington, and the +policy of both these States was to amuse the Government by imaginary +negotiations till the plans of the conspirators were ripe. In both +States men were actively recruited and enrolled to assist in attacking +the capital. With them, as with the more openly rebellious States, the +new theory of "Coercion" was ingeniously arranged like a valve, yielding +at the slightest impulse to the passage of forces for the subversion +of legitimate authority, closing imperviously so that no drop of power +could ooze through in the opposite direction. Lord de Roos, long +suspected of cheating at cards, would never have been convicted but for +the resolution of an adversary, who, pinning his hand to the table with +a fork, said to him blandly, "My Lord, if the ace of spades is not under +your Lordship's hand, why, then, I beg your pardon!" It seems to us that +a timely treatment of Governor Letcher in the same energetic way would +have saved the disasters of Harper's Ferry and Norfolk,--for disasters +they were, though six months of temporizing had so lowered the public +sense of what was due to the national dignity, that people were glad to +see the Government active at length, even if only in setting fire to its +own house. + +We are by no means inclined to criticize the Administration, even if +this were the proper time for it; but we cannot help thinking that there +was great wisdom in Napoleon's recipe for saving life in dealing with a +mob,--"First fire grape-shot _into_ them; after that, over their +heads as much as you like." The position of Mr. Lincoln was already +embarrassed when he entered upon office, by what we believe to have been +a political blunder in the leaders of the Republican Party. Instead of +keeping closely to the real point, and the only point, at issue, namely, +the claim of a minority to a right of rebellion when displeased with the +result of an election, the bare question of Secession, pure and simple, +they allowed their party to become divided, and to waste themselves +in discussing terms of compromise and guaranties of slavery which had +nothing to do with the business in hand. Unless they were ready to +admit that popular government was at an end, those were matters already +settled by the Constitution and the last election. Compromise was out +of the question with men who had gone through the motions, at least, of +establishing a government and electing an anti-president. The way to +insure the loyalty of the Border States, as the event has shown, was to +convince them that disloyalty was dangerous. That revolutions never go +backward is one of those compact generalizations which the world is so +ready to accept because they save the trouble of thinking; but, however +it may be with revolutions, it is certain that rebellions most commonly +go backward with disastrous rapidity, and it was of the gravest moment, +as respected its moral influence, that Secession should not have time +allowed it to assume the proportions and the dignity of revolution, +in other words, of a rebellion too powerful to be crushed. The secret +friends of the Secession treason in the Free States have done their +best to bewilder the public mind and to give factitious prestige to a +conspiracy against free government and civilization by talking about the +_right_ of revolution, as if it were some acknowledged principle of the +Law of Nations. There is a right, and sometimes a duty, of rebellion, as +there is also a right and sometimes a duty of hanging men for it; but +rebellion continues to be rebellion until it has accomplished its +object and secured the acknowledgment of it from the other party to +the quarrel, and from the world at large. The Republican Party in the +November elections had really effected a peaceful revolution, had +emancipated the country from the tyranny of an oligarchy which had +abused the functions of the Government almost from the time of its +establishment, to the advancement of their own selfish aims and +interests; and it was this legitimate change of rulers and of national +policy by constitutional means which the Secessionists intended to +prevent. To put the matter in plain English, they resolved to treat the +people of the United States, in the exercise of their undoubted and +lawful authority, as rebels, and resorted to their usual policy of +intimidation in order to subdue them. Either this magnificent empire +should be their plantation, or it should perish. This was the view even +of what were called the moderate slave-holders of the Border States; +and all the so-called compromises and plans of reconstruction that were +thrown into the caldron where the hell-broth of anarchy was brewing had +this extent,--no more,--What terms of _submission_ would the people make +to their natural masters? Whatever other result may have come of the +long debates in Congress and elsewhere, they have at least convinced the +people of the Free States that there can be no such thing as a moderate +slave-holder,--that moderation and slavery can no more coexist than +Floyd and honesty, or Anderson and treason. + +We believe, then, that conciliation was from the first impossible,--that +to attempt it was unwise, because it put the party of law and loyalty in +the wrong,--and that, if it was done as a mere matter of policy in order +to gain time, it was a still greater mistake, because it was the rebels +only who could profit by it in consolidating their organization, while +the seeming gain of a few days or weeks was a loss to the Government, +whose great advantage was in an administrative system thoroughly +established, and, above all, in the vast power of the national idea, a +power weakened by every day's delay. This is so true, that already men +began to talk of the rival governments at Montgomery and Washington, and +Canadian journals recommend a strict neutrality, as if the independence +and legitimacy of the mushroom despotism of New Ashantee were an +acknowledged fact, and the name of the United States of America had no +more authority than that of Jefferson Davis and Company, dealers in +all kinds of repudiation and anarchy. For more than a month after +the inauguration of President Lincoln there seemed to be a kind of +interregnum, during which the confusion of ideas in the Border States as +to their rights and duties as members of the "old" Union, as it began +to be called, became positively chaotic. Virginia, still professing +neutrality, prepared to seize the arsenal at Harper's Ferry and the +navy-yard at Norfolk; she would prevent the passage of the United +States' forces "with a serried phalanx of her gallant sons," two +regiments of whom stood, looking on while a file of marines took seven +wounded men in an engine-house for them; she would do everything but her +duty,--the gallant Ancient Pistol of a commonwealth. She "resumed her +sovereignty," whatever that meant; her Convention passed an ordinance +of secession, concluded a league offensive and defensive with the +rebel Confederacy, appointed Jefferson Davis commander-in-chief of +her land-forces and somebody else of the fleet she meant to steal at +Norfolk, and then coolly referred the whole matter back to the people +to vote three weeks afterwards whether they _would_ secede three weeks +before. Wherever the doctrine of Secession has penetrated, it seems to +have obliterated every notion of law and precedent. + +The country had come to the conclusion that Mr. Lincoln and his cabinet +were mainly employed in packing their trunks to leave Washington, when +the "venerable Edward Ruffin of Virginia" fired that first gun at Fort +Sumter which brought all the Free States to their feet as one man. +That shot is destined to be the most memorable one ever fired on this +continent since the Concord fowling-pieces said, "That bridge is ours, +and we mean to go across it," eighty-seven Aprils ago. As these began a +conflict which gave us independence, so that began another which is to +give us nationality. It was certainly a great piece of good-luck for the +Government that they had a fort which it was so profitable to lose. +The people were weary of a masterly inactivity which seemed to consist +mainly in submitting to be kicked. We know very well the difficulties +that surrounded the new Administration; we appreciate their reluctance +to begin a war the responsibility of which was as great as its +consequences seemed doubtful; but we cannot understand how it was hoped +to evade war, except by concessions vastly more disastrous than war +itself. War has no evil comparable in its effect on national character +to that of a craven submission to manifest wrong, the postponement of +moral to material interests. There is no prosperity so great as courage. +We do not believe that any amount of forbearance would have conciliated +the South so long as they thought us pusillanimous. The only way to +retain the Border States was by showing that we had the will and the +power to do without them. The little Bopeep policy of + + "Let them alone, and they'll all come home + Wagging their tails behind them" + +was certainly tried long enough with conspirators who had shown +unmistakably that they desired nothing so much as the continuance of +peace, especially when it was all on one side, and who would never have +given the Government the great advantage of being attacked in Fort +Sumter, had they not supposed they were dealing with men who could not +be cuffed into resistance. The lesson we have to teach, them now is, +that we are thoroughly and terribly in earnest. Mr. Stephens's theories +are to be put to a speedier and sterner test than he expected, and we +are to prove which is stronger,--an oligarchy built _on_ men, or a +commonwealth built _of_ them. Our structure is alive in every part with +defensive and recuperative energies; woe to theirs, if that vaunted +corner-stone which they believe patient and enduring as marble should +begin to writhe with intelligent life! + +We have no doubt of the issue. We believe that the strongest battalions +are always on the side of God. The Southern army will be fighting for +Jefferson Davis, or at most for the liberty of self-misgovernment, while +we go forth for the defence of principles which alone make government +august and civil society possible. It is the very life of the nation +that is at stake. There is no question here of dynasties, races, +religions,--but simply whether we will consent to include in our Bill of +Rights--not merely as of equal validity with all other rights, whether +natural or acquired, but by its very nature transcending and abrogating +them all--the Right of Anarchy. We must convince men that treason +against the ballot-box is as dangerous as treason against a throne, and +that, if they play so desperate a game, they must stake their lives on +the hazard. The one lesson that remained for us to teach the political +theorists of the Old World was, that we are as strong to suppress +intestine disorder as foreign aggression, and we must teach it +decisively and thoroughly. The economy of war is to be tested by the +value of the object to be gained by it. A ten years' war would be cheap +that gave us a country to be proud of and a flag that should command the +respect of the world because it was the symbol of the enthusiastic unity +of a great nation. + +The Government, however slow it may have been to accept the war which +Mr. Buchanan's supineness left them, is acting now with all energy and +determination. What they have a right to claim is the confidence of the +people, and that depends in good measure on the discretion of the +press. Only let us have no more weakness under the plausible name of +Conciliation. We need not discuss the probabilities of an acknowledgment +of the Confederated States by England and France; we have only to +say, "Acknowledge them at your peril." But there is no chance of the +recognition of the Confederacy by any foreign governments, so long as it +is without the confidence of the brokers. There is no question on which +side the strength lies. The whole tone of the Southern journals, so far +as we are able to judge, shows the inherent folly and weakness of the +Secession movement. Men who feel strong in the justice of their cause, +or confident in their powers, do not waste breath in childish boasts of +their own superiority and querulous depreciation of their antagonists. +They are weak, and they know it. And not only are they weak in +comparison with the Free States, but we believe they are without the +moral support of whatever deserves the name of public opinion at home. +If not, why does their Congress, as they call it, hold council always +with closed doors, like a knot of conspirators? The first tap of the +Northern drum dispelled many illusions, and we need no better proof of +which ship is sinking than that Mr. Caleb Gushing should have made such +haste to come over to the old Constitution with the stars and stripes at +her mast-head. + +We cannot think that the war we are entering on can end without some +radical change in the system of African slavery. Whether it be doomed +to a sudden extinction, or to a gradual abolition through economical +causes, this war will not leave it where it was before. As a power in +the State, its reign is already over. The fiery tongues of the batteries +in Charleston harbor accomplished in one day a conversion which the +constancy of Garrison and the eloquence of Phillips had failed to bring +about in thirty years. And whatever other result this war is destined to +produce, it has already won for us a blessing worth everything to us as +a nation in emancipating the public opinion of the North. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS + +RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + + +The Crater; or, Vulcan's Peak. A Tale of the Pacific. By J. Fenimore +Cooper. New York. W.A. Townsend & Co. 12mo. pp. 494. $1.50. + +Frankie's Book about Bible Men. By the Author of "Sabbath Talks about +Jesus," etc. Boston. J.E. Tilton & Co. 18mo. pp. 180. 38 cts. + +Oliver Twist. By Charles Dickens. New Illustrated Edition. New York. +W.A. Townsend & Co. 2 vols. 16mo. pp. 318 and 300. 75 cts. per volume. + +The History of England, from the Accession of James II. By Lord +Macaulay. Vol. V. New York. 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