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diff --git a/15065.txt b/15065.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..752c732 --- /dev/null +++ b/15065.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9296 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Continental Monthly, Vol. I., No. IV., +April, 1862, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Continental Monthly, Vol. I., No. IV., April, 1862 + Devoted To Literature And National Policy + +Author: Various + +Release Date: February 15, 2005 [EBook #15065] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONTINENTAL MONTHLY *** + + + + +Produced by Cornell University, Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci +and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +[Transcriber's note: All footnotes moved to end of document.] + + + + +THE + +CONTINENTAL MONTHLY: + +DEVOTED TO + +LITERATURE AND NATIONAL POLICY. + + * * * * * + +VOL. I.--APRIL, 1862.--No. IV. + + * * * * * + +THE WAR BETWEEN FREEDOM AND SLAVERY IN MISSOURI. + + +It is admitted that no man can write the history of his own times with +such fullness and impartiality as shall entitle his record to the +unquestioning credence and acceptance of posterity. Men are necessarily +actors in the scenes amid which they live. If not personally taking an +active part in the conduct of public affairs, they have friends who are, +and in whose success or failure their own welfare is in some way bound +up. The bias which interest always gives will necessarily attach to +their judgment of current events, and the leading actors by whom these +events are controlled. Cotemporaneous history, for this reason, will +always be found partisan history--not entitled to, and, if intelligently +and honestly written, not exacting, the implicit faith of those who +shall come after; but simply establishing that certain classes of +people, of whom the writer was one, acted under the conviction that they +owed certain duties to themselves and their country. It will be for the +future compiler of the world's history, who shall see the end of present +struggles, to determine the justice of the causes of controversy, and +the wisdom and honesty of the parties that acted adversely. To such +after judgment, with a full knowledge of present reproach as a partisan, +the writer of this article commends the brief sketch he will present of +the beginning and military treatment of the great Rebellion in the State +of Missouri. He will not attempt to make an episode of any part of this +history, because of the supposed vigor or brilliancy of the martial +deeds occurring in the time. Least of all would he take the 'Hundred +Days,' which another pen has chosen for special distinction, as +representing the period of heroism in that war-trampled State. Any +'hundred days' of the rebellion in Missouri have had their corresponding +_nights_; and no one can be bold enough yet to say that the day of +permanent triumph has dawned. Humiliation has alternated with success so +far; and the most stunning defeats of the war in the West marked the +beginning and the close of the hundred days named for honor. This fact +should teach modesty and caution. For while justice to men requires us +to admit that the greatest abilities do not always command success, +devotion to principle forbids that a noble cause should be obscured to +become the mere background of a scene in which an actor and popular idol +is the chief figure. It is with a consciousness of such partialities as +are common to men, but with an honest purpose, so far as the writer is +able, to subordinate men to principles, that this review of the origin +and chief incidents of the rebellion in Missouri is begun. + +The close connection of the State of Missouri with the slavery agitation +that has now ripened into a rebellion against the government of the +United States, is a singular historical fact. The admission of the State +into the Union was the occasion of vitalizing the question of slavery +extension and fixing it as a permanent element in the politics of the +country. It has continued to be the theatre on which the most important +conflicts growing out of slavery extension have been decided. It will be +the first, in the hope and belief of millions, to throw off the fetters +of an obsolete institution, so long cramping its social and political +advancement, and to set an example to its sister slave-holding States of +the superior strength, beauty, and glory of Freedom. + +The pro-slavery doctrines of John C. Calhoun, after having pervaded the +democracy of all the other slave-holding States, and obtained complete +possession of the national executive, legislative and judicial +departments, finally, in 1844, appeared also in the State of Missouri. +But it was in so minute and subtle a form as not to seem a sensible +heresy. Thomas H. Benton, the illustrious senator of the Jackson era, +was then, as he had been for twenty-four years, the political autocrat +of Missouri. He had long been convinced of the latent treason of the +Calhoun school of politicians. He was able to combat the schemes of the +Southern oligarchy composing and controlling the Cabinet of President +Polk; unsuccessfully, it is true, yet with but slight diminution of his +popularity at home. Nevertheless, the seeds of disunion had been borne +to his State; they had taken root; and, like all evil in life, they +proved self-perpetuating and ineradicable. In 1849 the Mexican war, +begun in the interest of the disunionists, had been closed. A vast +accession of territory had accrued to the Union. It was the plan and +purpose of the disunion party to appropriate and occupy this territory; +to organize it in their interests; and, finally, to admit it into the +Union as States, to add to their political power, and prepare for that +struggle between the principle of freedom and the principle of slavery +in the government, which Mr. Calhoun had taught was inevitable. But the +hostility of Benton in the Senate was dreaded by the Southern leaders +thus early conspiring against the integrity of the Union. The Missouri +senator seemed, of all cotemporaneous statesmen, to be the only one that +fully comprehended the incipient treason. His earnest opposition assumed +at times the phases of _monomania_. He sought to crush it in the egg. He +lifted his warning voice on all occasions. He inveighed bitterly against +the 'Nullifiers,' as he invariably characterized the Calhoun +politicians, declaring that their purpose was to destroy the Union. It +became necessary, therefore, before attempting to dispose of the +territories acquired from Mexico, to silence Benton, or remove him from +the Senate. Accordingly, when the legislature of Missouri met in 1849, a +series of resolutions was introduced, declaring that all territory +derived by the United States, in the treaty with Mexico, should be open +to settlement by the citizens of all the States in common; that the +question of allowing or prohibiting slavery in any territory could only +be decided by the people resident in the territory, and then only when +they came to organize themselves into a State government; and, lastly, +that if the general government should attempt to establish a rule other +than this for the settlement of the territories, the State of Missouri +would stand pledged to her sister Southern States to co-operate in +whatever measures of resistance or redress _they_ might deem necessary. +The resolutions distinctly abdicated all right of judgment on the part +of Missouri, and committed the State to a blind support of Southern +'Nullification' in a possible contingency. They were in flagrant +opposition to the life-long principles and daily vehement utterances of +Benton--as they were intended to be. Nevertheless, they were adopted; +and the senators of Missouri were instructed to conform their public +action to them. These resolutions were introduced by one Claiborne F. +Jackson, a member of the House of Representatives from the County of +Howard, one of the most democratic and largest slave-holding counties in +the State. The resolutions took the name of their mover, and are known +in the political history of Missouri as the 'Jackson resolutions.' And +Claiborne F. Jackson, who thus took the initiative in foisting treason +upon the statute-books of Missouri, is, to-day, by curious coincidence, +the official head of that State nominally in open revolt. But Jackson, +it was early ascertained, was not entitled to the doubtful honor of the +paternity of these resolutions. They had been matured in a private +chamber of the Capitol at Jefferson City, by two or three conspirators, +who received, it was asserted by Benton, and finally came to be +believed, the first draft of the resolutions from Washington, where the +disunion cabal, armed with federal power, had its headquarters. + +Thus the bolt was launched at the Missouri senator, who, from his +prestige of Jacksonism, his robust patriotism, his indomitable will, and +his great abilities, was regarded as the most formidable if not the only +enemy standing in the way of meditated treason. It was not doubted that +the blow would be fatal. Benton was in one sense the father of the +doctrine of legislative instructions. In his persistent and famous +efforts to 'expunge' the resolutions of censure on Gen. Jackson that had +been placed in the Senate journal, Benton had found it necessary to +revolutionize the sentiments or change the composition of the Senate. +Whigs were representing democratic States, and Democrats refused to vote +for a resolution expunging any part of the record of the Senate's +proceedings. To meet and overcome this resistance, Benton introduced the +dogma that a senator was bound to obey the instructions of the +legislature of his State. He succeeded, by his great influence in his +party, and by the aid of the democratic administration, in having the +dogma adopted, and it became an accepted rule in the democratic party. +Resolutions were now invoked and obtained from State legislatures +instructing their senators to vote for the 'Expunging Resolutions,' or +resign. Some obeyed; some resigned. Benton carried his point; but it was +at the sacrifice of the spirit of that part of the Constitution which +gave to United States senators a term of six years, for the purpose of +protecting the Senate from frequent fluctuations of popular feeling, and +securing steadiness in legislation. Benton was the apostle of this +unwise and destructive innovation upon the constitutional tenure of +senators. He was doomed to be a conspicuous victim of his own error. +When the 'Jackson resolutions' were passed by the legislature of +Missouri, instructing Benton to endorse measures that led to +nullification and disunion, he saw the dilemma in which he was placed, +and did the best he could to extricate himself. He presented the +resolutions from his seat in the Senate; denounced their treasonable +character, and declared his purpose to appeal from the legislature to +the people of Missouri. + +On the adjournment of Congress, Benton returned to Missouri and +commenced a canvass in vindication of his own cause, and in opposition +to the democratic majority of the legislature that passed the Jackson +resolutions, which has had few if any parallels in the history of the +government for heat and bitterness. The senator did not return to argue +and convert, but to fulminate and destroy. He appointed times and places +for public speaking in the most populous counties of the State, and +where the opposition to him had grown boldest. He allowed no 'division +of time' to opponents wishing to controvert the positions assumed in his +speeches. On the contrary, he treated every interruption, whether for +inquiry or retort, on the part of any one opposed to him, as an insult, +and proceeded to pour upon the head of the offender a torrent of +denunciation and abuse, unmeasured and appalling. The extraordinary +course adopted by Benton in urging his 'appeal,' excited astonishment +and indignation among the democratic partisans that had, in many cases, +thoughtlessly become arrayed against him.[A] They might have yielded to +expostulation; they were stung to resentment by unsparing vilification. +The rumor of Benton's manner preceded him through the State, after the +first signal manifestations of his ruthless spirit; and he was warned +not to appear at some of the appointments he had made, else his life +would pay the forfeit of his personal assaults. These threats only made +the Missouri lion more fierce and untamable. He filled all his +appointments, bearing everywhere the same front, often surrounded by +enraged enemies armed and thirsting for his blood, but ever denunciatory +and defiant, and returned to St. Louis, still boiling with inexhaustible +choler, to await the judgment of the State upon his appeal. He failed. +The pro-slavery sentiment of the people had been too thoroughly evoked +in the controversy, and too many valuable party leaders had been +needlessly driven from his support by unsparing invective. An artful and +apparently honest appeal to the right of legislative instructions,--an +enlargement of popular rights which Benton himself had conferred upon +them,--and--the unfailing weapon of Southern demagogues against their +opponents--the charge that Benton had joined the 'Abolitionists,' and +was seeking to betray 'the rights of the South,' worked the overthrow of +the hitherto invincible senator. The Whigs of Missouri, though agreeing +mainly with Benton in the principles involved in this contest, had +received nothing at his hands, throughout his long career, but defeat +and total exclusion from all offices and honors, State and National. +This class of politicians were too glad of the prospective division of +his party and the downfall of his power, to be willing to re-assert +their principles through a support of Benton. The loyal Union sentiments +of the State in this way failed to be united, and a majority was elected +to the legislature opposed to Benton. He was defeated of a re-election +to the Senate by Henry S. Geyer, a pro-slavery Whig, and supporter of +the Jackson resolutions, after having filled a seat in that august body +for a longer time consecutively than any other senator ever did. Thus +was removed from the halls of Congress the most sagacious and formidable +enemy that the disunion propagandists ever encountered. Their career in +Congress and in the control of the federal government was thenceforth +unchecked. The cords of loyalty in Missouri were snapped in Benton's +fall, and that State swung off into the strongly-sweeping current of +secessionism. The city of St. Louis remained firm a while, and returned +Benton twice to the House; but his energies were exhausted now in +defensive war; and the truculent and triumphant slave power dominating, +the State at last succeeded, through the coercion of commercial +interests, in defeating him even in the citadel of loyalty. He tried +once more to breast the tide that had borne down his fortunes. He became +a candidate for governor in 1856; but, though he disclaimed anti-slavery +sentiments, and supported James Buchanan for President against Fremont, +his son-in-law, he was defeated by Trusten Polk, who soon passed from +the gubernatorial chair to Benton's seat in the United States Senate, +from which he was, in course of time, to be expelled. Benton retired to +private life, only to labor more assiduously in compiling historical +evidences against the fast ripening treason of the times. + +The Missouri senator was no longer in the way of the Southern oligarchs. +A shaft feathered by his own hands--the doctrine of instructions--had +slain him. + +But yet another obstacle remained. The Missouri Compromise lifted a +barrier to the expansion of the Calhoun idea of free government, having +African slavery for its corner-stone. This obstacle was to be removed. +Missouri furnished the prompter and agent of that wrong in David E. +Atchison, for many years Benton's colleague in the Senate. Atchison was +a man of only moderate talents, of dogged purpose, willful, wholly +unscrupulous in the employment of the influences of his position, and +devoid of all the attributes and qualifications of statesmanship. He was +a fit representative of the pro-slavery fanaticism of his State; had +lived near the Kansas line; had looked upon and coveted the fair lands +of that free territory, and resolved that they should be the home and +appanage of slavery. It is now a part of admitted history, that this +dull but determined Missouri senator approached Judge Douglas, then +chairman of the Committee on Territories, and, by some incomprehensible +influence, induced that distinguished senator to commit the flagrant and +terrible blunder of reporting the Kansas-Nebraska bill, with a clause +repealing the Missouri Compromise, and thus throwing open Kansas to the +occupation of slavery. That error was grievously atoned for in the +subsequent hard fate of Judge Douglas, who was cast off and destroyed by +the cruel men he had served. Among the humiliations that preceded the +close of this political tragedy, none could have been more pungent to +Judge Douglas than the fact that Atchison, in a drunken harangue from +the tail of a cart in Western Missouri, surrounded by a mob of 'border +ruffians' rallying for fresh wrongs upon the free settlers of Kansas, +recited, in coarse glee and brutal triumph, the incidents of his +interview with the senator of Illinois, when, with mixed cajolery and +threats, he partly tempted, partly drove him to his ruin. The +Kansas-Nebraska bill was passed. What part Atchison took, what part +Missouri took, under the direction of the pro-slavery leaders that +filled every department of the State government, the 'border-ruffian' +forays, the pillage of the government arsenal at Liberty, the embargo of +the Missouri river, and the robbing and mobbing of peaceful emigrants +from the free States, the violence at the polls, and the fraudulent +voting that corrupted all the franchises of that afflicted territory, do +sufficiently attest. It is not needed to rehearse any of this painful +and well-known history. + +The Territory of Kansas was saved to its prescriptive freedom. The +slavery propagandists sullenly withdrew and gave up the contest. The +last days of the dynasty that had meditated the conquest of the +continent to slave-holding government were evidently at hand. The result +of the struggle in Kansas had reversed the relation of the contesting +powers. The oligarchs, who had always before been aggressive, and +intended to subordinate the Union to slavery, or destroy it, found +themselves suddenly thrown on the defensive; and, with the quick +intelligence of a property interest, and the keen jealousy of class and +caste which their slave-holding had implanted, they saw that they were +engaged in an unequal struggle, that their sceptre was broken, and that, +if they continued to rule, it would have to be over the homogeneous half +of a dismembered Union. From this moment a severance of the Slave +States from the Free was resolved on, and every agency that could +operate on governments, State and National, was set to work. It was not +by accident that Virginia had procured the nomination of the facile +Buchanan for President in the Baltimore Convention of 1856; it was not +by accident that Floyd was made Secretary of War, or that, many months +before any outbreak of rebellion, this arch traitor had well-nigh +stripped the Northern arsenals of arms, and placed them where they would +be 'handy' for insurgents to seize. It was not by accident that John C. +Breckenridge headed the factionists that willfully divided and defeated +the National Democracy, that perchance could have elected Judge Douglas +President; nor was it by accident that Beriah Magoffin, a vain, weak +man, the creature, adjunct, and echo of Breckenridge, filled the office +of governor of Kentucky, nominated thereto by Breckenridge's personal +intercession. And lastly, to return to the special theatre of this +sketch, it was not by accident that Claiborne F. Jackson, the original +mover for Benton's destruction, was at this remarkable juncture found +occupying the governor's chair, with Thomas C. Reynolds for his +lieutenant governor, a native of South Carolina, an acknowledged +missionary of the nullification faith to a State that required to be +corrupted, and that he had, during his residence, zealously endeavored +to corrupt. + +We have now reached the turning point in the history of Missouri. The +State is about to be plunged into the whirlpool of civil war. +Undisguised disunionists are in complete possession of the State +government, and the population is supposed to be ripe for revolt. Only +one spot in it, and that the city of St. Louis, is regarded as having +the slightest sympathy with the political sentiments of the Free States +of the Union. The State is surely counted for the 'South' in the +division that impends, for where is the heart in St. Louis bold enough, +or the hand strong enough, to resist the swelling tide of pro-slavery +fanaticism that was about to engulf the State? Years ago, when it was +but a ripple on the surface, it had overborne Benton, with all his fame +of thirty years' growth. What leader of slighter mold and lesser fame +could now resist the coming shock? In tracing the origin and growth of +rebellion in Missouri, it is interesting to gather up all the threads +that link the present with the past. It will preserve the unity of the +plot, and give effect to the last acts of the drama. + +The first visible seam or cleft in the National Democratic party +occurred during the administration of President Polk, in the years +1844-48. Calhoun appeared as Polk's Secretary of State. Thomas Ritchie +was transferred from Richmond, Va., to Washington, to edit the +government organ, in place of Francis P. Blair, Sr. The Jackson _regime_ +of unconditional and uncompromising devotion to the 'Federal Union' was +displaced, and the dubious doctrine of 'States' Rights' was formally +inaugurated as the chart by which in future the national government was +to be administered. But the Jackson element was not reconciled to this +radical change in the structure and purpose of the National Democratic +organization; and, although party lines were so tensely drawn that to go +against 'the Administration' was political treason, and secured +irrevocable banishment from power, the close of Polk's administration +found many old Democrats of the Jackson era ready for the sacrifice. The +firm resolve of these men was manifested when, after the nomination of +Gen. Cass, in 1848, in the usual form, at Baltimore, by the Democratic +National Convention, they assembled at Buffalo and presented a counter +ticket, headed by the name of Martin Van Buren, who had been thrust +aside four years previously by the Southern oligarchs to make way for +James K. Polk. The entire artillery of the Democratic party opened on +the Buffalo schismatics. They were stigmatized by such opprobrious +nicknames and epithets as 'Barnburners, 'Free Soilers,' +'Abolitionists,' and instantly and forever ex-communicated from the +Democratic party. In Missouri alone, of all the Slave States, was any +stand made in behalf of the Buffalo ticket. Benton's sympathies had been +with Van Buren, his old friend of the Jackson times; and Francis P. +Blair, Sr., of the _Globe_, had two sons, Montgomery Blair and Francis +P. Blair, Jr., resident in St. Louis. These two, with about a hundred +other young men of equal enthusiasm, organized themselves together, +accepted the 'Buffalo platform' as their future rule of faith, issued an +address to the people of Missouri, openly espousing and advocating free +soil-principles; and, by subscription among themselves, published a +campaign paper, styled the _Barnburner_, during the canvass. The result +at the polls was signal only for its insignificance; and the authors of +the movement hardly had credit for a respectable escapade. But the event +has proved that neither ridicule nor raillery, nor, in later years, +persecutions and the intolerable pressure of federal power, could turn +back the revolution thus feebly begun. In that campaign issue of the +_Barnburner_ were sown the seeds of what became, in later nomenclature, +the Free Democracy, and, later still, the 'Republican' party of +Missouri. The German population of St. Louis sympathized from the start +with the free principles enunciated. Frank Blair, Jr., became from that +year their political leader; right honestly did he earn the position; +and right well, even his political foes have always admitted, did he +maintain it. + +Frank Blair was a disciple of Benton; yet, as is often the case, the +pupil soon learned to go far ahead of his teacher. In 1852, there was a +union of the Free Democrats and National Democrats of Missouri, in +support of Franklin Pierce. But the entire abandonment of Pierce's +administration to the rule of the Southern oligarchs sundered the +incongruous elements in Missouri forever. In 1856 Benton was found +supporting James Buchanan for President; but Blair declined to follow +his ancient leader in that direction. He organized the free-soil element +in St. Louis to oppose the Buchanan electoral ticket. An electoral +ticket in the State at large, for John C. Fremont, was neither possible +nor advisable. In some districts no man would dare be a candidate on +that side; in others, the full free-soil vote, from the utter +hopelessness of success, would not be polled; and thus the cause would +be made to appear weaker than it deserved. To meet the emergency, and +yet bear witness to principle, the free-soil vote was cast for the +Fillmore electoral ticket, 'under protest,' as it was called, the name +of 'John C. Fremont' being printed in large letters at the head of every +free-soil ballot cast. By this means the Buchanan electors were beaten +fifteen hundred votes in St. Louis City and County, where, by a union as +Benton proposed, they would have had three thousand majority. But the +'free-soilers' failed to defeat Buchanan in the State. + +Nothing discouraged by this result, Blair resumed the work of organizing +for the future. The Fillmore party gave no thanks to the free-soilers +for their aid in the presidential election, nor did the latter ask any. +They had simply taken the choice of evils; and now, renouncing all +alliances, Blair became the champion and leader of a self-existing, +self-reliant State party, that should accomplish emancipation in +Missouri. He again established a newspaper to inculcate free principles +in the State. By untiring effort, he revived and recruited his party. He +gave it platforms, planned its campaigns, contested every election in +St. Louis, whether for municipal officers, for State legislature, or for +Congress; and always fought his battles on the most advanced ground +assumed by the growing free-soil party of the Union. The powerful and +rapidly-increasing German population of St. Louis responded nobly to his +zeal and skillful leadership. Soon a victory was gained; and St. Louis +declared for freedom, amid acclamations that reverberated throughout the +States that extended from the Ohio to the lakes, and from the +Mississippi to the Atlantic. But, having wrenched victory from a people +so intolerant as the pro-slavery population of Missouri, it was not to +be expected that he would retain it easily. He was set upon more +fiercely than ever. The loss of the city of St. Louis was considered a +disgrace to the State; and the most desperate personal malignity was +added to the resentment of pro-slavery wrath in the future election +contests in that city. The corrupting appliances of federal power were +at last invoked, under Buchanan's administration; and Blair was for the +moment overwhelmed by fraud, and thrown out of Congress. But, with a +resolution from which even his friends would have dissuaded him, and +with a persistency and confidence that were a marvel to friend and foe, +he contested his seat before Congress, and won it. And this verdict was +soon ratified by his brave and faithful constituency at the polls. Such +was the Republican party, such their leader in St. Louis, when the black +day of disunion came. And in their hands lay the destiny of the State. + +As soon as the presidential election was decided, and the choice of +Abraham Lincoln was known, the disunionists in Missouri commenced their +work. Thomas C. Reynolds, the lieutenant-governor, made a visit to +Washington, and extended it to Virginia, counseling with the traitors, +and agreeing upon the time and manner of joining Missouri in the revolt. +The legislature of Missouri met in the latter part of December, about +two weeks after the secession of South Carolina. A bill was at once +introduced, calling a State convention, and passed. The message of +Claiborne F. Jackson, the governor, had been strongly in favor of +secession from the Union. The Missouri _Republican_, the leading +newspaper of the State, whose advocacy had elected the traitor, +declared, on the last day of the year, that unless guaranties in defence +of slavery were immediately given by the North, Missouri should secede +from the Union. And so the secession feeling gathered boldness and +volume. + +Candidates for the State convention came to be nominated in St. Louis, +and two parties were at once arrayed--the unconditional Union party, and +the qualified Unionists, who wished new compromises. Frank Blair was one +of the leaders of the former, and he was joined by all the true men of +the old parties. But the secessionists--they might as well be so called, +for all their actions tended to weaken and discredit the +Union--nominated an able ticket. The latter party were soon conscious of +defeat, and began to hint mysteriously at a power stronger than the +ballot-box, that would be invoked in defence of 'Southern rights.' To +many, indeed to most persons, this seemed an idle threat. Not so to +Frank Blair. He had imbibed from Benton the invincible faith of the +latter in the settled purpose of the 'nullifiers' to subvert and destroy +the government. And in a private caucus of the leaders of the Union +party, on an ever-memorable evening in the month of January, he startled +the company by the proposition that the time had come when the friends +of the government must arm in its defence. With a deference to his +judgment and sagacity that had become habitual, the Unionists yielded +their consent, and soon the enrolment of companies began; nightly drills +with arms took place in nearly all the wards of the city; and by the +time of election day some thousands of citizen soldiers, mostly Germans, +could have been gathered, with arms in their hands, with the quickness +of fire signals at night, at any point in the city. The secessionists +had preceded this armed movement of the Union men by the organization of +a body known as 'minute-men.' But the promptness and superior skill that +characterized Frank Blair's movement subverted the secession scheme; and +it was first repudiated, and then its existence denied. The day of +election came, and passed peacefully. The unconditional Union ticket was +elected by a sweeping majority of five thousand votes. The result +throughout the State was not less decisive and surprising. Of the entire +number of delegates composing the convention, not one was chosen who had +dared to express secession sentiments before the people; and the +aggregate majority of the Union candidates in the State amounted to +about eighty thousand. The shock of this defeat for the moment paralyzed +the conspirators; but their evil inspirations soon put them to work +again. Their organs in Missouri assumed an unfriendly tone towards the +convention, which was to meet in Jefferson City. The legislature that +had called the convention remained in session in the same place, but +made no fit preparations for the assembling of the convention, or for +the accommodation and pay of the members. The debate in the legislature +on the bill for appropriations for these purposes was insulting to the +convention, the more ill-tempered and ill-bred secession members +intimating that such a body of 'submissionists' were unworthy to +represent Missouri, and undeserving of any pay. The manifest ill feeling +between the two bodies--the legislature elected eighteen months +previously, and without popular reference to the question of secession, +and the convention chosen fresh from the people, to decide on the course +of the State--soon indicated the infelicity of the two remaining in +session at the same time and in the same place. Accordingly, within a +few days after the organization of the convention, it adjourned its +session to the city of St. Louis. It did not meet a cordial reception +there. So insolent had the secession spirit already grown, that on the +day of the assembling of the convention in that city, the members were +insulted by taunts in the streets and by the ostentatious floating of +the rebel flag from the Democratic head-quarters, hard by the building +in which they assembled. + +Being left in the undisputed occupancy of the seat of government, the +governor, lieutenant-governor, and legislature gave themselves up to the +enactment of flagrant and undisguised measures of hostility to the +federal government. Commissioners from States that had renounced the +Constitution, and withdrawn, as they claimed, from the Union, arrived at +Jefferson City as apostles of treason. They were received as +distinguished and honorable ambassadors. A joint session of the +legislature was called to hear their communications. The +lieutenant-governor, Reynolds, being the presiding officer of the joint +session, required that the members should rise when these traitors +entered, and receive them standing and uncovered. The commissioners were +allowed to harangue the representatives of Missouri, by the hour, in +unmeasured abuse of the federal government, in open rejoicings over its +supposed dissolution, and in urgent appeals to the people of Missouri to +join the rebel States in their consummated treason. Noisy demonstrations +of applause greeted these commissioners; and legislators, and the +governor himself, in a public speech in front of the executive mansion, +pledged them that Missouri would shortly be found ranged on the side of +seceded States. The treason of the governor and legislature did not stop +with these manifestations. They proceeded to acts of legislation, +preparatory to the employment of force, after the manner of their +'Southern bretheren.' First, it was necessary to get control of the city +of St. Louis. The Republican party held the government of the city, +mayor, council, and police force--a formidable Union organization. The +legislature passed a bill repealing that part of the city charter that, +gave to the mayor the appointment of the police, and constituting a +board of police commissioners, to be appointed by the governor, who +should exercise that power. He named men that suited his purposes. The +Union police were discharged, and their places filled by secessionists. +Next, the State militia was to be organized in the interests of +rebellion, and a law was passed to accomplish that end. The State was +set off into divisions; military camps were to be established in each; +all able-bodied men between the ages of eighteen and fifty were liable +to be called into camp and drilled a given number of days in the year; +and, when summoned to duty, instead of taking the usual oath to support +the Constitution of the United States, they were required only to be +sworn 'to obey the orders of the governor of the State of Missouri.' +These camps were styled camps of instruction. One of them was +established at St. Louis, within the corporate limits of the city, about +two miles west of the court-house, on a commanding eminence. + +Thus the lines began to be drawn closely around the Unionists of St. +Louis. The State convention had adjourned, and its members had gone +home, having done but little to re-assure the loyalists. They had, +indeed, passed an ordinance declaring that Missouri would adhere to the +Union; but the majority of the members had betrayed such hesitancy and +indecision, such a lack of stomach to grapple with the rude issues of +the rebellion, that their action passed almost without moral effect. +Their ordinance was treated with contempt by the secessionists, and +nearly lost sight of by the people; so thoroughly were all classes +lashed into excitement by the storm of revolution now blackening the +whole Southern Hemisphere. + +The friends of the Union could look to but one quarter for aid, that was +Washington, where a new administration had so recently been installed, +amid difficulties that seemed to have paralyzed its power. The +government had been defied by the rebellion at every point; its ships +driven by hostile guns from Southern ports; its treasures seized; its +arsenals occupied, and its abundant arms and munitions appropriated. +Nowhere had the federal arm resented insult and robbery with a blow. +This had not been the fault of the government that was inaugurated on +the fourth of March. It was the fruit of the official treason of the +preceding administration, that had completely disarmed the government, +and filled the new executive councils with confusion, by the numberless +knaves it had placed in all departments of the public service, whose +daily desertions of duty rendered the prompt and honest execution of the +laws impossible. But the fact was indisputable; and how could St. Louis +hope for protection that had nowhere else been afforded? The national +government had an arsenal within the city limits. It comprised a +considerable area of ground, was surrounded by a high and heavy stone +wall, and supplied with valuable arms. But so far from this +establishment being a protection to the loyal population, it seemed more +likely, judging by what had occurred in other States, that it would +serve as a temptation to the secession mob that was evidently gathering +head for mischief, and that the desire to take it would precipitate the +outbreak. The Unionists felt their danger; the rebels saw their +opportunity. Already the latter were boasting that they would in a short +time occupy this post, and not a few of the prominent Union citizens of +the town were warned by secession leaders that they would soon be set +across the Mississippi river, exiles from their homes forever. As an +instance of the audacity of the rebel element at this time, and for +weeks later, the fact is mentioned that the United States soldiers, who +paced before the gates of the arsenal as sentinels on duty, had their +beats defined for them by the new secession police, and were forbidden +to invade the sacred precincts of the city's highway. The arsenal was +unquestionably devoted to capture, and it would have been a prize to the +rebels second in value to the Gosport navy-yard. It contained at this +time sixty-six thousand stand of small arms, several batteries of light +artillery and heavy ordnance, and at least one million dollars' worth of +ammunition. It was besides supplied with extensive and valuable +machinery for repairing guns, rifling barrels, mounting artillery, and +preparing shot and shell. The future, to the Union men of St. Louis, +looked gloomy enough; persecution, and, if they resisted, death, seemed +imminent; and no voice from abroad reached them, giving them good cheer. +But deliverance was nigh at hand. + +About the middle of January, Capt. Nathaniel Lyon, of the Second +Infantry, U.S.A., arrived in St. Louis with his company; and his rank +gave him command of all the troops then at the arsenal and Jefferson +Barracks, a post on the river, ten miles below, the department being +under the command of Brigadier General Harney. Capt. Lyon had been +garrisoning a fort in Kansas. He was known to some of the Union men of +St. Louis; and his resolute spirit and devoted patriotism marked him as +their leader in this crisis. Frank Blair at once put himself in +communication with Capt. Lyon, and advised him fully and minutely as to +the political situation. He exposed to him the existence of his +volunteer military organization. At his request Capt. Lyon visited and +reviewed the regiments; and it was arranged between them that if an +outbreak should occur, or any attempt be made to seize the arsenal, +Capt. Lyon should receive this volunteer force to his assistance, arm it +from the arsenal, and take command for the emergency. It should be +known, however, to the greater credit of the Union leaders of St. Louis, +that they had already, from private funds, procured about one thousand +stand of arms, with which their nightly drills, as heretofore stated, +had been conducted. As soon as Capt. Lyon's connection with this +organization was suspected, an attempt was made to have him removed, by +ordering him to Kansas on the pretext of a court of inquiry; but this +attempt was defeated. Thus matters stood for a time, the Union men +beginning to be reassured, but still doubtful of the end. After a while, +Fort Sumter was opened upon, and fell under its furious bombardment. The +torch of war was lit. President Lincoln issued his proclamation for +volunteers. Gov. Jackson telegraphed back an insolent and defiant +refusal, in which he denounced the 'war waged by the federal government' +as 'inhuman and diabolical.' Frank Blair instantly followed this +traitorous governor's dispatch by another, addressed to the Secretary of +War, asking him to accept and muster into service the volunteer +regiments he had been forming. This offer was accepted, and the men +presented themselves. But Brig. Gen. Harney, fearing that the arming of +these troops would exasperate the secession populace, and bring about a +collision with the State militia, refused to permit the men to be +mustered into service and armed. This extraordinary decision was +immediately telegraphed to the government, and Gen. Harney was relieved, +leaving Capt. Lyon in full command. This was the 23d of April. In a week +four full regiments were mustered in, and occupied the arsenal. A +memorial was prepared and sent to Washington by Frank Blair, now colonel +of the first of these regiments, asking for the enrolment of five other +regiments of Home Guards. Permission was given, and in another week +these regiments also were organized and armed. The conflict was now at +hand. Simultaneously with this arming on the part of the government for +the protection of the arsenal, the order went forth for the assembling +of the State troops in their camps of instruction. On Monday, the 6th of +May, the First Brigade of Missouri militia, under Gen. D.M. Frost, was +ordered by Gov. Jackson into camp at St. Louis, avowedly for purposes of +drill and exercise. At the same time encampments were formed, by order +of the governor, in other parts of the State. The governor's adherents +in St. Louis intimated that the time for taking the arsenal had arrived, +and the indiscreet young men who made up the First Brigade openly +declared that they only awaited an order from Gov. Jackson--an order +which they evidently had been led to expect--to attack the arsenal and +possess it, in spite of the feeble opposition they calculated to meet +from 'the Dutch' Home Guards enlisted to defend it. A few days +previously, an agent of the governor had purchased at St. Louis several +hundred kegs of gun-powder, and succeeded, by an adroit stratagem, in +shipping it to Jefferson City. The encampment at St. Louis, 'Camp +Jackson,' so called from the governor, was laid off by streets, to which +were assigned the names 'Rue de Beauregard,' and others similarly +significant; and when among the visitors whom curiosity soon began to +bring to the camp a 'Black Republican' was discovered by the +soldiers,--and this epithet was applied to all unconditional +Unionists,--he was treated with unmistakable coldness, if not positive +insult. If additional proof of the hostile designs entertained against +the federal authority by this camp were needed, it was furnished on +Thursday, the 9th, by the reception within the camp of several pieces of +cannon, and several hundred stand of small arms, taken from the federal +arsenal at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which was then in the possession of +the rebels. These arms were brought to St. Louis by the steamboat _J.C. +Swon_, the military authorities at Cairo having been deceived by the +packages, which were represented to contain marble slabs. On the arrival +of the _Swon_ at the St. Louis levee, the arms were taken from her, sent +to Camp Jackson, and received there with demonstrations of triumph. + +When Capt. Lyon was entrusted with full command at St. Louis, President +Lincoln had named, in his orders to him, a commission of six loyal and +discreet citizens with whom he should consult in matters pertaining to +the public safety, and with whose counsel he might declare martial law. +These citizens were John How, Samuel T. Glover, O.D. Filley, Jean J. +Witsig, James O. Broadhead, and Col. Frank P. Blair. The last +mentioned--Colonel Blair--was Capt. Lyon's confidential and constant +companion. They were comrades in arms, and a unit in counsel. Their +views were in full accord as to the necessity of immediately reducing +Camp Jackson. Defiance was daily passing between the marshalling hosts, +not face to face, but through dubious partisans who passed from camp to +camp, flitting like the bats of fable in the confines of conflict. Capt. +Lyon's decision, urged thereto by Col. Blair, was made without calling a +council of the rest of his advisers. They heard of it, however, and, +though brave and loyal men all, they gathered around him in his quarters +at the arsenal, Thursday evening, and besought him earnestly to change +his purpose. The conference was protracted the livelong night, and did +not close till six o'clock, Friday morning, the 10th. They found Capt. +Lyon inexorable,--the fate of Camp Jackson was decreed. Col. Blair's +regiment was at Jefferson Barracks, ten miles below the arsenal, at that +hour. It was ordered up; and about noon on that memorable Friday, Capt. +Lyon quietly left the arsenal gate at the head of six thousand troops, +of whom four hundred and fifty were regulars, the remainder United +States Reserve Corps or Home Guards, marched in two columns to Camp +Jackson, and before the State troops could recover from the amazement +into which the appearance of the advancing army threw them, surrounded +the camp, planting his batteries upon the elevations around, at a +distance of five hundred yards, and stationing his infantry in the roads +leading from the grove wherein their tents were pitched. The State +troops were taken completely by surprise; for, although there had been +vague reports current in camp of an intended attack from the arsenal, +the cry of the visitors at the grove, 'They're coming!' 'They're +coming!' raised just as the first column appeared in sight, found them +strolling leisurely under the trees, chatting with their friends from +the city, or stretched upon the thick green grass, smoking and reading. + + * * * * * + +BEAUFORT DISTRICT,--PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. + + +The sovereign State of South Carolina seems from the beginning to have +been actuated by the desire not only to mold its institutions according +to a system differing entirely from that of its sister States, but even +to divide its territory in a peculiar manner, for which reason we find +in it 'districts' taking the place of counties. The south-west of these +bears the name of its principal town, 'Beaufort.' It is bounded on the +west by the Savannah River, and on the south by the Atlantic. Its length +from north to south is fifty-eight miles, its breadth thirty-three +miles, and it contains about one and a quarter millions of acres of land +and water. Considered geologically, Beaufort is one of the most +remarkable sections of the United States. As recent events have brought +it so prominently before us, we propose to consider its history, +capacities, and prospects. + +From its proximity to the Spanish settlements in the peninsula of +Florida, its beautiful harbors and sounds were early explored and taken +possession of by the Spaniards. It is now certain they had established a +post here called 'Fort St. Phillip,' at St. Elena,[B] as early as +1566-7; this was probably situated on the south-western point of St. +Helena Island, and some remains of its entrenchment can still be traced. +From this fort Juan Pardo, its founder, proceeded on an expedition to +the north-west, and explored a considerable part of the present States +of South Carolina and Georgia. + +How long the Spaniards remained here is now uncertain, but they long +claimed all this coast as far north as Cape Fear. The French planted a +colony in South Carolina, and gave the name Port Royal to the harbor and +what is now called Broad River; but they were driven off by the +Spaniards, and history is silent as to any incidents of their rule for a +century. In 1670 a few emigrants arrived in a ship commanded by Capt. +Hilton, and landed at what is now known as 'Hilton's Head,' the +south-western point of Port Royal harbor, which still perpetuates his +name. The colony was under the management of Col. Sayle; but the +Spaniards at St. Augustine still claimed the domains, and the settlers, +fearing an attack, soon removed to the site of Old Charleston, on Ashley +River. In 1682, Lord Cardoss led a small band from Scotland hither, +which settled on Port Royal Island, near the present site of Beaufort. +He claimed co-ordinate authority with the governor and council at +Charleston. During the discussion of this point the Spaniards sent an +armed force and dislodged the English, most of whom returned to their +native country. A permanent settlement was finally made on Port Royal +Island in 1700. The town of Beaufort was laid out in 1717, and an +Episcopal church erected in 1720. The name was given from a town in +Anjou, France, the birthplace of several of the Huguenot settlers. + +For many years the Spaniards threatened the coast as far north as +Charleston, but the settlement increased, and extended over St. Helena +and other islands. Slavery was here coeval with settlement, and the +peculiar institution was so earnestly fostered, that in 1724 it was +estimated that South Carolina contained 18,000 slaves to only 14,000 +whites. The slaves were mostly natives of Africa of recent importation, +and were poorly adapted to clear up the forests and prepare the way for +extensive plantations, but their cost was small, and every year they +improved in capacity and value. In the succeeding half century were laid +the fortunes of the prominent families who have controlled the district, +and often greater interests, to our day. Grants of land could be had +almost for the asking, especially by men of influence; and fertile +islands were given, containing hundreds and sometimes thousands of +acres, to a single family, who have here been monarchs of all they +survey, including hundreds of slaves, till _the Hegira_ or _flight_ A.D. +1861. + +When we take into account the salubrity of the climate and the fertility +of the soil, we must allow that this district has many natural +advantages which can not be excelled by any section of the same extent +in this country. A considerable part of the district is composed of +islands, which are supposed to be of a comparatively recent formation, +many of them beautiful to the eye, and rich in agricultural facilities; +they are in number upwards of fifty, not less than thirty of them being +of large size. Upon the sea-coast are Reynolds, Prentice, Chaplins, +Eddings, Hilton Head, Dawfuskie, Turtle, and the Hunting Islands. Behind +these lie St. Helena, Pinckney, Paris, Port Royal, Ladies', Cane, +Bermuda, Discane, Bells, Daltha, Coosa, Morgan, Chissolm, Williams +Harbor, Kings, Cahoussue, Fording, Barnwell, Whale, Delos, Hall, Lemon, +Barrataria, Lopes, Hoy, Savage, Long, Round, and Jones Islands. These +are from one to ten miles in length, and usually a proportional half in +width. St. Helena is over twenty miles in extent, and could well support +an agricultural population of twenty thousand. Port Royal is next in +size, but, being of a more sandy formation, is not so fertile. These +islands are all of an alluvial formation,--the result of the action of +the rivers and the sea. There is no rock of any kind, not even a pebble +stone, to be found in the whole district. + +The soil of these islands is composed mostly of a fine sandy loam, very +easily cultivated. In most of them are swamps and marshes, which serve +to furnish muck and other vegetable deposits for fertilizing; but the +idea of furnishing anything to aid the long over-worked soil seems to +these proprietors like returning to the slave some of the earnings taken +from him or his ancestors, and is seldom done till nature is at last +exhausted, and then it is allowed only a few years' repose. Situated +under the parallel of 32 deg., there is scarcely a product grown in our +country, of any value, that can not be produced here. Previous to the +Revolution the principal staple for market was indigo, and that raised +in this district always commanded the highest price. It was from the +proceeds of this plant that the planters were enabled for a long period +to purchase slaves and European and northern American productions. Soon +after the Revolution their attention was turned to cotton; but the +difficulty of separating it from the seed seemed to make it impossible +to furnish it in any profitable quantity, for so slow was the process +then followed that, with the utmost diligence, a negro could not, by +hand labor, clean over a few pounds per day. The genius of Whitney, +however, opened a new era to the cotton planters, who were much more +eager to avail themselves of his invention than to remunerate him. It +was soon perceived that the cotton raised on these islands was far +superior to that produced in the interior, which is still called Upland, +only to distinguish it from the 'Sea Island.' It was also noticed that +while the common variety produced a seed nearly green with a rough skin, +the seed of the islands soon became black with a smooth skin; the effect +entirely of location and climate, as it soon resumes its original color +when transported back to the interior. The cultivation of this variety +is limited to a tract of country of about one hundred and fifty miles in +length, and not over twenty-five miles in breadth, mostly on lands +adjacent to the salt water, the finest 'grades' being confined to the +islands within this district. It is true that black-seed cotton is +cultivated to some extent along the coast from Georgetown, S.C., to St. +Augustine, but a great part of it is of an inferior quality and staple, +and brings in the market less than one-half the price of the real 'Sea +Island.' This plant seems to delight in the soft and elastic atmosphere +from the Gulf Stream, and, after it is 'well up,' requires but a few +showers through the long summer to perfect it. It is of feeble growth, +particularly on the worn-out lands, and two hundred pounds is a good +yield from an acre. An active hand can tend four acres, besides an acre +of corn and 'ground provisions;' but with a moderate addition of +fertilizers and rotation of crops no doubt these productions would be +doubled. If the yield seems small, the price, however, makes it one of +the most profitable products known. The usual quotations for choice Sea +Islands in Charleston market has been for many years about four times as +great as for the middling qualities of Uplands,--probably an average of +from thirty-five to forty-five cents per pound; and for particular +brands[C] sixty to seventy cents is often paid. The writer has seen a +few bales, of a most beautiful color and length of staple, which sold +for eighty cents, when middling Uplands brought but ten cents per pound. +It is mostly shipped to France, where it is used for manufacturing the +finest laces, and contributes largely to the texture of fancy silks, +particularly the cheaper kinds for the American market. After passing +above the flow of the salt water, but within the rise of the tide, there +is a wide alluvial range along the rivers and creeks, which, by a system +of embankments, can be flowed or drained at pleasure. This is cultivated +with rice, and, if properly cared for, yields enormous crops, sometimes +of sixty bushels to an acre. The land is composed of a mass of muck, +often ten feet deep and inexhaustible, and never suffers from drought. +This land is very valuable, one hundred dollars often being paid per +acre for large plantations. Much rice land, however, remains uncleared +for want of the enterprise and perseverance necessary to its +improvement. + +Farther in the interior the land is principally of a sandy formation, +most of it underlaid with clay. Very little effort is, however, made by +planters to cultivate it, although it is very easily worked, and with a +little manuring yields fair crops of corn and sweet potatoes. The cereal +grains are seldom cultivated, but no doubt they would yield well. A +large portion of the main-land is composed of swamps, of which only +enough have been reclaimed to make it certain that here is a mine of +wealth to those gifted with the energy to improve it. The soil is as +fertile as the banks of the Nile, and nowhere could agricultural +enterprise meet with such certainly profitable returns. Recurring again +to the agricultural capacity of the islands, it is certain that good +crops of sugar-cane can be grown on them. During the war of 1812, the +planters turned their attention to it, and succeeded well, since which +time many of them have continued to plant enough for their own use; but +this plant soon exhausts such a soil, unless some fertilizer is used, +and they therefore prefer cotton, which draws a large part of its +sustenance from the atmosphere alone. The sweet and wild orange grows +here, and some extensive groves are to be seen. Figs are produced in +abundance from September till Christmas. Gardens furnish abundant +vegetables, yielding green peas in March and Irish potatoes in May, +while numerous tribes of beautiful flowers hold high carnival for more +than half the year. + +This seems to be the true home of the rose, which is found blooming from +March until Christmas. Many of the rare climbing varieties of this +flower, which we see at the North only as small specimens in +green-houses, grow here in wild profusion. The grape is represented by +many species indigenous to this State alone, and could, no doubt, be +cultivated and produced in greater variety and perfection than elsewhere +on this continent, as the climate is more equable. A species of Indian +corn, called 'white flint corn,' and which when cooked is very +nutritious and white as snow, seems indigenous to these islands. It is +much superior to the common varieties. + +Of the sylva we will only say, it is equal in value and variety to that +of any section of our country. Here is the home of the palmetto[D] or +cabbage tree, the only palm in our wide country. The live oak, once so +abundant, has, however, been largely cut off, mostly to supply our +navy-yards, and some of the ships built from it are now blockading the +very harbors from which it was carried. The pitch pine is the common +growth of the interior, and under a new system would form a valuable +article of commerce as lumber, and as yielding the _now_ so much +required turpentine. Of wild animals and birds, here are to be found a +large variety. The Hunting Islands and others are well stocked with +deer. During the winter wild, geese and ducks abound, and a variety of +fish, with fine oysters, can be had at all seasons. + +We now come to consider the present inhabitants of this district. The +whites are almost entirely the descendants of the earliest settlers of +this State, who were English,[E] Scotch, and Protestant Irish, with a +slight infusion of the Huguenot and Swiss elements. A century and a half +has rendered them homogeneous. As there has never been any interest here +other than agriculture, and as every man may be said to own the +plantation he cultivates, there has been as little change of property or +condition as possible, and therefore the same land and system of +cultivation has passed from father to son through four or five +generations. Had there been any emigration or change of population, some +alterations, and most likely new enterprise and vigor, would have been +infused, and more modern and national feeling have been instituted for +their narrow and sectional prejudices. No doubt our national character +has been much influenced by the division of land. Where this has been +nearly equal, as in our New England towns, a republican form of +government has been almost a necessity. But at the South an entirely +different arrangement has prevailed. Land was at first distributed in +large bodies fitted to accommodate a state of slavery; and the +consequence was that a feudal system was inaugurated from the +settlement, which has continued with increasing power. This has been one +of the permanent causes of Southern pride and exclusiveness. + +The inhabitants of South Carolina and Virginia previous to the +Revolution were very supercilious towards the North, and even to their +less opulent neighbors of Georgia and North Carolina; a feeling which +was often the cause of much antagonism among the officers and soldiers +during the war. Charleston and Williamsburg gave the tone to good +society, and it was haughty and aristocratic in the extreme. While +Virginia has for the last half century been in a state of comparative +decay, South Carolina has, by its culture of cotton and rice, just been +able to hold its own; but the pride and exclusiveness of its people have +increased much faster than its material interests. Although the +Constitution of the United States guarantees to every State a republican +form of government, no thinking person who has resided for a single week +within the limits of South Carolina can have failed to see and feel +that a tyranny equal to that of Austria exists there. The freedom of +opinion and its expression were not permitted. Strangers were always +under espionage, and public opinion, controlled by an oligarchy of +slave-holders, overruled laws and private rights. Nowhere, even in South +Carolina, was this feeling of _hauteur_ so strong as in that portion of +the State which we are describing. On the large plantations the owners +ruled with power unlimited over life and property, and could a faithful +record be found it would prove one of vindictive oppression, productive +oftentimes of misery and bloodshed. Most of the wealthier planters in +the district have residences at Beaufort, to which they remove during +the summer months to escape the malaria arising from the soil around +their inland houses. This place may be considered the home of the +aristocracy. Here reside the Barnwells,[F] Heywards, Rhetts[G](formerly +called Smiths,) Stuarts, Means, Sams, Fullers,[H] Elliots,[I] Draytons +and others, altogether numbering about fifty families, but bearing not +more than twenty different names, who rule and control the country for +forty miles around. This is the most complete and exclusive approach to +'nobility' of blood and feeling on our continent. Nowhere else is family +pride carried to such an extent. They look with supercilious disdain on +every useful employment, save only the planting of cotton and rice. +Nothing in any of our large cities can equal the display of equipages, +with their profusion of servants in livery, exhibited on pleasant +afternoons, when the mothers and daughters of these cotton lords take +their accustomed airing. So powerfully has this feeling of exclusiveness +prevailed that no son or daughter dares marry out of their circle. For a +long series of years has this custom prevailed, and the consequence is +that the families above named are nearly of a common blood; and it needs +no physiologist to tell us the invariable effect arising from this +transgression of natural laws, on the physical and mental faculties of +both sexes. In such a state of society is it strange that the present +generation should have grown up with ideas better suited to the castes +of India than to those of republican America? As a consequence they +consider their condition more elevated than that of their neighbors in +the adjoining States, and of almost imperial consideration. But no +language can express their bitter contempt for the people of the North, +more particularly for those of New England birth. + +In perusing the history and progress of any portion of our country, the +statistics of population become an interesting study. Let us glance over +a brief table, showing what the increase has been in this district for +the past forty years, and its miserable deficiency in physical means of +strength and defense. In 1820 the district contained 32,000 souls, of +which there were 4,679 whites and 27,339 slaves, and 141 free blacks. In +1860 there were 6,714 whites and 32,500 slaves, and 800 free blacks, +making a total of 40,014,--an increase of whites of 2,035, of slaves +5,161, of free blacks 650:--total increase 7,855 in forty years. Here we +have nearly the largest disproportion of whites to slaves in any part of +the South. Of the 6,714 whites, about 1,000 are probably men over +twenty-one years of age, and it is not to be presumed that an equal +number are capable of bearing arms. Is it possible to find anywhere a +community more helpless for its own protection or defense? It is one of +the truths of science and philosophy that nature, when forced beyond its +own powers and laws, will react, and again restore its own supremacy. So +we here find a magnificent space of country, rich in all natural +requisites, and unsurpassed in its capabilities of producing not only +the necessaries of life, but its luxuries, having an exclusive right to +some of the most valuable staples of the world, which has been for a +century and a half the abode of an imperious few, who have, by +tyrannical power, wrung from the bones and muscles of generations of +poor Africans the means to sustain their luxury, power, and pride. They +have also robbed from the mother earth the fertility of its soil to its +utmost extent, leaving much of it completely exhausted. This state of +things has reacted on them; it has made them proud, domineering, +ambitious, and revengeful of fancied injuries. It has hurried them into +rebellion against the best government the world ever saw,--and this has +at last brought with it its own punishment and retribution. It has +placed their soil, their mansions, their crops and poor slaves in the +possession of the hated men of the North, and under the laws and control +of the government they affected to despise. When the last gun had +sounded from the ramparts at Port Royal, and the Stars and Stripes again +resumed their supremacy on the soil of South Carolina, a new era dawned +over these beautiful islands and waters, and the day that witnessed the +retreat of the rebel forces should hereafter mark, like the flight of +Mahomet, the inauguration of a new dispensation for this land and its +people. Let us, therefore, in continuing our chronicles, cast the +horoscope, and, without claiming any spirit of prophecy, show the duties +of our nation in this contingency, and the beneficial results that must +flow from it, if carried out with the energy, perseverance, and +practical Christianity due to our country and the age in which we live. + +The accession to any government of new territory brings with it new +duties, which it is always important should be performed with energy and +decision, so that the greatest good, to the greatest number, may be the +result. A good Providence has placed the domain under consideration in +our possession. Its political condition is to us unique, and almost +embarrassing. If the question is asked, 'Can we hold and dispose of a +part, or whole, of a sovereign State as a conquered province?' the +answer must be in the affirmative. Government is supreme, and must be +exercised, particularly to protect the weak, and for the general good of +the whole nation. Here is a region, as fair as the sun shines upon, now +in a great measure deserted and lying waste. What is to be done with it? +and what is our duty in this exigency? The first want is a government, +for without a proper one no progress can be made. Let Congress then at +once establish a territorial government over so much of the State as we +now have in our possession, and over what we may in future obtain;--not +a government to exhibit pomp, and show, but one practical and useful, +with a court and its proper officers. Let every large unrepresented +estate be placed in the hands of a temporary administrator, who should +be a practical and honest man, and held to a strict account for all +properties entrusted to his keeping, and who should act also as guardian +to the slaves belonging to the estate. Then enforce the collection of a +tax; and if the owner comes forward within sixty days, pays the tax, +takes the oath of allegiance, and agrees to remain in the territory and +assist in enforcing and executing the laws, during that and the +succeeding year, let him resume his property, and be protected in all +his rights. But in default of any loyal response from the proprietor, +the property should be disposed of, in moderate quantities, to actual +settlers, who should be bound to do duty for its defense, whenever +called upon. + +But then comes the great difficulty, the disposition of the slaves,--the +great question which has so long been discussed as a theory, and which +now has to be met as a practical measure. Let us meet it as men and +patriots, and, rising above the clamor of fanatics, or the proclamations +of new-fangled and demagoguing brigadiers, look at the permanent result +to our whole country, and the real good of the African race. + +Humanity, society, and property, all have claims and acknowledged +rights; let them all be considered. It is well known that the slaves on +these islands have always been kept in a state of greater ignorance of +the world and all practical matters than those inhabiting the border +States, or where there is a larger proportion of whites, with whom they +often labor and associate. To emancipate them at once would be to do a +great wrong to the white man, to the property, in whatever hands it +might be, and a still greater injury to the slave. There can be but one +way of disposing of this question which will satisfy the nation, and +quiet the fears of the conservative, and preserve the hopes of the +radical, which is, to pursue a _middle_ course--a policy which shall as +nearly as possible equalize the question to all parties. Let the slave +be retained on the plantation where he is found; and, as no race are so +much attached to their own locality, so let them remain, place them +under a proper system of APPRENTICESHIP, with a mild code of laws, where +every right shall be protected, where suitable instruction, civil and +religious, shall be given, and where the marriage rite shall be +administered and respected. Under such laws and beneficent institutions, +this territory would soon be settled by men from the West, the North, +and from Europe, intelligent, enterprising, and industrious, who would +retrieve its worn-out fields, and introduce new systems of culture, with +all the modern labor-saving utensils. With kind treatment and new hopes, +the simple sons of Africa would have inducements to labor and to await +with patient hope the future and its rewards. Then would Beaufort +District become what the Giver of all good designed it to be--the abode +of an industrious, peaceful, and prosperous community. The production of +its great staple, 'Sea-Island cotton,' would be immensely increased, and +its quality improved, till it rivaled the silks of the Old World. The +yield of rice would be doubled, and its gardens and orchards would +supply the North with fruits now known only to the tropics. + +So soon as the new government was fairly inaugurated, and the condition +of the land and its future cultivation settled, a movement would of +necessity be made to found here a city which would be the great +commercial metropolis of the South. + +Charleston was 'located' at the wrong place, simply with the object of +being as distant as possible from the Spanish settlements, and has +always suffered from an insufficient depth of water on its bars to +accommodate the largest class of merchant ships. It has barely sixteen +feet of water at high tide, and ships loaded as lightly as possible +have often been obliged to wait for weeks to enter or leave the port. A +decrease of one or two feet in its main channel would, in its palmiest +days, have been fatal to its prosperity. The sinking of a dozen ships +loaded with stone has no doubt placed a permanent barrier to the +entrance of all but a small class of vessels. The ships themselves may +soon be displaced or destroyed by the sea-worm, but the New England +granite will prove a lasting monument to the folly and madness of the +rebellion. The destruction of the best part of the city by fire seems +also to show that Providence has designed it to be ranked only with the +cities of the past. + +The productions of South Carolina have always been large and valuable, +and since the completion of their system of railroad facilities they +have greatly increased; therefore a commercial city is a necessity, and +Port Royal must be its locality. Here is the noblest harbor south of the +Chesapeake, with a draught of water of from twenty-five to thirty feet, +enough for the largest-sized ships, and sufficient anchorage room for +all the navies of the world. Our government should here have a naval +depot to take the place of Norfolk, since there is no more suitable +place on the whole coast. In this connection the name, Royal Port, is +truly significant. + +The precise locality for the new city can not now be indicated, but we +would suggest the point some two miles south-west of Beaufort, which +would give it a position not unlike New York. It would have the straight +Broad River for its Hudson, with a fine channel on the south and east +communicating with numerous sounds and rivers. Its situation on an +island of about the same length as Manhattan completes the parallel. + +The value of the produce conveyed over the sounds and rivers connecting +with Port Royal, by sloops and steamers, must be counted by millions of +dollars. We may estimate the crop of Sea-Island cotton at about fifteen +thousand bales, or six millions of pounds, and of rice about fifty +million pounds. Yankee enterprise would soon double the amount, and add +to it an immense bulk of naval stores and lumber. + +But this is but a moiety of what the exports would be. A branch railroad +only ten miles long would connect this port with all the railroads of +South Carolina and Georgia, which, diverging from Charleston and +Savannah, spread themselves over a large part of five States. This road +would make tributary to this place a vast district of country. + +Savannah, which has for the last few years competed with Charleston for +this trade, will soon feel the power of the government, and it must +yield up a large part of its business to the more favorable location of +the new city. + +A few short years, and what a change may come over these beautiful +islands and the waters that hold them in its embrace! A fair city, +active with its commerce and manufactures, wharves and streets lined +with stores and dwellings, interspersed with churches and schools, +inhabited by people from every section of our country, and from every +part of Europe, all interested to improve their own condition, and all +combining to add strength and wealth to the Union which they agree to +respect, love, honor, and defend! + + * * * * * + +THE ANTE-NORSE DISCOVERERS OF AMERICA. + + +I. THE MYTHICAL ERA. + +Who were the first settlers in America? + +Within a few years our school-books pointed to Cristoval Colon, or +Columbus, and his crew, as the first within the range of history who +'passed far o'er the ocean blue' to this hemisphere. Now, however, even +the school-books--generally the last to announce novel truths--say +something of the Norsemen in America, though they frequently do it in a +discrediting and discreditable way. However, the old Vikings have +triumphed once more, even in their graves, and Professor Rafn can prove +as conclusively that his fierce ancestry trod the soil of Boston as that +the Mayflower Puritans followed in their footsteps. It is a dim old +story, laid away in Icelandic manuscripts, and confirmed by but few +relics on our soil; yet it is strong enough to give New England a link +to the Middle Ages of Europe, with their wildest romance and strangest +elements. It is pleasant to think that far back in the night there +walked for a short season on these shores great men of that hearty +Norse-Teuton race which in after times flowed through France into +England, and from England through the long course of ages hitherward. +Among the old Puritan names of New England there is more than one which +may be found in the roll of Battle Abbey, and through the Norse-Norman +spelling of which we trace the family origin of fierce sea-kings in +their lowland isles or rocky lairs on the Baltic. + +But there are older links existing between America and Europe than this +of the Norseman. Of these the first is indeed buried in mystery--leading +us back into that sombre twilight of 'symbolism,' as the Germans +somewhat obscurely call the study of the early ages whose records are +lost, and which can only be traced by reflection in the resemblances +between mythologies which argue a common origin, and the monuments +remaining, which seem to establish it. Yes, America has this in common +with every country of Asia, Europe, and Africa: she has relics which +indicate that at one time she was inhabited by a race which had perhaps +the same faith, the same stupendous nature-worship, with that of the Old +World, and which was, to reason by analogy, _possibly_ identified by the +same language and customs. What _was_ this race, this religion, this +language? Who shall answer? Men like Faber, and Higgins, and Lajard, +with scores of others, have unweariedly gathered together all the points +of resemblance between the religions and mythologies of the Hindus and +Egyptians and Chinese, the Druids and the Phenicians, the Etruscans and +the Scandinavians, and old Sclavonic heathen, and found in and between +and through them all a startling identity: everywhere the Serpent, +everywhere the Queen of Heaven with her child, everywhere the cup of +life and the bread and honey of the mysteries, with the salt of the +orgie, everywhere a thousand fibres twining and trailing into each other +in bewildering confusion, indicating a common origin, yet puzzling +beyond all hope those who seek to find it. So vast is the wealth of +material which opens on the scholar who seeks to investigate this common +origin of mythologies, and with them the possible early identity of +races and of languages, that he is almost certain to soon bury himself +in a hypothesis and become lost in some blind alley of the great +labyrinth. + +Certain points appear to have once existed in common to nations on every +part of the earth previous to authentic history, and in these America +had probably more or less her share, as appears from certain monuments +and relics of her early races. They are as follows:-- + +1. A worship of nature, based on the inscrutable mystery of generation +with birth and death. As these two extremes caused each other, they were +continually _identified_ in the religious myth or symbol employed to +represent either. + +2. This great principle of action, developing itself into birth and +death, was regarded as being symbolized in every natural object, and +corresponding with these there were created myths, or 'stories,' setting +forth the principal mystery of nature in a thousand poetic forms. + +3. The formula according to which all myths were shaped was that of +transition, or _the passing through_. The germ, in the mother or in the +plant, which after its sleep reappeared in life, was also recognized in +Spring, or Adonis, coming to light and warmth after the long death of +winter in the womb of the earth. The ark, which floats on the waters, +bearing within it the regenerator, signified the same; so did the cup or +horn into which the wine of life was poured and from which it was drunk; +so too did nuts, or any object capable of representing latent existence. +The passing into a cavern through a door between pillars or rocky +passes, or even the wearing of rings, all intimated the same +mystery--the going into and the coming forth into renewed life. + +4. But the great active principle which lay at the foundation of the +mystery of birth and death, or of action, was set forth by the +serpent--the type of good and evil, of life and destruction--the first +intelligence. It is the constant recurrence of this symbol among the +early monuments of America, as of the Old World, which proves most +conclusively the existence at one time of a common religion, or +'cultus.' It was probably meant to signify water from its wavy curves, +and the snake-like course of rivers, as inundation seems to have been, +according to early faith, the most prolific source of the destruction of +nature, and yet the most active in its revival. + +There are in Brittany vast lines of massy Druidic stones, piled +sometimes for leagues in regular order, in such a manner as to represent +colossal serpents. Those who will consult the French _Dracontia_ will be +astonished at the labor expended on these strange temples. Squier has +shown that the earth-works of the West represent precisely the same +symbol. Mexico and South America abound, like Europe and the East, in +serpent emblems; they twine around the gods; they are gods themselves; +they destroy as Typhon, and give life in the hands of Esculapius. + +In the United States, as in Europe and in the East, there are found in +steep places, by difficult paths, always near the banks of streams, +narrow, much-worn passages in rocks, through which one person[J] can +barely squeeze, and which were evidently not intended for ordinary +travel. The passing through these places was enjoined on religious +votaries, as indicating respect for the great principle of regeneration. +The peasants of Europe, here and there, at the present day, continue to +pass through these rock or cave doors, 'for luck.' It was usual, after +the transition, whether into a cave, where mysteries, feasts, and orgies +were held, significant of 'the revival,' or merely through a narrow +way,--to bathe in the invariably neighboring river; the serpent-river or +water which drowns organic life, yet without which it dies. + +In England, at a comparatively recent period, and even yet occasionally +in Scandinavia, the peasantry plighted their troth by passing their +hands through the hole in the 'Odin-stones,' and clasping them. Beads +and wedding rings and 'fairy-stones,' or those found with holes in them, +were all linked to the same faith which rendered sacred every +resemblance to the 'passing through.' The graves of both North and +South America contain abundant evidence of the sacredness in which the +same objects were held. I have a singularly-shaped soapstone ornament, +taken from an Indian grave, whose perforation indicates the +'fairy-stone.' The religious legends of Mexico and of Peru are too +identical with many of the Old World to be passed over as coincidences; +the gold images of Chiriqui, with their Baal bell-ringing figures, and +serpent-girt, pot-bellied phallic idols, are too strikingly like those +of _Old_ Ireland and of the East not to suggest some far-away common +origin. I have good authority for saying that almost every symbol, +whether of cup or dove, serpent or horn, flower or new moon, boat or +egg, common to Old World mythology, may be found set forth or preserved +with the emphasis of religious emblems in the graves or ruined temples +of ancient North America. + +The mass of evidence which has been accumulated by scholars illustrative +of a common origin of mythologies and a centralization of them around +the serpent; or, as G.S. Faber will have it, the Ark; or, as some think, +the heavenly bodies; or, as others claim, simply a worship of paternity +and maternity,--is immense. Why they should claim separate precedence +for symbols, all of which set forth the one great mystery how GOD +'weaves and works in action's storm,' is only explicable on the ground +that 'every scholar likes to have his own private little pet +hypothesis.' Enough, however, may be found to show that this stupendous +nature-worship _was_ held the world over,--_possibly_ in the days of a +single language,--in America as in ancient Italy, or around the sacred +mountain-crags of India; in Lebanon as in Ireland, in the garden-lands +of Assyria, and in the isles of the South. + +Yet all this is as yet, for the truly scientific ethnologist, only +half-fact, indefinite, belonging to the cloud-land of fable. The poet or +the thinker, yearning for a new basis of art, may find in the immense +mass of legends and symbols an identification between all the forms of +nature in a vast harmony and mutual reflection of every beautiful +object; but for the man of facts it is unformed, not arranged, useless. +We know not the color of the race or races which piled the Western +mounds; their languages are lost; they are vague mist-gods, living in a +dimmer medium than that of mere tradition. So ends the first period of +intercommunication between Asia--the probable birthplace of the old +mythology--and America. + + +II. THE CHINESE DISCOVERERS OF MEXICO IN THE FIFTH CENTURY. + +But there is a second link, ere we come to the Norsemen, which is strong +enough to merit the favorable consideration of the scientific man, for +it rests on evidence worthy serious investigation. I refer to the fact +that the Chinese-Annals, or Year Books,--which, according to good +authority, have been well kept, and which are certainly prosaic and +blue-bookish enough in their mass of dry details of embassies and +expenditures to be highly credible,--testify that in the fifth century +the Chinese learned the situation of the great peninsula Aliaska, which +they named Tahan, or Great China. Beyond this, at the end of the fifth +century,--be it observed that the advances in discovery correspond in +time in the records,--they discovered a land which Deguignes long after +identified with the north-west coast of America. With each discovery, +the people of these new lands were compelled, or were represented at +court as having been compelled, to send ambassadors wife tribute to the +Central Realm, or China. + +But there had been unofficial Chinese travelers in Western America, and +even in Mexico itself, before this time. Those who have examined the +history of that vast religious movement of Asia which, contemporary with +Christianity, shook the hoary faiths of the East, while a higher and +purer doctrine was overturning those of the West, are aware that it had +many external points or forms in common with those of the later Roman +church, which have long been a puzzle to the wise. To say nothing of +mitres, tapers, violet robes, rosaries, bells, convents, auricular +confession, and many other singular identities, the early Buddhist +church distinguished itself by a truly catholic zeal for the making of +converts, and, to effect this, sent its emissaries to Central Africa and +Central Russia; from the Sclavonian frontier on the west to China, +Japan, and the farthest Russian isles of the east. On they went; who +shall say where they paused? We know that there are at this day in St. +Petersburg certain books on black paper taken from a Buddhist temple +found in a remote northern corner of Russia. It was much less of an +undertaking, and much less singular, that Chinese priests should pass, +by short voyages, from island to island, almost over the proposed +Russian route for the Pacific telegraph to America. That they _did so_ +is explicitly stated in the Year Books, which contain details relative +to _Fusang_, or Mexico, where it is said of the inhabitants that 'in +earlier times these people lived not according to the laws of Buddha. +But it happened in the second "year-naming" "Great Light" of Song (A.D. +458), that five beggar monks, from the kingdom Kipin, went to this land, +extended over it the religion of Buddha, and with it his holy writings +and images. They instructed the people in the principles of monastic +life, and so changed their manners.' + +But I am anticipating my subject. In another chapter I propose, on the +authority of Professor Neumann, a learned Sinologist of Munich, to set +forth the proofs that in the last year of the fifth century a Buddhist +priest, bearing the cloister name of Hoei-schin, or Universal +Compassion, returned from America, and gave for the first time an +official account of the country which he had visited, which account was +recorded, and now remains as a simple fact among the annual registers of +the government. + +[TO BE CONTINUED.] + + * * * * * + +THE SPUR OF MONMOUTH. + + + 'Twas a little brass half-circlet, + Deep gnawed by rust and stain, + That the farmer's urchin brought me, + Plowed up on old Monmouth plain; + On that spot where the hot June sunshine + Once a fire more deadly knew, + And a bloodier color reddened + Where the red June roses blew;-- + + Where the moon of the early harvest + Looked down through the shimmering leaves, + And saw where the reaper of battle + Had gathered big human sheaves. + Old Monmouth, so touched with glory-- + So tinted with burning shame-- + As Washington's pride we remember, + Or Lee's long tarnished name. + + 'Twas a little brass half-circlet; + And knocking the rust away, + And clearing the ends and the middle + From their buried shroud of clay, + I saw, through the damp of ages + And the thick disfiguring grime, + The buckle-heads and the rowel + Of a spur of the olden time. + + And I said--what gallant horseman, + Who revels and rides no more, + Perhaps twenty years back, or fifty, + On his heel that weapon wore? + Was he riding away to his bridal, + When the leather snapped in twain? + Was he thrown and dragged by the stirrup, + With the rough stones crushing his brain? + + Then I thought of the Revolution, + Whose tide still onward rolls-- + Of the free and the fearless riders + Of the 'times that tried men's souls.' + What if, in the day of battle + That raged and rioted here, + It had dropped from the foot of a soldier, + As he rode in his mad career? + + What if it had ridden with Forman, + When he leaped through the open door, + With the British dragoon behind him, + In his race o'er the granary floor? + What if--but the brain grows dizzy + With the thoughts of the rusted spur; + What if it had fled with Clinton, + Or charged with Aaron Burr? + + But bravely the farmer's urchin + Had been scraping the rust away; + And cleansed from the soil that swathed it, + The spur before me lay. + Here are holes in the outer circle-- + No common heel it has known, + For each space, I see by the setting, + Once held some precious stone. + + And here--not far from the buckle-- + Do my eyes deceive their sight?-- + Two letters are here engraven, + That initial a hero's might! + 'G.W.'! Saints of heaven! + Can such things in our lives occur? + Do I grasp such a priceless treasure? + Was this _George Washington's spur_? + + Did the brave old _Pater Patrioe_ + Wear that spur like a belted knight-- + Wear it through gain and disaster, + From Cambridge to Monmouth flight? + Did it press his steed in hot anger + On Long Island's day of pain? + Did it drive him, at terrible Princeton, + 'Tween two storms of leaden rain? + + And here--did the buckle loosen, + And no eye look down to see, + When he rode to blast with the lightning + The shrinking eyes of Lee? + Did it fall, unfelt and unheeded, + When that fight of despair was won, + And Clinton, worn and discouraged, + Crept away at the set of sun? + + The lips have long been silent + That could send an answer back; + And the spur, all broken and rusted, + Has forgotten its rider's track! + I only know that the pulses + Leap hot, and the senses reel, + When I think that the Spur of Monmouth + May have clasped George Washington's heel! + + And if it be so, O Heaven, + That the nation's destiny holds, + And that maps the good and the evil + In the future's bewildering folds, + Send forth some man of the people, + Unspotted in heart and hand, + On his foot to buckle the relic, + And charge for a periled land! + + There is fire in our fathers' ashes; + There is life in the blood they shed; + And not a hair unheeded + Shall fall from the nation's head. + Old bones of the saints and the martyrs + Spring up at the church's call:-- + God grant that the Spur of Monmouth + Prove the mightiest relic of all! + + * * * * * + +THE FATAL MARRIAGE OF BILL THE SOUNDSER. + + +Reader, possibly you do not know what a 'Soundser' is. Then I will tell +you. In the coastwise part of the State of New Jersey in which I live, +numerous sounds and creeks everywhere divide and intersect the low, +sea-skirting lands, wherein certain people are wont to cruise and delve +for the sake of securing their products, and hence come to be known in +our homely style as Soundsers. The fruitage afforded by these sounds is +both manifold and of price. Throughout all the pleasant weather, they +yield, with but little intermission, that gastronomic gem, the terrapin; +the succulent, hard-shell clam, and the 'soft' crab; the deep-lurking, +snowy-fleshed hake, or king-fish; the huge, bell-voiced drum, and that +sheen-banded pride of American salt-water fishes, the sheepshead. During +the waning weeks of May, and also with the continuance of dog-days, this +already profuse bounty receives a goodly accession in the shape of vast +flocks of willets, curlews, gray-backs, and other marine birds, which, +with every ebb tide, resort to their shoaler bars and flats, to take on +those layers of fat which the similarly well-conditioned old gentleman +of the city finds so inexpressibly delicious. When the summer is once, +over, and while the cold weather prevails, they furnish another and +quite new set of dainties. Then the span-long, ripe, 'salt' oyster is to +be had for the raking of their more solidly-bottomed basins; and all +along their more retired nooks and harbors, the gunner, by taking proper +precautions, may bring to bag the somewhat 'sedgy' but still +well-flavored black duck, the tender widgeon, the buttery little +bufflehead, the incomparable canvas-back, and the loud-shrieking, +sharp-eyed wild goose. All this various booty is industriously secured +by the 'soundsers,' to find, ere long, a ready market in the larger +inland towns and cities. But united to this shooting, fishing, and +oyster-catching, they have another 'trade' whose scene is on the waters, +though it connects itself with the sea, rather than the sounds, and +_this_ is 'wrecking.' They are prompt for this service whenever the +occasion requires; indeed, I sometimes think they prefer it, dangerous +though it be, before all others. Inured as they are to every sort of +exposure, they are of course a tough and rugged race; and what with +their diversity of occupation, calling, as it does, for a constant +interchange of the use of the gun, net, boat, fishing line, and some one +or other arm or edge tool, they are usually, nay, almost invariably, +handy and quick-witted. + +By far the most notable 'soundser' our neighborhood ever bred was my +hero, BILL. Physically, at least, he was a true wonder. He stood full +six feet two, weighed eleven score pounds, and at the same time carried +no more flesh than sufficed to hide the exact outline of his bones. +Another man so strong as he I have never seen. I have repeatedly known +him to lift and walk off with anchors weighing five and six hundred +weight; and those big, thick hands of his could twist any horseshoe as +if it were a girl's wreath. Certainly he was not in the least graceful; +that 'ponderosity' of his could in no way be repressed. But he was still +of rude comeliness, his shape being squarely fitted and tolerably +proportioned, while his broad, red-maned visage wore a constant glow of +plain, though sincere, kindliness and good-humor. + +As his physical man was uncommon, so he had uncommon mental endowments. +He was the only 'soundser' I ever knew who understood farming. He had +inherited a farmstead of some twenty-five or thirty acres, and this he +soon had blooming as the rose. When occasion required, he wrought on +it, day and night. He divided it, with truest judgment, into proper +fields, experimented successfully with various kinds of novel manures +(most of which he obtained from the sea), grew stock, planted, in +rotation, and, with only here and there a sympathizer, gave in his full +adherence to the theory of root culture. And he was a mechanic. He could +build house or barn to the last beam, and ship or boat to the last +joint; nay, he once devised the model of a self-righting life-boat, +which I have often heard shipmasters, and even real shipwrights, descant +upon in the highest terms of praise. Moreover, I can affirm that he was +a navigator. It is true that the _science_ of seamanship, as set forth +in books, he had never mastered. But he knew right well what winds of a +certain force and direction foretold, what waves of a certain height and +aspect meant; and this knowledge, combined with a squint, now and then, +at his pocket compass, sufficed to enable him to take a vessel with +safety anywhere along our coast. + +But while my old pal showed high abilities in other arts, as a +'soundser' and wrecker he was not to be matched. He brought to the first +of these pursuits a clearness of observation which would have met the +approbation of many an acknowledged man of science. He knew every sort +of food which bird and fish fed upon, where it was to be found, and the +circumstances favorable to its production. He knew why the game resorted +to certain spots yesterday, and avoided them to-day; what +circumstances--and they are very many--impelled it to joyousness or +quietude; and what were most of its minor instincts. And all this was +done _thoroughly_, withal. There was no haphazard or uncertainty in any +of his conclusions. Taking thought of sundry conditions, he could tell +at any time when such a thing was applicable; how many sheepsheads one +could catch in the sounds; whether the _honk_ of the wild goose, flying +overhead, announced that he was on his way to a fresh-water pool or a +bar of gravel; whether the black ducks were cooling their thirsty +gizzards in a woodland pond, sitting scattered about the marshes, or +huddling together on the bosom of the sea. In a word, his mind had +gathered unto itself every law, of the least importance, affecting the +existence of such wild creatures about us as cost any pains to bring to +hand; and thus he was literally master over them, and held their lives +subject to his will. That this power was really surprising, will hardly +be disputed; and since we, his associates, could in no way possess +ourselves of the like, it passed among us for something almost +miraculous. + +Still, brilliant 'soundser' as old Bill was, he was far greater as a +wrecker; since I am now about to relate an occurrence in the line which +proves him a veritable hero. As is perfectly well known, our American +coast is often the scene of fearful storms, which deal out wide-spread +destruction to mariners. With us, these gales are commonest in February, +and hence this month is held in marked dread. Some years ago, in the +season referred to, a storm burst upon our shores, whose like only a few +of the older among us had ever known. After fitfully moaning from the +northward and eastward for a day or two, the wind, one morning, finally +settled due north-east,--thus sweeping directly upon the land,--and blew +a hurricane. It was excessively cold, too, yet not so cold but that a +fine, dry snow was falling, though from the fury of the wind this could +settle nowhere, but was driven, whirling and surging, before the blast +in dense clouds. In short, it was a time of truly unearthly wildness; +and our hearts sank the deeper in us, since we knew what ere long must +inevitably occur. At last, within an hour or two of nightfall, the sound +of a ship's bell, rung hurriedly, pealed towards us along the uproar of +the tempest, and by this we were made aware that a vessel had been +wrecked on a certain shoal rising up in the ocean, about two miles from +that part of the beach nearest our village. To go to the rescue of this +vessel, at this time, was absolutely impossible. For, to say nothing of +the wrath of the winds, the air was so thick with snow that, in the +speedily advancing hours of darkness, in which we should not fail to be +entrapped, we would be powerless to find our way at sea a foot. There +was no help for it; the poor victims of the shipwreck must that very +night know death in one or another most terrifying shape, 'if it was the +will of the Lord.' With this mournful conviction, about twenty of us +gathered at old Bill's house with the closing in of a darkness as of +Tartarus, and kept its watches. The anger of the storm abated in no way +whatever till morning, and then the sole change that took place was a +somewhat thinner aspect of the driving snow. Yet, even when this was +discerned, every man of us hastened to draw over his ordinary winter +garb an oil-cloth suit which enveloped him from head to foot, and +soberly announced himself ready to do his duty in the strait. That we +should be exposed to the greatest dangers was absolutely certain; and +whether a single survivor of the terrors of that awful night yet clung +to the few frail timbers in the sea, for us to rescue, none but Heaven +knew; still, the manhood of each demanded that what was possible to be +done in the matter we should at least attempt. + +And so we started; the leader being old Bill, who to some end, that I +could not then divine, bore a boat-sail bundled on his back. Our first +business was to make way to our surf or life boat. This lay about three +miles from the village, reckoning as the crow flies, and was sheltered +under a rude house which stood on the shores of a bay opening by an +inlet into the sea. Our common way of gaining this house was through a +circuitous passage of the sounds; but these we soon discovered, in +consonance with a previous prediction of old Bill's, were entirely +frozen over save in certain parts of their channels; and hence, this +route being unnavigable for such boats as were at hand, which, without +exception, were light gunning and fishing skiffs, we were forced to +avail ourselves of a barely practicable land track of which we knew, and +which, as it led about among the marshes, was also circuitous. And the +necessity of choosing this land path added to our difficulties, in that +we were forced to provide ourselves with a small batteau and drag it +behind us, to be able to cross many ditches and sloughs with which it +was barred, and which, particularly along their edges, were never really +frozen. After toiling and battling for a long period, and at the same +time having to face the most painfully cutting wind that burst +unobstructedly over the level area of the marshes, we at last reached +the house wherein the life-boat lay, and when old Bill had scrutinized +its oars, and stored it with a mingled collection of cordage, canvas and +spars, we ran it into the water. But now another trouble arose. The bay, +like the sounds of which indeed it formed a part, was covered with +ice,--either in solid sheets, or that thick slush, peculiar to ocean +estuaries, which is chiefly known as 'porridge ice,'--and, from its +comparative shallowness, covered so densely, too, that if we had trusted +to getting our boat out of it by sheer rowing, it would have taken us +the entire day so to do. In this emergency nothing would serve but that +we must advance bodily into the water, and, crushing and clearing away +the ice with our feet, drag the boat, in a depth at least sufficient for +her to float, to the entrance of the inlet, where the current ran so +strongly that no ice could gather. After a severely trying amount of +labor, this point was finally gained, and we stood fairly in front of +the tall, thundering breakers; whereupon each man nimbly jumped to his +place in the craft, that of steersman being the post of old Bill. + +As we gave way on our oars, we shot along the inlet without much +difficulty; and presently old Bill announced that, he caught a faint +sight of the wreck in the distance--to all appearance 'most all gone but +the hull.' But we had little or no opportunity to indulge in speculation +or remark on the discovery, for in a moment or two we began to oppose +the wildness of the open main, and the hour of our real trial set in. +For the first time we could now appreciate the full force of the gale. +Good Heavens, how it blew! The waters seemed alive and in direst +convulsion. Everywhere huge walls of breakers were constantly upheaved +to be felled and shattered with a roar as of some terrific cannonade; +while the air became the arena for a helter-skelter tossing of sheets of +spray, clots of froth, and spirts of brine, which plentifully assailed +our poor boat in their madness, and, besides partially filling her with +slush, encased every man in a complete coating of ice. If our craft had +not been modeled with the very highest degree of skill, and if our +steersman had not been one of a thousand, we could have made no headway +at all in this appalling tumult. As it was, our advance was of the +weakest, and its success seemed very doubtful, let our efforts be what +they might. Not but what we could sufficiently hold our own in the swirl +of the vanquished waves; but when they swooped upon us in their full +stature, they not only sent the boat back as if she had been a mere +feather, but with a second's awkwardness on the part of old Bill they +would have flung her clean over from stem to stern, and our places among +the living would have been vacant. Having strained every nerve for +nearly two hours, we were still but part way through the breakers, while +some of the men began to complain of fatigue; with which old Bill seized +a favorable opportunity to put the boat about, and we were swept ashore +on the beach as in the twinkling of an eye. Here, we secured our boat by +hauling her high and dry on the strand; freed her from the slush and +water which had gained in her bottom; and then retired to the leeward of +a range of sand hills near by, to recruit our energies. + +With full leisure to ponder over the difficulties confronting our +expedition, some few of the crew now began to 'speak it foully,' and +even to emit gruff proposals to return homewards. But to these waverers +old Bill at once administered the sternest rebuke; and, as they at last +held their peace, he averred with a gay smile (for he dearly loved the +presence of danger, and could never be brought to look on it other than +as a rough sort of irresponsible horse-play, over which he was sure in +one way or another to gain the mastery), that he had now weighed all the +conditions of the pass, and that the next time we attempted it we should +assuredly prevail. This assertion, coming from such a source, encouraged +one and all very greatly; and ere long we cheerfully launched our boat +once more, and again began to tug at the quivering oars. In a very +little while it became apparent enough that the tactics that Bill +intended to adopt in our present venture were very different from those +put in practice with the last. Instead of boldly facing the breakers as +he had heretofore done, he now began his maneuvering by laying us +directly in the trough of the sea,--planting the boat a little +crosswise, however, so as to prevent an untoward swell from riding over +her side and thus filling her,--and the instant he saw an advancing +breaker beginning to fracture, as a prelude to its downfall and +destruction, he boldly sped us, when the thing was at all practicable, +straight in the teeth of the gap, and as it proceeded to widen, we shot +through it, with the surf leaping and tossing on either hand high above +our heads. This stroke could have been possible only to a steersman +possessed of herculean strength, combined with the rarest daring and +coolness; and, as the result of these qualities, it was exceedingly +effective. It lessened the danger of our being capsized almost entirely. +Indeed, the sole mishap that was threatened by so doing, was the +liability to being swamped by the falling fragments of the breakers; +but this peril old Bill declared we might safely trust he would also +avert. It being the nature of humanity to experience a mood of high +exaltation with the surmounting of any serious obstacle, we now worked +our way with minds light and cheery, and with all thoughts of anything +like fatigue completely forgotten. Though our course was on the whole a +zigzag one, and though we certainly met with one or two serious rebuffs, +we were constantly gaining headway, and in something over an hour forced +the last line of the breakers, and stemmed what on ordinary occasions +would have been simply the blue body of the Atlantic. But even here a +huge commotion was reigning, though our progress was far less tedious +than it had previously been; and with about another hour's labor we were +alongside the wreck, and had climbed to her deck. + +The plight of the vessel was mournful enough. She had evidently been +built for a three-masted schooner, but, as Bill had observed when he +first obtained a view of her, everything about her was well-nigh gone +save her hull. Her bulwarks had been thoroughly crushed, and so the sea +had successively torn away her boats, shivered her galley and +wheelhouse, and filled her cabin and hold. Her masts were also +destroyed, the fore and mizzen masts being carried away from their +steppings, and the main-mast broken completely in twain just above the +cross-trees. But a sight still more desolate, as well as harrowing, yet +awaited us, as, in overhauling the sail-encumbered shrouds of the +partially standing mast, we discovered several ice-bound figures rigidly +hanging therein, which, being cut away and lowered to our boat, proved +to be the body of a negro perfectly stark and dead, and three most +pitiable white sailors, whose life was so far extinguished that they +could neither move hand nor foot, nor utter more than the feeblest +moans. + +When we had covered the face of the dead and sheltered the well-nigh +dead as best we could in the bottom of our boat, of course our chief +thought was to return to the shore as swiftly as possible. But on this +head there was no call to entertain the smallest solicitude; for after +old Bill, from a motive that we could not yet name, had 'stepped' a mast +through one of the foremost thwarts of the boat, and rigged a sail all +ready to be spread, we cast off from the wreck, and presently, dropping +into the full strength of the wind, were swept onward like an arrow, +with scarce the least use of any other oar than that in the hands of our +stalwart steersman. Speedily crossing the outer waters, we leaped and +bounded over the breakers; and when old Bill, as we were rushing along +the inlet, gave orders for the hoisting of the sail, we not only +hastened to obey him, but immediately saw an all-important reason for +the command. For we were now about entering the ice of the sounds; and +as the boat flew in its midst, her stiff, tight sail drove her through +the stubborn obstruction as easily and in much the same manner as the +steam plow rips up the matted bosom of the prairies. In due season we +reached the landing where we usually disembarked from the sounds, and +where we found a wagon awaiting us, to which we bore our sad freightage, +and led the way for old Bill's house. On arriving, we laid the corpse in +an outbuilding and carried the sailors into a bedroom. But what was to +be next done? To tell the truth, most of us knew no more than so many +children. But here our leader again showed his knowledge. Strongly +condemning the lighting of a fire in the apartment,--which some one was +about to do,--he set us busily at work bringing him a good supply of +tubs, and buckets of cold water, into which he dipped the naked persons +of the sufferers; and as this treatment, combined with a patient, gentle +chafing, which was also administered, at last restored the flow of their +vital forces, he gave them a few spoonfuls of broth apiece, and, while +they looked a gratefulness they could nowise express, lifted them like +babes with his giant arms to warm beds, where they fell into what was +at first a fitful, broken slumber, but finally a childlike, placid +sleep. They were saved! + +If the reader is now curious to know why a man like old Bill was not a +patrician and captain in the campaign of life, rather than the mere +private and plebeian he was, I can answer that there were several things +which impeded that consummation. His character, though of wonderful +height and force in some respects, was, after all, without true +discipline, and presented many glaring incongruities. Thus, whatever he +had of what could really be named ambition was satisfied when he had +surprised us 'soundsers;' and our praise--and we lavished it upon him in +full measure, as we knew he liked it--was all the praise he seemed to +desire. Then, he was altogether one of us in his notions of pleasure and +recreation. Like the rest of us, he cordially appreciated the sparkling +product of the New England distilleries, and far more than any of us--to +such a pitch did his animal spirits rule--he relished our broad sea-side +jokes and songs, and as well our rattling jigs and hornpipes. As for +others attempting to elevate him to a more exalted station, the thing +was simply impossible. When led of his own accord to seek other society +than ours, he could by no means content himself with the companionship +of staid practical persons, who on account of his latent worth would +have readily countenanced, and with the least opportunity even served +him, but he invariably paid his court to adventurers; such creatures, +for instance, as seedy 'professors' of one kind or another, who, in the +inevitable shawl and threadbare suit of black, were constantly +dismounting at the village tavern, with proposals either to 'lecture' on +something, or 'teach' somewhat, as the case might happen to be, and who, +having no affinity whatever with the brawny, awkward Viking who fondly +hung on their shabby-genteel skirts, amused themselves at his greenness, +or pooh-pooh'd him altogether, as they saw fit. And when, as it not +unfrequently happened, official and influential individuals at a +distance were moved by the story of his renown to pay him their respects +in person, and listen courteously and gravely to his opinions, his +discrimination stood him in no better stead, for as soon as he possibly +could he bent the conference towards a sailor's revel, and astonished +his stately visitants by singing the spiciest songs, and sometimes even +by a Terpsichorean display in full costume; for he was excessively proud +of his accomplishments in this line, and implicitly believed that the +shaking of his elephantine limbs, and the whirling of his broad, +coatless flanks, formed a spectacle so tasteful and entertaining, that +no one could fail to enjoy it to the utmost. Assuredly I have now said +enough as to old Bill's incapacities for a grander role in life. In +reality that part of a lofty manhood to which he at first sight seemed +fitted, was not his; for, properly speaking, he was not an actual man, +but a boy--a grand and glorious boy, if you will, but yet a very boy; +and at length he met the fate of a boy, as we shall learn. + +Once more we were engaged upon a wreck. But this time it was in no +hyperborean tempest that we were called forth, but when the very +sweetest airs of June were blowing. The case demanding our aid was that +of a wrecking schooner which had gaily left her moorings in New York +harbor to pick up a summer's living along the coast, but had +inadvertently cut up some of her capers rather too near our beach, and +so with one fine ebb tide found herself stranded. As it was an instance +of sickness in the regularly graduated and scientific college itself, +our whole shore was intensely 'tickled' at the accident. And again, as +this doctress, like many another ailing leech, was quite incapable of +curing her own suffering, her toddy-blossom-faced bully of a New York +captain was pleased to salute old Bill with cup high in air, and beg +that he would take a sufficient force and heave the distressed craft +into deep water. Thus a crew of us were called together and set to work +at the vessel. As the weather was so warm and beautiful, and as bed and +board were at this time to be had on the beach, we agreed among us that +our convenience would be the better served by taking up our temporary +quarters near the scene of our labors. Now, the place where we were +offered the necessary accommodation consisted of an ancient plank-built +tenement, which stood behind a sand-ridge that a far younger Atlantic +than ours had piled up, and then, retreating, abandoned. In winter this +rude domicile was bare and tenantless; but in the summer months it was +usually occupied by some thriftless gammer or gaffer from the main-land, +who, having stocked it with a few of the coarsest household goods, and +whatever provisions came to hand, offered entertainment to such wreckers +and 'soundsers' as happened to be in its vicinity. The present incumbent +of the hostel was a woman, claiming to be a widow, of the name of Rose; +bearing in most respects no resemblance whatever to any of her +predecessors. Where she was born, or had hitherto resided, none of us +knew: all that gossip could, gather was that she had unexpectedly +descended from a passing vessel with her effects and entered directly +the abandoned house. When questioned as to the scene of her earlier +life, she vaguely gave answer that she had disported herself largely in +'Philadelphy;' but as no 'Philadelphy' woman that ever walked through a +doorway was or is able to compound a chowder or bake a clam pie worthy +of the name, and as Madame Rose understood how to prepare both these +luxuries to a charm, her statement must have been false; she was, +undoubtedly, a 'coast-wise' lady, and one who knew who Jack was as well +as he himself did. Her appearance was, on the whole, agreeable. She was +tall, slender, of regular features, and, though indisputably on the +shady side of forty, was still free from any signs that would proclaim +her charms to be on the wane. I remember in particular that she had +long, white and regular teeth, thereby strongly contrasting with our +native women, who as a rule lose their teeth early. Her manners were +very novel to us. She was invariably of a simpering, ducking turn, and +interlarded her curt speech with curiously hard words. In dress she +carried matters with an incomparably high hand. She wore hoops 'all day +long,'--a freak then never even so much as thought of in our +village,--adorned her fingers with many rings, and her throat with large +florid brooches, and in the evening, after having brought her household +duties to a close, sat here or there with her sewing, in silks (though +perhaps not of the newest), or other highly-civilized stuffs. + +Most of our crew regarded their hostess with greatly mingled feelings; +but old Bill entertained but one sentiment for her,--that of unqualified +admiration. As we only 'wrought' at the stranded schooner on the high +water,--some five hours out of the twenty-four,--he had plenty of +opportunity to dangle after his dearie, and did so unremittingly. While +the rest of us were either napping, dancing the lively 'straight four,' +hunting herns' eggs among the sand-hills, and so on, according to our +inclination, he, in far more romantic mood, seized all possible +opportunities to quickly gather fire-wood for his charmer, fill her +tea-kettle, open whatever clams and oysters she was about to cook, and, +above all, to recount for her delight one of those inimitable yarns of +his, at whose points he himself was sure to laugh till the rafters of +the house shook and the plates in the dresser rattled again. But this +was merely the first stage of his passion. Before long, as is not +unusual in such cases, it took another and more bodeful turn. That +inextinguishable laughter of his was heard no more, or at best gave +place to a feeble tittering; his stories dropped from his lips with but +flat pungency; and instead of performing his lady-love's 'chores' with a +mirthful readiness, he went through them in a heartsick way, the while +directing towards her furtive looks of supplication. The true state of +matters was now obvious to all Old Bill was another fatally-stricken +victim of that spooney archer-boy who next to death holds dominion over +men; and with his case, thus momentous, we could but feel a renewed +interest in his behalf, and busy our tongues about him. I, for my part, +thought that as he was a widower, and needful of a wife to comfort him +in his advancing age, and that as the present object of his affections, +if not a highly 'forcible' woman, seemed at all events to be one of whom +no great harm was to be feared, there could be no valid objection to his +being joined to her; particularly if nothing was divulged proving her to +be other than what she seemed. But this view I found to be on the whole +unacceptable to my auditory. Almost to a man they condemned the +propriety of the match. It could not actually be said that they disliked +Mrs. Hose, but they were jealous of her, as, in her manner and style of +array, she considerably dimmed the lustre of their own women; and they +distrusted her as she was a stranger; it being a marked habit with most +of our folks to distrust all strangers save those from whom they expect +pecuniary awards. But meanwhile, notwithstanding this criticism, the +little idyl in our midst was developing itself apace. On the afternoon +of one beautiful Sunday, a day in which we of course ordinarily did no +work, when the dinner-table had been well cleared away, what should we +see but old Bill swinging forth with his sailor gait from the house, and +arrayed as jauntily as his check shirt and pea-jacket (his only suit of +apparel at hand) would permit, to be speedily followed by Mrs. Rose, who +with one set of finger-tips held up the light folds of a sweetly blue +lawn skirt, and with the other bore aslant before her a bewitching pink +parasol. Undoubtedly there was a great indulgence in sly winks and +suppressed titterings on the part of such of us as chanced to be +witnesses of this at once festal and sentimental sally; but the twain +heeded naught whatsoever of these manifestations, but struck off along +the snow-white strand where the sea was droning its hymn so lazily that +it would have inevitably put itself to sleep, if the fish-hawks had not +so continually disturbed it by mischievously diving headlong into its +bosom. At last they returned again; and we soon became aware that the +stroll had not been without great results to both; since Mrs. Rose +affected to be laboring under a high degree of emotion, and retired to +the privacy of her apartment, while old Bill was by no means the +dolorous swain of a few hours before, but, making his way among us, with +his wide mouth stretching its best, proceeded formally to shake hands +with one and all as though he had finally got back from a long and +arduous voyage; and then, merrily calling for a certain brown jug which +was among our stores, removed the corn-cob which served as a cork, and +having wetted his great heart with a draught which I have no doubt +measured a full pint, fell, entirely regardless of the day, to +performing his most spirited hoe-down, while the most of us looked on +with a mirth that knew no bounds. + +Yes, old Bill was now 'a happy man,' Mrs. Rose could but accept such a +suitor as he, if but from the fact that; his ardor and his pain were of +the freshest complexion, and of an amplitude fully proportioned to that +of his extraordinary physical bulk. As we tendered him our +congratulations upon his happy state, he received the courtesy with +extreme complacency. But, to tell the truth, those who did thus +congratulate him were but few. Most of the men remained of their old +mind as to the proposed match; indeed, I ere long found that they looked +upon it with less favor than ever. It appeared that they had been +inflamed with a rumor that Mrs. Rose intended to beguile her adorer to a +foreign shore, where a scion or two of her brilliant house found happy +sustenance; and that nothing but evil could accrue from such an act, was +of course as clear as noonday. Now, when I came to trace this rumor to +its source, I became apprised that it owed its publicity to an old man +of our number known by the nickname of 'Mister,' who was remarkable for +a rare amount of credulity, self-conceit, and obstinacy, and at the same +time for being the invariable butt of his company. This wiseacre averred +that he had succeeded in wringing from Mrs. Rose the confession that +directly she and old Bill were made man and wife, they were to depart +for Hatteras Inlet, on the coast of North Carolina, where the lady gay +possessed 'relations;' and this narrative, wofully muttered about among +our crew, and accompanied with a due amount of sighs and head-shakings, +had depressed them most fearfully, not withstanding the character of the +narrator. + +The fact of the matter was, that most of the men were actually desirous +that a betrothal, contracted directly in the face of public opinion, and +without the smallest deference to anybody, as that of old Bill and Mrs. +Rose had been, should come to some kind of grief or other, and they were +fain to believe that it would do so. As for me, I was without true +concern on the subject, as I had ever been. If it should indeed fall out +that old Bill was to take a trip to Hatteras with his bride, I was +convinced that he would enjoy himself famously among the great abundance +of fish and game said to abound in that place, and that in the end he +would return to us again, to rule over us in greater splendor than ever; +as for his sweetheart or any of her like doing him any actual injury, +the idea seemed so preposterous to me, that whenever an opportunity +presented itself I did not fail to ridicule it to the utmost. Still, in +order to do my whole duty in the matter, I hastened to impress old Bill +with the importance of his becoming acquainted with the antecedents of +his lady-love, and thus saving himself from the possibility of a +misstep. But this counsel did no farther good than to bring a clouded +brow to my dear old friend, and so I did not persist in it. Indeed, we +communed together but little more in any way; for very shortly after he +resigned his place as our 'boss,' and left post-haste for the main-land. +Here, as was revealed to me in due season, he amazed the neighborhood by +incontinently renting his farmstead to a son with whom he had been on +indifferent terms for years; dispatching his daughter, who had +heretofore acted as his housekeeper, off to a distant town to become an +apprentice to a milliner's trade; and stowing his clothes and a shot-bag +of hard money which he was known to possess into a sailor's chest, with +which, together with his gun and a Methodist preacher, he again hurried +off for the asylum of his beloved. Arrived once more in the witching +presence, he waited till evening (yet how he was constrained so to do is +more than I can tell), and then, as we made it a duty to be gathered +about him once more, the wedding took place. + +The occasion was one of such interest, that the preacher could but make +the most of it. After the nuptial benediction had been pronounced, he +straightway launched forth into a homily of such graciousness and force, +that but few of us missed being forcibly wrought upon, while Mrs. Rose +was stirred apparently to the depths of her being. On the day succeeding +the marriage, our light-hearted Benedict abandoned himself to another +jollification. But the next morning, a schooner headed in towards the +beach, and, slackening the peaks of her sails, sent ashore a yawl, whose +crew saluted Mrs. Rose as an old and familiar friend, and with whose +apparition, without the least regard as to what shift we wreckers were +to make, a great packing was begun in the house. Bedsteads were taken +down, beds were bundled up in sheets, crockery was thrust away in +barrels, and all borne one after the other to the yawl, where the bride, +with her potent parasol full spread, and pretending to shudder at the +sight of the gently heaving breakers through which she was soon to pass, +mincingly threw herself in the thick of the luggage, and old Bill +mounted the stern, with his huge palm extended for a good-by shake. +'Good-by, old chap,' said I, as I took his hand the last of all, +'good-by! You're not half mean enough to stay away from us forever; so +in the meantime do your best to show the Hatteras boys what a nice thing +it is to be somebody in the world!' And thus the boat put off, and, +reaching the schooner in a few moments, was hoisted to her decks. In a +few moments more the vessel had reset her sails, and, with a free wind, +bore straight to the southward out of sight. + +Now comes the singular part of my story. In a few weeks from the time of +their sailing, we heard that old Bill and his wife had safely landed at +Hatteras Inlet, and rented a small house on one of the beaches there, +with the intention of opening a kind of tavern; but no sooner were they +fairly settled in their new abode than old Bill was found one morning +_dead in his bed_, with evident signs of having met with foul play; +though what kind of death these indications pointed at was very +uncertain. + +The closest and shrewdest investigation failed to attach a well-grounded +suspicion to any one. Poor Bill was dead--and nothing more was ever +known. Singular enough, the conduct of his widow was such as to entirely +avert even from her enemies hints of complicity in the crime,--if crime +there was,--though none doubted that there had been a murder, and that +murder in a few attendant circumstances seemed to indicate female aid. +Shortly after this catastrophe, Madame Rose made 'a vendue' of her +deceased husband's gun and apparel, packed up her own worldly goods, and +vanished, to be heard of no more. + +And so our shore lost its best 'soundser'--a man of mark in his way, +great of frame and heart, and one long to be recalled in our humble +annals of wrecking and of sport. He was one of those vigorous +out-croppings of sturdy Northern physique recalling in minute detail the +stories told of those giant children, the Vikings and Goths of the +fighting ages, and which the blood, though as healthy as ever,--witness +the glorious exploits of our soldiers even as I write,--produces less +frequently in these days of culture. Such as I have described was the +character of Bill the Soundser, and such was literally and truly his +mysterious death. + + * * * * * + +COLUMBIA TO BRITANNIA. + +VIA SHAKSPEARE. + + + Thou cold-blooded slave, + Hast thou not spoke like thunder on my side? + Been sworn my soldier? bidding me depend + Upon thy stars, thy fortune, and thy strength? + And dost thou now fall over to my foes, + And wear a lion's hide? Doff it for shame, + And hang a calf's skin on those recreant limbs. + +KING JOHN, III. 1. + + * * * * * + +GENERAL LYON. + + +To-day all the Northland shouts for joy, flashes its announcements of +victory along myriad leagues of wire, hurls them from grim cannon mouths +out over broad bays till the seas tremble with sympathy, huzzas in the +streets, flames in bonfires, would even clash the clouds together and +streak the heavens with lightning--and for what? The flag waves again in +Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, and the cause is safe! _The +cause_--have we all learned what that means, brother Americans? +Something broader than mere Union, the pass-word of so many thousands to +suffering and death, something more than the freedom of the press and +the ballot-box. It means Progress; and until we acknowledge this, all +freedom is a vast injustice, luring men on to Beulahs which Fate--the +fate they worship--will never have them reach. It would be little enough +to regain our foothold upon Southern territory, or repossess Southern +forts, even if forts and territory have been wrested from us by treason +and perjury, if with every mile of advance we did not gain a stronghold +of principle. We are not straining every nerve, struggling under immense +financial burdens, wrenching away tender household ties, sacrificing +cheerfully and eagerly private interests, brilliant prospects, and high +hopes, only to prove that twenty millions of men are physically stronger +than twelve. God forbid! This is no latter-day Olympic game, whoso +victors are to be rewarded with the applause of a party or a generation. +All the dead heroes and martyrs of the past will crowd forward to offer +their unheard thanks; all the years to come will embalm with blessings +the memory of the patriots who open the door to wide advancement, +prosperous growth, and high activity of a universal intelligence. + +And among these brave men, whom the world shall delight to honor, let +our deepest grief and our justest pride be for LYON. We have given his +honest life too little notice;--this man whose sincerity was equalled +only by his zeal; who, in a rarely surpassed spirit of self-abnegation, +was content to lie down and die in the first heat of the great conflict, +and to leave behind for more favored comrades the triumphal arches and +rose-strewn paths of victory. The world has known no truer martyr than +he who fell at Wilson's Creek, August 10th, 1861. + +'The history of every man paints his character,' says Goethe; and scanty +and imperfect as are the recorded details of General Lyon's life, enough +is known to prove him to have been high-minded and brave as a soldier, +with a perseverance and a penetration that analyzed at once the +platforms of contending factions, and read in their elements the +principles which are to govern the future of our nation. + +He came of the stout Knowlton stock of Connecticut, a family of whom +more than one served England in the old French war, and afterward +distinguished themselves against her in the Revolution. We hear of the +gallant Captain Knowlton at Bunker Hill, throwing up, in default of +cotton, the breastwork of hay, which proved such an efficient protection +to the provincials during the battle. Once more he appears as colonel, +at Harlem Plains, rushing with his Rangers ('Congress' Own') upon the +enemy on the Plains, and, cut off shortly from retreat by +reinforcements, fighting bravely between the foes before and their +reserves behind, and, falling at last, borne away by sorrowing comrades, +and buried at sunset within the embankments. 'A brave man,' wrote +Washington, 'who would have been an honor to any country.' With the +memory of such a hero engrafted upon his earliest childhood, we can not +wonder at the bent of the boy Lyon's inclinations. 'Daring and +resolute, and wonderfully attached to his mother,' it is easy to +imagine what lessons of endurance and decision he learned from her, +whose just inheritance was the stout-hearted patriotism that had +flowered into valorous deeds in her kindred, and was destined to live +again in her son. It was, an ordinary childhood, and a busy, uneventful +youth, passed for the most part in the old red farm-house nestled +between two rocky hills near Eastport, where he was born. In 1837 he +entered the Military Academy at West Point, and was a graduate, with +distinction, four years later. Of the years immediately following, we +have little information; but we can fancy the young soldier laying, in +his obscurity, the foundation for that practical military knowledge +which so eminently distinguished his late brilliant career. During his +years of service in the Everglades of Florida, and on our Western +frontier, he had ample opportunity to gain a thorough insight into his +profession. + +He first appears in the history of the country in the Mexican war, is +present at the bombardment of Vera Cruz, dashes after the enemy at Cerro +Gordo, capturing on the crest of the hill a battery which he turns upon +the discomfited foe. At Contreras his command proves as impenetrable as +a phalanx of Alexander; and when at last the victorious Americans fight +their way into Mexico, the city of fabulous treasures and associations +well-nigh classical, for the first time he receives a wound. He was +breveted captain for his gallantry at Cherubusco, and at the end of the +war received the rank of full captain, and was ordered with his regiment +to California. No appointment could have been more felicitous. In the +guerilla mode of warfare demanded by the peculiar nature of the country +and its inhabitants, his habits of quick decision, and the experience of +a war with an enemy equally unscrupulous though less undisciplined, were +absolutely invaluable. Here was no scope for the conception and +excitation of deep-laid schemes; the movements of the enemy were too +rapid. Plans that would elsewhere have been matured only in the process +of a long campaign, were here often originated and completed in a single +night. Simple strategy was of more avail than the most intricate display +of military science, and the impulse of a moment more to be relied upon +than the prudent forethought of a month. He had to combat, in the +newly-acquired territory, the cunning of tribes whose natural ferocity +was sharpened into vindictiveness by the encroachments upon their soil +of a new and strange people; and every association with the intruders, +who were for the most part men of little reputation and less principle, +had developed in the Indians only the fiercest and most decided +animosity. To encounter their vigilance with watchfulness as alert, to +confound their swift counsels with sudden alarm, to penetrate their +ambuscades and anticipate their cunning with incessant activity, to be, +in short, ubiquitous, was the duty of Captain Lyon. + +After years spent in the uncertain tactics of this half barbaric +warfare, he was removed, in the height of political strife in Kansas, to +its very centre. Here, while comparatively free from the wearisome +requirements of active service such as had been demanded in California, +and at a time when events the most portentous proved clearly to the +great minds of the country the advance of a political crisis whose +consequences must be most important, involving--should deep-laid +conspiracy be successful--the bankruptcy of principle and that +high-handed outrage, the triumph, of a minority,--Captain Lyon had full +liberty and abundant opportunity to settle for himself the great +questions mooted in the Missouri Compromises, the Lecompton +Constitutions and the Dred Scott decisions of the day. To a mind +unprejudiced, except as the honest impulses of every honest man's heart +are always prejudiced in favor of the right, there was but a single +decision. Disgusted with the heartless policy which democracy had for so +many years pursued, and which now threatened to culminate either in its +utter degradation at the North, or in the establishment in the South of +an oligarchy which would annihilate all free action and suppress all +free opinion, he severed his connection with that party,--a step to +which he was also impelled by the injustice that was then seeking to +force upon the people of Kansas an institution which they condemned as +unproductive and expensive, to say nothing of their moral repugnance to +the very A B C of its principles. It was at this time that Captain Lyon +contributed to the _Manhattan Express_, a weekly journal of the +neighborhood, a series of papers in which he took an earnest, manly and +decided stand in favor of the principles which his thoughtful mind +recognized as alone 'reliable,' and harmonious with the grand design and +end of the great Republic of the West. To these articles we shall +hereafter refer, at present hastening through the career, so striking +and so sad, which a few brief months cut short, leaving only the memory +of General Lyon as a legacy to the country his single aim and wise +counsels would have saved. + +The guns of Fort Sumter had flashed along our coast an appeal whose +force no words can ever compute. The days had been busy with the +assembling of armies, the nights restless with their solemn marches, and +forge and factory rang with the strokes of the hammer and the whirr of +flying shafts, whose echoes seemed measured to the air of some new +Marseillaise. From our homes rushed forth sons, husbands, brothers, +fathers, followed by the prayers and blessings of dear women, who +yielded them early but willingly to their country. And while regiments +clustered along the Potomac, and Washington lay entrenched behind white +lines of tents, we find our soldier, fresh from Kansas strifes, in +command of the United States Arsenal at St. Louis; and to his prompt +action and decided measures at this important juncture the early success +of the Union cause in Missouri is to be attributed. For a time St. Louis +was the theatre of action. The police commissioners, backed by Governor +and Legislature, in the demanded the removal of the Union troops from +the grounds of the arsenal, claiming it as the exclusive property of the +State, and asserting that the authority usurped by the general +government as but a partial sovereignty, and limited to the occupation, +for purposes exclusively military, of the certain tracts of land now +pending in this novel court of chancery. This highly enigmatical +exposition of State rights, pompous and inflated though it was, failed +to convince or convert Captain Lyon, who, being unable to detect, in his +occupancy of the arsenal, any exaggeration of the rights vested by the +Constitution in the general government, declined to abandon his post, +and proceeded to call out the Home Guard, then awaiting the arrival of +General Harney, and temporarily under his command. His little army of +ten thousand men was then drawn up upon the heights commanding Camp +Jackson, then occupied by the Missouri militia under Col. Frost, whoso +command had been increased by the addition of numerous individuals of +avowed secession principles. Uninfluenced by the reception of a note +from this officer asserting his integrity and his purpose to defend the +property of the United States, and disavowing all intention hostile to +the force at the arsenal, Captain Lyon replied by a peremptory summons +for an unconditional surrender. He found it incredible that a body +assembled at the instigation of a traitorous governor, and acting under +his instructions and according to the 'unparalleled legislation' of a +traitorous legislature, receiving under the flag of the Confederate +States munitions of war but lately the acknowledged property of the +general government, could have any other than the as most unfriendly +designs upon its enemies. The force of Camp Jackson (which +notwithstanding its professed character, boasted its streets Beauregard +and Davis) being numerically inferior, and perhaps not entirely prepared +to do battle for a cause whose legitimacy must still have been a +question with many of them, decided, after a council of war, to comply +with the demands of Capt. Lyon, and became his prisoners. A few days +afterward General Harney arrived, and Captain Lyon was elected Brigadier +General by the 1st Brigade Missouri Volunteers. + +Convinced of the imminence of the crisis and the peril of delay, Gen. +Lyon immediately commenced active operations against the secessionists +at Potosi, and ordered the seizure of the steamer which had supplied the +offensive army with material of war from the United States property at +Baton Rouge. In the meantime, Gen. Harney, with a culpable blindness, +had made an extraordinary arrangement with Gen. Price, by which he +pledged himself to desist from military movements so long as the command +of Gen. Price was able to preserve order in the State. Upon his removal +by the authorities at Washington, nine days later, Gen. Lyon was left in +command of the department. At this time the rebel general took occasion, +in a proclamation to the people of Missouri, to feel assured that 'the +successor of Gen. Harney would certainly consider himself and his +government in honor bound to carry out this agreement (the Harney-Price) +in good faith.' But his assurance was without foundation. The temper of +the new commander had been tried in the Camp Jackson affair, and an +interview between Price, Jackson and other prominent secessionists and +Gen. Lyon, resulted, after a few hours' consultation, in the declaration +of the Union general that the authority of his government would be +upheld at any cost and its property protected at all hazards. Three days +later, Jackson fled to Booneville, fearing an attack upon Jefferson +City, which was immediately occupied by Gen. Lyon, who was received with +acclamation by the citizens. Unwilling to grant by delay what he had +refused to an underhand diplomacy,--opportunity to the enemy to possess +the government property, or entrench themselves strongly in their new +quarters,--the general, with characteristic promptness, ordered an +advance upon Booneville. The rebel force was stationed above Rockport, +but retreated, after a skirmish which did not assume the proportions of +a battle; and the Union army, two thousand strong, entered the town, +where the national colors and the welcomes of the inhabitants testified +their joy at the change. + +The army of General Lyon, amounting at one time to ten thousand, had +decreased by the first of August--the term of enlistment of many of the +soldiers having expired--to six thousand; and it was with this number +that, having swept the south-west, and believing the enemy intended to +attack him at Springfield, he advanced to meet them at Dug Springs. The +army of the enemy was larger and their position a strong one, but they +were unable to hold it, and, after a sharp skirmish, fled in disorder, +while Gen. Lyon continued his march toward Springfield. His situation +had now become a critical one. The reinforcements for which he had +telegraphed in vain, and in vain sent messengers to entreat from the +chief of the department, Gen. Fremont, then in St. Louis, did not +arrive. His army was subsisting on half rations, and wearied with +exhausting marches over the uneven country in the extreme heat of +midsummer. And now, for the first time, hope seemed to desert the +general. Under his direction the cause had hitherto triumphed in +Missouri. Now, with zeal unabated and courage unflinching, he must fall +before the enemy he had so successfully opposed, or retreat where +retreat was disaster, disgrace, and defeat. No wonder that, as from day +to day he looked for the expected aid as men in drought for the clouds +that are to bless them, he grew restless and perplexed and despairing; +no wonder that the face that had never before worn the lines of +indecision, should now lose its accustomed cheerfulness and glance of +calm purpose, and challenge sympathy and pity for the heart that had +never before asked more than admiration and respect. He felt that the +hour had its demands, and that they must be met. Action, even in the +face of disaster, was less a defeat than an inglorious retirement. The +public, surely unaware of the fearful odds against him, clamored for an +engagement; the State expected it of its hero; the government awaited +it, and with a brave heart, but no hope, Gen. Lyon prepared for the +attack. The result all the world knows. Was it a victory where the +conquerors were obliged to retire from the field, and carry out their +wounded under a flag of truce? Was it a defeat where the enemy had been +thrice repulsed, once driven from the ground, had burned their baggage +train, and made no pursuit of the retreating army? + +But most mournful are those last moments of the faithful soldier's life; +most solemn those last tones of his voice as his orders rang out on that +misty morning amid the smoke and shouts of the battle-field. He stands +here bare-headed, the blood streaming from two wounds which he does not +heed, the cloud of perplexity settling over his face like a pall, his +troubled eyes fixed upon the enemy. He turns to head a regiment which +has lost its colonel--"Forward! men; I will lead you!" A moment, and he +lies there: no more striving for victory here; no more anxious hours of +weary watching for the succor that never came; no more goadings from an +exacting public, nor any more appeals to an unheeding chief. Even the +triumphant hush of life could not smooth out those lines cut by unwonted +care upon his face, or answer the mute questioning of that painful +indecision there. So from the West they brought him, by solemn marches, +to the East, and colors hung at half-mast, and bells were tolled as the +flag-draped hero was borne slowly by. And to the music of tender dirges, +he, whose whole life had been, inspired by the whistling of fifes and +rolling of drums, was laid to rest. A handful of clods falling upon his +breast, their hollow sound never thrilling the mother heart that lay +again so near her son's, a volley fired over the grave, and all was +over. Of all the brave men gone, no fate has seemed to us so sad. +Winthrop, young and ardent, with the tide of great thoughts rashing in +upon his princely heart, died in the flush of hope with the fresh +enthusiasm of poetry and undimmed patriotism shining in his eyes, and we +laid our soldier to sleep under the violets. Ellsworth fell forward with +the captured flag of treason in his hand, and the whole nation cheering +him on in his early sally upon the 'sacred' Virginia soil. Brave and +honorable, with fine powers cultured by study and earnest thought, death +took from him no portion of the fame life would have awarded him. Baker +rode into the jaws of death in that fatal autumn blunder; but the +ignominy of defeat rested upon other shoulders. His only to obey, even +while 'all the world wondered.' But he did not fall before the honor of +a country's admiration and the meed of her grateful thanks were his. +Soldier, orator and statesman, he had gained in a brilliant career a +glory earned by few, and could well afford to die, assured of a memory +justified from all reproach. But to Lyon, whom there were so few to +mourn, death in the midst of anticipated defeat was bitter indeed. No +time to retrieve the losses and disasters the cruel remissness of others +had entailed upon him; the fruit of the anxious toil of months wrested +from him even as it began to ripen; all his glad hopes chilled by +suspicion, but his faith, we may well believe, still strong in the +ultimate success of the cause he loved. A whole life he had given to his +country, and she had not thought it worth while to redeem it from +disgrace with the few thousands that he asked. He had outlived the +elasticity of youth, when wrongs are quickly remedied, and new impulses +spring, like phoenixes, from the ashes of the old. Uncertain whether he +were the victim of a conspiracy, the tool of a faction, or the martyr to +some unknown theory, he died, and as the country had been to him wife +and children, he left her his all. + +It was known to but few that the soldier, whose career had been rather +useful than brilliant, had, when the scheming of politicians and their +doubly-refined arguments threatened to deceive and ruin the country, +put by his sword and taken up the pen. In a series of articles, short, +concise, and to the point, he effectually canvassed the State. They are +addressed to thinking men everywhere. Free from all trickery, strictly +impartial, relying entirely upon the soundness of his premises for +success,--for elegance of diction he had not, and he was too honest even +to become a sophist,--these papers manifest at once the true patriot and +the intelligent man. Thousands of adherents the Republican cause had in +1860, but not one more indefatigable or more heartily in earnest than +Lyon. Outside the limits of party interests, and uninfluenced personally +by the predominance of either faction, he had worked out in his own way +the problem of national life, and now spread its solution before his +readers. 'Our cause,' said he, 'is to honor labor and elevate the +laborer.' Here we have the kernel of the whole matter; the spirit, if +not the letter, of the whole republican system of government. The secret +that philosophers have elaborated from the unconquerable facts of +physics, ethics, and psychology, that men of genius have evolved with +infinite difficulty from the mass of crude aesthetic associations that +cluster around every object of nature or of art, Lyon, working and +thinking alone as a citizen, has discovered, with the sole aid of common +sense and the habit of practical observation. Carey and Godwin have +proved by statistics for unbelievers the reasonableness of the doctrine +enunciated by Lyon. Now, thanks to the untiring efforts of a few +stout-hearted patriots, it is no new one to the North; but in the late +presidential contest it was a strange weapon glittering in strong hands. +Our society, diluted and weakened by the Southern element, revolted at +first from the creed that is to prove its salvation. Not alone in our +border States had the dragon crept, searing our fair institutions with +his hot breath, but even upon the sturdy old Puritan stock were +engrafted many of the petty notions that pass for 'principles' in Dixie. +True, we were educated, all of us, into a sort of decent regard for the +good old element of labor,--we call it industry,--more antique, since +antiquity is a virtue, than aristocracy, for it began in Paradise. But +this was a feature of our Northern character that was to be hurried out +of sight, ignominiously buried without candle or bell, when the giant of +Southern chivalry stalked across our borders. The bravado and +gentlemanly ruffianism of youthful F.F.V-ism at college, and the +supercilious condescension of incipient Southern belledom in the +seminary, impressed young North America with a respect that was indeed +unacknowledged, but that grew with its growth and strengthened with its +strength. But this mock romance of ancestry, this arrogant assumption by +the South of all the social virtues and courtesies of which the nation, +or indeed the universe, could boast, was like the flash of an expiring +candle to Lyon. He had little to do with first families North or South; +his mission was to the _people_. His practical mind gathered in, sheaf +after sheaf, a whole harvest of political facts. He saw that the +government of the United States, originally intended to be administered +by the people, had been for years in the power of the minority. Against +this perversion of the purpose of the founders of the republic, this +outrage to the memory of men who labored for its defense and welfare, he +entered his earnest protest. The shallow effort of the Democratic party +to establish upon constitutional grounds the monstrous phantom of +justice they called government, was met by his hearty indignation. He +says, 'With the artfulness of a deity and the presumption of a fiend, +our own Constitution is perversely claimed by the Democracy as the aegis +for the establishment of a slave autocracy over our country.' + +No element more fatal to our growth or freedom could Lyon conceive than +this slave autocracy. It sapped the very foundations of republicanism, +and, stealthily advancing to the extreme limits of the law, enjoyed the +confidence of the people, while it plotted their subjugation. All the +varied machinery of the new social system, falsely styled government, +had for its object the extinction of individual rights and the +deification of capital. Church and state united in the unholy effort to +Crush the masses, and intriguing politicians, by dint of dazzling +rhetoric and plausible promises, lured the people on to secure their own +downfall at the polls. The only remedy for this Lyon saw in the +elevation of the masses. 'It is the greatest political revolution yet to +be effected,' he says, 'to bring the laboring man to know that honest +industry is the highest of merits, and should be awarded the highest +honor; and, properly pursued, contributes to his intelligence and +morality, and to the virtues needed for official station.' 'The +calamity,' says an eminent writer from his far Platonean heights, 'is +the masses;' but liberty is a new religion that is to sweep over the +world and regenerate them. And to this end Lyon boldly advocated +emancipation for the sake of the white man. If to-day, when patriotism +is at a premium, men tremble before the acknowledged necessity of this +measure, and are either too cowardly or too indolent to meet the demands +of the times, it required no little boldness in 1860 to advance a theory +so decided, even in a Kansas newspaper. But Lyon knew the inefficiency +of half-way measures, and the moral degradation they inevitably entail +upon the community so weak or so deluded as to adopt them. The hue and +cry of abolitionism did not disturb him; he was not afraid of names. +Conservatism that sat in state at Washington, and pulled the wires all +over the country,--a tremendous power, none the less fearful in that it +was only a galvanized one,--was a dead letter to him, its dignity +departed with the age that had demanded it. Conservatism would have +resented no impositions, established no new landmarks, asserted no +independence; would carry its mails on horseback, creep over the ocean +in schooners, fight by sea in piked brigantines, and by land with spear +and battle-axe; it would have emancipated no slaves in Great Britain and +France, and no serfs in Russia. But if freedom means anything, it means +_Progress_,--liberty to advance, never to retrograde. 'Nothing in the +world will ever go backward,' said the old lizard to Heine. All the +authority of a new Areopagus could never sanction that; and yet this +liberty the South claims, nay, has already acted upon, so that the world +may see the result of the experiment, and against its continuance Lyon +protests. In the long silent years of preparation for the fray he has +nursed strange thoughts on the ultimate destiny of man. He has seen in +dreams, prophetic of a mighty accomplishment, his country growing great, +and vigorous, and powerful, extending to struggling humanity everywhere +the protection of her friendship, building up noble institutions, +encouraging science and the useful arts, and leading the van in the +world's great millennial march; and this not through any miraculous +interposition of Providence, but by means of an exalted intelligence and +the power of thought stimulating to action, and that of the noblest +kind. + +But you argue the unfitness of the masses for this destiny. Lyon +answers,--not in any musically-rounded sentences, in phrases nicely +balanced; the man is plain and outspoken,--'This is a truth of +philosophy and political economy, that man rises to a condition +corresponding to the rights, duties and responsibilities devolved upon +him; and therefore the only true way to make a man is to invest him with +the rights, duties and responsibilities of a man, and he generally rises +in intellectual and moral greatness to a position corresponding to these +circumstances.' It is a mistake to suppose the great body of the people +ignorant of their position, or unconscious of their growing importance +and dignity as representatives of a mighty empire. Vice and poverty have +indeed well-nigh quenched humanity in thousands in our great cities, +but these are but a drop in the ocean. Behind lies our vast West, with +its teeming population, sturdy, active and energetic. All our mountain +districts are alive with men who, thanks to the press, are beginning to +feel their power. Every advantage of physical development their hardy +life gives them, and the growing consciousness and comprehension of +freedom, blooming under a munificent free-school dispensation, will do +the rest. Our internal manufacturing and agricultural elements at the +North, already powerful and irrepressible, will soon exercise a +tremendous influence in our government. Shall it be the influence of +ignorance played upon by the sophistry of demagogues and helping to +rebuild the vicious doctrines that have stood firmly for so many years, +or the healthful influence of intelligent industry tending to our +greatness and prosperity? This our war is to decide. No peaceful +solution of the great question could be made. This Lyon foresaw in the +truckling of politicians North to win the unit of Southern political +sympathy: the main end and aim of the South being the appointment of +Southern men to the Presidency, 'as security on the one hand against +unfavorable executive action toward slavery, and on the other against +executive patronage adverse to its interests, the democratic party North +succeeded, by trimming party sails and decking party leaders, in suiting +their fastidious Southern leaders.' The question once at issue, even a +peaceful separation was impossible, though an amendment of the +Constitution should sanction it. War was inevitable. The great bugbear +of slavery would still exist; fugitive slave laws be forever upon the +political carpet; formidable jealousies spring up between two nations +founded upon such diverse principles, yet united by very natural +circumstance of language and climate; internal wrangling would destroy +all unity, conspiracies give the death-blow to all prosperity and all +hope of advancement. All this if there were no great party at the North +to rise upon the vast ground of humanity, claiming for its millions the +privilege of an unfettered life, for its children a fair start in the +future. Only one remedy Lyon knew, and he stood there, the early apostle +of Emancipation, and preached it. His doctrine was not accepted then, it +is not accepted now; but the time must come, when millions shall have +been expended, and blood shall have flowed like water only to delay it, +when we will fly to it for salvation. Let those who still cry 'Peace, +peace,' when there is no peace, learn what is to be its +price--Emancipation. It will be a bitter draught; well, so was the +independence of her colonies to England. And every day makes it more +bitter; the gall in the cup rises to the brim; a few more months and it +will overflow; the people will take the matter into their own hands and +legislate slavery into the swamps of Florida. + +It is a lame and blind philanthropy that cries for a respite. 'A little +more sleep, a little more slumber. After us the deluge.' And meanwhile +the damnable lies gain ground, and a new generation is lost to its due +development. Have we yet to learn that we are no longer individuals, but +parts of a mighty nation, and responsible in some sort, every one, women +and men, for its destiny? Poland has learned this lesson. Her eyes are +upon us now. Shall she, still struggling, find that blood and treasure, +and all the thousand dear blessings of peace, have been sacrificed in +vain? If you cry 'War is an evil!' we grant it; but is it reserved for +the nineteenth century to discover a creed for which there shall be no +martyrs? What great gift has the world ever won that was not bought with +blood? When has independence of action or thought been purchased +otherwise than at the cost of persecution,--more revolution? Then let us +not slander revolutions. They are the throes of nature undergoing her +purification; if it is as by fire, oh! let us have courage and stand +beside her in her hour of trial. St. George will not fight forever; the +dragon of oppression is dying. + + 'Yes, although so slowly, he _is_ dying; + Many thousand years have fled in darkness, + Since the sword first cut his scaly armor, + And the red wound roused him into madness; + But the good knight is of race immortal, + Ever young, and passionate and fearless; + And the strength which oozes from the dragon, + Blooms reviving in the glorious warrior.' + +And, after all, the demon of war is not so black as we have painted him. +We do not shudder to-day as we read of the siege of Troy or the downfall +of Carthage, or the Romance of the Cid. The song of Deborah, 'of the +avenging of Israel _when the people willingly offered themselves_,' is +one glorious burst of praise to God and gratitude to the martyrs. There +was war in heaven when ambition was cast out:--what quiet pastoral +appeals to our noblest impulses as Paradise Lost does? Wisely and well +speaks the English clergyman when he says:-- + +'But the truth is that here, as elsewhere, poetry has reached the truth, +while science and common sense have missed it. It has distinguished--as, +in spite of all mercenary and feeble sophistry, men ever will +distinguish--war from mere bloodshed. It has discerned the higher +feelings which lie beneath its revolting features. Carnage is terrible. +The conversion of producers into destroyers is a calamity. Death, and +insults to women worse than death--and human features obliterated +beneath the hoof of the war-horse--and reeking hospitals, and ruined +commerce, and violated homes, and broken hearts--they are all awful. But +there is something worse than death: cowardice is worse. And the _decay +of enthusiasm and manliness is worse_. And it is worse than death, aye, +worse than one hundred thousand deaths, when a people has gravitated +down into the creed, that the "wealth of nations" consists, not in +generous hearts, "fire in each breast, and freedom on each brow," in +national virtues, and primitive simplicity, and heroic endurance, and +preference of duty to life--not in _men_, but in silk and _cotton_, and +something that they call "capital." Peace is blessed--peace arising out +of charity. But peace springing out of the calculations of selfishness +is not blessed. If the price to be paid for peace is this, that wealth +accumulate and men decay, better far that every street, in every town of +our once noble country, should run blood.'[K] + +As we write, every telegram proves the vaunted unity of the South a +sham, a visionary political bugbear, no longer strong or hideous enough +to frighten the most inveterate conservative dough-face. But a few +victories do not end the war; still earnestness and effort and +sacrifice, for the sick man of America will fight even when his 'brains +are out.' Not until we have proved to Breckenridge, the traitor, that we +are not 'fighting for principles that three-fourths of us abhor,' and +that the Union is not only 'a means of preserving the principles of +political liberty,' but that in it is irrevocably bound up every living +principle of all liberty, social, religious and individual; that in its +shelter only we have security against wrong at home and insult from +abroad; not until Emancipation has instituted a new order of things in +society as well as in politics, will the death of the out-spoken patriot +and brave man, Lyon, be avenged, and the Struggle be at an end. 'Genius +is patient,' but patience has had her perfect work, and the days of +Rebellion are numbered. On with the crusade! + + * * * * * + +MACCARONI AND CANVAS. + + +II. + +The voice of Rome is baritone, always excepting that of the Roman +locomotive,--the donkey,--which is deep bass, and comes tearing and +braying along at times when it might well be spared. In the still night +season, wandering among the moonlit ruins of the Coliseum, while you +pause and gaze upon the rising tiers of crumbling stone above you, +memory retraces all you have read of the old Roman days: the forms of +the world-conquerors once more people the deserted ruin; the clash of +ringing steel; hot, fiery sunlight; thin, trembling veil of dust pierced +by the glaring eyes of dying gladiators; red-spouting blood; screams of +the mangled martyrs torn by Numidian lions; moans of the dying; fierce +shouts of exultation from the living; smiles from gold-banded girls in +flowing robes, with floating hair, flower-crowned, and perfumed; the hum +of thrice thirty thousand voices hushed to a whisper as the combat hangs +on an uplifted sword; the-- + +Aw-waw-WAUN-ik! WAW-NIK! WAUN-KI-w-a-w-n! comes like blatant fish-horn +over the silent air, and your dream of the Coliseum ends ignominiously +with this nineteenth-century song of a jackass. + +At night you will hear the shrill cry of the screech-owl sounding down +the silent streets in the most thickly-populated parts of the city. Or +you will perhaps be aroused from sleep, as Caper often was, by the +long-drawn-out cadences of some countryman singing a _rondinella_ as he +staggers along the street, fresh from a wine-house. Nothing can be more +melancholy than the concluding part of each verse in these rondinellas, +the voice being allowed to drop from one note to another, as a man +falling from the roof of a very high house may catch at some projection, +hold on for a time, grow weak, loose his hold, fall, catch again, hold +on for a minute, and at last fall flat on the pavement, used up, and +down as low as he can reach. + +But the street-cries of this city are countless; from the man who brings +round the daily broccoli to the one who has a wild boar for sale, not +one but is determined that you shall hear all about it. Far down a +narrow street you listen to a long-drawn, melancholy howl--the voice as +of one hired to cry in the most mournful tones for whole generations of +old pagan Romans who died unconverted; poor devils who worshiped wine +and women, and knew nothing better in this world. And who is their +mourner? A great, brawny, tawny, steeple-crowned hat, blue-breeched, +two-fisted fish-huckster; and he is trying to sell, by yelling as if his +heart would break, a basket of fish not so long as your finger. If he +cries so over anchovies, what would he do if he had a whale for sale? + +Another _primo basso profundo_ trolls off a wheelbarrow and a fearful +cry at the same time; not in unison with his merchandise, for he has +birds--quail, woodcock, and snipe--for sale, besides a string of dead +nightingales, which he says he will 'sell cheap for a nice stew.' Think +of stewed nightingales! One would as soon think of eating a boiled +Cremona violin. + +But out of the way! Here comes, blocking up the narrow street, a +_contadino_, a countryman from the Campagna. His square wooden cart is +drawn by a donkey about the size of, and resembling, save ears, a singed +Newfoundland dog; his voice, strong for a vegetarian,--for he sells +onions and broccoli, celery and tomatoes, _finocchio_ and mushrooms,--is +like tearing a firm rag: how long can it last, subjected to such use? + +It is in the game and meat market, near the Pantheon, that you can more +fully become acquainted with the street cries of Rome; but the Piazza +Navona excels even this. Passing along there one morning, Caper heard +such an extraordinary piece of vocalization, sounding like a Sioux +war-whoop with its back broken, that he stopped to see what it was all +about. There stood a butcher who had exposed for sale seven small stuck +pigs, all one litter; and if they had been his own children, and died +heretics, he could not have howled over them in a more heart-rending +manner. + +About sunrise, and even before it,--for the Romans are early +risers,--you will hear in spring-time a sharp ringing voice under your +window, '_Acqua chetosa! Acqua, chetosa!_' an abridgment of _acque +accetosa_, or water from the fountain of Accetosa, considered a good +aperient, and which is drank before breakfast. Also a voice crying out, +'_Acqua-vi-ta!_' or spirits, drank by the workmen and others at an +expense of a baioccho or two the table-spoonful, for that is all the +small glasses hold. In the early morning, too, you hear the chattering +jackdaws on the roofs; and then, more distinctly than later in the day, +the clocks striking their odd way. The Roman clocks ring from one to six +strokes four times during the twenty-four hours, and not from one to +twelve strokes, as with us. Sunset is twenty-four o'clock, and is noted +by six strokes; an hour after sunset is one o'clock, and is noted by one +stroke; and so on until six hours after, when it begins striking one +again. As the quarter hours are also rung by the clocks, if you happen +to be near one you will have a fine chance to get in a muddle trying to +separate quarters from hours, and Roman time from your own. Another +noise comes from the game of _morra_. Caper was looking out of his +window one morning, pipe in mouth, when he saw two men suddenly face +each other, one of them bringing his arm down very quickly, when the +other yelled as if kicked, '_Due!_' (two), and the first shouted at the +top of his lungs, '_Tre!_' (three). Then they both went at it, pumping +their hands up and down and spreading their fingers with a quickness +which was astonishing, while all the time they kept screaming, 'One!' +'Four!' 'Three!' 'Two!' 'Five!' etc., etc. 'Ha!' said Caper, 'this is +something like; 'tis an arithmetical, mathematical, etcetrical school in +the open air. The dirtiest one is very quick; he will learn to count +five in no time. But I don't see the necessity of saying "three" when +the other brings down four fingers, or saying "five" when he shows two. +But I suppose it is all right; he hasn't learned to give the right names +yet.' He learned later that they were gambling. + +While these men were shouting, there came along an ugly old woman with a +tambourine and a one-legged man with a guitar, and seeing prey in the +shape of Caper at his window, they pounced on him, as it were, and +poured forth the most ear-rending discord; the old lady singing, the old +gentleman backing up against a wall and scratching at an accompaniment +on a jangling old guitar. The old lady had a bandana handkerchief tied +over her head, and whilst she watched Caper she cast glances up and down +the street, to see if some rich stranger, or _milordo_, was not coming +to throw her a piece of silver. + +'What are you howling about?' shouted Caper down to her. + +'A new Neapolitan canzonetta, signore; all about a young man who grieves +for his sweetheart, because he thinks she is not true to him, and what +he says to her in a serenade.' And here she screechingly sung,-- + + But do not rage, I beg, my dear; + I want you for my wife, + And morning, noon, and night likewise, + I'll love you like my life. + + CHORUS. + + I only want to get a word, + My charming girl, from thee. + You know, Ninella, I can't breathe, + Unless your heart's for me! + +'Well,' said Caper, 'if this is Italian music, I don't _see_ it.' + +The one-legged old gentleman clawed away at the strings of the guitar. + +'I say,'_llustrissimo_,' shouted Caper down to him, 'what kind of +strings are those on your instrument?' + +'_Excellenza_, catgut,' he shouted, in answer. + +'_Benissimo!_ I prefer cats in the original packages. There's a _paolo_: +travel!' + +Caper had the misfortune to make the acquaintance of a professor of the +mandolin, a wire-strung instrument, resembling a long-necked squash cut +in two, to be played on with a quill, and which, with a guitar and +violin, makes a concert that thrills you to the bones and cuts the +nerves away. + +But the crowning glory of all that is ear-rending and peace-destroying, +is carried around by the _Pifferari_ about Christmas time. It is a +hog-skin, filled with wind, having pipes at one end, and a jackass at +the other, and is known in some lands as the bagpipe. The small shrines +to the Virgin, particularly those in the streets where the wealthy +English reside, are played upon assiduously by the _pifferari_, who are +supposed by romantic travelers to come from the far-away Abbruzzi +Mountains, and make a pilgrimage to the Eternal City to fulfil a vow to +certain saints; whereas it is sundry cents they are really after. They +are for the most part artists' models, who at this season of the year +get themselves up _a la pifferari_, or piper, to prey on the romantic +susceptibilities and pockets of the strangers in Rome, and, with a pair +of long-haired goat-skin breeches, a sheepskin coat, brown rags, and +sandals, or _cioccie_, with a shocking bad conical black or brown hat, +in which are stuck peacock's or cock's feathers, they are ready equipped +to attack the shrines and the strangers. + +Unfortunately for Caper there was a shrine to the Virgin in the +second-story front of the house next to where he lived; that is, +unfortunately for his musical ear, for the lamp that burned in front of +the shrine every dark night was a shining and pious light to guide him +home, and thus, ordinarily, a very fortunate arrangement. In the +third-story front room of the house of the shrine dwelt a Scotch artist +named MacGuilp, who was a grand amateur of these pipes, and who declared +that no sound in the world was so sweet to his ear as the bagpipes: they +recalled the heather, haggis, and the Lothians, and the mountain dew, ye +ken, and all those sorts of things. + +One morning at breakfast in the Cafe Greco he discoursed at length about +the pleasure the pifferari gave him; while Caper, taking an opposite +view, said they had, during the last few days, driven him nearly crazy, +and he wished the squealing hog-skins well out of town. + +MacGuilp told him he had a poor ear for music: that there was a charm +about the bagpipes unequalled even by the unique voices of the Sistine +Chapel; and there was nothing he would like better than to have all the +pipers of Rome under his windows. + +Caper remembered this last rash speech of Master MacGuilp, and +determined at an early hour to test its truth. It happened, the very +next morning at breakfast, that MacGuilp, in a triumphant manner, told +him that he had received a promise of a visit from the Duchess of ----, +with several other titled English; and said he had not a doubt of +selling several paintings to them. MacGuilp's style was of the +blood-and-thunder school: red dawns, murdered kings, blood-stained +heather, and Scotch plaids, the very kind that should be shown to the +sweet strainings of hog-skin bagpipes. + +In conversation Caper found out the hour at which the duchess intended +to make her visit. He made his preparations accordingly. Accompanied by +Rocjean, he visited Gigi, who kept a costume and life school of models, +found out where the pipers drank most wine, and going there and up the +Via Fratina and down the Spanish Steps, managed to find them, and +arranged it so that at the time the duchess was viewing MacGuilp's +paintings, he should have the full benefit of a serenade from all the +pifferari in Rome. + +The next morning Caper, pipe in mouth, at his window, saw the carriage +of the duchess drive up, and from it the noble English dismount and +ascend to the artist's studio. The carriage had hardly driven away when +up came two of the pipers, and happening to cast their eyes up they saw +Caper, who hailed them and told them not to begin playing until the +others arrived. In a few moments six of the hog-skin squeezers stood +ready to begin their infernal squawking. + +'Go ahead!' shouted Caper, throwing a handful of _baiocchi_ among them; +and as soon as these were gathered up, the pipers gave one awful, +heart-chilling blast, and the concert was fairly commenced. Squealing, +shrieking, grunting, yelling, and humming, the sounds rose higher and +higher. Open flew the windows in every direction. + +'_C'est foudroyante!_' said the pretty French _modiste_. + +'What the devil's broke loose?' shouted an American. + +'_Mein Gott im himmel! was ist das?_' roared the German baron. + +'_Casaccio! cosa faceste?_' shrieked the lovely Countess Grimanny. + +'_In nomine Domine!_' groaned a fat friar. + +'_Caramba! vayase al infierno!_' screamed Don Santiago Gomez. + +'_Bassama teremtete!_' swore the Hungarian gentleman. + +Louder squealed the bagpipes, their buzz filled the air, their shrieks +went ringing up to MacGuilp like the cries of Dante's condemned. The +duchess found the sound barbarous. MacGuilp opened his window, upon +which the pipers strained their lungs for the Signore Inglese, grand +amateur of the bagpipes. He begged them to go away. 'No, no, signore; we +know you love our music; we won't go away.' + +The duchess could stand it no longer, her Servant called the carriage, +the English got in and drove off. + +Still rung out the sounds of the six bagpipes. Caper threw them more +_baiocchi_. + +Suddenly MacGuilp burst out of the door of his house, maul-stick in +hand, rushing on the pifferari to put them to flight. + +'_Iddio giusto!_' shouted two of the pipers; 'it is, IT IS the +_Cacciatore_! the hunter; the Great Hunter!' + +'He is a painter!' shouted another. + +'No, he isn't; he's a hunter. _Gran Cacciatore!_ Doesn't he spend all +his time after quails and snipe and woodcock? Haven't I been out with +him day after day at Ostia? Long live the great hunter!' + +MacGuilp was touched in a tender spot. The homage paid him as a great +hunter more than did away with his anger at the bagpipe serenade. And +the last Caper saw of him he was leading six pifferari into a wine shop, +where they would not come out until seven of them were unable to tell +the music of bagpipes from the music of the spheres. + +So ends the music, noises, and voices, of the seven-hilled city. + + +SERMONS IN STONES. + +One bright Sunday morning in January, Rocjean called on Caper to ask him +to improve the day by taking a walk. + +'I thought of going up to the English chapel outside the Popolo to see a +pretty New Yorkeress,' said the latter; 'but the affair is not very +pressing, and I believe a turn round the Villa Borghese would do me as +much good as only looking at a pretty girl and half hearing a poor +sermon.' + +'As for a sermon, we need not miss that,' answered Rocjean, 'for we will +stop in at Chapin the sculptor's studio, and if we escape one, and he +there, I am mistaken. They call his studio a shop, and they call his +shop the Orphan's Asylum, because he manufactured an Orphan Girl some +years ago, and, as it sold well, he has kept on making orphans ever +since. + +'The murderer!' + +'Yes; but not half as atrocious as the reality. You must know that when +he first came over here he had an order to make a small Virgin Mary for +a Catholic church in Boston; but the order being countermanded after he +had commenced modeling in clay, he was determined not to lose his time, +and so, having somewhere read of, in a yellow-covered novel, or seen in +some fashion-plate magazine, a doleful-looking female called The Orphan, +he instantly determined, cruel executioner that he is, to also make an +orphan. And he did. There is a dash of bogus sentiment in it that passes +for coin current with many of our traveling Americans; and the thing has +"sold." He told me not long since he had orders for twelve copies of +different sized Orphans, and you will see them all through his asylum. +Do you remember those lines in Richard the Third,-- + + '"Why do you look on us, and shake your head, + And call us orphans--wretched?"' + +They found Chapin in his shop, alias studio, busily looking over a +number of plaster casts of legs and arms. He arose quickly as they +entered and threw a cloth over the casts. + +'Hah! gudmornin', Mister Caper. Glad to see you in my studiyo. Hallo, +Rocjan! you there? Why haven't you ben up to see my wife and daughters? +She feels hurt, I tell you, 'cause you don't come near us. Do you know +that Burkings of Bosting was round here to my studiyo yeserday: sold +_him_ an Orphan. By the way, Mister Caper, air you any relation to Caper +of the great East Ingy house of Caper?' + +'He is an uncle of mine, and is now in Florence; he will be in Rome next +week.' + +A tender glow of interest beamed in Chapin's eyes: in imagination he saw +another Orphan sold to the rich Caper, who might 'influence trade.' His +tone of voice after this was subdued. As Caper happened to brush against +some plaster coming in the studio, Chapin hastened to brush it from his +coat, and he did it as if it were the down on the wing of a beautiful +golden butterfly. + +'I was goin' to church this mornin' long with Missus Chapin; but I guess +I'll stay away for once in me life. I want to show you The Orphan.' + +'I beg that you will not let me interfere with any engagement you may +have,' said Caper; 'I can call as well at any other time.' + +'Oh, no; I won't lissen to that; I don't want to git to meeting before +sermon, so come right stret in here now. There! there's The Orphan. You +see I've made her accordin' to the profoundest rules of art. You may +take a string or a yard measure and go all over her, you won't find her +out of the way a fraction. The figure is six times the length of the +foot; this was the way Phidias worked, and I agree with him. Them were +splendid old fellows, them Greeks. There was art for you; high art!' + +'That in the Acropolis was of the highest order,' said Rocjean. + +'Yes,' answered Chapin, who did not know where it was; 'far above all +other. There was some sentiment in them days; but it was all of the +religious stripe; they didn't come down to domestic life and feelin'; +they hadn't made the strides we have towards layin' open art to the +million--towards developing _hum_ feelings. They worked for a precious +few; but we do it up for the many. Now there's the A-poller +Belvidiary--beautiful thing; but the idea of brushin' his hair that way +is ridicoolus. Did you ever see anybody with their hair fixed that way? +Never! They had a way among the Greeks of fixing their drapery right +well; but I've invented a plan--for which I've applied to Washington for +a patent--that I think will beat anything Phidias ever did.' + +'You can't tell how charmed I am to hear you,' spoke Rocjean. + +'Well, it _is_ a great invention,' continued Chapin; 'and as I know +neither of you ain't in the 'trade' (smiling), I don't care but what +I'll show it to you, if you'll promise, honor bright, you won't tell +anybody. You see I take a piece of muslin and hang it onto a statue the +way I want the folds to fall; then I take a syringe filled with starch +and glue and go all over it, so that when it dries it'll be as hard as a +rock. Then I go all over it with a certain oily preparation and lastly +I run liquid plaster-paris in it, and when it hardens, I have an exact +mold of the drapery. There! But I hain't explained The Orphan. You see +she's sittin' on a very light chair--_that_ shows the very little +support she has in this world. The hand to the head shows meditation; +and the Bible on her knee shows devotion; you see it's open to the book, +chapter, and verse which refers to the young ravens.' + +'Excuse me,' said Caper, 'but may I ask why she has such a _very_ +low-necked dress on?' + +'Well, my model has got such a fine neck and shoulders,' replied Chapin, +'that I re-eely couldn't help showing 'em off on the Orphan: besides, +they're more in demand--the low neck and short sleeves--than the +high-bodied style, which has no buyers. But there is a work I'm engaged +on now that would just soot your uncle. Mr. Caper, come this way.' + +Caper saw what he supposed was a safe to keep meat cool in, and +approached. Chapin threw back the doors of it like a showman about to +disclose the What Is It? and Caper saw a dropsical-looking Cupid with a +very short shirt on, and a pair of winged shoes on his feet. The figure +was starting forward as if to catch his equilibrium, which he had that +moment lost, and was only prevented from tumbling forward by a bag held +behind him in his left hand, while his right arm and hand, at full +length, pointed a sharp arrow in front of him. + +'Can you tell me what _that_ figger represents?' asked Chapin. As he +received no reply, he continued: '_That_ is Enterprise; the two little +ruts at his feet represent a railroad; the arrow, showin' he's sharp, +points ahead; Go ahead! is his motto; the bag in his hand represents +money, which the keen, sharp, shrewd business man knows is the reward of +enterprise. The wreath round his head is laurel mixed up with lightnin', +showin' he's up to the tellygraph; the pen behind his ear shows he can +figger; and his short shirt shows economy, that admirable virtoo. The +wings on his shoes air taken from Mercury, as I suppose you know; and--' + +'I say, now, Chapin, don't you think he's got a little too much legs, +and rather extra stomach on him, to make fast time?' asked Rocjean. + +'Measure him, measure him!' said Chapin, indignantly; 'there's a string. +Figure six times the length of his foot, everything else in proportion. +No, _sir_; I have not studied the classic for nothin'; if there is any +one thing I am strong on, it's anatomy. Only look at his hair. Why, sir, +I spent three weeks once dissectin'; and for more'n six months I didn't +do anything, during my idle time, but dror figgers. Art is a kind of +thing that's born in a man. This saying the ancients were better +sculpters than we air, is no such thing; what did they know about +steam-engines or telegraphs? _Fiddle!_ They did some fustrate things, +but they had no idee of fixin' hair as it should be fixed. No, sir; we +moderns have great add-vantagiz, and we improve 'em. Rome is the Cra--' + +'I must bid you good-day,' interrupted Caper; 'your wife will miss you +at the sermon: you will attribute it to me; and I would not +intentionally be the cause of having her ill-will for anything.' + +'Well, she is a pretty hard innimy; and they do talk here in Rome if you +don't toe the mark. But ree-ly, you mustn't go off mad (smiling). You +must call up with Rocjan and see us; and I ree-ly hope that when your +uncle comes you will bring him to my studiyo. I am sure my Enterprise +will soot him.' + +So Chapin saw them out of his studio. Not until Caper found himself +seated on a stone bench under the ilexes of the Villa Borghese, watching +the sunbeams darting on the little lizards, and seeing far off the +Albanian Mountains, snowcapped against the blue sky--not until then did +he breathe freely. + +'Rocjean,' said he; 'that stone-cutter down there--that Chapin--' + +'_Chameau!_ roared Rocjean. 'He and his kind are doing for art what the +Jews did for prize-fighting--they ruin it. They make art the +laughing-stock of all refined and educated people. Art applied solely to +sculpture and painting is dead; it will not rise again in these our +times. But art, the fairy-fingered beautifier of all that surrounds our +homes and daily walks, save paintings and statuary, never breathed so +fully, clearly, nobly as now, and her pathway amid the lowly and homely +things around us is shedding beauty wherever it goes. The rough-handed +artisan who, slowly dreaming of the beautiful, at last turns out a stone +that will beautify and adorn a room, instead of rendering it hideous, +has done for this practical generation what he of an earlier theoretical +age did for his cotemporaries when he carved the imperial Venus of +Milos. Enough; _this_ is the sermon _not_ preached from stones.' + + +A BALL AT THE COSTA PALACE + +One sunlight morning in February, while hard at work in his studio, +Caper was agreeably surprised by the entrance of an elderly uncle of +his, Mr. Bill Browne, of St. Louis, a gentleman of the rosy, stout, +hearty school of old bachelors, who, having made a large fortune by +keeping a Western country store, prudently retired from business, and +finding it dull work doing nothing, wisely determined to enjoy himself +with a tour over the Continent, 'or any other place he might conclude to +visit.' + +'I say, Jim, did you expect to see me here?' was his first greeting. + +'Why, Uncle Bill! Well, you are the last man I ever thought would turn +up. They didn't write me a word of your coming over,' answered Caper. + +'Mistake; they wrote you all about it; and if you'll drop round at the +post-office, you'll find letters there telling you the particulars. Fact +is, I am ahead of the mail. Coming over in the steamer, met a man named +Orville; told me he knew you, that he was coming straight through to +Rome, and offered to pilot me. So I gave up Paris and all that, and came +smack through, eighteen days from New York. But I'm dry. Got a match? +Here, try one of these cigars.' + +Caper took a cigar from his uncle's case, lit it, and then, calling the +man who swept out the studios, sent him to the neighboring wine-shop for +a bottle of wine. + +'By George, Jim, that's a pretty painting: that jackass is fairly alive, +and so's the girl with a red boddice. I say, what's she got that towel +on her head for? Is it put there to dry?' + +'No; that's an Italian peasant girl's head-covering. Most all of them do +so.' + +'Do they? I'm glad of that. But here comes your man with the liquor.' + +And, after drinking two or three tumblers full, Uncle Bill decided that +it was pretty good cider. The wine finished, together with a couple of +rolls that came with it, the two sallied out for a walk around the +Pincian Hill, the grand promenade of Rome. Towards sunset they thought +of dinner, and Uncle Bill, anxious to see life, accepted Caper's +invitation to dine at the old Gabioni: here they ordered the best +dishes, and the former swore it was as good a dinner as he ever got at +the Planter's House. Rocjean, who dined there, delighted the old +gentleman immensely, and the two fraternized at once, and drank each +other's health, old style, until Caper, fearing that neither could +conveniently hold more, suggested an adjournment to the Greco for coffee +and cigars. + +While they were in the cafe, Rocjean quietly proposed something to +Caper, who at once assented; the latter then said to Uncle Bill,-- + +'You have arrived in Rome just at the right time. You may have heard at +home of the great Giacinti family; well, the Prince Nicolo di Giacinti +gives a grand ball to-night at the Palazzo Costa. Rocjean and I have +received invitations, embracing any illustrious strangers of our +acquaintance who may happen to be in Rome; so you must go with us. You +have no idea, until you come to know them intimately, what a +good-natured, off-hand set the best of the Roman nobility are. Compelled +by circumstances to keep up for effect an appearance of great reserve +and dignity before the public, they indemnify themselves for it in +private by having the highest kind of old times. They are passionately +attached to their native habits and costumes, and though driven, on +state occasions especially, to imitate French and English habits, yet +they love nothing better than at times to enjoy themselves in their +native way. The ball given by the prince to-night is what might be +called a free-and-easy. It is his particular desire that no one should +come in full dress; in fact, he rather likes to have his stranger guests +come in their worst clothes, for this prevents the attention of the +public being called to them as they enter the palace. After you have +lived some time in Rome you will see how necessary it is to keep dark, +so you will see no flaring light at the palace gate; it's all as quiet +and common-place as possible. The dresses, you must remember, are +assumed for the occasion because they are, or were, the national +costume, which is fast disappearing, and if it were not for the noble +wearers you will see to-night, you could not find them anywhere in Rome. +You will perhaps think the nobility at the ball hardly realize your +ideas of Italian beauty and refinement, compared with the fine specimens +of men and women you may have seen among the Italian opera singers at +home: well, these same singers are picked specimens, and are chosen for +their height and muscular development from the whole nation, so that +strangers may think all the rest at home are like them: it is a little +piece of deception we can pardon.' + +After this long prelude, Rocjean proposed that they should try a game of +billiards in the Cafe Nuovo. After they had played a game or two, and +drank several _mezzo caldos_, or rum punches, they walked up the Corso +to the Via San Claudio, No. 48, and entered the palace gate. It was very +dark after they entered, so Rocjean, telling them to wait one moment, +lit a _cerina_, or piece of waxed cord, an article indispensable to a +Roman, and, crossing the broad courtyard, they entered a small door, and +after climbing and twisting and turning, found a ticket-taker, and the +next minute were in the ball-room. + +Uncle Bill was delighted with the excessively free-and-easy ball of +Prince Giacinti, but was very anxious to know the names of the nobility, +and Rocjean politely undertook to point out the celebrities, offering +kindly to introduce him to any one he might think looked sympathetic; +'what they call _simpatico_ in Italian,' explained Rocjean. + +'That pretty girl in _Ciociara_ costume is the Condessa or Countess +Stella di Napoli.' + +'Introduce me,' said Uncle Bill. + +Rocjean went through the performance, concluding thus: 'The countess +expresses a wish that you should order a _bottiglia_ (about two bottles) +of red wine.' + +'Go ahead,' quoth Uncle Bill; 'for a nobility ball this comes as near a +dance-house affair as I ever want to approach. By the way, who is that +pickpocket-looking genius with eyes like a black snake?' + +'Who is _that_?' said Rocjean, theatrically. 'Chut! a word in your ear; +that is An-to-nel-li!' + +'The devil! But I heard some one only a few minutes ago call him +Angelucio.' + +'That was done satirically, for it means big angel, which you, who read +the papers, know that Antonelli is _not_. But here comes the wine, and I +see the countess looks dry. Pour out a half-dozen glasses for her. The +Roman women, high and low, paddle in wine like ducks, and it never +upsets them; for, like ducks, their feet are so large that neither you +nor wine can throw them. I wish you could speak Italian, for here comes +the Princess Giacinta _con Marchese_--' + +'I wish,' said Uncle Bill, 'you would talk English.' + +'Well,' continued Rocjean, 'with the Marchioness Nina Romana, if you +like that better. Shall I introduce you?' + +'Certainly,' replied the old gentleman, 'and order two more what d'ye +call 'ems. It's cheap--this knowing a princess for a quart of red +teaberry tooth-wash, for that's what this "wine" amounts to. I am going +to dance to-night, for the Princess Giacinta is a complete woman after +my heart, and weighs her two hundred pound any day.' + +The nobility now began begging Rocjean and Caper to introduce them to +his excellency _Il vecchio_, or the old man; and Uncle Bill, in his +enthusiasm at finding himself surrounded with so many princes, +Allegrini, Pelligrini, Sapgrini, and Dungreeny, compelled Caper to order +up a barrel of wine, set it a-tap, and tell the nobility to 'go in.' It +is needless to say that they _went_ in. Many of the costumes were very +rich, especially those of the female nobility; and in the rush for a +glass of wine the effect of the brilliant draperies flying here and +there, struggling and pushing, was notable. The musicians, who were +standing on what appeared to be barrels draped with white cloth, jumped +down and tried their luck at the wine-cask, and, after satisfying their +thirst, returned to their duties. There was a guitar, mandolin, violin, +and flute, and the music was good for dancing. Uncle Bill was pounced on +by the Princess Giacinta and whirled off into some kind of a dance, he +did not know what; round flew the room and the nobility; round flew +barrels of teaberry tooth-wash, beautiful princesses, big devils of +Antonellis. Lights, flash, hum, buzz, buzz, zzz--ooo--zoom! + +Uncle Bill opened his eyes as the sunlight shed one golden bar into his +sleeping-room at the Hotel d'Europe, and there by his bedside sat his +nephew, Jim Caper, reading a letter, while on a table near at hand was a +goblet full of ice, a bottle of hock, and another bottle corked, with +string over it. + +'It's so-da wa-ter,' said Uncle Bill, musing aloud. + +'Hallo, uncle, you awake?' asked Caper, suddenly raising his eyes from +his letter. + +'I am, my son. Give thy aged father thy blessing, and open that hock and +soda water quicker! I say, Jim, now, what became of the nobility, the +Colonnas and Aldobrandinis, after they finished that barrel? Strikes me +some of them will have an owlly appearance this morning.' + +'You don't know them,' answered Caper. + +'I am beginning to believe I don't, too,' spoke Uncle Bill. 'I say, now, +Jim, where did we go last night?' + +'Why, Uncle Bill, to tell you the plain truth, we went to a ball at the +Costa Palace, and a model ball it was, too.' + +'I have you! Models who sit for you painters. Well, if they arn't +nobility, they drink like kings, so it's all right. Give us the hock, +and say no more about it.' + + * * * * * + +HOWE'S CAVE. + + +Few persons, perhaps, are aware that Schoharie County, N.Y., contains a +cave said to be nine or ten miles in extent, and, in many respects, one +of the most remarkable in America. Its visitors are few,--owing, +probably, to its recent discovery, together with its comparative +inaccessibility;--yet these few are well rewarded for its exploration. + +In the month of August, 1861, I started, with three companions, to visit +this interesting place. + +I will not weary the reader by describing the beauty of the Hudson and +the grandeur of the Catskills; yet I would fain fix in my memory forever +one sunrise, seen from the summit of a bluff on the eastern bank of the +river, when the fog, gradually lifting itself from the stream, and +slowly breaking into misty fragments, unveiled broad, smiling meadows, +dark forests, village after village, while above all, far in the +distance, rose the Catskills, clear in the sunlight. + +After two days crowded with enjoyment, we arrived in Schoharie, where we +passed the night. Having given orders to be called at five, we took +advantage of the leisure hour this arrangement gave us to view, the next +morning. + + +AN OLD FORT. + +In reality, the 'fort' is a dilapidated old church, used as a shelter +during the Indian wars, and also in the days of the Revolution. On the +smooth stones that form the eastern side are carved the names of the +soldiers who defended it, with the date, and designation of the regiment +to which they belonged. I deciphered also, among other curious details, +the name of the person who 'gave the favor of the ground.' I would +gladly have indulged my antiquarian tastes by copying these rude +inscriptions; but the eager cries of my companions compelled me to hurry +on. + +The western portion of the structure has also its story to tell. The +traces of besieging cannon balls are still to be distinctly seen, and in +one place I observed a smooth, round hole, made by the passage of a ball +into the interior of the fort. + +As I stood on the walls of this ancient building, surveying the valley +it overlooked, with its straggling village lying at our feet, and the +fair Schoharie Creek, now gleaming in the sunlight of the meadows, or +darkening in the shade of the trees that overhung it, the past and the +present mingled strongly in my thoughts. + +The Stars and Stripes, that on this very spot had seen our fathers +repelling a foreign foe, now waved over their sons, forced from their +quiet homes, not to contend with the stranger and the alien, but to +subdue those rebellious brothers whose sacrilegious hands had torn down +that sacred flag, reared amidst the trials and perils of '76. Not less +noble the present contest than the past, nor less heroic the soldier of +to-day than the patriot of the Revolution. We continue to-day the fight +they fought against injustice and oppression--a conflict that will end +only when every nation and every race shall lift unshackled hands up to +God in thanksgiving for the gift of freedom. A deeper love of my +country, and a firmer trust in the God of truth and justice, sank into +my heart as I turned away from those rude walls, sacred to the memory of +departed valor. + +We hurried back to the breakfast that awaited us, and then drove to + +THE CAVE, + +which lies six miles from the village of Schoharie. The entrance is at +the base of a heavily-wooded mountain that shuts in a secluded little +valley. The only opening from this solitary vale is made by a small +stream that winds out from among the hills. The entire seclusion of the +place has prevented its earlier discovery; but the inevitable 'Hotel' +now rears its wooden walls above the cave to encourage future +adventurers to explore its recesses. + +In the absence of the proprietor of the hotel, who usually acts as +cicerone, we took as guide a sun-burnt young man, with an economical +portion of nose, closely cut hair, and a wiry little mouth, which we saw +at a glance would open only at the rate of a quarter of a dollar a fact. +He proved himself, however, shrewd, witty, and, withal, good-natured, +and as fond of a joke as any one of us all. Bob, for so our new +companion named himself, showed us at once into a dressing-room, +advising us to put on, over our own garments, certain exceedingly coarse +and ragged coats, hats and pants, which transformed us at once from +rather fashionable young men into a set of forlorn-looking beggars. Each +laughed at the appearance of the other, unconscious of his own +transformation; but Bob, with more truth than politeness, informed us +that we all 'looked like the Old Nick;' whence it appeared that in Bob's +opinion the Enemy is usually sorely afflicted with a shabby wardrobe, +and that, in the words of the sage, + + 'Poverty is the devil.' + + +Being furnished with small oil lamps, we descended to the mouth of the +cave. This opens at once into an entrance-hall, one hundred and fifty +feet in length and thirty in width, and high enough for a tall man to +enter upright. + +I inquired of Bob when the cave was discovered. 'In 1842,' he replied. +'And by whom?' I continued. 'Why,' rejoined our guide, 'Mister Howe was +a huntin' for caves, and he came across this one.' Rather a queer thing +to be hunting for, I thought, though without comment; but in future I +allowed Bob to carry on the conversation as best suited himself. He +plunged at once into a dissertation on the state of the country, gravely +stating that 'Washington was taken.' At the involuntary smile which this +astounding piece of news called forth, Bob confessed 'he might be +mistaken in this respect, as his paper came but once a week, and +frequently only once in two weeks.' Finding him a stanch Union man, and +inclined to serve his country to the best of his ability, we undertook +'to post him up' on the present state of affairs, for which the poor +fellow was truly grateful. + +Entrance Hall leads into Washington Hall, a magnificent apartment, three +hundred feet long, and in the lowest part upwards of forty feet high. +Our guide favored us at every turn with some new story or legend, +repeated in a sing-song, nasal tone, ludicrously contrasting with the +extravagance of the tales themselves. Yet he recited all alike with the +most immovable gravity. It was a lively waltz of three notes. + +Old Tunnel and Giant's Chapel, two fine cave-rooms, were next explored. +On entering the latter, Bob favored us with the rehearsal of an old +story from the Arabian Nights, which--unfortunately, not one which will +bear repetition--he wished us to believe actually happened in this very +locality. + +I may here confess that, when we came to 'the dark hole in the ground,' +I felt some slight reluctance to trust myself therein. Bob, observing +this, immediately drew from his lively imagination such an astonishing +increase of the perils of the way, looking complacently at me all the +while, that my alarm, strange to say, took flight at once, and I pushed +onward defiantly. The journey is, however, one that might justly inspire +timidity. Above our heads, and on each side, frowned immense rocks, +threatening at every instant to fall upon us; while the dash and babble +of a stream whose course we followed, increasing in volume as we +progressed, came to our ears like the 'sound of many waters.' We crossed +this stream a hundred times, at least, in our journey. Sometimes it +murmured and fretted in a chasm far below us; again, it spread itself +out in our very path, or danced merrily at our side, until it seemed to +plunge into some distant abyss with the roar of a cataract. + +We emerged from the windings of our tortuous path into Harlem Tunnel, a +room six hundred feet in length. In its sides were frequent openings, +leading into hitherto unexplored parts of the cave; but we did not +venture to enter many of these. Never have I seen such rocks as we here +encountered; at one time piled up on one another, ready to totter and +fall at a touch; at another, jutting out in immense boulders, sixty feet +above our heads, while, in the openings they left, we gazed upward into +darkness that seemed immeasurable. + +From Harlem Tunnel we came into Cataract Hall, also of great length, and +remarkable for containing a small opening extending to an unknown +distance within the mountain, since it apparently cannot be explored. +Applying the ear to this opening, the sound of an immense cataract +becomes audible, pouring over the rocks far within the recesses of the +mountain, where the Creator alone, who meted out those unseen, sunless +waters, can behold its beauty and its terror. + +Crossing the Pool of Siloam, whose babbling waters sparkled into beauty +as we held our lamps above them, we entered Franklin Hall. Here the +roof, although high enough in some places, is uncomfortably low in +others; whereupon Bob bade us give heed to the caution of Franklin, +'Stoop as you go, and you will miss many hard thumps.' + +We arrived next at Flood Hall, where a party of explorers were once put +in great peril by a sudden freshet in the stream. They barely saved +themselves by rapid flight, the water becoming waist-deep before they +gained the entrance. We had no reason to doubt the truth of this story, +as there were evidences of the rise and fall of water all about us. + +Congress Hall now awaited us, but I will omit a description of it, as +Musical Hall, which immediately succeeded, contains so much more that is +interesting. On entering, our attention was first directed to an +aperture wide enough for the admission of a man's head. Any sound made +in this opening is taken up and repeated by echo after echo, till the +very spirit of music seems awakened. Wave after wave of melodious sound +charms the ear, even if the first awakening note has been most +discordant. If the soul is filled with silent awe while listening to the +unseen waterfall in Cataract Hall, it is here wooed into peace by a +harmony more perfect than any produced by mortal invention. A +temple-cavern vaster than Ellora with a giant 'lithophone' for organ! + +The second wonder of Musical Hall is a lake of great extent, and from +ten to thirty feet in depth. The smooth surface of these crystal waters, +never ruffled by any air of heaven, and undisturbed save by the dip of +our oars as we were ferried across, the utter darkness that hid the +opposite shore from our straining sight, the huge rocks above, whose +clustering stalactites, lighted by our glimmering lamps, sparkled like a +starry sky, the sound of the far-off waterfall, softened by distance +into a sad and solemn music, all united to recall with a vivid power, +never before felt, the passage of the 'pious AEneas' over the Styx, which +I had so often read with delight in my boyhood. I half fancied our +Yankee Bob fading into a vision of the classic Charon, and that the +ghosts of unhappy spirits were peering at us from the darkness. + +At the end of the lake is Annexation Rock, a huge limestone formation in +the shape of an egg. It stands on one end, is twenty-eight feet in +diameter, and over forty in height. + +We were now introduced into Fat Man's Misery, where the small and +attenuated have greatly the advantage. We emerged from this narrow and +difficult passage into the Museum, half a mile long, and so called from +the number and variety of its formations. We did not linger to examine +its curiosities, but pushed on over the Alps, which we surmounted, aided +partly by ladders. Very steep and rugged were these Alps, and quite +worthy of the name they bear. We descended from them into the Bath-room, +where a pool of water and sundry other arrangements suggest to a lively +imagination its designation. It certainly has the recommendation of +being the most retired bath-room ever known. That of the Neapolitan +sibyl is public in comparison to it. + +We then entered Pirate's Retreat. Why so named, I can not guess, for I +doubt if the boldest pirate who ever sailed the 'South Seas o'er' would +dare venture alone so far underground as we now found ourselves. + +Leaving the Pirate's Retreat, we were obliged to cross the Rocky +Mountains, similar in formation and arrangement to the Alps. The Rocky +Mountains lead into Jehoshaphat's Valley, one mile in length. Like its +namesake, this valley is a deep ravine, with steep, rugged sides, and a +brawling brook running at the bottom. + +Miller's Hall next claims our attention. Here we take leave of the +brook, which, with the cave, loses itself in a measureless ravine, where +the rocks have fallen in such a manner as to obstruct any further +explorations. + +From thence, turning to the right, we enter Winding Way, a most +appropriate name for the place. The narrow passage turns and twists +between masses of solid rook, high in some places, and low in others. +The deathlike silence of the solitude that surrounded us impressed us +with a vague feeling of fear, and we felt no disposition to tempt the +Devil's Gangway, especially as, in consequence of a recent freshet, it +was partly filled with water. Our guide informed us that beyond the +Gangway were several rooms, among which Silent Chamber and Gothic Arch +were the most noteworthy. The portion of the cave visited by tourists +terminates in the 'Rotunda,' eight miles from the entrance; although +explorations have been made some miles further. The Rotunda is +cylindrical in shape, fifteen feet in diameter, and one hundred feet in +height. + +We were now in a little room six miles from the mouth of the cave, and +thought the present a good opportunity to try the effect of the absence +of light and sound on the mind. Extinguishing our lights, therefore, we +resigned ourselves to the influences of darkness and silence. To realize +such a state fully, one must find one's self in the bowels of the earth, +as we were, where the beating of our own hearts alone attested the +existence of life. We were glad to relight our lamps and begin our +return to upper air. + +I have already mentioned Annexation Rock; near it is another curious +freak of nature, called the Tree of the World's History. It resembles +the stump of a tree two feet in diameter, and cut off two feet above the +ground, upon which a portion of the trunk, six feet in length, is +exactly balanced. A singular type of the changes which time makes in the +world above-ground. + +In the Museum, whose examination we had postponed till our return, we +were lost in a world of wonders. It were vain to attempt to describe or +even enumerate half of the various objects that met us at every turn. +Churches, towers, complete with doors and windows, as if finished by the +hand of an architect; an organ, its long and short pipes arranged in +perfect order; Lot's Wife, a figure in stone, life size; in another +place two women, in long, flowing garments, standing facing each other, +as if engaged in earnest conversation, and a soldier in complete +armor,--these were among the most striking of the larger objects. The +vegetable world was also well represented. Here was a bunch of carrots, +fresh as if just taken from the ground, sheaves of wheat, bunches of +grain and grass hanging from the walls and roofs. Interspersed were +birds of every species, doves in loving companionship, sparrows, and +hawks. I noticed also in one place a pair of elephant's ears perfect as +life. Indeed it was not difficult to believe that these stony semblances +had once been endowed with life, and, ere blight or decay could change, +had been transmuted into things of imperishable beauty. + +While waiting for our guide to unmoor the boat, which was to take us +over the lake a second time, I ran up the bank to look at the +stalactites that hung in the greatest profusion above the water. The +light of my lamp shining through them produced an effect as surprising +as it was beautiful. But no words can do justice to the scene. Imagine +an immense room whose ceiling is studded with icicles forming every +conceivable curve and angle, and you will have only a faint idea of the +number and variety of these subterranean ornaments. + +A mile from the entrance we found some stray bats,--the first living +creatures we had met. We endeavored to attract them by holding up our +lamps, and succeeded so well that we were glad to leave them behind us +as soon as possible. + +It is a singular fact, noted by other cave-explorers, and confirmed by +our own experience, that while within a cave one's usual vigor and +activity appears augmented. A slight reaction takes place on coming out +into the upper world, and renders rest doubly refreshing and grateful. + +Let me, in closing, advise other visitors to Howe's Cave to choose _fair +weather, and take time enough_ for their visit, as the windings of the +cave and its curiosities are alike exhaustless. + + * * * * * + +POTENTIAL MOODS + + + I sit and dream + Of the time that prophets have long foretold, + Of an age surpassing the age of gold, + Which the eyes of the selfish can never behold, + When truth and love shall be owned supreme. + + I think and weep + O'er the thousands oppressed by sin and woe, + O'er the long procession of those who go, + Through ignorance, error, and passions low, + To the unsought bed of their dreamless sleep. + + I wait and long + For the sway of justice, the rule of right; + For the glad diffusion of wisdom's light; + For the triumph of liberty over might; + For the day when the weak shall be free from the strong. + + I work and sing + To welcome the dawn of the fairer day, + When crime and sin shall have passed away, + When men shall live as well as they pray, + And earth with the gladness of heaven shall ring. + + I trust and hope + In the tide of God's love that unceasingly rolls, + In the dear words of promise that bear up our souls, + In the tender compassion that sweetly consoles, + When in death's darkened valley we tremblingly grope. + + I toil and pray + For the beauty excelling all forms of art; + For the blessing that comes to the holy heart; + For the hope that foretells, and seems a part + Of the life and joy of the heavenly day. + + * * * * * + +THE TRUE INTEREST OF NATIONS. + + +For a litigious, quarrelsome, fighting animal, man is very fond of +peace. He began to shed blood almost as soon as he began to go alone in +company with his nearest relatives; and when Abel asked of Cain, 'Am I +not a man and a brother?' the latter, instead of giving him the hug +fraternal, did beat him to death. Cain's only object, it should seem, +was a quiet life, and Abel had disturbed his repose by setting up a +higher standard of excellence than the elder brother could afford to +maintain. It was only to 'conquer a peace' that Cain thus acted. He +desired 'indemnity for the past and security for the future,' and so he +took up arms against his brother and ended him. He loved peace, but he +did not fear war, because he was the stronger party of the two, his +weapons being as ready for action as the British navy is ready for it +to-day; and Abel was as defenceless as we were a twelvemonth ago. Cain +is the type of all mankind, who know that peace is better than war, but +who rush into war under the pressure of envy and pride. Ancient as +violence is, it is not so old as peace; and it is for peace that all +wars are made, at least by organized communities. All peoples have in +their minds the idea of a golden age, not unlike to that time so vividly +described by Hesiod, when men were absolutely good, and therefore happy; +living in perfect accord on what the earth abundantly gave them, +suffering neither illness nor old age, and dying as calmly as they had +lived. Historical inquiry has so far shaken belief in the existence of +any such time as that painted by the poet, that men have agreed to place +it in the future. It has never been, but it is to be. It will come with +that 'coming man,' who travels so slowly, and will be by him +inaugurated, a boundless millennial time. In the mean time contention +prevails; 'war's unequal game' is played with transcendent vigor, and at +a cost that would frighten the whole human race into madness were it +incurred for any other purpose. But, while fighting, men have kept their +eyes steadily fixed upon peace, which is to be the reward of their valor +and their pecuniary sacrifices. Every warlike time has been followed by +a period in which strenuous exertions have been made to make peace +perpetual. Never was there a more profound desire felt for peace than +that which prevailed among the Romans of the Augustan age, after a +series of civil and foreign wars yet unparalleled in the history of +human struggles. One poet could denounce the first forger of the iron +sword as being truly brutal and iron-hearted; and another could declare +it to be the 'mission' of the Romans only to impose terms of peace upon +barbarians, who should be compelled to accept quiet as a boon, or endure +it as a burden. Strange sentiments were these to proceed from the land +of the legions, but they expressed the current Roman opinion, which +preferred even dishonor to war. So was it after the settlement of Europe +in 1815. A generation that had grown up in the course of the greatest of +modern contests produced the most determined and persistent advocates of +the 'peace-at-any-price' policy; and for forty years peace was preserved +between the principal Christian nations, through the exertions of +statesmen, kings, philanthropists, and economists, who, if they could +agree in nothing else, were almost unanimous in the opinion that war was +an expensive folly, and that the first duty of a government was to +prevent its subjects from becoming military-mad. Perhaps there never was +a happier time in Christendom than it knew between the autumn of 1815 +and the spring of 1854, after Napoleon had gone down and before Nicholas +had set himself up to dictate law to the world. It was the modern age of +the Antonines, into which was crowded more true enjoyment than mankind +had known for centuries; and they are beginning to learn its excellence +from its loss,--war raging now in the New World, while Europe lives in +hourly expectation of its occurrence. There were wars, and cruel wars, +too, in those years, but they faintly affected Europe and the United +States, and probably added something to men's happiness, for the same +reason that a storm to which we are not exposed increases our sense of +comfort. Their thunders were remote, and they furnished materials for +the journals. So we saw a Providence in them, and thanked Heaven, some +of us, that we no longer furnished examples of the folly of contention. + +The friends of peace were actuated by various motives. With statesmen +and politicians peace was preferred because it was cheaper than war, and +all countries were burdened with debt. England has sometimes been +praised because she so uniformly threw her influence on the side of +peace, after she had accomplished her purpose in the war against +imperial France. Time and again, she might have waged popular wars, and +in which she would have probably been successful; but she would help +neither the Spaniards against France and the Holy Alliance, nor the +Turks against the Russians, nor the Poles against the Czar, nor the +Hungarians against the Austrians, nor the Italians against the Kaiser, +nor the Greeks against the Turks. She settled all her disputes with the +United States by negotiation, and showed no disposition to fight with +France, except when she had all the rest of Europe on her side. But this +praise has not been deserved. England did not quarrel with powerful +countries, because she could not afford to enter upon costly warfare. +She had gone to the extent of her means when her debt had reached to +four thousand million dollars, and she could not increase that debt +largely until she should also have increased her wealth. Time was +required to add to her means, and to lessen her debt; and to such a +state had her finances been reduced, that it is now twenty years since +she began to derive a portion of her revenue from an income tax, which, +imposed in the time of peace, was increased when war became inevitable. +The bonds she had given to keep the peace were too great to admit of her +breaking it. She did not fight, because she doubted her ability to fight +successfully. She had no wish to behold another suspension of cash +payments by her national bank; and a general war would be sure to bring +suspension. But she was as ready as she had ever been to contend with +the weak. The Chinese and the Afghans did not find her very forbearing, +though with neither of those peoples had she any just cause for war. + +With the disunited States she has been as prompt to quarrel as she was +slow to contend with the United States; and now she is one of the high +contracting parties to the crusade against Mexico. We say nothing of the +Sepoy war, for that was a contest for 'empire,' as Earl Russell would +say. She could not, in the days of Clyde, give up what she had acquired +in the days of Clive; and no one ought to blame her for what she did in +India, though it can not be denied that the mutiny was the consequence +of her own bad conduct in the East. With Russia, Austria, and Prussia to +back her, in 1840, she went to the verge of a war with France; but, in +so doing, the government did that which the English nation by no means +warmly approved; and the fall of the whig ministry, in 1841, was in no +small part due to Lord Palmerston's policy in the preceding year. The +Russian war was brought about by the action of the English people, who +were angry with the Czar because his empire had the first place in +Europe. The government would have prevented that war from breaking out +if it could, but popular pressure was too strong for it, and it had to +give way. The event has proved that the English government was wiser +than were the English people, France alone having gained anything from +the departure from what had become the policy of Europe; and for France +to gain is not altogether for the benefit of England. + +Of the motives of the philanthropists, we have little to say. They are +always respectable, and it is a pity that the world should be too wicked +to appreciate them. But those of the economists are open to remark, and +the more so because there has been so much claimed for them. They +reduced everything to a matter of interest. Peace, they reasoned, is for +the welfare of all men; and, if an enlightened self-interest could be +made to prevail the world over, war would be rendered an impossibility. +Wars between civilized countries have mostly grown out of mistaken views +of interest on the part of governments and peoples. Once enlighten both +rulers and ruled, and make them understand that war can not pay, and +selfishness will accomplish what religion, and morality, and +benevolence, and common sense have failed to accomplish. Cutting throats +may be a very agreeable pastime; but no man ever yet paid for anything +more than it was worth, with his eyes wide open to the fact that he was +not buying a bargain, but selling himself. Nations would be as wise as +individuals, unless it be true that the sum of intelligence is not so +great as the items that compose it; and when it should have been made +indisputably clear that to make war was to make losses, while peace +should be as indisputably profitable, there would be no further occasion +to expend, annually, immense sums upon the support of great armaments, +such as were not kept up, even in times of war, by the potentates of +earlier days. The reason of mankind was to be appealed to, and they were +to be made saints through the use of practical logic. Neighborhood, +instead of being regarded as cause for enmity, was to be held as ground +for good feeling and liberal intercourse. Under the old system it had +been the custom to call France and England 'natural enemies,' words that +attributed to the Creator the origin of discord. Under the new system, +those great countries were to become the best of friends, as well as the +closest of neighbors; and one generation of free commerce was to do away +with the effects of five centuries of disputes and warfare. England was +to forget the part which France took in the first American war, and +France was to cease to recollect that there had been such days as Crecy +and Agincourt, Vittoria and Waterloo; and also that England had +overthrown her rule in North America, and driven her people from India. +But it was not France and England only that were to enter within the +charmed circle; all nations were to be admitted into it, and the whole +world was to fraternize. It was to be Arcadia in a ring-fence, an +Arcadia solidly based upon heavy profits, with consols, _rentes_, and +other public securities--which in other times had a bad fashion of +becoming very insecure--always at a good premium. Quarter-day was to be +the day for which all other days were made, and it would never be +darkened by the imposition of new taxes, by repudiation, or by any other +of those things that so often have lessened the felicity of the +fund-holder. + +That the new Temple of Peace might be enabled to rise in proper +proportions, it became necessary to destroy some old edifices, and to +remove what was considered to be very rubbishy rubbish. Protection, +tariffs, and so forth, once worshiped as evidences of ancestral wisdom, +were to be got rid of with all possible speed, and free trade was to be +substituted, that is, trade as free as was compatible with the raising +of enormous revenues, made necessary by the foolish wars of the past. In +due time, perfect freedom of trade would be had; but a blessing of that +magnitude could not be expected to come at once to the relief of a +suffering world. England, which had taken the lead in supporting +protection, and whose commercial system had been of the most illiberal +and sordid character, became the leader in the grand reform, pushing the +work vigorously forward, and, with her usual consideration for the +feelings and rights of others, ordering the nations of Europe and +America to follow her example. She had discovered that she had been all +in the wrong since the day when Oliver St. John's wounded pride led him +to the conclusion that it was the duty of every patriotic Englishman to +do his best to destroy the commerce of Holland. She was very impatient +of those peoples who were shy of imitating her, forgetting that her +conduct through six generations had made a strong impression on the +world's mind, and that her sudden conversion could not immediately avail +against her long persistence in sinning against political economy, if +indeed she had so sinned; and the question was one that admitted of some +dispute, free trade being but an experiment. Gradually, however, men +came round to the British view, in theory at least; and among the +intelligent classes it was admitted that commerce without restriction +was the true policy of nations, which must be gradually adopted as the +basis of all future action, due regard to be paid to those potent +disturbing forces, vested interests. France was slow to yield in +practice, though she had produced some of the cleverest of economical +writers; for she is as little given to change in matters of business as +she is ready to rush into political revolutions. But even France at last +gave signs of her intention to abandon her ancient practice in deference +to modern theories; and Napoleon III. and Mr. Cobden laid their wise +heads together to form plans for the completion of the 'cordial +understanding,' on the basis of free trade. Less than forty years had +sufficed to effect a gradual change of human opinion, and protection +seemed about to be sent to that limbo in which witchcraft, alchemy, and +judicial astrology have been so long undisturbedly reposing. + +Death, we are told, found his way into Arcadia; and disappointment was +not long in coming to disturb the modern Arcadians, who had as much to +do with cotton as their predecessors with wool. The dream of universal +peace, a peace that was to endure because based on enlightened +selfishness,--that is to say on buying in cheap markets and selling in +dear ones,--was as rudely dispelled as had been all earlier dreams of +the kind. Interest, it was found, could no more make men live lovingly +together than principle could cause them to do so in by-gone times. If +there were two nations that might have been insured not to fight each +other, because interest was sufficient to prevent men from having resort +to war, those nations were Russia and England. They were in no sense +rivals, according to the definition of rivalry in the circles of +commerce. Between them there was much buying and selling, to the great +profit of both. England is an old nation, with the arts of industry +developed among her people to an extent that is elsewhere unknown. The +division of labor that prevails among her working people is so extensive +and so minute, that in that respect she defies comparison. Other +countries may have as skillful laborers as she possesses, but their +industry is of a far less various character. Russia is a new country, +and she requires what England has to dispose of; and England finds her +account in purchasing the raw materials that are so abundantly produced +in Russia. Commercially speaking, therefore, these two nations could not +fall out, could not quarrel, could not fight, if they would. In all +other respects, too, they could be counted upon to set a good example to +all other communities. They had more than once been allies, each had +done the other good services at critical tunes, and they had had the +foremost places in that grand alliance which had twice dethroned +Napoleon I. The exceptions to their general good understanding belong to +those exceptions which are supposed to be useful in proving a given +rule. When the tory rulers of England became alarmed because of the +success of Catharine II. in her second Turkish war, and proposed doing +what was done more than sixty years later,--to assist the Osmanlis,--the +opposition to their policy became so powerful that even the strong +ministry of William Pitt had to listen to its voice; which shows that +the tendency of English opinion was then favorable to Russia. The +hostility of Czar Paul to England, in his last days, is attributed to +the failure of his mind; and the immediate resumption of good relations +between the two countries after his death, establishes the fact that the +English and the Russians were not sharers in the Czar's feelings. During +the five years that followed Tilsit, Russia appeared to be the enemy of +England, and war existed for some time between the two empires; but this +was owing to the ascendency of the French, Alexander having to choose +between England and France. The nominal enemies did each other as little +injury as possible; and, in 1812, they became greater friends than ever. +Most Englishmen were probably of Lord Holland's opinion, that England's +interest dictated a Russian connection; and in the eighteenth century +England was, in some sense, the nursing mother of the new empire, though +once or twice she was inclined to do as other nurses have +done,--administer some punishment to the rude and healthy child she was +fostering, and not without reason. So harmonious had been the relations +of these two magnificent states, that an eminent Russian author, Dr. +Hamel, writing in 1846, could say: 'Nearly three hundred years have now +elapsed since England greeted Muscovy at the mouth of the Dwina. So +great have been the benefits to trade, the arts, and industry in +general, arising from the friendly relations between England and Russia, +which, in 1853, will have completed the third century of their +continuance, that one might expect to see this period closed, in both +countries, with a jubilee to commemorate so remarkable an example of +uninterrupted amicable intercourse between nations.' The year 1853 came; +but, instead of being a jubilee to the old friends of three centuries' +standing, it brought the beginning of that contest which is known as the +Russian war. That was a proper way, indeed, to notice the happy return +of the three-hundredth anniversary of the establishment of +'uninterrupted amicable intercourse' between the nations, whose soldiers +were soon slaughtering each other with as much energy as if they had +been 'natural enemies' from immemorial time. Interest had no power to +turn aside the storm of war. The English people were angry with Russia +because the iron-willed Czar had carried matters in Europe with a very +high hand, and was, in fact, virtually master of the Old World, and +suspected of being on uncommonly good terms with the masters of the New +World. Nicholas had succeeded to the place of Napoleon in their ill +graces. They liked the Cossackry of the one as little as they had liked +the cannonarchy of the other. It was a case of pure jealousy. Russia was +too powerful to suit the English idea of the fitness of things, and +therefore it was necessary that she should be chastised and humbled. +Fear of Russia there could have been none in the English mind. It has +been thought that England contended for the safety of her Eastern +dominions; but then the Czar offered her Egypt and Candia, possession of +which would not only have much strengthened her Indian empire, but have +been the means of making her more powerful at home. Nothing better could +have been offered for her acceptance, if valuable territories would have +satisfied her feelings; and much praise has been bestowed upon her +because she did not close with the Czar's proposition 'to share and +share alike' the lands of the House of Othman; but that praise is not +quite deserved, the desire not to see Russia aggrandized being a +stronger sentiment with her than was the desire to aggrandize herself. +Had the question been left for British statesmen alone to settle,--had +the British premier been as free to act for England as the Czar was for +Russia,--poor, sick Turkey would have been cut and carved most +expeditiously and artistically; she would have been partitioned as +perfectly as Poland, and Abdul Medjid would have experienced the fate of +Stanislaus Poniatowski. But English ministers hold power only on +condition of doing the will of the English nation, and that nation had +contracted an aversion to Russia that was uncontrollable, and before its +hostility its ministers had to give way, slowly and reluctantly; and the +half-measures they adopted, like the half-measures of our own government +toward the secessionists, explain the disasters of the war. The English +people were determined that there should be an end, for the time at +least, to the Russian hegemony, and threw themselves into the arms of +France with a vivacity that would have astonished any other French ruler +but Napoleon III., who had lived among them, and who knew them well. The +war was waged, and, when over, what had England gained? Nothing solid, +it must be admitted. The territory of Russia remained unimpaired, and +there is not the slightest evidence that her influence in the East was +lessened by the partial destruction of Sebastopol. The Russian navy of +the Euxine had ceased to exist; but as it consisted principally of +vessels that were not adapted to the purposes of modern warfare, the +loss of the Russians in that respect was not of a very serious +character. Russia's European leadership was suspended; but her power and +her resources, which, if properly employed, must soon reinstate her, +were not damaged. England _had_ fought for an idea, and had fought in +vain. + +France had as little interest in the Russian war as England, and the +French people had no wish to fight the Czar. They would have preferred +fighting the English, in connection with the Czar,--an arrangement that +would have been more profitable to their country. But the emperor had a +quarrel with his arrogant brother at St. Petersburgh, and he availed +himself of the opportunity afforded by that brother's obstinacy to teach +him a lesson from which he did not live to profit. Nicholas had cut the +new emperor, and had caused him to be taboo'd by most of the sovereigns +of Europe; and the Frenchman determined to cut his way to consideration. +This he was enabled to do, with the aid of the English; and ever since +the war's close he has held the place which became vacant on the death +of Nicholas--that of Europe's arbiter. The French fought well, as they +always do, but their heart was not in the war. The emperor had the war +party pretty much to himself. Exactly the opposite state of things +existed in France to that which existed in England. In the former +country, the government was for war, and the people were for peace; in +the latter, the government was for peace, and the people were for war. +In each country power was in the hands of the war party, and so war was +made, in spite of the wishes of the French people and of English +statesmen. When Napoleon III. had accomplished _his_ purpose, he ordered +the English to make peace, and peace was made. In this way he satisfied +his subjects, showing them that he had no intention of making England +more powerful than she had been, or Russia weaker. He had prevented +Russia from extending her dominion, but he had also prevented England +from lessening that dominion. + +The Italian war was waged in opposition to the sentiments of the French +people, which was one of the leading causes of its sudden termination, +with its object, only half accomplished, and much to the damage of the +emperor's reputation for statesmanship and courage. Whether, in a +comprehensive sense, that war was entered upon for purposes adverse to +the interests of France, may well be doubted; but it is certain that it +was an unpopular measure in that country. The French had no objection to +the humiliation of Austria; but it would be a grave error to suppose +that they have any wish to behold Italy united and powerful. The kingdom +of Italy, should it become all that is desired for it by its friends in +this country, would be to France a source of annoyance, and probably of +danger. The emperor's power was shaken by his Italian policy, and hence +it was that he played the confederature game so long, to the +astonishment of foreigners, and got possession of Savoy and Nice, to +the astonishment and anger of England; and hence it is that he is +seeking Sardinia and other portions of Italy. Thus, the Italian war was +begun against the interests of the French people, or what that people +believe to be their interests, though this is the age in which there is +to be peace, because that is not to be broken except when popular +interests require that it shall no longer be preserved. + +But the most remarkable instance of the fallacy of the idea that regard +for the true interests of nations must banish hostilities from the +world, is afforded by the coarse of France and England toward this +country since the beginning of the secession war. Both those countries +have great interest not only in the preservation of peace _with_ the +United States, but in the preservation of peace _in_ the United States; +and yet they have done all that it lies in their power to do to +encourage our rebels, and have been on the verge of war with us: and war +with them, and with Spain, is exported by many Americans, who judge of +the future by the present and the past. England had a vast trade with +the American Union, buying at the South, and selling to the North, and +hence any disturbances here were sure to operate adversely to her +interests; but no sooner had it become apparent that our troubles were +to be of a serious character, than her weight was thrown on to the side +of the rebels, who never would have been able to do much but for the +encouragement they have received from abroad. The trade of France was +not so great with America as that of England; yet it was valuable, and +the French have suffered much from its suspension, perhaps we should say +its loss. The North has purchased but little from Europe for a year, and +the South has sold less to Europe in that time. There has been a trade +in food between the North and some European countries, in which grain +has been exchanged for gold, though it would have been better for both +parties could anything else than gold have been brought to America, true +commerce consisting in the interchange of commodities. For all the +sufferings that have been experienced by Englishmen and Frenchmen, they +have none but themselves and their governments to censure. That peace +has not been preserved is not our fault; and the war that has been blown +into so fierce a flame has been fed from Europe; it has been fanned by +breezes from France and England. When it was first seen that there was +danger of civil war, the governments of those countries, if they had +really had any regard for the true interests of their countries, would +have discouraged the rebels in the most public and pointed manner +imaginable, not because they cared for us, but for the simple reason +that they were bound so to act as should best promote the welfare of +their own peoples. War in America meant suffering to the artisans and +laborers of Europe, who, thus far, have suffered more from the war than +have any portion of the American people, except the residents of +Southern cities. Napoleon III. and Lord Palmerston should have said to +the agents of the Confederacy, and have taken care to publish their +words, 'We can afford you neither aid in deeds nor encouragement in +words. Our relations with both sections of the American nation are such, +that our respective countries must suffer immensely from the course +which you are about to pursue, not because you have been oppressed, or +fear oppression, but because you have been beaten in an election, and +power, for the time, has been taken from your hands. You ask us to act +hostilely against the established government of the United States, that +government having given us no cause of offense,--to become the patrons +of a revolution that has no cause, but the consequences of which may be +boundless. To revolutions we are averse; and one of our governments +exists in virtue of opposition to the party of disorder in Europe. You +ask us to do that which would lessen the means of livelihood to millions +of our people; for, granting that you should succeed, still there would +necessarily be so great a change produced by your action, and by our +intervention in American affairs, that for years America would not be +the good customer to France and England that she has been for a +generation. With the merits of your cause we can have nothing to do, our +true interests pointing to the maintenance of the strictest neutrality +in the contest between you and the federal government; and the dictates +of interest are fortified by the suggestions of principle. Your movement +is essentially disorderly in its character, and it is undertaken +avowedly in the interest of slavery; and not only are we the supporters +of the existing order of things the world over, but we are hostile to +slavery, having abolished it in all parts of our dominions. Our advice +to you is, to submit to the federal government, and to seek for the +redress of your grievances, if such you have, by means recognized in the +constitution and laws of your country. From us you can receive no aid, +and you should dismiss all expectation of it from your minds at once and +forever. We are indifferent to the form of the American government, and +its internal policy can not concern us; but the interests of our peoples +require that we should live in peace with the people of America, whether +they be of the South or of the North, slave-holders or abolitionists; +and we shall not quarrel with any portion of them for the sake of +facilitating the erection of a republic to be founded on the basis of +the divine nature of slavery, the first time that so preposterous a +pretension was ever put forward by the audacity or the impudence of +men.' Had something like this been said to the agents of the rebels, and +had the English press supported the same views, the rebellion would have +been at an end ere this, and the commercial relations of America and +Europe would have experienced no sensible interruption. English +interests, in an especial sense, demanded that the rebels should be +discouraged, and discouragement from London would have rendered +rebellion hopeless, and have promoted peace in Savannah and New Orleans. + +But it was not in England's nature to pursue a course that would have +been as much in harmony with her material interests as with that high +moral character which she claims as being peculiarly her own. There +appeared to have presented itself an opportunity to effect the +destruction of the American Republic, and England could not resist the +temptation to strike us hard: and, for almost a year, she has been to +the Union a more deadly foe than we have found in the South. We do not +allude to the _Trent_ question, for in that we were clearly in the +wrong, and Mason and Slidell should have been released on the 16th of +November, and not have been detained in captivity six weeks. Secretary +Seward has placed the point so emphatically beyond all doubt, that we +must all be of one mind thereon, whether in England or America. England +might have been moderate in her action, in view of her repeated outrages +on the rights of neutrals, but no intelligent American can condemn her +position. It is to other things that we must look for evidence of her +determination to effect our extinction as a nation. She has, while +dripping with Hindoo blood, and while yet men's ears are filled with +accounts of the blowing of sepoys from the muzzles of cannon by her +military executioners, absolutely demanded of us an acknowledgment of +the Southern Confederacy's independence, on the ground that it is +inhuman to wage war for the maintenance of our national life. She has +compared our mild and forbearing government with the savage proconsulate +of Alva in the Netherlands! She has charged us with waging war against +civilization, because we have employed stone fleets to close entrances +to the harbor of Charleston, though her own history is full of instances +of their employment for similar purposes! She has encouraged her traders +and seamen to furnish the rebels with arms of all kinds, and stores of +every description! She has excluded our ships-of-war from her ports, +refusing to allow them to coal at places at which she had granted us the +privilege, in time of peace, of establishing stations for fuel! She has +given shelter and protection to the privateers of the rebels, vessels +that had violated her own laws almost within sight of her own shores, +and certainly within the narrow seas! She has acknowledged the +belligerent character of the South, which is virtually an acknowledgment +of its independence, for none but nations can lawfully wage war. She +has, through her Minister for Foreign Affairs, declared that our war +with the secessionists is of the same character as the war which the +Spaniards carried on with their American colonists, and that there is no +difference between it and the attempt of the Turks to subdue the Greeks! +Monstrous perversions of history for even Earl Russell to be guilty of! +Her leading periodicals and journals, with few exceptions, have +denounced our country, our course, and our government in the bitterest +language, and to the manifest encouragement of the rebels, who see in +their language the rapid growth and prompt exhibition of a sentiment of +hostility to this country, and which must, sooner or later, end in war; +and war between England and America would be sure to lead to the success +of the Confederates, even if we should come out of it victoriously. + +Thus we see that the attempt to establish peace on the basis of the true +interests of nations has not only failed, but that it has failed +signally and deplorably. The solid Doric Temple of Mammon has no more +been able to stand against the storms of war than has the Crystal Palace +of Sentiment. The fair fabric which was the type of materialism has +fallen, and it would be most unwise to seek its reconstruction. That +which was to have stood as long and as firmly as the Pyramids has fallen +before the first moss could gather upon it. Nor is the reason of this +fall far to seek, as it lies upon the surface, and ought to have been +anticipated--would have been, only that men are so ready to believe in +what they wish to believe. England, as a nation, has two interests to +consult, and which do not always accord. She has her commercial interest +and her imperial interest; and, when the two conflict, the last is sure +to become first. Her position as a nation was threatened only by the +United States and Russia. The dynastic disputes of France, which are far +from being at an end, and the generally unsettled character of French +politics, must long prevent that country from becoming the permanent +rival of England. France is great to-day, and England acts wisely in +preparing to meet her in war; but to-morrow France may become weak, and +her voice be feeble and her weight light in Europe and the world. Three +houses claim her throne, and the Republicans may start up into active +life again, as we saw they did in 1848. Neither Austria nor Prussia can +ever furnish England cause of alarm. With Russia the case is very +different, as her government is solidly established; her resources are +vast, and in the course of steady development, and her desire to +establish her supremacy in the East is a fixed idea with both rulers and +ruled. Unchecked, she would have thrown England into the background, and +supposing that she had resolved not to allow that country a share of the +spoil of Turkey. The hard character and harsh policy of Nicholas ended +in furnishing to England an opportunity to throw Russia herself into the +background for the time, and that opportunity she made use of, but not +to the extent that she had determined upon, owing to her dependence upon +France, which became the shield of Russia after having been the sword of +England. The United States were a formidable rival of England; and, but +for the breaking out of our troubles, we should have been far ahead of +her by 1870, and perhaps have stripped her of all her American +possessions. When those troubles began, she proceeded to take the same +advantage of them that she had taken of the Czar's blunder. To sever the +American nation in twain is her object, as some of her public men have +frankly avowed; and she believes that the disintegrating process, once +commenced, would not stop with the division of the country into the +Northern Union and the Southern Confederacy. She expects, should the +South succeed, to see half a dozen republics here established, and is +not without hope that not even two States would remain together; and for +this hope she has very good foundation. The American nation destroyed, +England would become as great in the West as she is in the East, and +would hold, with far greater means at her command, the same position +that was hers in the last days of George II., when the French had been +expelled from America and India. She would have no commercial rival, and +there would no longer be an American navy susceptible of gigantic +increase. She would be truly the sea's sovereign; and whoso rules the +sea has power to dictate to the land. 'Whosoever commands the sea,' says +Sir Walter Raleigh, 'commands the trade of the world; whosoever commands +the trade of the world, commands the riches of the world, and +consequently the world itself.' England never would have gone to war +with the _United States_ to prevent their growth; but, now that they +have instituted civil war, it is certain that she will do all that lies +in her power to prevent the reconstruction of the Union. The war of +words has been begun, and it is but preliminary to the war of swords. +The savage music of the British press is the overture to the opera. The +morality of England may be neither higher nor lower than that of all +other countries,--may be no worse than our own,--but there is so much +that is offensive in her modes of exhibiting her destitution of +principle, that she is more hated than all other powerful countries that +ever have existed. She not only sins as badly as other nations, but +manages to make herself as odious for her manner of sinning as for the +sins themselves. There is no crime that she is not capable of, if its +perpetration be necessary to promote her own power. When Sir William +Reid was governor of Malta, he said to Mr. Lushington, 'I would let them +(_i.e._ the heathen) set up Juggernaut in St. George's Square (in +Edinburgh), if it were conducive to England's holding Malta.' And as +this time-blue Presbyterian was ready to allow the solemnization of the +bloodiest rites of paganism in the most public place of the Christian +city of Edinburgh, if that kind of tolerance would be conducive to +England's retention of Malta,--of which she holds possession, by the +way, in consequence of one of the grossest breaches of faith mentioned +even in her history,--so do we find the Christian people, peers, and +priests of England ready to become the allies of slave-holders and the +supporters of slavery, if thereby the American Republic can be +destroyed, as they believe that its existence may become the source of +danger to the ascendency of their country. + +The last intelligence from England allows us to believe that that +country has adopted a more liberal policy, and that her government will +do nothing to aid the rebels. Some of the language of Ministers is +friendly, and altogether the change is one of a character that can not +be otherwise than agreeable to us. France, too, has declared her +neutrality as strongly as England. These declarations were made before +intelligence of our military and naval successes had reached Europe, +which renders them all the more weighty. Peace between America and +Europe may, therefore, be counted upon, unless some very great reverses +should befall our arms. + + * * * * * + +AMONG THE PINES. + + +The 'Ole Cabin' to which Jim had alluded as the scene of Sam's +punishment by the Overseer, was a one-story shanty in the vicinity of +the stables. Though fast falling to decay, it had more the appearance of +a decent habitation than the other huts on the plantation. Its thick +plank door was ornamented with a mouldy brass knocker, and its four +windows contained sashes, to which here and there clung a broken pane, +the surviving relic of its better days. It was built of large unhewn +logs, notched at the ends and laid one upon the other, with the bark +still on. The thick, rough coat which yet adhered in patches to the +timber had opened in the sun, and let the rain and the worm burrow in +its sides, till some parts had crumbled entirely away. At one corner the +process of decay had gone on till roof, superstructure, and foundation +had rotted down and left an opening large enough to admit a coach and +four horses. The huge chimneys which had graced the gable-ends of the +building were fallen in, leaving only a mass of sticks and clay to tell +of their existence, and two wide openings to show how great a figure +they had once made in the world. A small space in front of the cabin +would have been a lawn, had the grass been willing to grow upon it; and +a few acres of cleared land in its rear might have passed for a garden, +had it not been entirely overgrown with young pines and stubble. This +primitive structure was once the 'mansion' of that broad plantation, +and, before the production of turpentine came into fashion in that +region, its rude owner drew his support from its few surrounding acres, +more truly independent than the present aristocratic proprietor, who, +raising only one article, and buying all his provisions, was forced to +draw his support from the Yankee or the Englishman. + +Only one room, about forty feet square, occupied the interior of the +cabin. It once contained several apartments, vestiges of which still +remained, but the partitions had been torn away to fit it for its +present uses. What those uses were, a moment's observation showed me. + +In the middle of the floor, which was mostly rotted away, a space about +fifteen feet square was covered with thick pine planking, strongly +nailed to the beams. In the centre of this planking an oaken block was +firmly bolted, and to it was fastened a strong iron staple that held a +log-chain, to which was attached a pair of shackles. Above this, was a +queer frame-work of oak, somewhat resembling the contrivance for drying +fruit I have seen in Yankee farm-houses. Attached to the rafters by +stout pieces of timber, were two hickory poles, placed horizontally, and +about four feet apart, the lower one rather more than eight feet from +the floor. This was the whipping-rack, and hanging to it were several +stout whips with short hickory handles, and long triple lashes. I took +one down for closer inspection, and found burned into the wood, in large +letters, the words 'Moral Suasion.' I questioned the appropriateness of +the label, but the Colonel insisted with great gravity that the whip is +the only 'moral suasion' a darky is capable of understanding. + +When punishment is inflicted on one of the Colonel's negroes, his feet +are confined in the shackles, his arms tied above his head, and drawn by +a stout cord up to one of the horizontal poles; then, his back bared to +the waist, and standing on tip-toe, with every muscle stretched to its +utmost tension, he takes 'de lashes.' + +A more severe but more unusual punishment is the 'thumb-screw.' In this +a noose is passed around the negro's thumb and fore-finger, while the +cord is thrown over the upper cross-pole, and the culprit is drawn up +till his toes barely touch the ground. In this position the whole +weight of the body rests on the thumb and fore-finger. The torture is +excruciating, and strong, able-bodied men can endure it but a few +moments. The Colonel naively told me that he had discontinued its +practice, as several of his _women_ had nearly lost the use of their +hands, and been incapacited for field labor, by its too frequent +repetition. 'My ---- drivers,'[L] he added, 'have no discretion, and no +humanity; if they have a pique against a nigger, they show him no +mercy.' + +The old shanty I have described was now the place of the Overseer's +confinement. Open as it was at top, bottom, and sides, it seemed an +unsafe prison-house; but Jim had rendered its present occupant secure by +placing 'de padlocks on him.' + +'Where did you catch him?' asked the Colonel of Jim, as, followed by +every darky on the plantation, we took our way to the old building. + +'In de swamp, massa. We got Sandy and de dogs arter him--dey treed him, +but he fit like de debil.' + +'Any one hurt?' + +'Yas, Cunnel; he knifed Yaller Jake, and ef I hadn't a gibin him a +wiper, you'd a had anudder nigger short dis mornin'--shore.' + +'How was it? tell me,' said his master, while we paused, and the darkies +gathered around. + +'Wal, yer see, massa, we got de ole debil's hat dat he drapped wen you +had him down; den we went to Sandy's fur de dogs--dey scented him to +onst, and off dey put for de swamp. 'Bout twenty on us follored 'em. +He'd a right smart start on us, and run like a deer, but de hounds +kotched up wid him 'bout whar he shot pore Sam. He fit 'em and cut up de +Lady awful, but ole Caesar got a hole ob him, and sliced a breakfuss out +ob his legs. Somehow, dough, he got away from de ole dog, and clum a +tree. 'T was more'n an hour afore we kotched up; but dar he war, and de +houns baying 'way as ef dey know'd wat an ole debil he am. I'd tuk one +ob de guns--you warn't in de hous, massa, so I cudn't ax you.' + +'Never mind that; go on,' said the Colonel. + +'Wal, I up wid de gun, and tole him ef he didn't cum down I'd gib him +suffin' dat 'ud sot hard on de stummuk. It tuk him a long w'ile, but--he +_cum down_.' Here the darky showed a row of ivory that would have been a +fair capital for a metropolitan dentist. + +'Wen he war down,' he resumed, 'Jake war gwine to tie him, but de ole +'gator, quicker dan a flash, put a knife enter him.' + +'Is Jake much hurt?' interrupted the Colonel. + +'Not bad, massa; de knife went fru his arm, and enter his ribs, but de +ma'am hab fix him up, and she say he'll be 'round bery sudden.' + +'Well, what then?' inquired the Colonel. + +'Wen de ole debil seed he hadn't finished Jake, he war gwine to gib him +anoder dig, but jus den I drap de gun on his cocoa-nut, and he neber +trubble us no more. 'Twar mons'rous hard work to git him out ob de +swamp, 'cause he war jes like a dead man, and we had to tote him de hull +way; but he'm dar now, massa (pointing to the old cabin), and de +bracelets am on him.' + +'Where is Jake?' asked the Colonel. + +'Dunno, massa, but reckon he'm to hum.' + +'One of you boys go and bring him to the cabin,' said the Colonel. + +A negro-man went off on the errand, while we and the darkies resumed our +way to the Overseer's quarters. Arrived there, I witnessed a scene that +words can not picture. + +Stretched at full length on the floor, his clothes torn to shreds, his +coarse carroty hair matted with blood, and his thin, ugly visage pale as +death, lay the Overseer. Bending over him, wiping away the blood from +his face, and swathing a ghastly wound on his forehead, was the negress +Sue; while at his shackled feet, binding up his still bleeding legs, +knelt the octoroon woman. + +'Is _she_ here?' I said, involuntarily, as I caught sight of the group. + +'It's her nature,' said the Colonel, with a pleasant smile; 'if Moye +were the devil himself, she'd do him good if she could; another such +woman never lived.' + +And yet this woman, with all the instincts that make her sex +angel-ministers to man, lived in daily violation of the most sacred of +all laws,--because she was a slave. Will Mr. Caleb Cushing or Charles +O'Conner please tell us why the Almighty invented a system which forces +his creatures to break the laws of His own making? + +'Don't waste your time on him, Alice,' said the Colonel, kindly; 'he +isn't worth the rope that'll hang him.' + +'He was bleeding to death; he must have care or he'll die,' said the +octoroon woman. + +'Then let him die, d---- him,' replied the Colonel, advancing to where +the Overseer lay, and bending down to satisfy himself of his condition. + +Meanwhile more than two hundred dusky forms crowded around and filled +every opening of the old building. Every conceivable emotion, except +pity, was depicted on their dark faces. The same individuals whose +cloudy visages a half-hour before I had seen distended with a wild mirth +and careless jollity, that made me think them really the docile, +good-natured animals they are said to be, now glared on the prostrate +Overseer with the infuriated rage of aroused beasts when springing on +their prey. + +'You can't come the possum here. Get up, you ---- hound,' said the +Colonel, rising and striking the bleeding man with his foot. + +The fellow raised himself on one elbow and gazed around with a stupid, +vacant look. His eye wandered unsteadily for a moment from the Colonel +to the throng of cloudy faces in the doorway; then, his recent +experience flashing upon him, he shrieked out, clinging wildly to the +skirts of the octoroon woman, who was standing near, 'Keep off them +cursed hounds,--keep them off, I say--they'll kill me!--they'll kill +me!' + +One glance satisfied me that his mind was wandering. The blow on the +head had shattered his reason, and made the strong man less than a +child. + +'You shan't be killed yet,' said the Colonel. 'You've a small account to +settle with me before you reckon with the devil.' + +At this moment the dark crowd in the doorway parted, and Jake entered, +his arm bound up and in a sling. + +'Jake, come here,' said the Colonel; 'this man would have killed you. +What shall we do with him?' + +''Tain't fur a darky to say dat, massa,' said the negro, evidently +unaccustomed to the rude administration of justice which the Colonel was +about to inaugurate; 'he did wuss dan dat to Sam, mass--he orter swing +for shootin' him.' + +'That's _my_ affair; we'll settle your account first,' replied the +Colonel. + +The darky looked undecidedly at his master, and then at the Overseer, +who, overcome by weakness, had sunk again to the floor. The little +humanity in him was evidently struggling with his hatred of Moye and his +desire of revenge, when the old nurse yelled out from among the crowd, +'Gib him fifty lashes, Massa Davy, and den you wash him down.[M] Be a +man, Jake, and say dat.' + +Jake still hesitated, and when at last he was about to speak, the eye of +the octoroon woman caught his, and chained the words to his tongue, as +if by magnetic power. + +'Do you say that, boys;' said the Colonel, turning to the other negroes; +'shall he have fifty lashes?' + +'Yas, massa, fifty lashes--gib de ole debil fifty lashes,' shouted about +fifty voices. + +'He shall have them,' quietly said the master. + +The mad shout that followed, which was more like the yell of demons than +the cry of men, seemed to arouse the Overseer to a sense of the real +state of affairs. Springing to his feet, he gazed wildly around; then, +sinking on his knees before the octoroon, and clutching the folds of her +dress, he shrieked, 'Save me, good lady, save me! as you hope for mercy, +save me!' + +Not a muscle of her face moved, but, turning to the excited crowd, she +mildly said, 'Fifty lashes would kill him. _Jake_ does not say +that--your master leaves it to him, and he will not whip a dying +man--will you, Jake?' + +'No, ma'am--not--not ef you go agin it,' replied the negro, with very +evident reluctance. + +'But he whipped Sam, ma'am, when he was nearer dead than _he_ am,' said +Jim, whose station as house-servant allowed him a certain freedom of +speech. + +'Because he was brutal to Sam, should you be brutal to him? Can you +expect me to tend you when you are sick, if you beat a dying man? Does +Pompey say you should do such things?' said the lady. + +'No, good ma'am,' said the old preacher, stepping out, with the freedom +of an old servant, from the black mass, and taking his stand beside me +in the open space left for the 'w'ite folks;' 'de ole man dusn't say +dat, ma'am; he tell 'em de Lord want 'em to forgib dar en'mies--to lub +dem dat pursyskute em;' then, turning to the Colonel, he added, as he +passed his hand meekly over his thin crop of white wool and threw his +long heel back, 'ef massa'll 'low me I'll talk to 'em.' + +'Fire away,' said the Colonel, with evident chagrin. 'This is a nigger +trial; if you want to screen the d---- hound you can do it.' + +'I dusn't want to screed him, massa, but I'se bery ole and got soon to +gwo, and I dusn't want de blessed Lord to ax me wen I gets dar why I +'lowed dese pore ig'nant brack folks to mudder a man 'fore my bery face. +I toted you, massa, fore you cud gwo, I'se worked for you till I can't +work no more; and I dusn't want to tell de Lord dat _my_ massa let a +brudder man be killed in cole blood.' + +'He is no brother of mine, you old fool; preach to the nigs, don't +preach to me,' said the Colonel, stifling his displeasure, and striding +off through the black crowd, without saying another word. + +Here and there in the dark mass a face showed signs of relenting; but +much the larger number of that strange jury, had the question been put, +would have voted--DEATH. + +The old preacher turned to them as the Colonel passed out, and said, 'My +chil'ren, would you hab dis man whipped, so weak, so dyin' as he am, of +he war brack?' + +'No, not ef he war a darky--fer den he wouldn't be such an ole debil,' +replied Jim, and about a dozen of the other negroes. + +'De w'ite ain't no wuss dan de brack--dey'm all 'like--pore sinners all +ob 'em. De Lord wudn't whip a w'ite man no sooner dan a brack one--He +tinks de w'ite juss so good as de brack (good Southern doctrine, I +thought). De porest w'ite trash wudn't strike a man wen he war down.' + +'We'se had 'nough of dis, ole man,' said a large, powerful negro (one of +the drivers), stepping forward, and, regardless of the presence of Madam +P---- and myself, pressing close to where the Overseer lay, now totally +unconscious of what was passing around him. 'You needn't preach no more; +de Cunnul hab say we'm to whip ole Moye, and we'se gwine to do it, by +----.' + +I felt my fingers closing on the palm of my hand, and in a second more +they would have cut the darky's profile, had not Madam P---- cried out, +'Stand back, you impudent fellow: say another word, and I'll have you +whipped on the spot.' + +'De Cunnul am my massa, ma'am--_he_ say ole Moye shall be whipped, and +I'se gwine to do it--shore.' + +I have seen a storm at sea--I have seen the tempest tear up great +trees--I have seen the lightning strike in a dark night--but I never saw +anything half so grand, half so terrible, as the glance and tone of that +woman as she cried out, 'Jim, take this man--give him fifty lashes this +instant.' + +Quicker than thought, a dozen darkies were on him. His hands and feet +were tied and he was under the whipping-rack in a second. Turning then +to the other negroes, the brave woman said, 'Some of you carry Moye to +the house, and you, Jim, see to this man--if fifty lashes don't make him +sorry, give him fifty more.' + +This summary change of programme was silently acquiesced in by the +assembled darkies, but many a cloudy face scowled sulkily on the +octoroon, as, leaning on my arm, she followed Junius and the other +negroes, who bore Moye to the mansion. It was plain that under those +dark faces a fire was burning that a breath would have fanned into a +flame. + +We entered the house by its rear door, and placed Moye in a small room +on the ground floor. He was laid on a bed, and stimulants being given +him, his senses and reason shortly returned. His eyes opened, and his +real position seemed suddenly to flash upon him, for he turned to Madam +P----, and in a weak voice, half-choked with emotion, faltered out, 'May +God in heaven bless ye, ma'am; God _will_ bless ye for bein' so good to +a wicked man like me. I doesn't desarve it, but ye woant leave me--ye +woant leave me--they'll kill me ef ye do!' + +'Don't fear,' said the Madam; 'you shall have a fair trial. No harm +shall come to you here.' + +'Thank ye, thank ye,' gasped the Overseer, raising himself on one arm, +and clutching at the lady's hand, which he tried to lift to his lips. + +'Don't say any more now,' said Madam P----, quietly; 'you must rest and +be quiet, or you won't get well.' + +'Shan't I get well? Oh, I can't die--I can't die _now_!' + +The lady made a soothing reply, and giving him an opiate, and arranging +the bedding so that he might rest more easily, she left the room with +me. + +As we stepped into the hall, I saw through the front door, which was +open, the horses harnessed in readiness for 'meeting,' and the Colonel +pacing to and fro on the piazza, smoking a cigar. He perceived us, and +halted in front of the doorway. + +'So, you've brought that d---- blood-thirsty villain into my house!' he +said to Madam P----, in a tone of strong displeasure. + +'How could I help it? The negroes are mad, and would kill him anywhere +else,' replied the lady, with a certain self-confidence that showed she +knew her power over the Colonel. + +'Why should _you_ interfere between them and him? Has he not insulted +you often enough to make you let him alone? Can you so easily forgive +his taunting you with'--He did not finish the sentence, but what I had +learned on the previous evening from the old nurse gave me a clue to its +meaning. A red flame flushed the face and neck of the octoroon +woman--her eyes literally flashed fire, and her very breath seemed to +come with pain; in a moment, however, this emotion passed away, and she +quietly said, 'Let me settle that in my own way. He has served _you_ +well--_you_ have nothing against him that the law will not punish.' + +'By ----, you are the most unaccountable woman I ever knew,' exclaimed +the Colonel, striding up and down the piazza, the angry feeling passing +from his face, and giving way to a mingled expression of wonder and +admiration. The conversation was here interrupted by Jim, who just then +made his appearance, hat in hand. + +'Well, Jim, what is it?' asked his master. + +'We'se gib'n Sam twenty lashes, ma'am, but he beg so hard, and say he so +sorry, dat I tole him I'd ax you 'fore we gabe him any more.' + +'Well, if he's sorry, that's enough; but tell him he'll get fifty +another time,' said the lady. + +'What Sam is it?' asked the Colonel. + +'Big Sam, the driver,' said Jim. + +'Why was he whipped?' + +'He told me _you_ were his master, and insisted on whipping Moye,' +replied the lady. + +'Did he dare to do that? Give him a hundred, Jim, not one less,' roared +the Colonel. + +'Yas, massa,' said Jim. + +The lady looked significantly at the negro and shook her head, but said +nothing, and he left. + +'Come, Alice, it is nearly time for meeting, and I want to stop and see +Sandy on the way.' + +'I reckon I won't go,' said Madam P----. + +'You stay to take care of Moye, I suppose,' said the Colonel, with a +slight sneer. + +'Yes,' replied the lady; 'he is badly hurt, and in danger of +inflammation.' + +'Well, suit yourself. Sir. K----, come, _we'll_ go--you'll meet some of +the _natives_.' + +The lady retired to the house, and the Colonel and I were soon ready. +The driver brought the horses to the door, and as we were about to enter +the carriage, I noticed Jim taking his accustomed seat on the box. + +'Who's looking after Sam?' asked the Colonel. + +'Nobody, Cunnul; de ma'am leff him gwo.' + +'How dare you disobey me? Didn't I tell you to give him a hundred?' + +'Yas, massa, but de ma'am tole me notter.' + +'Well, another time you mind what _I_ say--do you hear?' said his +master. + +'Yas, massa,' said the negro, with a broad grin, 'I allers do dat.' + +'You _never_ do it, you d---- nigger; I ought to have flogged you long +ago.' + +Jim said nothing, but gave a quiet laugh, showing no sort of fear, and +we entered the carriage. I afterwards learned from him that he had never +been whipped, and that all the negroes on the plantation obeyed the lady +when, which was seldom, her orders came in conflict with their master's. +They knew if they did not, the Colonel would whip them. + +As we rode slowly along the Colonel said to me, 'Well, you see that the +best people have to flog their niggers sometimes.' + +'Yes, _I_ should have given that fellow a hundred lashes, at least. I +think the effect on the others would have been bad if Madam P---- had +not had him flogged.' + +'But she generally goes against it. I don't remember of her having it +done in ten years before. And yet, though I've the worst gang of niggers +in the district, they obey her like so many children.' + +'Why is that?' + +'Well, there's a kind of magnetism about her that makes everybody love +her; and then she tends them in sickness, and is constantly doing little +things for their comfort; _that_ attaches them to her. She is an +extraordinary woman.' + +'Whose negroes are those, Colonel?' I asked, as, after a while, we +passed a gang of about a dozen, at work near the roadside. Some were +tending a tar-kiln, and some engaged in cutting into fire-wood the pines +which a recent tornado had thrown to the ground. + +'They are mine, but they are working now for themselves. I let such as +will, work on Sunday. I furnish the "raw material," and pay them for +what they do, as I would a white man.' + +'Would'nt it be better to make them go to hear the old preacher; +could'nt they learn something from him?' + +'Not much; Old Pomp never read anything but the Bible, and he don't +understand that; besides, they can't be taught. You can't make "a +whistle out of a pig's tail;" you can't make a nigger into a white man.' + +Just here the carriage stopped suddenly, and we looked out to see the +cause. The road by which we had come was a mere opening through the +pines; no fences separated it from the wooded land, and being seldom +traveled, the track was scarcely visible. In many places it widened to a +hundred feet, but in others tall trees had grown up on its opposite +sides, and there was scarcely width enough for a single carriage to pass +along. In one of these narrow passages, just before us, a queer-looking +vehicle had upset, and scattered its contents in the road. We had no +alternative but to wait till it got out of the way; and we all alighted +to reconnoitre. + +The vehicle was a little larger than an ordinary hand-cart, and was +mounted on wheels that had probably served their time on a Boston dray +before commencing their travels in Secessiondom. Its box of pine +boarding and its shafts of rough oak poles were evidently of Southern +home manufacture. Attached to it by a rope harness, with a primitive +bridle of decidedly original construction, was--not a horse, nor a mule, +nor even an alligator, but a 'three-year-old heifer.' + +The wooden linch-pin of the cart had given way, and the weight of a +half-dozen barrels of turpentine had thrown the box off its balance, and +rolled the contents about in all directions. + +The appearance of the proprietor of this nondescript vehicle was in +keeping with the establishment. His coat, which was much too short in +the waist and much too long in the skirts, was of the common reddish +gray linsey, and his nether garments, of the same material, stopped just +below the knees. From there downwards, he wore only the covering that is +said to have been the fashion in Paradise before Adam took to +fig-leaves. His hat had a rim broader than a political platform, and his +skin a color half way between that of tobacco-juice and a tallow candle. + +'Wal, Cunnul, how dy'ge?' said the stranger, as we stepped from the +carriage. + +'Very well, Ned; how are you?' + +'Purty wal, Cunnul; had the nagur lately, right smart, but'm gittin' +'roun.' + +'You're in a bad fix here, I see. Can't Jim help you?' + +'Wal, p'raps he moight. Jim, how dy'ge?' + +'Sort o' smart, ole feller. But come, stir yerseff; we want ter gwo +'long,' replied Jim, with a manifest lack of courtesy that showed he +regarded the white man as altogether too 'trashy' to be treated with +much ceremony. + +With the aid of Jim, a new linch-pin was soon whittled out, the +turpentine rolled on to the cart, and the vehicle put in a moving +condition. + +'Where are you hauling your turpentine?' asked the Colonel. + +'To Sam Bell's, at the "Boro'."' + +'What will he pay you?' + +'Wal, I've four barr'ls of "dip," and tu of "hard." For the hull, I +reckon he'll give three dollars a barr'l.' + +'By tale?' + +'No, for two hun'red and eighty pound.' + +'Well, _I'll_ give you two dollars and a half by weight.' + +'Can't take it, Cunnel; must get three dollar.' + +'What, will you go sixty miles with this team, and waste five or six +days, for fifty cents on six barrels--three dollars?' + +'Can't 'ford the time, Cunnel, but must git three dollar a barr'l.' + +'That fellow is a specimen of our "natives,"' said the Colonel, as we +resumed our seats in the carriage. 'You'll see more of them before we +get back to the plantation.' + +'He puts a young cow to a decidedly original use,' I remarked. + +'Oh no, not original here; the ox and the cow with us are both used for +labor.' + +'You don't mean to say that cows are generally worked here?' + +'Of course I do. Our breeds are good for nothing as milkers, and we put +them to the next best use. I never have cow's milk on my plantation.' + +'You don't! why, I could have sworn it was in my coffee this morning.' + +'I wouldn't trust you to buy brandy for me, if your organs of taste are +not keener than that. It was goat's milk.' + +'Then how do you get your butter?' + +'From the North. I've had mine from my New York factors for over two +years.' + +We soon arrived at Sandy the negro-hunter's, and halted to allow the +Colonel to inquire as to the health of his family of children and +dogs,--the latter the less numerous, but, if I might judge by +appearances, the more valued of the two. + + * * * * * + +SOUTHERN AIDS TO THE NORTH. + + +II. + +If war did little else, it would have its value from the fact that it +acts so extensively as an institution for the dissemination of useful +knowledge. Every murmur of political dissension sends thousands to +consult the map, and repair their early neglect of geography. Perhaps if +atlases and ethnographical works were more studied we should have less +war. And it is by no means impossible that the mutual knowledge which +has been or is to be acquired by the people of the South and the North +during this present war will eventually aid materially in establishing a +firm bond of union. + +That we have much to learn is shown in the firm faith with which so many +have listened to the threats of 'a united South.' Until recently the +fierce and furious assurances of the rebel press, that south of Mason +and Dixon's line all were wedded heart and soul to their cause, were +taken almost without a doubt. Who has forgotten the late doleful +convictions of the dough-faces that the South would hold together to the +last in spite of wind or weather, concluding invariably with the old +refrain,--'Suppose we conquer them--what then?' Had the country at large +known in detail, as it _should_ have known from a common-school +education, what the South _really_ is,--or from experience of life what +human nature really is,--it would never have believed that this boasted +unanimity was based on aught save ignorance or falsehood. The Southern +press itself, almost without an exception, betrays gross ignorance of +its own country, and is very superficial in its statistics, inclining +more than any other to warp facts and figures to suit preconceived +views. We, like it, have tacitly adopted the belief that south of a +certain line a certain climate invariably prevailed, and that under its +influences, from the Border to the Gulf of Mexico, there has been +developed a race essentially alike in all its characteristics. The +planter and the slave-owner, or the city merchant, has been the type +with which our writers have become familiar at the hotel and the +watering-place, or in the 'store,' and we have accepted them as speaking +for the South, quite forgetful that in America, as in other countries, +the real man of the middle class travels but little, and when he does, +is seldom to be found mingling in the 'higher circles.' Yet even this +Southern man of the middle class and of 'Alleghania,' when at the North +frequently affects a 'Southern' air, which is not more natural to him +than it is to the youthful scions of Philadelphia and New York, who, +when in Europe, so often talk pro-slavery and bowie knife, as though +they lived in the very heart of planterdom. But the truth is that when +we search the South out closely we find that in reality there is a very +great difference between its districts and their inhabitants, and, in +_fact_, as has been very truly said, 'not only is there no geographical +boundary between the free and slave States, but no moral and +intellectual boundary.' + +In the great temperate region which, parting from either side of the +Alleghanies, extends from Virginia to Alabama, and is still continued in +the pleasant level of Texas, slavery has rolled away from either +mountain side like a flood, leaving it the home of a hardy population +which regards with jealousy and dislike both the wealthy planter and the +negro. James W. Taylor, in his valuable collection of facts, claims that +through the whole extent of the Southern Alleghania slavery has +relatively diminished since 1850, and that the forthcoming census tables +will establish the assertion. 'The superintendent of the census,' he +says, 'would furnish a document, valuable politically and for military +use, if he would anticipate the publication of this portion of his +voluminous budget.' If government, indeed, were to communicate to the +public what information it now holds, and has long held, relative to the +numbers and strength of the Union men of the South, an excitement of +amazement would thrill through the North. It was on the basis of this +knowledge that our great campaign was planned,--and it can not be denied +that thousands of stanch Union men were greatly astonished at the +revelations of sympathy which burst forth most unexpectedly in districts +where the stars and stripes have been planted. But the Cabinet 'knew +what it knew' on this subject. Much of its knowledge never can be +revealed, but enough will come to-night to show that in our darkest hour +we had an enormous mass of aid, little suspected by those weaker +brethren who stood aghast at the Southern bugbear, and who, falling +prostrate in nerveless terror at the windy spectre, quaked out repeated +assurances that _they_ had no intention of 'abolitionizing the war,' and +even earnestly begged and prayed that the emancipationists might all be +sent to Fort Warren,--so fearful were the poor cowards lest the united +South, in the final hour of victory, might include them in its catalogue +of the doomed. What would they say if they knew the number and power of +the ABOLITIONISTS OF THE SOUTH,--a body of no trifling significance, +whose fierce grasp will yet be felt on the throat of rebellion and of +slavery? It is grimly amusing to think of the aid which the South +counted on receiving from these Northern dough-faces,--little thinking +that within itself it contained a counter-revolutionary party, far more +dangerous than the Northern friends were helpful. + +It should be borne in mind that where such an evil as slavery exists +there will be numbers of grave, sensible men, who, however quiet they +may keep, will have their own opinions as to the expediency of +maintaining it. The bigots of the South may rave of the beauty of 'the +institution,' and make many believe that they speak for the whole,--a +little scum when whipped covers the whole pail,--but beneath all lies a +steadily-increasing mass of practical men who would readily enough +manifest their opposition should opportunity favor free speech. Such +people, for instance, are not insensible to the enormously corrupting +influence of negroes on their children. Let the reader recall Olmsted's +experiences,--that, for example, where he speaks of three negro women +who had charge of half a dozen white girls of good family, 'from three +to fifteen years of age.' + + Their language was loud and obscene, such as I never heard + before from any but the most depraved and beastly women of the + streets. Upon observing me they dropped their voices, but not + with any appearance of shame, and continued their altercation + until their mistresses entered. The white children, in the mean + time, had listened without any appearance of wonder or + annoyance. The moment the ladies opened the door, they became + silent.--_Cotton Kingdom_, vol. i. p. 222. + +The Southern _Cultivator_ for June, 1855, speaks of many young men and +women who have 'made shipwreck of all their earthly hopes, and been led +to the fatal step by the seeds of corruption which in the days of +childhood and youth were sown in their hearts by the indelicate and +lascivious manners and conversation of their fathers' negroes.' If we +had no other fact or cause to cite, this almost unnamable one might +convince the reader that there must be a groundwork somewhere in the +South among good, moral, and decent people, for antipathy to +slavery,--human nature teaches us as much. And such people exist, not +only among the hardy inhabitants of the inland districts, who are not +enervated by wealth and 'exclusiveness,' but in planterdom itself. + +There are few in the North who realize the number of persons in the +South who silently disapprove of slavery on sound grounds, such as I +have mentioned. Does it seem credible that nearly _ten millions_ of +people should socially sympathize with some three hundred thousand +slave-holders, who act with intolerable arrogance to all +non-slave-holders? 'Even in those regions where slavery is profitable,' +as a writer in the Boston _Transcript_ well expresses it, 'the poor +whites feel the slaveocracy as the most grinding of aristocracies.' + + In those regions where it is not profitable, the population + regard it with a latent abhorrence, compared with which the + rhetorical and open invectives of Garrison and Phillips are + feeble and tame. Anybody who has read Olmsted's truthful + narrative of his experience in the slave States can not doubt + this fact. The hatred to slavery too often finds its expression + in an almost inhuman hatred of 'niggers,' whether slave or free, + but it is none the less significant of the feelings and opinions + of the white population. + +As I write, every fresh thunder of war and crash of victory is followed +by murmurs of amazement at the enthusiastic receptions which the Union +forces meet in most unexpected strongholds of the enemy, in the very +heart of slavedom. Yet it was _known_ months ago, and prophesied, with +the illustration of undeniable facts, that this counter-revolutionary +element existed. One single truth was forgotten,--that these Southern +friends of the Union, even while avowing that slavery must be supported, +had no love of it in their hearts. Emancipation has been sedulously set +aside under pretence of conciliating them; but it was needless,--'old +custom' had made them cautious, and mindful of 'expediency;' but the +mass of them hate 'the institution.' It is for the traitorous Northern +_dough-faces_, and the paltry handful of secessionists, 'on a thin slip +of land on the Atlantic,' that slavery is, at present, cherished. The +great area of the South is free from it,--and ever will be. + +It has frequently been insisted on that the mere _geographical_ +obstacles to disunion are such as to render the cause of slavery +hopeless in the long run. Yet to this most powerful Southern aid to the +North, men seem to have been strangely blind during the days of doubt +which so long afflicted us. These obstacles are, briefly, the enormous +growing power of the West, and its inevitable outlet, the Mississippi +river. 'For it is the mighty and free _West_ which will always hang like +a lowering thunder-cloud over them.'[N] On this subject I quote at +length from an article, in the Danville (Ky.) _Review_, by the Rev. R. +J. Breckenridge, D.D.:-- + + + Whoever will look at a map of the United States, will observe + that Louisiana lies on both sides of the Mississippi river, and + that the States of Arkansas and Mississippi lie on the right and + left banks of this great stream--eight hundred miles of whose + lower course is thus controlled by these three States, unitedly + inhabited by hardly as many white people as inhabit the city of + New York. Observe, then, the country drained by this river and + its affluents, commencing with Missouri on its west bank and + Kentucky on its east bank. There are nine or ten powerful + States, large portions of three or four others, several large + Territories--in all, a country as large as all Europe, as fine + as any under the sun, already holding many more people than all + the revolted States, and powerful regions of the earth. Does any + one suppose that these powerful States--this great and energetic + population--will ever make a peace that will put the lower + course of this single and mighty national outlet to the sea in + the hands of a foreign government far weaker than themselves? If + there is any such person he knows little of the past history of + mankind, and will perhaps excuse us for reminding him that the + people of Kentucky, before they were constituted a State, gave + formal notice to the federal government, when Gen. Washington + was President, that if the United States did not require + Louisiana they would themselves conquer it. The mouths of the + Mississippi belong, by the gift of God, to the inhabitants of + its great valley. Nothing but irresistible force can disinherit + them. + + Try another territorial aspect of the case. There is a bed of + mountains abutting on the left bank of the Ohio, which covers + all Western Virginia, and all Eastern Kentucky, to the width, + from east to west, in those two States, of three or four hundred + miles. These mountains, stretching south-westwardly, pass + entirely through Tennessee, cover the back parts of North + Carolina and Georgia, heavily invade the northern part of + Alabama, and make a figure even in the back parts of South + Carolina and the eastern parts of Mississippi, having a course + of perhaps seven or eight hundred miles, and running far south + of the northern limit of profitable cotton culture. It is a + region of 300,000 square miles, trenching upon eight or nine + slave States, though nearly destitute of slaves itself; + trenching upon at least five cotton States, though raising no + cotton itself. The western part of Maryland and two-thirds of + Pennsylvania are embraced in the north-eastern continuation of + this remarkable region. Can anything that passes under the name + of statesmanship be more preposterous than the notion of + permanent peace on this continent, founded on the abnegation of + a common and paramount government, and the idea of the + supercilious domination of the cotton interest and the + slave-trade over such a mountain empire, so located and so + peopled? + + As a further proof of the utter impossibility of peace except + under a common government, and at once an illustration of the + import of what has just been stated, and the suggestion of a new + and insuperable difficulty, let it be remembered that this great + mountain region, throughout its general course, is more loyal to + the Union than any other portion of the slave States. It is the + mountain counties of Maryland that have held treason in check in + that State; it is forty mountain counties in Western Virginia + that have laid the foundation of a new and loyal commonwealth; + it is the mountain counties of Kentucky that first and most + eagerly took up arms for the Union; it is the mountain region of + Tennessee that alone, in that dishonored State, furnished + martyrs to the sacred cause of freedom; it is the mountain + people of Alabama that boldly stood out against the Confederate + government till their own leaders deserted and betrayed them. + +It is not a strong point, but it is worth noting, that even in South +Carolina there is an Alleghanian area of 4,074 square miles, equal to +the State of Connecticut, in which the diminished proportion of slaves, +with other local causes, are sufficient to indicate the Union feeling +which indeed struggles there in secret. These counties are:-- + + FREE. SLAVE. +Spartanburgh, 18,311 8,039 +Greenville, 13,370 6,691 +Anderson, 13,867 7,514 +Pickens, 13,105 3,679 + +Slavery is here large, as compared to the other counties of +'Alleghania,' but the great proportion of free inhabitants, as +contrasted with the districts near the Atlantic, makes it worth citing. +In accordance with a request, I give from Jas. W. Taylor's collection, +illustrating this subject, the table of population in East Tennessee:-- + + The following table, from the census of 1850, presents the slave + and cotton statistics of this district, in their relation to the + free population: + + COUNTIES. FREE. SLAVE. COTTON, + 400 lb. bales. + Johnson, 3,485 206 0 + Carter, 5,911 353 0 + Washington, 12,671 930 0 + Sullivan, 10,603 1,004 153 + Hancock, 5,447 202 2 + Hawkins, 11,567 1,690 0 + Greene, 16,526 1,093 0 + Cocke, 7,501 719 3 + Sevier, 6,450 403 0 + Jefferson, 11,458 1,628 0 + Granger, 11,170 1,035 1 + Knox, 16,385 2,193 0 + Union, new county, + Claiborne, 8,610 660 0 + Anderson, 6,391 503 0 + Campbell, 5,651 318 1 + Scott, 1,808 37 0 + Morgan, 3,301 101 9 + Cumberland, new county, + Roane, 10,525 1,544 121 + Blount, 11,213 1,084 6 + Munroe, 10,623 1,188 0 + McMinn, 12,286 1,568 2,821 + Polk, 5,884 400 29 + Bradley, 11,478 744 1,600 + Meigs, 4,480 395 2 + Hamilton, 9,216 672 0 + Rhea, 3,951 436 0 + Bledsoe, 5,036 827 0 + Sequatche, new county, + Van Buren, 2,481 175 2 + Grundy, 2,522 236 24 + Marion, 5,718 551 24,413 + Franklin, 10,085 3,623 637 + Lincoln, 17,802 5,621 2,576 + + The geographical order of the foregoing list of counties is from + the extreme north-east--Johnson--south-west to Lincoln, on the + Alabama line. I have included a tier of counties the west, which + embrace the summits and western slopes of the Cumberland Hills, + regarding their physical and political features as more + identified with East than Middle Tennessee. Such are Lincoln, + Franklin, Grundy, Van Buren, Cumberland, Morgan and Scott + counties. + + I estimate the area of this district as about 17,175 square + miles, an extent of territory exceeding the aggregate of the + following States: + + Massachusetts, 7,800 square miles. + Connecticut, 4,674 square miles. + Rhode Island, l,306 square miles. + ------ + 13,180 square miles. + +Yet it is not many months since even this Tennessee region, it was +generally feared, would be false to the Union, on account of its +attachment to slavery. + +The reader who has studied the facts which I have cited, indicating the +existence of a powerful Union party at the South (and the facts are few +and weak compared to the vast mass which exist, and which are known to +government), may judge for himself whether that party is Union _in spite +of pro-slavery principles_, as so many would have us believe. Let him +see where these Union men are found, where they have come forth with the +greatest enthusiasm, and _then_ say that he believes they are friends to +slavery. Let him bear in mind the hundreds of thousands of acres, the +vast tracts, equal in extent to whole Northern States, in the South, +which are unfitted for slave labor, and reflect whether the inhabitants +of these cool, temperate regions are not as conscious of their +inadaptability to slave labor as he is himself; and whether _they_ are +so much attached to the institution which fosters the Satanic pride, +panders to the passions, and corrupts the children of the planter of the +low country. + +Since writing the above, the long-expected declaration of President +LINCOLN has appeared in favor of adopting a plan which may lead to the +gradual abolishment of slavery. He proposes that the United States shall +cooeperate with such slave States as may desire Emancipation, by giving +such pecuniary aid as may compensate for any losses incurred. No +interference with State rights or claims to rights in the question is +intended. + +It is evident that this message is directed entirely to the +strengthening and building up of the Union party of the South, and has +been based quite as much on their demands and on a knowledge of their +needs, as on any Northern pressure. And it will have a sure effect. It +will bring to life, if realized, those seeds of counter-revolution which +so abundantly exist in the South. The growth may be slow, but it will be +certain. So long as the certainty exists that compensation _may_ be +obtained, there will be a party who will long for it; and where there is +a will there is a way. The executive has finally _officially_ recognized +the truth of the theory of Emancipation, and thereby entitled itself to +the honor of having taken the greatest forward step in the glorious path +of Freedom ever made even in our history. + + * * * * * + +THE MOLLY O'MOLLY PAPERS. + + +NO. I. + +In addressing you for the first time, you will perhaps expect me to give +some account of myself and my ancestry, as did the illustrious +_Spectator_. + +My remote ancestors are Irish. From them I inherited enthusiasm, a +gun-powder temper, a propensity to blunder, and a name--Molly O'Molly. +The origin of this name I have in vain endeavored to trace in history, +perhaps because it belonged to a very old family, one of the +_prehistorics_. As such it might have been that of a demigod, or, +according to the development theory, of a _demi-man_. Or it might have +been that of an old Irish gentleman, _gentle_ in truth;--in the +formative stage of society it is the monster that leaves traces of +himself, as in an old geologic period the huge reptile left his tracks +in the plastic earth, which afterward hardened into rock. + +Then, too, I have searched in vain for anything like it in ancient Irish +poetry, thinking that my progenitor's name might have been therein +embalmed. 'The stony science'--mind you--reveals to us the former +existence of the huge reptile, the fragmentary, mighty mastodon, and, +imperfect, the mail-clad fish. But, wonder of wonders, we find the whole +_insect_ preserved in that fossil gum amber. And even so in verse, +characters are preserved for all time, that could not make their mark in +history, and that had none of the elements of an earthly immortality. +Did I wish immortality I would choose a poet for my friend;--an _In +Memoriam_ is worth all the records of the dry chronicler. + +But, it is not with the root of the family tree that you have to do, but +with the twig Myself. + +As for my physique,--I am not like the scripture personage who beheld +his face in a glass, and straightway forgot what manner of man he was. I +have, on the contrary, a very distinct recollection of my face; suffice +it to say, that, had I Rafaelle's pencil, I would not, like him, employ +it on my own portrait. + +And my life--the circumstances which have influenced, or rather created +its currents, have been trifling; not that it has had no powerful +currents; it is said that the equilibrium of the whole ocean could be +destroyed by a single mollusk or coralline,--but my life has been an +uneventful one. I never met with an adventure, never even had a +hair-breadth escape,--yes, I did, too, have one hair-breadth escape. I +once just grazed matrimony. The truth is, I fell in love, and was +sinking with Falstaff's 'alacrity,' when I was fished out; but somehow I +slipt off the hook--fortunately, however, was left on shore. By the way, +the best way to get out of love is to be drawn out by the matrimonial +hook. One of Holmes' characters wished to change a vowel of the verb _to +love_, and conjugate it--I have forgotten how far. Where two set out to +conjugate together the verb to love in the first person plural, it is +well if they do not, before the honey-moon is over, get to the +present-perfect, indicative. Alas! I have thus far, in the first person +singular, conjugated too many verbs, among them _to enjoy_. As for _to +be_, I have come to the balancing in my mind of the question that so +perplexed Hamlet--'To be, or not to be.' For, with all the natural +cheerfulness of my disposition, I can not help sometimes looking on the +dark side of life. But there is no use in setting down my gloomy +reflections,--all have them. We are all surrounded by an atmosphere of +misery, pressing on us fifteen pounds to the square inch, so evenly and +constantly that we know not its fearful weight. To change the figure. +Have you ever thought how much misery one life _can_ hold in solution? +Each year, as it flows into it, adds to it a heaviness, a weight of woe, +as the rivers add salts to the ocean. I do not refer to the most +unhappy, but to all. Some one says,-- + + 'If singing breath, if echoing chord + To every hidden pang were given, + What endless melodies were poured, + As sad as earth, as sweet as heaven.' + +If breath to every hidden prayer were given, could it be _singing_ +breath? Would it not be a wail monotonous as the dirge of the November +wind over the dead summer, a wail for lost hopes, lost joys, lost loves? +Or the monotony would be varied--as is the wind by fitful gusts--by +shrieks of despair, cries of agony. No, no, there is no use in trying to +modulate our woes,--'we're all wrong,--the _time_ in us is lost.' + + 'Henceforth I'll bear + Affliction, till it do cry out itself, + "Enough, enough," and die.' + +But why talk thus? why mourn over dead hopes, dead joys, dead loves? +'Tis best to bury the dead out of our sight, and from them will spring +many humbler hopes, quieter joys, more lowly affections, which 'smell +sweet' though they 'blossom in the dust,' and they are the only +resurrection these dead ones can ever have. I have been reading, in +Maury's Geography of the Sea, how the sea's dead are preserved; how they +stand like enchanted warders of the treasures of the deep, unchanged, +except that the expression of life is exchanged for the ghastliness of +death. So, down beneath the surface currents do some deep souls preserve +their dead hopes, joys, loves. Oh, this is unwise; this is _not_ as God +intended; for, unlike the sea's dead, there will be for these no +resurrection. + +Thus far I wrote, when the current of my thoughts was changed by a +lively tune struck up by a hand-organ across the street. I am not 'good' +at distinguishing tunes, but this one I had so often heard in childhood, +and had so wondered at its strange title, that I could but remember it. +It was 'The Devil's Dream.' Were I a poet, I would write the words to +it;--but then, too, I would need be a musician to compose a suitable new +tune to the words! The rattling, reckless notes should be varied by +those sad enough to make an unlost angel weep--an unlost angel, for, to +the hot eyes of the lost, no tears can come. 'The _Devil's_ +Dream'--perhaps it is of Heaven. Doubtless, frescoed in heavenly colors +on the walls of his memory, are scenes from which fancy has but to brush +the smoke and grime of perdition to restore them to almost their +original beauty. I could even pity the 'Father of lies,' the 'Essence of +evil,' the 'Enemy of mankind,' when I think of the terrible awaking. But +does _he_ ever sleep? Has there since the fall been a pause in _his_ +labors? Perhaps the reason this tune-time is so fast is because he is +dreaming in a hurry,--must soon be up and doing. But it is my opinion +that he has so wound up the world to wickedness, that he might sleep a +hundred years, and it would have scarcely begun to run down on his +awaking; when, from the familiar appearance of all things, he would +swear 'it was but an after-dinner nap.' Indeed he might die, might +to-day go out in utter nothingness like a falling star, and it would be +away in the year two thousand before he would be missed,--we have +learned to do our own devil-work so rarely. Meanwhile the well-wound +world--as a music-box plays over the same tunes--would go on sinning +over the same old sins. Satan is a great economist, but a paltry +deviser,--he has not invented a new sin since the flood. My thoughts +thus danced along to the music, when they were brought to a dead stop by +its cessation; and it was time, you will think.... + +But, permit me to remind you that my name is not _acquired_, but +_inherited_. + +At your service, + +MOLLY O'MOLLY. + + +NO. II. + +I detest that man who bides his time to repay a wrong or fancied wrong, +who keeps alive in his hardened nature the vile thing hatred, and would +for centuries, did he live thus long,--as the toad is kept alive in the +solid rock. Hugh Miller says he is 'disposed to regard the poison bag of +the serpent as a mark of degradation;' this venomous spite is certainly +a mark of degradation, and it is only creeping, crawling souls that have +it, but the creeping and crawling are a part of the curse. + +Yet I have a respect for honest indignation, righteous anger, such as +the O'Mollys have ever been capable of. And all the O'Molly blood in my +veins has been stirred by the contemptuous manner in which some men have +spoken of woman. 'Weak woman,--inconstant woman;' they have made the +wind a type of her fickleness. In this they are right; for it has been +proved that the seasons in their return, day and night, are not more +sure than the wind. Such fickleness as this is preferable to _man's_ +greatest constancy. Woman weak! she's gentle as the summer breeze, I +grant;--but, like this same breeze, when she's roused--then beware! You +have doubtless heard of that gale that forced back the Gulf Stream, and +piled it up thirty feet at its source. + +Take care how you sour woman's nature,--remember that, once soured, all +the honey in the universe will not sweeten it. There is such a thing as +making vinegar of molasses, but I never heard of making molasses of +vinegar. Do you wish to know the turning process? +Grumbling--everlasting fault-finding--at breakfast, dinner, and supper, +the same old tune. I don't see how the man who boards can endure it; he +is obliged to swallow his food without complaint. The landlady at the +head of the table is a very different-looking individual from the meek +woman he afterwards calls wife,--not a word can he say, though he +morning after morning, in his breakfast, recognizes, through its various +disguises, yesterday's dinner. By the way, this is after Dame Nature's +plan; she uses the greatest economy in feeding her immense family of +boarders; never wastes a refuse scrap, or even a drop of water. If one +of these boarders dies, it is true he is not, like 'the poor work-house +boy,' served up as one dish, but he becomes an ingredient in many 'a +dainty dish' fit to 'to set before a king.' But I am not, like 'Miss +Ophelia' in 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' going to explore the good dame's +kitchen,--will rather eat what is set before me, asking no questions; +which last, what _man_ ever did, if he could help it? + +For an insignificant man, originally but a cipher, who owes it to his +wife that he is even the fraction that he is, to talk about 'woman +knowing her place--he's head,' etc.! If he had given her the place that +belonged to her, their value, not as individual figures, but as one +number, would have been increased a thousand fold. I have made a +calculation, and this is literally true, or rather, you will say, +_figuratively_ true. Well, this kind of figures can not lie. + +'The rose,' the Burmese say, 'imparts fragrance to the leaf in which it +is folded.' Many a man has had a sweetness imparted to his character by +the woman he has sheltered in his bosom--though some characters 'not all +the perfume of Arabia could sweeten;' and, strange as it seem, most +women would rather be folded in a _tobacco_ leaf than 'waste their +sweetness on desert air.' Though it is a long time since I have been a +man _lover_, I am not a man _hater_. I can not hate anything that has +been so hallowed by woman's love,--_its_ magnetism gives a sort of +attractive power to him. + +Notwithstanding all that has been said about woman's weakness, it is +acknowledged that she has a pretty strong will of her own. Well, we need +a strong will,--it is the great _centrifugal force_ that God has given +to all. Only it must be subordinate to the _centripetal force_ of the +universe--the Divine will. + +It is said that the centripetal force of our solar system is the Pleiad +Alcyon. I know not whether the other stars of that cluster feel this +attraction; if they do, what a centrifugal force the lost Pleiad must +have had, to break away from 'the sweet influences' which, through so +immense a distance, draw the sun with all his train. This is not without +a parallel--when 'the morning stars sang together' over the new-born +earth, one 'star of the morning' was not there to join in the chorus. + +But Old Sol will probably never so strongly assert _his_ centrifugality +as to set such an example of _secession_ to his planets and comets. + +Pardon this astronomical digression. I have just returned from hearing +an itinerant lecturer, and it will take a week to get the smoke of his +magic lantern out of my eyes. If there is any error in these +observations, blame the itinerant, not me. + +I had been low-spirited all day, had tried reading, work,--all of no +avail. Dyspeptic views of life would present themselves to my mind. Some +natures, and mine is of them, like the pendulum, need a weight attached +to them to keep them from going too fast. But a wholesome sorrow is very +different from this moping melancholy, when the thoughts run in one +direction, till they almost wear a channel for themselves--when the +channel is worn, there is _insanity_. + +Neither are my gloomy religious views to-day those that will regenerate +the world. Those lines of Dr. Watts,--'We should suspect some danger +nigh When we possess delight,'--it is said, were written after a +disappointment in love--it was 'sour grapes' that morning--with the +grave divine. + +As a general rule, where we possess _continued_ delight, there is no +'danger nigh.' Where an enjoyment comes between us and our God, it casts +on us a shadow. When we have plucked a beautiful flower, if poisonous, +it has such a sickening odor that we fling it from us. We do not 'pay +too dear for our whistle,' unless it costs us a sin; then it soon +becomes a loathed and useless toy. Otherwise, the dearer we pay, the +sweeter its music. + +And even if there is 'danger nigh'--because we are pleased with the +beautiful foam, need we steer straight for the breakers? Not every +tempting morsel is the enemy's bait, though we should be careful how we +nibble;--he is no blunderer (a proof positive that he is not Irish), +never leaves his trap sprung--and we may get caught. + +This is a synopsis of the arguments, or rather assertions, with which I +opposed those of the blues; but, finding they were getting the better of +me, I started out for a walk. It was a chilly afternoon; the whole sky, +except a clear place just above the western horizon, was covered with +those heavy, diluted India-ink clouds; the setting sun throwing a dreary +red light on the northern and eastern mountains, adding sullenness to +the gloom, instead of dispelling it. But why describe this gloomy +sunset, there are so many beautiful ones?--when, as the grand, old, +dying Humboldt said, the 'glorious rays seem to beckon earth to heaven?' + +Well, I walked so fast that I left my blue tormentors far in the rear. +On the way I met a friend, who invited me to go to the astronomical +lecture. Here you have it, after many digressions. My thoughts never +strike a plane surface, but always a spherical, and fly off in a +tangent. + +Sydney Smith says, 'Remember the flood and be brief.' You know I belong +to a very old family; and from an ancestor, who lived before the flood, +has been transmitted through a long line of O'Mollys a disposition to +spin out. Unfortunately an antediluvian length of time was not an +_heir-loom_ to + +Your humble servant, + +MOLLY O'MOLLY. + + * * * * * + + +SKETCHES OF EDINBURGH LITERATI. + +BY A FORMER MEMBER OF ITS PRESS. + + +There was a time when the little hamlet of Cockpaine, ten miles from +Edinburgh, in addition to the charms of its scenery, was also socially +attractive from the high literary talent of several of its residents. It +was situated on the banks of the Esk, whose rapid flow affords a +valuable water-power. This had been improved under the enterprise of Mr. +Craig, an extensive manufacturer, who became at last proprietor not only +of the mills, but of the entire village. Mr. Craig was successful for +several years; but the revulsions of trade during the Crimean war swept +away his previous profits, and in 1854 he sank in utter bankruptcy. + +The extensive domain of the Earl of Dalhousie lay next to Cockpaine, and +the village site seemed all that was necessary to its completeness. As +soon as the latter was offered for sale, the earl made the long-desired +purchase, and then began the immediate eviction of its population. I saw +four hundred operatives, of all ages, driven off on one sad occasion--a +scene which reminded me most painfully of Goldsmith's lines in the +'Deserted Village:'-- + + 'Good Heaven! what sorrows gloomed that parting day + That called them from their native walks away, + When the poor exiles, every pleasure past, + Hung round the bowers, and fondly looked their last, + And took a long farewell, and wished in vain + For seats like these beyond the western main; + And shuddering still to face the distant deep, + Returned and wept, and still returned to weep.' + +A subsequent visit to what was once the thriving village, with its +embowered cottages reflected from the waters of the Esk, its groups of +romping children, its Sabbath melodies and its secular din, now changed +to a nobleman's preserves, recalled the following truthful sketch from +the same poem:-- + + 'Thus fares the land by luxury betrayed, + In Nature's simplest charms arrayed; + But verging to decline, its splendors rise, + Its vistas strike, its palaces surprise; + While, scourged by famine from the smiling land, + The mournful peasant leads his humble band; + And while he sinks, without one arm to save, + _The country blooms, a garden and a grave._' + +Among those whom Mr. Craig had numbered with the friends of his better +days, the first rank might have been conceded to that most eccentric and +interesting child of genius, Thomas DeQuincey. + +Mr. Craig had thrown open to his use a lovely cottage and grounds, +commonly known as 'the Paddock,' which DeQuincey and his family occupied +for several years as privileged guests. 'The Opium-eater,' as he was +universally called by the villagers, was not more remarkable in +character than in appearance. His attenuated form, though but five feet +six in height, seemed singularly tall; and his sharply aquiline +countenance was strongly indicative of reflection. This aspect was +increased by a downward cast of the eyes, which were invariably fixed +upon the ground; and in his solitary walks he seemed like one rapt in a +dream. Such a character could not but be quite a marvel to the literary +coterie of Cockpaine, which found in him an inexhaustible subject of +discussion; while the more common class of the community viewed him with +solemn wonderment--'aye, there he gaes aff to th' brae--he'll kill +himsell wi' ower thinkin'--glowrin all the day lang--ah, there's na gude +in that black stuff; it's worse nor whiskey and baccy forbye.' Such were +some of the ordinary comments on the weird form which was seen emerging +from 'the Paddock' and moving in solitude towards the hills. Taciturnity +was a striking feature in DeQuincey's character, and was, no doubt, +owing to intense mental action. The inner life, aroused to extreme +activity by continued stimulus, excluded all perceptions beyond its own +limits, and the world in which he dwelt was sufficiently large without +the intrusion of external things. In his walks I would often follow in +his track, with that fondness of imitation peculiar to childhood, but +was never the object of his notice, and never heard him converse but +once. Overcome by such recluse habits, DeQuincey showed no desire to +court the patronage of the great, and had but little intercourse with +the lordly family of the Dalhousies. Indeed, his only intimacy was with +Mr. Craig, whose hospitality had won his heart. He was at this time +still consuming enormous quantities of opium, having never abated its +use, notwithstanding his allusions to reform in the 'Confessions.' His +two daughters, like those of Milton, cheered the domestic scenes of 'the +Paddock,' and the trio formed a circle whose interest pervaded the +literary world. + +DeQuincey was at that time writing for Hogg's _Instructor_, a popular +Edinburgh periodical, in which his articles were a leading attraction. +The _Instructor_ was published weekly, and in addition to the pen of the +'Opium-eater,' could boast the editorship of the brilliant George +Gilfillan. The former of these devoted himself to a series of +interesting miscellanies, in which he brought out many pen-and-ink +portraits of striking power. At times, indeed, he was almost considered +joint editor; but his use of opium was so little abated, that it +forbade dependence upon his pen. The quantity of the drug consumed by +him, according to report, was astonishing. In his daily walk along the +Esk, his form was easily distinguished, even at a distance, by the prim +black surtout, whose priestly aspect was somewhat in contrast with his +'shocking-bad' hat. DeQuincey had by this time escaped from the poverty +of his early days, of which he speaks so bitterly in his 'Confessions,' +and was, if not a man of wealth, at least in easy circumstances. He was +reputed to own a snug little estate, called 'Lasswade;' but he abandoned +it to a tenant, and gave preference to Cockpaine, which charmed him by +its romantic scenery. His pay for contributions to the _Instructor_ +could not have been less than a guinea per page; and Hogg, its publisher +(who was no relation to the Ettrick shepherd), would have given him more +had it been demanded. The _Instructor_ was subsequently merged into the +_Titan_, and its place of publication changed to London. + +Removing from Cockpaine, my initiation into Edinburgh life was through +an acquaintance with the noted publishing house of the Messrs. Black, +who were then getting out their splendid edition of the _Encyclopedia +Brittanica_. + +This vast enterprise, which cost L25,000, was highly profitable, through +the energy and cleverness of Robert Black, who conducted it. Among other +distinguished contributors, I frequently met in its office Mr., +subsequently Lord, Macaulay, who furnished the articles on 'Pitt,' +'Canning,' and other distinguished statesmen. Although at that time a +man of slender means, Mr. Macaulay refused compensation for these +papers, on the score of strong personal friendship. However, he received +an indirect reward, more valuable than mere gold, since Robert Black was +his strong political supporter, and frequently presided at public +meetings held to further Macaulay's interests. I have often seen Music +Hall crowded by an enthusiastic mass while the bookseller filled the +chair, and the great reviewer appeared as a public orator. Macaulay's +person was very striking and impressive. He was tall, and of noble build +and full development. Although one of the most diligent of readers and +hard working of students of any age, his ruddy countenance did not +indicate close application, and his appearance was anything but that of +a book-worm. Indeed, at first glance, one would have taken him for a +fine specimen of the wealthy English farmer; and to have observed his +habits of good living at the social dining parties, would have added to +the impression that in him the animal nature was far in advance of the +intellectual. Macaulay, on all festive occasions, proved himself as +elegant a conversationist as he was a writer; his tone was thoroughly +English, and his pronunciation, like that of Washington Irving, was +singularly correct. As a speaker, he at times rose to splendid flights +of oratory, although his delivery from memory was less effective than +the extemporaneous style. Macaulay never married, but was always happy +in the social circle of his friends. + +The Blacks were likewise publishers of Scott's novels, the demand for +which was so great that they were seldom 'off the press.' Three standard +editions were issued,--one of forty-eight volumes, at a low rate, +another of twenty-five volumes, at higher cost, and an additional +library edition, of still greater price. Of these, one thousand 'sets' +per year were the average of sale. + +Shortly after this, I was in connection with the Ballantynes, who +published Blackwood's Magazine, one of the most profitable periodicals +in the United Kingdom. This connection led to an acquaintance with John +Wilson, better known as 'Christopher North,' of 'Old Ebony.' When the +printers were in haste, I have frequently walked down to his residence +in Gloucester Place, and sat by his side, waiting patiently, hour after +hour, for copy. The professor always wrote in the night, and would +frequently dash off one of his splendid articles between supper and +daybreak. His study was a small room, containing a table littered with +paper, the walls garnished with a few pictures, while heaps of books +were scattered wherever chance might direct. At this table might have +been seen the famous professor of moral philosophy, stripped to his +shirt and pantaloons, the former open in front, and displaying a vast, +hirsute chest, while a slovenly necktie kept the limp collar from utter +loss of place. This was his favorite state for composition, and was in +true keeping with the character and productions of his genius. When in +public, the professor was still a sloven; but his heavy form and +majestic head and countenance--though he was not a tall man--at once +commanded respect. He never appeared anything but the philosopher, and +I, who saw him in the dishabille of his study, never lost my awe for his +greatness. He had a worthy family, and maintained an excellent +establishment. Aytoun, who is now editor of Blackwood, married one of +his daughters, and has proved, by his stirring ballads, that he was +worthy of such an alliance. In writing, the professor eschewed gas +light, and made use of the more classic lamp. A bottle of wine was his +companion, and stood at his elbow until exhausted. This will perhaps +explain much of the convivial character of the 'Notes.' The +old-fashioned quill pen was his preference; and as the hours advanced, +and mental excitement waxed in activity, the profuse spattering of ink +rattled like rain. As a matter of course, his pay was of the highest +rate, and his articles were read with avidity. One reason of this may be +found in the boldness with which he drags into the imaginary colloquies +of _Noctes Ambrosianae_ the literati of both kingdoms. This liberty was +sometimes felt keenly, and sharply resented. Poor James Hogg, the +'Ettrick Shepherd,' who was just then getting a position in the literary +world, sometimes found himself figuring unexpectedly in the scenes, as +the victim of relentless wit. As a retaliation, Hogg attacked Wilson in +a sheet which he was then publishing in the Cowgate, under the aid and +patronage of a hatter. + +It was one of John Wilson's fancies to affect a love of boxing, and it +was a favorite theme in the 'Ambrosial Discussions.' From this some have +imagined that he was of a pugilistic turn, whereas he knew nothing of +the 'science,' and only affected the knowledge in jest. + +Next to old 'Kit North,' the most truly beloved contributor to Blackwood +was 'Delta,' whose poetry was for years expected, almost of course, in +every number. As Wilson's identity was well-nigh lost in his imaginary +character, so plain Dr. Moir was, in the literary world, merged in +'Delta' of Blackwood. But to the inhabitants of Musselburg he sustained +a character altogether different, and the gentle _Delta_ was only known +as one worthy of the title of 'the good physician.' I lived at +Musselburg two years, and had ample opportunities of personal +acquaintance. Dr. Moir was a man of highly benevolent countenance, and +of quiet and retiring manners. His practice was very extensive, and at +almost all hours he could have been seen driving an old gray horse +through the streets and suburbs of the town. The ancient character of +Musselburg seemed to have been as congenial to his temperament as +Nuremberg was to that of Hans Sachs. Indeed, in antiquity it can glory +over 'Auld Reekie,' according to the quaint couplet,-- + + 'Musselboro' was a boro' when Edinburgh was nane; + Musselboro'll be a boro' when Edinburgh is gane.' + +Moir was buried at Inveresk, where his remains are honored by a noble +monument; the memory of his genius will be cherished by all readers of +Blackwood. He died in 1854. + +While engaged on the Encyclopedia to which we have made reference, I +made the acquaintance of McCulloch, the distinguished writer of +finances, who furnished the article on 'Banking.' + +However distinguished may have been the position of this man in point of +talent, he failed utterly to command respect; and I chiefly remember his +coarse, overbearing tone of boastful superiority, and his abusive +language to the compositors who set up his MSS. That they found the +latter difficult of deciphering is not surprising, since the sheet +looked less like human calligraphy than a row of bayonets. McCulloch had +edited the '_Scotsman_' with decided ability, and having attracted the +attention of Lord Brougham, had received an appointment in the +stationer's office. But in his promotion he quickly forgot his humble +origin, and displayed his native vulgarity by lording it over the +craftsmen who gave form and life to his thoughts. + +Among the giants of Scotland at that time, Thomas Chalmers ranked chief, +and the death of Sir Walter Scott had left him without a peer. I used to +meet him as he took his early walks, and in his loving way of greeting +youth he often bade me a cheerful good-morning. He was then living at +Kinghorn, about eight miles from Edinburgh. Dr. Chalmers' robust stature +was in keeping with the power of his intellect. He was of massive frame, +and displayed a breadth of shoulder which seemed borrowed from the +Farnese Hercules. Though so distinguished as a divine, there was nothing +clerical in his appearance--nothing of that air of 'the cloth' which at +once proclaims the preacher. His noble features were generally +overspread with a benevolent smile, which seemed to shed an illumination +as though from the ignition of the soul; while at other times he was +possessed with a spirit of abstraction as if walking in a dream. + +As a theologian, Chalmers was great beyond any of his contemporaries; +and yet, strictly speaking, his genius was mathematical, rather than +theological. In this respect he resembled that famed American of whom he +professed himself a disciple--Jonathan Edwards. Of the latter it is +stated by no less a critic than the author of the _Eclipse of Faith_ +(Henry Rogers), that he was born a mathematician. Chalmers, however, was +a master of all science, and it would have been difficult for even a +specialist to have taken him at an advantage. As greatness is always set +off by simplicity, the latter feature was one of the chief beauties in +what we may call the Chalmerian Colossus. I have often seen him leaning +upon the half open door of a smithy, conversing with the intelligent +workmen, as they rested from the use of the sledge. Having referred to +his love of children, I may add, in respect to myself, that when I, in +my childhood, spoke to him in the street, I was generally favored with +an apple. He was indeed an ardent lover of the young, and his genius +seemed to gather freshness from his intercourse with childhood. + +Edinburgh will not soon forget his interest in the welfare of the poor, +in which he has been so ably seconded by the present Dr. Guthrie. I well +remember beholding the two Christian reformers, standing above the slums +of the city, contemplating the fields which the latter had assumed. +Suddenly Chalmers clapped his friend upon the back, and exclaimed, in +rude pleasantry, 'Wow, Tummus Guthrie, but ye ha a bonnie parish.' +Chalmers' pronunciation was singularly broad, and not easily understood +by many. Stopping once, during a tour in England, at a place where there +was a seminary, a gentleman inquired of him how many Scotch boys were in +attendance. 'Saxtain or savantain,' was the reply. 'Enough,' says the +gentleman, _sotto voce_, to corrupt a whole school.' As regards +calligraphy, Chalmers wrote the most illegible hand in Scotland. He +could not even read it himself, and was frequently obliged to call his +wife and daughters to his aid. Many of his discourses, when intended for +the press, were copied by them. His manuscript, when fresh from his +hand, looked as though a fly had fallen into the ink-stand, and then +crawled over the page. When his letters were received at his paternal +home, the language of the father was, 'A letter from Tummus, eh; weel, +when he comes hame, he maun read it himsel.' There was something +Homeric in Chalmers' mind; and Hugh Miller always considered him the +bard of the Free Church, as well as its great theologian and still +greater benefactor; and this, too, notwithstanding the fact that he +never wrote a line of verse in his life. The simplest truths, when +announced by him, took a poetic shape, and moved along with all the +majesty of his towering genius. Speaking of Hugh Miller brings him +before us at the time that he was writing for the _Caledonia Mercury_. +He was then editor of _The Witness_, but gave to the former paper such +moments as he could abstract from his more serious duties. His +department in the _Mercury_ was the reviewing new publications. Besides +his engagement with these two journals, he was pursuing those studies +which made him the prince of British geologists. Geology was his +passion. Indeed, while writing leaders for the _Witness_, or turning +over the leaves of hot-pressed volumes, his mind was wandering among +such scenes as the 'Lake of Stromness,' and the 'Old Red Sandstone' of +his native Cromarty. His geological sketches in the _Witness_ were a new +feature in journalism, and formed the basis of that work which so +admirably refuted the 'Vestiges of Creation.' I met Miller daily for +several years. He was tall, and of a well-built and massive frame, and +evidently capable of great endurance, both of mind and body. Considered +as one of the distinguished instances of self-made men, Hugh Miller +finds his only parallel in Horace Greeley, although the path to +greatness was in the first instance even more laborious than in the +latter. Let any one read Miller's experiences and adventures, as +described in 'My Schools and my Schoolmasters,' and he will find a +renewed suggestion of the thought which Johnson so pathetically breathes +in his 'London:'-- + + 'The mournful truth is everywhere confessed, + Slow rises worth by poverty depressed.' + +Miller's appearance, when in trim attire, was that of the Scottish +'Dominie,' or parish schoolmaster; but, like the great American editor, +he was exceedingly slovenly, both by nature and by long habits of +carelessness. When in the street, he always wore the plaid, although +that garment was quite out of use, and indicated at once something +quaint or rustic in the wearer. At this time Miller was living in one of +the suburbs of Edinburgh, called Porto Bello. When we exchanged +greetings in the street, his countenance, usually overcast with the pale +hue of thought, would light up with a bright and open smile, which +continued as long as he was speaking, but soon yielded to returning +abstraction. One of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen was the +groups of youth whom Miller used to invite as companions of an afternoon +walk. None were forbidden on the score of childhood, and many a 'wee +bairn' trotted after the larger lads who accompanied 'the gude +stane-cracker,' and 'the bonnie mon what gaes amang the rocks.' He might +well be called the 'stane-cracker,' since I have seen him on Calton +Hill, or Arthur's Seat, or among the crags, lecturing, in a calm, quiet +tone, on the mysteries which his hammer had brought to light. These were +the only recreations of one whose days and nights were, with the +exception of a brief and often wakeful season of rest, given to +laborious study. Had he indulged more freely in them, he might have +escaped the terrible fate which overtook him. But he never could +emancipate himself from the labor to which he was chained. His +'Impressions of England,' which is one of the most delightful of his +books, was the product of a subsequent tour for health. If such were his +recreations, what must have been his labors? Miller's domestic life did +much to cheer an over-worked system. He gives, in the 'Schools and +Schoolmasters,' a pleasing allusion to the fascination of his courtship; +and his subsequent life was graced by one whoso appearance, as I +remember her, was singularly lovely and interesting. In his home circle, +Miller was truly a happy man. I may remark, in passing, that this is a +feature in Scottish genius. While Shelley, Byron, Bulwer, Dickens, and +other English authors, have been wrecked by home difficulties, Scott, +Chalmers, Miller, Wilson, and the whole line of Scottish authors, drank +deep of domestic felicity. Perhaps this may be explained by the contrast +between the warmth of Scottish character, and the saturnine and unsocial +disposition of the English. Edinburgh could at that time boast of two +distinguished men of the name of Miller; and the great geologist had +almost his fellow in the professor of surgery. The two were very +intimate, and the one found in the other not only a friend, but a +faithful medical adviser. Professor Miller was then printing his leading +work, and I had frequent occasion to visit him with reference to its +publication. One morning, as I rang, the professor came to the door with +a hurried and nervous step. As it opened, I noted that his tall form was +peculiarly agitated, and his countenance was deadly pale. In a calm, +subdued voice, he informed me that Hugh Miller had just committed +suicide with a pistol. The terrible news overcame me with a shudder, and +I almost sank to the floor. The fact was not yet generally known; and +oh, when it should be made public, what a blow would be felt by the +moral and scientific world! The professor knew that the affair might +possibly be ascribed by some to accident, but he at once referred it to +insanity. The over-worked brain of the geologist had been for some time +threatened with a collapse. He had, in addition to the management of the +_Witness_, been elaborating a work of deep and exhausting character, and +the mental excitement which accompanied its completion was like +devouring fire. I have frequently gone to his room at a late hour of the +night, and found him sitting before the smouldering grate, so absorbed +in thought that, as he balanced the probabilities of contending +theories, he unwittingly accompanied the mental effort by balancing the +poker on the bar. I have seen, on such an occasion, a greasy stream +oozing from the pocket of his fustian coat, and supplied by the roll of +butter which at morning market he had purchased for home use. On the +table lay his MSS., so marred with interlinings and corrections, that, +notwithstanding his neat and delicate hand, it was almost a complete +blot. These habits could not but terminate in utter wreck, and I have +ever coincided with the professor's opinion as to the cause of his +death. This gentleman stated to me a fact not generally known, that a +few days before the awful catastrophe, the unfortunate man called on him +in great distress, and sought his advice. He complained of a pain in his +head, and then added an expression of fears with regard to that which +was to him of untold value. This was his mineral and geological +collection in Shrub Place, which was, no doubt, the most valuable +private one in the kingdom. He was haunted by apprehension of its +robbery by a gang of thieves, and asked what measures of safety would be +advisable. The professor endeavored to expel the absurd idea by playful +remark, and supposed himself somewhat successful. The next thing he +heard was the intelligence of his death. It is quite evident that the +fatal revolver was purchased for the defense of his treasures. What a +lesson is this of the danger of excessive application, of unreasonable +toil, of late hours, and mental tension. A continued exhaustion of his +energies had brought upon the geologist a state of mental horror from +which death seemed the only relief. The reaction of the nervous system +was, no doubt, similar to that arising from delirium tremens; and thus +extremes met, and the _savant_ perished like the inebriate. + +The tragedy did not seem complete until another victim should be added. +The professor took the revolver to Thompson's, on Leith Walk, in order +to learn by examination how many shots had been fired by the unfortunate +suicide. The gunsmith took the weapon, but handled it so carelessly, +that it went off in his hands, and the ball caused his death. + +Speaking of excessive labor, we may observe that this is the general +rule among men of science or letters. They are, as a class, crushed by +engagements and duties, as well as by problems and questions of which +the world can not even dream. + +The Edinburgh literati know but little of rest or recreation; from the +editor's chair up to the pulpit, they are under a lash as relentless as +that of the taskmaster of Egypt. For instance, we might refer to +Buchanan, of the _Mercury_. He has sat at his desk until he has become +an old man, with the smallest imaginable subtraction of time for food +and sleep, writing night and day, and carrying, in his comprehensive +brain, the whole details of an influential journal. This feature, +however, is not confined to the Old World, and may easily be paralleled +in the journalism of America. Both Raymond, of the _Times_, and Bennett, +of the _Herald_, almost live in the editorial function; and the former +of these, though now Speaker of the Assembly, will either pen his +leaders in his desk, during the utterance of prosy speeches, or in hours +stolen from sleep after adjournment. In addition to these, we might +quote the caustic language of Mr. Greeley, in reference to some +mechanics who had 'struck,' in order to reduce their day's labor (we +think to nine hours). 'He was in favor of short days of work, and having +labored eighteen hours per diem for nearly twenty years, he was now +going to "strike" for fifteen during the rest of his life.' But I doubt +the success of Mr. Greeley's 'strike,' and apprehend that his early +application has continued with but little abatement. + +Before leaving Edinburgh for the New World, it was my good fortune to +become acquainted with Jeffrey. He was at this time not so much +distinguished as the reviewer, as he was by his new title of Lord +Jeffrey, Judge of Court Session, with a salary of L3000 per annum. Lord +Jeffrey was a small man, of light but elegant make, and peculiarly +symmetrical. His head was quite small, but his countenance was of an +imposing character; and his eye, brilliant but not fierce, often melted +into a pensive tenderness. Such was Jeffrey's appearance on the bench in +his latter days. I should have little judged from it that he was the +relentless critic, whoso withering sarcasm was felt from the garrets of +Grub Street to the highest walk of science or university life. My +intimacy with Ballantyne, who published the _Edinburgh Review_, often +brought the different MSS. before me, and I could contrast the exquisite +neatness of Wardlaw with the slanting school-boy hand of Jeffrey. The +tone and style of review literature have changed greatly since its +inception, when each quarterly gloried in the character of a literary +ogre, and dead men's bones lay round its doors, as erst about the castle +of Giant Despair. Authors are not now thrown to the wild beasts for the +entertainment of the multitude, as in former days; and had John Keats, +or even poor Henry Kirke White, written and published fifty years later, +they would never have perished by the critic's pen. Yet the same +malignant assault which crushed their tender muse was the only thing +which could amuse the latent powers of a far greater genius; and had not +Byron been as cruelly attacked by the _Edinburgh_, he would never have +given 'Childe Harold' to the world. The authorship of that most unjust +and malignant _critique_, which, however brief, was sufficient to make +the author of 'the Hours of Idleness,' foe the time, contemptible, was +long a secret; but it is now admitted that it was by Jeffrey. Little did +the murderous critic think that his challenge would bring out an +adversary who would soon unhorse him, and then dash victoriously over +the field under the especial patronage of fame. + + * * * * * + +THE HUGUENOT FAMILIES IN AMERICA. + + +III. + +THE HUGUENOTS OF ULSTER. + + +It is said that the lands of the early Huguenot settlers in Ulster +County were so arranged in small lots, and within sight of each other, +as to prevent surprise from the Indians whilst their owners were +cultivating them. Louis Bevier, one of the most honored patentees, was +the ancestor of the highly-respectable family bearing his name in that +region. When he was about to leave France, his father became so +exasperated, that he refused to bestow upon him the commonest +civilities. Nor would he condescend to return the kind salutations of +another son in the public streets, affectionately offered by the pious +emigrant, and for the last time. + +Another of the patentees, Deyo, visited France to claim his confiscated +estates, but, failing of success, returned. Kingston, at this early +period, was the only trading post or village for the French Protestants, +and sixteen miles distant from their settlement, although in a straight +line. Paltz was not more than eight miles west of the Hudson River; this +route, M. Deyo undertook, alone, to explore--but never returned. It was +thought that the adventurous Huguenot died suddenly, or was devoured by +the wild beasts. A truss and buckle which he owned were found about +thirty years afterwards, at the side of a large hollow tree. His life +seems to have been one full of toils and dangers, having endured severe +sufferings for conscience' sake, before he reached Holland from France. +For days he concealed himself in hiding places from his persecutors, and +without food, finally escaping alone in a fishing boat, during a +terrific storm. + +The descendants of the Ulster Dubois are very influential and numerous +in our day, but there is a tradition that this family at one time was in +great danger of becoming extinct. For a long while it was the custom of +parents to visit Kingston, for the purpose of having their children +baptized. M. Dubois and wife were returning from such a pious visit, and +while crossing the Roundout, on the ice, it gave way, plunging the +horses, sleigh and party in the rapid stream. With great presence of +mind, the mother threw her infant, an only son, upon a floating frozen +cake, which, like the ark of Moses, floated him safely down the stream, +until he was providentially rescued. For some time this child was the +only male Dubois among the Paltz Huguenots, and had he perished on that +perilous occasion, his family name would also have perished with him; +still there were seven females of the same house, called the _seven +zuisters_, all of whom married among the most respectable French +Protestant families. To no stock do more families in Ulster County trace +their origin than that of Dubois. Some antiquarians deny this tradition +of the seven sisters, but contend that they were _Lefevres_. + +There were two Le Fevres among the Ulster patentees. Their progenitors +it is said were among those early Protestants of France who +distinguished themselves for intellectual powers, prominence in the +Reformed Church, with enduring patience under the severest trials, and +death itself. Le Fevre, a doctor of theology, adorned the French +metropolis when Paris caught the first means of salvation in the +fifteenth century. He preached the pure gospel within its walls; and +this early teacher declared '_our religion has only one foundation, one +object, one head, Jesus Christ, blessed forever. Let us then not take +the name of Paul, of Apostles, or of Peter. The Cross of Christ alone +opens heaven and shuts the gates of hell_.' In 1524, he published a +translation of the New Testament, and the next year a version of the +Psalms. Many received the Holy Scriptures from his hands, and read them +in their families, producing the happiest results. Margaret, the +beautiful and talented Princess of Valois, celebrated by all the wits +and scholars of the time, embraced the true Christianity, uniting her +fortune and influence with the Huguenots, and the Reformation thus had a +witness in the king's court. She was sister to Francis the First, the +reigning monarch. By the hands of this noble lady, the Bishop of Meuse +sent to the king a translation of St. Paul's Epistles, richly +illuminated, he adding, in his quaint and beautiful language, 'They will +make a truly royal dish of fatness, that never corrupts, and having the +power to restore from all manner of sickness. The more we taste them, +the more we hunger after them, with desires that are ever fed and never +cloyed.' + +Abraham Hasbroucq, which is the original orthography of the name among +the patentees, was a native of Calais, and the first emigrant of that +family to America, in 1675, with a party of Huguenot friends; they +resided for a while in the Palatinate on the banks of the Rhine. To +commemorate their kindness, when they reached our shores the new +settlement was called '_De Paltz_,' now '_New Paltz_,' as the Palatinate +was always styled by the Dutch. Here, also, the beautiful stream flowing +through New Paltz was known by the name of _Walkill_, after the river +Wael, a branch of the Rhine, running into Holland. + +The first twelve patentees, or the '_Duzine_,' managed the affairs of +the infant settlement as long as they lived, and after their death it +was a custom to elect a court officer from among the descendants of +each, at the annual town meetings. For a long period they kept in one +chest all the important papers of their property and land titles. The +pastor or the oldest man had charge of the key, and reference was made +to this depository for the settlement of all difficulties about +boundaries. Hence they were free from legal suits as to their lands; and +to this judicious, simple plan may be traced the well-known harmony of +the numerous descendants in this region,--the fidelity of their +landmarks, with the absence of litigation. + +We know of no region in our land where property has remained so long in +the same families, as it has at New Paltz; since its first settlement, +there has been a constant succession of intermarriages among the French +descendants, and many continue to reside upon the venerable homesteads +of their early and honored forefathers. + +Devoted as the Huguenots ever had been to the worship of the Almighty, +one of their first objects at New Paltz was the erection of a church. It +was built of logs, and afterwards gave place to a substantial edifice of +brick, brought from Holland, the place answering the double purpose of +church and fort. Their third house of worship was an excellent stone +building, which served the Huguenots for eighty years, when it was +demolished in 1839, and the present splendid edifice placed on the +venerable spot and dedicated to the service of Almighty God. It is +related that a clergyman of eccentric dress and manners, at an early +period, would occasionally make a visit to New Paltz, and, for the +purpose of meditation, would cross the Walkill in a canoe, to some large +elms growing upon a bank opposite the church; on one occasion the stream +was low, and while pushing across with a pole, it broke, and the +Dominie, losing his balance, pitched overboard. He succeeded, however, +in reaching the shore, and proceeded to the nearest house, for the +purpose of drying his clothes. This partly accomplished, he entered the +pulpit and informed his congregation that he had intended to have +preached a sermon on baptism; but, eyeing his garments, he observed that +_circumstances_ prevented, as he could now sympathize with Peter, and +take the text, 'Lord, save, or I perish.' + +To serve God according to the dictates of their own conscience, had ever +been a supreme duty with the French Protestants, and paramount to +everything else. For this they had endured the severest persecutions in +France, and had sacrificed houses, lands, kindred and their native +homes; they had crossed a trackless ocean, and penetrated the howling +wilderness, inhabited by savage tribes--and for what?--To serve their +MAKER, and the RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE. They had been the salt of France, +and brought over with them their pious principles, with their +Bibles,--the most precious things. Some of these faded volumes are still +to be found among the children of the American Huguenots, and we have +often seen and examined one of the most venerable copies. It is +Diodati's French Bible, with this title:-- + + LA SAINTE + BIBLE, + INTERPRETEE PAR JEAN DIODATI, + MDCXLIII. + IMPRIMEE A GENEVE. + +The sacred book is 219 years old, in excellent condition, and well +covered with white dressed deerskin, its ties of the same material. It +was brought to America by Louis Bevier, a French Protestant of Ulster, +and has been preserved as a precious family relic through nine +generations. It was carried from France to Holland, and thence to New +Paltz. 'Blessed Book! the hands of holy martyrs have unfolded thy sacred +pages, and their hearts been cheered by thy holy truths and promises!' +There is also a family record written in the volume, faintly legible, of +the immediate descendants of Louis Bevier and his wife, Maria Lablau, +from the year 1674 to 1684. + +Above anything else did the Huguenots of France love their BIBLES. +Various edicts, renewed in 1729, had commanded the seizure and +destruction of _all_ books used by the Protestants, and for this +purpose, any consul of a commune, or any priest, might enter the houses +to make the necessary search. We may therefore compute by millions the +volumes destroyed in obedience to these royal edicts. On the 17th of +April, 1758, about 40,000 books were burned at one time in Bordeaux; and +it is also well known that at Beaucaire, in 1735, there was an +auto-da-fe almost equal to that of Bordeaux. It was a truly sad day, in +France, when the old family BIBLE must be given up; the book doubly +revered and most sacred, because it was the WORD of GOD, and sacred too +from the recollections connected with it! Grandparents, parents, and +children, all, from their earliest infancy, had daily seen, read and +touched it. Like the household deities of the ancients, it had been +always present at all the joys and sorrows of the family. A touching +custom inscribed on the first or last pages, and at times even upon its +margins, the principal events in all those beloved lives. Here were the +Births, Baptisms, Marriages, and the Deaths. Now all these tender, pious +records must perish at once in the flames. + +But mind, immortal mind, could not be destroyed; for free thought, and +truth, and instruction, among the people, were companions of the +Reformation, and books would circulate among all ranks throughout +Protestant France. The works generally came from Holland through Paris, +and from Geneva, by Lyons or Grenoble. Inside of baled goods, and in +cases and barrels of provisions, secretly, thousands of volumes were +sent from north to south, from east to west, to the oppressed Huguenots. +The great work which Louis XIV. believed buried beneath the ruins of his +bloody edicts still went on silently. At Lausanne was established a +seminary, about the year 1725, where works for the French Protestant +people were printed and circulated. The Bishop of Canterbury, with Lord +Warke, and a few foreign sovereigns, actively assisted in the founding +of this institution. Thus did that beautiful town become the source of +useful and religious knowledge to thousands, although it was conveyed +far and wide in a very quiet and secret way. One man was condemned to +the galleys for having received barrels, marked '_Black and White +Peas_,' which were found full of 'Ostervald's Catechisms.' + +How strange it seems to us, writing in our own Protestant land, that +cruel authority should ever have intervened with matters of faith! What +can be more plain or truthful than that there should be liberty of +conscience; and that God alone has the power and the right to direct it, +and that it is an abuse and a sacrilege to come between God and +conscience? After the revocation of the edict of Nantes and the death of +Louis XIV., his royal successor sometimes vaguely asked himself why he +persecuted his Protestant subjects? when his marshal replied, that his +majesty was only the executor of former edicts. He seemed to have +consoled himself that he had found the system _already_ established, and +he only carried out the errors of his predecessor. Forty years of +remorseless persecutions against his best subjects, without asking +himself why! Of all the weaknesses of his reign, this was the most +odious and the most guilty; his hand was most literally weary of signing +cruel edicts against the Protestants of his kingdom, without even +reading them, and which obedience to his mandates had to transcribe in +letters of fire and blood, on the remotest parts of his realm. + +Let us return to the Frenchmen of Ulster, who for some time after their +emigration used their own language, until a consultation was held to +determine whether this, or the English or Dutch, should be adopted in +the families. As the latter was generally spoken in the neighboring +places,--Kingston, Poughkeepsie and Newburgh,--and also at the schools +and churches, it was decided to speak Dutch only to their children and +servants. Having for a while, however, continued the use of their native +tongue, some of the Huguenot descendants in the Paltz still write their +names as their French ancestors wrote them more than two centuries ago. +Dubois, Bevier, Deyeau, Le Fevre, Hasbroque, are well-known instances. + +_Petronella_ was once an admired name among the Huguenot ladies, and +became almost extinct in Ulster at one time. The last was said to have +been Petronella Hasbroque, a lady distinguished for remarkable traits of +character. Judge Hasbroque, of Kingston, the father of the former +President of Rutger's College, was very anxious that his son would give +this name to one of his daughters. In case of compliance, a handsome +marriage portion was also promised; but the parents declined the +generous offer, whether from a dislike to the name, or a belief that the +property would be theirs, at any rate, some day, is not known. A +granddaughter, however, of a second generation, named her first-born +Petronella, and thus gratifying the desire of her near kinsman, secured +a marriage portion for the heir, and preserved the much-admired name +from oblivion--certainly three important results. + +It was a well-known and distinguished trait of the New Paltz Huguenots, +that but few intermarriages have taken place among their own families +(_Walloon_); they differed in this respect from all other French +Protestants who emigrated to America and mingled with the other +population by matrimonial alliances. In Kingston, Poughkeepsie, and +other neighborhoods, near by, there is an unusual number of Dutch +names--the Van Deusens, Van Benschotens, Van Kleeds, Van Gosbeeks, Van +De Bogerts, Van Bewer, and others, almost _ad infinitum_, whilst for +miles around the populous and wealthy town of Old Paltz scarcely a +family can be found with such patronymics. Notwithstanding, somewhat +like the Israelites, these Frenchmen classed themselves, in a measure, +as a distinct and separate people; still, the custom did not arise from +any dislike to the Hollanders,--on the contrary, they were particularly +attached to that people, who had been their best friends, both in +Holland and America; and these associations were ever of a most friendly +and generous character. After a while, the Huguenots of Ulster adopted +not only the language, but the customs and habits of the Dutch. After +the destruction of the Protestant churches at Rochelle, in 1685, the +colonists of that city came in such numbers to the settlement of New +York, that it was necessary sometimes to print public documents not only +in Dutch and English, but French also. + +We do not wish to make our articles a Doomsday-book for the Huguenots, +still it is pleasant for their descendants to know that they came from +such honorable stock, and, with all of our boasted republicanism, we are +not ashamed that we _are_ so born. Here are some of the names to be +found in the old records of Ulster:--Abraham Hausbrough, Nicholas +Antonio, 'Sherriffe' Moses Quartain, 'Leon,' Christian Dubois, Solomon +Hasbrook, Andries Lafeever, Hugo Freer, Peter Low, Samuel Boyce, Roeleff +Eltinge, 'Esq.,' Nicholas Roosa, Jacobus DeLametie, Nicholas Depew, +'Esq.,' Philip Viely, Boudwyn Lacounti, 'Capt.' Zacharus Hoofman,' +Lieut.' Benjamin Smedes, Jr., 'Capt.' Christian Dugo, James Agmodi, +Johannis Low, Josia Eltin, Samuel Sampson, Lewis Pontenere, Abra. +Bovier, Peter Dejo, Robert Cain, Robert Hanne, William Ward, Robert +Banker, John Marie, Jonathan Owens, Daniel Coleman, Stephen D'Lancey, +Eolias Nezereau, Abraham Jouneau, Thomas Bayeuk, Elia Neau, Paul +Droilet, Augustus Jay, Jean Cazeale, Benjamin Faneil, Daniel Cromelin, +John Auboyneau, Francis Vincent, Ackande Alliare, James Laboue +(Minister). In 1713-14 we find, in an address of the ministers and +elders of the Huguenot Church in New York, 'Louis Rou, Minister of the +French Church, in New York, John Barberie, Elder, Louis Cane, _ancien_ +(the older), Jean Lafont, _ancien_, Andre Feyneau, _ancien_.' To another +religious document there are Jean la Chan, Elias Pelletrau, Andrew +Foucault, James Ballereau, Jaque Bobin, N. Cazalet, Sam'l Bourdet, David +Le Telier, Francois Bosset. + + * * * * * + +'TEN TO ONE ON IT.' + + + When the Union was broken, truly then + One Southron was equal to Yankees ten. + When the Union war began to thrive, + One Southron was equal to Yankees five. + When Donaldson went, 'twas plain to see + One Southron scarce equalled Yankees three. + Now, Manassas is lost; yet, to Richmond view, + One Southron still equals Yankees two. + And lo! a coming day we see,-- + And Oh! what a day of pride 't will be,-- + When a Northern mechanic or merchant can + Rank square with a Dirt-eater, man for man. + Perhaps this point we may fairly turn, + And Richmond, to her amazement, learn, + When peace shall have come, and war be fled, + And its hate be the tale of time long sped, + That where there is work or thought for men, + One Yankee is equal to Dirt-eaters ten. + + * * * * * + +LITERARY NOTICES. + + +UNDER CURRENTS OF WALL STREET. A Romance of Business. By Richard B. +Kimball, Author of 'St. Leger,' 'Romance of Student Life,' &c. New York: +G.P. Putnam; Boston: A.K. Loring. 1861. + +In the United States about one person in a hundred is engaged in +mercantile pursuits--in other words, in 'broking,' or transferring from +the producer to the consumer. Of this number, a larger proportion than +in any other country are brokers in the strict sense of the word, +buying, selling, or exchanging money or its equivalents, and managing +credit so that others may turn it into capital. A more active, eventful, +precarious and extraordinary life, or one calling more for the exercise +of sharpness and shrewdness, does not exist, than that of these men. +They are among regular business men what the 'free lance' is among +military men, or the privateer among those of the true marine. Any one +who has been familiar with one of the 'craft,' has probably heard him +say at one time or another--'what I have seen would make one of the most +remarkable novels you ever read;' and he spoke the literal truth. + +Realizing this fact, Mr. KIMBALL, a lawyer of twenty years' standing in +Wall St., and consequently perfectly familiar with all its +characteristics, has devoted literary talents, which long ago acquired +for him not merely an enviable American but a wide European celebrity, +to describing this broker-life, with its lights and shadows. Choosing a +single subject and a single class, he has elaborated it with a +truthfulness which is positively _startling_. As we often know that a +portrait is perfect from its manifest verisimilitude, so we feel from +every chapter of this book that the author has, with strictest fidelity, +adhered to real life with pre-Raphaelitic accuracy but without +pre-Raphaelitic servility to any tradition or set mannerism. The pencil +of a reporter, the lens of the photographer, are recalled by his +sketches, and not less life-like, simple and excellent are the +reflections of the business office as shown in its influence in the home +circle. The reader will recall the extraordinary popularity which +certain English romances, setting forth humble unpoetic life, have +enjoyed of late years. We refer to the _Adam Bede_ and _Silas Marner_ +school of tales, in which every twig is drawn, every life-lineament set +forth with a sort of DENNER minuteness--truthful, yet constrained, +accurate but petty. In this novel, Mr. KIMBALL, while retaining all the +accuracy of _Adam Bede_, has swept more broadly and forcibly out into +life;--there are strong sorrows, great trials seen from the stand-point +of a man of the world, and a free, bold color which startles us, while +we, at the same time, recognize its reality. + +The 'hero' of the work is a merchant, who, like many others after +incurring bankruptcy, takes to Wall Street--to selling notes as an +under-broker for a living. In describing his trials, the author has, +with consummate skill and extraordinary knowledge of both causes and +effects, pointed out the peculiarities, institutions, and good or bad +workings of the American mercantile system, in such a manner as to have +attracted from the soundest authority warm praise of his work, as +embodying practical knowledge of a kind seldom found in 'novels.' From +'broking' to speculating--from that again to the old course--alternately +buoyed up or cast down, through trials and troubles, the bankrupt, at +last, in his darkest hour, lands on that 'luck' which in America comes +sooner or later to every one. It is worth remarking that in all his +characters, as in his scenes, the author is careful to maintain the +balance of truth. He shows us that among the sharks and harpies of Wall +Street there are phases of honor and generosity--that the arrogance or +coldness of a bank-officer may have a rational foundation--that feelings +as intense are awakened in common business pursuits as in the most +dramatic and erratic lives. In this _just_ treatment of character,--this +avoiding of the old saint and angel system of depicting men,--KIMBALL is +truly pre-eminent, and under it even the casual SOL DOWNER strikes us +with an individuality and a force not inferior to that of the hero +himself. + +We can not take leave of this truly remarkable book without referring to +the under-current of kindly, humane feelings with which it abounds. +There is a delicate, tremulous sympathy for the sufferings and joys +which he depicts, which reflects the highest credit on the author. There +are, in this book, unaffected touches of pathos, founded on the most +natural events in the world, which have never been surpassed by any +novelist. + +We are glad that novelists are leaving romance and going to real life. +One breaking into the harsh industry of the factory and market, another +taking down the joys and sorrows of the humble weaver, another +describing, as in this work, the strange hurrying life of the 'outside +broker' to the sharpest-cut detail,--all giving us truth and observation +in the place of vague imagination;--such are the best results of late +literature; and prominent among these the future historian will place +the Under-currents of Wall Street. + + +MARGARET HOWTH. A Story of To-Day. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1862. + +We know of no other truly American novel into which so many elements +have been forced by the strength of genius into harmony, as in _Margaret +Howth_. One may believe, in reading it, that the author, wearied of the +old cry that the literature of our country is only a continuation of +that of Europe, had resolved to prove, by vigorous effort, that it _is_ +possible to set forth, not merely the incidents of our industrial life +in many grades, in its purely idiomatic force, but to make the world +realize that in it vibrate and struggle outward those aspirations, germs +of culture and reforms which we seldom reflect on as forming a part of +the inner-being of our very practical fellow-citizens. The work has two +characteristics,--it breaks, with a strong intellect and fine +descriptive power, into a new field, right into the rough of real life, +bringing out fresher and more varied forms than had been done before, +and in doing this makes us understand, with strange ability, how the +thinkers among our people _think_. We all know how it flows _in_ to +them, from lecture and book, from the _Tribune_ and school--but few, +especially in the Atlantic cities, know what becomes of culture among +men and women who 'work and weave in endless motion' in the +counting-house, or factory, or through daily drudgery and the reverses +from wealth to poverty. Others have treated a single **o [transcriber's +note: illegible word] of life, dramatically and by events, as well as +Miss HARDING, but no one American has dared such intricacies of thought +and character in individuals--has raised them to such a height, and +developed them with such a powerful will, without falling into +conventionalism or improbability. Unlike most novels, its 'plot,' though +excellent, is its least attraction--we can imagine that the superb pride +which gleams out in so many rifts has induced the author to voluntarily +avoid display of that ingeniously spinning romantic talent in which +novelists excel precisely in proportion to their lack of all nobler +gifts. It is a certain rule, as to literary snobs, that in proportion as +the food which they give diminishes in excellence, does the plate on +which it is served increase in value. But let none imagine that +_Margaret Howth_ lacks _interest_--it is replete with burning, vivid, +thrilling interest--it has the attraction which fascinates _all_ +readers, based in a depth of knowledge so extraordinary that it can be +truly appreciated by but few. The immense popularity which it has +acquired and the general praise awarded it by the press, proves that it +has gone right to the hearts of the people--whence it came. + +Those who accuse _Margaret Howth_ of harshness and a lack of +winsomeness, have neither understood the people whom it describes nor +the degree of stern strength requisite to wrest from life and nature +fresh truth. The pioneers of every great natural school (and every +indication shows that one is now dawning) have quite other than +lute-sounding tasks in hand, however they may hunger and thirst for +beauty, love, and rose-gardens. Under the current of this book runs the +keenest, painfulest craving to give freely to life these very +elements--its intensest inner-spirit is of love and beauty; it throbs +and burns with a sympathy for suffering humanity which is at once fierce +and tearful. As regards the minor artistic defects of _Margaret Howth_, +they are, if we regard it entirely, the shadows inseparable from its +substance, felt by those who remain in them, but in no wise detracting +from the beauty of the edifice when we regard it from the proper point +of view. + + +ETHICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL INQUIRIES, CHIEFLY RELATIVE TO SUBJECTS OF +POPULAR INTEREST. By A.H. Dana. New York: Charles Scribner, 124 Grand +Street; Boston: Crosby & Nichols. 1862. + +A delightful collection of essays of the most valuable character, in +which the agreeable is throughout fully qualified with the useful. The +titles of several of these chapters are of themselves attractive: Races +of Men, Compensations of Life, Authorship, Influence of Great Men, +Lawyers, Hereditary Character, Sensuality, Health, Narcotic Stimulants, +Theology, and The Supernatural,--all of them treated with a clearness +and comprehensiveness which can not fail to earn for the work extensive +popularity. + + +BAYARD TAYLOR'S WORKS, VOL. III. Caxton Edition. At Home and Abroad. +Second Series. New York: G.P. Putnam. + +The third volume of this exquisitely, printed and fully-illustrated +series of the works of BAYARD TAYLOR is, in all respects, fully equal to +its predecessors, both as regards typographic and literary merit. + + +THOMAS HOOD'S WORKS, VOL. III. 'Aldine Edition.' Edited by Epes Sargent. +New York: G.P. Putnam. + +The materials of the present volume, as we are informed by the editor, +have been chiefly drawn from the collections of humorous pieces +published by THOMAS HOOD under the title of _Hood's Own_, +_Whimsicalities_, and _Whims and Oddities_. In connection with the first +volume of this series it completes the reprint of _all_ of HOOD'S poems. +The present volume is, like its predecessors, most exquisitely printed +and bound. It contains a grotesque title-page from the pencil of HOPPIN, +with a fine steel engraving of the author. + + +A SOUTH CAROLINA PROTEST AGAINST SLAVERY. New York: G.P. Putnam. 1861. + +A very interesting letter from HENRY LAURENS, second President of the +Continental Congress, to his son, Col. JOHN LAURENS, dated Charleston, +S.C., Aug. 14, 1776, now first published from the original letter. It +contains a vehement plea for Emancipation, and speaks with bitter +contempt of England for encouraging the slave-trade in America. + + +THE REBELLION; ITS LATENT CAUSES AND TRUE SIGNIFICANCE. In Letters to a +Friend abroad. By Henry T. Tuckerman. New York: Jas. G. Gregory. 1861. + +An excellent work, discussing the social peculiarities of the South with +great ability. + + * * * * * + +BOOKS RECEIVED + + +PAMPHLETS ON THE WAR. + +Among the many publications on the War which have from time to time +found their way to our table, are the following pamphlets:-- + +RELATION OF THE AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS TO +SLAVERY. By Charles K. Whipple. Boston: R.F. Wallcut. 1861. + +WITHIN FORT SUMTER. By one of the Company. New York: N. Tibbals & Co. +1861. + +A LECTURE ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. By Noble Butler. +Louisville, Ky.: John P. Maton. 1862. + +THE WAR. Correspondence between the Young Men's Christian Association of +Richmond, Va., and the City of New York. New York: G.P. Putnam. 1861. + +SPEECH OF GEN. HIRAM WALBRIDGE, of New York, at Tammany Hall, Aug. 21, +1856, on the Reorganization of our Navy. New York. 1862. + +THE REBELLION: OUR RELATIONS AND DUTIES. Speech of Hon. Edward +McPherson, of Pennsylvania, delivered in the House of Representatives, +Feb. 14, 1862. Washington. 1862. + +ARE THE SOUTHERN PRIVATEERS PIRATES? Letter to the Hon. Ira Harris, +United States Senator. By Charles P. Daly, LL.D., First Judge of the +Court of Common Pleas of the City of New York. New York: Jas. B. Kirker, +599 Broadway. 1862. + +SPECIAL MESSAGE DELIVERED TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE +OF IOWA. By Governor S.J. Kirkwood. Des Moines, Iowa: F.W. Palmer. 1862. + +PICTURES OF SOUTHERN LIFE--SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND MILITARY. Written for +_The London Times_, by William Howard Russell, LL.D., Special +Correspondent. New York: Jas. G. Gregory. 1861. + +AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT MT. KISCO, Westchester Co., New York, July 4, +1861. By John Jay, Esq. New York: Jas. G. Gregory. 1861. + +THE REJECTED STONE; or, INSURRECTION _vs_. RESURRECTION IN AMERICA. By a +Native of Virginia. Boston: Walker, Wise & Co. 1861. + +THE INDISSOLUBLE NATURE OF THE AMERICAN UNION, considered in connection +with the assumed Rights of Secession. A Letter to Hon. Peter Cooper, of +New York. By Nahum Capen. Boston: A. Williams & Co. New York: Ross & +Tousey. 1862. + +THE UNION. An Address, by the Hon. Daniel S. Dickinson, delivered before +the Literary Societies of Amherst College, July 10, 1861. New York: Jas. +G. Gregory. 1861. + +ALLEGHANIA. The Strength of the Union and the Weakness of Slavery in the +High Lands of the South. By JAMES W. TAYLOR. Saint Paul: James +Davenport. 1862. + + +A pamphlet deserving close study and general circulation. + +AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BY HON. GEORGE S. BOUTWELL, in Tremont Temple, +Boston, Dec. 16, 1861. + +This address has enjoyed great popularity, and will deservedly take +place among the most characteristic and valuable pamphlets of the war. + + +AMERICA, THE LAND OF EMANUEL; or, CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERTY A REFUGE FOR +THE GATHERING TO SHILOH. By Lorenzo D. Grosvenor, of Shaker Community, +South Groton, Mass. A. Williams & Co., 100 Washington St., Boston. 1861. + + +SPEECH DELIVERED BY HON. J.M. ASHLEY, OF OHIO, ON THE REBELLION, ITS +CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES, at the College Hall, in the City of Toledo, +Nov. 26, 1861, Towers & Co., Washington, D.C. 1861. + + +An excellent pamphlet, which has been extensively and favorably noticed +by the press, and been several times reprinted. + + +THE AMERICAN CRISIS, its Cause, Significance and Solution. By Americus. +Chicago, Ill.: John R. Walsh. 1861. + +A vigorous and able document. + + +WAR AND EMANCIPATION. A Thanksgiving Sermon preached in the Plymouth +Church, Brooklyn, N.Y., on Thursday, Nov. 21, 1861. By Rev. Henry Ward +Beecher. Philadelphia: W. Peterson & Brothers. 1861. + +Concise, spirited, and full of sound ideas. + + * * * * * + +EDITOR'S TABLE. + + +On the ninth of March President LINCOLN made the first announcement of +an official endorsement of the great principle of gradual Emancipation, +by transmitting to Congress a message recommending that the United +States ought to cooeperate with any State which may adopt a gradual +emancipation of slavery, by giving to such State pecuniary aid, to be +used at its discretion, to compensate for the inconvenience, public and +private, which may be produced by any such change of system. + + Any member of Congress, with the census tables and the treasury + notes before him, can readily see for himself how very soon the + current expenditures of this war would purchase, at a fair + valuation, all the slaves in any named State. Such a position on + the part of the General Government sets up no claim of a right + by federal authority to interfere with slavery within State + limits, referring, as it does, the absolute control of the + subject, in each case, to the State and its people immediately + interested. + +It is almost needless to point out to the reader that the views, both +direct and implied, which are urged in this message, are in every +respect identical with those to advance which the CONTINENTAL was +founded, and for which it has strenuously labored from the beginning. +There is nothing in them of the 'Abolitionism' which advocates +'immediate and unconditional' freeing of the blacks; while, on the other +hand, the only persons who can object to them are those who hold that +slavery is a good thing in itself, never to be disturbed. It is, in +short, all that the rational friends of progress can at present +desire--an official recognition of the great truth that slavery ought to +be abolished, but in such a manner as to cause the least possible +trouble. + +It is amusing to observe the bewilderment of the pro-slavery Northern +Democratic press, which has so earnestly claimed the Executive as +'conservative,' and on which this message has fallen like a +thunder-clap. They have, of course, at once cried out that, should it +receive the sanction of Congress, it would still amount to nothing, +because no legislature of a slave State will accept it; an argument as +ridiculous as it is trivial. That the South would, for the present, +treat the proposal with scorn, is likely enough. But the edge of the +wedge has been introduced, and emancipation has been at least +_officially_ recognized as desirable. While such a possible means of +securing property exists, there will always be a strong party _forming_ +in the South, whether they attain to a majority or not, and this party +will be the germ of disaster to the secessionists. There are men enough, +even in South Carolina, who would gladly be paid for their slaves, and +these men, while maintaining secession views in full bluster, would +readily enough find some indirect means of realizing money on their +chattels. It may work gradually--but it _will_ work. As disaster and +poverty increase in the South, there will increase with them the number +of those who will see no insult or injury in the proposition to buy from +them property which is becoming, with every year, more and more +uncertain in its tenure. + +Let it be remembered that this message was based on the most positive +knowledge held by the Executive of the desires of the Union men in the +South, and of their strength. The reader who will reflect for a moment +can not fail to perceive that, unless it had such a foundation, the +views advanced in it would have been reckless and inexplicable indeed. +It was precisely on this basis, and in this manner, that the +CONTINENTAL, in previous numbers, and before it the New York +KNICKERBOCKER Magazine, urged the revival of the old WEBSTER theory of +gradual remunerated emancipation, declaring that the strength of the +Union party in the South was such as to warrant the experiment.[O] We +have also insisted, in our every issue, that, while emancipation should +be borne constantly in view and provided for as something which must +eventually be realized for the sake of the advancing interests of WHITE +labor and its expansion, everything should be effected as gradually _as +possible_, so as to neither interfere with the plans of the war now +waging, nor to stir up needless political strife. We simply asked for +some firmly-based official recognition of the rottenness of the 'slavery +plank in the Southern platform,' and trusted that the _utmost_ caution +and deliberation would be observed in eventually forwarding +emancipation. We were literally alone, as a publication, in these views, +and were misrepresented both by the enemies who were behind us and the +zealous friends who were before us. We have never cried for that +'unconditional and immediate emancipation of slavery' with which the +_Liberator_, with the kindest intentions, but most erroneously, credits +us. We should be glad enough to see it, were it possible; but, knowing +that the immediate-action theory has been delaying the cause for thirty +years, we have invariably suggested the _firm_ but gradual method. That +method has at last been formally advanced by the President, in a manner +which can reasonably give offense to no one. The beginning has been +made: it is for the country to decide whether it--the most important +suggestion of the age--shall be realized. + + * * * * * + +The news of the capture of Fort Donelson had barely reached us, the roar +of the guns celebrating our rapid successes had not died away, ere that +fragment of the Northern ultra pro-slavery party which had done so much +towards deluding the South into secession, impudently raised its head +and began most inopportunely and impertinently to talk of amnesty and +the rights of the South. There are things which, under certain +limitations, may be right in themselves, but which, when urged at the +wrong time, become wrongs and insults; and these premature cries to +restore the enemy to his old social and political standing are of that +nature. They are insufferable, and would be ridiculous, were it not that +in the present critical aspect of our politics they may become +dangerous. Since this war began, we have heard much of the want of true +loyalty in the ultra abolitionists, who would make the object of the +struggle simply emancipation, without regard to consequences; and we +have not been sparing in our own condemnations of such a limited and +narrow view,--holding, as we do, that emancipation, if adopted, should +be for the sake of the _white man_ and the Union, and not of the negro. +But 'Abolition' of the most one-sided and suicidal description is less +insulting to those who are lavishing blood and treasure on the great +cause of freedom, than is the conduct, at this time, of those men who +are now, through their traitorous organs, urging the cry that the hour +is at hand when we must place slavery firmly on a constitutional basis; +this being, as they assert, the only means whereby the Union can ever be +harmoniously restored. + +In view of the facts, it is preposterous to admit that this assumption +is even plausible. He must be ignorant indeed of our political history +during the past twenty years, or strangely blind to its results, who has +not learned that a belief that the North is ever anxious to concede for +the sake of its 'interests' has been the great stimulus to the arrogance +of the South. While the principles of the abolitionists have been the +shallow _pretence_, the craven cowardice of such men as BUCHANAN and +CUSHING has been the _real_ incitement to the South to pour insult and +wrong on the North. Concession has been our bane. It was paltering and +concession that palsied the strong will and ready act which should have +prevented this war; for had it not been for such men as the traitors who +are now crying out for Southern rights, the rebellion would have been +far more limited in its area, and long since crushed out. No cruelties +on our part, no threats to carry all to the bitter end, would so +encourage the South at present, as this offer to shake hands ere the +fight be half over. + +When the time comes for amnesty and 'Southern Rights,' we trust that +they will be considered in a spirit of justice and mercy. Till it comes +let there be no word spoken of them. The South has, to its own detriment +and to ours, firmly and faithfully _believed_ that Northern men are +cowards, misers, men sneaking through life in all dishonor and baseness. +When millions believe such intolerable falsehoods of other millions of +their fellow-citizens, they must be taught the truth, no matter what the +lesson costs. Even now the Southern press asserts that our victories +were merely the results of overwhelming majorities, and that the Yankees +are becoming frightened at their own successes. There is not one of +these traitorous, dough-face meetings of which the details are not +promptly sent--probably by the men who organize them--all over the South +to inspire faith in a falling cause. When the rebels shall have learned +that these traitors have positively _no_ influence here,--and the sooner +they learn it the better,--when they realize that the people of the +North are as determined as themselves, and their equals in all noble +qualities, then, and not till then, will it be time to talk of those +concessions which now strike every one as smacking of meanness and +cowardice. + +The day has come for a new order of things. The South must learn--and +show by its acts that it has been convinced--that the North is its equal +in those virtues which it claims to monopolize. But this it will only +learn from the young and vigorous minds of the new school,--from its +_enemies_,--and not from the trembling old-fashioned traitors, who have +been so long at its feet that they shiver and are bewildered, now that +they are fairly isolated, by the tide of war, from their former ruler. +Politicians of this stamp, who have grown old while prating of Southern +rights, can not, do not, and never will _realize_ but that, some day or +other, all will be restored in _statu quo ante bellum_. They expect +Union victories, but somehow believe that their old king will enjoy his +own again--that there will be a morning when the South will rule as +before. It is this which inspires their craven timidity. They cry out +against emancipation in every form,--blind to the onward and inevitable +changes which are going on,--so that when the South comes in again they +may point to their record and say, '_We_ were ever true to you. We, +indeed, urged the war, for we were compelled by you to fight, but we +were always true to your main principles.' They have wasted time and +trouble sadly--it will all be of no avail. Be it by the war, be it by +what means it may, the social system and political rule of the South are +irrevocably doomed. It may, from time to time, have its convulsive +recoveries, but it is doomed. The demands of free labor for a wider area +will make themselves felt, and the black will give way to the white, as +in the West the buffalo vanishes before the bee. + +We are willing that the question of emancipation should have the widest +scope, and, if expediency shall so dictate, that it should be realized +in the most gradual manner. We believe that, owing to the experiences of +the past year, more than one slave State will, ere long, contain a +majority of clear-headed, patriotic men, who will be willing to legalize +the freedom of all blacks born within their limits, after a certain +time; and if this time be placed ten years or even fifteen hence, it +will make no material difference. By that time the pressure of free +labor, and the increase of manufacturing, will have rendered some such +step a necessity. Should the payment of all loyal slave-holders, in the +border States, for their chattels, prove a better plan,--and it could +hardly fail to promptly reduce the rebellious circle to a narrow and +uninfluential body,--let it be tried. If any of the arguments thus far +adduced in favor of assuming slavery to be an institution which is +_never_ to be changed, and which _must_ be immutably fixed in the North +American Union, can be proved to be true, we would say, then let +emancipation be forever forgotten--for the stability of the Union must +take precedence of everything. But we can not see it in this light. We +can not see that peace and Union can exist while the slave-holder +continues to increase in arrogance in the South, and while the +abolitionists every day gather strength in the North. Every day of this +war has seen the enemies of slavery increase in number and in power, +until to expect them to lose power and influence is as preposterous as +to hope to see the course of nature change. Should a peace be now +patched up on the basis of _immutable_ slavery, we should, to judge from +every appearance, simply prolong the war to an infinitely more +disastrous end than it now threatens to assume. We should incur debts +which would crush our prosperity; we should bequeath a heritage of woe +to our children, which would prove their ruin. While the great cause of +all this dissension lies legalized and untouched, there will continue to +be a party which will never cease to strive to destroy it. The question +simply is, whether we will be wounded now, or utterly slain by and by. + +Meanwhile let us, before all things, push on with the war! It is by our +victories that slavery will be in the beginning most thoroughly +attacked. If the South, as it professes, means to fight to the last +ditch, and to the black flag, all discussion of emancipation is +needless; for in the track of our armies the contraband assumes freedom +without further formula. But we are by no means convinced that such will +be the case. The _first_ ditches have, as yet, been by no means filled +with martyrs to secession,--armistices are already subjects of +rumor,--and it should not be forgotten that the Union men of the South +are powerful enough to afford efficient aid in placing the question of +ultimate emancipation on a basis suitable to all interests. + +All that the rational emancipationist requires is a _legal beginning_. +We have no desire to see it advance more rapidly than the development of +the country requires--in short, what is really needed is simply the +assurance that by war or by peace _some_ basis shall be found for +ultimately carrying out the views of the fathers of the American Union, +and rendering this great nation harmonious and happy. Every day brings +us nearer the great issue,--not of slavery and anti-slavery,--but +whether slavery is to be assumed as an immutable element in America, or +whether government will bring such influences to bear as will lead the +way to peace and the rights of free labor. Every step is leading us to + + THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. + + O Lord, look kindly on this work for thee! + Yes, smile upon the side that's for the right! + To them O grant the glorious arm of might, + And in the end give them the victory! + Free principles are rushing like the sea + Which opened for the fleeing Israelite,-- + Free principles, to test their worth in fight,-- + And woe to them that 'twixt the surges be! + And as, O Lord, thou then did'st show thy care, + And mad'st a grave to drink thy enemy, + So now, O Father, sink him in despair-- + The only blight we own--cursed Slavery. + O then will end the conflict! Yes, God, then + We'll be indeed a nation of FREE MEN! + + * * * * * + +The N.O. _Delta_ is full of indignation at the Southern men who are +alarmed for their property, and betrays, in its anger, the fact that +these disaffected persons are not few in the Pelican State. But, +plucking up courage, it declares that-- + + Our people will retire into the interior, and in their mountains + and swamps they will maintain a warfare which must ultimately + prove successful. + +Doubtful--very. In the first place, 'our people' can not very well +swamp it like runaway negroes, and, secondly, they will encounter, in +the mountains, the Union men of the South. Give us the cities and the +level country for a short time, and we shall very soon find the +Pelicandidates for comfortable quarters rolling back, by thousands, into +Unionism. + + * * * * * + +As we write, there is a panic in Richmond, caused by the discovery that +there is a large body of Union men in the city itself, headed by JOHN +MINOR BOTTS, who seems to have determined to 'head off' the secession +party in its stronghold, 'or die'--he having, since the decease of JOHN +TYLER, turned his 'heading off' abilities against JEFF DAVIS. The +_Examiner_ mentions, in terror, the confession of the Union prisoners, +that there are in Richmond 'thousands of arms concealed, and men +enrolled, who would use them on the first approach of the Yankee army.' +One of the arrested, a Mr. STEARNS, when led to the prison, surveyed it +in a most contemptuous manner, remarking 'If you are going to imprison +all the Union men in Richmond, you will have to provide a much larger +jail than this.' + +It is the German residents of Richmond who are said to constitute the +majority of these Union men. All honor to our German friends of the +South! They have received, thus far, too little credit for their staunch +adherence to the principles of freedom. Let them take courage; a day is +coming when we shall all be free--free from _every_ form of slavery! +_Noch ist die Freiheit nicht verloren_!--'Freedom is not lost as yet.' +Some of them remember _that_ song of old. + + * * * * * + +A paragraph has recently gone the rounds, which impudently assures the +friends of Emancipation that, unless they promptly desist from further +interference or agitation, they will speedily build up a Southern party +in the North, which will seriously interfere with the prosecution of the +war! + +That is to say, that the majority of the people of the North fully +acquiesce in the justice of the main principles held by the South--the +only difference of opinion being whether these slavery and +slavery-extension doctrines can be practically developed under our +federal Union! Yet we, knowing, seeing, feeling, in this war, the +enormously evil effects of the slave system on the free men among whom +it exists, are expected to endure and legalize _the cause_ which stirred +it up! Either the South is right or wrong--there is no escaping the +dilemma. Either it was or was not justly goaded by 'abolition' into +secession. If the South is _quite_ right in wishing to preserve slavery +intact forever, surely those are in the wrong who would make war on it +for wishing to secede from a government which tolerates attacks on +legalized institutions! What a precious paradox have we here? Yet these +virtual justifiers of the South in the great cause of the war, claim to +be zealous and forward in punishing that secession which, according to +their own views, is constitutional and right! + +If slavery be right, then the South is right. No impartial foreigner +could fail to draw this conclusion under the circumstances of this war. +But _is_ it right; we do not say as a thing of the past, and of a +rapidly vanishing serf-system, but as an institution of the progressive +present? Witness the words of G. BATELLE, a member of the Western +Virginia Constitutional Convention,--as we write, in session at +Wheeling,--and who has published an address to that body on the question +of Emancipation, from which we extract the following:-- + + The injuries which slavery inflicts upon our own people are + manifold and obvious. It practically aims to enslave not merely + another race, but our own race. It inserts in its bill of rights + some very high-sounding phrases securing freedom of speech; and + then practically and in detail puts a lock on every man's mouth, + and a seal on every man's lips, who will not shout for and swear + by the divinity of the system. It amuses the popular fancy with + a few glittering generalities in the fundamental law about the + liberty of the press, and forthwith usurps authority, even in + times of peace, to send out its edict to every postmaster, + whether in the village or at the cross-roads, clothing him with + a despotic and absolute censorship over one of the dearest + rights of the citizen. It degrades labor by giving it the badge + of servility, and it impedes enterprise by withholding its + proper rewards. It alone has claimed exemption from the rule of + uniform taxation, and then demanded and received the largest + share of the proceeds of that taxation. Is it any wonder, in + such a state of facts, that there are this day, of those who + have been driven from Virginia mainly by this system, men + enough, with their descendents, and means and energy, scattered + through the West, of themselves to make no mean State?... + + It has been as a fellow-observer, and I will add as a + fellow-sufferer, with the members of the Convention, that my + judgment of the system of slavery among us has been formed. We + have seen it seeking to inaugurate, in many instances all too + successfully, a reign of terror in times of profound peace, of + which Austria might be ashamed. We have seen it year by year + driving out from our genial climate, and fruitful soil, and + exhaustless natural resources, some of the men of the very best + energy, talent and skill among our population. We have seen + also, in times of peace, the liberty of speech taken away, the + freedom of the press abolished, and the willing minions of this + system, in hunting down their victims, spare from degradation + and insult neither the young, nor the gray-haired veteran of + seventy winters, whose every thought was as free from offense + against society as is that of the infant of days. + +When an evil attains this extent, he is a poor citizen, a poor cowardly +dallier with opinions, whatever his fighting mark may be, who can make +up his mind to calmly acquiesce in establishing its permanence, or to +stiffly oppose every movement and every suggestion tending in the least +towards its abrogation. + + * * * * * + +In the present number of the CONTINENTAL will be found an article on +General LYON, in which reference is made to the generally credited +assertion, that the deceased hero was not reinforced as he desired +during the campaign in Missouri. This is one of the questions which time +alone will properly answer. In accordance with the principles involved +in _audi alteram partem_, we give on this subject the following +abridgment of a portion of General FREMONT'S defense, published in the +New York _Tribune_ of March 6:-- + + Lyon's and Prentiss's troops were nearly all three months men, + whose term of enlistment was about expiring. Arms and money were + wanted, but men offered in abundance. The three months men had + not been paid. The Home Guards were willing to remain in the + service, but their families were destitute. Gen. Fremont wrote + to the President, stating his difficulties, and informing him + that he should peremptorily order the United States Treasurer + there to pay over to his paymaster-general the money in his + possession, sending a force at the same time to take the money. + He received no reply, and assumed that his purpose was approved. + + Five days after he arrived at St. Louis he went to Cairo, taking + three thousand eight hundred men for its reinforcement. He says + that Springfield was a week's march, and before he could have + reached it, Cairo would have been taken by the rebels, and + perhaps St. Louis. He returned to St. Louis on the 4th of + August, having in the meantime ordered two regiments to the + relief of Gen. Lyon, and set himself to work at St. Louis to + provide further reinforcements for him; but he claims that + Lyon's defeat can not be charged to his administration, and + quotes from a letter from General Lyon, dated on the 9th of + August, expressing the belief that he would be compelled to + retire; also, from a letter written by Lyon's adjutant general, + in which he says 'General Fremont was not inattentive to the + situation of General Lyon's column.' + + * * * * * + +A daily cotemporary, in an onslaught on Emancipation, contains the +following:-- + + Delaware has recently had a proposition before the legislature + to abolish the scarcely more than nominal slavery still existing + in it; but the legislature adjourned without even listening to + it, though it contemplated full pecuniary compensation. + +Yes; and the legislature of Delaware, a few years ago, legalized +lotteries,--one of the greatest social curses of the country,--and made +itself a hissing and a by-word to all decent men by sanctioning the most +widely-destructive method of gambling known. The Delaware legislature +indeed! + + * * * * * + +We are indebted to a friend for the following paragraph:-- + +It is deeply significant that since the late Federal victories, the +Southern press, even in Richmond itself, speaks nervously and angrily of +the Union men among them, and of their increasing boldness in openly +manifesting their sentiments. A few months since, this belief in Union +men in the South was abundantly ridiculed by those who believed that all +the slave-holding States were unanimous in rebellion, and that therefore +it would be preposterous to hope to reconcile them to emancipation. Now +that the Union strength in that region is beginning to manifest itself, +we are informed that we shall lose it if we do aught contrary to +Southern rights. And this too, although the Southern Union men have +never been spoken of by their rebel neighbors as aught save 'the +abolitionists in our midst!' + + * * * * * + +The following communication from a well-known financier and writer on +currency can not fail to be read with interest by all:-- + +THE SINEWS OF WAR. + +These are, men and money, but especially MONEY, for on the money depends +the men. In a good cause, with an educated, intelligent people, every +man able to discern for himself the right side of the question +presented, there is no difficulty about men; the state has only to say +how many are needed, and the want will be promptly supplied. The +experience of the last six months gives us evidence sufficient on this +point: an army of six hundred thousand men drawn together without an +effort, every man a volunteer,--a spectacle never before exhibited to +the world,--puts at rest all doubt upon it; and not only that, it +settles beyond all cavil the superiority of self-government, based on +the broadest principles of freedom and the broadest system of education, +over any other form which has ever been adopted. Passing from this, +however, as a fact which needs no argument or illustration, we come to +the more difficult question of how to raise the other sinew--money. + +In calling for men the state relies upon the intelligence and patriotism +of its citizens; upon their intelligence to understand the cause, on +their patriotism to respond to its call. It offers them no inducements +in the shape of pay, nothing more than to feed and clothe them, to aid +them hereafter if wounded, to keep their families from starvation if +they are killed. This is all; and this is enough. But these assumed +obligations of the state must be sacredly and promptly kept. Our noble +volunteers must be fed, and clothed, and cared for, and to this end the +state must have the requisite means. And to obtain the needed supply +without oppressive taxation on the one hand, or placing a load on +posterity too heavy to be borne on the other hand, is a question of +difficult solution; and yet we shall see that there is in the present +administration the ability and the will to solve it. + +It is said that our expenditures in this great struggle will, by the +first of June, amount to the enormous sum of $600,000,000. It is said by +the arch traitor at the head of the rebels that under this load of debt +we shall sink. It is said by the leading papers of England that we have +no money, have exhausted our credit, must disband our armies, and make +the best terms we can with rebellion. Doubtless, our credit in Europe is +at a low ebb just now, and we are thrown upon our own resources, and on +these we must swim or sink. There is nothing to reject in this. We have +shown the world how a free state can raise troops and create a navy out +of its own materials; and now we will show the world how a free state +can maintain its army and navy out of its own resources; and if the +result proves--as it will prove--that our free institutions are the +safest, strongest, and best for the people in war as well as in peace, +then the great struggle we are now going through with will be worth more +to the true interests of humanity everywhere than all the battles which +have been fought since the dawn of the present century. For a hundred +years, openly or covertly, but without intermission, has war been going +on between despotism and freedom, with varied success, but on the whole +with a steady gain for freedom; and now here, on the same field where +it originated, is the long strife to be finally settled. On these same +fields the same freedom is to culminate in unquenchable splendor, or to +set forever, leaving mankind to grope in darkness and ignorance under +the misrule of despotic tyranny. We are in arms not only to suppress an +odious uprising of despotism against freedom within our own borders, but +to show by our example, to all the nations of the earth, what freedom is +and what freedom means. + +In seeking aid of the money power, we go beyond the line where +patriotism gives us all we need, promptly and liberally, into the cold +region of selfishness, whose people are too much absorbed in adding to +and counting up their gains to be able to spare much time or thought on +country or freedom. No voluntary sacrifices to be expected here. What we +want we must buy, and pay for; it is only to see that we do not pay too +much for it. Selfish, timid, grasping, these people are a skittish set +to deal with. Nobody understands better the game of 'the spider and the +fly,' and they are as ready to play it with the state as with smaller +opponents, if the state will but let them. From his first visit to this +region, to the present time, our able Secretary of the Treasury was, and +continues to be, '_master of the position_.' + +When the Secretary held his first sociable with the representatives of +the money power, neither he nor they had a very keen perception of what +they wanted of each other; the rebellion was not then developed in the +gigantic proportions it has since assumed; and it was hoped and +expected, with some show of reason, that two or three hundred millions +would be enough to put it down. This amount the power could and would +willingly furnish for a 'consideration,' the half presently, on +condition that it should be allowed the refusal of the other half when +it should be wanted; and so a bargain was quickly struck, to the mutual +content of both parties. But, as the thunder grew louder and the storm +fiercer, it became evident that our wants would soon be doubled, at +least. The money power hung back; the 7-3/10 remained in the banks. The +representatives said they were only agents, the agents stopped payment, +and the whole circulation of gold fell to the ground at once, not only +putting a sudden check upon all business operations, but leaving the +Treasury without any sort of currency to pay out: a sad state of things +enough. The money power drew in its head, pretending not to see +anything, waiting for propositions, expecting to reap a rich harvest out +of the state's necessities, by making its own terms. How could it be +otherwise? must not the state have several hundred millions? must not +the astute Secretary sell the state's promises to pay, _secured by a +first mortgage on all Uncle Sam's vast possessions_, on their own terms? + +It was not a pleasant predicament for a nervous or a faint-hearted man +to be placed in. But then Mr. Chase is neither nervous nor +faint-hearted, and when Congress came together he not only told his +wants frankly, but proposed a neat little plan for supplying them +without selling notes at fifty per cent. discount. Taking into view the +want of a sound currency for business purposes, and the want of some +currency to pay out from the Treasury instead of the gold which had +disappeared and left a vacuum, he proposed to borrow $150,000,000, by +issuing Treasury Notes, payable on demand, without interest, and making +them a _legal tender for the payment of all debts_, with a proviso that +any parties who should at any time have more on hand than they wanted +should be allowed to invest them in bonds bearing six per cent interest. +It was a very simple proposition--almost sublime for its simplicity; +there was no mystery about it; and yet it was the very turning point of +the ways and means of crushing the rebellion, without being ourselves +crushed under an unbearable burden of debt. The money power stood +aghast, and hardly recovered breath in time to oppose its passage +through Congress; but the common sense of the people hailed Mr. Chase as +a deliverer, and Congress endorsed common sense. Seriously, this +splendid invention of the Secretary has given a new face to our +financial affairs by placing the money power where it always should +be,--in subservience to the people,--instead of allowing it to become a +grinding task-master. The importance of this measure can hardly be +appreciated yet. A member of Congress, himself a merchant, and an able +financier, says: + +'My theory in regard to it is, that as the currency is increased by the +addition of these notes to its volume, prices generally will rise, +including the price of U.S. bonds, until they reach par; at that point, +these notes, being convertible into bonds, the rise in the price of +bonds will stop, because further additions to the currency, whether of +these notes, bank notes, or coin, will only stimulate the conversion of +notes into bonds; and that conversion will check the increase of +currency. The _excess_ of notes will then be gradually withdrawn from +circulation for conversion,--leaving only such an amount in circulation +as a healthy and natural condition of the currency will require.' + +A theory in which we fully concur. We see growing out of it a +restoration of business: government creditors paid in a currency equal +to gold; low prices for all government contracts; a consequent +diminished expenditure for supplies, and an annual payment for interest +on the debt we shall owe, which can be easily met without heavy +taxation. However it may turn out in the conduct of the war,--and we +have full faith in that also,--it is very certain that in the conduct of +the finances we have found the man for the times. The whole country +feels this, and breathes easier for it. The arch rebel, in a recent +address to his satellites, admits that he altogether underestimated the +patriotism and loyalty of the men of the North, but takes fresh courage +from the certainty that we shall shortly back down under our load of +debt. A little further on and he will find that he has just as much +mistaken our power in that respect,--that as his own worthless promises, +based upon nothing, fall to nothing, the notes of the Union will stand +as firm and as fair in the money market as her banner will on the +battle-field. + +Men and money are the sinews of war. In our first trial, patriotism has +furnished the men, and the presiding genius of the Treasury has clearly +pointed out the means for obtaining the money. _Laus Deo_! + + * * * * * + +Note.--For the benefit of those of our readers who do not understand +currency facts and theories, we make the following explanation. The +relation of currency, or circulation medium, to the industry and +business of the state, is similar to that of steam in an engine: a +certain amount is required to keep up a regular and natural movement; an +excessive amount causes too rapid motion, and a deficiency the reverse. +Currency is made up of several things. Bank deposits, circulating by +checks, bank notes, and coin, are the most important and best +understood. The aggregate amount of these three items before the +suspension of specie payments was above $450,000,000; and this sum is +required to give a healthy movement to business affairs. Take away any +portion of it, and prices fall and labor languishes, because the motion +from it is too small for the work required; add considerably to it, and +prices rise, because the motive power, being superabundant, is too +freely used. When specie payment was suspended this motive power was +reduced; the circulating medium fell from four hundred and fifty to +three hundred and fifty millions, perhaps less; and unless this loss is +replaced it is quite clear that prices must fall and the employment of +labor be curtailed. The issue of treasury notes will fill the gap, +making the business motive power of the same strength and ability as +before. Thus it will be seen that the emission of treasury notes plays +an important part upon the industry and business of the state, which, +under existing circumstances, can hardly be over-valued, as well as in +the national finances. + + * * * * * + +The Darwin-development theory has of late attracted no little attention. +One of our contributors favors us with _his_ views in the following +'wild-verse,' which is itself rather of the transition order:-- + +MODERN ANSWERS TO ANCIENT RIDDLES. + +'Whar did ye come from? Who d'ye belong to!'--_Ethiops_. + + Philosophers say, deny it who may, + That the man who stands upright so bravely to-day, + Once crawled as a reptile with nose to the sod, + His grandfather Monad a bit of a clod. + + To be sure, man's descent is not made out quite plain, + But one or two _guesses_ might piece out the chain; + If the chain is quite long a few links won't be missed; + Or, if you must join it, _just give it a twist_. + + A bold Boston doctor, by stride superhuman, + Makes only a step from a snake to a woman; + Or, inspect your best friends by Granville's good glass, + And the difference's as small 'twixt a man and an ass. + + 'From the company he keeps we may learn a man's nature;' + If he will play with monkey, dog, cat, or such creature, + The schoolmen will say, as a matter of course, + 'Cum hoc ergo propter hoc.' Notice its force! + + If with doubts you're still puzzled, and wonder who can + Answer all your objections, why Darwin's your man. + He can bridge o'er a chasm both broad and profound; + The last thing he needs for a theory is _ground_. + + Bring your queries and facts, no matter how tough; + Development doctrine makes light of such stuff. + One example of these will perhaps be enough:-- + 'These crawlers,' for instance, 'should they be still here,' + 'Not yet become bipeds?' The answer is clear: + + In our strangely unequal organic advance, + He is the most forward who has the best chance. + By braving the weather and struggling with brother, + The one who survives it all gains upon t'other. + + The old Bible 'myth,' now, of Jacob and Esau, + Is the struggle 'twixt species, the monkey and man law; + One hairy, one handsome, one favored, one cursed; + And sometimes the last one turns out to be first. + + Still, through cycles enough let the laggard persist, + Let the weak be suppressed since he can not resist, + And, proceeding by logic which none may dispute, + Can't we safely infer there's an end to the brute? + + You may, if you please, supersede Revelation, + By wholly new methods of ratiocination; + Though, since head and heart _need be_ in contradiction, + Why should reason hold faith under any restriction? + Shut your eyes, and guess down heaven's good pious fiction.[P] + + Noah's ark was superfluous. Where were his brains, + For those beasts and those sons to provide with such pains, + When they might to a deluge cry Fiddle di dee, + And sprout fins and scales, if they took to the sea? + + Well, perhaps in those days they had not yet known + That _by need of new functions new organs are grown_. + Those drowned chaps were sure a 'degenerate' crew, + Or else, on their plunge into element new, + Some 'law of selection' had rescued a few. + And, 'if wishes were fishes' I think one or two + Would have _wished_, and swam out of their scrape, do not you? + Can it be that those 'Fish Tales' of mermen are true? + + No wonder that racing was always in fashion,-- + All orders of beings were born with the passion-- + But it seems that at length Genus Man will be winner. + You cry 'Lucky dog!' But what now about dinner? + + No oysters, no turtle, fresh salmon, fried sole, + No canvas duck nor fowl casserole. + All these he has seen disappear from the stage, + A sacrifice vast growing age after age. + + Their successive growth upward he's watched with dismay; + They have come to be men, having all had their day! + Though he took, while its lord, quite a taste of the creature, + By rule Epicurean 'dum vivim.,' etcetera. + + In Paradise, Adam and Eve, to be sure, + Since they didn't have flesh, ate their onion sauce pure, + But, as our old friend John P. Robinson he + Said, 'they didn't know everything down in Judee.' + + Now the better taught modern he very well knows + What to beef and to mutton society owes. + What are homes without hearths? What's a hearth without roasts? + Or a grand public dinner with _nothing_ but toasts? + + Yet, what government measure, or scheme philanthropic, + Or learned convention in hall philosophic, + But is mainly sustained upon leasts and collations? + At least, it is so in all civilized nations. + + Here's a fix! Yet indeed, soon or late, the whole race + Must the problem decide on, with good or ill grace. + We cannot go hungry; what are we to do? + Shall we pulse it, like Daniel, that knowing young Jew? + Letting Grahamite doctors our diet appoint, + Eat our very plain pudding without any joint? + + Or, shall we the bloody alternative take, + And cannibal meals of our relatives make, + Put aside ancient scruples (for what's in a name?) + And shake hands with the dainty New Zealander dame, + Who thought that she really might relish a bit + Of broiled missionary brought fresh from the spit? + + 'Twere surely most cruel in Nature our nurse, + Man's march of improvement so quick to reverse. + Will she offer a choice which we may not refuse, + When we're sure to turn savage however we choose? + + We may slowly creep up to a lofty position, + Then go back at one leap to the lower condition. + Even so, my good friend, in a circle he goes, + Who would follow such theories on to their close. + If you've started with Darwin, as sure as you're born, + You're in a dilemma; pray take either horn. + + T. + + * * * * * + +Who has not belonged in his time to a debating society? What youth +ambitious of becoming 'a perfect _Hercules_ behind the bar?'--as a well +meaning but unfortunate Philadelphian once said in a funeral eulogy over +a deceased legal friend--has not 'debated' in a club 'formed for +purposes of mutual _and_ literary improvement of the mind?' All who have +will read with pleasure the following letter from one who has most +certainly been there:-- + + DEAR CONTINENTAL: + + I am a man that rides around over the 'kedn'try.' In the little + village where I am now tarrying, the school-house bell is + ringing to call together the members of that ancient institution + peculiar to villages, the debating society. A friend informs me + that the time-honored questions--Should capital punishment be + abolished?--Did Columbus deserve more praise than + Washington?--Is art more pleasing to the eye than nature?--have + each had their turn in their regular rotation, and that the + question for to-night is--as you might suppose--Has the Indian + suffered greater wrongs at the hands of the White man than the + Negro? As I have a distinct recollection of having thoroughly + investigated and zealously declaimed on each of the above topics + in days lang syne, I shall excuse myself from attendance this + evening, on the ground that I am already extensively informed on + the subject in hand, and my mind is fully made up. But I hereby + acknowledge my indebtedness to the good fellow who told me the + object of the ringing of the bell--for he has unconsciously + started up some of the most amusing recollections of my life. + Sitting here alone in my room, I have just taken a hearty laugh + over a circumstance that had well-nigh given me the slip. The + question was the same Negro-Indian-White-man affair. One of the + orators, having, a long time previously, seen a picture in an + old 'jography' of some Indians making a hubbub on board certain + vessels, and reading under it, _Destruction of Tea in Boston + Harbor_, brought up the circumstance, and insisting with great + earnestness that the white man had received burning wrongs at + the hands of the Indian, and that the latter had _no reason at + all to complain_, dwelt with great emphasis on the ruthless + destruction of the white man's tea in Boston Harbor by the + latter, in proof of his 'point.' + + I remember also a debating society in the little village of + R----, which numbered some really very worthy and intelligent + members, but of course included some that were otherwise, among + whom was a silly young fellow, who had mistaken his proper + calling--(he should have been a wood-chopper), and was suffering + under an attack _at_ medicine. The question for debate on one + occasion was--Is conscience an infallible guide? Being expected + to take part in the discussion, he was bent on thorough + preparation, and ransacked his preceptor's professional + library--(almost as poor a place as a lawyer's) for a work on + _conscience_. He found abundance of matter, however, for a + lengthy chapter on the subject, as he supposed, occurring in + several of the dusty octavos, and he thumbed the leaves with + most patient assiduity. He had misspelled the word however, and + was reading all the while on _consciousness_--a subject which + would very naturally occur in some departments of medicine. But + it was all one to him, he didn't see the difference, and the + ridiculous display he made to us of his 'cramming' on + consciousness can be better imagined than described. + + Years after found me inside college walls--but colleges in the + West, be it remembered, sometimes include preparatory + departments, into which, by the courtesy of the teachers, many + young men are admitted who would hardly make a respectable + figure in the poorest country school, but who by dint of honest + toil finally do themselves great credit. + + I 'happened in' on a number of such, one evening, whose + affinities had drawn them together with a view to forming a + debating society, to be made exclusively of their own kind. I + listened with much interest and pleasure to the preliminaries of + organization, and smiled, when they were about to 'choose a + question,' to see them bring out the same old coaches mentioned + in the beginning of this article; when one of their number + arose, evidently dissatisfied with the old beaten track, and + seemed bent on opening a new vein. He was a good, honest, + patient fellow, but his weakness in expressing himself was, + that, although his delivery was very slow, he didn't know how he + was going to end his sentences when he began them. 'Mr. + President,' said he, 'how would this do? Suppose a punkin seed + sprouts in one man's garden, and the vine grows through the + fence, and bears a punkin on another man's ground--now--(a long + pause)--the question is--whose punkin--_does it belong to?_' The + poor fellow subsided, as might be supposed, amid a roar of + voices and a crash of boots. + +There is a legal axiom which would settle the pumpkin-vine query--that +of _cujus est solum ejus est usque ad coelum_--'ownership in the soil +confers possession of everything even as high as heaven.' Our friends in +Dixie seem determined to prove that they have also fee simple in their +soil downwards as far as the other place, and by the last advices were +digging their own graves to an extent which will soon bring them to the +utmost limit of their property! + + * * * * * + +Does the reader remember Poor Pillicoddy, and the mariner who was ever +expected to turn up again? Not less eccentric, as it seems to us, is the +re-apparition chronicled in the following story by a friend:-- + + TURNING UP AGAIN! + + 'You were all through that Mexican war, and out with Walker in + Niggerawger.--Well, what do you think 'bout Niggerawger? Kind of + a cuss'd 'skeeter hole, ain't it?' + + 'Tain't so much 'skeeters as 'tis snaiks, scorpiums and the + like,' answered the gray-moustached corporal. 'It's hot in them + countries as a Dutch oven on a big bake; and going through them + parts, man's got to move purty d----d lively to git ahead of the + yaller fever; it's right onto his tracks the hull time.' + + 'Did you git that gash over your nose out there?' + + 'Yes, I got that in a small scrimmage under old GRAY EYES. 'Twas + next day _after a fight_ though, cum to think on it. We'd been + up there and took a small odobe hole called Santa Sumthin', and + had spasificated the poperlashun, when I went to git a gold + cross off an old woman, and she up frying-pan of _frijoles_ and + hit me, so!' Here the corporal aimed a blow with his pipe at the + face of the high private he was talking with;--the latter dodged + it. + + 'That was a big thing, that fight at Santa Sumthin'; the way we + went over them mud walls, and wiped out the Greasers, was a + cortion. I rac'lect when we was drawed up company front, afore + we made the charge, there was a feller next me in the ranks--I + didn't know him from an old shoe, 'cause he'd ben drafted that + morning into us from another company. Says he,-- + + 'We're going into hair and cats' claws 'fore long, and as I'm + unbeknownst amongst you fellers, I'd like to make a bargain with + you.' + + 'Go it,' says I; 'I'm on hand for ennything.' + + 'Well,' says he, 'witchever one of us gits knocked over, the + tother feller 'll look out for him, and if he ain't a goner 'll + haul him out, so the doctor can work onto him.' + + 'Good,' says I, 'you may count me in there; mind you look after + ME!' + + The fight began, and when we charged, the fust thing I knowed + the feller next me, wot made the bargain, he went head over + heels backwards; and to tell the honest trooth, I was just that + powerful egsited I never minded him a smite, but went right + ahead after plunder and the Greasers, over mud walls and along + alleys, till I got, bang in, where I found something worth + fighting about it. 'Bout dusk, when we was all purty full of + _agwadenty_, they sent us out to bury our fellers as was killed + in the scrimmage; and as we hadn't much time to spare, we didn't + dig a hole more'n a foot or two deep, and put all our fellers + in, in a hurry. Next morning airly, as I was just coming out of + a church where I'd ben surveyin' some candle-stix with a + jack-knife to see ef they were silver, [witch they were + not,--hang em!]--as I was coming out of the church I felt a + feller punch me in the back--so I turned round to hit him back, + when I see the feller, as had stood by me in the ranks the day + before, all covered over with dirt, and mad as a ringtail + hornet. + + 'Hello!' said I. + + 'Hello! yourself,' said he. 'I want ter know what yer went and + berried me for, afore I was killed for?' + + I never was so put to for a answer afore in all my life, 'cause + I wanted to spasificate the feller, so I kind of hemmed, and + says I--'Hm! the fact was, this dirty little hole of a town was + _rayther_ crowded last night, and I--just to please you, yer + know--I lodged you out there; but I swear I was this minute + going out there to dig you up for breakfuss!' + + 'If that's so,' said he, 'we won't say no more 'bout it; but the + next time you do it, don't put a feller in so deep; for I had a + oncommon hard scratch turning up again!' + + H.P.L. + +We are indebted to the same writer for the following Oriental +market-picture--we might say scene in a proverb: + + PROVERBIALLY WISE. + + ACHMET sat in the bazaar, calmly smoking: he had said to himself + in the early morning,--'When I shall have made a hundred + piastres I will shut up shop for the day, and go home and take + it easy, _al'hamdu lillah_!' Now a hundred piastres in the land + of the faithful, where the sand is and the palms grow, is equal + to a dollar in the land of Jonathan: and the expression he + concluded his sentence with is equivalent to--Praise be to + Allah! + + Along came a blind fakir begging; then ACHMET gave him five + paras, although his charity was unseen; neither did he want it + to be seen, for he said to himself,-- + + 'Do good and throw it into the sea--if the fishes don't know it, + God will.' + + And as he handed the poor blind fakir the small coin, he said to + him, in a soothing voice,-- + + '_Fa'keer_' (which in the Arabic means poor fellow), 'the nest + of a blind bird is made by Allah.' + + Then along came SULIMAN BEY, who was high in office in the land + of Egypt, and was wealthy, and powerful, and very much hated and + feared. And ACHMET bowed down before him, and performed + obeisance in the manner of the Turks, touching his own hand to + his lips, his breast, his head:--and the SULIMAN BEY went + proudly on. Then ACHMET smiled, and YUSEF, who had a stall in + the bazaar opposite to him, winked to ACHMET, saying, in a low + voice,-- + + 'Kiss ardently the hands which you can not cut off:'-- + + and they smiled grimly one unto the other. + + 'Did you hear the music in the Esbekieh garden yesterday?' asked + YUSEF of ACHMET. 'I think it was horrible.' + + 'It cost nothing to hear it,' quoth ACHMET: 'there was no charge + made.' + + '_Aio_! true,' answered YUSEF; 'but there were too many drums; I + wouldn't have one if I were Pacha.' + + 'Welcome even pitch, if it is gratis.' + + 'Wanting to make the eyebrows right, pull out the eyes,' said + ACHMET, contentedly. 'And as for your disliking the music,--A + cucumber being given to a poor man, he did not accept it because + it was crooked!'--'Come, let us shut up shop and go to the + mosque. It is fated that we sell no goods to-day. _Wajadna + bira'hmat allah ra'hah_--By the grace of Allah we have found + repose!' + + * * * * * + +Our correspondent gives us a pun in our last number over again. It is +none the worse, however, for its new coat, as set forth in + + GETTING AHEAD OF TIME. + + 'Well now, I declare, this is too bad. Here it is five minutes + past ten and BUDDEN ain't here. Did anybody ever know that man + to keep an engagement?' + + 'Yes,' replied the Doctor to the Squire, 'I knew him to keep + one.' + + 'Let it out,' said the Squire. + + 'An engagement to get married.' + + 'Hm!' replied the Squire, looking over his spectacles with the + air of one who had been deceived. At this moment JERRY BUDDEN, a + jolly-looking, fat, middle-aged man entered the office quietly + and coolly, having all the air of one who arrived half an hour + before the appointed time of meeting. + + 'Got ahead of time this morning, any way,' said Jerry. + + 'The devil you did!' spoke the Squire, testily; 'you are seven + minutes behind time this morning; you would be behindhand + to-morrow and next day, and so on as long as you live. Confound + it, Jerry, you make me mad with your laziness and coolness. + Ahead of time! why look at that watch!'--Here the Squire, + pulling out a plethoric-looking, smooth gold watch, about the + size of a bran biscuit, held it affectionately in the palm of + his right hand. 'Look at _that_ watch!' + + 'Nice watch,' said Jerry, 'very nice watch. The best of watches + will sometimes get out of order though. How long since you had + it cleaned?' + + The Squire looked indignant, and broke out, 'I've carried that + watch more'n thirty year; I have it cleaned regularly, and it is + always right to a minute, always! It's _you_ that want + regulating.' + + 'Can't help it,' spoke Jerry; 'I got ahead of time this + morning.' + + 'Bet you a hat on it,' said the Squire. + + 'Done!' answered Jerry. And, putting his hand in his pocket, he + deliberately produced the torn page of an old almanac, and, + pointing to part of an engraving of the man with an hour-glass, + said to the Squire,-- + + 'Hain't I got a Head of Time--this morning?' + + Jerry now wears a new hat! + + * * * * * + +'What poor slaves are the American people!' says the Times' own RUSSELL. +'They may abjure kings and princes, but they are ruled by hotel-keepers +and waiters.' The following translation from the Persian shows, however, +that a man may be a king or a prince and a hotel-keeper at the same +time. + +A ROYAL HOTEL-KEEPER. + +FROM THE PERSIAN. BY HENRY P. LELAND. + + IBRAM BEN ADHAM at his palace gate, + Sits, while in line his pages round him wait; + When a poor dervish, staff and sack in hand, + Straight would have entered IBRAM'S palace grand. + 'Old man,' the pages asked, 'where goest thou now?' + 'In that hotel,' he answered, with a bow. + The pages said,--'Ha! dare you call hotel + A palace, where the King of Balkh doth dwell?' + IBRAM the King next to the dervish spoke: + 'My palace a hotel? Pray, where's the joke?' + 'Who,' asked the dervish, 'owned this palace first?' + 'My grandsire,' IBRAM said, while wrath he nursed. + 'Who was the next proprietor?' please say. + 'My father:' thus the king replied straightway. + 'Who hired it then upon your father's death?' + 'I did,' King IBRAM answered, out of breath. + 'When you shall die, who shall within it dwell?' + 'My son,' the King replied. 'Why ask'st thou? Tell!' + 'IBRAM!' then spoke the dervish to him straight, + 'I'll answer thee, nor longer make thee wait. + The place where travelers come, and go as well, + Is, really, not a palace, but--hotel!' + +Yea, friends; and, as another genial poet has discovered, life itself is +but a hostelrie or tavern, where some get the highest rooms, while +others, of greater social weight, gravitate downwards into the first +story, sinking like gold to the bottom of the hotel pan,--that is O.W. +HOLMES', his idea, reader, not ours. _Apropos_ of HOLMES and kings--his +thousands of reader friends have ere this seen with pleasure that the +Emperor of all the French was not unmindful of one of his +brother-potentates,--in the world of song,--when he paid OLIVER WENDELL +the courteous compliment which has of late gone the rounds, and which +conferred as much honor on the giver as the taker thereof. + + * * * * * + +The Spring poems have begun. _Vide licet_. + + TO AN EARLY BIRD. + + In homely phrase we oft are told + 'Tis early birds that catch the worms; + But certainly that Spring bird there + Don't half believe the aforesaid terms. + + He's sorry that he hither flew, + In hopes a forward March to find, + And towards warm climates, whence he came, + To backward march is sore inclined. + + Lured by one ray of sunlight, he + Flew northward to our land of snow; + And now, with frozen toes, he stands + On frozen earth:--the worms--below! + + Tu whit! whit! whit! he tries in vain + To whistle in a cheerful way; + He feels he's badly sold, and that-- + He came _too early_ in the day. + + I sprinkle seed and crumbs around; + He quickly flies and famished eats:-- + He would have starved to death had he + Relied on proverb-making cheats. + + * * * * * + +Of the same up-Springings, in higher vein, we have the following:-- + + APRIL. + + BY ED. SPRAGUE RAND. + + Now with the whistling rush of stormy winds, + 'Mid weeping skies and smiling, sunny hours, + Comes the young Spring, and scatters, from the pines, + O'er the brown--woodland soft, balsamic showers. + + Wake, azure squirrel cups, on grassy hills! + Peep forth, blue violets, upon the heath! + The epigraea from the withered leaves + Sends out the greeting of her perfumed breath. + + Nodding anemones within the wood + Shake off the winter's sleep, and haste to greet; + Where in the autumn the blue asters stood, + The saxifrage creeps out, with downy feet. + + Nature is waking! From a wreath of snow, + Close by the garden walls, the snowdrop springs; + And the air rings with tender melodies, + Where thro' the dark firs flash the bluebird's wings. + + A few days hence, and o'er the distant hills + A tender robe of verdure shall be spread, + And life in myriad forms be manifest, + Where all seemed desolate, and dark, and dead. + + E'en now, upon the sunny woodland slopes, + The fair vanessa flits with downy wing; + And in the marshes, with the night's approach, + The merry hylas in full chorus sing. + + _Patience_ and _faith_, all will be bright again. + Take from the present, for the future hours, + The tendered promise. In the storm and rain, + Remember suns shine brighter for the showers. + + To us, my countrymen, the lesson comes; + Our night of winter dawns in brightest day; + The storm is passing, and the rising sun + Dispels our doubts, drives cloudy fears away. + + The sun of freedom, veiled in clouds too long, + Sheds o'er our land its rays of quickening life; + And liberty, our starry banner, waves, + Proclaiming freedom mid the battle's strife. + + * * * * * + +STRIKING TURPENTINE. + +Not a bad story that of the physician, who, vaccinating several medical +students, 'performed the ceremony' for a North Carolinian from the +pitch, tar and turpentine districts. The lancet entering the latter's +arm a little too deep, owing to the Corn-cracker jerking his arm through +nervousness, one of the medical students called out,-- + +'Take care there, doctor, if you don't look out you'll strike +turpentine.' + +The Corn-cracker--full of spirit--wanted to fight. + +We should have handed this anecdote over to X., who travels through the +Pines, that he might pronounce on its authenticity. The following, +however, we know to be true--on the word of a very _spirituelle_ dame, +long resident in the Old North State. When the present war first sent +its murmurs over the South, an old bushman earnestly denied that it +'would ruin everything.' 'Kin it stop the turpentime from running?' he +triumphantly cried. 'In course not. Then what difference _kin_ it make +to _the country_?' + + * * * * * + +The following sketch, 'Hiving the Bees and what came of it,' from a +valued friend and correspondent in New Haven, is a humorous and truthful +picture of the old-fashioned rural 'discipline' once so general and now +so rapidly becoming a thing of the past:-- + + HIVING BEES AND WHAT CAME OF IT. + + When a boy at school in the town of G----I became acquainted + with old Deacon Hubbard and his wife--two as good Christian + people as could be found, simple in their manners and + kind-hearted. The deacon was 'well to do in the world,' having a + fine farm, a pleasant house, and, with his quiet way of living, + apparently everything to make him comfortable. + + He took great delight in raising bees, and the product of his + hives was every year some hundreds of pounds of honey, for which + there was always a ready market, though he frequently gave away + large quantities among his neighbors. + + One Sunday morning, when passing the place of Deacon Hubbard on + my way to meeting, I saw the deacon in his orchard near his + house, apparently in great trouble about something in one of + his apple trees. I crossed the road to the fence and called to + him, and asked him what was the matter. He was a very + conscientious man, and would not do anything on the Lord's day + that could be done on any other; but he cried, 'Oh, dear! my + bees are swarming, and I shall surely lose them. If I was a + young man I could climb the tree and save them, but I am too old + for that.' I jumped over the fence, and as I approached him he + pointed to a large dark mass of something suspended from the + limb of an apple tree, which to me was a singular-looking + object, never having before seen bees in swarming time. I had + great curiosity to see the operation of hiving, and suggested + that perhaps I could help him, though at the time afraid the + bees would sting me for my trouble. The gratification to be + derived I thought would repay the risk, and calling to mind some + lines I had heard,-- + + 'Softly, gently touch a nettle, + It will sting thee for thy pains; + Grasp it like a man of mettle, + Soft and harmless it remains,--' + + I told him that I would assist him. He assured me that if I + could only get a rope around the limb above and fasten it to the + one on which the bees were, then saw off that limb and lower it + down, he could secure them without much trouble. + + With saw and rope in hand I ascended the tree, and, after due + preparation, severed the limb and carefully lowered it within + the deacon's reach. I was surprised, and felt repaid for my + trouble, to see with what ease and unconcern Dea. Hubbard, with + his bare hands, scooped and brushed the swarm of bees into a + sheet he had prepared, and how readily he got them into a vacant + hive. Many thanks did the deacon proffer me for my timely + assistance, and moreover insisted on my staying with him to + dine. It seemed to me that I was never in a more comfortable + house, and I am sure I never received a more cordial greeting + than that bestowed upon me by his venerable spouse. + + The place where I boarded with several other boys was with a + widow lady by the name of White, who was very kind to me, but + who had the misfortune to have had three husbands, and her + daughters did not all revere the memory of the same father, and + consequently there were oftentimes differences among them. + + For several days after this transaction I had noticed on the + table at our daily meal a nice dish of honey, an unusual treat, + but to which we boys paid due respect. + + My term at school expired, and I went home to my father's, a + distance of some thirty miles, and assisted him on the farm + during the fall months, employing much of my leisure time in + studying. + + My father was a stern, straight-forward man--a member of the + Orthodox church, and one who professed to believe in all the + proprieties of life, and endeavored to impress the same on the + minds of his children. + + One day, after dinner, he said to me, in his stern way of + speaking,--'Gilbert, what kind of scrape did you get into in + G----?' + + For my life I could not tell what I had been doing, and had but + little chance to think, ere he tossed a letter across the table + and said, 'Read that, and tell me what it means!' The letter was + directed to me, but he had exercised his right to open and read + it for me. It was from G----, and signed by the four deacons of + the church there, asking explicit answers to the following + questions:--1st. Did you help Deacon Hubbard hive his bees? 2d. + If so, did you receive any remuneration from him for your + services? 3d. Will you state what it was? You are expected to + answer the questions fully.' + + 'What have you to say to that, young man?' said my father, with + more than usual sternness; and I began to think that I had got + into some kind of difficulty. + + I told him that I would answer the letter, so went to my room + and wrote, saying that I _did_ help Deacon Hubbard hive his + bees, and that I _had_ been paid a thousand times by the many + acts of kindness of himself and wife, and should always feel + happy in doing anything for them that I could. + + As my father read this letter I had written, I noticed a smile + on his countenance, which lasted but an instant, when he said, + 'You may send it; but I want to know what this scrape is, and I + will.' + + A few days after the reply was sent, another letter arrived from + the four deacons, stating that I had not been explicit enough in + my answer, and wanted me to say, 1st. Whether I had helped + Deacon Hubbard hive his bees on Sunday. 2d. Whether I had ever + received from him a large pan of honey in the comb? 3d. Whether + my father was a member of the church? 4th. Whether he would give + his consent for me to come to G---- on business of great + importance if they would pay my expenses, and how soon I could + come? + + It was cold weather, several months after I left G----, when + this letter came to hand, and I did not fancy a ride of thirty + miles at that time; I however had permission to promise that I + would be there on the first Monday in May, which was the day of + 'General Training,' and a great day at that period. In my answer + to the second letter I said that I thought I had answered their + first question sufficiently before; and in answer to the second + I would say, that I had never received any honey from Deacon + Hubbard; to the third, that my father was a member of the + church; and to the fourth, that I would come there on the day + named above. + + The first Monday in May was a bright and lovely day, and at an + early hour I mounted a horse and started for G----, arriving + there before noon. On my way into the village I had to pass the + house of Deacon Hubbard, who, knowing that I was expected that + day, was looking for my approach, and as I drew near the house I + saw his venerable form in the road. It was my intention to pass + his house without being seen, but that was impossible. He + insisted on my going into the house. His good wife met me at the + door with a cordial greeting, but, with tearful eyes, said she + feared there was some dreadful trouble in store for me, for the + deacons of the church had been watching for me all the morning. + After explaining as well as I could the reason of my visit, with + the little information I had, Deacon Hubbard exclaimed--'Well, I + don't know but they'll make you walk the church aisle, for + there's some trouble somewhere.' We had but little time for + conversation before Mrs. H. saw the venerable deacons + approaching the house; and I shall never forget the solemn look + and steps with which they advanced, the senior deacon, Flagg, + leading the procession. As they were ushered into the front room + they seated themselves in a row according to their respective + ages, each wearing the solemn countenance of a Pilgrim father. + When I entered the room they all arose and took me by the hand, + thanking me for faithfully keeping my promise, and hoped the + Lord would reward me therefor. Deacon Flagg, after a few + preliminary remarks, said: 'Young man, there has been a grievous + sin committed among the Lord's anointed in our church, and we + have sent for you that we may be enabled to detect the erring + one! and we hope you will so far consider the importance of the + matter as to answer truly the questions that may be propounded + to you. My young friend, will you have the goodness to say, in + the hearing of our good brother, Deacon Hubbard, whether or not + you ever received from him a present of a large pan of honey for + helping him hive his bees?' + + I answered that I never had. All eyes were turned on Deacon H., + and an audible groan came from Deacon Harris as I made my reply. + Deacon Flagg addressed me as follows:--'My youthful friend, will + you be willing to accompany these gentlemen to the house of + sister White, and say the same before her?' I was willing, + provided my friend Deacon Hubbard would go along, which he + consented to do, and we started. + + It was but a short way across the Common, and ours was a solemn, + silent procession, and I must have appeared like a very culprit. + On nearing the house, Deacon Flagg said he would first enter and + inform sister White of our business, and return when she was + ready to receive us. He returned in a short time, with a longer + face than before, and as he approached us, clasping his hands, + he said with an agonized tone, 'Dear brethren, Oh! it is all too + true! Satan entered her heart,--she coveted the honey,--and + fell.' A groan of holy horror came from all the good old men. It + was not necessary for us to enter the abode of wickedness, he + said, for she would confess all. + + The whole proceeding had been a mystery to me, but I soon + learned that the next day after hiving the bees, Deacon Hubbard + had sent a large pan of honey to sister White's house, intended + for me, but she gave us boys a little for a few days and put the + rest away; or, as she afterwards said, she coveted it, and said + nothing to me about it; and I should probably have known nothing + of it had it not been for a disagreement between herself and + daughters about a division of the honey, which finally got to be + a church matter. + + Deacon Hubbard insisted on my going to dine with him; so, with a + parting shake of the hand with the other four venerable men, we + started for his house. Such a feast as dame Hubbard had provided + on that occasion boys do not often see; substantial food enough + for half a score of men, aside from the pies and plum pudding + which made their appearance in due course; and in front of the + dish assigned to me was a dish of the purest honey. After dinner + Deacon Hubbard took me to see his bees, and explained many + things in relation to them curious and instructive, promising + more information on the subject if he could prevail upon me to + remain in G---- till the next morning. The fatigue of the long + ride that day, and my desire to see a little of the 'Training,' + decided me to remain over night. + + In the morning my horse was fresh, having been well taken care + of by my friend; so, after a hearty breakfast, I bade adieu to + the good couple, with a pleasant recollection of their + hospitality and kindness. When ready to start, dame Hubbard, + with the best intentions, brought me a large pail of honey, + wishing I would carry it home to my parents, but as it was + impossible for me to carry it on horseback, I had to decline. + + It was near noon the next day when I reached home, and my first + greeting from my father was, 'Well, Gilbert, now let me know + about the scrape you got into last summer in G----.' + + I told him all I had learned about the matter, to which be + expressed his pleasure that it was no worse, and gave me much + good advice as to the future. + + A few weeks after I readied home there was a large tub of honey + left at my father's house, with a letter for me, informing me + that sister White had been expelled from the church in G---- for + covetousness; that my friends the Hubbards were well; that the + four deacons spoke very highly in my praise, and hoped I would + _feel rewarded_ for the trouble I had taken. Years have passed + since the matters here mentioned took place, but up to this time + nothing has been said to me about 'paying my expenses.' + + JAY G. BEE. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Malaprop founded a school which has been prolific in disciples. +From one of these we learn that-- + + Old Mr. P. died a short time ago, much to the regret of his many + friends, for he was a good neighbor, and had always lived + honestly and uprightly among his fellow-men. At the time of his + funeral Mrs. L. was sorrowing for his loss, with others of her + sex, and paid the following tribute to his memory: + + 'Poor Mr. P., he was a good man, a kind man, and a Christian + man--he always lived _according to_ HOYLE, and died with the + hope of a blessed immortality.' + +'Played the wrong card there.' + + * * * * * + +ADAM'S FAMILY JARS. + +IN CRACKED NUMBERS. + + One fact is fundamental, + One truth is rudimental; + Before man had the rental + Of this dwelling of a day, + He was in nothing mental, + But an image-man of clay. + + In the ground + Was the image found; + Of the ground + Was it molded round; + And empty of breath, + And still as in death, + Inside not a ray, + Outside only clay, + Deaf and dumb and blind, + Deadest of the kind, + There it lay. + + Unto what was it like? In its shape it was what? + The world says 'a man,'--but the world is mistaken. + To revive the old story, a long time forgot, + 'Twasn't man that was made, but a pot that was baken. + + And what if it was human-faced like the Sphinx? + There's no riddle to solve, whate'er the world thinks: + The fiat that made it, from its heels to its hair, + Wasn't simply 'Be man!' but 'Stand up and Be Ware!' + + And straightway acknowledging its true kith and kin + With that host of things known to be hollow within, + It took up a stand with its handles akimbo, + Bowels and bosom in a cavernous limbo. + + Curving out at the bottom, it swelled to a jig; + Curving in at the top, narrow-necked, to the mug; + Two sockets for sunshine in the frontispiece placed, + A crack just below--merely a matter of taste; + A flap on each side hiding holes of resounding, + For conveyance within of noises surrounding; + And a nozzle before, + All befitted to snore, + Was a part of the ware + For adornment and air. + + Now for what was this slender and curious mold? + Had it no purpose? Had it nothing to hold? + A world full of meaning, my friend, if 'twere told. + You remember those jars in the Arabian Night, + As they stood 'neath the stars in Al' Baba's eyesight: + Little dreamed Ali Baba what ajar could excite-- + For how much did betide + When a man was inside! + When from under each cover a man was to spring, + Where then was the empty, insignificant thing? + It was so with this jar, + 'Twasn't hollow by far; + Breathless at first as an exhausted receiver, + When the air was let in, lo! man, the achiever! + + But an accident happened, a cruel surprise; + How frail proved the man, and how very unwise! + As if plaster of Paris, and not Paradise, + No more of clay consecrate, + He broke up disconsolate, + Pot-luck for his fortune, though the world's potentate. + + It brings to our memory that Indian camp, + Where men lay in ambush, every one with a lamp, + Each light darkly hid in a vessel of clay, + Till the sword should be drawn, and then on came the fray. + 'Twas so in the fortunes of this queer earthen race, + (It happened before they were more than a brace). + The fact of a fall + Did break upon all! + The lamp of each life being uncovered by sin, + The pitcher was broken, and the devil pitched in! + + So much for his story to the moment he erred, + From what dignified pot he became a pot-sherd. + Since that day the great world, + Like a wheel having twirled, + Hath replenished the earth from the primitive pair, + And turned into being every species of ware. + + There are millions and millions on the planet to-day, + Of all sorts, and all sizes, all ranks we may say; + There's a rabble of pots, with the dregs and the scum, + And a peerage of pots, above finger and thumb. + + Look round in this pottery, look down to the ground, + Where bottle and mug, jug and pottle abound; + From the plebeian throng see the graded array; + There is shelf above shelf of brittle display, + As rank above rank the poor mortals arise, + From menial purpose to princely disguise. + + See vessels of honor, emblazoned with cash, + Of standing uncertain, preparing to dash. + See some to dishonor, in common clay-bake, + Figure high where the fire and the flint do partake. + + There's the bottle of earth by glittering glass, + As by blood of the gentlest excelling its class, + Becoming instanter + A portly decanter! + + There's the lowly bowl, or the basin broad, + By double refinement a punch-bowl lord! + There's the beggarly jug, ignoble and base, + By adornment of art the Portland vase! + + But call them, title them, what you will, + They're bound to break, they are brittle still; + No saving pieces, or repairing, + No Spaulding's glue for human erring; + All alike they will go together, + And lie in Potter's field forever. + + At length the whole secret of life is told: + 'Tis because we're earth, and not of gold, + 'Tis because we're ware that beware we must, + Lest we crack, and break, and crumble to dust. + + What wonder that men so clash together, + And in the clash so break with each other! + Or that households are full of family jars, + And boys are such pickles in spite of papas! + That the cup of ill-luck is drained to the dregs, + When a man's in his cups and not on his legs! + That meaning should be in that word for a sot, + He's ruined forever--he's going to pot! + + So goes the world and its generations, + So go its tribes, and its tribulations; + Crowding together on the stream of time, + It almost destroys the chime of my rhyme, + While they strike, and they grind, and rub and dash, + And are sure to go to eternal smash. + Lamentable sight to be seen here below! + Man after man sinking,--blow after blow,-- + A bubble, a choke,--each blow is a knell,-- + Broken forever! There's no more to tell. + + * * * * * + + There _is_ more to tell, of a promise foretold; + Though now 'tis a vessel of homeliest mold, + Yet 'tis that which will prove a crock of gold, + When the crack of doom shall the truth unfold. + + 'Tis hard to believe, for so seemeth life, + A cruse full of oil, with nothing more rife; + Yet what saith the prophet? It never shall fail: + Life is perennial, of immortal avail. + + 'Tis hard to believe, for to dust we return, + To lie like the ashes in a burial urn; + But look at the skies! see the heavenly bowers! + The urn is a vase--the ashes are flowers! + + 'Tis hard to believe; like a jar full of tears, + Life is filled with humanity's griefs and fears; + 'Tis a tear-jar o'erflowing, close by the urn, + Even weeping for those in that gloomy sojourn. + And yet, when with time it has crumbled away, + The omnipotent Potter will in that day + Turn again to the pattern of Paradise, + Will fashion it anew and bid it arise, + A jar full adorned and with richest designs, + With tracery covered, and heavenly signs, + With jewels deep-set, and with fine gold inlaid, + Enamel of love,--yes, a nature new made. + And then from the deep bottom, as from a cup + Of blessing, there ever will come welling up + The living waters of a pellucid soul, + A gush of the spirit, from a heart made whole. + + So, like the water-pots rough, by the door at the East, + Our purpose will change, and our power be increased, + When we stand in the gate of the Heavenly Feast: + The word will be spoken: we'll flow out with wine + The blood of the true Life, pressed from the true Vine, + Perpetual chalice, inexhaustible bowl, + Of pleasures immortal, overflowing the soul! + +Dust we are and to dust we must return--but, as the old epitaph said of +Catherine Gray, who sold pottery,-- + + 'In some tall pitcher or broad pan + She in life's shop may live again,'-- + +so, in a higher sphere we may all become vases unbreakable, filled with +the wine of life. + + * * * * * + +Were the enemy in their senses they would probably admit that the +annexed proposal is far from being deficient in common-sense:-- + +DEAR CONTINENTAL: + +I see that it is proposed by the Southern press that the rebels, as they +retreat, shall burn all their tobacco. + +I have a proposition to make. + +Let General McCLELLAN send a flag of truce and inform them that if they +need any assistance in that work, nothing will give me greater pleasure +than to assist in the consummation. + +I have an enormous meerschaum and a corps of friends equally well piped. +If the seceders have no time to ignite the weed, we are quite ready, and +a great deal more willing, considering the late frightful rise in +Lynchburg, to do it for them. I can answer for burning one pound a day +myself. What do you think of it? It isn't traitorous in me, is it, to +thus desire to aid and assist the enemy? + +Yours truly, + +RAUCHER. + + * * * * * + +A CURE FOR STEALING. + + Far back among the days of yore + There's many a pleasing tale in store, + Rich with the humor of the time, + That sometimes jingle well in rhyme. + Of these, the following may possess + A claim on 'hours of idleness.' + When Governor Gurdon Saltonstall, + Like Abram Lincoln, straight and tall, + Presided o'er the Nutmeg State, + A loved and honored magistrate, + His quiet humor was portrayed + In Yankee tricks he sometimes played. + The Governor had a serious air, + 'Twas solemn as a funeral prayer, + But when he spoke the mirth was stirred,-- + A joke leaped out at every word. + One morn, a man, alarmed and pale, + Came to him with a frightful tale; + The substance was, that Jerry Style + Had _stolen wood_ from off his pile. + The Governor started in surprise, + And on the accuser fixed his eyes. + 'He steal my wood! to his regret, + Before this blessed sun shall set, + I'll put a final end to _that_.' + Then, putting on his stately hat, + All nicely cocked and trimmed with lace, + He issued forth with lofty grace, + Bade the accuser; duty mind,' + And follow him 'five steps _behind_.' + Ere they a furlong's space complete, + They meet the culprit in the street; + The Governor took him by the hand-- + That lowly man! that Governor grand!-- + Kindly inquired of his condition, + His present prospects and position. + The man a tale of sorrow told-- + That food was dear, the winter cold, + That work was scarce, and times were hard, + And very ill at home they fared,-- + And, more than this, a bounteous Heaven + To them a little babe had given, + Whose brief existence could attest + This world's a wintry world at best. + A silver crown, whose shining face + King William's head and Mary's grace, + Dropped in his hand. The Governor spoke,-- + His voice was cracked--it almost broke,--'If + work is scarce, and times are hard, + There's a _large wood-pile in my yard; + Of that you may most freely use, + So go and get it when you choose_.' + Then on he walked, serenely feeling + That there he'd put an end to stealing. + The accuser's sense of duty grew + The space 'twixt him and Governor too. + + * * * * * + +'The Anaconda is tightening its folds,' and at every fold the South +cries aloud. The following bit of merry nonsense, which has the merit of +being 'good to sing,' may possibly enliven more than one camp-fire, ere +the last fold of the 'big sarpent' has given the final stifle to the +un-fed-eralists. + + THE 'ANACONDA.' + + Won't it make them stop and ponder? + Yes! 't will make them stop and ponder! + What?--The fearful Anaconda! + (All.) Yes! The fearful Anaconda! + (Chorus.) Stop and ponder!--Anaconda! + Big and fearful; big and fearful, + Big and fearful Anaconda! + + Is not that the Rebel South? + Yes! that is the Rebel South. + Arn't they rather down in month? + (All.) Yes! they're rather down in mouth! + (Chorus.) Rebel South, down in mouth, + Stop and ponder!--Anaconda! + Big and fearful, &c, &c. + + Is not that the traitor DAVIS? + Yes! that is the traitor DAVIS! + Don't he wish he could enslave us? + (All.) Yes! he wanted to enslave us! + (Chorus.) Traitor DAVIS, can't enslave us. + Rebel South, down in mouth, + Stop and ponder!--Anaconda! + Big and fearful, &c. &c. + + Isn't that the gallows high there? + Yes! that is the gallows high there! + And JEFF DAVIS that I spy there? + (All.) 'Tis JEFF DAVIS that you spy there. + (Chorus.) Hanging high there, DAVIS spy there. + Traitor DAVIS, you enslave us! + Rebel South, down in mouth, + Stop and ponder!--Anaconda! + Big and fearful, big and fearful, + BIG AND FEARFUL ANACONDA! + + * * * * * + +Our ever-welcome New Haven friend re-appears this month, with the +following jest:-- + + The other day lawyer JONES, of Hartford, Conn., wrote a letter + to my friend PLOPP, whom he supposed to be in Hartford at the + time. The missive was forwarded to PLOPP, who is in Newport. It + requested him to 'step in and settle.' PLOPP replied: + + My dear JONES:-- + + Yours of 10th is rec'd. I reply,-- + + 1st. I can't step in, because I am not in Hartford. + + 2d. I can't settle, because I am not in the least riled. + + 3d. I notice you spell Hartford without a _t._ This is an error. + Allow me, as per example, to suggest the correct orthography, to + wit, Hartford. + + I shall always he glad to hear from you. + + Yours, + + I. PLOPP. + + * * * * * + +The present aspect of the great question is well set forth by a +correspondent, 'LEILA LEE,' in the following sketch:-- + + OUR OLD PUMP. + + The writer was once placed in circumstances of peculiar + interest, where a word in season was greatly needed, and that + word was not spoken, because it would have been thought unseemly + that it should fall from the lips of a woman. Our supply of + water had failed. The well was deep, and, like Jacob's well, + many had been in the habit of coming thither to draw. My father + had called in advisers, men of experience, and they decided that + the lower part of the pump was rotten, and must be removed. It + had probably stood there more than fifty years, and had been so + useful in its day, that it was like an old and familiar friend. + + The work was commenced, and all the family stood by the closed + window, the children's faces pressed close to the glass, as + with eager eyes we all watched the heavy machinery erected over + the old well. A mother came out of a neighboring house, and + stood with a babe in her arms to see the work. A large rope was + firmly placed around the pump, and made fast to the derrick. + Then came the tug of war, and with a long pull, a strong pull, + and a pull all together, the wooden pump rose up gradually from + its hiding-place of years. + + 'Oh, mother! mother!' I exclaimed; 'see, the derrick is not long + enough to raise the pump out of the well! Why don't they saw it + off, and take out the old pump in two or three pieces?' + + Just then papa screamed to Mrs. Rice, 'Run out of the way, + quick, with your baby!' + + There stood all the workmen in dismay. What was to be done? My + father had no idea that he had undertaken such a tremendous job, + and now he was in great perplexity. Who, indeed, could have + believed that the well was deep enough to hold a pump of such + immense size as this, that had become so old and rotten? Oh, for + ropes longer and stronger! Oh, for muscle and nerve! Oh, for men + of herculean strength to meet this terrible crisis! At that + moment, a timely suggestion, from any quarter, would have been + welcome. But, even then, it might have been too late; for the + pump fell with a tremendous crash, carrying with it all the + machinery. Papa fell upon the ground, but the derrick had safely + passed over him, prostrating the fences, and endangering the + lives of the workmen. + + This scene, which was soon almost forgotten, is recalled by the + fearful crisis that is now upon us. While we rejoice in our + recent victories, and believe that this wicked rebellion will + soon be subdued, we must rejoice with trembling, so long as + SLAVERY, the acknowledged _casus belli_, still remains. The + unsightly monster, in all its rottenness and deformity, is drawn + up from the hiding-place of ages, and it can no more be restored + to its former _status_, than, at the will of the workmen, our + old pump could be thrust back, when, suspended in the air, it + threatened their destruction. God forbid that our rulers should + desire it! What, then, is to be done? No giant mind has yet been + found to grapple successfully with this great evil--no body of + men who can concentrate a moral power sufficient to remove this + worn-out system, without endangering some interest of vital + importance to our beloved country. + + Zion must now lengthen her cords and strengthen her stakes, for + the wisdom of the wise has become foolishness, that God alone + may be exalted. He will surely bring down every high thought, + and every vain imagination, and his own people must learn what + it is 'to receive the kingdom of God as little children.' How + shall liberty be proclaimed throughout the length and breadth of + the land, to all the inhabitants thereof, and, in obedience to + the will of God, this year become a year of jubilee to the poor + and oppressed of our nation? How shall the emancipation of + slavery conduce to the best interest of the master, no less than + to the happiness of the slave? + + Probably some very simple solution will be given to this + question, in answer to the earnest cry of God's people. Should + it please him to hide this thought for the crisis from the wise + and prudent, and reveal it unto babes, God grant that it may be + in our hearts to respond, 'Even so, Father, for so it seemeth + good in thy sight.' + + * * * * * + +The simple solution has already been begun by our Executive, in +recognizing the _principle_--its extraordinary advance among all classes +will soon fully develop it. In illustration of this we quote a letter +which the editor of the New Haven _Journal and Courier_ vouches to come +from an officer in the navy, known to him:-- + + From what we see and know of the operations of the rebels in + this part of the South (the Southern coast, where he has been + stationed), and from what we see perfidious Englishmen doing for + the rebels, we are fast becoming strong abolitionists. We feel + that _now_ Slavery must receive its death-blow, and be destroyed + forever from the country. You would be surprised to see the + change going on in the minds of officers in our service, who + have been great haters of abolitionists; and the Southerners in + our navy are the most bitter toward those who have made slavery + the great cause of war. They freely express the opinion that the + whole system must be abolished, and even our old captain, who is + a native of Tennessee, and who has hitherto insisted that the + abolitionists of the North brought on this war, said last night, + 'If England continues to countenance the _institution_, I hope + our government will put arms in the hands of the slaves, and + that slavery will now be the destruction of the whole South, or + of the rebels in the South.' He further said, 'The slave-holder + has, by the tacit consent and aid of England, brought on the + most unjustifiable, iniquitous and barbarous war ever known in + the history of the world.' + +Too far and too fast--it is not Abolition, or the good of the black, but +Emancipation, or the benefit of the _white_ man, which is really +progressing so rapidly with the American people. But whatever causes of +agitation are at work, whether on limited or general principles of +philanthropy and political economy, one thing is at least certain--the +day of the triumph of free labor is dawning, while the cause of progress + + 'Careers with thunder speed along!' + + * * * * * + +It is almost a wonder that the late offer of the king of Siam to stock +this land with elephants was not jumped at, when one remembers the +American national fondness for the animal, and how copiously our popular +orators and poets allude to a sight of the monster. Among the latest +elephantine tales which we have encountered is the following, from our +New Haven correspondent:-- + + Dr. H., of this pleasant city of Elms, has been noted for many + years for always driving the gentlest and most sober, but at the + same time the most fearfully 'homely' of horses. His steeds will + always stand wherever he pleases to leave them, but they have + rather a venerable and woful aspect, that renders them anything + but pleasant objects to the casual observer. A few years ago + there came a caravan to town, and several horses were badly + frightened by the elephants, so that quite a number of accidents + took place. A day or two after, old Dr. Knight met Dr. H., and + speaking of the accidents, Dr. Knight remarked that he had not + dared to take his horse out while the procession was passing + through the streets. 'Oh, ho!' said Dr. H., 'why, I took my mare + and drove right up alongside of them, and she wasn't the least + bit scared!' + + 'Hum--yes,' says Dr. K., '_but how did the elephant stand it_?' + + * * * * * + +By particular request we find room for the following:-- + + Hon. ---- then read his Poem entitled the 'Boulder,' which must + be heard before we can form an idea of the genius of the poet. + First we are reminded of the style of the sweet songs of + Pherimorz as his enchanting strains fell upon the enraptured + soul of the fair Lady of the Lake. Then away, on painted wings + of gratified imagination, is the mind carried to the zephyr + wooings of the dying sunset, over the elevated brow of the dark + Maid of the Forest, as she reclines upon her couch of eagles' + feathers, and down from angles wings, hearing the last whisper + of the falling echo from the world of sound. + + Whether the wild chaos of storm and whirlwind which madly raged + over the benighted earth before 'light was,' rushed to the dark + caverns where the fettered earthquake lay, when order was + demanded by the Father of Lights, we can not tell; but surely it + is a pleasing thought for the mind engulfed in the unfathomed + darkness of uncreated light, to be brought out and suffered to + rest on the peaceful bosom of the new creation. Whether 'the + world that then was' was overflown and perished by the causes + set forth, we can not tell. We regret that we can not now give a + more extended and particular notice of this poem; let us hope + that ere long we may enjoy the delight of reading its printed + form. + +That must indeed have been a poem which could inspire _such_ poetry in +others. + + * * * * * + +The Boston _Courier_ published, over the signature of 'MIDDLESEX,' +during the months of February and March, a number of articles entitled, +_Through the Gulf States_. So far as we have examined and compared the +series, it appears to be a literal reprint, with a few trivial +alterations of dates and statistics, of the _Letters from the Gulf +States_, originally published in the _Knickerbocker New York Monthly +Magazine_, in 1847. + + * * * * * + +THE KNICKERBOCKER + +FOR 1862. + + +In the beginning of the last year, when its present proprietors assumed +control of the Knickerbocker, they announced their determination to +spare no pains to place it in its true position as the leading +_literary_ Monthly in America. When rebellion had raised a successful +front, and its armies threatened the very existence of the Republic, it +was impossible to permit a magazine, which in its circulation reached +the best intellects in the land, to remain insensible or indifferent to +the dangers which threatened the Union. The proprietors accordingly gave +notice, that it would present in its pages, forcible expositions with +regard to the great question of the times,--_how to preserve the_ UNITED +STATUS OF AMERICA _in their integrity and unity_. How far this pledge +has been redeemed the public must judge. It would, however, be mere +affectation to ignore the seal of approbation which has been placed on +these efforts. The proprietors gratefully acknowledge this, and it has +led them to embark in a fresh undertaking, as already announced,--the +publication of the CONTINENTAL MONTHLY, devoted to Literature and +National Policy; in which magazine, those who have sympathized with the +political opinions recently set forth in the KNICKERBOCKER, will find +the same views more fully enforced and maintained by the ablest and most +energetic minds in America. + +The KNICKERBOCKER, while it will continue firmly pledged to the cause of +the Union, will henceforth be more earnestly devoted to literature, and +will leave no effort untried to attain the highest excellence in those +departments of letters which it has adopted as specialties. + +The January number commences its thirtieth year. With such antecedents +as it possesses, it seems unnecessary to make any especial pledges as to +its future, but it may not be amiss to say that it will be the aim of +its conductors to make it more and more deserving of the liberal support +it has hitherto received. The same eminent writers who have contributed +to it during the past year will continue to enrich its pages, and in +addition, contributions will appear from others of the highest +reputation, as well as from many rising authors. While it will, as +heretofore, cultivate the genial and humorous, it will also pay +assiduous attention to the higher departments of art and letters, and +give fresh and spirited articles on such biographical, historical, +scientific, and general subjects as are of especial interest to the +public. + +In the January issue will commence a series of papers by CHARLES GODFREY +LELAND, entitled "SUNSHINE IN LETTERS," which will be found interesting +to scholars as well as to the general reader, and in an early number +will appear the first chapters of a NEW and INTERESTING NOVEL, +descriptive of American life and character. + +According to the unanimous opinion of the American press, the +KNICKERBOCKER has been greatly improved during the past year, _and it is +certain that at no period of its long career did it ever attract more +attention or approbation_. Confident of their enterprise and ability, +the proprietors are determined that it shall be still more eminent in +excellence, containing all that is best of the old, and being +continually enlivened by what is most brilliant of the new. + +TERMS.--Three dollars a year, in advance. Two copies for Four Dollars +and fifty cents. Three copies for Six dollars. Subscribers remitting +Three Dollars will receive as a premium, (post-paid,) a copy of Richard +B. Kimball's great work, "THE REVELATIONS OF WALL STREET," to be +published by G.P. Putnam, early in February next, (price $1.) +Subscribers remitting Four Dollars will receive the KNICKERBOCKER and +the CONTINENTAL MONTHLY for one year. As but one edition of each number +of the Knickerbocker is printed, those desirous of commencing with the +volume should subscribe at once. + +The publisher, appreciating the importance of literature to the soldier +on duty, will send a copy _gratis_, during the continuance of the war, +to any regiment in active service, on application being made by its +Colonel or Chaplain. Subscriptions will also be received from those +desiring it sent to soldiers in the ranks at _half price_, but in such +cases it must be mailed from the office of publication. + +J.R. GILMORE, 532 Broadway, New York. + +C.T. EVANS, General Agent, 532 Broadway, New York. + +All communications and contributions, intended for the Editorial +department, should be addressed to CHARLES G. LELAND, Editor of the +"Knickerbocker," care of C.T. EVANS, 532 Broadway, New York. + +Newspapers copying the above and giving the Magazine monthly notices, +will be entitled to an exchange. + + * * * * * + +PROSPECTUS + +OF + +The Continental Monthly. + + +There are periods in the world's history marked by extraordinary and +violent crises, sudden as the breaking forth of a volcano, or the +bursting of a storm on the ocean. These crises sweep away in a moment +the landmarks of generations. They call out fresh talent, and give to +the old a new direction. It is then that new ideas are born, new +theories developed. Such periods demand fresh exponents, and new men for +expounders. + +This Continent has lately been convulsed by an upheaving so sudden and +terrible that the relations of all men and all classes to each other are +violently disturbed, and people look about for the elements with which +to sway the storm and direct the whirlwind. Just at present, we do not +know what all this is to bring forth; but we do know that great results +MUST flow from such extraordinary commotions. + +At a juncture so solemn and so important, there is a special need that +the intellectual force of the country should be active and efficient. It +is a time for great minds to speak their thoughts boldly, and to take +position as the advance guard. To this end, there is a special want +unsupplied. It is that of an Independent Magazine, which shall be open +to the first intellects of the land, and which shall treat the issues +presented, and to be presented to the country, in a tone no way tempered +by partisanship, or influenced by fear, favor, or the hope of reward; +which shall seize and grapple with the momentous subjects that the +present disturbed state of affairs heave to the surface, and which CAN +NOT be laid aside or neglected. + +To meet this want, the undersigned have commenced, under the editorial +charge of CHARLES GODFREY LELAND, the publication of a new Magazine, +devoted to Literature and National Policy. + +In POLITICS, it will advocate, with all the force at its command, +measures best adapted to preserve the oneness and integrity of these +United States. It will never yield to the idea of any disruption of this +Republic, peaceably or otherwise; and it will discuss with honesty and +impartiality what must be done to save it. In this department, some of +the most eminent statesmen of the time will contribute regularly to its +pages. + +In LITERATURE, it will be sustained by the best writers and ablest +thinkers of this country. + +Among its attractions will be presented, in an early number, a NEW +SERIAL of American Life, by RICHARD B. KIMBALL, ESQ., the very popular +author of "The Revelations of Wall Street," "St. Leger," &c. A series of +papers by HON. HORACE GREELEY, embodying the distinguished author's +observations on the growth and development of the Great West. A series +of articles by the author of "Through the Cotton States," containing the +result of an extended tour in the seaboard Slave States, just prior to +the breaking out of the war, and presenting a startling and truthful +picture of the real condition of that region. No pains will be spared to +render the literary attractions of the CONTINENTAL both brilliant and +substantial. The lyrical or descriptive talents of the most eminent +_literati_ have been promised to its pages; and nothing will be admitted +which will not be distinguished by marked energy, originality, and solid +strength. Avoiding every influence or association partaking of clique or +coterie, it will be open to all contributions of real merit, even from +writers differing materially in their views; the only limitation +required being that of devotion to the Union, and the only standard of +acceptance that of intrinsic excellence. + +The EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT will embrace, in addition to vigorous and +fearless comments on the events of the times, genial gossip with the +reader on all current topics, and also devote abundant space to those +racy specimens of American wit and humor, without which there can be no +perfect exposition of our national character. Among those who will +contribute regularly to this department may be mentioned the name of +CHARLES F. BROWNE ("Artemus Ward"), from whom we have promised an +entirely new and original series of SKETCHES OF WESTERN LIFE. + +The CONTINENTAL will be liberal and progressive, without yielding to +chimeras and hopes beyond the grasp of the age; and it will endeavor to +reflect the feelings and interests of the American people, and to +illustrate both their serious and humorous peculiarities. In short, no +pains will be spared to make it the REPRESENTATIVE MAGAZINE of the time. + +TERMS:--Three Dollars per year, in advance (postage paid by the +Publishers;) Two Copies for Five Dollars; Three Copies for Six Dollars, +(posture unpaid); Eleven copies for Twenty Dollars, (postage unpaid). +Single numbers can be procured of any News-dealer in the United States. +The KNICKERBOCKER MAGAZINE and the CONTINENTAL MONTHLY will be furnished +for one year at FOUR DOLLARS. + +Appreciating the importance of literature to the soldier on duty, the +publisher will send the CONTINENTAL, _gratis_, to any regiment in active +service, on application being made by its Colonel or Chaplain; he will +also receive subscriptions from those desiring to furnish it to soldiers +in the ranks at half the regular price; but in such cases it must be +mailed from the office of publication. + +J.R. GILMORE, 110 Tremont Street, Boston. + +CHARLES T. EVANS, at G.P. PUTNAM'S, 532 Broadway, New York, is +authorized to receive Subscriptions in that City. + +N.B.--Newspapers publishing this Prospectus, and giving the +CONTINENTAL monthly notices, will be entitled to an exchange. + + + + +Number 5. 25 Cents. + + +The Continental Monthly + + +Devoted to Literature and National Policy. + + * * * * * + +MAY, 1862. + + * * * * * + +NEW-YORK AND BOSTON: + +J.R. GILMORE, 532 BROADWAY, NEW-YORK, + +AND 110 TREMONT STREET, BOSTON. + +NEW-YORK: HENRY DEXTER AND ROSS & TOUSEY. + +PHILADELPHIA: T.B. CALLENDER AND A. WINCH. + + + + +CONTENTS. + +NO. V. + + * * * * * + +What Shall we do with it? Hon. John W. Edmonds + +A Philosophical Bankrupt + +The Molly O'Molly Papers + +All Together + +A True Story. Miss McFarlane + +Maccaroni and Canvas. Henry P. Leland + +Fairies + +John Bright. George M. Towle + +The Ante-Norse Discoverers of America. C.G. Leland + +State Rights + +Roanoke Island. Frederic Kidder + +A Story of Mexican Life + +Changed + +Hamlet a Fat Man. Carlton Edwards + +The Knights of the Golden Circle + +Columbia's Safety + +Ursa Major. H.B. Brownwell + +Fugitives at the West. S.C. Blackwell + +The Education to be + +Guerdon + +Literary Notices + +Editor's Table + + * * * * * + +In the next Number will be commenced a new Novel of American Life, by +R.B. Kimball, Esq., entitled 'WAS HE SUCCESSFUL?' an account of the life +and conduct of Hiram Meeker, one of the leading men in the mercantile +community, and 'a bright and shining light' in the Church, recounting +what he did, and how he made his money. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote A: An incident that occurred at Palmyra, in Marion County, of +which the writer was a witness, may be given as a fair illustration of +Benton's insulting and insufferable manner in this celebrated canvass. +During the delivery of his speech, in the densely-crowded court-house, a +prominent county politician, who was opposed to Benton, arose and put a +question to him. 'Come here,' said Benton, in his abrupt and +authoritative tone. The man with difficulty made his way through the +mass, and advanced till he stood immediately in front of Benton. 'Who +are you, sir?' inquired the swelling and indignant senator. The citizen +gave his well-known name. 'Who?' demanded Benton. The name was +distinctly repeated. And then, without replying to the question that had +been proposed, but with an air of disdain and annihilating contempt that +no man in America but Benton could assume, he proceeded with his speech, +leaving his interrogator to retire from his humiliating embarrassment as +best he could. At the close of the address, some of his friends +expressed surprise to Benton that he had not known the man that +interrupted him. 'Know him!' said he; 'I knew him well enough. I only +meant to make him stand with his hat in his hand, and tell me his name, +like a nigger.'] + +[Footnote B: See Historical Mag., Vol. 4, p. 230.] + +[Footnote C: Among the cotton lately arrived from Port Royal was a +number of bales marked with the form of a coffin. It was the growth of +'Coffin's Island,' which is usually of the highest grade.] + +[Footnote D: The palmetto is a straight, tall tree, with a tuft of +branches and palm leaves at its top. The new growth is the centre as it +first expands somewhat resembles a cabbage. It is often used for boiling +and pickling. The wood of the tree is spongy, and is used for building +wharves, as it is impervious to the sea-worm. It is said that a cannon +ball will not penetrate it. It is a paltry emblem for a State flag, as +its characteristics accurately indicate pride and poverty. When used for +wharves, it, however, becomes a veritable '_Mudsill_.'] + +[Footnote E: Before 1700 a colony from Dorchester, Mass., made a +settlement on Ashley River, and named it for their native town; +afterwards, they sent an offshoot and planted the town of Midway, in +Georgia. For more than a century they kept up their Congregational +Church, with many of their New England institutions. Their descendants +in both States have been famed for their enterprise, industry, and moral +qualities down to the present day.] + +[Footnote F: The Barnwells can trace their pedigree back about one +hundred and fifty years to a Col. Barnwell who commanded in an Indian +war. Subsequently the name appears on the right side in the Revolution. +This is a long period to trace ancestry in Carolina; for while nearly +all New England families can trace back to the Puritans, more than two +hundred years, the lordly Carolinians generally get among the 'mudsills' +in three or four generations at the farthest.] + +[Footnote G: Some thirty years ago, R. Barnwell Smith made a figure in +Congress by his ultra nullification speeches, and was then considered +the greatest fire-eater of them all. He was not 'to the manor born,' but +was the son of a Gen. Smith, who founded and resided in the small and +poverty-stricken town of Smithville, N.C., at the mouth of the Cape Fear +River. As his paternal fortune was small, and some family connection +existed with the Barnwells, he emigrated to Beaufort, and there +practiced as a lawyer. He was followed by two brothers, who had the same +profession. He was the first who openly advocated secession in Congress. +They have all been leading politicians and managers of the Charleston +_Mercury_, which, by its mendacity and constant abuse of the North, and +its everlasting laudations of Southern wealth and power, has done much +to bring on the present war. + +Desirous to stand better with the aristocracy, some years ago the family +sunk the plebeian patronymic of Smith and adopted that of Rhett, a name +known in South Carolina a century previous.] + +[Footnote H: During Nullification times the Fullers were Union men. +Doctor Thomas Fuller, who, a short time since, set fire to his buildings +and cotton crop to prevent their falling into Yankee hands, is well +known as a kind-hearted physician, and better things might have been +expected of him. + +His brother is a celebrated Baptist clergyman in Baltimore. He was +formerly a lawyer, and afterwards preached to an immense congregation, +mainly of slaves, in his native place.] + +[Footnote I: Many years ago the Elliots were staunch Union men, and +Stephen Elliot, a gentleman of talent, wrote many very able arguments +against nullification and in favor of the Union. He always thought that +Port Royal must some day be the great naval and commercial depot of the +South. He may yet live to see his former anticipations realized, though +not in the way he desired.] + +[Footnote J: An Inquiry laid by me it few years ago before the +Historical Society of Pennsylvania elicited information as to several of +these 'gates' in that State. I have not the work by me, but I believe +that FALES DUNLAP, Esq., of New York, asserts on Rabbinical authority, +in an appendix to _Sod or the Mysteries_, that the Hebrew word commonly +translated as 'passover' should be rendered 'passing through.'] + +[Footnote K: _Robertson's Lectures and Addresses._ Boston: Ticknor & +Fields.] + +[Footnote L: The negro whippers and field overseers.] + +[Footnote M: Referring to the common practice of bathing the raw and +bleeding backs of the punished slaves with a strong solution of salt and +water.] + +[Footnote N: _Words to the West. Knickerbocker Magazine_, Oct., 1861.] + +[Footnote O: _Continental Magazine_, March, 1862. See article, _Southern +Aids to the North_.] + +[Footnote P: + + Don't speak of quacks; just take your dose; + Why should you try to mend it, + If Doctor H---- concocts the pill, + And _Parsons_ recommend it? + +See _Amer. Jour. of Sci._, Vol. xxx., 2d Scr., pages 10-12.] + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Continental Monthly, Vol. I., No. IV., +April, 1862, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONTINENTAL MONTHLY *** + +***** This file should be named 15065.txt or 15065.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/0/6/15065/ + +Produced by Cornell University, Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci +and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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