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+Project Gutenberg's The Continental Monthly, Volume V. Issue I, 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: The Continental Monthly, Volume V. Issue I
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: May 26, 2006 [EBook #18453]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Janet Blenkinship and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+(This file was produced from images generously made
+available by Cornell University Digital Collections)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  THE
+
+  CONTINENTAL MONTHLY:
+
+  DEVOTED TO
+
+  Literature and National Policy.
+
+  VOL. V.
+
+  JANUARY-JUNE, 1864.
+
+  New York:
+  JOHN F. TROW, 50 GREENE STREET,
+  (FOR THE PROPRIETORS.)
+
+  1864.
+
+
+
+
+  ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by JOHN F. TROW,
+  In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
+  Southern District of New York.
+
+
+
+
+  INDEX TO VOLUME V.
+
+
+  Ænone; a Tale of Slave Life in Rome, 287, 385, 500, 619
+
+  American Finances and Resources. By Hon. Robert J. Walker, 40, 249,
+      324, 489
+
+  An Army: Its Organization and Movements. By Lieut.-Col.
+      C. W. Tolles, A. Q. M., 707
+
+  An Hour in the Gallery of the National Academy of Design--Thirty-ninth
+      Annual Exhibition, 684
+
+  An Indian Love-Song. By Edwin R. Johnson, 361
+
+  Aphorisms. By Rev. Asa Colton, 413, 450, 482, 595, 680, 706
+
+  A Pair of Stockings. From the Army, 597
+
+  Aspiro--A Fable, 158
+
+  A Summer's Night. From the Polish of Count S. Krasinski, translated
+      by Prof. Podbielski, 543
+
+  A Tragedy of Error, 204
+
+  A Universal Language. By S. P. Andrews, 595
+
+  A Vigil with St. Louis. By E. Fonton, 70
+
+
+  Benedict of Nursla, and the Order of the Benedictines.
+      By Rev. Ph. Schaff, 451
+
+  Buckle, Draper, and a Science of History. By Edward B. Freeland, 161
+
+
+  Carl Friedrich Neumann, the German Historian of our Country.
+      By Professor Andrew Ten Brook, 295
+
+  Clouds. By Mrs. Martha Walker Cook, 265
+
+
+  Diary of Frances Krasinska; or, Life in Poland during the 18th
+      Century, 27, 180
+
+  Dr. Fox's Prescription. By E. R. Johnson, 717
+
+
+  Editor's Table, 118, 245, 354, 487, 605, 721
+
+  English and American Taxation. By Egbert Hurd, 405
+
+  Ernest Renan's Theory. By Hugh Miller Thompson, 609
+
+
+  'Feed My Lambs,' 663
+
+
+  Glorious! By L. G. W., 459
+
+
+  Hannah Thurston, 456
+
+  Hints to the American Farmer, 584
+
+
+  Jefferson Davis and Repudiation of Arkansas Bonds. By Hon.
+      Robert J. Walker, 478
+
+
+  Language a Type of the Universe. By Stephen Pearl Andrews, 691
+
+  Lies, and How to Kill Them. By Hugh Miller Thompson, 437
+
+  Literary Notices, 116, 243, 362, 483, 601, 719
+
+
+  Madagascar. By W. H. Whitmore, 65
+
+  Music a Science. By Lucia D. Pychowska, 575
+
+
+  National Friendships, 239
+
+  North and South. By Charles Wm. Butler, 241
+
+  'Nos Amis les Cosaques.' By M. Heilprin, 216
+
+
+  'Our Article,' 20
+
+  Our Domestic Relations; or, How to Treat the Rebel States.
+      By Charles Russell, 511
+
+  Our Government and the Blacks. By William H. Kimball, 431
+
+  Out of Prison. By Kate Putnam, 436
+
+
+  Palmer, the American Sculptor. By L. J. Bigelow, 258
+
+  Petroleum. By Rev. S. M. Eaton, 187
+
+
+  Reason, Rhyme, and Rhythm. Compiled and written by Mrs. Martha
+      Walker Cook, 14
+
+  Retrospective. By Rev. Dr. Henry, 1
+
+
+  Sir Charles Lyell on the Antiquity of Man. By a Presbyterian
+      Clergyman, 369
+
+  Sketches of American Life and Scenery. By Lucia D. Pychowska, 9, 270, 425
+
+  Sleeping. By Hugh Miller Thompson, 716
+
+
+  Temptation. From the Polish of Count Sigismund Krasinski, 53
+
+  The Andes. By William G. Dix, 229
+
+  The Angels of War, 203
+
+  The Conscription Act of March 3d, 1864. By L. M. Haverstik, 110
+
+  The Decline of England. By S. J. Bayard, 48
+
+  The Development of American Architecture. By A. W. Colgate, 466
+
+  The Dove. By Mrs. Martha Walker Cook, 625
+
+  The English Press. By Nicholas Rowe, London, 100, 139, 564
+
+  The Great American Crisis. By Stephen P. Andrews, 87, 300
+
+  The Great Lakes to St. Paul. By Robert Dodge, 397
+
+  The Great Struggle, 34
+
+  The House in the Lane. By Miss Virginia Townsend, 573
+
+  The Isle of Springs. By Rev. C. C. Starbuck, 461
+
+  The Issues of the War. By John Stahl Patterson, Quarter-master
+      Sergeant, 20th Ohio Battery, 287
+
+  The Lessons of the Wood. By George W. Bungay, 26
+
+  The Love Lucifer. By S. Leavitt, 319, 414
+
+  The March of Life. By Clarence Frederick Buhler, 649
+
+  The Mechanical Tendency in Modern Society. By John A. French, 351
+
+  The Mississippi River and its Peculiarities. By De B. R. Keim, 629
+
+  The Mound Builder. By January Searle, 517
+
+  The Red Man's Plea, 160
+
+  The Treasury Report and Mr. Sec'y Chase. By Hon. Frederick
+      P. Stanton, 151
+
+  The Unkind Word, 690
+
+  The War a Contest for Ideas. By Henry Everett Russell, 578
+
+  The Wild Azalea. By E. W. C., 596
+
+  The Young Author's Dream. By Edwin R. Johnson, 395
+
+  Thistle-Down. By Frances Lamartine, 318
+
+  Thomas De Quincey and His Writings. By L. W. Spring, 650
+
+  Thomas Jefferson, as Seen in the Light of 1863. By J. Sheldon, 129
+
+  Thought. By Virginia Vaughan, 577
+
+
+  Union Not to be Maintained by Force. By Hon. Frederick P. Stanton, 73
+
+
+  Was He Successful? By Richard B. Kimball, 80, 221, 341, 445
+
+
+
+
+  THE
+
+  CONTINENTAL MONTHLY:
+
+  DEVOTED TO
+
+  LITERATURE AND NATIONAL POLICY.
+
+  VOL. V.--JANUARY, 1864.--No. I.
+
+
+
+
+RETROSPECTIVE.
+
+
+Time makes many dark things clear, and often in a wonderfully short and
+decisive way. So we said hopefully two years and more ago in regard to
+one of the unsolved problems which then pressed on the minds of
+thoughtful men--how, namely, it was to fare with slavery in the progress
+and sequel of the war. The history of our national struggle has
+illustrated the truth and justified the hope. Time has quite nearly
+solved that problem and some others almost equally perplexing. The
+stream of historical causes has borne the nation onward on the bosom of
+its inevitable flow, until we can now almost see clear through to the
+end; at any rate, we have reached a point where we can look backward and
+forward with perhaps greater advantage than at any former period. What
+changes of opinion have been wrought! How many doubts resolved! How many
+fears dispelled! How many old prejudices and preconceived notions have
+been abandoned! How many vexed questions put at rest! How many things
+have safely got an established place among accepted and almost generally
+acceptable facts, which were once matters of loyal foreboding and of
+disloyal denunciation! No man of good sense and loyalty now doubts the
+rightfulness and wisdom of depriving the rebels of the aid derived from
+their slaves, and making them an element of strength on our side; while
+the fact that the enfranchised slaves make good soldiers, is put beyond
+question by an amenability to military discipline and a bravery in
+battle not surpassed by any troops in the world.
+
+
+HAS THE WAR GONE SLOWLY?
+
+The work of subduing the rebellion has gone slowly as compared with the
+impatient demands of an indignant people at the outset; but not slowly
+if you consider the vast theatre of the war, the immense extent of the
+lines of military operations, and the prodigious advantages possessed by
+the rebels at the beginning--partly advantages such as always attend the
+first outbreak of a revolutionary conspiracy long matured in secret
+against an unsuspecting and unprepared Government, and partly the
+extraordinary and peculiar advantages that accrued to them from the
+traitorous complicity of Buchanan's Administration, through which the
+conspirators were enabled to rob the national treasury, strip the
+Government of arms, and possess themselves of national forts, arsenals,
+and munitions of war, before the conflict began.
+
+
+NOT TOO SLOW--WHY? SLAVERY.
+
+But either way the war has not gone too slowly with reference to its
+great end--the establishment of a durable peace. If the rebellion had
+been crushed at once by overwhelming force, it would have been crushed
+only to break out anew. Slavery would have been left unimpaired, and
+that would inevitably have entailed another conflict in no long time. In
+the interest of slavery the rebels have drawn the sword; let slavery
+perish by the sword. In the interest of slavery they have attempted to
+overthrow the National Government and to dismember the national domain;
+let slavery be overthrown to maintain the Government and to preserve the
+integrity of the nation. Let the cause of the war perish with the war.
+Not until slavery is extinguished can there be a lasting peace; for not
+until then can the conditions of true national unity begin to exist.
+What wise and good man would wish to save it from extinction? It is as
+incompatible with the highest prosperity of the South as it is with a
+true national union between the South and the North. Once extinguished,
+there will be a thousand-fold increase in every element of Southern
+welfare, economical, social, and moral; and possibilities of national
+wealth and strength, greatness and glory, above every nation on the
+globe, will be established. Let slavery go down. Let us rejoice that in
+the progress and sequel of this war, it must and will go down.
+
+
+EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.
+
+Looking back, we can now see that much that was trying to the patience
+of the loyal masses of the North in the early stages of the war, has
+only served to make it more certain that what ought to be will be. Time
+has done justice to the idiotic policy of fighting the rebellion with
+one hand and with the other upholding the institution that constituted
+at once its motive and its strength. Time has brought policy and justice
+to shake hands together at the right moment on the same road, and made
+that respectable and acceptable as a military necessity which was once
+repudiated as a fanaticism. Time has brought out the President's
+Emancipation Proclamation, and established it on a firm basis in the
+judgment and consent of all wise and true loyal men, North and South--to
+the great discomfiture of sundry politicians--the utterances of some of
+whom not long ago can be no otherwise taken than as the revelation and
+despairing death wail of disconcerted schemes. Strange that men whose
+whole lives have been passed in forecasting public opinion for their
+political uses, should have rushed upon the thick bosses of the great
+shield of the public will, which begirts the President and his
+Emancipation Proclamation;--for certainly all the railing at
+_radicalism_, which we heard in certain quarters last summer, was in
+fact nothing but the expression of disappointment and chagrin at the
+emancipation policy of the President, and that too at a time when that
+policy had come to be accepted by the great body of the loyal people of
+the nation (including all the eminent Southern loyalists), as not only
+indispensable to the national salvation, but desirable in every view.
+Strange that at such a time, and among those once active and influential
+in the formation of the Republican party--a party born of the roused
+spirit of resistance to slavery aggressions--there should have been
+found a single person unable to discern and to accept the inevitable
+logic of events which was to make the extinction of slavery the only
+wise, practicable, and truly loyal stand point. Strange that any
+Republican should be disposed to put a stop to the 'irrepressible
+conflict.' It was too late in the day to attempt the organization of a
+great, victorious Conservative party by splitting up the old
+organizations. The old organizations may fall to pieces. It is best,
+perhaps, they should--but not to form a Conservative party. Conservatism
+is not now to the popular taste. It means nothing but the saving of
+slavery, and the great body of the loyal people now feel absolved from
+all obligation to save it; they do not care to have it saved; and the
+vaticinations of those prophets of evil who predicted disaster and ruin
+to the national cause from the emancipation policy of the Government
+excite no consternation in the loyal heart of the nation.
+
+In a review of the conduct of the war, how little reason appears for
+regret and how much for satisfaction in regard to all the great measures
+of the Government!
+
+
+THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM.
+
+The successful working of the _financial system_ has demonstrated the
+wisdom of its principles. Instead of following the old wretched way of
+throwing an immense amount of stocks into market at a sacrifice of
+fifteen to thirty per cent., the Government has got all the money it
+wanted at half or a little more than half the usual rate of interest. It
+would have been better if the currency had been made to consist wholly
+of United States legal-tender notes, fundable in six per cent.,
+bonds--with a proper provision for the interest and for a sinking fund.
+
+But the financial system adopted is a matter of satisfaction, apart from
+its admirable success in furnishing the Government with the means to
+carry on the war: it is the inauguration of sounder principles on
+currency than have heretofore prevailed, which, if unfolded and carried
+legitimately out, will give the country the best currency in the
+world--perfectly secured, uniform in value at every point, and liable to
+no disastrous expansions and contractions. The notion that any great
+industrial, manufacturing, and commercial nation can conduct its
+business--any more than it can carry on a great war--with a specie
+currency alone, is indeed exploded; but the notion that a paper currency
+to be safe must be based on specie, still prevails--although the
+currency furnished by the thousands of banks scattered throughout the
+country has never been really based upon the actual possession of specie
+to the extent of more than _one fifth_ of the amount in circulation. It
+may be the doctrine will never come to prevail that a specie basis in
+whole or in part is no more indispensable to a sound and safe paper
+currency than an exclusive specie currency is possible or desirable in a
+country like this. It may be that the people will never come to believe
+that a legal-tender paper currency, issued exclusively by the National
+Government--based upon the credit of the nation, constituting a lien
+upon all the property of the country, and proportioned in amount of
+issue to the needs of the people for it as an instrument of
+exchange--would, for all home uses, possess in full perfection the
+nature, functions, and powers of money. It is a subject we do not
+propose to discuss. It is enough now to say that the notes of the United
+States, fundable in national six per cent. bonds, and drawing interest
+as they do semi-annually in gold, must be admitted by everybody to be as
+safe a currency as the banks as a whole have ever supplied, and to
+possess other advantages which make them incomparably a better currency
+than that of local banks.
+
+The high price to which gold has been carried by gambling speculators,
+is not to be taken as indicating a proportionate want of confidence in
+the success of the national cause and in the intrinsic value of the
+national securities. It indicates nothing of the sort--at any rate,
+whatever it may be taken to indicate, it is none the less true that
+United States six per cent. bonds were from the first eagerly sought for
+and taken as investments at the rate of a million a day--faster indeed
+than the Government could at first supply them; with a constantly
+augmenting demand, until in the last week of October _thirty-six_
+millions were disposed of--leaving only one hundred and fifty millions
+unsold, which will doubtless all be taken before this paper is
+published. Comment on this is entirely needless.
+
+
+OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS.
+
+In the conduct of our _foreign relations_, certain official declarations
+in the early part of the war on the policy and purpose of Government in
+carrying it on, are to be regretted as gratuitous and unfortunate. It is
+to be regretted also that the capture of the _Trent_ and the seizure of
+Mason and Slidell was not at once disavowed as being contrary to our
+doctrine on neutral rights, and the rebel emissaries surrendered without
+waiting for reclamation on the part of the British Government; or, if it
+was thought best to await that reclamation as containing a virtual
+concession of our doctrine, it would have been better--more dignified
+and effective--if the reply had been limited to a simple statement that
+the surrender was necessitated by the principles always maintained by
+our Government, and not by a reclamation which the British Government,
+by its own construction of public law and by its own practice, was not
+entitled to make, but which being made, might now, it was to be hoped,
+be taken as an abandonment in the future of the ground heretofore
+maintained by that Government.
+
+
+CONCESSION OF BELLIGERENT RIGHTS TO THE REBELS.
+
+There has been some dissatisfaction with the conduct of our official
+communications with Great Britain and France respecting the question on
+belligerent rights and neutral obligations which the rebellion has
+raised. But there are points of no inconsiderable difficulty and
+delicacy involved in these questions, which a great many people, in
+their natural displeasure against the English and French, have failed to
+consider. Our Government deserves the credit of having consulted the
+interests without compromising the dignity of the nation. Admitting the
+conduct of the British and French Governments in recognizing the rebels
+as belligerents to be as unfriendly and as unrequired by the obligations
+of public law as it is generally held to be among us, that would not
+make it right or wise for our Government to depart from the tone of
+moderation. We can no more make it a matter for official complaint and
+demand against these Governments, than we could the unfriendly tone of
+many of their newspapers and Parliamentary orators. We might say to
+them: We take it as unkindly in you to do as you have done; but if they
+will continue to do so, we have nothing for it but to submit. Even if we
+could have afforded it, we could not rightly have gone to war with them
+for doing what we ourselves--through the necessity of our
+circumstances--have been compelled in effect to do, and what they,
+though not forced by any such necessity, had yet a right--and in their
+own opinion were obliged--by public law to do. We could not have made it
+a cause of war, and therefore it would have been worse than idle to
+indulge in a style of official representation which means war if it
+means anything.
+
+
+THE REBEL CRUISERS.
+
+The question of the rebel cruisers on the high seas is a question by
+itself. The anger excited among us by the injuries we have suffered from
+these vessels is not strange; nor is it strange that our anger should
+beget a disposition to quarrel with Great Britain and France for
+conceding the rights of lawful belligerents to the perpetrators of such
+atrocities. The rebels have no courts of admiralty, carry their prizes
+to no ports, submit them to no lawful adjudication--but capture,
+plunder, and burn private vessels in mid ocean. Such proceedings by the
+laws of nations are undoubtedly piratical in their nature. We have a
+right so to hold and declare. We may think that Great Britain and France
+are bound so to hold and declare. But what then? Should they have
+ordered their men of war to cruise against these rebel cruisers or to
+capture every one which they might chance to encounter, and to send them
+home for trial? We may think they were bound in vindication of public
+law to do so; but could we make their not doing so a matter of formal
+complaint and a cause of war? There are a number of things to be well
+considered before any one should permit himself to quarrel with our
+Government for not quarrelling with Great Britain and France on this
+matter.
+
+
+BRITISH VIOLATION OF NEUTRAL OBLIGATIONS.
+
+But the conduct of the British Government in allowing her ports to be
+made the basis of these nefarious operations--in permitting vessels of
+whose character and purpose there could be no doubt to be built in her
+ports--not to be delivered in any Confederate port, but in effect armed
+and manned from her ports to go immediately to cruise against our
+commerce on the high seas--is an outrageous violation of the obligations
+of neutrals, for which that Government may justly be held responsible.
+It is a responsibility which no technical pleading about the
+insufficiency of British laws, either in matter of prohibition or rules
+of evidence, can avoid. Great Britain is bound to have laws and rules of
+evidence which will enable her effectually to discharge her neutral
+obligations; whether she has or not, does not alter her responsibility
+to us. Her conduct may rightfully be made a matter of official
+complaint, and of war too--if satisfaction and reparation be refused. It
+is a case in which our rights and dignity are concerned; and it is to be
+presumed that our Government will not fail to vindicate them.[1]
+
+
+LEGISLATION--THE CONFISCATION LAW.
+
+The action of _Congress_ has in everything been nobly patriotic in
+spirit, and in nearly everything it has wisely and adequately met the
+exigencies of the crisis.
+
+But we are compelled to hold the Confiscation Act, in the form in which
+it was passed, as a mistake.[2] If the clause of the Constitution
+prohibiting 'attainder of treason to work forfeiture except during the
+life of the person attainted,' be necessarily applicable to the
+Confiscation Act, it seems to us impossible to avoid the conclusion that
+the act is unconstitutional. So far as the language of the prohibition
+is decisive of anything, it must be taken to include all sorts of
+property, real as well as personal--the term _forfeiture_ certainly
+having that extent of application in the old English law and practice,
+from which the framers of our Constitution took it, and there is nothing
+elsewhere in the Constitution or in its history to warrant any other
+construction. So the Congress of 1790 understood it in the act
+declaring the punishment of treason and some other high crimes. As to
+the _perpetuity_ of forfeiture, it seems equally necessary to hold that
+it is prohibited by the clause of the Constitution in question. Such is
+undeniably the first and obvious meaning of the terms. It has been
+argued indeed that it was not the intention of the framers of the
+Constitution to prohibit perpetual forfeiture of property from being
+'declared' by Congress, but only to prohibit 'attainder of treason' from
+'working' of itself that effect by necessary consequence--as it did
+under the Common Law of England. It has also been argued that the
+constitutional restriction does not relate to perpetuity of forfeiture,
+but only requires that the forfeiture or act of alienation take place,
+have effect, and be accomplished 'during the life of the person
+attainted,' and not after his death.
+
+But this reasoning is more subtile than satisfactory. A fair
+consideration of the subject leaves little room for doubt that the
+framers of the Constitution had in view and intended to prohibit
+everything which under the old English common law followed upon
+'attainder of treason'--to prohibit forfeiture in perpetuity of property
+of every sort, no less than 'bills of attainder,' 'corruption of blood,'
+and barbarities of punishment, such as disembowelling, quartering, etc.
+
+If therefore the constitutional restriction on forfeiture apply to the
+Confiscation Law, it makes the law unconstitutional, in so far as it
+enacts the _perpetual_ forfeiture of the personal estate of rebels; and
+the discrimination made in regard to their real estate does not save the
+constitutionality of the act.
+
+If, therefore, the Confiscation Law is to be held as constitutional, it
+can be so, as it seems to us, only on the ground that it does not fall
+within the scope of the constitutional prohibition in question. This
+ground may be maintained by asserting that the constitutional
+prohibition of perpetual forfeiture applies only to cases of 'attainder
+of treason,' that is, according to Blackstone, of 'judgment of death for
+treason,' and that cases under this act are not such; that the
+limitations applicable to ordinary judicial proceedings against traitors
+are not applicable here; that the Confiscation Act seizes the property
+of rebels not in their quality of criminals, but of public enemies; that
+it is not an act for the punishment of treason, but for weakening and
+subduing an armed rebellion, and securing indemnification for the costs
+and damages it has entailed--in short, not a penal statute, but a war
+measure; and that the Constitution which gives Congress the right to
+make war for the suppression of the rebellion, and to subject the lives
+of rebels to the laws of war, gives it the right to subject their
+property also to the same laws--putting both out of the protection of
+the ordinary laws; and finally that all the objects aimed at by the
+measure are legitimated by the principles of public law.
+
+If these views can be sustained, it follows that Congress was justified
+not only in enacting the perpetual confiscation of the _personal_
+property of rebels, but need not, and should not, have passed the
+explanatory clause prohibiting 'forfeiture of _real_ estate beyond the
+natural life' of the rebel. So far as weakening the rebellion,
+indemnifying the nation for costs and damages, or the rights and
+interests of the heirs of rebels, are concerned, there is no reason in
+justice or in policy for the discrimination made between personal and
+real estate; if it is right and wise to take the one in perpetuity, it
+is equally so to take the other. In our judgment, it is right and wise
+to do both.
+
+
+MILITARY ADMINISTRATION--NO ARMY OF RESERVE.
+
+In looking over the war, we can all now see a very great error in the
+_military_ administration--the neglect, namely, to provide and keep up
+a proper reserved force. It is the grand mistake of the war. Two years
+and a half of war, and no army of reserve! Eighteen months ago, a force
+of reserve of at least two hundred thousand men should have been formed.
+It could probably then have been formed of volunteers. From it,
+vacancies made in the armies in the field by battle, disease, or
+expiration of time of service, could have been filled with drilled and
+disciplined soldiers, and reinforcements drawn to meet any special
+exigency. The victory of Gettysburgh might have resulted in the total
+destruction of Lee's army before he could recross the Potomac; and
+Rosecrans might have been strengthened without weakening the Army of the
+Potomac or any other. Whether the cost of forming and keeping up such a
+force of reserve would have greatly exceeded the cost of the recent
+draft, we do not pretend to know. We are inclined to think it would not.
+But that is a question of little moment. Money wisely spent is well
+spent: money unwisely saved is ill saved. With such a force, the recent
+draft might not have been necessary--at all events there would have been
+no necessity for suspending active military operations in Virginia, and
+awaiting the slow completion of the draft, at a moment when, large
+additions to the forces in the field were precisely the one thing
+needful. The army of reserve would at once have supplied disciplined
+soldiers, and their places in the camps of instruction and reserve could
+have been filled with the new conscripts as fast as they were collected.
+
+
+CONSOLATION--ENFORCEMENT OF THE DRAFT IN NEW YORK.
+
+But grave as the error is which we have signalized, there is something
+that might well console us for greater misfortunes than it has entailed,
+and which gives us another illustration of the truth that God and Time
+often work for us better than we for ourselves, and out of our errors
+bring good that we could not forecast.
+
+It would not be wise to assert that the not having such a reserved force
+necessitated the recent draft, and thereby occasioned the horrible
+outbreak in New York. But if it may even be safely suggested as possibly
+true, the successful enforcement of the draft becomes all the more a
+matter for boundless joy and congratulation. Important as its
+enforcement throughout the country was as a means of filling up the
+ranks of our armies, the outbreak in New York made it a thousand times
+more important as the only adequate assertion of the supremacy of
+national law.
+
+There can be no doubt as to the nature, origin, and purpose of that
+outbreak. It was the result of a long-prepared traitorous conspiracy in
+the interest of the rebels. The enforcement of the draft against mob
+violence instigated by treason, was indispensable not only to the
+successful prosecution of the war against the rebels of the South, but
+to the maintenance of the supreme authority and power of the National
+Government, and of the foundations of social order at the North. Not to
+have enforced it might have insured the triumph of the rebellion and the
+independence of the South; it certainly would have rendered the North no
+longer a country fit for any decent man to live in. Such and so great
+was the significance of the crisis. The responsibility of the
+Administration was immense. The President met it nobly. He took care
+that a sufficient military force--not under the control of Governor
+Seymour, but of a well-tried patriot--was present in New York. He
+carried out the draft there and everywhere else. He crushed the schemes
+and hopes of the traitorous conspirators--more guilty than the rebels in
+arms-and gave a demonstration of the _strength of the National
+Government_, as grand in its majesty as it was indispensable to the
+national salvation in this crisis and to its security in all future
+time. The Government has triumphed in the quiet majesty of its
+irresistible force over factious and traitorous opposition at the North,
+springing from treasonable sympathy with the rebels, or, from what, in a
+crisis like this, is equally wicked, the selfishness of party spirit,
+preferring party to country. More than this, it has triumphed over the
+dangerous and destructive notions on State sovereignty, which traitors
+and partisans have dared invoke. It is impossible to overestimate the
+importance for the present and for the future of this victorious
+assertion of the _supremacy of the National Government_.
+
+
+SUMMARY REVIEW.
+
+In a review, then, of this gigantic struggle, we have every reason to be
+content and confident--no reason to bate one jot of heart or hope. The
+triumph over Northern treason, achieved by the force of the Government,
+has been followed by a moral triumph at the polls, no less grand in its
+significance. The country is not oppressed by the stupendous expenses of
+the war. The money is all spent at home. It stimulates the productive
+industry of the country, and the nation is all the time growing rich.
+The rebels have been disastrously repulsed in two attempts at invasion,
+and do not hold one inch of Northern soil. One third of the States
+claimed by them at the outset, are gone from them forever: Maryland,
+Missouri, Kentucky, are securely in the Union; Virginia we have cut in
+two--nearly one half of its territory, by the will of its inhabitants,
+now constituting a loyal member of the Union as the new State of West
+Virginia--while of its eastern half we securely hold its coast, harbors,
+and fortresses, and a considerable number of its counties. Tennessee is
+ours, and cannot, we think, be wrenched away. We have New Orleans, and
+the uncontrolled possession of the Mississippi river--cutting the
+territory of the rebels in two, destroying their communications, and
+giving us a considerable portion of the States bordering that river. In
+North Carolina and South Carolina we have a hold, from which it will be
+hard to drive us. On the Atlantic and Gulf coast nearly every fortress
+is in our possession; there is not a port which is not possessed by us,
+or else so blockaded that (except in the peculiar case of Wilmington) it
+is a hazardous affair for any vessel to attempt going in or coming out;
+and the rebels are utterly unable to raise the blockade of a single
+port. In fine, they have lost more than one third of their territory
+forever, and of the remaining portion there is not one considerable
+subdivision over which in some part the flag of the Union does not
+securely wave. What title to recognition as an independent power can the
+Confederate rebels present to the neutral powers of the world?
+
+
+
+
+SKETCHES OF AMERICAN LIFE AND SCENERY.
+
+
+While American tourists are delightedly visiting and minutely describing
+the most hidden recesses of beauty among the mountains, plains, seas,
+lakes, and rivers of Europe, there are, close within their reach,
+innumerable spots well worthy of consideration, and hitherto entirely
+unknown to the great mass of pleasure and scenery seeking travellers.
+These fair but hidden gems have become of the more importance that the
+grand struggle convulsing our country has rendered foreign travel
+difficult, even when advisable, and has roused within our people a love
+for their own land, a pride in its loveliness, much more rarely felt
+before the attempt to dismember and ruin it had awakened dormant
+patriotism and completed the severance between the recent _province_ and
+the historically renowned mother country. American painters are worthily
+illustrating American life and landscape; American poets, and no less
+poetical prose writers, are singing the forests, skies, flowers, and
+birds of their native land; and the inquisitive traveller should surely
+not fail to add his humbler mite in the way of discovery and
+description. The following sketches are founded upon actual observation,
+and the delineations of scenery and manners therein contained are
+strictly in accordance with the personal experience of the author.
+
+
+I.--A SUMMER EXCURSION.
+
+'All very well,' said Aunt Sarah; 'I have no doubt the excursion would
+be charming; but who will accompany you?'
+
+'We do not require an escort; we can take care of each other,'
+
+'Can it be that you, Lucy, a staid married woman of thirty-six, and you,
+Elsie, a demure young girl of twenty, are suddenly about to enter the
+ranks of the strong minded?'
+
+'Why, dear aunt,' said Lucy D----, 'you would not have us weak minded,
+would you? I think I heard you say no longer ago than yesterday that
+half the domestic miseries in this world were due to the weak nerves and
+feeble intellects of poorly educated women.'
+
+'True; but the technical expression, 'strong minded,' does not mean
+strong in mind--rather the contrary.'
+
+'In other words, strong minded means weak minded, is that it, auntie?'
+laughed Elsie.
+
+'I see, Aunt Sarah,' said Lucy, 'we shall be forced to call upon you for
+that most difficult of tasks, a definition. What is meant by the term,
+'strong-minded woman'?'
+
+'A monster,' replied Mrs. Sarah Grundy, 'who lectures, speaks in public,
+wants women to vote, to wear men's garments; in a word, one who would
+like to upset religion, social life, and the world in general.'
+
+'Well,' dear auntie, 'we surely do not purpose committing any of these
+enormities; our intentions simply embrace a short excursion of some
+forty miles in search of fine scenery, health, and a little amusement.
+We have no confidence in our power to influence the public, even if we
+thought we had aught to say which they do not already know; we do not
+see that voting has a very beneficial effect upon men, witness election
+days; as for their garments, they are too hideously ungraceful for us to
+covet; in faith, we are of the most orthodox; we confess, we do think
+social life needs sundry reforms, more charity and forbearance, less
+detraction and ostentation, etc., etc.; and as for the world in general,
+we think it very beautiful, and only wish to overlook some few
+additional miles of its lovely mountains, lakes, and streams.'
+
+'Well, well, girls, young people always can talk faster than old ones;
+but do you really think it safe for you to venture without escort? You
+do not even know the name of the place which you wish to visit; you have
+been informed that on the summit of yonder mountain is a lake, said to
+be picturesque; but of its cognomen, and of the proper means to reach
+it, you are utterly ignorant. You will have to ask questions of all
+sorts of people.'
+
+'Suppose we do--being women, we will certainly in America receive civil
+answers.'
+
+'But if some person unknown to you should speak to you?'
+
+'Little danger, dear aunt, of dread unknowns, if we comport ourselves
+properly; I have travelled much in all kinds of public conveyances, and
+never yet have been improperly addressed. Did you ever have an adventure
+of the sort'?
+
+'Once only,' replied Aunt Sarah, 'and then the fault was my own. I was
+young and giddy; Cousin Nancy was with me, and we were in a rail-car. In
+a near seat sat a very good-looking young man; Nancy looked toward him
+once or twice and, meeting his eye, began to giggle: I foolishly joined
+her; thus encouraged, our young gentleman opened a conversation. Nancy
+laughed immoderately; but I, being a few years older, soon controlled my
+silly giggling; and by the tone of my reply speedily silenced our
+would-be admirer. He turned his back upon us, and, so far as I know, in
+less than five minutes had forgotten our very existence.'
+
+'Decidedly a case in our favor! And if the boat should blow up, or the
+car roll down an embankment, in what would we be benefited by the fact
+of having an escort also to be scalded or have his head broken?'
+
+'Ye maun even then gang your ain gait. I wish you a pleasant journey and
+a safe return.'
+
+'Thank you, auntie, and you will not call us strong minded?'
+
+'Certainly not, unless I find you merit the appellation.'
+
+The little trunk was soon packed, and one fine July morning the two
+travellers set off in search of the beautiful lake, whose name is not to
+be found in the guide books. They knew it was to be looked for in a
+sharp and peculiar dent in the Shawangunk mountain, which dent, so far
+as they could judge from the hills near their dwelling on the northern
+slope of the Highlands, must be nearly opposite Poughkeepsie. Neither
+map nor gazetteer could they procure; the neighbors could give them no
+information, and they were forced to proceed with only the
+above-mentioned meagre stock of knowledge.
+
+The first stage was of five miles, in a carriage to Newburg, where they
+took the day boat for Albany. Our novices felt more or less anxiety
+regarding the fidelity of the porter intrusted with their two small
+articles of baggage; but said articles appearing somewhat late, though
+still in season, and being duly marked for Poughkeepsie, the first
+question asked was as to the existence of such a place as New Paltz
+Landing, opposite the above-named city, and the facilities for crossing
+the river. None of those in authority knew certainly of a ferry, but
+supposed it highly probable. The wharf at Poughkeepsie was suggested as
+a proper place to obtain information; and, once there, our travellers
+soon found themselves in the hands of an intelligent contraband, who
+promised to place them safely on the desired ferry boat. As they neared
+the dock, a great rock, with an upset wagon for foreground, furnished an
+encouraging picture for two lone lady tourists. The boat proved neat and
+comfortable, and here again inquiries were made. The very polite captain
+had heard of a lake on the Shawangunk mountain, but knew neither its
+name nor exact location. He advised them to have their baggage sent to
+the little inn at the landing, where they might dine and await a stage
+expected to pass in about an hour on its way to New Paltz, a village
+nine miles west of the river. At the inn they fancied they must
+certainly learn something definite regarding the final object of their
+undertaking. A large map of Ulster county hung in the sitting room, and
+gave promise of some decided information. Unfortunately, it was not of a
+recent edition: a nameless lake on the Shawangunk mountain, about five
+miles from New Paltz, seemed to be the object of their search; but the
+landlord, who had heard of a lake in that direction, could not tell how
+it was to be reached, or whether shelter could there be found in any
+decent tenement; his impression was that there had been a public house
+on top of the mountain, but that it had recently been destroyed by fire.
+Certainties were evidently still unattainable.
+
+Finally, the stage arrived--a vehicle drawn by two horses, and intended
+to seat four persons. In it were already two ladies, with bags and
+bundles, two trunks, a champagne basket, numberless packages, and about
+fifty bottles of soda water, laid in among the straw covering the bottom
+of the accommodating conveyance. The driver, a good-natured, intelligent
+man, gave our travellers his bench, and arranged a seat for himself and
+the champagne basket on a sort of shelf overhanging the tails of the
+horses. At the top of the first hill is the village of Houstonville,
+where they stopped at the post office to leave the mail, and where two
+ladies appeared as claimants for seats in the stage. The driver at first
+demurred; but, finding the ladies persistent, he drew forth a board,
+and, fastening it at either end to a perpendicular prop, constructed a
+third bench, on which the two new passengers took their places.
+
+The stage was by this time more than well packed; but ere long the
+process of lightening up commenced, as first the champagne basket, then
+packages, bundles, and newspapers, were left at various dwellings along
+the roadside. One novelty especially striking was the wayside post
+office, consisting of a box on a pole, intended to contain the daily
+newspaper therein thrust to await the coming of the owners.
+
+Of course the driver was plied with numerous questions regarding the
+thus far nameless lake. He had been up the Shawangunk mountain fishing,
+but that was years before; there was a lake, but he had never heard any
+name given to it; he had understood a house had been built since his
+last visit; but he did not know if it was intended to accommodate
+visitors during the night. Of one thing, however, he was quite certain,
+and that was, the impossibility of finding a horse in New Paltz to take
+the ladies up that evening. The inns had none to let; there were no
+livery stables, and his own pair were too greatly fatigued by their
+twenty-mile drive to venture up so steep an ascent; but he thought a
+conveyance might be found for the following morning. The views along the
+road were charming; and the sharp, jagged crest known as Paltz Point,
+overhung the well-cultivated rolling valley beneath, giving a fair
+promise of an extended and characteristic view.
+
+The inn, to which the travellers were driven, proved very neat and
+comfortable. It was a new edifice, with an accommodating landlord and
+landlady, the latter of which personages seemed quite mystified by the
+advent of two lorn ladies in search of an unknown lake. In the entry
+hung a new map of Ulster county, on which appeared a lake nestling under
+the cliffs of Paltz Point, but still without a name. Paltz Point!--that
+must be the very jagged pile of rock visible from the Cornwall hills,
+and the lake at its foot more than probably the object of the journey.
+
+The landlord was quite positive as to the existence of a house, but
+doubted its capacity in regard to sleeping accommodations; he also
+corroborated the testimony of the driver respecting the difficulty of
+obtaining a vehicle, every horse being engaged haying. The ladies
+announced that, as the distance was only six miles, it could be walked,
+in case this difficulty proved insuperable. An individual at the tea
+table proposed that the travellers should be taken up some time in the
+middle of the night, that the horse might return by six o'clock in the
+morning; but this suggestion was unanimously frowned down. The chief
+reason for requiring a horse and wagon lay in the little trunk, which,
+as it contained the painting box of our Elsie, who thought the lake and
+vicinity might offer some picturesque studies, could not possibly be
+left behind. After tea, a walk was taken, and the vicinage of New Paltz
+duly inspected. The Wallkill, here a quiet stream, runs through rich,
+green meadows, bordered by the noble range of the Catskills and the
+singular, broken ridges of the Shawangunk. The sun set clear, casting
+pale gold streams of light over the meadows, and leaving a long,
+lingering, rosy twilight. The young art-student drank in beauty with
+every breath. The cows were driven home; the ducks came slowly up out of
+the stream, and all the winged creatures went to roost. Night came, and
+repose was welcome after the pleasures and fatigues of the day's
+journey.
+
+At eight the following morning, a steady black pony, with a light open
+wagon, appeared at the door; and by ten o'clock the travellers reached
+the mountain top. Their steed showed marvellous endurance in the way of
+slow pacing down steep hills, which they afterward found had been
+acquired in leading sad trains of mourners to the modest graveyards,
+wherein rest the earthly remains of the peaceful dwellers in this
+pastoral vale. The first four or five miles of road were excellent, but
+the last one or two so rough and stony, that they were quite willing to
+walk. On top of the mountain stands a little inn, commanding a
+magnificent view in several directions. As they neared the end of their
+journey, they rejoiced to see a white house gleaming through the trees,
+and promising food and shelter. The sound of coming wheels brought out
+the land-lady, who gave the travellers a hearty welcome, and assured
+them of her ability to harbor them for the night. The end was
+accomplished--the goal reached! And what a goal! Nowhere among all the
+beautiful scenery in the Middle and Eastern States is there a spot more
+characteristic and interesting than Paltz Point, and the lake that lies
+under its shadow--that lake, whose name was a mystery, even to the
+inmates of the house built upon its brink. Its waters are clear, and of
+a deep green hue; its depth is said to be great, and its rocky shores
+rise in perpendicular cliffs of from ten to two hundred feet. The
+highest point stands three or four hundred feet above the surface of the
+water; but in that part the cliffs are no longer perpendicular. The
+length of the lake is about a mile, and the width perhaps half that
+distance. The rocks are gray sandstone or quartz conglomerate, making
+the cliffsides, except where covered by black lichens, of a glittering
+white. On one side, the rocks rise in steep, precipitous masses, while
+on the other they are shattered into every imaginable form. The clefts
+are deep and narrow, great hemlocks rise from the bottoms of the
+fissures, and the vast masses of fallen or split rock lie piled and
+cloven, confusedly tossed about, gigantic memorials of the great
+convulsion that in days long gone by heaped up the long ridge of the
+Shawangunk, and shattered its northern dip into such majestic and
+fantastic cliffs. The deepest and wildest chasm is filled by the weird,
+green lake. Straying along the tops of the precipices bordering the
+water, our travellers beheld lovely vistas of the far-away country,
+north, south, east, or west, stealing in through rocky or leafy
+openings. An easy ascent of about half a mile leads to the summit of the
+Point. Blueberries were ripe, and beguiled the pair into many a moment's
+dallying by the wayside. Not until they reached the very top were they
+quite sure they had after all found the place they came to seek; but one
+view down the jagged line of the Shawangunk, convinced our Elsie that no
+other spot could have furnished the sketch seen in the studio, where she
+had been advised to seek 'the lake on the Shawangunk mountain.'
+
+The view from Paltz Point is magical. The long line of the Catskills
+sweeps boldly across the near northern horizon. Nowhere do those
+mountains seem so majestic, or their forms so broken and beautiful;
+nearer are the Olive mountains, beyond which flows the Esopus. Rondout
+creek, the Wallkill, and the Hudson, water the fertile vales lying among
+the hills. To the south stretches the line of the Shawangunk toward the
+Delaware river, and on the extreme southern and southeastern horizon
+rise the Highlands, with the river gap, the rifted sides of the Storm
+King, the Beacons, the great broad shoulders of Schunemunk;--even the
+white buildings on the plain at West Point may be seen glittering in the
+afternoon sun. A clear atmosphere is needed for the full enjoyment of
+the view, as the panorama is so vast that even a slight haze obscures
+many of the more interesting distant objects. And what words could
+describe the jutting headlands--wild, broken lines of white cliffs
+stretching to the southward, deep chasms, steep, forest-clad mountains,
+green or blue as distance, sunshine, or shadow may decree, and the
+tranquil green lake, smiling as a deep, strong and cheerful spirit amid
+the ruins of a shattered, wasted life? As our travellers gazed, they
+thanked God that His world was so beautiful, and wondered if even Aunt
+Sarah would not be willing to run the risk of being thought strong
+minded to see so fair a corner of it.
+
+The moon that night rose late; and the air was chill as the sisters
+stood on a rock waiting until its rays should silver the placid waves.
+Overhead ran a strange, broad, coruscating band of magnetic light,
+meteors flashed down the sky, a solitary loon sent a wild, despairing
+cry athwart the lake, and for the first time did our travellers feel
+they were alone, eighteen hundred feet above the Hudson, far away from
+other human habitation. A truly feminine shudder ran through their
+hearts, as they turned toward the house and betook them to the cells
+appropriated to their use. The following day they were driven down the
+mountain by the owner (not the keeper) of the little inn beside the
+lake. He was one of nature's own gentlemen; tall,--six feet,
+perhaps,--gray haired, blue eyed, with every feature well cut, and with
+the most honest expression ever beaming through a human countenance. The
+hearts of the sisters warmed toward him, and never were they more
+willing to acknowledge the solidarity of the race, the great fact of the
+brotherhood of all humanity.
+
+Cornwall once again safely reached, and the outlines of the journey duly
+sketched, Aunt Sarah's first question was: 'Well, and what _is_ the name
+of this famous lake?'
+
+The travellers were forced to confess the ill success of their efforts
+in discovering the proper appellation of that exquisite gem, and it was
+not until many months later that, when visiting an exhibition of
+paintings, they found their new friend accurately portrayed under the
+name of--Mogunk Lake.
+
+
+
+
+REASON, RHYME, AND RHYTHM.
+
+  'All arts are one, howe'er distributed they stand,
+   Verse, tone, shape, color, form, are fingers on one hand.'
+
+
+PREFACE TO VOLUME SECOND.
+
+Our first volume having been devoted to the Reason or Theory of Art in
+general, it is our intention in the second, Rhyme and Rhythm, to bring
+these comprehensive thoughts to a focus, and concentrate their light
+upon the art of Versification. Indeed, this volume is to be considered
+as a _manual_ of poetic Rhythm. Practical rules are given for its
+construction and criticism; simple solutions offered of its apparent
+irregularities and anomalies; and examples of sufficient length are
+quoted from the best poets to afford just ideas of the scope and power
+of the measure under consideration. The numerous citations given under
+their appropriate metrical heads are intended not only to assist the
+student in the analysis of verse, but to aid him in the choice of forms
+in accordance with his subject, in case he should himself wish to create
+Poems.
+
+By its extrication from the entanglement of quantity and syllabic
+accent, under which it has been almost buried, an effort has been made
+to simplify the study of Rhythm: by tracing its origin and
+characteristics, and by the citation of poems in which its power and
+beauty are conspicuous, we have endeavored to render the subject one of
+vivid interest.
+
+
+CHAPTER FIRST.
+
+RHYTHM.
+
+What is Rhythm? The best definition of this perplexing word has been
+given by the grand old Bohemian composer Tomaschek:
+
+     'The _order_ perceptible in a succession of sounds recurring in
+     _determinate_ portions of Time, which portions of Time are more
+     distinctly marked for the ear through the _accentuation_ of certain
+     determinate parts, constitutes Rhythm.
+
+Rhythm has been surrounded with so much mystery, has been the subject of
+so much learned debate and research, has called forth so many quartos
+and folios, that few know what a familiar thing it is, how closely it
+everywhere surrounds us, how constantly it beats within us. For the
+pulsations of the heart are rhythmical, and the measured throbs of life
+register in music every moment of our passing existence on the bosom of
+Time. And when life manifests itself to the senses through the medium of
+time, time being to the ear what space is to the eye, the Order of its
+pulsations is Rhythm. Strange relation between our own marvellous being
+and the march of time, for its mystic rhythm beats in tune with every
+feeling that sweeps over the heart, forever singing its primeval chant
+at the very core of our existence! The law of Rhythm is the law of
+mortal life: the constant recurrence of new effort sinking but to
+recover itself in accurately proportioned rest, rising ever again in new
+exertion, to sink again in ever new repose:
+
+   'And our hearts, though true and brave,
+  Still, like muffled drums, are beating
+    Funeral marches to the grave.'
+
+This low music of the heart never ceases until stilled by the touch of
+death, when the spirit, led by God, enters upon the waveless ocean of an
+immeasurable eternity, where past and future meet in the eternal
+present. Time with its rhythmic measures is then no more. The necessity
+of 'effort and rest,' 'exertion and repose,' will exist no longer. What
+the fuller music of that higher life is to be, 'it has not yet entered
+into the heart of man to conceive.' But if the very _imperfection_ of
+our being has been rendered so full of charm to us in the order and
+proportion with which it records its law, 'effort and repose,' 'life and
+death'--what may we not expect when this mortal shall have put on
+immortality? We should think of this when that saddest of human sounds,
+'it beats no more; it measures time no longer'--knells upon our ear the
+silence of the throbbing, passionate heart.
+
+Nor is inanimate nature without the quickening breath of Rhythm. It
+cadences the dash of the wave, chimes in the flash of the oar, patters
+in the drops of rain, whispers in the murmurings of the forest leaves,
+leaps in the dash of the torrent, wails through the sighing of the
+restless winds, and booms in the claps and crashes of heaven's thunders.
+
+Only through _succession_ do we arrive at the idea of time, and through
+a continual _being and ceasing to be_ are its steppings made sensible to
+us. It is thus literally true, as sung by the Poet, that 'we take no
+note of Time but from its loss.' Happy are we if so used that it may
+mark our eternal progress.
+
+There is but little mystery in the art of keeping time, since we may at
+once gather a correct notion of it from the vibrations of the pulse, or
+from our manner of walking. If we listen to the sound of our own step,
+we find it equal and regular, corresponding with what is termed common
+time in music. Probably the time in which we walk is governed by the
+action of the heart, and those who step alike have pulses beating in the
+same time. To walk faster than this gives the sensation of hurry; to
+walk slower, that of loitering. The mere recurrence of sounds at regular
+intervals by no means constitutes the properties of _musical_ time;
+accent is necessary to parcel them out into those portions which Rhythm
+and the ear approve. If we listen to the trotting of a horse or the
+tread of our own feet, we cannot but notice that each alternate step is
+louder than the other--by which we throw the sounds into the order of
+common time. But if we listen to the amble or canter of a horse, we hear
+every third step to be louder than the other two, owing to the first and
+third foot striking the ground together. This regularity throws the
+sounds, into the order of triple time. To one or other of these
+descriptions may be referred every sort of time.
+
+There is a sympathetic power in measured time which has not yet received
+the attention it deserves. It has been found that in a watchmaker's shop
+the timepieces or clocks connected with the same wall or shelf have such
+a sympathetic effect in keeping time, that they stop those which beat in
+irregular time; and if any are at rest, set agoing those which beat
+accurately. What wonder then that the living, soldiers, artisans, such
+as smiths, paviors, etc., who work in unison with the pulse, should
+acquire habits of keeping time with the greatest correctness.
+
+Rhythm not only measures the footfall of the pedestrian, but exerts a
+sympathetic power, so that if two are walking together, they feel its
+spell, and unconsciously fall into the same step, not aware that they
+are thus conforming to a Unity always engendered by the Order regulating
+rhythmical motion. It is this entrancing sense of unity which wings the
+feet of the dancers, and enables them to endure with delight a degree of
+physical exertion which, without it, would be utterly exhausting. The
+following extract from the _Atlantic Monthly_, of July, 1858, is so much
+to our purpose, that we place it before the reader:
+
+     'The sailor does not lack for singing. He sings at certain parts of
+     his work;--indeed, he must sing, if he would work. On vessels of
+     war, the drum and fife or boatswain's whistle furnish the necessary
+     movement-regulator. There, where the strength of one or two hundred
+     men can be applied to one and the same effort, the labor is not
+     intermittent, but continuous. The men form on either side of the
+     rope to be hauled, and walk away with it like firemen marching with
+     their engine. When the headmost pair bring up at the stern or bow,
+     they part, and the two streams flow back to the starting point,
+     outside the following files. Thus in this perpetual
+     'follow-my-leader' way the work is done, with more precision and
+     steadiness than in the merchant service. Merchantmen are invariably
+     manned with the least possible number, and often go to sea
+     short-handed, even according to the parsimonious calculations of
+     their owners. The only way the heavier work can be done at all is
+     by each man doing his utmost at the same moment. This is regulated
+     by the song. And here is the true singing of the deep sea. It is
+     not recreation; it is an essential part of the work. It mastheads
+     the topsail yards, on making sail; it starts the anchor from the
+     domestic or foreign mud; it 'rides down the main tack with a will;'
+     it breaks out and takes on board a cargo; it keeps the pumps (the
+     ship's, not the sailor's) going. A good voice and a new and
+     stirring chorus are worth an extra man. And there is plenty of need
+     of both.
+
+     'I remember well one black night in the mid-Atlantic, when we were
+     beating up against a stiff breeze, coming on deck near midnight,
+     just as the ship was put about. When a ship is tacking, the tacks
+     and sheets (ropes which confine the clews or lower corners of the
+     sails) are let run, in order that the yards may be swung round to
+     meet the altered position of the ship. They must then be hauled
+     taut again, and belayed, or secured, in order to keep the sails in
+     their place and to prevent them from shaking. When the ship's head
+     comes up in the wind, the sail is for a moment or two edgewise to
+     it, and then is the nice moment, as soon as the headsails fairly
+     fill, when the mainyard and the yards above it can be swung
+     readily, and the tacks and sheets hauled in. If the crew are too
+     few in number, or too slow at their work, and the sails get fairly
+     filled on the new tack, it is a fatiguing piece of work enough to
+     'board' the tacks and sheets, as it is called. You are pulling at
+     one end of the rope--but the gale is tugging at the other. The
+     advantages of lungs are all against you, and perhaps the only thing
+     to be done is to put the helm down a little, and set the sails
+     shaking again before they can be trimmed properly. It was just at
+     such a time that I came on deck, as above mentioned. Being near
+     eight bells, the watch on deck had been not over spry; and the
+     consequence was that our big maincourse was slatting and flying out
+     overhead with a might that shook the ship from stem to stern. The
+     flaps of the mad canvas were like successive thumps of a giant's
+     fist upon a mighty drum. The sheets were jerking at the belaying
+     pins, the blocks rattling in sharp snappings like castanets. You
+     could hear the hiss and seething of the sea alongside, and see it
+     flash by in sudden white patches of phosphorescent foam, while all
+     over head was black with the flying scud. The English second mate
+     was stamping with vexation, and, with all his h's misplaced,
+     storming at the men: ''An'somely the weather mainbrace--'an'somely,
+     I tell you!--'Alf a dozen of you clap on to the main sheet
+     here--down with 'im!--D'y'see 'ere's hall like a midshipman's
+     bag--heverythink huppermost and nothing 'andy. 'Aul 'im in, Hi
+     say!' But the sail wouldn't come, though. All the most forcible
+     expressions of the Commination Service were liberally bestowed on
+     the watch. 'Give us the song, men!' sang out the mate, at
+     last--'pull with a will!--together men!--haltogether now!'--And
+     then a cracked, melancholy voice struck up this chant:
+
+         'Oh, the bowline, bully, bully bowline,
+          Oh, the bowline, bowline, HAUL!'
+
+     At the last word every man threw his whole strength into the
+     pull--all singing it in chorus, with a quick, explosive sound. And
+     so, jump by jump, the sheet was at last hauled taut.'
+
+It would be well if the philanthropist and utilitarian would stoop to
+examine these primeval but neglected facts, for there is no doubt that
+under the healthful and delicious spell of Rhythm a far steadier and
+greater amount of labor would be cheerfully and happily endured by the
+working classes. The continuous but rhythmed croon of the negro when at
+work, the yo-heave-o of the sailor straining at the cordage, the rowing
+songs of the oarsman, etc., etc., are all suggestive of what might be
+effected by judicious effort in this direction. But man, ever wiser than
+his Maker, neglects the intuitions of nature. Rendered conceited by a
+false education, and heartless by a constant craving for gold, he
+scorns the simple but deep intuitions which are his surest guide to
+civilization, health, and cheerfulness. There can be no doubt that the
+physical exercise so distasteful to the pale inhabitants of our cities,
+yet so essential for the preservation of health and life, might be
+rendered delightful and invigorating through the neglected powers of
+rhythmical motion. Like Michal, the proud daughter of Saul, who despised
+King David in her haughty heart when 'she saw him dancing with all his
+might before the Lord,' we scorn the simple and innocent delights of our
+nature, and, like Michal, we too are bitterly punished for our mistaken
+pride of intellect, for, neglecting the rhythmical requisitions of the
+body, we injure the mind, and may deprave the heart. Virtuously, purely,
+and judiciously applied to the amusements and artistic culture of a
+people, we are convinced the power of Rhythm would banish much of that
+craving for false excitement, for drinks and narcotics, an indulgence in
+which exerts so fatal an influence over the character and spiritual
+progress of a nation. It is surely not astonishing that Rhythm should be
+so pleasant to the senses, when we consider that the laws of order and
+unity by which it is regulated are the proper aliment of the soul.
+
+Strange pedantries have grown out of the neglect of music as a practical
+pervading element in modern education. We should endeavor to reform this
+fault; we should use this powerful engine of healing nature to remove
+from us the reproach of being merely a shopkeeping and money-making
+people.
+
+The wildest savage is not insensible to Rhythm. It fires his spirit in
+the war dance and battle chant, soothes him in the monotonous hum of the
+pow-wow, and softens him in naive love songs. It is the heart of music,
+and it can be proved that low and vulgar rhythms have a debasing effect
+upon the character of a people. 'Let me write the songs of a people,'
+said a great thinker, 'and I care not who makes its laws:'--if he
+included the tunes, there was no exaggeration in his thought. Alas! a
+meretricious age scorns and neglects the true, because it is always
+simple in its sublimity, and, striving to banish God from His own
+creation, would also banish nature and joy from the heart! A pedantic
+age loves all that is pretentious, glaring, and assuming; and Rhythm
+stoops to rock the cradle of the newborn infant; to soothe the negro in
+the rice swamp or cotton field; to shape into beauty the national and
+patriotic songs of a laborious but contented peasantry, as among the
+Sclaves--but what cares the age for the happiness of the race? 'Put
+money in thy purse,' is its consolation and lesson for humanity.
+
+The beat of the healthful heart is in unison with the feelings of the
+hour. Agitation makes it fitful and broken, excitement accelerates, and
+sorrow retards it. And this fact should be the model for all poetical
+and musical rhythm.
+
+To show how readily we associate feelings with different orders of
+sound, let us suppose we are passing the night somewhere, where a
+stranger, utterly unknown to us, occupies a room from which we can hear
+the sound of his footsteps. Suppose that through the tranquil hours of
+the night we hear his measured tread falling in equally accented and
+monotonous spondees, it is certain that a quick imagination will at once
+associate this deliberate tread with the state of mind in the unknown
+from which it will believe it to proceed, and will immediately suggest
+that the stranger is maturing some great design of heavy import to his
+future peace.
+
+Should the character of the spondaic tread suddenly change, should the
+footsteps become rapid, eager, and broken, we look upon the term of
+meditation and doubt as over, the resolve as definitely fixed, and the
+unknown as restlessly longing for the hour of its fulfilment.
+
+When we hear steps resembling dactyls, anapaests, and choriambs thrown
+hurriedly together, broken by irregular pauses, we begin to build a
+whole romance on the steps of the stranger; we infer from them moments
+of grave deliberation; the languor consequent upon overwrought thought;
+renewed effort; resolve; alternations of passion; hope struggling with
+despair; until all at last seems merged in impatient longing for the
+hour of anticipated victory.
+
+Nor has the imagination been alone in its strange workings; it has
+whispered, as it always does, its secrets to the heart, and succeeded in
+arousing its ever-ready affections, so that we cannot help feeling a
+degree of interest in the unknown, whose emotions we have followed
+through the night, reading their history in his alternating footsteps:
+_for sounds impress themselves immediately upon the feelings, exciting,
+not abstract or antagonistic thought, but uniting humanity in concrete
+feeling_. (See vol. i.)
+
+As the imagination necessarily associates different feelings with
+different orders of Rhythm, it is the task of the Poet to select those
+in the closest conformity with the emotions he is struggling to excite.
+It is positively certain that we not only naturally and intuitively
+_associate_ distinctive feelings with different orders of rhythmical
+sounds, but that varied emotions are _awakened_ by them. Some rhythms
+inspire calmness, some sublime and stately courage, some energy and
+aggressive force, some stir the spirit to the most daring deeds, some,
+as in our maddening Tarantulas, produce a restless excitement through
+the whole nervous system, some excite mere joyousness, some whisper love
+through every fibre of the heart, and some lead us in their holy calm
+and unbroken order to the throne of God. Why is this? We need not look
+in the region of the understanding for the philosophy of that which is
+to be found only in the living tide of basic emotions. The pleasure we
+receive from Rhythm is a feeling. Alternate accentuation and
+non-accentuation are facts in the living organism of the universe; this
+may be expressed, not explained. There is an order in the living
+succession of musical sounds or poetic emotions, which order is
+expressed by the words 'equality and proportion.' These things _are_.
+What more can be said? Do comparisons help us? the waves in the eternal
+ocean of vitality--the shuttle strokes of the ever-moving loom of
+creation! Let us take it as it is, and rejoice in it. We cannot tell you
+why we live--let us be glad that our life is music through every
+heart-throb!
+
+Rhythm is a species of natural but inarticulate language, in which the
+_thought_ is never disengaged from the _feeling_; in language its aim
+should be to awaken the _feeling_ properly attached to the thought it
+modulates; it should be the _tune_ of the thought of the Poet. To write
+a love song in alexandrines, an idyl in hexameters, would be to
+incarnate the shy spirit of a girl in the brawny frame of a Hercules, to
+incase the loving soul of a Juliet in a gauntleted Minerva. Genius and
+deep sympathy with human nature can alone guide the Poet aright in this
+delicate and difficult path; it lies too near the core of our
+unconscious being to be susceptible of the trim regularity of rule--he
+must trust his own intuitions while he studies with care what has
+already been successfully done by our best poets. We may however remark
+in passing that if the rhythm be abruptly broken without a corresponding
+break in the flow of thought or feeling, the reader will be confused,
+because the outward form has fallen into contradiction with its inner
+soul, and he discerns the opposition, and knows not with which to
+sympathize. Such contrarieties argue want of power or want of freedom in
+the poet, who should never suffer the clanking of his rhythmical chains
+to be heard. Such causeless breaks proceed from want of truth to the
+subject, and prove a lack of the careful rendering of love in the
+author. The poet must listen to the naive voice of nature as he moulds
+his rhythms, for the ingenious and elaborate constructions of the
+intellect alone will never touch the heart. Rhythm may proceed with
+regularity, yet that regularity be so relieved from monotony and so
+modified in its actual effects, that however regular may be the
+structure of parts, what is composed of them may be infinitely various.
+Milton's exquisite poem, 'Comus,' is an example of perfect rhythm with
+ceaseless intricacy and great variety. It would indeed be a fatal
+mistake to suppose that _proportion_ cannot be susceptible of great
+variety, since the whole meaning of the term has reference to the
+adjustment and proportional correspondence of _variable_ properties.
+
+The appreciation of rhythm is universal, pertaining to no region, race,
+nor era, in especial. Even those who have never _thought_ about it,
+_feel_ order to be the law of life and happiness, and in the marking of
+the _proportioned_ flow of time and the regular accentuation of its
+_determinate_ portions find a perpetual source of healthful pleasure.
+
+If we will but think of it, we will be astonished how many ideas already
+analyzed we may find exhibited through rhythm. We may have: similarity,
+variety, identity, repetition, adaptation, symmetry, proportion,
+fitness, melody, harmony, order, and unity; in addition to the varied
+feelings of which it becomes the symbolic utterance. The Greeks placed
+rhythms in the hands of a god, thus testifying to their knowledge of
+their range and power.
+
+Wordsworth asserts that
+
+     'More pathetic situations and sentiments, that is, those which have
+     a greater proportion of pain connected with them, may be endured in
+     metrical compositions than in prose.'
+
+The reason of this seems to be that the bright beams forever raying from
+the Divine Sun of unity and order, shine through the measured beat of
+the rhythm, and are always felt as life and peace, even when their
+golden light is broken by the wild and drifting clouds of human woe, or
+seen athwart the surging and blinding mists of mortal anguish.
+
+Rhythm lurks in the inmost heart of language, accenting our words that
+their enunciation may be clear and distinct; lengthening and shortening
+the time of our syllables that they may be expressive, emotional, and
+musical. Let the orator as well as the poet study its capabilities; it
+has more power over the sympathies of the masses than the most labored
+thought.
+
+Although through the quantitive arrangement and determinate accentuation
+of syllabic sound, rhythm may be exquisitely manifested through
+language, yet in music alone does it attain its full power and wonderful
+complexity. For the _tones_ are not _thoughts_, but _feelings_, and
+yield themselves implicitly to the loving hand which would reunite them
+and form them into higher unities. These passionate tones, always
+seeking for and surging into each other, are plastic pearls on the
+string of rhythm, whose proportions may be indefinitely varied at the
+will of the fond hand which would wreathe them into strands of
+symmetrical beauty; while _words_, the vehicles of antagonistic thought,
+frequently refuse to conform to the requisitions of feeling, are often
+obstinate and wilful, will not be remodelled, and hard, in their
+self-sufficiency, refuse to bear any stamp save that of their known and
+fixed value. Like irregular beads of uncut coral, they protrude their
+individualities in jagged spikes and unsightly thorns, breaking often
+the unity of the whole, and painfully wounding the sense of order.
+
+The true poet overcomes these difficulties. When, in the hands of a
+master, they are forced to bend under the onward and impetuous sweep of
+the passionate rhythm, compelled to sing the tune of the overpowering
+emotions--the chords of the spirit quiver in response. The heart
+recognizes the organic law of its own life: _the constant recurrence of
+new effort sinking but to recover itself in accurately proportioned
+rest, rising again in ever-renewed exertion, to sink again in ever-new
+repose_; feeling seems clothing itself with living form, while the
+divine attribute, Order, marks for the ear, as it links in mystic Unity,
+the flying footsteps of that forever invisible element by which all
+mortal being is conditioned and limited: TIME!
+
+  'There is no architect
+     Can build as the Muse can;
+   She is skilful to select
+     Materials for her plan.
+
+  'She lays her beams in music,
+     In music every one,
+   To the cadence of the whirling world
+     Which dances round the sun.
+
+  'That so they shall not be displaced
+     By lapses or by wars,
+   But for the love of happy souls
+     Outlive the newest stars.'
+                            EMERSON.
+
+
+
+
+'OUR ARTICLE.'
+
+'John,' said I to my husband, as he came home from business, and settled
+into an armchair for half an hour's rest before dinner, 'I think of
+writing an article for THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY.'
+
+'Humph!' said my husband.
+
+Now 'humph' bears different interpretations; it may argue assent,
+indifference, disgust, disapprobation--in all cases it is aggressive;
+but this 'humph' seemed to be a combination of at least three of the
+above-mentioned frames of mind.
+
+Natural indignation was about taking full possession of me, but
+reflection stepped in, and I preserved a discreet silence. The truth is,
+no man should be assailed by a new idea before he has dined, and I,
+having had three years' opportunity of studying man nature, met my
+deserts when the above answer was given. So I still looked amiable, and
+behaved very prettily till dinner was over, and then John, having
+subsided into dressing gown, slippers, easy chair, and good nature, I
+remarked again:
+
+'John, I think of writing an article for THE CONTINENTAL
+MONTHLY.'
+
+'How shall you begin it?' said he.
+
+'Well, I haven't exactly settled on a beginning yet, but--'
+
+'Exactly! I supposed so!' remarked this barbarian.
+
+Unfortunately, he knew my weak point, for hadn't he been allowed to see
+a desk full of magnificent middles, only wanting a beginning and an end,
+and a publisher, and some readers, to place me in the front ranks of our
+modern essayists, side by side with 'Spare Hours,' and the 'Country
+Parson,' and 'Gail Hamilton?'
+
+The fact is, I have always been brimming over with brilliant ideas on
+all sorts of subjects, which never would arrange themselves or be
+arranged under any given head, but presented a series of remarkable
+literary fragments, jotted down on stray bits of paper, in old account
+books and diaries, and even, on one or two occasions, when seized by a
+sudden inspiration, on a smooth stone, taken from the brook, a fair
+sheet of birch bark, and the front of a pew in a white-painted country
+church. Having been subject to these inspirational attacks for many
+years, I had decided to take them in hand, and, if they must come,
+derive some benefit from them. An idea suggested itself. Claude
+Lorraine, it is said, never put the figures in his landscapes, but left
+that work for some brother artist. Now I could bring together material
+for an article; the inspiration, the picturing should be mine, but John
+should put in the figures. In other words, he should polish it, write
+the introduction and the _finis_, and send it out to the public, as the
+work of 'my wife and I.'
+
+Then a question occurred: how should we divide the honors, supposing
+such an article should really find its way into print? Would there not
+be material for a standard quarrel in the fact that neither could claim
+sole proprietorship? What would be John's sensation, should any one say
+to him: 'Mr. ----, I have just been reading your wife's last article;
+capital thing!' and, _vice versa_, imagine the same thing said of me.
+Could I preserve amiability under such circumstances, and would not the
+result be, a divorce in a year, and a furious lawsuit as to the
+ownership of the copyright? John certainly is magnanimous, I thought,
+but no one cares for divided honors, and there is that middle-aged
+relation of his, with a figure like a vinegar cruet, and a voice as acid
+as its contents, who never comes here for a day without doing her best
+to set us by the ears, and who, in the beginning of our married life,
+when we did not understand each other quite so well as now, sometimes
+succeeded, to her intense satisfaction.
+
+How she would go about among all the friends and relations, pulling the
+poor articles to pieces, giving all the fine bits to John and the
+rubbish to me, and hinting generally that my pretensions to authorship
+were all very well, but that every one knew John did the work and I
+looked out for the credit.
+
+Here I paused. I had been successfully engaged in the pursuit of
+trouble, and had conjured up so irritating a picture, that actually a
+small tear had left its source, and was running over the bridge of my
+nose!
+
+'John,' I said, 'notwithstanding that I never did know how to begin
+anything in an effective way, I am still determined to write, and you
+must help me.'
+
+Then I opened my heart to him, and told him my plan, and the imagined
+tribulation it had given me in the last ten minutes.
+
+'There are too many writers already, Helen,' he said; 'every man who
+cannot see his way clear through life--every woman who fancies herself
+misunderstood and unappreciated, worries out a book or poem or a set of
+essays, to picture their individual wrongs and sufferings, and bores
+every publisher of every magazine and paper of which they have ever
+heard, till he is tormented into printing, or dies of manuscript on the
+brain. I tell you, Helen, we do our share in aggravating the people we
+meet daily, without tormenting an innocent man, 'who never did us any
+harm;' and I for one, don't want an extra sin on my conscience.
+Moreover, I am afraid it would spoil you, should you happen to succeed.
+Have you forgotten your old friend Angelina Hobbs? One article ruined
+her for life. Until that poem got into print and was favorably noticed,
+she was as sensible as ordinary girls, and never imagined herself a
+genius. Since then, there is not an 'ism' in America that she has not
+taken up and run into the ground; I have met her in every stage, from
+the coat and pantaloons of the Bloomer ten years ago to the hoopless old
+maid I saw yesterday going into Dodworth's Hall with the last spiritual
+paper and a spirit photograph in her hand. Not a literary man or woman
+do I know, who has not some crotchet in his or her brain, and who does
+not in some way violate the harmonies of life at least once an hour. Be
+content as you are: be satisfied to live without seeing yourself in
+THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY, or any other monthly under the sun!'
+
+'John,' I said, 'I am surprised, I am astonished at the view you take of
+the case. I don't desire that publishers should be tormented into their
+graves; and if they are all as fat and rosy as the two we met the other
+day, I think you can dismiss all fears on that score. Moreover, I
+believe the world to be better for every book that is written, however
+insignificant it may be. The days of the corsairs and giaours, romantic
+robbers, and devout murderers, are over: our young ladies and our
+servant girls see no fascination in the pages of 'Fatherless Fanny,'
+'The Foundling,' or 'The Mysteries of Slabtown.' Arthur's stories and
+ten thousand others of the same class have taken their place, and
+commonplace as they may often be, have brought a healthier influence
+into action. No book written with an honest heart is lost; no poem or
+essay, however poor, fails to reach some mark. The printed page that to
+you or me looks so barren and poor, may carry to some soul a message of
+healing; may to some eyes have the light of heaven about it. And to how
+many aimless lives, writing has given a purpose which otherwise never
+might have entered it! John, I believe in writing, and this baby shall
+be taught to put his ideas into shape as soon as he is taught anything!
+I never wish him to settle down in the belief that he is a genius and
+can live on the fact; but he shall write if he can, and publish too, if
+any one will do it for him. If not, we will have a private printing
+press of our own, and get up an original library for our descendants.'
+
+'A genuine woman's answer,' said John; 'only one point in it touching
+upon my argument.' Here the baby opened his blue eyes wide. 'There!'
+said John; 'just for the present your life has a purpose, and we can
+dispense with writing, at least till that fellow is asleep again. When
+you have disposed of him, we will find out how many aims it is necessary
+for one woman to have, and what arrangement of them it is best to make.'
+
+The baby stayed awake obstinately, but I was reconciled to the fact, for
+our discussion might have become hot, and the writing ended for that
+evening quite as effectually as the baby had done it.
+
+Night came again, and this time John opened the subject, by placing
+before me a large package of foolscap, and a new gold pen.
+
+'I have brought some paper for you to spoil, Helen,' he said, 'for I
+foresaw how it would end. Do your best, and I will do mine in the matter
+of beginnings. I cannot write easily, you know, but I can suggest and
+dictate, when you wish it; and you have been my amanuensis for a year
+and more, so it will all seem very natural.'
+
+He looked down, as he spoke, at the scarred right hand and its missing
+fingers, carried away eighteen months before by a rebel bullet, and a
+little shade passed over his face.
+
+'No, John,' I said, 'don't look there now; look at my two hands waiting
+to do the work of that, and tell me if two are not better than one. We
+will write an article which shall astonish the critics, and bring
+letters from all the magazines, begging us to become special
+contributors at once; and we will not quarrel as to who shall have the
+glory, but make it a joint matter. And now I am ready to begin, and
+propose to speak upon a subject which I wonder greatly no one has taken
+up in detail before. Your words last evening brought out some dormant
+ideas. 'We do our share in aggravating the people we meet daily,' you
+said, and I have been reflecting upon the matter ever since, till now I
+am prepared to give my opinions to the world.'
+
+So saying, I arranged the table properly, took out some sheets of the
+smooth, white paper, filled my pen, and waited for the dawning of an
+idea. To which it came first, I shall not tell you. The results are
+before you: which part is John's, which mine, you will never learn from
+us. It will be of no avail for you to write to the editors, for they
+don't know either, and will not be told. It will be a useful exercise
+for you to dissect the article, and set apart the masculine from the
+feminine portions. The critics will for once be quite at a loss how to
+abuse it, probably. I foresee a general distraction in the minds of our
+readers, and already hear ourselves classed as among one of the trials
+which I select as the title of 'Our Article.'
+
+
+SOME OF THE AGGRAVATIONS OF LIVING.
+
+Two thirds of life in the aggregate are made up of aggravations. They
+begin with our beginning, and only cease with our ending; perhaps, if
+good Calvinists speak the truth, not even then, for, according to their
+belief, the souls in torment look always upon the blessed in heaven, and
+this surely is the most horrible species of aggravation ever devised by
+man or fiend.
+
+From the time when the air first fills the lungs and the infant screams
+at the new sensation, to the day when fingers press down the resisting
+lids and straighten the stiffening limbs, we are forced to meet and to
+bear all manner of aggravations in nine tenths of our daily life.
+
+Has it ever occurred to any of you what an amount of unnecessary
+suffering an infant endures, and have you ever watched the operations it
+undergoes daily, with reference to the confirming of this fact? If not,
+an inexhaustible field of inquiry lies open before you, and after a
+week's observation of bandages rolled till the flesh actually
+squeaks--of pins stuck in and left, where you know they will prick--of
+smotherings in blankets and garrotings with bibs--of trottings for the
+wind and poundings for the stomach ache--of wakings up to show to
+visitors, and puttings to sleep when sleep is at the other end of the
+land of Nod, and will not be induced to come under any circumstances--of
+rockings and tossings--of boiling catnip tea and smooth horrible castor
+oil poured down the unsuspecting throat--after a week of such
+observations, I say, you will decide with me that the baby's life is
+only a series of aggravations, and feel astonished the bills of infant
+mortality do not double and treble.
+
+As years round out the little life, the hands, reaching out to the tree
+of knowledge, find themselves pushed back on all sides. The dearest
+wishes are made light of, the most earnest desires slighted, the most
+sacred thoughts ridiculed, till one marvels that men can grow up
+anything but devils. In the path where Gail Hamilton's feet have trod I
+need not follow, for she has told us what these 'Happiest Days' are, in
+better words than my pen can find. It warmed my heart as I read her
+protest against the platitudes concerning childhood and its various
+imagined delights. Mentally I shook hands, for she expressed my ideas so
+fully, that the notes I had long ago jotted down upon the subject I
+committed at once to the flames, satisfied I never could do any better,
+and might possibly do very much worse.
+
+I believe that the major part of sour-tempered, perversely wrong-headed,
+and unhappily disposed people, of hot-headed fanatics, victims to one
+idea, of once noble souls who sink themselves in sensuality, and so go
+down to death, and of all the sad cases one hears and reads of day after
+day and year after year, are made so through unceasing aggravation at
+the most impressible time of life. Do any of you who may be my readers
+know of half a dozen happy families in your circle of friends and
+acquaintance? Do you know of half a dozen where boys prefer home and
+their sisters to the streets, or where girls do not court the most
+uninviting boy in preference to their own brothers?
+
+One would almost imagine spite had been the feeling implanted in all
+homes, as they look at the private pinch exchanged between John and
+James, the face made by Mary at which Martha cries and is slapped by way
+of adjusting matters, and the general refusal of requests made to father
+and mother, whether reasonable or not. My own childhood was moderately
+happy, and yet I recall now the sense of burning indignation I sometimes
+suffered at wrongs done me, which the child's sense of justice told me
+were wrongs, and which I now know to have been so. Children are
+themselves one of the aggravations of living, but it is because we do
+not know how to treat them. I look for a time when every father shall be
+just, every mother reasonable as well as loving; when children shall
+neither be flogged up the way of life as in times past, or coaxed up
+with sugarplums as in times present, but, seeing with clear eyes the
+straight path, shall walk in it with joy, and finish their course with
+rejoicing.
+
+Another aggravation, and not a minor one either it strikes me, is the
+summary way in which youth is put down by middle-aged and aged people.
+Youthful emotions are 'bosh and twaddle,' youthful ideas, 'crude, sir,
+very crude!' and youthful attempts to be and to do something in the
+world frowned at, as if action of any sort, save inaction, before forty,
+were an outrage on humanity, and an insult to the Creator.
+
+How fares it with young professional men during the first ten years of
+their career? They hope and wait, doubt and wait, curse and wait, labor
+to wait, and in the mean time a wheezing old lawyer, with no more
+enthusiasm than a brickbat, takes the cases which Justice, if she were
+not blind, would have sent to his starving younger brethren, and pockets
+fat fees, a tenth of which would have lifted loads from many a heavy
+heart. An old family physician, an old minister, an old lawyer, are
+excellent in their way, and have a variety of pleasant associations with
+them, which it is impossible to pass over to the young aspirant who
+steps in to take their place; yet because Dr. Jones, aged sixty-eight,
+carried us safely through the measles, does it follow that Dr. Smith,
+aged twenty-eight, cannot do the same for our children?
+
+Because for thirty years the Rev. Dr. Holdfast has preached upon
+election, and justification by faith, is the Rev. Dr. Holeman to be set
+down as presumptuously progressive, because he suggests works as a test
+of the faith we profess, and ventures to speak of God, not as the stern
+Deity who commands us all to be afraid of Him, and who drops lost souls
+into the pit with a calm satisfaction, but as the loving Father of the
+world, who wills that all men should come to the knowledge of His truth.
+
+It is well for the old to give us their experience, well for the young
+to listen, but every man and every woman lives a life of their own,
+which the widest experience cannot touch at all points. No two natures
+have ever been nor ever can be exactly alike; no rules of the past can
+form the present in the same mould. Girls and boys, young men and women,
+must 'see the folly' for themselves, and all the advice and warning of
+all the ancestors under heaven cannot prevent it. Therefore, O
+middle-aged aunt, or white-haired grandparent, aggravate by unceasing
+advice, if you will, but be not aggravated if it isn't taken. Reflect as
+to how fully you availed yourself of the experience of _your_
+grandparents when you were young, and then make your demands
+accordingly. Tell the young the story of your life as a story, and they
+will listen and mayhap profit; give it as advice, and you shall see them
+keep as far off as circumstances will admit. It is my fixed belief that
+until the people in the world have learned how to hold their tongues, it
+will be entirely useless to read Dr. Cumming; believe in the Great
+Tribulation as much as you please, for it is about us all day long, but
+don't look out for the Millennium, which I think will consist entirely
+in people's minding their own business.
+
+In the inability or unwillingness of people to let other people alone,
+may be summed up all the aggravation of living. The bane of my life has
+been never being let alone. People seem to think they have come into the
+world with a special mission to give me advice, and from my babyhood up,
+I have never been allowed to carry out the best-arranged plan of
+operation, without interference. As each man and woman is the
+representative of a certain class, I conclude others have had the same
+experience with myself; and there is a gloomy satisfaction in reflecting
+that there are many who have been made as essentially uncomfortable as
+I. The result has been, I have come to the unalterable determination
+never, under any circumstances, to either advise anybody or receive it
+myself where it can be avoided. If it is ordained that I am to make a
+fool of myself, it shall be done on my own responsibility, and not with
+the assistance of meddling friends--though if they have any desire to
+take the credit of it, I shall make no objections whatever. I doubt if
+they will. The longer I live in the world, the clearer appears the fact
+that half at least of our unhappiness is unnecessary. We seem perversely
+bent on tormenting and being tormented. We visit people for whom we do
+not care one straw, because our position in society or our interests
+demand it. We sacrifice our own judgment to the whims of others as a
+matter of expediency, and almost ignore our own capacity in the
+eagerness to agree with everybody. We suffer because a rich snob snubs
+us, and agonize over unfavorable remarks made concerning our abilities
+or standing. These things ought not so to be. No man can find a
+substitute when he lies a-dying;--why should all his years be spent in
+the vain endeavor to find a substitute for living? An endless dependence
+upon the opinions, the whims, the prejudices of others, is the bane of
+living, and the mark of a weak mind, made so oftener by education than
+nature.
+
+When the young forget to abuse the old, and the old to run down the
+young; when mothers-in-law cease to hate their daughters-in-law, and to
+improve all opportunities for sowing strife; when wives take pains to
+understand their husbands, and husbands decide that woman nature is
+worth studying; when women can remember to be charitable to other women;
+when the Golden Rule can be read as it is written, and not 'Do unto
+others as ye would _not_ they should do unto you;' when justice and
+truth rule men, rather than unreason and petty spite, then the
+aggravation of living will die a natural death, and the world become as
+comfortable an abiding place as its inhabitants need desire.
+
+Till then, hope and wait. Live the life God gives us, as purely and
+truly as you know how. Have some faith in human nature, but more in God,
+and wait his own good time for the perfect life, not to be reached here,
+but hereafter.
+
+
+
+
+THE LESSON OF THE WOOD.
+
+
+  In the same soil the family of trees
+  Spring up, and, like a band of brothers, grow
+  In the same sun, while from their leafy lips
+  Comes not the faintest whisper of dissent
+  Because of various girth and grain and hue.
+  The oak flings not his acorns at the elm;
+  The white birch shrinks not from the swarthy ash;
+  The green plume of the pine nods to the shrub;
+  The loftiest monarch of the realm of wood
+  Spares not his crown in elemental storms,
+  But shares the blows with trees of humbler growth,
+  And stretches forth his arms to save their fall.
+  Wild flowers festoon the feet of all alike;
+  Green mosses grow upon the trunks of all;
+  Sweet birds pour out their songs on every bough;
+  Clouds drop baptismal showers of rain on each,
+  And the broad sun floods every leaf with light.
+  Behold them clad in Autumn's golden pomp--
+  Their rich magnificence, of different dyes,
+  More beautiful than royal robes, and crowns
+  Of emperors on coronation day.
+  But the deserted nest in silence sways
+  Like a sad heart beneath a royal scarf;
+  And the red tint upon the maple leaves
+  Is colored like the fields where fell our braves
+  In hurricanes of flame and leaden hail.
+  I love to gaze up at the grand old trees;
+  Their branches point like hope to Heaven serene;
+  Their roots point to the silent world that's dead;
+  Their grand old trunks hold towns and fleets for us,
+  And cots and coffins for the race unborn.
+  When at their feet their predecessors fell,
+  Spring covered their remains with mourning moss,
+  And wrote their epitaph in pale wood flowers,
+  And Summer gave ripe berries to the birds
+  To stay and sing their sad sweet requiem;
+  And Autumn rent the garments of the trees
+  That stood mute mourners in a field of graves,
+  And Winter wrapped them in a winding sheet.
+  They seemed like giants sleeping in their shrouds.
+
+
+
+
+DIARY OF FRANCES KRASINSKA;
+
+OR, LIFE IN POLAND DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+
+  CASTLE OF JANOWIEC,
+  Wednesday, _May 27th, 1760._
+
+I had hoped too much! He is going, and the memory of the past will
+render the days to come very sad. I knew that Monday was an unlucky day:
+since my maid gave me such a fright by announcing the approaching
+departure of the princes, all has gone from bad to worse.
+
+The huntsman who brought me the bouquet from the prince, told me, in his
+name, that he too was forced to depart. With great difficulty could he
+invent a pretext for remaining three days after his brothers left. These
+three days will not expire until to-morrow, and yet he leaves me to-day;
+he must go, and can no longer delay. The king has sent an express for
+him, with an order to return as soon as possible. He will leave in one
+half hour, and I do not know when we can meet again. Ah! how soon
+happiness passes away!...
+
+
+Sunday, _June 7th._
+
+It is now two weeks since the prince royal left me; he has sent two
+expresses, and slipped two notes for me under cover to the prince
+palatine. But what is a letter?... An unfinished thought--it soothes for
+a moment, but cannot calm. A letter can never replace even a few seconds
+of personal intercourse; he has left me his portrait; I am sure every
+one would think it like him; but for me, it is merely a shred of
+inanimate canvas. It has his features, but it is not he, and has not his
+expression.... I have him much better in my memory.
+
+All consolation is denied me, for I will not reply to his letters; this
+restraint I have imposed upon myself; I am sure that my hand would
+become motionless as the cold marble were I to write to the man I love
+without the knowledge of my aunt, my elder sister, and my parents. I
+told the prince royal that he could never have a letter from me until I
+was his wife. This is a great sacrifice, but I have promised my God that
+I will accomplish it.
+
+Since his departure, time weighs upon me as a continued torture. During
+the first few days I wandered about as if bereft of reason; I could not
+fix my thoughts, or apply myself to any occupation. The illness of the
+princess has restored some energy to my soul. The injury to her foot,
+which she at first neglected, has become very serious; during three days
+she had a burning fever, which threatened her life. My anguish was
+beyond description; I am sure I could not have been more uneasy had it
+been my sister or one of my parents. I scarcely thought of the prince
+royal during the whole of those three days; and what is most strange, I
+no longer regretted his absence; if he had been here, I could not have
+devoted myself so entirely to the princess. The idea of her death was
+terrible to me, for, notwithstanding all the arguments of the prince
+royal and of the Princes Lubomirski, I feel myself very culpable in
+having withheld my confidence from her; if she suspects the truth, she
+has every reason to accuse me of perfidy.... There is in this world but
+one inconsolable evil, and that is the torture of a bad
+conscience--remorse....
+
+I hoped one day to be able to repair my wrongs toward the princess, to
+fall at her feet and confess my fault, but when I saw her in danger, I
+felt as if hell itself were menacing me, and as if I must be forever
+crushed under the weight of an eternal remorse.... Another thought too
+has distressed me to the very bottom of my soul! My parents are advanced
+in years; if I should lose them before I have confessed my secret to
+them! It is written above that I am to know every sorrow! Heaven has
+cruelly tried me, but to-day a ray of pity seems to have fallen upon my
+miserable fate. The princess is steadily improving, and I have received
+good news from Maleszow; I breathe again.
+
+Were the king to give his consent to our marriage, I could not be
+happier than I was on hearing from the physician's own mouth that the
+princess was out of danger.... I will then be able to open my heart to
+her! Ah! my God! if this painful dissimulation weighs so heavily upon
+me, what must be the state of the prince royal, who is deceiving his
+father, his king, and offending him by a misplaced affection!
+
+Why did not these reflections present themselves to me before? Why did I
+not show him the abyss into which we were about to fall?... My happiness
+then blinded me, and now I can fancy no condition which I would not
+prefer to my own.... I feel humiliated by my imprudence. Did I not, with
+the whole strength of my wishes and desires draw upon me this very love
+so dear to my heart and so fatal to my repose? My pride has lost me; and
+that pride is an implacable enemy, which I have no longer strength to
+subdue. Oh! I must indeed blame our little Matthias! It was he who first
+awoke such ambitious dreams within my soul.
+
+Happy Barbara! If I only, like her, loved a man of rank equal to my own!
+But no, I am not of good faith with myself: the prince royal's position
+dazzled me. Ah! how merciful is heaven to cover our innermost thoughts
+with an impenetrable veil! Alas! God pardons the defects in our frail
+humanity sooner than we ourselves can!
+
+I left the princess half an hour ago, and must now return to her; she
+loves so to have me with her! And indeed, no one can wait upon her as
+well as myself. I feel happy when sitting at her bedside; I regain
+courage when I think that I am useful to her, and I feel a kind of joy
+in finding that my heart is not occupied by one sentiment to the
+exclusion of all others.
+
+
+CASTLE OF OPOLE, Thursday, _June 18th._
+
+The princess has entirely recovered, and we have been three days at
+Opole. I was sorry to leave Janowiec, for all around me bore the impress
+of his presence. In his last letter, he announces a very sad piece of
+news: he is forced to pass two months in his duchy of Courland. He will
+endeavor to see me before he goes; but will he succeed? Two months! how
+many centuries, when one must wait!
+
+We have had several visitors from Warsaw; among others, Adam Krasinski,
+Bishop of Kamieniec; he is in every way estimable, and universally
+esteemed! All speak of the change in the prince royal: he is pale and
+sad, and flies the world. The king himself is uneasy concerning his son,
+and it is I who am the cause of all this woe. Is love then a
+never-ending source of sorrow? He suffers for me, and his suffering is
+my most cruel torment.... They say too that I am changed, and believe me
+ill: the good princess attributes my pallor to the nights I have watched
+by her side. Her manifestations of interest pierce my heart! When shall
+I be at peace with my conscience?
+
+
+Saturday, _July 11th._
+
+Like a flash of lightning has a single ray of happiness shone out and
+then disappeared. He came here to see me, but could remain only two
+hours. Last Wednesday he left Warsaw, as if he were going to Courland,
+but, sending his carriages before him on the way to the north, he turned
+aside and hastened here. His court awaited him at Bialystok, and he was
+forced to travel night and day to avoid suspicion. I saw him for so
+short a time that those few happy moments seem only a dream. He was
+obliged to assume his huntsman's dress in order to gain admittance
+unknown into the castle.
+
+No one penetrated his disguise, and no one except the prince palatine
+was cognizant of our interview. He spoke to me, he gave me repeated
+assurances of his love, and restored to me my dearest hopes; had he not
+done so, I feel I should have died before the expiration of the three
+months. Three months is the very least that he can remain at Mittau. How
+many days, how many hours, how many minutes in those three months! I
+could be more resigned were I alone to suffer; but he is so unhappy at
+our separation!
+
+
+Thursday, _September 3d._
+
+I have neglected my journal during nearly two months. Good and evil, all
+passes in this world. My days have been sad and monotonous, but they are
+gone, and their flight brings me nearer to my happiness. The prince
+royal assures me in all his letters that he will return in October. I
+was crazy with joy to-day when I found the leaves were falling: I am
+charmed with this foretaste of autumn. We will leave for Warsaw in a
+very few days.
+
+A new incident has lately come to pass: a very brilliant match has been
+offered for me, and the princess, who loves me twice as well since I
+nursed her through her illness, after having concerted the marriage with
+my parents and the Bishop of Kamieniec, hoped to win my consent. I was
+forced to bear her anger and reproaches, and worse than all that, the
+bitter allusions which she made to the prince royal....
+
+To satisfy my parents, I was obliged to humiliate myself, and write a
+letter of excuse; my mother deigned to send me a reply filled with
+sorrow, but without anger. She ends her letter by saying: 'Parents who
+send their children away from them, must expect to find them rebellious
+to their will.'
+
+My poor mother! She still gives me her sacred blessing, and assures me
+of my father's forgiveness! Ah! I purchase very dearly my future
+happiness and greatness!
+
+
+WARSAW, Tuesday, _September 22d._
+
+We returned to Warsaw several days ago. Ah! with what joy did I find
+myself once more here; how beautiful this city is! Here I will often see
+the prince royal. He assures me in his last letter that he will return
+by the first of October; I have then only one week to wait; without this
+hope I should no longer have any desire to live. Nothing now gives me
+any pleasure. Dress tires and annoys me, visits and assemblies weary me
+to death; every person whom I meet seems to me a scrutinizing judge; I
+fancy that all are pitying or blaming me. Especially do I fear the women
+of my acquaintance; they are not indulgent, because they are never
+disinterested; they are no better pleased with another woman's good
+fortune than they are with her beauty and agreeability....
+
+Even yesterday, with what cruelty Madame ----, but I will not write her
+name--questioned me! She enjoyed my confusion; I was almost ready to
+weep, and she was delighted. In the presence of fifty persons, she
+revenged herself for what is called _my triumph_, but what I consider
+the most _sacred happiness_. Ah! how deeply she wounded me! I almost
+hate her.... This feeling alone was wanting to complete the torment of
+my soul. The prince palatine took pity on me, and came to my aid; may
+God reward him! In every difficult crisis he is always near with his
+active and powerful friendship. He would be quite perfect, if he only
+understood me a little better; but when I weep and show my sorrow, he
+laughs and calls me a child.... I cannot tell him everything.
+
+Thursday, _October 1st._
+
+He has come, and I have seen him; he is quite well, and yet I am not
+happy. I saw him amid a crowd of indifferent people; and when my
+feelings impelled me to run and meet him in the palace court, I was
+forced to remain by my work table and wait until he came into the
+saloon, when he of course first saluted the princess, and my only
+consolation consisted in being able to make him a formal and icy
+reverence. But he is come, and all must now go well.
+
+
+_October 12th._
+
+Great God! how sweet are the words to which I have just given utterance!
+Happy, a thousand times happy, is the woman who can promise with all her
+heart to give her hand during her whole life to him whom she loves! The
+fourth of November is the prince's birthday. He desires, he demands,
+that this may be the day of our holy union! He made me swear by my God,
+and by my parents, that I would no longer oppose his wishes; he said he
+would doubt my affection if I still hesitated. His tears and prayers
+overcame me; encouraged by the advice of the prince palatine, I promised
+all he desired, and already do I repent my weakness. But he--he was
+happy when he left me....
+
+He wished our marriage to be kept secret from my parents, as it must be
+during some time from the rest of the world; he desired that the Princes
+Lubomirski should be our only witnesses and our only confidants; but I
+opposed this project with all my strength; I even threatened him with
+becoming a nun rather than play so guilty a part toward my parents. He
+finally yielded: he is so kind to me. It was then decided that I should
+write to my parents, and that he would add a postscript to my letter.
+
+At first I felt grateful to him for his submission; but with a little
+more reflection I felt offended. Is it not he who should write to my
+parents? Is it not thus that such affairs are conducted? Alas, yes; but
+only when one weds an equal! It is a prince, a prince of the blood royal
+who _deigns_ to unite himself to me! He then does me a favor in wedding
+me.... This thought has become so bitter that I was on the point of
+retracting; but it is too late, for I have given my word.
+
+I must now write to my parents; I must confess to them the love which I
+have so long kept a secret from them. Ah! how wicked they will think me!
+I have been wanting in confidence toward the best of mothers.... My God!
+inspire me; give me courage! A criminal dragged before his judges could
+not tremble more than I do!
+
+
+Thursday, _October 22d._
+
+The prince palatine's confidential chamberlain has already left for
+Maleszow. I am very well satisfied with my letter; but the prince royal
+finds fault with it, and says it is too humble; I, in my turn, found his
+postscript altogether too royal. I was about to tell him so, when the
+prince palatine stopped me.
+
+What will my parents say? Perhaps they will refuse their consent, and,
+strange as it may appear, during the last few days, the sense of my own
+dignity has been stronger than my vanity or my desire for greatness.
+This event seems to me quite ordinary: it is true he is the prince
+royal, Duke of Courland, and will perhaps one day be King of Poland, but
+if he has not my father's consent, it is he who is not my equal.
+
+If no opposition is made to my marriage, I ardently desire that it may
+be the parish priest of Maleszow who will give us the nuptial
+benediction; the prince palatine has promised me to do all he can; at
+least, he will be the representative of my parents, and will confer a
+small degree of propriety upon the ceremony. Barbara's destiny is ever
+in my thoughts! I deemed her wishes very modest when she said to me:
+'Strive to be as happy as I am!' Alas! her happiness is immense, when I
+compare it with mine!...
+
+Wednesday, _October 28th._
+
+My parents' answer has arrived; they give us their blessing and wish me
+much happiness; but the tenderness they express toward me is not like
+that obtained and merited by Barbara. This is just; I suffer, but have
+no right to complain. The prince royal expected to receive an especial
+letter addressed to himself; but my parents have not written to him. He
+is piqued, and conversed a long time with the prince palatine on the
+pride of certain Polish nobles.
+
+I feel more tranquil since my parents know our secret; my heart is
+relieved from a most cruel torment. My parents promise not to reveal our
+marriage without the prince royal's consent; one may see in their letter
+both joy and surprise; but there is a tone of sadness in my mother's
+expressions which touches me deeply. She says:
+
+'If you are unhappy, I will not be responsible for it; if you are happy
+(and I shall never cease to beg this blessing of God in my prayers), I
+will rejoice, but at the same time regret that I had no part in
+contributing to your felicity'....
+
+These words are almost illegible, for I have nearly effaced them with my
+tears.
+
+The curate from Maleszow will arrive next week, and we will be married
+immediately after. The prince palatine has had the necessary papers
+prepared, and no one has any suspicion. I can scarcely believe that my
+marriage is so near.... No preparations will be made for me; all must be
+conducted with the greatest secrecy. When Barbara married, she had no
+reason to hide herself; all Maleszow was in commotion on her account.
+
+If I could only see the prince royal, I should feel consoled. But
+sometimes two whole days pass by without any possibility of meeting him.
+He is afraid of exciting the king's suspicions, and still more, those of
+Bruhl; he avoids me at all public assemblies, and comes less frequently
+to the prince palatine's. To all these painful necessities of my
+position must I submit.
+
+Yesterday evening, at Madame Moszynska's _soirée_, I accidentally
+overheard a conversation which pained me deeply. A gentleman whom I did
+not know, said to his neighbor: 'But the Starostine Krasinska is
+terribly changed!' The answer was: 'That is not at all astonishing, for
+the poor young girl is madly in love with the prince royal, and he is
+somewhat capricious; when he sees a pretty woman, he falls in love with
+her immediately, and now he is all devotion to Madame Potocka, and has
+eyes for no one but her.'
+
+I am sure the prince pretends to be occupied with other women that he
+may the more readily conceal his real feelings, and yet I shuddered when
+I heard this conversation. It is really frightful to be the subject of
+such improper pleasantries!
+
+If I only had a friend in whom I could confide, and whose advice I could
+ask! My maid is as stupid as an owl, and suspects nothing, but
+notwithstanding, she is to be sent to the interior of Lithuania, and in
+a few days her place will be supplied by a middle-aged married lady of
+good birth and acknowledged discretion. I have not seen her yet, and I
+have no one to consult with regard to my wedding toilette. For want of a
+better adviser, I consulted the prince palatine, and he replied: 'Dress
+as you do every day.'
+
+What a strange destiny! I am making the most brilliant marriage in the
+whole kingdom, and yet my shoemaker's daughter will have a trousseau and
+wedding festivities which I am forced to envy.
+
+
+WARSAW, Wednesday, _November 4th, 1760._
+
+My destiny is accomplished, and I am the prince royal's wife! We have
+sworn before God eternal love and fidelity; he is mine, irrevocably
+mine! Ah! how sweet, and yet how cruel was that moment! They were forced
+to hurry the ceremony, as we feared discovery.
+
+I saw nothing of the prince royal during the week preceding my marriage;
+he feigned sickness, and did not leave his room; he has refused to-day
+invitations to dinner at the prince primates, the ambassadors, and even
+one to the ball given by the grand general of the crown: his supposed
+illness was the pretext on which he freed himself from these
+obligations.
+
+My former waiting woman was sent away day before yesterday, and
+yesterday came the new one, who has sworn upon the crucifix to be silent
+upon all she may see and hear.
+
+At five o'clock this morning, the prince palatine knocked at my door; I
+had been dressed for at least two hours. We departed as noiselessly as
+possible, the prince royal and Prince Martin Lubomirski met us at the
+palace gate.... The night was dark, the wind blew, and the cold was
+intense. We went on foot to the Carmelite church, because it is the
+nearest: our good priest already stood before the altar. If the prince
+royal had not supported me, I should have fallen many times during the
+passage.
+
+And how sad and melancholy was all within the church! On all sides the
+silence and darkness of the grave! Two wax tapers burned upon the altar,
+casting a dim and uncertain light, while the sound of our own steps was
+the only sign of life heard within the solemn and sombre vault of the
+temple. The ceremony did not last ten minutes, the curate made all
+possible haste, and we fled the church as if we had committed some
+crime. The prince royal returned with us: Prince Martin wished him to go
+at once to the palace, but he would not leave me, and with great
+difficulty did he at length part from me.
+
+My dress was such as I wear every day. I had only dared to place one
+little branch of rosemary in my hair.... While I was dressing, I thought
+of Barbara's wedding, and could not refrain from weeping.... It was not
+my mother who prepared the ducat, the morsel of bread, the salt, and the
+sugar, which the betrothed should bear with her on her wedding day; and
+so, at the last moment, I forgot them.
+
+I am now alone in my chamber; not a single friendly eye will say to me:
+'Be happy!' My parents have not blessed me.... Profound silence reigns
+in every direction, all are yet asleep, and this light burns as if near
+a corpse.... Ah! my God! what a mournful festival! Were it not for this
+feverish agitation and this wedding ring, which I must soon take off and
+hide from every eye, I should believe all these events to be merely a
+dream.... But no, I am his, and God has received our vows.
+
+
+SULGOSTOW, Monday, _December 24th._
+
+I thought when I married that I would no longer have any occasion to
+write in my journal: I believed that a friend, another me, would be the
+depositary of all my thoughts. I said to myself: 'Why should I write,
+when I will tell all to the prince royal (it seems to me as if I could
+call him thus during my whole life)? He does not know enough Polish to
+read my diary, and consequently it is useless.' But everything separates
+me from my well-beloved husband; I will continue to write that I may be
+more closely bound to him, that I may preserve all the remembrances
+which come to me from him.... I am pursued by a pitiless fate! Ah! what
+despair is at my heart!... When shall I see him again?
+
+These last few days have been fearful! I thank Heaven that I am not yet
+mad! The princess palatiness has sent me from her house, driven me out
+as if I were unworthy to remain.... I have taken refuge with my sister
+at Sulgostow: when I arrived, I sent for Barbara and her husband, and
+said to them: 'Oh, have pity, have pity on me, for I am innocent; I am
+the prince royal's wife!'
+
+My poor sister, to whom the whole transaction was a mystery, thought I
+had lost my reason, and was about calling in her maids to aid me. I
+endeavored to calm her fears, and to-day I have confided to her all my
+sorrows.
+
+I will try to write down all these recent events. If God ever permits me
+to enjoy happiness and tranquillity, I will again read these pages, and
+will better appreciate the value of a quiet felicity.
+
+Six weeks passed after our marriage, and no one had the least suspicion:
+neither the king, the court, nor the watchful society surrounding me,
+had penetrated our secret; all called me as usual, the Starostine
+Krasinska. The prince royal, under the pretext of his health, went
+nowhere, and the prince palatine managed our interviews. But a week
+since the prince royal began to go out, and paid a visit to my aunt, the
+princess. I was in the saloon when he was announced; it was the first
+time since our marriage that I had seen him in presence of a third
+person, and I found it impossible to hide my confusion. I could not see
+and hear him without telling him through my eyes that I loved him.
+
+The princess observed me. When he was gone, she scolded me, and
+reproached me with what she called my coquetry and imprudence; I could
+not bear her injustice, and very rashly replied, that no one had a right
+to blame me when my own conscience absolved me. The prince royal came
+again the next day; the princess was abstracted, and a dissatisfaction,
+which she strove in vain to disguise, appeared in her whole manner. He
+was entirely occupied with me, and did not perceive the storm which was
+gathering; not having been able to speak with me alone on that day, he
+had written to me, and while pretending to play with my work basket, he
+slipped a note into it. The princess saw it, and as soon as he had gone,
+seized upon the fatal note, which was addressed to: 'My well beloved.'
+
+I can never describe her anger and indignation. How did I ever live
+through that horrible scene!...
+
+'Your _intrigues_,' she cried, 'will never succeed in my house; you are
+the horror, the shame, and the ignominy of your family, and you shall
+not disgrace my mansion. I have already taken measures to put an end to
+your infamous conduct; here is a copy of the letter sent by me this
+morning to the minister, Bruhl. I tell him that honor is dearer and more
+sacred to me than all family ties, that an ambitious hope will never
+induce me to renounce the duties which it imposes upon me, and that I
+now esteem it my duty to inform him that the prince royal loves Frances
+Krasinska. I conjure the minister to do all in his power to end this
+intrigue while there is yet time. I will prove that I have nothing to do
+with this abomination, and that if I have been in fault, it was because
+I placed such implicit confidence in my niece's virtue. Yes--the king
+himself, at this very moment, probably knows the whole extent of your
+shame and your insane pride.'
+
+'The king!' I cried, almost out of my senses, 'the king! Ah! Let no one
+tell him that I am the prince royal's wife; let no one tell him that, or
+I shall die at your feet!'
+
+Lost to all memory, all sense, except that of the fearful abyss just
+opened before me, I thus confessed the secret which no personal
+invective or humiliation could have drawn from me.
+
+'How?' she replied, 'the wife of the prince royal! You! his wife!'
+
+This word recalled me to myself, and led me to comprehend the enormity
+of my fault. I shuddered when I thought of the prince's anger, and I saw
+but one chance for safety, and that was by confessing all to the
+princess.
+
+I fell at her feet, imploring, her to forgive the past, and keep our
+secret. Whether she was offended by the tardiness of my confession, or
+whether she thought she had gone too far to retrace her steps, I know
+not, but she remained implacable, and with cold and repulsive dignity
+commanded me to rise, saying:
+
+'So great a lady should never be found at any one's feet, and I offer
+you a thousand apologies for my conduct toward you.'
+
+I attempted to kiss her hand, but she withdrew it, and ended by saying
+that her house was unworthy of a lady of my quality, of a princess
+royal, of an independent duchess, of the future Queen of Poland. She
+then made all the preparations necessary for my departure.
+
+I retained strength enough to control my feelings, for which I thank
+God: a momentary flash of anger did not cause me to forget so many
+proofs of kindness and affection, and, with the docility of a girl of
+sixteen, I prepared to depart, although I was entirely ignorant where I
+should go to, or who would offer me protection and an asylum.... I
+believe the word _Sulgostow_ was uttered either by myself or by the
+princess. The valet who came to take the princess's orders during the
+latter part of our conversation, mentioned throughout the mansion that I
+was going to Sulgostow to pass the Christmas holidays.
+
+Chance decided my fate, and, incapable of forming any resolution, I was
+happy in permitting myself to be guided by others. Before I left, I
+wrote a long letter to the prince royal, which I confided to the
+princess. In less than two hours all my arrangements were made; I came
+and went, I acted mechanically, without fixed thought or purpose; I was
+finally placed in the carriage with my lady companion, and the horses
+bore us rapidly away from Warsaw.
+
+When I beheld the walls of Sulgostow, I began to think upon how I could
+best acquaint my sister with these incredible events; but once in her
+presence, my confusion was such that I lost the power of measuring my
+words, and hence she fancied I had gone mad....
+
+Now that all has been explained, we laugh together over this strange
+mistake, but such laughter is only a momentary forgetfulness of my
+position, and a passing truce to my torment. These first two days have
+been most painful, for I have as yet heard nothing from the prince
+royal. I cannot express my grief and my anguish; my health must be very
+strong not to have suffered more from such torments.... At least, may I
+not hope that my dreams of bliss will one day be realized?
+
+
+
+
+THE GREAT STRUGGLE.
+
+
+Is it true that 'our democratic institutions are now on trial?'
+Everybody, or nearly everybody, says so. _The London Times_ says so, and
+is or has been gloating over their failure. Many of our 'able editors'
+say so, and are trying desperately to prove that they will not fail.
+Thus, while there is a wide difference in opinion as to what may be the
+result, there seems to be a quite general agreement as to the fact that
+the trial is going on. There appears to be no suspicion that the
+question is not properly stated. Doubtless the assertion will excite
+surprise, if heeded at all, that in fact the great struggle here and now
+is _not_ between aristocracy or despotism on the one hand, and democracy
+on the other. Most people in the United States have come to entertain
+the fixed idea that the only natural political antagonisms are
+democratic as opposed to despotic in any and all shapes. And this idea
+has become so ingrained in the American mind that it will be difficult
+to gain credence for the assertion that the terms constitutionalism and
+absolutism represent the forces or systems which, have really been
+antagonistic ever since Christianity began to affect and animate social
+and political relations.
+
+It may be a new idea to many readers that absolutism can be democratic,
+as well as aristocratic or autocratic. Yet such is the fact, and the
+whole history of Greece and Rome proves it. Plato, the friend of the
+people, taught the absolute power of the state--of the power holder,
+whoever that might be, whether the people, the aristocracy, the
+triumvirate, the archon, or the consul. It was not possible for Plato,
+Demosthenes, or Cicero, to conceive the idea of constitutionalism.
+
+Wherever the will of the power holder operates _directly_ upon the
+subject or object, there is absolutism. Interpose a _medium_ between the
+two, separate the law _maker_ from the law _executor_, make _both_ the
+subjects or servants of the law, and then, if the people are virtuous,
+you can harmonize private liberty with public order. The individual must
+not be absorbed by the state; individual liberty must not be merged in
+absolutism. Nor must the state go down before individualism.
+
+The problem is to render possible and reconcile the coexistence of the
+largest private liberty and the highest public authority. This implies
+the idea of _mediation_. There must be _mediatizing_ institutions
+standing between the state and the individual, insuring the safe
+transmission of power, and guaranteeing justice between the state and
+individuals, as well as between individuals in their relations with each
+other. This done, you realize or actualize the grand idea of mediation
+in the political relations of men. The distinguishing idea of
+Christianity--the God-man reconciling man with God, and thus harmonizing
+the finite with the infinite--this idea must actualize itself in the
+affairs of men, in order to harmonize perfect liberty with salutary
+authority. Animated by this idea, penetrated with profoundest belief of
+the infinite worth of the individual man because the God-man had
+wonderfully renewed his nature, the early Christian heroes and martyrs
+took hold of the hostile and disorganized elements of European
+society--the fragments of the Roman empire on the one hand, and the
+barbarians of the north on the other--and brought order out of chaos.
+They re-organized society by naturally, though slowly, developing those
+numerous intermediary institutions--guilds, corporations, trial by jury,
+the judiciary, and representation of interests, orders, guilds and
+corporations, _not of individual heads_, in Parliament--all which, as a
+living, harmonious system, constitute, or _did_ constitute, the English
+Constitution, and were essentially reproduced in the Constitution of the
+United States, and which wonderfully distinguish constitutionalism from
+absolutism.
+
+'The will of the emperor has the force of law,' was the fundamental
+maxim of the civil law. Emperor, imperator;--hence, imperialism,
+Cæsarism, absolutism. That maxim obtained with pagans--civilized it may
+be, but none the less pagans--whose theory or gospel was that 'man is
+his own end.' Man's infinite moral worth as man, was not known or not
+recognized in the pagan civilization of the classic Greeks and Romans.
+Hence the state, which outlived the individual, was of more importance
+than the individual, and naturally absorbed the individual. Man being
+his own end, and existence being next to impossible without society, the
+state was the best means to obtain his end, and therefore Plato taught
+that man lives for the state, must be trained up for the state, belongs
+to the state, and is of no value outside of the state. Hence the pagan
+civilization of Greece and Rome, being intensely human, while it became
+very splendid and refined, became also, and could not help becoming
+intensely and unutterably corrupt--so corrupt that St. Paul refrained
+from finishing the disgusting catalogue of its awful sins and vices. The
+church, Christianity, could save _man_, but it could not save the
+_empire_. The principle of social harmony being lost, government and
+society fell to pieces.
+
+On a certain memorable occasion, the present Emperor of France uttered
+the mystic phrase: _The empire is peace!_ So it is. But how? I answer:
+Several centuries of Godless French statesmanship--engineered by men
+who, though nominal Christians or Catholics, discarded God in affairs of
+state, and attempted to rule without God in the world, except to use Him
+(pardon the expression) as a sort of scarecrow for the 'lower
+orders'--resulted in gradually drying up those intermediary institutions
+which had served at once to develop a manly civic life and to protect
+private liberty, and in reabsorbing and concentrating all power in the
+central government. Even in the early part of these centuries, Louis the
+Fourteenth made his boast, 'I am the state,' and thereby announced the
+substantial reinauguration of pagan imperialism or absolutism. His
+successors, aided by the ever-growing influence of the renaissance,
+which was but the revivification of classic paganism, continued his
+system, and when at last their cruel, inhuman, and unchristian
+oppressions drove men to the assertion of their rights in the fierce
+whirlwind of the French Revolution, that very assertion, 'clad in hell
+fire,' as Carlyle says, was based on the self-same fundamental principle
+that 'man is his own end.' The Revolution also ignored the divine idea,
+and failed. The subsequent revolutions, and especially that of 1848,
+were no wiser. The last was simply the triumph of democratic absolutism
+by universal suffrage, in place of autocratic or monarchic absolutism,
+as De Tocqueville clearly demonstrated in his 'Ancient Regime and the
+Revolution.' De Tocqueville had thoroughly mastered the constitutional
+system, as had also Lacordaire and Montalembert, and he, as well as
+they, joined the so-called republican movement of 1848, hoping that
+constitutionalism would triumph at last. But he soon saw that European
+Democrats or Red Republicans did not comprehend the idea;--that, in
+fact, they meant absolutism, though democratic; and he retired in
+disappointment, though calm hopefulness, to his estate, and there wrote
+his 'Ancient Regime.'
+
+True, the Red Republicans issued high-sounding phrases about liberty,
+rights of man, and the right of the people to govern. But they meant
+rights of man independent of God, and the right of the people to be
+absolute; and they continued the system of centralism, or government by
+bureaucracy, without God. The French have learned by sad experience that
+there is a thousand times more danger of change, turbulence, and
+disruption, under democratic absolutism than under autocratic
+absolutism. Louis Napoleon knows it well, and hence his significant
+phrase, 'The empire is peace.' It is the strong iron band around a mass
+of antagonistic atoms, which have lost, at least in the sphere of
+politics, the cohesive principle of harmony: union with each other by
+virtue of union with the God-man.
+
+Through all the terrific scenes of turbulence and carnage, the frequent
+dynastic changes, and the fearful scourgings of the French empire since
+the days of Louis the Fourteenth, the nation itself has not been
+destroyed, because, after all, there was and is a vast deal of virtue in
+the people as individuals. God never destroyed a nation for its public
+or national sins until the people themselves had become individually
+thoroughly corrupt. The city of Sodom itself would have been spared had
+even _five_ good men been found therein. And so the French nation does
+not go to pieces, as the Roman empire did, because, notwithstanding the
+vice of Paris, of which we hear and read so much, and the godlessness of
+French statesmanship and French literature, the great body of the
+people, even in Paris, still retain their integrity, and a wholesome
+fear of God. But because their current literature is heathenish, and
+their statesmanship has ignored honesty and the divine origin of man's
+rights, those intermediary institutions, which were developed by
+Christian charity from the idea that man's rights are sacred because
+God-given and dignified by the God-man, have been undermined or
+disanimated, and it has come to pass that the only government possible,
+where the divine idea is eliminated from politics, is one in the form of
+absolutism. How long this form will continue in France remains to be
+seen. But it is certain that European Democrats or Red Republicans, with
+their ideas--or rather lack of ideas--will never comprehend the
+constitutional system, and will never rehabilitate or reanimate those
+intermediary municipal institutions, the monuments of which De
+Tocqueville was surprised to find scattered so generally through
+continental Europe, as well as in England and in New England.
+
+Turning, now, to the United States, it is plainly evident that the whole
+tendency of our politics, intensely accelerated by the influence of
+Jefferson's French views, has been, first, to lose out of mind the true
+significance of those intermediary institutions embodied in the common
+law of England, and inherited by us from the mother country; and,
+secondly, to depreciate them as standing in the way of the people's
+will, or popular sovereignty; and, lastly, to break them down entirely,
+and substitute for them the tyranny of an irresponsible majority, or
+democratic absolutism. The persistent efforts to get rid of grand juries
+and trial by jury, to popularize the judiciary, to make senatorial terms
+dependent on changing party majorities, to reduce the representative to
+a mere deputy, and other similar schemes to bring about the direct
+_unmediatized_ operation of the popular will upon the subject, are all
+illustrations of this direful tendency.
+
+Concurrently with, and greatly aiding this tendency, there has been a
+gradual decay of the manly virtue that charactized our fathers. Men have
+become less conscientious in the performance of their public duties, and
+more regardless of private rights. A genuine manly self-respect implies
+sincere respect for the rights of others, and both inevitably decay as
+the fear of God dies out. When men continually act on the idea that man
+is his own end, and when each one is intensely engaged in seeking his
+own interest, what can result but jarring of interests, opposition,
+repulsion, disregard of law in so far as it clashes with private ends,
+and thus, finally, social and political disruption more or less
+extensive? Thus our trouble lies deeper than slavery. Remove the canker
+of slavery to-day, and yet the tendency to disruption and dissolution
+would evermore go on while prevailing ideas actuated society. The
+remorseless mill of selfishness would keep on grinding, grinding,
+grinding toward dissolution. Look at our literature, our architecture,
+our science, our political and moral theories, our social arrangements
+generally, and especially our hideous, almost diabolical arrangements or
+lack of arrangements for the care of the poor and the unfortunate, and
+what a confused jumble they present! Having no grand animating idea, no
+all-pervading principle of harmony, no universally recognized standard
+for anything, we are necessarily the most anomalous, amorphous,
+helter-skelter aggregation of independent and antagonistic
+individualities ever gathered together since nations began to exist.
+What can prevent such an agglomeration from falling to pieces? What can
+hold it together?
+
+Thus, with the frightful decay of Christian, and even manly
+virtue--alas! too plainly visible all around us--and the entire
+divorcement of morality or religious ideas from politics, what fate is
+in store for us but the inevitable triumph of anarchy, and through it of
+despotism? Herein lies our real danger. The great struggle is _not_, as
+many assert, between aristocracy, or monarchy, or despotism and
+democracy. But it is between despotism or absolutism and
+constitutionalism. It is the struggle of the pagan system (revived by
+the renaissance), based on the idea that 'man is his own end,' with the
+Christian system based on the idea of mediation, involving the idea that
+the true end of man is God. It is not true, therefore, that democratic
+institutions are now on trial in the United States. Democracy, pure and
+simple, precisely in the form it is assuming or has assumed in this
+country, was tried long ago. It was tried in ancient Greece, and found
+wanting. It was tried in Rome, and ended in the dissolution of the
+empire. And in both these trials it had, to begin with, a much more
+highly finished, fresh, robust, and whole-souled manhood to work with
+and to work upon than that of modern democracy. More recently it was
+tried in France, and for the present is blooming in the despotism of
+Napoleon III.
+
+The question, then, I repeat, is whether constitutionalism, as
+originally developed in England and embodied and reproduced by our
+fathers--who, perhaps, 'builded wiser than they knew'--can come safely
+through this crisis and triumph over the two ideas which, thus far, have
+predominated in the American mind, and driven us with fearful strides
+toward absolutism. 'Every man for himself' is the first idea. In the
+family, in church, in politics, in commerce, in all social and political
+relations, every man striving, pushing, scrambling, straining every
+nerve to advance himself, regardless of his neighbor or the public
+interest--such everywhere is the confused and hideous picture of
+American society. Selfishness predominates, and selfishness is
+repellant. So it was before the ages were, when Lucifer, in the pride of
+self, refused obedience to the Word. So it is even yet, and its
+inevitable tendency is to hostile isolation and final dissolution. Its
+logical consequence is anarchy. But anarchy is intolerable, and a
+civilized people, yea, even barbarians, will submit to anything rather
+than social and political chaos. Then comes the iron band of despotism
+to hold together the antagonistic fragments.
+
+'The supremacy of the people's will' is the second idea. _Vox Populi,
+vox Dei!_ What the people decree is right, and nothing must stand
+between their will and the subject or object upon which it operates!
+Such is the political gospel according to democracy, and fifty years'
+earnest proclamation thereof has wellnigh abolished all the barriers of
+constitutionalism--barriers, which stood like faithful guardians, stern
+but just, between the Individual and the State, which reconciled the
+harmonious coexistence of private liberty and public power--an idea
+wholly unknown in pagan or classic civilization--and which at once
+prevented the anarchy of individualism and the tyranny of absolutism.
+But true it is, whatever a people constantly assert they come to
+believe, and whatever they believe will at last crystallize itself in
+action. And thus, with the oft-repeated and ever-increasing assertion
+that 'man is his own end,' and 'is sufficient unto himself,' and with
+that other assertion that the will of the people is law and must act
+directly upon its object, we have gradually lost out of mind the true
+significance of the constitutional system. Those numberless intermediary
+institutions--which logically _grew_ out of the Christian idea of
+mediation, as the oak naturally grows out of the acorn, and which
+wonderfully reconciled liberty with authority, freedom with order, the
+finite with the infinite--have become more and more obsolete, and less
+and less understood. They have crumbled away like the stately columns of
+a magnificent but neglected cathedral. They have become dead branches
+that must be lopped off. They are rubbish that must be removed--relics
+of monarchy or aristocracy, cunningly devised inventions of priestcraft
+or kingcraft, that retard the triumph of democracy.
+
+If the will of the people is supreme, then away with your high and
+life-long judges, or at least let them be elected by the people and for
+very brief terms. Let grand juries be voted a humbug, and trial by jury
+a nuisance. Let electoral colleges be abolished as meaningless and
+cumbersome anomalies. Let the President be the direct representative of
+a mighty people, and act without let or hindrance--only let him act with
+gigantic energy and swift execution. Let senatorial terms be dependent
+upon changing legislative majorities. In fact, let the two legislative
+houses, as being wholly useless and very expensive, be reduced to one.
+Let the representative be a tongue-bound deputy, and not a free, manly,
+self-acting agent. Let county boards of supervisors give way to the one
+man power of the county judge. And, in short, let us go on, as we have
+been going on, democratizing or popularising our institutions,
+'improving,' or rather impairing and tearing down one after another of
+the venerable columns of the original system, until every safeguard of
+personal freedom is removed, and there shall be nothing left to restrain
+the giant sway of unmitigated and unmediatized public power. Then we
+shall have despotism or absolutism, pure and simple--and none the less
+so because it shall be democratic.
+
+The London _Times_ will have nothing to jubilate over if what it
+mistakenly calls our 'trial of democratic institutions' shall be
+unsuccessful. For in fact, our constitutional system was but the
+reproduction, in a broader field and on a grander scale, of the British
+Constitution, in all its essential features, differing only in what
+philosophic historians call 'accidentals.' And if that system finally
+fails here, _The Times_ may have a 'most comfortable assurance' that it
+will fail in England. True, we have more rapidly departed from and
+defaced that system than the English, chiefly because, in escaping from
+the fogs of England, we left behind us that stolid conservatism, that
+bulldog tenacity for the old because it is old, which are instinctive in
+the narrow-minded islanders. But they, just as much as we, have lost out
+of mind the significance of the Christian idea. They, just as much as
+we, have become thoroughly paganized--have become saturated with the
+central idea of pagan civilization, that man is his own end, lives for
+himself alone, and not for God, and therefore is inferior to and must be
+the mere tool of the state. If Americans hold that the state can _make_
+right, as well as enforce it, so do the English. If divine sanctions
+have no longer any significance in America, so have they not in England.
+If expediency, and not God's truth, is the universal rule of action
+here, so is it there. If every American or 'Yankee' seeks his own end in
+his own way, regardless of his neighbor, his Government, and his God, so
+does every Englishman. The Englishman has no God except his belly or his
+purse. Years ago it was said by one of themselves, 'The hell of the
+English is--_not to make money_,' If the divine principle of charity is
+a myth, and selfishness rages against selfishness here, much more so
+with a people whose only God is Mammon. And finally, if inevitable
+dissolution shall overtake us, and we rush into absolutism as a refuge
+from anarchy, we shall have the melancholy pleasure--if it can be a
+pleasure--of hailing the almost simultaneous wreck of the British
+Constitution, whose noble ruins, no less than ours, would be mournful
+monumental witnesses to the glory of ages wiser and better than our
+own.
+
+
+
+
+AMERICAN FINANCES AND RESOURCES.
+
+LETTER NO. II, FROM HON. ROBERT J. WALKER.
+
+
+  LONDON, _10 Half Moon Street, Piccadilly_,
+  October 8, 1863.
+
+In view of the fact that the people of the United Kingdom and of the
+United States are mainly of the same race, speak the same language, have
+the same literature, ancestry, and common law, with the same history for
+centuries, and a reciprocal commerce exceeding that of all the rest of
+the world, it is amazing how little is known in each country of the
+other. This condition of affairs is most unfavorable to the continuance
+of peace and good will between two great and kindred nations. It causes
+constant misapprehension by each party of the acts and motives of the
+other, arrests the development of friendly feeling, and retards the
+advance of commercial freedom. It excites almost daily rumors of
+impending war, disturbing the course of trade, causing large mercantile
+losses, and great unnecessary Government expenditures. If war has not
+ensued, it has led to angry controversy and bitter recrimination. It is
+sowing broadcast in both countries the seeds of international hatred,
+rendering England and America two hostile camps, frowning mutual
+defiance; and, if not terminating in war, must, if not arrested, end in
+embargoes and non-intercourse, or discriminating duties on imports and
+tonnage, greatly injurious to both countries. I know it has become
+fashionable in England and America to sneer at the fact of our common
+origin; but the great truth still exists, and is fraught with momentous
+consequences, for good or evil, to both nations, and to mankind. The
+United States were colonized mainly by the people of England. Ten of our
+original thirteen States bear English names, as do also nearly all their
+counties, townships, cities, and villages.
+
+Leaving to Englishmen the task of disabusing the Americans in regard to
+their own country, I will endeavor to present, in a condensed form, some
+material and authentic facts as regards the United States, for the
+consideration of the people of the United Kingdom. I read and hear every
+day here predictions of our impending bankruptcy and national
+dissolution; our wealth and resources depreciated; our cause, our
+people, our armies, and Government decried; and a war in words and in
+the press prosecuted against us with vindictive fury. All this hostility
+is fully reciprocated in America; and if the war is not confined to
+words and types, it will not be the fault of agitators in both
+countries. So far as an American can, even in part, arrest this fatal
+progress of misapprehension, by communicating information in regard to
+his own country, is the principal purpose of these essays.
+
+In answer to the daily predictions here of our impending ruin and
+national bankruptcy, I shall first discuss the question of our wealth,
+resources, and material progress.
+
+AREA.--The area of the United States, including lakes and
+rivers, is 3,250,000 square miles, being larger than all Europe. (Rep.
+Sec. of Interior and of Com. of Gen. Land Office for Dec. 1860, p. 13.)
+
+Our land surface is 3,010,370 square miles, being 1,926,636,000 acres.
+This area is compact and contiguous, divided into States and
+Territories, united by lakes, rivers, canals, and railroads. We have no
+colonies. Congress governs the nation by what the Constitution declares
+to be '_the supreme law_,' whilst local regulations are prescribed and
+administered by the several States and Territories. We front on the two
+great oceans--the Atlantic and Pacific; extending from the St. Lawrence
+and the lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, from near the 24th to the 49th
+parallel of north latitude; and in longitude, from 67° 25' to 124° 40'
+west of Greenwich. Our location on the globe as regards its land surface
+is central, and all within the temperate zone. No empire of contiguous
+territory possesses such a variety of climate, soil, forests and
+prairies, fruits and fisheries, animal, vegetable, mineral, and
+agricultural products. We have all those of Europe, with many in
+addition, and a climate (on the average) more salubrious, and with
+greater longevity, as shown by the international census. We have a far
+more fertile soil and genial sun, with longer and better seasons for
+crops and stock; and already, in our infancy, with our vast products,
+feed and clothe many millions in Europe and other continents. Last year
+our exports to foreign countries of breadstuffs and provisions, from the
+loyal States alone, were of the value of $108,000,000. (Table of Com.
+and Nav. 1860.)
+
+If as well cultivated as England, our country could much more than feed
+and clothe the whole population of the world. If as densely settled as
+England, our population would be more than twelve hundred millions,
+exceeding that of all the earth. If as densely settled as Massachusetts
+(among the least fertile of all our States), we would number 513,000,000
+inhabitants.
+
+We have seen that our area exceeds that of Europe, with a far more
+genial sun and fertile soil, and capable of yielding more than double
+the amount of agricultural products and of sustaining more than twice
+the number of inhabitants. We have a greater extent of mines than all
+Europe, especially of coal, iron, gold, silver, and quicksilver. Our
+coal alone, as stated by Sir William Armstrong (the highest British
+authority), is 32 times as great as that of the United Kingdom, and our
+iron will bear a similar proportion.
+
+Our maritime front is 5,120 miles; but our whole coast line, including
+bays, sounds, and rivers, up to the head of tide water, is 33,663 miles.
+(Ex. Doc. No. 7, pp. 75, 76, Official Report of Professor A. D. Bache,
+Superintendent of U. S. Coast Survey, Dec. 5th, 1848.) Our own lake
+shore line is 3,620 miles. (Top. Rep. ib. 77.)
+
+The shore line of the Mississippi river above tide water and its
+tributaries, is 35,644 (ib. 77); and of all our other rivers, above tide
+water, is 49,857 miles, making in all 122,784 miles. Of this stupendous
+water mileage, more than one half is navigable by steam, employing an
+interior steam tonnage exceeding that of all the internal steam tonnage
+of the rest of the world. No country is arterialized by such a vast
+system of navigable streams, to have constructed which as canals of
+equal capacity would have cost more than ten billions of dollars, and
+then these canals would have been subjected to large tolls, the cost of
+their annual repairs would have been enormous, and the interruption by
+lockage a serious obstacle. We may rest assured then, that, all Europe
+combined, can never have such facilities for cheap water communication
+as the United States. This is a mighty element in estimating the power
+and progress of a nation. It shows, also, why we have no such deserts as
+Sahara, so small a portion of our lands requiring manures or irrigation,
+and no general failures of crops, with so few even partial failures of
+any one crop.
+
+We have more deep, capacious, and safe harbors, accessible at _all
+tides_, than all Europe, with more than twenty capable of receiving the
+_Great Eastern_. (Charts, U. S. Coast Survey.)
+
+Our hydraulic power (including Niagara) far exceeds that of all Europe.
+We have more timber than all Europe, including most varieties, useful
+and ornamental. We have, including cotton, vastly more of the raw
+material for manufactures than all Europe. With all these vast natural
+advantages, has man, in our country, performed his duty, in availing
+himself of the bounteous gifts of Providence? We are considering now the
+question of our material progress, in regard to which, the following
+official data are presented.
+
+We have completed since 1790, 5,782 miles of canals, from 4 to 10 feet
+deep, and from 40 to 75 feet wide, costing $148,000,000, and mostly
+navigable by steam. (Census Table, 1860, No. 39.)
+
+We have constructed since 1829, 33,698 miles of railroad (more than all
+the rest of the world), costing $1,258,922,729. (Table 38, Census of
+1860, and Addenda.)
+
+We have in operation on the land, more miles of telegraph than all the
+world, a single route, from New York to San Francisco, being 3,500
+miles.
+
+Our lighthouses exceed in number those of any other country, and we have
+no light-dues, as in England.
+
+Our coast survey, executed by Professor Bache, Superintendent of the U.
+S. Coast Survey, exceeds in extent and accuracy that of any other
+country. On this subject, we have the united opinions of British and
+Continental savans.
+
+We have made since 1790, 1,505,454 linear miles of survey of the public
+lands of the United States, belonging to the Government, including
+460,000,000 of acres already divided into townships, each six miles
+square (23,040 acres), subdivided into square miles, called sections, of
+640 acres each, and each section further subdivided into 16 lots of 40
+acres each.
+
+TONNAGE.--The total tonnage of the United States was in--
+
+        1814,      1,368,127 tons.
+  June, 1851,      3,772,439  "
+  June, 1861,      5,539,812  "
+
+At the same rate of increase as from 1851 to 1861, our tonnage would be,
+in
+
+  1871,        8,134,578 tons.
+  1881,       11,952,817  "
+  1891,       17,541,514  "
+  1901,       25,758,948  "
+       (_Table of Com. and Nav._)
+
+At the close of this century our tonnage then, at this rate of increase,
+would far exceed that of all the rest of the world.
+
+GOLD AND SILVER.--The aggregate product of our gold and silver
+mines approaches now _one billion of dollars_, most of which has been
+converted into coin at our mint. Nearly all of this product has been
+obtained since the discovery of gold in California. Less than two per
+cent. of the precious metals has been the product of the seceded States.
+This gold and silver are found now in seven States, and nine
+Territories; the yield is rapidly augmenting, and new discoveries
+constantly developed.
+
+The Secretary of the Interior estimates the total product 'next year,'
+of our mines of precious metals, at '$100,000,000,' and when our
+railroad to the Pacific (traversing this region) is completed, his
+estimate of the 'annual yield' is '$150,000,000.' The mines are declared
+'inexhaustible' by the highest authority, and our Nevada silver mines
+are now admitted to be 'the richest in the world.' The completion of our
+imperial railroad, now progressing to the Pacific, will carry an immense
+population to the gold and silver regions, vastly increase the number of
+miners, diminish the cost of mining, and decrease the price of
+provisions and supplies to the laborers. When we add to this, the vast
+and increasing product of our quicksilver mines of California, so
+indispensable as an amalgam in producing gold and silver, as also the
+great and progressive improvement in processes and machinery for working
+the quartz veins, it is now believed that the estimates of our Secretary
+of the Interior, and Commissioner of the General Land Office, will be
+exceeded by the result. These mines of the precious metals are nearly
+all on the public lands of the United States; they are the _property of
+the Federal Government_, and their intrinsic value _exceeds our public
+debt_.
+
+PUBLIC LANDS.--The United States own an immense public domain,
+acquired by treaties with France, Spain, and Mexico, and by compacts
+with States and Indian tribes. This domain is thus described in the
+Report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, of November 29th,
+1860:
+
+     'Of the 3,250,000 of square miles which constitute the territorial
+     extent of the Union, the public lands embrace an area of 2,265,625
+     square miles, or 1,450,000,000 of acres, being more than two thirds
+     of our geographical extent, and nearly three times as large as the
+     United States at the ratification of the definitive treaty of peace
+     in 1783 with Great Britain. This empire domain extends from the
+     northern line of Texas, the Gulf of Mexico, reaching to the
+     Atlantic Ocean, northwesterly to the Canada line bordering upon the
+     great Lakes Erie, Huron, Michigan, and Superior, extending westward
+     to the Pacific Ocean, with Puget's Sound on the north, the
+     Mediterranean Sea of our extreme northwestern possessions.
+
+     'It includes fifteen sovereignties, known as the 'Land States,' and
+     an extent of territory sufficient for thirty-two additional, each
+     equal to the great central land State of Ohio.
+
+     'It embraces soils capable of abundant yield of the rich
+     productions of the tropics, of sugar, cotton, rice, tobacco, corn,
+     and the grape, the vintage, now a staple, particularly so of
+     California; of the great cereals, wheat and corn, in the Western,
+     Northwestern, and Pacific States, and in that vast interior region
+     from the valley of the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains;
+     and thence to the chain formed by the Sierra Nevada and Cascades,
+     the eastern wall of the Pacific slope, every variety of soil is
+     found revealing its wealth.
+
+     'Instead of dreary, inarable wastes, as supposed in earlier times,
+     the millions of buffalo, elk, deer, mountain sheep, the primitive
+     inhabitants of the soil, fed by the hand of nature, attest its
+     capacity for the abundant support of a dense population through the
+     skilful toil of the agriculturist, dealing with the earth under the
+     guidance of the science of the present age.
+
+     'Not only is the yield of food for man in this region abundant, but
+     it holds in its bosom the precious metals of gold, silver, with
+     cinnabar, the useful metals of iron, lead, copper, interspersed
+     with immense belts or strata of that propulsive element, coal, the
+     source of riches and power, and now the indispensable agent, not
+     only for domestic purposes of life, but in the machine shop, the
+     steam car, and steam vessel, quickening the advance of civilization
+     and the permanent settlement of the country, and being the agent of
+     active and constant intercommunication with every part of the
+     republic.'
+
+Kansas having been admitted since the date of this Report, our public
+domain, thus described officially, now includes the sixteen _land
+States_, and _all_ the Territories.
+
+Of this vast region (originally 1,450,000,000 acres), there was surveyed
+up to September, 1860, 441,067,915 acres, and 394,088,712 acres disposed
+of by sales, grants, etc., leaving, as the Commissioner states, 'the
+total area of unsold and unappropriated, of offered and unoffered lands
+of the public domain, 1,055,911,288 acres.' This is 'land surface,'
+exclusive of lakes, bays, rivers, etc., 1,055,911,288 acres, or
+1,649,861 square miles, and exceeds one half the area of the whole
+Union. The area of New York, being 47,000 square miles, is less than a
+thirty-fifth part of our public domain. England[3] (proper) has 50,922
+square miles, France 203,736, Prussia 107,921, and Germany 80,620 square
+miles. The area then of our public domain is more than eight times as
+large as France, more than fifteen times as large as Prussia, more than
+twenty times as large as Germany, more than thirty-two times as large as
+England, and larger (excluding Russia) than all Europe, containing more
+than 200 millions of people.
+
+As England (proper) contained in 1861, 18,949,916 inhabitants, if our
+public domain were as densely settled, its population would exceed 606
+millions; and it would be 260,497,561, if numbering as many to the
+square mile as Massachusetts. Its average fertility far exceeds that of
+Europe, as does also the extent of its mines, especially gold, silver,
+coal, and iron, with every variety of soil, climate, mineral and
+agricultural products.
+
+These lands are surveyed at the expense of the Government into townships
+of six miles square, subdivided into sections, and these into quarter
+sections (160) acres, set apart for homesteads. Our system of public
+surveys into squares, by lines running due north and south, east and
+west, is so simple as to have precluded all disputes as to boundary or
+title. This domain reaches from the 24th to the 49th parallel, from the
+lakes to the gulf, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Its isothermes
+(the lines of equal mean annual temperatures) strike on the north the
+coast of Norway midway, touch St. Petersburg in Russia, and pass through
+Manchooria on the coast of Asia, about three degrees south of the mouth
+of the Amour river. On the south, these isothermes run through Northern
+Africa, and nearly the centre of Egypt near Thebes, cross Northern
+Arabia, Persia, Northern Hindostan, and Southern China near Canton.
+
+Of this vast domain, less than two per cent. is cursed by slavery, which
+is prohibited by law in eleven of these land States, and in all the
+Territories.
+
+Now, however, within our present vast domain, not only the poor, but our
+own industrious classes and those of Europe, may not only find a home,
+but a farm for each settler, substantially as a free gift by the
+Government. Here all who would rather be owners than tenants, and wish
+to improve and cultivate their own soil, are invited. Here, too, all who
+would become equals among equals, citizens (not subjects) of a great and
+free country, enjoying the right of suffrage, and eligible to every
+office except the presidency, can come and occupy with us this great
+inheritance. Here liberty, equality, and fraternity reign supreme, not
+in theory, or in name only, but in truth and reality. This is the
+brotherhood of man, secured and protected by our organic law. Here the
+Constitution and the people are the only sovereigns, and the Government
+is administered by their elected agents, and for the benefit of the
+people. Those toiling elsewhere for wages that will scarcely support
+existence, for the education of whose children no provision is made by
+law, who are excluded from the right of suffrage, may come here and be
+voters and citizens, find a farm given as a homestead, free schools
+provided for their children at the public expense, and hold any office
+but the presidency, to which their children, born here, are eligible.
+What does Europe for any of its toiling millions who reject this
+munificent offer? He is worked and taxed there to his utmost endurance.
+He has the right to _work_, and _pay taxes_, but not to vote. Unschooled
+ignorance is his lot and that of his descendants. If a farmer, he works
+and improves the land of others, in constant terror of rent day, the
+landlord, and eviction. Indeed the annual rent of a single acre in
+England exceeds the price--$10 (£2. 2s. 8d.)--payable for the
+ownership in fee simple of the entire homestead of 160 acres, granted
+him here by the Government. For centuries that are past and for all time
+to come, there, severe toil, poverty, ignorance, the workhouse, or low
+wages, and disfranchisement, would seem to be his lot. Here, freedom,
+competence, the right of suffrage, the homestead farm, and free schools
+for his children.
+
+In selecting these homestead farms, the emigrant can have any
+temperature, from St. Petersburg to Canton. He can have a cold, a
+temperate, or a warm climate, and farming or gardening, grazing or
+vintage, varied by fishing or hunting. He can raise wheat, rye, Indian
+corn, oats, rice, indigo, cotton, tobacco, cane or maple sugar and
+molasses, sorghum, wool, peas and beans, Irish or sweet potatoes,
+barley, buckwheat, wine, butter, cheese, hay, clover, and all the
+grasses, hemp, hops, flax and flaxseed, silk, beeswax and honey, and
+poultry, in uncounted abundance. If he prefers a stock farm, he can
+raise horses, asses, and mules, camels, milch cows, working oxen, and
+other cattle, goats, sheep, and swine. In most locations, these will
+require neither housing nor feeding throughout the year. He can have
+orchards, and all the fruits and vegetables of Europe, and many in
+addition. He can have an Irish or German, Scotch, English or Welsh,
+French, Swiss, Norwegian, or American neighborhood. He can select the
+shores of oceans, lakes, or rivers; live on tide water or higher lands,
+valleys, or mountains. He can be near a church of his own denomination;
+the freedom of conscience is complete; he pays no tithes, nor church
+tax, except voluntarily. His sons and daughters, on reaching twenty-one
+years of age, or sooner, if the head of a family, are each entitled to a
+homestead of 160 acres; if he dies, the title is secured to his widow,
+children, or heirs. Our flag is his, and covers him everywhere with its
+protection. He is our brother; and he and his children will enjoy with
+us the same heritage of competence and freedom. He comes where labor is
+king, and toil is respected and rewarded. If before, or instead of
+receiving his homestead, he chooses to pursue his profession or
+business, to work at his trade, or for daily wages, he will find them
+double the European rate, and subsistence cheaper. From whatever part of
+Europe he may come, he will meet his countrymen here, and from them and
+us receive a cordial welcome. A Government which gives him a farm, the
+right to vote, and free schools for his children, must desire his
+welfare.
+
+Of this vast domain (more than thirty-two times as large as England) the
+Government of the United States grants substantially as a free gift, a
+_farm of 160 acres_ to every settler who will occupy and cultivate the
+same, the title being in fee simple, and free from all rent whatsoever.
+The settler may be _native_ or _European_, a present or future
+immigrant, including females as well as males, but must be at least
+twenty-one years of age, _or_ the head of a family. If an immigrant, the
+declaration must first be made of an _intention_ to become a citizen of
+the United States, when the grant is immediately made, without waiting
+for naturalization. When the children of the settler reach twenty-one
+years of age, or become the head of a family, they each receive from the
+Government a like donation of 160 acres. The intrinsic value of this
+public domain far exceeds the whole public debt of the United States.
+
+Our national wealth, by the last census, was $16,159,616,068, and its
+increase during the last ten years $8,925,481,011, or 126.45 per cent.
+(Census, 1860, p. 195.) Now, if, as a consequence of the Homestead Bill,
+there should be occupied, improved, and cultivated, during the next ten
+years, 100,000 additional farms by settlers, or only 10,000 per annum,
+it would make an aggregate of 16,000,000 acres. If, including houses,
+fences, barns, and other improvements, we should value each of these
+farms at ten dollars an acre, it would make an aggregate of
+$160,000,000. But if we add the product of these farms, allowing only
+one half of each (80 acres) to be cultivated, and the average annual
+value of the crops, stock included, to be only ten dollars per acre, it
+would give $80,000,000 a year, and, in ten years, $800,000,000,
+independent of the reinvestment of capital. It is clear that thus vast
+additional employment would be given to labor, freight to steamers,
+railroads, and canals, markets for manufactures, and augmented revenue.
+
+The homestead privilege will largely increase immigration. Now, beside
+the money brought here by immigrants, the census proves that the average
+annual value of the labor of Massachusetts, _per capita_, was, in 1860,
+$300 for each man, woman, and child. Assuming that of the immigrants at
+an average net annual value of only $100 each, or less than 33 cents a
+day, it would make, in ten years, at the rate of 200,000 each year, the
+following aggregate:
+
+   1st year,  200,000  =  $20,000,000
+   2d    "    400,000  "   40,000,000
+   3d    "    600,000  "   60,000,000
+   4th   "    800,000  "   80,000,000
+   5th   "  1,000,000  "  100,000,000
+   6th   "  1,200,000  "  120,000,000
+   7th   "  1,400,000  "  140,000,000
+   8th   "  1,600,000  "  160,000,000
+   9th   "  1,800,000  "  180,000,000
+  10th   "  2,000,000  "  200,000,000
+                        -------------
+                Total, $1,100,000,000
+
+In this table, the labor of all immigrants each year is properly added
+to those arriving the succeeding year, so as to make the aggregate, the
+last year, two millions. This would make the value of the labor of these
+two millions of immigrants, in ten years, $1,100,000,000, independent of
+the annual accumulation of capital, and the labor of the children of the
+immigrants after the first ten years, which, with their descendants,
+would go on constantly increasing.
+
+But, by the actual official returns (see page 14 of Census), the number
+of alien immigrants to the United States, from December, 1850, to
+December, 1860, was 2,598,216, or an annual average of 259,821, say
+260,000. The effect, then, of this immigration, on the basis of the last
+table, upon the increase of national wealth, was as follows:
+
+   1st year,   260,000  =  $26,000,000
+   2d    "     520,000  "   52,000,000
+   3d    "     780,000  "   78,000,000
+   4th   "   1,040,000  "  104,000,000
+   5th   "   1,300,000  "  130,000,000
+   6th   "   1,560,000  "  156,000,000
+   7th   "   1,820,000  "  182,000,000
+   8th   "   2,080,000  "  208,000,000
+   9th   "   2,340,000  "  234,000,000
+  10th   "   2,600,000  "  260,000,000
+                        --------------
+                 Total, $1,430,000,000
+
+Thus the value of the labor of the immigrants from 1850 to 1860 was
+fourteen hundred and thirty millions of dollars, making no allowance for
+the accumulation of capital by annual reinvestment, nor for the natural
+increase of population, amounting, by the census, in ten years, to about
+24 per cent. This addition to our wealth by the labor of the children,
+in the first ten years, would be small; but in the second, and each
+succeeding decennium, when we count children and their descendants, it
+would be large and constantly augmenting. But the census shows that our
+wealth increases each ten years at the rate of 126.45 per cent. Now,
+then, take our increase of wealth in consequence of immigration as
+before stated, and compound it at the rate of 126.45 per cent, every ten
+years, and the result is largely over three billions of dollars in 1870,
+and over seven billions of dollars in 1880, independent of the effect of
+any immigration succeeding 1860. If these results are astonishing, we
+must remember that immigration here is augmented population, and that it
+is population and labor that create wealth. Capital, indeed, is the
+accumulation of labor. Immigration, then, from 1850 to 1860, added to
+our national wealth a sum more than one third greater than our whole
+debt on the 1st of July last, and augmenting in a ratio much more rapid
+than its increase, and thus enabling us to bear the war expenses.
+
+As the homestead privilege must largely increase immigration, and add
+especially to the cultivation of our soil, it will contribute more than
+any other measure to increase our population, wealth, and power, and
+augment out revenue from duties and taxes.
+
+We have seen that, by the Census (p. 195), the total value of the real
+and personal estate in the United States was, in--
+
+  1860,     $16,159,616,068
+  1850,       7,135,780,228
+
+Increase from 1850 to 1860, 126.45 per cent.
+
+At the same rate of increase, for the four succeeding decades, the
+result would be, in--
+
+  1870,      $36,593,450,585
+  1880,       82,865,868,849
+  1890,      187,314,353,225
+  1900,      423,330,438,288
+
+If we subtract one fourth from the aggregate, we will find that our
+public debt constitutes less than _one half of one per cent._ of the
+_increase_ of our national wealth. This debt, then, does not exhaust our
+capital, but effects only a small diminution of the rate of
+augmentation.
+
+If we look at the causes of this vast increase of our national wealth,
+they will be found mainly in the enormous extent of our fertile lands,
+the vast emigration from Europe, and the constant addition of new States
+to the Union. Thus, from 1850 to 1860, four new States were added to the
+Union. These four States were almost an untrodden wilderness in 1850,
+but in 1860 were rich and flourishing States, with a population of
+638,965, and an aggregate wealth of $331,809,418. Within this decade,
+from 1860 to 1870, at least six new States will be added to the Union.
+This is evident from a reference to our present Territories, as follows:
+
+  Dacotah,        95,316,480 acres.
+  Nebraska,       48,636,800   "
+  Indian,         56,924,000   "
+  Idaho,         208,878,720   "
+  Washington,     44,796,160   "
+  Nevada,         52,184,960   "
+  Utah,           68,084,480   "
+  Arizona,        80,730,240   "
+  New Mexico,     77,568,640   "
+  Colorado,       66,880,000   "
+                 -----------
+         Total,  800,000,480 acres.
+
+Here then are Territories with an aggregate area of 800,000,480 acres,
+sufficient for twenty-six States of the size of New York. In all these
+Territories but one, the precious metals are found in great abundance,
+and the railroad to the Pacific, with numerous branches through this
+vast region, together with the greatest advantages of our new Homestead
+Bill of last year, is settling these Territories with unprecedented
+rapidity. Notwithstanding the war, immigration to the United States is
+progressing with more than its usual volume, caused by the very high
+wages for labor, the great benefits of our recent Homestead Bill, and
+the exclusion, by recent act of Congress, of slavery from all this vast
+domain.
+
+It will be observed, that, whilst the _lands_ constituting these
+Territories remain _public_ lands, no estimate is made of them as wealth
+in the national census. It is only when these public lands become farms
+and private property, that they are valued as part of the wealth of the
+nation. This remark also applies to that 255,000,000 acres of public
+lands in the sixteen _Land States_ of the Union. Hence the amazing
+increase of wealth at each decade, in the new States and Territories.
+Thus, by Table 35 of the Census of 1860, page 195, the rate of increase
+of wealth in the following States and Territories, from 1850 to 1860,
+was:
+
+_Territories._
+
+  Washington,     5,000 per cent.
+  Nebraska,       4,800    "
+  Utah,             467    "
+  New Mexico,       302    "
+
+_States._
+
+  Kansas,         8,000 per cent.
+  Iowa,             942    "
+  California,       837    "
+  Minnesota,      6,000    "
+  Michigan,         330    "
+  Oregon,      471      per cent.
+  Illinois,    457         "
+  Wisconsin,   550         "
+
+It is thus that the wave of population moves onward in our Western
+States and Territories, that the axe and the plough are the pioneers of
+civilization, that farms, cities, and villages, the schoolhouse, and the
+church, rise from the wilderness, as if by the touch of an enchanter's
+wand. That enchantment is the power of _freedom and education_, the
+effect of which (as compared with the deadly influence of slavery and
+ignorance) shall be illustrated in a succeeding letter. In that letter,
+by comparing the relative progress of our Free and Slave States, as
+demonstrated by our Census, it will be proved, incontestably, that the
+total exclusion of slavery from our Union will cause an addition to our
+national wealth vastly exceeding the whole public debt of our country,
+and soon leave us much richer than before the rebellion.
+
+                                                        R. J. WALKER.
+
+
+
+
+THE DECLINE OF ENGLAND.
+
+
+In Europe, two nations for almost a thousand years have contended for
+empire. England and France, for the greater portion of that period, have
+waged war with each other. When not engaged in actual hostilities, they
+have watched each other with jealous animosity--seeking by intrigue and
+diplomatic schemes to thwart or defeat the designs which one or the
+other had formed for national aggrandizement.
+
+No one of Anglo-Saxon descent can peruse the histories of those
+countries, and not feel pride in the valor and success which have
+distinguished his race. Twice the victorious banner of England has
+fluttered in the gaze of Paris. Until a recent age, the French flag
+visited the ocean only at the sufferance of England.
+
+Whatever may be thought of the wisdom of the continental policy of
+England since 1688--in pursuance of which she has persistently sought to
+defeat the ambition of France--no one can help admiring the ability and
+indomitable courage she has displayed in the gratification of her
+national antipathy. From the League of Augsburg, of 1687, to which she
+became a party, to the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, she put forth
+herculean efforts to compel the relinquishment of the family compact by
+Louis XIV. By that treaty, the darling project of that monarch to secure
+the crown of Spain for a Bourbon, was forever abandoned by France.
+Elated with this triumph over her adversary, throughout the eighteenth
+century England continued to pursue the same policy of checking and
+defeating all the schemes of France for territorial acquisition. It
+mattered not where; in whatever quarter of the globe France sought to
+plant her standard, she always found there an English enemy. In Asia,
+Africa, and America, as well as in Europe, all her attempts to extend
+her empire were defeated by England. Pondicherry was the only East
+Indian possession which the genius of Clive allowed her to retain. By
+the Treaty of Paris, of 1763, she was compelled to relinquish Canada in
+order to regain her West Indian islands conquered by England.[4]
+
+Vainly, under good or bad, weak or potent sovereigns, did France
+attempt the enlargement of her empire or an increase of national power.
+England, on one pretence or another, always confronted her, and by
+successful war, or unscrupulous diplomacy, baffled her designs.
+
+The English mind was cultivated throughout the eighteenth century into
+the belief that every accession to France was a menace and an injury to
+England.
+
+At last the French Revolution, inspiring with preternatural energy that
+gallant people, turned the tide of events so long adverse to French
+aggrandizement. Still true to her hereditary hostility, England combined
+all Europe to resist the aggression of republican France. But soon, from
+the raging elements of that awful convulsion, the 'Man of Destiny'
+arose, who could 'ride the whirlwind and direct the storm.' He seized
+the helm, evoked order from chaos, and smote the enemies of France
+wherever they appeared, revived the splendors of her early history, and,
+like her mediæval Charlemagne, gave the law to Europe.
+
+England took the measure of Napoleon, and recognized in him an enemy
+whom she must subdue at any cost, or submit to be reduced in the scale
+of nations to that importance and those proportions befitting her
+diminutive territory in Europe.
+
+The battle of Marengo--the Peace of Luneville--the ascendency of
+Napoleon on the continent--the defection of the continental allies of
+England--and the preparations of Napoleon for her invasion, led to the
+Treaty of Amiens.
+
+That treaty, however, was only a brief truce, which England never
+designed to observe but temporarily. She refused to respect its
+obligations, and even to negotiate for its modification. She feared that
+peace would enable Napoleon to rebuild his shattered navy.
+
+Lord Hawkesbury's note of March 15th, 1803, assigned as her avowed
+reason for the renewal of the war--'the acquisition made by France in
+various quarters, particularly in Italy, and therefore England would be
+justified in claiming equivalents for these acquisitions as a
+counterpoise to the augmentation of the power of France.'[5]
+
+This note of Lord Hawkesbury avows distinctly the spirit of the foreign
+policy of England for the last two hundred years. She would not tolerate
+any acquisition by her rival unless she obtained 'equivalents.' In
+pursuance of this unchangeable policy, she again declared war against
+France. Mr. Pitt resumed his position of prime minister, and soon formed
+a new continental coalition to resist the mighty power and the
+aggressions of the French emperor.
+
+Thenceforward she listened to no overtures for peace, but prosecuted
+with implacable resentment the war--until she finally prostrated her
+imperial foe, and became his inglorious jailer, until death relieved her
+from all apprehensions of danger.
+
+But this triumph of a vindictive policy, so gratifying to the national
+antipathy, was purchased at a price perhaps far exceeding its value.
+
+The overthrow of Napoleon was an achievement which compelled England to
+anticipate the resources of future generations. These generations have
+come, and are coming, and they find themselves unable any longer to
+contend with French ambition.
+
+The first Napoleon, whom England fought with such relentless animosity,
+won his throne by the display of matchless ability in the field and the
+cabinet. The present Napoleon reached _his_ throne by perjury,
+assassination, and crimes of the blackest atrocity. The first Napoleon
+England pursued with her hatred to his grave. The present Napoleon,
+reeking with the blood of his unarmed fellow citizens, kisses the queen
+of England, and the _entente cordial_ with him becomes the foreign
+policy of England. Entangled in his toils, she makes war on Russia as
+his ally, stands silently while he humbles Austria and changes the map
+of Europe, and barely escapes by an afterthought being dragged into an
+attempt to destroy a free republic in America, to enable France to
+augment the area for the expansion of the Latin race at the expense of
+that of the Anglo-Saxon.
+
+What would the great Chatham and his son--who so long moulded the
+destiny of Europe--say, if they could revisit the earth and peruse the
+history of their country for the last twelve years? Would they recognize
+her as that England who in their hands smote the house of Bourbon, and
+inaugurated the policy which led to the overthrow of the greatest
+captain who ever tormented with his lust for glory the human race?
+Certainly, in all the wars which England waged against the house of
+Bourbon, France never attempted a conquest of greater value than that
+which the present Napoleon has commenced in Mexico. Certainly, no
+conquest which the first Napoleon ever threatened in Europe would have
+so strengthened France as would the annexation of Mexico to her
+dominions. But England has expended in her wars with the first Napoleon,
+to restrain him from acquisitions which could not have materially
+injured England, all her resources for war. She is not in the condition
+to wage such wars with France as she prosecuted during the last and the
+beginning of the present century. She knows that she must acquiesce in
+the ambitious acquisitions of the present Napoleon, or else encounter
+his hostility. Cherbourg and the steam navy of France render an invasion
+of the British Isles a more practicable achievement for the present
+Napoleon than ever the first Napoleon could hope for. England shrinks,
+therefore, from any effort to curb the present aggrandizement of France,
+from _fear_. She ignominiously renounces and abandons the policy of her
+monarchy, her aristocracy, and her people--pursued for two hundred years
+with unfaltering pertinacity; not because she condemns it, not because
+she does not feel 'justified' in resisting French acquisitions unless
+'equivalents for these acquisitions as a counterpoise to the
+augmentation of the power of France' are obtained; but obviously,
+because she fears to encounter the arms of the present Napoleon.
+
+When the French emperor forced upon the acceptance of Lord Aberdeen's
+cabinet 'the harsh and insulting scheme of action' (as Kinglake calls
+it) which provoked the war with Russia in 1854, England's dilemma was: a
+war with Nicholas, or a rupture with France. 'The negotiation which had
+seemed to be almost ripe for a settlement was then ruined.'[6]
+
+A war for Napoleon at that time with one of the great powers, was a
+necessity. It was necessary for the stability of his throne. It was
+necessary to prevent the thoughts of France from dwelling upon the
+assassination of the republic and her own infamy in submitting to that
+enormous villany. If it had not been Russia, it would have been England
+that the imperial usurper would have denounced as disturbing the waters
+for his provocation.
+
+Mellowed by time, and enlightened by their deplorable results, England
+now views the wars with Napoleon the First in their true light. So far
+from British power having been augmented by that tremendous struggle, it
+has compelled England to descend from the position of a first-rate to
+that of a second-rate power, so far as it concerns the politics of
+Europe. Had the first Napoleon survived to this day, she would hardly
+have consented to act with the same subserviency to him as she now
+voluntarily acts toward his ignoble counterfeit. She would never have
+stood an idle spectator of the humiliation of Austria by him. She would
+never have permitted him to betray her into the causeless and ridiculous
+war with her ancient ally Russia. It was the aid of Russia which
+enabled her to overthrow the great Napoleon, and now she permits the
+little Napoleon to bully her into a war with Russia that he may bedizen
+his name with the glory of a conflict with the conqueror of his
+illustrious kinsman.
+
+If the object of Napoleon was so ignominious, contemptible, and
+criminal, as we know it to have been, in producing the war of 1854, with
+what obloquy must England be covered for allowing herself to be beguiled
+into such a war by such a juggler?
+
+The pretended cause of the Crimean war, as alleged, was the threatened
+invasion of Turkey by Nicholas. But what injury was _that_ to England,
+compared to the seizure of Mexico by France?
+
+England had not for two hundred years made it the chief object of her
+foreign policy to resist the expansion of the Russian empire. She had
+acquiesced in the partition of Poland, and by the Treaty of Vienna made
+herself a party to that nefarious spoliation by Russia, Austria, and
+Prussia. She knew that Austria, Prussia, and the German Confederation
+were pledged to protect Turkey from Russia.[7] Her subserviency to
+France in separately with her making war on Russia, upon the pretence of
+the protection of Turkey, was supererogatory as well as needless.
+
+The truth is, and so will history make up the record, the French emperor
+desired to humiliate England, and England dare not refuse to be
+humiliated by him. It was a 'GREAT SURRENDER.'[8]
+
+It will not do for England to excuse herself for not resisting the
+French invasion of Mexico by any such allegation as that she has
+received Napoleon's assurances that he does not intend to make a French
+province of Mexico. She must know, that no confidence can be placed in
+his veracity. She must know, that such assurances are but a flimsy veil
+to deceive her and other nations. They are designed to meet the
+contingency--of Federal success in crushing rebellion.
+
+He has been willing to be fooled by those who surround him, into the
+belief that the rebels will achieve their independence.[9] In that
+event, he will never relinquish his grasp on Mexico, unless compelled to
+do so by force of arms. Should the rebellion succeed, as he professes to
+believe it will, his instrument and accomplice, Maximilian, will be
+discarded with as little ceremony as the first Napoleon discarded some
+of the puppet kings whom he saw proper to crown and discrown according
+to the exigency of his occasions.
+
+The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) terminated one of the wars of
+England with Louis XIV. The renunciation by France of the cause of the
+Pretender was the most material advantage accruing to England from that
+treaty. But the ink was hardly dry with which it was written, before
+England took umbrage at France for efforts to rebuild her navy, which
+had been seriously reduced and crippled by the events of the previous
+war, and also for the encroachments of the French in Canada on the
+English settlements. For these causes the Seven Years' War was
+commenced, and, under the auspices of the first William Pitt,
+successfully prosecuted, until France was completely humbled. Now,
+however, Napoleon the Third constructs a navy more powerful than France
+ever before possessed, and, instead of molesting some obscure English
+settlement in the interior of America, appropriates to himself a great
+country, fertile in resources, with mines of incalculable wealth, and in
+close proximity to English colonies, cherished by the most vigilant
+protection of England.
+
+The value of Mexico is thus portrayed by the British historian Alison
+(vol. iv., p. 423):
+
+     'Humboldt has told us that he was never wearied with astonishment
+     at the smallness of the portion of soil which, in Mexico and the
+     adjoining provinces, would yield sustenance to a family for a year:
+     and that the same extent of ground which in wheat would maintain
+     only two persons, would yield sustenance under the banana to fifty;
+     though in that favored region the return of wheat is never under
+     seventy, sometimes as much as a hundred fold. The return on an
+     average of Great Britain is not more than nine to one. If due
+     weight be given to these extraordinary facts, it will not appear
+     extravagant to assert that Mexico, with a territory embracing seven
+     times the whole area of France, may at some future and possibly not
+     remote period contain two hundred millions of inhabitants.'
+
+This is the magnificent empire which France now seeks to conquer,
+without a murmur of remonstrance from Great Britain, who so often
+combined Europe to resist the petty acquisition by France of territory
+less than one of the Mexican States.
+
+It is needless to say that England relies on the United States to
+prevent Mexico becoming a French province. Her statesmen have for the
+past two years professed the belief that the dismemberment of the United
+States is inevitable. In that event, they must know that the United
+States would prove no obstacle to the occupation of Mexico by France.
+No; the acquiescence of England in this gigantic acquisition of France
+can be ascribed to no such assurance of the power of the United States.
+It may be said that she has flattered herself that by letting alone
+Napoleon, he may possibly, by an alliance with the rebels, secure the
+permanent dissolution of the American Union;--that the United States, if
+successful in crushing the rebellion, would be to her a greater terror
+than Napoleon. We do not believe that she is influenced by such
+considerations. She knows that the United States, however powerful by
+the recent development of military strength, would hardly attempt the
+invasion of the British Islands. But she has no such faith in her crafty
+neighbor. She knows that France and the Bonapartes owe her a debt of
+vengeance which only the ravage and desolation of the British soil will
+ever liquidate. She remembers that the favorite scheme of Napoleon the
+First was the invasion of England; and she knows that this scheme is
+among the _Idées Napoléon_ of the nephew. She is aware, too, that
+Napoleon the Third has the means at his command which will enable him to
+place any number of troops on her shores. She is satisfied that upon the
+first provocation which she offers, he will gratify the treasured hatred
+of the French and of his family, by consummating the darling project of
+his uncle. The terror of invasion has induced her to change the nature
+of her foreign policy. She will cling to the French alliance until the
+French emperor has satiated his national craving for her degradation;
+and not until he strikes her a blow, which will resound throughout the
+world, will England be prepared to battle with the Gaul. No future
+accession of territory would make France more formidable for the
+invasion of England than she is now. Her army of five hundred thousand
+men, and her steam navy and ironclads are all-sufficient for that
+purpose, whenever the French emperor chooses so to employ them. But if
+Napoleon devotes this army and that navy to such a formidable conquest
+as that of a country seven times as large as France, three thousand
+miles from her shores, it is not probable that he will soon be able to
+spare them for the invasion of Great Britain. Spain vainly struggled for
+years to conquer her revolted provinces in America. England failed to
+conquer her rebellious colonies, with a population not exceeding three
+millions. France lost an army of thirty-five thousand men, veterans of
+Moreau's, in the vain effort to subdue the negroes of St. Domingo.
+England could desire no better scheme for the destruction of the
+military strength of Napoleon than that of the attempted conquest of
+Mexico. She will therefore rather stimulate than restrain the second
+French emperor in his desire to devote his legions to the enlargement of
+the area for the supremacy of the Latin race in America. Her motive will
+be the despicable safety of her shores from Gallic invasion. For this
+she sacrifices her prestige in the world--her hereditary policy--the
+time-honored traditions of the Anglo-Saxon. The world hereafter is free
+to the Frenchman, for robbery, spoliation, conquest, and invasion,
+wherever else than in England he chooses to prosecute the vocation of
+national crime. England is no longer the foe of French ambition or
+rapacity. So long as France will abstain from the invasion of the
+'inviolate isle,' where for almost a thousand years no foreign enemy has
+placed his foot, so long she may be free from molestation from England,
+whatever else she may attempt; and this is the inglorious policy of
+England in the year of our Lord 1862-'3.
+
+
+
+
+TEMPTATION.
+
+
+     [A literal translation of this remarkable prose-poem was kindly
+     placed in our hands by Prof. Podbielski. It is allegorical
+     throughout, every phase of its marvellous symbolism resting upon
+     dire and tragic truth.
+
+     The many times murdered Mother is of course Poland. We hope that
+     the publication of this prophetic vision of her great son, patriot,
+     poet, statesman, and sage, as he undoubtedly was, may excite a
+     vivid interest at the present hour, when that heroic but unhappy
+     country is again struggling for life and freedom.
+
+     In its present English form, 'Temptation' is reverently dedicated
+     to the patriot sons of the Mother of heroes, by MARTHA W.
+     COOK.]
+
+  Alas, crimsoned with blood and swollen with tears run our troubled
+      life-waves!
+  From the depths and whirlpools of the stormful currents sounds the
+      moan of eternal sorrow!
+  Behind roars the bottomless abyss, black with the gloomy mists rising
+      from the woes of the Past:
+  Before lies the far-off Heaven, burning and blazing with flames red
+      as of blood:
+  Around struggle the swimmers, in surges so cold, hopeless,
+      and murky,
+  That from each as he floats onward is forced the cry; 'WOE! THE
+      CURSE IS UPON ME!'
+
+Mother, many times murdered! Unhappy mother! with the long and countless
+blades of thy ever-green grasses, with the waving stems of thy grain
+fields, thou wilt bind our undying memories closely to thee, but
+henceforth must thy sons wander and suffer, as they love thee. Behind
+them, from sea to sea, is the Grave; before them, wheresoever they may
+roam, the Sun set; while monarchs and merchants curse the endless
+progression!
+
+The Living cannot understand those reared on the bosom of the
+Dead--human faces grow pale at the approach of the spectres--at the echo
+of their footsteps the home-fires glimmer and flicker low on the
+hearthstone--the mother hides her child--the wife leads away the husband
+that he may not clasp hands with the wandering exile,--the evening star
+alone, the star of graves, smiles from Heaven on them!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Was not the silence of the forests holy? When the wind swept over the
+Pines, did not the mystic murmurs, sacred as the prayers of the Priest,
+say to you: 'Nowhere there will you find your God!' The spaces are
+filled with the giant skeletons torn from the dim woods; they are
+chained and clamped with iron and fed with steam; the eagles soar not in
+the air above them, nor do the glad birds twitter in the swaying
+branches; none among you may mount the strong horse of the desert and
+fly afar over the boundless steppes, rejoicing in his arrowy
+swiftness;--you are alone in the midst of the world!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As you wander on, poor exiles, your very gratitude is half disdain! When
+they lead you into cities without castles or temples, where trade and
+commerce rule; among whitewashed houses where the spirit of Beauty is
+not, and the green window-shutters are the sole adornment--murmur ye:
+THE DEAD!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the shores of the seas when you dwell with Jews, Armenians, and
+Greeks, quarrelling forever over their vile profits; seeing not the
+heavens, nor hearing the thunder as it booms over the waves--murmur ye:
+THE DEAD!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When women in rich attire move around you, and you feel that the faint
+fluttering of the silken robe is far more spiritual than the life-breath
+of their souls--murmur ye: THE DEAD!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Float on, then, like the sacred whispers from the unhewn forests! The
+world will not know you, because you are of the race sprung from
+coffins; born and cradled in coffins; but as you rise from the grave,
+strew upon the ground beneath your feet the mouldering rags of your
+shrouds--and _he_, seated on the verge of the abyss, on the steep and
+slippery declivity; _he_, robed in the royal purple of power, will not
+survive your Resurrection--but must himself descend into the coffin!
+
+
+I saw imaged before me, as in a wondrous vision, the varied scenes and
+changes as it were of a long life--rising, progressing, and vanishing,
+as if bound in a single day, beginning with the morning and fleeting
+away with the evening shadows.
+
+It seemed to me in my vision that the morning was strangely transparent.
+No clouds dulled the ether above. Far over the wide green space rose the
+sun, and in front of the House on the Hill stood a horse already
+saddled, impatiently wounding the velvety grass with his iron hoofs, and
+snuffing with wide nostrils the fresh breeze from the valley. Near him
+stood his young master. The light in his blue eye was bright as the
+young beam of the day. He had one foot in the stirrup, and the other on
+the soft home-turf; with one hand caressing the long waving mane of the
+steed, and the other clasped in the grasp of the man from whom he was
+taking leave--they knew not for how long, but yet felt it was not
+forever. Words were pouring from the heart of the one into the heart of
+the other. The elder, he who stood on the ground and was to move on on
+foot, kept his gaze steadily fixed on the rocks and forests lying beyond
+the smooth green turf. The younger, with raised eyes, gazed into the
+sky, as if absorbing its light in the blue lustrous pupils; and when he
+spoke, his voice was like the fresh breath of spring. The elder spoke
+more slowly, almost sternly, as though advising, warning, beseeching--as
+if he loved deeply, yet doubted, feared; but the younger had no fear, no
+doubts--he pledged himself and vowed--threw himself first into the arms
+of his friend, then leaped into his saddle. He pushed his horse rapidly
+on, swift as the arrow skims the plain, or the mountain stream plunges
+below. A cloud of servants poured forth from the halls of the ancient
+House, and followed their young Lord.
+
+He who remained behind, knelt; and fragments of his prayer were brought
+me by the wind, 'O Heavenly Father! let not this blooming soul wither
+away upon this arid earth! Lead it not into the temptation of human
+servitude; remove from it all sinful stain! Let it serve Thee alone!
+Thee and the many times murdered Mother!'
+
+He continued kneeling, although sunk in silence, as if wrapped in deep
+meditation, scarcely knowing whether to indulge in the dim prophecies
+then surging his soul, or to prolong his prayers. Then I saw him start,
+clasp his hands forcibly together--and again his words were borne to me
+by the wind.
+
+'O Heavenly Father! I ask Thee not to sweeten the bitter cup of life for
+my friend; I know that all who live must suffer; but, O merciful God,
+spare him the blush of shame, the infamy of weakness!'
+
+Then I saw the Wanderer rise from his knees, descend the hill, and make
+his way on foot through the forest to the distant rocks.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+About high noon of the same day they met again before the gate of a
+great city. The young man was still on his horse, his fair brow already
+darkened by the heat of the sun; the dew from the fresh home-turf was
+quite dry upon his stirrups, and the glitter of the steel dimmed with
+rust. The horse gladly stopped, as if wearied with his rapid flight
+through the distant space, but the blue eye of the youth still sparkled
+with its early fire.
+
+The elder, gray from head to foot with the dust of the road, seated
+himself on a stone by the wayside. The youth jumped lightly to the
+earth, and threw himself into the arms of his friend. I saw him give his
+horse in charge to his servants, take the arm of his companion, enter
+the gate of the great city, and lead him to the imperial Palace. In one
+of the inner chambers they sat down together to rest. They conversed
+however in whispers, as if they feared the ear of the enemy even through
+the massive stone walls. Stretching himself on the soft Persian carpet,
+the younger raised the cup of wrought silver to his thirsty lip. But
+when he handed it to the elder, he refused to taste the wine from the
+rich goblet. Nor would he look upon the tapestried walls, or the objects
+of luxury lying profusely scattered around the room, even when pointed
+out to him by his young companion. At last he rose, and taking the hand
+of the youth, led him to a window, from which the entire city was seen
+lying below, with the moving crowds of the populous nation. The immense
+city, wonderfully monotonous in its whitewashed walls! the immense
+nation, wonderfully monotonous in its black garments! The young man
+looked on curiously; the wanderer sighed, and said: 'When they shall
+lead you into cities without castles or temples, where the spirit of
+freedom is chained, murmur ye: THE DEAD!'
+
+But the younger continued to gaze with ever-growing interest. Carriages
+filled with women dressed in brilliant hues were rapidly driving by,
+drawn by strong, fleet horses. He saw one drive aside from the throng,
+the snowy veil and white draperies of the fair one within fluttering and
+floating far on, the breeze, as if the flying chariot were borne onward
+by the outspread sails. The Wanderer sighed, and said: 'When women in
+rich attire move around you, and you feel that the faint fluttering of
+the snowy robe is more spiritual than the life-breath of their
+souls--murmur ye: THE DEAD!'
+
+The young man seemed not to hear the words of his friend. Heavy masses
+of lurid clouds gathered from every direction, and obscured the face of
+the sky. How different the hour of the gloomy noon from that of the
+fresh, transparent morning!
+
+The men before whom the People of the Black Nation kneel and prostrate
+themselves now began to move through the streets. Their short garments
+glittered with gold, and were richly embroidered in gorgeous colors.
+They wore long thin swords at their sides, and thick tufts of plumes on
+their heads. Shouting with harsh voices, they passed on in power,
+striking the children who were lingering in the road as they moved
+forward. The children cried and wept; the crowd drew back and fled; and
+they remained alone upon the Great Square. More and more of them were
+ever thronging there; more and more courteously they ever bowed to one
+another, and lower and lower grew their salutes, until at last One rode
+forward on a steed richly caparisoned--and then they all fell down with
+their faces upon the ground--as if he were the Lord of Life and Death.
+
+Then said the Wanderer: 'He is already on the verge of the abyss, on the
+slope of the steep and slippery declivity; he, robed in the purple of
+Power, must himself descend into the coffin!'
+
+But the young man riveted his gaze on the magnificence of the rider, as
+if absorbing the diamond glitter into the lustrous pupils of his eyes,
+as in the morning they had absorbed and reflected the clear blue of the
+skies. He seemed not to hear the words of his friend. When they were
+earnestly repeated to him, he covered his face with his hands, and
+tenderly uttered the holy name of the murdered Mother, as if the love of
+childhood were upon his heart. The Wanderer pressed him to his breast,
+and said: 'Look not upon them! Look not upon them!'
+
+'Never! never!' he replied, as he again threw himself down to rest upon
+the Persian carpet.
+
+As the Wanderer rose to depart, I heard the prayer again rising to God
+from his divining soul:
+
+'O Heavenly Father! even at the burning noon of this bitter trial, I
+implore Thee for him whom I love! O God! I now entreat Thee to work a
+miracle in his behalf--to sweeten the bitter cup of life for this young,
+eager, thirsting soul! Deliver it from the temptations with which Thou
+hast seen good to surround the strong on this earth, led like him into
+these snares! Let him not fall, I beseech Thee, as did even the mighty
+and beautiful angels round Thy Throne, when the thirst for power was
+upon them. Save him, O God!'
+
+The young man remained alone, utterly alone, in the midst of the great
+city, and was soon forced to seek companionship with his fellow beings.
+It was strange, meanwhile, how black the heavens grew, as if the whole
+sky were sheeted with a curtain of lead. I saw him now constantly in the
+streets, the rooms, and in the midst of the people: he fascinated my
+gaze as if I saw only him. Under the calm of a tranquil face, he
+concealed bitter torment, intense suffering. Evil thoughts are winding
+through him, like swarms of black and poisonous worms, while the good
+are also thronging near him, like clouds of bright blue fireflies. The
+worms crawl over his heart, boring and bleeding it as they writhe; the
+fireflies would burn out the black congested gore, and cure the
+festering wounds, but new swarms of reptiles are forever sliming into
+life, and ever deeper and more gangrened are the wounds they make.
+Everywhere danger, everywhere torment; there is no human being whom he
+may trust! He too must learn to deceive in turn, to betray even women
+and children; must learn to lie as the masterpiece of art. He attains
+skill in the profession, and can command looks, smiles, tears, emotions;
+but alas! the light in his clear eye, once rivalling the young beam of
+day, no longer flashes from his pupils. Pity him, O God! his very
+garments become a lie; he throws aside the costume of his nation, in
+which he once rode so freely over the boundless steppe. He mounts on his
+head the tall tufts of plumes; he girds the thin sword to his side; and
+I saw in my dream that the people began to fall back before him, and
+bow as he drew near.
+
+But I saw that the steed of the desert refused to recognize his master
+when he entered the courtyard of the Palace. In vain he pats, with his
+own hand, the wavy silken mane: no neigh of joy now answers his caress;
+he strives to leap upon him as in the morning of this eventful day, but
+the haughty charger rears, stands erect upon his hind legs, and refuses
+to be mounted. Enraged beyond control, he thrusts his long sword into
+the glossy flanks. The startled animal breaks away, spurns the
+blood-sprinkled soil, and flies thundering afar, rattling and clashing
+his iron hoofs on the pavement, marking his track with a long line of
+glittering sparks, flashing but to die in the dying light of evening!
+
+The hour of twilight is already on the earth!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Again, for the third time in that day of life, met the Wanderer and his
+friend. They stood together in a Church, which was without the gates,
+and the cross on its towers was different from those on the Basilicas
+within the walls of the city. The altar was without adornment, and, as
+well as the walls and ceilings, was shrouded in the deepest mourning.
+Three tapers only were upon it, and they struggled vainly with the
+surrounding gloom.
+
+I saw the Wanderer take one of these lights, and gaze, with a look of
+woe, upon the face of his friend. The young man was silent, he found no
+utterance, he had lost the secret of revealing, by honest words, the
+depths of the soul. But the bitter truth was expressed in the long wild
+cry which burst spasmodically from his lips. In it might be read the
+seduction and destruction of a young spirit, not consenting to its own
+shame and ruin!
+
+He laid his head on the strong shoulder of his friend, and closed his
+heavy eyelids, as if he dreamed, in this trying moment, it would be
+possible for him thus to close them forever. But the Wanderer, suddenly
+calling him back to consciousness, said: 'Follow me! follow me, that
+thou mayst remember forever the Form of the murdered Mother!'
+
+So saying, he led the young man to a low door which opened behind the
+Great Altar. A whirlwind, as if from plains of ice, blew upon them from
+the subterranean passages below, and the flame of the taper streamed
+upon the blast, swaying and torn into a line of dying sparks. And thus
+they commenced the plunge into the very bosom of night, descending ever
+lower and lower, exploring depth after depth, until at last they had
+worked their way through the narrow and winding passages, and stood in
+the sublime silence of the immensity of space.
+
+Their taper had long ago gone out, but they needed not its flickering
+light. The swamp-fires of the night, the corpse-lights, the
+will-o'-the-wisps, sometimes fell like falling stars; sometimes rose
+like rising moons. Countless cemeteries seemed moving on in this weird
+light, one solemnly following the other, and on the dark gate of each
+glittered, as if graved in frosted silver, the name of the Murdered
+Nation, and on the white crosses gleaming within, the names of her
+martyred children. Vast piles of skeletons, of bones and skulls, lay in
+the path of the young man, and as he advanced he read the glorious
+inscriptions.
+
+It now seemed to him that the ghosts of the buried were also moving on
+before him, increasing constantly in number, and all moaning as they
+sped on, until at last they seemed to condense into a murky vapor like a
+trailing storm-cloud, growing ever more and more pervading, and
+murmuring with thousands upon thousands of sad, but spirit-stirring
+national songs. The air gleamed with the flashing of sabres and wild
+waving of standards; conflagrations and flames filled the intervening
+spaces, like vivid flashes of restless lightning, now gleaming, now
+sinking into the bosom of the cloud. Faster and faster, farther and
+farther whirls the cloud of spirits. Then in my dream I saw them
+suddenly descend, driven over the earth like the withered leaves of
+autumn--beaten low upon the ground and drifting on like the summer's
+dust--while a strong cry burst from the driven shadows: 'O God, have
+mercy upon us!'
+
+The Wanderer stopped before the gate of an open sepulchre, on which was
+graven the name of the many times Murdered. The letters blazed with a
+soft lambent flame, and he fell reverently upon his knees. Penetrated
+with mystic awe, he quivered from head to foot when he arose, and wept
+tenderly as he crossed the threshold.
+
+A soft light, like that of an evening late in autumn, dimly illumined
+the space within. I saw the holy Coffin as it lay on the gentle slope of
+a hill; a giant Pine stood at its head, and in its topmost branches
+perched the Eagle, pierced to the heart and sleeping in its own blood.
+Within the coffin lay the sacred Form, with the cross on her breast, the
+veil on her face, the fetters on her hands, and the crown upon her
+forehead. I saw six such hills rising one after the other, separated
+from one another by the long grass, through which, in place of sunny
+brooks, flowed crimson streams of human gore. Hilts and shivered
+fragments of broken swords, overgrown with weeds and covered with rust,
+were lying scattered in every direction through the rank grass. On each
+of the six hills lay the same Coffin; the same Form. But always more and
+more strongly surged the streams of human blood; heavier and heavier
+grew the chains on the hands of the Dead; and paler and paler the dim
+autumnal light. At the foot of the last hill it was dark, and bitter
+cold; the currents of blood were frozen; the icicles hung from the
+branches of the Pine; the Eagle lay in his congealed gore; and in place
+of the veil, the face of the six times murdered Mother was closely
+covered with a sheet of snow.
+
+When the young man reached this spot of gloom, he fell with his face
+upon the frozen earth, and cursed his life! In the distance sounded the
+moans of the shadows left at the gate of the sepulchre; he bowed his
+head and wept. He heard them ask: 'Is the six times Murdered really
+dead? will she rise no more to deliver her faithful children from mortal
+anguish?'
+
+The Wanderer replied not, but looked with eyes of melancholy love upon
+his friend who had thrown himself upon the frozen earth, and gently
+raised him in his strong arms.
+
+Then rose the wail of all the armies of the grave; they broke the
+silence of death with loud and fearful cries: 'O Heavenly Father, Thou
+hast betrayed us! Thou hast delivered us up to Hell, for our Saint is
+really dead!'
+
+The Wanderer answered the cry, and his voice pealed like distant
+thunder. 'Blaspheme not! Our Saint yet breathes! I see her lying in her
+last coffin on the hill of ice--there is no seventh beyond it--from it
+comes the Resurrection!' The wails and sobs of the spirits suddenly
+ceased, and a murmuring chant of the Mother's was entoned, low and sweet
+as the first sigh of a germing hope.
+
+The young man now perceived, for hitherto he had not seen it, the
+illimitable space beyond the coffin. Afar over the infinite blue broke
+the growing splendor of the early dawn--the clash and clamor of battles
+yet unborn broke through the veil of Time--and above it all he heard the
+Mother's ancient hymn of victory!
+
+The young dawn shone but for a moment, the clash of battle ceased, the
+song of triumph died upon the ear--the gloomy silence of the twilight
+was again upon them, and frost and cold upon the earth. The two friends
+reverently pressed their lips upon the still feet of the fettered Form;
+together listened to the faint breathing from the icy lips, catching it
+even through the veil of snow shrouding the sacred face; together they
+ascended the frozen hill, bowing their heads in their hands to hide
+their tears.
+
+I saw them again as they were returning by the same road, and overheard
+them binding themselves with fearful oaths. The Wanderer took leave of
+the young man at the entrance of the church, saying with wonderfully
+tender and conjuring tones: 'Be not deceived by those who would fain
+ruin thy soul, and blot out thy name from the number of honorable sounds
+on earth! Remember, whatsoever the splendor of the things thou shalt
+this night see, they are but deceptions from the lowest Hell! Then
+placing his hand on the heart of the young man, he prayed: 'O Heavenly
+Father! have mercy upon him and upon me, for if he withstands not this
+terrible Temptation, Thou knowest we shall both have lived in vain, and
+our part on earth is done forever! After this they parted, and went
+their way on different routes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was already night in the great city. Innumerable throngs were
+crowding the streets, all moving in the same direction, to the palace
+lighted with a thousand lamps, sounding with music, and gay with the
+dance. Old and young, men and women thronged the brazen stairs leading
+to the upper saloons; hurrying on as eagerly, as unceasingly as if
+ascending into Heaven!
+
+The hours of the night passed slowly by, seeming longer to me than the
+whole of the preceding day. It was almost one o'clock before I again saw
+the young man, and the traces of the oaths he had taken were cunningly
+hidden under smiles. Groups of servants stood around him; he carelessly
+threw them his cloak, and climbed with the rest the brazen stairs. He
+was richly dressed; the magnificent guest was worthy of the splendor of
+the wedding feast. He entered gracefully, and gazed curiously on the
+thousands who were dancing around him. His eyes fell upon the rich and
+varied spoils overhanging the Hall; broken swords were wrought into the
+walls like mosaics; the flags of the conquered nations were draped in
+their varied hues across the vaulted ceiling; but as he looked on all
+these trophies of power, I saw him suddenly turn pale with rage, and
+bite his lips until the blood followed the pressure of his teeth; but
+then the whirling crowds caught him in their midst--violins, harps,
+flutes and horns poured the reeling air into his dizzied brain--clouds
+of incense intoxicated his senses--piled and mossy carpets luxuriously
+yielded to the pressure of his feet--rainbow hues shifted gayly before
+his dazzled eyes--until giddy, fascinated, stimulated, he sank upon a
+pile of cushions, resting his hot temples in his burning palms, dreaming
+of snowy hands and taper fingers, of azure eyes and cheeks like rose
+leaves.
+
+As he thus rested, I heard the bell heavily toll one; I felt that this
+long night was in its darkest hour!
+
+When he raised his eyes, he saw, through the long vista of the
+illuminated apartments, the Throne of the Splendor of the Sun. It stood
+above the moving sea of dancers; upon it sat the Autocrat of Life and
+Death; and above him waved the canopy of flags torn from the dying
+nations. The young man started, for he saw one among them dyed in gore,
+and tattered into rags, and from its torn streamers, drop by drop, the
+blood was ever falling; but no one saw or heeded it save himself. When
+this sight fell upon his reeling gaze, he determined to repel with all
+his force the allurements of temptation, and again his eye gleamed blue
+and pure as it had done in the early morning.
+
+A movement now began in the crowd. It dispersed, divided, and formed
+into long lines upon the right and the left, leaving a wide, open
+pathway through the whole length of the long vista of the apartments.
+The Lord of the Palace descended from his Throne, and moved through the
+living walls as if he were a God, while all prostrated themselves as he
+passed along. He turned not aside, but went directly to the spot where
+the young man was seated. Nearer and nearer he approached, wondrously
+beautiful and strong. The young man rose and looked boldly into his
+eyes. The Master of Life and Death did not frown upon him, but said
+gently: 'Come, let us take a stroll together; I will show you the
+wonders of my Palace!'
+
+The youth stood as if transfixed to the spot, but the Lord of Life and
+Death drew closer to him, stooped and pressed a kiss on his brow, and
+led him away with easy grace.
+
+Although he seemed to see the coffin of the murdered Mother ever winding
+on before him, the young man accompanied the Monarch. His arm trembled
+with the quick beating of his boiling blood as it lay on the hard one of
+the Autocrat, who, thunder as he might to the bowing throng prostrating
+themselves before him, continued to speak in soft tones and with a
+noble, courteous air to his present companion. He spoke of the past, he
+uttered without trembling even the name of the murdered Mother, as if
+her assassination did not weigh upon his conscience. He did not seem to
+have the least doubt that she was really dead, vanished forever from the
+face of the earth. He artfully pointed out to the young man another
+immense future,[10] graven, as he said, in the Book of Fate. He painted
+it in the most alluring colors, awakening his young desires for its
+attainment; he spared no promises, and as if he held himself to be one
+of God's prophets, he parodied inspiration. The unhappy young man turned
+his eyes toward the ground, away from the handsome face, as though it
+had been that of Antichrist. Each word of the Tempter fell like a drop
+of poison on his heart, engendering and hatching the worms within. They
+walked together through the long ranges of apartments, the close ranks
+of men prostrating themselves as they passed, until they struck with
+their foreheads the malachites wrought into the tessellated floor.
+
+When they arrived at the other end of the Palace, the gates of bronze
+upon the order of the Master were suddenly thrown open, while the mass
+behind, lifting their heads from the ground, looked enviously after
+them.
+
+'Behold, this is my Treasury,' said the Monarch. 'Look, and have faith
+in the extent of my power!'
+
+The young man looked before him. He was standing at the portals of deep
+mines of wealth, endlessly extended. Alas! the glowing splendor from the
+hills and valleys burned into the blue eyes of the young man; his pupils
+rapidly absorbed the molten torrents of gold and silver; circles of
+light from amethyst, opal, and emerald, bent like rainbows round the
+azure orbs. The subterranean flames roared and crackled; the hills were
+shaken to their centre; the caves were heaving in their depths, and
+fresh, glittering, golden, diamantine lumps came ever gushing from the
+fused and seething mass.
+
+But strange sounds were ever and anon heard amidst the hissing and
+sputtering of the boiling metals. Long cries came up as if from men in
+the agonies of death; a clatter as of chains sounded from the abyss;
+muttered curses; and bent and wretched human figures were seen moving
+over swards of diamonds and precious stones, like the dark stains
+passing athwart the bright face of the moon. The eye of the Monarch then
+flamed with wrath. Sometimes clanging their chains as they moved their
+fettered limbs, these melancholy figures raised to him their suppliant
+hands, begging with anguished cries for one drop of water, for one
+moment of respite to breathe the free air of heaven. He vouchsafed to
+them no answer, and with every moment the wretched and emaciated shadows
+fell from utter exhaustion into the molten metals seething in the depths
+of the mine. But what mattered that, since with every instant, new bands
+of living shadows, equally fettered, doomed, and wretched, arrived to
+fill the vacant places? The young man thought he had seen some of these
+melancholy faces before in the high places of the earth, that the noble
+traits once had been dear to him, but the flashes of lightning blinded
+him, and the features were rapidly lost in the depths of the succeeding
+gloom. The roar of the seething, fusing metals deafened the sound of the
+groans from the chained and broken-hearted miners. And as I gazed, an
+all-pervading splendor, like the golden calm of the Desert, settled over
+all, covering with glittering veil the anguish which had been revealed.
+
+As this light overflowed the scene with its brilliant haze, the gates of
+bronze clapped to with heavy clang. The Master of Life and Death took
+leave of the young man, and as he departed, said: When the great bell
+again strikes, be in the Hall of the Throne; thy seat at my Banquet is
+next my own.
+
+As the young man turned to move away, the throng greeted him with shouts
+and cheers. Many knelt to kiss his hand, because it had touched the hand
+of the Master. They asked him what music he would hear, and when his
+choice was made, the grand orchestra rolled it forth in massive waves of
+sound. They bore him luscious wines in jewelled vases, kneeling as he
+took the cup. He marvelled, and at first scorned the homage, but again I
+saw him look proudly round him, and assume an air of command.
+
+In a recess of the most exquisite beauty, veiled by groves of perfumed
+flowers, he meets resplendent groups of married women, blooming clusters
+of budding maidens. They surround him as he enters, greeting him with
+lovely smiles; and scattering rose leaves o'er him. His cheeks flame as
+with fever; his blood boils in his veins; he grows giddy, faint:--alas,
+he feels at last that he might find happiness in the Palace of the
+mortal enemy of his Mother! This feeling falls upon him like a
+thunderbolt, and scathes his heart. He turns to fly, but they pursue,
+the perfumed wind bearing onward and wafting around him the full drapery
+of their floating trains of luxury. Their long ringlets kiss his cheeks,
+and weave their nets around him.
+
+Through two long hours of this fitful night I watched him with the
+keenest interest. I saw him struggle, confused, bewildered, reeling,
+giddy, dazzled, sometimes almost yielding to temptation, sometimes
+earnestly imploring the Heavenly Father for strength to resist delusion.
+As if in despair, I saw him hurrying through the long suite of
+apartments in search of a sword to pierce his weak, vacillating heart,
+but no arms were here to be found. Sometimes I saw him rush to meet the
+alluring Circes of the Palace, as if seeking their fascinations; then,
+suddenly turning upon them, he would curse and insult the seductive
+Sirens. I saw him tear from them their veils of snow, rend them asunder,
+and trample the costly fragments under his feet. They knelt, wept, and
+humiliated themselves before him. They prayed for love, saying: 'Once,
+only once, we implore thee, confess that thou lovest!' Utter madness
+came upon him; electric flashes fired his veins; rapture tingled through
+every fibre of his young frame; and in the voluptuous delirium of the
+moment he wildly cried: 'I love! I love!'
+
+As he spake, he caught in his arms the Houri of the foreign race; he
+fastened his burning lips upon her rosebud mouth; and by the magic of
+her breath she drew him on to the Hall of the Throne!
+
+There sat the Master of Life and Death, with the flags and standards of
+the conquered nations floating around and above him. As the youth and
+maiden entered, I again heard the great bell toll the hour. Throngs of
+courtiers stood around the Throne. Slowly the curtain of inwrought
+tapestry rose from the platina door. Those who had been waiting beyond
+its threshold for admittance, were summoned by the Heralds to appear.
+Ambassadors from the Kings of the East and the Kings of the West entered
+the Presence Chamber. On they filed in long and solemn procession. They
+all bowed as they passed the Throne, each one depositing an urn of pure
+gold at the feet of the Monarch. The urns were filled with the ashes of
+those who had fallen in battle, heroes killed in holy causes, patriots
+and martyrs from different parts of the world. The Grand Duke entered
+last in the train, he was clad in the ermine only worn by Princes, and
+as he bowed his head, he placed the last urn on the floor. The young man
+started--the name of the murdered Mother was deeply graven on the
+sculptured swells. Then all grew dark before him, he saw neither the
+Throne of the Monarch, nor the fair girl still clinging to his arm. But
+his ear quickened as his eye grew dim, and the question of the Monarch
+rang loudly through his brain: 'Are they all really dead, and will they
+rise from the grave no more?'
+
+And as if with one voice answered the Ambassadors: 'They are all surely
+dead, and will rise no more forever.' At a sign from the Monarch, the
+courtiers approached, took up the urns, and solemnly deposited them upon
+the columns of black marble ranged on either side of the Hall. Flaming
+torches were then handed by the attendants, taken by those high in the
+favor of the court, and held over the open crypt of the urn. The ashes
+within kindled, and burned with a dim, bluish flame. The pale smoke rose
+from the shrine, spread through the air, and wafted the smell of Death
+to the nostrils of the Lord!
+
+It now seemed to the young man as if all he had seen at the hour of
+twilight was but a dream; he looked upon these throngs as the sole
+masters of the world, and on their Monarch as omnipotent and eternal. At
+this moment the table of festival rose in the Hall, everywhere
+surrounded by the blazing funereal urns. The maiden begged the
+bridegroom to take his seat at the banquet; the Master, descending from
+his Throne, placed his arm in his, and led him to the place of honor, at
+his side. The great bell again tolled the hour. The guests also took
+their places at the feast.
+
+Directly in front of the young man stood the column of black marble
+bearing the urn containing the ashes of his Mother. And whenever he saw
+her holy name, his long lashes veiled his sinking eyes; but his bride
+constantly recalled his attention to the blue flames of the crypt.
+
+More and more madly, fiercely, fearfully, his reeling and wretched soul
+struggled to regain its ancient faith, to return to its early hopes; but
+temptation was around him; his brain was bewildered; his understanding
+darkened; and madness within.
+
+Healths poisonous to his heart went round, and he was forced to drain
+them in honor of the Master. An inward shivering disjointed his members,
+unstrung his nerves, heart and frame fainted into weakness, a dew cold
+as death covered his temples, and his head fell wearily upon his
+breast--the walls, the floors, the ceilings, the men, the burning urns,
+danced, reeled, and tottered in wild confusion before him. The murmuring
+voices, the buzz of sound, the swell of the triumphant music, the
+strange words of the foreign bride, mingled and boomed like the roar of
+the sea in the ears of the swooning man--and so the last hours passed
+away!
+
+He still lived, if life be measured by the wild throbs of the heart.
+Like the clap of doom the last hour struck upon his ear. He opened his
+heavy eyelids, the blue flames from the urns were dying out. The Master
+of Life and Death, graciously smiling and courteously inclining toward
+him, said: 'Guest of my Banquet, the hour has struck in which thou art
+to swear to serve me; in which thou must abjure thine ancient faith and
+name.'
+
+As he spake, he threw to him across the table jewelled orders and
+diamond crosses, saying: 'Wear these in memory of me!' The Herald then
+drew near, and read to him from the Black Book the form of abjuration.
+The agonizing and swooning man mechanically repeated the words one by
+one after him, not even hearing the sound of his own voice. His head had
+fallen on the bosom of his bride, his lips still moved, but his eyes
+were glaring in the whiteness of death--and so he uttered all the
+prescribed words until the very last was said!
+
+Scarcely had he finished, when the Master of Life and Death arose and
+said: 'Servant of my servants art thou now--beware! shouldst thou prove
+false to thy oath, the rope of the hangman surely awaits thee.' Then he
+broke into a loud, coarse laugh of triumph!
+
+The unfortunate man raised his wretched head, and his first look fell
+upon the urn of his murdered Mother. In place of her name of glory
+another word was standing now: 'INFAMY!' 'Infamy,'--he looked
+again; he shrieked aloud, 'Infamy;' and started from his seat with the
+last effort of his failing strength. 'Infamy!' shouted the thousands
+from before, behind, from either side. 'Infamy' sounded from the
+ceilings of the Palace, the Hall of the Throne, the deep mines and
+limitless Treasury! Some among the crowd hastened to greet him by his
+new name, while others fastened to his garments the glittering orders
+and diamond crosses. Some commanded him to bow before them, while others
+ordered him to trample under foot the still smouldering ashes of his
+Mother!
+
+That thought sent the blood back in hot torrents to his heart. He broke
+through the surrounding throng, rushed on, fled from the Presence
+Chamber, eagerly looking for his bride. He saw her leaning on the arm of
+another, mocking and jeering with the rest. He glides on behind the
+statues, steals along the recesses, is discovered, and again flies
+before the enemy. The Palace winds before him into countless
+labyrinths--nowhere is shelter to be found sneers, menaces, insults, are
+everywhere around him--but worse than all, _the curse is now within his
+soul_!
+
+Then he suddenly turns to meet his enemies; he baffles them at first,
+but countless numbers are upon him. They hurl him to the ground, trample
+him under foot, and pass on singing a song from the land of his Mother.
+As he rises, fresh numbers assail him, he bids defiance to them all,
+struggles, advances, until foaming, bleeding, sinking, he is again
+driven back, again forced to seek an outlet from the Palace. Thus
+fighting, running, falling, fainting, he makes his way until the first
+dim dawn of day, and as it breaks, he falls heavily down the brazen
+staircase, and rolls below into the court of the Palace. Here strong
+arms seize him, and bear him rapidly away to the steps of the
+church--the same church which he had left in the evening twilight.
+
+It is the hour of the young dawn, but the sun of this earth will never
+rise for him again! Light will awake the world, but it will shine into
+his blue eyes no more!
+
+He awakes to consciousness on the steps of the church, and finds himself
+face to face alone with the Wanderer. He is mute in his despair. The
+Wanderer, regarding him sternly, says: 'In other times and scenes thou
+mightst perchance have been a hero, but the Fates doomed thee to heavy
+trial, and thou wert not strong enough to preserve thy virtue! The
+_visible reality_ prevailed with thee above the _invisible_, _holy_, and
+_eternal truth_! Alas, thou art lost!'
+
+'Give me back my horse!' cried the young man, as life again began to
+flow through his veins. 'Give me the free dress of the steppes, give me
+my arms, and thou shalt see that I know how to revenge the wrongs
+inflicted on my brethren, to redress my own infamy!'
+
+He grasped the hand of his friend, and threw himself into his arms,
+quivering with rage. Far more sadly than before, the Wanderer replied:
+
+'The hour for bold and open defiance is not yet near. It is the time for
+silent sacrifice. But even shouldst thou live until the Day of Judgment,
+the hour of Resurrection, thy brethren will always number thee among
+those who have renounced the Mother. Hark! thy enemies are in pursuit of
+thee, already near. Should they capture thee, thou must be the slave of
+their wills, the partner of their crimes, the sport and butt of all
+their bitter jests throughout the remnant of thy wretched life. One only
+refuge remains for thee!' And as he spoke, he drew his glittering sword.
+
+The young man understood his meaning. With dauntless courage he tore
+aside the covering from his breast.
+
+'Strike!' he exclaimed. 'I die as a true son of the many times murdered
+Mother--honor to her holy name forever and ever!'
+
+The Wanderer groaned from the depths of his soul. He plunged the sharp
+cold steel into the young naked heart. The unfortunate victim fell
+without a moan. He fell in the first rays of the rising sun, and in the
+same hour in which but yesterday, full of strength and hope, he had
+mounted his swift horse from the green home-turf, urging him down the
+hill to push eagerly over the broad steppe of life.
+
+He fell in silence, but his dying eye again flashed forth a light
+rivalling the young beam of Day.
+
+The Wanderer knelt beside him, and lifting his clasped hands to Heaven,
+said: 'O Heavenly Father! Thou knowest that I loved him better than
+aught else on earth! As long as it was possible, I shielded him from the
+Temptation of Hell, and in the first moment of his fall, I tore his soul
+out from the grasp of the enemy, and sent it back to Thee! Save it in
+eternity, merciful Father! Let the crimson tide poured out by me, be
+joined to that sea of innocent blood which is ever wailing and moaning
+at the foot of Thy Throne! Let it with that sea fall upon the head of
+the Tempters!'
+
+After these words I saw him, with the point of the same sword, draw
+blood from under his own heart, and write with the sharp red blade on
+the stone above the head of the dead: SENT HOME BY THE HAND OF A
+FRIEND!
+
+The echoing steps and voices of the pursuers fell loudly on the ear;
+they were close at hand. The Wanderer arose, and rapidly disappeared
+from my eyes in the sanctuary of the ancient church.
+
+
+Thus passed and ended that one day of my vision!
+
+
+O Mother, many times murdered! When thou shalt waken from thy long
+sleep, and again rest on the long grass of the home turf, again hear the
+holy whispers of thy unhewn forests green from sea to sea, again feel
+thy youth returning upon thee, thou wilt remember thy long night of
+death, the terrible phantoms of thy protracted agonies. Weep not then, O
+Mother! weep not for those who fell in glorious battle, nor for those
+who perished on alien soil--although their flesh was torn by the vulture
+and devoured by the wolf, they were still happy! Neither weep for those
+who died in the dark and silent dungeon underground by the hand of the
+executioner, though the dismal prison-lamp was their only star, and the
+harsh words of the oppressor the last farewell they heard on earth--they
+too were happy!
+
+But drop a tear, O Mother! One tear of tender pity for those who were
+deceived by thy Murderers, misled by their tissues of glittering
+falsehood, blinded by misty veils woven of specious deceptions, when the
+command of the tyrant had no power to tear their true hearts from thee!
+Alas, Mother, these victims have suffered the most of all thy martyred
+children! Deceitful hopes, born but to die, like blades of naked steel,
+forever pierced their breasts! Thousands of fierce combats, unknown to
+fame, were waging in their souls, combats fuller of bitter suffering
+than the bloody battles thundering on in the broad light of the sun,
+clashing with the gleam of steel, and booming with the roar of
+artillery. No glory shone on the dim paths of thy deceived sons; thy
+reproachful phantom walked ever beside them, as part of their own
+shadow! The glittering eye of the enemy lured them to the steep slopes
+of ice, down into the abyss of eternal snow, and at every step into the
+frozen depths, their tears fell fast for thee! They waited until their
+hearts withered in the misery of hope long deferred; until their hands
+sank in utter weariness; until they could no longer move their emaciated
+limbs in the fetters of their invisible chain; still conscious of life,
+they moved as living corpses with frozen hearts--alone amidst a hating
+People--alone even in the sanctuary of their own homes--alone forever on
+the face of the earth!
+
+My Mother! When thou shalt again live in thy olden glory, shed a tear
+over their wretched fate, over the agony of agonies, and whisper upon
+their dark and silent graves, the sublime word: PARDON!
+
+
+
+
+MADAGASCAR
+
+
+The 'Last Travels' of Ida Pfeiffer, published in London in 1861, called
+the public attention to an island which had been excluded from
+civilization for more than a quarter of a century. The great Island of
+Madagascar, situated in the path of all the commerce of Europe with the
+East, for reasons we are about to explain, has again attracted the
+notice of diplomatists, and threatens to become a second Eastern
+question. We propose to sketch the history of the island and to explain
+the cause of its sudden importance.
+
+Though discovered in 1506 by the Portuguese, and partially colonized at
+times by the Dutch, French, and English, it has, up to this time,
+preserved an independent government; or rather, the native tribes have
+been allowed to fight and enslave each other without much aid or
+hindrance from Europeans.
+
+When England, early in the present century, began the task of subduing
+the East, she found in her conquests of Mauritius and Bourbon the
+natural and important links in her chain of posts. As a recent writer
+has well pointed out, she has a succession of fortified posts,
+Gibraltar, St. Helena, the Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, and Ceylon,
+reaching from London to Calcutta and Singapore. The commerce of the
+world, as it sweeps by the Cape of Good Hope, is forced to pursue a
+track in which her strongholds are situated. But for the blindness of
+her former rulers, she would be the mistress of the Eastern seas. Two
+points, however, have been left unguarded. In some trading convention,
+some congress of nations, England made the great mistake of restoring to
+France the Island of Bourbon, surrendering one of the keys to the
+impregnable position she held. Other reasons have prevented the
+acquisition of Madagascar, and it is not yet too late to render this
+mistake fatal to her supremacy. It is true that in case of war, her
+armed steamers may start with the assurance of a secure coaling station
+at the end of every ten days' journey, but from the Cape eastward she is
+dependent upon her maintenance of Mauritius.
+
+France has made the most of the opportunity given to her, by holding
+Bourbon as a military colony, and maintaining a powerful fleet there. It
+is, however, for us to regard the interests of the United States, and to
+see if any foothold can be gained for our protection. Had war been the
+result of the _Trent_ affair, what would have become of our immense
+fleet of merchant ships which was then afloat in Indian waters? Manila
+and Batavia were the only two neutral ports to which they could have
+fled for safety; and neither Spain nor Holland would have dared to
+permit our cruisers to refit or to coal in their ports. The American
+flag would have been driven from those seas without the slightest
+difficulty.
+
+And yet the means for avoiding this disgraceful state of affairs in the
+future lie open to us now. The fertile Island of Madagascar, abounding
+in safe harbors, lies as near the track of commerce as do Mauritius and
+Bourbon. It has innumerable advantages over either of these islands, and
+it is especially adapted to our wants. Mauritius must be weak in time of
+war, because it is so entirely an artificial colony. A mere dot on the
+map, only some thirty miles in diameter, it has a population of over
+three hundred thousand, wholly devoted to the cultivation of sugar. This
+product has been the source of immense wealth to the island, but it has
+necessitated the abandonment of every other branch of agriculture. These
+three hundred thousand inhabitants are literally dependent for their
+daily food on the kindness of the elements in time of peace, and on the
+naval supremacy of England in time of war. There is not enough grain
+raised there to supply the colonists with food for twenty-four hours,
+and there is rarely a supply in reserve to last them for two months.
+Their rice is brought from India, their cattle from Madagascar. Let the
+free intercourse with these countries be suspended, and a famine is
+inevitable. The noble harbor of Port Louis, with its fortifications, its
+dockyards, and coal sheds, is a source of strength to England only so
+long as she can prevent her enemies from establishing themselves in
+Madagascar.
+
+France is striving to rival and surpass England. At Bourbon, already
+strongly fortified, immense artificial docks are projected, perhaps
+commenced. The colony has annually a deficit in its accounts to be made
+good from the national treasury, but extension rather than retrenchment
+is its policy. France has acquired the Mayotte or Comoro Islands, and
+several ports on the north of Madagascar. She has also the sympathy of
+all the creoles of Mauritius, in whose minds the English occupation of
+fifty years has been unable to stifle the instinct of nationality.
+
+Thus the two great Western powers stand, nominally allies at home,
+jealous and active enemies abroad.
+
+Circumstances have kept both powers from seizing the tempting prize
+which has so long hung before them. What are these two pitiful islands
+in comparison with the great, wealthy, and fertile island which, lies to
+the west of them? In time of peace they are convenient points in the
+great lines of commerce; here the disabled vessels of all nations find a
+resting place. In time of war they are strongly entrenched positions,
+liable to capture by any nation which can secure a base for operations
+against them. Madagascar, on the other hand, stands fifth on the list of
+islands in magnitude, is situated in the latitude most favorable for
+agriculture, and abounds in every kind of material wealth. A harbor on
+its coast, with the whole island as a depot from whence supplies can be
+drawn, would be a source of strength more than sufficient to
+counterbalance the works of half a century's growth at Mauritius. We
+have only to see, therefore, if such a concession can be obtained for
+this country.
+
+We have said that repeated and ineffectual attempts were made to subdue
+and colonize the island. Numerous tribes, of widely varying origin,
+people the island, some black as the blackest negro, others of the Malay
+or Arab type. For centuries they had been engaged in domestic wars, when
+in 1816 the English Government agreed to recognize the chief of one
+tribe as king of the island, on condition that he would suppress the
+foreign slave trade.
+
+The chief thus selected was Radama, king of the Hovas, a tribe occupying
+the centre of the island, and the one which ranked highest in the scale
+for intelligence. It is believed that this race, presenting so many
+characteristics of the Malays, is the result of some piratical colony
+here, established by chance or the desire of conquest. That the Hovas
+possess a high degree of intelligence, and are capable of as much
+culture as the Japanese or Mavris, is indisputable.
+
+Thanks to the muskets and military instructors with which England
+provided him, Radama was enabled to extend his conquests in every
+direction. He was indeed fitted to be a ruler, and, a savage Napoleon,
+he devoted as much time to improvement of his subjects as he did to the
+increase of his territories. Though not a convert, he allowed the
+missionaries to preach the gospel, to reduce the Hova language to
+writing, and to translate the Bible. He permitted them to establish
+schools, to import printing presses, to instruct his people in
+agriculture and mechanics. They rapidly availed themselves of the
+opportunity, and with mines of coal, iron, and copper in abundance, they
+became skilful artificers.
+
+Unfortunately, Radama died in 1828, in the prime of life; and, by an
+intrigue in his harem, a concubine, Ranavalo, was proclaimed Queen of
+Madagascar. The advance had been too rapid, and, as in Japan, there was
+a large party of conservatives anxious to return to the old regime. The
+new queen dissembled for a few years, but finally expelled the
+missionaries in 1835. Idolatry was again resumed, and Christianity
+stifled. A certain amount of commerce was allowed with Europeans, but
+under severe restrictions. So necessary to the existence of the
+neighboring colonists was the supply of food, that when in 1844 the
+trade was forbidden, the English Government was obliged to yield. The
+difficulty arose from the fact that an English vessel, the 'Marie
+Laure,' kidnapped some of the Malagash. The Hovas seized one of the
+crew, and then declared non-intercourse. In 1845, one English and two
+French men-of-war attacked Tamatave, but were repulsed with considerable
+losses.
+
+Finally the matter was settled by the payment of $15,000 to the queen as
+an indemnity, and this sum, raised by the contributions of the merchants
+of Port Louis, was paid with the consent of the English Government.
+
+Until 1861, there was no change in the position of affairs, except one
+incident, which Madame Pfeiffer records. In 1831, a certain M. Laborde,
+shipwrecked on the coast, was carried as a prisoner to the capital,
+where he was kept in an honorable captivity. He taught the natives the
+art of casting cannon and manufacturing gunpowder, and acquired a
+considerable property. In 1855, he was joined by M. Lambert, a
+Frenchman of wealth, and they became the favorites of the Prince Rakoto.
+This son of the queen was at the head of the liberal party, as his
+cousin, Ramboasalama, was of the conservative. The latter, nephew of the
+queen, and brother-in-law of the prince, had been designated as heir
+presumptive before the birth of Rakoto; and he had always the credit of
+a design to contest the succession.
+
+The visit of Mr. Ellis, an English missionary, in 1856, was the signal
+for the intrigues which were about to commence between the French and
+English. The prince was warmly attached to M. Lambert, but the English
+hoped to claim him as a Protestant. Finally, as Madame Pfeiffer says, M.
+Lambert attempted to create a revolution, seeking to depose the queen,
+but he was discovered and banished.
+
+In 1861, the queen died, and her son succeeded as Radama II, after a
+short contest with his cousin. Having been on the island at the time,
+and leaving it in the vessel which carried the new king's letters to the
+colonial governments, the writer can testify to the intense interest
+evinced by the French and English. It was confidently asserted at
+Bourbon that Radama had placed the island under the protection of
+France, and that French influence was to predominate. This proved
+unfounded, but the court was the centre for incessant intrigues.
+
+The new king commenced his reign under the happiest auspices. He was
+very popular, and his reputation for kindness had soon caused many of
+the surrounding tribes to acknowledge his supremacy. The Hovas had
+spread from the centre toward the coast in all directions--to the
+eastward they had subdued the Betsimarakas; to the westward, the
+Saccalaves. Yet numerous tribes had remained independent, and held large
+portions of the coast and the interior. The cruelty of the queen had
+kept alive their animosity, but now they voluntarily came forward to
+acknowledge her son and to be received into the Hova nation.
+
+The people already had acquired a taste for European luxuries, and were
+desirous of an extended commerce. As they were rich in herds and flocks,
+in grain and fruits, as their forests of ebony, rosewood, and other
+valuable woods were immense, as their mines yielded coal and iron,
+perhaps even gold, they were ready and anxious to open their ports to
+the commerce of the world. England and France both recognized the king,
+sent envoys with congratulatory letters and presents, and appointed
+resident consuls. The United States alone, unfortunately plunged in
+civil war, neglected the opportunity.
+
+The king proclaimed freedom of religion, permitted the establishment of
+schools, established freedom of imports and exports, and granted lands
+to all _bona fide_ settlers.
+
+It was with the greatest surprise, therefore, that we have learned, some
+two months since, that a revolution has taken place, and that these fair
+prospects have been darkened by the murder of the king. It seems that he
+had made such lavish grants of land to his favorite, Lambert, that his
+nobles rebelled. Lambert had been sent to France to obtain the regalia
+for the coronation, and had organized a great company to hold these
+concessions. Whether the feuds of the missionaries, Protestant English
+and Catholic French, aided this, is not yet known.
+
+It is clear, however, that the king and many of his personal friends
+were killed, and that his wife, Rabodo, is the queen. She is the sister
+of Ramboasalama, and probably represents the party of retrogression.
+
+It is not, however, too late for our Government to recognize the ruler
+of Madagascar, and to obtain those indispensable advantages resulting.
+In time of peace, we shall have safe harbors for our merchant vessels,
+and we shall open a new field for our commerce. In time of war, we shall
+have these neutral ports as a refuge, and should diplomacy go one step
+farther and secure us a coaling station, we shall be on equal terms in
+the East with the other great maritime powers.
+
+There is certainly no time to be lost. A single English steamer, flying
+the confederate flag, can pass the Cape, can coal at Mauritius, or
+rendezvous at Madagascar, and could then destroy more shipping than the
+whole fleet of pirates has yet done. It is at least probable that our
+national vessels would be refused permission to avail of Port Louis for
+repairs or supplies. It certainly does not comport with the honor of the
+nation to have to rely upon the churlish courtesy of England. Already,
+too, we see it announced that Napoleon will find in the massacre of
+French subjects a pretext to seize on the island. If our Government will
+spare a single one of the cruisers which have so uselessly sought the
+Alabama, it may, during the present year, negotiate a treaty which will
+at once advance our prosperity in peace, and increase our strength in
+any future war.
+
+It seems strange, indeed, that our statesmen cannot learn that we must
+hereafter abandon our isolated condition. England has taught us the
+folly of continuing indifferent to her aggressions in the East, in the
+hope that she will not interfere in the West. No blow can be more fatal
+to her supremacy abroad than the knowledge that we have secured a point
+where we perpetually threaten her line of communication with her
+colonies.
+
+We have written thus fully, because so few persons have had occasion to
+consider the subject. It seems probable, from the latest advices from
+Port Louis, that some envoy has visited the island, but what we require
+is a more imposing display of our power. The new queen, who has assumed
+the name of Rahoserina, is but a puppet in the hands of the council of
+nobles, of which Rainivoninahitriniony is the chief. Formerly all honors
+were held subject to the pleasure of the king, who could degrade his
+servants at pleasure; but this power is now declared to be abrogated.
+The powerful tribe of Saccalaves, always independent until the accession
+of Radama II, refuses to acknowledge his successor. It may be necessary
+to negotiate different treaties, perhaps, to protect American citizens
+in case of civil war. It is certainly most important to show the natives
+that we are really a great maritime nation. The time and position demand
+the employment of an able envoy, and the presence of such a naval force
+as may cause his mission to be respected.
+
+Our last topic is to be considered. We do not advocate the establishment
+of costly works by Government, or the acquisition of a colony. The laws
+of commerce will provide the first, if only a proper protection is given
+to enterprise. Let us obtain but a single port under the safeguard of
+the American flag, and it will become a depot as flourishing as
+Singapore. Private enterprise will speedily establish dockyards and
+machine shops; for not only will there be an immense legitimate commerce
+with the Malagash, but the port will be the great centre for repairing
+and refitting our merchant vessels and whalers. The one thing needful,
+we repeat, is prompt action by our Government, with the certainty that
+the opportunity now presented will not return.
+
+
+NOTE.--The latest advices from Madagascar, received _via_
+Mauritius, throw a little light upon the revolution which resulted in
+the death of Radama II. It seems probable that the late king had lost
+the esteem of his people by his partiality toward his favorites, by the
+concessions made to foreigners, especially to M. Lambert, and by his
+vacillating course in religious matters. His private life was such as to
+render it highly improbable that he had become a Christian; yet Mr.
+Ellis, the English missionary, exercised a great control over him.
+
+The late queen was buried at Ambohimanga, a little village where there
+was a temple devoted to the chief idol. It seems that her son had
+promised to keep this spot sacred from the intrusion of the
+missionaries. Mr. Ellis most imprudently determined to preach there, and
+though driven away once, obtained troops from the king, and succeeded in
+a second attempt.
+
+As the nobles and the population were almost unanimously in favor of
+idolatry, this course gave cause for great dissatisfaction. The more
+devout, assembling near the capital, held daily meetings, and a disease
+called ramanenra--a sort of nervous affection, such as has too often
+accompanied revivals in Christian countries--appeared among them. The
+nobles confederated under the lead of the commander-in-chief,
+Rainivoninahitriniony, and remained aloof from supporting the king.
+Finally, the king published a mysterious law, allowing individuals or
+tribes to fight in the presence of witnesses--a law supposed by the one
+party to encourage assassination, and by the other to tend to the
+extirpation of the Christians.
+
+The prime minister, in a letter written in English, explains the last
+scene thus: On the 8th May, the chief officers requested the repeal of
+these laws; the king refused; and the tenth day, a public tumult
+resulted in the slaughter of the Menamaso, or native favorites of the
+king. On the 12th May, the leaders, afraid to pause, strangled the king,
+and proclaimed Rabodo queen, under the name of Rahoserina.
+
+It is believed that no foreigner was injured; but the nobles have taken
+an important step in proclaiming the new queen as direct successor of
+Ranavalo--thereby ignoring the reign of Radama II. As the fundamental
+rule of the Hovas had been that the title to all land was in the
+sovereign and inalienable, the grants to Lambert and others are held to
+be void. We believe this has not been officially stated, but Commodore
+Dupré, who negotiated the treaty between France and Radama, says that
+the treaty was almost unanimously rejected by the great council of
+nobles, and was accepted solely by the king.
+
+The last advices, 6th September, from Port Louis, are that the French
+fleet at Tamatave maintains a semi-warlike attitude toward the Hovas,
+not landing nor recognizing the authorities. Rumors are rife of the
+intentions of the French Government to seize Tamatave, and apply other
+coercive measures, unless the former treaty is carried into effect.
+
+The case seems to stand thus: The emperor, availing of the weakness of
+Radama II for his favorite Lambert, concluded a treaty, by which the
+king was to entirely alter the laws of the kingdom, and to give the
+French a controlling influence in the Indian Ocean. The people have
+deposed their ruler, and refuse to be bound by arrangements made by his
+will alone. Under ordinary circumstances, Napoleon would hardly brave
+the anger of England in a matter in which the latter has so much at
+stake. The prize, however, is well worth the effort. Any European nation
+obtaining sole possession of Madagascar dominates the East. It is surely
+time for our Government to awake to the importance of the steps now
+being taken. It is not a time when the interests of the country can be
+intrusted to the efforts of a consul or any inferior naval officer. We
+ought to send an envoy with powers to negotiate a treaty, and with such
+a fleet as will insure a respectful attention to our demands. The number
+of American vessels which frequent the coasts of Madagascar is a
+sufficient reason for us to interfere, without regard to the vastly
+greater interests which demand that this island shall not become a
+French colony. Our prediction that the confederate pirates would soon
+sweep the Indian Ocean of our richly laden India-men seems in a fair
+way to be accomplished; and where, save by the contemptuous forbearance
+of England and France, can our cruisers find a port for supplies,
+repairs, or information?
+
+
+
+
+A VIGIL WITH ST. LOUIS.
+
+  [Greek: "Cheires men hagnai, phrên d' echei miasma ti."]
+
+  EURIPIDES.
+
+
+  O Friend, thy brow is overcast; but haply for thy grief,
+  Though all untold, a spell I hold to work a swift relief,--
+  A hallowed spell;--no rites we need that shun the light,
+  Thy taper trim; for we must read some dark old words to-night.
+  For I will, shall I?--from their graves call up the holy dead,
+  More mighty than the living oft such soul as thine to aid.
+  From Fear and Woe, through fears and woes like thine, they won release,
+  And through our still confronting foes once fought their way to peace.
+  'Twixt woe and weal, a balm to heal our every wound they found,
+  An outlet for each pool of strife, that whirls us round and round.
+  And if perhaps their childish time discerned not all aright,--
+  While Fancy her stained windows reared between them and the light,--
+  That in these clearer latter days 'tis given to thee to know,
+  Then seek the spirit they received, and bid the letter go.
+  Thy heart unto its Lord unlock; and shut thy closet's door.
+  The holy water of thy tears drop on the quiet floor.
+  Unclasp the old brown tome. The walls no more are seen. The page
+  I read; and we are backward borne far in a bygone age.
+  The spell hath wrought. To take us in, a tower and bower advance
+  Where grows upon our steadfast gaze the royal saint of France.
+  The bower full well a hermit's cell--with hourglass and with skull--
+  Might seem,--the hangings woven all of rocks and mosses full.
+  The floor is thick with rushes strown. Some resting place is there
+  Worn,--as amid the rushy marsh by stag that made his lair,--
+  Worn just beneath yon carven form, that bends in pain and love,
+  As if to bless, from its high place, and almost seems to move,
+  While round it in the wind of night the arras swells and swings,--
+  The viceroy's of the universe, son of the King of kings.
+  For Louis loves to leave his court, and lay aside his crown,
+  And to a mightier Prince than he to bow in homage down.
+  In this great presence learns the king peace, truth, and lowlihead;
+  Here learns the saint the majesty no earthly power to dread.
+  But now the king's mute voice it rings, and through the shades doth call:
+  'Ho, Sire de Jonville, come to me, my doughty seneschal!'
+  The rafters feel the tramp of steel; and by the monarch stand
+  Again the feet that by him stood far in the Holy Land.
+  'O Sire de Jonville,' to his friend and servant Louis saith,
+  'Hold fast and firmly to the end the jewel of thy faith.
+  Strong faith's the key of heaven; and once an abbot taught to me,
+  If will is good, though faith is weak, shall faith accepted be.
+  This tale he told[11]:
+
+               A Master old,--Master of Sacred Lore,--
+  Of life unsmirched, once came to him in straits and travail sore,
+  'What wouldst thou, Master?--What the grief that makes thee peak
+      and pine?
+  And comest thou to me?--My soul hath often leaned on thine!'
+  'Let each co-pilgrim lean in turn on each,' in anguish meek,
+  With tongue that clave unto his mouth, the Master then did speak;
+  But when the abbot led him in and lent his pitying ears,
+  Then tears came fast instead of words; words could not come for tears.
+  'O brother, weep no more; but speak, and banish thy dismay.
+  Of man is guilt; but grace is God's, that purgeth guilt away.
+  If all our little being's bound were filled and stuffed with sin,
+  'Twere nothing to the holiness His mighty heart within;
+  And in this wilderness of life there's no such crooked road,
+  But from it may a path be found straight to the throne of God.
+  The penitent that mourns like thee, that path will surely take.
+  What needeth but to own thy sin and straight thy sin forsake?'
+  'Yet must I weep. Mine inward plight is one that stands alone.
+  The outward ill the tempted wight may do or leave undone;
+  But when I to the altar go, to eat the sacred bread
+  And gaze upon the blood divine, that for us all was shed,
+  Still Satan stirreth up in me a heart of unbelief!--
+  This guilt must sure unmeasured be, save haply by this grief!'
+  The abbot's brows were sternly bent an instant on his guest:
+  'Dost thou--thou dost not, sure!--invite this traitor to thy breast?'
+  'The livelong day, though sore assailed, true watch and ward I keep,--
+  Keep vigils long as flesh can bear,--but in my helpless sleep--
+  Thronged heaven, canst thou no angel spare, to sit by me by night
+  And drive away the hell-sent dreams, that drive me wild with fright?--
+  I seem to spill with frantic hands, and spurn the piteous blood,
+  To trample on the blessed bread, and spit upon the rood!'
+  The abbot's cheer grew calm and clear: 'Now, Master, tell me true:
+  For aught that Satan proffers thee, such trespass wouldst thou _do_?'
+  'From his poor thrall he taketh all, and offers nought instead.
+  The Father's grace,--the Son's mild face,--are all I crave,' he said.
+  'For any threat of any fate, wouldst follow his commands?'
+  'The fiery stake I'd rather make my portion at his hands!'
+  The abbot's mien was bright, I ween, as 'twere a saint's in bliss:
+  'O fiend, 'tis well to seek for hell so pure a gem as this!
+  O cunning foe, that round dost go these heavenward birds to snare,
+  When every brighter line is vain, wouldst tempt them with despair?
+  Bethink thee, Master. War doth rage 'twixt Britain's king, we know,
+  And ours. Now tell me unto whom most thanks our liege shall owe,
+  When war is o'er? To him who, oft assailed but never quelled,
+  The castle of Rochelle upon the dangerous Marches held,--
+  Whose battlements must bristle still with halberd, bow, and lance,--
+  Or Montl'hery's, that nestles safe close to the heart of France?'
+  'Unto the warden of Rochelle. Thou'rt answered easily!'
+  'That stronghold is thy heart, but mine the keep of Montl'hery,
+  For He who giveth gifts to all, hath given me to believe
+  So steadfastly, that strife like thine my wit can scarce conceive.
+  From th' Enemy God keepeth me,--He knows my weaker strength,--
+  But suffers thee assayed to be for higher meed at length.
+  Then let us at our different posts His equal mercies own;
+  But they the sharpest thorns who bear may wear the brightest crown.'
+  Beside the kneeling penitent the abbot bent his knee,
+  Sent his own praise and prayers to heaven forth on an embassy,
+  Then raised him up, and saw that God had sent him answering grace;
+  The shadow of the Enemy had left his heart and face.
+  Calmly as warily he walked his fellow men beside,
+  A good, grave man. 'Tis said, at last a happy man he died.'
+
+
+
+
+UNION NOT TO BE MAINTAINED BY FORCE.
+
+
+The enemies of our cause in Europe seem to have settled in their own
+minds the certainty of a final separation of the American States.
+Compelled though they may be, reluctantly to admit the superiority of
+our resources and the immense advantages we have recently gained over
+the conspirators, they yet adhere with singular tenacity to the belief
+that all our victories will be barren, and that all our vast
+acquisitions of Southern territory will not avail for the ultimate
+restoration of the Union. Though the domain originally usurped by the
+rebellion is already sundered by our possession of that great
+continental highway, the Mississippi river, and though no shadow of hope
+remains that the enemies of the Union will ever be able to recover it;
+though the recent boundless theatre of hostilities is gradually
+contracting, and the resources of the rebellion are rapidly melting
+away, until there remains no longer any doubt of our ultimate and even
+speedy success in crushing the wasted armies of the desperate foe; and
+though the boundaries of the boasted confederacy are uncertain,
+ever-shifting, and mystical, while whole populations of recovered
+regions of country hail the advent of our conquering flag with streaming
+eyes and shouts of joy; yet our jealous friends across the water, in the
+very act of acknowledging all this, never fail to assert, with the
+utmost vehemence, that in spite of all our military advantages, the
+Union is still irrecoverably destroyed. There is something remarkable in
+this persistent opinion, which, through all the changes of condition
+exhibited by the hostile parties in our struggling country, continues to
+possess the mind of British statesmen with unshaken firmness. If they
+undertake to justify their hasty recognition of the rebels as
+belligerents, and to vindicate their alleged impartial neutrality, they
+take apparently peculiar delight in fortifying themselves with the
+declaration that the Union is effectually broken, and can never be
+restored. It is necessary to throw the shield of this cherished
+anticipation back on the unfriendly acts they have perpetrated against
+us, in order fully to justify their conduct to themselves. If the
+rebellious States should indeed be compelled to acknowledge the
+authority of the Federal Government, and should return again to their
+position in the Union, the hostile cruisers which have been fitted out
+in England to harass our commerce, would occasion some unpleasant
+negotiations, and perhaps some costly responsibilities. To brush these
+all aside, and at the same time to get rid of a troublesome rival in
+commerce and manufactures, by the final separation of the Union, is, to
+them, on all accounts, 'a consummation most devoutly to be wished.' They
+may yet have to learn, through the experience of their Southern friends,
+that
+
+  'The ample proposition, that hope makes
+   In all designs begun on earth below,
+   Fails in the promised largeness.'
+
+But perhaps, after all, it is we, ourselves, who are the victims of
+delusive hope in reference to the destiny of our noble Union. Possibly
+our disinterested friends across the water, calmly looking on from a
+distance, may be better able to understand the tendency of events, and
+to foresee the issue of the mighty civil contest which rages around us.
+They are not at all involved in the awful passions which the war has
+engendered in our bosoms, and thus, cool and deliberate, from the great
+altitude of their assumed moral serenity and disinterestedness, they may
+in reality behold the division of our country already accomplished,
+whatever may be the result of our grand strategy and our bloody battles.
+
+Let us open our eyes fully, and look this matter dispassionately in the
+face. Let us try and ascertain whether we are in reality deceiving
+ourselves and waging a vain and fruitless war against our exasperated
+and misguided brethren of the South. We know they have instituted a
+causeless rebellion, which has brought unnumbered woes upon our common
+country. But if we cannot restore the Union, and reëstablish one great
+and powerful nationality within the magnificent domain which we possess
+as it was when this unhappy war began, then surely we are wasting our
+blood and treasure--our lives and fortunes--with the most wanton and
+wicked disregard of the sufferings and sacrifices of the people. If the
+war is to accomplish nothing, then the sooner it is closed the better.
+If the Union is indeed irrevocably broken and gone forever, let us, by
+all means, hasten to arrange the terms of honorable peace, and stop the
+effusion of blood at the earliest practicable moment. Unless we can
+assure ourselves that there is some object to be gained, commensurate in
+value with all the terrible sacrifices we are daily making, it is only
+criminal stubbornness and passion which induce us to continue the awful
+conflict.
+
+Of one thing, at least, there is no shadow of doubt. The people of the
+loyal States, who, by an immense majority, have just emphasized their
+determination to sustain the war, are firmly convinced that they are not
+laboring and suffering in vain. It is no spasmodic impulse of blind
+passion, or even of useless though just resentment against wrong, which
+impels them, after nearly three years of ruinous war, to redouble their
+sublime efforts to conquer the treason that still obstinately resists
+the lawful authority of the Union. Whatever else may be truly said of
+this great conflict and its terrible results, it cannot be questioned
+that the people of the loyal States are profoundly impressed with the
+inestimable value of their free institutions and of the constitutional
+integrity and unity of the Government which shall administer them on
+this continent. They have faith in the exalted destiny of their country.
+They at least do not admit that the Union is irrecoverably lost; on the
+contrary, they believe, with a religious sincerity, which no temporary
+disaster can shake, in the certainty of its speedy restoration. This
+earnest faith is not merely the result of education and national
+prejudice. While it is to some extent an instinctive or intuitive
+insight of the American people, prophetically anticipating the future,
+it is also a matter of sober judgment, founded upon the most substantial
+and convincing reasons.
+
+In the first place, the loyal people of the United States plainly see
+that the true interests of both sections demand the restoration of their
+old connection under one free and benign Government. Having originated
+and developed a mighty republican government, until it became
+continental in its dimensions, and having through it achieved results
+unexampled in history, with the promise of future prosperity
+immeasurably grand and imposing, the lovers of the Union would hold
+themselves utterly unworthy of their lineage and of their inherited
+freedom, if they could consent, in the presence of whatever dangers and
+difficulties, to see the glorious destiny of their country defeated.
+They would justly consider themselves traitors, not only to their
+country, but also to the highest interests of humanity itself; and they
+would feel the ineffable shame of imprinting the brand of their
+degradation upon their own brows. Partakers of the noblest forms and the
+most precious blessings of liberty, under a splendid, powerful, and
+growing nationality, they are too conscious of the dignity and glory of
+the American character ever to be willing to fall from that high estate
+without a struggle which shall fully demonstrate their lofty patriotism
+and their intelligent appreciation of the priceless political and social
+structure they seek to preserve for the benefit of the whole country and
+of the world. The history of Europe, and indeed the experience of the
+entire human race, have taught them the immense value of a mighty
+continental organization, such as our Union has hitherto established.
+Solemnly impressed with this great lesson of human history, they will
+never consent to see their country broken up into discordant fragments.
+As they plainly foresee the tremendous and ever-increasing evils of such
+a national disintegration, they have deliberately come to consider the
+worst calamities of this war as mere dust in the balance when weighed
+against them. It is this awful picture of bloody conflicts, perpetuated
+through coming generations, wasting the substance and paralyzing the
+fruitful energies of this mighty nation, perhaps for centuries to
+come--it is this vista of inevitable calamities and horrors, which
+reconciles the loyal people of North America to the dreadful war in
+which they have been so earnestly engaged for the last two years and
+more. They feel the inspiration of a sacred cause, the mighty impulse of
+an idea as grand as their cherished hopes for their country, and as
+immense as the interests of all humanity. They hear the mute appeals of
+a swarming posterity, gathered from all nations in pursuit of freedom,
+progress, and happiness, and they know that these countless millions
+will justly hold them responsible for the deeds of the present momentous
+hour. Is it strange that, penetrated and nerved with the high motives to
+be derived from these solemn considerations, the American people are
+prepared to accept the responsibilities of the great occasion, and even
+to wade through blood for the realization of the grandeur of those human
+hopes which are now intrusted to their keeping? One nation--one
+government--one universal freedom within those imperial boundaries which
+have heretofore been the theatre of our glorious achievements as a
+people! This is the grand thought of the Union men of America. This is
+the principle of their organization, and this it is which gives them
+hope, and strength, and courage. What weakness, what degeneracy, what
+dwindling of power for good and retrogression of thought and aim would
+be the consequence of permanent division! What a lamentable fall in our
+position among the nations of the earth, and what a diminution of our
+capacity for progress among ourselves and for usefulness to mankind! It
+is our duty and our destiny to develop all the physical resources of the
+continent--to stimulate its agricultural capabilities--to bring to light
+its boundless mineral treasures--to pierce its mountains and level its
+valleys--to control its mighty floods--and to make it worthy to be the
+seat of human freedom and of human empire. Nor is it less our destiny to
+build up a moral and social power and a political organization, which
+shall shed abroad a new and glorious light, beaming with immortal hopes,
+and penetrating to the farthest verge of the habitable globe. Nature, in
+every form of benignant usefulness and unequalled grandeur, invites us
+to this tremendous task. The loyal people of the nation have not been
+insensible to these mystic calls and the noble anticipations growing out
+of them, fraught as they are with the happiness and progress of the
+human race. They have projected works of the most gigantic proportions,
+nor, although they are conscious that union is indispensable to their
+success, have they hesitated to begin them, with all the high confidence
+necessary to their completion. Even amid the perils and the vast
+expenditures of civil war have they embarked in the grand enterprise of
+uniting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by a continental highway, equal
+in its cost and its importance to the power and resources of a mighty
+empire. Vast internal streams and lakes call for union by canals, which
+shall typify the union of hearts and of interests destined to bind
+together millions of freemen, whose connection of brotherhood and
+national unity shall be as lasting as the perpetual flow of our mighty
+rivers, and as full of blessings as our great lakes are of their pure
+and crystal waters. The agitation of these momentous schemes, under
+existing circumstances, is a phenomenon indicating a consciousness of
+security and of vast power in the community, which, at the same time
+that it is engaged in the perilous and bloody work of preserving the
+Union, is preparing to perform the most important duties appertaining to
+the nation in the hour of its most perfectly established and permanent
+authority. It is the instinct of the national destiny working out its
+ends in spite of the difficulties and dangers of the hour. It is the
+prophetic vision of the popular mind, unconsciously preparing for a
+great future not yet visible to the natural eye, but which the
+providence of God, in its own good time, will verify to the firm and
+courageous hearts of our people.
+
+The loyal people of our country, those who are determined to restore the
+Union, are well aware that it cannot be maintained by force. That great
+political organization was voluntary in its origin, based on the consent
+of the governed; and it has been upheld through all its marvellous
+career of prosperity by the free and unconstrained will of the people,
+who rejoiced in its common benefits and blessings. The novel system on
+which it was built, not only required the largest liberty for its very
+conception and for its practical embodiment, but was also admirably
+devised to secure the complete and permanent enjoyment of that
+individual independence in thought and action, which is the first of
+human privileges. Those States of the Union which are preëminently loyal
+to it, have ever cherished the most liberal principles of civil polity,
+and have framed their constitutions in accordance with the most modern
+and advanced maxims of popular rights. So far are they from any
+disposition to usurp authority or to impose unjust or unnecessary
+restraints upon the political action of the people, that they are
+charged with the opposite fault of carrying liberty to the extreme of
+ungoverned license. Of all the American States, these are the least
+likely to interfere with the great principles of civil liberty, or to
+impose an unacceptable government on the people by force. All the
+violence, so far as any has been shown, is wholly on the other side.
+Leaving entirely out of view the exceptional irregularities arising from
+a state of civil war, and it must be acknowledged that the social and
+political system of the Southern States is one which rests on arbitrary
+force as its corner stone. It is this arbitrary and tyrannical spirit
+embodied in Southern institutions which has seized on the pretext of
+secession in order to destroy the Government of the Union. The efforts
+of the loyal States and of the Federal authority in the present war are
+antagonistic to this spirit. Their purpose is to break down and destroy
+this system of arbitrary power, which has set itself up against the
+Union; and in its stead to bring into play the great principle of
+popular assent to the fundamental principles and conditions of
+government. Annihilate the despotism which controls in the pretended
+confederacy, give the masses of the people absolute freedom of choice
+under the conditions necessary for deliberate and intelligent decision,
+and they will certainly pronounce for the restoration of the old Union,
+under which they have enjoyed such boundless prosperity. No friend of
+the Union entertains any serious thought of disregarding or destroying
+the great principle that governments are only rightly founded on the
+consent of the governed. But it is not every temporary aberration of
+thought, nor every outbreak of revolutionary violence, which may
+properly be allowed to avail in changing the forms of an established
+government. Some respect is due to obligations once assumed and long
+recognized as the basis of a permanent political organization; and when
+the minority in that organization have taken up arms against it, the
+majority, in possession of the lawful power of the nation, are bound to
+vindicate its constitutional authority. If the Union cannot be
+maintained by force, it ought not to be destroyed by force. The instinct
+of self-preservation, which is but the impulse of a solemn duty, would
+necessarily and rightfully lead it to suppress the lawless force that
+assailed it. If this assault is wholly wrong and unjustifiable, if it is
+in reality as injurious to the seceding States themselves as to those
+which remain in the Union, then it is certain that, with the suppression
+of the violence prevailing in the disaffected region, the spirit of
+disunion itself will disappear. The Federal Government cannot escape the
+necessity of performing this duty, of suppressing and destroying the
+lawless power which assails it, and permitting the Southern people to
+return to the Union. At the present moment, in the midst of a sanguinary
+conflict, they are blinded with passion and overflowing with enmity. But
+set them free from the power which now deceives and abuses them, which
+arrays them against their own best interests, and makes them the
+helpless victims of a wicked war, and they will, at no distant period,
+gladly pronounce for the unity of the great nation with which Providence
+has cast their lot. Innumerable indications of this disposition among
+the masses of the Southern people are visible in the events of every
+day; and these will multiply in proportion to the success of our arms
+and the decline of power in the rebellion. If we are mistaken in this
+view, then our argument falls to the ground. If, upon a full
+consideration of all the circumstances and with perfect freedom to act
+according to their understanding of their best interests, the people of
+the Southern States should deliberately determine upon a permanent
+separation, our noblest hopes would be sadly disappointed. But this is
+utterly impossible. In moments of frenzy, men may perpetrate deeds of
+desperation. Among the masses of all communities, some are found who,
+under various impulses, will commit suicide. But the conduct of the
+great majority everywhere is controlled by the dictates of reason and
+self-interest. Whatever folly, even to the extremity of
+self-destruction, a few madmen in the Southern States may counsel, it
+may confidently be expected that rational thoughts will prevail among
+the masses. The paths of duty and of interest are for them the same;
+and, upon the whole, are too broad and plain to be mistaken. Their
+self-constituted leaders have already overwhelmed them with calamities.
+The emancipated people will scarcely heed the advice of these, when
+their plausible schemes shall have been all baffled, and their usurped
+power utterly overthrown.
+
+It is, therefore, very far from the thoughts of loyal men, in upholding
+the Federal Government, to establish the principle of force as the bond
+of the American Union. They repel the lawless force which now assails
+it; and even while they do so, they invite the misguided people of the
+rebellious region to return again to their allegiance and to take
+shelter under the political system which is their only security for
+permanent peace and prosperity. The result of the contest in the
+restoration of the Union, so far from establishing force as the basis of
+political authority, on the contrary, will certainly destroy it, and
+give a far wider scope to the voluntary principle of consent, which is
+the only solid foundation of freedom. In the normal condition of the
+larger number of the loyal States, that is to say, in times of peace,
+liberty prevails in its broadest and most universal sense. Force nowhere
+holds a place in society, except for the protection of individual rights
+and of public order. Every man is permitted to pursue happiness in his
+own way, and to enjoy perfect freedom of thought, of speech, and of
+action, except when his published words or his overt acts are calculated
+to interfere with the acknowledged rights or interests of others. This
+is, theoretically, the consummation of the greatest possible human
+liberty. It provides only for order and justice, and leaves everything
+else to the control of individual will and social coöperation. In the
+present war for the Union, the loyal States are by no means contending
+for the abrogation of this principle of liberty, but for its extension.
+They desire neither to abolish it with reference to the Union, when
+exercised through the forms provided in the Constitution, nor to prevent
+its operations within the limits of the Southern States themselves.
+
+It is not possible that the great civil conflict now pending could take
+place without causing, in the end, an important extension of liberal
+principles. These, when they once acquire a firm hold upon any society
+possessed of the requisite intelligence, are altogether too strong for
+the antagonistic principle of force, because the latter can be nothing
+but an authority usurped by the few and exerted against the many; while
+the former is the accumulation of the whole power of society wielded for
+the benefit of all. Obviously, this affords the only basis broad enough
+to sustain a social structure of any stability and permanence.
+
+Under the operation of this voluntary principle--the principle of
+voluntary consent and of universal freedom--the conflicting elements of
+Southern society will be compelled to adjust themselves to each other
+more wisely, and therefore more safely and profitably, than under the
+arbitrary system which has hitherto prevailed.
+
+Some of the wealthiest men and the largest slaveholders have already
+discerned the necessities of their condition, and are fully prepared to
+accept the new order of things, and to make their arrangements for
+future operations accordingly. Under the law of liberty, the races, in
+their new relations, will soon find their appropriate positions in the
+social organization, subject chiefly to the natural influences of
+intelligence, morality, industry, and property, but not without the
+inevitable pressure and disturbance of traditional prejudice to hinder
+and embarrass the operation of the principle of freedom. It is
+impossible to prevent this, so long as human nature retains its present
+tendency to selfishness and violence. The only alternative is to await
+the soothing operation of time, which gradually softens the asperities
+of prejudice, and may be expected ultimately to bring the noblest
+harmony out of the present confusion and disorder.
+
+Many good and humane men apprehend the most serious evils from the
+sudden change of relations, now certain to be effected, between the two
+races in the South. It will be a rude and violent shock to the interests
+and feelings of the whites, and will undoubtedly produce that
+inconvenience which always results from great social transformations.
+But the anticipation is doubtless worse than the reality will prove to
+be. There is a plastic capacity in human nature which enables it readily
+to adjust itself in new situations when overruling necessity compels
+submission. It remains to be seen what will be the results, immediate
+and remote, of freedom in a society composed of so nearly equal
+proportions of the two races. Whatever may be the mere temporary
+difficulties at the outset, we do not doubt that, in the long run,
+freedom will produce the best results to both. Nature is unerring in the
+wisdom of her general purposes and in the selection of the means by
+which she fulfils them, when left free to pursue her own laws. Whatever
+oscillations may take place, the mean result is always good. The
+experience of a single generation will dissipate all the delusions which
+now blind and enrage the Southern people.
+
+With the disappearance of the principle of arbitrary power now embodied
+in Southern society, the last motive for a dissolution of the American
+Union will have vanished forever. Should that principle only decline to
+a subordinate authority, with the certainty of gradual extinction, the
+interests of freedom will be in the ascendant, and their influence
+secure the restoration of the Federal authority. Here lies the whole
+problem: let despotism continue to prevail in the South, and the
+separation, with all its terrible consequences, must inevitably be
+accomplished; let freedom succeed, and from that moment, every hostile
+sentiment at once subsides, and the sundered sections, 'like kindred
+drops,' again 'mingle into one.' A free community will gravitate to the
+central orb of liberty; one that is repellent to freedom will fly off on
+its erratic course to the regions of outer darkness, and will never
+return until, having completed the cycle of its destiny of ruin, it
+shall be brought back to be regenerated at the fountain of light, and
+truth, and liberty.
+
+
+
+
+WAS HE SUCCESSFUL?
+
+_PART THE LAST._
+
+
+     'Do but grasp into the thick of human life! Every one _lives_
+     it--to not many is it _known_; and seize it where you will, it is
+     interesting.'--GOETHE.
+
+     'SUCCESSFUL.--Terminating in accomplishing what is wished
+     or intended.'--WEBSTER'S _Dictionary_.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+More than twenty-five years have elapsed since the events narrated in
+the last chapter.
+
+New York has become a great and magnificent metropolis. The avenues of
+the city extend for miles beyond the old landmarks. The adjacent farms
+have been converted into lots, and covered with handsome houses. The old
+buildings are torn down, and new and elegant ones erected in their
+place. The streets are thronged with a purely cosmopolitan class. You
+behold specimens of every nation under the heavens jostling the citizens
+on the sidewalk, or filling the omnibuses which choke the way. And from
+the commingled sounds of the tramp of horses, the rolling of vehicles,
+and the tread of human beings, there arises through the day and far into
+the night a perpetual but muffled roar from this great thoroughfare.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is a lovely October afternoon--one of those mellow days for which
+this latitude is so remarkable--possessing the softness and genial
+temperature of summer, without its scorching heat.
+
+The world of fashion has returned from the Spas, the mountains, the
+seaside. Elegant equipages pass up and down, or stop before the favorite
+resorts for shopping. The streets and sidewalks are literally crowded,
+as if it were some grand gala-time.
+
+It is nearly four o'clock. Walking slowly up Broadway is a person
+probably about fifty-five, of medium height, inclining to be stout, who
+carries his hands behind him as he proceeds thoughtfully along. His
+dress is particularly neat. His hat, while it conceals an excessive
+baldness, permits the escape of a quantity of light hair, quite unmixed
+with gray, which fringes the back of the head. At a distance, his
+complexion looks soft and fair; but, on closer observation, it has the
+appearance of smooth leather. Occasionally he raises his face to regard
+a building, as if he had a special interest in so doing; then one may
+see a light-blue eye, clear and icy as a fine December day, having an
+expression like a flint.
+
+He walks on. Two young men are just passing him. One says to his
+companion:
+
+'Do you know who that is?'
+
+'Which?'
+
+'That old fellow right by your side.'
+
+'No. Who is it?'
+
+'That's Hiram Meeker.'
+
+'You don't say so!'
+
+He pauses, and lets the individual alluded to pass, that he may take a
+good look at him.
+
+'I would like to have some of his cash, anyhow. What do you suppose he
+is worth?'
+
+'Oh, there is no telling; he is variously estimated at from five to ten
+millions, but nobody knows. Started without a penny, as clerk in a
+ship-chandler's store.'
+
+Yes, reader, that _is_ Hiram. [We shall continue our familiarity, and
+call him, when we see fit, by his first name.] That is our old
+acquaintance Hiram Meeker, who commenced at Hampton, with Benjamin
+Jessup--Hiram Meeker of Burnsville, now the great Hiram Meeker of New
+York.
+
+We have devoted a large part of this volume to Hiram's early career,
+going into the minutiæ of his education, his religious training, and his
+business life. This was not without design. For the reader, once in
+possession of these circumstances, had no need to be informed in detail
+of the achievements of those years in which Hiram worked vigorously on
+through successive stages in his career, while his heart grew hard as
+the nether millstone.
+
+As you see him now, pursuing his way along the street, he has really but
+one single absorbing idea--ACQUISITION. True, he clings to his
+belief in the importance of church membership. He has long been the
+leading vestryman at St. Jude's. He is the friend and adviser of the
+Bishop.
+
+Famous is Hiram Meeker the millionaire!
+
+Famous is Hiram Meeker the Churchman!
+
+Still, I repeat, he has but one thought--one all-absorbing,
+all-engrossing passion.
+
+You have not forgotten, I am sure, the early calculating policy of
+Hiram, and to what degree he had carried it when we took leave of him.
+Imagine this developed and intensified day by day, month by month, and
+year by year, over more than a quarter of a century.
+
+Since we first made his acquaintance, he has kept on rigidly. In all his
+intercourse with his fellow beings--man to man--with high and low--with
+the sex--with his nearest relations,--he has never, no, _never_ looked
+to anything except what he considered his personal advantage. He is a
+member of the Church; he performs certain rites and formulæ of our holy
+religion; he subscribes to charities: but it is to secure to himself
+personally the benefit of heaven and whatever advantages may be
+connected with it. So that, where he has acted wisely and well, the
+action has been robbed of all merit, because there was no wise or right
+intent, but simply a politic end in view.
+
+Look at him, as he pushes along in the crowd! Notwithstanding his
+millions, he is there a mere atom out of this world's creation. He has
+not a sympathy beyond himself--not a hope which does not centre in
+self--no connecting link with anything outside or beyond--no thought, no
+emotion, no sense, no feeling, which are not produced by a desire to
+advance the interests of "_H. Meeker_," here and hereafter.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We will go on in advance of Hiram, and enter his house before him.
+
+It is one of the best in the city. Not showy, but large, ample, and well
+constructed; indicating the abode of a solid man. It is situated in one
+of the finest streets far 'up town.'
+
+Before the door are two equipages. One is Mrs. Meeker's carriage, very
+handsome and in exquisite taste. The other is a stylish single-seat
+phaeton, with two horses tandem, and a rather flashy-looking servant in
+gay livery.
+
+Let us go into the house.
+
+Mrs. Meeker is just preparing for a short shopping excursion before
+dinner. At the distance from which we regard her, Time seems to have
+dealt very kindly with her. The figure is quite the same, the style the
+same, the face the same, and you see no gray hairs. In short, you behold
+our old friend Arabella, slightly exaggerated, perhaps--but it is she.
+
+She leaves her room, and prepares to descend.
+
+As she passes to the top of the staircase, a faint voice exclaims:
+
+'Mamma!'
+
+Mrs. Meeker stops with an expression of impatience, turns, and enters
+the adjoining apartment.
+
+On a sort of couch or ottoman reclines a young lady, who, you can
+perceive at a glance, is a victim of consumption.
+
+It is their oldest child, who for five years has been an invalid, and
+whose strength of late has been fast declining. One can hardly say how
+she would have looked in health, for disease is a fearful ravager.
+Still, Harriet (she is named for Mr. Meeker's mother) probably resembled
+her own mother more than any one else in personal appearance, but beyond
+that there was no resemblance whatever. Neither was she like her father,
+but more like her grandfather Meeker, of whom her uncle says she always
+reminds him. She possesses a kind and happy nature; and since she was
+stricken by the terrible malady, she has grown day by day more gentle
+and more heavenly, as her frame has been gradually weakened under its
+insidious inroads.
+
+When Mrs. Meeker came in, she demanded, in an irritated tone, 'What do
+you want, Harriet?'
+
+'I wish very much, mamma, you would send and ask Uncle Frank if he will
+not come and see me to-day.'
+
+'I think it very improper, Harriet, for you to be sending for your uncle
+when you are under Dr. Alsop's charge.'
+
+'But, mamma, Uncle Frank does not prescribe for me. I do not send for
+him as my physician.'
+
+'It looks very odd, though,' continued Mrs. Meeker, with increased
+irritation. 'I am sure Dr. Alsop would not like it if he knew it.'
+
+'Dr. Alsop met Uncle Frank here one day, and they appeared to be
+excellent friends. I am sure there can be no misunderstanding on his
+part, and papa says he is quite willing.'
+
+'Do as you like, child,' replied Mrs. Meeker. Then turning to the nurse
+she said, 'You may ring, and send Thomas with a message from Miss
+Meeker, if she desires.'
+
+'Thank you, dear mamma. If you will come to me, I will give you a kiss.'
+
+The door closed before the sentence was finished, and Mrs. Meeker
+descends the staircase, passes through the hall, and steps into the open
+air.
+
+Alas, what is revealed to you! Marks, grim and ghastly marks of those
+years of wear and tear, which the sunlight, that remorseless trier of
+woman's looks, makes quite apparent. What evidence of irritability, of
+discontent, and general disappointment and disgust with everything and
+all things, is revealed in those deep-cut lines and angles which in the
+light of day become painfully visible under the delicate layers of Baume
+d'Osman, rouge, and pearl powder!
+
+Mrs. Meeker adjusts her veil so as to hang gracefully down to the tip of
+her nose, and enters her carriage.
+
+I had nearly forgotten to point out a very genteel-looking young man in
+black, who wears a distressingly long frock coat and a white neckcloth,
+who escorts Mrs. Meeker to her carriage, and enters it after her.
+
+Arabella has not lost her _penchant_ for young clergymen, nor young
+clergymen for her.
+
+Leaving Mrs. Meeker to her excursion, we go into the parlors.
+
+On one of the sofas is a young fair girl, no more than eighteen years
+old. Her complexion, eyes, and general cast of features, exhibit a
+striking likeness to her father. She is of medium height, and her form
+is fine and well rounded. Add to these the adornments and appliances of
+dress, and you have before you a very beautiful young woman.
+
+Seated on the same sofa, and in very close proximity, is a person whose
+_status_ it will be difficult to decide from mere inspection. He is a
+tall, large, coarse-featured, but well-proportioned man, with black
+hair, inclining to curl, dark complexion, and very black eyes. His age
+is possibly thirty. He is showily dressed, with a vast expanse of cravat
+and waistcoat. Across the latter stretches a very heavy gold chain, to
+which is attached a quantity of seals and other trinkets known as
+charms. A massive ring, with coat of arms and crest carved on it,
+encircles the little finger of the right hand. Every point of the dress
+and toilet is in keeping with what I have already described. The hair
+dresser has been devoted. There has been no stint of oil and pomade in
+the arrangement of whiskers and mustache. In short, judging the
+individual by a certain standard, which passes current with a good many
+people, you would pronounce him remarkably well 'got up.'
+
+Looking at the fine and delicate-featured girl, in whose surroundings
+you behold evidences of so much taste and refinement, you could scarcely
+be made to believe that the gross organization by her side is to her
+liking. Yet I assure you she is in love with the handsome animal--'madly
+in love' with him, as she herself avows!
+
+This girl is the youngest of Hiram's three children. She is named for
+her mother, but is called by all her acquaintance, Belle. And she is
+_belle_ every way--except in temper and disposition. Resembling her
+father so closely, she inherits her mother's jealous irritability and
+tyrannical nature. She is beautiful only to look on. She is a spoiled
+child besides.
+
+I cannot avow that Hiram has any genuine parental affection. He is so
+entirely absorbed in gathering in his harvests from the golden fields at
+his command, that I think in God's providence this is denied to him.
+
+[Else he would exhibit some tenderness and love for the poor, sinking
+child who is lying in her chamber, with no companion but her nurse.]
+
+But there is that about the youngest which commends itself (I know no
+other way to express it) to his senses. She is fair and young, and
+graceful and a beauty, and she resembles him; and he loves to look at
+her and have her near him when he is at home, and to pet her, after a
+sort.
+
+Hiram is too much occupied, however, to attend at all to the well-being
+of his children, and his wife 'has no taste for anything of the kind.'
+So, as I said, Belle grows up a spoiled child. She has never been
+subject to control, and has not the slightest idea of self-restraint.
+
+This is her second season in society. She is universally
+admired--indeed, is quite 'the rage.' 'All the young men are dying for
+her'--I quote from the observations about town; but few have the
+hardihood to pay serious court to the daughter of Hiram Meeker.
+
+Yet you perceive one man has ventured--successfully ventured.
+
+Who is he? I do not wonder you inquire with some degree of curiosity. I
+shall proceed to gratify it.
+
+The large, dark, coarse-visaged, foreign-looking fellow, who 'lives but
+to adore the angel of beauty and perfection' at his side, and with whom
+the 'angel' is so blindly infatuated, is Signor Filippo Barbonne, a
+second-rate performer of the last season's opera _troupe_!
+
+It is a fact, reader, so it will be vain for me to deny it.
+
+What, meantime, can I say by way of explanation? I hardly know. This
+Signor Filippo, who is an impudent, audacious scamp, made the
+acquaintance of Belle two years ago, when she was a schoolgirl. She was
+amused at seeing him follow her persistently, and at last she permitted
+him to accost her.
+
+The cunning fellow conducted himself with the utmost deference, not to
+say humility. He pretended not to have the slightest knowledge who she
+was. He had been seized and subdued by her charms, her loveliness; and
+it was quite sufficient happiness for him to be permitted to watch for
+her and to tread in her steps day by day. He only wished to speak and
+tell her so, lest she might suppose him disrespectful.
+
+The ice once broken, arrangements for accidental meetings followed.
+
+Signer Filippo did not disclose himself, except to say his position was
+so far below hers, that he had but one hope, one aspiration, which was,
+that she would permit him to be her willing slave forever. He asked and
+expected nothing beyond the privilege of worshipping her.
+
+But how happens it that Belle Meeker is desperately in love with the
+Signor?
+
+I will endeavor to explain.
+
+Possessing not one spark of sentiment or native refinement, accustomed
+to no restraint on her temper or will, she presents an example of a
+strong sensuous nature, uncontrolled by any fine moral instincts or
+perceptions.
+
+This is why in person and appearance Signor Filippo is quite to her
+taste. The wily adventurer had made no mistake when he judged of the
+girl's nature. Understanding her arbitrary disposition, and her
+impatience of any restraint whatever, he adroitly maintained his air of
+extreme deference and respect, which was increased a thousand-fold on
+his discovering, as he pretended one day to do, who the object of his
+adoration was.
+
+What an agony he was in, lest now he should not be permitted even to
+look on her! Though assured on this point, he became reserved and shy,
+giving vent to his impassioned feelings by sighs and various mute but
+eloquent expressions.
+
+Miss Belle began to be very impatient. These sentimental meetings had
+lasted more than a year. Meantime, she was 'brought out.' This made it
+difficult for her to keep up her stolen interviews, but she could now
+ask the Signor to the house.
+
+To effect this, however, she must first bring over her mother. She
+informed her that the gentleman was a Neapolitan Count, who from
+political motives was forced to remain _perdu_ for a time, and so forth,
+and so forth, and so forth. By dint of entreaty and argument, and
+exhibition of much temper, Belle persuaded her mother to say nothing to
+her father about the visits of this Count in disguise. The truth is,
+Mrs. Meeker had sometimes to request Belle's silence about little
+matters involving some expenditures which Mr. Meeker might consider
+extravagant. So, with occasional protests on her part, the Signor was
+permitted to make his visits.
+
+Belle was too shrewd to attempt to impose on her father in such a case.
+She knew she could not succeed for a minute. So the intimacy is
+continued without his knowledge.
+
+Long before this, she has been told by the Signor who he really is. He
+admits his late position in the _troupe_, but has a long story to
+recount of adverse fortune, and so on. His respectful manner still
+continues; it is the young lady who woos.
+
+What is to be done? This state of things cannot last forever. Belle is
+more and more impatient. Her adorer still respectful and sad.
+
+After this long but necessary digression, I return to our place in the
+front parlor, where the lovers are seated.
+
+'I must leave you, oh, my angel--I must leave you! It is nearly time for
+your father to be here.'
+
+'I do not care if it is. I want you to stay.'
+
+'As you will, but--'
+
+'If you really loved me, you would not be so indifferent,' exclaims the
+young lady, passionately.
+
+Then follows a scene. The result is, that Belle vows she will endure the
+suspense no longer. She will not ask her father's permission--she will
+marry him--yes, she _will_ marry the Signor; and who dare prevent, who
+dare thwart her wishes!
+
+The Signor takes impressive leave. His little plot approaches a
+_dénouement_. He walks with an 'air noble' down the steps, and, mounting
+his phaeton, he takes the ribbons from the servant in gay livery, and
+the tandem team, after some well-trained prancing, dash forward.
+
+Miss Belle is at the window, a delighted witness of the spectacle.
+
+[The Signor has got up this fine turn-out, through aid of a friend who
+is in the plot, especially to captivate her.]
+
+'What a singular man!' she exclaims to herself. 'How heroic he seems,
+controlling those wild creatures! Strange he should always be so
+diffident when in my society. There shall be an end of this; I cannot
+endure it!'
+
+Presently she sees her father mount the steps, and runs to meet him, a
+little doubtful whether or not he beheld her lover start from before the
+door.
+
+The greeting is most affectionate; Belle throws her arms caressingly
+around her father's neck.
+
+'Who is our new visitor, Belle, who indulges in a tandem?' said Hiram,
+turning his penetrating eyes on his daughter, but with no suspicious
+glance.
+
+'New visitor! What do you mean, papa?'
+
+'I thought I saw a phaeton drive from here.'
+
+'Oh, that was at Mrs. Longworth's. Such a handsome man, though, papa! I
+was at the window when he got in.'
+
+Hiram patted his daughter's cheek playfully, and passed in. Keen and
+discerning as he was, his _child_ could deceive him.
+
+'Where is your mamma?' he asked.
+
+'Out for a drive.'
+
+'Is Gus at home?'
+
+'No, papa; I have not seen him to-day.'
+
+'Give orders to have dinner served punctually. I must go out immediately
+after.'
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+I have spoken of Hiram's three children.
+
+The individual referred to in the last chapter as 'Gus' is the oldest,
+and the only son. He is, at this period, about twenty-three years of
+age.
+
+His father undertook to bring him up in a very strict manner. He could,
+however, give none of his time to the important business of starting his
+son in the right path, and aiding him to continue in it. It was enough
+for Hiram that _he_ was secure. He contented himself with laying down
+severe courses, and holding his boy to the strictest fulfilment of
+'duty.'
+
+The result can readily be imagined. The young man, as he grew up and
+understood fully his father's position, came to the conclusion that it
+was quite unnecessary for him to practise the strict habits which had
+been so despotically inculcated. So he gave loose rein to his fancies,
+and while yet in college was one of the wildest in the class. By his
+mother's interposition, he was sent abroad. He came back all the worse
+for the year's sojourn, and, young as he was, soon got to be a regular
+'man about town.' He lived at home--ostensibly; but he was seldom to be
+seen in the house. He had come to entertain very little respect for his
+father; for he had a sort of native insight into his character. He
+constantly complains of his miserly treatment, though Hiram makes his
+son a respectable allowance--more, I think, to be rid of the annoyance
+of his repeated and incessant applications, than for any other reason.
+
+'Gus' was a favorite with his mother (I forgot to say she had named him
+Augustus Myrtle Meeker, with her husband's full consent), and heavy were
+the drafts he made on her purse. This was a point of constant discussion
+between Mr. and Mrs. Meeker. It was of no use. The lady continued to
+indulge her only son, and her husband to protest against it.
+
+Of late, Gus had been in possession of pretty large sums of money, which
+he certainly had not obtained either from his father or mother. And it
+was something connected with this circumstance which takes Hiram out
+immediately after dinner.
+
+I think it is in place here to say something of Hiram Meeker's domestic
+life.
+
+Taking 'Arabella' for just what the reader knows her to be, it is
+probable he has made her a better husband than ninety-nine men of a
+hundred would have made. True, he is master, in every respect. But this
+is just what Arabella requires. She would have been the death of any
+ordinary man in a short time. There is not the slightest danger of her
+injuring Hiram's prospects of a long life, or of causing him an hour's
+uneasiness. To be sure, he is despotic, but he is neither irritable nor
+unamiable. Besides, he has a great desire for social position (it aids
+in carrying out his plans), in which his wife is of real service. Hiram,
+although close and careful in all matters, is not what would be called
+penurious. In other words, he makes liberal provision for his household,
+while he rules it with rigor; besides, in petty things he has not proved
+a tyrant.
+
+On the whole, we repeat our conviction that Arabella has been fortunate
+in her husband. To be sure, she is fretful, discontented, peevish,
+irritable, cross; but that is her normal condition. At times Hiram has
+treated her with severity, but never cruelty. He has borne quietly and
+with patience what would have set most husbands frantic; and has
+contented himself with remaining silent, when many would have been
+tempted to positive acts of violence.
+
+Toward his sick child Hiram Meeker's conduct has been exemplary--that is
+the word. He considers the affliction a direct chastening of _him_ from
+the Lord; and 'whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.' He spends some
+moments with his daughter daily, but he has no more sympathy for her
+situation than if his heart were made of leather. Yet the best care is
+provided, the best medical attendance, and everything done for the poor
+girl which is proper. Hiram even overrules his wife in many things where
+he thinks her severe toward the invalid, as in the instance of her
+wishing to see her Uncle Frank, who is our old acquaintance 'Doctor
+Frank,' as you no doubt understand--now one of the first medical men of
+New York.
+
+Although there has never been the least cordiality between the brothers
+since the Doctor came to the city, still they have kept on visiting
+terms. The Doctor has taken a deep interest in his invalid niece, and
+she is never so happy as when he is talking with her. He has told her to
+send for him at any time when she feels disposed to do so, and he is a
+frequent visitor.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was late before Mrs. Meeker returned. Something occurred to give her
+excursion a very unpleasant direction. She was engaged in turning over
+some new silks at Stewart's, while the young clerical gentleman stood
+admiringly by, when a man of very coarse appearance and vulgar aspect
+approached and placed a letter before her.
+
+Mrs. Meeker was prepared to utter a faint shriek, but it occurred to her
+that it would not appear well where she was. The young clerical
+gentleman cast a look of disgust and indignation on the intruder, who
+did not stop to resent it, but turned quickly on his heel and left the
+place.
+
+Mrs. Meeker, after waiting a moment to regain her composure, opened the
+note, and read as follows:
+
+     'DEAR MA: Come to me directly, and bring all the money you
+     can. I am in a terrible fix! GUS.'
+
+Mrs. Meeker pushed aside the rich purple silk she was examining, with so
+much suddenness, that the young clerical gentleman could not but notice
+it.
+
+'My dear madam, are you ill?' he asked, with a show of devotion
+distressing to witness.
+
+'No, oh no; but this moment I recollect I have a commission to execute
+for a friend, which I had quite forgotten. And, do you know, I am going
+to ask you to drive home, and tell Belle not to delay dinner for me.'
+
+The young clerical gentleman bowed in acquiescence. For him to hear was
+to obey. But he felt curious to know what was the cause of so abrupt a
+termination of the afternoon's shopping.
+
+'I hope there was nothing unpleasant in that letter?'
+
+It was presuming a good deal to ask such a question, but the young
+clerical gentleman could not restrain his curiosity.
+
+'That letter!' exclaimed Mrs. Meeker, now quite herself again--'no,
+indeed; it is only a word from Augustus. What a queer creature, to send
+it by such a horrid fright of a man!' And Mrs. Meeker laughed.
+
+The young clerical gentleman was thrown completely off the scent. He
+bowed and hurried to the carriage, leaving Mrs. Meeker still at the
+counter.
+
+She looked carelessly over the different patterns, and said, in a
+languid tone, 'I think I will not buy anything to-day,' to which the
+clerk obsequiously assented--he well knew whom he was serving--and Mrs.
+Meeker left the store.
+
+Her carriage was out of sight; first she assured herself of that. Then
+she called a hack, and ordered it to be driven to a distant quarter of
+the city.
+
+The carriage stopped at the number indicated in the note. Mrs. Meeker
+was met at the door by her son, who conducted her to a back room in the
+third story. It was dirty and in disorder. Bottles, wine glasses, and
+tumblers were scattered around, and the atmosphere was full of the fumes
+of whiskey and tobacco.
+
+What a spot for the son of Hiram Meeker to select, in which to receive
+his mother's visit!
+
+What a place for the fastidious Arabella to enter!
+
+
+
+
+THE GREAT AMERICAN CRISIS.
+
+_PART TWO._
+
+
+We come, in this paper, to the consideration of the possible results
+which this war might have, viewed from the beginning; of the several
+modes, in other words, in which it might terminate. The most distant
+extremes of possible eventuality were the entire conquest of the North
+by the South, and the entire conquest of the Southern rebellion by the
+North, so as to secure the continuance of the old Union upon the old
+basis; or with such modifications as the changed condition of things at
+the South might require. The supposition of the conquest of the Northern
+States by the Southern Vandals has been already glanced at and
+sufficiently considered for so remote and improbable a contingency. The
+counter supposition of the entire success of the United States
+Government in the reassertion of its own authority over the whole of its
+original domain, divided, at the commencement of the war, into two
+branches.
+
+It was the general theory at the North, at that time, that the _animus_
+of rebellion was confined at the South to comparatively few minds, and
+that the war was to be a war, not against the South as a people, but
+against a tyrannical and usurping faction at the South, and for the
+defence of the people at large residing in that region. There was a
+modicum of truth in this theory, but events have shown, and any one who
+knew the South well might safely have predicted, that the whole people
+there would soon be subdued to the authority of those few. Such was the
+terror throughout the confederacy, and still is, where the facts have
+not been already changed by the war, at the mere imputation of sympathy
+with anti-slavery sentiment in any form, that a part, hardly one tenth
+even of the whole, in numerical strength, could successfully put the
+remaining nine tenths into Coventry, and bully them out of all
+expression of adverse opinion, by simply threatening to accuse them of
+abolition tendencies. No people on earth were ever so completely _cowed_
+by the nightmare of unpopular opinion as the people of the South. Hence
+whatever was violently advocated under pretence of excessive devotion
+to, or ultra championship of the cause of slavery, was sure in the end
+to succeed. By this process, the Union party at the South has been
+gradually overawed and diminished for years past, and finally driven,
+since the outbreak of the rebellion, into a complete surrender to, and a
+full coöperation with the rebel chiefs. Whatever may seem to be the
+reaction in behalf of Union sentiment, as the triumphant armies of the
+North march to the Gulf, it will be long before the real opinion of the
+masses will declare itself in full as it exists. The fear of the renewal
+of the old terrorism, so soon as our armies shall be withdrawn, will
+effectually prevent the free expression of the favorable sentiment which
+has heretofore existed, and still exists, as a substratum of Southern
+opinion in favor of the Union, unless the Northern conquest is made
+unquestionably final.
+
+In the event that the theory just stated should have proved true, that,
+aided by the presence of Northern troops, there should have been a loyal
+sentiment sufficiently powerful and extended to reassert itself, in the
+extreme South, and that, consequently, all the Southern States should
+have been again represented in Congress at an early day, and should
+again have taken their places as equal partners under the Constitution
+of our common country, it seemed just possible that the results of the
+war should be confined, in their immediate action, to what may be called
+its educational effects upon the Southern mind and its economical
+bearings upon the wealth and industry of the nation.
+
+As the other branch of the alternative, the South might have to be
+conquered by the force of our arms, and might remain unanimously, or in
+vast preponderance, disloyal and rebellious in spirit. In that event, it
+would be requisite, if those States were to be retained at all as part
+of the Union, that they should be reconsigned to the Territorial
+condition, or otherwise governed still by the central authority.
+
+In the former of these two latter suppositions: that of the
+reëstablishment of the old _status_, it was foreseen by some, as not
+impossible, that the final result might prove disastrous to the freedom
+of the North. With the advent of peace, the suspicions of the Northern
+people with regard to the designs and real character of Southern men
+would have been allayed. A certain appeal would even have been made, by
+the suggestions of their own generosity, to the hearts of Northern men
+to lay aside all hostile and adverse action as against the South, and to
+welcome them with open arms to all the rights and privileges of the
+common country. Meantime, a horde of unscrupulous machinators would have
+been installed in the seats of power at Washington, and would have
+recommenced operations, in the consciousness of the new strength
+acquired in the field from which they had just retired, with all the
+chicanery and craft with which heretofore they had blinded the North and
+secretly controlled the destinies of our Government. Southern men and
+Southern women would again have been feasted and feted at Northern
+hotels and watering places, and again have given tone to Northern
+opinion, while new and especial reasons would have seemed to exist for
+opposing countervailing influences, as unnecessary agitation, and causes
+of the retention of acrimonious feeling between the two sections, which
+had now resolved to live in amity with each other. In a word, all the
+sources of corruption of Northern sentiment, emanating from the South,
+would have been renewed in their operation, with some circumstances
+added, tending to give to them greater potency than ever before.
+
+Undoubtedly, immense advantages were to be contemplated in the
+restoration of the United States to their primitive boundaries and
+united power. But it was not without deep apprehension of moral taint
+and ulterior evil consequences, that a wise patriot could look even then
+to any attempt of the old matrimonial partners to dwell again in a
+common household, upon the old terms, and with no real settlement of the
+dispute between them.
+
+The latter of these suppositions, the remanding of a hostile and
+rebellious tier of States, who had long and proudly enjoyed the dignity
+of State sovereignty, to a subordinate condition, had also its
+proportion of difficulty and danger. To carry out a _programme_ of this
+kind would demand a great increase of the army and navy, and would give
+to the military spirit and power a preponderance in the councils of the
+nation which has always been deemed dangerous to the liberties of the
+country. A constant drain of expenditure of the resources of the nation;
+a continuous unrest and anxiety of the whole people; a succession of
+outbreaks and partial renewals of the civil war; the installation of a
+necessary system of proconsular or viceroyal commissions; the
+appointment of men who, whether as provost-marshals, dictators, or what
+not, would be in the stated exercise of authority unmeasured by the
+theories of republican policy--all these were serious and threatening
+considerations, which must give the thoughtful mind some pause ere it
+entered upon their adoption.
+
+There were other remaining possible suppositions in respect to the
+termination of the war, of a middling character, or those lying between
+the two opposite extremes. In case, without any positive conquest or
+submission on either side, the general tenor of success throughout the
+war should be with the South, so that it finally behooved the North to
+secure the most favorable terms, but to submit, nevertheless, to great
+deductions from its confident expectations, a theory then not wholly
+impossible, we had to contemplate, as one evil of the war, a final
+disruption of the original territory of the United States into two
+nationalities, coincident, as to boundary, with the Free and the Slave
+States. Except in the way of absolute conquest, the South would be
+little inclined to insist upon the addition to itself of any territory
+absolutely free. We were not required, therefore, to make this
+supposition any less favorable to the North than the division just
+suggested; and unless, again, power had been acquired by the South to
+impose terms on the North little short of those which a conqueror
+imposes on a conquered people, the North, within its own limit of Free
+States, would be left in a condition boldly to announce and actively to
+defend its own legitimate policy in behalf of the extension of free
+institutions and their development to the supreme degree of beneficent
+truth.
+
+But again, it might have been foreseen that in case the eagle of victory
+should perch on the banners of the North; in case our arms should be
+generally victorious after a few incipient disasters; in case our armies
+should move in power southward, meeting, nevertheless, a steady and
+resisting front on the part of the South, making the prospect of
+ultimate conquest remote or hopeless; in case, in a single word, the
+North should find herself in position to dictate terms short of absolute
+submission and return to the common fold, but substantially in
+accordance with her own wishes, the question of boundary and of the
+future policy of the new North would have become one of immense
+importance.
+
+Had such considerations been forced on the attention of the country by
+the course of the war, it may not be uninteresting to speculate upon
+the nature of the possible boundary, which a drawn game in the
+contest--a possibility at least, viewed from that early point of
+observation--might have imposed upon the two future nationalities. We
+are considering the case still in which the preponderance of advantage
+should have remained with the North. It would have been, in that event,
+of the first importance that we should retain within the limits of the
+North all that portion of the South--by no means inconsiderable in
+extent--which has never been thoroughly debauched by Southern
+slaveholding opinion and theories of government; where the true American
+feeling is still extant; and where a good degree of loyalty to the
+Government of the United States has been hitherto exhibited. Such are
+especially Delaware, Maryland, Western Virginia, Kentucky, Western North
+Carolina, Eastern, and to some extent, Middle Tennessee, Northern
+Georgia, Northern Alabama, and Missouri. An important object would have
+been, had the power of the North proved inadequate to do more, to secure
+this territory within the boundary of the new North, and upon such terms
+as to give strength and new impetus to the freedom-loving sentiment
+there extant. A second object would have been the retention of
+Washington City, to be used, at least for the time being, as the capital
+of the country; avoiding the disgrace of being driven from that centre
+of national authority; and to secure it on terms in respect to
+territorial arrangement which should prevent it from being continually
+threatened from the South. To this end, it would have been necessary
+that the boundary be carried far enough south to include a portion of
+Northern and Northeastern Virginia, as thoroughly imbued at that day
+with slaveholding faith and practice, and as little loyal, perhaps, as
+any portion of the South--a region, however, which at this time has been
+so completely devastated by the operations of the war, that it would be
+readily liable to be resettled from the North, and made into an
+efficient military border.
+
+If, retaining Fortress Monroe, we should then have run with the James
+River and the line of Richmond and Lynchburg, or if, ascending higher to
+the Chesapeake Bay and the Rappahannock, we were to run with the line of
+Fredericksburg, we should reach either the Blue Ridge or the Alleghany
+Mountains, as in the case of power on our part, we might have chosen.
+With these mountains, sweeping in a southwesterly direction into
+Northern Georgia and Alabama, runs the line of division between the
+'true-blue' Southern slaveholding opinion and policy, on the south and
+east, and the semi-Free-State opinion and policy on the north and west.
+One or other of these mountain ranges, with their unfrequent and
+difficult passes, would have offered the best natural boundary between
+the two future nations, whose divergent national tendencies would not
+have ceased with the nominal termination of the war to be essentially
+hostile.
+
+Following this line till we reach the Tennessee river, thence along the
+course of that stream, turning northwardly to the Ohio, or more
+properly, perhaps, to the southern line of Kentucky, we exclude the most
+pestilent portion of Tennessee, of which Memphis is the capital, and
+retain the middle and eastern parts, along with Eastern Kentucky and
+Western Virginia. Thence passing westward with the southern line of
+Missouri to the Indian Territory, thence southward with the western line
+of Arkansas to the Red river, thence westward along that river as the
+boundary between the Indian Territory and Texas, to the one hundredth
+degree of longitude west from Greenwich, and with that meridian south,
+to the Rio Grande and the Gulf--dividing the western from the eastern
+half of Texas--we circumscribe very fairly the exact region of country
+in which the slaveholding epidemic is violent and intense, and throw
+within the limits of the great Northern Republic all of the region in
+which freedom is already established, and all that in which, as above
+stated, there was still a surviving and half vital tendency in freedom's
+behalf.
+
+In addition to a boundary so favorable to ourselves, and forced by our
+commanding position upon our unwilling adversary, we might have imposed
+upon her such other terms in relation to her foreign policy,
+custom-house regulations, and the like, as the extent of our power
+should have authorized. We might even have consigned the Southern States
+to a species of provisional and _quasi_ nationality, with the claim and
+expectation of their ultimate return within the pale of the Union, when,
+through the severe ordeal of military despotism or anarchy at home, or
+from other causes, they should have purged themselves of that
+institution, adverse to all our policy, which has been the sole cause of
+all our woes.
+
+Still more important it would have been, under the theory of this
+essentially victorious position of the Northern people, that Northern
+opinion and the purposes of Americanism on this continent--the assertion
+and defence of freedom and of free institutions of all sorts--should
+have been distinctly, peremptorily, and finally impressed upon the
+character and future career of our own Northern nationality. While those
+portions of slaveholding territory which would still have remained
+within the Union, would have had, of course, to be treated with courtesy
+and consideration, if the institution of slavery were to have been
+permitted to survive, they should have been thoroughly made to know from
+the first, that slavery among us was no longer to be regarded as a
+perpetuity; that it was only tolerated provisionally; and that we, as a
+people, had no intention of permitting its renewed influence in the
+councils of the nation. Cut off as these States would then have been
+from the possibilities of carrying on an inter-State slave trade with
+the Southern confederacy, the institution of slavery would have lost
+much of its value and potency; and allied, as those States would have
+been, as a small minority, with a country whose territorial and
+institutional preponderance would have been wholly in favor of freedom,
+we might have anticipated that, if closely watched and incidentally
+aided in its decline, the institution in these adhering slaveholding
+States would have reached its term of existence at no very distant day;
+at any rate, that it would, from the first, have been neutralized for
+any serious bad effects which it might have otherwise impressed upon our
+healthy national life. It was even worth reflection at that time
+whether, if the whole adjustment of the future were placed at our own
+disposition, there would not be less danger incurred, and more promise
+of a prompt, healthy, and powerful development on this continent of
+those grand purposes of national existence which the true American
+people have always had in view and at heart, if this plan were to be
+adopted, than if, on the contrary, the whole South were either
+quiescently, by the subsidence of the rebellion, or forcibly, to be
+reinstated within the limits of the Union, the institution of slavery
+remaining intact.
+
+Northeastern Virginia, Southern Maryland, and portions of Kentucky,
+Middle Tennessee, and Middle Missouri would still have furnished
+pestilent centres of intense slaveholding sentiment, and would have
+required, perhaps, as much exercise of vigilance in preventing their
+undue influence as our usually sleepy habits of inattention to such
+causes would have authorized us to count upon.
+
+With the gradual decline of this remnant of slavery in the Northern
+Union, and with the thousand contingencies threatening its perpetuity in
+the Southern States, after the sustaining influence of the North in its
+behalf should have been finally withdrawn, the anticipation would not
+have been without high grounds of probability, that the institution, as
+a whole, would have hastened more or less rapidly to its final
+dissolution; and that, one by one, the States of the South, ridding
+themselves of the incubus of slavery and its comcomitants--oligarchic,
+mobocratic, and military despotism--would have sought, for their own
+protection and happiness, to reënter the original Union as Free States.
+Such an issue of the conflict might at the commencement of the war have
+been looked forward to as almost fortunate, and as perhaps that which
+Providence had in store for us as a people. That larger measure of
+success, the entire destruction of slavery throughout the land, now
+rapidly coming to be a foregone conclusion in most minds, was then
+hardly hoped for by the most sanguine, although, as will appear by what
+follows, that alternative was then anticipated by the writer.
+
+Finally, in case the war should have proved a drawn game between the two
+sections, with no special advantage on either side, some middle ground
+of adjustment between the two last suppositions might have been sought
+out, and an irregular line, running anywhere between Mason and Dixon's
+line and the Ohio, on the one hand, and the Blue Ridge and the Tennessee
+river on the other, might have been forced upon us. In that event, a
+long-continued border warfare would have been to be anticipated, with
+innumerable complex difficulties from expenditure in the protection of
+the irregular and imperfect boundary, the collection of the revenues,
+and the like.
+
+The reason why we have chosen, in these glances at the possible
+outcomings of the conflict, to go back to the state of the case as it
+was at the opening of the war, and to view the subject as it would
+present itself to the mind of a thoughtful man then, is, that this very
+paper was originally written at that day, and is now only recast to
+adapt it to the altered events from the actual progress of the war. The
+boundary line above sketched, as one which the nation might possibly
+find itself compelled to accept, was sketched, as it stands above, at
+that time, nearly two and a half years ago; and the reader will hardly
+fail to be struck with the remarkable coincidence between it and the
+present state of the military lines between the Northern and Southern
+armies; except in the fact of our actual possession of the Mississippi
+river to its mouth, cutting the Southern confederacy in twain. Had the
+defences below New Orleans proved impregnable, and Vicksburg more than a
+match for the strategy of General Grant, our present position would be
+almost identical with that contemplated by the writer at that early
+period of the war, as one of the alternative positions at which the
+struggle might at least temporarily terminate; and our present military
+line would be almost the same as that indicated as the halting point of
+the war, then to be nominally but not really brought to an end. The
+pages following, and until the reader is advised to the contrary, are
+literally extracted from the original article, and should be read
+therefore as relating to the past period in question. Quotation marks
+are added to aid this understanding of the subject. They indicate, in
+this exceptional way, not literally the words of another writer, but
+those of the same writer, upon a different occasion.
+
+'We have reserved to the last the consideration of that possible
+outcoming of the war which is looked upon with most dread, both at the
+South and the North; from which both sections almost equally shrink as
+the possible issue; but which, nevertheless, may be forced on them by
+the logic of events, and that, too, at an earlier day than has been
+indicated by the expectations of either. While we write, the startling
+announcement is made from St. Louis that Major-General Fremont has been
+forced, by the threatening progress of the Southern armies, to declare
+martial law for the whole State of Missouri, coupled with the offer of
+freedom to the slaves. A military critic, writing from the Potomac and
+the lower counties of Maryland, is urging the application of the same
+policy to that region, as a means of defeating the contemplated passage
+of the river by the forces of the South. Whether the rumor so announced
+prove to be literally correct or not, it is hardly possible that the war
+can continue long, and grow desperate and earnest on any territory where
+slavery exists, without leading to this result. Tenderness and deference
+are sentiments which must soon give place to the stern struggle for life
+between hostile and desperate men. Already the South has not hesitated,
+in some instances, to muster her slaves into armed regiments, and in all
+cases to avail herself of their brawny arms as equally valuable
+assistants in the work of fortification, camp service, and all the other
+incidents of war. Still further, as a great body of laborers,
+undisturbed by the war, quietly conducting the general industry at home,
+and providing the means of sustaining immense armies in the field, the
+slaves are, in effect, an important auxiliary of the enemy's power.
+Already the Congress of the United States has passed a law for the
+confiscation of all property so used, so stringent in its terms that,
+without much strain of legal ingenuity, it might be made to cover the
+whole case. The threatened continuance of disaster to Northern arms may
+at any moment force upon our generals the military necessity of
+declaring emancipation within a given district or State, and finally, it
+may be incumbent on the Government to resort to the same policy in
+reference to the whole South. The contest is one of life and death for
+the greatest human interests ever brought face to face in hostile array.
+But a single step is wanting, and we may at any moment be forced over
+the boundary which hitherto has prevented it from being a conflict
+avowedly for the utter extinction of the institution of slavery on the
+North American continent, on the one hand, and for the triumphant
+establishment of the policy and power of that institution over the whole
+land on the other.
+
+'In case such an event as that above alluded to should occur, a new
+disappointment will probably, to some extent, break upon the Northern
+mind. It will be found that the slaves of the South are not, as a body,
+so desirous of freedom, not so consciously intent upon the attainment of
+that boon, as ardent philanthropists at the North have supposed. The
+great masses of that population are too far depressed in the scale of
+humanity to avail themselves earnestly and at once, of even the most
+favorable means which should be placed at their disposal to secure their
+own emancipation from thraldom.
+
+'To progress, even from slavery to freedom, is progression,
+nevertheless; and, as such, it is beset with all the hindrances and
+prejudices from ignorance and superstition which the advancement of the
+race meets always and at every step. Those among the slaves who fully
+appreciate the disadvantages of their position, and are earnestly intent
+upon the achievement of freedom, are a minority--the vigorous thinkers
+and reformers of the slave-population. The great masses are stupid and
+conservative, in the midst of the evil which they endure, until aroused
+by circumstances or the appeals of their more enterprising leaders. Even
+John Brown, knowing as much as he did of the South and of the negro
+character, miscalculated the readiness of the slaves of Virginia to fly
+to his standard, judging them by his knowledge of the readiness of
+Missouri slaves upon the Kansas border, who, through a few years of
+local agitation, had come to be on the alert and ready to move.
+
+'In case, therefore, of the proclamation of emancipation in any
+slaveholding districts by our military chiefs, it will not be surprising
+if, for a time, the results of that step shall seem to be feeble, and
+shall be disproportionate to the expectations based upon it.
+
+'The course of events will probably be this: The emancipation of slaves
+by the proclamation of Northern generals will be followed by a partial
+tendency on the part of the slave-population to flock to their camps in
+a way similar to what has already happened in the neighborhood of
+Fortress Monroe; and this, again, by mustering them into our service,
+arming and drilling them as part of the regular and effective force of
+our armies, after the example of General Jackson in the defence of New
+Orleans, and other Southern generals on various occasions in the South.
+A step like this will be met by a nearly or precisely similar expedient
+of desperate necessity by the military chieftains of the South. Either
+with or without the offer of emancipation, they will muster the blacks
+in great numbers into their army, arming, equipping, and drilling them
+as thoroughly as the same offices are performed for the white soldiers.
+
+'Things may seem to stand much upon this footing, and no great advantage
+have been gained by the North through emancipation, until, in the event
+of some great battle, or successively through a series of local
+contests, the blacks in the Southern army will fraternize with those of
+the North, and go over in a body to their Northern allies, so soon as
+the course of events shall have informed them somewhat of the true state
+of the case, and have given them confidence in the earnest intention of
+the Northern troops to stand by them in the assertion of their freedom.
+A defection of this kind would carry dismay and insure defeat throughout
+the whole South, especially if it were vigorously followed up by the
+same policy and by adequate military skill on the part of the North; and
+the result of a war so inaugurated could hardly fail to be the rapid and
+complete disorganization of the whole system of Southern industry and
+the total revolution and final submission of the Southern States.
+
+'No man can exactly foresee the consequences of so great a conflict, nor
+predict with any certainty the course of events through such an untried
+and tremendous pathway; but it is next to impossible to conceive that
+the Southern war-spirit could in any way long survive the disasters
+inevitably consequent upon the general prevalence of a claim to freedom
+by the slaves, upon any legal basis, suddenly diffused throughout the
+South. Should the alternative be forced upon the people of that region,
+of submission, or servile in addition to civil war, their troubles will
+thicken upon them to a degree calculated to calm their over-excited
+imaginations, and to subdue their vaulting ambition. Panic will come to
+their own doors with a new and all-pervading significance, such as the
+North hardly knows how to conceive. The North should abstain to the last
+moment from thrusting even enemies into calamity so dire. But, if the
+arrogance and madness of the South shall force on us, now or later, this
+terrific resort, the world _may_ witness, as the result of this war, the
+most tremendous retribution for national and organic sin which any
+people has ever yet been called on to endure. The Nemesis of History
+may, perhaps, impress the darkest record of her terrible sanctions on
+the page which records the termination of the great American Rebellion.
+
+'In the event last supposed, that is to say, if the war shall end in the
+entire extinction of American slavery, the state in which the Southern
+country, with its diverse populations, will find itself placed; the
+future destiny of the cotton-growing region, of the South generally; of
+our whole country, and of the continent, under this immense change of
+our condition as a nation, are subjects of sufficient importance to
+demand, on some future occasion, a distinct consideration. Enough points
+have been crowded, in this article, upon the reflections of the reader.
+History must not be too audaciously anticipated. The phases of the great
+crisis, already developed and developing, are sufficiently grave and
+numerous for the present occasion. Let the future withdraw her own veil
+from our eyes, while we reverentially await the revelation of coming
+events.
+
+'All the forbearance hitherto on the part of the North, may have had in
+it an element of wisdom. It is not the object of this paper to criticize
+or complain of the past conduct of the war, nor to urge on the
+Government to convert a war, begun for the resistance of a violent and
+fraudulent dismemberment of the Union, into a war against slavery or a
+crusade in behalf of human rights. There is no present purpose on the
+part of the writer to conduct the discussion--far less to attempt the
+decision--of so grave a question of national policy at this eventful and
+critical epoch in the affairs of our national life. No doubt the subject
+stands as yet complicated in the minds of statesmen with the
+possibilities of the early and frank submission of the South, and the
+consequent early reëstablishment substantially of the _status quo ante
+bellum_; with the dread of inflicting measureless calamity upon those
+who are at heart faithful to our cause in the South; and, most of all,
+with the interests and feelings of the population of the few
+slaveholding States remaining faithful to the Union. The object of the
+present article is simply to lay open the true state of the case; to
+reveal to the Northern mind in a clearer light, if possible, the causes
+emanating from the South, which have gone and which go still to the
+formation of Northern opinion adversely to the spirit of our own
+institutions, and begetting, unconsciously in ourselves, a secret
+treasonable sympathy at the bottom of our own hearts; a sympathy which
+is the parent of that otherwise unaccountable tenderness on our part in
+respect to the patent weakness of the enemy's defences. It is not that
+we counsel, for the present, a change in the tenor of the war, but that
+we wish, as the logic of circumstances shall force this question upon
+us, that we may come to the consideration of it, in the future,
+disabused of any preconceived prejudices in favor of that which is the
+vital source of all the trouble which exists, and fully armed by a
+complete understanding of the subject.'
+
+So ended the original paper, the same, with a few changes of the
+tense-forms to adapt it to the present time, as the Part One, published
+in the last number of THE CONTINENTAL, and Part Two of this
+series up to this point. The document was written for publication at
+that time, more than two years ago, but no periodical was found then
+ready to indulge in such bold speculations on the future. What has now
+in great part become history, was deemed too audacious for the public
+ear then. Perhaps no better gauge of the progress of events and opinion
+could have happened. A magazine article, rejected so recently, as too
+radical or wild in its prognostications, now stands in danger of being
+thought tame, in the light of the changes already effected. Thrown into
+a drawer as refuse matter, it has been like the log of a ship thrown
+overboard, and remaining quiescent, while the winds, the waves, and the
+current have combined to surge the vessel onward in her course; and,
+_hauled in by the line_ at this hour, it may serve to chronicle the rate
+of our speed.
+
+Events hurry forward in this age with tremendous velocity. Great as has
+been the progress of our arms, numerous as our warlike achievements and
+advantages, the real victories we have won are, in the truest method of
+judging, the victories of opinion which have occurred and are now
+occurring. Our greatest conquest, as a people, is, and is to be, the
+conquest over our own prejudices; our highest attainment the readiness
+to be just, and to act with the boldness and vigor which justice
+requires.
+
+Taking things as they now are, let us again try to penetrate the future,
+or at least to sketch different alternatives of what may happen. Let us
+then try to catch the spirit of each alternative, and so be prepared to
+draw from the event such of good, and to guard against such of evil as
+each may involve.
+
+As a first alternative, we may now speedily conquer the South.
+Insurrection may spring up in the South, against the insurrection there,
+and in aid of our arms. New vigor and new fortune may attend our own
+military operations; and our future military task may--somewhat contrary
+to our expectations, we confess--prove easy, and its conclusion close at
+hand. In that event, dangers of another kind, dangers already alluded to
+as existing at the commencement of the war, and hardly less to be
+apprehended now than then, hardly less, indeed, than the indefinite
+continuance of war, threaten the future of our political horizon. We may
+see in a few months' time the very men who are leading the armies and
+the councils of the Southern confederacy again cracking the whip of
+their sharp and arrogant logic about the ears of the men who had
+conquered them in the field of battle; claiming to dictate every
+political measure; forcing the mould of their thought upon every form of
+opinion, and, by astute political combinations, wielding the destiny of
+the nation in behalf of slavery and despotism, and against the principle
+of freedom. Do not imagine for an instant that any considerations of
+modesty or humiliation on the one hand, nor of haughtiness or pride on
+the other, would stand in the way of the immediate participation of
+those men in our affairs. Let there be no delusions either, with regard
+to the ability of the same leading class of men to keep themselves in
+the saddle at the South, through all political changes not involving the
+absolute destruction of slavery, and the complete and consolidated
+establishment of other institutions and habits of life among the people
+at large;--the virtual creation, in fact, of a new and different
+population, by the blending of our own Northern men and manners with the
+feeble indigenous freedom-loving growth. The return of this dominant
+class of cotton lords among the common masses of a Southern population
+anywhere, on any terms short of the utter extinction of their basis of
+wealth and distinction, will be the return of an armed overseer to a
+cowering mob of insubordinate slaves. The mere assertion of their
+authority will be its instant acceptance, and the most abject submission
+by the people. They will only have to demand reëlection to the National
+Congress, and to every place of power, to be reinstated in precisely
+their old position, their arrogance and self-assertion only augmented by
+their having met and survived every disaster short of the destruction of
+the source of their superiority.
+
+Already schemes to restore the old State governments are rife, in
+respect to Louisiana, Mississippi, and other of the rebel States, now
+again brought within our military lines. Let this be done upon the old
+footing at an early day, for these States and for the others, which
+under the hypothesis now under consideration, will soon be subjugated;
+let the Emancipation Proclamation fall into desuetude; let the military
+authority of our army officers be withdrawn, and there is nothing in the
+character of the Southern slaveholding aristocracy, and no other power
+on earth, to prevent their flocking in crowds and at the very first
+general election back to Washington, reuniting their forces with the old
+body of profligate political hacks at the North, and flaunting with
+increased presumption and activity the pretensions of slavery to
+dictate the whole policy of the land. In that event, a strong party,
+more distinctively proslavery and Southern than ever before, will be
+organized; more openly and shamelessly than ever devoted to the
+destruction of the last remnant of American liberty. Of course there
+will be a new reaction against the new usurpation. The conflict will be
+renewed, beginning precisely where the first war began, with the only
+exception that the issue will be then more distinctly understood, the
+conflict more desperate, and the result more definitive.
+
+It is of the utmost importance that the true nature of the case be
+understood: that this war is no accident of the hour, no merely
+political or national event even. It is a death struggle between two
+antagonist civilizations; if indeed one of them can be called a
+civilization, and not rather a conspiracy against the very idea of
+civilization. Again, the men involved in that conspiracy are not
+_hidalgos_, _ancien régime_, nor any of the proud aristocracies of the
+old world, who, when beaten, retire upon their dignity and hide their
+time. They are, on the contrary, an enterprising gang of desperadoes,
+who for the nonce may find it convenient to play the _rôle_ of high life
+and dignified pretension, but who, on the slightest change of
+circumstances, are ready for any shift, any seeming degradation or
+humiliation, any temporary lowering of their claims, in order to rise
+higher on the next wave. There is also enough of the savage and
+barbarous element of character remaining in the Southern bogus chivalry
+to make them, like the Chinaman or the Japanese, incapable of
+appreciating magnanimity. All conciliation or clemency will be construed
+into weakness; generosity and forbearance into poltroonery. These are
+sad truths; but being truths, the failure to know them in season may
+cost us another and a more desperate war, with more doubtful and
+dangerous results.
+
+Let us once surrender, through national verdancy, sentimental
+commiseration, misunderstanding of the nature and purposes of our enemy,
+or any or all of these causes combined with others, the dear-bought
+advantages we have won, and disasters untold involve the future of the
+land. Terrible beyond description will be, in that event, the condition
+of the Union and emancipationist party now incipiently developing itself
+at the South;--abandoned and deserted by the withdrawal of the actual
+presence and protection of Northern arms. No barbarism on earth, no
+savagism extant, is so barbarous or so savage as the ruthless vengeance
+with which this hybrid civilization of the South is ready at any time to
+visit the crime of abolitionism; and seven times hotter than usual will
+the furnace of their wrath be heated against Southern men who under the
+ægis of Northern protection shall have exhibited some sympathy with
+freedom.
+
+That a powerful Northern party will immediately arise in behalf of the
+simple readmission of the Southern States, upon precisely the old basis,
+when the war shall end by the suppression of the rebellion, is certain.
+The existence of such a party will rest, in part, upon a real sympathy
+with the South and the rebellion; partly upon interested political
+motives of a more ordinary and short-sighted character; and, in still
+greater part than either of these, upon the easy credence and
+insufficient information of the great mass of the Northern people;
+somewhat, indeed, upon a magnanimity highly creditable to their
+character as men, but unwise and dangerous in the extreme, in any
+exercise of it which should surrender a vital advantage.
+
+It does not require even that the complete reconquest of the South
+should be awaited in order that the question of the return of subdued
+States into the Union upon the old terms should be sprung upon the
+nation, and perhaps decided, by a precedent, before the attention of
+the country can be thoroughly directed to the momentous nature of the
+step proposed. The _New York Herald_ has been hitherto a steady and
+consistent advocate of this policy, and a powerful agitator in its
+behalf. The following extract from its columns indicates the imminence
+of the issue, as well as the simple and seemingly reasonable political
+machinery by which the whole thing is to be effected:
+
+     'It appears from the correspondence to which we have referred that
+     certain citizens of New Orleans, some of whose names are given
+     elsewhere, have resolved to restore Louisiana to the Union, and
+     that they intend to do this in the manner pointed out by Secretary
+     Seward in his famous reply to the intervention despatch of M.
+     Drouyn de Lhuys. That is to say, they intend to set the State
+     Government in motion, elect members of the Legislature, and send
+     loyal representatives to Congress. These gentlemen assert--and the
+     _Tribune_ does not deny--that Mr. Seward and Mr. Bates indorse this
+     idea, and that Mr. Etheridge, as Clerk of the House of
+     Representatives, has consented to receive the loyal members from
+     Louisiana, upon their own credentials, until the House is
+     organized. They also say--and the _Tribune_ does not deny--that Mr.
+     Etheridge has a perfect right to do this upon the precedent
+     established by the Broad Seal controversy, some twenty years ago.
+     Under these circumstances, the Union men propose to hold an
+     election for five members of Congress--one from each district and
+     one on the general ticket--and also for members of the State Senate
+     and Assembly. 'They are anxious,' says the _Tribune_ correspondent,
+     'that Louisiana shall take the lead in this matter, and there is no
+     doubt but Mississippi and the other States will, in due time,
+     follow.' So far, the patriotic reader will search in vain for any
+     objection to a plan which promises so much good for the Union, and
+     will be at a loss to know upon what grounds the _Tribune_ can
+     oppose it with any show of loyalty.'
+
+It is no part of the object of this writing to discuss the legality or
+the constitutionality of any course of proceeding in the premises. What
+can be done and what cannot be done under the law, as it stands, is a
+question for lawyers and judges. How far, if at all, the exigency has
+annulled or modified the law; how far the axiom, _inter arma silent
+leges_ ('in war the laws are silent'), shall be stretched to cover the
+case, is a question for statesmen and military commanders. The writer of
+these strictures speaks from none of those points of view, but as a
+social philosopher, viewing the drifts of inevitable consequence from
+one or the other grand policy in respect to the national
+destiny--irrespective of the minor measures by which it may be executed.
+A course utterly suicidal, viewed from this higher platform of
+observation, may proceed with the most unimpeachable subserviency to all
+the forms of the law; or, contrariwise, a policy replete with the
+highest prosperity and happiness of the coming ages, may chance to have
+its foundations laid in some startling deviation from all considerations
+of precedent and routine.
+
+In other words, what can be done or cannot be done under the law, or
+without violence to the law, is not now the question under
+consideration. What _must_ be done, whether under the law or above the
+law,[12] to secure certain great ends of human progression, and to avoid
+positions of utter disaster to the life of the American people of the
+future, _is so_.
+
+Whether the theory of Mr. Sumner, that the revolted States are, by the
+operation of the revolt, or should be by the action of the Government,
+remanded to the territorial condition, holds good; whether the theory of
+Mr. Owen, that the machinery of the State Governments at the South
+remains unaffected by the insurrection, but that the inhabitants, being
+traitors, are incapable of administering it, until they are purged of
+their treason by the action of the United States Government, is held to
+be the better opinion; or, whether, in fine, the easy and simple theory
+of the _Herald_ is the law of the subject--none of these points is _the_
+point of the present investigation. We seek to fix attention on the
+consequences of the act of an early readmission of the revolted States,
+and, what would be the same thing, of the old and governing set of
+slaveholding politicians, from those States, into the administration of
+our national affairs, no matter what should be the method of its
+accomplishment. In that event, the war will not be ended, but smothered
+merely, and left smouldering. It will burst out again, and all that has
+been done hitherto will have to be done over again, or fail to be
+accomplished, and the consequences of failure endured.
+
+Let no ordinary and superficial method of reasoning obfuscate the public
+mind on this subject. It is becoming popular to say and to think that
+slavery at the South is already a dead or a dying institution, by the
+operation of the war. This opinion has in it, undoubtedly, the value of
+a prophecy, provided the war be continued to its legitimate termination;
+provided all the measures against slavery hitherto adopted are firmly
+maintained; provided the incipient anti-slavery sentiment now being
+developed in the South, be wisely fostered and protected by the strong
+arm long enough, or until new institutions and new methods of thinking
+and acting have time to consolidate. But, whoever supposes that slavery
+is as yet even essentially weakened, provided, for any reason, our
+forces and the influence of Northern sentiment were suddenly withdrawn
+from the South, and the ocean waves of the old despotism were for a
+moment even permitted to surge back over those portions of the territory
+which have been partially redeemed, has no adequate idea of the
+tremendous vitality of that institution.
+
+A mistake on this subject, of the safe early return of the revolted
+States, will be one of those political blunders worse than a crime; and
+yet it is precisely this mistake which the American people are at this
+hour most likely to commit. A latent love of Southern institutions _per
+se_; the hope of personal political advantage, among politicians, by an
+alliance with Southern leaders, on the part of others who care nothing
+for the South as such; a lingering tenderness, a forgiving magnanimity
+and generosity, among the people at large, which would in this case be
+wholly misplaced; and finally an easy faith in the extent and
+irrevocable nature of the successes already accomplished--all concur to
+lead on to the commission of this error.
+
+Talk as we will of the purposes of this war, the hand of destiny is upon
+us. We must accept the _rôle_ of emancipators and champions of human
+freedom, or the only alternative will happen, the loss of our own
+liberties and the forfeiture of our national office as the leader of
+Progress combined with Order, on the planet. We have to deal with an
+implacable, a subtle, and a versatile enemy, wholly committed to the
+opposite cause; unscrupulous, inappreciative of magnanimity or
+concession of any kind; restrained by no considerations whatsoever short
+of the accomplishment of his absolute and tyrannical will. We have this
+enemy nearly prostrate under our feet, and we stand hesitating whether
+to avail ourselves of our advantage or to stultify ourselves at the
+tribunal of the world and of history, by allowing him to rise, to
+repossess himself of his arms, and to recommence the conflict upon terms
+of equal advantage.
+
+A glance at the remaining alternative outcomings of the war must be
+reserved for another article.
+
+
+
+
+THE ENGLISH PRESS.
+
+
+     [The article with this title is written by Mr. NICHOLAS
+     ROWE, of London. Mr. ROWE is a lineal descendant of
+     the celebrated NICHOLAS ROWE, the author of the tragedy of
+     _Jane Shore_ and other well-known poems. The author, like his
+     famous ancestor, is a man of talents and a friend of freedom. His
+     account of the old English Press is one of the most perfect ever
+     given. He intends to bring the subject down to the present period,
+     and will become a regular contributor to our Magazine.--ED.
+     CONTINENTAL.]
+
+     It is impossible to overestimate the influence of the English
+     press. It has raised itself to such a pitch of importance that it
+     has been not inaptly termed the fourth estate of the realm. But the
+     power which it wields is so enormous and so widespread that it
+     would be nearer the truth to concede to it the dignity of the first
+     estate. All classes see so clearly their interest in supporting it,
+     that the press has become, in effect, a general arbitrator, a court
+     of last appeal, to which kings, lords, and commons in turn address
+     themselves for support whenever the overwhelming force of public
+     opinion is to be conciliated or enlisted. It is in morals what a
+     multitude is in physics, and it may, without exaggeration, be said
+     that for all purposes of progress and of good the press of England
+     has in reality become something more than a single estate of the
+     realm, since it combines in itself, and exceeds the authority of
+     all. But while raised to this lofty pinnacle of greatness, it does
+     not, it dares not, it cannot from its very constitution permanently
+     abuse its power; and though isolated attempts have been, from time
+     to time, made in this direction, yet they have in the end, as was
+     to be expected, reaped nothing but disaster and disgrace. 'Great is
+     journalism,' says Carlyle. 'Is not every able editor a ruler of the
+     world, being a persuader of it?' Yes, truly a ruler of the world,
+     whose supremacy all other rulers must unhesitatingly acknowledge or
+     perish miserably and forever. Yes, truly a persuader of the world,
+     because he is the mouthpiece of the people, whose earnest, mighty
+     voice is making itself heard more and more irresistibly every day,
+     to the utter discomfiture and overthrow of the hydra-headed avatars
+     of the priestcraft and kingcraft and all the other mouldy and
+     rank-smelling relics of the dark ages. The press is the arch
+     apostle of civilization, progress, and truth--the Greatheart, whose
+     mission it is to combat and destroy the giants Pope and Pagan, Maul
+     and Despair, and all other misleaders and oppressors of men.
+     Language itself might be exhausted before all that could be said in
+     favor of the uses, benefits, and value of the press had found
+     fitting expression. The greatest and best of men have expatiated
+     upon this noble theme, but probably the truest and most eloquent
+     panegyric ever bestowed upon it is that of Sheridan:
+
+     'Give me but the liberty of the press, and I will give to the
+     minister a venal House of Peers--I will give him a corrupt and
+     servile House of Commons--I will give him the full sway of the
+     patronage of office--I will give him the whole host of ministerial
+     influence--I will give him all the power that place can confer upon
+     him to purchase up submission and overawe resistance--and yet,
+     armed with the liberty of the press, I will go forth to meet him
+     undismayed--I will attack the mighty fabric he has reared with that
+     mightier engine--I will shake down from its height corruption, and
+     bury it amidst the ruins of the abuses it was meant to shelter.'
+
+Had Sheridan never uttered or written anything besides these burning
+words, he would have merited immortal fame, and unquestionably obtained
+it.
+
+The press is not a thing of yesterday, for it is the slow growth of two
+centuries; neither did it burst upon the world armed at all points, like
+the fabled Athene. Yet in other respects the comparison holds good, for
+the press, like Athene, unites in itself the attributes of power and
+wisdom combined; it fosters and protects science, industry, and art; it
+is the patron of all useful inventions; it is the preserver of the
+state, and everything that gives strength and prosperity to the state;
+it is the champion of law, justice, and order, and extends its
+protecting ægis over the weak, the downtrodden, and the oppressed. It
+has taken two centuries, as we have already said, to make the press what
+it is; and a terrible uphill fight has it had to wage. Tyranny,
+dogmatism, and intolerance in high places, and ignorance and
+superstition in low, have ever been its sworn enemies. It has had its
+saints and martyrs, more worthy of canonization in men's hearts than
+many written high in the calendar of Rome. But though persecuted,
+crushed, and at times apparently done to death, its vitality was
+indestructible, and after every knock-down blow it rose again from the
+earth, like Antæus, with renewed strength. It was always a vigorous
+stripling, and even so far back as the days of David Hume its future
+greatness and magnificent destiny was clearly marked out, so that he
+wrote: 'Its liberties and the liberties of the people must stand or fall
+together.' Liberty and the press in England are convertible terms, and
+this is the true reason of the success and power it enjoys. It is also
+the cause of the persecutions it has had to undergo. Tyranny and the
+press are as necessarily opposed to each other as are the principles of
+good and evil. The word 'tyranny' is not here intended to refer only to
+the despotic rulers of states and kingdoms, but to include the
+oppression practiced by the strong upon the weak, the rich upon the
+poor, the great upon the small, whether nations or individuals. The
+press, moreover, is the guardian of social, political, and religious
+morality. The greatest as well as the most trifling affairs which
+conduce to the well-being and comfort of the multitude are eagerly
+canvassed. The faults and vices which disfigure and disgrace even the
+most advanced forms of civilization are unshrinkingly laid bare, and the
+proper remedies prescribed. The political conduct of nations and of
+public men is carefully scrutinized, and every false step that they may
+make is immediately noted, commented upon, and held up to public
+reprobation. Religious questions, although, ever since the world began,
+they have been approached in a very different spirit to those of any
+other description, and have been debated with greater heat and passion
+than the bitterest political disputes, and with a lamentable disregard
+of logic and common sense, are now-a-days treated with a candor and
+fairness that has never yet characterized them. The press is, in fact,
+the great physician of the mind, whose duty it is to impart a healthy
+tone to the inner nature of man, to check the ravages of disease in it,
+and, wherever it may imagine any traces of poison to lurk, to administer
+a prompt and immediate antidote. It may not always and at once prosper
+in its endeavors. Wrong-doing may still, in some cases, prove too
+strong, vices may have become inveterate, diseases chronic, and the
+poison may have been too completely absorbed. But not, therefore, is the
+press discouraged: like Robert Bruce's spider, it returns again and
+again to its task, and--success does and must crown it in the end.
+
+But while faithfully performing these lofty duties, in the discharge of
+which it employs the trained minds and practised pens of the greatest
+literary talent of the time, the press has other functions, which, if
+not of such paramount importance, yet possess no small utility and
+value. By no means the least of these is that of merely furnishing the
+news of the day; and that this was the primary intention of the
+newspaper its very name proves. Comment, argument, and reasoning were
+after additions. There are thousands of persons at the present day even,
+who patronize a newspaper solely for its news, and who do not trouble
+their heads about any other portion of its contents. The births,
+marriages, and deaths are eagerly perused by many who expect to meet in
+that domestic chronicle with the names of their friends and
+acquaintances. The court news and the movements of royalty and the upper
+ten thousand have great charms for a large section of the community.
+Accidents and offences and sensation headings, such as 'horrible
+murder,' 'melancholy suicide,' 'terrific explosion,' 'fatal shipwreck,'
+'awful railway collision,' and the like, have powerful attractions for
+that class which is--alas for human nature!--only too numerous, and
+which likes to sup full of horrors--in print. In the same category with
+these may be placed police news, and the proceedings in the divorce
+court, the full reports of which are a blemish from which not even the
+greatest of English journals are free. There have been found able and
+honest men to defend these reports on the ground of the 'interests of
+morality,' than which there is not a more abused phrase in print. But to
+the man of ordinary common sense it would appear that more harm than
+good results from them. Where can the viciously disposed man or the
+novice in crime apply with better prospects of instruction in the
+pursuit of his evil designs than to the columns of the newspaper? It is
+perhaps not too much to say that for every two persons whom these
+reports deter from crime, there are three who have been either initiated
+or hardened in wickedness and sin by their means. This is a matter which
+calls loudly for reform; and let it, with all sorrow and humility, be
+confessed, one in which the better American journals shine vastly
+superior to their English brethren. To the general reader for
+amusement's sake only, those scraps _de omnibus rebus et quibusdam
+aliis_ with which editors fill up odd corners supply ample
+gratification. But those who read for amusement's sake only, or from
+mere idle curiosity, are by no means the majority, and a tolerable
+insight may be obtained into a man's character and bias of mind by
+observing what is the part of the paper to which he first turns when he
+unfolds it. The man who is absorbed in business pursuits turns to the
+prices of stocks and shares, the values of articles of merchandise, and
+the rates of discount and exchange. He will also probably glance at the
+'latest intelligence' and the most recent telegrams, but only with the
+view of forming an opinion as to how the world of commerce and
+speculation will be affected thereby. The politician finds matter to his
+taste in the leading articles, the Parliamentary debates and the letters
+of foreign correspondents, and, perhaps, after a careful perusal of
+them, flatters himself that he has at last mastered the intricacies of
+the Schleswig-Holstein question, or has arrived at an understanding of
+the Emperor Napoleon's policy in Rome. The scientific man and the
+literary man have their attention fixed by the reports of the meetings
+of the various learned societies, the accounts of new discoveries and
+inventions, and the reviews of new publications. This enumeration might
+be extended almost _ad infinitum_, but to sum up briefly, whatever a
+man's taste or predilections may be, he will be able to gratify them to
+his heart's content.
+
+There is, however, one portion of the newspaper which must not be passed
+over without especial notice, and which is so varied in its contents
+that it appeals to all classes. This is the advertisements. The man who
+wishes to buy may here ascertain whither he must bend his steps to
+obtain the article he desires, and the man who wishes to sell may here
+meet with a purchaser; and it is truly wonderful to observe how the two
+great requirements of demand and supply, in all their varied
+ramifications, are satisfied or seem to be satisfied in these columns.
+If one may put faith in them, it is possible to gratify every mortal
+wish and every mortal want through their instrumentality, on one
+condition, and that condition is--money. But even this condition may be
+satisfied through the same medium. Are there not untold fortunes
+invested in Government securities and unclaimed for years, only waiting
+for the lawful owners or rightful heirs to come forward and obtain them
+through the agency of those obliging gentlemen who make it their
+business to investigate such matters? Are there not also numbers of
+benevolent philanthropists eagerly longing for opportunities to lend
+money in large or small amounts, on personal security only, to such
+persons even as are not fortunate enough to be rightful owners or lawful
+heirs? The curious part of the affair, however, is that there are also
+so many people who want to borrow money upon the same terms. Do these
+two classes, we wonder, ever come together through the intervention of
+the advertisement, and does the result wished for on both sides follow,
+or does it not? If it does, why need both sets of advertisements appear
+at all? And if it does not, what is the use of repeating either of them
+day after day and week after week? The man of imagination must take
+especial delight in the advertising columns. What splendid feasts they
+afford him to banquet upon! Some of them, in a few pithy lines, contain
+the plot of a three-volume novel or the materials for a grand sensation
+melodrama. What tragedies and what comedies he may weave out of one or
+two mysterious and almost unintelligible sentences! What reveries he may
+indulge in, what castles in the air--the most harmless and inexpensive
+of building operations--he may construct, provided he start with the
+hypothesis, 'If I were to buy this,' or 'If I were to invest in that,'
+and all the time he has neither the intention nor the ability of
+purchasing the one or of investing in the other! How seductive are the
+notifications by auctioneers and land agents of the 'charming and
+valuable territorial estates, with the disposal of which they have had
+the honor of being intrusted'! The dweller in towns, who, chained to the
+one unceasing, unvarying round of official toil, still sighs for the
+country, and, like Virgil, envies the 'fortunati agricolæ,' may here
+give the reins to his fancy, and indulge his rural proclivities _ad
+libitum_. When the day's labors are over, and he sits in slippered ease
+'by his own fireside,' what greater enjoyment can he have than to
+abandon himself in true Barmecidal fashion to the tempting dainties
+which the last page of the supplement to the _Times_ offers to his keen
+appetite! How he revels in the luscious descriptions of 'noble parks,'
+'swelling lawns,' 'ancestral woods,' 'silver lakes,' and 'endless
+panoramas of scenery unequalled in the world'! How proudly he lingers
+over the pictures of 'baronial castles,' and 'time-honored manorial
+residences, indissolubly linked with the proudest names and proudest
+deeds of England's history'! If he be a sportsman--and what Englishman
+is not, more or less?--how intoxicating to him is the enumeration of
+'game of all sorts, and countless myriads of wild fowl,' only waiting
+his advent to fall victims to his prowess! If he be a philanthropist,
+what visions of model farms, model cottages and model schools, of a
+happy and contented peasantry, of comely, smiling matrons, and troops of
+ruddy-cheeked children may he not conjure up! If he be ambitious, what
+dreams of greatness crowd upon him--the revered benefactor of the
+parish, the respected chairman of the bench of magistrates, nay, even
+the county member returned to Parliament without a dis-sentient voice!
+His fancy runs riot, and there is no limit to the bright future which
+the skilful hand of the cunning knight of the hammer unfolds before his
+enraptured gaze.
+
+To the energetic, enterprising man, how tempting must be those
+prospectuses of schemes for the development of the vast and in many
+cases untried natural, industrial, and commercial resources of the
+country, which, combining in an eminent degree both pleasure and profit,
+invite his coöperation upon the joint-stock principle! How delightful to
+him must be those announcements of wonderful inventions--secured by a
+patent--and of old-established business firms, which offer a safe
+investment for his spare hundreds and thousands by way of partnership,
+with the certainty of immediate and enormous returns! To the invalid and
+the valetudinarian, how cheering must be those modest and disinterested
+encomiums upon the virtues of certain nostrums and specifics, which
+cannot but carry conviction to his mind that there is a certain cure for
+'all the ills that flesh is heir to!' And lastly, not to enlarge the
+list any further, what a glow of heartfelt pleasure and gratitude must
+the really good and benevolent man experience when he peruses the
+reports of charitable societies, with their statistics of poverty,
+misery, and privation, which afford him a channel for the dispensation
+in works of mercy of the superfluous wealth with which a bountiful
+Providence has blessed him!
+
+Such being the manifold uses and advantages of the newspaper, we are
+tempted for a moment to pause and reflect upon what would be the
+condition of the world without it. What a dreary waste it would be! Man
+is an inquisitive animal, and at the present day is just like the
+Athenians of old, going about seeking for some new thing. What would
+become of him if the provender supplied him by his newspaper were
+suddenly cut off? The consequences to society and to individuals would
+be frightful to contemplate, and the mind especially recoils with horror
+from the fate which would assuredly overtake those elderly
+club-loungers, whose sole aim and object in life appears to be the daily
+perusal of their favorite journal. How disastrous would be the effects
+of such a stoppage to those persons who are compelled to pass the
+greater portion of their lives together! They could not possibly
+contrive to get through the day, and before long life itself would
+become burdensome to them. Vast numbers of people have no ideas of their
+own, and are therefore compelled to borrow them elsewhere. How important
+is the part which the newspaper plays in that elsewhere! Paterfamilias
+comes down to breakfast--his newspaper fresh, clean, and tidily folded,
+lies invitingly on the table--he eagerly seizes it, and is forthwith
+furnished with topics of conversation with his family. When he is
+thoroughly posted up in the news of the day, he sallies forth, and is
+ready to interchange ideas at secondhand with any acquaintance he may
+meet. What would become of Paterfamilias, his family, and his friends,
+if they were deprived of this resource? The whole framework of society
+would be unhinged, business and pleasure would alike come to a
+standstill, and the world would again relapse into barbarism and chaos.
+
+But let us turn from these fanciful speculations to a sober recital of
+facts in connection with the history of the press.
+
+The derivation of the word 'newspaper' has been the subject of much
+dispute. Some learned and ingenious writers, disdaining the obvious
+'new,' have gone very far afield in their researches. Among other
+derivations which have been suggested, is one taken from the four
+cardinal points of the compass, N. E. W. S.; because the intelligence
+conveyed came from all quarters of the globe. This suggestion is
+contained in an old epigram:
+
+  'The word explains itself without the Muse,
+   And the four letters tell from whence comes News;
+   From N. E. W. S. the solution's made,
+   Each quarter gives account of war and trade.'
+
+And also, probably in jest, in the 'Wit's Recreations,' published in
+1640:
+
+  'Whence news doth come if any would discusse,
+   The letters of the word resolve it thus:
+   News is conveyed by letter, word, or mouth,
+   And comes to us from North, East, West, and South.'
+
+For the first origin of newspapers in Europe we must look to Rome, and
+there can be no reasonable doubt that the earliest germs of news sheets
+are to be found among that wonderful people, who have left such enduring
+monuments of themselves wherever they carried their victorious eagles.
+The Roman news sheets were called _Acta Diurna_, and were issued by the
+Government, and affixed to the walls in the most public places in the
+city. They were also carefully stored in a building set apart for the
+purpose, where any person could have access to them, and make copies of
+them for the benefit of their friends in distant parts of the empire. It
+is probable also that the Roman historians availed themselves of them in
+their compilations. They were not only reports of the ordinary
+occurrences in the city, but journals of the proceedings in the courts
+and town councils as well, and they contain records of trials,
+elections, punishments, buildings, deaths, sacrifices, state
+ceremonials, prodigies, etc., etc. They are alluded to in the
+correspondence between Cicero and Coelius, when the great orator was
+governor of Cilicia. Coelius had promised to send him an account of
+the news of Rome, and encloses in his first letter a journal of the
+events which had transpired in the city during his absence. Cicero, in
+reply, complains that his friend had misinterpreted his wishes, and says
+that he had not desired him to send an account of the matches of
+gladiators, the adjournments of the courts, and occurrences of that
+kind, which nobody dared to talk to him about even when he was residing
+in Rome: what he wanted was a description of the course of politics and
+but the newspaper of Chrestus. He also refers to these sheets, that is
+to say, to accounts of public affairs _in actis_ and _ex actis_, in two
+letters to Cassius and one to Brutus, written previously to the
+triumvirate. Suetonius also makes mention of them, and says that Julius
+Cæsar, in his consulship, ordered the diurnal acts of the senate and the
+people to be published. Tacitus relates a speech of a courtier to Nero
+to induce him to execute Thrasea, and among other things he says:
+'Diurna populi Romani per provinciam per exercitus accuratius leguntur
+ut noscatur quid Thrasea non fecerit.' Seneca and the younger Pliny also
+allude to them. Dr. Johnson, in the preface to the tenth volume of the
+_Gentleman's Magazine_, published in 1740, enters into a disquisition
+upon these _acta diurna_, and gives an account of the discovery of some
+of them with the date of 585 A. U. C., and adds some specimens
+from them. He quotes them from the 'Annals of Rome,' by Stephen Pighius,
+who declares that he obtained them from James Susius, by whom they were
+found among the MSS. belonging to Ludovicus Vives. Their authenticity
+has, as might be expected, been hotly disputed by many learned scholars
+at various times, but sufficient grounds have not been adduced for their
+rejection. The most suspicious circumstance connected with them is their
+resemblance, _mutatis mutandis_, to a newspaper of the present day. Thus
+among other things we are told that the consul went in grand procession
+to sacrifice at the temple of Apollo, just as now a-days we might read
+that Queen Victoria went in state to St. Paul's, or attended divine
+service at the chapel royal, St. James's. Then we are favored with an
+account of the setting forth of Lucius Paulus Æmilius, the consul, for
+the war in Macedonia, and a description of the departure of the embassy
+of Popilius Lena, Caius Decimus, and Caius Hostilius to Syria and Egypt,
+with a great attendance of relations and clients, and of their offering
+up a sacrifice and libations at the temple of Castor and Pollux before
+commencing their journey. Then we hear how an oak was struck by
+lightning on the summit of Mount Palatine, which was called _Summa
+Velia_, and have the particulars given us of a fire which took place on
+Mount Coelius, together with an account of the crucifixion of a
+certain noted pirate. Dramatic intelligence is represented by a
+description of the plays acted in honor of the goddess Cybele; and under
+the head of 'fashionable intelligence,' the Jenkins of the day
+chronicles the funeral of Marcia, a noble Roman matron, and remarks that
+the attendance of images was greater than that of mourners. He also adds
+an account of the entertainment given to the people by her sons upon the
+occasion. By way of police news, we find a record of a disturbance in a
+tavern, in which the tavern keeper was severely wounded; and how
+Tertinius, the ædile, fined some butchers for selling meat which had not
+been inspected by the overseers of the market. A counterpart of this
+transaction may be met with every day in the city of London, but the
+result of the affair is much the more satisfactory in Rome, for whereas
+we do not know for certain what becomes of the money obtained from the
+penalty in London, we learn that the ædile directed it to be devoted to
+the building of an additional chapel to the temple of the goddess
+Tellus. Dr. Johnson also quotes a second series of _Acta Diurna_, with
+the date of 691 A. U. C., from the 'Camdenian Lectures' of
+Dodwell in 1688 to 1691. Dodwell says that he obtained them from his
+friend Hadrian Beoerland, who got them from Isaac Vossius, by whom they
+were copied from certain MSS. in the possession of Petavius. Among other
+things contained in this second set, we find noted certain trials, with
+the number of the votes for and against the defendant, a bargain for the
+repairs of a certain temple, an announcement by one of the prætors that
+he shall intermit his sittings for five days, in consequence of the
+marriage of his daughter, and an account of the pleading of Cicero in
+favor of Cornelius Sulla, and of his gaining his cause by a majority of
+five judges.
+
+Such are the earliest traces of newspapers to be found, and long
+centuries elapse before we again catch a glimpse of anything of the
+kind. Although it is the great Anglo-Saxon race alone which can boast of
+having developed the usefulness and liberty of the press to its fullest
+capabilities, both in England and America, yet it is not to us that the
+credit belongs of having been the first to reintroduce newspapers in
+Europe. Whether or no the Romans introduced their _Acta Diurna_ into
+Britain, and whether or no any imitations of them sprang up then or in
+after times, it is impossible to say. Some writers have asserted that
+news sheets were in circulation in England at all events so early as the
+middle of the fifteenth century, but as their assertions rest upon no
+very trustworthy basis, they must be at once thrown aside. It is to
+Italy that we must again turn for the reappearance of the newspaper. It
+was in 1536, or thereabouts, that the Venetian magistracy caused
+accounts of the progress of the war which they were waging against
+Suleiman II, in Dalmatia, to be written and read aloud to the people in
+different parts of the city. The news sheet appeared once a month, and
+was called _Gazetta_, deriving its name, probably, from a coin so
+called, of the value of something less than a cent, either because that
+was the price of the sheet, or the sum paid for reading it, or for
+having it read. There are thirty volumes of this MS. newspaper preserved
+in the Maggliabecchi Library at Florence, and there are also some in the
+British Museum, the earliest date of which is 1570. Printed news
+letters, with date and number, but not so deserving of the title of
+newspaper, began to appear about the same time in Germany. They were
+called _Relations_, and were published at Augsburg and Vienna in 1524,
+at Ratisbon in 1528, Dollingen in 1569, and Nuremberg in 1571. The first
+regular German newspaper appeared at Frankfort, and was entitled
+_Frankfurter Oberpostamtszeitung_, in 1615. The first French was brought
+out by Renaudot, a physician, in 1632. The first Russian paper came out
+under the auspices of Peter the Great, in 1703, and was styled the _St.
+Petersburg Gazette_. Spain did not enter the lists until a year later,
+and the _Gazeta de Madrid_ was born in 1704. It could not have been
+worth much as a newspaper, inasmuch as the defeat off Cape St. Vincent
+did not appear in its columns until four weeks after it had taken place.
+
+There must have been some sort of news sheets in existence in England
+about the same time as the Venetian _Gazetta_, for in the thirty-sixth
+year of King Henry VIII, the following proclamation appeared:
+
+     'The King's most excellent Majestie, understanding that certain
+     light persones, not regarding what they reported, wrote, or sett
+     forth, had caused to be ymprinted and divulged certaine newes of
+     the prosperous successes of the King's Majestie's army in Scotland,
+     wherein, although the effect of the victory was indeed true, yet
+     the circumstances in divers points were, in some parte
+     over-slenderly, in some parte untruly and amisse reported; his
+     Highness, therefore, not content to have anie such matters of so
+     greate importance sett forthe to the slaunder of his captaines and
+     ministers, nor to be otherwise reported than the truthe was,
+     straightlie chargeth and commandeth all manner of persones into
+     whose hands anie of the said printed bookes should come,
+     ymmediately after they should hear of this proclamation, to bring
+     the said bookes to the Lord Maior of London, or to the recorder or
+     some of the aldermen of the same, to the intent they might suppress
+     and burn them, upon pain that every person keeping anie of the said
+     bookes twenty-four hours after the making of this proclamation,
+     should suffer ymprisonment of his bodye, and be further punished at
+     the King's Majestie's will and pleasure.'
+
+None of these obnoxious 'printed bookes' have survived to the present
+time, and it has been contended that they were probably nothing more
+than ballads and copies of doggerel verses. But this is an hypercritical
+objection, or rather groundless guess, for it is evident that the
+proclamation points at something far more important. We may safely
+conclude that they were newspapers, and that journalism had already
+attained sufficient dimensions to alarm the powers that were, and draw
+down their hostility. And a few years later, Pope Gregory XIII
+fulminated a bull, called _Minantes_, against the news sheets, as
+spreading scandal and defamation, etc.
+
+It was long fondly believed that the British Museum counted among its
+treasures a full-blown printed English newspaper, dating so far back as
+1588. It was entitled the _English Mercurie_, and purported to be
+'published by authoritie for the suppression of false reports, ymprinted
+at London by Christopher Barker, her Highness's Printer.' Writer after
+writer exulted in the fact, and was loud in the praises of the sagacity
+and wisdom of Burleigh, under whose direction it was supposed to have
+been issued. But unfortunately for antiquaries and literati, the matter
+was carefully investigated by Mr. Watts, of the British Museum, and he
+pronounced on unquestionable evidence the copies of the _English
+Mercurie_ to be nothing but a barefaced forgery, of which he went even
+so far as to accuse, on good grounds, the second Lord Hardwicke of being
+the perpetrator. But though we must discard this fictitious account of
+the Spanish armada, etc., other news sheets did actually exist in the
+reign of Queen Elizabeth, a list of which has been compiled by Dr.
+Rimbault. The titles of some of them are: _New Newes, containing a short
+rehearsal of Stukely and Morice's Rebellion_, 1579; _Newes from
+Scotland, declaring the damnable Life of Doctor Fian, a notable
+Sorcerer, who was burned in Edenborough in January last_, 1591; _Newes
+from Spain and Holland_, 1593; _Newes from Flanders_, 1599; _Newes out
+of Cheshire of the new-found Well_, 1600; _Newes from Gravesend_, 1604.
+As time went on, these 'pamphlets of newes' increased in number. They
+treated of all kinds of intelligence; some derived their materials from
+foreign countries, and some from different parts of the kingdom at home;
+some were true, and some were false. Thus we find, among others,
+_Lamentable Newes out of Monmouthshire, in Wales, containinge the
+wonderfull and fearfull Accounts of the great overflowing of the Waters
+in the said Countye_, 1607; _Newes from Spain_, 1611; _Newes out of
+Germanie_, 1612; _Wofull Newes from the west partes of England, of the
+burning of Tiverton_, 1612; _Good Newes from Florence_, 1614; _Strange
+Newes from Lancaster, containinge an Account of a prodigious Monster,
+born in the Township of Addlington, in Lancashire, with two bodyes
+joined to one back_, 1613; _Newes from Italy_, 1618; _Newes out of
+Holland_, 1619; _Vox Populi, or Newes from Spain_, 1620. About this time
+the news sheets began to assume particular and distinctive titles, under
+which they appeared at uncertain intervals. We meet with _The Courant,
+or Weekly Newes from Foreign Parts_, 1621; _The certain Newes of this
+present Week_, 1622; _The Weekly Newes from Italy, Germany, etc._, 1622,
+a title which was shortly after exchanged for that of _Newes from most
+Parts of Christendom, London, printed for Nathaniel Butler and William
+Sheppard_. These names ought to be preserved, as being those of the
+great pioneers of regular journalism. It appears, however, that they did
+not always keep the same title for their newspaper, for sometimes it was
+called _The Last Newes_; at others, _The Weekly Newes continued_; _More
+Newes_; _Our Last Newes_, and other various renderings of the same
+theme. This great progenitor of a mighty race also adopted a system of
+numbering, and, though exposed to many dangers and vicissitudes, did not
+finally disappear until 1640. Butler and his contemporaries had to
+struggle with many obstacles, and to contend against many and powerful
+foes. In 1637, Archbishop Laud procured the passing of an ordinance
+limiting the number of master printers to twenty, and punishing with
+whipping and the pillory all such as should print without a license.
+Butler's name does not occur in this list; so we may conclude that he
+was particularly obnoxious to the haughty prelate and his party. But
+this persevering journalist, whose name had for a long time appeared
+alone as the printer of his newspaper, contrived to surmount this
+difficulty, for in a manifesto, dated January 11th, 1640, he says:
+
+     'Courteous reader! we had thought to have given over printing our
+     foreign avisoes, for that the licenser (out of a partial affection)
+     would not oftentimes let pass apparent truth, and in other things
+     (oftentimes) so crosse and alter, which made us weary of printing;
+     but he being vanished (and that office fallen upon another more
+     understanding in these forraine affaires, and as you will find more
+     candid) we are againe (by the favour of his Majestie and the state)
+     resolved to go on printing, if we shall find the world to give a
+     better acceptation of them (than of late) by their weekly buying of
+     them. It is well known these novels are well esteemed in all parts
+     of the world (but heere) by the more judicious, which we can impute
+     to no other but the discontinuance of them, and the uncertaine
+     daies of publishing them, which, if the post fail us not, we shall
+     keep a constant day everie weeke therein, whereby everie man may
+     constantly expect them, and so we take leave.'
+
+This number of his journal is entitled _The continuation of the Forraine
+Occurrents, for five Weeks past, containinge many remarkable Passages of
+Germanie, etc.; examined and licensed by a better and more impartiall
+hand than heretofore_. Another noticeable thing in this manifesto is the
+first occurrence of the autocratic editorial 'we.'
+
+Butler had also to contend with the opposition of the news writers or
+news correspondents, who doubtless found his undertaking interfere with
+their trade. These gentry covenanted for the sum of £3 or £4 a year to
+write a news letter every post day to their subscribers in the country.
+That this curious trade was thoroughly systematized is evident from the
+following passage in Ben Jonson's 'Staple of News,' published in 1635:
+
+  'This is the outer room where my clerks sit
+   And keep their sides, the register i' the midst;
+   The examiner he sits private there within--
+   And here I have my several rolls and files
+   Of news by the alphabet, and all put up
+   Under their heads.'
+
+The news writers flourished greatly at this period, but as newspapers
+began to get a footing, their credit gradually declined--and with
+reason, if we may put confidence in the following extract from the
+_Evening Post_, of September 6th, 1709:
+
+     'There must be £3 or £4 paid per annum by those gentlemen who are
+     out of town for written news, which is so far generally from having
+     any probability of matter of fact, that it is frequently stuffed up
+     with a 'we hear,' or 'an eminent Jew merchant has received a
+     letter,' being nothing more than downright fiction.'
+
+To Butler belongs the credit of having been the first to introduce
+street newsboys, with this difference, that his employés were of the
+other sex, and were styled 'Mercurie women.'
+
+Butler was a stanch royalist, and consequently suffered the vengeance of
+the Parliamentary party. He fell into great poverty, and, according to
+Anthony à Wood, died on board Prince Rupert's fleet in Kinsale harbor,
+in 1649, just as a brighter day was beginning to dawn upon journalism.
+
+The struggle between the Parliament and the king set the press free from
+the multiplied restrictions by which it had been 'cabined, cribbed,
+confined' and almost stifled in its cradle. The country became flooded
+with publications of all kinds, of which, while many were trashy,
+ridiculous, and extravagant, there still remained a considerable portion
+which materially helped forward that mighty uprising of the people to
+which England owes her freedom, her glory, and her might.
+
+And here, having introduced to the reader the first real newspaper, and
+the great ancestor of all after editors, and having attended the press
+through its obscure infancy and perilous childhood, we must pause,
+reserving for consideration in a future article the fair promise of its
+youth and the development of its still more glorious manhood.
+
+
+
+
+THE CONSCRIPTION ACT OF MARCH 3D.
+
+
+Few subjects are more difficult of legislation than that of the military
+service of a nation. The most profound wisdom, the most enlightened
+statesmanship, the most intimate knowledge of society, are requisite in
+the legislator. It is easy, indeed, to regulate the military service in
+times of peace, when the army is small and volunteers are abundant. But
+when the ordinary methods fail to fill up the ranks, decimated by actual
+war, when the honor and perpetuity of a nation depend upon a
+conscription of its citizens, then comes the tug of war, and many
+legislatures have failed in their deliberations on this subject. In the
+first place, a Conscription Act is opposed to popular prejudice.
+Compulsory service of any kind, except for punishment, is contrary to
+our ideas of personal freedom. We believe in the sovereign privilege of
+doing what we please, and declining to do what we do not please, to its
+fullest possible extent. We love to tell our neighbors that we have no
+standing army to defend our national honor, but that it reposes safely
+on the _voluntary_ patriotism of the people. We may admit the
+_necessity_ for a Conscription Act--may confess its justice and
+impartiality; but few men who are liable to fall into its pitiless
+clutches, can speak of such an act without a shrug of uneasiness or a
+wicked expression of anger. Again, it must be universal in its
+application. It must meet all classes and conditions of society; must be
+adapted to all shades of religious and political belief; must be
+inflexible as Justice on his throne, yet tender and sympathetic as a
+mother to her child. It must take into consideration different branches
+of industry, and the fields of one section must not be depleted of
+husbandmen that those of another may be filled with warriors.
+
+The act of March 3d meets these difficulties more successfully, perhaps,
+than any previous act, whether of a State or National Legislature. It is
+based upon the broad and well-admitted maxim, that every citizen owes
+his personal service to the Government which protects him. But while the
+Government impartially demands this service, the law provides for the
+exemption of those who would suffer by the unqualified enforcement of
+this demand.
+
+Many persons outside of the specified limits of age, are physically able
+to do military service. But, _as a class_, it would have been cruel and
+impolitic to have forced men into a service which would have wrecked
+health and happiness for life, or, by a short and swift passage through
+the military hospitals, have shuffled them into premature graves. Few
+men under twenty-five have the power of endurance necessary for a long
+and wearisome campaign. The muscles are not sufficiently knit and
+hardened for the service, nor the constitution sufficiently fortified to
+withstand the exposure. Men over forty-five have lost the vigor and
+elasticity necessary to long and arduous exertion, and are constantly
+liable to become a burden instead of a benefit to the service.
+
+No previous act has so equally disposed the military duty among the
+various classes affected by it. It is a well-known fact that the burdens
+of military service are wont to bear most heavily on the _laboring_
+classes. Probably no legislation can entirely remove this inequality.
+But the act of March 3d makes special provision for the indigent and
+helpless, and to a great extent relieves the suffering and inconvenience
+dependent on an enforced military conscription. Poverty is not left
+without relief, infancy without protection, old age without comfort. The
+dependent widow, the infirm parent, the homeless orphan, are adopted by
+the Government, and their support and protection provided for. And in
+order that the character and dignity of the army may comport with the
+greatness and purity of the cause for which it is fighting--that it may
+be both the power and the pride of the nation, it is expressly provided,
+that 'no person who has been guilty of any felony shall be enrolled or
+permitted to serve in said forces.' For the benefit of those whose
+peculiar business or family relations require their services at home,
+Congress wisely inserted 'the $300 clause.' In this they but followed
+the established custom in most nations since the days of feudalism. No
+part of the act has been more violently assailed than this, none more
+unjustly. It is asserted that this clause discriminates against the
+poor, in favor of the rich; that it recognizes unjust distinctions
+between the classes of society, and assigns military duty unequally
+among the citizens. No assertion could more glaringly display the
+author's ignorance and lack of judgment.
+
+The law, as originally drawn, required the service of the man drafted or
+an acceptable substitute within ten days. Had 'the $300 clause' not been
+inserted, the competition for substitutes would have been so great that
+their price would have risen far beyond the ability of men in moderate
+circumstances to pay, and many would have been forced into service who
+thus have an opportunity for exempting themselves. It has kept the price
+of substitutes at a low figure, and thus has proven itself emphatically
+the poor man's provision.
+
+Nor is the law harsh toward those who may be drafted. Abundant time is
+given for the settlement of any pressing business, the proper
+disposition of family affairs, or the procuring of a substitute. It is
+mild toward the infirm and afflicted, making ample provision for the
+exemption of those who, from any cause, are unfit for service.
+
+It assures to drafted men the same pay, bounty, clothing, and equipments
+as volunteers receive, and in all respects puts them on the same
+footing. It thus removes the unjust distinction wont to be made between
+the drafted man and volunteer, looking upon each as a true soldier of
+his country, equally interested in its honor and perpetuity. And in
+order that justice may be secured to the citizen as well as to the
+Government, the entire business of the enrolment and draft is under the
+supervision of a board of three men, generally residents of the
+district.
+
+The prevailing spirit of the act, cropping out in almost every section,
+is the tenderness with which it handles the subject. It scrupulously
+seeks to avoid all violence, injustice, and suffering, and while it
+firmly asks the service of the people, distributes that service equally
+among all. And herein is its superiority over all previous militia acts.
+State and national officers, members of Congress, custom-house
+officials, postmasters, clerks, and the favored and fortunate generally,
+were heretofore exempt, instead of those who, by misfortune or
+otherwise, were in circumstances of dependence and want.
+
+But the act of March 3d, thus general in its application, thus humane in
+its provisions, is not without omissions and imperfections. But these
+arise rather from the language of its provisions, than from its general
+design. Let us briefly examine these provisions as they are given in the
+second section of the act.
+
+Clause second exempts 'the only son liable to military duty of a widow
+dependent upon his labor for support.'
+
+The Judge Advocate General has decided, that 'a woman divorced from her
+husband who is still living, is not in the sense of the law a widow--a
+widow being defined to be a woman who has lost her husband by death.'
+Her only son, therefore, upon whom she may be dependent for her support,
+cannot be exempted. A divorced woman, whose husband is still living, may
+thus be left entirely without support, unless she have several sons
+'liable to draft,' in which case, she may elect one for exemption.
+
+Clause third exempts 'the only son of aged or infirm parent or parents
+dependent upon his labor for support.'
+
+It has been decided that a son cannot be exempted under this clause
+unless _both_ the parents are 'aged or infirm.' Thus it may happen that,
+by reason of bodily or mental infirmity, a father, with a family of
+helpless children, may be totally dependent upon the exertions of the
+mother and a draftable son. But the law pitilessly takes the son without
+possibility of exemption, throwing the entire burden of support upon the
+mother.
+
+But no clause of this section is more liable to objection than the
+_fourth_, which reads as follows: 'Where there are two or more sons of
+aged or infirm parents subject to draft, the father, or if he be dead,
+the mother, may elect which son shall be exempt.' It will be observed
+that the provision--'dependent upon his labor for support'--is omitted
+in this clause. Now, to interpret its language by the legal method of
+construction, by the context, it would seem that such dependence were
+necessary in order to secure the exemption. For the two clauses
+immediately preceding exempt 'the only son of a widow or of aged or
+infirm parent or parents _dependent upon his labor for support_. The two
+immediately following, exempt 'the brother or father of orphan children
+under twelve years of age _dependent upon his labor for support_.' That
+is, _four_ of the five clauses referring strictly to this subject, grant
+exemption to the applicant only when some one depends upon him for
+support. Hence it may be presumed, according to an admitted custom of
+legal interpretation, that in the remaining clause, standing between the
+other four, the question of dependence, though not expressly _stated_,
+is clearly _implied_.
+
+But an 'opinion,' published by the Provost-Marshal General's Bureau for
+the guidance of the boards of enrolment, declares that 'the right to
+this exemption does not rest upon the parents' dependence on the labor
+of their sons for their support. The law does not contemplate any such
+dependence.'
+
+What is the result of this decision?
+
+First, it places the wealthy and independent on the same footing with
+the indigent and needy, exacting from the one no more service than from
+the other.
+
+Second, it is more lenient toward the wealthy citizen who has several
+sons liable to draft, than toward the helpless widow who may have but
+one.
+
+Third, it makes a distinction against that family which may have
+contributed most to the military service.
+
+By the 'opinion' just quoted, the only fact to be established by parents
+electing one of several sons 'subject to draft,' is that they are 'aged
+or infirm'. When this is done, boards of enrolment must grant the
+exemption. The parents may live in affluence independent of their
+children; the sons may all be in the second class except the one
+elected; they may reside in different districts or States; they may
+belong to different households: yet, if the same parents, or some
+indigent widow adjoining them, had but _one_ son 'liable to military
+duty,' or, having _several_, had sent them all into the army save _one_,
+that one remaining could not be exempt unless it were proven that they
+actually depended on him for their support. Why should a helpless widow,
+having but _one_ son, be required to prove her dependence on him for
+support in order to have him exempted, when her wealthy neighbor, who
+has _two_ sons, can have one of them exempted without this dependence?
+
+Another published 'opinion' says: 'Election of the son to be exempted
+must be made _before_ the draft.' Now amid the chances of a draft it may
+happen that the brother or brothers of the elected son may not be drawn.
+Thus the Government loses the services of the entire family. In many
+cases no election would be necessary unless _all_ the sons were drafted,
+in which case it could be made as well _after_ as _before_ the draft.
+Besides, if there be a considerable interval between the time of
+election and the time of draft, the ground of exemption may no longer
+exist when the Government calls for the service of the man.
+
+On clause sixth an 'opinion' has been issued, stating that 'the father
+of motherless children under twelve years of age, dependent upon his
+labor for their support, is exempt, notwithstanding he may have married
+a second time and his wife be living.'
+
+A stepmother is not believed to be a 'mother' in the sense of the act.
+Another 'opinion' declares that the father of children of an insane
+mother under twelve years of age dependent on his labor for support, is
+_not_ exempt.
+
+A moment's reflection on these two 'opinions' is sufficient to establish
+their injustice. A stepmother may and should, in all important respects,
+take the place of the actual mother. Yet the father is exempt. Children
+of an insane mother, however, may be left entirely without maternal care
+and protection, and the father, upon whom may rest the burden of
+children and wife, is _not_ exempt.
+
+Clause seventh reads as follows: 'Where there are a father and sons in
+the same family and household, and two of them are in the military
+service of the United States, as non-commissioned officers, musicians,
+or privates, the residue of such family or household, not exceeding two,
+shall be exempt.'
+
+In reading this clause, the question naturally arises: Why is this
+provision made applicable only to families in which the father is still
+living? Why should not a widow, having two uncommissioned sons in the
+army, have her remaining son exempt, as well as if her husband were
+still living? Judge Holt has decided that 'a widow having four sons,
+three of whom are already in the military service, the fourth is exempt,
+_provided_ she is dependent on his labor for support.' If the father
+were living, the remaining son would be absolutely exempt.
+
+The evident design of this clause is to take into consideration the
+amount which each family may have contributed to the service. But this
+generous intention is practically ignored by another 'opinion,' which
+makes it necessary that two members of the same family must be _now_ in
+service, in order that the exempting clause may apply. Thus, by the
+calamities of war, a father and several sons may have been killed or
+rendered helpless for life, yet if there remains a son liable to draft
+in the same family, he cannot be exempted unless his mother depends on
+him for her support. It must be admitted that the parent or parents who
+have had two sons _killed_ in their country's service, have made quite
+as great a sacrifice as those who have two sons still engaged in that
+service. And if the question of support is involved, it is reasonable to
+suppose that two sons in the army would do quite as much for needy
+parents as two sons in the grave.
+
+These are some of the inconsistencies of the law, as it has been
+interpreted by authority. Other cases also may arise that seem to demand
+an exempting clause equally with those in the act. Of such are the
+following:
+
+First, the husband and father of a family depending upon his labor for
+their support.
+
+Second, the only support of an aged or infirm spinster or bachelor.
+
+It is not unusual for persons of this class to adopt the son of a
+relative or stranger. And when the infirmities of age render such
+persons unfit for toil, the youth whom they brought up, and who is now
+by his labor repaying their early attentions to him, should, not be
+taken away.
+
+Third, the only support of helpless children, having neither parents nor
+grown brothers.
+
+Orphans are often thrown upon the charity of a relative, and it seems
+right that their support should not be taken from them. In view of the
+many difficulties presented by the subject of exemptions, the many
+diverse claims that arise, and the impossibility of making a special
+provision for each, would it not be better to adopt a few general
+principles on the subject, and submit all claims to the judgment of the
+boards of enrolment? Thus, instead of clauses second to sixth, inclusive
+of the second section, there might be a single proviso that--No person
+who is dependent by reason of age, bodily, or mental infirmity, shall,
+by the operations of this act, be deprived of his or her necessary and
+accustomed support. This would include all possible cases, and would
+secure to each the necessary maintenance, as designed by the law. It
+would do away with the necessity of an unlimited issue of circulars of
+explanation from the Department at Washington, throwing each case upon
+the judgment of the board, who are to be presumed able to decide
+intelligently on proper evidence being given before them. It would avoid
+the unjust and injurious distinctions noticed under clause fourth, and
+in the end would secure more men to the Government with less liability
+of wrong to the citizen. Clause seventh also could easily be so modified
+as to avoid the objections noticed above.
+
+Another evident objection to the act of March 3d, is the limited power
+given to boards of enrolment as such. All clerks, deputy marshals, and
+special officers, are appointed by the Provost-Marshal alone. Yet a
+large--perhaps the _chief_ part of their duty is directly connected with
+the enrolment and draft. The judgment of the remaining members of the
+board would certainly be of some value in making these appointments, as
+they are always residents of the district, and hence acquainted with the
+peculiar wants of the service and the character of the applicants. The
+duties of the commissioner should also be more definitely stated.
+Special duties are assigned to the marshal and surgeon, but no further
+definition of the commissioner's labor is given than that he is a member
+of the board. Thus there is liability to a conflict of authority and a
+shirking of responsibility, which could easily be avoided by more
+explicit divisions of duty. The board system is undoubtedly a good one.
+It gives _the people_ a larger representation in the business of
+conducting a draft, tends to secure justice to all, and thus relieves
+the popular prejudice and feeling of opposition to the law itself.
+
+But why should not every board of enrolment throughout the country also
+be a board of enlistment? The time is fast approaching when the bulk of
+our present army will return home. It is important that as many of these
+men be reënlisted as can be, with any new troops that may offer
+themselves. The Government should avail itself of every opportunity for
+making voluntary enlistments. And by having a recruiting office within
+every district, convenient to every man's residence, a surgeon always at
+hand to examine applicants, offering the authorized Government bounties,
+much could still be done in this way toward keeping an army in the
+field, without any additional expense or without in the least
+interfering with the draft.
+
+The act of March 3d is a law for the present, not for the future. It is
+an act for the emergency, not for coming time.
+
+During the long years of peace and prosperity that we have enjoyed, the
+great truth that every able-bodied man owes military service to his
+country as sacredly as he owes protection to his family, has slumbered
+in the minds of the people. For half a century there was scarcely
+anything to remind us of it, and we were fast verging into that hopeless
+national condition, when
+
+  'Wealth accumulates and men decay.'
+
+This act brings duty home to the conscience of the nation. It is an
+impressive enforcement of a great political principle. But if our
+quickened sense of obligation fail to make us _act_, if we refuse to
+receive the lessons of wisdom which the developments of the hour force
+upon us, if we fail to improve our military organization and
+instruction, and render our able-bodied men effective for military
+service at a moment's call--then this act will have done us little
+permanent good. Our men of education and high social position, instead
+of aiding to make the militia system respectable by the personal
+performance of military duty and by using their influence to give tone
+and character to the service, have evaded its requirements on
+themselves, and have aided in sinking it into disrepute and contempt.
+And here is where our militia laws are imperfect. They have done but
+little toward cherishing the military spirit, developing the military
+virtues, or securing an effective military force ready at any time to
+take the field.
+
+In the future of our country we want no large standing army. It is
+contrary to the genius of our institutions and to national precedent. We
+must throw the duty of national support and defence directly on the
+people--to them commit our country's honor. The Swiss motto--'No regular
+army, but every citizen a soldier'--must be the foundation of our
+military system. The course of the present war has fully demonstrated
+the patriotism and loyalty of the people. The Government can rely upon
+its citizens in any emergency. What we want is discipline,
+organization, instruction. The act of March 3d does not secure these
+essential requisites. It has enrolled the people, but has not made them
+soldiers. We will not here attempt to describe how this can be secured.
+But we may take it for granted that there must be greater facilities for
+the military education of the young and the training of officers, a
+proper division of the country into military districts, and stated times
+for the drill and review of the citizen soldiery. Thus we shall be able
+to maintain our national existence against invasion from without and
+rebellion from within, and, being prepared for war, will be so much the
+more likely to live in peace.
+
+
+
+
+EDITOR'S TABLE.
+
+
+With the present number, THE CONTINENTAL enters upon a new
+volume. No efforts will be spared by its editors to increase its value
+to its many patrons. The high character of its political articles,
+always emanating from distinguished men and from reliable sources; its
+loyal tone and catholic spirit; the great ability with which the
+subjects of the deepest interest to the Government and community are
+discussed in its pages--entitle it to a high, if not the highest place
+among the journals of the country.
+
+It is intended to give utterance to the wants, wishes, tastes, views,
+hopes, culture of every part of our Union. Having no band of sectional
+collaborators, with local views and prejudices, narrowed horizons and
+similar cultivation, it is confined to no clique of thinkers however
+vigorous, no set of men however cultured, but receives thought and light
+from every part of our vast country, without favor or prejudice. It is
+the _Continental_, and thus represents and addresses itself to the mind
+of the continent.
+
+The contributions flowing in, in a continuous stream from every quarter,
+are subjected to but one great test--the test of real and substantial
+merit. Thoroughly Christian in the noblest sense of that noble word, it
+is never sectarian. Accepting Christianity as a _certain_ fact, it
+rejects no scientific inquiry into its bases, convinced that all true
+and thorough investigation will but lead men back to faith in a divine
+Redeemer. Shallow thought and nascent inquiry may be sceptical, but the
+deep mind is reverential and faithful. The problems of doubt torture the
+soul, and call for solution. Infinite and finite stand in strange
+relations in the mind of man; with his finite powers he would grasp the
+infinite of God. He fails to find the equation of his terms, and,
+baffled in his search, in the insanity of intellectual pride, denies his
+Maker. He puts the infinite mysteries of revelation into the narrow
+crucible of the finite, the residuum is--nothing; he calls it immutable
+laws, as if laws could exist without a lawgiver, and bows before a
+pitiless phantom, where he should love and worship the great I AM!
+
+Examine fearlessly into nature, O earnest thinker, for the created is
+but the veil of the Creator. Revelation and nature are from the same
+God, and both demand our serious attention. Revelation is indeed the
+Word of Nature; the sole key to its many wards of mystery. Truth never
+contradicts itself. Let the savant, whether in material nature or
+metaphysical realms, examine, classify, and arrange his facts--they,
+when fairly computed, thoroughly investigated, can lead but to one
+conclusion.
+
+Nor will the literary department of this magazine be permitted to
+languish. Tales, poems, and articles on art and artists, are solicited
+from all who feel they have something to say, to which the human heart
+will gladly listen. The talent of the East, West, North, and South shall
+flow through our pages. Genius shall be welcomed and acknowledged,
+though it may not as yet have registered its name on the radiant walls
+of the Temple of Fame. It is the design of THE CONTINENTAL to
+represent humanity in its different phases; to manifest to its readers
+the thoughts of their fellow beings; to hold up the mirror of our mental
+being to the complex human soul. Varied modes of thought and views of
+life will be represented in our pages, for as men, nothing that concerns
+humanity can be alien to us. We thus hope to be enabled to offer our
+readers a wide range of subjects, treated from varied standpoints,
+handled by writers widely scattered in space and severed in social
+position. May the divergent rays be blended in a bow of beauty, of peace
+and promise to the ark of truth! No personal bitterness shall find place
+among us, no immoral lessons sully our record. There may be often want
+of pruning, but even the undue luxuriance shall tell of the rich soil
+of genius, ever germing and budding into prolific growth.
+
+Meantime let our patrons continue to trust us, and have patience with
+our shortcomings. All that is human is liable to error, and the very
+width and breadth of our base increases the difficulty of the temple we
+would rear.
+
+Lend us your sympathies and moral aid, courteous reader, for many and
+complicated are the difficulties with which an editor has to contend.
+For example: 'Your review is quite too serious for success,' says the
+first; 'its subjects are too heavy and grave; our people read for
+amusement; you should give us more stories and light reading.'
+
+'Your review is too light,' says the second; 'the times are pregnant
+with great events, humanity is on its onward march, and a magazine such
+as yours ought to be, should have no space to throw away upon
+sentimental tales and modern poetry. Your articles should lead our
+statesmen on to the deeper appreciation of political truths, expose
+vital fallacies, and not strive to amuse silly women and effeminate
+men.'
+
+'You do not deal sufficiently with metaphysics,' says a third; 'you
+should reproduce in popular and intelligible form the vast thoughts of
+Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Schelling, Oken, Ronski, and Trentowski.'
+
+'Why do you give us so much metaphysics?' cries the fourth; 'modern
+philosophy is essentially infidel; you should not introduce its
+poisonous elements among our people.'
+
+'Such a review as you conduct,' remarks a fifth, 'should be the vehicle
+of the thinkers and progressives; they alone are the men to benefit and
+attract the attention of the community.'
+
+'Take great care to have nothing to do with the men calling themselves
+progressive thinkers,' remarks a sixth; 'they are full of vital errors,
+spiritualists, socialists, disorganizers. They have in reality nothing
+new to offer; they are the old-clothes men of thought, harlequins
+juggling in old Hindoo raiment, striding along in old German May-fair
+rags, long since discarded--motley's their only wear--stalking
+Cagliostros and Kings of Humbug.'
+
+'You are growing old fogy in your views,' says the seventh; 'we can bear
+sermons enough in church of Sundays; we do not buy magazines to read
+them there.'
+
+'Your journal is fast becoming an Abolition organ,' says the eighth.
+
+'Do you mean to oppose the Administration and distress the Government?'
+says the ninth.
+
+'You give us no history,' sighs the tenth.
+
+'What do you mean by your long historical disquisitions?' vociferates
+the eleventh. 'Nobody cares for the past now. Our hands are full of the
+present. We are ourselves living the most important history which this
+globe has yet seen.'
+
+Courteous reader, so it goes on forever, through all the unceasing
+changes of thought, heart, mind, soul, taste, which characterize the
+great, acting, struggling, thinking, conservative, progressive,
+believing, doubting, Young American people.
+
+Meanwhile we will earnestly strive to hold up the glass of the
+constantly shifting times before you, that you may be enabled to see the
+flitting shadows of the hour as they pass across it, grave or gay,
+portentous or hopeful, draped in solid political vesture, the toga of
+the statesman, or robed in the blue gossamer of metaphysics, in the
+drapery of sorrow or light hues of joy, in the tried armor of the
+Divine, or the dubious motley of the progressive, in the soft, floating,
+lustrous, aërial texture of the woman, or the monotonous Shanghai of the
+man--while we will forever strive to point you to the Cross of Peace,
+the Heavenly City, and the starry diadem of Eternal Truth. You may read
+in our pages of 'immutable laws,' for such is the term now in vogue, but
+you will remember that these words are but a veil used by the scientist
+to hide the Eternal and Unchangeable Will, the Personal God, the Hearer
+of Prayer, the Father of Creation. The kaleidoscope of nature, however
+rudely shaken, through all its multiplicity of fragments, forever falls
+back into the holy figure of God:
+
+  'Mirrors God maketh all atoms in space,
+   And fronteth each one with His perfect Face.'
+
+How long, lovely, and glowing has our autumn been, with its dreamy days
+and soft shadowy mists. In its surpassing beauty it is peculiar to our
+own loved land, and thus doubly dear to the hearts of Americans. Our
+mountains borrowed the rainbow, dressing themselves in its changing
+hues, holding up the great forests, like clustered bouquets, in their
+giant palms, as if offering their dying children to God in the very
+hour of their mature beauty. Crimsons and purples, oranges, golds,
+yellows, browns, greens, and scarlet dye the trees; gathered sheaves and
+golden pumpkins, marguerites, feathery golden rods, and bright blue
+gorse are on every field. Have we not, in very truth, a country for
+which a patriot should gladly die, and the devout heart never cease to
+quiver in prayer that God may vouchsafe to bless?
+
+One of our patriot poets has sent us the stirring hymn of the
+Cumberland. Let him chant it here, while we grave in our hearts the
+grateful memory of the brave crew who perished with her, martyrs in a
+holy cause:
+
+  THE CUMBERLAND.
+
+  Fast poured the traitors' shot and shell,
+  Where at their posts our gunners fell:
+  Our starboard portholes make reply--
+  Each takes his comrade's place to die;
+  All time shall yield no battle field
+      Grand as thy deck, our Cumberland!
+
+  Oh, crashing shock! our beams divide,
+  And death flows inward with the tide.
+  O'er gory decks,'mid sulphur smoke,
+  The climbing waters madly broke;
+  Our banner spread, still waved o'er head,
+      Above the sinking Cumberland.
+
+  The wounded cheer,--the dying wave,
+  While sinking to their watery grave,
+  With straining sight and grateful prayer,
+  Exultant that the Flag is there;--
+  Nor thought of life to glory's strife,
+      But of their ship, the Cumberland.
+
+  The vessel sinks;--her latest breath
+  Hurls through the cannons' mouth of death
+  Defiance at the traitor foes!
+  O'er guns the throttling waters close--
+  The hungry wave devours the brave--
+      The gallant crew of Cumberland!
+
+  No sailor yields; they gladly die;
+  Above them still the colors fly!
+  High o'er the black and surging flood,
+  That reels as drunk with patriots' blood,
+  Those glorious bars and Freedom's stars
+      Float o'er the sunken Cumberland!
+
+  Deeds like these will live forever--
+  Loyal hearts forget them never!
+  Hark! echoes from the brave and free,
+  Greet us from far Thermopylæ:
+  All time shall ring while bards shall sing
+      The Martyrs of the Cumberland!
+
+  In Glory's sky, 'mid heroes bright,
+  Immortal galaxy of light,
+  Through future ages shall they be,
+  The _Color Bearers_ of the Free!
+  The sleeping brave, in ocean's wave,
+      Who manned the Frigate Cumberland.
+
+Our monthly will enter many a home during the coming holidays--the eight
+days consecrated to the memory of the most sublime record in the history
+of mankind, the union of the Divine with the human, the introduction of
+a human heart into the impenetrable but truly philosophical mystery of
+the Trinity. Do we ever sufficiently realize the duties which this
+marvellous union has enjoined upon us, the privileges with which it has
+endowed us?
+
+We shall enter many a home--some joyous with the mirth of children, the
+hopefulness of youth, the serene happiness of useful and contented men
+and women;--some shadowed by recent sorrow, where perhaps patriots, as
+in the olden time, learn to endure for the sake of a beloved
+country;--or others, perchance, where worldliness, discord, and egotism
+have severed hearts that should be united. God grant the number of the
+latter may be few! Happy should we be, could we know that our arrival
+would bring one more smile to the lips of the gay, a single ray of
+support or consolation to the souls of the sorrowing--could we cause the
+world-worn to dream of better and brighter things than mere matter can
+ever afford, give the thinker a pregnant thought, soothe earth's weary
+art-children with the hope of wider comprehension and sympathy, lead the
+rich to open upward paths to their poorer brethren, or the poor nobly to
+bear or to better their humble condition--in a word, could we offer but
+single drops of that wine of immortal life for which every human soul is
+thirsting.
+
+Frost and cold now are upon us; Christmas passing with its typal
+evergreens and mystic chants; the old year dying fast with its weird
+secrets buried until the Day of Doom; the New Year close upon us, with
+its demands and duties. May the Heavenly Father bless its fleeting
+hours, and enable us to sow them closely with the precious seeds of good
+deeds,--germs to blossom on the Eternal Shore!
+
+
+
+
+AMERICAN THANKSGIVING DAY IN LONDON.
+
+NOVEMBER 25, 1863.
+
+
+     [The following report of the proceedings at the Thanksgiving Dinner
+     in London arrived too late to be incorporated in the body of
+     THE CONTINENTAL; in consequence, however, of its immediate
+     interest to our readers, we have decided upon giving it to them,
+     even if it must appear as a supplement. It is surely a very
+     pleasant thing to know that our patriots abroad consecrated the
+     festival by grateful thanks to the Giver of all good; and that
+     public and loyal utterances were made of the great national truths
+     which, in our present crisis, it is of such vital importance to
+     make known to the men and governments of other countries.--ED.
+     CONTINENTAL.]
+
+In pursuance of the proclamation of the President of the United States,
+addressed to all citizens, at home and abroad, the loyal Americans now
+in England, to the number of several hundred, assembled at St. James
+Hall to dinner. The Hon. Robert J. Walker presided, assisted by Hon.
+Freeman H. Morse (our Consul here), and Girard Ralston, Esq. On the
+right of Mr. Walker sat the American Minister, Mr. Adams, and on the
+left, George Thompson, Esq., late M. P. from London. After the reading
+of the proclamation, the prayer, and the hymn, Mr. Walker addressed the
+company as follows:
+
+
+LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: By the request of my countrymen, I shall
+preface the toasts prepared for the occasion, by a few introductory
+remarks. This day has been set apart by the President of the United
+States for thanksgiving to Almighty God for all the blessings which he
+has vouchsafed to us as a people. Among these are abundant crops, great
+prosperity in all our industrial pursuits, and a vast addition, even
+during the war, to our material wealth. Our finances have been conducted
+with great ability and success by the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr.
+Chase, who has also succeeded in giving us, for the first time in our
+history, a uniform national currency, which, as a bond of union, and as
+an addition to our wealth and resources, is nearly equal to all the
+expenses of the great contest. During the present year, nearly
+400,000,000 of dollars of the six per cent. stock of the United States
+has been taken at home, at or above par; whilst, within the last few
+months, European capitalists, unsolicited by us, are making large
+investments in the securities of the Union. But, above all, we have to
+thank God for those great victories in the field, which are bringing
+this great contest to a successful conclusion.
+
+This rebellion is indeed the most stupendous in history. It absorbs the
+attention and affects the political institutions and material interests
+of the world. The armies engaged exceed those of Napoleon. Death never
+had such a carnival, and each week consumes millions of treasure. Great
+is the sacrifice, but the cause is peerless and sublime. (_Cheers._) If
+God has placed us in the van of the great contest for the rights and
+liberties of man, if he has assigned us the post of danger and of
+suffering, it is that of unfading glory and imperishable renown. (_Loud
+cheers._) The question with us, which is so misunderstood here, is that
+of national unity (_hear, hear_), which is the vital element of our
+existence; and any settlement which does not secure this with the entire
+integrity of the Union, and freedom throughout all its borders, will be
+treason to our country and to mankind. (_Loud cheers._) To acknowledge
+the absurd and anarchical doctrine of secession, as is demanded of us
+here, to abdicate the power of self-preservation, and permit the Union
+to be dissolved, is ruin, disgrace, and suicide. There is but one
+alternative--we must and will fight it out to the last. (_Loud and
+prolonged applause._) If need be, all who can bear arms must take the
+field, and leave to those who cannot the pursuits of industry. (_Hear,
+hear._) If we count not the cost of this contest in men and money, it is
+because all loyal Americans believe that the value of our Union cannot
+be estimated. (_Hear, hear._) If martyrs from every State, from England,
+and from nearly every nation of Christendom have fallen in our defence,
+never, in humble faith we trust, has any blood, since that of Calvary,
+been shed in a cause so holy. (_Cheers._) Most of the rebellions which
+have disturbed or overthrown governments, ave been caused by oppression
+on their part. Such rebellions have been the rising of the oppressed
+against the oppressor; but this rebellion was caused exclusively by
+slavery. (_Cheers._) To extend, and perpetuate, and nationalize slavery,
+to demand of the American Congress the direct and explicit recognition
+of the right of property in man, to cover the whole vast territory of
+the Union with chattel servitude, to keep open the interstate
+slave-trade between the Border and the Cotton States, to give the
+institution absolute mastery over the Government and people, to carry it
+into every new State by fraud, and violence, and forgery, as was
+exemplified in Kansas, and then, as a final result, to force it upon
+every Free State of the Union--these were the objects conceived by those
+who are engaged in this foul conspiracy to dissolve the American Union.
+(_Cheers._) 'I have said that the American Union never will be
+dissolved.' (_Loud and continued cheers._) This was the advice of the
+peerless Washington, the Father of his country, in his Farewell Address,
+and this was the course of the immortal Andrew Jackson, when he
+suppressed the Carolina rebellion of 1833, by coercion and a force bill.
+The American Union is the great citadel of self-government, intrusted to
+our charge by Providence; and we must defend it against all assailants,
+until our last man has fallen. This is the cause of labor and humanity,
+and the toiling and disfranchised masses of the world feel that their
+fate is involved in the result of our struggle. In England, especially,
+this feeling on the part of the working classes has been manifested in
+more than one hundred meetings, and the resolutions in favor of the
+Union, passed by the operatives of Manchester, who were the great
+sufferers from this contest, indicate a sublimity of feeling, and a
+devotion to principle on the part of these noble martyrs, which exalt
+and dignify the character of man. (_Cheers._) The working classes of
+England, of France, and of Germany, who are all with us, in case of
+foreign intervention, must have constituted the armies that would have
+been taken to our shores to make war upon the American people. The men
+who are for us would have been transported across the ocean to fight
+against us in the cause of slavery, and for the degradation of labor.
+Can there be any doubt as to the result of such a conflict? It is now
+quite certain that this rebellion will receive no foreign aid; but if
+any foreign despot or usurper had thus intervened and sent his myrmidons
+to our shores, the result, though it might have been prolonged, would
+have been equally certain--he would have lost his crown, and destroyed
+his dynasty. (_Cheers._) Our whole country would have been a camp, we
+should have risen to the magnitude of the contest, and all who could
+bear arms would have taken the field. We know, as Americans, that our
+national unity is the essential condition of our existence. Without it
+we should be disintegrated into sections, States, counties, and cities,
+and ruin and anarchy would reign supreme. (_Cheers._) No, the Lakes can
+never be separated from the Gulf, the Atlantic from the Pacific, the
+source from the mouth of the Mississippi, nor the sons of New England
+from the home of their kindred in the great West. (_Cheers._) But, above
+all, the entire valley of the Mississippi was ordained by God as the
+residence of a united people. Over every acre of its soil, and over
+every drop of its waters, must forever float the banner of the Union
+(_loud applause_), and all its waters, as they roll on together to the
+Gulf, proclaim that what 'God has joined together' man shall never 'put
+asunder.' (_Loud cheers._) The nation's life blood courses this vast
+arterial system; and to sever it is death. No line of latitude or
+longitude shall ever separate the mouth from the centre or sources of
+the Mississippi. All the waters of the imperial river, from their
+mountain springs and crystal fountains, shall ever flow in commingling
+currents to the Gulf, uniting ever more, in one undivided whole, the
+blessed homes of a free and happy people. This great valley is one vast
+plain, without an intervening mountain, and can never be separated by
+any line but that of blood, to be followed, surely, by military
+despotism. No! separation, by any line, is death; disunion is suicide.
+Slavery having made war upon the Union, the result is not doubtful.
+Slavery will die. (_Cheers._) Slavery having selected a traitor's
+position, will meet a traitor's doom. (_Loud cheers._) The Union will
+still live. It is written by the finger of God on the scroll of destiny,
+that neither principalities nor powers shall effect its overthrow, nor
+shall 'the gates of hell prevail against it.' But what as to the
+results? It is said that we have accomplished nothing, and this is
+re-echoed every morning by the proslavery press of England. We have done
+nothing! Why, we have conquered and now occupy two thirds of the entire
+territory of the South, an area far larger (and overcoming a greater
+resisting force) than that traversed by the armies of Cæsar or
+Alexander. The whole of the Mississippi River, from its source to its
+mouth, with, all its tributaries, is exclusively ours. (_Cheers._) So is
+the great Chesapeake Bay. Slavery is not only abolished in the Federal
+District, containing the capital of the Union, but in all our vast
+territorial domain, comprising more than eight hundred millions of
+acres, and nearly half the size of all Europe. The four slaveholding
+States of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, are all devotedly
+loyal, and thoroughly sustaining the Union. And how as to Virginia? Why,
+all the counties of Virginia east of the Chesapeake are ours. All that
+vast portion of Eastern Virginia north of the Rappahannock is ours also;
+but still more, all that great territory of Virginia, from the mountains
+to the Ohio, is ours also, and, not only ours, but, by the overwhelming
+voice of her people, has formed a State government. By their own votes
+they have abolished slavery, and have been admitted as one of the Free
+States of the American Union. (_Loud cheers._) And where is the great
+giant State of the West--Missouri? She is not only ours, but, by an
+overwhelming majority of the popular vote, carried into effect by her
+constitutional convention, has abolished slavery, and enrolled herself
+as one of the Free States of the American Union. (_Cheers._) And now as
+to Maryland. The last steamers bring us the news of the recent elections
+in Maryland, which have not only sustained the Union, but have sent an
+overwhelming majority to Congress and to State Legislature in favor of
+immediate emancipation. (_Applause._) Tennessee also is ours. From the
+Mississippi to the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, from Knoxville, in
+the mountains of the east, to Nashville, the capital, in the centre, and
+Memphis, the commercial metropolis in the west, Tennessee is wholly
+ours. So is Arkansas; so is Louisiana, including the great city of New
+Orleans. So is North Alabama; so is two thirds of the State of
+Mississippi; and now the Union troops hold Chattanooga, the great
+impregnable fortress of Northwestern Georgia. From Chattanooga, which
+may be regarded as the great geographical central pivotal point of the
+rebellion, the armies of the republic will march down through the heart
+of Georgia, and join our troops upon the seaboard of that State, and
+thus terminate the rebellion. (_Loud cheers._) Into Georgia and the
+Carolinas nearly half a million slaves have been driven by their
+masters, in advance of the Union army. From Virginia, from Kentucky,
+Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and North
+Alabama, nearly all these slaves have been driven and huddled together
+in the two Carolinas and Georgia, because, if they had been left where
+they were, they would have joined the Northern armies. They preferred to
+be freemen rather than slaves; they preferred to be men and women,
+rather than chattels; they preferred freedom to chains and bondage; and
+just so soon as that Union army advances into the Carolinas and Georgia
+will the slaves rush to the standard of freedom, and fight as they have
+fought, with undaunted courage, for liberty and Union. (_Loud
+applause._) But how is it with the South? Why, months ago they had
+called out by a levy _en masse_, all who were capable of bearing arms.
+They have exhausted their entire military resources; they have raised
+their last army. And how as to money? Why, they are in a state of
+absolute bankruptcy. Their money, all that they have, that which they
+call money, according to their own estimation as fixed and taken by
+themselves, one dollar of gold purchases twelve dollars of confederate
+paper. The price of flour is now one hundred dollars a barrel, and other
+articles in like proportion. No revenue is collected, or can be. The
+army and the Government are supported exclusively by force, by seizing
+the crops of the farms and planters, and using them for the benefit of
+the so-called confederate government. Starvation is staring them in the
+face. The collapse is imminent; and, so far as we may venture to predict
+any future event, nothing can be more certain than that before the end
+of the coming year, the rebellion will be brought entirely to a close.
+(_Hear, hear._) We must recollect, also, that there is not a single
+State of the South in which a large majority of the population
+(including the blacks) is not now, and always has been, devoted to the
+Union. Why, in the State of South Carolina alone, the blacks, who are
+devoted to the Union, exceed the whites more than one hundred thousand
+in number. The recent elections have all gone for the Union by
+overwhelming majorities, and volunteering for the army progresses with
+renewed vigor. For all these blessings the President of the United
+States has asked us to render thanks to Almighty God. Our cause is that
+of humanity, of civilization, of Christianity. We write upon our
+banners, from the inspired words of Holy Writ: 'God has made of one
+blood all the nations of the earth.' We acknowledge all as brothers, and
+invite them to partake with us alike in the grand inheritance of
+freedom; and we repeat the divine sentiment from the Sermon on the
+Mount: 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' (_Loud
+cheers._)
+
+Nor let it be supposed that we, as Americans, are entirely selfish in
+this matter. We believe that this Union is the most sacred trust ever
+confided by God to man. We believe that this American Union is the best,
+the brightest, the last experiment of self-government; and as it shall
+be maintained and perpetuated, or broken and dissolved, the light of
+liberty shall beam upon the hopes of mankind, or be forever extinguished
+amid the scoffs of exulting tyrants, and the groans of a world in
+bondage. (_Loud applause._) Thanking you, ladies and gentlemen, for the
+kind indulgence with which you have been pleased to receive these
+remarks, I will now proceed to the toasts which have been prepared for
+the occasion. Ladies and gentlemen, the first toast will be, 'The
+President of the United States,' under whose proclamation we are this
+day convened. Before asking you to respond to that toast, I would say
+that we are honored by the presence this evening of his excellency, the
+American Minister, Mr. Adams. (_Prolonged applause._) This is a name for
+a century, and during three generations most honorably and conspicuously
+connected with the cause of our country and of human liberty. The
+grandfather and father of our American minister were each elevated to
+the presidency of the United States by the votes of the American people.
+The first, the illustrious John Adams, moved in 1776 the Declaration of
+American Independence, and supported that motion by an immortal and most
+eloquent address. He was the successor of the peerless Washington as the
+President of the United States. The second, John Quincy Adams, eminent
+for courage, for integrity, for opposition to slavery, for devotion to
+the cause of liberty, for learning, science, eloquence, diplomacy, and
+statesmanship, was the successor of President Monroe. His son, our
+honored guest, inheriting all these great qualities and noble principles
+of an illustrious ancestry, is requested to respond to the first toast,
+'The President of the United States.' (_The toast was drunk amid the
+most enthusiastic applause._)
+
+
+Order of Exercises.
+
+_I.--Reading of Thanksgiving Proclamation, R. Hunting._
+
+_II.--Prayer._
+
+_III.--Hymn_ (prepared for the occasion).
+
+TUNE--_Auld Lang Syne_.
+
+  We meet, the Sons of Freedom's Sires
+    Unchanged, where'er we roam,
+  While gather round their household fires
+    The happy bands of home;
+  And while across the far blue wave
+    Their prayers go up to God,
+  We pledge the faith our fathers gave,--
+    The land by Freemen trod!
+
+  The heroes of our Native Land
+    Their sacred trust still hold,
+  The freedom from a mighty band
+    Wrenched by the men of old.
+  That lesson to the broad earth given
+    We pledge beyond the sea,--
+  The land from dark oppression riven,
+    A blessing on the free!
+
+_IV.--Dinner._
+
+_V.--Prayer._
+
+_VI.--Address of Hon. Robert J. Walker, introducing Toasts._
+
+     1. The President of the United States.
+
+     Responded to by His Excellency Mr. Adams.
+
+     2. Her Majesty the Queen.
+
+     The Company.
+
+     3. The Day. Devoted to thanking God for our victories in the cause
+     of LIBERTY and UNION.
+
+     Responded to by George Thompson, Esq.
+
+     4. The Union. From the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Lakes to
+     the Gulf, from the Source to the Mouth of the Mississippi, forever
+     one and inseparable.
+
+     Responded to by Z. K. Pangborn.
+
+     5. The Emancipation Proclamation--Slavery's Epitaph, written by the
+     finger of God on the heart of the American President.
+
+     Responded to by Hon. Freeman H. Morse.
+
+     6. The Army and Navy--Immortal champions of freedom, who bleed that
+     our country may live.
+
+     Responded to by Capt. Mayne Reid.
+
+     7. WASHINGTON. The Man without a Peer. We follow his
+     farewell advice--NEVER TO SURRENDER THE UNION.
+
+     Responded to by Capt. J. C. Hoadley.
+
+     8. The Press. The Tyrant's foe, the People's friend--where it is
+     free, despotism must perish.
+
+     Responded to by Mr. Snow.
+
+     9. The Ladies. Our Sweethearts, Wives, Mothers, Daughters, Sisters,
+     Friends. Their holy influence will break all chains but those which
+     bind our hearts to them.
+
+     The Company.
+
+_Benediction._
+
+
+
+
+LITERARY NOTICES.
+
+
+     RUMOR. By the Author of 'Charles Anchester,'
+     'Counterparts,' etc. Boston: Published by T. O. H. P. Burnham, No.
+     143 Washington street. New York: H. Dexter Hamilton & Co., 113
+     Nassau street; O. S. Felt, 36 Walker street.
+
+'Rumor' is a book of genius, but genius of a peculiar character. Gleams
+of intuition into the most secret recesses of the heart, analyses of
+hidden feelings, flash brilliantly upon us from every leaf, and yet a
+vague mysticism broods over all. No steady light illumes the pages;
+scenes and characters float before as if shrouded in mist, or dimmed by
+distance. The shadowy forms, held only by the heart, shimmer and float
+before us, draped in starry veils and seen through hues of opal. We are
+in Dreamland, or in the fair clime of the Ideal. 'Porphyro' we know to
+be Louis Napoleon, but who are 'Rodomant and Diamid?' Adelaida and
+deafness would point to Beethoven, but other circumstances forbid the
+identification. Nor do we think Rodomant a fair type of a musical
+genius; arrogant, overbearing, and positively ill-mannered as he
+invariably is. He may be true to German nature, as he is pictured as a
+German, but he is no study of the graceful Italian or elegant and suave
+Sclavic Artist. We think the authoress unjust and cruel in her sketch of
+that ethereal child of genius and suffering, Chopin. Did she study
+exclusively in the German schools of musical art? If Beethoven is grand
+and majestic, Chopin is sublime; if Beethoven is pathetic, Chopin is
+pathos itself; if the one is broad and comprehensive, the other is high
+and deep; the one appealing to the soul through a noble intellect, the
+other reaching it through every nerve and fibre of our basic being.
+Rubens is a great artist, but does that gainsay Raphael? Are not
+Beethoven and Chopin twin stars of undying glory in the musical
+firmament, and can we not offer _true_ homage to _both_, as they blaze
+so high above us? Shall the royal purple so daze our eyes, that we
+cannot see the depths of heavenly blue?
+
+Meantime we advise the admirers of 'Charles Anchester' to read 'Rumor;'
+it is a book of wider knowledge and deeper intuitions.
+
+
+     GENERAL BUTLER IN NEW ORLEANS. History of the
+     Administration of the Department of the Gulf, in the year 1862;
+     with an account of the Capture of New Orleans, and a sketch of the
+     previous career of the General, civil and military. By JAMES
+     PARTON, Author of the 'Life and Times of Aaron Burr,' 'Life of
+     Andrew Jackson,' etc., etc. New York: Mason Brothers, 5 and 7
+     Mercer street. Boston: Mason & Hamlin. Philadelphia: J. B.
+     Lippincott & Co. London: D. Appleton &. Co., 16 Little Britain,
+     1864.
+
+Nothing is more difficult than, amid the whirl of passing events, to
+form just estimates of living men. Either our knowledge of the facts may
+be incomplete, or, if the external facts be known, we may be ignorant of
+the character and motives of the individual. No public man has made
+warmer friends or more bitter enemies than General Butler. History will
+probably, in the future, pronounce a just and impartial decision in the
+case. Meantime all that the public can learn regarding his political and
+military career will be eagerly examined.
+
+
+     TALES OF A WAY-SIDE INN. By HENRY WADSWORTH
+     LONGFELLOW. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. For sale by D. Appleton
+     & Co., New York.
+
+The mere announcement of a new book by H. W. Longfellow, is sufficient
+to secure for it the attention of all who read or love poetry. Long
+before the critic can pronounce upon its merits, it will be found in the
+hands of thousands. Longfellow is perhaps the most popular among
+American poets. His rhythm is always varied and musical, his diction in
+good taste, his treatment ever adapted to the subject he has in hand. If
+he seldom strikes the deepest chords of being, his touch is always
+true, tender, and sympathetic. 'The Birds of Killingworth' is full of
+beauty. If the 'Tale of a Poet,' it is also a song of the sage. The
+'Children's Hour' is charming in its home love and naive grace.
+'Weariness' is simple as a child's song, but full of natural and true
+pathos. Let it pleasure our poet that in this sweet, sad chant of his,
+he has the warm sympathies of his fellow men. Let him not weary thinking
+of the task yet before the 'little feet,' but rather rejoice in the
+sunshine he has himself been able to throw o'er the path in which the
+'little feet' must walk.
+
+
+     THE THOUGHTS OF THE EMPEROR M. AURELIUS ANTONINUS.
+     Translated by GEORGE LONG. Boston; Ticknor & Fields. For
+     sale by D. Appleton & Co., New York.
+
+Antoninus was born at Rome, A. D. 121, embraced the Stoic
+philosophy from conviction, and, though an emperor, lived in accordance
+with its stern spirit. This little book has been the companion of many
+of our greatest men. That it still lives, and is still read by all who
+delight in bold and vigorous thought, is sufficient proof of its
+excellence. It has been rendered into English, French, Italian, and
+Spanish. It was translated by Cardinal Francis Barberini, nephew of Pope
+Urban VIII. as he said, 'in order to diffuse among the faithful the
+fertilizing and vivifying seeds he found within it.' He dedicated this
+translation to his own soul, to make it, as he says, 'redder than purple
+at the sight of the virtues of this Gentile.' The strong pages act like
+a tonic upon the spirit, and give the reader courage to endure.
+
+
+     REVERIES OF A BACHELOR; or, A Book of the Heart. By
+     IK. MARVEL. A new edition. New York: Charles Scribner, 124
+     Grand street.
+
+     DREAM LIFE: A Fable of the Seasons. By IK. MARVEL.
+     A new edition. Charles Scribner, 124 Grand street, New York.
+
+The old type of these books has from constant use grown so worn and
+battered as to be unfit for further use, and it has been found necessary
+from the constant demand, to issue entirely new editions. And beautiful
+editions indeed we have before us. Print and paper alike excellent, and
+pleasant binding in vivid green and lustrous gold. It were surely
+useless to commend Ik. Marvel now to our readers, since no one ever
+attained to more rapid popularity. His sketches are always graceful and
+genial, his style of singular elegance. He wins his way to our heart and
+awakens our interest we scarcely know how, for he is marvellously
+unpretending and simple in his delineations of life. Our author says in
+his Preface to the new edition of the 'Reveries of a Bachelor:' 'The
+houses where I was accustomed to linger, show other faces at the
+windows; bright and cheery faces, it is true; but they are looking over
+at a young fellow upon the other side of the way.'
+
+We would whisper to him: 'Nay, not so. Humanity is ever grateful to its
+true and earnest friends, and have borne thee over in triumph to the
+fair clime of the Ideal, where undying affections await thee; and
+ever-yearning loves shall keep thee ever young. Spring flowers are
+forever blooming in our hearts as thou breathest upon them, and age is
+but a name for thy immortal youth, O friend of dreamy hours and tender
+reveries.'
+
+
+     MY FARM OF EDGEWOOD: A Country Book. By the Author of
+     'Reveries of a Bachelor.' Eighth Edition. New York: Charles
+     Scribner.
+
+A book of farm experience from Ik. Marvel cannot fail to awaken the
+interest of the community. If the author sees with the eye of the poet,
+his imagination is no ignis-fatuus fire to mislead and bewilder him when
+moving among the practical things of life. He begins with the beginning,
+the search and finding of the farm. Every page is pregnant with valuable
+hints to the farmer as well as to the gentleman and scholar. The book is
+a real picture of country life, its pains, trials, pursuits, and
+pleasures, and the most varied information is given with respect to what
+it might be made, what it should become. A single glance at the varied
+table of contents would be sufficient to convince the reader of the
+great interest of the topics so pleasantly treated in the volume before
+us. We extract a few of them: Around the House; My Bees; What to do with
+the Farm; A Sunny Frontage; Laborers; Farm Buildings; The Cattle; The
+Hill Land; The Farm Flat; Soiling; An Old Orchard; The Pears; My Garden;
+Fine Tilth makes Fine Crops; Seeding and Trenching; How a Garden should
+look; The lesser Fruits; Grapes; Plums, Apricots, and Peaches; The
+Poultry; Is it Profitable? Debit and Credit; Money-making Farmers; Does
+Farming Pay? Agricultural Chemistry; Isolation of Farmers; Dickering;
+The Bright Side; Place for Science; Æsthetics of the Business; Walks;
+Shrubbery; Rural Decoration; Flowers; L'Envoi.
+
+
+     LETTERS TO THE JONESES. By TIMOTHY TITCOMB,
+     Author of 'Letters to Young People,' 'Gold Foil,' 'Lessons in
+     Life,' etc., etc. Eighth edition. Charles Scribner, 124 Grand
+     street, New York.
+
+A work evincing strong practical common sense, and acute discrimination.
+Our author is a poet, but no mysticism or sentimentalism disfigures his
+pages; he is a clear, keen observer and analyzer of human nature,
+lashing its vices, discerning its foibles, and reading its subterfuges
+and petty vanities. He says: 'The only apologies which he offers for
+appearing as a censor and a teacher, are his love of men, his honest
+wish to do them good, and his sad consciousness that his nominal
+criticisms of others are too often actual condemnations of himself.'
+
+He addresses himself in a series of letters to the Joneses of
+Jonesville, each Jones addressed being a typal character and such as is
+of frequent occurrence in our midst. Homely and excellent advice,
+appropriate to their faults and needs, is administered to each
+individual Jones in turn, as he falls under the salutary but sharp
+scalpel of this keen dissector. There are twenty-four letters,
+consequently twenty-four studies from life, true to reality and detailed
+as a Dutch picture. We feel our own faults and foibles bared before us
+as we read. While these pages are very interesting to the general
+reader, the divine may learn from them how best in his preaching to aim
+his shafts at personal follies, and the novelist find models for his
+living portraitures and varied pictures.
+
+
+     THE WATER BABIES: a Fairy Tale for a Land Baby. By the
+     Rev. Charles Kingsley, Author of 'Two Years Ago,' 'Amyas Leigh,'
+     etc. With illustrations by J. Noel Paten, B. S. A. Boston: T. O. H.
+     P. Burnham. New York: O. S. Felt, 36 Walker St., 1864.
+
+A lively tale, dedicated to the author's youngest son, and calculated to
+entertain the elders who read aloud, as well as the children who listen.
+There are in it many tender touches, and numberless satiric blows
+administered in Mr. Kingsley's own peculiar way.
+
+
+     ADVENTURES OF DICK ONSLOW AMONG THE RED SKINS. A Book for
+     Boys. With Illustrations. Edited by William H. G. Kingston. Boston:
+     J. E. Tilton & Co. 1864.
+
+Stories of the Western wilderness, and of life among the Indians, are
+sure to meet with favor in the eyes of American boys, the descendants of
+a race of pioneers.
+
+
+     MY DAYS AND NIGHTS ON THE BATTLE FIELD. A Book for Boys.
+     By 'Carleton.' Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1864. For sale by D.
+     Appleton & Co., New York.
+
+This is a useful book, containing sundry items of military information,
+and many vivid descriptions of land and naval engagements during the
+present war--all interesting to young people.
+
+
+     LOUIE'S LAST TERM AT ST. MARY'S. By the author of
+     'Rutledge,' 'The Sutherlands,' 'Frank Warrington,' etc. New York:
+     Carleton, publisher, 413 Broadway, 1864.
+
+A book of school life, intended not less for teachers than for the
+youthful maidens whose various typal forms act, love, hate, and suffer
+through its very natural and interesting pages.
+
+
+     MILTON'S PARADISE LOST. In Twelve Books. New York: Frank
+     H. Dodd, 506 Broadway, 1863.
+
+The text is a literal reprint from Keightley's Library edition. Print,
+binding, and size all render the tasteful little book a pleasant form in
+which to possess the greatest epic in the English tongue.
+
+
+     THE GAME OF DRAUGHTS. By HENRY SPAYTH, Author of
+     'American Draught Player.' Buffalo: Printed for the Author. For
+     sale by Sinclair Tousey, New York.
+
+This book has been pronounced by the highest authorities on checkers,
+both in the Old and New World, the best work of the kind ever written.
+It is said to contain 'lucid instructions for beginners, laws of the
+game, diagrams, the score of 364 games, together with a series of novel,
+instructive, and ingenious critical positions.'
+
+
+     PECULIAR. A Tale of the Great Transition. By EPES
+     SARGENT. New York: Carleton, publisher, 413 Broadway.
+
+Mr. Sargent has given us a tale of the times--his scenes are laid in our
+midst. He grapples with the questions of the hour, handling even
+Spiritualism as he passes on. Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, George
+Saunders, Senator Wigfall, &c., are sketched in these pages. The story
+is founded on the social revelations which Gen. Butler, Gov. Shepley,
+Gen. Ullman, the Provost-Marshal, &c., authenticated in New Orleans
+after the occupation of that city by the United States forces. These
+materials have been skilfully handled by the author of 'Peculiar,' and
+the result is a novel of graphic power and sustained interest. It will
+make its own way, as it has the elements of success. We must, however,
+give a caution to our readers: 'Kunnle Delaney Hyde' and 'Carberry
+Ratcliff' are true as _individuals_ of the South, but it would not be
+fair to regard them as _typal_ characters. Let the magnanimous North be
+just, even to its enemies. Slavery is a great wrong, as well as a great
+mistake in political economy; men are by no means good enough to be
+trusted with irresponsible power; slaves have been treated with savage
+cruelty, and the institution is indeed demoralizing: all this, and a
+great deal more, we readily grant our writer; and yet we cannot help
+wishing he had shown us something to love, to hope for, in our enemy. He
+makes an earnest and able protest against a great wrong, and as such we
+gladly accept his book; but as a work of art, we think his tale would
+have held a higher rank had he given us some of the softer lights of the
+picture. In this we may be wrong, for a dread Nemesis stalks even
+through the plains of the Ideal. To stand up truly for the Right, we
+must comprehend the Wrong; meanwhile an important end is answered. We
+are taught, a lesson we should all learn, compassion for the negro, and
+enabled to understand some of his latent traits. For the ability and
+tenderness with which this has been done, we have reason to thank Mr.
+Sargent. The tale of Estelle is one of pathos and beauty, and
+'Peculiar,' the negro, shines in it like a black diamond of the purest
+water. The book cannot fail to interest all who trace the cause of the
+mighty transition through which we are passing to its true source, the
+heart of man.
+
+
+     POEMS BY JEAN INGELOW. Boston: Roberts Brothers.
+
+Many of these poems are vague and incomplete, others evince maturity of
+thought, and are of singular beauty. We are quite charmed with the
+'Songs of Seven.' It is highly original and tender. The rhythms vary
+with the chimes of the different ages, always in tune with the joys and
+sorrows sung. The poem is full of nature and simple pathos. There is a
+dewy freshness on these leaves, as if a young soul were thus pouring its
+spring carols into song, Jean Ingelow has been highly commended by the
+English critics. In regard to her poems the _London Athenæum_ says:
+'Here is the power to fill common earthly facts with heavenly fire; a
+power to gladden wisely and to sadden nobly; to shake the heart, and
+bring moist tears into the eyes through which the spirit may catch its
+loftiest light.'
+
+
+     ALICE OF MONMOUTH, an Idyl of the Great War, with Other
+     Poems. By EDMUND C. STEDMAN. New York: Carleton,
+     publisher, 413 Broadway. London: Sampson Low, Son & Company.
+
+With the many stirring events passing around us, the heroic deeds
+enacted in our midst, it is fitting that the poet should begin to find
+his scenes in his own country. Mr. Stedman has so done in his 'Alice of
+Monmonth.' The story of the Poem leads us from the fruit fields and
+plains of New Jersey, from love scenes and songs, to the din of battle,
+and the sufferings of hospitals in Virginia. There are various changes
+rung in the rhythm, so that it never becomes monotonous; and many of the
+descriptive passages are full of beauty.
+
+
+     DEEP WATERS. A Novel. By ANNA H. DRURY, Author of
+     'Misrepresentation,' 'Friends and Fortune,' &c. Boston: Published
+     by T. O. H. P. Burnham, No. 143 Washington street. New York: H.
+     Dexter Hamilton & Co., 113 Nassau street. O. S. Felt, 36 Walker
+     street.
+
+Never having before met with a work by Miss Drury, we were quite
+surprised to find 'Deep Waters' a novel of so much power. The plot is
+original, and well managed throughout, the characters well conceived and
+sustained, the morals entirely unobjectionable, the style pure, simple,
+and unaffected, and the interest uninterrupted. The tale is indeed one
+of singular beauty.
+
+
+     IN WAR TIME, and other Poems. By JOHN GREENLEAF
+     WHITTIER. Ticknor & Fields, Boston. D. Appleton & Co., New
+     York.
+
+If bold, varied, musical rhythm; high and tender thought; hatred of
+oppression; warm sympathy with suffering; correct and flowing diction;
+intense love of nature and power to depict her in all her moods, joined
+with a glowing imagination and devout soul, entitle a man to be classed
+with the great poets, then may we justly claim that glorious rank for
+John Greenleaf Whittier. All honor to him, who, while he charms our
+fancy and warms our heart, strengthens our souls, ennobles our views,
+and bears us, on the wings of his pure imagination, to the gates of
+heaven. We are ready to accord him the highest rank among our _living_
+poets. No affectations deform his lines, no conceits his thoughts, no
+puerilities his descriptions. His 'Huskers,' should be graven on every
+American heart; his 'Andrew Rykman's Prayer' on that of every Christian.
+We regard this poem as one of the noblest of the age. Humble devotion
+and heavenly grace are in its every line. We pity the being who could
+read it unmoved. We deem 'the world within his reach' is indeed
+
+  'Somewhat the better for his living,
+    And gladder for his human speech.'
+
+It seems useless to us to commend this volume to our readers; the name
+of its author must be all-sufficient to attract due attention. Has not
+this truly national and patriotic poet a home in every American heart?
+If not, he deserves it, and we for one offer him our grateful homage.
+Not only shall the refined and cultivated in the coming ages praise the
+noble singer, but the 'dark sad millions,' whose long 'night of wrong is
+brightening into day,' shall bless him, as,
+
+  'With oar strokes timing to their song,
+     They weave in simple lays
+   The pathos of remembered wrong,
+     The hope of better days,--
+   The triumph note that Miriam sung,
+     The joy of uncaged birds:
+   Softening with Afric's mellow song
+     Their broken Saxon words.'
+
+
+     MENTAL HYGIENE. By J. RAY, M. D. Ticknor &
+     Fields, Boston.
+
+This work is not offered as a systematic treatise on Mental Hygiene. Its
+purpose is to expose the bad effects of many customs prevalent in modern
+society, and to present practical suggestions relative to the attainment
+of mental soundness and vigor. Many important facts are clearly stated,
+and sound deductions drawn from them. The law of sympathy is clearly
+traced in the propagation of tastes, aptitudes, and habits. Many curious
+and startling examples of its effects are detailed. The author traces
+the laws of mind, exhibits the consequences that flow from obeying or
+disobeying them, in a succinct and able manner. The art of preserving
+the health of the mind against incidents and influences calculated to
+deteriorate its qualities; the management of the bodily powers in regard
+to exercise, rest, food, clothing, climate; the laws of breeding, the
+government of the passions, the sympathy with current emotions and
+opinions, the discipline of the intellect--all come within the scope of
+the work. It is designed for the general reader, and will interest all
+who care for the preservation of mental or physical health.
+
+The subject is one of great importance in our excitable country, where
+so many minds are overtasked, so many brains too early stimulated, and
+insanity so rapidly on the increase. We heartily commend it to all
+readers interested in the subjects of which it treats.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     [Continuation of Literary Notices prepared for the present issue
+     unavoidably crowded out; they will however appear in our next
+     number.]
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Since the above was written, the speech of Earl Russell, in
+Scotland, indicates a disposition on the part of the British Government
+to do us justice, at least in the future; and it is to be hoped that a
+satisfactory adjustment of all differences on the whole matter may be
+peacefully made.
+
+[2] In the 'Letters to Professor Morse,' in the November number of
+THE CONTINENTAL, a sentence on page 521, relating to the
+Confiscation Law, was left incomplete. The whole sentence should have
+been as follows: 'As to the _Confiscation_ Acts--it is enough to say
+that the Constitution gives Congress power 'to declare the punishment of
+treason';--_or if the constitutionality of the Confiscation law cannot
+be concluded from the terms of that grant--about which there may be a
+doubt--it is undoubtedly contained in the war powers vested in
+Congress._'
+
+I have here put in italics the clause omitted in that article, and hope
+my readers will insert it in the proper place. The sentence, as thus
+completed, contains all I cared then to say on the point--my object
+being mainly to vindicate the justice and conformity to public law of
+the policy of confiscation. In the present article I have gone more at
+length into the question of the constitutionality of the law of
+Congress, and have come to the conclusions herein expressed.
+
+[3] Our whole area is more than sixty times as large as England.
+
+[4] One hundred years have elapsed since that treaty, and the London
+_Times_ proclaims that England will not fight for Canada now.
+
+[5] See Alison's History, chap. xxxvii, p. 269.
+
+[6] Kinglake's Crimea Invasion, p. 250.
+
+[7] Kinglake.
+
+[8] See Kinglake's remarks on the design of Louis Napoleon in making St.
+Arnaud commander-in-chief of the French army in the Crimean war, p. 321.
+
+[9] Written in August, 1863.
+
+[10] Pansclavism
+
+[11] The following story, in substance, is to be found in Joinville's
+Memoirs.
+
+[12] There may be extreme cases, few and far between, when the evil
+contained in laws may justify their overthrow by revolutionary
+force--witness our own separation from Great Britain; but the doctrine
+is one most unsafe when lightly broached, and we doubt not the
+Constitution and laws of the United States offer a basis broad enough
+for the legal as well as the most judicious mode of settlement under the
+present difficulties.--ED. CON.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Continental Monthly, Volume V.
+Issue I, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY ***
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+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Continental Monthly, Vol. V., No. I., by Various.
+    </title>
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+
+Project Gutenberg's The Continental Monthly, Volume V. Issue I, 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: The Continental Monthly, Volume V. Issue I
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: May 26, 2006 [EBook #18453]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Janet Blenkinship and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+(This file was produced from images generously made
+available by Cornell University Digital Collections)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+<h2>THE</h2>
+
+<h1>CONTINENTAL MONTHLY:</h1>
+
+<h4>DEVOTED TO</h4>
+
+<h2>Literature and National Policy.</h2>
+
+<h3>VOL. V.</h3>
+
+<h4>JANUARY-JUNE, 1864.</h4>
+
+<p class='center'>New York:<br />
+JOHN F. TROW, 50 GREENE STREET,<br />
+(FOR THE PROPRIETORS.)<br />
+1864.</p>
+
+<p class='center'>Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by<br />
+JOHN F. TROW,<br />
+In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the<br />
+Southern District of New York.<br /><br /></p>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="1" width="65%" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents">
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#INDEX_TO_VOLUME_V">INDEX TO VOLUME V.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#RETROSPECTIVE">RETROSPECTIVE.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#SKETCHES_OF_AMERICAN_LIFE_AND_SCENERY">SKETCHES OF AMERICAN LIFE AND SCENERY.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><a href="#A_SUMMER_EXCURSION">I.&mdash;A SUMMER EXCURSION.</a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#REASON_RHYME_AND_RHYTHM">REASON, RHYME, AND RHYTHM.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><a href="#PREFACE_TO_VOLUME_SECOND">PREFACE TO VOLUME SECOND.</a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIRST">CHAPTER FIRST.&mdash; RHYTHM.</a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#OUR_ARTICLE">'OUR ARTICLE.'</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_LESSON_OF_THE_WOOD">THE LESSON OF THE WOOD.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#DIARY_OF_FRANCES_KRASINSKA">DIARY OF FRANCES KRASINSKA;</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_GREAT_STRUGGLE">THE GREAT STRUGGLE.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#AMERICAN_FINANCES_AND_RESOURCES">AMERICAN FINANCES AND RESOURCES.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_DECLINE_OF_ENGLAND">THE DECLINE OF ENGLAND.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#TEMPTATION">TEMPTATION.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#MADAGASCAR">MADAGASCAR</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#A_VIGIL_WITH_ST_LOUIS">A VIGIL WITH ST. LOUIS.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#UNION_NOT_TO_BE_MAINTAINED_BY_FORCE">UNION NOT TO BE MAINTAINED BY FORCE.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#WAS_HE_SUCCESSFUL">WAS HE SUCCESSFUL?</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_GREAT_AMERICAN_CRISIS">THE GREAT AMERICAN CRISIS</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><a href="#PART_TWO">PART TWO.</a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_ENGLISH_PRESS">THE ENGLISH PRESS.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_CONSCRIPTION_ACT_OF_MARCH_3d">THE CONSCRIPTION ACT OF MARCH 3d.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#EDITORS_TABLE">EDITOR'S TABLE.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#AMERICAN_THANKSGIVING_DAY_IN_LONDON">AMERICAN THANKSGIVING DAY IN LONDON.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#LITERARY_NOTICES">LITERARY NOTICES.</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="INDEX_TO_VOLUME_V" id="INDEX_TO_VOLUME_V"></a>INDEX TO VOLUME V.</h2>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="90%" cellspacing="0" summary="Index to Volume V">
+<tr><td align='left'>Ænone; a Tale of Slave Life in Rome,</td><td align='right'>287, 385, 500, 619</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>American Finances and Resources. By Hon. Robert J. Walker,</td><td align='right'>40, 249, 324, 489</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left' valign='top'>An Army: Its Organization and Movements. By Lieut.-Col. C. W. Tolles, A. Q. M.,</td><td align='right'>707</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left' valign='top'>An Hour in the Gallery of the National Academy of Design--Thirty-ninth Annual Exhibition,</td><td align='right'>684</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>An Indian Love-Song. By Edwin R. Johnson,</td><td align='right'>361</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Aphorisms. By Rev. Asa Colton,</td><td align='right'>413, 450, 482, 595, 680, 706</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A Pair of Stockings. From the Army,</td><td align='right'>597</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Aspiro--A Fable,</td><td align='right'>158</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A Summer's Night. From the Polish of Count S. Krasinski,</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'> translated by Prof. Podbielski,</td><td align='right'>543</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A Tragedy of Error,</td><td align='right'>204</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A Universal Language. By S. P. Andrews,</td><td align='right'>595</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A Vigil with St. Louis. By E. Fonton,</td><td align='right'>70</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Benedict of Nursla, and the Order of the Benedictines. By Rev. Ph. Schaff,</td><td align='right'>451</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Buckle, Draper, and a Science of History. By Edward B. Freeland,</td><td align='right'>161</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>Carl Friedrich Neumann, the German Historian of our Country.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'> By Professor Andrew Ten Brook,</td><td align='right'>295</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Clouds. By Mrs. Martha Walker Cook,</td><td align='right'>265</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>Diary of Frances Krasinska; or, Life in Poland during the 18th Century,</td><td align='right'>27, 180</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Dr. Fox's Prescription. By E. R. Johnson,</td><td align='right'>717</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left' valign='top'>Editor's Table,</td><td align='right'>118, 245, 354, 487, 605, 721</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>English and American Taxation. By Egbert Hurd,</td><td align='right'>405</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Ernest Renan's Theory. By Hugh Miller Thompson,</td><td align='right'>609</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>'Feed My Lambs,'</td><td align='right'>663</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>Glorious! By L. G. W.,</td><td align='right'>459</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>Hannah Thurston,</td><td align='right'>456</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Hints to the American Farmer,</td><td align='right'>584</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>Jefferson Davis and Repudiation of Arkansas Bonds.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'> By Hon. Robert J. Walker,</td><td align='right'>478</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>Language a Type of the Universe. By Stephen Pearl Andrews,</td><td align='right'>691</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Lies, and How to Kill Them. By Hugh Miller Thompson,</td><td align='right'>437</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left' valign='top'>Literary Notices,</td><td align='right'>116, 243, 362, 483, 601, 719</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>Madagascar. By W. H. Whitmore,</td><td align='right'>65</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Music a Science. By Lucia D. Pychowska,</td><td align='right'>575</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>National Friendships,</td><td align='right'>239</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>North and South. By Charles Wm. Butler,</td><td align='right'>241</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>'Nos Amis les Cosaques.' By M. Heilprin,</td><td align='right'>216</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>'Our Article,'</td><td align='right'>20</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left' valign='top'>Our Domestic Relations; or, How to Treat the Rebel States. By Charles Russell,</td><td align='right'>511</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Our Government and the Blacks. By William H. Kimball,</td><td align='right'>431</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Out of Prison. By Kate Putnam,</td><td align='right'>436</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>Palmer, the American Sculptor. By L. J. Bigelow,</td><td align='right'>258</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Petroleum. By Rev. S. M. Eaton,</td><td align='right'>187</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left' valign='top'>Reason, Rhyme, and Rhythm. Compiled and written by Mrs. Martha Walker Cook,</td><td align='right'>14</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Retrospective. By Rev. Dr. Henry,</td><td align='right'>1</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>Sir Charles Lyell on the Antiquity of Man. By a Presbyterian Clergyman,</td><td align='right'>369</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Sketches of American Life and Scenery. By Lucia D. Pychowska,</td><td align='right'>9, 270, 425</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Sleeping. By Hugh Miller Thompson,</td><td align='right'>716</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>Temptation. From the Polish of Count Sigismund Krasinski,</td><td align='right'>53</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Andes. By William G. Dix,</td><td align='right'>229</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Angels of War,</td><td align='right'>203</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Conscription Act of March 3d, 1864. By L. M. Haverstik,</td><td align='right'>110</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Decline of England. By S. J. Bayard,</td><td align='right'>48</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Development of American Architecture. By A. W. Colgate,</td><td align='right'>466</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Dove. By Mrs. Martha Walker Cook,</td><td align='right'>625</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The English Press. By Nicholas Rowe, London,</td><td align='right'>100, 139, 564</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Great American Crisis. By Stephen P. Andrews,</td><td align='right'>87, 300</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Great Lakes to St. Paul. By Robert Dodge,</td><td align='right'>397</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Great Struggle,</td><td align='right'>34</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The House in the Lane. By Miss Virginia Townsend,</td><td align='right'>573</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Isle of Springs. By Rev. C. C. Starbuck,</td><td align='right'>461</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left' valign='top'>The Issues of the War. By John Stahl Patterson, Quarter-master Sergeant, 20th Ohio Battery,</td><td align='right'>287</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Lessons of the Wood. By George W. Bungay,</td><td align='right'>26</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Love Lucifer. By S. Leavitt,</td><td align='right'>319, 414</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The March of Life. By Clarence Frederick Buhler,</td><td align='right'>649</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Mechanical Tendency in Modern Society. By John A. French,</td><td align='right'>351</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Mississippi River and its Peculiarities. By De B. R. Keim,</td><td align='right'>629</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Mound Builder. By January Searle,</td><td align='right'>517</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Red Man's Plea,</td><td align='right'>160</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left' valign='top'>The Treasury Report and Mr. Sec'y Chase. By Hon. Frederick P. Stanton,</td><td align='right'>151</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Unkind Word,</td><td align='right'>690</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The War a Contest for Ideas. By Henry Everett Russell,</td><td align='right'>578</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Wild Azalea. By E. W. C.,</td><td align='right'>596</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>The Young Author's Dream. By Edwin R. Johnson,</td><td align='right'>395</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Thistle-Down. By Frances Lamartine,</td><td align='right'>318</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Thomas De Quincey and His Writings. By L. W. Spring,</td><td align='right'>650</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Thomas Jefferson, as Seen in the Light of 1863. By J. Sheldon,</td><td align='right'>129</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Thought. By Virginia Vaughan,</td><td align='right'>577</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>Union Not to be Maintained by Force. By Hon. Frederick P. Stanton,</td><td align='right'>73</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>Was He Successful? By Richard B. Kimball,</td><td align='right'>80, 221, 341, 445</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h3>THE</h3>
+
+<h2>CONTINENTAL MONTHLY:</h2>
+
+<h4>DEVOTED TO</h4>
+
+<h3>LITERATURE AND NATIONAL POLICY.</h3>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Vol</span>. V.&mdash;JANUARY, 1864.&mdash;No. I.</h3>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="RETROSPECTIVE" id="RETROSPECTIVE"></a>RETROSPECTIVE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Time makes many dark things clear, and often in a wonderfully short and
+decisive way. So we said hopefully two years and more ago in regard to
+one of the unsolved problems which then pressed on the minds of
+thoughtful men&mdash;how, namely, it was to fare with slavery in the progress
+and sequel of the war. The history of our national struggle has
+illustrated the truth and justified the hope. Time has quite nearly
+solved that problem and some others almost equally perplexing. The
+stream of historical causes has borne the nation onward on the bosom of
+its inevitable flow, until we can now almost see clear through to the
+end; at any rate, we have reached a point where we can look backward and
+forward with perhaps greater advantage than at any former period. What
+changes of opinion have been wrought! How many doubts resolved! How many
+fears dispelled! How many old prejudices and preconceived notions have
+been abandoned! How many vexed questions put at rest! How many things
+have safely got an established place among accepted and almost generally
+acceptable facts, which were once matters of loyal foreboding and of
+disloyal denunciation! No man of good sense and loyalty now doubts the
+rightfulness and wisdom of depriving the rebels of the aid derived from
+their slaves, and making them an element of strength on our side; while
+the fact that the enfranchised slaves make good soldiers, is put beyond
+question by an amenability to military discipline and a bravery in
+battle not surpassed by any troops in the world.</p>
+
+
+<h4>HAS THE WAR GONE SLOWLY?</h4>
+
+<p>The work of subduing the rebellion has gone slowly as compared with the
+impatient demands of an indignant people at the outset; but not slowly
+if you consider the vast theatre of the war, the immense extent of the
+lines of military operations, and the prodigious advantages possessed by
+the rebels at the beginning&mdash;partly advantages such as always attend the
+first outbreak of a revolutionary conspiracy long matured in secret
+against an unsuspecting and unprepared Government, and partly the
+extraordinary and peculiar advantages that accrued to them from the
+traitorous complicity of Buchanan's Administration, through which the
+conspirators were enabled to rob<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> the national treasury, strip the
+Government of arms, and possess themselves of national forts, arsenals,
+and munitions of war, before the conflict began.</p>
+
+
+<h4>NOT TOO SLOW&mdash;WHY? SLAVERY.</h4>
+
+<p>But either way the war has not gone too slowly with reference to its
+great end&mdash;the establishment of a durable peace. If the rebellion had
+been crushed at once by overwhelming force, it would have been crushed
+only to break out anew. Slavery would have been left unimpaired, and
+that would inevitably have entailed another conflict in no long time. In
+the interest of slavery the rebels have drawn the sword; let slavery
+perish by the sword. In the interest of slavery they have attempted to
+overthrow the National Government and to dismember the national domain;
+let slavery be overthrown to maintain the Government and to preserve the
+integrity of the nation. Let the cause of the war perish with the war.
+Not until slavery is extinguished can there be a lasting peace; for not
+until then can the conditions of true national unity begin to exist.
+What wise and good man would wish to save it from extinction? It is as
+incompatible with the highest prosperity of the South as it is with a
+true national union between the South and the North. Once extinguished,
+there will be a thousand-fold increase in every element of Southern
+welfare, economical, social, and moral; and possibilities of national
+wealth and strength, greatness and glory, above every nation on the
+globe, will be established. Let slavery go down. Let us rejoice that in
+the progress and sequel of this war, it must and will go down.</p>
+
+
+<h4>EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.</h4>
+
+<p>Looking back, we can now see that much that was trying to the patience
+of the loyal masses of the North in the early stages of the war, has
+only served to make it more certain that what ought to be will be. Time
+has done justice to the idiotic policy of fighting the rebellion with
+one hand and with the other upholding the institution that constituted
+at once its motive and its strength. Time has brought policy and justice
+to shake hands together at the right moment on the same road, and made
+that respectable and acceptable as a military necessity which was once
+repudiated as a fanaticism. Time has brought out the President's
+Emancipation Proclamation, and established it on a firm basis in the
+judgment and consent of all wise and true loyal men, North and South&mdash;to
+the great discomfiture of sundry politicians&mdash;the utterances of some of
+whom not long ago can be no otherwise taken than as the revelation and
+despairing death wail of disconcerted schemes. Strange that men whose
+whole lives have been passed in forecasting public opinion for their
+political uses, should have rushed upon the thick bosses of the great
+shield of the public will, which begirts the President and his
+Emancipation Proclamation;&mdash;for certainly all the railing at
+<i>radicalism</i>, which we heard in certain quarters last summer, was in
+fact nothing but the expression of disappointment and chagrin at the
+emancipation policy of the President, and that too at a time when that
+policy had come to be accepted by the great body of the loyal people of
+the nation (including all the eminent Southern loyalists), as not only
+indispensable to the national salvation, but desirable in every view.
+Strange that at such a time, and among those once active and influential
+in the formation of the Republican party&mdash;a party born of the roused
+spirit of resistance to slavery aggressions&mdash;there should have been
+found a single person unable to discern and to accept the inevitable
+logic of events which was to make the extinction of slavery the only
+wise, practicable, and truly loyal stand point. Strange that any
+Republican should be disposed to put a stop to the 'irrepressible
+conflict.' It was too late in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> day to attempt the organization of a
+great, victorious Conservative party by splitting up the old
+organizations. The old organizations may fall to pieces. It is best,
+perhaps, they should&mdash;but not to form a Conservative party. Conservatism
+is not now to the popular taste. It means nothing but the saving of
+slavery, and the great body of the loyal people now feel absolved from
+all obligation to save it; they do not care to have it saved; and the
+vaticinations of those prophets of evil who predicted disaster and ruin
+to the national cause from the emancipation policy of the Government
+excite no consternation in the loyal heart of the nation.</p>
+
+<p>In a review of the conduct of the war, how little reason appears for
+regret and how much for satisfaction in regard to all the great measures
+of the Government!</p>
+
+
+<h4>THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM.</h4>
+
+<p>The successful working of the <i>financial system</i> has demonstrated the
+wisdom of its principles. Instead of following the old wretched way of
+throwing an immense amount of stocks into market at a sacrifice of
+fifteen to thirty per cent., the Government has got all the money it
+wanted at half or a little more than half the usual rate of interest. It
+would have been better if the currency had been made to consist wholly
+of United States legal-tender notes, fundable in six per cent.,
+bonds&mdash;with a proper provision for the interest and for a sinking fund.</p>
+
+<p>But the financial system adopted is a matter of satisfaction, apart from
+its admirable success in furnishing the Government with the means to
+carry on the war: it is the inauguration of sounder principles on
+currency than have heretofore prevailed, which, if unfolded and carried
+legitimately out, will give the country the best currency in the
+world&mdash;perfectly secured, uniform in value at every point, and liable to
+no disastrous expansions and contractions. The notion that any great
+industrial, manufacturing, and commercial nation can conduct its
+business&mdash;any more than it can carry on a great war&mdash;with a specie
+currency alone, is indeed exploded; but the notion that a paper currency
+to be safe must be based on specie, still prevails&mdash;although the
+currency furnished by the thousands of banks scattered throughout the
+country has never been really based upon the actual possession of specie
+to the extent of more than <i>one fifth</i> of the amount in circulation. It
+may be the doctrine will never come to prevail that a specie basis in
+whole or in part is no more indispensable to a sound and safe paper
+currency than an exclusive specie currency is possible or desirable in a
+country like this. It may be that the people will never come to believe
+that a legal-tender paper currency, issued exclusively by the National
+Government&mdash;based upon the credit of the nation, constituting a lien
+upon all the property of the country, and proportioned in amount of
+issue to the needs of the people for it as an instrument of
+exchange&mdash;would, for all home uses, possess in full perfection the
+nature, functions, and powers of money. It is a subject we do not
+propose to discuss. It is enough now to say that the notes of the United
+States, fundable in national six per cent. bonds, and drawing interest
+as they do semi-annually in gold, must be admitted by everybody to be as
+safe a currency as the banks as a whole have ever supplied, and to
+possess other advantages which make them incomparably a better currency
+than that of local banks.</p>
+
+<p>The high price to which gold has been carried by gambling speculators,
+is not to be taken as indicating a proportionate want of confidence in
+the success of the national cause and in the intrinsic value of the
+national securities. It indicates nothing of the sort&mdash;at any rate,
+whatever it may be taken to indicate, it is none the less true that
+United States six per cent. bonds were from the first eagerly sought for
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> taken as investments at the rate of a million a day&mdash;faster indeed
+than the Government could at first supply them; with a constantly
+augmenting demand, until in the last week of October <i>thirty-six</i>
+millions were disposed of&mdash;leaving only one hundred and fifty millions
+unsold, which will doubtless all be taken before this paper is
+published. Comment on this is entirely needless.</p>
+
+
+<h4>OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS.</h4>
+
+<p>In the conduct of our <i>foreign relations</i>, certain official declarations
+in the early part of the war on the policy and purpose of Government in
+carrying it on, are to be regretted as gratuitous and unfortunate. It is
+to be regretted also that the capture of the <i>Trent</i> and the seizure of
+Mason and Slidell was not at once disavowed as being contrary to our
+doctrine on neutral rights, and the rebel emissaries surrendered without
+waiting for reclamation on the part of the British Government; or, if it
+was thought best to await that reclamation as containing a virtual
+concession of our doctrine, it would have been better&mdash;more dignified
+and effective&mdash;if the reply had been limited to a simple statement that
+the surrender was necessitated by the principles always maintained by
+our Government, and not by a reclamation which the British Government,
+by its own construction of public law and by its own practice, was not
+entitled to make, but which being made, might now, it was to be hoped,
+be taken as an abandonment in the future of the ground heretofore
+maintained by that Government.</p>
+
+
+<h4>CONCESSION OF BELLIGERENT RIGHTS TO THE REBELS.</h4>
+
+<p>There has been some dissatisfaction with the conduct of our official
+communications with Great Britain and France respecting the question on
+belligerent rights and neutral obligations which the rebellion has
+raised. But there are points of no inconsiderable difficulty and
+delicacy involved in these questions, which a great many people, in
+their natural displeasure against the English and French, have failed to
+consider. Our Government deserves the credit of having consulted the
+interests without compromising the dignity of the nation. Admitting the
+conduct of the British and French Governments in recognizing the rebels
+as belligerents to be as unfriendly and as unrequired by the obligations
+of public law as it is generally held to be among us, that would not
+make it right or wise for our Government to depart from the tone of
+moderation. We can no more make it a matter for official complaint and
+demand against these Governments, than we could the unfriendly tone of
+many of their newspapers and Parliamentary orators. We might say to
+them: We take it as unkindly in you to do as you have done; but if they
+will continue to do so, we have nothing for it but to submit. Even if we
+could have afforded it, we could not rightly have gone to war with them
+for doing what we ourselves&mdash;through the necessity of our
+circumstances&mdash;have been compelled in effect to do, and what they,
+though not forced by any such necessity, had yet a right&mdash;and in their
+own opinion were obliged&mdash;by public law to do. We could not have made it
+a cause of war, and therefore it would have been worse than idle to
+indulge in a style of official representation which means war if it
+means anything.</p>
+
+
+<h4>THE REBEL CRUISERS.</h4>
+
+<p>The question of the rebel cruisers on the high seas is a question by
+itself. The anger excited among us by the injuries we have suffered from
+these vessels is not strange; nor is it strange that our anger should
+beget a disposition to quarrel with Great Britain and France for
+conceding the rights of lawful belligerents to the perpetrators of such
+atrocities. The rebels have no courts of admiralty, carry their prizes
+to no ports, submit them to no lawful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> adjudication&mdash;but capture,
+plunder, and burn private vessels in mid ocean. Such proceedings by the
+laws of nations are undoubtedly piratical in their nature. We have a
+right so to hold and declare. We may think that Great Britain and France
+are bound so to hold and declare. But what then? Should they have
+ordered their men of war to cruise against these rebel cruisers or to
+capture every one which they might chance to encounter, and to send them
+home for trial? We may think they were bound in vindication of public
+law to do so; but could we make their not doing so a matter of formal
+complaint and a cause of war? There are a number of things to be well
+considered before any one should permit himself to quarrel with our
+Government for not quarrelling with Great Britain and France on this
+matter.</p>
+
+
+<h4>BRITISH VIOLATION OF NEUTRAL OBLIGATIONS.</h4>
+
+<p>But the conduct of the British Government in allowing her ports to be
+made the basis of these nefarious operations&mdash;in permitting vessels of
+whose character and purpose there could be no doubt to be built in her
+ports&mdash;not to be delivered in any Confederate port, but in effect armed
+and manned from her ports to go immediately to cruise against our
+commerce on the high seas&mdash;is an outrageous violation of the obligations
+of neutrals, for which that Government may justly be held responsible.
+It is a responsibility which no technical pleading about the
+insufficiency of British laws, either in matter of prohibition or rules
+of evidence, can avoid. Great Britain is bound to have laws and rules of
+evidence which will enable her effectually to discharge her neutral
+obligations; whether she has or not, does not alter her responsibility
+to us. Her conduct may rightfully be made a matter of official
+complaint, and of war too&mdash;if satisfaction and reparation be refused. It
+is a case in which our rights and dignity are concerned; and it is to be
+presumed that our Government will not fail to vindicate them.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+
+<h4>LEGISLATION&mdash;THE CONFISCATION LAW.</h4>
+
+<p>The action of <i>Congress</i> has in everything been nobly patriotic in
+spirit, and in nearly everything it has wisely and adequately met the
+exigencies of the crisis.</p>
+
+<p>But we are compelled to hold the Confiscation Act, in the form in which
+it was passed, as a mistake.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> If the clause of the Constitution
+prohibiting 'attainder of treason to work forfeiture except during the
+life of the person attainted,' be necessarily applicable to the
+Confiscation Act, it seems to us impossible to avoid the conclusion that
+the act is unconstitutional. So far as the language of the prohibition
+is decisive of anything, it must be taken to include all sorts of
+property, real as well as personal&mdash;the term <i>forfeiture</i> certainly
+having that extent of application in the old English law and practice,
+from which the framers of our Constitution took it, and there is nothing
+elsewhere in the Constitution or in its history to warrant any other
+con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>struction. So the Congress of 1790 understood it in the act
+declaring the punishment of treason and some other high crimes. As to
+the <i>perpetuity</i> of forfeiture, it seems equally necessary to hold that
+it is prohibited by the clause of the Constitution in question. Such is
+undeniably the first and obvious meaning of the terms. It has been
+argued indeed that it was not the intention of the framers of the
+Constitution to prohibit perpetual forfeiture of property from being
+'declared' by Congress, but only to prohibit 'attainder of treason' from
+'working' of itself that effect by necessary consequence&mdash;as it did
+under the Common Law of England. It has also been argued that the
+constitutional restriction does not relate to perpetuity of forfeiture,
+but only requires that the forfeiture or act of alienation take place,
+have effect, and be accomplished 'during the life of the person
+attainted,' and not after his death.</p>
+
+<p>But this reasoning is more subtile than satisfactory. A fair
+consideration of the subject leaves little room for doubt that the
+framers of the Constitution had in view and intended to prohibit
+everything which under the old English common law followed upon
+'attainder of treason'&mdash;to prohibit forfeiture in perpetuity of property
+of every sort, no less than 'bills of attainder,' 'corruption of blood,'
+and barbarities of punishment, such as disembowelling, quartering, etc.</p>
+
+<p>If therefore the constitutional restriction on forfeiture apply to the
+Confiscation Law, it makes the law unconstitutional, in so far as it
+enacts the <i>perpetual</i> forfeiture of the personal estate of rebels; and
+the discrimination made in regard to their real estate does not save the
+constitutionality of the act.</p>
+
+<p>If, therefore, the Confiscation Law is to be held as constitutional, it
+can be so, as it seems to us, only on the ground that it does not fall
+within the scope of the constitutional prohibition in question. This
+ground may be maintained by asserting that the constitutional
+prohibition of perpetual forfeiture applies only to cases of 'attainder
+of treason,' that is, according to Blackstone, of 'judgment of death for
+treason,' and that cases under this act are not such; that the
+limitations applicable to ordinary judicial proceedings against traitors
+are not applicable here; that the Confiscation Act seizes the property
+of rebels not in their quality of criminals, but of public enemies; that
+it is not an act for the punishment of treason, but for weakening and
+subduing an armed rebellion, and securing indemnification for the costs
+and damages it has entailed&mdash;in short, not a penal statute, but a war
+measure; and that the Constitution which gives Congress the right to
+make war for the suppression of the rebellion, and to subject the lives
+of rebels to the laws of war, gives it the right to subject their
+property also to the same laws&mdash;putting both out of the protection of
+the ordinary laws; and finally that all the objects aimed at by the
+measure are legitimated by the principles of public law.</p>
+
+<p>If these views can be sustained, it follows that Congress was justified
+not only in enacting the perpetual confiscation of the <i>personal</i>
+property of rebels, but need not, and should not, have passed the
+explanatory clause prohibiting 'forfeiture of <i>real</i> estate beyond the
+natural life' of the rebel. So far as weakening the rebellion,
+indemnifying the nation for costs and damages, or the rights and
+interests of the heirs of rebels, are concerned, there is no reason in
+justice or in policy for the discrimination made between personal and
+real estate; if it is right and wise to take the one in perpetuity, it
+is equally so to take the other. In our judgment, it is right and wise
+to do both.</p>
+
+
+<h4>MILITARY ADMINISTRATION&mdash;NO ARMY OF RESERVE.</h4>
+
+<p>In looking over the war, we can all now see a very great error in the
+<i>mili<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>tary</i> administration&mdash;the neglect, namely, to provide and keep up
+a proper reserved force. It is the grand mistake of the war. Two years
+and a half of war, and no army of reserve! Eighteen months ago, a force
+of reserve of at least two hundred thousand men should have been formed.
+It could probably then have been formed of volunteers. From it,
+vacancies made in the armies in the field by battle, disease, or
+expiration of time of service, could have been filled with drilled and
+disciplined soldiers, and reinforcements drawn to meet any special
+exigency. The victory of Gettysburgh might have resulted in the total
+destruction of Lee's army before he could recross the Potomac; and
+Rosecrans might have been strengthened without weakening the Army of the
+Potomac or any other. Whether the cost of forming and keeping up such a
+force of reserve would have greatly exceeded the cost of the recent
+draft, we do not pretend to know. We are inclined to think it would not.
+But that is a question of little moment. Money wisely spent is well
+spent: money unwisely saved is ill saved. With such a force, the recent
+draft might not have been necessary&mdash;at all events there would have been
+no necessity for suspending active military operations in Virginia, and
+awaiting the slow completion of the draft, at a moment when, large
+additions to the forces in the field were precisely the one thing
+needful. The army of reserve would at once have supplied disciplined
+soldiers, and their places in the camps of instruction and reserve could
+have been filled with the new conscripts as fast as they were collected.</p>
+
+
+<h4>CONSOLATION&mdash;ENFORCEMENT OF THE DRAFT IN NEW YORK.</h4>
+
+<p>But grave as the error is which we have signalized, there is something
+that might well console us for greater misfortunes than it has entailed,
+and which gives us another illustration of the truth that God and Time
+often work for us better than we for ourselves, and out of our errors
+bring good that we could not forecast.</p>
+
+<p>It would not be wise to assert that the not having such a reserved force
+necessitated the recent draft, and thereby occasioned the horrible
+outbreak in New York. But if it may even be safely suggested as possibly
+true, the successful enforcement of the draft becomes all the more a
+matter for boundless joy and congratulation. Important as its
+enforcement throughout the country was as a means of filling up the
+ranks of our armies, the outbreak in New York made it a thousand times
+more important as the only adequate assertion of the supremacy of
+national law.</p>
+
+<p>There can be no doubt as to the nature, origin, and purpose of that
+outbreak. It was the result of a long-prepared traitorous conspiracy in
+the interest of the rebels. The enforcement of the draft against mob
+violence instigated by treason, was indispensable not only to the
+successful prosecution of the war against the rebels of the South, but
+to the maintenance of the supreme authority and power of the National
+Government, and of the foundations of social order at the North. Not to
+have enforced it might have insured the triumph of the rebellion and the
+independence of the South; it certainly would have rendered the North no
+longer a country fit for any decent man to live in. Such and so great
+was the significance of the crisis. The responsibility of the
+Administration was immense. The President met it nobly. He took care
+that a sufficient military force&mdash;not under the control of Governor
+Seymour, but of a well-tried patriot&mdash;was present in New York. He
+carried out the draft there and everywhere else. He crushed the schemes
+and hopes of the traitorous conspirators&mdash;more guilty than the rebels in
+arms-and gave a demonstration of the <i>strength of the National
+Government</i>, as grand in its majesty as it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> was indispensable to the
+national salvation in this crisis and to its security in all future
+time. The Government has triumphed in the quiet majesty of its
+irresistible force over factious and traitorous opposition at the North,
+springing from treasonable sympathy with the rebels, or, from what, in a
+crisis like this, is equally wicked, the selfishness of party spirit,
+preferring party to country. More than this, it has triumphed over the
+dangerous and destructive notions on State sovereignty, which traitors
+and partisans have dared invoke. It is impossible to overestimate the
+importance for the present and for the future of this victorious
+assertion of the <i>supremacy of the National Government</i>.</p>
+
+
+<h4>SUMMARY REVIEW.</h4>
+
+<p>In a review, then, of this gigantic struggle, we have every reason to be
+content and confident&mdash;no reason to bate one jot of heart or hope. The
+triumph over Northern treason, achieved by the force of the Government,
+has been followed by a moral triumph at the polls, no less grand in its
+significance. The country is not oppressed by the stupendous expenses of
+the war. The money is all spent at home. It stimulates the productive
+industry of the country, and the nation is all the time growing rich.
+The rebels have been disastrously repulsed in two attempts at invasion,
+and do not hold one inch of Northern soil. One third of the States
+claimed by them at the outset, are gone from them forever: Maryland,
+Missouri, Kentucky, are securely in the Union; Virginia we have cut in
+two&mdash;nearly one half of its territory, by the will of its inhabitants,
+now constituting a loyal member of the Union as the new State of West
+Virginia&mdash;while of its eastern half we securely hold its coast, harbors,
+and fortresses, and a considerable number of its counties. Tennessee is
+ours, and cannot, we think, be wrenched away. We have New Orleans, and
+the uncontrolled possession of the Mississippi river&mdash;cutting the
+territory of the rebels in two, destroying their communications, and
+giving us a considerable portion of the States bordering that river. In
+North Carolina and South Carolina we have a hold, from which it will be
+hard to drive us. On the Atlantic and Gulf coast nearly every fortress
+is in our possession; there is not a port which is not possessed by us,
+or else so blockaded that (except in the peculiar case of Wilmington) it
+is a hazardous affair for any vessel to attempt going in or coming out;
+and the rebels are utterly unable to raise the blockade of a single
+port. In fine, they have lost more than one third of their territory
+forever, and of the remaining portion there is not one considerable
+subdivision over which in some part the flag of the Union does not
+securely wave. What title to recognition as an independent power can the
+Confederate rebels present to the neutral powers of the world?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="SKETCHES_OF_AMERICAN_LIFE_AND_SCENERY" id="SKETCHES_OF_AMERICAN_LIFE_AND_SCENERY"></a>SKETCHES OF AMERICAN LIFE AND SCENERY.</h2>
+
+
+<p>While American tourists are delightedly visiting and minutely describing
+the most hidden recesses of beauty among the mountains, plains, seas,
+lakes, and rivers of Europe, there are, close within their reach,
+innumerable spots well worthy of consideration, and hitherto entirely
+unknown to the great mass of pleasure and scenery seeking travellers.
+These fair but hidden gems have become of the more importance that the
+grand struggle convulsing our country has rendered foreign travel
+difficult, even when advisable, and has roused within our people a love
+for their own land, a pride in its loveliness, much more rarely felt
+before the attempt to dismember and ruin it had awakened dormant
+patriotism and completed the severance between the recent <i>province</i> and
+the historically renowned mother country. American painters are worthily
+illustrating American life and landscape; American poets, and no less
+poetical prose writers, are singing the forests, skies, flowers, and
+birds of their native land; and the inquisitive traveller should surely
+not fail to add his humbler mite in the way of discovery and
+description. The following sketches are founded upon actual observation,
+and the delineations of scenery and manners therein contained are
+strictly in accordance with the personal experience of the author.</p>
+
+<h4><a name="A_SUMMER_EXCURSION" id="A_SUMMER_EXCURSION"></a>I.&mdash;A SUMMER EXCURSION.
+</h4>
+
+<p>'All very well,' said Aunt Sarah; 'I have no doubt the excursion would
+be charming; but who will accompany you?'</p>
+
+<p>'We do not require an escort; we can take care of each other,'</p>
+
+<p>'Can it be that you, Lucy, a staid married woman of thirty-six, and you,
+Elsie, a demure young girl of twenty, are suddenly about to enter the
+ranks of the strong minded?'</p>
+
+<p>'Why, dear aunt,' said Lucy D&mdash;&mdash;, 'you would not have us weak minded,
+would you? I think I heard you say no longer ago than yesterday that
+half the domestic miseries in this world were due to the weak nerves and
+feeble intellects of poorly educated women.'</p>
+
+<p>'True; but the technical expression, 'strong minded,' does not mean
+strong in mind&mdash;rather the contrary.'</p>
+
+<p>'In other words, strong minded means weak minded, is that it, auntie?'
+laughed Elsie.</p>
+
+<p>'I see, Aunt Sarah,' said Lucy, 'we shall be forced to call upon you for
+that most difficult of tasks, a definition. What is meant by the term,
+'strong-minded woman'?'</p>
+
+<p>'A monster,' replied Mrs. Sarah Grundy, 'who lectures, speaks in public,
+wants women to vote, to wear men's garments; in a word, one who would
+like to upset religion, social life, and the world in general.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well,' dear auntie, 'we surely do not purpose committing any of these
+enormities; our intentions simply embrace a short excursion of some
+forty miles in search of fine scenery, health, and a little amusement.
+We have no confidence in our power to influence the public, even if we
+thought we had aught to say which they do not already know; we do not
+see that voting has a very beneficial effect upon men, witness election
+days; as for their garments, they are too hideously ungraceful for us to
+covet; in faith, we are of the most orthodox; we confess, we do think
+social life needs sundry reforms, more charity and forbearance, less
+detraction and ostentation, etc., etc.; and as for the world in general,
+we think it very beautiful, and only wish to overlook<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> some few
+additional miles of its lovely mountains, lakes, and streams.'</p>
+
+<p>'Well, well, girls, young people always can talk faster than old ones;
+but do you really think it safe for you to venture without escort? You
+do not even know the name of the place which you wish to visit; you have
+been informed that on the summit of yonder mountain is a lake, said to
+be picturesque; but of its cognomen, and of the proper means to reach
+it, you are utterly ignorant. You will have to ask questions of all
+sorts of people.'</p>
+
+<p>'Suppose we do&mdash;being women, we will certainly in America receive civil
+answers.'</p>
+
+<p>'But if some person unknown to you should speak to you?'</p>
+
+<p>'Little danger, dear aunt, of dread unknowns, if we comport ourselves
+properly; I have travelled much in all kinds of public conveyances, and
+never yet have been improperly addressed. Did you ever have an adventure
+of the sort'?</p>
+
+<p>'Once only,' replied Aunt Sarah, 'and then the fault was my own. I was
+young and giddy; Cousin Nancy was with me, and we were in a rail-car. In
+a near seat sat a very good-looking young man; Nancy looked toward him
+once or twice and, meeting his eye, began to giggle: I foolishly joined
+her; thus encouraged, our young gentleman opened a conversation. Nancy
+laughed immoderately; but I, being a few years older, soon controlled my
+silly giggling; and by the tone of my reply speedily silenced our
+would-be admirer. He turned his back upon us, and, so far as I know, in
+less than five minutes had forgotten our very existence.'</p>
+
+<p>'Decidedly a case in our favor! And if the boat should blow up, or the
+car roll down an embankment, in what would we be benefited by the fact
+of having an escort also to be scalded or have his head broken?'</p>
+
+<p>'Ye maun even then gang your ain gait. I wish you a pleasant journey and
+a safe return.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you, auntie, and you will not call us strong minded?'</p>
+
+<p>'Certainly not, unless I find you merit the appellation.'</p>
+
+<p>The little trunk was soon packed, and one fine July morning the two
+travellers set off in search of the beautiful lake, whose name is not to
+be found in the guide books. They knew it was to be looked for in a
+sharp and peculiar dent in the Shawangunk mountain, which dent, so far
+as they could judge from the hills near their dwelling on the northern
+slope of the Highlands, must be nearly opposite Poughkeepsie. Neither
+map nor gazetteer could they procure; the neighbors could give them no
+information, and they were forced to proceed with only the
+above-mentioned meagre stock of knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>The first stage was of five miles, in a carriage to Newburg, where they
+took the day boat for Albany. Our novices felt more or less anxiety
+regarding the fidelity of the porter intrusted with their two small
+articles of baggage; but said articles appearing somewhat late, though
+still in season, and being duly marked for Poughkeepsie, the first
+question asked was as to the existence of such a place as New Paltz
+Landing, opposite the above-named city, and the facilities for crossing
+the river. None of those in authority knew certainly of a ferry, but
+supposed it highly probable. The wharf at Poughkeepsie was suggested as
+a proper place to obtain information; and, once there, our travellers
+soon found themselves in the hands of an intelligent contraband, who
+promised to place them safely on the desired ferry boat. As they neared
+the dock, a great rock, with an upset wagon for foreground, furnished an
+encouraging picture for two lone lady tourists. The boat proved neat and
+comfortable, and here again inquiries were made. The very polite captain
+had heard of a lake on the Shawangunk mountain, but knew neither its
+name nor exact location. He advised them to have their baggage sent to
+the little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> inn at the landing, where they might dine and await a stage
+expected to pass in about an hour on its way to New Paltz, a village
+nine miles west of the river. At the inn they fancied they must
+certainly learn something definite regarding the final object of their
+undertaking. A large map of Ulster county hung in the sitting room, and
+gave promise of some decided information. Unfortunately, it was not of a
+recent edition: a nameless lake on the Shawangunk mountain, about five
+miles from New Paltz, seemed to be the object of their search; but the
+landlord, who had heard of a lake in that direction, could not tell how
+it was to be reached, or whether shelter could there be found in any
+decent tenement; his impression was that there had been a public house
+on top of the mountain, but that it had recently been destroyed by fire.
+Certainties were evidently still unattainable.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, the stage arrived&mdash;a vehicle drawn by two horses, and intended
+to seat four persons. In it were already two ladies, with bags and
+bundles, two trunks, a champagne basket, numberless packages, and about
+fifty bottles of soda water, laid in among the straw covering the bottom
+of the accommodating conveyance. The driver, a good-natured, intelligent
+man, gave our travellers his bench, and arranged a seat for himself and
+the champagne basket on a sort of shelf overhanging the tails of the
+horses. At the top of the first hill is the village of Houstonville,
+where they stopped at the post office to leave the mail, and where two
+ladies appeared as claimants for seats in the stage. The driver at first
+demurred; but, finding the ladies persistent, he drew forth a board,
+and, fastening it at either end to a perpendicular prop, constructed a
+third bench, on which the two new passengers took their places.</p>
+
+<p>The stage was by this time more than well packed; but ere long the
+process of lightening up commenced, as first the champagne basket, then
+packages, bundles, and newspapers, were left at various dwellings along
+the roadside. One novelty especially striking was the wayside post
+office, consisting of a box on a pole, intended to contain the daily
+newspaper therein thrust to await the coming of the owners.</p>
+
+<p>Of course the driver was plied with numerous questions regarding the
+thus far nameless lake. He had been up the Shawangunk mountain fishing,
+but that was years before; there was a lake, but he had never heard any
+name given to it; he had understood a house had been built since his
+last visit; but he did not know if it was intended to accommodate
+visitors during the night. Of one thing, however, he was quite certain,
+and that was, the impossibility of finding a horse in New Paltz to take
+the ladies up that evening. The inns had none to let; there were no
+livery stables, and his own pair were too greatly fatigued by their
+twenty-mile drive to venture up so steep an ascent; but he thought a
+conveyance might be found for the following morning. The views along the
+road were charming; and the sharp, jagged crest known as Paltz Point,
+overhung the well-cultivated rolling valley beneath, giving a fair
+promise of an extended and characteristic view.</p>
+
+<p>The inn, to which the travellers were driven, proved very neat and
+comfortable. It was a new edifice, with an accommodating landlord and
+landlady, the latter of which personages seemed quite mystified by the
+advent of two lorn ladies in search of an unknown lake. In the entry
+hung a new map of Ulster county, on which appeared a lake nestling under
+the cliffs of Paltz Point, but still without a name. Paltz Point!&mdash;that
+must be the very jagged pile of rock visible from the Cornwall hills,
+and the lake at its foot more than probably the object of the journey.</p>
+
+<p>The landlord was quite positive as to the existence of a house, but
+doubted its capacity in regard to sleeping ac<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>commodations; he also
+corroborated the testimony of the driver respecting the difficulty of
+obtaining a vehicle, every horse being engaged haying. The ladies
+announced that, as the distance was only six miles, it could be walked,
+in case this difficulty proved insuperable. An individual at the tea
+table proposed that the travellers should be taken up some time in the
+middle of the night, that the horse might return by six o'clock in the
+morning; but this suggestion was unanimously frowned down. The chief
+reason for requiring a horse and wagon lay in the little trunk, which,
+as it contained the painting box of our Elsie, who thought the lake and
+vicinity might offer some picturesque studies, could not possibly be
+left behind. After tea, a walk was taken, and the vicinage of New Paltz
+duly inspected. The Wallkill, here a quiet stream, runs through rich,
+green meadows, bordered by the noble range of the Catskills and the
+singular, broken ridges of the Shawangunk. The sun set clear, casting
+pale gold streams of light over the meadows, and leaving a long,
+lingering, rosy twilight. The young art-student drank in beauty with
+every breath. The cows were driven home; the ducks came slowly up out of
+the stream, and all the winged creatures went to roost. Night came, and
+repose was welcome after the pleasures and fatigues of the day's
+journey.</p>
+
+<p>At eight the following morning, a steady black pony, with a light open
+wagon, appeared at the door; and by ten o'clock the travellers reached
+the mountain top. Their steed showed marvellous endurance in the way of
+slow pacing down steep hills, which they afterward found had been
+acquired in leading sad trains of mourners to the modest graveyards,
+wherein rest the earthly remains of the peaceful dwellers in this
+pastoral vale. The first four or five miles of road were excellent, but
+the last one or two so rough and stony, that they were quite willing to
+walk. On top of the mountain stands a little inn, commanding a
+magnificent view in several directions. As they neared the end of their
+journey, they rejoiced to see a white house gleaming through the trees,
+and promising food and shelter. The sound of coming wheels brought out
+the land-lady, who gave the travellers a hearty welcome, and assured
+them of her ability to harbor them for the night. The end was
+accomplished&mdash;the goal reached! And what a goal! Nowhere among all the
+beautiful scenery in the Middle and Eastern States is there a spot more
+characteristic and interesting than Paltz Point, and the lake that lies
+under its shadow&mdash;that lake, whose name was a mystery, even to the
+inmates of the house built upon its brink. Its waters are clear, and of
+a deep green hue; its depth is said to be great, and its rocky shores
+rise in perpendicular cliffs of from ten to two hundred feet. The
+highest point stands three or four hundred feet above the surface of the
+water; but in that part the cliffs are no longer perpendicular. The
+length of the lake is about a mile, and the width perhaps half that
+distance. The rocks are gray sandstone or quartz conglomerate, making
+the cliffsides, except where covered by black lichens, of a glittering
+white. On one side, the rocks rise in steep, precipitous masses, while
+on the other they are shattered into every imaginable form. The clefts
+are deep and narrow, great hemlocks rise from the bottoms of the
+fissures, and the vast masses of fallen or split rock lie piled and
+cloven, confusedly tossed about, gigantic memorials of the great
+convulsion that in days long gone by heaped up the long ridge of the
+Shawangunk, and shattered its northern dip into such majestic and
+fantastic cliffs. The deepest and wildest chasm is filled by the weird,
+green lake. Straying along the tops of the precipices bordering the
+water, our travellers beheld lovely vistas of the far-away country,
+north, south, east, or west, stealing in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> through rocky or leafy
+openings. An easy ascent of about half a mile leads to the summit of the
+Point. Blueberries were ripe, and beguiled the pair into many a moment's
+dallying by the wayside. Not until they reached the very top were they
+quite sure they had after all found the place they came to seek; but one
+view down the jagged line of the Shawangunk, convinced our Elsie that no
+other spot could have furnished the sketch seen in the studio, where she
+had been advised to seek 'the lake on the Shawangunk mountain.'</p>
+
+<p>The view from Paltz Point is magical. The long line of the Catskills
+sweeps boldly across the near northern horizon. Nowhere do those
+mountains seem so majestic, or their forms so broken and beautiful;
+nearer are the Olive mountains, beyond which flows the Esopus. Rondout
+creek, the Wallkill, and the Hudson, water the fertile vales lying among
+the hills. To the south stretches the line of the Shawangunk toward the
+Delaware river, and on the extreme southern and southeastern horizon
+rise the Highlands, with the river gap, the rifted sides of the Storm
+King, the Beacons, the great broad shoulders of Schunemunk;&mdash;even the
+white buildings on the plain at West Point may be seen glittering in the
+afternoon sun. A clear atmosphere is needed for the full enjoyment of
+the view, as the panorama is so vast that even a slight haze obscures
+many of the more interesting distant objects. And what words could
+describe the jutting headlands&mdash;wild, broken lines of white cliffs
+stretching to the southward, deep chasms, steep, forest-clad mountains,
+green or blue as distance, sunshine, or shadow may decree, and the
+tranquil green lake, smiling as a deep, strong and cheerful spirit amid
+the ruins of a shattered, wasted life? As our travellers gazed, they
+thanked God that His world was so beautiful, and wondered if even Aunt
+Sarah would not be willing to run the risk of being thought strong
+minded to see so fair a corner of it.</p>
+
+<p>The moon that night rose late; and the air was chill as the sisters
+stood on a rock waiting until its rays should silver the placid waves.
+Overhead ran a strange, broad, coruscating band of magnetic light,
+meteors flashed down the sky, a solitary loon sent a wild, despairing
+cry athwart the lake, and for the first time did our travellers feel
+they were alone, eighteen hundred feet above the Hudson, far away from
+other human habitation. A truly feminine shudder ran through their
+hearts, as they turned toward the house and betook them to the cells
+appropriated to their use. The following day they were driven down the
+mountain by the owner (not the keeper) of the little inn beside the
+lake. He was one of nature's own gentlemen; tall,&mdash;six feet,
+perhaps,&mdash;gray haired, blue eyed, with every feature well cut, and with
+the most honest expression ever beaming through a human countenance. The
+hearts of the sisters warmed toward him, and never were they more
+willing to acknowledge the solidarity of the race, the great fact of the
+brotherhood of all humanity.</p>
+
+<p>Cornwall once again safely reached, and the outlines of the journey duly
+sketched, Aunt Sarah's first question was: 'Well, and what <i>is</i> the name
+of this famous lake?'</p>
+
+<p>The travellers were forced to confess the ill success of their efforts
+in discovering the proper appellation of that exquisite gem, and it was
+not until many months later that, when visiting an exhibition of
+paintings, they found their new friend accurately portrayed under the
+name of&mdash;Mogunk Lake.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="REASON_RHYME_AND_RHYTHM" id="REASON_RHYME_AND_RHYTHM"></a>REASON, RHYME, AND RHYTHM.</h2>
+
+<p class='center'>
+'All arts are one, howe'er distributed they stand,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Verse, tone, shape, color, form, are fingers on one hand.'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<h4><a name="PREFACE_TO_VOLUME_SECOND" id="PREFACE_TO_VOLUME_SECOND"></a>PREFACE TO VOLUME SECOND.</h4>
+
+
+<p>Our first volume having been devoted to the Reason or Theory of Art in
+general, it is our intention in the second, Rhyme and Rhythm, to bring
+these comprehensive thoughts to a focus, and concentrate their light
+upon the art of Versification. Indeed, this volume is to be considered
+as a <i>manual</i> of poetic Rhythm. Practical rules are given for its
+construction and criticism; simple solutions offered of its apparent
+irregularities and anomalies; and examples of sufficient length are
+quoted from the best poets to afford just ideas of the scope and power
+of the measure under consideration. The numerous citations given under
+their appropriate metrical heads are intended not only to assist the
+student in the analysis of verse, but to aid him in the choice of forms
+in accordance with his subject, in case he should himself wish to create
+Poems.</p>
+
+<p>By its extrication from the entanglement of quantity and syllabic
+accent, under which it has been almost buried, an effort has been made
+to simplify the study of Rhythm: by tracing its origin and
+characteristics, and by the citation of poems in which its power and
+beauty are conspicuous, we have endeavored to render the subject one of
+vivid interest.</p>
+
+<h4><a name="CHAPTER_FIRST" id="CHAPTER_FIRST"></a>CHAPTER_FIRST.</h4>
+
+
+<h4>RHYTHM.</h4>
+
+<p>What is Rhythm? The best definition of this perplexing word has been
+given by the grand old Bohemian composer Tomaschek:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'The <i>order</i> perceptible in a succession of sounds recurring in
+<i>determinate</i> portions of Time, which portions of Time are more
+distinctly marked for the ear through the <i>accentuation</i> of certain
+determinate parts, constitutes Rhythm. </p></div>
+
+<p>Rhythm has been surrounded with so much mystery, has been the subject of
+so much learned debate and research, has called forth so many quartos
+and folios, that few know what a familiar thing it is, how closely it
+everywhere surrounds us, how constantly it beats within us. For the
+pulsations of the heart are rhythmical, and the measured throbs of life
+register in music every moment of our passing existence on the bosom of
+Time. And when life manifests itself to the senses through the medium of
+time, time being to the ear what space is to the eye, the Order of its
+pulsations is Rhythm. Strange relation between our own marvellous being
+and the march of time, for its mystic rhythm beats in tune with every
+feeling that sweeps over the heart, forever singing its primeval chant
+at the very core of our existence! The law of Rhythm is the law of
+mortal life: the constant recurrence of new effort sinking but to
+recover itself in accurately proportioned rest, rising ever again in new
+exertion, to sink again in ever new repose:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">'And our hearts, though true and brave,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Still, like muffled drums, are beating</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Funeral marches to the grave.'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>This low music of the heart never ceases until stilled by the touch of
+death, when the spirit, led by God, enters upon the waveless ocean of an
+immeasurable eternity, where past and future meet in the eternal
+present. Time with its rhythmic measures is then no more. The necessity
+of 'effort and rest,' 'exertion and repose,' will exist no longer. What
+the fuller music of that higher life is to be, 'it has not yet entered
+into the heart of man to conceive.' But if the very <i>imperfection</i> of
+our being has been rendered so full of charm to us in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> order and
+proportion with which it records its law, 'effort and repose,' 'life and
+death'&mdash;what may we not expect when this mortal shall have put on
+immortality? We should think of this when that saddest of human sounds,
+'it beats no more; it measures time no longer'&mdash;knells upon our ear the
+silence of the throbbing, passionate heart.</p>
+
+<p>Nor is inanimate nature without the quickening breath of Rhythm. It
+cadences the dash of the wave, chimes in the flash of the oar, patters
+in the drops of rain, whispers in the murmurings of the forest leaves,
+leaps in the dash of the torrent, wails through the sighing of the
+restless winds, and booms in the claps and crashes of heaven's thunders.</p>
+
+<p>Only through <i>succession</i> do we arrive at the idea of time, and through
+a continual <i>being and ceasing to be</i> are its steppings made sensible to
+us. It is thus literally true, as sung by the Poet, that 'we take no
+note of Time but from its loss.' Happy are we if so used that it may
+mark our eternal progress.</p>
+
+<p>There is but little mystery in the art of keeping time, since we may at
+once gather a correct notion of it from the vibrations of the pulse, or
+from our manner of walking. If we listen to the sound of our own step,
+we find it equal and regular, corresponding with what is termed common
+time in music. Probably the time in which we walk is governed by the
+action of the heart, and those who step alike have pulses beating in the
+same time. To walk faster than this gives the sensation of hurry; to
+walk slower, that of loitering. The mere recurrence of sounds at regular
+intervals by no means constitutes the properties of <i>musical</i> time;
+accent is necessary to parcel them out into those portions which Rhythm
+and the ear approve. If we listen to the trotting of a horse or the
+tread of our own feet, we cannot but notice that each alternate step is
+louder than the other&mdash;by which we throw the sounds into the order of
+common time. But if we listen to the amble or canter of a horse, we hear
+every third step to be louder than the other two, owing to the first and
+third foot striking the ground together. This regularity throws the
+sounds, into the order of triple time. To one or other of these
+descriptions may be referred every sort of time.</p>
+
+<p>There is a sympathetic power in measured time which has not yet received
+the attention it deserves. It has been found that in a watchmaker's shop
+the timepieces or clocks connected with the same wall or shelf have such
+a sympathetic effect in keeping time, that they stop those which beat in
+irregular time; and if any are at rest, set agoing those which beat
+accurately. What wonder then that the living, soldiers, artisans, such
+as smiths, paviors, etc., who work in unison with the pulse, should
+acquire habits of keeping time with the greatest correctness.</p>
+
+<p>Rhythm not only measures the footfall of the pedestrian, but exerts a
+sympathetic power, so that if two are walking together, they feel its
+spell, and unconsciously fall into the same step, not aware that they
+are thus conforming to a Unity always engendered by the Order regulating
+rhythmical motion. It is this entrancing sense of unity which wings the
+feet of the dancers, and enables them to endure with delight a degree of
+physical exertion which, without it, would be utterly exhausting. The
+following extract from the <i>Atlantic Monthly</i>, of July, 1858, is so much
+to our purpose, that we place it before the reader:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'The sailor does not lack for singing. He sings at certain parts of
+his work;&mdash;indeed, he must sing, if he would work. On vessels of
+war, the drum and fife or boatswain's whistle furnish the necessary
+movement-regulator. There, where the strength of one or two hundred
+men can be applied to one and the same effort, the labor is not
+intermittent, but continuous. The men form on either side of the
+rope to be hauled, and walk away with it like firemen marching with
+their engine.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> When the headmost pair bring up at the stern or bow,
+they part, and the two streams flow back to the starting point,
+outside the following files. Thus in this perpetual
+'follow-my-leader' way the work is done, with more precision and
+steadiness than in the merchant service. Merchantmen are invariably
+manned with the least possible number, and often go to sea
+short-handed, even according to the parsimonious calculations of
+their owners. The only way the heavier work can be done at all is
+by each man doing his utmost at the same moment. This is regulated
+by the song. And here is the true singing of the deep sea. It is
+not recreation; it is an essential part of the work. It mastheads
+the topsail yards, on making sail; it starts the anchor from the
+domestic or foreign mud; it 'rides down the main tack with a will;'
+it breaks out and takes on board a cargo; it keeps the pumps (the
+ship's, not the sailor's) going. A good voice and a new and
+stirring chorus are worth an extra man. And there is plenty of need
+of both.</p>
+
+<p>'I remember well one black night in the mid-Atlantic, when we were
+beating up against a stiff breeze, coming on deck near midnight,
+just as the ship was put about. When a ship is tacking, the tacks
+and sheets (ropes which confine the clews or lower corners of the
+sails) are let run, in order that the yards may be swung round to
+meet the altered position of the ship. They must then be hauled
+taut again, and belayed, or secured, in order to keep the sails in
+their place and to prevent them from shaking. When the ship's head
+comes up in the wind, the sail is for a moment or two edgewise to
+it, and then is the nice moment, as soon as the headsails fairly
+fill, when the mainyard and the yards above it can be swung
+readily, and the tacks and sheets hauled in. If the crew are too
+few in number, or too slow at their work, and the sails get fairly
+filled on the new tack, it is a fatiguing piece of work enough to
+'board' the tacks and sheets, as it is called. You are pulling at
+one end of the rope&mdash;but the gale is tugging at the other. The
+advantages of lungs are all against you, and perhaps the only thing
+to be done is to put the helm down a little, and set the sails
+shaking again before they can be trimmed properly. It was just at
+such a time that I came on deck, as above mentioned. Being near
+eight bells, the watch on deck had been not over spry; and the
+consequence was that our big maincourse was slatting and flying out
+overhead with a might that shook the ship from stem to stern. The
+flaps of the mad canvas were like successive thumps of a giant's
+fist upon a mighty drum. The sheets were jerking at the belaying
+pins, the blocks rattling in sharp snappings like castanets. You
+could hear the hiss and seething of the sea alongside, and see it
+flash by in sudden white patches of phosphorescent foam, while all
+over head was black with the flying scud. The English second mate
+was stamping with vexation, and, with all his h's misplaced,
+storming at the men: ''An'somely the weather mainbrace&mdash;'an'somely,
+I tell you!&mdash;'Alf a dozen of you clap on to the main sheet
+here&mdash;down with 'im!&mdash;D'y'see 'ere's hall like a midshipman's
+bag&mdash;heverythink huppermost and nothing 'andy. 'Aul 'im in, Hi
+say!' But the sail wouldn't come, though. All the most forcible
+expressions of the Commination Service were liberally bestowed on
+the watch. 'Give us the song, men!' sang out the mate, at
+last&mdash;'pull with a will!&mdash;together men!&mdash;haltogether now!'&mdash;And
+then a cracked, melancholy voice struck up this chant:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Oh, the bowline, bully, bully bowline,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.2em;">Oh, the bowline, bowline,</span> <span class="smcap">HAUL</span>!'
+</p>
+
+<p>At the last word every man threw his whole strength into the
+pull&mdash;all singing it in chorus, with a quick, explosive sound. And
+so, jump by jump, the sheet was at last hauled taut.' </p></div>
+
+<p>It would be well if the philanthropist and utilitarian would stoop to
+examine these primeval but neglected facts, for there is no doubt that
+under the healthful and delicious spell of Rhythm a far steadier and
+greater amount of labor would be cheerfully and happily endured by the
+working classes. The continuous but rhythmed croon of the negro when at
+work, the yo-heave-o of the sailor straining at the cordage, the rowing
+songs of the oarsman, etc., etc., are all suggestive of what might be
+effected by judicious effort in this direction. But man, ever wiser than
+his Maker, neglects the intuitions of nature. Rendered conceited by a
+false<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> education, and heartless by a constant craving for gold, he
+scorns the simple but deep intuitions which are his surest guide to
+civilization, health, and cheerfulness. There can be no doubt that the
+physical exercise so distasteful to the pale inhabitants of our cities,
+yet so essential for the preservation of health and life, might be
+rendered delightful and invigorating through the neglected powers of
+rhythmical motion. Like Michal, the proud daughter of Saul, who despised
+King David in her haughty heart when 'she saw him dancing with all his
+might before the Lord,' we scorn the simple and innocent delights of our
+nature, and, like Michal, we too are bitterly punished for our mistaken
+pride of intellect, for, neglecting the rhythmical requisitions of the
+body, we injure the mind, and may deprave the heart. Virtuously, purely,
+and judiciously applied to the amusements and artistic culture of a
+people, we are convinced the power of Rhythm would banish much of that
+craving for false excitement, for drinks and narcotics, an indulgence in
+which exerts so fatal an influence over the character and spiritual
+progress of a nation. It is surely not astonishing that Rhythm should be
+so pleasant to the senses, when we consider that the laws of order and
+unity by which it is regulated are the proper aliment of the soul.</p>
+
+<p>Strange pedantries have grown out of the neglect of music as a practical
+pervading element in modern education. We should endeavor to reform this
+fault; we should use this powerful engine of healing nature to remove
+from us the reproach of being merely a shopkeeping and money-making
+people.</p>
+
+<p>The wildest savage is not insensible to Rhythm. It fires his spirit in
+the war dance and battle chant, soothes him in the monotonous hum of the
+pow-wow, and softens him in naive love songs. It is the heart of music,
+and it can be proved that low and vulgar rhythms have a debasing effect
+upon the character of a people. 'Let me write the songs of a people,'
+said a great thinker, 'and I care not who makes its laws:'&mdash;if he
+included the tunes, there was no exaggeration in his thought. Alas! a
+meretricious age scorns and neglects the true, because it is always
+simple in its sublimity, and, striving to banish God from His own
+creation, would also banish nature and joy from the heart! A pedantic
+age loves all that is pretentious, glaring, and assuming; and Rhythm
+stoops to rock the cradle of the newborn infant; to soothe the negro in
+the rice swamp or cotton field; to shape into beauty the national and
+patriotic songs of a laborious but contented peasantry, as among the
+Sclaves&mdash;but what cares the age for the happiness of the race? 'Put
+money in thy purse,' is its consolation and lesson for humanity.</p>
+
+<p>The beat of the healthful heart is in unison with the feelings of the
+hour. Agitation makes it fitful and broken, excitement accelerates, and
+sorrow retards it. And this fact should be the model for all poetical
+and musical rhythm.</p>
+
+<p>To show how readily we associate feelings with different orders of
+sound, let us suppose we are passing the night somewhere, where a
+stranger, utterly unknown to us, occupies a room from which we can hear
+the sound of his footsteps. Suppose that through the tranquil hours of
+the night we hear his measured tread falling in equally accented and
+monotonous spondees, it is certain that a quick imagination will at once
+associate this deliberate tread with the state of mind in the unknown
+from which it will believe it to proceed, and will immediately suggest
+that the stranger is maturing some great design of heavy import to his
+future peace.</p>
+
+<p>Should the character of the spondaic tread suddenly change, should the
+footsteps become rapid, eager, and broken, we look upon the term of
+meditation and doubt as over, the resolve as definitely fixed, and the
+unknown as rest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>lessly longing for the hour of its fulfilment.</p>
+
+<p>When we hear steps resembling dactyls, anapaests, and choriambs thrown
+hurriedly together, broken by irregular pauses, we begin to build a
+whole romance on the steps of the stranger; we infer from them moments
+of grave deliberation; the languor consequent upon overwrought thought;
+renewed effort; resolve; alternations of passion; hope struggling with
+despair; until all at last seems merged in impatient longing for the
+hour of anticipated victory.</p>
+
+<p>Nor has the imagination been alone in its strange workings; it has
+whispered, as it always does, its secrets to the heart, and succeeded in
+arousing its ever-ready affections, so that we cannot help feeling a
+degree of interest in the unknown, whose emotions we have followed
+through the night, reading their history in his alternating footsteps:
+<i>for sounds impress themselves immediately upon the feelings, exciting,
+not abstract or antagonistic thought, but uniting humanity in concrete
+feeling</i>. (See vol. i.)</p>
+
+<p>As the imagination necessarily associates different feelings with
+different orders of Rhythm, it is the task of the Poet to select those
+in the closest conformity with the emotions he is struggling to excite.
+It is positively certain that we not only naturally and intuitively
+<i>associate</i> distinctive feelings with different orders of rhythmical
+sounds, but that varied emotions are <i>awakened</i> by them. Some rhythms
+inspire calmness, some sublime and stately courage, some energy and
+aggressive force, some stir the spirit to the most daring deeds, some,
+as in our maddening Tarantulas, produce a restless excitement through
+the whole nervous system, some excite mere joyousness, some whisper love
+through every fibre of the heart, and some lead us in their holy calm
+and unbroken order to the throne of God. Why is this? We need not look
+in the region of the understanding for the philosophy of that which is
+to be found only in the living tide of basic emotions. The pleasure we
+receive from Rhythm is a feeling. Alternate accentuation and
+non-accentuation are facts in the living organism of the universe; this
+may be expressed, not explained. There is an order in the living
+succession of musical sounds or poetic emotions, which order is
+expressed by the words 'equality and proportion.' These things <i>are</i>.
+What more can be said? Do comparisons help us? the waves in the eternal
+ocean of vitality&mdash;the shuttle strokes of the ever-moving loom of
+creation! Let us take it as it is, and rejoice in it. We cannot tell you
+why we live&mdash;let us be glad that our life is music through every
+heart-throb!</p>
+
+<p>Rhythm is a species of natural but inarticulate language, in which the
+<i>thought</i> is never disengaged from the <i>feeling</i>; in language its aim
+should be to awaken the <i>feeling</i> properly attached to the thought it
+modulates; it should be the <i>tune</i> of the thought of the Poet. To write
+a love song in alexandrines, an idyl in hexameters, would be to
+incarnate the shy spirit of a girl in the brawny frame of a Hercules, to
+incase the loving soul of a Juliet in a gauntleted Minerva. Genius and
+deep sympathy with human nature can alone guide the Poet aright in this
+delicate and difficult path; it lies too near the core of our
+unconscious being to be susceptible of the trim regularity of rule&mdash;he
+must trust his own intuitions while he studies with care what has
+already been successfully done by our best poets. We may however remark
+in passing that if the rhythm be abruptly broken without a corresponding
+break in the flow of thought or feeling, the reader will be confused,
+because the outward form has fallen into contradiction with its inner
+soul, and he discerns the opposition, and knows not with which to
+sympathize. Such contrarieties argue want of power or want of freedom in
+the poet, who should never suffer the clanking of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> rhythmical chains
+to be heard. Such causeless breaks proceed from want of truth to the
+subject, and prove a lack of the careful rendering of love in the
+author. The poet must listen to the naive voice of nature as he moulds
+his rhythms, for the ingenious and elaborate constructions of the
+intellect alone will never touch the heart. Rhythm may proceed with
+regularity, yet that regularity be so relieved from monotony and so
+modified in its actual effects, that however regular may be the
+structure of parts, what is composed of them may be infinitely various.
+Milton's exquisite poem, 'Comus,' is an example of perfect rhythm with
+ceaseless intricacy and great variety. It would indeed be a fatal
+mistake to suppose that <i>proportion</i> cannot be susceptible of great
+variety, since the whole meaning of the term has reference to the
+adjustment and proportional correspondence of <i>variable</i> properties.</p>
+
+<p>The appreciation of rhythm is universal, pertaining to no region, race,
+nor era, in especial. Even those who have never <i>thought</i> about it,
+<i>feel</i> order to be the law of life and happiness, and in the marking of
+the <i>proportioned</i> flow of time and the regular accentuation of its
+<i>determinate</i> portions find a perpetual source of healthful pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>If we will but think of it, we will be astonished how many ideas already
+analyzed we may find exhibited through rhythm. We may have: similarity,
+variety, identity, repetition, adaptation, symmetry, proportion,
+fitness, melody, harmony, order, and unity; in addition to the varied
+feelings of which it becomes the symbolic utterance. The Greeks placed
+rhythms in the hands of a god, thus testifying to their knowledge of
+their range and power.</p>
+
+<p>Wordsworth asserts that</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'More pathetic situations and sentiments, that is, those which have
+a greater proportion of pain connected with them, may be endured in
+metrical compositions than in prose.' </p></div>
+
+<p>The reason of this seems to be that the bright beams forever raying from
+the Divine Sun of unity and order, shine through the measured beat of
+the rhythm, and are always felt as life and peace, even when their
+golden light is broken by the wild and drifting clouds of human woe, or
+seen athwart the surging and blinding mists of mortal anguish.</p>
+
+<p>Rhythm lurks in the inmost heart of language, accenting our words that
+their enunciation may be clear and distinct; lengthening and shortening
+the time of our syllables that they may be expressive, emotional, and
+musical. Let the orator as well as the poet study its capabilities; it
+has more power over the sympathies of the masses than the most labored
+thought.</p>
+
+<p>Although through the quantitive arrangement and determinate accentuation
+of syllabic sound, rhythm may be exquisitely manifested through
+language, yet in music alone does it attain its full power and wonderful
+complexity. For the <i>tones</i> are not <i>thoughts</i>, but <i>feelings</i>, and
+yield themselves implicitly to the loving hand which would reunite them
+and form them into higher unities. These passionate tones, always
+seeking for and surging into each other, are plastic pearls on the
+string of rhythm, whose proportions may be indefinitely varied at the
+will of the fond hand which would wreathe them into strands of
+symmetrical beauty; while <i>words</i>, the vehicles of antagonistic thought,
+frequently refuse to conform to the requisitions of feeling, are often
+obstinate and wilful, will not be remodelled, and hard, in their
+self-sufficiency, refuse to bear any stamp save that of their known and
+fixed value. Like irregular beads of uncut coral, they protrude their
+individualities in jagged spikes and unsightly thorns, breaking often
+the unity of the whole, and painfully wounding the sense of order.</p>
+
+<p>The true poet overcomes these difficulties. When, in the hands of a
+master, they are forced to bend under the onward and impetuous sweep of
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> passionate rhythm, compelled to sing the tune of the overpowering
+emotions&mdash;the chords of the spirit quiver in response. The heart
+recognizes the organic law of its own life: <i>the constant recurrence of
+new effort sinking but to recover itself in accurately proportioned
+rest, rising again in ever-renewed exertion, to sink again in ever-new
+repose</i>; feeling seems clothing itself with living form, while the
+divine attribute, Order, marks for the ear, as it links in mystic Unity,
+the flying footsteps of that forever invisible element by which all
+mortal being is conditioned and limited: <span class="smcap">Time</span>!</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'There is no architect</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Can build as the Muse can;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">She is skilful to select</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Materials for her plan.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'She lays her beams in music,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">In music every one,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">To the cadence of the whirling world</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Which dances round the sun.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'That so they shall not be displaced</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">By lapses or by wars,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">But for the love of happy souls</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Outlive the newest stars.'</span><br />
+</p>
+<p>
+<span class="smcap"  style="margin-left: 8em;">Emerson.</span>
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="OUR_ARTICLE" id="OUR_ARTICLE"></a>'OUR ARTICLE.'</h2>
+
+<p>'John,' said I to my husband, as he came home from business, and settled
+into an armchair for half an hour's rest before dinner, 'I think of
+writing an article for <span class="smcap">The Continental Monthly</span>.'</p>
+
+<p>'Humph!' said my husband.</p>
+
+<p>Now 'humph' bears different interpretations; it may argue assent,
+indifference, disgust, disapprobation&mdash;in all cases it is aggressive;
+but this 'humph' seemed to be a combination of at least three of the
+above-mentioned frames of mind.</p>
+
+<p>Natural indignation was about taking full possession of me, but
+reflection stepped in, and I preserved a discreet silence. The truth is,
+no man should be assailed by a new idea before he has dined, and I,
+having had three years' opportunity of studying man nature, met my
+deserts when the above answer was given. So I still looked amiable, and
+behaved very prettily till dinner was over, and then John, having
+subsided into dressing gown, slippers, easy chair, and good nature, I
+remarked again:</p>
+
+<p>'John, I think of writing an article for <span class="smcap">The Continental
+Monthly</span>.'</p>
+
+<p>'How shall you begin it?' said he.</p>
+
+<p>'Well, I haven't exactly settled on a beginning yet, but&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'Exactly! I supposed so!' remarked this barbarian.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately, he knew my weak point, for hadn't he been allowed to see
+a desk full of magnificent middles, only wanting a beginning and an end,
+and a publisher, and some readers, to place me in the front ranks of our
+modern essayists, side by side with 'Spare Hours,' and the 'Country
+Parson,' and 'Gail Hamilton?'</p>
+
+<p>The fact is, I have always been brimming over with brilliant ideas on
+all sorts of subjects, which never would arrange themselves or be
+arranged under any given head, but presented a series of remarkable
+literary fragments, jotted down on stray bits of paper, in old account
+books and diaries, and even, on one or two occasions, when seized by a
+sudden inspiration, on a smooth stone, taken from the brook, a fair
+sheet of birch bark, and the front of a pew in a white-painted country
+church. Having been subject to these inspirational attacks for many
+years, I had decided<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> to take them in hand, and, if they must come,
+derive some benefit from them. An idea suggested itself. Claude
+Lorraine, it is said, never put the figures in his landscapes, but left
+that work for some brother artist. Now I could bring together material
+for an article; the inspiration, the picturing should be mine, but John
+should put in the figures. In other words, he should polish it, write
+the introduction and the <i>finis</i>, and send it out to the public, as the
+work of 'my wife and I.'</p>
+
+<p>Then a question occurred: how should we divide the honors, supposing
+such an article should really find its way into print? Would there not
+be material for a standard quarrel in the fact that neither could claim
+sole proprietorship? What would be John's sensation, should any one say
+to him: 'Mr. &mdash;&mdash;, I have just been reading your wife's last article;
+capital thing!' and, <i>vice versa</i>, imagine the same thing said of me.
+Could I preserve amiability under such circumstances, and would not the
+result be, a divorce in a year, and a furious lawsuit as to the
+ownership of the copyright? John certainly is magnanimous, I thought,
+but no one cares for divided honors, and there is that middle-aged
+relation of his, with a figure like a vinegar cruet, and a voice as acid
+as its contents, who never comes here for a day without doing her best
+to set us by the ears, and who, in the beginning of our married life,
+when we did not understand each other quite so well as now, sometimes
+succeeded, to her intense satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>How she would go about among all the friends and relations, pulling the
+poor articles to pieces, giving all the fine bits to John and the
+rubbish to me, and hinting generally that my pretensions to authorship
+were all very well, but that every one knew John did the work and I
+looked out for the credit.</p>
+
+<p>Here I paused. I had been successfully engaged in the pursuit of
+trouble, and had conjured up so irritating a picture, that actually a
+small tear had left its source, and was running over the bridge of my
+nose!</p>
+
+<p>'John,' I said, 'notwithstanding that I never did know how to begin
+anything in an effective way, I am still determined to write, and you
+must help me.'</p>
+
+<p>Then I opened my heart to him, and told him my plan, and the imagined
+tribulation it had given me in the last ten minutes.</p>
+
+<p>'There are too many writers already, Helen,' he said; 'every man who
+cannot see his way clear through life&mdash;every woman who fancies herself
+misunderstood and unappreciated, worries out a book or poem or a set of
+essays, to picture their individual wrongs and sufferings, and bores
+every publisher of every magazine and paper of which they have ever
+heard, till he is tormented into printing, or dies of manuscript on the
+brain. I tell you, Helen, we do our share in aggravating the people we
+meet daily, without tormenting an innocent man, 'who never did us any
+harm;' and I for one, don't want an extra sin on my conscience.
+Moreover, I am afraid it would spoil you, should you happen to succeed.
+Have you forgotten your old friend Angelina Hobbs? One article ruined
+her for life. Until that poem got into print and was favorably noticed,
+she was as sensible as ordinary girls, and never imagined herself a
+genius. Since then, there is not an 'ism' in America that she has not
+taken up and run into the ground; I have met her in every stage, from
+the coat and pantaloons of the Bloomer ten years ago to the hoopless old
+maid I saw yesterday going into Dodworth's Hall with the last spiritual
+paper and a spirit photograph in her hand. Not a literary man or woman
+do I know, who has not some crotchet in his or her brain, and who does
+not in some way violate the harmonies of life at least once an hour. Be
+content as you are: be satisfied to live without seeing yourself in
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span><span class="smcap">The Continental Monthly</span>, or any other monthly under the sun!'</p>
+
+<p>'John,' I said, 'I am surprised, I am astonished at the view you take of
+the case. I don't desire that publishers should be tormented into their
+graves; and if they are all as fat and rosy as the two we met the other
+day, I think you can dismiss all fears on that score. Moreover, I
+believe the world to be better for every book that is written, however
+insignificant it may be. The days of the corsairs and giaours, romantic
+robbers, and devout murderers, are over: our young ladies and our
+servant girls see no fascination in the pages of 'Fatherless Fanny,'
+'The Foundling,' or 'The Mysteries of Slabtown.' Arthur's stories and
+ten thousand others of the same class have taken their place, and
+commonplace as they may often be, have brought a healthier influence
+into action. No book written with an honest heart is lost; no poem or
+essay, however poor, fails to reach some mark. The printed page that to
+you or me looks so barren and poor, may carry to some soul a message of
+healing; may to some eyes have the light of heaven about it. And to how
+many aimless lives, writing has given a purpose which otherwise never
+might have entered it! John, I believe in writing, and this baby shall
+be taught to put his ideas into shape as soon as he is taught anything!
+I never wish him to settle down in the belief that he is a genius and
+can live on the fact; but he shall write if he can, and publish too, if
+any one will do it for him. If not, we will have a private printing
+press of our own, and get up an original library for our descendants.'</p>
+
+<p>'A genuine woman's answer,' said John; 'only one point in it touching
+upon my argument.' Here the baby opened his blue eyes wide. 'There!'
+said John; 'just for the present your life has a purpose, and we can
+dispense with writing, at least till that fellow is asleep again. When
+you have disposed of him, we will find out how many aims it is necessary
+for one woman to have, and what arrangement of them it is best to make.'</p>
+
+<p>The baby stayed awake obstinately, but I was reconciled to the fact, for
+our discussion might have become hot, and the writing ended for that
+evening quite as effectually as the baby had done it.</p>
+
+<p>Night came again, and this time John opened the subject, by placing
+before me a large package of foolscap, and a new gold pen.</p>
+
+<p>'I have brought some paper for you to spoil, Helen,' he said, 'for I
+foresaw how it would end. Do your best, and I will do mine in the matter
+of beginnings. I cannot write easily, you know, but I can suggest and
+dictate, when you wish it; and you have been my amanuensis for a year
+and more, so it will all seem very natural.'</p>
+
+<p>He looked down, as he spoke, at the scarred right hand and its missing
+fingers, carried away eighteen months before by a rebel bullet, and a
+little shade passed over his face.</p>
+
+<p>'No, John,' I said, 'don't look there now; look at my two hands waiting
+to do the work of that, and tell me if two are not better than one. We
+will write an article which shall astonish the critics, and bring
+letters from all the magazines, begging us to become special
+contributors at once; and we will not quarrel as to who shall have the
+glory, but make it a joint matter. And now I am ready to begin, and
+propose to speak upon a subject which I wonder greatly no one has taken
+up in detail before. Your words last evening brought out some dormant
+ideas. 'We do our share in aggravating the people we meet daily,' you
+said, and I have been reflecting upon the matter ever since, till now I
+am prepared to give my opinions to the world.'</p>
+
+<p>So saying, I arranged the table properly, took out some sheets of the
+smooth, white paper, filled my pen, and waited for the dawning of an
+idea. To which it came first, I shall not tell<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> you. The results are
+before you: which part is John's, which mine, you will never learn from
+us. It will be of no avail for you to write to the editors, for they
+don't know either, and will not be told. It will be a useful exercise
+for you to dissect the article, and set apart the masculine from the
+feminine portions. The critics will for once be quite at a loss how to
+abuse it, probably. I foresee a general distraction in the minds of our
+readers, and already hear ourselves classed as among one of the trials
+which I select as the title of 'Our Article.'</p>
+
+
+<h4>SOME OF THE AGGRAVATIONS OF LIVING.</h4>
+
+<p>Two thirds of life in the aggregate are made up of aggravations. They
+begin with our beginning, and only cease with our ending; perhaps, if
+good Calvinists speak the truth, not even then, for, according to their
+belief, the souls in torment look always upon the blessed in heaven, and
+this surely is the most horrible species of aggravation ever devised by
+man or fiend.</p>
+
+<p>From the time when the air first fills the lungs and the infant screams
+at the new sensation, to the day when fingers press down the resisting
+lids and straighten the stiffening limbs, we are forced to meet and to
+bear all manner of aggravations in nine tenths of our daily life.</p>
+
+<p>Has it ever occurred to any of you what an amount of unnecessary
+suffering an infant endures, and have you ever watched the operations it
+undergoes daily, with reference to the confirming of this fact? If not,
+an inexhaustible field of inquiry lies open before you, and after a
+week's observation of bandages rolled till the flesh actually
+squeaks&mdash;of pins stuck in and left, where you know they will prick&mdash;of
+smotherings in blankets and garrotings with bibs&mdash;of trottings for the
+wind and poundings for the stomach ache&mdash;of wakings up to show to
+visitors, and puttings to sleep when sleep is at the other end of the
+land of Nod, and will not be induced to come under any circumstances&mdash;of
+rockings and tossings&mdash;of boiling catnip tea and smooth horrible castor
+oil poured down the unsuspecting throat&mdash;after a week of such
+observations, I say, you will decide with me that the baby's life is
+only a series of aggravations, and feel astonished the bills of infant
+mortality do not double and treble.</p>
+
+<p>As years round out the little life, the hands, reaching out to the tree
+of knowledge, find themselves pushed back on all sides. The dearest
+wishes are made light of, the most earnest desires slighted, the most
+sacred thoughts ridiculed, till one marvels that men can grow up
+anything but devils. In the path where Gail Hamilton's feet have trod I
+need not follow, for she has told us what these 'Happiest Days' are, in
+better words than my pen can find. It warmed my heart as I read her
+protest against the platitudes concerning childhood and its various
+imagined delights. Mentally I shook hands, for she expressed my ideas so
+fully, that the notes I had long ago jotted down upon the subject I
+committed at once to the flames, satisfied I never could do any better,
+and might possibly do very much worse.</p>
+
+<p>I believe that the major part of sour-tempered, perversely wrong-headed,
+and unhappily disposed people, of hot-headed fanatics, victims to one
+idea, of once noble souls who sink themselves in sensuality, and so go
+down to death, and of all the sad cases one hears and reads of day after
+day and year after year, are made so through unceasing aggravation at
+the most impressible time of life. Do any of you who may be my readers
+know of half a dozen happy families in your circle of friends and
+acquaintance? Do you know of half a dozen where boys prefer home and
+their sisters to the streets, or where girls do not court the most
+uninviting boy in preference to their own brothers?</p>
+
+<p>One would almost imagine spite had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> been the feeling implanted in all
+homes, as they look at the private pinch exchanged between John and
+James, the face made by Mary at which Martha cries and is slapped by way
+of adjusting matters, and the general refusal of requests made to father
+and mother, whether reasonable or not. My own childhood was moderately
+happy, and yet I recall now the sense of burning indignation I sometimes
+suffered at wrongs done me, which the child's sense of justice told me
+were wrongs, and which I now know to have been so. Children are
+themselves one of the aggravations of living, but it is because we do
+not know how to treat them. I look for a time when every father shall be
+just, every mother reasonable as well as loving; when children shall
+neither be flogged up the way of life as in times past, or coaxed up
+with sugarplums as in times present, but, seeing with clear eyes the
+straight path, shall walk in it with joy, and finish their course with
+rejoicing.</p>
+
+<p>Another aggravation, and not a minor one either it strikes me, is the
+summary way in which youth is put down by middle-aged and aged people.
+Youthful emotions are 'bosh and twaddle,' youthful ideas, 'crude, sir,
+very crude!' and youthful attempts to be and to do something in the
+world frowned at, as if action of any sort, save inaction, before forty,
+were an outrage on humanity, and an insult to the Creator.</p>
+
+<p>How fares it with young professional men during the first ten years of
+their career? They hope and wait, doubt and wait, curse and wait, labor
+to wait, and in the mean time a wheezing old lawyer, with no more
+enthusiasm than a brickbat, takes the cases which Justice, if she were
+not blind, would have sent to his starving younger brethren, and pockets
+fat fees, a tenth of which would have lifted loads from many a heavy
+heart. An old family physician, an old minister, an old lawyer, are
+excellent in their way, and have a variety of pleasant associations with
+them, which it is impossible to pass over to the young aspirant who
+steps in to take their place; yet because Dr. Jones, aged sixty-eight,
+carried us safely through the measles, does it follow that Dr. Smith,
+aged twenty-eight, cannot do the same for our children?</p>
+
+<p>Because for thirty years the Rev. Dr. Holdfast has preached upon
+election, and justification by faith, is the Rev. Dr. Holeman to be set
+down as presumptuously progressive, because he suggests works as a test
+of the faith we profess, and ventures to speak of God, not as the stern
+Deity who commands us all to be afraid of Him, and who drops lost souls
+into the pit with a calm satisfaction, but as the loving Father of the
+world, who wills that all men should come to the knowledge of His truth.</p>
+
+<p>It is well for the old to give us their experience, well for the young
+to listen, but every man and every woman lives a life of their own,
+which the widest experience cannot touch at all points. No two natures
+have ever been nor ever can be exactly alike; no rules of the past can
+form the present in the same mould. Girls and boys, young men and women,
+must 'see the folly' for themselves, and all the advice and warning of
+all the ancestors under heaven cannot prevent it. Therefore, O
+middle-aged aunt, or white-haired grandparent, aggravate by unceasing
+advice, if you will, but be not aggravated if it isn't taken. Reflect as
+to how fully you availed yourself of the experience of <i>your</i>
+grandparents when you were young, and then make your demands
+accordingly. Tell the young the story of your life as a story, and they
+will listen and mayhap profit; give it as advice, and you shall see them
+keep as far off as circumstances will admit. It is my fixed belief that
+until the people in the world have learned how to hold their tongues, it
+will be entirely useless to read Dr. Cumming; believe in the Great
+Trib<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>ulation as much as you please, for it is about us all day long, but
+don't look out for the Millennium, which I think will consist entirely
+in people's minding their own business.</p>
+
+<p>In the inability or unwillingness of people to let other people alone,
+may be summed up all the aggravation of living. The bane of my life has
+been never being let alone. People seem to think they have come into the
+world with a special mission to give me advice, and from my babyhood up,
+I have never been allowed to carry out the best-arranged plan of
+operation, without interference. As each man and woman is the
+representative of a certain class, I conclude others have had the same
+experience with myself; and there is a gloomy satisfaction in reflecting
+that there are many who have been made as essentially uncomfortable as
+I. The result has been, I have come to the unalterable determination
+never, under any circumstances, to either advise anybody or receive it
+myself where it can be avoided. If it is ordained that I am to make a
+fool of myself, it shall be done on my own responsibility, and not with
+the assistance of meddling friends&mdash;though if they have any desire to
+take the credit of it, I shall make no objections whatever. I doubt if
+they will. The longer I live in the world, the clearer appears the fact
+that half at least of our unhappiness is unnecessary. We seem perversely
+bent on tormenting and being tormented. We visit people for whom we do
+not care one straw, because our position in society or our interests
+demand it. We sacrifice our own judgment to the whims of others as a
+matter of expediency, and almost ignore our own capacity in the
+eagerness to agree with everybody. We suffer because a rich snob snubs
+us, and agonize over unfavorable remarks made concerning our abilities
+or standing. These things ought not so to be. No man can find a
+substitute when he lies a-dying;&mdash;why should all his years be spent in
+the vain endeavor to find a substitute for living? An endless dependence
+upon the opinions, the whims, the prejudices of others, is the bane of
+living, and the mark of a weak mind, made so oftener by education than
+nature.</p>
+
+<p>When the young forget to abuse the old, and the old to run down the
+young; when mothers-in-law cease to hate their daughters-in-law, and to
+improve all opportunities for sowing strife; when wives take pains to
+understand their husbands, and husbands decide that woman nature is
+worth studying; when women can remember to be charitable to other women;
+when the Golden Rule can be read as it is written, and not 'Do unto
+others as ye would <i>not</i> they should do unto you;' when justice and
+truth rule men, rather than unreason and petty spite, then the
+aggravation of living will die a natural death, and the world become as
+comfortable an abiding place as its inhabitants need desire.</p>
+
+<p>Till then, hope and wait. Live the life God gives us, as purely and
+truly as you know how. Have some faith in human nature, but more in God,
+and wait his own good time for the perfect life, not to be reached here,
+but hereafter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_LESSON_OF_THE_WOOD" id="THE_LESSON_OF_THE_WOOD"></a>THE LESSON OF THE WOOD.</h2>
+
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In the same soil the family of trees</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Spring up, and, like a band of brothers, grow</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In the same sun, while from their leafy lips</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Comes not the faintest whisper of dissent</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Because of various girth and grain and hue.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The oak flings not his acorns at the elm;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The white birch shrinks not from the swarthy ash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The green plume of the pine nods to the shrub;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The loftiest monarch of the realm of wood</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Spares not his crown in elemental storms,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But shares the blows with trees of humbler growth,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And stretches forth his arms to save their fall.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wild flowers festoon the feet of all alike;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Green mosses grow upon the trunks of all;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sweet birds pour out their songs on every bough;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Clouds drop baptismal showers of rain on each,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And the broad sun floods every leaf with light.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Behold them clad in Autumn's golden pomp&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Their rich magnificence, of different dyes,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">More beautiful than royal robes, and crowns</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of emperors on coronation day.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But the deserted nest in silence sways</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Like a sad heart beneath a royal scarf;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And the red tint upon the maple leaves</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Is colored like the fields where fell our braves</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In hurricanes of flame and leaden hail.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I love to gaze up at the grand old trees;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Their branches point like hope to Heaven serene;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Their roots point to the silent world that's dead;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Their grand old trunks hold towns and fleets for us,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And cots and coffins for the race unborn.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When at their feet their predecessors fell,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Spring covered their remains with mourning moss,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And wrote their epitaph in pale wood flowers,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And Summer gave ripe berries to the birds</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To stay and sing their sad sweet requiem;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And Autumn rent the garments of the trees</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That stood mute mourners in a field of graves,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And Winter wrapped them in a winding sheet.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">They seemed like giants sleeping in their shrouds.</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="DIARY_OF_FRANCES_KRASINSKA" id="DIARY_OF_FRANCES_KRASINSKA"></a>DIARY OF FRANCES KRASINSKA;</h2>
+
+<h4>OR, LIFE IN POLAND DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.</h4>
+
+
+<p class='author'>
+<span class="smcap">Castle of Janowiec</span>,<br />
+Wednesday, <i>May 27th, 1760</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>I had hoped too much! He is going, and the memory of the past will
+render the days to come very sad. I knew that Monday was an unlucky day:
+since my maid gave me such a fright by announcing the approaching
+departure of the princes, all has gone from bad to worse.</p>
+
+<p>The huntsman who brought me the bouquet from the prince, told me, in his
+name, that he too was forced to depart. With great difficulty could he
+invent a pretext for remaining three days after his brothers left. These
+three days will not expire until to-morrow, and yet he leaves me to-day;
+he must go, and can no longer delay. The king has sent an express for
+him, with an order to return as soon as possible. He will leave in one
+half hour, and I do not know when we can meet again. Ah! how soon
+happiness passes away!...</p>
+
+
+<p class='author'>Sunday, <i>June 7th</i>.</p>
+
+<p>It is now two weeks since the prince royal left me; he has sent two
+expresses, and slipped two notes for me under cover to the prince
+palatine. But what is a letter?... An unfinished thought&mdash;it soothes for
+a moment, but cannot calm. A letter can never replace even a few seconds
+of personal intercourse; he has left me his portrait; I am sure every
+one would think it like him; but for me, it is merely a shred of
+inanimate canvas. It has his features, but it is not he, and has not his
+expression.... I have him much better in my memory.</p>
+
+<p>All consolation is denied me, for I will not reply to his letters; this
+restraint I have imposed upon myself; I am sure that my hand would
+become motionless as the cold marble were I to write to the man I love
+without the knowledge of my aunt, my elder sister, and my parents. I
+told the prince royal that he could never have a letter from me until I
+was his wife. This is a great sacrifice, but I have promised my God that
+I will accomplish it.</p>
+
+<p>Since his departure, time weighs upon me as a continued torture. During
+the first few days I wandered about as if bereft of reason; I could not
+fix my thoughts, or apply myself to any occupation. The illness of the
+princess has restored some energy to my soul. The injury to her foot,
+which she at first neglected, has become very serious; during three days
+she had a burning fever, which threatened her life. My anguish was
+beyond description; I am sure I could not have been more uneasy had it
+been my sister or one of my parents. I scarcely thought of the prince
+royal during the whole of those three days; and what is most strange, I
+no longer regretted his absence; if he had been here, I could not have
+devoted myself so entirely to the princess. The idea of her death was
+terrible to me, for, notwithstanding all the arguments of the prince
+royal and of the Princes Lubomirski, I feel myself very culpable in
+having withheld my confidence from her; if she suspects the truth, she
+has every reason to accuse me of perfidy.... There is in this world but
+one inconsolable evil, and that is the torture of a bad
+conscience&mdash;remorse....</p>
+
+<p>I hoped one day to be able to repair my wrongs toward the princess, to
+fall at her feet and confess my fault, but when I saw her in danger, I
+felt as if hell itself were menacing me, and as if I must be forever
+crushed under the weight of an eternal remorse....<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> Another thought too
+has distressed me to the very bottom of my soul! My parents are advanced
+in years; if I should lose them before I have confessed my secret to
+them! It is written above that I am to know every sorrow! Heaven has
+cruelly tried me, but to-day a ray of pity seems to have fallen upon my
+miserable fate. The princess is steadily improving, and I have received
+good news from Maleszow; I breathe again.</p>
+
+<p>Were the king to give his consent to our marriage, I could not be
+happier than I was on hearing from the physician's own mouth that the
+princess was out of danger.... I will then be able to open my heart to
+her! Ah! my God! if this painful dissimulation weighs so heavily upon
+me, what must be the state of the prince royal, who is deceiving his
+father, his king, and offending him by a misplaced affection!</p>
+
+<p>Why did not these reflections present themselves to me before? Why did I
+not show him the abyss into which we were about to fall?... My happiness
+then blinded me, and now I can fancy no condition which I would not
+prefer to my own.... I feel humiliated by my imprudence. Did I not, with
+the whole strength of my wishes and desires draw upon me this very love
+so dear to my heart and so fatal to my repose? My pride has lost me; and
+that pride is an implacable enemy, which I have no longer strength to
+subdue. Oh! I must indeed blame our little Matthias! It was he who first
+awoke such ambitious dreams within my soul.</p>
+
+<p>Happy Barbara! If I only, like her, loved a man of rank equal to my own!
+But no, I am not of good faith with myself: the prince royal's position
+dazzled me. Ah! how merciful is heaven to cover our innermost thoughts
+with an impenetrable veil! Alas! God pardons the defects in our frail
+humanity sooner than we ourselves can!</p>
+
+<p>I left the princess half an hour ago, and must now return to her; she
+loves so to have me with her! And indeed, no one can wait upon her as
+well as myself. I feel happy when sitting at her bedside; I regain
+courage when I think that I am useful to her, and I feel a kind of joy
+in finding that my heart is not occupied by one sentiment to the
+exclusion of all others.</p>
+
+
+<p class='author'><span class="smcap">Castle of Opole</span>, Thursday, <i>June 18th</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The princess has entirely recovered, and we have been three days at
+Opole. I was sorry to leave Janowiec, for all around me bore the impress
+of his presence. In his last letter, he announces a very sad piece of
+news: he is forced to pass two months in his duchy of Courland. He will
+endeavor to see me before he goes; but will he succeed? Two months! how
+many centuries, when one must wait!</p>
+
+<p>We have had several visitors from Warsaw; among others, Adam Krasinski,
+Bishop of Kamieniec; he is in every way estimable, and universally
+esteemed! All speak of the change in the prince royal: he is pale and
+sad, and flies the world. The king himself is uneasy concerning his son,
+and it is I who am the cause of all this woe. Is love then a
+never-ending source of sorrow? He suffers for me, and his suffering is
+my most cruel torment.... They say too that I am changed, and believe me
+ill: the good princess attributes my pallor to the nights I have watched
+by her side. Her manifestations of interest pierce my heart! When shall
+I be at peace with my conscience?</p>
+
+
+<p class='author'>Saturday, <i>July 11th</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Like a flash of lightning has a single ray of happiness shone out and
+then disappeared. He came here to see me, but could remain only two
+hours. Last Wednesday he left Warsaw, as if he were going to Courland,
+but, sending his carriages before him on the way to the north, he turned
+aside and hastened here. His court awaited him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> at Bialystok, and he was
+forced to travel night and day to avoid suspicion. I saw him for so
+short a time that those few happy moments seem only a dream. He was
+obliged to assume his huntsman's dress in order to gain admittance
+unknown into the castle.</p>
+
+<p>No one penetrated his disguise, and no one except the prince palatine
+was cognizant of our interview. He spoke to me, he gave me repeated
+assurances of his love, and restored to me my dearest hopes; had he not
+done so, I feel I should have died before the expiration of the three
+months. Three months is the very least that he can remain at Mittau. How
+many days, how many hours, how many minutes in those three months! I
+could be more resigned were I alone to suffer; but he is so unhappy at
+our separation!</p>
+
+
+<p class='author'>Thursday, <i>September 3d</i>.</p>
+
+<p>I have neglected my journal during nearly two months. Good and evil, all
+passes in this world. My days have been sad and monotonous, but they are
+gone, and their flight brings me nearer to my happiness. The prince
+royal assures me in all his letters that he will return in October. I
+was crazy with joy to-day when I found the leaves were falling: I am
+charmed with this foretaste of autumn. We will leave for Warsaw in a
+very few days.</p>
+
+<p>A new incident has lately come to pass: a very brilliant match has been
+offered for me, and the princess, who loves me twice as well since I
+nursed her through her illness, after having concerted the marriage with
+my parents and the Bishop of Kamieniec, hoped to win my consent. I was
+forced to bear her anger and reproaches, and worse than all that, the
+bitter allusions which she made to the prince royal....</p>
+
+<p>To satisfy my parents, I was obliged to humiliate myself, and write a
+letter of excuse; my mother deigned to send me a reply filled with
+sorrow, but without anger. She ends her letter by saying: 'Parents who
+send their children away from them, must expect to find them rebellious
+to their will.'</p>
+
+<p>My poor mother! She still gives me her sacred blessing, and assures me
+of my father's forgiveness! Ah! I purchase very dearly my future
+happiness and greatness!</p>
+
+
+<p class='author'><span class="smcap">Warsaw</span>, Tuesday, <i>September 22d</i>.</p>
+
+<p>We returned to Warsaw several days ago. Ah! with what joy did I find
+myself once more here; how beautiful this city is! Here I will often see
+the prince royal. He assures me in his last letter that he will return
+by the first of October; I have then only one week to wait; without this
+hope I should no longer have any desire to live. Nothing now gives me
+any pleasure. Dress tires and annoys me, visits and assemblies weary me
+to death; every person whom I meet seems to me a scrutinizing judge; I
+fancy that all are pitying or blaming me. Especially do I fear the women
+of my acquaintance; they are not indulgent, because they are never
+disinterested; they are no better pleased with another woman's good
+fortune than they are with her beauty and agreeability....</p>
+
+<p>Even yesterday, with what cruelty Madame &mdash;&mdash;, but I will not write her
+name&mdash;questioned me! She enjoyed my confusion; I was almost ready to
+weep, and she was delighted. In the presence of fifty persons, she
+revenged herself for what is called <i>my triumph</i>, but what I consider
+the most <i>sacred happiness</i>. Ah! how deeply she wounded me! I almost
+hate her.... This feeling alone was wanting to complete the torment of
+my soul. The prince palatine took pity on me, and came to my aid; may
+God reward him! In every difficult crisis he is always near with his
+active and powerful friendship. He would be quite perfect, if he only
+understood me a little better; but when I weep and show my sorrow, he
+laughs and calls me a child.... I cannot tell him everything.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class='author'>Thursday, <i>October 1st</i>.</p>
+
+<p>He has come, and I have seen him; he is quite well, and yet I am not
+happy. I saw him amid a crowd of indifferent people; and when my
+feelings impelled me to run and meet him in the palace court, I was
+forced to remain by my work table and wait until he came into the
+saloon, when he of course first saluted the princess, and my only
+consolation consisted in being able to make him a formal and icy
+reverence. But he is come, and all must now go well.</p>
+
+
+<p class='author'><i>October 12th.</i></p>
+
+<p>Great God! how sweet are the words to which I have just given utterance!
+Happy, a thousand times happy, is the woman who can promise with all her
+heart to give her hand during her whole life to him whom she loves! The
+fourth of November is the prince's birthday. He desires, he demands,
+that this may be the day of our holy union! He made me swear by my God,
+and by my parents, that I would no longer oppose his wishes; he said he
+would doubt my affection if I still hesitated. His tears and prayers
+overcame me; encouraged by the advice of the prince palatine, I promised
+all he desired, and already do I repent my weakness. But he&mdash;he was
+happy when he left me....</p>
+
+<p>He wished our marriage to be kept secret from my parents, as it must be
+during some time from the rest of the world; he desired that the Princes
+Lubomirski should be our only witnesses and our only confidants; but I
+opposed this project with all my strength; I even threatened him with
+becoming a nun rather than play so guilty a part toward my parents. He
+finally yielded: he is so kind to me. It was then decided that I should
+write to my parents, and that he would add a postscript to my letter.</p>
+
+<p>At first I felt grateful to him for his submission; but with a little
+more reflection I felt offended. Is it not he who should write to my
+parents? Is it not thus that such affairs are conducted? Alas, yes; but
+only when one weds an equal! It is a prince, a prince of the blood royal
+who <i>deigns</i> to unite himself to me! He then does me a favor in wedding
+me.... This thought has become so bitter that I was on the point of
+retracting; but it is too late, for I have given my word.</p>
+
+<p>I must now write to my parents; I must confess to them the love which I
+have so long kept a secret from them. Ah! how wicked they will think me!
+I have been wanting in confidence toward the best of mothers.... My God!
+inspire me; give me courage! A criminal dragged before his judges could
+not tremble more than I do!</p>
+
+
+<p class='author'>Thursday, <i>October 22d</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The prince palatine's confidential chamberlain has already left for
+Maleszow. I am very well satisfied with my letter; but the prince royal
+finds fault with it, and says it is too humble; I, in my turn, found his
+postscript altogether too royal. I was about to tell him so, when the
+prince palatine stopped me.</p>
+
+<p>What will my parents say? Perhaps they will refuse their consent, and,
+strange as it may appear, during the last few days, the sense of my own
+dignity has been stronger than my vanity or my desire for greatness.
+This event seems to me quite ordinary: it is true he is the prince
+royal, Duke of Courland, and will perhaps one day be King of Poland, but
+if he has not my father's consent, it is he who is not my equal.</p>
+
+<p>If no opposition is made to my marriage, I ardently desire that it may
+be the parish priest of Maleszow who will give us the nuptial
+benediction; the prince palatine has promised me to do all he can; at
+least, he will be the representative of my parents, and will confer a
+small degree of propriety upon the ceremony. Barbara's destiny is ever
+in my thoughts! I deemed her wishes very modest when she said to me:
+'Strive to be as happy as I am!' Alas! her happiness is immense, when I
+compare it with mine!...<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class='author'>Wednesday, <i>October 28th</i>.</p>
+
+<p>My parents' answer has arrived; they give us their blessing and wish me
+much happiness; but the tenderness they express toward me is not like
+that obtained and merited by Barbara. This is just; I suffer, but have
+no right to complain. The prince royal expected to receive an especial
+letter addressed to himself; but my parents have not written to him. He
+is piqued, and conversed a long time with the prince palatine on the
+pride of certain Polish nobles.</p>
+
+<p>I feel more tranquil since my parents know our secret; my heart is
+relieved from a most cruel torment. My parents promise not to reveal our
+marriage without the prince royal's consent; one may see in their letter
+both joy and surprise; but there is a tone of sadness in my mother's
+expressions which touches me deeply. She says:</p>
+
+<p>'If you are unhappy, I will not be responsible for it; if you are happy
+(and I shall never cease to beg this blessing of God in my prayers), I
+will rejoice, but at the same time regret that I had no part in
+contributing to your felicity'....</p>
+
+<p>These words are almost illegible, for I have nearly effaced them with my
+tears.</p>
+
+<p>The curate from Maleszow will arrive next week, and we will be married
+immediately after. The prince palatine has had the necessary papers
+prepared, and no one has any suspicion. I can scarcely believe that my
+marriage is so near.... No preparations will be made for me; all must be
+conducted with the greatest secrecy. When Barbara married, she had no
+reason to hide herself; all Maleszow was in commotion on her account.</p>
+
+<p>If I could only see the prince royal, I should feel consoled. But
+sometimes two whole days pass by without any possibility of meeting him.
+He is afraid of exciting the king's suspicions, and still more, those of
+Bruhl; he avoids me at all public assemblies, and comes less frequently
+to the prince palatine's. To all these painful necessities of my
+position must I submit.</p>
+
+<p>Yesterday evening, at Madame Moszynska's <i>soir&eacute;e</i>, I accidentally
+overheard a conversation which pained me deeply. A gentleman whom I did
+not know, said to his neighbor: 'But the Starostine Krasinska is
+terribly changed!' The answer was: 'That is not at all astonishing, for
+the poor young girl is madly in love with the prince royal, and he is
+somewhat capricious; when he sees a pretty woman, he falls in love with
+her immediately, and now he is all devotion to Madame Potocka, and has
+eyes for no one but her.'</p>
+
+<p>I am sure the prince pretends to be occupied with other women that he
+may the more readily conceal his real feelings, and yet I shuddered when
+I heard this conversation. It is really frightful to be the subject of
+such improper pleasantries!</p>
+
+<p>If I only had a friend in whom I could confide, and whose advice I could
+ask! My maid is as stupid as an owl, and suspects nothing, but
+notwithstanding, she is to be sent to the interior of Lithuania, and in
+a few days her place will be supplied by a middle-aged married lady of
+good birth and acknowledged discretion. I have not seen her yet, and I
+have no one to consult with regard to my wedding toilette. For want of a
+better adviser, I consulted the prince palatine, and he replied: 'Dress
+as you do every day.'</p>
+
+<p>What a strange destiny! I am making the most brilliant marriage in the
+whole kingdom, and yet my shoemaker's daughter will have a trousseau and
+wedding festivities which I am forced to envy.</p>
+
+
+<p class='author'><span class="smcap">Warsaw</span>, Wednesday, <i>November 4th, 1760</i>.</p>
+
+<p>My destiny is accomplished, and I am the prince royal's wife! We have
+sworn before God eternal love and fidelity; he is mine, irrevocably
+mine! Ah! how sweet, and yet how cruel was that moment! They were forced
+to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> hurry the ceremony, as we feared discovery.</p>
+
+<p>I saw nothing of the prince royal during the week preceding my marriage;
+he feigned sickness, and did not leave his room; he has refused to-day
+invitations to dinner at the prince primates, the ambassadors, and even
+one to the ball given by the grand general of the crown: his supposed
+illness was the pretext on which he freed himself from these
+obligations.</p>
+
+<p>My former waiting woman was sent away day before yesterday, and
+yesterday came the new one, who has sworn upon the crucifix to be silent
+upon all she may see and hear.</p>
+
+<p>At five o'clock this morning, the prince palatine knocked at my door; I
+had been dressed for at least two hours. We departed as noiselessly as
+possible, the prince royal and Prince Martin Lubomirski met us at the
+palace gate.... The night was dark, the wind blew, and the cold was
+intense. We went on foot to the Carmelite church, because it is the
+nearest: our good priest already stood before the altar. If the prince
+royal had not supported me, I should have fallen many times during the
+passage.</p>
+
+<p>And how sad and melancholy was all within the church! On all sides the
+silence and darkness of the grave! Two wax tapers burned upon the altar,
+casting a dim and uncertain light, while the sound of our own steps was
+the only sign of life heard within the solemn and sombre vault of the
+temple. The ceremony did not last ten minutes, the curate made all
+possible haste, and we fled the church as if we had committed some
+crime. The prince royal returned with us: Prince Martin wished him to go
+at once to the palace, but he would not leave me, and with great
+difficulty did he at length part from me.</p>
+
+<p>My dress was such as I wear every day. I had only dared to place one
+little branch of rosemary in my hair.... While I was dressing, I thought
+of Barbara's wedding, and could not refrain from weeping.... It was not
+my mother who prepared the ducat, the morsel of bread, the salt, and the
+sugar, which the betrothed should bear with her on her wedding day; and
+so, at the last moment, I forgot them.</p>
+
+<p>I am now alone in my chamber; not a single friendly eye will say to me:
+'Be happy!' My parents have not blessed me.... Profound silence reigns
+in every direction, all are yet asleep, and this light burns as if near
+a corpse.... Ah! my God! what a mournful festival! Were it not for this
+feverish agitation and this wedding ring, which I must soon take off and
+hide from every eye, I should believe all these events to be merely a
+dream.... But no, I am his, and God has received our vows.</p>
+
+
+<p class='author'><span class="smcap">Sulgostow</span>, Monday, <i>December 24th</i>.</p>
+
+<p>I thought when I married that I would no longer have any occasion to
+write in my journal: I believed that a friend, another me, would be the
+depositary of all my thoughts. I said to myself: 'Why should I write,
+when I will tell all to the prince royal (it seems to me as if I could
+call him thus during my whole life)? He does not know enough Polish to
+read my diary, and consequently it is useless.' But everything separates
+me from my well-beloved husband; I will continue to write that I may be
+more closely bound to him, that I may preserve all the remembrances
+which come to me from him.... I am pursued by a pitiless fate! Ah! what
+despair is at my heart!... When shall I see him again?</p>
+
+<p>These last few days have been fearful! I thank Heaven that I am not yet
+mad! The princess palatiness has sent me from her house, driven me out
+as if I were unworthy to remain.... I have taken refuge with my sister
+at Sulgostow: when I arrived, I sent for Barbara and her husband, and
+said to them: 'Oh, have pity, have pity on me, for I am innocent; I am
+the prince royal's wife!'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>My poor sister, to whom the whole transaction was a mystery, thought I
+had lost my reason, and was about calling in her maids to aid me. I
+endeavored to calm her fears, and to-day I have confided to her all my
+sorrows.</p>
+
+<p>I will try to write down all these recent events. If God ever permits me
+to enjoy happiness and tranquillity, I will again read these pages, and
+will better appreciate the value of a quiet felicity.</p>
+
+<p>Six weeks passed after our marriage, and no one had the least suspicion:
+neither the king, the court, nor the watchful society surrounding me,
+had penetrated our secret; all called me as usual, the Starostine
+Krasinska. The prince royal, under the pretext of his health, went
+nowhere, and the prince palatine managed our interviews. But a week
+since the prince royal began to go out, and paid a visit to my aunt, the
+princess. I was in the saloon when he was announced; it was the first
+time since our marriage that I had seen him in presence of a third
+person, and I found it impossible to hide my confusion. I could not see
+and hear him without telling him through my eyes that I loved him.</p>
+
+<p>The princess observed me. When he was gone, she scolded me, and
+reproached me with what she called my coquetry and imprudence; I could
+not bear her injustice, and very rashly replied, that no one had a right
+to blame me when my own conscience absolved me. The prince royal came
+again the next day; the princess was abstracted, and a dissatisfaction,
+which she strove in vain to disguise, appeared in her whole manner. He
+was entirely occupied with me, and did not perceive the storm which was
+gathering; not having been able to speak with me alone on that day, he
+had written to me, and while pretending to play with my work basket, he
+slipped a note into it. The princess saw it, and as soon as he had gone,
+seized upon the fatal note, which was addressed to: 'My well beloved.'</p>
+
+<p>I can never describe her anger and indignation. How did I ever live
+through that horrible scene!...</p>
+
+<p>'Your <i>intrigues</i>,' she cried, 'will never succeed in my house; you are
+the horror, the shame, and the ignominy of your family, and you shall
+not disgrace my mansion. I have already taken measures to put an end to
+your infamous conduct; here is a copy of the letter sent by me this
+morning to the minister, Bruhl. I tell him that honor is dearer and more
+sacred to me than all family ties, that an ambitious hope will never
+induce me to renounce the duties which it imposes upon me, and that I
+now esteem it my duty to inform him that the prince royal loves Frances
+Krasinska. I conjure the minister to do all in his power to end this
+intrigue while there is yet time. I will prove that I have nothing to do
+with this abomination, and that if I have been in fault, it was because
+I placed such implicit confidence in my niece's virtue. Yes&mdash;the king
+himself, at this very moment, probably knows the whole extent of your
+shame and your insane pride.'</p>
+
+<p>'The king!' I cried, almost out of my senses, 'the king! Ah! Let no one
+tell him that I am the prince royal's wife; let no one tell him that, or
+I shall die at your feet!'</p>
+
+<p>Lost to all memory, all sense, except that of the fearful abyss just
+opened before me, I thus confessed the secret which no personal
+invective or humiliation could have drawn from me.</p>
+
+<p>'How?' she replied, 'the wife of the prince royal! You! his wife!'</p>
+
+<p>This word recalled me to myself, and led me to comprehend the enormity
+of my fault. I shuddered when I thought of the prince's anger, and I saw
+but one chance for safety, and that was by confessing all to the
+princess.</p>
+
+<p>I fell at her feet, imploring, her to forgive the past, and keep our
+secret. Whether she was offended by the tardi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>ness of my confession, or
+whether she thought she had gone too far to retrace her steps, I know
+not, but she remained implacable, and with cold and repulsive dignity
+commanded me to rise, saying:</p>
+
+<p>'So great a lady should never be found at any one's feet, and I offer
+you a thousand apologies for my conduct toward you.'</p>
+
+<p>I attempted to kiss her hand, but she withdrew it, and ended by saying
+that her house was unworthy of a lady of my quality, of a princess
+royal, of an independent duchess, of the future Queen of Poland. She
+then made all the preparations necessary for my departure.</p>
+
+<p>I retained strength enough to control my feelings, for which I thank
+God: a momentary flash of anger did not cause me to forget so many
+proofs of kindness and affection, and, with the docility of a girl of
+sixteen, I prepared to depart, although I was entirely ignorant where I
+should go to, or who would offer me protection and an asylum.... I
+believe the word <i>Sulgostow</i> was uttered either by myself or by the
+princess. The valet who came to take the princess's orders during the
+latter part of our conversation, mentioned throughout the mansion that I
+was going to Sulgostow to pass the Christmas holidays.</p>
+
+<p>Chance decided my fate, and, incapable of forming any resolution, I was
+happy in permitting myself to be guided by others. Before I left, I
+wrote a long letter to the prince royal, which I confided to the
+princess. In less than two hours all my arrangements were made; I came
+and went, I acted mechanically, without fixed thought or purpose; I was
+finally placed in the carriage with my lady companion, and the horses
+bore us rapidly away from Warsaw.</p>
+
+<p>When I beheld the walls of Sulgostow, I began to think upon how I could
+best acquaint my sister with these incredible events; but once in her
+presence, my confusion was such that I lost the power of measuring my
+words, and hence she fancied I had gone mad....</p>
+
+<p>Now that all has been explained, we laugh together over this strange
+mistake, but such laughter is only a momentary forgetfulness of my
+position, and a passing truce to my torment. These first two days have
+been most painful, for I have as yet heard nothing from the prince
+royal. I cannot express my grief and my anguish; my health must be very
+strong not to have suffered more from such torments.... At least, may I
+not hope that my dreams of bliss will one day be realized?</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_GREAT_STRUGGLE" id="THE_GREAT_STRUGGLE"></a>THE GREAT STRUGGLE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Is it true that 'our democratic institutions are now on trial?'
+Everybody, or nearly everybody, says so. <i>The London Times</i> says so, and
+is or has been gloating over their failure. Many of our 'able editors'
+say so, and are trying desperately to prove that they will not fail.
+Thus, while there is a wide difference in opinion as to what may be the
+result, there seems to be a quite general agreement as to the fact that
+the trial is going on. There appears to be no suspicion that the
+question is not properly stated. Doubtless the assertion will excite
+surprise, if heeded at all, that in fact the great struggle here and now
+is <i>not</i> between aristocracy or despotism on the one hand, and democracy
+on the other. Most people in the United States have come to entertain
+the fixed idea that the only natural political antagonisms are
+democratic as opposed to despotic in any and all shapes. And this idea
+has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> become so ingrained in the American mind that it will be difficult
+to gain credence for the assertion that the terms constitutionalism and
+absolutism represent the forces or systems which, have really been
+antagonistic ever since Christianity began to affect and animate social
+and political relations.</p>
+
+<p>It may be a new idea to many readers that absolutism can be democratic,
+as well as aristocratic or autocratic. Yet such is the fact, and the
+whole history of Greece and Rome proves it. Plato, the friend of the
+people, taught the absolute power of the state&mdash;of the power holder,
+whoever that might be, whether the people, the aristocracy, the
+triumvirate, the archon, or the consul. It was not possible for Plato,
+Demosthenes, or Cicero, to conceive the idea of constitutionalism.</p>
+
+<p>Wherever the will of the power holder operates <i>directly</i> upon the
+subject or object, there is absolutism. Interpose a <i>medium</i> between the
+two, separate the law <i>maker</i> from the law <i>executor</i>, make <i>both</i> the
+subjects or servants of the law, and then, if the people are virtuous,
+you can harmonize private liberty with public order. The individual must
+not be absorbed by the state; individual liberty must not be merged in
+absolutism. Nor must the state go down before individualism.</p>
+
+<p>The problem is to render possible and reconcile the coexistence of the
+largest private liberty and the highest public authority. This implies
+the idea of <i>mediation</i>. There must be <i>mediatizing</i> institutions
+standing between the state and the individual, insuring the safe
+transmission of power, and guaranteeing justice between the state and
+individuals, as well as between individuals in their relations with each
+other. This done, you realize or actualize the grand idea of mediation
+in the political relations of men. The distinguishing idea of
+Christianity&mdash;the God-man reconciling man with God, and thus harmonizing
+the finite with the infinite&mdash;this idea must actualize itself in the
+affairs of men, in order to harmonize perfect liberty with salutary
+authority. Animated by this idea, penetrated with profoundest belief of
+the infinite worth of the individual man because the God-man had
+wonderfully renewed his nature, the early Christian heroes and martyrs
+took hold of the hostile and disorganized elements of European
+society&mdash;the fragments of the Roman empire on the one hand, and the
+barbarians of the north on the other&mdash;and brought order out of chaos.
+They re-organized society by naturally, though slowly, developing those
+numerous intermediary institutions&mdash;guilds, corporations, trial by jury,
+the judiciary, and representation of interests, orders, guilds and
+corporations, <i>not of individual heads</i>, in Parliament&mdash;all which, as a
+living, harmonious system, constitute, or <i>did</i> constitute, the English
+Constitution, and were essentially reproduced in the Constitution of the
+United States, and which wonderfully distinguish constitutionalism from
+absolutism.</p>
+
+<p>'The will of the emperor has the force of law,' was the fundamental
+maxim of the civil law. Emperor, imperator;&mdash;hence, imperialism,
+C&aelig;sarism, absolutism. That maxim obtained with pagans&mdash;civilized it may
+be, but none the less pagans&mdash;whose theory or gospel was that 'man is
+his own end.' Man's infinite moral worth as man, was not known or not
+recognized in the pagan civilization of the classic Greeks and Romans.
+Hence the state, which outlived the individual, was of more importance
+than the individual, and naturally absorbed the individual. Man being
+his own end, and existence being next to impossible without society, the
+state was the best means to obtain his end, and therefore Plato taught
+that man lives for the state, must be trained up for the state, belongs
+to the state, and is of no value outside of the state. Hence the pagan
+civilization of Greece and Rome, being intensely human, while it became
+very splendid and refined, became also, and could not help<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> becoming
+intensely and unutterably corrupt&mdash;so corrupt that St. Paul refrained
+from finishing the disgusting catalogue of its awful sins and vices. The
+church, Christianity, could save <i>man</i>, but it could not save the
+<i>empire</i>. The principle of social harmony being lost, government and
+society fell to pieces.</p>
+
+<p>On a certain memorable occasion, the present Emperor of France uttered
+the mystic phrase: <i>The empire is peace!</i> So it is. But how? I answer:
+Several centuries of Godless French statesmanship&mdash;engineered by men
+who, though nominal Christians or Catholics, discarded God in affairs of
+state, and attempted to rule without God in the world, except to use Him
+(pardon the expression) as a sort of scarecrow for the 'lower
+orders'&mdash;resulted in gradually drying up those intermediary institutions
+which had served at once to develop a manly civic life and to protect
+private liberty, and in reabsorbing and concentrating all power in the
+central government. Even in the early part of these centuries, Louis the
+Fourteenth made his boast, 'I am the state,' and thereby announced the
+substantial reinauguration of pagan imperialism or absolutism. His
+successors, aided by the ever-growing influence of the renaissance,
+which was but the revivification of classic paganism, continued his
+system, and when at last their cruel, inhuman, and unchristian
+oppressions drove men to the assertion of their rights in the fierce
+whirlwind of the French Revolution, that very assertion, 'clad in hell
+fire,' as Carlyle says, was based on the self-same fundamental principle
+that 'man is his own end.' The Revolution also ignored the divine idea,
+and failed. The subsequent revolutions, and especially that of 1848,
+were no wiser. The last was simply the triumph of democratic absolutism
+by universal suffrage, in place of autocratic or monarchic absolutism,
+as De Tocqueville clearly demonstrated in his 'Ancient Regime and the
+Revolution.' De Tocqueville had thoroughly mastered the constitutional
+system, as had also Lacordaire and Montalembert, and he, as well as
+they, joined the so-called republican movement of 1848, hoping that
+constitutionalism would triumph at last. But he soon saw that European
+Democrats or Red Republicans did not comprehend the idea;&mdash;that, in
+fact, they meant absolutism, though democratic; and he retired in
+disappointment, though calm hopefulness, to his estate, and there wrote
+his 'Ancient Regime.'</p>
+
+<p>True, the Red Republicans issued high-sounding phrases about liberty,
+rights of man, and the right of the people to govern. But they meant
+rights of man independent of God, and the right of the people to be
+absolute; and they continued the system of centralism, or government by
+bureaucracy, without God. The French have learned by sad experience that
+there is a thousand times more danger of change, turbulence, and
+disruption, under democratic absolutism than under autocratic
+absolutism. Louis Napoleon knows it well, and hence his significant
+phrase, 'The empire is peace.' It is the strong iron band around a mass
+of antagonistic atoms, which have lost, at least in the sphere of
+politics, the cohesive principle of harmony: union with each other by
+virtue of union with the God-man.</p>
+
+<p>Through all the terrific scenes of turbulence and carnage, the frequent
+dynastic changes, and the fearful scourgings of the French empire since
+the days of Louis the Fourteenth, the nation itself has not been
+destroyed, because, after all, there was and is a vast deal of virtue in
+the people as individuals. God never destroyed a nation for its public
+or national sins until the people themselves had become individually
+thoroughly corrupt. The city of Sodom itself would have been spared had
+even <i>five</i> good men been found therein. And so the French nation does
+not go to pieces, as the Roman empire did, because, notwithstanding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> the
+vice of Paris, of which we hear and read so much, and the godlessness of
+French statesmanship and French literature, the great body of the
+people, even in Paris, still retain their integrity, and a wholesome
+fear of God. But because their current literature is heathenish, and
+their statesmanship has ignored honesty and the divine origin of man's
+rights, those intermediary institutions, which were developed by
+Christian charity from the idea that man's rights are sacred because
+God-given and dignified by the God-man, have been undermined or
+disanimated, and it has come to pass that the only government possible,
+where the divine idea is eliminated from politics, is one in the form of
+absolutism. How long this form will continue in France remains to be
+seen. But it is certain that European Democrats or Red Republicans, with
+their ideas&mdash;or rather lack of ideas&mdash;will never comprehend the
+constitutional system, and will never rehabilitate or reanimate those
+intermediary municipal institutions, the monuments of which De
+Tocqueville was surprised to find scattered so generally through
+continental Europe, as well as in England and in New England.</p>
+
+<p>Turning, now, to the United States, it is plainly evident that the whole
+tendency of our politics, intensely accelerated by the influence of
+Jefferson's French views, has been, first, to lose out of mind the true
+significance of those intermediary institutions embodied in the common
+law of England, and inherited by us from the mother country; and,
+secondly, to depreciate them as standing in the way of the people's
+will, or popular sovereignty; and, lastly, to break them down entirely,
+and substitute for them the tyranny of an irresponsible majority, or
+democratic absolutism. The persistent efforts to get rid of grand juries
+and trial by jury, to popularize the judiciary, to make senatorial terms
+dependent on changing party majorities, to reduce the representative to
+a mere deputy, and other similar schemes to bring about the direct
+<i>unmediatized</i> operation of the popular will upon the subject, are all
+illustrations of this direful tendency.</p>
+
+<p>Concurrently with, and greatly aiding this tendency, there has been a
+gradual decay of the manly virtue that charactized our fathers. Men have
+become less conscientious in the performance of their public duties, and
+more regardless of private rights. A genuine manly self-respect implies
+sincere respect for the rights of others, and both inevitably decay as
+the fear of God dies out. When men continually act on the idea that man
+is his own end, and when each one is intensely engaged in seeking his
+own interest, what can result but jarring of interests, opposition,
+repulsion, disregard of law in so far as it clashes with private ends,
+and thus, finally, social and political disruption more or less
+extensive? Thus our trouble lies deeper than slavery. Remove the canker
+of slavery to-day, and yet the tendency to disruption and dissolution
+would evermore go on while prevailing ideas actuated society. The
+remorseless mill of selfishness would keep on grinding, grinding,
+grinding toward dissolution. Look at our literature, our architecture,
+our science, our political and moral theories, our social arrangements
+generally, and especially our hideous, almost diabolical arrangements or
+lack of arrangements for the care of the poor and the unfortunate, and
+what a confused jumble they present! Having no grand animating idea, no
+all-pervading principle of harmony, no universally recognized standard
+for anything, we are necessarily the most anomalous, amorphous,
+helter-skelter aggregation of independent and antagonistic
+individualities ever gathered together since nations began to exist.
+What can prevent such an agglomeration from falling to pieces? What can
+hold it together?</p>
+
+<p>Thus, with the frightful decay of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> Christian, and even manly
+virtue&mdash;alas! too plainly visible all around us&mdash;and the entire
+divorcement of morality or religious ideas from politics, what fate is
+in store for us but the inevitable triumph of anarchy, and through it of
+despotism? Herein lies our real danger. The great struggle is <i>not</i>, as
+many assert, between aristocracy, or monarchy, or despotism and
+democracy. But it is between despotism or absolutism and
+constitutionalism. It is the struggle of the pagan system (revived by
+the renaissance), based on the idea that 'man is his own end,' with the
+Christian system based on the idea of mediation, involving the idea that
+the true end of man is God. It is not true, therefore, that democratic
+institutions are now on trial in the United States. Democracy, pure and
+simple, precisely in the form it is assuming or has assumed in this
+country, was tried long ago. It was tried in ancient Greece, and found
+wanting. It was tried in Rome, and ended in the dissolution of the
+empire. And in both these trials it had, to begin with, a much more
+highly finished, fresh, robust, and whole-souled manhood to work with
+and to work upon than that of modern democracy. More recently it was
+tried in France, and for the present is blooming in the despotism of
+Napoleon III.</p>
+
+<p>The question, then, I repeat, is whether constitutionalism, as
+originally developed in England and embodied and reproduced by our
+fathers&mdash;who, perhaps, 'builded wiser than they knew'&mdash;can come safely
+through this crisis and triumph over the two ideas which, thus far, have
+predominated in the American mind, and driven us with fearful strides
+toward absolutism. 'Every man for himself' is the first idea. In the
+family, in church, in politics, in commerce, in all social and political
+relations, every man striving, pushing, scrambling, straining every
+nerve to advance himself, regardless of his neighbor or the public
+interest&mdash;such everywhere is the confused and hideous picture of
+American society. Selfishness predominates, and selfishness is
+repellant. So it was before the ages were, when Lucifer, in the pride of
+self, refused obedience to the Word. So it is even yet, and its
+inevitable tendency is to hostile isolation and final dissolution. Its
+logical consequence is anarchy. But anarchy is intolerable, and a
+civilized people, yea, even barbarians, will submit to anything rather
+than social and political chaos. Then comes the iron band of despotism
+to hold together the antagonistic fragments.</p>
+
+<p>'The supremacy of the people's will' is the second idea. <i>Vox Populi,
+vox Dei!</i> What the people decree is right, and nothing must stand
+between their will and the subject or object upon which it operates!
+Such is the political gospel according to democracy, and fifty years'
+earnest proclamation thereof has wellnigh abolished all the barriers of
+constitutionalism&mdash;barriers, which stood like faithful guardians, stern
+but just, between the Individual and the State, which reconciled the
+harmonious coexistence of private liberty and public power&mdash;an idea
+wholly unknown in pagan or classic civilization&mdash;and which at once
+prevented the anarchy of individualism and the tyranny of absolutism.
+But true it is, whatever a people constantly assert they come to
+believe, and whatever they believe will at last crystallize itself in
+action. And thus, with the oft-repeated and ever-increasing assertion
+that 'man is his own end,' and 'is sufficient unto himself,' and with
+that other assertion that the will of the people is law and must act
+directly upon its object, we have gradually lost out of mind the true
+significance of the constitutional system. Those numberless intermediary
+institutions&mdash;which logically <i>grew</i> out of the Christian idea of
+mediation, as the oak naturally grows out of the acorn, and which
+wonderfully reconciled liberty with authority, freedom with order, the
+finite with the infinite&mdash;have be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>come more and more obsolete, and less
+and less understood. They have crumbled away like the stately columns of
+a magnificent but neglected cathedral. They have become dead branches
+that must be lopped off. They are rubbish that must be removed&mdash;relics
+of monarchy or aristocracy, cunningly devised inventions of priestcraft
+or kingcraft, that retard the triumph of democracy.</p>
+
+<p>If the will of the people is supreme, then away with your high and
+life-long judges, or at least let them be elected by the people and for
+very brief terms. Let grand juries be voted a humbug, and trial by jury
+a nuisance. Let electoral colleges be abolished as meaningless and
+cumbersome anomalies. Let the President be the direct representative of
+a mighty people, and act without let or hindrance&mdash;only let him act with
+gigantic energy and swift execution. Let senatorial terms be dependent
+upon changing legislative majorities. In fact, let the two legislative
+houses, as being wholly useless and very expensive, be reduced to one.
+Let the representative be a tongue-bound deputy, and not a free, manly,
+self-acting agent. Let county boards of supervisors give way to the one
+man power of the county judge. And, in short, let us go on, as we have
+been going on, democratizing or popularising our institutions,
+'improving,' or rather impairing and tearing down one after another of
+the venerable columns of the original system, until every safeguard of
+personal freedom is removed, and there shall be nothing left to restrain
+the giant sway of unmitigated and unmediatized public power. Then we
+shall have despotism or absolutism, pure and simple&mdash;and none the less
+so because it shall be democratic.</p>
+
+<p>The London <i>Times</i> will have nothing to jubilate over if what it
+mistakenly calls our 'trial of democratic institutions' shall be
+unsuccessful. For in fact, our constitutional system was but the
+reproduction, in a broader field and on a grander scale, of the British
+Constitution, in all its essential features, differing only in what
+philosophic historians call 'accidentals.' And if that system finally
+fails here, <i>The Times</i> may have a 'most comfortable assurance' that it
+will fail in England. True, we have more rapidly departed from and
+defaced that system than the English, chiefly because, in escaping from
+the fogs of England, we left behind us that stolid conservatism, that
+bulldog tenacity for the old because it is old, which are instinctive in
+the narrow-minded islanders. But they, just as much as we, have lost out
+of mind the significance of the Christian idea. They, just as much as
+we, have become thoroughly paganized&mdash;have become saturated with the
+central idea of pagan civilization, that man is his own end, lives for
+himself alone, and not for God, and therefore is inferior to and must be
+the mere tool of the state. If Americans hold that the state can <i>make</i>
+right, as well as enforce it, so do the English. If divine sanctions
+have no longer any significance in America, so have they not in England.
+If expediency, and not God's truth, is the universal rule of action
+here, so is it there. If every American or 'Yankee' seeks his own end in
+his own way, regardless of his neighbor, his Government, and his God, so
+does every Englishman. The Englishman has no God except his belly or his
+purse. Years ago it was said by one of themselves, 'The hell of the
+English is&mdash;<i>not to make money</i>,' If the divine principle of charity is
+a myth, and selfishness rages against selfishness here, much more so
+with a people whose only God is Mammon. And finally, if inevitable
+dissolution shall overtake us, and we rush into absolutism as a refuge
+from anarchy, we shall have the melancholy pleasure&mdash;if it can be a
+pleasure&mdash;of hailing the almost simultaneous wreck of the British
+Constitution, whose noble ruins, no less than ours, would be mournful
+monumental witnesses to the glory of ages wiser and better than our
+own.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="AMERICAN_FINANCES_AND_RESOURCES" id="AMERICAN_FINANCES_AND_RESOURCES"></a>AMERICAN FINANCES AND RESOURCES.</h2>
+
+<h4>LETTER NO. II, FROM HON. ROBERT J. WALKER.</h4>
+
+
+<p class='author'>
+<span class="smcap">London</span>, <i>10 Half Moon Street, Piccadilly</i>,<br />
+October 8, 1863.
+</p>
+
+<p>In view of the fact that the people of the United Kingdom and of the
+United States are mainly of the same race, speak the same language, have
+the same literature, ancestry, and common law, with the same history for
+centuries, and a reciprocal commerce exceeding that of all the rest of
+the world, it is amazing how little is known in each country of the
+other. This condition of affairs is most unfavorable to the continuance
+of peace and good will between two great and kindred nations. It causes
+constant misapprehension by each party of the acts and motives of the
+other, arrests the development of friendly feeling, and retards the
+advance of commercial freedom. It excites almost daily rumors of
+impending war, disturbing the course of trade, causing large mercantile
+losses, and great unnecessary Government expenditures. If war has not
+ensued, it has led to angry controversy and bitter recrimination. It is
+sowing broadcast in both countries the seeds of international hatred,
+rendering England and America two hostile camps, frowning mutual
+defiance; and, if not terminating in war, must, if not arrested, end in
+embargoes and non-intercourse, or discriminating duties on imports and
+tonnage, greatly injurious to both countries. I know it has become
+fashionable in England and America to sneer at the fact of our common
+origin; but the great truth still exists, and is fraught with momentous
+consequences, for good or evil, to both nations, and to mankind. The
+United States were colonized mainly by the people of England. Ten of our
+original thirteen States bear English names, as do also nearly all their
+counties, townships, cities, and villages.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving to Englishmen the task of disabusing the Americans in regard to
+their own country, I will endeavor to present, in a condensed form, some
+material and authentic facts as regards the United States, for the
+consideration of the people of the United Kingdom. I read and hear every
+day here predictions of our impending bankruptcy and national
+dissolution; our wealth and resources depreciated; our cause, our
+people, our armies, and Government decried; and a war in words and in
+the press prosecuted against us with vindictive fury. All this hostility
+is fully reciprocated in America; and if the war is not confined to
+words and types, it will not be the fault of agitators in both
+countries. So far as an American can, even in part, arrest this fatal
+progress of misapprehension, by communicating information in regard to
+his own country, is the principal purpose of these essays.</p>
+
+<p>In answer to the daily predictions here of our impending ruin and
+national bankruptcy, I shall first discuss the question of our wealth,
+resources, and material progress.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Area.</span>&mdash;The area of the United States, including lakes and
+rivers, is 3,250,000 square miles, being larger than all Europe. (Rep.
+Sec. of Interior and of Com. of Gen. Land Office for Dec. 1860, p. 13.)</p>
+
+<p>Our land surface is 3,010,370 square miles, being 1,926,636,000 acres.
+This area is compact and contiguous, divided into States and
+Territories, united by lakes, rivers, canals, and railroads. We have no
+colonies. Congress governs the nation by what the Constitution declares
+to be '<i>the supreme law</i>,'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> whilst local regulations are prescribed and
+administered by the several States and Territories. We front on the two
+great oceans&mdash;the Atlantic and Pacific; extending from the St. Lawrence
+and the lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, from near the 24th to the 49th
+parallel of north latitude; and in longitude, from 67&deg; 25' to 124&deg; 40'
+west of Greenwich. Our location on the globe as regards its land surface
+is central, and all within the temperate zone. No empire of contiguous
+territory possesses such a variety of climate, soil, forests and
+prairies, fruits and fisheries, animal, vegetable, mineral, and
+agricultural products. We have all those of Europe, with many in
+addition, and a climate (on the average) more salubrious, and with
+greater longevity, as shown by the international census. We have a far
+more fertile soil and genial sun, with longer and better seasons for
+crops and stock; and already, in our infancy, with our vast products,
+feed and clothe many millions in Europe and other continents. Last year
+our exports to foreign countries of breadstuffs and provisions, from the
+loyal States alone, were of the value of $108,000,000. (Table of Com.
+and Nav. 1860.)</p>
+
+<p>If as well cultivated as England, our country could much more than feed
+and clothe the whole population of the world. If as densely settled as
+England, our population would be more than twelve hundred millions,
+exceeding that of all the earth. If as densely settled as Massachusetts
+(among the least fertile of all our States), we would number 513,000,000
+inhabitants.</p>
+
+<p>We have seen that our area exceeds that of Europe, with a far more
+genial sun and fertile soil, and capable of yielding more than double
+the amount of agricultural products and of sustaining more than twice
+the number of inhabitants. We have a greater extent of mines than all
+Europe, especially of coal, iron, gold, silver, and quicksilver. Our
+coal alone, as stated by Sir William Armstrong (the highest British
+authority), is 32 times as great as that of the United Kingdom, and our
+iron will bear a similar proportion.</p>
+
+<p>Our maritime front is 5,120 miles; but our whole coast line, including
+bays, sounds, and rivers, up to the head of tide water, is 33,663 miles.
+(Ex. Doc. No. 7, pp. 75, 76, Official Report of Professor A. D. Bache,
+Superintendent of U. S. Coast Survey, Dec. 5th, 1848.) Our own lake
+shore line is 3,620 miles. (Top. Rep. ib. 77.)</p>
+
+<p>The shore line of the Mississippi river above tide water and its
+tributaries, is 35,644 (ib. 77); and of all our other rivers, above tide
+water, is 49,857 miles, making in all 122,784 miles. Of this stupendous
+water mileage, more than one half is navigable by steam, employing an
+interior steam tonnage exceeding that of all the internal steam tonnage
+of the rest of the world. No country is arterialized by such a vast
+system of navigable streams, to have constructed which as canals of
+equal capacity would have cost more than ten billions of dollars, and
+then these canals would have been subjected to large tolls, the cost of
+their annual repairs would have been enormous, and the interruption by
+lockage a serious obstacle. We may rest assured then, that, all Europe
+combined, can never have such facilities for cheap water communication
+as the United States. This is a mighty element in estimating the power
+and progress of a nation. It shows, also, why we have no such deserts as
+Sahara, so small a portion of our lands requiring manures or irrigation,
+and no general failures of crops, with so few even partial failures of
+any one crop.</p>
+
+<p>We have more deep, capacious, and safe harbors, accessible at <i>all
+tides</i>, than all Europe, with more than twenty capable of receiving the
+<i>Great Eastern</i>. (Charts, U. S. Coast Survey.)</p>
+
+<p>Our hydraulic power (including Niagara) far exceeds that of all Europe.
+We have more timber than all Europe, including most varieties, useful
+and ornamental. We have, including<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> cotton, vastly more of the raw
+material for manufactures than all Europe. With all these vast natural
+advantages, has man, in our country, performed his duty, in availing
+himself of the bounteous gifts of Providence? We are considering now the
+question of our material progress, in regard to which, the following
+official data are presented.</p>
+
+<p>We have completed since 1790, 5,782 miles of canals, from 4 to 10 feet
+deep, and from 40 to 75 feet wide, costing $148,000,000, and mostly
+navigable by steam. (Census Table, 1860, No. 39.)</p>
+
+<p>We have constructed since 1829, 33,698 miles of railroad (more than all
+the rest of the world), costing $1,258,922,729. (Table 38, Census of
+1860, and Addenda.)</p>
+
+<p>We have in operation on the land, more miles of telegraph than all the
+world, a single route, from New York to San Francisco, being 3,500
+miles.</p>
+
+<p>Our lighthouses exceed in number those of any other country, and we have
+no light-dues, as in England.</p>
+
+<p>Our coast survey, executed by Professor Bache, Superintendent of the U.
+S. Coast Survey, exceeds in extent and accuracy that of any other
+country. On this subject, we have the united opinions of British and
+Continental savans.</p>
+
+<p>We have made since 1790, 1,505,454 linear miles of survey of the public
+lands of the United States, belonging to the Government, including
+460,000,000 of acres already divided into townships, each six miles
+square (23,040 acres), subdivided into square miles, called sections, of
+640 acres each, and each section further subdivided into 16 lots of 40
+acres each.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Tonnage.</span>&mdash;The total tonnage of the United States was in&mdash;<br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<table border="0" width="65%" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="Tonnage">
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>1814,</td><td align='left'>1,368,127 tons.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>June,</td><td align='left'>1851,</td><td align='left'>3,772,439 tons.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>June,</td><td align='left'>1861,</td><td align='left'>5,539,812 tons.</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>At the same rate of increase as from 1851 to 1861, our tonnage would be,
+in<br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<table border="0"  width="65%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Tonnage">
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>1871,</td><td align='left'>8,134,578 tons.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>1881,</td><td align='left'>11,952,817 tons.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>1891,</td><td align='left'>17,541,514 tons.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>1901,</td><td align='left'>25,758,948 tons.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>(<i>Table of Com. and Nav.</i>)</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>At the close of this century our tonnage then, at this rate of increase,
+would far exceed that of all the rest of the world.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Gold and Silver.</span>&mdash;The aggregate product of our gold and silver
+mines approaches now <i>one billion of dollars</i>, most of which has been
+converted into coin at our mint. Nearly all of this product has been
+obtained since the discovery of gold in California. Less than two per
+cent. of the precious metals has been the product of the seceded States.
+This gold and silver are found now in seven States, and nine
+Territories; the yield is rapidly augmenting, and new discoveries
+constantly developed.</p>
+
+<p>The Secretary of the Interior estimates the total product 'next year,'
+of our mines of precious metals, at '$100,000,000,' and when our
+railroad to the Pacific (traversing this region) is completed, his
+estimate of the 'annual yield' is '$150,000,000.' The mines are declared
+'inexhaustible' by the highest authority, and our Nevada silver mines
+are now admitted to be 'the richest in the world.' The completion of our
+imperial railroad, now progressing to the Pacific, will carry an immense
+population to the gold and silver regions, vastly increase the number of
+miners, diminish the cost of mining, and decrease the price of
+provisions and supplies to the laborers. When we add to this, the vast
+and increasing product of our quicksilver mines of California, so
+indispensable as an amalgam in producing gold and silver, as also the
+great and progressive improvement in processes and machinery for working
+the quartz veins, it is now believed that the estimates of our Secretary
+of the Interior, and Commissioner of the General Land Office, will be
+exceeded by the result. These<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> mines of the precious metals are nearly
+all on the public lands of the United States; they are the <i>property of
+the Federal Government</i>, and their intrinsic value <i>exceeds our public
+debt</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Public Lands.</span>&mdash;The United States own an immense public domain,
+acquired by treaties with France, Spain, and Mexico, and by compacts
+with States and Indian tribes. This domain is thus described in the
+Report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, of November 29th,
+1860:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'Of the 3,250,000 of square miles which constitute the territorial
+extent of the Union, the public lands embrace an area of 2,265,625
+square miles, or 1,450,000,000 of acres, being more than two thirds
+of our geographical extent, and nearly three times as large as the
+United States at the ratification of the definitive treaty of peace
+in 1783 with Great Britain. This empire domain extends from the
+northern line of Texas, the Gulf of Mexico, reaching to the
+Atlantic Ocean, northwesterly to the Canada line bordering upon the
+great Lakes Erie, Huron, Michigan, and Superior, extending westward
+to the Pacific Ocean, with Puget's Sound on the north, the
+Mediterranean Sea of our extreme northwestern possessions.</p>
+
+<p>'It includes fifteen sovereignties, known as the 'Land States,' and
+an extent of territory sufficient for thirty-two additional, each
+equal to the great central land State of Ohio.</p>
+
+<p>'It embraces soils capable of abundant yield of the rich
+productions of the tropics, of sugar, cotton, rice, tobacco, corn,
+and the grape, the vintage, now a staple, particularly so of
+California; of the great cereals, wheat and corn, in the Western,
+Northwestern, and Pacific States, and in that vast interior region
+from the valley of the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains;
+and thence to the chain formed by the Sierra Nevada and Cascades,
+the eastern wall of the Pacific slope, every variety of soil is
+found revealing its wealth.</p>
+
+<p>'Instead of dreary, inarable wastes, as supposed in earlier times,
+the millions of buffalo, elk, deer, mountain sheep, the primitive
+inhabitants of the soil, fed by the hand of nature, attest its
+capacity for the abundant support of a dense population through the
+skilful toil of the agriculturist, dealing with the earth under the
+guidance of the science of the present age.</p>
+
+<p>'Not only is the yield of food for man in this region abundant, but
+it holds in its bosom the precious metals of gold, silver, with
+cinnabar, the useful metals of iron, lead, copper, interspersed
+with immense belts or strata of that propulsive element, coal, the
+source of riches and power, and now the indispensable agent, not
+only for domestic purposes of life, but in the machine shop, the
+steam car, and steam vessel, quickening the advance of civilization
+and the permanent settlement of the country, and being the agent of
+active and constant intercommunication with every part of the
+republic.' </p></div>
+
+<p>Kansas having been admitted since the date of this Report, our public
+domain, thus described officially, now includes the sixteen <i>land
+States</i>, and <i>all</i> the Territories.</p>
+
+<p>Of this vast region (originally 1,450,000,000 acres), there was surveyed
+up to September, 1860, 441,067,915 acres, and 394,088,712 acres disposed
+of by sales, grants, etc., leaving, as the Commissioner states, 'the
+total area of unsold and unappropriated, of offered and unoffered lands
+of the public domain, 1,055,911,288 acres.' This is 'land surface,'
+exclusive of lakes, bays, rivers, etc., 1,055,911,288 acres, or
+1,649,861 square miles, and exceeds one half the area of the whole
+Union. The area of New York, being 47,000 square miles, is less than a
+thirty-fifth part of our public domain. England<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> (proper) has 50,922
+square miles, France 203,736, Prussia 107,921, and Germany 80,620 square
+miles. The area then of our public domain is more than eight times as
+large as France, more than fifteen times as large as Prussia, more than
+twenty times as large as Germany, more than thirty-two times as large as
+England, and larger (excluding Russia) than all Europe, containing more
+than 200 millions of people.</p>
+
+<p>As England (proper) contained in 1861, 18,949,916 inhabitants, if our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>
+public domain were as densely settled, its population would exceed 606
+millions; and it would be 260,497,561, if numbering as many to the
+square mile as Massachusetts. Its average fertility far exceeds that of
+Europe, as does also the extent of its mines, especially gold, silver,
+coal, and iron, with every variety of soil, climate, mineral and
+agricultural products.</p>
+
+<p>These lands are surveyed at the expense of the Government into townships
+of six miles square, subdivided into sections, and these into quarter
+sections (160) acres, set apart for homesteads. Our system of public
+surveys into squares, by lines running due north and south, east and
+west, is so simple as to have precluded all disputes as to boundary or
+title. This domain reaches from the 24th to the 49th parallel, from the
+lakes to the gulf, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Its isothermes
+(the lines of equal mean annual temperatures) strike on the north the
+coast of Norway midway, touch St. Petersburg in Russia, and pass through
+Manchooria on the coast of Asia, about three degrees south of the mouth
+of the Amour river. On the south, these isothermes run through Northern
+Africa, and nearly the centre of Egypt near Thebes, cross Northern
+Arabia, Persia, Northern Hindostan, and Southern China near Canton.</p>
+
+<p>Of this vast domain, less than two per cent. is cursed by slavery, which
+is prohibited by law in eleven of these land States, and in all the
+Territories.</p>
+
+<p>Now, however, within our present vast domain, not only the poor, but our
+own industrious classes and those of Europe, may not only find a home,
+but a farm for each settler, substantially as a free gift by the
+Government. Here all who would rather be owners than tenants, and wish
+to improve and cultivate their own soil, are invited. Here, too, all who
+would become equals among equals, citizens (not subjects) of a great and
+free country, enjoying the right of suffrage, and eligible to every
+office except the presidency, can come and occupy with us this great
+inheritance. Here liberty, equality, and fraternity reign supreme, not
+in theory, or in name only, but in truth and reality. This is the
+brotherhood of man, secured and protected by our organic law. Here the
+Constitution and the people are the only sovereigns, and the Government
+is administered by their elected agents, and for the benefit of the
+people. Those toiling elsewhere for wages that will scarcely support
+existence, for the education of whose children no provision is made by
+law, who are excluded from the right of suffrage, may come here and be
+voters and citizens, find a farm given as a homestead, free schools
+provided for their children at the public expense, and hold any office
+but the presidency, to which their children, born here, are eligible.
+What does Europe for any of its toiling millions who reject this
+munificent offer? He is worked and taxed there to his utmost endurance.
+He has the right to <i>work</i>, and <i>pay taxes</i>, but not to vote. Unschooled
+ignorance is his lot and that of his descendants. If a farmer, he works
+and improves the land of others, in constant terror of rent day, the
+landlord, and eviction. Indeed the annual rent of a single acre in
+England exceeds the price&mdash;$10 (&pound;2. 2<i>s.</i> 8<i>d.</i>)&mdash;payable for the
+ownership in fee simple of the entire homestead of 160 acres, granted
+him here by the Government. For centuries that are past and for all time
+to come, there, severe toil, poverty, ignorance, the workhouse, or low
+wages, and disfranchisement, would seem to be his lot. Here, freedom,
+competence, the right of suffrage, the homestead farm, and free schools
+for his children.</p>
+
+<p>In selecting these homestead farms, the emigrant can have any
+temperature, from St. Petersburg to Canton. He can have a cold, a
+temperate, or a warm climate, and farming or gardening, grazing or
+vintage, varied by fishing or hunting. He can raise wheat, rye, In<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>dian
+corn, oats, rice, indigo, cotton, tobacco, cane or maple sugar and
+molasses, sorghum, wool, peas and beans, Irish or sweet potatoes,
+barley, buckwheat, wine, butter, cheese, hay, clover, and all the
+grasses, hemp, hops, flax and flaxseed, silk, beeswax and honey, and
+poultry, in uncounted abundance. If he prefers a stock farm, he can
+raise horses, asses, and mules, camels, milch cows, working oxen, and
+other cattle, goats, sheep, and swine. In most locations, these will
+require neither housing nor feeding throughout the year. He can have
+orchards, and all the fruits and vegetables of Europe, and many in
+addition. He can have an Irish or German, Scotch, English or Welsh,
+French, Swiss, Norwegian, or American neighborhood. He can select the
+shores of oceans, lakes, or rivers; live on tide water or higher lands,
+valleys, or mountains. He can be near a church of his own denomination;
+the freedom of conscience is complete; he pays no tithes, nor church
+tax, except voluntarily. His sons and daughters, on reaching twenty-one
+years of age, or sooner, if the head of a family, are each entitled to a
+homestead of 160 acres; if he dies, the title is secured to his widow,
+children, or heirs. Our flag is his, and covers him everywhere with its
+protection. He is our brother; and he and his children will enjoy with
+us the same heritage of competence and freedom. He comes where labor is
+king, and toil is respected and rewarded. If before, or instead of
+receiving his homestead, he chooses to pursue his profession or
+business, to work at his trade, or for daily wages, he will find them
+double the European rate, and subsistence cheaper. From whatever part of
+Europe he may come, he will meet his countrymen here, and from them and
+us receive a cordial welcome. A Government which gives him a farm, the
+right to vote, and free schools for his children, must desire his
+welfare.</p>
+
+<p>Of this vast domain (more than thirty-two times as large as England) the
+Government of the United States grants substantially as a free gift, a
+<i>farm of 160 acres</i> to every settler who will occupy and cultivate the
+same, the title being in fee simple, and free from all rent whatsoever.
+The settler may be <i>native</i> or <i>European</i>, a present or future
+immigrant, including females as well as males, but must be at least
+twenty-one years of age, <i>or</i> the head of a family. If an immigrant, the
+declaration must first be made of an <i>intention</i> to become a citizen of
+the United States, when the grant is immediately made, without waiting
+for naturalization. When the children of the settler reach twenty-one
+years of age, or become the head of a family, they each receive from the
+Government a like donation of 160 acres. The intrinsic value of this
+public domain far exceeds the whole public debt of the United States.</p>
+
+<p>Our national wealth, by the last census, was $16,159,616,068, and its
+increase during the last ten years $8,925,481,011, or 126.45 per cent.
+(Census, 1860, p. 195.) Now, if, as a consequence of the Homestead Bill,
+there should be occupied, improved, and cultivated, during the next ten
+years, 100,000 additional farms by settlers, or only 10,000 per annum,
+it would make an aggregate of 16,000,000 acres. If, including houses,
+fences, barns, and other improvements, we should value each of these
+farms at ten dollars an acre, it would make an aggregate of
+$160,000,000. But if we add the product of these farms, allowing only
+one half of each (80 acres) to be cultivated, and the average annual
+value of the crops, stock included, to be only ten dollars per acre, it
+would give $80,000,000 a year, and, in ten years, $800,000,000,
+independent of the reinvestment of capital. It is clear that thus vast
+additional employment would be given to labor, freight to steamers,
+railroads, and canals, markets for manufactures, and augmented revenue.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The homestead privilege will largely increase immigration. Now, beside
+the money brought here by immigrants, the census proves that the average
+annual value of the labor of Massachusetts, <i>per capita</i>, was, in 1860,
+$300 for each man, woman, and child. Assuming that of the immigrants at
+an average net annual value of only $100 each, or less than 33 cents a
+day, it would make, in ten years, at the rate of 200,000 each year, the
+following aggregate:<br /><br /></p>
+
+
+
+
+<table border="0" width="60%" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="Annual value of labor">
+<tr><td align='right'>1st</td><td align='center'>year,</td><td align='right'>200,000</td><td align='center'>=</td><td align='right'>$20,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>2d</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>400,000</td><td align='center'>=</td><td align='right'>40,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>3d</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>600,000</td><td align='center'>=</td><td align='right'>60,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>4th</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>800,000</td><td align='center'>=</td><td align='right'>80,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>5th</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>1,000,000</td><td align='center'>=</td><td align='right'>100,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>6th</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>1,200,000</td><td align='center'>=</td><td align='right'>120,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>7th</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>1,400,000</td><td align='center'>=</td><td align='right'>140,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>8th</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>1,600,000</td><td align='center'>=</td><td align='right'>160,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>9th</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>1,800,000</td><td align='center'>=</td><td align='right'>180,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>10th</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>2,000,000</td><td align='center'>=</td><td align='right'>200,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>Total,</td><td align='right'>$1,100,000,000</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<p>In this table, the labor of all immigrants each year is properly added
+to those arriving the succeeding year, so as to make the aggregate, the
+last year, two millions. This would make the value of the labor of these
+two millions of immigrants, in ten years, $1,100,000,000, independent of
+the annual accumulation of capital, and the labor of the children of the
+immigrants after the first ten years, which, with their descendants,
+would go on constantly increasing.</p>
+
+<p>But, by the actual official returns (see page 14 of Census), the number
+of alien immigrants to the United States, from December, 1850, to
+December, 1860, was 2,598,216, or an annual average of 259,821, say
+260,000. The effect, then, of this immigration, on the basis of the last
+table, upon the increase of national wealth, was as follows:<br /><br /></p>
+
+
+
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="1" width="60%" cellspacing="0" summary="Numbers of alien immigrants">
+<tr><td align='right'>1st</td><td align='center'>year,</td><td align='right'>260,000</td><td align='center'>=</td><td align='right'>$26,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>2d</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>520,000</td><td align='center'>=</td><td align='right'>52,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>3d</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>780,000</td><td align='center'>=</td><td align='right'>78,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>4th</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>1,040,000</td><td align='center'>=</td><td align='right'>104,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>5th</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>1,300,000</td><td align='center'>=</td><td align='right'>130,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>6th</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>1,560,000</td><td align='center'>=</td><td align='right'>156,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>7th</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>1,820,000</td><td align='center'>=</td><td align='right'>182,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>8th</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>2,080,000</td><td align='center'>=</td><td align='right'>208,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>9th</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>2,340,000</td><td align='center'>=</td><td align='right'>234,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>10th</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='right'>2,600,000</td><td align='center'>=</td><td align='right'>260,000,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>Total,</td><td align='right'>$1,430,000,000</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<p>Thus the value of the labor of the immigrants from 1850 to 1860 was
+fourteen hundred and thirty millions of dollars, making no allowance for
+the accumulation of capital by annual reinvestment, nor for the natural
+increase of population, amounting, by the census, in ten years, to about
+24 per cent. This addition to our wealth by the labor of the children,
+in the first ten years, would be small; but in the second, and each
+succeeding decennium, when we count children and their descendants, it
+would be large and constantly augmenting. But the census shows that our
+wealth increases each ten years at the rate of 126.45 per cent. Now,
+then, take our increase of wealth in consequence of immigration as
+before stated, and compound it at the rate of 126.45 per cent, every ten
+years, and the result is largely over three billions of dollars in 1870,
+and over seven billions of dollars in 1880, independent of the effect of
+any immigration succeeding 1860. If these results are astonishing, we
+must remember that immigration here is augmented population, and that it
+is population and labor that create wealth. Capital, indeed, is the
+accumulation of labor. Immigration, then, from 1850 to 1860, added to
+our national wealth a sum more than one third greater than our whole
+debt on the 1st of July last, and augmenting in a ratio much more rapid
+than its increase, and thus enabling us to bear the war expenses.</p>
+
+<p>As the homestead privilege must largely increase immigration, and add
+especially to the cultivation of our soil, it will contribute more than
+any other measure to increase our population,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> wealth, and power, and
+augment out revenue from duties and taxes.</p>
+
+<p>We have seen that, by the Census (p. 195), the total value of the real
+and personal estate in the United States was, in&mdash;<br /><br /></p>
+
+
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="1" width="60%" cellspacing="0" summary="Total value of real and personal estate">
+<tr><td align='left'>1860,</td><td align='right'>$16,159,616,068</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1850,</td><td align='right'>7,135,780,228</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<p>Increase from 1850 to 1860, 126.45 per cent.</p>
+
+<p>At the same rate of increase, for the four succeeding decades, the
+result would be, in&mdash;<br /><br /></p>
+
+
+
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="1" width="60%" cellspacing="0" summary="Increase in total value">
+<tr><td align='left'>1870,</td><td align='right'>$36,593,450,585</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1880,</td><td align='right'>82,865,868,849</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1890,</td><td align='right'>187,314,353,225</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>1900,</td><td align='right'>423,330,438,288</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<p>If we subtract one fourth from the aggregate, we will find that our
+public debt constitutes less than <i>one half of one per cent.</i> of the
+<i>increase</i> of our national wealth. This debt, then, does not exhaust our
+capital, but effects only a small diminution of the rate of
+augmentation.</p>
+
+<p>If we look at the causes of this vast increase of our national wealth,
+they will be found mainly in the enormous extent of our fertile lands,
+the vast emigration from Europe, and the constant addition of new States
+to the Union. Thus, from 1850 to 1860, four new States were added to the
+Union. These four States were almost an untrodden wilderness in 1850,
+but in 1860 were rich and flourishing States, with a population of
+638,965, and an aggregate wealth of $331,809,418. Within this decade,
+from 1860 to 1870, at least six new States will be added to the Union.
+This is evident from a reference to our present Territories, as follows:<br /><br /></p>
+
+
+
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="1" width="60%" cellspacing="0" summary="Increase in National Wealth">
+<tr><td align='left'>Dacotah,</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>95,316,480</td><td align='center'>acres.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Nebraska,</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>48,636,800</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Indian,</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>56,924,000</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Idaho,</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>208,878,720</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Washington,</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>44,796,160</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Nevada,</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>52,184,960</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Utah,</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>68,084,480</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Arizona,</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>80,730,240</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>New Mexico,</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>77,568,640</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Colorado,</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>66,880,000</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td><td align='right'>&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='right'>Total,</td><td align='right'>800,000,480 acres.</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Here then are Territories with an aggregate area of 800,000,480 acres,
+sufficient for twenty-six States of the size of New York. In all these
+Territories but one, the precious metals are found in great abundance,
+and the railroad to the Pacific, with numerous branches through this
+vast region, together with the greatest advantages of our new Homestead
+Bill of last year, is settling these Territories with unprecedented
+rapidity. Notwithstanding the war, immigration to the United States is
+progressing with more than its usual volume, caused by the very high
+wages for labor, the great benefits of our recent Homestead Bill, and
+the exclusion, by recent act of Congress, of slavery from all this vast
+domain.</p>
+
+<p>It will be observed, that, whilst the <i>lands</i> constituting these
+Territories remain <i>public</i> lands, no estimate is made of them as wealth
+in the national census. It is only when these public lands become farms
+and private property, that they are valued as part of the wealth of the
+nation. This remark also applies to that 255,000,000 acres of public
+lands in the sixteen <i>Land States</i> of the Union. Hence the amazing
+increase of wealth at each decade, in the new States and Territories.
+Thus, by Table 35 of the Census of 1860, page 195, the rate of increase
+of wealth in the following States and Territories, from 1850 to 1860,
+was:<br /><br /></p>
+
+<p class='center'><i>Territories.</i></p>
+
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="1" width="60%" cellspacing="0" summary="Territories">
+<tr><td align='left'>Washington,</td><td align='right'>5,000</td><td align='center'>per cent.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Nebraska,</td><td align='right'>4,800</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Utah,</td><td align='right'>467</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>New Mexico,</td><td align='right'>302</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<p class='center'><i>States.</i></p>
+
+
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="1" width="60%" cellspacing="0" summary="States">
+<tr><td align='left'>Kansas,</td><td align='right'>8,000</td><td align='center'>per cent.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Iowa,</td><td align='right'>942</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>California,</td><td align='right'>837</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Minnesota,</td><td align='right'>6,000</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Michigan,</td><td align='right'>330</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Oregon,</td><td align='right'>471</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Illinois,</td><td align='right'>457</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Wisconsin,</td><td align='right'>550</td><td align='center'>"</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<p>It is thus that the wave of population moves onward in our Western
+States and Territories, that the axe and the plough are the pioneers of
+civilization, that farms, cities, and villages, the schoolhouse, and the
+church, rise from the wilderness, as if by the touch of an enchanter's
+wand. That enchantment is the power of <i>freedom and education</i>, the
+effect of which (as compared with the deadly influence of slavery and
+ignorance) shall be illustrated in a succeeding letter. In that letter,
+by comparing the relative progress of our Free and Slave States, as
+demonstrated by our Census, it will be proved, incontestably, that the
+total exclusion of slavery from our Union will cause an addition to our
+national wealth vastly exceeding the whole public debt of our country,
+and soon leave us much richer than before the rebellion.</p>
+
+<p class='author'><span class="smcap">R. J. Walker.</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_DECLINE_OF_ENGLAND" id="THE_DECLINE_OF_ENGLAND"></a>THE DECLINE OF ENGLAND.</h2>
+
+
+<p>In Europe, two nations for almost a thousand years have contended for
+empire. England and France, for the greater portion of that period, have
+waged war with each other. When not engaged in actual hostilities, they
+have watched each other with jealous animosity&mdash;seeking by intrigue and
+diplomatic schemes to thwart or defeat the designs which one or the
+other had formed for national aggrandizement.</p>
+
+<p>No one of Anglo-Saxon descent can peruse the histories of those
+countries, and not feel pride in the valor and success which have
+distinguished his race. Twice the victorious banner of England has
+fluttered in the gaze of Paris. Until a recent age, the French flag
+visited the ocean only at the sufferance of England.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever may be thought of the wisdom of the continental policy of
+England since 1688&mdash;in pursuance of which she has persistently sought to
+defeat the ambition of France&mdash;no one can help admiring the ability and
+indomitable courage she has displayed in the gratification of her
+national antipathy. From the League of Augsburg, of 1687, to which she
+became a party, to the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, she put forth
+herculean efforts to compel the relinquishment of the family compact by
+Louis XIV. By that treaty, the darling project of that monarch to secure
+the crown of Spain for a Bourbon, was forever abandoned by France.
+Elated with this triumph over her adversary, throughout the eighteenth
+century England continued to pursue the same policy of checking and
+defeating all the schemes of France for territorial acquisition. It
+mattered not where; in whatever quarter of the globe France sought to
+plant her standard, she always found there an English enemy. In Asia,
+Africa, and America, as well as in Europe, all her attempts to extend
+her empire were defeated by England. Pondicherry was the only East
+Indian possession which the genius of Clive allowed her to retain. By
+the Treaty of Paris, of 1763, she was compelled to relinquish Canada in
+order to regain her West Indian islands conquered by England.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p>Vainly, under good or bad, weak or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> potent sovereigns, did France
+attempt the enlargement of her empire or an increase of national power.
+England, on one pretence or another, always confronted her, and by
+successful war, or unscrupulous diplomacy, baffled her designs.</p>
+
+<p>The English mind was cultivated throughout the eighteenth century into
+the belief that every accession to France was a menace and an injury to
+England.</p>
+
+<p>At last the French Revolution, inspiring with preternatural energy that
+gallant people, turned the tide of events so long adverse to French
+aggrandizement. Still true to her hereditary hostility, England combined
+all Europe to resist the aggression of republican France. But soon, from
+the raging elements of that awful convulsion, the 'Man of Destiny'
+arose, who could 'ride the whirlwind and direct the storm.' He seized
+the helm, evoked order from chaos, and smote the enemies of France
+wherever they appeared, revived the splendors of her early history, and,
+like her medi&aelig;val Charlemagne, gave the law to Europe.</p>
+
+<p>England took the measure of Napoleon, and recognized in him an enemy
+whom she must subdue at any cost, or submit to be reduced in the scale
+of nations to that importance and those proportions befitting her
+diminutive territory in Europe.</p>
+
+<p>The battle of Marengo&mdash;the Peace of Luneville&mdash;the ascendency of
+Napoleon on the continent&mdash;the defection of the continental allies of
+England&mdash;and the preparations of Napoleon for her invasion, led to the
+Treaty of Amiens.</p>
+
+<p>That treaty, however, was only a brief truce, which England never
+designed to observe but temporarily. She refused to respect its
+obligations, and even to negotiate for its modification. She feared that
+peace would enable Napoleon to rebuild his shattered navy.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Hawkesbury's note of March 15th, 1803, assigned as her avowed
+reason for the renewal of the war&mdash;'the acquisition made by France in
+various quarters, particularly in Italy, and therefore England would be
+justified in claiming equivalents for these acquisitions as a
+counterpoise to the augmentation of the power of France.'<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<p>This note of Lord Hawkesbury avows distinctly the spirit of the foreign
+policy of England for the last two hundred years. She would not tolerate
+any acquisition by her rival unless she obtained 'equivalents.' In
+pursuance of this unchangeable policy, she again declared war against
+France. Mr. Pitt resumed his position of prime minister, and soon formed
+a new continental coalition to resist the mighty power and the
+aggressions of the French emperor.</p>
+
+<p>Thenceforward she listened to no overtures for peace, but prosecuted
+with implacable resentment the war&mdash;until she finally prostrated her
+imperial foe, and became his inglorious jailer, until death relieved her
+from all apprehensions of danger.</p>
+
+<p>But this triumph of a vindictive policy, so gratifying to the national
+antipathy, was purchased at a price perhaps far exceeding its value.</p>
+
+<p>The overthrow of Napoleon was an achievement which compelled England to
+anticipate the resources of future generations. These generations have
+come, and are coming, and they find themselves unable any longer to
+contend with French ambition.</p>
+
+<p>The first Napoleon, whom England fought with such relentless animosity,
+won his throne by the display of matchless ability in the field and the
+cabinet. The present Napoleon reached <i>his</i> throne by perjury,
+assassination, and crimes of the blackest atrocity. The first Napoleon
+England pursued with her hatred to his grave. The present Napoleon,
+reeking with the blood of his unarmed fellow citizens, kisses the queen
+of England, and the <i>entente cordial</i> with him becomes the foreign
+policy of England. Entangled in his toils, she makes war on Russia as
+his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> ally, stands silently while he humbles Austria and changes the map
+of Europe, and barely escapes by an afterthought being dragged into an
+attempt to destroy a free republic in America, to enable France to
+augment the area for the expansion of the Latin race at the expense of
+that of the Anglo-Saxon.</p>
+
+<p>What would the great Chatham and his son&mdash;who so long moulded the
+destiny of Europe&mdash;say, if they could revisit the earth and peruse the
+history of their country for the last twelve years? Would they recognize
+her as that England who in their hands smote the house of Bourbon, and
+inaugurated the policy which led to the overthrow of the greatest
+captain who ever tormented with his lust for glory the human race?
+Certainly, in all the wars which England waged against the house of
+Bourbon, France never attempted a conquest of greater value than that
+which the present Napoleon has commenced in Mexico. Certainly, no
+conquest which the first Napoleon ever threatened in Europe would have
+so strengthened France as would the annexation of Mexico to her
+dominions. But England has expended in her wars with the first Napoleon,
+to restrain him from acquisitions which could not have materially
+injured England, all her resources for war. She is not in the condition
+to wage such wars with France as she prosecuted during the last and the
+beginning of the present century. She knows that she must acquiesce in
+the ambitious acquisitions of the present Napoleon, or else encounter
+his hostility. Cherbourg and the steam navy of France render an invasion
+of the British Isles a more practicable achievement for the present
+Napoleon than ever the first Napoleon could hope for. England shrinks,
+therefore, from any effort to curb the present aggrandizement of France,
+from <i>fear</i>. She ignominiously renounces and abandons the policy of her
+monarchy, her aristocracy, and her people&mdash;pursued for two hundred years
+with unfaltering pertinacity; not because she condemns it, not because
+she does not feel 'justified' in resisting French acquisitions unless
+'equivalents for these acquisitions as a counterpoise to the
+augmentation of the power of France' are obtained; but obviously,
+because she fears to encounter the arms of the present Napoleon.</p>
+
+<p>When the French emperor forced upon the acceptance of Lord Aberdeen's
+cabinet 'the harsh and insulting scheme of action' (as Kinglake calls
+it) which provoked the war with Russia in 1854, England's dilemma was: a
+war with Nicholas, or a rupture with France. 'The negotiation which had
+seemed to be almost ripe for a settlement was then ruined.'<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p>A war for Napoleon at that time with one of the great powers, was a
+necessity. It was necessary for the stability of his throne. It was
+necessary to prevent the thoughts of France from dwelling upon the
+assassination of the republic and her own infamy in submitting to that
+enormous villany. If it had not been Russia, it would have been England
+that the imperial usurper would have denounced as disturbing the waters
+for his provocation.</p>
+
+<p>Mellowed by time, and enlightened by their deplorable results, England
+now views the wars with Napoleon the First in their true light. So far
+from British power having been augmented by that tremendous struggle, it
+has compelled England to descend from the position of a first-rate to
+that of a second-rate power, so far as it concerns the politics of
+Europe. Had the first Napoleon survived to this day, she would hardly
+have consented to act with the same subserviency to him as she now
+voluntarily acts toward his ignoble counterfeit. She would never have
+stood an idle spectator of the humiliation of Austria by him. She would
+never have permitted him to betray her into the causeless and ridiculous
+war with her ancient ally Russia.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> It was the aid of Russia which
+enabled her to overthrow the great Napoleon, and now she permits the
+little Napoleon to bully her into a war with Russia that he may bedizen
+his name with the glory of a conflict with the conqueror of his
+illustrious kinsman.</p>
+
+<p>If the object of Napoleon was so ignominious, contemptible, and
+criminal, as we know it to have been, in producing the war of 1854, with
+what obloquy must England be covered for allowing herself to be beguiled
+into such a war by such a juggler?</p>
+
+<p>The pretended cause of the Crimean war, as alleged, was the threatened
+invasion of Turkey by Nicholas. But what injury was <i>that</i> to England,
+compared to the seizure of Mexico by France?</p>
+
+<p>England had not for two hundred years made it the chief object of her
+foreign policy to resist the expansion of the Russian empire. She had
+acquiesced in the partition of Poland, and by the Treaty of Vienna made
+herself a party to that nefarious spoliation by Russia, Austria, and
+Prussia. She knew that Austria, Prussia, and the German Confederation
+were pledged to protect Turkey from Russia.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> Her subserviency to
+France in separately with her making war on Russia, upon the pretence of
+the protection of Turkey, was supererogatory as well as needless.</p>
+
+<p>The truth is, and so will history make up the record, the French emperor
+desired to humiliate England, and England dare not refuse to be
+humiliated by him. It was a '<span class="smcap">GREAT SURRENDER</span>.'<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
+
+<p>It will not do for England to excuse herself for not resisting the
+French invasion of Mexico by any such allegation as that she has
+received Napoleon's assurances that he does not intend to make a French
+province of Mexico. She must know, that no confidence can be placed in
+his veracity. She must know, that such assurances are but a flimsy veil
+to deceive her and other nations. They are designed to meet the
+contingency&mdash;of Federal success in crushing rebellion.</p>
+
+<p>He has been willing to be fooled by those who surround him, into the
+belief that the rebels will achieve their independence.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> In that
+event, he will never relinquish his grasp on Mexico, unless compelled to
+do so by force of arms. Should the rebellion succeed, as he professes to
+believe it will, his instrument and accomplice, Maximilian, will be
+discarded with as little ceremony as the first Napoleon discarded some
+of the puppet kings whom he saw proper to crown and discrown according
+to the exigency of his occasions.</p>
+
+<p>The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) terminated one of the wars of
+England with Louis XIV. The renunciation by France of the cause of the
+Pretender was the most material advantage accruing to England from that
+treaty. But the ink was hardly dry with which it was written, before
+England took umbrage at France for efforts to rebuild her navy, which
+had been seriously reduced and crippled by the events of the previous
+war, and also for the encroachments of the French in Canada on the
+English settlements. For these causes the Seven Years' War was
+commenced, and, under the auspices of the first William Pitt,
+successfully prosecuted, until France was completely humbled. Now,
+however, Napoleon the Third constructs a navy more powerful than France
+ever before possessed, and, instead of molesting some obscure English
+settlement in the interior of America, appropriates to himself a great
+country, fertile in resources, with mines of incalculable wealth, and in
+close proximity to English colonies, cherished by the most vigilant
+protection of England.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The value of Mexico is thus portrayed by the British historian Alison
+(vol. iv., p. 423):</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'Humboldt has told us that he was never wearied with astonishment
+at the smallness of the portion of soil which, in Mexico and the
+adjoining provinces, would yield sustenance to a family for a year:
+and that the same extent of ground which in wheat would maintain
+only two persons, would yield sustenance under the banana to fifty;
+though in that favored region the return of wheat is never under
+seventy, sometimes as much as a hundred fold. The return on an
+average of Great Britain is not more than nine to one. If due
+weight be given to these extraordinary facts, it will not appear
+extravagant to assert that Mexico, with a territory embracing seven
+times the whole area of France, may at some future and possibly not
+remote period contain two hundred millions of inhabitants.' </p></div>
+
+<p>This is the magnificent empire which France now seeks to conquer,
+without a murmur of remonstrance from Great Britain, who so often
+combined Europe to resist the petty acquisition by France of territory
+less than one of the Mexican States.</p>
+
+<p>It is needless to say that England relies on the United States to
+prevent Mexico becoming a French province. Her statesmen have for the
+past two years professed the belief that the dismemberment of the United
+States is inevitable. In that event, they must know that the United
+States would prove no obstacle to the occupation of Mexico by France.
+No; the acquiescence of England in this gigantic acquisition of France
+can be ascribed to no such assurance of the power of the United States.
+It may be said that she has flattered herself that by letting alone
+Napoleon, he may possibly, by an alliance with the rebels, secure the
+permanent dissolution of the American Union;&mdash;that the United States, if
+successful in crushing the rebellion, would be to her a greater terror
+than Napoleon. We do not believe that she is influenced by such
+considerations. She knows that the United States, however powerful by
+the recent development of military strength, would hardly attempt the
+invasion of the British Islands. But she has no such faith in her crafty
+neighbor. She knows that France and the Bonapartes owe her a debt of
+vengeance which only the ravage and desolation of the British soil will
+ever liquidate. She remembers that the favorite scheme of Napoleon the
+First was the invasion of England; and she knows that this scheme is
+among the <i>Id&eacute;es Napol&eacute;on</i> of the nephew. She is aware, too, that
+Napoleon the Third has the means at his command which will enable him to
+place any number of troops on her shores. She is satisfied that upon the
+first provocation which she offers, he will gratify the treasured hatred
+of the French and of his family, by consummating the darling project of
+his uncle. The terror of invasion has induced her to change the nature
+of her foreign policy. She will cling to the French alliance until the
+French emperor has satiated his national craving for her degradation;
+and not until he strikes her a blow, which will resound throughout the
+world, will England be prepared to battle with the Gaul. No future
+accession of territory would make France more formidable for the
+invasion of England than she is now. Her army of five hundred thousand
+men, and her steam navy and ironclads are all-sufficient for that
+purpose, whenever the French emperor chooses so to employ them. But if
+Napoleon devotes this army and that navy to such a formidable conquest
+as that of a country seven times as large as France, three thousand
+miles from her shores, it is not probable that he will soon be able to
+spare them for the invasion of Great Britain. Spain vainly struggled for
+years to conquer her revolted provinces in America. England failed to
+conquer her rebellious colonies, with a population not exceeding three
+millions. France lost an army of thirty-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>five thousand men, veterans of
+Moreau's, in the vain effort to subdue the negroes of St. Domingo.
+England could desire no better scheme for the destruction of the
+military strength of Napoleon than that of the attempted conquest of
+Mexico. She will therefore rather stimulate than restrain the second
+French emperor in his desire to devote his legions to the enlargement of
+the area for the supremacy of the Latin race in America. Her motive will
+be the despicable safety of her shores from Gallic invasion. For this
+she sacrifices her prestige in the world&mdash;her hereditary policy&mdash;the
+time-honored traditions of the Anglo-Saxon. The world hereafter is free
+to the Frenchman, for robbery, spoliation, conquest, and invasion,
+wherever else than in England he chooses to prosecute the vocation of
+national crime. England is no longer the foe of French ambition or
+rapacity. So long as France will abstain from the invasion of the
+'inviolate isle,' where for almost a thousand years no foreign enemy has
+placed his foot, so long she may be free from molestation from England,
+whatever else she may attempt; and this is the inglorious policy of
+England in the year of our Lord 1862-'3.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="TEMPTATION" id="TEMPTATION"></a>TEMPTATION.</h2>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[A literal translation of this remarkable prose-poem was kindly
+placed in our hands by Prof. Podbielski. It is allegorical
+throughout, every phase of its marvellous symbolism resting upon
+dire and tragic truth.</p>
+
+<p>The many times murdered Mother is of course Poland. We hope that
+the publication of this prophetic vision of her great son, patriot,
+poet, statesman, and sage, as he undoubtedly was, may excite a
+vivid interest at the present hour, when that heroic but unhappy
+country is again struggling for life and freedom.</p>
+
+<p>In its present English form, 'Temptation' is reverently dedicated
+to the patriot sons of the Mother of heroes, by <span class="smcap">Martha W.
+Cook</span>.] </p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Alas, crimsoned with blood and swollen with tears run our troubled</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">life-waves!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From the depths and whirlpools of the stormful currents sounds the moan of</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">eternal sorrow!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Behind roars the bottomless abyss, black with the gloomy mists rising from the</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">woes of the Past:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Before lies the far-off Heaven, burning and blazing with flames red</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">as of blood:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Around struggle the swimmers, in surges so cold, hopeless,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">and murky,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That from each as he floats onward is forced the cry;</span><span class="smcap">'Woe! the</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;" class="smcap">curse is upon me</span>!'<br />
+</p></div>
+
+<p>Mother, many times murdered! Unhappy mother! with the long and countless
+blades of thy ever-green grasses, with the waving stems of thy grain
+fields, thou wilt bind our undying memories closely to thee, but
+henceforth must thy sons wander and suffer, as they love thee. Behind
+them, from sea to sea, is the Grave; before them, wheresoever they may
+roam, the Sun set; while monarchs and merchants curse the endless
+progression!</p>
+
+<p>The Living cannot understand those reared on the bosom of the
+Dead&mdash;human faces grow pale at the approach of the spectres&mdash;at the echo
+of their footsteps the home-fires glimmer and flicker low on the
+hearthstone&mdash;the mother hides her child&mdash;the wife leads away the husband
+that he may not clasp hands with the wandering exile,&mdash;the evening star
+alone, the star of graves, smiles from Heaven on them!</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Was not the silence of the forests holy? When the wind swept over the
+Pines, did not the mystic murmurs, sacred as the prayers of the Priest,
+say to you: 'Nowhere there will you find<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> your God!' The spaces are
+filled with the giant skeletons torn from the dim woods; they are
+chained and clamped with iron and fed with steam; the eagles soar not in
+the air above them, nor do the glad birds twitter in the swaying
+branches; none among you may mount the strong horse of the desert and
+fly afar over the boundless steppes, rejoicing in his arrowy
+swiftness;&mdash;you are alone in the midst of the world!</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>As you wander on, poor exiles, your very gratitude is half disdain! When
+they lead you into cities without castles or temples, where trade and
+commerce rule; among whitewashed houses where the spirit of Beauty is
+not, and the green window-shutters are the sole adornment&mdash;murmur ye:
+<span class="smcap">The Dead</span>!</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>On the shores of the seas when you dwell with Jews, Armenians, and
+Greeks, quarrelling forever over their vile profits; seeing not the
+heavens, nor hearing the thunder as it booms over the waves&mdash;murmur ye:
+<span class="smcap">The Dead</span>!</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>When women in rich attire move around you, and you feel that the faint
+fluttering of the silken robe is far more spiritual than the life-breath
+of their souls&mdash;murmur ye: <span class="smcap">The Dead</span>!</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Float on, then, like the sacred whispers from the unhewn forests! The
+world will not know you, because you are of the race sprung from
+coffins; born and cradled in coffins; but as you rise from the grave,
+strew upon the ground beneath your feet the mouldering rags of your
+shrouds&mdash;and <i>he</i>, seated on the verge of the abyss, on the steep and
+slippery declivity; <i>he</i>, robed in the royal purple of power, will not
+survive your Resurrection&mdash;but must himself descend into the coffin!</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>I saw imaged before me, as in a wondrous vision, the varied scenes and
+changes as it were of a long life&mdash;rising, progressing, and vanishing,
+as if bound in a single day, beginning with the morning and fleeting
+away with the evening shadows.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to me in my vision that the morning was strangely transparent.
+No clouds dulled the ether above. Far over the wide green space rose the
+sun, and in front of the House on the Hill stood a horse already
+saddled, impatiently wounding the velvety grass with his iron hoofs, and
+snuffing with wide nostrils the fresh breeze from the valley. Near him
+stood his young master. The light in his blue eye was bright as the
+young beam of the day. He had one foot in the stirrup, and the other on
+the soft home-turf; with one hand caressing the long waving mane of the
+steed, and the other clasped in the grasp of the man from whom he was
+taking leave&mdash;they knew not for how long, but yet felt it was not
+forever. Words were pouring from the heart of the one into the heart of
+the other. The elder, he who stood on the ground and was to move on on
+foot, kept his gaze steadily fixed on the rocks and forests lying beyond
+the smooth green turf. The younger, with raised eyes, gazed into the
+sky, as if absorbing its light in the blue lustrous pupils; and when he
+spoke, his voice was like the fresh breath of spring. The elder spoke
+more slowly, almost sternly, as though advising, warning, beseeching&mdash;as
+if he loved deeply, yet doubted, feared; but the younger had no fear, no
+doubts&mdash;he pledged himself and vowed&mdash;threw himself first into the arms
+of his friend, then leaped into his saddle. He pushed his horse rapidly
+on, swift as the arrow skims the plain, or the mountain stream plunges
+below. A cloud of servants poured forth from the halls of the ancient
+House, and followed their young Lord.</p>
+
+<p>He who remained behind, knelt; and fragments of his prayer were brought
+me by the wind, 'O Heavenly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> Father! let not this blooming soul wither
+away upon this arid earth! Lead it not into the temptation of human
+servitude; remove from it all sinful stain! Let it serve Thee alone!
+Thee and the many times murdered Mother!'</p>
+
+<p>He continued kneeling, although sunk in silence, as if wrapped in deep
+meditation, scarcely knowing whether to indulge in the dim prophecies
+then surging his soul, or to prolong his prayers. Then I saw him start,
+clasp his hands forcibly together&mdash;and again his words were borne to me
+by the wind.</p>
+
+<p>'O Heavenly Father! I ask Thee not to sweeten the bitter cup of life for
+my friend; I know that all who live must suffer; but, O merciful God,
+spare him the blush of shame, the infamy of weakness!'</p>
+
+<p>Then I saw the Wanderer rise from his knees, descend the hill, and make
+his way on foot through the forest to the distant rocks.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>About high noon of the same day they met again before the gate of a
+great city. The young man was still on his horse, his fair brow already
+darkened by the heat of the sun; the dew from the fresh home-turf was
+quite dry upon his stirrups, and the glitter of the steel dimmed with
+rust. The horse gladly stopped, as if wearied with his rapid flight
+through the distant space, but the blue eye of the youth still sparkled
+with its early fire.</p>
+
+<p>The elder, gray from head to foot with the dust of the road, seated
+himself on a stone by the wayside. The youth jumped lightly to the
+earth, and threw himself into the arms of his friend. I saw him give his
+horse in charge to his servants, take the arm of his companion, enter
+the gate of the great city, and lead him to the imperial Palace. In one
+of the inner chambers they sat down together to rest. They conversed
+however in whispers, as if they feared the ear of the enemy even through
+the massive stone walls. Stretching himself on the soft Persian carpet,
+the younger raised the cup of wrought silver to his thirsty lip. But
+when he handed it to the elder, he refused to taste the wine from the
+rich goblet. Nor would he look upon the tapestried walls, or the objects
+of luxury lying profusely scattered around the room, even when pointed
+out to him by his young companion. At last he rose, and taking the hand
+of the youth, led him to a window, from which the entire city was seen
+lying below, with the moving crowds of the populous nation. The immense
+city, wonderfully monotonous in its whitewashed walls! the immense
+nation, wonderfully monotonous in its black garments! The young man
+looked on curiously; the wanderer sighed, and said: 'When they shall
+lead you into cities without castles or temples, where the spirit of
+freedom is chained, murmur ye: <span class="smcap">The Dead</span>!'</p>
+
+<p>But the younger continued to gaze with ever-growing interest. Carriages
+filled with women dressed in brilliant hues were rapidly driving by,
+drawn by strong, fleet horses. He saw one drive aside from the throng,
+the snowy veil and white draperies of the fair one within fluttering and
+floating far on, the breeze, as if the flying chariot were borne onward
+by the outspread sails. The Wanderer sighed, and said: 'When women in
+rich attire move around you, and you feel that the faint fluttering of
+the snowy robe is more spiritual than the life-breath of their
+souls&mdash;murmur ye: <span class="smcap">The Dead</span>!'</p>
+
+<p>The young man seemed not to hear the words of his friend. Heavy masses
+of lurid clouds gathered from every direction, and obscured the face of
+the sky. How different the hour of the gloomy noon from that of the
+fresh, transparent morning!</p>
+
+<p>The men before whom the People of the Black Nation kneel and prostrate
+themselves now began to move through the streets. Their short garments<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>
+glittered with gold, and were richly embroidered in gorgeous colors.
+They wore long thin swords at their sides, and thick tufts of plumes on
+their heads. Shouting with harsh voices, they passed on in power,
+striking the children who were lingering in the road as they moved
+forward. The children cried and wept; the crowd drew back and fled; and
+they remained alone upon the Great Square. More and more of them were
+ever thronging there; more and more courteously they ever bowed to one
+another, and lower and lower grew their salutes, until at last One rode
+forward on a steed richly caparisoned&mdash;and then they all fell down with
+their faces upon the ground&mdash;as if he were the Lord of Life and Death.</p>
+
+<p>Then said the Wanderer: 'He is already on the verge of the abyss, on the
+slope of the steep and slippery declivity; he, robed in the purple of
+Power, must himself descend into the coffin!'</p>
+
+<p>But the young man riveted his gaze on the magnificence of the rider, as
+if absorbing the diamond glitter into the lustrous pupils of his eyes,
+as in the morning they had absorbed and reflected the clear blue of the
+skies. He seemed not to hear the words of his friend. When they were
+earnestly repeated to him, he covered his face with his hands, and
+tenderly uttered the holy name of the murdered Mother, as if the love of
+childhood were upon his heart. The Wanderer pressed him to his breast,
+and said: 'Look not upon them! Look not upon them!'</p>
+
+<p>'Never! never!' he replied, as he again threw himself down to rest upon
+the Persian carpet.</p>
+
+<p>As the Wanderer rose to depart, I heard the prayer again rising to God
+from his divining soul:</p>
+
+<p>'O Heavenly Father! even at the burning noon of this bitter trial, I
+implore Thee for him whom I love! O God! I now entreat Thee to work a
+miracle in his behalf&mdash;to sweeten the bitter cup of life for this young,
+eager, thirsting soul! Deliver it from the temptations with which Thou
+hast seen good to surround the strong on this earth, led like him into
+these snares! Let him not fall, I beseech Thee, as did even the mighty
+and beautiful angels round Thy Throne, when the thirst for power was
+upon them. Save him, O God!'</p>
+
+<p>The young man remained alone, utterly alone, in the midst of the great
+city, and was soon forced to seek companionship with his fellow beings.
+It was strange, meanwhile, how black the heavens grew, as if the whole
+sky were sheeted with a curtain of lead. I saw him now constantly in the
+streets, the rooms, and in the midst of the people: he fascinated my
+gaze as if I saw only him. Under the calm of a tranquil face, he
+concealed bitter torment, intense suffering. Evil thoughts are winding
+through him, like swarms of black and poisonous worms, while the good
+are also thronging near him, like clouds of bright blue fireflies. The
+worms crawl over his heart, boring and bleeding it as they writhe; the
+fireflies would burn out the black congested gore, and cure the
+festering wounds, but new swarms of reptiles are forever sliming into
+life, and ever deeper and more gangrened are the wounds they make.
+Everywhere danger, everywhere torment; there is no human being whom he
+may trust! He too must learn to deceive in turn, to betray even women
+and children; must learn to lie as the masterpiece of art. He attains
+skill in the profession, and can command looks, smiles, tears, emotions;
+but alas! the light in his clear eye, once rivalling the young beam of
+day, no longer flashes from his pupils. Pity him, O God! his very
+garments become a lie; he throws aside the costume of his nation, in
+which he once rode so freely over the boundless steppe. He mounts on his
+head the tall tufts of plumes; he girds the thin sword to his side; and
+I saw in my dream that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> people began to fall back before him, and
+bow as he drew near.</p>
+
+<p>But I saw that the steed of the desert refused to recognize his master
+when he entered the courtyard of the Palace. In vain he pats, with his
+own hand, the wavy silken mane: no neigh of joy now answers his caress;
+he strives to leap upon him as in the morning of this eventful day, but
+the haughty charger rears, stands erect upon his hind legs, and refuses
+to be mounted. Enraged beyond control, he thrusts his long sword into
+the glossy flanks. The startled animal breaks away, spurns the
+blood-sprinkled soil, and flies thundering afar, rattling and clashing
+his iron hoofs on the pavement, marking his track with a long line of
+glittering sparks, flashing but to die in the dying light of evening!</p>
+
+<p>The hour of twilight is already on the earth!</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Again, for the third time in that day of life, met the Wanderer and his
+friend. They stood together in a Church, which was without the gates,
+and the cross on its towers was different from those on the Basilicas
+within the walls of the city. The altar was without adornment, and, as
+well as the walls and ceilings, was shrouded in the deepest mourning.
+Three tapers only were upon it, and they struggled vainly with the
+surrounding gloom.</p>
+
+<p>I saw the Wanderer take one of these lights, and gaze, with a look of
+woe, upon the face of his friend. The young man was silent, he found no
+utterance, he had lost the secret of revealing, by honest words, the
+depths of the soul. But the bitter truth was expressed in the long wild
+cry which burst spasmodically from his lips. In it might be read the
+seduction and destruction of a young spirit, not consenting to its own
+shame and ruin!</p>
+
+<p>He laid his head on the strong shoulder of his friend, and closed his
+heavy eyelids, as if he dreamed, in this trying moment, it would be
+possible for him thus to close them forever. But the Wanderer, suddenly
+calling him back to consciousness, said: 'Follow me! follow me, that
+thou mayst remember forever the Form of the murdered Mother!'</p>
+
+<p>So saying, he led the young man to a low door which opened behind the
+Great Altar. A whirlwind, as if from plains of ice, blew upon them from
+the subterranean passages below, and the flame of the taper streamed
+upon the blast, swaying and torn into a line of dying sparks. And thus
+they commenced the plunge into the very bosom of night, descending ever
+lower and lower, exploring depth after depth, until at last they had
+worked their way through the narrow and winding passages, and stood in
+the sublime silence of the immensity of space.</p>
+
+<p>Their taper had long ago gone out, but they needed not its flickering
+light. The swamp-fires of the night, the corpse-lights, the
+will-o'-the-wisps, sometimes fell like falling stars; sometimes rose
+like rising moons. Countless cemeteries seemed moving on in this weird
+light, one solemnly following the other, and on the dark gate of each
+glittered, as if graved in frosted silver, the name of the Murdered
+Nation, and on the white crosses gleaming within, the names of her
+martyred children. Vast piles of skeletons, of bones and skulls, lay in
+the path of the young man, and as he advanced he read the glorious
+inscriptions.</p>
+
+<p>It now seemed to him that the ghosts of the buried were also moving on
+before him, increasing constantly in number, and all moaning as they
+sped on, until at last they seemed to condense into a murky vapor like a
+trailing storm-cloud, growing ever more and more pervading, and
+murmuring with thousands upon thousands of sad, but spirit-stirring
+national songs. The air gleamed with the flashing of sabres and wild
+waving of standards; conflagrations and flames filled the intervening
+spaces, like vivid flashes of rest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>less lightning, now gleaming, now
+sinking into the bosom of the cloud. Faster and faster, farther and
+farther whirls the cloud of spirits. Then in my dream I saw them
+suddenly descend, driven over the earth like the withered leaves of
+autumn&mdash;beaten low upon the ground and drifting on like the summer's
+dust&mdash;while a strong cry burst from the driven shadows: 'O God, have
+mercy upon us!'</p>
+
+<p>The Wanderer stopped before the gate of an open sepulchre, on which was
+graven the name of the many times Murdered. The letters blazed with a
+soft lambent flame, and he fell reverently upon his knees. Penetrated
+with mystic awe, he quivered from head to foot when he arose, and wept
+tenderly as he crossed the threshold.</p>
+
+<p>A soft light, like that of an evening late in autumn, dimly illumined
+the space within. I saw the holy Coffin as it lay on the gentle slope of
+a hill; a giant Pine stood at its head, and in its topmost branches
+perched the Eagle, pierced to the heart and sleeping in its own blood.
+Within the coffin lay the sacred Form, with the cross on her breast, the
+veil on her face, the fetters on her hands, and the crown upon her
+forehead. I saw six such hills rising one after the other, separated
+from one another by the long grass, through which, in place of sunny
+brooks, flowed crimson streams of human gore. Hilts and shivered
+fragments of broken swords, overgrown with weeds and covered with rust,
+were lying scattered in every direction through the rank grass. On each
+of the six hills lay the same Coffin; the same Form. But always more and
+more strongly surged the streams of human blood; heavier and heavier
+grew the chains on the hands of the Dead; and paler and paler the dim
+autumnal light. At the foot of the last hill it was dark, and bitter
+cold; the currents of blood were frozen; the icicles hung from the
+branches of the Pine; the Eagle lay in his congealed gore; and in place
+of the veil, the face of the six times murdered Mother was closely
+covered with a sheet of snow.</p>
+
+<p>When the young man reached this spot of gloom, he fell with his face
+upon the frozen earth, and cursed his life! In the distance sounded the
+moans of the shadows left at the gate of the sepulchre; he bowed his
+head and wept. He heard them ask: 'Is the six times Murdered really
+dead? will she rise no more to deliver her faithful children from mortal
+anguish?'</p>
+
+<p>The Wanderer replied not, but looked with eyes of melancholy love upon
+his friend who had thrown himself upon the frozen earth, and gently
+raised him in his strong arms.</p>
+
+<p>Then rose the wail of all the armies of the grave; they broke the
+silence of death with loud and fearful cries: 'O Heavenly Father, Thou
+hast betrayed us! Thou hast delivered us up to Hell, for our Saint is
+really dead!'</p>
+
+<p>The Wanderer answered the cry, and his voice pealed like distant
+thunder. 'Blaspheme not! Our Saint yet breathes! I see her lying in her
+last coffin on the hill of ice&mdash;there is no seventh beyond it&mdash;from it
+comes the Resurrection!' The wails and sobs of the spirits suddenly
+ceased, and a murmuring chant of the Mother's was entoned, low and sweet
+as the first sigh of a germing hope.</p>
+
+<p>The young man now perceived, for hitherto he had not seen it, the
+illimitable space beyond the coffin. Afar over the infinite blue broke
+the growing splendor of the early dawn&mdash;the clash and clamor of battles
+yet unborn broke through the veil of Time&mdash;and above it all he heard the
+Mother's ancient hymn of victory!</p>
+
+<p>The young dawn shone but for a moment, the clash of battle ceased, the
+song of triumph died upon the ear&mdash;the gloomy silence of the twilight
+was again upon them, and frost and cold upon the earth. The two friends
+reverently pressed their lips upon the still feet of the fettered Form;
+together<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> listened to the faint breathing from the icy lips, catching it
+even through the veil of snow shrouding the sacred face; together they
+ascended the frozen hill, bowing their heads in their hands to hide
+their tears.</p>
+
+<p>I saw them again as they were returning by the same road, and overheard
+them binding themselves with fearful oaths. The Wanderer took leave of
+the young man at the entrance of the church, saying with wonderfully
+tender and conjuring tones: 'Be not deceived by those who would fain
+ruin thy soul, and blot out thy name from the number of honorable sounds
+on earth! Remember, whatsoever the splendor of the things thou shalt
+this night see, they are but deceptions from the lowest Hell! Then
+placing his hand on the heart of the young man, he prayed: 'O Heavenly
+Father! have mercy upon him and upon me, for if he withstands not this
+terrible Temptation, Thou knowest we shall both have lived in vain, and
+our part on earth is done forever! After this they parted, and went
+their way on different routes.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>It was already night in the great city. Innumerable throngs were
+crowding the streets, all moving in the same direction, to the palace
+lighted with a thousand lamps, sounding with music, and gay with the
+dance. Old and young, men and women thronged the brazen stairs leading
+to the upper saloons; hurrying on as eagerly, as unceasingly as if
+ascending into Heaven!</p>
+
+<p>The hours of the night passed slowly by, seeming longer to me than the
+whole of the preceding day. It was almost one o'clock before I again saw
+the young man, and the traces of the oaths he had taken were cunningly
+hidden under smiles. Groups of servants stood around him; he carelessly
+threw them his cloak, and climbed with the rest the brazen stairs. He
+was richly dressed; the magnificent guest was worthy of the splendor of
+the wedding feast. He entered gracefully, and gazed curiously on the
+thousands who were dancing around him. His eyes fell upon the rich and
+varied spoils overhanging the Hall; broken swords were wrought into the
+walls like mosaics; the flags of the conquered nations were draped in
+their varied hues across the vaulted ceiling; but as he looked on all
+these trophies of power, I saw him suddenly turn pale with rage, and
+bite his lips until the blood followed the pressure of his teeth; but
+then the whirling crowds caught him in their midst&mdash;violins, harps,
+flutes and horns poured the reeling air into his dizzied brain&mdash;clouds
+of incense intoxicated his senses&mdash;piled and mossy carpets luxuriously
+yielded to the pressure of his feet&mdash;rainbow hues shifted gayly before
+his dazzled eyes&mdash;until giddy, fascinated, stimulated, he sank upon a
+pile of cushions, resting his hot temples in his burning palms, dreaming
+of snowy hands and taper fingers, of azure eyes and cheeks like rose
+leaves.</p>
+
+<p>As he thus rested, I heard the bell heavily toll one; I felt that this
+long night was in its darkest hour!</p>
+
+<p>When he raised his eyes, he saw, through the long vista of the
+illuminated apartments, the Throne of the Splendor of the Sun. It stood
+above the moving sea of dancers; upon it sat the Autocrat of Life and
+Death; and above him waved the canopy of flags torn from the dying
+nations. The young man started, for he saw one among them dyed in gore,
+and tattered into rags, and from its torn streamers, drop by drop, the
+blood was ever falling; but no one saw or heeded it save himself. When
+this sight fell upon his reeling gaze, he determined to repel with all
+his force the allurements of temptation, and again his eye gleamed blue
+and pure as it had done in the early morning.</p>
+
+<p>A movement now began in the crowd. It dispersed, divided, and formed
+into long lines upon the right and the left, leaving a wide, open
+pathway through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> the whole length of the long vista of the apartments.
+The Lord of the Palace descended from his Throne, and moved through the
+living walls as if he were a God, while all prostrated themselves as he
+passed along. He turned not aside, but went directly to the spot where
+the young man was seated. Nearer and nearer he approached, wondrously
+beautiful and strong. The young man rose and looked boldly into his
+eyes. The Master of Life and Death did not frown upon him, but said
+gently: 'Come, let us take a stroll together; I will show you the
+wonders of my Palace!'</p>
+
+<p>The youth stood as if transfixed to the spot, but the Lord of Life and
+Death drew closer to him, stooped and pressed a kiss on his brow, and
+led him away with easy grace.</p>
+
+<p>Although he seemed to see the coffin of the murdered Mother ever winding
+on before him, the young man accompanied the Monarch. His arm trembled
+with the quick beating of his boiling blood as it lay on the hard one of
+the Autocrat, who, thunder as he might to the bowing throng prostrating
+themselves before him, continued to speak in soft tones and with a
+noble, courteous air to his present companion. He spoke of the past, he
+uttered without trembling even the name of the murdered Mother, as if
+her assassination did not weigh upon his conscience. He did not seem to
+have the least doubt that she was really dead, vanished forever from the
+face of the earth. He artfully pointed out to the young man another
+immense future,<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> graven, as he said, in the Book of Fate. He painted
+it in the most alluring colors, awakening his young desires for its
+attainment; he spared no promises, and as if he held himself to be one
+of God's prophets, he parodied inspiration. The unhappy young man turned
+his eyes toward the ground, away from the handsome face, as though it
+had been that of Antichrist. Each word of the Tempter fell like a drop
+of poison on his heart, engendering and hatching the worms within. They
+walked together through the long ranges of apartments, the close ranks
+of men prostrating themselves as they passed, until they struck with
+their foreheads the malachites wrought into the tessellated floor.</p>
+
+<p>When they arrived at the other end of the Palace, the gates of bronze
+upon the order of the Master were suddenly thrown open, while the mass
+behind, lifting their heads from the ground, looked enviously after
+them.</p>
+
+<p>'Behold, this is my Treasury,' said the Monarch. 'Look, and have faith
+in the extent of my power!'</p>
+
+<p>The young man looked before him. He was standing at the portals of deep
+mines of wealth, endlessly extended. Alas! the glowing splendor from the
+hills and valleys burned into the blue eyes of the young man; his pupils
+rapidly absorbed the molten torrents of gold and silver; circles of
+light from amethyst, opal, and emerald, bent like rainbows round the
+azure orbs. The subterranean flames roared and crackled; the hills were
+shaken to their centre; the caves were heaving in their depths, and
+fresh, glittering, golden, diamantine lumps came ever gushing from the
+fused and seething mass.</p>
+
+<p>But strange sounds were ever and anon heard amidst the hissing and
+sputtering of the boiling metals. Long cries came up as if from men in
+the agonies of death; a clatter as of chains sounded from the abyss;
+muttered curses; and bent and wretched human figures were seen moving
+over swards of diamonds and precious stones, like the dark stains
+passing athwart the bright face of the moon. The eye of the Monarch then
+flamed with wrath. Sometimes clanging their chains as they moved their
+fettered limbs, these melancholy figures raised to him their suppliant
+hands, begging with anguished cries for one drop of water, for one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>
+moment of respite to breathe the free air of heaven. He vouchsafed to
+them no answer, and with every moment the wretched and emaciated shadows
+fell from utter exhaustion into the molten metals seething in the depths
+of the mine. But what mattered that, since with every instant, new bands
+of living shadows, equally fettered, doomed, and wretched, arrived to
+fill the vacant places? The young man thought he had seen some of these
+melancholy faces before in the high places of the earth, that the noble
+traits once had been dear to him, but the flashes of lightning blinded
+him, and the features were rapidly lost in the depths of the succeeding
+gloom. The roar of the seething, fusing metals deafened the sound of the
+groans from the chained and broken-hearted miners. And as I gazed, an
+all-pervading splendor, like the golden calm of the Desert, settled over
+all, covering with glittering veil the anguish which had been revealed.</p>
+
+<p>As this light overflowed the scene with its brilliant haze, the gates of
+bronze clapped to with heavy clang. The Master of Life and Death took
+leave of the young man, and as he departed, said: When the great bell
+again strikes, be in the Hall of the Throne; thy seat at my Banquet is
+next my own.</p>
+
+<p>As the young man turned to move away, the throng greeted him with shouts
+and cheers. Many knelt to kiss his hand, because it had touched the hand
+of the Master. They asked him what music he would hear, and when his
+choice was made, the grand orchestra rolled it forth in massive waves of
+sound. They bore him luscious wines in jewelled vases, kneeling as he
+took the cup. He marvelled, and at first scorned the homage, but again I
+saw him look proudly round him, and assume an air of command.</p>
+
+<p>In a recess of the most exquisite beauty, veiled by groves of perfumed
+flowers, he meets resplendent groups of married women, blooming clusters
+of budding maidens. They surround him as he enters, greeting him with
+lovely smiles; and scattering rose leaves o'er him. His cheeks flame as
+with fever; his blood boils in his veins; he grows giddy, faint:&mdash;alas,
+he feels at last that he might find happiness in the Palace of the
+mortal enemy of his Mother! This feeling falls upon him like a
+thunderbolt, and scathes his heart. He turns to fly, but they pursue,
+the perfumed wind bearing onward and wafting around him the full drapery
+of their floating trains of luxury. Their long ringlets kiss his cheeks,
+and weave their nets around him.</p>
+
+<p>Through two long hours of this fitful night I watched him with the
+keenest interest. I saw him struggle, confused, bewildered, reeling,
+giddy, dazzled, sometimes almost yielding to temptation, sometimes
+earnestly imploring the Heavenly Father for strength to resist delusion.
+As if in despair, I saw him hurrying through the long suite of
+apartments in search of a sword to pierce his weak, vacillating heart,
+but no arms were here to be found. Sometimes I saw him rush to meet the
+alluring Circes of the Palace, as if seeking their fascinations; then,
+suddenly turning upon them, he would curse and insult the seductive
+Sirens. I saw him tear from them their veils of snow, rend them asunder,
+and trample the costly fragments under his feet. They knelt, wept, and
+humiliated themselves before him. They prayed for love, saying: 'Once,
+only once, we implore thee, confess that thou lovest!' Utter madness
+came upon him; electric flashes fired his veins; rapture tingled through
+every fibre of his young frame; and in the voluptuous delirium of the
+moment he wildly cried: 'I love! I love!'</p>
+
+<p>As he spake, he caught in his arms the Houri of the foreign race; he
+fastened his burning lips upon her rosebud mouth; and by the magic of
+her breath she drew him on to the Hall of the Throne!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There sat the Master of Life and Death, with the flags and standards of
+the conquered nations floating around and above him. As the youth and
+maiden entered, I again heard the great bell toll the hour. Throngs of
+courtiers stood around the Throne. Slowly the curtain of inwrought
+tapestry rose from the platina door. Those who had been waiting beyond
+its threshold for admittance, were summoned by the Heralds to appear.
+Ambassadors from the Kings of the East and the Kings of the West entered
+the Presence Chamber. On they filed in long and solemn procession. They
+all bowed as they passed the Throne, each one depositing an urn of pure
+gold at the feet of the Monarch. The urns were filled with the ashes of
+those who had fallen in battle, heroes killed in holy causes, patriots
+and martyrs from different parts of the world. The Grand Duke entered
+last in the train, he was clad in the ermine only worn by Princes, and
+as he bowed his head, he placed the last urn on the floor. The young man
+started&mdash;the name of the murdered Mother was deeply graven on the
+sculptured swells. Then all grew dark before him, he saw neither the
+Throne of the Monarch, nor the fair girl still clinging to his arm. But
+his ear quickened as his eye grew dim, and the question of the Monarch
+rang loudly through his brain: 'Are they all really dead, and will they
+rise from the grave no more?'</p>
+
+<p>And as if with one voice answered the Ambassadors: 'They are all surely
+dead, and will rise no more forever.' At a sign from the Monarch, the
+courtiers approached, took up the urns, and solemnly deposited them upon
+the columns of black marble ranged on either side of the Hall. Flaming
+torches were then handed by the attendants, taken by those high in the
+favor of the court, and held over the open crypt of the urn. The ashes
+within kindled, and burned with a dim, bluish flame. The pale smoke rose
+from the shrine, spread through the air, and wafted the smell of Death
+to the nostrils of the Lord!</p>
+
+<p>It now seemed to the young man as if all he had seen at the hour of
+twilight was but a dream; he looked upon these throngs as the sole
+masters of the world, and on their Monarch as omnipotent and eternal. At
+this moment the table of festival rose in the Hall, everywhere
+surrounded by the blazing funereal urns. The maiden begged the
+bridegroom to take his seat at the banquet; the Master, descending from
+his Throne, placed his arm in his, and led him to the place of honor, at
+his side. The great bell again tolled the hour. The guests also took
+their places at the feast.</p>
+
+<p>Directly in front of the young man stood the column of black marble
+bearing the urn containing the ashes of his Mother. And whenever he saw
+her holy name, his long lashes veiled his sinking eyes; but his bride
+constantly recalled his attention to the blue flames of the crypt.</p>
+
+<p>More and more madly, fiercely, fearfully, his reeling and wretched soul
+struggled to regain its ancient faith, to return to its early hopes; but
+temptation was around him; his brain was bewildered; his understanding
+darkened; and madness within.</p>
+
+<p>Healths poisonous to his heart went round, and he was forced to drain
+them in honor of the Master. An inward shivering disjointed his members,
+unstrung his nerves, heart and frame fainted into weakness, a dew cold
+as death covered his temples, and his head fell wearily upon his
+breast&mdash;the walls, the floors, the ceilings, the men, the burning urns,
+danced, reeled, and tottered in wild confusion before him. The murmuring
+voices, the buzz of sound, the swell of the triumphant music, the
+strange words of the foreign bride, mingled and boomed like the roar of
+the sea in the ears of the swooning man&mdash;and so the last hours passed
+away!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He still lived, if life be measured by the wild throbs of the heart.
+Like the clap of doom the last hour struck upon his ear. He opened his
+heavy eyelids, the blue flames from the urns were dying out. The Master
+of Life and Death, graciously smiling and courteously inclining toward
+him, said: 'Guest of my Banquet, the hour has struck in which thou art
+to swear to serve me; in which thou must abjure thine ancient faith and
+name.'</p>
+
+<p>As he spake, he threw to him across the table jewelled orders and
+diamond crosses, saying: 'Wear these in memory of me!' The Herald then
+drew near, and read to him from the Black Book the form of abjuration.
+The agonizing and swooning man mechanically repeated the words one by
+one after him, not even hearing the sound of his own voice. His head had
+fallen on the bosom of his bride, his lips still moved, but his eyes
+were glaring in the whiteness of death&mdash;and so he uttered all the
+prescribed words until the very last was said!</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely had he finished, when the Master of Life and Death arose and
+said: 'Servant of my servants art thou now&mdash;beware! shouldst thou prove
+false to thy oath, the rope of the hangman surely awaits thee.' Then he
+broke into a loud, coarse laugh of triumph!</p>
+
+<p>The unfortunate man raised his wretched head, and his first look fell
+upon the urn of his murdered Mother. In place of her name of glory
+another word was standing now: '<span class="smcap">Infamy</span>!' 'Infamy,'&mdash;he looked
+again; he shrieked aloud, 'Infamy;' and started from his seat with the
+last effort of his failing strength. 'Infamy!' shouted the thousands
+from before, behind, from either side. 'Infamy' sounded from the
+ceilings of the Palace, the Hall of the Throne, the deep mines and
+limitless Treasury! Some among the crowd hastened to greet him by his
+new name, while others fastened to his garments the glittering orders
+and diamond crosses. Some commanded him to bow before them, while others
+ordered him to trample under foot the still smouldering ashes of his
+Mother!</p>
+
+<p>That thought sent the blood back in hot torrents to his heart. He broke
+through the surrounding throng, rushed on, fled from the Presence
+Chamber, eagerly looking for his bride. He saw her leaning on the arm of
+another, mocking and jeering with the rest. He glides on behind the
+statues, steals along the recesses, is discovered, and again flies
+before the enemy. The Palace winds before him into countless
+labyrinths&mdash;nowhere is shelter to be found sneers, menaces, insults, are
+everywhere around him&mdash;but worse than all, <i>the curse is now within his
+soul</i>!</p>
+
+<p>Then he suddenly turns to meet his enemies; he baffles them at first,
+but countless numbers are upon him. They hurl him to the ground, trample
+him under foot, and pass on singing a song from the land of his Mother.
+As he rises, fresh numbers assail him, he bids defiance to them all,
+struggles, advances, until foaming, bleeding, sinking, he is again
+driven back, again forced to seek an outlet from the Palace. Thus
+fighting, running, falling, fainting, he makes his way until the first
+dim dawn of day, and as it breaks, he falls heavily down the brazen
+staircase, and rolls below into the court of the Palace. Here strong
+arms seize him, and bear him rapidly away to the steps of the
+church&mdash;the same church which he had left in the evening twilight.</p>
+
+<p>It is the hour of the young dawn, but the sun of this earth will never
+rise for him again! Light will awake the world, but it will shine into
+his blue eyes no more!</p>
+
+<p>He awakes to consciousness on the steps of the church, and finds himself
+face to face alone with the Wanderer. He is mute in his despair. The
+Wanderer, regarding him sternly, says: 'In other times and scenes thou
+mightst perchance have been a hero, but the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> Fates doomed thee to heavy
+trial, and thou wert not strong enough to preserve thy virtue! The
+<i>visible reality</i> prevailed with thee above the <i>invisible</i>, <i>holy</i>, and
+<i>eternal truth</i>! Alas, thou art lost!'</p>
+
+<p>'Give me back my horse!' cried the young man, as life again began to
+flow through his veins. 'Give me the free dress of the steppes, give me
+my arms, and thou shalt see that I know how to revenge the wrongs
+inflicted on my brethren, to redress my own infamy!'</p>
+
+<p>He grasped the hand of his friend, and threw himself into his arms,
+quivering with rage. Far more sadly than before, the Wanderer replied:</p>
+
+<p>'The hour for bold and open defiance is not yet near. It is the time for
+silent sacrifice. But even shouldst thou live until the Day of Judgment,
+the hour of Resurrection, thy brethren will always number thee among
+those who have renounced the Mother. Hark! thy enemies are in pursuit of
+thee, already near. Should they capture thee, thou must be the slave of
+their wills, the partner of their crimes, the sport and butt of all
+their bitter jests throughout the remnant of thy wretched life. One only
+refuge remains for thee!' And as he spoke, he drew his glittering sword.</p>
+
+<p>The young man understood his meaning. With dauntless courage he tore
+aside the covering from his breast.</p>
+
+<p>'Strike!' he exclaimed. 'I die as a true son of the many times murdered
+Mother&mdash;honor to her holy name forever and ever!'</p>
+
+<p>The Wanderer groaned from the depths of his soul. He plunged the sharp
+cold steel into the young naked heart. The unfortunate victim fell
+without a moan. He fell in the first rays of the rising sun, and in the
+same hour in which but yesterday, full of strength and hope, he had
+mounted his swift horse from the green home-turf, urging him down the
+hill to push eagerly over the broad steppe of life.</p>
+
+<p>He fell in silence, but his dying eye again flashed forth a light
+rivalling the young beam of Day.</p>
+
+<p>The Wanderer knelt beside him, and lifting his clasped hands to Heaven,
+said: 'O Heavenly Father! Thou knowest that I loved him better than
+aught else on earth! As long as it was possible, I shielded him from the
+Temptation of Hell, and in the first moment of his fall, I tore his soul
+out from the grasp of the enemy, and sent it back to Thee! Save it in
+eternity, merciful Father! Let the crimson tide poured out by me, be
+joined to that sea of innocent blood which is ever wailing and moaning
+at the foot of Thy Throne! Let it with that sea fall upon the head of
+the Tempters!'</p>
+
+<p>After these words I saw him, with the point of the same sword, draw
+blood from under his own heart, and write with the sharp red blade on
+the stone above the head of the dead: <span class="smcap">Sent home by the hand of a
+friend!</span></p>
+
+<p>The echoing steps and voices of the pursuers fell loudly on the ear;
+they were close at hand. The Wanderer arose, and rapidly disappeared
+from my eyes in the sanctuary of the ancient church.</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>Thus passed and ended that one day of my vision!</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>O Mother, many times murdered! When thou shalt waken from thy long
+sleep, and again rest on the long grass of the home turf, again hear the
+holy whispers of thy unhewn forests green from sea to sea, again feel
+thy youth returning upon thee, thou wilt remember thy long night of
+death, the terrible phantoms of thy protracted agonies. Weep not then, O
+Mother! weep not for those who fell in glorious battle, nor for those
+who perished on alien soil&mdash;although their flesh was torn by the vulture
+and devoured by the wolf, they were still happy! Neither weep for those
+who died in the dark and silent dungeon underground by the hand of the
+executioner, though the dismal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> prison-lamp was their only star, and the
+harsh words of the oppressor the last farewell they heard on earth&mdash;they
+too were happy!</p>
+
+<p>But drop a tear, O Mother! One tear of tender pity for those who were
+deceived by thy Murderers, misled by their tissues of glittering
+falsehood, blinded by misty veils woven of specious deceptions, when the
+command of the tyrant had no power to tear their true hearts from thee!
+Alas, Mother, these victims have suffered the most of all thy martyred
+children! Deceitful hopes, born but to die, like blades of naked steel,
+forever pierced their breasts! Thousands of fierce combats, unknown to
+fame, were waging in their souls, combats fuller of bitter suffering
+than the bloody battles thundering on in the broad light of the sun,
+clashing with the gleam of steel, and booming with the roar of
+artillery. No glory shone on the dim paths of thy deceived sons; thy
+reproachful phantom walked ever beside them, as part of their own
+shadow! The glittering eye of the enemy lured them to the steep slopes
+of ice, down into the abyss of eternal snow, and at every step into the
+frozen depths, their tears fell fast for thee! They waited until their
+hearts withered in the misery of hope long deferred; until their hands
+sank in utter weariness; until they could no longer move their emaciated
+limbs in the fetters of their invisible chain; still conscious of life,
+they moved as living corpses with frozen hearts&mdash;alone amidst a hating
+People&mdash;alone even in the sanctuary of their own homes&mdash;alone forever on
+the face of the earth!</p>
+
+<p>My Mother! When thou shalt again live in thy olden glory, shed a tear
+over their wretched fate, over the agony of agonies, and whisper upon
+their dark and silent graves, the sublime word: <span class="smcap">Pardon</span>!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="MADAGASCAR" id="MADAGASCAR"></a>MADAGASCAR</h2>
+
+
+<p>The 'Last Travels' of Ida Pfeiffer, published in London in 1861, called
+the public attention to an island which had been excluded from
+civilization for more than a quarter of a century. The great Island of
+Madagascar, situated in the path of all the commerce of Europe with the
+East, for reasons we are about to explain, has again attracted the
+notice of diplomatists, and threatens to become a second Eastern
+question. We propose to sketch the history of the island and to explain
+the cause of its sudden importance.</p>
+
+<p>Though discovered in 1506 by the Portuguese, and partially colonized at
+times by the Dutch, French, and English, it has, up to this time,
+preserved an independent government; or rather, the native tribes have
+been allowed to fight and enslave each other without much aid or
+hindrance from Europeans.</p>
+
+<p>When England, early in the present century, began the task of subduing
+the East, she found in her conquests of Mauritius and Bourbon the
+natural and important links in her chain of posts. As a recent writer
+has well pointed out, she has a succession of fortified posts,
+Gibraltar, St. Helena, the Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, and Ceylon,
+reaching from London to Calcutta and Singapore. The commerce of the
+world, as it sweeps by the Cape of Good Hope, is forced to pursue a
+track in which her strongholds are situated. But for the blindness of
+her former rulers, she would be the mistress of the Eastern seas. Two
+points, however, have been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> left unguarded. In some trading convention,
+some congress of nations, England made the great mistake of restoring to
+France the Island of Bourbon, surrendering one of the keys to the
+impregnable position she held. Other reasons have prevented the
+acquisition of Madagascar, and it is not yet too late to render this
+mistake fatal to her supremacy. It is true that in case of war, her
+armed steamers may start with the assurance of a secure coaling station
+at the end of every ten days' journey, but from the Cape eastward she is
+dependent upon her maintenance of Mauritius.</p>
+
+<p>France has made the most of the opportunity given to her, by holding
+Bourbon as a military colony, and maintaining a powerful fleet there. It
+is, however, for us to regard the interests of the United States, and to
+see if any foothold can be gained for our protection. Had war been the
+result of the <i>Trent</i> affair, what would have become of our immense
+fleet of merchant ships which was then afloat in Indian waters? Manila
+and Batavia were the only two neutral ports to which they could have
+fled for safety; and neither Spain nor Holland would have dared to
+permit our cruisers to refit or to coal in their ports. The American
+flag would have been driven from those seas without the slightest
+difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>And yet the means for avoiding this disgraceful state of affairs in the
+future lie open to us now. The fertile Island of Madagascar, abounding
+in safe harbors, lies as near the track of commerce as do Mauritius and
+Bourbon. It has innumerable advantages over either of these islands, and
+it is especially adapted to our wants. Mauritius must be weak in time of
+war, because it is so entirely an artificial colony. A mere dot on the
+map, only some thirty miles in diameter, it has a population of over
+three hundred thousand, wholly devoted to the cultivation of sugar. This
+product has been the source of immense wealth to the island, but it has
+necessitated the abandonment of every other branch of agriculture. These
+three hundred thousand inhabitants are literally dependent for their
+daily food on the kindness of the elements in time of peace, and on the
+naval supremacy of England in time of war. There is not enough grain
+raised there to supply the colonists with food for twenty-four hours,
+and there is rarely a supply in reserve to last them for two months.
+Their rice is brought from India, their cattle from Madagascar. Let the
+free intercourse with these countries be suspended, and a famine is
+inevitable. The noble harbor of Port Louis, with its fortifications, its
+dockyards, and coal sheds, is a source of strength to England only so
+long as she can prevent her enemies from establishing themselves in
+Madagascar.</p>
+
+<p>France is striving to rival and surpass England. At Bourbon, already
+strongly fortified, immense artificial docks are projected, perhaps
+commenced. The colony has annually a deficit in its accounts to be made
+good from the national treasury, but extension rather than retrenchment
+is its policy. France has acquired the Mayotte or Comoro Islands, and
+several ports on the north of Madagascar. She has also the sympathy of
+all the creoles of Mauritius, in whose minds the English occupation of
+fifty years has been unable to stifle the instinct of nationality.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the two great Western powers stand, nominally allies at home,
+jealous and active enemies abroad.</p>
+
+<p>Circumstances have kept both powers from seizing the tempting prize
+which has so long hung before them. What are these two pitiful islands
+in comparison with the great, wealthy, and fertile island which, lies to
+the west of them? In time of peace they are convenient points in the
+great lines of commerce; here the disabled vessels of all nations find a
+resting place. In time of war they are strongly entrenched positions,
+liable to capture by any na<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>tion which can secure a base for operations
+against them. Madagascar, on the other hand, stands fifth on the list of
+islands in magnitude, is situated in the latitude most favorable for
+agriculture, and abounds in every kind of material wealth. A harbor on
+its coast, with the whole island as a depot from whence supplies can be
+drawn, would be a source of strength more than sufficient to
+counterbalance the works of half a century's growth at Mauritius. We
+have only to see, therefore, if such a concession can be obtained for
+this country.</p>
+
+<p>We have said that repeated and ineffectual attempts were made to subdue
+and colonize the island. Numerous tribes, of widely varying origin,
+people the island, some black as the blackest negro, others of the Malay
+or Arab type. For centuries they had been engaged in domestic wars, when
+in 1816 the English Government agreed to recognize the chief of one
+tribe as king of the island, on condition that he would suppress the
+foreign slave trade.</p>
+
+<p>The chief thus selected was Radama, king of the Hovas, a tribe occupying
+the centre of the island, and the one which ranked highest in the scale
+for intelligence. It is believed that this race, presenting so many
+characteristics of the Malays, is the result of some piratical colony
+here, established by chance or the desire of conquest. That the Hovas
+possess a high degree of intelligence, and are capable of as much
+culture as the Japanese or Mavris, is indisputable.</p>
+
+<p>Thanks to the muskets and military instructors with which England
+provided him, Radama was enabled to extend his conquests in every
+direction. He was indeed fitted to be a ruler, and, a savage Napoleon,
+he devoted as much time to improvement of his subjects as he did to the
+increase of his territories. Though not a convert, he allowed the
+missionaries to preach the gospel, to reduce the Hova language to
+writing, and to translate the Bible. He permitted them to establish
+schools, to import printing presses, to instruct his people in
+agriculture and mechanics. They rapidly availed themselves of the
+opportunity, and with mines of coal, iron, and copper in abundance, they
+became skilful artificers.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately, Radama died in 1828, in the prime of life; and, by an
+intrigue in his harem, a concubine, Ranavalo, was proclaimed Queen of
+Madagascar. The advance had been too rapid, and, as in Japan, there was
+a large party of conservatives anxious to return to the old regime. The
+new queen dissembled for a few years, but finally expelled the
+missionaries in 1835. Idolatry was again resumed, and Christianity
+stifled. A certain amount of commerce was allowed with Europeans, but
+under severe restrictions. So necessary to the existence of the
+neighboring colonists was the supply of food, that when in 1844 the
+trade was forbidden, the English Government was obliged to yield. The
+difficulty arose from the fact that an English vessel, the 'Marie
+Laure,' kidnapped some of the Malagash. The Hovas seized one of the
+crew, and then declared non-intercourse. In 1845, one English and two
+French men-of-war attacked Tamatave, but were repulsed with considerable
+losses.</p>
+
+<p>Finally the matter was settled by the payment of $15,000 to the queen as
+an indemnity, and this sum, raised by the contributions of the merchants
+of Port Louis, was paid with the consent of the English Government.</p>
+
+<p>Until 1861, there was no change in the position of affairs, except one
+incident, which Madame Pfeiffer records. In 1831, a certain M. Laborde,
+shipwrecked on the coast, was carried as a prisoner to the capital,
+where he was kept in an honorable captivity. He taught the natives the
+art of casting cannon and manufacturing gunpowder, and acquired a
+considerable property. In 1855, he was joined by M.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> Lambert, a
+Frenchman of wealth, and they became the favorites of the Prince Rakoto.
+This son of the queen was at the head of the liberal party, as his
+cousin, Ramboasalama, was of the conservative. The latter, nephew of the
+queen, and brother-in-law of the prince, had been designated as heir
+presumptive before the birth of Rakoto; and he had always the credit of
+a design to contest the succession.</p>
+
+<p>The visit of Mr. Ellis, an English missionary, in 1856, was the signal
+for the intrigues which were about to commence between the French and
+English. The prince was warmly attached to M. Lambert, but the English
+hoped to claim him as a Protestant. Finally, as Madame Pfeiffer says, M.
+Lambert attempted to create a revolution, seeking to depose the queen,
+but he was discovered and banished.</p>
+
+<p>In 1861, the queen died, and her son succeeded as Radama II, after a
+short contest with his cousin. Having been on the island at the time,
+and leaving it in the vessel which carried the new king's letters to the
+colonial governments, the writer can testify to the intense interest
+evinced by the French and English. It was confidently asserted at
+Bourbon that Radama had placed the island under the protection of
+France, and that French influence was to predominate. This proved
+unfounded, but the court was the centre for incessant intrigues.</p>
+
+<p>The new king commenced his reign under the happiest auspices. He was
+very popular, and his reputation for kindness had soon caused many of
+the surrounding tribes to acknowledge his supremacy. The Hovas had
+spread from the centre toward the coast in all directions&mdash;to the
+eastward they had subdued the Betsimarakas; to the westward, the
+Saccalaves. Yet numerous tribes had remained independent, and held large
+portions of the coast and the interior. The cruelty of the queen had
+kept alive their animosity, but now they voluntarily came forward to
+acknowledge her son and to be received into the Hova nation.</p>
+
+<p>The people already had acquired a taste for European luxuries, and were
+desirous of an extended commerce. As they were rich in herds and flocks,
+in grain and fruits, as their forests of ebony, rosewood, and other
+valuable woods were immense, as their mines yielded coal and iron,
+perhaps even gold, they were ready and anxious to open their ports to
+the commerce of the world. England and France both recognized the king,
+sent envoys with congratulatory letters and presents, and appointed
+resident consuls. The United States alone, unfortunately plunged in
+civil war, neglected the opportunity.</p>
+
+<p>The king proclaimed freedom of religion, permitted the establishment of
+schools, established freedom of imports and exports, and granted lands
+to all <i>bona fide</i> settlers.</p>
+
+<p>It was with the greatest surprise, therefore, that we have learned, some
+two months since, that a revolution has taken place, and that these fair
+prospects have been darkened by the murder of the king. It seems that he
+had made such lavish grants of land to his favorite, Lambert, that his
+nobles rebelled. Lambert had been sent to France to obtain the regalia
+for the coronation, and had organized a great company to hold these
+concessions. Whether the feuds of the missionaries, Protestant English
+and Catholic French, aided this, is not yet known.</p>
+
+<p>It is clear, however, that the king and many of his personal friends
+were killed, and that his wife, Rabodo, is the queen. She is the sister
+of Ramboasalama, and probably represents the party of retrogression.</p>
+
+<p>It is not, however, too late for our Government to recognize the ruler
+of Madagascar, and to obtain those indispensable advantages resulting.
+In time of peace, we shall have safe harbors for our merchant vessels,
+and we shall open a new field for our commerce. In time of war, we shall
+have these neutral ports<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> as a refuge, and should diplomacy go one step
+farther and secure us a coaling station, we shall be on equal terms in
+the East with the other great maritime powers.</p>
+
+<p>There is certainly no time to be lost. A single English steamer, flying
+the confederate flag, can pass the Cape, can coal at Mauritius, or
+rendezvous at Madagascar, and could then destroy more shipping than the
+whole fleet of pirates has yet done. It is at least probable that our
+national vessels would be refused permission to avail of Port Louis for
+repairs or supplies. It certainly does not comport with the honor of the
+nation to have to rely upon the churlish courtesy of England. Already,
+too, we see it announced that Napoleon will find in the massacre of
+French subjects a pretext to seize on the island. If our Government will
+spare a single one of the cruisers which have so uselessly sought the
+Alabama, it may, during the present year, negotiate a treaty which will
+at once advance our prosperity in peace, and increase our strength in
+any future war.</p>
+
+<p>It seems strange, indeed, that our statesmen cannot learn that we must
+hereafter abandon our isolated condition. England has taught us the
+folly of continuing indifferent to her aggressions in the East, in the
+hope that she will not interfere in the West. No blow can be more fatal
+to her supremacy abroad than the knowledge that we have secured a point
+where we perpetually threaten her line of communication with her
+colonies.</p>
+
+<p>We have written thus fully, because so few persons have had occasion to
+consider the subject. It seems probable, from the latest advices from
+Port Louis, that some envoy has visited the island, but what we require
+is a more imposing display of our power. The new queen, who has assumed
+the name of Rahoserina, is but a puppet in the hands of the council of
+nobles, of which Rainivoninahitriniony is the chief. Formerly all honors
+were held subject to the pleasure of the king, who could degrade his
+servants at pleasure; but this power is now declared to be abrogated.
+The powerful tribe of Saccalaves, always independent until the accession
+of Radama II, refuses to acknowledge his successor. It may be necessary
+to negotiate different treaties, perhaps, to protect American citizens
+in case of civil war. It is certainly most important to show the natives
+that we are really a great maritime nation. The time and position demand
+the employment of an able envoy, and the presence of such a naval force
+as may cause his mission to be respected.</p>
+
+<p>Our last topic is to be considered. We do not advocate the establishment
+of costly works by Government, or the acquisition of a colony. The laws
+of commerce will provide the first, if only a proper protection is given
+to enterprise. Let us obtain but a single port under the safeguard of
+the American flag, and it will become a depot as flourishing as
+Singapore. Private enterprise will speedily establish dockyards and
+machine shops; for not only will there be an immense legitimate commerce
+with the Malagash, but the port will be the great centre for repairing
+and refitting our merchant vessels and whalers. The one thing needful,
+we repeat, is prompt action by our Government, with the certainty that
+the opportunity now presented will not return.</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Note.</span>&mdash;The latest advices from Madagascar, received <i>via</i>
+Mauritius, throw a little light upon the revolution which resulted in
+the death of Radama II. It seems probable that the late king had lost
+the esteem of his people by his partiality toward his favorites, by the
+concessions made to foreigners, especially to M. Lambert, and by his
+vacillating course in religious matters. His private life was such as to
+render it highly improbable that he had become a Christian; yet Mr.
+Ellis, the English missionary, exercised a great control over him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The late queen was buried at Ambohimanga, a little village where there
+was a temple devoted to the chief idol. It seems that her son had
+promised to keep this spot sacred from the intrusion of the
+missionaries. Mr. Ellis most imprudently determined to preach there, and
+though driven away once, obtained troops from the king, and succeeded in
+a second attempt.</p>
+
+<p>As the nobles and the population were almost unanimously in favor of
+idolatry, this course gave cause for great dissatisfaction. The more
+devout, assembling near the capital, held daily meetings, and a disease
+called ramanenra&mdash;a sort of nervous affection, such as has too often
+accompanied revivals in Christian countries&mdash;appeared among them. The
+nobles confederated under the lead of the commander-in-chief,
+Rainivoninahitriniony, and remained aloof from supporting the king.
+Finally, the king published a mysterious law, allowing individuals or
+tribes to fight in the presence of witnesses&mdash;a law supposed by the one
+party to encourage assassination, and by the other to tend to the
+extirpation of the Christians.</p>
+
+<p>The prime minister, in a letter written in English, explains the last
+scene thus: On the 8th May, the chief officers requested the repeal of
+these laws; the king refused; and the tenth day, a public tumult
+resulted in the slaughter of the Menamaso, or native favorites of the
+king. On the 12th May, the leaders, afraid to pause, strangled the king,
+and proclaimed Rabodo queen, under the name of Rahoserina.</p>
+
+<p>It is believed that no foreigner was injured; but the nobles have taken
+an important step in proclaiming the new queen as direct successor of
+Ranavalo&mdash;thereby ignoring the reign of Radama II. As the fundamental
+rule of the Hovas had been that the title to all land was in the
+sovereign and inalienable, the grants to Lambert and others are held to
+be void. We believe this has not been officially stated, but Commodore
+Dupr&eacute;, who negotiated the treaty between France and Radama, says that
+the treaty was almost unanimously rejected by the great council of
+nobles, and was accepted solely by the king.</p>
+
+<p>The last advices, 6th September, from Port Louis, are that the French
+fleet at Tamatave maintains a semi-warlike attitude toward the Hovas,
+not landing nor recognizing the authorities. Rumors are rife of the
+intentions of the French Government to seize Tamatave, and apply other
+coercive measures, unless the former treaty is carried into effect.</p>
+
+<p>The case seems to stand thus: The emperor, availing of the weakness of
+Radama II for his favorite Lambert, concluded a treaty, by which the
+king was to entirely alter the laws of the kingdom, and to give the
+French a controlling influence in the Indian Ocean. The people have
+deposed their ruler, and refuse to be bound by arrangements made by his
+will alone. Under ordinary circumstances, Napoleon would hardly brave
+the anger of England in a matter in which the latter has so much at
+stake. The prize, however, is well worth the effort. Any European nation
+obtaining sole possession of Madagascar dominates the East. It is surely
+time for our Government to awake to the importance of the steps now
+being taken. It is not a time when the interests of the country can be
+intrusted to the efforts of a consul or any inferior naval officer. We
+ought to send an envoy with powers to negotiate a treaty, and with such
+a fleet as will insure a respectful attention to our demands. The number
+of American vessels which frequent the coasts of Madagascar is a
+sufficient reason for us to interfere, without regard to the vastly
+greater interests which demand that this island shall not become a
+French colony. Our prediction that the confederate pirates would soon
+sweep the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> Indian Ocean of our richly laden India-men seems in a fair
+way to be accomplished; and where, save by the contemptuous forbearance
+of England and France, can our cruisers find a port for supplies,
+repairs, or information?</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="A_VIGIL_WITH_ST_LOUIS" id="A_VIGIL_WITH_ST_LOUIS"></a>A VIGIL WITH ST. LOUIS.</h2>
+
+<p class='center'>
+"&#935;&#949;&#7985;&#961;&#949;&#962; &#956;&#949;&#957; &#7937;&#947;&#957;&#945;&#7985;, &#966;&#961;&#7969;&#957; &#948; &#7953;&#967;&#949;&#953; &#956;&#7985;&#945;&#963;&#956;&#7937; &#964;&#953;."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap"  style="margin-left: 26em;">Euripides</span>.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">O Friend, thy brow is overcast; but haply for thy grief,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Though all untold, a spell I hold to work a swift relief,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A hallowed spell;&mdash;no rites we need that shun the light,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thy taper trim; for we must read some dark old words to-night.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For I will, shall I?&mdash;from their graves call up the holy dead,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">More mighty than the living oft such soul as thine to aid.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From Fear and Woe, through fears and woes like thine, they won release,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And through our still confronting foes once fought their way to peace.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Twixt woe and weal, a balm to heal our every wound they found,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">An outlet for each pool of strife, that whirls us round and round.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And if perhaps their childish time discerned not all aright,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">While Fancy her stained windows reared between them and the light,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That in these clearer latter days 'tis given to thee to know,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then seek the spirit they received, and bid the letter go.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thy heart unto its Lord unlock; and shut thy closet's door.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The holy water of thy tears drop on the quiet floor.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Unclasp the old brown tome. The walls no more are seen. The page</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I read; and we are backward borne far in a bygone age.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The spell hath wrought. To take us in, a tower and bower advance</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where grows upon our steadfast gaze the royal saint of France.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The bower full well a hermit's cell&mdash;with hourglass and with skull&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Might seem,&mdash;the hangings woven all of rocks and mosses full.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The floor is thick with rushes strown. Some resting place is there</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Worn,&mdash;as amid the rushy marsh by stag that made his lair,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Worn just beneath yon carven form, that bends in pain and love,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As if to bless, from its high place, and almost seems to move,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">While round it in the wind of night the arras swells and swings,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The viceroy's of the universe, son of the King of kings.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For Louis loves to leave his court, and lay aside his crown,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And to a mightier Prince than he to bow in homage down.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In this great presence learns the king peace, truth, and lowlihead;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Here learns the saint the majesty no earthly power to dread.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But now the king's mute voice it rings, and through the shades doth call:</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Ho, Sire de Jonville, come to me, my doughty seneschal!'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The rafters feel the tramp of steel; and by the monarch stand</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Again the feet that by him stood far in the Holy Land.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'O Sire de Jonville,' to his friend and servant Louis saith,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Hold fast and firmly to the end the jewel of thy faith.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Strong faith's the key of heaven; and once an abbot taught to me,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If will is good, though faith is weak, shall faith accepted be.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">This tale he told<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a>:</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 7.5em;">A Master old,&mdash;Master of Sacred Lore,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of life unsmirched, once came to him in straits and travail sore,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'What wouldst thou, Master?&mdash;What the grief that makes thee peak and pine?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And comest thou to me?&mdash;My soul hath often leaned on thine!'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Let each co-pilgrim lean in turn on each,' in anguish meek,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With tongue that clave unto his mouth, the Master then did speak;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But when the abbot led him in and lent his pitying ears,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then tears came fast instead of words; words could not come for tears.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'O brother, weep no more; but speak, and banish thy dismay.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of man is guilt; but grace is God's, that purgeth guilt away.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If all our little being's bound were filled and stuffed with sin,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Twere nothing to the holiness His mighty heart within;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And in this wilderness of life there's no such crooked road,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But from it may a path be found straight to the throne of God.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The penitent that mourns like thee, that path will surely take.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">What needeth but to own thy sin and straight thy sin forsake?'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Yet must I weep. Mine inward plight is one that stands alone.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The outward ill the tempted wight may do or leave undone;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But when I to the altar go, to eat the sacred bread</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And gaze upon the blood divine, that for us all was shed,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Still Satan stirreth up in me a heart of unbelief!&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">This guilt must sure unmeasured be, save haply by this grief!'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The abbot's brows were sternly bent an instant on his guest:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Dost thou&mdash;thou dost not, sure!&mdash;invite this traitor to thy breast?'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'The livelong day, though sore assailed, true watch and ward I keep,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Keep vigils long as flesh can bear,&mdash;but in my helpless sleep&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thronged heaven, canst thou no angel spare, to sit by me by night</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And drive away the hell-sent dreams, that drive me wild with fright?&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I seem to spill with frantic hands, and spurn the piteous blood,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To trample on the blessed bread, and spit upon the rood!'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The abbot's cheer grew calm and clear: 'Now, Master, tell me true:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For aught that Satan proffers thee, such trespass wouldst thou <i>do</i>?'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'From his poor thrall he taketh all, and offers nought instead.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The Father's grace,&mdash;the Son's mild face,&mdash;are all I crave,' he said.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'For any threat of any fate, wouldst follow his commands?'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'The fiery stake I'd rather make my portion at his hands!'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The abbot's mien was bright, I ween, as 'twere a saint's in bliss:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'O fiend, 'tis well to seek for hell so pure a gem as this!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">O cunning foe, that round dost go these heavenward birds to snare,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When every brighter line is vain, wouldst tempt them with despair?</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bethink thee, Master. War doth rage 'twixt Britain's king, we know,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And ours. Now tell me unto whom most thanks our liege shall owe,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When war is o'er? To him who, oft assailed but never quelled,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The castle of Rochelle upon the dangerous Marches held,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whose battlements must bristle still with halberd, bow, and lance,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or Montl'hery's, that nestles safe close to the heart of France?'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Unto the warden of Rochelle. Thou'rt answered easily!'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'That stronghold is thy heart, but mine the keep of Montl'hery,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For He who giveth gifts to all, hath given me to believe</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So steadfastly, that strife like thine my wit can scarce conceive.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From th' Enemy God keepeth me,&mdash;He knows my weaker strength,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But suffers thee assayed to be for higher meed at length.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then let us at our different posts His equal mercies own;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But they the sharpest thorns who bear may wear the brightest crown.'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beside the kneeling penitent the abbot bent his knee,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sent his own praise and prayers to heaven forth on an embassy,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then raised him up, and saw that God had sent him answering grace;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The shadow of the Enemy had left his heart and face.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Calmly as warily he walked his fellow men beside,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A good, grave man. 'Tis said, at last a happy man he died.'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="UNION_NOT_TO_BE_MAINTAINED_BY_FORCE" id="UNION_NOT_TO_BE_MAINTAINED_BY_FORCE"></a>UNION NOT TO BE MAINTAINED BY FORCE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>The enemies of our cause in Europe seem to have settled in their own
+minds the certainty of a final separation of the American States.
+Compelled though they may be, reluctantly to admit the superiority of
+our resources and the immense advantages we have recently gained over
+the conspirators, they yet adhere with singular tenacity to the belief
+that all our victories will be barren, and that all our vast
+acquisitions of Southern territory will not avail for the ultimate
+restoration of the Union. Though the domain originally usurped by the
+rebellion is already sundered by our possession of that great
+continental highway, the Mississippi river, and though no shadow of hope
+remains that the enemies of the Union will ever be able to recover it;
+though the recent boundless theatre of hostilities is gradually
+contracting, and the resources of the rebellion are rapidly melting
+away, until there remains no longer any doubt of our ultimate and even
+speedy success in crushing the wasted armies of the desperate foe; and
+though the boundaries of the boasted confederacy are uncertain,
+ever-shifting, and mystical, while whole populations of recovered
+regions of country hail the advent of our conquering flag with streaming
+eyes and shouts of joy; yet our jealous friends across the water, in the
+very act of acknowledging all this, never fail to assert, with the
+utmost vehemence, that in spite of all our military advantages, the
+Union is still irrecoverably destroyed. There is something remarkable in
+this persistent opinion, which, through all the changes of condition
+exhibited by the hostile parties in our struggling country, continues to
+possess the mind of British statesmen with unshaken firmness. If they
+undertake to justify their hasty recognition of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> rebels as
+belligerents, and to vindicate their alleged impartial neutrality, they
+take apparently peculiar delight in fortifying themselves with the
+declaration that the Union is effectually broken, and can never be
+restored. It is necessary to throw the shield of this cherished
+anticipation back on the unfriendly acts they have perpetrated against
+us, in order fully to justify their conduct to themselves. If the
+rebellious States should indeed be compelled to acknowledge the
+authority of the Federal Government, and should return again to their
+position in the Union, the hostile cruisers which have been fitted out
+in England to harass our commerce, would occasion some unpleasant
+negotiations, and perhaps some costly responsibilities. To brush these
+all aside, and at the same time to get rid of a troublesome rival in
+commerce and manufactures, by the final separation of the Union, is, to
+them, on all accounts, 'a consummation most devoutly to be wished.' They
+may yet have to learn, through the experience of their Southern friends,
+that</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'The ample proposition, that hope makes</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">In all designs begun on earth below,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">Fails in the promised largeness.'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>But perhaps, after all, it is we, ourselves, who are the victims of
+delusive hope in reference to the destiny of our noble Union. Possibly
+our disinterested friends across the water, calmly looking on from a
+distance, may be better able to understand the tendency of events, and
+to foresee the issue of the mighty civil contest which rages around us.
+They are not at all involved in the awful passions which the war has
+engendered in our bosoms, and thus, cool and deliberate, from the great
+altitude of their assumed moral serenity and disinterestedness, they may
+in reality behold the division of our country already accomplished,
+whatever may be the result of our grand strategy and our bloody battles.</p>
+
+<p>Let us open our eyes fully, and look this matter dispassionately in the
+face. Let us try and ascertain whether we are in reality deceiving
+ourselves and waging a vain and fruitless war against our exasperated
+and misguided brethren of the South. We know they have instituted a
+causeless rebellion, which has brought unnumbered woes upon our common
+country. But if we cannot restore the Union, and re&euml;stablish one great
+and powerful nationality within the magnificent domain which we possess
+as it was when this unhappy war began, then surely we are wasting our
+blood and treasure&mdash;our lives and fortunes&mdash;with the most wanton and
+wicked disregard of the sufferings and sacrifices of the people. If the
+war is to accomplish nothing, then the sooner it is closed the better.
+If the Union is indeed irrevocably broken and gone forever, let us, by
+all means, hasten to arrange the terms of honorable peace, and stop the
+effusion of blood at the earliest practicable moment. Unless we can
+assure ourselves that there is some object to be gained, commensurate in
+value with all the terrible sacrifices we are daily making, it is only
+criminal stubbornness and passion which induce us to continue the awful
+conflict.</p>
+
+<p>Of one thing, at least, there is no shadow of doubt. The people of the
+loyal States, who, by an immense majority, have just emphasized their
+determination to sustain the war, are firmly convinced that they are not
+laboring and suffering in vain. It is no spasmodic impulse of blind
+passion, or even of useless though just resentment against wrong, which
+impels them, after nearly three years of ruinous war, to redouble their
+sublime efforts to conquer the treason that still obstinately resists
+the lawful authority of the Union. Whatever else may be truly said of
+this great conflict and its terrible results, it cannot be questioned
+that the people of the loyal States are profoundly impressed with the
+inestimable value of their free institutions and of the constitutional
+integrity and unity of the Government which shall administer them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> on
+this continent. They have faith in the exalted destiny of their country.
+They at least do not admit that the Union is irrecoverably lost; on the
+contrary, they believe, with a religious sincerity, which no temporary
+disaster can shake, in the certainty of its speedy restoration. This
+earnest faith is not merely the result of education and national
+prejudice. While it is to some extent an instinctive or intuitive
+insight of the American people, prophetically anticipating the future,
+it is also a matter of sober judgment, founded upon the most substantial
+and convincing reasons.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, the loyal people of the United States plainly see
+that the true interests of both sections demand the restoration of their
+old connection under one free and benign Government. Having originated
+and developed a mighty republican government, until it became
+continental in its dimensions, and having through it achieved results
+unexampled in history, with the promise of future prosperity
+immeasurably grand and imposing, the lovers of the Union would hold
+themselves utterly unworthy of their lineage and of their inherited
+freedom, if they could consent, in the presence of whatever dangers and
+difficulties, to see the glorious destiny of their country defeated.
+They would justly consider themselves traitors, not only to their
+country, but also to the highest interests of humanity itself; and they
+would feel the ineffable shame of imprinting the brand of their
+degradation upon their own brows. Partakers of the noblest forms and the
+most precious blessings of liberty, under a splendid, powerful, and
+growing nationality, they are too conscious of the dignity and glory of
+the American character ever to be willing to fall from that high estate
+without a struggle which shall fully demonstrate their lofty patriotism
+and their intelligent appreciation of the priceless political and social
+structure they seek to preserve for the benefit of the whole country and
+of the world. The history of Europe, and indeed the experience of the
+entire human race, have taught them the immense value of a mighty
+continental organization, such as our Union has hitherto established.
+Solemnly impressed with this great lesson of human history, they will
+never consent to see their country broken up into discordant fragments.
+As they plainly foresee the tremendous and ever-increasing evils of such
+a national disintegration, they have deliberately come to consider the
+worst calamities of this war as mere dust in the balance when weighed
+against them. It is this awful picture of bloody conflicts, perpetuated
+through coming generations, wasting the substance and paralyzing the
+fruitful energies of this mighty nation, perhaps for centuries to
+come&mdash;it is this vista of inevitable calamities and horrors, which
+reconciles the loyal people of North America to the dreadful war in
+which they have been so earnestly engaged for the last two years and
+more. They feel the inspiration of a sacred cause, the mighty impulse of
+an idea as grand as their cherished hopes for their country, and as
+immense as the interests of all humanity. They hear the mute appeals of
+a swarming posterity, gathered from all nations in pursuit of freedom,
+progress, and happiness, and they know that these countless millions
+will justly hold them responsible for the deeds of the present momentous
+hour. Is it strange that, penetrated and nerved with the high motives to
+be derived from these solemn considerations, the American people are
+prepared to accept the responsibilities of the great occasion, and even
+to wade through blood for the realization of the grandeur of those human
+hopes which are now intrusted to their keeping? One nation&mdash;one
+government&mdash;one universal freedom within those imperial boundaries which
+have heretofore been the theatre of our glorious achievements as a
+people! This is the grand thought of the Union<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> men of America. This is
+the principle of their organization, and this it is which gives them
+hope, and strength, and courage. What weakness, what degeneracy, what
+dwindling of power for good and retrogression of thought and aim would
+be the consequence of permanent division! What a lamentable fall in our
+position among the nations of the earth, and what a diminution of our
+capacity for progress among ourselves and for usefulness to mankind! It
+is our duty and our destiny to develop all the physical resources of the
+continent&mdash;to stimulate its agricultural capabilities&mdash;to bring to light
+its boundless mineral treasures&mdash;to pierce its mountains and level its
+valleys&mdash;to control its mighty floods&mdash;and to make it worthy to be the
+seat of human freedom and of human empire. Nor is it less our destiny to
+build up a moral and social power and a political organization, which
+shall shed abroad a new and glorious light, beaming with immortal hopes,
+and penetrating to the farthest verge of the habitable globe. Nature, in
+every form of benignant usefulness and unequalled grandeur, invites us
+to this tremendous task. The loyal people of the nation have not been
+insensible to these mystic calls and the noble anticipations growing out
+of them, fraught as they are with the happiness and progress of the
+human race. They have projected works of the most gigantic proportions,
+nor, although they are conscious that union is indispensable to their
+success, have they hesitated to begin them, with all the high confidence
+necessary to their completion. Even amid the perils and the vast
+expenditures of civil war have they embarked in the grand enterprise of
+uniting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by a continental highway, equal
+in its cost and its importance to the power and resources of a mighty
+empire. Vast internal streams and lakes call for union by canals, which
+shall typify the union of hearts and of interests destined to bind
+together millions of freemen, whose connection of brotherhood and
+national unity shall be as lasting as the perpetual flow of our mighty
+rivers, and as full of blessings as our great lakes are of their pure
+and crystal waters. The agitation of these momentous schemes, under
+existing circumstances, is a phenomenon indicating a consciousness of
+security and of vast power in the community, which, at the same time
+that it is engaged in the perilous and bloody work of preserving the
+Union, is preparing to perform the most important duties appertaining to
+the nation in the hour of its most perfectly established and permanent
+authority. It is the instinct of the national destiny working out its
+ends in spite of the difficulties and dangers of the hour. It is the
+prophetic vision of the popular mind, unconsciously preparing for a
+great future not yet visible to the natural eye, but which the
+providence of God, in its own good time, will verify to the firm and
+courageous hearts of our people.</p>
+
+<p>The loyal people of our country, those who are determined to restore the
+Union, are well aware that it cannot be maintained by force. That great
+political organization was voluntary in its origin, based on the consent
+of the governed; and it has been upheld through all its marvellous
+career of prosperity by the free and unconstrained will of the people,
+who rejoiced in its common benefits and blessings. The novel system on
+which it was built, not only required the largest liberty for its very
+conception and for its practical embodiment, but was also admirably
+devised to secure the complete and permanent enjoyment of that
+individual independence in thought and action, which is the first of
+human privileges. Those States of the Union which are pre&euml;minently loyal
+to it, have ever cherished the most liberal principles of civil polity,
+and have framed their constitutions in accordance with the most modern
+and advanced maxims of popular rights. So<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> far are they from any
+disposition to usurp authority or to impose unjust or unnecessary
+restraints upon the political action of the people, that they are
+charged with the opposite fault of carrying liberty to the extreme of
+ungoverned license. Of all the American States, these are the least
+likely to interfere with the great principles of civil liberty, or to
+impose an unacceptable government on the people by force. All the
+violence, so far as any has been shown, is wholly on the other side.
+Leaving entirely out of view the exceptional irregularities arising from
+a state of civil war, and it must be acknowledged that the social and
+political system of the Southern States is one which rests on arbitrary
+force as its corner stone. It is this arbitrary and tyrannical spirit
+embodied in Southern institutions which has seized on the pretext of
+secession in order to destroy the Government of the Union. The efforts
+of the loyal States and of the Federal authority in the present war are
+antagonistic to this spirit. Their purpose is to break down and destroy
+this system of arbitrary power, which has set itself up against the
+Union; and in its stead to bring into play the great principle of
+popular assent to the fundamental principles and conditions of
+government. Annihilate the despotism which controls in the pretended
+confederacy, give the masses of the people absolute freedom of choice
+under the conditions necessary for deliberate and intelligent decision,
+and they will certainly pronounce for the restoration of the old Union,
+under which they have enjoyed such boundless prosperity. No friend of
+the Union entertains any serious thought of disregarding or destroying
+the great principle that governments are only rightly founded on the
+consent of the governed. But it is not every temporary aberration of
+thought, nor every outbreak of revolutionary violence, which may
+properly be allowed to avail in changing the forms of an established
+government. Some respect is due to obligations once assumed and long
+recognized as the basis of a permanent political organization; and when
+the minority in that organization have taken up arms against it, the
+majority, in possession of the lawful power of the nation, are bound to
+vindicate its constitutional authority. If the Union cannot be
+maintained by force, it ought not to be destroyed by force. The instinct
+of self-preservation, which is but the impulse of a solemn duty, would
+necessarily and rightfully lead it to suppress the lawless force that
+assailed it. If this assault is wholly wrong and unjustifiable, if it is
+in reality as injurious to the seceding States themselves as to those
+which remain in the Union, then it is certain that, with the suppression
+of the violence prevailing in the disaffected region, the spirit of
+disunion itself will disappear. The Federal Government cannot escape the
+necessity of performing this duty, of suppressing and destroying the
+lawless power which assails it, and permitting the Southern people to
+return to the Union. At the present moment, in the midst of a sanguinary
+conflict, they are blinded with passion and overflowing with enmity. But
+set them free from the power which now deceives and abuses them, which
+arrays them against their own best interests, and makes them the
+helpless victims of a wicked war, and they will, at no distant period,
+gladly pronounce for the unity of the great nation with which Providence
+has cast their lot. Innumerable indications of this disposition among
+the masses of the Southern people are visible in the events of every
+day; and these will multiply in proportion to the success of our arms
+and the decline of power in the rebellion. If we are mistaken in this
+view, then our argument falls to the ground. If, upon a full
+consideration of all the circumstances and with perfect freedom to act
+according to their understanding of their best interests, the people of
+the Southern States should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> deliberately determine upon a permanent
+separation, our noblest hopes would be sadly disappointed. But this is
+utterly impossible. In moments of frenzy, men may perpetrate deeds of
+desperation. Among the masses of all communities, some are found who,
+under various impulses, will commit suicide. But the conduct of the
+great majority everywhere is controlled by the dictates of reason and
+self-interest. Whatever folly, even to the extremity of
+self-destruction, a few madmen in the Southern States may counsel, it
+may confidently be expected that rational thoughts will prevail among
+the masses. The paths of duty and of interest are for them the same;
+and, upon the whole, are too broad and plain to be mistaken. Their
+self-constituted leaders have already overwhelmed them with calamities.
+The emancipated people will scarcely heed the advice of these, when
+their plausible schemes shall have been all baffled, and their usurped
+power utterly overthrown.</p>
+
+<p>It is, therefore, very far from the thoughts of loyal men, in upholding
+the Federal Government, to establish the principle of force as the bond
+of the American Union. They repel the lawless force which now assails
+it; and even while they do so, they invite the misguided people of the
+rebellious region to return again to their allegiance and to take
+shelter under the political system which is their only security for
+permanent peace and prosperity. The result of the contest in the
+restoration of the Union, so far from establishing force as the basis of
+political authority, on the contrary, will certainly destroy it, and
+give a far wider scope to the voluntary principle of consent, which is
+the only solid foundation of freedom. In the normal condition of the
+larger number of the loyal States, that is to say, in times of peace,
+liberty prevails in its broadest and most universal sense. Force nowhere
+holds a place in society, except for the protection of individual rights
+and of public order. Every man is permitted to pursue happiness in his
+own way, and to enjoy perfect freedom of thought, of speech, and of
+action, except when his published words or his overt acts are calculated
+to interfere with the acknowledged rights or interests of others. This
+is, theoretically, the consummation of the greatest possible human
+liberty. It provides only for order and justice, and leaves everything
+else to the control of individual will and social co&ouml;peration. In the
+present war for the Union, the loyal States are by no means contending
+for the abrogation of this principle of liberty, but for its extension.
+They desire neither to abolish it with reference to the Union, when
+exercised through the forms provided in the Constitution, nor to prevent
+its operations within the limits of the Southern States themselves.</p>
+
+<p>It is not possible that the great civil conflict now pending could take
+place without causing, in the end, an important extension of liberal
+principles. These, when they once acquire a firm hold upon any society
+possessed of the requisite intelligence, are altogether too strong for
+the antagonistic principle of force, because the latter can be nothing
+but an authority usurped by the few and exerted against the many; while
+the former is the accumulation of the whole power of society wielded for
+the benefit of all. Obviously, this affords the only basis broad enough
+to sustain a social structure of any stability and permanence.</p>
+
+<p>Under the operation of this voluntary principle&mdash;the principle of
+voluntary consent and of universal freedom&mdash;the conflicting elements of
+Southern society will be compelled to adjust themselves to each other
+more wisely, and therefore more safely and profitably, than under the
+arbitrary system which has hitherto prevailed.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the wealthiest men and the largest slaveholders have already
+discerned the necessities of their condition, and are fully prepared to
+accept the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> new order of things, and to make their arrangements for
+future operations accordingly. Under the law of liberty, the races, in
+their new relations, will soon find their appropriate positions in the
+social organization, subject chiefly to the natural influences of
+intelligence, morality, industry, and property, but not without the
+inevitable pressure and disturbance of traditional prejudice to hinder
+and embarrass the operation of the principle of freedom. It is
+impossible to prevent this, so long as human nature retains its present
+tendency to selfishness and violence. The only alternative is to await
+the soothing operation of time, which gradually softens the asperities
+of prejudice, and may be expected ultimately to bring the noblest
+harmony out of the present confusion and disorder.</p>
+
+<p>Many good and humane men apprehend the most serious evils from the
+sudden change of relations, now certain to be effected, between the two
+races in the South. It will be a rude and violent shock to the interests
+and feelings of the whites, and will undoubtedly produce that
+inconvenience which always results from great social transformations.
+But the anticipation is doubtless worse than the reality will prove to
+be. There is a plastic capacity in human nature which enables it readily
+to adjust itself in new situations when overruling necessity compels
+submission. It remains to be seen what will be the results, immediate
+and remote, of freedom in a society composed of so nearly equal
+proportions of the two races. Whatever may be the mere temporary
+difficulties at the outset, we do not doubt that, in the long run,
+freedom will produce the best results to both. Nature is unerring in the
+wisdom of her general purposes and in the selection of the means by
+which she fulfils them, when left free to pursue her own laws. Whatever
+oscillations may take place, the mean result is always good. The
+experience of a single generation will dissipate all the delusions which
+now blind and enrage the Southern people.</p>
+
+<p>With the disappearance of the principle of arbitrary power now embodied
+in Southern society, the last motive for a dissolution of the American
+Union will have vanished forever. Should that principle only decline to
+a subordinate authority, with the certainty of gradual extinction, the
+interests of freedom will be in the ascendant, and their influence
+secure the restoration of the Federal authority. Here lies the whole
+problem: let despotism continue to prevail in the South, and the
+separation, with all its terrible consequences, must inevitably be
+accomplished; let freedom succeed, and from that moment, every hostile
+sentiment at once subsides, and the sundered sections, 'like kindred
+drops,' again 'mingle into one.' A free community will gravitate to the
+central orb of liberty; one that is repellent to freedom will fly off on
+its erratic course to the regions of outer darkness, and will never
+return until, having completed the cycle of its destiny of ruin, it
+shall be brought back to be regenerated at the fountain of light, and
+truth, and liberty.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="WAS_HE_SUCCESSFUL" id="WAS_HE_SUCCESSFUL"></a>WAS HE SUCCESSFUL?</h2>
+
+<h4><i>PART THE LAST.</i></h4>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'Do but grasp into the thick of human life! Every one <i>lives</i>
+it&mdash;to not many is it <i>known</i>; and seize it where you will, it is
+interesting.'&mdash;<span class="smcap">Goethe</span>.</p>
+
+<p>'<span class="smcap">Successful</span>.&mdash;Terminating in accomplishing what is wished
+or intended.'&mdash;<span class="smcap">Webster's</span> <i>Dictionary</i>. </p></div>
+
+<h4><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h4>
+
+
+<p>More than twenty-five years have elapsed since the events narrated in
+the last chapter.</p>
+
+<p>New York has become a great and magnificent metropolis. The avenues of
+the city extend for miles beyond the old landmarks. The adjacent farms
+have been converted into lots, and covered with handsome houses. The old
+buildings are torn down, and new and elegant ones erected in their
+place. The streets are thronged with a purely cosmopolitan class. You
+behold specimens of every nation under the heavens jostling the citizens
+on the sidewalk, or filling the omnibuses which choke the way. And from
+the commingled sounds of the tramp of horses, the rolling of vehicles,
+and the tread of human beings, there arises through the day and far into
+the night a perpetual but muffled roar from this great thoroughfare.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>It is a lovely October afternoon&mdash;one of those mellow days for which
+this latitude is so remarkable&mdash;possessing the softness and genial
+temperature of summer, without its scorching heat.</p>
+
+<p>The world of fashion has returned from the Spas, the mountains, the
+seaside. Elegant equipages pass up and down, or stop before the favorite
+resorts for shopping. The streets and sidewalks are literally crowded,
+as if it were some grand gala-time.</p>
+
+<p>It is nearly four o'clock. Walking slowly up Broadway is a person
+probably about fifty-five, of medium height, inclining to be stout, who
+carries his hands behind him as he proceeds thoughtfully along. His
+dress is particularly neat. His hat, while it conceals an excessive
+baldness, permits the escape of a quantity of light hair, quite unmixed
+with gray, which fringes the back of the head. At a distance, his
+complexion looks soft and fair; but, on closer observation, it has the
+appearance of smooth leather. Occasionally he raises his face to regard
+a building, as if he had a special interest in so doing; then one may
+see a light-blue eye, clear and icy as a fine December day, having an
+expression like a flint.</p>
+
+<p>He walks on. Two young men are just passing him. One says to his
+companion:</p>
+
+<p>'Do you know who that is?'</p>
+
+<p>'Which?'</p>
+
+<p>'That old fellow right by your side.'</p>
+
+<p>'No. Who is it?'</p>
+
+<p>'That's Hiram Meeker.'</p>
+
+<p>'You don't say so!'</p>
+
+<p>He pauses, and lets the individual alluded to pass, that he may take a
+good look at him.</p>
+
+<p>'I would like to have some of his cash, anyhow. What do you suppose he
+is worth?'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, there is no telling; he is variously estimated at from five to ten
+millions, but nobody knows. Started without a penny, as clerk in a
+ship-chandler's store.'</p>
+
+<p>Yes, reader, that <i>is</i> Hiram. [We shall continue our familiarity, and
+call him, when we see fit, by his first name.] That is our old
+acquaintance Hiram Meeker, who commenced at Hampton, with Benjamin
+Jessup&mdash;Hiram Meeker of Burnsville, now the great Hiram Meeker of New
+York.</p>
+
+<p>We have devoted a large part of this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> volume to Hiram's early career,
+going into the minuti&aelig; of his education, his religious training, and his
+business life. This was not without design. For the reader, once in
+possession of these circumstances, had no need to be informed in detail
+of the achievements of those years in which Hiram worked vigorously on
+through successive stages in his career, while his heart grew hard as
+the nether millstone.</p>
+
+<p>As you see him now, pursuing his way along the street, he has really but
+one single absorbing idea&mdash;<span class="smcap">acquisition</span>. True, he clings to his
+belief in the importance of church membership. He has long been the
+leading vestryman at St. Jude's. He is the friend and adviser of the
+Bishop.</p>
+
+<p>Famous is Hiram Meeker the millionaire!</p>
+
+<p>Famous is Hiram Meeker the Churchman!</p>
+
+<p>Still, I repeat, he has but one thought&mdash;one all-absorbing,
+all-engrossing passion.</p>
+
+<p>You have not forgotten, I am sure, the early calculating policy of
+Hiram, and to what degree he had carried it when we took leave of him.
+Imagine this developed and intensified day by day, month by month, and
+year by year, over more than a quarter of a century.</p>
+
+<p>Since we first made his acquaintance, he has kept on rigidly. In all his
+intercourse with his fellow beings&mdash;man to man&mdash;with high and low&mdash;with
+the sex&mdash;with his nearest relations,&mdash;he has never, no, <i>never</i> looked
+to anything except what he considered his personal advantage. He is a
+member of the Church; he performs certain rites and formul&aelig; of our holy
+religion; he subscribes to charities: but it is to secure to himself
+personally the benefit of heaven and whatever advantages may be
+connected with it. So that, where he has acted wisely and well, the
+action has been robbed of all merit, because there was no wise or right
+intent, but simply a politic end in view.</p>
+
+<p>Look at him, as he pushes along in the crowd! Notwithstanding his
+millions, he is there a mere atom out of this world's creation. He has
+not a sympathy beyond himself&mdash;not a hope which does not centre in
+self&mdash;no connecting link with anything outside or beyond&mdash;no thought, no
+emotion, no sense, no feeling, which are not produced by a desire to
+advance the interests of "<i>H. Meeker</i>," here and hereafter.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>We will go on in advance of Hiram, and enter his house before him.</p>
+
+<p>It is one of the best in the city. Not showy, but large, ample, and well
+constructed; indicating the abode of a solid man. It is situated in one
+of the finest streets far 'up town.'</p>
+
+<p>Before the door are two equipages. One is Mrs. Meeker's carriage, very
+handsome and in exquisite taste. The other is a stylish single-seat
+phaeton, with two horses tandem, and a rather flashy-looking servant in
+gay livery.</p>
+
+<p>Let us go into the house.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Meeker is just preparing for a short shopping excursion before
+dinner. At the distance from which we regard her, Time seems to have
+dealt very kindly with her. The figure is quite the same, the style the
+same, the face the same, and you see no gray hairs. In short, you behold
+our old friend Arabella, slightly exaggerated, perhaps&mdash;but it is she.</p>
+
+<p>She leaves her room, and prepares to descend.</p>
+
+<p>As she passes to the top of the staircase, a faint voice exclaims:</p>
+
+<p>'Mamma!'</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Meeker stops with an expression of impatience, turns, and enters
+the adjoining apartment.</p>
+
+<p>On a sort of couch or ottoman reclines a young lady, who, you can
+perceive at a glance, is a victim of consumption.</p>
+
+<p>It is their oldest child, who for five years has been an invalid, and
+whose strength of late has been fast declining. One can hardly say how
+she would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> have looked in health, for disease is a fearful ravager.
+Still, Harriet (she is named for Mr. Meeker's mother) probably resembled
+her own mother more than any one else in personal appearance, but beyond
+that there was no resemblance whatever. Neither was she like her father,
+but more like her grandfather Meeker, of whom her uncle says she always
+reminds him. She possesses a kind and happy nature; and since she was
+stricken by the terrible malady, she has grown day by day more gentle
+and more heavenly, as her frame has been gradually weakened under its
+insidious inroads.</p>
+
+<p>When Mrs. Meeker came in, she demanded, in an irritated tone, 'What do
+you want, Harriet?'</p>
+
+<p>'I wish very much, mamma, you would send and ask Uncle Frank if he will
+not come and see me to-day.'</p>
+
+<p>'I think it very improper, Harriet, for you to be sending for your uncle
+when you are under Dr. Alsop's charge.'</p>
+
+<p>'But, mamma, Uncle Frank does not prescribe for me. I do not send for
+him as my physician.'</p>
+
+<p>'It looks very odd, though,' continued Mrs. Meeker, with increased
+irritation. 'I am sure Dr. Alsop would not like it if he knew it.'</p>
+
+<p>'Dr. Alsop met Uncle Frank here one day, and they appeared to be
+excellent friends. I am sure there can be no misunderstanding on his
+part, and papa says he is quite willing.'</p>
+
+<p>'Do as you like, child,' replied Mrs. Meeker. Then turning to the nurse
+she said, 'You may ring, and send Thomas with a message from Miss
+Meeker, if she desires.'</p>
+
+<p>'Thank you, dear mamma. If you will come to me, I will give you a kiss.'</p>
+
+<p>The door closed before the sentence was finished, and Mrs. Meeker
+descends the staircase, passes through the hall, and steps into the open
+air.</p>
+
+<p>Alas, what is revealed to you! Marks, grim and ghastly marks of those
+years of wear and tear, which the sunlight, that remorseless trier of
+woman's looks, makes quite apparent. What evidence of irritability, of
+discontent, and general disappointment and disgust with everything and
+all things, is revealed in those deep-cut lines and angles which in the
+light of day become painfully visible under the delicate layers of Baume
+d'Osman, rouge, and pearl powder!</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Meeker adjusts her veil so as to hang gracefully down to the tip of
+her nose, and enters her carriage.</p>
+
+<p>I had nearly forgotten to point out a very genteel-looking young man in
+black, who wears a distressingly long frock coat and a white neckcloth,
+who escorts Mrs. Meeker to her carriage, and enters it after her.</p>
+
+<p>Arabella has not lost her <i>penchant</i> for young clergymen, nor young
+clergymen for her.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving Mrs. Meeker to her excursion, we go into the parlors.</p>
+
+<p>On one of the sofas is a young fair girl, no more than eighteen years
+old. Her complexion, eyes, and general cast of features, exhibit a
+striking likeness to her father. She is of medium height, and her form
+is fine and well rounded. Add to these the adornments and appliances of
+dress, and you have before you a very beautiful young woman.</p>
+
+<p>Seated on the same sofa, and in very close proximity, is a person whose
+<i>status</i> it will be difficult to decide from mere inspection. He is a
+tall, large, coarse-featured, but well-proportioned man, with black
+hair, inclining to curl, dark complexion, and very black eyes. His age
+is possibly thirty. He is showily dressed, with a vast expanse of cravat
+and waistcoat. Across the latter stretches a very heavy gold chain, to
+which is attached a quantity of seals and other trinkets known as
+charms. A massive ring, with coat of arms and crest carved on it,
+encircles the little finger of the right hand. Every point of the dress
+and toilet is in keeping with what I have already described. The hair
+dresser has been de<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>voted. There has been no stint of oil and pomade in
+the arrangement of whiskers and mustache. In short, judging the
+individual by a certain standard, which passes current with a good many
+people, you would pronounce him remarkably well 'got up.'</p>
+
+<p>Looking at the fine and delicate-featured girl, in whose surroundings
+you behold evidences of so much taste and refinement, you could scarcely
+be made to believe that the gross organization by her side is to her
+liking. Yet I assure you she is in love with the handsome animal&mdash;'madly
+in love' with him, as she herself avows!</p>
+
+<p>This girl is the youngest of Hiram's three children. She is named for
+her mother, but is called by all her acquaintance, Belle. And she is
+<i>belle</i> every way&mdash;except in temper and disposition. Resembling her
+father so closely, she inherits her mother's jealous irritability and
+tyrannical nature. She is beautiful only to look on. She is a spoiled
+child besides.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot avow that Hiram has any genuine parental affection. He is so
+entirely absorbed in gathering in his harvests from the golden fields at
+his command, that I think in God's providence this is denied to him.</p>
+
+<p>[Else he would exhibit some tenderness and love for the poor, sinking
+child who is lying in her chamber, with no companion but her nurse.]</p>
+
+<p>But there is that about the youngest which commends itself (I know no
+other way to express it) to his senses. She is fair and young, and
+graceful and a beauty, and she resembles him; and he loves to look at
+her and have her near him when he is at home, and to pet her, after a
+sort.</p>
+
+<p>Hiram is too much occupied, however, to attend at all to the well-being
+of his children, and his wife 'has no taste for anything of the kind.'
+So, as I said, Belle grows up a spoiled child. She has never been
+subject to control, and has not the slightest idea of self-restraint.</p>
+
+<p>This is her second season in society. She is universally
+admired&mdash;indeed, is quite 'the rage.' 'All the young men are dying for
+her'&mdash;I quote from the observations about town; but few have the
+hardihood to pay serious court to the daughter of Hiram Meeker.</p>
+
+<p>Yet you perceive one man has ventured&mdash;successfully ventured.</p>
+
+<p>Who is he? I do not wonder you inquire with some degree of curiosity. I
+shall proceed to gratify it.</p>
+
+<p>The large, dark, coarse-visaged, foreign-looking fellow, who 'lives but
+to adore the angel of beauty and perfection' at his side, and with whom
+the 'angel' is so blindly infatuated, is Signor Filippo Barbonne, a
+second-rate performer of the last season's opera <i>troupe</i>!</p>
+
+<p>It is a fact, reader, so it will be vain for me to deny it.</p>
+
+<p>What, meantime, can I say by way of explanation? I hardly know. This
+Signor Filippo, who is an impudent, audacious scamp, made the
+acquaintance of Belle two years ago, when she was a schoolgirl. She was
+amused at seeing him follow her persistently, and at last she permitted
+him to accost her.</p>
+
+<p>The cunning fellow conducted himself with the utmost deference, not to
+say humility. He pretended not to have the slightest knowledge who she
+was. He had been seized and subdued by her charms, her loveliness; and
+it was quite sufficient happiness for him to be permitted to watch for
+her and to tread in her steps day by day. He only wished to speak and
+tell her so, lest she might suppose him disrespectful.</p>
+
+<p>The ice once broken, arrangements for accidental meetings followed.</p>
+
+<p>Signer Filippo did not disclose himself, except to say his position was
+so far below hers, that he had but one hope, one aspiration, which was,
+that she would permit him to be her willing slave forever. He asked and
+expected nothing beyond the privilege of worshipping her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But how happens it that Belle Meeker is desperately in love with the
+Signor?</p>
+
+<p>I will endeavor to explain.</p>
+
+<p>Possessing not one spark of sentiment or native refinement, accustomed
+to no restraint on her temper or will, she presents an example of a
+strong sensuous nature, uncontrolled by any fine moral instincts or
+perceptions.</p>
+
+<p>This is why in person and appearance Signor Filippo is quite to her
+taste. The wily adventurer had made no mistake when he judged of the
+girl's nature. Understanding her arbitrary disposition, and her
+impatience of any restraint whatever, he adroitly maintained his air of
+extreme deference and respect, which was increased a thousand-fold on
+his discovering, as he pretended one day to do, who the object of his
+adoration was.</p>
+
+<p>What an agony he was in, lest now he should not be permitted even to
+look on her! Though assured on this point, he became reserved and shy,
+giving vent to his impassioned feelings by sighs and various mute but
+eloquent expressions.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Belle began to be very impatient. These sentimental meetings had
+lasted more than a year. Meantime, she was 'brought out.' This made it
+difficult for her to keep up her stolen interviews, but she could now
+ask the Signor to the house.</p>
+
+<p>To effect this, however, she must first bring over her mother. She
+informed her that the gentleman was a Neapolitan Count, who from
+political motives was forced to remain <i>perdu</i> for a time, and so forth,
+and so forth, and so forth. By dint of entreaty and argument, and
+exhibition of much temper, Belle persuaded her mother to say nothing to
+her father about the visits of this Count in disguise. The truth is,
+Mrs. Meeker had sometimes to request Belle's silence about little
+matters involving some expenditures which Mr. Meeker might consider
+extravagant. So, with occasional protests on her part, the Signor was
+permitted to make his visits.</p>
+
+<p>Belle was too shrewd to attempt to impose on her father in such a case.
+She knew she could not succeed for a minute. So the intimacy is
+continued without his knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>Long before this, she has been told by the Signor who he really is. He
+admits his late position in the <i>troupe</i>, but has a long story to
+recount of adverse fortune, and so on. His respectful manner still
+continues; it is the young lady who woos.</p>
+
+<p>What is to be done? This state of things cannot last forever. Belle is
+more and more impatient. Her adorer still respectful and sad.</p>
+
+<p>After this long but necessary digression, I return to our place in the
+front parlor, where the lovers are seated.</p>
+
+<p>'I must leave you, oh, my angel&mdash;I must leave you! It is nearly time for
+your father to be here.'</p>
+
+<p>'I do not care if it is. I want you to stay.'</p>
+
+<p>'As you will, but&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>'If you really loved me, you would not be so indifferent,' exclaims the
+young lady, passionately.</p>
+
+<p>Then follows a scene. The result is, that Belle vows she will endure the
+suspense no longer. She will not ask her father's permission&mdash;she will
+marry him&mdash;yes, she <i>will</i> marry the Signor; and who dare prevent, who
+dare thwart her wishes!</p>
+
+<p>The Signor takes impressive leave. His little plot approaches a
+<i>d&eacute;nouement</i>. He walks with an 'air noble' down the steps, and, mounting
+his phaeton, he takes the ribbons from the servant in gay livery, and
+the tandem team, after some well-trained prancing, dash forward.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Belle is at the window, a delighted witness of the spectacle.</p>
+
+<p>[The Signor has got up this fine turn-out, through aid of a friend who
+is in the plot, especially to captivate her.]</p>
+
+<p>'What a singular man!' she exclaims to herself. 'How heroic he seems,
+controlling those wild creatures! Strange he should always be so
+diffident when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> in my society. There shall be an end of this; I cannot
+endure it!'</p>
+
+<p>Presently she sees her father mount the steps, and runs to meet him, a
+little doubtful whether or not he beheld her lover start from before the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>The greeting is most affectionate; Belle throws her arms caressingly
+around her father's neck.</p>
+
+<p>'Who is our new visitor, Belle, who indulges in a tandem?' said Hiram,
+turning his penetrating eyes on his daughter, but with no suspicious
+glance.</p>
+
+<p>'New visitor! What do you mean, papa?'</p>
+
+<p>'I thought I saw a phaeton drive from here.'</p>
+
+<p>'Oh, that was at Mrs. Longworth's. Such a handsome man, though, papa! I
+was at the window when he got in.'</p>
+
+<p>Hiram patted his daughter's cheek playfully, and passed in. Keen and
+discerning as he was, his <i>child</i> could deceive him.</p>
+
+<p>'Where is your mamma?' he asked.</p>
+
+<p>'Out for a drive.'</p>
+
+<p>'Is Gus at home?'</p>
+
+<p>'No, papa; I have not seen him to-day.'</p>
+
+<p>'Give orders to have dinner served punctually. I must go out immediately
+after.'</p>
+
+
+<h4><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h4>
+
+<p>I have spoken of Hiram's three children.</p>
+
+<p>The individual referred to in the last chapter as 'Gus' is the oldest,
+and the only son. He is, at this period, about twenty-three years of
+age.</p>
+
+<p>His father undertook to bring him up in a very strict manner. He could,
+however, give none of his time to the important business of starting his
+son in the right path, and aiding him to continue in it. It was enough
+for Hiram that <i>he</i> was secure. He contented himself with laying down
+severe courses, and holding his boy to the strictest fulfilment of
+'duty.'</p>
+
+<p>The result can readily be imagined. The young man, as he grew up and
+understood fully his father's position, came to the conclusion that it
+was quite unnecessary for him to practise the strict habits which had
+been so despotically inculcated. So he gave loose rein to his fancies,
+and while yet in college was one of the wildest in the class. By his
+mother's interposition, he was sent abroad. He came back all the worse
+for the year's sojourn, and, young as he was, soon got to be a regular
+'man about town.' He lived at home&mdash;ostensibly; but he was seldom to be
+seen in the house. He had come to entertain very little respect for his
+father; for he had a sort of native insight into his character. He
+constantly complains of his miserly treatment, though Hiram makes his
+son a respectable allowance&mdash;more, I think, to be rid of the annoyance
+of his repeated and incessant applications, than for any other reason.</p>
+
+<p>'Gus' was a favorite with his mother (I forgot to say she had named him
+Augustus Myrtle Meeker, with her husband's full consent), and heavy were
+the drafts he made on her purse. This was a point of constant discussion
+between Mr. and Mrs. Meeker. It was of no use. The lady continued to
+indulge her only son, and her husband to protest against it.</p>
+
+<p>Of late, Gus had been in possession of pretty large sums of money, which
+he certainly had not obtained either from his father or mother. And it
+was something connected with this circumstance which takes Hiram out
+immediately after dinner.</p>
+
+<p>I think it is in place here to say something of Hiram Meeker's domestic
+life.</p>
+
+<p>Taking 'Arabella' for just what the reader knows her to be, it is
+probable he has made her a better husband than ninety-nine men of a
+hundred would have made. True, he is master, in every respect. But this
+is just what Arabella requires. She would have been the death of any
+ordinary man in a short time. There is not the slightest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> danger of her
+injuring Hiram's prospects of a long life, or of causing him an hour's
+uneasiness. To be sure, he is despotic, but he is neither irritable nor
+unamiable. Besides, he has a great desire for social position (it aids
+in carrying out his plans), in which his wife is of real service. Hiram,
+although close and careful in all matters, is not what would be called
+penurious. In other words, he makes liberal provision for his household,
+while he rules it with rigor; besides, in petty things he has not proved
+a tyrant.</p>
+
+<p>On the whole, we repeat our conviction that Arabella has been fortunate
+in her husband. To be sure, she is fretful, discontented, peevish,
+irritable, cross; but that is her normal condition. At times Hiram has
+treated her with severity, but never cruelty. He has borne quietly and
+with patience what would have set most husbands frantic; and has
+contented himself with remaining silent, when many would have been
+tempted to positive acts of violence.</p>
+
+<p>Toward his sick child Hiram Meeker's conduct has been exemplary&mdash;that is
+the word. He considers the affliction a direct chastening of <i>him</i> from
+the Lord; and 'whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.' He spends some
+moments with his daughter daily, but he has no more sympathy for her
+situation than if his heart were made of leather. Yet the best care is
+provided, the best medical attendance, and everything done for the poor
+girl which is proper. Hiram even overrules his wife in many things where
+he thinks her severe toward the invalid, as in the instance of her
+wishing to see her Uncle Frank, who is our old acquaintance 'Doctor
+Frank,' as you no doubt understand&mdash;now one of the first medical men of
+New York.</p>
+
+<p>Although there has never been the least cordiality between the brothers
+since the Doctor came to the city, still they have kept on visiting
+terms. The Doctor has taken a deep interest in his invalid niece, and
+she is never so happy as when he is talking with her. He has told her to
+send for him at any time when she feels disposed to do so, and he is a
+frequent visitor.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>It was late before Mrs. Meeker returned. Something occurred to give her
+excursion a very unpleasant direction. She was engaged in turning over
+some new silks at Stewart's, while the young clerical gentleman stood
+admiringly by, when a man of very coarse appearance and vulgar aspect
+approached and placed a letter before her.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Meeker was prepared to utter a faint shriek, but it occurred to her
+that it would not appear well where she was. The young clerical
+gentleman cast a look of disgust and indignation on the intruder, who
+did not stop to resent it, but turned quickly on his heel and left the
+place.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Meeker, after waiting a moment to regain her composure, opened the
+note, and read as follows:<br /><br /></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'<span class="smcap">Dear Ma</span>: Come to me directly, and bring all the money you
+can. I am in a terrible fix!</p>
+
+<p class='author'><span class="smcap">Gus</span>.'</p></div>
+
+<p>Mrs. Meeker pushed aside the rich purple silk she was examining, with so
+much suddenness, that the young clerical gentleman could not but notice
+it.</p>
+
+<p>'My dear madam, are you ill?' he asked, with a show of devotion
+distressing to witness.</p>
+
+<p>'No, oh no; but this moment I recollect I have a commission to execute
+for a friend, which I had quite forgotten. And, do you know, I am going
+to ask you to drive home, and tell Belle not to delay dinner for me.'</p>
+
+<p>The young clerical gentleman bowed in acquiescence. For him to hear was
+to obey. But he felt curious to know what was the cause of so abrupt a
+termination of the afternoon's shopping.</p>
+
+<p>'I hope there was nothing unpleasant in that letter?'</p>
+
+<p>It was presuming a good deal to ask such a question, but the young
+clerical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> gentleman could not restrain his curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>'That letter!' exclaimed Mrs. Meeker, now quite herself again&mdash;'no,
+indeed; it is only a word from Augustus. What a queer creature, to send
+it by such a horrid fright of a man!' And Mrs. Meeker laughed.</p>
+
+<p>The young clerical gentleman was thrown completely off the scent. He
+bowed and hurried to the carriage, leaving Mrs. Meeker still at the
+counter.</p>
+
+<p>She looked carelessly over the different patterns, and said, in a
+languid tone, 'I think I will not buy anything to-day,' to which the
+clerk obsequiously assented&mdash;he well knew whom he was serving&mdash;and Mrs.
+Meeker left the store.</p>
+
+<p>Her carriage was out of sight; first she assured herself of that. Then
+she called a hack, and ordered it to be driven to a distant quarter of
+the city.</p>
+
+<p>The carriage stopped at the number indicated in the note. Mrs. Meeker
+was met at the door by her son, who conducted her to a back room in the
+third story. It was dirty and in disorder. Bottles, wine glasses, and
+tumblers were scattered around, and the atmosphere was full of the fumes
+of whiskey and tobacco.</p>
+
+<p>What a spot for the son of Hiram Meeker to select, in which to receive
+his mother's visit!</p>
+
+<p>What a place for the fastidious Arabella to enter!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_GREAT_AMERICAN_CRISIS" id="THE_GREAT_AMERICAN_CRISIS"></a>THE GREAT AMERICAN CRISIS.</h2>
+
+<h2><a name="PART_TWO" id="PART_TWO"></a>PART TWO.</h2>
+
+
+<p>We come, in this paper, to the consideration of the possible results
+which this war might have, viewed from the beginning; of the several
+modes, in other words, in which it might terminate. The most distant
+extremes of possible eventuality were the entire conquest of the North
+by the South, and the entire conquest of the Southern rebellion by the
+North, so as to secure the continuance of the old Union upon the old
+basis; or with such modifications as the changed condition of things at
+the South might require. The supposition of the conquest of the Northern
+States by the Southern Vandals has been already glanced at and
+sufficiently considered for so remote and improbable a contingency. The
+counter supposition of the entire success of the United States
+Government in the reassertion of its own authority over the whole of its
+original domain, divided, at the commencement of the war, into two
+branches.</p>
+
+<p>It was the general theory at the North, at that time, that the <i>animus</i>
+of rebellion was confined at the South to comparatively few minds, and
+that the war was to be a war, not against the South as a people, but
+against a tyrannical and usurping faction at the South, and for the
+defence of the people at large residing in that region. There was a
+modicum of truth in this theory, but events have shown, and any one who
+knew the South well might safely have predicted, that the whole people
+there would soon be subdued to the authority of those few. Such was the
+terror throughout the confederacy, and still is, where the facts have
+not been already changed by the war, at the mere imputation of sympathy
+with anti-slavery sentiment in any form, that a part, hardly one tenth
+even of the whole, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> numerical strength, could successfully put the
+remaining nine tenths into Coventry, and bully them out of all
+expression of adverse opinion, by simply threatening to accuse them of
+abolition tendencies. No people on earth were ever so completely <i>cowed</i>
+by the nightmare of unpopular opinion as the people of the South. Hence
+whatever was violently advocated under pretence of excessive devotion
+to, or ultra championship of the cause of slavery, was sure in the end
+to succeed. By this process, the Union party at the South has been
+gradually overawed and diminished for years past, and finally driven,
+since the outbreak of the rebellion, into a complete surrender to, and a
+full co&ouml;peration with the rebel chiefs. Whatever may seem to be the
+reaction in behalf of Union sentiment, as the triumphant armies of the
+North march to the Gulf, it will be long before the real opinion of the
+masses will declare itself in full as it exists. The fear of the renewal
+of the old terrorism, so soon as our armies shall be withdrawn, will
+effectually prevent the free expression of the favorable sentiment which
+has heretofore existed, and still exists, as a substratum of Southern
+opinion in favor of the Union, unless the Northern conquest is made
+unquestionably final.</p>
+
+<p>In the event that the theory just stated should have proved true, that,
+aided by the presence of Northern troops, there should have been a loyal
+sentiment sufficiently powerful and extended to reassert itself, in the
+extreme South, and that, consequently, all the Southern States should
+have been again represented in Congress at an early day, and should
+again have taken their places as equal partners under the Constitution
+of our common country, it seemed just possible that the results of the
+war should be confined, in their immediate action, to what may be called
+its educational effects upon the Southern mind and its economical
+bearings upon the wealth and industry of the nation.</p>
+
+<p>As the other branch of the alternative, the South might have to be
+conquered by the force of our arms, and might remain unanimously, or in
+vast preponderance, disloyal and rebellious in spirit. In that event, it
+would be requisite, if those States were to be retained at all as part
+of the Union, that they should be reconsigned to the Territorial
+condition, or otherwise governed still by the central authority.</p>
+
+<p>In the former of these two latter suppositions: that of the
+re&euml;stablishment of the old <i>status</i>, it was foreseen by some, as not
+impossible, that the final result might prove disastrous to the freedom
+of the North. With the advent of peace, the suspicions of the Northern
+people with regard to the designs and real character of Southern men
+would have been allayed. A certain appeal would even have been made, by
+the suggestions of their own generosity, to the hearts of Northern men
+to lay aside all hostile and adverse action as against the South, and to
+welcome them with open arms to all the rights and privileges of the
+common country. Meantime, a horde of unscrupulous machinators would have
+been installed in the seats of power at Washington, and would have
+recommenced operations, in the consciousness of the new strength
+acquired in the field from which they had just retired, with all the
+chicanery and craft with which heretofore they had blinded the North and
+secretly controlled the destinies of our Government. Southern men and
+Southern women would again have been feasted and feted at Northern
+hotels and watering places, and again have given tone to Northern
+opinion, while new and especial reasons would have seemed to exist for
+opposing countervailing influences, as unnecessary agitation, and causes
+of the retention of acrimonious feeling between the two sections, which
+had now resolved to live in amity with each other. In a word, all the
+sources of corruption of Northern sentiment, emanating from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> the South,
+would have been renewed in their operation, with some circumstances
+added, tending to give to them greater potency than ever before.</p>
+
+<p>Undoubtedly, immense advantages were to be contemplated in the
+restoration of the United States to their primitive boundaries and
+united power. But it was not without deep apprehension of moral taint
+and ulterior evil consequences, that a wise patriot could look even then
+to any attempt of the old matrimonial partners to dwell again in a
+common household, upon the old terms, and with no real settlement of the
+dispute between them.</p>
+
+<p>The latter of these suppositions, the remanding of a hostile and
+rebellious tier of States, who had long and proudly enjoyed the dignity
+of State sovereignty, to a subordinate condition, had also its
+proportion of difficulty and danger. To carry out a <i>programme</i> of this
+kind would demand a great increase of the army and navy, and would give
+to the military spirit and power a preponderance in the councils of the
+nation which has always been deemed dangerous to the liberties of the
+country. A constant drain of expenditure of the resources of the nation;
+a continuous unrest and anxiety of the whole people; a succession of
+outbreaks and partial renewals of the civil war; the installation of a
+necessary system of proconsular or viceroyal commissions; the
+appointment of men who, whether as provost-marshals, dictators, or what
+not, would be in the stated exercise of authority unmeasured by the
+theories of republican policy&mdash;all these were serious and threatening
+considerations, which must give the thoughtful mind some pause ere it
+entered upon their adoption.</p>
+
+<p>There were other remaining possible suppositions in respect to the
+termination of the war, of a middling character, or those lying between
+the two opposite extremes. In case, without any positive conquest or
+submission on either side, the general tenor of success throughout the
+war should be with the South, so that it finally behooved the North to
+secure the most favorable terms, but to submit, nevertheless, to great
+deductions from its confident expectations, a theory then not wholly
+impossible, we had to contemplate, as one evil of the war, a final
+disruption of the original territory of the United States into two
+nationalities, coincident, as to boundary, with the Free and the Slave
+States. Except in the way of absolute conquest, the South would be
+little inclined to insist upon the addition to itself of any territory
+absolutely free. We were not required, therefore, to make this
+supposition any less favorable to the North than the division just
+suggested; and unless, again, power had been acquired by the South to
+impose terms on the North little short of those which a conqueror
+imposes on a conquered people, the North, within its own limit of Free
+States, would be left in a condition boldly to announce and actively to
+defend its own legitimate policy in behalf of the extension of free
+institutions and their development to the supreme degree of beneficent
+truth.</p>
+
+<p>But again, it might have been foreseen that in case the eagle of victory
+should perch on the banners of the North; in case our arms should be
+generally victorious after a few incipient disasters; in case our armies
+should move in power southward, meeting, nevertheless, a steady and
+resisting front on the part of the South, making the prospect of
+ultimate conquest remote or hopeless; in case, in a single word, the
+North should find herself in position to dictate terms short of absolute
+submission and return to the common fold, but substantially in
+accordance with her own wishes, the question of boundary and of the
+future policy of the new North would have become one of immense
+importance.</p>
+
+<p>Had such considerations been forced on the attention of the country by
+the course of the war, it may not be unin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>teresting to speculate upon
+the nature of the possible boundary, which a drawn game in the
+contest&mdash;a possibility at least, viewed from that early point of
+observation&mdash;might have imposed upon the two future nationalities. We
+are considering the case still in which the preponderance of advantage
+should have remained with the North. It would have been, in that event,
+of the first importance that we should retain within the limits of the
+North all that portion of the South&mdash;by no means inconsiderable in
+extent&mdash;which has never been thoroughly debauched by Southern
+slaveholding opinion and theories of government; where the true American
+feeling is still extant; and where a good degree of loyalty to the
+Government of the United States has been hitherto exhibited. Such are
+especially Delaware, Maryland, Western Virginia, Kentucky, Western North
+Carolina, Eastern, and to some extent, Middle Tennessee, Northern
+Georgia, Northern Alabama, and Missouri. An important object would have
+been, had the power of the North proved inadequate to do more, to secure
+this territory within the boundary of the new North, and upon such terms
+as to give strength and new impetus to the freedom-loving sentiment
+there extant. A second object would have been the retention of
+Washington City, to be used, at least for the time being, as the capital
+of the country; avoiding the disgrace of being driven from that centre
+of national authority; and to secure it on terms in respect to
+territorial arrangement which should prevent it from being continually
+threatened from the South. To this end, it would have been necessary
+that the boundary be carried far enough south to include a portion of
+Northern and Northeastern Virginia, as thoroughly imbued at that day
+with slaveholding faith and practice, and as little loyal, perhaps, as
+any portion of the South&mdash;a region, however, which at this time has been
+so completely devastated by the operations of the war, that it would be
+readily liable to be resettled from the North, and made into an
+efficient military border.</p>
+
+<p>If, retaining Fortress Monroe, we should then have run with the James
+River and the line of Richmond and Lynchburg, or if, ascending higher to
+the Chesapeake Bay and the Rappahannock, we were to run with the line of
+Fredericksburg, we should reach either the Blue Ridge or the Alleghany
+Mountains, as in the case of power on our part, we might have chosen.
+With these mountains, sweeping in a southwesterly direction into
+Northern Georgia and Alabama, runs the line of division between the
+'true-blue' Southern slaveholding opinion and policy, on the south and
+east, and the semi-Free-State opinion and policy on the north and west.
+One or other of these mountain ranges, with their unfrequent and
+difficult passes, would have offered the best natural boundary between
+the two future nations, whose divergent national tendencies would not
+have ceased with the nominal termination of the war to be essentially
+hostile.</p>
+
+<p>Following this line till we reach the Tennessee river, thence along the
+course of that stream, turning northwardly to the Ohio, or more
+properly, perhaps, to the southern line of Kentucky, we exclude the most
+pestilent portion of Tennessee, of which Memphis is the capital, and
+retain the middle and eastern parts, along with Eastern Kentucky and
+Western Virginia. Thence passing westward with the southern line of
+Missouri to the Indian Territory, thence southward with the western line
+of Arkansas to the Red river, thence westward along that river as the
+boundary between the Indian Territory and Texas, to the one hundredth
+degree of longitude west from Greenwich, and with that meridian south,
+to the Rio Grande and the Gulf&mdash;dividing the western from the eastern
+half of Texas&mdash;we circumscribe very fairly the exact region of country
+in which the slave<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>holding epidemic is violent and intense, and throw
+within the limits of the great Northern Republic all of the region in
+which freedom is already established, and all that in which, as above
+stated, there was still a surviving and half vital tendency in freedom's
+behalf.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to a boundary so favorable to ourselves, and forced by our
+commanding position upon our unwilling adversary, we might have imposed
+upon her such other terms in relation to her foreign policy,
+custom-house regulations, and the like, as the extent of our power
+should have authorized. We might even have consigned the Southern States
+to a species of provisional and <i>quasi</i> nationality, with the claim and
+expectation of their ultimate return within the pale of the Union, when,
+through the severe ordeal of military despotism or anarchy at home, or
+from other causes, they should have purged themselves of that
+institution, adverse to all our policy, which has been the sole cause of
+all our woes.</p>
+
+<p>Still more important it would have been, under the theory of this
+essentially victorious position of the Northern people, that Northern
+opinion and the purposes of Americanism on this continent&mdash;the assertion
+and defence of freedom and of free institutions of all sorts&mdash;should
+have been distinctly, peremptorily, and finally impressed upon the
+character and future career of our own Northern nationality. While those
+portions of slaveholding territory which would still have remained
+within the Union, would have had, of course, to be treated with courtesy
+and consideration, if the institution of slavery were to have been
+permitted to survive, they should have been thoroughly made to know from
+the first, that slavery among us was no longer to be regarded as a
+perpetuity; that it was only tolerated provisionally; and that we, as a
+people, had no intention of permitting its renewed influence in the
+councils of the nation. Cut off as these States would then have been
+from the possibilities of carrying on an inter-State slave trade with
+the Southern confederacy, the institution of slavery would have lost
+much of its value and potency; and allied, as those States would have
+been, as a small minority, with a country whose territorial and
+institutional preponderance would have been wholly in favor of freedom,
+we might have anticipated that, if closely watched and incidentally
+aided in its decline, the institution in these adhering slaveholding
+States would have reached its term of existence at no very distant day;
+at any rate, that it would, from the first, have been neutralized for
+any serious bad effects which it might have otherwise impressed upon our
+healthy national life. It was even worth reflection at that time
+whether, if the whole adjustment of the future were placed at our own
+disposition, there would not be less danger incurred, and more promise
+of a prompt, healthy, and powerful development on this continent of
+those grand purposes of national existence which the true American
+people have always had in view and at heart, if this plan were to be
+adopted, than if, on the contrary, the whole South were either
+quiescently, by the subsidence of the rebellion, or forcibly, to be
+reinstated within the limits of the Union, the institution of slavery
+remaining intact.</p>
+
+<p>Northeastern Virginia, Southern Maryland, and portions of Kentucky,
+Middle Tennessee, and Middle Missouri would still have furnished
+pestilent centres of intense slaveholding sentiment, and would have
+required, perhaps, as much exercise of vigilance in preventing their
+undue influence as our usually sleepy habits of inattention to such
+causes would have authorized us to count upon.</p>
+
+<p>With the gradual decline of this remnant of slavery in the Northern
+Union, and with the thousand contingencies threatening its perpetuity in
+the Southern States, after the sustain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>ing influence of the North in its
+behalf should have been finally withdrawn, the anticipation would not
+have been without high grounds of probability, that the institution, as
+a whole, would have hastened more or less rapidly to its final
+dissolution; and that, one by one, the States of the South, ridding
+themselves of the incubus of slavery and its comcomitants&mdash;oligarchic,
+mobocratic, and military despotism&mdash;would have sought, for their own
+protection and happiness, to re&euml;nter the original Union as Free States.
+Such an issue of the conflict might at the commencement of the war have
+been looked forward to as almost fortunate, and as perhaps that which
+Providence had in store for us as a people. That larger measure of
+success, the entire destruction of slavery throughout the land, now
+rapidly coming to be a foregone conclusion in most minds, was then
+hardly hoped for by the most sanguine, although, as will appear by what
+follows, that alternative was then anticipated by the writer.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, in case the war should have proved a drawn game between the two
+sections, with no special advantage on either side, some middle ground
+of adjustment between the two last suppositions might have been sought
+out, and an irregular line, running anywhere between Mason and Dixon's
+line and the Ohio, on the one hand, and the Blue Ridge and the Tennessee
+river on the other, might have been forced upon us. In that event, a
+long-continued border warfare would have been to be anticipated, with
+innumerable complex difficulties from expenditure in the protection of
+the irregular and imperfect boundary, the collection of the revenues,
+and the like.</p>
+
+<p>The reason why we have chosen, in these glances at the possible
+outcomings of the conflict, to go back to the state of the case as it
+was at the opening of the war, and to view the subject as it would
+present itself to the mind of a thoughtful man then, is, that this very
+paper was originally written at that day, and is now only recast to
+adapt it to the altered events from the actual progress of the war. The
+boundary line above sketched, as one which the nation might possibly
+find itself compelled to accept, was sketched, as it stands above, at
+that time, nearly two and a half years ago; and the reader will hardly
+fail to be struck with the remarkable coincidence between it and the
+present state of the military lines between the Northern and Southern
+armies; except in the fact of our actual possession of the Mississippi
+river to its mouth, cutting the Southern confederacy in twain. Had the
+defences below New Orleans proved impregnable, and Vicksburg more than a
+match for the strategy of General Grant, our present position would be
+almost identical with that contemplated by the writer at that early
+period of the war, as one of the alternative positions at which the
+struggle might at least temporarily terminate; and our present military
+line would be almost the same as that indicated as the halting point of
+the war, then to be nominally but not really brought to an end. The
+pages following, and until the reader is advised to the contrary, are
+literally extracted from the original article, and should be read
+therefore as relating to the past period in question. Quotation marks
+are added to aid this understanding of the subject. They indicate, in
+this exceptional way, not literally the words of another writer, but
+those of the same writer, upon a different occasion.</p>
+
+<p>'We have reserved to the last the consideration of that possible
+outcoming of the war which is looked upon with most dread, both at the
+South and the North; from which both sections almost equally shrink as
+the possible issue; but which, nevertheless, may be forced on them by
+the logic of events, and that, too, at an earlier day than has been
+indicated by the expectations of either. While we write, the startling
+announcement is made from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> St. Louis that Major-General Fremont has been
+forced, by the threatening progress of the Southern armies, to declare
+martial law for the whole State of Missouri, coupled with the offer of
+freedom to the slaves. A military critic, writing from the Potomac and
+the lower counties of Maryland, is urging the application of the same
+policy to that region, as a means of defeating the contemplated passage
+of the river by the forces of the South. Whether the rumor so announced
+prove to be literally correct or not, it is hardly possible that the war
+can continue long, and grow desperate and earnest on any territory where
+slavery exists, without leading to this result. Tenderness and deference
+are sentiments which must soon give place to the stern struggle for life
+between hostile and desperate men. Already the South has not hesitated,
+in some instances, to muster her slaves into armed regiments, and in all
+cases to avail herself of their brawny arms as equally valuable
+assistants in the work of fortification, camp service, and all the other
+incidents of war. Still further, as a great body of laborers,
+undisturbed by the war, quietly conducting the general industry at home,
+and providing the means of sustaining immense armies in the field, the
+slaves are, in effect, an important auxiliary of the enemy's power.
+Already the Congress of the United States has passed a law for the
+confiscation of all property so used, so stringent in its terms that,
+without much strain of legal ingenuity, it might be made to cover the
+whole case. The threatened continuance of disaster to Northern arms may
+at any moment force upon our generals the military necessity of
+declaring emancipation within a given district or State, and finally, it
+may be incumbent on the Government to resort to the same policy in
+reference to the whole South. The contest is one of life and death for
+the greatest human interests ever brought face to face in hostile array.
+But a single step is wanting, and we may at any moment be forced over
+the boundary which hitherto has prevented it from being a conflict
+avowedly for the utter extinction of the institution of slavery on the
+North American continent, on the one hand, and for the triumphant
+establishment of the policy and power of that institution over the whole
+land on the other.</p>
+
+<p>'In case such an event as that above alluded to should occur, a new
+disappointment will probably, to some extent, break upon the Northern
+mind. It will be found that the slaves of the South are not, as a body,
+so desirous of freedom, not so consciously intent upon the attainment of
+that boon, as ardent philanthropists at the North have supposed. The
+great masses of that population are too far depressed in the scale of
+humanity to avail themselves earnestly and at once, of even the most
+favorable means which should be placed at their disposal to secure their
+own emancipation from thraldom.</p>
+
+<p>'To progress, even from slavery to freedom, is progression,
+nevertheless; and, as such, it is beset with all the hindrances and
+prejudices from ignorance and superstition which the advancement of the
+race meets always and at every step. Those among the slaves who fully
+appreciate the disadvantages of their position, and are earnestly intent
+upon the achievement of freedom, are a minority&mdash;the vigorous thinkers
+and reformers of the slave-population. The great masses are stupid and
+conservative, in the midst of the evil which they endure, until aroused
+by circumstances or the appeals of their more enterprising leaders. Even
+John Brown, knowing as much as he did of the South and of the negro
+character, miscalculated the readiness of the slaves of Virginia to fly
+to his standard, judging them by his knowledge of the readiness of
+Missouri slaves upon the Kansas border, who, through a few years of
+local agitation, had come to be on the alert and ready to move.</p>
+
+<p>'In case, therefore, of the proclama<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>tion of emancipation in any
+slaveholding districts by our military chiefs, it will not be surprising
+if, for a time, the results of that step shall seem to be feeble, and
+shall be disproportionate to the expectations based upon it.</p>
+
+<p>'The course of events will probably be this: The emancipation of slaves
+by the proclamation of Northern generals will be followed by a partial
+tendency on the part of the slave-population to flock to their camps in
+a way similar to what has already happened in the neighborhood of
+Fortress Monroe; and this, again, by mustering them into our service,
+arming and drilling them as part of the regular and effective force of
+our armies, after the example of General Jackson in the defence of New
+Orleans, and other Southern generals on various occasions in the South.
+A step like this will be met by a nearly or precisely similar expedient
+of desperate necessity by the military chieftains of the South. Either
+with or without the offer of emancipation, they will muster the blacks
+in great numbers into their army, arming, equipping, and drilling them
+as thoroughly as the same offices are performed for the white soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>'Things may seem to stand much upon this footing, and no great advantage
+have been gained by the North through emancipation, until, in the event
+of some great battle, or successively through a series of local
+contests, the blacks in the Southern army will fraternize with those of
+the North, and go over in a body to their Northern allies, so soon as
+the course of events shall have informed them somewhat of the true state
+of the case, and have given them confidence in the earnest intention of
+the Northern troops to stand by them in the assertion of their freedom.
+A defection of this kind would carry dismay and insure defeat throughout
+the whole South, especially if it were vigorously followed up by the
+same policy and by adequate military skill on the part of the North; and
+the result of a war so inaugurated could hardly fail to be the rapid and
+complete disorganization of the whole system of Southern industry and
+the total revolution and final submission of the Southern States.</p>
+
+<p>'No man can exactly foresee the consequences of so great a conflict, nor
+predict with any certainty the course of events through such an untried
+and tremendous pathway; but it is next to impossible to conceive that
+the Southern war-spirit could in any way long survive the disasters
+inevitably consequent upon the general prevalence of a claim to freedom
+by the slaves, upon any legal basis, suddenly diffused throughout the
+South. Should the alternative be forced upon the people of that region,
+of submission, or servile in addition to civil war, their troubles will
+thicken upon them to a degree calculated to calm their over-excited
+imaginations, and to subdue their vaulting ambition. Panic will come to
+their own doors with a new and all-pervading significance, such as the
+North hardly knows how to conceive. The North should abstain to the last
+moment from thrusting even enemies into calamity so dire. But, if the
+arrogance and madness of the South shall force on us, now or later, this
+terrific resort, the world <i>may</i> witness, as the result of this war, the
+most tremendous retribution for national and organic sin which any
+people has ever yet been called on to endure. The Nemesis of History
+may, perhaps, impress the darkest record of her terrible sanctions on
+the page which records the termination of the great American Rebellion.</p>
+
+<p>'In the event last supposed, that is to say, if the war shall end in the
+entire extinction of American slavery, the state in which the Southern
+country, with its diverse populations, will find itself placed; the
+future destiny of the cotton-growing region, of the South generally; of
+our whole country, and of the continent, under this immense change of
+our condition as a nation, are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> subjects of sufficient importance to
+demand, on some future occasion, a distinct consideration. Enough points
+have been crowded, in this article, upon the reflections of the reader.
+History must not be too audaciously anticipated. The phases of the great
+crisis, already developed and developing, are sufficiently grave and
+numerous for the present occasion. Let the future withdraw her own veil
+from our eyes, while we reverentially await the revelation of coming
+events.</p>
+
+<p>'All the forbearance hitherto on the part of the North, may have had in
+it an element of wisdom. It is not the object of this paper to criticize
+or complain of the past conduct of the war, nor to urge on the
+Government to convert a war, begun for the resistance of a violent and
+fraudulent dismemberment of the Union, into a war against slavery or a
+crusade in behalf of human rights. There is no present purpose on the
+part of the writer to conduct the discussion&mdash;far less to attempt the
+decision&mdash;of so grave a question of national policy at this eventful and
+critical epoch in the affairs of our national life. No doubt the subject
+stands as yet complicated in the minds of statesmen with the
+possibilities of the early and frank submission of the South, and the
+consequent early re&euml;stablishment substantially of the <i>status quo ante
+bellum</i>; with the dread of inflicting measureless calamity upon those
+who are at heart faithful to our cause in the South; and, most of all,
+with the interests and feelings of the population of the few
+slaveholding States remaining faithful to the Union. The object of the
+present article is simply to lay open the true state of the case; to
+reveal to the Northern mind in a clearer light, if possible, the causes
+emanating from the South, which have gone and which go still to the
+formation of Northern opinion adversely to the spirit of our own
+institutions, and begetting, unconsciously in ourselves, a secret
+treasonable sympathy at the bottom of our own hearts; a sympathy which
+is the parent of that otherwise unaccountable tenderness on our part in
+respect to the patent weakness of the enemy's defences. It is not that
+we counsel, for the present, a change in the tenor of the war, but that
+we wish, as the logic of circumstances shall force this question upon
+us, that we may come to the consideration of it, in the future,
+disabused of any preconceived prejudices in favor of that which is the
+vital source of all the trouble which exists, and fully armed by a
+complete understanding of the subject.'</p>
+
+<p>So ended the original paper, the same, with a few changes of the
+tense-forms to adapt it to the present time, as the Part One, published
+in the last number of <span class="smcap">The Continental</span>, and Part Two of this
+series up to this point. The document was written for publication at
+that time, more than two years ago, but no periodical was found then
+ready to indulge in such bold speculations on the future. What has now
+in great part become history, was deemed too audacious for the public
+ear then. Perhaps no better gauge of the progress of events and opinion
+could have happened. A magazine article, rejected so recently, as too
+radical or wild in its prognostications, now stands in danger of being
+thought tame, in the light of the changes already effected. Thrown into
+a drawer as refuse matter, it has been like the log of a ship thrown
+overboard, and remaining quiescent, while the winds, the waves, and the
+current have combined to surge the vessel onward in her course; and,
+<i>hauled in by the line</i> at this hour, it may serve to chronicle the rate
+of our speed.</p>
+
+<p>Events hurry forward in this age with tremendous velocity. Great as has
+been the progress of our arms, numerous as our warlike achievements and
+advantages, the real victories we have won are, in the truest method of
+judging, the victories of opinion which have occurred and are now
+occurring.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> Our greatest conquest, as a people, is, and is to be, the
+conquest over our own prejudices; our highest attainment the readiness
+to be just, and to act with the boldness and vigor which justice
+requires.</p>
+
+<p>Taking things as they now are, let us again try to penetrate the future,
+or at least to sketch different alternatives of what may happen. Let us
+then try to catch the spirit of each alternative, and so be prepared to
+draw from the event such of good, and to guard against such of evil as
+each may involve.</p>
+
+<p>As a first alternative, we may now speedily conquer the South.
+Insurrection may spring up in the South, against the insurrection there,
+and in aid of our arms. New vigor and new fortune may attend our own
+military operations; and our future military task may&mdash;somewhat contrary
+to our expectations, we confess&mdash;prove easy, and its conclusion close at
+hand. In that event, dangers of another kind, dangers already alluded to
+as existing at the commencement of the war, and hardly less to be
+apprehended now than then, hardly less, indeed, than the indefinite
+continuance of war, threaten the future of our political horizon. We may
+see in a few months' time the very men who are leading the armies and
+the councils of the Southern confederacy again cracking the whip of
+their sharp and arrogant logic about the ears of the men who had
+conquered them in the field of battle; claiming to dictate every
+political measure; forcing the mould of their thought upon every form of
+opinion, and, by astute political combinations, wielding the destiny of
+the nation in behalf of slavery and despotism, and against the principle
+of freedom. Do not imagine for an instant that any considerations of
+modesty or humiliation on the one hand, nor of haughtiness or pride on
+the other, would stand in the way of the immediate participation of
+those men in our affairs. Let there be no delusions either, with regard
+to the ability of the same leading class of men to keep themselves in
+the saddle at the South, through all political changes not involving the
+absolute destruction of slavery, and the complete and consolidated
+establishment of other institutions and habits of life among the people
+at large;&mdash;the virtual creation, in fact, of a new and different
+population, by the blending of our own Northern men and manners with the
+feeble indigenous freedom-loving growth. The return of this dominant
+class of cotton lords among the common masses of a Southern population
+anywhere, on any terms short of the utter extinction of their basis of
+wealth and distinction, will be the return of an armed overseer to a
+cowering mob of insubordinate slaves. The mere assertion of their
+authority will be its instant acceptance, and the most abject submission
+by the people. They will only have to demand re&euml;lection to the National
+Congress, and to every place of power, to be reinstated in precisely
+their old position, their arrogance and self-assertion only augmented by
+their having met and survived every disaster short of the destruction of
+the source of their superiority.</p>
+
+<p>Already schemes to restore the old State governments are rife, in
+respect to Louisiana, Mississippi, and other of the rebel States, now
+again brought within our military lines. Let this be done upon the old
+footing at an early day, for these States and for the others, which
+under the hypothesis now under consideration, will soon be subjugated;
+let the Emancipation Proclamation fall into desuetude; let the military
+authority of our army officers be withdrawn, and there is nothing in the
+character of the Southern slaveholding aristocracy, and no other power
+on earth, to prevent their flocking in crowds and at the very first
+general election back to Washington, reuniting their forces with the old
+body of profligate political hacks at the North, and flaunting with
+increased presumption<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> and activity the pretensions of slavery to
+dictate the whole policy of the land. In that event, a strong party,
+more distinctively proslavery and Southern than ever before, will be
+organized; more openly and shamelessly than ever devoted to the
+destruction of the last remnant of American liberty. Of course there
+will be a new reaction against the new usurpation. The conflict will be
+renewed, beginning precisely where the first war began, with the only
+exception that the issue will be then more distinctly understood, the
+conflict more desperate, and the result more definitive.</p>
+
+<p>It is of the utmost importance that the true nature of the case be
+understood: that this war is no accident of the hour, no merely
+political or national event even. It is a death struggle between two
+antagonist civilizations; if indeed one of them can be called a
+civilization, and not rather a conspiracy against the very idea of
+civilization. Again, the men involved in that conspiracy are not
+<i>hidalgos</i>, <i>ancien r&eacute;gime</i>, nor any of the proud aristocracies of the
+old world, who, when beaten, retire upon their dignity and hide their
+time. They are, on the contrary, an enterprising gang of desperadoes,
+who for the nonce may find it convenient to play the <i>r&ocirc;le</i> of high life
+and dignified pretension, but who, on the slightest change of
+circumstances, are ready for any shift, any seeming degradation or
+humiliation, any temporary lowering of their claims, in order to rise
+higher on the next wave. There is also enough of the savage and
+barbarous element of character remaining in the Southern bogus chivalry
+to make them, like the Chinaman or the Japanese, incapable of
+appreciating magnanimity. All conciliation or clemency will be construed
+into weakness; generosity and forbearance into poltroonery. These are
+sad truths; but being truths, the failure to know them in season may
+cost us another and a more desperate war, with more doubtful and
+dangerous results.</p>
+
+<p>Let us once surrender, through national verdancy, sentimental
+commiseration, misunderstanding of the nature and purposes of our enemy,
+or any or all of these causes combined with others, the dear-bought
+advantages we have won, and disasters untold involve the future of the
+land. Terrible beyond description will be, in that event, the condition
+of the Union and emancipationist party now incipiently developing itself
+at the South;&mdash;abandoned and deserted by the withdrawal of the actual
+presence and protection of Northern arms. No barbarism on earth, no
+savagism extant, is so barbarous or so savage as the ruthless vengeance
+with which this hybrid civilization of the South is ready at any time to
+visit the crime of abolitionism; and seven times hotter than usual will
+the furnace of their wrath be heated against Southern men who under the
+&aelig;gis of Northern protection shall have exhibited some sympathy with
+freedom.</p>
+
+<p>That a powerful Northern party will immediately arise in behalf of the
+simple readmission of the Southern States, upon precisely the old basis,
+when the war shall end by the suppression of the rebellion, is certain.
+The existence of such a party will rest, in part, upon a real sympathy
+with the South and the rebellion; partly upon interested political
+motives of a more ordinary and short-sighted character; and, in still
+greater part than either of these, upon the easy credence and
+insufficient information of the great mass of the Northern people;
+somewhat, indeed, upon a magnanimity highly creditable to their
+character as men, but unwise and dangerous in the extreme, in any
+exercise of it which should surrender a vital advantage.</p>
+
+<p>It does not require even that the complete reconquest of the South
+should be awaited in order that the question of the return of subdued
+States into the Union upon the old terms should be sprung upon the
+nation, and perhaps decided, by a prece<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>dent, before the attention of
+the country can be thoroughly directed to the momentous nature of the
+step proposed. The <i>New York Herald</i> has been hitherto a steady and
+consistent advocate of this policy, and a powerful agitator in its
+behalf. The following extract from its columns indicates the imminence
+of the issue, as well as the simple and seemingly reasonable political
+machinery by which the whole thing is to be effected:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'It appears from the correspondence to which we have referred that
+certain citizens of New Orleans, some of whose names are given
+elsewhere, have resolved to restore Louisiana to the Union, and
+that they intend to do this in the manner pointed out by Secretary
+Seward in his famous reply to the intervention despatch of M.
+Drouyn de Lhuys. That is to say, they intend to set the State
+Government in motion, elect members of the Legislature, and send
+loyal representatives to Congress. These gentlemen assert&mdash;and the
+<i>Tribune</i> does not deny&mdash;that Mr. Seward and Mr. Bates indorse this
+idea, and that Mr. Etheridge, as Clerk of the House of
+Representatives, has consented to receive the loyal members from
+Louisiana, upon their own credentials, until the House is
+organized. They also say&mdash;and the <i>Tribune</i> does not deny&mdash;that Mr.
+Etheridge has a perfect right to do this upon the precedent
+established by the Broad Seal controversy, some twenty years ago.
+Under these circumstances, the Union men propose to hold an
+election for five members of Congress&mdash;one from each district and
+one on the general ticket&mdash;and also for members of the State Senate
+and Assembly. 'They are anxious,' says the <i>Tribune</i> correspondent,
+'that Louisiana shall take the lead in this matter, and there is no
+doubt but Mississippi and the other States will, in due time,
+follow.' So far, the patriotic reader will search in vain for any
+objection to a plan which promises so much good for the Union, and
+will be at a loss to know upon what grounds the <i>Tribune</i> can
+oppose it with any show of loyalty.' </p></div>
+
+<p>It is no part of the object of this writing to discuss the legality or
+the constitutionality of any course of proceeding in the premises. What
+can be done and what cannot be done under the law, as it stands, is a
+question for lawyers and judges. How far, if at all, the exigency has
+annulled or modified the law; how far the axiom, <i>inter arma silent
+leges</i> ('in war the laws are silent'), shall be stretched to cover the
+case, is a question for statesmen and military commanders. The writer of
+these strictures speaks from none of those points of view, but as a
+social philosopher, viewing the drifts of inevitable consequence from
+one or the other grand policy in respect to the national
+destiny&mdash;irrespective of the minor measures by which it may be executed.
+A course utterly suicidal, viewed from this higher platform of
+observation, may proceed with the most unimpeachable subserviency to all
+the forms of the law; or, contrariwise, a policy replete with the
+highest prosperity and happiness of the coming ages, may chance to have
+its foundations laid in some startling deviation from all considerations
+of precedent and routine.</p>
+
+<p>In other words, what can be done or cannot be done under the law, or
+without violence to the law, is not now the question under
+consideration. What <i>must</i> be done, whether under the law or above the
+law,<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> to secure certain great ends of human progression, and to avoid
+positions of utter disaster to the life of the American people of the
+future, <i>is so</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Whether the theory of Mr. Sumner, that the revolted States are, by the
+operation of the revolt, or should be by the action of the Government,
+remanded to the territorial condition, holds good; whether the theory of
+Mr. Owen, that the machinery of the State Governments<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> at the South
+remains unaffected by the insurrection, but that the inhabitants, being
+traitors, are incapable of administering it, until they are purged of
+their treason by the action of the United States Government, is held to
+be the better opinion; or, whether, in fine, the easy and simple theory
+of the <i>Herald</i> is the law of the subject&mdash;none of these points is <i>the</i>
+point of the present investigation. We seek to fix attention on the
+consequences of the act of an early readmission of the revolted States,
+and, what would be the same thing, of the old and governing set of
+slaveholding politicians, from those States, into the administration of
+our national affairs, no matter what should be the method of its
+accomplishment. In that event, the war will not be ended, but smothered
+merely, and left smouldering. It will burst out again, and all that has
+been done hitherto will have to be done over again, or fail to be
+accomplished, and the consequences of failure endured.</p>
+
+<p>Let no ordinary and superficial method of reasoning obfuscate the public
+mind on this subject. It is becoming popular to say and to think that
+slavery at the South is already a dead or a dying institution, by the
+operation of the war. This opinion has in it, undoubtedly, the value of
+a prophecy, provided the war be continued to its legitimate termination;
+provided all the measures against slavery hitherto adopted are firmly
+maintained; provided the incipient anti-slavery sentiment now being
+developed in the South, be wisely fostered and protected by the strong
+arm long enough, or until new institutions and new methods of thinking
+and acting have time to consolidate. But, whoever supposes that slavery
+is as yet even essentially weakened, provided, for any reason, our
+forces and the influence of Northern sentiment were suddenly withdrawn
+from the South, and the ocean waves of the old despotism were for a
+moment even permitted to surge back over those portions of the territory
+which have been partially redeemed, has no adequate idea of the
+tremendous vitality of that institution.</p>
+
+<p>A mistake on this subject, of the safe early return of the revolted
+States, will be one of those political blunders worse than a crime; and
+yet it is precisely this mistake which the American people are at this
+hour most likely to commit. A latent love of Southern institutions <i>per
+se</i>; the hope of personal political advantage, among politicians, by an
+alliance with Southern leaders, on the part of others who care nothing
+for the South as such; a lingering tenderness, a forgiving magnanimity
+and generosity, among the people at large, which would in this case be
+wholly misplaced; and finally an easy faith in the extent and
+irrevocable nature of the successes already accomplished&mdash;all concur to
+lead on to the commission of this error.</p>
+
+<p>Talk as we will of the purposes of this war, the hand of destiny is upon
+us. We must accept the <i>r&ocirc;le</i> of emancipators and champions of human
+freedom, or the only alternative will happen, the loss of our own
+liberties and the forfeiture of our national office as the leader of
+Progress combined with Order, on the planet. We have to deal with an
+implacable, a subtle, and a versatile enemy, wholly committed to the
+opposite cause; unscrupulous, inappreciative of magnanimity or
+concession of any kind; restrained by no considerations whatsoever short
+of the accomplishment of his absolute and tyrannical will. We have this
+enemy nearly prostrate under our feet, and we stand hesitating whether
+to avail ourselves of our advantage or to stultify ourselves at the
+tribunal of the world and of history, by allowing him to rise, to
+repossess himself of his arms, and to recommence the conflict upon terms
+of equal advantage.</p>
+
+<p>A glance at the remaining alternative outcomings of the war must be
+reserved for another article.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_ENGLISH_PRESS" id="THE_ENGLISH_PRESS"></a>THE ENGLISH PRESS.</h2>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[The article with this title is written by Mr. <span class="smcap">Nicholas
+Rowe</span>, of London. Mr. <span class="smcap">Rowe</span> is a lineal descendant of
+the celebrated <span class="smcap">Nicholas Rowe</span>, the author of the tragedy of
+<i>Jane Shore</i> and other well-known poems. The author, like his
+famous ancestor, is a man of talents and a friend of freedom. His
+account of the old English Press is one of the most perfect ever
+given. He intends to bring the subject down to the present period,
+and will become a regular contributor to our Magazine.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Ed.
+Continental.</span>]</p></div>
+
+<p>It is impossible to overestimate the influence of the English
+press. It has raised itself to such a pitch of importance that it
+has been not inaptly termed the fourth estate of the realm. But the
+power which it wields is so enormous and so widespread that it
+would be nearer the truth to concede to it the dignity of the first
+estate. All classes see so clearly their interest in supporting it,
+that the press has become, in effect, a general arbitrator, a court
+of last appeal, to which kings, lords, and commons in turn address
+themselves for support whenever the overwhelming force of public
+opinion is to be conciliated or enlisted. It is in morals what a
+multitude is in physics, and it may, without exaggeration, be said
+that for all purposes of progress and of good the press of England
+has in reality become something more than a single estate of the
+realm, since it combines in itself, and exceeds the authority of
+all. But while raised to this lofty pinnacle of greatness, it does
+not, it dares not, it cannot from its very constitution permanently
+abuse its power; and though isolated attempts have been, from time
+to time, made in this direction, yet they have in the end, as was
+to be expected, reaped nothing but disaster and disgrace. 'Great is
+journalism,' says Carlyle. 'Is not every able editor a ruler of the
+world, being a persuader of it?' Yes, truly a ruler of the world,
+whose supremacy all other rulers must unhesitatingly acknowledge or
+perish miserably and forever. Yes, truly a persuader of the world,
+because he is the mouthpiece of the people, whose earnest, mighty
+voice is making itself heard more and more irresistibly every day,
+to the utter discomfiture and overthrow of the hydra-headed avatars
+of the priestcraft and kingcraft and all the other mouldy and
+rank-smelling relics of the dark ages. The press is the arch
+apostle of civilization, progress, and truth&mdash;the Greatheart, whose
+mission it is to combat and destroy the giants Pope and Pagan, Maul
+and Despair, and all other misleaders and oppressors of men.
+Language itself might be exhausted before all that could be said in
+favor of the uses, benefits, and value of the press had found
+fitting expression. The greatest and best of men have expatiated
+upon this noble theme, but probably the truest and most eloquent
+panegyric ever bestowed upon it is that of Sheridan:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'Give me but the liberty of the press, and I will give to the
+minister a venal House of Peers&mdash;I will give him a corrupt and
+servile House of Commons&mdash;I will give him the full sway of the
+patronage of office&mdash;I will give him the whole host of ministerial
+influence&mdash;I will give him all the power that place can confer upon
+him to purchase up submission and overawe resistance&mdash;and yet,
+armed with the liberty of the press, I will go forth to meet him
+undismayed&mdash;I will attack the mighty fabric he has reared with that
+mightier engine&mdash;I will shake down from its height corruption, and
+bury it amidst the ruins of the abuses it was meant to shelter.'</p></div>
+
+<p>Had Sheridan never uttered or written anything besides these burning
+words, he would have merited immortal fame, and unquestionably obtained
+it.</p>
+
+<p>The press is not a thing of yesterday,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> for it is the slow growth of two
+centuries; neither did it burst upon the world armed at all points, like
+the fabled Athene. Yet in other respects the comparison holds good, for
+the press, like Athene, unites in itself the attributes of power and
+wisdom combined; it fosters and protects science, industry, and art; it
+is the patron of all useful inventions; it is the preserver of the
+state, and everything that gives strength and prosperity to the state;
+it is the champion of law, justice, and order, and extends its
+protecting &aelig;gis over the weak, the downtrodden, and the oppressed. It
+has taken two centuries, as we have already said, to make the press what
+it is; and a terrible uphill fight has it had to wage. Tyranny,
+dogmatism, and intolerance in high places, and ignorance and
+superstition in low, have ever been its sworn enemies. It has had its
+saints and martyrs, more worthy of canonization in men's hearts than
+many written high in the calendar of Rome. But though persecuted,
+crushed, and at times apparently done to death, its vitality was
+indestructible, and after every knock-down blow it rose again from the
+earth, like Ant&aelig;us, with renewed strength. It was always a vigorous
+stripling, and even so far back as the days of David Hume its future
+greatness and magnificent destiny was clearly marked out, so that he
+wrote: 'Its liberties and the liberties of the people must stand or fall
+together.' Liberty and the press in England are convertible terms, and
+this is the true reason of the success and power it enjoys. It is also
+the cause of the persecutions it has had to undergo. Tyranny and the
+press are as necessarily opposed to each other as are the principles of
+good and evil. The word 'tyranny' is not here intended to refer only to
+the despotic rulers of states and kingdoms, but to include the
+oppression practiced by the strong upon the weak, the rich upon the
+poor, the great upon the small, whether nations or individuals. The
+press, moreover, is the guardian of social, political, and religious
+morality. The greatest as well as the most trifling affairs which
+conduce to the well-being and comfort of the multitude are eagerly
+canvassed. The faults and vices which disfigure and disgrace even the
+most advanced forms of civilization are unshrinkingly laid bare, and the
+proper remedies prescribed. The political conduct of nations and of
+public men is carefully scrutinized, and every false step that they may
+make is immediately noted, commented upon, and held up to public
+reprobation. Religious questions, although, ever since the world began,
+they have been approached in a very different spirit to those of any
+other description, and have been debated with greater heat and passion
+than the bitterest political disputes, and with a lamentable disregard
+of logic and common sense, are now-a-days treated with a candor and
+fairness that has never yet characterized them. The press is, in fact,
+the great physician of the mind, whose duty it is to impart a healthy
+tone to the inner nature of man, to check the ravages of disease in it,
+and, wherever it may imagine any traces of poison to lurk, to administer
+a prompt and immediate antidote. It may not always and at once prosper
+in its endeavors. Wrong-doing may still, in some cases, prove too
+strong, vices may have become inveterate, diseases chronic, and the
+poison may have been too completely absorbed. But not, therefore, is the
+press discouraged: like Robert Bruce's spider, it returns again and
+again to its task, and&mdash;success does and must crown it in the end.</p>
+
+<p>But while faithfully performing these lofty duties, in the discharge of
+which it employs the trained minds and practised pens of the greatest
+literary talent of the time, the press has other functions, which, if
+not of such paramount importance, yet possess no small utility and
+value. By no means the least of these is that of merely furnishing the
+news of the day; and that this was the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> primary intention of the
+newspaper its very name proves. Comment, argument, and reasoning were
+after additions. There are thousands of persons at the present day even,
+who patronize a newspaper solely for its news, and who do not trouble
+their heads about any other portion of its contents. The births,
+marriages, and deaths are eagerly perused by many who expect to meet in
+that domestic chronicle with the names of their friends and
+acquaintances. The court news and the movements of royalty and the upper
+ten thousand have great charms for a large section of the community.
+Accidents and offences and sensation headings, such as 'horrible
+murder,' 'melancholy suicide,' 'terrific explosion,' 'fatal shipwreck,'
+'awful railway collision,' and the like, have powerful attractions for
+that class which is&mdash;alas for human nature!&mdash;only too numerous, and
+which likes to sup full of horrors&mdash;in print. In the same category with
+these may be placed police news, and the proceedings in the divorce
+court, the full reports of which are a blemish from which not even the
+greatest of English journals are free. There have been found able and
+honest men to defend these reports on the ground of the 'interests of
+morality,' than which there is not a more abused phrase in print. But to
+the man of ordinary common sense it would appear that more harm than
+good results from them. Where can the viciously disposed man or the
+novice in crime apply with better prospects of instruction in the
+pursuit of his evil designs than to the columns of the newspaper? It is
+perhaps not too much to say that for every two persons whom these
+reports deter from crime, there are three who have been either initiated
+or hardened in wickedness and sin by their means. This is a matter which
+calls loudly for reform; and let it, with all sorrow and humility, be
+confessed, one in which the better American journals shine vastly
+superior to their English brethren. To the general reader for
+amusement's sake only, those scraps <i>de omnibus rebus et quibusdam
+aliis</i> with which editors fill up odd corners supply ample
+gratification. But those who read for amusement's sake only, or from
+mere idle curiosity, are by no means the majority, and a tolerable
+insight may be obtained into a man's character and bias of mind by
+observing what is the part of the paper to which he first turns when he
+unfolds it. The man who is absorbed in business pursuits turns to the
+prices of stocks and shares, the values of articles of merchandise, and
+the rates of discount and exchange. He will also probably glance at the
+'latest intelligence' and the most recent telegrams, but only with the
+view of forming an opinion as to how the world of commerce and
+speculation will be affected thereby. The politician finds matter to his
+taste in the leading articles, the Parliamentary debates and the letters
+of foreign correspondents, and, perhaps, after a careful perusal of
+them, flatters himself that he has at last mastered the intricacies of
+the Schleswig-Holstein question, or has arrived at an understanding of
+the Emperor Napoleon's policy in Rome. The scientific man and the
+literary man have their attention fixed by the reports of the meetings
+of the various learned societies, the accounts of new discoveries and
+inventions, and the reviews of new publications. This enumeration might
+be extended almost <i>ad infinitum</i>, but to sum up briefly, whatever a
+man's taste or predilections may be, he will be able to gratify them to
+his heart's content.</p>
+
+<p>There is, however, one portion of the newspaper which must not be passed
+over without especial notice, and which is so varied in its contents
+that it appeals to all classes. This is the advertisements. The man who
+wishes to buy may here ascertain whither he must bend his steps to
+obtain the article he desires, and the man who wishes to sell may here
+meet with a purchaser; and it is truly wonderful to observe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> how the two
+great requirements of demand and supply, in all their varied
+ramifications, are satisfied or seem to be satisfied in these columns.
+If one may put faith in them, it is possible to gratify every mortal
+wish and every mortal want through their instrumentality, on one
+condition, and that condition is&mdash;money. But even this condition may be
+satisfied through the same medium. Are there not untold fortunes
+invested in Government securities and unclaimed for years, only waiting
+for the lawful owners or rightful heirs to come forward and obtain them
+through the agency of those obliging gentlemen who make it their
+business to investigate such matters? Are there not also numbers of
+benevolent philanthropists eagerly longing for opportunities to lend
+money in large or small amounts, on personal security only, to such
+persons even as are not fortunate enough to be rightful owners or lawful
+heirs? The curious part of the affair, however, is that there are also
+so many people who want to borrow money upon the same terms. Do these
+two classes, we wonder, ever come together through the intervention of
+the advertisement, and does the result wished for on both sides follow,
+or does it not? If it does, why need both sets of advertisements appear
+at all? And if it does not, what is the use of repeating either of them
+day after day and week after week? The man of imagination must take
+especial delight in the advertising columns. What splendid feasts they
+afford him to banquet upon! Some of them, in a few pithy lines, contain
+the plot of a three-volume novel or the materials for a grand sensation
+melodrama. What tragedies and what comedies he may weave out of one or
+two mysterious and almost unintelligible sentences! What reveries he may
+indulge in, what castles in the air&mdash;the most harmless and inexpensive
+of building operations&mdash;he may construct, provided he start with the
+hypothesis, 'If I were to buy this,' or 'If I were to invest in that,'
+and all the time he has neither the intention nor the ability of
+purchasing the one or of investing in the other! How seductive are the
+notifications by auctioneers and land agents of the 'charming and
+valuable territorial estates, with the disposal of which they have had
+the honor of being intrusted'! The dweller in towns, who, chained to the
+one unceasing, unvarying round of official toil, still sighs for the
+country, and, like Virgil, envies the 'fortunati agricol&aelig;,' may here
+give the reins to his fancy, and indulge his rural proclivities <i>ad
+libitum</i>. When the day's labors are over, and he sits in slippered ease
+'by his own fireside,' what greater enjoyment can he have than to
+abandon himself in true Barmecidal fashion to the tempting dainties
+which the last page of the supplement to the <i>Times</i> offers to his keen
+appetite! How he revels in the luscious descriptions of 'noble parks,'
+'swelling lawns,' 'ancestral woods,' 'silver lakes,' and 'endless
+panoramas of scenery unequalled in the world'! How proudly he lingers
+over the pictures of 'baronial castles,' and 'time-honored manorial
+residences, indissolubly linked with the proudest names and proudest
+deeds of England's history'! If he be a sportsman&mdash;and what Englishman
+is not, more or less?&mdash;how intoxicating to him is the enumeration of
+'game of all sorts, and countless myriads of wild fowl,' only waiting
+his advent to fall victims to his prowess! If he be a philanthropist,
+what visions of model farms, model cottages and model schools, of a
+happy and contented peasantry, of comely, smiling matrons, and troops of
+ruddy-cheeked children may he not conjure up! If he be ambitious, what
+dreams of greatness crowd upon him&mdash;the revered benefactor of the
+parish, the respected chairman of the bench of magistrates, nay, even
+the county member returned to Parliament without a dis-sentient voice!
+His fancy runs riot, and there is no limit to the bright future which
+the skilful hand of the cun<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>ning knight of the hammer unfolds before his
+enraptured gaze.</p>
+
+<p>To the energetic, enterprising man, how tempting must be those
+prospectuses of schemes for the development of the vast and in many
+cases untried natural, industrial, and commercial resources of the
+country, which, combining in an eminent degree both pleasure and profit,
+invite his co&ouml;peration upon the joint-stock principle! How delightful to
+him must be those announcements of wonderful inventions&mdash;secured by a
+patent&mdash;and of old-established business firms, which offer a safe
+investment for his spare hundreds and thousands by way of partnership,
+with the certainty of immediate and enormous returns! To the invalid and
+the valetudinarian, how cheering must be those modest and disinterested
+encomiums upon the virtues of certain nostrums and specifics, which
+cannot but carry conviction to his mind that there is a certain cure for
+'all the ills that flesh is heir to!' And lastly, not to enlarge the
+list any further, what a glow of heartfelt pleasure and gratitude must
+the really good and benevolent man experience when he peruses the
+reports of charitable societies, with their statistics of poverty,
+misery, and privation, which afford him a channel for the dispensation
+in works of mercy of the superfluous wealth with which a bountiful
+Providence has blessed him!</p>
+
+<p>Such being the manifold uses and advantages of the newspaper, we are
+tempted for a moment to pause and reflect upon what would be the
+condition of the world without it. What a dreary waste it would be! Man
+is an inquisitive animal, and at the present day is just like the
+Athenians of old, going about seeking for some new thing. What would
+become of him if the provender supplied him by his newspaper were
+suddenly cut off? The consequences to society and to individuals would
+be frightful to contemplate, and the mind especially recoils with horror
+from the fate which would assuredly overtake those elderly
+club-loungers, whose sole aim and object in life appears to be the daily
+perusal of their favorite journal. How disastrous would be the effects
+of such a stoppage to those persons who are compelled to pass the
+greater portion of their lives together! They could not possibly
+contrive to get through the day, and before long life itself would
+become burdensome to them. Vast numbers of people have no ideas of their
+own, and are therefore compelled to borrow them elsewhere. How important
+is the part which the newspaper plays in that elsewhere! Paterfamilias
+comes down to breakfast&mdash;his newspaper fresh, clean, and tidily folded,
+lies invitingly on the table&mdash;he eagerly seizes it, and is forthwith
+furnished with topics of conversation with his family. When he is
+thoroughly posted up in the news of the day, he sallies forth, and is
+ready to interchange ideas at secondhand with any acquaintance he may
+meet. What would become of Paterfamilias, his family, and his friends,
+if they were deprived of this resource? The whole framework of society
+would be unhinged, business and pleasure would alike come to a
+standstill, and the world would again relapse into barbarism and chaos.</p>
+
+<p>But let us turn from these fanciful speculations to a sober recital of
+facts in connection with the history of the press.</p>
+
+<p>The derivation of the word 'newspaper' has been the subject of much
+dispute. Some learned and ingenious writers, disdaining the obvious
+'new,' have gone very far afield in their researches. Among other
+derivations which have been suggested, is one taken from the four
+cardinal points of the compass, N. E. W. S.; because the intelligence
+conveyed came from all quarters of the globe. This suggestion is
+contained in an old epigram:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'The word explains itself without the Muse,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">And the four letters tell from whence comes News;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">From N. E. W. S. the solution's made,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">Each quarter gives account of war and trade.'</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And also, probably in jest, in the 'Wit's Recreations,' published in
+1640:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Whence news doth come if any would discusse,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">The letters of the word resolve it thus:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">News is conveyed by letter, word, or mouth,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">And comes to us from North, East, West, and South.'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>For the first origin of newspapers in Europe we must look to Rome, and
+there can be no reasonable doubt that the earliest germs of news sheets
+are to be found among that wonderful people, who have left such enduring
+monuments of themselves wherever they carried their victorious eagles.
+The Roman news sheets were called <i>Acta Diurna</i>, and were issued by the
+Government, and affixed to the walls in the most public places in the
+city. They were also carefully stored in a building set apart for the
+purpose, where any person could have access to them, and make copies of
+them for the benefit of their friends in distant parts of the empire. It
+is probable also that the Roman historians availed themselves of them in
+their compilations. They were not only reports of the ordinary
+occurrences in the city, but journals of the proceedings in the courts
+and town councils as well, and they contain records of trials,
+elections, punishments, buildings, deaths, sacrifices, state
+ceremonials, prodigies, etc., etc. They are alluded to in the
+correspondence between Cicero and C&oelig;lius, when the great orator was
+governor of Cilicia. C&oelig;lius had promised to send him an account of
+the news of Rome, and encloses in his first letter a journal of the
+events which had transpired in the city during his absence. Cicero, in
+reply, complains that his friend had misinterpreted his wishes, and says
+that he had not desired him to send an account of the matches of
+gladiators, the adjournments of the courts, and occurrences of that
+kind, which nobody dared to talk to him about even when he was residing
+in Rome: what he wanted was a description of the course of politics and
+but the newspaper of Chrestus. He also refers to these sheets, that is
+to say, to accounts of public affairs <i>in actis</i> and <i>ex actis</i>, in two
+letters to Cassius and one to Brutus, written previously to the
+triumvirate. Suetonius also makes mention of them, and says that Julius
+C&aelig;sar, in his consulship, ordered the diurnal acts of the senate and the
+people to be published. Tacitus relates a speech of a courtier to Nero
+to induce him to execute Thrasea, and among other things he says:
+'Diurna populi Romani per provinciam per exercitus accuratius leguntur
+ut noscatur quid Thrasea non fecerit.' Seneca and the younger Pliny also
+allude to them. Dr. Johnson, in the preface to the tenth volume of the
+<i>Gentleman's Magazine</i>, published in 1740, enters into a disquisition
+upon these <i>acta diurna</i>, and gives an account of the discovery of some
+of them with the date of 585 <span class="smcap">A. U. C.</span>, and adds some specimens
+from them. He quotes them from the 'Annals of Rome,' by Stephen Pighius,
+who declares that he obtained them from James Susius, by whom they were
+found among the MSS. belonging to Ludovicus Vives. Their authenticity
+has, as might be expected, been hotly disputed by many learned scholars
+at various times, but sufficient grounds have not been adduced for their
+rejection. The most suspicious circumstance connected with them is their
+resemblance, <i>mutatis mutandis</i>, to a newspaper of the present day. Thus
+among other things we are told that the consul went in grand procession
+to sacrifice at the temple of Apollo, just as now a-days we might read
+that Queen Victoria went in state to St. Paul's, or attended divine
+service at the chapel royal, St. James's. Then we are favored with an
+account of the setting forth of Lucius Paulus &AElig;milius, the consul, for
+the war in Macedonia, and a description of the departure of the embassy
+of Popilius Lena, Caius Decimus, and Caius Hostilius to Syria and Egypt,
+with a great attendance of relations and clients, and of their offering
+up a sacrifice and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> libations at the temple of Castor and Pollux before
+commencing their journey. Then we hear how an oak was struck by
+lightning on the summit of Mount Palatine, which was called <i>Summa
+Velia</i>, and have the particulars given us of a fire which took place on
+Mount C&oelig;lius, together with an account of the crucifixion of a
+certain noted pirate. Dramatic intelligence is represented by a
+description of the plays acted in honor of the goddess Cybele; and under
+the head of 'fashionable intelligence,' the Jenkins of the day
+chronicles the funeral of Marcia, a noble Roman matron, and remarks that
+the attendance of images was greater than that of mourners. He also adds
+an account of the entertainment given to the people by her sons upon the
+occasion. By way of police news, we find a record of a disturbance in a
+tavern, in which the tavern keeper was severely wounded; and how
+Tertinius, the &aelig;dile, fined some butchers for selling meat which had not
+been inspected by the overseers of the market. A counterpart of this
+transaction may be met with every day in the city of London, but the
+result of the affair is much the more satisfactory in Rome, for whereas
+we do not know for certain what becomes of the money obtained from the
+penalty in London, we learn that the &aelig;dile directed it to be devoted to
+the building of an additional chapel to the temple of the goddess
+Tellus. Dr. Johnson also quotes a second series of <i>Acta Diurna</i>, with
+the date of 691 <span class="smcap">A. U. C.</span>, from the 'Camdenian Lectures' of
+Dodwell in 1688 to 1691. Dodwell says that he obtained them from his
+friend Hadrian Beoerland, who got them from Isaac Vossius, by whom they
+were copied from certain MSS. in the possession of Petavius. Among other
+things contained in this second set, we find noted certain trials, with
+the number of the votes for and against the defendant, a bargain for the
+repairs of a certain temple, an announcement by one of the pr&aelig;tors that
+he shall intermit his sittings for five days, in consequence of the
+marriage of his daughter, and an account of the pleading of Cicero in
+favor of Cornelius Sulla, and of his gaining his cause by a majority of
+five judges.</p>
+
+<p>Such are the earliest traces of newspapers to be found, and long
+centuries elapse before we again catch a glimpse of anything of the
+kind. Although it is the great Anglo-Saxon race alone which can boast of
+having developed the usefulness and liberty of the press to its fullest
+capabilities, both in England and America, yet it is not to us that the
+credit belongs of having been the first to reintroduce newspapers in
+Europe. Whether or no the Romans introduced their <i>Acta Diurna</i> into
+Britain, and whether or no any imitations of them sprang up then or in
+after times, it is impossible to say. Some writers have asserted that
+news sheets were in circulation in England at all events so early as the
+middle of the fifteenth century, but as their assertions rest upon no
+very trustworthy basis, they must be at once thrown aside. It is to
+Italy that we must again turn for the reappearance of the newspaper. It
+was in 1536, or thereabouts, that the Venetian magistracy caused
+accounts of the progress of the war which they were waging against
+Suleiman II, in Dalmatia, to be written and read aloud to the people in
+different parts of the city. The news sheet appeared once a month, and
+was called <i>Gazetta</i>, deriving its name, probably, from a coin so
+called, of the value of something less than a cent, either because that
+was the price of the sheet, or the sum paid for reading it, or for
+having it read. There are thirty volumes of this MS. newspaper preserved
+in the Maggliabecchi Library at Florence, and there are also some in the
+British Museum, the earliest date of which is 1570. Printed news
+letters, with date and number, but not so deserving of the title of
+newspaper, began to appear about the same time in Germany. They were
+called <i>Relations</i>, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> were published at Augsburg and Vienna in 1524,
+at Ratisbon in 1528, Dollingen in 1569, and Nuremberg in 1571. The first
+regular German newspaper appeared at Frankfort, and was entitled
+<i>Frankfurter Oberpostamtszeitung</i>, in 1615. The first French was brought
+out by Renaudot, a physician, in 1632. The first Russian paper came out
+under the auspices of Peter the Great, in 1703, and was styled the <i>St.
+Petersburg Gazette</i>. Spain did not enter the lists until a year later,
+and the <i>Gazeta de Madrid</i> was born in 1704. It could not have been
+worth much as a newspaper, inasmuch as the defeat off Cape St. Vincent
+did not appear in its columns until four weeks after it had taken place.</p>
+
+<p>There must have been some sort of news sheets in existence in England
+about the same time as the Venetian <i>Gazetta</i>, for in the thirty-sixth
+year of King Henry VIII, the following proclamation appeared:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'The King's most excellent Majestie, understanding that certain
+light persones, not regarding what they reported, wrote, or sett
+forth, had caused to be ymprinted and divulged certaine newes of
+the prosperous successes of the King's Majestie's army in Scotland,
+wherein, although the effect of the victory was indeed true, yet
+the circumstances in divers points were, in some parte
+over-slenderly, in some parte untruly and amisse reported; his
+Highness, therefore, not content to have anie such matters of so
+greate importance sett forthe to the slaunder of his captaines and
+ministers, nor to be otherwise reported than the truthe was,
+straightlie chargeth and commandeth all manner of persones into
+whose hands anie of the said printed bookes should come,
+ymmediately after they should hear of this proclamation, to bring
+the said bookes to the Lord Maior of London, or to the recorder or
+some of the aldermen of the same, to the intent they might suppress
+and burn them, upon pain that every person keeping anie of the said
+bookes twenty-four hours after the making of this proclamation,
+should suffer ymprisonment of his bodye, and be further punished at
+the King's Majestie's will and pleasure.' </p></div>
+
+<p>None of these obnoxious 'printed bookes' have survived to the present
+time, and it has been contended that they were probably nothing more
+than ballads and copies of doggerel verses. But this is an hypercritical
+objection, or rather groundless guess, for it is evident that the
+proclamation points at something far more important. We may safely
+conclude that they were newspapers, and that journalism had already
+attained sufficient dimensions to alarm the powers that were, and draw
+down their hostility. And a few years later, Pope Gregory XIII
+fulminated a bull, called <i>Minantes</i>, against the news sheets, as
+spreading scandal and defamation, etc.</p>
+
+<p>It was long fondly believed that the British Museum counted among its
+treasures a full-blown printed English newspaper, dating so far back as
+1588. It was entitled the <i>English Mercurie</i>, and purported to be
+'published by authoritie for the suppression of false reports, ymprinted
+at London by Christopher Barker, her Highness's Printer.' Writer after
+writer exulted in the fact, and was loud in the praises of the sagacity
+and wisdom of Burleigh, under whose direction it was supposed to have
+been issued. But unfortunately for antiquaries and literati, the matter
+was carefully investigated by Mr. Watts, of the British Museum, and he
+pronounced on unquestionable evidence the copies of the <i>English
+Mercurie</i> to be nothing but a barefaced forgery, of which he went even
+so far as to accuse, on good grounds, the second Lord Hardwicke of being
+the perpetrator. But though we must discard this fictitious account of
+the Spanish armada, etc., other news sheets did actually exist in the
+reign of Queen Elizabeth, a list of which has been compiled by Dr.
+Rimbault. The titles of some of them are: <i>New Newes, containing a short
+rehearsal of Stukely and Morice's Rebellion</i>, 1579; <i>Newes from
+Scotland, declaring the damnable Life of Doctor Fian, a notable
+Sorcerer, who was burned in Eden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>borough in January last</i>, 1591; <i>Newes
+from Spain and Holland</i>, 1593; <i>Newes from Flanders</i>, 1599; <i>Newes out
+of Cheshire of the new-found Well</i>, 1600; <i>Newes from Gravesend</i>, 1604.
+As time went on, these 'pamphlets of newes' increased in number. They
+treated of all kinds of intelligence; some derived their materials from
+foreign countries, and some from different parts of the kingdom at home;
+some were true, and some were false. Thus we find, among others,
+<i>Lamentable Newes out of Monmouthshire, in Wales, containinge the
+wonderfull and fearfull Accounts of the great overflowing of the Waters
+in the said Countye</i>, 1607; <i>Newes from Spain</i>, 1611; <i>Newes out of
+Germanie</i>, 1612; <i>Wofull Newes from the west partes of England, of the
+burning of Tiverton</i>, 1612; <i>Good Newes from Florence</i>, 1614; <i>Strange
+Newes from Lancaster, containinge an Account of a prodigious Monster,
+born in the Township of Addlington, in Lancashire, with two bodyes
+joined to one back</i>, 1613; <i>Newes from Italy</i>, 1618; <i>Newes out of
+Holland</i>, 1619; <i>Vox Populi, or Newes from Spain</i>, 1620. About this time
+the news sheets began to assume particular and distinctive titles, under
+which they appeared at uncertain intervals. We meet with <i>The Courant,
+or Weekly Newes from Foreign Parts</i>, 1621; <i>The certain Newes of this
+present Week</i>, 1622; <i>The Weekly Newes from Italy, Germany, etc.</i>, 1622,
+a title which was shortly after exchanged for that of <i>Newes from most
+Parts of Christendom, London, printed for Nathaniel Butler and William
+Sheppard</i>. These names ought to be preserved, as being those of the
+great pioneers of regular journalism. It appears, however, that they did
+not always keep the same title for their newspaper, for sometimes it was
+called <i>The Last Newes</i>; at others, <i>The Weekly Newes continued</i>; <i>More
+Newes</i>; <i>Our Last Newes</i>, and other various renderings of the same
+theme. This great progenitor of a mighty race also adopted a system of
+numbering, and, though exposed to many dangers and vicissitudes, did not
+finally disappear until 1640. Butler and his contemporaries had to
+struggle with many obstacles, and to contend against many and powerful
+foes. In 1637, Archbishop Laud procured the passing of an ordinance
+limiting the number of master printers to twenty, and punishing with
+whipping and the pillory all such as should print without a license.
+Butler's name does not occur in this list; so we may conclude that he
+was particularly obnoxious to the haughty prelate and his party. But
+this persevering journalist, whose name had for a long time appeared
+alone as the printer of his newspaper, contrived to surmount this
+difficulty, for in a manifesto, dated January 11th, 1640, he says:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'Courteous reader! we had thought to have given over printing our
+foreign avisoes, for that the licenser (out of a partial affection)
+would not oftentimes let pass apparent truth, and in other things
+(oftentimes) so crosse and alter, which made us weary of printing;
+but he being vanished (and that office fallen upon another more
+understanding in these forraine affaires, and as you will find more
+candid) we are againe (by the favour of his Majestie and the state)
+resolved to go on printing, if we shall find the world to give a
+better acceptation of them (than of late) by their weekly buying of
+them. It is well known these novels are well esteemed in all parts
+of the world (but heere) by the more judicious, which we can impute
+to no other but the discontinuance of them, and the uncertaine
+daies of publishing them, which, if the post fail us not, we shall
+keep a constant day everie weeke therein, whereby everie man may
+constantly expect them, and so we take leave.' </p></div>
+
+<p>This number of his journal is entitled <i>The continuation of the Forraine
+Occurrents, for five Weeks past, containinge many remarkable Passages of
+Germanie, etc.; examined and licensed by a better and more impartiall
+hand than heretofore</i>. Another noticeable thing in this manifesto is the
+first occurrence of the autocratic editorial 'we.'</p>
+
+<p>Butler had also to contend with the opposition of the news writers or
+news<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> correspondents, who doubtless found his undertaking interfere with
+their trade. These gentry covenanted for the sum of &pound;3 or &pound;4 a year to
+write a news letter every post day to their subscribers in the country.
+That this curious trade was thoroughly systematized is evident from the
+following passage in Ben Jonson's 'Staple of News,' published in 1635:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'This is the outer room where my clerks sit</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">And keep their sides, the register i' the midst;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">The examiner he sits private there within&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">And here I have my several rolls and files</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">Of news by the alphabet, and all put up</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">Under their heads.'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The news writers flourished greatly at this period, but as newspapers
+began to get a footing, their credit gradually declined&mdash;and with
+reason, if we may put confidence in the following extract from the
+<i>Evening Post</i>, of September 6th, 1709:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>'There must be &pound;3 or &pound;4 paid per annum by those gentlemen who are
+out of town for written news, which is so far generally from having
+any probability of matter of fact, that it is frequently stuffed up
+with a 'we hear,' or 'an eminent Jew merchant has received a
+letter,' being nothing more than downright fiction.' </p></div>
+
+<p>To Butler belongs the credit of having been the first to introduce
+street newsboys, with this difference, that his employ&eacute;s were of the
+other sex, and were styled 'Mercurie women.'</p>
+
+<p>Butler was a stanch royalist, and consequently suffered the vengeance of
+the Parliamentary party. He fell into great poverty, and, according to
+Anthony &agrave; Wood, died on board Prince Rupert's fleet in Kinsale harbor,
+in 1649, just as a brighter day was beginning to dawn upon journalism.</p>
+
+<p>The struggle between the Parliament and the king set the press free from
+the multiplied restrictions by which it had been 'cabined, cribbed,
+confined' and almost stifled in its cradle. The country became flooded
+with publications of all kinds, of which, while many were trashy,
+ridiculous, and extravagant, there still remained a considerable portion
+which materially helped forward that mighty uprising of the people to
+which England owes her freedom, her glory, and her might.</p>
+
+<p>And here, having introduced to the reader the first real newspaper, and
+the great ancestor of all after editors, and having attended the press
+through its obscure infancy and perilous childhood, we must pause,
+reserving for consideration in a future article the fair promise of its
+youth and the development of its still more glorious manhood.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_CONSCRIPTION_ACT_OF_MARCH_3d" id="THE_CONSCRIPTION_ACT_OF_MARCH_3d"></a>THE CONSCRIPTION ACT OF MARCH 3<span class="smcap">d</span>.</h2>
+
+
+<p>Few subjects are more difficult of legislation than that of the military
+service of a nation. The most profound wisdom, the most enlightened
+statesmanship, the most intimate knowledge of society, are requisite in
+the legislator. It is easy, indeed, to regulate the military service in
+times of peace, when the army is small and volunteers are abundant. But
+when the ordinary methods fail to fill up the ranks, decimated by actual
+war, when the honor and perpetuity of a nation depend upon a
+conscription of its citizens, then comes the tug of war, and many
+legislatures have failed in their deliberations on this subject. In the
+first place, a Conscription Act is opposed to popular prejudice.
+Compulsory service of any kind, except for punishment, is contrary to
+our ideas of personal freedom. We believe in the sovereign privilege of
+doing what we please, and declining to do what we do not please, to its
+fullest possible extent. We love to tell our neighbors that we have no
+standing army to defend our national honor, but that it reposes safely
+on the <i>voluntary</i> patriotism of the people. We may admit the
+<i>necessity</i> for a Conscription Act&mdash;may confess its justice and
+impartiality; but few men who are liable to fall into its pitiless
+clutches, can speak of such an act without a shrug of uneasiness or a
+wicked expression of anger. Again, it must be universal in its
+application. It must meet all classes and conditions of society; must be
+adapted to all shades of religious and political belief; must be
+inflexible as Justice on his throne, yet tender and sympathetic as a
+mother to her child. It must take into consideration different branches
+of industry, and the fields of one section must not be depleted of
+husbandmen that those of another may be filled with warriors.</p>
+
+<p>The act of March 3d meets these difficulties more successfully, perhaps,
+than any previous act, whether of a State or National Legislature. It is
+based upon the broad and well-admitted maxim, that every citizen owes
+his personal service to the Government which protects him. But while the
+Government impartially demands this service, the law provides for the
+exemption of those who would suffer by the unqualified enforcement of
+this demand.</p>
+
+<p>Many persons outside of the specified limits of age, are physically able
+to do military service. But, <i>as a class</i>, it would have been cruel and
+impolitic to have forced men into a service which would have wrecked
+health and happiness for life, or, by a short and swift passage through
+the military hospitals, have shuffled them into premature graves. Few
+men under twenty-five have the power of endurance necessary for a long
+and wearisome campaign. The muscles are not sufficiently knit and
+hardened for the service, nor the constitution sufficiently fortified to
+withstand the exposure. Men over forty-five have lost the vigor and
+elasticity necessary to long and arduous exertion, and are constantly
+liable to become a burden instead of a benefit to the service.</p>
+
+<p>No previous act has so equally disposed the military duty among the
+various classes affected by it. It is a well-known fact that the burdens
+of military service are wont to bear most heavily on the <i>laboring</i>
+classes. Probably no legislation can entirely remove this inequality.
+But the act of March 3d makes special provision for the indigent and
+helpless, and to a great extent relieves the suffering and inconvenience
+dependent on an enforced military conscription. Poverty is not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> left
+without relief, infancy without protection, old age without comfort. The
+dependent widow, the infirm parent, the homeless orphan, are adopted by
+the Government, and their support and protection provided for. And in
+order that the character and dignity of the army may comport with the
+greatness and purity of the cause for which it is fighting&mdash;that it may
+be both the power and the pride of the nation, it is expressly provided,
+that 'no person who has been guilty of any felony shall be enrolled or
+permitted to serve in said forces.' For the benefit of those whose
+peculiar business or family relations require their services at home,
+Congress wisely inserted 'the $300 clause.' In this they but followed
+the established custom in most nations since the days of feudalism. No
+part of the act has been more violently assailed than this, none more
+unjustly. It is asserted that this clause discriminates against the
+poor, in favor of the rich; that it recognizes unjust distinctions
+between the classes of society, and assigns military duty unequally
+among the citizens. No assertion could more glaringly display the
+author's ignorance and lack of judgment.</p>
+
+<p>The law, as originally drawn, required the service of the man drafted or
+an acceptable substitute within ten days. Had 'the $300 clause' not been
+inserted, the competition for substitutes would have been so great that
+their price would have risen far beyond the ability of men in moderate
+circumstances to pay, and many would have been forced into service who
+thus have an opportunity for exempting themselves. It has kept the price
+of substitutes at a low figure, and thus has proven itself emphatically
+the poor man's provision.</p>
+
+<p>Nor is the law harsh toward those who may be drafted. Abundant time is
+given for the settlement of any pressing business, the proper
+disposition of family affairs, or the procuring of a substitute. It is
+mild toward the infirm and afflicted, making ample provision for the
+exemption of those who, from any cause, are unfit for service.</p>
+
+<p>It assures to drafted men the same pay, bounty, clothing, and equipments
+as volunteers receive, and in all respects puts them on the same
+footing. It thus removes the unjust distinction wont to be made between
+the drafted man and volunteer, looking upon each as a true soldier of
+his country, equally interested in its honor and perpetuity. And in
+order that justice may be secured to the citizen as well as to the
+Government, the entire business of the enrolment and draft is under the
+supervision of a board of three men, generally residents of the
+district.</p>
+
+<p>The prevailing spirit of the act, cropping out in almost every section,
+is the tenderness with which it handles the subject. It scrupulously
+seeks to avoid all violence, injustice, and suffering, and while it
+firmly asks the service of the people, distributes that service equally
+among all. And herein is its superiority over all previous militia acts.
+State and national officers, members of Congress, custom-house
+officials, postmasters, clerks, and the favored and fortunate generally,
+were heretofore exempt, instead of those who, by misfortune or
+otherwise, were in circumstances of dependence and want.</p>
+
+<p>But the act of March 3d, thus general in its application, thus humane in
+its provisions, is not without omissions and imperfections. But these
+arise rather from the language of its provisions, than from its general
+design. Let us briefly examine these provisions as they are given in the
+second section of the act.</p>
+
+<p>Clause second exempts 'the only son liable to military duty of a widow
+dependent upon his labor for support.'</p>
+
+<p>The Judge Advocate General has decided, that 'a woman divorced from her
+husband who is still living, is not in the sense of the law a widow&mdash;a
+widow being defined to be a woman who has lost her husband by death.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>
+Her only son, therefore, upon whom she may be dependent for her support,
+cannot be exempted. A divorced woman, whose husband is still living, may
+thus be left entirely without support, unless she have several sons
+'liable to draft,' in which case, she may elect one for exemption.</p>
+
+<p>Clause third exempts 'the only son of aged or infirm parent or parents
+dependent upon his labor for support.'</p>
+
+<p>It has been decided that a son cannot be exempted under this clause
+unless <i>both</i> the parents are 'aged or infirm.' Thus it may happen that,
+by reason of bodily or mental infirmity, a father, with a family of
+helpless children, may be totally dependent upon the exertions of the
+mother and a draftable son. But the law pitilessly takes the son without
+possibility of exemption, throwing the entire burden of support upon the
+mother.</p>
+
+<p>But no clause of this section is more liable to objection than the
+<i>fourth</i>, which reads as follows: 'Where there are two or more sons of
+aged or infirm parents subject to draft, the father, or if he be dead,
+the mother, may elect which son shall be exempt.' It will be observed
+that the provision&mdash;'dependent upon his labor for support'&mdash;is omitted
+in this clause. Now, to interpret its language by the legal method of
+construction, by the context, it would seem that such dependence were
+necessary in order to secure the exemption. For the two clauses
+immediately preceding exempt 'the only son of a widow or of aged or
+infirm parent or parents <i>dependent upon his labor for support</i>. The two
+immediately following, exempt 'the brother or father of orphan children
+under twelve years of age <i>dependent upon his labor for support</i>.' That
+is, <i>four</i> of the five clauses referring strictly to this subject, grant
+exemption to the applicant only when some one depends upon him for
+support. Hence it may be presumed, according to an admitted custom of
+legal interpretation, that in the remaining clause, standing between the
+other four, the question of dependence, though not expressly <i>stated</i>,
+is clearly <i>implied</i>.</p>
+
+<p>But an 'opinion,' published by the Provost-Marshal General's Bureau for
+the guidance of the boards of enrolment, declares that 'the right to
+this exemption does not rest upon the parents' dependence on the labor
+of their sons for their support. The law does not contemplate any such
+dependence.'</p>
+
+<p>What is the result of this decision?</p>
+
+<p>First, it places the wealthy and independent on the same footing with
+the indigent and needy, exacting from the one no more service than from
+the other.</p>
+
+<p>Second, it is more lenient toward the wealthy citizen who has several
+sons liable to draft, than toward the helpless widow who may have but
+one.</p>
+
+<p>Third, it makes a distinction against that family which may have
+contributed most to the military service.</p>
+
+<p>By the 'opinion' just quoted, the only fact to be established by parents
+electing one of several sons 'subject to draft,' is that they are 'aged
+or infirm'. When this is done, boards of enrolment must grant the
+exemption. The parents may live in affluence independent of their
+children; the sons may all be in the second class except the one
+elected; they may reside in different districts or States; they may
+belong to different households: yet, if the same parents, or some
+indigent widow adjoining them, had but <i>one</i> son 'liable to military
+duty,' or, having <i>several</i>, had sent them all into the army save <i>one</i>,
+that one remaining could not be exempt unless it were proven that they
+actually depended on him for their support. Why should a helpless widow,
+having but <i>one</i> son, be required to prove her dependence on him for
+support in order to have him exempted, when her wealthy neighbor, who
+has <i>two</i> sons, can have one of them exempted without this dependence?</p>
+
+<p>Another published 'opinion' says: 'Election of the son to be exempted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>
+must be made <i>before</i> the draft.' Now amid the chances of a draft it may
+happen that the brother or brothers of the elected son may not be drawn.
+Thus the Government loses the services of the entire family. In many
+cases no election would be necessary unless <i>all</i> the sons were drafted,
+in which case it could be made as well <i>after</i> as <i>before</i> the draft.
+Besides, if there be a considerable interval between the time of
+election and the time of draft, the ground of exemption may no longer
+exist when the Government calls for the service of the man.</p>
+
+<p>On clause sixth an 'opinion' has been issued, stating that 'the father
+of motherless children under twelve years of age, dependent upon his
+labor for their support, is exempt, notwithstanding he may have married
+a second time and his wife be living.'</p>
+
+<p>A stepmother is not believed to be a 'mother' in the sense of the act.
+Another 'opinion' declares that the father of children of an insane
+mother under twelve years of age dependent on his labor for support, is
+<i>not</i> exempt.</p>
+
+<p>A moment's reflection on these two 'opinions' is sufficient to establish
+their injustice. A stepmother may and should, in all important respects,
+take the place of the actual mother. Yet the father is exempt. Children
+of an insane mother, however, may be left entirely without maternal care
+and protection, and the father, upon whom may rest the burden of
+children and wife, is <i>not</i> exempt.</p>
+
+<p>Clause seventh reads as follows: 'Where there are a father and sons in
+the same family and household, and two of them are in the military
+service of the United States, as non-commissioned officers, musicians,
+or privates, the residue of such family or household, not exceeding two,
+shall be exempt.'</p>
+
+<p>In reading this clause, the question naturally arises: Why is this
+provision made applicable only to families in which the father is still
+living? Why should not a widow, having two uncommissioned sons in the
+army, have her remaining son exempt, as well as if her husband were
+still living? Judge Holt has decided that 'a widow having four sons,
+three of whom are already in the military service, the fourth is exempt,
+<i>provided</i> she is dependent on his labor for support.' If the father
+were living, the remaining son would be absolutely exempt.</p>
+
+<p>The evident design of this clause is to take into consideration the
+amount which each family may have contributed to the service. But this
+generous intention is practically ignored by another 'opinion,' which
+makes it necessary that two members of the same family must be <i>now</i> in
+service, in order that the exempting clause may apply. Thus, by the
+calamities of war, a father and several sons may have been killed or
+rendered helpless for life, yet if there remains a son liable to draft
+in the same family, he cannot be exempted unless his mother depends on
+him for her support. It must be admitted that the parent or parents who
+have had two sons <i>killed</i> in their country's service, have made quite
+as great a sacrifice as those who have two sons still engaged in that
+service. And if the question of support is involved, it is reasonable to
+suppose that two sons in the army would do quite as much for needy
+parents as two sons in the grave.</p>
+
+<p>These are some of the inconsistencies of the law, as it has been
+interpreted by authority. Other cases also may arise that seem to demand
+an exempting clause equally with those in the act. Of such are the
+following:</p>
+
+<p>First, the husband and father of a family depending upon his labor for
+their support.</p>
+
+<p>Second, the only support of an aged or infirm spinster or bachelor.</p>
+
+<p>It is not unusual for persons of this class to adopt the son of a
+relative or stranger. And when the infirmities of age render such
+persons unfit for toil, the youth whom they brought up, and who is now
+by his labor repaying their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> early attentions to him, should, not be
+taken away.</p>
+
+<p>Third, the only support of helpless children, having neither parents nor
+grown brothers.</p>
+
+<p>Orphans are often thrown upon the charity of a relative, and it seems
+right that their support should not be taken from them. In view of the
+many difficulties presented by the subject of exemptions, the many
+diverse claims that arise, and the impossibility of making a special
+provision for each, would it not be better to adopt a few general
+principles on the subject, and submit all claims to the judgment of the
+boards of enrolment? Thus, instead of clauses second to sixth, inclusive
+of the second section, there might be a single proviso that&mdash;No person
+who is dependent by reason of age, bodily, or mental infirmity, shall,
+by the operations of this act, be deprived of his or her necessary and
+accustomed support. This would include all possible cases, and would
+secure to each the necessary maintenance, as designed by the law. It
+would do away with the necessity of an unlimited issue of circulars of
+explanation from the Department at Washington, throwing each case upon
+the judgment of the board, who are to be presumed able to decide
+intelligently on proper evidence being given before them. It would avoid
+the unjust and injurious distinctions noticed under clause fourth, and
+in the end would secure more men to the Government with less liability
+of wrong to the citizen. Clause seventh also could easily be so modified
+as to avoid the objections noticed above.</p>
+
+<p>Another evident objection to the act of March 3d, is the limited power
+given to boards of enrolment as such. All clerks, deputy marshals, and
+special officers, are appointed by the Provost-Marshal alone. Yet a
+large&mdash;perhaps the <i>chief</i> part of their duty is directly connected with
+the enrolment and draft. The judgment of the remaining members of the
+board would certainly be of some value in making these appointments, as
+they are always residents of the district, and hence acquainted with the
+peculiar wants of the service and the character of the applicants. The
+duties of the commissioner should also be more definitely stated.
+Special duties are assigned to the marshal and surgeon, but no further
+definition of the commissioner's labor is given than that he is a member
+of the board. Thus there is liability to a conflict of authority and a
+shirking of responsibility, which could easily be avoided by more
+explicit divisions of duty. The board system is undoubtedly a good one.
+It gives <i>the people</i> a larger representation in the business of
+conducting a draft, tends to secure justice to all, and thus relieves
+the popular prejudice and feeling of opposition to the law itself.</p>
+
+<p>But why should not every board of enrolment throughout the country also
+be a board of enlistment? The time is fast approaching when the bulk of
+our present army will return home. It is important that as many of these
+men be re&euml;nlisted as can be, with any new troops that may offer
+themselves. The Government should avail itself of every opportunity for
+making voluntary enlistments. And by having a recruiting office within
+every district, convenient to every man's residence, a surgeon always at
+hand to examine applicants, offering the authorized Government bounties,
+much could still be done in this way toward keeping an army in the
+field, without any additional expense or without in the least
+interfering with the draft.</p>
+
+<p>The act of March 3d is a law for the present, not for the future. It is
+an act for the emergency, not for coming time.</p>
+
+<p>During the long years of peace and prosperity that we have enjoyed, the
+great truth that every able-bodied man owes military service to his
+country as sacredly as he owes protection to his family, has slumbered
+in the minds of the people. For half a century there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> was scarcely
+anything to remind us of it, and we were fast verging into that hopeless
+national condition, when</p>
+
+<p class='center'>
+'Wealth accumulates and men decay.'
+</p>
+
+<p>This act brings duty home to the conscience of the nation. It is an
+impressive enforcement of a great political principle. But if our
+quickened sense of obligation fail to make us <i>act</i>, if we refuse to
+receive the lessons of wisdom which the developments of the hour force
+upon us, if we fail to improve our military organization and
+instruction, and render our able-bodied men effective for military
+service at a moment's call&mdash;then this act will have done us little
+permanent good. Our men of education and high social position, instead
+of aiding to make the militia system respectable by the personal
+performance of military duty and by using their influence to give tone
+and character to the service, have evaded its requirements on
+themselves, and have aided in sinking it into disrepute and contempt.
+And here is where our militia laws are imperfect. They have done but
+little toward cherishing the military spirit, developing the military
+virtues, or securing an effective military force ready at any time to
+take the field.</p>
+
+<p>In the future of our country we want no large standing army. It is
+contrary to the genius of our institutions and to national precedent. We
+must throw the duty of national support and defence directly on the
+people&mdash;to them commit our country's honor. The Swiss motto&mdash;'No regular
+army, but every citizen a soldier'&mdash;must be the foundation of our
+military system. The course of the present war has fully demonstrated
+the patriotism and loyalty of the people. The Government can rely upon
+its citizens in any emergency. What we want is discipline,
+organization, instruction. The act of March 3d does not secure these
+essential requisites. It has enrolled the people, but has not made them
+soldiers. We will not here attempt to describe how this can be secured.
+But we may take it for granted that there must be greater facilities for
+the military education of the young and the training of officers, a
+proper division of the country into military districts, and stated times
+for the drill and review of the citizen soldiery. Thus we shall be able
+to maintain our national existence against invasion from without and
+rebellion from within, and, being prepared for war, will be so much the
+more likely to live in peace.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="EDITORS_TABLE" id="EDITORS_TABLE"></a>EDITOR'S TABLE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>With the present number, <span class="smcap">The Continental</span> enters upon a new
+volume. No efforts will be spared by its editors to increase its value
+to its many patrons. The high character of its political articles,
+always emanating from distinguished men and from reliable sources; its
+loyal tone and catholic spirit; the great ability with which the
+subjects of the deepest interest to the Government and community are
+discussed in its pages&mdash;entitle it to a high, if not the highest place
+among the journals of the country.</p>
+
+<p>It is intended to give utterance to the wants, wishes, tastes, views,
+hopes, culture of every part of our Union. Having no band of sectional
+collaborators, with local views and prejudices, narrowed horizons and
+similar cultivation, it is confined to no clique of thinkers however
+vigorous, no set of men however cultured, but receives thought and light
+from every part of our vast country, without favor or prejudice. It is
+the <i>Continental</i>, and thus represents and addresses itself to the mind
+of the continent.</p>
+
+<p>The contributions flowing in, in a continuous stream from every quarter,
+are subjected to but one great test&mdash;the test of real and substantial
+merit. Thoroughly Christian in the noblest sense of that noble word, it
+is never sectarian. Accepting Christianity as a <i>certain</i> fact, it
+rejects no scientific inquiry into its bases, convinced that all true
+and thorough investigation will but lead men back to faith in a divine
+Redeemer. Shallow thought and nascent inquiry may be sceptical, but the
+deep mind is reverential and faithful. The problems of doubt torture the
+soul, and call for solution. Infinite and finite stand in strange
+relations in the mind of man; with his finite powers he would grasp the
+infinite of God. He fails to find the equation of his terms, and,
+baffled in his search, in the insanity of intellectual pride, denies his
+Maker. He puts the infinite mysteries of revelation into the narrow
+crucible of the finite, the residuum is&mdash;nothing; he calls it immutable
+laws, as if laws could exist without a lawgiver, and bows before a
+pitiless phantom, where he should love and worship the great <span class="smcap">I
+Am</span>!</p>
+
+<p>Examine fearlessly into nature, O earnest thinker, for the created is
+but the veil of the Creator. Revelation and nature are from the same
+God, and both demand our serious attention. Revelation is indeed the
+Word of Nature; the sole key to its many wards of mystery. Truth never
+contradicts itself. Let the savant, whether in material nature or
+metaphysical realms, examine, classify, and arrange his facts&mdash;they,
+when fairly computed, thoroughly investigated, can lead but to one
+conclusion.</p>
+
+<p>Nor will the literary department of this magazine be permitted to
+languish. Tales, poems, and articles on art and artists, are solicited
+from all who feel they have something to say, to which the human heart
+will gladly listen. The talent of the East, West, North, and South shall
+flow through our pages. Genius shall be welcomed and acknowledged,
+though it may not as yet have registered its name on the radiant walls
+of the Temple of Fame. It is the design of <span class="smcap">The Continental</span> to
+represent humanity in its different phases; to manifest to its readers
+the thoughts of their fellow beings; to hold up the mirror of our mental
+being to the complex human soul. Varied modes of thought and views of
+life will be represented in our pages, for as men, nothing that concerns
+humanity can be alien to us. We thus hope to be enabled to offer our
+readers a wide range of subjects, treated from varied standpoints,
+handled by writers widely scattered in space and severed in social
+position. May the divergent rays be blended in a bow of beauty, of peace
+and promise to the ark of truth! No personal bitterness shall find place
+among us, no immoral lessons sully our record. There may be often want
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> pruning, but even the undue luxuriance shall tell of the rich soil
+of genius, ever germing and budding into prolific growth.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime let our patrons continue to trust us, and have patience with
+our shortcomings. All that is human is liable to error, and the very
+width and breadth of our base increases the difficulty of the temple we
+would rear.</p>
+
+<p>Lend us your sympathies and moral aid, courteous reader, for many and
+complicated are the difficulties with which an editor has to contend.
+For example: 'Your review is quite too serious for success,' says the
+first; 'its subjects are too heavy and grave; our people read for
+amusement; you should give us more stories and light reading.'</p>
+
+<p>'Your review is too light,' says the second; 'the times are pregnant
+with great events, humanity is on its onward march, and a magazine such
+as yours ought to be, should have no space to throw away upon
+sentimental tales and modern poetry. Your articles should lead our
+statesmen on to the deeper appreciation of political truths, expose
+vital fallacies, and not strive to amuse silly women and effeminate
+men.'</p>
+
+<p>'You do not deal sufficiently with metaphysics,' says a third; 'you
+should reproduce in popular and intelligible form the vast thoughts of
+Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Schelling, Oken, Ronski, and Trentowski.'</p>
+
+<p>'Why do you give us so much metaphysics?' cries the fourth; 'modern
+philosophy is essentially infidel; you should not introduce its
+poisonous elements among our people.'</p>
+
+<p>'Such a review as you conduct,' remarks a fifth, 'should be the vehicle
+of the thinkers and progressives; they alone are the men to benefit and
+attract the attention of the community.'</p>
+
+<p>'Take great care to have nothing to do with the men calling themselves
+progressive thinkers,' remarks a sixth; 'they are full of vital errors,
+spiritualists, socialists, disorganizers. They have in reality nothing
+new to offer; they are the old-clothes men of thought, harlequins
+juggling in old Hindoo raiment, striding along in old German May-fair
+rags, long since discarded&mdash;motley's their only wear&mdash;stalking
+Cagliostros and Kings of Humbug.'</p>
+
+<p>'You are growing old fogy in your views,' says the seventh; 'we can bear
+sermons enough in church of Sundays; we do not buy magazines to read
+them there.'</p>
+
+<p>'Your journal is fast becoming an Abolition organ,' says the eighth.</p>
+
+<p>'Do you mean to oppose the Administration and distress the Government?'
+says the ninth.</p>
+
+<p>'You give us no history,' sighs the tenth.</p>
+
+<p>'What do you mean by your long historical disquisitions?' vociferates
+the eleventh. 'Nobody cares for the past now. Our hands are full of the
+present. We are ourselves living the most important history which this
+globe has yet seen.'</p>
+
+<p>Courteous reader, so it goes on forever, through all the unceasing
+changes of thought, heart, mind, soul, taste, which characterize the
+great, acting, struggling, thinking, conservative, progressive,
+believing, doubting, Young American people.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile we will earnestly strive to hold up the glass of the
+constantly shifting times before you, that you may be enabled to see the
+flitting shadows of the hour as they pass across it, grave or gay,
+portentous or hopeful, draped in solid political vesture, the toga of
+the statesman, or robed in the blue gossamer of metaphysics, in the
+drapery of sorrow or light hues of joy, in the tried armor of the
+Divine, or the dubious motley of the progressive, in the soft, floating,
+lustrous, a&euml;rial texture of the woman, or the monotonous Shanghai of the
+man&mdash;while we will forever strive to point you to the Cross of Peace,
+the Heavenly City, and the starry diadem of Eternal Truth. You may read
+in our pages of 'immutable laws,' for such is the term now in vogue, but
+you will remember that these words are but a veil used by the scientist
+to hide the Eternal and Unchangeable Will, the Personal God, the Hearer
+of Prayer, the Father of Creation. The kaleidoscope of nature, however
+rudely shaken, through all its multiplicity of fragments, forever falls
+back into the holy figure of God:</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Mirrors God maketh all atoms in space,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.3em;">And fronteth each one with His perfect Face.'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>How long, lovely, and glowing has our autumn been, with its dreamy days
+and soft shadowy mists. In its surpassing beauty it is peculiar to our
+own loved land, and thus doubly dear to the hearts of Americans. Our
+mountains borrowed the rainbow, dressing themselves in its changing
+hues, holding up the great forests, like clustered bouquets, in their
+giant palms, as if offering their dying<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> children to God in the very
+hour of their mature beauty. Crimsons and purples, oranges, golds,
+yellows, browns, greens, and scarlet dye the trees; gathered sheaves and
+golden pumpkins, marguerites, feathery golden rods, and bright blue
+gorse are on every field. Have we not, in very truth, a country for
+which a patriot should gladly die, and the devout heart never cease to
+quiver in prayer that God may vouchsafe to bless?</p>
+
+<p>One of our patriot poets has sent us the stirring hymn of the
+Cumberland. Let him chant it here, while we grave in our hearts the
+grateful memory of the brave crew who perished with her, martyrs in a
+holy cause:</p>
+
+<h4>THE CUMBERLAND.</h4>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fast poured the traitors' shot and shell,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where at their posts our gunners fell:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Our starboard portholes make reply&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Each takes his comrade's place to die;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">All time shall yield no battle field</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Grand as thy deck, our Cumberland!</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Oh, crashing shock! our beams divide,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And death flows inward with the tide.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">O'er gory decks,'mid sulphur smoke,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The climbing waters madly broke;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Our banner spread, still waved o'er head,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Above the sinking Cumberland.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The wounded cheer,&mdash;the dying wave,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">While sinking to their watery grave,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With straining sight and grateful prayer,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Exultant that the Flag is there;&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nor thought of life to glory's strife,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">But of their ship, the Cumberland.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The vessel sinks;&mdash;her latest breath</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hurls through the cannons' mouth of death</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Defiance at the traitor foes!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">O'er guns the throttling waters close&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The hungry wave devours the brave&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The gallant crew of Cumberland!</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No sailor yields; they gladly die;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Above them still the colors fly!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">High o'er the black and surging flood,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That reels as drunk with patriots' blood,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Those glorious bars and Freedom's stars</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Float o'er the sunken Cumberland!</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Deeds like these will live forever&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Loyal hearts forget them never!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hark! echoes from the brave and free,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Greet us from far Thermopyl&aelig;:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">All time shall ring while bards shall sing</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The Martyrs of the Cumberland!</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In Glory's sky, 'mid heroes bright,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Immortal galaxy of light,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Through future ages shall they be,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The <i>Color Bearers</i> of the Free!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The sleeping brave, in ocean's wave,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Who manned the Frigate Cumberland.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Our monthly will enter many a home during the coming holidays&mdash;the eight
+days consecrated to the memory of the most sublime record in the history
+of mankind, the union of the Divine with the human, the introduction of
+a human heart into the impenetrable but truly philosophical mystery of
+the Trinity. Do we ever sufficiently realize the duties which this
+marvellous union has enjoined upon us, the privileges with which it has
+endowed us?</p>
+
+<p>We shall enter many a home&mdash;some joyous with the mirth of children, the
+hopefulness of youth, the serene happiness of useful and contented men
+and women;&mdash;some shadowed by recent sorrow, where perhaps patriots, as
+in the olden time, learn to endure for the sake of a beloved
+country;&mdash;or others, perchance, where worldliness, discord, and egotism
+have severed hearts that should be united. God grant the number of the
+latter may be few! Happy should we be, could we know that our arrival
+would bring one more smile to the lips of the gay, a single ray of
+support or consolation to the souls of the sorrowing&mdash;could we cause the
+world-worn to dream of better and brighter things than mere matter can
+ever afford, give the thinker a pregnant thought, soothe earth's weary
+art-children with the hope of wider comprehension and sympathy, lead the
+rich to open upward paths to their poorer brethren, or the poor nobly to
+bear or to better their humble condition&mdash;in a word, could we offer but
+single drops of that wine of immortal life for which every human soul is
+thirsting.</p>
+
+<p>Frost and cold now are upon us; Christmas passing with its typal
+evergreens and mystic chants; the old year dying fast with its weird
+secrets buried until the Day of Doom; the New Year close upon us, with
+its demands and duties. May the Heavenly Father bless its fleeting
+hours, and enable us to sow them closely with the precious seeds of good
+deeds,&mdash;germs to blossom on the Eternal Shore!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="AMERICAN_THANKSGIVING_DAY_IN_LONDON" id="AMERICAN_THANKSGIVING_DAY_IN_LONDON"></a>AMERICAN THANKSGIVING DAY IN LONDON.</h2>
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">November 25, 1863.</span></h4>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[The following report of the proceedings at the Thanksgiving Dinner
+in London arrived too late to be incorporated in the body of
+<span class="smcap">The Continental</span>; in consequence, however, of its immediate
+interest to our readers, we have decided upon giving it to them,
+even if it must appear as a supplement. It is surely a very
+pleasant thing to know that our patriots abroad consecrated the
+festival by grateful thanks to the Giver of all good; and that
+public and loyal utterances were made of the great national truths
+which, in our present crisis, it is of such vital importance to
+make known to the men and governments of other countries.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Ed.
+Continental.</span>] </p></div>
+
+<p>In pursuance of the proclamation of the President of the United States,
+addressed to all citizens, at home and abroad, the loyal Americans now
+in England, to the number of several hundred, assembled at St. James
+Hall to dinner. The Hon. Robert J. Walker presided, assisted by Hon.
+Freeman H. Morse (our Consul here), and Girard Ralston, Esq. On the
+right of Mr. Walker sat the American Minister, Mr. Adams, and on the
+left, George Thompson, Esq., late M. P. from London. After the reading
+of the proclamation, the prayer, and the hymn, Mr. Walker addressed the
+company as follows:<br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Ladies and Gentlemen</span>: By the request of my countrymen, I shall
+preface the toasts prepared for the occasion, by a few introductory
+remarks. This day has been set apart by the President of the United
+States for thanksgiving to Almighty God for all the blessings which he
+has vouchsafed to us as a people. Among these are abundant crops, great
+prosperity in all our industrial pursuits, and a vast addition, even
+during the war, to our material wealth. Our finances have been conducted
+with great ability and success by the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr.
+Chase, who has also succeeded in giving us, for the first time in our
+history, a uniform national currency, which, as a bond of union, and as
+an addition to our wealth and resources, is nearly equal to all the
+expenses of the great contest. During the present year, nearly
+400,000,000 of dollars of the six per cent. stock of the United States
+has been taken at home, at or above par; whilst, within the last few
+months, European capitalists, unsolicited by us, are making large
+investments in the securities of the Union. But, above all, we have to
+thank God for those great victories in the field, which are bringing
+this great contest to a successful conclusion.</p>
+
+<p>This rebellion is indeed the most stupendous in history. It absorbs the
+attention and affects the political institutions and material interests
+of the world. The armies engaged exceed those of Napoleon. Death never
+had such a carnival, and each week consumes millions of treasure. Great
+is the sacrifice, but the cause is peerless and sublime. (<i>Cheers.</i>) If
+God has placed us in the van of the great contest for the rights and
+liberties of man, if he has assigned us the post of danger and of
+suffering, it is that of unfading glory and imperishable renown. (<i>Loud
+cheers.</i>) The question with us, which is so misunderstood here, is that
+of national unity (<i>hear, hear</i>), which is the vital element of our
+existence; and any settlement which does not secure this with the entire
+integrity of the Union, and freedom throughout all its borders, will be
+treason to our country and to mankind. (<i>Loud cheers.</i>) To acknowledge
+the absurd and anarchical doctrine of secession, as is demanded of us
+here, to abdicate the power of self-preservation, and permit the Union
+to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> be dissolved, is ruin, disgrace, and suicide. There is but one
+alternative&mdash;we must and will fight it out to the last. (<i>Loud and
+prolonged applause.</i>) If need be, all who can bear arms must take the
+field, and leave to those who cannot the pursuits of industry. (<i>Hear,
+hear.</i>) If we count not the cost of this contest in men and money, it is
+because all loyal Americans believe that the value of our Union cannot
+be estimated. (<i>Hear, hear.</i>) If martyrs from every State, from England,
+and from nearly every nation of Christendom have fallen in our defence,
+never, in humble faith we trust, has any blood, since that of Calvary,
+been shed in a cause so holy. (<i>Cheers.</i>) Most of the rebellions which
+have disturbed or overthrown governments, ave been caused by oppression
+on their part. Such rebellions have been the rising of the oppressed
+against the oppressor; but this rebellion was caused exclusively by
+slavery. (<i>Cheers.</i>) To extend, and perpetuate, and nationalize slavery,
+to demand of the American Congress the direct and explicit recognition
+of the right of property in man, to cover the whole vast territory of
+the Union with chattel servitude, to keep open the interstate
+slave-trade between the Border and the Cotton States, to give the
+institution absolute mastery over the Government and people, to carry it
+into every new State by fraud, and violence, and forgery, as was
+exemplified in Kansas, and then, as a final result, to force it upon
+every Free State of the Union&mdash;these were the objects conceived by those
+who are engaged in this foul conspiracy to dissolve the American Union.
+(<i>Cheers.</i>) 'I have said that the American Union never will be
+dissolved.' (<i>Loud and continued cheers.</i>) This was the advice of the
+peerless Washington, the Father of his country, in his Farewell Address,
+and this was the course of the immortal Andrew Jackson, when he
+suppressed the Carolina rebellion of 1833, by coercion and a force bill.
+The American Union is the great citadel of self-government, intrusted to
+our charge by Providence; and we must defend it against all assailants,
+until our last man has fallen. This is the cause of labor and humanity,
+and the toiling and disfranchised masses of the world feel that their
+fate is involved in the result of our struggle. In England, especially,
+this feeling on the part of the working classes has been manifested in
+more than one hundred meetings, and the resolutions in favor of the
+Union, passed by the operatives of Manchester, who were the great
+sufferers from this contest, indicate a sublimity of feeling, and a
+devotion to principle on the part of these noble martyrs, which exalt
+and dignify the character of man. (<i>Cheers.</i>) The working classes of
+England, of France, and of Germany, who are all with us, in case of
+foreign intervention, must have constituted the armies that would have
+been taken to our shores to make war upon the American people. The men
+who are for us would have been transported across the ocean to fight
+against us in the cause of slavery, and for the degradation of labor.
+Can there be any doubt as to the result of such a conflict? It is now
+quite certain that this rebellion will receive no foreign aid; but if
+any foreign despot or usurper had thus intervened and sent his myrmidons
+to our shores, the result, though it might have been prolonged, would
+have been equally certain&mdash;he would have lost his crown, and destroyed
+his dynasty. (<i>Cheers.</i>) Our whole country would have been a camp, we
+should have risen to the magnitude of the contest, and all who could
+bear arms would have taken the field. We know, as Americans, that our
+national unity is the essential condition of our existence. Without it
+we should be disintegrated into sections, States, counties, and cities,
+and ruin and anarchy would reign supreme. (<i>Cheers.</i>) No, the Lakes can
+never be separated from the Gulf, the Atlantic from the Pacific, the
+source from the mouth of the Mississippi, nor the sons<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> of New England
+from the home of their kindred in the great West. (<i>Cheers.</i>) But, above
+all, the entire valley of the Mississippi was ordained by God as the
+residence of a united people. Over every acre of its soil, and over
+every drop of its waters, must forever float the banner of the Union
+(<i>loud applause</i>), and all its waters, as they roll on together to the
+Gulf, proclaim that what 'God has joined together' man shall never 'put
+asunder.' (<i>Loud cheers.</i>) The nation's life blood courses this vast
+arterial system; and to sever it is death. No line of latitude or
+longitude shall ever separate the mouth from the centre or sources of
+the Mississippi. All the waters of the imperial river, from their
+mountain springs and crystal fountains, shall ever flow in commingling
+currents to the Gulf, uniting ever more, in one undivided whole, the
+blessed homes of a free and happy people. This great valley is one vast
+plain, without an intervening mountain, and can never be separated by
+any line but that of blood, to be followed, surely, by military
+despotism. No! separation, by any line, is death; disunion is suicide.
+Slavery having made war upon the Union, the result is not doubtful.
+Slavery will die. (<i>Cheers.</i>) Slavery having selected a traitor's
+position, will meet a traitor's doom. (<i>Loud cheers.</i>) The Union will
+still live. It is written by the finger of God on the scroll of destiny,
+that neither principalities nor powers shall effect its overthrow, nor
+shall 'the gates of hell prevail against it.' But what as to the
+results? It is said that we have accomplished nothing, and this is
+re-echoed every morning by the proslavery press of England. We have done
+nothing! Why, we have conquered and now occupy two thirds of the entire
+territory of the South, an area far larger (and overcoming a greater
+resisting force) than that traversed by the armies of C&aelig;sar or
+Alexander. The whole of the Mississippi River, from its source to its
+mouth, with, all its tributaries, is exclusively ours. (<i>Cheers.</i>) So is
+the great Chesapeake Bay. Slavery is not only abolished in the Federal
+District, containing the capital of the Union, but in all our vast
+territorial domain, comprising more than eight hundred millions of
+acres, and nearly half the size of all Europe. The four slaveholding
+States of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, are all devotedly
+loyal, and thoroughly sustaining the Union. And how as to Virginia? Why,
+all the counties of Virginia east of the Chesapeake are ours. All that
+vast portion of Eastern Virginia north of the Rappahannock is ours also;
+but still more, all that great territory of Virginia, from the mountains
+to the Ohio, is ours also, and, not only ours, but, by the overwhelming
+voice of her people, has formed a State government. By their own votes
+they have abolished slavery, and have been admitted as one of the Free
+States of the American Union. (<i>Loud cheers.</i>) And where is the great
+giant State of the West&mdash;Missouri? She is not only ours, but, by an
+overwhelming majority of the popular vote, carried into effect by her
+constitutional convention, has abolished slavery, and enrolled herself
+as one of the Free States of the American Union. (<i>Cheers.</i>) And now as
+to Maryland. The last steamers bring us the news of the recent elections
+in Maryland, which have not only sustained the Union, but have sent an
+overwhelming majority to Congress and to State Legislature in favor of
+immediate emancipation. (<i>Applause.</i>) Tennessee also is ours. From the
+Mississippi to the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, from Knoxville, in
+the mountains of the east, to Nashville, the capital, in the centre, and
+Memphis, the commercial metropolis in the west, Tennessee is wholly
+ours. So is Arkansas; so is Louisiana, including the great city of New
+Orleans. So is North Alabama; so is two thirds of the State of
+Mississippi; and now the Union<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> troops hold Chattanooga, the great
+impregnable fortress of Northwestern Georgia. From Chattanooga, which
+may be regarded as the great geographical central pivotal point of the
+rebellion, the armies of the republic will march down through the heart
+of Georgia, and join our troops upon the seaboard of that State, and
+thus terminate the rebellion. (<i>Loud cheers.</i>) Into Georgia and the
+Carolinas nearly half a million slaves have been driven by their
+masters, in advance of the Union army. From Virginia, from Kentucky,
+Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and North
+Alabama, nearly all these slaves have been driven and huddled together
+in the two Carolinas and Georgia, because, if they had been left where
+they were, they would have joined the Northern armies. They preferred to
+be freemen rather than slaves; they preferred to be men and women,
+rather than chattels; they preferred freedom to chains and bondage; and
+just so soon as that Union army advances into the Carolinas and Georgia
+will the slaves rush to the standard of freedom, and fight as they have
+fought, with undaunted courage, for liberty and Union. (<i>Loud
+applause.</i>) But how is it with the South? Why, months ago they had
+called out by a levy <i>en masse</i>, all who were capable of bearing arms.
+They have exhausted their entire military resources; they have raised
+their last army. And how as to money? Why, they are in a state of
+absolute bankruptcy. Their money, all that they have, that which they
+call money, according to their own estimation as fixed and taken by
+themselves, one dollar of gold purchases twelve dollars of confederate
+paper. The price of flour is now one hundred dollars a barrel, and other
+articles in like proportion. No revenue is collected, or can be. The
+army and the Government are supported exclusively by force, by seizing
+the crops of the farms and planters, and using them for the benefit of
+the so-called confederate government. Starvation is staring them in the
+face. The collapse is imminent; and, so far as we may venture to predict
+any future event, nothing can be more certain than that before the end
+of the coming year, the rebellion will be brought entirely to a close.
+(<i>Hear, hear.</i>) We must recollect, also, that there is not a single
+State of the South in which a large majority of the population
+(including the blacks) is not now, and always has been, devoted to the
+Union. Why, in the State of South Carolina alone, the blacks, who are
+devoted to the Union, exceed the whites more than one hundred thousand
+in number. The recent elections have all gone for the Union by
+overwhelming majorities, and volunteering for the army progresses with
+renewed vigor. For all these blessings the President of the United
+States has asked us to render thanks to Almighty God. Our cause is that
+of humanity, of civilization, of Christianity. We write upon our
+banners, from the inspired words of Holy Writ: 'God has made of one
+blood all the nations of the earth.' We acknowledge all as brothers, and
+invite them to partake with us alike in the grand inheritance of
+freedom; and we repeat the divine sentiment from the Sermon on the
+Mount: 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' (<i>Loud
+cheers.</i>)</p>
+
+<p>Nor let it be supposed that we, as Americans, are entirely selfish in
+this matter. We believe that this Union is the most sacred trust ever
+confided by God to man. We believe that this American Union is the best,
+the brightest, the last experiment of self-government; and as it shall
+be maintained and perpetuated, or broken and dissolved, the light of
+liberty shall beam upon the hopes of mankind, or be forever extinguished
+amid the scoffs of exulting tyrants, and the groans of a world in
+bondage. (<i>Loud applause.</i>) Thanking you, ladies and gentlemen, for the
+kind indulgence with which you have been pleased to receive these
+remarks, I will now proceed to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> toasts which have been prepared for
+the occasion. Ladies and gentlemen, the first toast will be, 'The
+President of the United States,' under whose proclamation we are this
+day convened. Before asking you to respond to that toast, I would say
+that we are honored by the presence this evening of his excellency, the
+American Minister, Mr. Adams. (<i>Prolonged applause.</i>) This is a name for
+a century, and during three generations most honorably and conspicuously
+connected with the cause of our country and of human liberty. The
+grandfather and father of our American minister were each elevated to
+the presidency of the United States by the votes of the American people.
+The first, the illustrious John Adams, moved in 1776 the Declaration of
+American Independence, and supported that motion by an immortal and most
+eloquent address. He was the successor of the peerless Washington as the
+President of the United States. The second, John Quincy Adams, eminent
+for courage, for integrity, for opposition to slavery, for devotion to
+the cause of liberty, for learning, science, eloquence, diplomacy, and
+statesmanship, was the successor of President Monroe. His son, our
+honored guest, inheriting all these great qualities and noble principles
+of an illustrious ancestry, is requested to respond to the first toast,
+'The President of the United States.' (<i>The toast was drunk amid the
+most enthusiastic applause.</i>)<br /><br /></p>
+
+
+<blockquote><p><b>Order of Exercises.</b></p>
+
+<p><i>I.&mdash;Reading of Thanksgiving Proclamation, R. Hunting.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>II.&mdash;Prayer.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>III.&mdash;Hymn</i> (prepared for the occasion).</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Tune</span>&mdash;<i>Auld Lang Syne</i>.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">We meet, the Sons of Freedom's Sires</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Unchanged, where'er we roam,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">While gather round their household fires</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The happy bands of home;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And while across the far blue wave</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Their prayers go up to God,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">We pledge the faith our fathers gave,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The land by Freemen trod!</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The heroes of our Native Land</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Their sacred trust still hold,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The freedom from a mighty band</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wrenched by the men of old.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That lesson to the broad earth given</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">We pledge beyond the sea,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The land from dark oppression riven,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">A blessing on the free!</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p><i>IV.&mdash;Dinner.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>V.&mdash;Prayer.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>VI.&mdash;Address of Hon. Robert J. Walker, introducing Toasts.</i></p>
+
+<p>1. The President of the United States.</p>
+
+<p>Responded to by His Excellency Mr. Adams.</p>
+
+<p>2. Her Majesty the Queen.</p>
+
+<p>The Company.</p>
+
+<p>3. The Day. Devoted to thanking God for our victories in the cause
+of <span class="smcap">Liberty</span> and <span class="smcap">Union</span>.</p>
+
+<p>Responded to by George Thompson, Esq.</p>
+
+<p>4. The Union. From the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Lakes to
+the Gulf, from the Source to the Mouth of the Mississippi, forever
+one and inseparable.</p>
+
+<p>Responded to by Z. K. Pangborn.</p>
+
+<p>5. The Emancipation Proclamation&mdash;Slavery's Epitaph, written by the
+finger of God on the heart of the American President.</p>
+
+<p>Responded to by Hon. Freeman H. Morse.</p>
+
+<p>6. The Army and Navy&mdash;Immortal champions of freedom, who bleed that
+our country may live.</p>
+
+<p>Responded to by Capt. Mayne Reid.</p>
+
+<p>7. <span class="smcap">Washington.</span> The Man without a Peer. We follow his
+farewell advice&mdash;<span class="smcap">Never to Surrender the Union</span>.</p>
+
+<p>Responded to by Capt. J. C. Hoadley.</p>
+
+<p>8. The Press. The Tyrant's foe, the People's friend&mdash;where it is
+free, despotism must perish.</p>
+
+<p>Responded to by Mr. Snow.</p>
+
+<p>9. The Ladies. Our Sweethearts, Wives, Mothers, Daughters, Sisters,
+Friends. Their holy influence will break all chains but those which
+bind our hearts to them.</p>
+
+<p>The Company. </p>
+
+<p><i>Benediction.</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p>
+</blockquote>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="LITERARY_NOTICES" id="LITERARY_NOTICES"></a>LITERARY NOTICES.</h2>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Peculiar</span>. A Tale of the Great Transition. By <span class="smcap">Epes
+Sargent</span>. New York: Carleton, publisher, 413 Broadway. </p></div>
+
+<p>Mr. Sargent has given us a tale of the times&mdash;his scenes are laid in our
+midst. He grapples with the questions of the hour, handling even
+Spiritualism as he passes on. Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, George
+Saunders, Senator Wigfall, &amp;c., are sketched in these pages. The story
+is founded on the social revelations which Gen. Butler, Gov. Shepley,
+Gen. Ullman, the Provost-Marshal, &amp;c., authenticated in New Orleans
+after the occupation of that city by the United States forces. These
+materials have been skilfully handled by the author of 'Peculiar,' and
+the result is a novel of graphic power and sustained interest. It will
+make its own way, as it has the elements of success. We must, however,
+give a caution to our readers: 'Kunnle Delaney Hyde' and 'Carberry
+Ratcliff' are true as <i>individuals</i> of the South, but it would not be
+fair to regard them as <i>typal</i> characters. Let the magnanimous North be
+just, even to its enemies. Slavery is a great wrong, as well as a great
+mistake in political economy; men are by no means good enough to be
+trusted with irresponsible power; slaves have been treated with savage
+cruelty, and the institution is indeed demoralizing: all this, and a
+great deal more, we readily grant our writer; and yet we cannot help
+wishing he had shown us something to love, to hope for, in our enemy. He
+makes an earnest and able protest against a great wrong, and as such we
+gladly accept his book; but as a work of art, we think his tale would
+have held a higher rank had he given us some of the softer lights of the
+picture. In this we may be wrong, for a dread Nemesis stalks even
+through the plains of the Ideal. To stand up truly for the Right, we
+must comprehend the Wrong; meanwhile an important end is answered. We
+are taught, a lesson we should all learn, compassion for the negro, and
+enabled to understand some of his latent traits. For the ability and
+tenderness with which this has been done, we have reason to thank Mr.
+Sargent. The tale of Estelle is one of pathos and beauty, and
+'Peculiar,' the negro, shines in it like a black diamond of the purest
+water. The book cannot fail to interest all who trace the cause of the
+mighty transition through which we are passing to its true source, the
+heart of man.</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Poems by Jean Ingelow</span>. Boston: Roberts Brothers. </p></div>
+
+<p>Many of these poems are vague and incomplete, others evince maturity of
+thought, and are of singular beauty. We are quite charmed with the
+'Songs of Seven.' It is highly original and tender. The rhythms vary
+with the chimes of the different ages, always in tune with the joys and
+sorrows sung. The poem is full of nature and simple pathos. There is a
+dewy freshness on these leaves, as if a young soul were thus pouring its
+spring carols into song, Jean Ingelow has been highly commended by the
+English critics. In regard to her poems the <i>London Athen&aelig;um</i> says:
+'Here is the power to fill common earthly facts with heavenly fire; a
+power to gladden wisely and to sadden nobly; to shake the heart, and
+bring moist tears into the eyes through which the spirit may catch its
+loftiest light.'</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Alice of Monmouth</span>, an Idyl of the Great War, with Other
+Poems. By <span class="smcap">Edmund C. Stedman</span>. New York: Carleton,
+publisher, 413 Broadway. London: Sampson Low, Son &amp; Company. </p></div>
+
+<p>With the many stirring events passing around us, the heroic deeds
+enacted in our midst, it is fitting that the poet should begin to find
+his scenes in his own country. Mr. Stedman has so done in his 'Alice of
+Monmonth.' The story of the Poem leads us from the fruit fields and
+plains of New Jersey, from love scenes and songs, to the din of battle,
+and the sufferings of hospitals in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> Virginia. There are various changes
+rung in the rhythm, so that it never becomes monotonous; and many of the
+descriptive passages are full of beauty.</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Deep Waters</span>. A Novel. By <span class="smcap">Anna H. Drury</span>, Author of
+'Misrepresentation,' 'Friends and Fortune,' &amp;c. Boston: Published
+by T. O. H. P. Burnham, No. 143 Washington street. New York: H.
+Dexter Hamilton &amp; Co., 113 Nassau street. O. S. Felt, 36 Walker
+street. </p></div>
+
+<p>Never having before met with a work by Miss Drury, we were quite
+surprised to find 'Deep Waters' a novel of so much power. The plot is
+original, and well managed throughout, the characters well conceived and
+sustained, the morals entirely unobjectionable, the style pure, simple,
+and unaffected, and the interest uninterrupted. The tale is indeed one
+of singular beauty.</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">In War Time</span>, and other Poems. By <span class="smcap">John Greenleaf
+Whittier</span>. Ticknor &amp; Fields, Boston. D. Appleton &amp; Co., New
+York. </p></div>
+
+<p>If bold, varied, musical rhythm; high and tender thought; hatred of
+oppression; warm sympathy with suffering; correct and flowing diction;
+intense love of nature and power to depict her in all her moods, joined
+with a glowing imagination and devout soul, entitle a man to be classed
+with the great poets, then may we justly claim that glorious rank for
+John Greenleaf Whittier. All honor to him, who, while he charms our
+fancy and warms our heart, strengthens our souls, ennobles our views,
+and bears us, on the wings of his pure imagination, to the gates of
+heaven. We are ready to accord him the highest rank among our <i>living</i>
+poets. No affectations deform his lines, no conceits his thoughts, no
+puerilities his descriptions. His 'Huskers,' should be graven on every
+American heart; his 'Andrew Rykman's Prayer' on that of every Christian.
+We regard this poem as one of the noblest of the age. Humble devotion
+and heavenly grace are in its every line. We pity the being who could
+read it unmoved. We deem 'the world within his reach' is indeed</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">'Somewhat the better for his living,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And gladder for his human speech.'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>It seems useless to us to commend this volume to our readers; the name
+of its author must be all-sufficient to attract due attention. Has not
+this truly national and patriotic poet a home in every American heart?
+If not, he deserves it, and we for one offer him our grateful homage.
+Not only shall the refined and cultivated in the coming ages praise the
+noble singer, but the 'dark sad millions,' whose long 'night of wrong is
+brightening into day,' shall bless him, as,</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">'With oar strokes timing to their song,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">They weave in simple lays</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The pathos of remembered wrong,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The hope of better days,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The triumph note that Miriam sung,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The joy of uncaged birds:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Softening with Afric's mellow song</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Their broken Saxon words.'</span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Mental Hygiene.</span> By <span class="smcap">J. Ray, M. D</span>. Ticknor &amp;
+Fields, Boston. </p></div>
+
+<p>This work is not offered as a systematic treatise on Mental Hygiene. Its
+purpose is to expose the bad effects of many customs prevalent in modern
+society, and to present practical suggestions relative to the attainment
+of mental soundness and vigor. Many important facts are clearly stated,
+and sound deductions drawn from them. The law of sympathy is clearly
+traced in the propagation of tastes, aptitudes, and habits. Many curious
+and startling examples of its effects are detailed. The author traces
+the laws of mind, exhibits the consequences that flow from obeying or
+disobeying them, in a succinct and able manner. The art of preserving
+the health of the mind against incidents and influences calculated to
+deteriorate its qualities; the management of the bodily powers in regard
+to exercise, rest, food, clothing, climate; the laws of breeding, the
+government of the passions, the sympathy with current emotions and
+opinions, the discipline of the intellect&mdash;all come within the scope of
+the work. It is designed for the general reader, and will interest all
+who care for the preservation of mental or physical health.</p>
+
+<p>The subject is one of great importance in our excitable country, where
+so many minds are overtasked, so many brains too early stimulated, and
+insanity so rapidly on the increase. We heartily commend it to all
+readers interested in the subjects of which it treats.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Rumor.</span> By the Author of 'Charles Anchester,'
+'Counterparts,' etc. Boston: Published by T. O. H. P. Burnham, No.
+143 Washington street. New York: H. Dexter Hamilton &amp; Co., 113
+Nassau street; O. S. Felt, 36 Walker street. </p></div>
+
+<p>'Rumor' is a book of genius, but genius of a peculiar character. Gleams
+of intuition into the most secret recesses of the heart, analyses of
+hidden feelings, flash brilliantly upon us from every leaf, and yet a
+vague mysticism broods over all. No steady light illumes the pages;
+scenes and characters float before as if shrouded in mist, or dimmed by
+distance. The shadowy forms, held only by the heart, shimmer and float
+before us, draped in starry veils and seen through hues of opal. We are
+in Dreamland, or in the fair clime of the Ideal. 'Porphyro' we know to
+be Louis Napoleon, but who are 'Rodomant and Diamid?' Adelaida and
+deafness would point to Beethoven, but other circumstances forbid the
+identification. Nor do we think Rodomant a fair type of a musical
+genius; arrogant, overbearing, and positively ill-mannered as he
+invariably is. He may be true to German nature, as he is pictured as a
+German, but he is no study of the graceful Italian or elegant and suave
+Sclavic Artist. We think the authoress unjust and cruel in her sketch of
+that ethereal child of genius and suffering, Chopin. Did she study
+exclusively in the German schools of musical art? If Beethoven is grand
+and majestic, Chopin is sublime; if Beethoven is pathetic, Chopin is
+pathos itself; if the one is broad and comprehensive, the other is high
+and deep; the one appealing to the soul through a noble intellect, the
+other reaching it through every nerve and fibre of our basic being.
+Rubens is a great artist, but does that gainsay Raphael? Are not
+Beethoven and Chopin twin stars of undying glory in the musical
+firmament, and can we not offer <i>true</i> homage to <i>both</i>, as they blaze
+so high above us? Shall the royal purple so daze our eyes, that we
+cannot see the depths of heavenly blue?</p>
+
+<p>Meantime we advise the admirers of 'Charles Anchester' to read 'Rumor;'
+it is a book of wider knowledge and deeper intuitions.</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">General Butler in New Orleans.</span> History of the
+Administration of the Department of the Gulf, in the year 1862;
+with an account of the Capture of New Orleans, and a sketch of the
+previous career of the General, civil and military. By <span class="smcap">James
+Parton</span>, Author of the 'Life and Times of Aaron Burr,' 'Life of
+Andrew Jackson,' etc., etc. New York: Mason Brothers, 5 and 7
+Mercer street. Boston: Mason &amp; Hamlin. Philadelphia: J. B.
+Lippincott &amp; Co. London: D. Appleton &amp;. Co., 16 Little Britain,
+1864. </p></div>
+
+<p>Nothing is more difficult than, amid the whirl of passing events, to
+form just estimates of living men. Either our knowledge of the facts may
+be incomplete, or, if the external facts be known, we may be ignorant of
+the character and motives of the individual. No public man has made
+warmer friends or more bitter enemies than General Butler. History will
+probably, in the future, pronounce a just and impartial decision in the
+case. Meantime all that the public can learn regarding his political and
+military career will be eagerly examined.</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Tales of a Way-Side Inn.</span> By <span class="smcap">Henry Wadsworth
+Longfellow</span>. Boston: Ticknor &amp; Fields. For sale by D. Appleton
+&amp; Co., New York. </p></div>
+
+<p>The mere announcement of a new book by H. W. Longfellow, is sufficient
+to secure for it the attention of all who read or love poetry. Long
+before the critic can pronounce upon its merits, it will be found in the
+hands of thousands. Longfellow is perhaps the most popular among
+American poets. His rhythm is always varied and musical, his diction in
+good taste, his treatment ever adapted to the subject he has in hand. If
+he seldom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> strikes the deepest chords of being, his touch is always
+true, tender, and sympathetic. 'The Birds of Killingworth' is full of
+beauty. If the 'Tale of a Poet,' it is also a song of the sage. The
+'Children's Hour' is charming in its home love and naive grace.
+'Weariness' is simple as a child's song, but full of natural and true
+pathos. Let it pleasure our poet that in this sweet, sad chant of his,
+he has the warm sympathies of his fellow men. Let him not weary thinking
+of the task yet before the 'little feet,' but rather rejoice in the
+sunshine he has himself been able to throw o'er the path in which the
+'little feet' must walk.</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">The Thoughts of the Emperor M. Aurelius Antoninus.</span>
+Translated by <span class="smcap">George Long</span>. Boston; Ticknor &amp; Fields. For
+sale by D. Appleton &amp; Co., New York. </p></div>
+
+<p>Antoninus was born at Rome, <span class="smcap">A. D.</span> 121, embraced the Stoic
+philosophy from conviction, and, though an emperor, lived in accordance
+with its stern spirit. This little book has been the companion of many
+of our greatest men. That it still lives, and is still read by all who
+delight in bold and vigorous thought, is sufficient proof of its
+excellence. It has been rendered into English, French, Italian, and
+Spanish. It was translated by Cardinal Francis Barberini, nephew of Pope
+Urban VIII. as he said, 'in order to diffuse among the faithful the
+fertilizing and vivifying seeds he found within it.' He dedicated this
+translation to his own soul, to make it, as he says, 'redder than purple
+at the sight of the virtues of this Gentile.' The strong pages act like
+a tonic upon the spirit, and give the reader courage to endure.</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Reveries of a Bachelor</span>; or, A Book of the Heart. By
+<span class="smcap">Ik. Marvel</span>. A new edition. New York: Charles Scribner, 124
+Grand street.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dream Life</span>: A Fable of the Seasons. By <span class="smcap">Ik.
+Marvel</span>. A new edition. Charles Scribner, 124 Grand street, New
+York. </p></div>
+
+<p>The old type of these books has from constant use grown so worn and
+battered as to be unfit for further use, and it has been found necessary
+from the constant demand, to issue entirely new editions. And beautiful
+editions indeed we have before us. Print and paper alike excellent, and
+pleasant binding in vivid green and lustrous gold. It were surely
+useless to commend Ik. Marvel now to our readers, since no one ever
+attained to more rapid popularity. His sketches are always graceful and
+genial, his style of singular elegance. He wins his way to our heart and
+awakens our interest we scarcely know how, for he is marvellously
+unpretending and simple in his delineations of life. Our author says in
+his Preface to the new edition of the 'Reveries of a Bachelor:' 'The
+houses where I was accustomed to linger, show other faces at the
+windows; bright and cheery faces, it is true; but they are looking over
+at a young fellow upon the other side of the way.'</p>
+
+<p>We would whisper to him: 'Nay, not so. Humanity is ever grateful to its
+true and earnest friends, and have borne thee over in triumph to the
+fair clime of the Ideal, where undying affections await thee; and
+ever-yearning loves shall keep thee ever young. Spring flowers are
+forever blooming in our hearts as thou breathest upon them, and age is
+but a name for thy immortal youth, O friend of dreamy hours and tender
+reveries.'</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">My Farm of Edgewood</span>: A Country Book. By the Author of
+'Reveries of a Bachelor.' Eighth Edition. New York: Charles
+Scribner. </p></div>
+
+<p>A book of farm experience from Ik. Marvel cannot fail to awaken the
+interest of the community. If the author sees with the eye of the poet,
+his imagination is no ignis-fatuus fire to mislead and bewilder him when
+moving among the practical things of life. He begins with the beginning,
+the search and finding of the farm. Every page is pregnant with valuable
+hints to the farmer as well as to the gentleman and scholar. The book is
+a real picture of country life, its pains, trials, pursuits, and
+pleasures, and the most varied information is given with respect to what
+it might be made, what it should become. A single glance at the varied
+table of contents would be sufficient to convince the reader of the
+great interest of the topics so pleasantly treated in the volume before
+us. We extract a few of them: Around the House; My Bees; What to do with
+the Farm; A Sunny Frontage; Laborers; Farm Buildings; The Cattle; The
+Hill Land; The Farm Flat; Soiling; An Old Orchard; The Pears; My Garden;
+Fine Tilth makes Fine Crops; Seeding and Trenching; How a Garden should
+look; The lesser Fruits; Grapes; Plums, Apricots, and Peaches; The
+Poultry; Is it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> Profitable? Debit and Credit; Money-making Farmers; Does
+Farming Pay? Agricultural Chemistry; Isolation of Farmers; Dickering;
+The Bright Side; Place for Science; &AElig;sthetics of the Business; Walks;
+Shrubbery; Rural Decoration; Flowers; L'Envoi.</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Letters to the Joneses.</span> By <span class="smcap">Timothy Titcomb</span>,
+Author of 'Letters to Young People,' 'Gold Foil,' 'Lessons in
+Life,' etc., etc. Eighth edition. Charles Scribner, 124 Grand
+street, New York. </p></div>
+
+<p>A work evincing strong practical common sense, and acute discrimination.
+Our author is a poet, but no mysticism or sentimentalism disfigures his
+pages; he is a clear, keen observer and analyzer of human nature,
+lashing its vices, discerning its foibles, and reading its subterfuges
+and petty vanities. He says: 'The only apologies which he offers for
+appearing as a censor and a teacher, are his love of men, his honest
+wish to do them good, and his sad consciousness that his nominal
+criticisms of others are too often actual condemnations of himself.'</p>
+
+<p>He addresses himself in a series of letters to the Joneses of
+Jonesville, each Jones addressed being a typal character and such as is
+of frequent occurrence in our midst. Homely and excellent advice,
+appropriate to their faults and needs, is administered to each
+individual Jones in turn, as he falls under the salutary but sharp
+scalpel of this keen dissector. There are twenty-four letters,
+consequently twenty-four studies from life, true to reality and detailed
+as a Dutch picture. We feel our own faults and foibles bared before us
+as we read. While these pages are very interesting to the general
+reader, the divine may learn from them how best in his preaching to aim
+his shafts at personal follies, and the novelist find models for his
+living portraitures and varied pictures.</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">The Water Babies</span>: a Fairy Tale for a Land Baby. By the
+Rev. Charles Kingsley, Author of 'Two Years Ago,' 'Amyas Leigh,'
+etc. With illustrations by J. Noel Paten, B. S. A. Boston: T. O. H.
+P. Burnham. New York: O. S. Felt, 36 Walker St., 1864. </p></div>
+
+<p>A lively tale, dedicated to the author's youngest son, and calculated to
+entertain the elders who read aloud, as well as the children who listen.
+There are in it many tender touches, and numberless satiric blows
+administered in Mr. Kingsley's own peculiar way.</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Adventures of Dick Onslow Among the Red Skins.</span> A Book for
+Boys. With Illustrations. Edited by William H. G. Kingston. Boston:
+J. E. Tilton &amp; Co. 1864. </p></div>
+
+<p>Stories of the Western wilderness, and of life among the Indians, are
+sure to meet with favor in the eyes of American boys, the descendants of
+a race of pioneers.</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">My Days and Nights on the Battle Field.</span> A Book for Boys.
+By 'Carleton.' Boston: Ticknor &amp; Fields, 1864. For sale by D.
+Appleton &amp; Co., New York. </p></div>
+
+<p>This is a useful book, containing sundry items of military information,
+and many vivid descriptions of land and naval engagements during the
+present war&mdash;all interesting to young people.</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Louie's Last Term at St. Mary's.</span> By the author of
+'Rutledge,' 'The Sutherlands,' 'Frank Warrington,' etc. New York:
+Carleton, publisher, 413 Broadway, 1864. </p></div>
+
+<p>A book of school life, intended not less for teachers than for the
+youthful maidens whose various typal forms act, love, hate, and suffer
+through its very natural and interesting pages.</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Milton's Paradise Lost.</span> In Twelve Books. New York: Frank
+H. Dodd, 506 Broadway, 1863. </p></div>
+
+<p>The text is a literal reprint from Keightley's Library edition. Print,
+binding, and size all render the tasteful little book a pleasant form in
+which to possess the greatest epic in the English tongue.</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">The Game of Draughts.</span> By <span class="smcap">Henry Spayth</span>, Author of
+'American Draught Player.' Buffalo: Printed for the Author. For
+sale by Sinclair Tousey, New York. </p></div>
+
+<p>This book has been pronounced by the highest authorities on checkers,
+both in the Old and New World, the best work of the kind ever written.
+It is said to contain 'lucid instructions for beginners, laws of the
+game, diagrams, the score of 364 games, together with a series of novel,
+instructive, and ingenious critical positions.' FOOTNOTES:</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Since the above was written, the speech of Earl Russell, in
+Scotland, indicates a disposition on the part of the British Government
+to do us justice, at least in the future; and it is to be hoped that a
+satisfactory adjustment of all differences on the whole matter may be
+peacefully made.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> In the 'Letters to Professor Morse,' in the November number
+of <span class="smcap">The Continental</span>, a sentence on page 521, relating to the
+Confiscation Law, was left incomplete. The whole sentence should have
+been as follows: 'As to the <i>Confiscation</i> Acts&mdash;it is enough to say
+that the Constitution gives Congress power 'to declare the punishment of
+treason';&mdash;<i>or if the constitutionality of the Confiscation law cannot
+be concluded from the terms of that grant&mdash;about which there may be a
+doubt&mdash;it is undoubtedly contained in the war powers vested in
+Congress.</i>'
+</p><p>
+I have here put in italics the clause omitted in that article, and hope
+my readers will insert it in the proper place. The sentence, as thus
+completed, contains all I cared then to say on the point&mdash;my object
+being mainly to vindicate the justice and conformity to public law of
+the policy of confiscation. In the present article I have gone more at
+length into the question of the constitutionality of the law of
+Congress, and have come to the conclusions herein expressed.</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>[Continuation of Literary Notices prepared for the present issue
+unavoidably crowded out; they will however appear in our next
+number.]<br /><br /></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<h2>FOOTNOTES</h2>
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Our whole area is more than sixty times as large as
+England.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> One hundred years have elapsed since that treaty, and the
+London <i>Times</i> proclaims that England will not fight for Canada now.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> See Alison's History, chap. xxxvii, p. 269.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Kinglake's Crimea Invasion, p. 250.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Kinglake.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> See Kinglake's remarks on the design of Louis Napoleon in
+making St. Arnaud commander-in-chief of the French army in the Crimean
+war, p. 321.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Written in August, 1863.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Pansclavism</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> The following story, in substance, is to be found in
+Joinville's Memoirs.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> There may be extreme cases, few and far between, when the
+evil contained in laws may justify their overthrow by revolutionary
+force&mdash;witness our own separation from Great Britain; but the doctrine
+is one most unsafe when lightly broached, and we doubt not the
+Constitution and laws of the United States offer a basis broad enough
+for the legal as well as the most judicious mode of settlement under the
+present difficulties.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Ed. Con.</span></p></div></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Continental Monthly, Volume V.
+Issue I, by Various
+
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+Project Gutenberg's The Continental Monthly, Volume V. Issue I, 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: The Continental Monthly, Volume V. Issue I
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: May 26, 2006 [EBook #18453]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Janet Blenkinship and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+(This file was produced from images generously made
+available by Cornell University Digital Collections)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  THE
+
+  CONTINENTAL MONTHLY:
+
+  DEVOTED TO
+
+  Literature and National Policy.
+
+  VOL. V.
+
+  JANUARY-JUNE, 1864.
+
+  New York:
+  JOHN F. TROW, 50 GREENE STREET,
+  (FOR THE PROPRIETORS.)
+
+  1864.
+
+
+
+
+  ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by JOHN F. TROW,
+  In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
+  Southern District of New York.
+
+
+
+
+  INDEX TO VOLUME V.
+
+
+  AEnone; a Tale of Slave Life in Rome, 287, 385, 500, 619
+
+  American Finances and Resources. By Hon. Robert J. Walker, 40, 249,
+      324, 489
+
+  An Army: Its Organization and Movements. By Lieut.-Col.
+      C. W. Tolles, A. Q. M., 707
+
+  An Hour in the Gallery of the National Academy of Design--Thirty-ninth
+      Annual Exhibition, 684
+
+  An Indian Love-Song. By Edwin R. Johnson, 361
+
+  Aphorisms. By Rev. Asa Colton, 413, 450, 482, 595, 680, 706
+
+  A Pair of Stockings. From the Army, 597
+
+  Aspiro--A Fable, 158
+
+  A Summer's Night. From the Polish of Count S. Krasinski, translated
+      by Prof. Podbielski, 543
+
+  A Tragedy of Error, 204
+
+  A Universal Language. By S. P. Andrews, 595
+
+  A Vigil with St. Louis. By E. Fonton, 70
+
+
+  Benedict of Nursla, and the Order of the Benedictines.
+      By Rev. Ph. Schaff, 451
+
+  Buckle, Draper, and a Science of History. By Edward B. Freeland, 161
+
+
+  Carl Friedrich Neumann, the German Historian of our Country.
+      By Professor Andrew Ten Brook, 295
+
+  Clouds. By Mrs. Martha Walker Cook, 265
+
+
+  Diary of Frances Krasinska; or, Life in Poland during the 18th
+      Century, 27, 180
+
+  Dr. Fox's Prescription. By E. R. Johnson, 717
+
+
+  Editor's Table, 118, 245, 354, 487, 605, 721
+
+  English and American Taxation. By Egbert Hurd, 405
+
+  Ernest Renan's Theory. By Hugh Miller Thompson, 609
+
+
+  'Feed My Lambs,' 663
+
+
+  Glorious! By L. G. W., 459
+
+
+  Hannah Thurston, 456
+
+  Hints to the American Farmer, 584
+
+
+  Jefferson Davis and Repudiation of Arkansas Bonds. By Hon.
+      Robert J. Walker, 478
+
+
+  Language a Type of the Universe. By Stephen Pearl Andrews, 691
+
+  Lies, and How to Kill Them. By Hugh Miller Thompson, 437
+
+  Literary Notices, 116, 243, 362, 483, 601, 719
+
+
+  Madagascar. By W. H. Whitmore, 65
+
+  Music a Science. By Lucia D. Pychowska, 575
+
+
+  National Friendships, 239
+
+  North and South. By Charles Wm. Butler, 241
+
+  'Nos Amis les Cosaques.' By M. Heilprin, 216
+
+
+  'Our Article,' 20
+
+  Our Domestic Relations; or, How to Treat the Rebel States.
+      By Charles Russell, 511
+
+  Our Government and the Blacks. By William H. Kimball, 431
+
+  Out of Prison. By Kate Putnam, 436
+
+
+  Palmer, the American Sculptor. By L. J. Bigelow, 258
+
+  Petroleum. By Rev. S. M. Eaton, 187
+
+
+  Reason, Rhyme, and Rhythm. Compiled and written by Mrs. Martha
+      Walker Cook, 14
+
+  Retrospective. By Rev. Dr. Henry, 1
+
+
+  Sir Charles Lyell on the Antiquity of Man. By a Presbyterian
+      Clergyman, 369
+
+  Sketches of American Life and Scenery. By Lucia D. Pychowska, 9, 270, 425
+
+  Sleeping. By Hugh Miller Thompson, 716
+
+
+  Temptation. From the Polish of Count Sigismund Krasinski, 53
+
+  The Andes. By William G. Dix, 229
+
+  The Angels of War, 203
+
+  The Conscription Act of March 3d, 1864. By L. M. Haverstik, 110
+
+  The Decline of England. By S. J. Bayard, 48
+
+  The Development of American Architecture. By A. W. Colgate, 466
+
+  The Dove. By Mrs. Martha Walker Cook, 625
+
+  The English Press. By Nicholas Rowe, London, 100, 139, 564
+
+  The Great American Crisis. By Stephen P. Andrews, 87, 300
+
+  The Great Lakes to St. Paul. By Robert Dodge, 397
+
+  The Great Struggle, 34
+
+  The House in the Lane. By Miss Virginia Townsend, 573
+
+  The Isle of Springs. By Rev. C. C. Starbuck, 461
+
+  The Issues of the War. By John Stahl Patterson, Quarter-master
+      Sergeant, 20th Ohio Battery, 287
+
+  The Lessons of the Wood. By George W. Bungay, 26
+
+  The Love Lucifer. By S. Leavitt, 319, 414
+
+  The March of Life. By Clarence Frederick Buhler, 649
+
+  The Mechanical Tendency in Modern Society. By John A. French, 351
+
+  The Mississippi River and its Peculiarities. By De B. R. Keim, 629
+
+  The Mound Builder. By January Searle, 517
+
+  The Red Man's Plea, 160
+
+  The Treasury Report and Mr. Sec'y Chase. By Hon. Frederick
+      P. Stanton, 151
+
+  The Unkind Word, 690
+
+  The War a Contest for Ideas. By Henry Everett Russell, 578
+
+  The Wild Azalea. By E. W. C., 596
+
+  The Young Author's Dream. By Edwin R. Johnson, 395
+
+  Thistle-Down. By Frances Lamartine, 318
+
+  Thomas De Quincey and His Writings. By L. W. Spring, 650
+
+  Thomas Jefferson, as Seen in the Light of 1863. By J. Sheldon, 129
+
+  Thought. By Virginia Vaughan, 577
+
+
+  Union Not to be Maintained by Force. By Hon. Frederick P. Stanton, 73
+
+
+  Was He Successful? By Richard B. Kimball, 80, 221, 341, 445
+
+
+
+
+  THE
+
+  CONTINENTAL MONTHLY:
+
+  DEVOTED TO
+
+  LITERATURE AND NATIONAL POLICY.
+
+  VOL. V.--JANUARY, 1864.--No. I.
+
+
+
+
+RETROSPECTIVE.
+
+
+Time makes many dark things clear, and often in a wonderfully short and
+decisive way. So we said hopefully two years and more ago in regard to
+one of the unsolved problems which then pressed on the minds of
+thoughtful men--how, namely, it was to fare with slavery in the progress
+and sequel of the war. The history of our national struggle has
+illustrated the truth and justified the hope. Time has quite nearly
+solved that problem and some others almost equally perplexing. The
+stream of historical causes has borne the nation onward on the bosom of
+its inevitable flow, until we can now almost see clear through to the
+end; at any rate, we have reached a point where we can look backward and
+forward with perhaps greater advantage than at any former period. What
+changes of opinion have been wrought! How many doubts resolved! How many
+fears dispelled! How many old prejudices and preconceived notions have
+been abandoned! How many vexed questions put at rest! How many things
+have safely got an established place among accepted and almost generally
+acceptable facts, which were once matters of loyal foreboding and of
+disloyal denunciation! No man of good sense and loyalty now doubts the
+rightfulness and wisdom of depriving the rebels of the aid derived from
+their slaves, and making them an element of strength on our side; while
+the fact that the enfranchised slaves make good soldiers, is put beyond
+question by an amenability to military discipline and a bravery in
+battle not surpassed by any troops in the world.
+
+
+HAS THE WAR GONE SLOWLY?
+
+The work of subduing the rebellion has gone slowly as compared with the
+impatient demands of an indignant people at the outset; but not slowly
+if you consider the vast theatre of the war, the immense extent of the
+lines of military operations, and the prodigious advantages possessed by
+the rebels at the beginning--partly advantages such as always attend the
+first outbreak of a revolutionary conspiracy long matured in secret
+against an unsuspecting and unprepared Government, and partly the
+extraordinary and peculiar advantages that accrued to them from the
+traitorous complicity of Buchanan's Administration, through which the
+conspirators were enabled to rob the national treasury, strip the
+Government of arms, and possess themselves of national forts, arsenals,
+and munitions of war, before the conflict began.
+
+
+NOT TOO SLOW--WHY? SLAVERY.
+
+But either way the war has not gone too slowly with reference to its
+great end--the establishment of a durable peace. If the rebellion had
+been crushed at once by overwhelming force, it would have been crushed
+only to break out anew. Slavery would have been left unimpaired, and
+that would inevitably have entailed another conflict in no long time. In
+the interest of slavery the rebels have drawn the sword; let slavery
+perish by the sword. In the interest of slavery they have attempted to
+overthrow the National Government and to dismember the national domain;
+let slavery be overthrown to maintain the Government and to preserve the
+integrity of the nation. Let the cause of the war perish with the war.
+Not until slavery is extinguished can there be a lasting peace; for not
+until then can the conditions of true national unity begin to exist.
+What wise and good man would wish to save it from extinction? It is as
+incompatible with the highest prosperity of the South as it is with a
+true national union between the South and the North. Once extinguished,
+there will be a thousand-fold increase in every element of Southern
+welfare, economical, social, and moral; and possibilities of national
+wealth and strength, greatness and glory, above every nation on the
+globe, will be established. Let slavery go down. Let us rejoice that in
+the progress and sequel of this war, it must and will go down.
+
+
+EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.
+
+Looking back, we can now see that much that was trying to the patience
+of the loyal masses of the North in the early stages of the war, has
+only served to make it more certain that what ought to be will be. Time
+has done justice to the idiotic policy of fighting the rebellion with
+one hand and with the other upholding the institution that constituted
+at once its motive and its strength. Time has brought policy and justice
+to shake hands together at the right moment on the same road, and made
+that respectable and acceptable as a military necessity which was once
+repudiated as a fanaticism. Time has brought out the President's
+Emancipation Proclamation, and established it on a firm basis in the
+judgment and consent of all wise and true loyal men, North and South--to
+the great discomfiture of sundry politicians--the utterances of some of
+whom not long ago can be no otherwise taken than as the revelation and
+despairing death wail of disconcerted schemes. Strange that men whose
+whole lives have been passed in forecasting public opinion for their
+political uses, should have rushed upon the thick bosses of the great
+shield of the public will, which begirts the President and his
+Emancipation Proclamation;--for certainly all the railing at
+_radicalism_, which we heard in certain quarters last summer, was in
+fact nothing but the expression of disappointment and chagrin at the
+emancipation policy of the President, and that too at a time when that
+policy had come to be accepted by the great body of the loyal people of
+the nation (including all the eminent Southern loyalists), as not only
+indispensable to the national salvation, but desirable in every view.
+Strange that at such a time, and among those once active and influential
+in the formation of the Republican party--a party born of the roused
+spirit of resistance to slavery aggressions--there should have been
+found a single person unable to discern and to accept the inevitable
+logic of events which was to make the extinction of slavery the only
+wise, practicable, and truly loyal stand point. Strange that any
+Republican should be disposed to put a stop to the 'irrepressible
+conflict.' It was too late in the day to attempt the organization of a
+great, victorious Conservative party by splitting up the old
+organizations. The old organizations may fall to pieces. It is best,
+perhaps, they should--but not to form a Conservative party. Conservatism
+is not now to the popular taste. It means nothing but the saving of
+slavery, and the great body of the loyal people now feel absolved from
+all obligation to save it; they do not care to have it saved; and the
+vaticinations of those prophets of evil who predicted disaster and ruin
+to the national cause from the emancipation policy of the Government
+excite no consternation in the loyal heart of the nation.
+
+In a review of the conduct of the war, how little reason appears for
+regret and how much for satisfaction in regard to all the great measures
+of the Government!
+
+
+THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM.
+
+The successful working of the _financial system_ has demonstrated the
+wisdom of its principles. Instead of following the old wretched way of
+throwing an immense amount of stocks into market at a sacrifice of
+fifteen to thirty per cent., the Government has got all the money it
+wanted at half or a little more than half the usual rate of interest. It
+would have been better if the currency had been made to consist wholly
+of United States legal-tender notes, fundable in six per cent.,
+bonds--with a proper provision for the interest and for a sinking fund.
+
+But the financial system adopted is a matter of satisfaction, apart from
+its admirable success in furnishing the Government with the means to
+carry on the war: it is the inauguration of sounder principles on
+currency than have heretofore prevailed, which, if unfolded and carried
+legitimately out, will give the country the best currency in the
+world--perfectly secured, uniform in value at every point, and liable to
+no disastrous expansions and contractions. The notion that any great
+industrial, manufacturing, and commercial nation can conduct its
+business--any more than it can carry on a great war--with a specie
+currency alone, is indeed exploded; but the notion that a paper currency
+to be safe must be based on specie, still prevails--although the
+currency furnished by the thousands of banks scattered throughout the
+country has never been really based upon the actual possession of specie
+to the extent of more than _one fifth_ of the amount in circulation. It
+may be the doctrine will never come to prevail that a specie basis in
+whole or in part is no more indispensable to a sound and safe paper
+currency than an exclusive specie currency is possible or desirable in a
+country like this. It may be that the people will never come to believe
+that a legal-tender paper currency, issued exclusively by the National
+Government--based upon the credit of the nation, constituting a lien
+upon all the property of the country, and proportioned in amount of
+issue to the needs of the people for it as an instrument of
+exchange--would, for all home uses, possess in full perfection the
+nature, functions, and powers of money. It is a subject we do not
+propose to discuss. It is enough now to say that the notes of the United
+States, fundable in national six per cent. bonds, and drawing interest
+as they do semi-annually in gold, must be admitted by everybody to be as
+safe a currency as the banks as a whole have ever supplied, and to
+possess other advantages which make them incomparably a better currency
+than that of local banks.
+
+The high price to which gold has been carried by gambling speculators,
+is not to be taken as indicating a proportionate want of confidence in
+the success of the national cause and in the intrinsic value of the
+national securities. It indicates nothing of the sort--at any rate,
+whatever it may be taken to indicate, it is none the less true that
+United States six per cent. bonds were from the first eagerly sought for
+and taken as investments at the rate of a million a day--faster indeed
+than the Government could at first supply them; with a constantly
+augmenting demand, until in the last week of October _thirty-six_
+millions were disposed of--leaving only one hundred and fifty millions
+unsold, which will doubtless all be taken before this paper is
+published. Comment on this is entirely needless.
+
+
+OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS.
+
+In the conduct of our _foreign relations_, certain official declarations
+in the early part of the war on the policy and purpose of Government in
+carrying it on, are to be regretted as gratuitous and unfortunate. It is
+to be regretted also that the capture of the _Trent_ and the seizure of
+Mason and Slidell was not at once disavowed as being contrary to our
+doctrine on neutral rights, and the rebel emissaries surrendered without
+waiting for reclamation on the part of the British Government; or, if it
+was thought best to await that reclamation as containing a virtual
+concession of our doctrine, it would have been better--more dignified
+and effective--if the reply had been limited to a simple statement that
+the surrender was necessitated by the principles always maintained by
+our Government, and not by a reclamation which the British Government,
+by its own construction of public law and by its own practice, was not
+entitled to make, but which being made, might now, it was to be hoped,
+be taken as an abandonment in the future of the ground heretofore
+maintained by that Government.
+
+
+CONCESSION OF BELLIGERENT RIGHTS TO THE REBELS.
+
+There has been some dissatisfaction with the conduct of our official
+communications with Great Britain and France respecting the question on
+belligerent rights and neutral obligations which the rebellion has
+raised. But there are points of no inconsiderable difficulty and
+delicacy involved in these questions, which a great many people, in
+their natural displeasure against the English and French, have failed to
+consider. Our Government deserves the credit of having consulted the
+interests without compromising the dignity of the nation. Admitting the
+conduct of the British and French Governments in recognizing the rebels
+as belligerents to be as unfriendly and as unrequired by the obligations
+of public law as it is generally held to be among us, that would not
+make it right or wise for our Government to depart from the tone of
+moderation. We can no more make it a matter for official complaint and
+demand against these Governments, than we could the unfriendly tone of
+many of their newspapers and Parliamentary orators. We might say to
+them: We take it as unkindly in you to do as you have done; but if they
+will continue to do so, we have nothing for it but to submit. Even if we
+could have afforded it, we could not rightly have gone to war with them
+for doing what we ourselves--through the necessity of our
+circumstances--have been compelled in effect to do, and what they,
+though not forced by any such necessity, had yet a right--and in their
+own opinion were obliged--by public law to do. We could not have made it
+a cause of war, and therefore it would have been worse than idle to
+indulge in a style of official representation which means war if it
+means anything.
+
+
+THE REBEL CRUISERS.
+
+The question of the rebel cruisers on the high seas is a question by
+itself. The anger excited among us by the injuries we have suffered from
+these vessels is not strange; nor is it strange that our anger should
+beget a disposition to quarrel with Great Britain and France for
+conceding the rights of lawful belligerents to the perpetrators of such
+atrocities. The rebels have no courts of admiralty, carry their prizes
+to no ports, submit them to no lawful adjudication--but capture,
+plunder, and burn private vessels in mid ocean. Such proceedings by the
+laws of nations are undoubtedly piratical in their nature. We have a
+right so to hold and declare. We may think that Great Britain and France
+are bound so to hold and declare. But what then? Should they have
+ordered their men of war to cruise against these rebel cruisers or to
+capture every one which they might chance to encounter, and to send them
+home for trial? We may think they were bound in vindication of public
+law to do so; but could we make their not doing so a matter of formal
+complaint and a cause of war? There are a number of things to be well
+considered before any one should permit himself to quarrel with our
+Government for not quarrelling with Great Britain and France on this
+matter.
+
+
+BRITISH VIOLATION OF NEUTRAL OBLIGATIONS.
+
+But the conduct of the British Government in allowing her ports to be
+made the basis of these nefarious operations--in permitting vessels of
+whose character and purpose there could be no doubt to be built in her
+ports--not to be delivered in any Confederate port, but in effect armed
+and manned from her ports to go immediately to cruise against our
+commerce on the high seas--is an outrageous violation of the obligations
+of neutrals, for which that Government may justly be held responsible.
+It is a responsibility which no technical pleading about the
+insufficiency of British laws, either in matter of prohibition or rules
+of evidence, can avoid. Great Britain is bound to have laws and rules of
+evidence which will enable her effectually to discharge her neutral
+obligations; whether she has or not, does not alter her responsibility
+to us. Her conduct may rightfully be made a matter of official
+complaint, and of war too--if satisfaction and reparation be refused. It
+is a case in which our rights and dignity are concerned; and it is to be
+presumed that our Government will not fail to vindicate them.[1]
+
+
+LEGISLATION--THE CONFISCATION LAW.
+
+The action of _Congress_ has in everything been nobly patriotic in
+spirit, and in nearly everything it has wisely and adequately met the
+exigencies of the crisis.
+
+But we are compelled to hold the Confiscation Act, in the form in which
+it was passed, as a mistake.[2] If the clause of the Constitution
+prohibiting 'attainder of treason to work forfeiture except during the
+life of the person attainted,' be necessarily applicable to the
+Confiscation Act, it seems to us impossible to avoid the conclusion that
+the act is unconstitutional. So far as the language of the prohibition
+is decisive of anything, it must be taken to include all sorts of
+property, real as well as personal--the term _forfeiture_ certainly
+having that extent of application in the old English law and practice,
+from which the framers of our Constitution took it, and there is nothing
+elsewhere in the Constitution or in its history to warrant any other
+construction. So the Congress of 1790 understood it in the act
+declaring the punishment of treason and some other high crimes. As to
+the _perpetuity_ of forfeiture, it seems equally necessary to hold that
+it is prohibited by the clause of the Constitution in question. Such is
+undeniably the first and obvious meaning of the terms. It has been
+argued indeed that it was not the intention of the framers of the
+Constitution to prohibit perpetual forfeiture of property from being
+'declared' by Congress, but only to prohibit 'attainder of treason' from
+'working' of itself that effect by necessary consequence--as it did
+under the Common Law of England. It has also been argued that the
+constitutional restriction does not relate to perpetuity of forfeiture,
+but only requires that the forfeiture or act of alienation take place,
+have effect, and be accomplished 'during the life of the person
+attainted,' and not after his death.
+
+But this reasoning is more subtile than satisfactory. A fair
+consideration of the subject leaves little room for doubt that the
+framers of the Constitution had in view and intended to prohibit
+everything which under the old English common law followed upon
+'attainder of treason'--to prohibit forfeiture in perpetuity of property
+of every sort, no less than 'bills of attainder,' 'corruption of blood,'
+and barbarities of punishment, such as disembowelling, quartering, etc.
+
+If therefore the constitutional restriction on forfeiture apply to the
+Confiscation Law, it makes the law unconstitutional, in so far as it
+enacts the _perpetual_ forfeiture of the personal estate of rebels; and
+the discrimination made in regard to their real estate does not save the
+constitutionality of the act.
+
+If, therefore, the Confiscation Law is to be held as constitutional, it
+can be so, as it seems to us, only on the ground that it does not fall
+within the scope of the constitutional prohibition in question. This
+ground may be maintained by asserting that the constitutional
+prohibition of perpetual forfeiture applies only to cases of 'attainder
+of treason,' that is, according to Blackstone, of 'judgment of death for
+treason,' and that cases under this act are not such; that the
+limitations applicable to ordinary judicial proceedings against traitors
+are not applicable here; that the Confiscation Act seizes the property
+of rebels not in their quality of criminals, but of public enemies; that
+it is not an act for the punishment of treason, but for weakening and
+subduing an armed rebellion, and securing indemnification for the costs
+and damages it has entailed--in short, not a penal statute, but a war
+measure; and that the Constitution which gives Congress the right to
+make war for the suppression of the rebellion, and to subject the lives
+of rebels to the laws of war, gives it the right to subject their
+property also to the same laws--putting both out of the protection of
+the ordinary laws; and finally that all the objects aimed at by the
+measure are legitimated by the principles of public law.
+
+If these views can be sustained, it follows that Congress was justified
+not only in enacting the perpetual confiscation of the _personal_
+property of rebels, but need not, and should not, have passed the
+explanatory clause prohibiting 'forfeiture of _real_ estate beyond the
+natural life' of the rebel. So far as weakening the rebellion,
+indemnifying the nation for costs and damages, or the rights and
+interests of the heirs of rebels, are concerned, there is no reason in
+justice or in policy for the discrimination made between personal and
+real estate; if it is right and wise to take the one in perpetuity, it
+is equally so to take the other. In our judgment, it is right and wise
+to do both.
+
+
+MILITARY ADMINISTRATION--NO ARMY OF RESERVE.
+
+In looking over the war, we can all now see a very great error in the
+_military_ administration--the neglect, namely, to provide and keep up
+a proper reserved force. It is the grand mistake of the war. Two years
+and a half of war, and no army of reserve! Eighteen months ago, a force
+of reserve of at least two hundred thousand men should have been formed.
+It could probably then have been formed of volunteers. From it,
+vacancies made in the armies in the field by battle, disease, or
+expiration of time of service, could have been filled with drilled and
+disciplined soldiers, and reinforcements drawn to meet any special
+exigency. The victory of Gettysburgh might have resulted in the total
+destruction of Lee's army before he could recross the Potomac; and
+Rosecrans might have been strengthened without weakening the Army of the
+Potomac or any other. Whether the cost of forming and keeping up such a
+force of reserve would have greatly exceeded the cost of the recent
+draft, we do not pretend to know. We are inclined to think it would not.
+But that is a question of little moment. Money wisely spent is well
+spent: money unwisely saved is ill saved. With such a force, the recent
+draft might not have been necessary--at all events there would have been
+no necessity for suspending active military operations in Virginia, and
+awaiting the slow completion of the draft, at a moment when, large
+additions to the forces in the field were precisely the one thing
+needful. The army of reserve would at once have supplied disciplined
+soldiers, and their places in the camps of instruction and reserve could
+have been filled with the new conscripts as fast as they were collected.
+
+
+CONSOLATION--ENFORCEMENT OF THE DRAFT IN NEW YORK.
+
+But grave as the error is which we have signalized, there is something
+that might well console us for greater misfortunes than it has entailed,
+and which gives us another illustration of the truth that God and Time
+often work for us better than we for ourselves, and out of our errors
+bring good that we could not forecast.
+
+It would not be wise to assert that the not having such a reserved force
+necessitated the recent draft, and thereby occasioned the horrible
+outbreak in New York. But if it may even be safely suggested as possibly
+true, the successful enforcement of the draft becomes all the more a
+matter for boundless joy and congratulation. Important as its
+enforcement throughout the country was as a means of filling up the
+ranks of our armies, the outbreak in New York made it a thousand times
+more important as the only adequate assertion of the supremacy of
+national law.
+
+There can be no doubt as to the nature, origin, and purpose of that
+outbreak. It was the result of a long-prepared traitorous conspiracy in
+the interest of the rebels. The enforcement of the draft against mob
+violence instigated by treason, was indispensable not only to the
+successful prosecution of the war against the rebels of the South, but
+to the maintenance of the supreme authority and power of the National
+Government, and of the foundations of social order at the North. Not to
+have enforced it might have insured the triumph of the rebellion and the
+independence of the South; it certainly would have rendered the North no
+longer a country fit for any decent man to live in. Such and so great
+was the significance of the crisis. The responsibility of the
+Administration was immense. The President met it nobly. He took care
+that a sufficient military force--not under the control of Governor
+Seymour, but of a well-tried patriot--was present in New York. He
+carried out the draft there and everywhere else. He crushed the schemes
+and hopes of the traitorous conspirators--more guilty than the rebels in
+arms-and gave a demonstration of the _strength of the National
+Government_, as grand in its majesty as it was indispensable to the
+national salvation in this crisis and to its security in all future
+time. The Government has triumphed in the quiet majesty of its
+irresistible force over factious and traitorous opposition at the North,
+springing from treasonable sympathy with the rebels, or, from what, in a
+crisis like this, is equally wicked, the selfishness of party spirit,
+preferring party to country. More than this, it has triumphed over the
+dangerous and destructive notions on State sovereignty, which traitors
+and partisans have dared invoke. It is impossible to overestimate the
+importance for the present and for the future of this victorious
+assertion of the _supremacy of the National Government_.
+
+
+SUMMARY REVIEW.
+
+In a review, then, of this gigantic struggle, we have every reason to be
+content and confident--no reason to bate one jot of heart or hope. The
+triumph over Northern treason, achieved by the force of the Government,
+has been followed by a moral triumph at the polls, no less grand in its
+significance. The country is not oppressed by the stupendous expenses of
+the war. The money is all spent at home. It stimulates the productive
+industry of the country, and the nation is all the time growing rich.
+The rebels have been disastrously repulsed in two attempts at invasion,
+and do not hold one inch of Northern soil. One third of the States
+claimed by them at the outset, are gone from them forever: Maryland,
+Missouri, Kentucky, are securely in the Union; Virginia we have cut in
+two--nearly one half of its territory, by the will of its inhabitants,
+now constituting a loyal member of the Union as the new State of West
+Virginia--while of its eastern half we securely hold its coast, harbors,
+and fortresses, and a considerable number of its counties. Tennessee is
+ours, and cannot, we think, be wrenched away. We have New Orleans, and
+the uncontrolled possession of the Mississippi river--cutting the
+territory of the rebels in two, destroying their communications, and
+giving us a considerable portion of the States bordering that river. In
+North Carolina and South Carolina we have a hold, from which it will be
+hard to drive us. On the Atlantic and Gulf coast nearly every fortress
+is in our possession; there is not a port which is not possessed by us,
+or else so blockaded that (except in the peculiar case of Wilmington) it
+is a hazardous affair for any vessel to attempt going in or coming out;
+and the rebels are utterly unable to raise the blockade of a single
+port. In fine, they have lost more than one third of their territory
+forever, and of the remaining portion there is not one considerable
+subdivision over which in some part the flag of the Union does not
+securely wave. What title to recognition as an independent power can the
+Confederate rebels present to the neutral powers of the world?
+
+
+
+
+SKETCHES OF AMERICAN LIFE AND SCENERY.
+
+
+While American tourists are delightedly visiting and minutely describing
+the most hidden recesses of beauty among the mountains, plains, seas,
+lakes, and rivers of Europe, there are, close within their reach,
+innumerable spots well worthy of consideration, and hitherto entirely
+unknown to the great mass of pleasure and scenery seeking travellers.
+These fair but hidden gems have become of the more importance that the
+grand struggle convulsing our country has rendered foreign travel
+difficult, even when advisable, and has roused within our people a love
+for their own land, a pride in its loveliness, much more rarely felt
+before the attempt to dismember and ruin it had awakened dormant
+patriotism and completed the severance between the recent _province_ and
+the historically renowned mother country. American painters are worthily
+illustrating American life and landscape; American poets, and no less
+poetical prose writers, are singing the forests, skies, flowers, and
+birds of their native land; and the inquisitive traveller should surely
+not fail to add his humbler mite in the way of discovery and
+description. The following sketches are founded upon actual observation,
+and the delineations of scenery and manners therein contained are
+strictly in accordance with the personal experience of the author.
+
+
+I.--A SUMMER EXCURSION.
+
+'All very well,' said Aunt Sarah; 'I have no doubt the excursion would
+be charming; but who will accompany you?'
+
+'We do not require an escort; we can take care of each other,'
+
+'Can it be that you, Lucy, a staid married woman of thirty-six, and you,
+Elsie, a demure young girl of twenty, are suddenly about to enter the
+ranks of the strong minded?'
+
+'Why, dear aunt,' said Lucy D----, 'you would not have us weak minded,
+would you? I think I heard you say no longer ago than yesterday that
+half the domestic miseries in this world were due to the weak nerves and
+feeble intellects of poorly educated women.'
+
+'True; but the technical expression, 'strong minded,' does not mean
+strong in mind--rather the contrary.'
+
+'In other words, strong minded means weak minded, is that it, auntie?'
+laughed Elsie.
+
+'I see, Aunt Sarah,' said Lucy, 'we shall be forced to call upon you for
+that most difficult of tasks, a definition. What is meant by the term,
+'strong-minded woman'?'
+
+'A monster,' replied Mrs. Sarah Grundy, 'who lectures, speaks in public,
+wants women to vote, to wear men's garments; in a word, one who would
+like to upset religion, social life, and the world in general.'
+
+'Well,' dear auntie, 'we surely do not purpose committing any of these
+enormities; our intentions simply embrace a short excursion of some
+forty miles in search of fine scenery, health, and a little amusement.
+We have no confidence in our power to influence the public, even if we
+thought we had aught to say which they do not already know; we do not
+see that voting has a very beneficial effect upon men, witness election
+days; as for their garments, they are too hideously ungraceful for us to
+covet; in faith, we are of the most orthodox; we confess, we do think
+social life needs sundry reforms, more charity and forbearance, less
+detraction and ostentation, etc., etc.; and as for the world in general,
+we think it very beautiful, and only wish to overlook some few
+additional miles of its lovely mountains, lakes, and streams.'
+
+'Well, well, girls, young people always can talk faster than old ones;
+but do you really think it safe for you to venture without escort? You
+do not even know the name of the place which you wish to visit; you have
+been informed that on the summit of yonder mountain is a lake, said to
+be picturesque; but of its cognomen, and of the proper means to reach
+it, you are utterly ignorant. You will have to ask questions of all
+sorts of people.'
+
+'Suppose we do--being women, we will certainly in America receive civil
+answers.'
+
+'But if some person unknown to you should speak to you?'
+
+'Little danger, dear aunt, of dread unknowns, if we comport ourselves
+properly; I have travelled much in all kinds of public conveyances, and
+never yet have been improperly addressed. Did you ever have an adventure
+of the sort'?
+
+'Once only,' replied Aunt Sarah, 'and then the fault was my own. I was
+young and giddy; Cousin Nancy was with me, and we were in a rail-car. In
+a near seat sat a very good-looking young man; Nancy looked toward him
+once or twice and, meeting his eye, began to giggle: I foolishly joined
+her; thus encouraged, our young gentleman opened a conversation. Nancy
+laughed immoderately; but I, being a few years older, soon controlled my
+silly giggling; and by the tone of my reply speedily silenced our
+would-be admirer. He turned his back upon us, and, so far as I know, in
+less than five minutes had forgotten our very existence.'
+
+'Decidedly a case in our favor! And if the boat should blow up, or the
+car roll down an embankment, in what would we be benefited by the fact
+of having an escort also to be scalded or have his head broken?'
+
+'Ye maun even then gang your ain gait. I wish you a pleasant journey and
+a safe return.'
+
+'Thank you, auntie, and you will not call us strong minded?'
+
+'Certainly not, unless I find you merit the appellation.'
+
+The little trunk was soon packed, and one fine July morning the two
+travellers set off in search of the beautiful lake, whose name is not to
+be found in the guide books. They knew it was to be looked for in a
+sharp and peculiar dent in the Shawangunk mountain, which dent, so far
+as they could judge from the hills near their dwelling on the northern
+slope of the Highlands, must be nearly opposite Poughkeepsie. Neither
+map nor gazetteer could they procure; the neighbors could give them no
+information, and they were forced to proceed with only the
+above-mentioned meagre stock of knowledge.
+
+The first stage was of five miles, in a carriage to Newburg, where they
+took the day boat for Albany. Our novices felt more or less anxiety
+regarding the fidelity of the porter intrusted with their two small
+articles of baggage; but said articles appearing somewhat late, though
+still in season, and being duly marked for Poughkeepsie, the first
+question asked was as to the existence of such a place as New Paltz
+Landing, opposite the above-named city, and the facilities for crossing
+the river. None of those in authority knew certainly of a ferry, but
+supposed it highly probable. The wharf at Poughkeepsie was suggested as
+a proper place to obtain information; and, once there, our travellers
+soon found themselves in the hands of an intelligent contraband, who
+promised to place them safely on the desired ferry boat. As they neared
+the dock, a great rock, with an upset wagon for foreground, furnished an
+encouraging picture for two lone lady tourists. The boat proved neat and
+comfortable, and here again inquiries were made. The very polite captain
+had heard of a lake on the Shawangunk mountain, but knew neither its
+name nor exact location. He advised them to have their baggage sent to
+the little inn at the landing, where they might dine and await a stage
+expected to pass in about an hour on its way to New Paltz, a village
+nine miles west of the river. At the inn they fancied they must
+certainly learn something definite regarding the final object of their
+undertaking. A large map of Ulster county hung in the sitting room, and
+gave promise of some decided information. Unfortunately, it was not of a
+recent edition: a nameless lake on the Shawangunk mountain, about five
+miles from New Paltz, seemed to be the object of their search; but the
+landlord, who had heard of a lake in that direction, could not tell how
+it was to be reached, or whether shelter could there be found in any
+decent tenement; his impression was that there had been a public house
+on top of the mountain, but that it had recently been destroyed by fire.
+Certainties were evidently still unattainable.
+
+Finally, the stage arrived--a vehicle drawn by two horses, and intended
+to seat four persons. In it were already two ladies, with bags and
+bundles, two trunks, a champagne basket, numberless packages, and about
+fifty bottles of soda water, laid in among the straw covering the bottom
+of the accommodating conveyance. The driver, a good-natured, intelligent
+man, gave our travellers his bench, and arranged a seat for himself and
+the champagne basket on a sort of shelf overhanging the tails of the
+horses. At the top of the first hill is the village of Houstonville,
+where they stopped at the post office to leave the mail, and where two
+ladies appeared as claimants for seats in the stage. The driver at first
+demurred; but, finding the ladies persistent, he drew forth a board,
+and, fastening it at either end to a perpendicular prop, constructed a
+third bench, on which the two new passengers took their places.
+
+The stage was by this time more than well packed; but ere long the
+process of lightening up commenced, as first the champagne basket, then
+packages, bundles, and newspapers, were left at various dwellings along
+the roadside. One novelty especially striking was the wayside post
+office, consisting of a box on a pole, intended to contain the daily
+newspaper therein thrust to await the coming of the owners.
+
+Of course the driver was plied with numerous questions regarding the
+thus far nameless lake. He had been up the Shawangunk mountain fishing,
+but that was years before; there was a lake, but he had never heard any
+name given to it; he had understood a house had been built since his
+last visit; but he did not know if it was intended to accommodate
+visitors during the night. Of one thing, however, he was quite certain,
+and that was, the impossibility of finding a horse in New Paltz to take
+the ladies up that evening. The inns had none to let; there were no
+livery stables, and his own pair were too greatly fatigued by their
+twenty-mile drive to venture up so steep an ascent; but he thought a
+conveyance might be found for the following morning. The views along the
+road were charming; and the sharp, jagged crest known as Paltz Point,
+overhung the well-cultivated rolling valley beneath, giving a fair
+promise of an extended and characteristic view.
+
+The inn, to which the travellers were driven, proved very neat and
+comfortable. It was a new edifice, with an accommodating landlord and
+landlady, the latter of which personages seemed quite mystified by the
+advent of two lorn ladies in search of an unknown lake. In the entry
+hung a new map of Ulster county, on which appeared a lake nestling under
+the cliffs of Paltz Point, but still without a name. Paltz Point!--that
+must be the very jagged pile of rock visible from the Cornwall hills,
+and the lake at its foot more than probably the object of the journey.
+
+The landlord was quite positive as to the existence of a house, but
+doubted its capacity in regard to sleeping accommodations; he also
+corroborated the testimony of the driver respecting the difficulty of
+obtaining a vehicle, every horse being engaged haying. The ladies
+announced that, as the distance was only six miles, it could be walked,
+in case this difficulty proved insuperable. An individual at the tea
+table proposed that the travellers should be taken up some time in the
+middle of the night, that the horse might return by six o'clock in the
+morning; but this suggestion was unanimously frowned down. The chief
+reason for requiring a horse and wagon lay in the little trunk, which,
+as it contained the painting box of our Elsie, who thought the lake and
+vicinity might offer some picturesque studies, could not possibly be
+left behind. After tea, a walk was taken, and the vicinage of New Paltz
+duly inspected. The Wallkill, here a quiet stream, runs through rich,
+green meadows, bordered by the noble range of the Catskills and the
+singular, broken ridges of the Shawangunk. The sun set clear, casting
+pale gold streams of light over the meadows, and leaving a long,
+lingering, rosy twilight. The young art-student drank in beauty with
+every breath. The cows were driven home; the ducks came slowly up out of
+the stream, and all the winged creatures went to roost. Night came, and
+repose was welcome after the pleasures and fatigues of the day's
+journey.
+
+At eight the following morning, a steady black pony, with a light open
+wagon, appeared at the door; and by ten o'clock the travellers reached
+the mountain top. Their steed showed marvellous endurance in the way of
+slow pacing down steep hills, which they afterward found had been
+acquired in leading sad trains of mourners to the modest graveyards,
+wherein rest the earthly remains of the peaceful dwellers in this
+pastoral vale. The first four or five miles of road were excellent, but
+the last one or two so rough and stony, that they were quite willing to
+walk. On top of the mountain stands a little inn, commanding a
+magnificent view in several directions. As they neared the end of their
+journey, they rejoiced to see a white house gleaming through the trees,
+and promising food and shelter. The sound of coming wheels brought out
+the land-lady, who gave the travellers a hearty welcome, and assured
+them of her ability to harbor them for the night. The end was
+accomplished--the goal reached! And what a goal! Nowhere among all the
+beautiful scenery in the Middle and Eastern States is there a spot more
+characteristic and interesting than Paltz Point, and the lake that lies
+under its shadow--that lake, whose name was a mystery, even to the
+inmates of the house built upon its brink. Its waters are clear, and of
+a deep green hue; its depth is said to be great, and its rocky shores
+rise in perpendicular cliffs of from ten to two hundred feet. The
+highest point stands three or four hundred feet above the surface of the
+water; but in that part the cliffs are no longer perpendicular. The
+length of the lake is about a mile, and the width perhaps half that
+distance. The rocks are gray sandstone or quartz conglomerate, making
+the cliffsides, except where covered by black lichens, of a glittering
+white. On one side, the rocks rise in steep, precipitous masses, while
+on the other they are shattered into every imaginable form. The clefts
+are deep and narrow, great hemlocks rise from the bottoms of the
+fissures, and the vast masses of fallen or split rock lie piled and
+cloven, confusedly tossed about, gigantic memorials of the great
+convulsion that in days long gone by heaped up the long ridge of the
+Shawangunk, and shattered its northern dip into such majestic and
+fantastic cliffs. The deepest and wildest chasm is filled by the weird,
+green lake. Straying along the tops of the precipices bordering the
+water, our travellers beheld lovely vistas of the far-away country,
+north, south, east, or west, stealing in through rocky or leafy
+openings. An easy ascent of about half a mile leads to the summit of the
+Point. Blueberries were ripe, and beguiled the pair into many a moment's
+dallying by the wayside. Not until they reached the very top were they
+quite sure they had after all found the place they came to seek; but one
+view down the jagged line of the Shawangunk, convinced our Elsie that no
+other spot could have furnished the sketch seen in the studio, where she
+had been advised to seek 'the lake on the Shawangunk mountain.'
+
+The view from Paltz Point is magical. The long line of the Catskills
+sweeps boldly across the near northern horizon. Nowhere do those
+mountains seem so majestic, or their forms so broken and beautiful;
+nearer are the Olive mountains, beyond which flows the Esopus. Rondout
+creek, the Wallkill, and the Hudson, water the fertile vales lying among
+the hills. To the south stretches the line of the Shawangunk toward the
+Delaware river, and on the extreme southern and southeastern horizon
+rise the Highlands, with the river gap, the rifted sides of the Storm
+King, the Beacons, the great broad shoulders of Schunemunk;--even the
+white buildings on the plain at West Point may be seen glittering in the
+afternoon sun. A clear atmosphere is needed for the full enjoyment of
+the view, as the panorama is so vast that even a slight haze obscures
+many of the more interesting distant objects. And what words could
+describe the jutting headlands--wild, broken lines of white cliffs
+stretching to the southward, deep chasms, steep, forest-clad mountains,
+green or blue as distance, sunshine, or shadow may decree, and the
+tranquil green lake, smiling as a deep, strong and cheerful spirit amid
+the ruins of a shattered, wasted life? As our travellers gazed, they
+thanked God that His world was so beautiful, and wondered if even Aunt
+Sarah would not be willing to run the risk of being thought strong
+minded to see so fair a corner of it.
+
+The moon that night rose late; and the air was chill as the sisters
+stood on a rock waiting until its rays should silver the placid waves.
+Overhead ran a strange, broad, coruscating band of magnetic light,
+meteors flashed down the sky, a solitary loon sent a wild, despairing
+cry athwart the lake, and for the first time did our travellers feel
+they were alone, eighteen hundred feet above the Hudson, far away from
+other human habitation. A truly feminine shudder ran through their
+hearts, as they turned toward the house and betook them to the cells
+appropriated to their use. The following day they were driven down the
+mountain by the owner (not the keeper) of the little inn beside the
+lake. He was one of nature's own gentlemen; tall,--six feet,
+perhaps,--gray haired, blue eyed, with every feature well cut, and with
+the most honest expression ever beaming through a human countenance. The
+hearts of the sisters warmed toward him, and never were they more
+willing to acknowledge the solidarity of the race, the great fact of the
+brotherhood of all humanity.
+
+Cornwall once again safely reached, and the outlines of the journey duly
+sketched, Aunt Sarah's first question was: 'Well, and what _is_ the name
+of this famous lake?'
+
+The travellers were forced to confess the ill success of their efforts
+in discovering the proper appellation of that exquisite gem, and it was
+not until many months later that, when visiting an exhibition of
+paintings, they found their new friend accurately portrayed under the
+name of--Mogunk Lake.
+
+
+
+
+REASON, RHYME, AND RHYTHM.
+
+  'All arts are one, howe'er distributed they stand,
+   Verse, tone, shape, color, form, are fingers on one hand.'
+
+
+PREFACE TO VOLUME SECOND.
+
+Our first volume having been devoted to the Reason or Theory of Art in
+general, it is our intention in the second, Rhyme and Rhythm, to bring
+these comprehensive thoughts to a focus, and concentrate their light
+upon the art of Versification. Indeed, this volume is to be considered
+as a _manual_ of poetic Rhythm. Practical rules are given for its
+construction and criticism; simple solutions offered of its apparent
+irregularities and anomalies; and examples of sufficient length are
+quoted from the best poets to afford just ideas of the scope and power
+of the measure under consideration. The numerous citations given under
+their appropriate metrical heads are intended not only to assist the
+student in the analysis of verse, but to aid him in the choice of forms
+in accordance with his subject, in case he should himself wish to create
+Poems.
+
+By its extrication from the entanglement of quantity and syllabic
+accent, under which it has been almost buried, an effort has been made
+to simplify the study of Rhythm: by tracing its origin and
+characteristics, and by the citation of poems in which its power and
+beauty are conspicuous, we have endeavored to render the subject one of
+vivid interest.
+
+
+CHAPTER FIRST.
+
+RHYTHM.
+
+What is Rhythm? The best definition of this perplexing word has been
+given by the grand old Bohemian composer Tomaschek:
+
+     'The _order_ perceptible in a succession of sounds recurring in
+     _determinate_ portions of Time, which portions of Time are more
+     distinctly marked for the ear through the _accentuation_ of certain
+     determinate parts, constitutes Rhythm.
+
+Rhythm has been surrounded with so much mystery, has been the subject of
+so much learned debate and research, has called forth so many quartos
+and folios, that few know what a familiar thing it is, how closely it
+everywhere surrounds us, how constantly it beats within us. For the
+pulsations of the heart are rhythmical, and the measured throbs of life
+register in music every moment of our passing existence on the bosom of
+Time. And when life manifests itself to the senses through the medium of
+time, time being to the ear what space is to the eye, the Order of its
+pulsations is Rhythm. Strange relation between our own marvellous being
+and the march of time, for its mystic rhythm beats in tune with every
+feeling that sweeps over the heart, forever singing its primeval chant
+at the very core of our existence! The law of Rhythm is the law of
+mortal life: the constant recurrence of new effort sinking but to
+recover itself in accurately proportioned rest, rising ever again in new
+exertion, to sink again in ever new repose:
+
+   'And our hearts, though true and brave,
+  Still, like muffled drums, are beating
+    Funeral marches to the grave.'
+
+This low music of the heart never ceases until stilled by the touch of
+death, when the spirit, led by God, enters upon the waveless ocean of an
+immeasurable eternity, where past and future meet in the eternal
+present. Time with its rhythmic measures is then no more. The necessity
+of 'effort and rest,' 'exertion and repose,' will exist no longer. What
+the fuller music of that higher life is to be, 'it has not yet entered
+into the heart of man to conceive.' But if the very _imperfection_ of
+our being has been rendered so full of charm to us in the order and
+proportion with which it records its law, 'effort and repose,' 'life and
+death'--what may we not expect when this mortal shall have put on
+immortality? We should think of this when that saddest of human sounds,
+'it beats no more; it measures time no longer'--knells upon our ear the
+silence of the throbbing, passionate heart.
+
+Nor is inanimate nature without the quickening breath of Rhythm. It
+cadences the dash of the wave, chimes in the flash of the oar, patters
+in the drops of rain, whispers in the murmurings of the forest leaves,
+leaps in the dash of the torrent, wails through the sighing of the
+restless winds, and booms in the claps and crashes of heaven's thunders.
+
+Only through _succession_ do we arrive at the idea of time, and through
+a continual _being and ceasing to be_ are its steppings made sensible to
+us. It is thus literally true, as sung by the Poet, that 'we take no
+note of Time but from its loss.' Happy are we if so used that it may
+mark our eternal progress.
+
+There is but little mystery in the art of keeping time, since we may at
+once gather a correct notion of it from the vibrations of the pulse, or
+from our manner of walking. If we listen to the sound of our own step,
+we find it equal and regular, corresponding with what is termed common
+time in music. Probably the time in which we walk is governed by the
+action of the heart, and those who step alike have pulses beating in the
+same time. To walk faster than this gives the sensation of hurry; to
+walk slower, that of loitering. The mere recurrence of sounds at regular
+intervals by no means constitutes the properties of _musical_ time;
+accent is necessary to parcel them out into those portions which Rhythm
+and the ear approve. If we listen to the trotting of a horse or the
+tread of our own feet, we cannot but notice that each alternate step is
+louder than the other--by which we throw the sounds into the order of
+common time. But if we listen to the amble or canter of a horse, we hear
+every third step to be louder than the other two, owing to the first and
+third foot striking the ground together. This regularity throws the
+sounds, into the order of triple time. To one or other of these
+descriptions may be referred every sort of time.
+
+There is a sympathetic power in measured time which has not yet received
+the attention it deserves. It has been found that in a watchmaker's shop
+the timepieces or clocks connected with the same wall or shelf have such
+a sympathetic effect in keeping time, that they stop those which beat in
+irregular time; and if any are at rest, set agoing those which beat
+accurately. What wonder then that the living, soldiers, artisans, such
+as smiths, paviors, etc., who work in unison with the pulse, should
+acquire habits of keeping time with the greatest correctness.
+
+Rhythm not only measures the footfall of the pedestrian, but exerts a
+sympathetic power, so that if two are walking together, they feel its
+spell, and unconsciously fall into the same step, not aware that they
+are thus conforming to a Unity always engendered by the Order regulating
+rhythmical motion. It is this entrancing sense of unity which wings the
+feet of the dancers, and enables them to endure with delight a degree of
+physical exertion which, without it, would be utterly exhausting. The
+following extract from the _Atlantic Monthly_, of July, 1858, is so much
+to our purpose, that we place it before the reader:
+
+     'The sailor does not lack for singing. He sings at certain parts of
+     his work;--indeed, he must sing, if he would work. On vessels of
+     war, the drum and fife or boatswain's whistle furnish the necessary
+     movement-regulator. There, where the strength of one or two hundred
+     men can be applied to one and the same effort, the labor is not
+     intermittent, but continuous. The men form on either side of the
+     rope to be hauled, and walk away with it like firemen marching with
+     their engine. When the headmost pair bring up at the stern or bow,
+     they part, and the two streams flow back to the starting point,
+     outside the following files. Thus in this perpetual
+     'follow-my-leader' way the work is done, with more precision and
+     steadiness than in the merchant service. Merchantmen are invariably
+     manned with the least possible number, and often go to sea
+     short-handed, even according to the parsimonious calculations of
+     their owners. The only way the heavier work can be done at all is
+     by each man doing his utmost at the same moment. This is regulated
+     by the song. And here is the true singing of the deep sea. It is
+     not recreation; it is an essential part of the work. It mastheads
+     the topsail yards, on making sail; it starts the anchor from the
+     domestic or foreign mud; it 'rides down the main tack with a will;'
+     it breaks out and takes on board a cargo; it keeps the pumps (the
+     ship's, not the sailor's) going. A good voice and a new and
+     stirring chorus are worth an extra man. And there is plenty of need
+     of both.
+
+     'I remember well one black night in the mid-Atlantic, when we were
+     beating up against a stiff breeze, coming on deck near midnight,
+     just as the ship was put about. When a ship is tacking, the tacks
+     and sheets (ropes which confine the clews or lower corners of the
+     sails) are let run, in order that the yards may be swung round to
+     meet the altered position of the ship. They must then be hauled
+     taut again, and belayed, or secured, in order to keep the sails in
+     their place and to prevent them from shaking. When the ship's head
+     comes up in the wind, the sail is for a moment or two edgewise to
+     it, and then is the nice moment, as soon as the headsails fairly
+     fill, when the mainyard and the yards above it can be swung
+     readily, and the tacks and sheets hauled in. If the crew are too
+     few in number, or too slow at their work, and the sails get fairly
+     filled on the new tack, it is a fatiguing piece of work enough to
+     'board' the tacks and sheets, as it is called. You are pulling at
+     one end of the rope--but the gale is tugging at the other. The
+     advantages of lungs are all against you, and perhaps the only thing
+     to be done is to put the helm down a little, and set the sails
+     shaking again before they can be trimmed properly. It was just at
+     such a time that I came on deck, as above mentioned. Being near
+     eight bells, the watch on deck had been not over spry; and the
+     consequence was that our big maincourse was slatting and flying out
+     overhead with a might that shook the ship from stem to stern. The
+     flaps of the mad canvas were like successive thumps of a giant's
+     fist upon a mighty drum. The sheets were jerking at the belaying
+     pins, the blocks rattling in sharp snappings like castanets. You
+     could hear the hiss and seething of the sea alongside, and see it
+     flash by in sudden white patches of phosphorescent foam, while all
+     over head was black with the flying scud. The English second mate
+     was stamping with vexation, and, with all his h's misplaced,
+     storming at the men: ''An'somely the weather mainbrace--'an'somely,
+     I tell you!--'Alf a dozen of you clap on to the main sheet
+     here--down with 'im!--D'y'see 'ere's hall like a midshipman's
+     bag--heverythink huppermost and nothing 'andy. 'Aul 'im in, Hi
+     say!' But the sail wouldn't come, though. All the most forcible
+     expressions of the Commination Service were liberally bestowed on
+     the watch. 'Give us the song, men!' sang out the mate, at
+     last--'pull with a will!--together men!--haltogether now!'--And
+     then a cracked, melancholy voice struck up this chant:
+
+         'Oh, the bowline, bully, bully bowline,
+          Oh, the bowline, bowline, HAUL!'
+
+     At the last word every man threw his whole strength into the
+     pull--all singing it in chorus, with a quick, explosive sound. And
+     so, jump by jump, the sheet was at last hauled taut.'
+
+It would be well if the philanthropist and utilitarian would stoop to
+examine these primeval but neglected facts, for there is no doubt that
+under the healthful and delicious spell of Rhythm a far steadier and
+greater amount of labor would be cheerfully and happily endured by the
+working classes. The continuous but rhythmed croon of the negro when at
+work, the yo-heave-o of the sailor straining at the cordage, the rowing
+songs of the oarsman, etc., etc., are all suggestive of what might be
+effected by judicious effort in this direction. But man, ever wiser than
+his Maker, neglects the intuitions of nature. Rendered conceited by a
+false education, and heartless by a constant craving for gold, he
+scorns the simple but deep intuitions which are his surest guide to
+civilization, health, and cheerfulness. There can be no doubt that the
+physical exercise so distasteful to the pale inhabitants of our cities,
+yet so essential for the preservation of health and life, might be
+rendered delightful and invigorating through the neglected powers of
+rhythmical motion. Like Michal, the proud daughter of Saul, who despised
+King David in her haughty heart when 'she saw him dancing with all his
+might before the Lord,' we scorn the simple and innocent delights of our
+nature, and, like Michal, we too are bitterly punished for our mistaken
+pride of intellect, for, neglecting the rhythmical requisitions of the
+body, we injure the mind, and may deprave the heart. Virtuously, purely,
+and judiciously applied to the amusements and artistic culture of a
+people, we are convinced the power of Rhythm would banish much of that
+craving for false excitement, for drinks and narcotics, an indulgence in
+which exerts so fatal an influence over the character and spiritual
+progress of a nation. It is surely not astonishing that Rhythm should be
+so pleasant to the senses, when we consider that the laws of order and
+unity by which it is regulated are the proper aliment of the soul.
+
+Strange pedantries have grown out of the neglect of music as a practical
+pervading element in modern education. We should endeavor to reform this
+fault; we should use this powerful engine of healing nature to remove
+from us the reproach of being merely a shopkeeping and money-making
+people.
+
+The wildest savage is not insensible to Rhythm. It fires his spirit in
+the war dance and battle chant, soothes him in the monotonous hum of the
+pow-wow, and softens him in naive love songs. It is the heart of music,
+and it can be proved that low and vulgar rhythms have a debasing effect
+upon the character of a people. 'Let me write the songs of a people,'
+said a great thinker, 'and I care not who makes its laws:'--if he
+included the tunes, there was no exaggeration in his thought. Alas! a
+meretricious age scorns and neglects the true, because it is always
+simple in its sublimity, and, striving to banish God from His own
+creation, would also banish nature and joy from the heart! A pedantic
+age loves all that is pretentious, glaring, and assuming; and Rhythm
+stoops to rock the cradle of the newborn infant; to soothe the negro in
+the rice swamp or cotton field; to shape into beauty the national and
+patriotic songs of a laborious but contented peasantry, as among the
+Sclaves--but what cares the age for the happiness of the race? 'Put
+money in thy purse,' is its consolation and lesson for humanity.
+
+The beat of the healthful heart is in unison with the feelings of the
+hour. Agitation makes it fitful and broken, excitement accelerates, and
+sorrow retards it. And this fact should be the model for all poetical
+and musical rhythm.
+
+To show how readily we associate feelings with different orders of
+sound, let us suppose we are passing the night somewhere, where a
+stranger, utterly unknown to us, occupies a room from which we can hear
+the sound of his footsteps. Suppose that through the tranquil hours of
+the night we hear his measured tread falling in equally accented and
+monotonous spondees, it is certain that a quick imagination will at once
+associate this deliberate tread with the state of mind in the unknown
+from which it will believe it to proceed, and will immediately suggest
+that the stranger is maturing some great design of heavy import to his
+future peace.
+
+Should the character of the spondaic tread suddenly change, should the
+footsteps become rapid, eager, and broken, we look upon the term of
+meditation and doubt as over, the resolve as definitely fixed, and the
+unknown as restlessly longing for the hour of its fulfilment.
+
+When we hear steps resembling dactyls, anapaests, and choriambs thrown
+hurriedly together, broken by irregular pauses, we begin to build a
+whole romance on the steps of the stranger; we infer from them moments
+of grave deliberation; the languor consequent upon overwrought thought;
+renewed effort; resolve; alternations of passion; hope struggling with
+despair; until all at last seems merged in impatient longing for the
+hour of anticipated victory.
+
+Nor has the imagination been alone in its strange workings; it has
+whispered, as it always does, its secrets to the heart, and succeeded in
+arousing its ever-ready affections, so that we cannot help feeling a
+degree of interest in the unknown, whose emotions we have followed
+through the night, reading their history in his alternating footsteps:
+_for sounds impress themselves immediately upon the feelings, exciting,
+not abstract or antagonistic thought, but uniting humanity in concrete
+feeling_. (See vol. i.)
+
+As the imagination necessarily associates different feelings with
+different orders of Rhythm, it is the task of the Poet to select those
+in the closest conformity with the emotions he is struggling to excite.
+It is positively certain that we not only naturally and intuitively
+_associate_ distinctive feelings with different orders of rhythmical
+sounds, but that varied emotions are _awakened_ by them. Some rhythms
+inspire calmness, some sublime and stately courage, some energy and
+aggressive force, some stir the spirit to the most daring deeds, some,
+as in our maddening Tarantulas, produce a restless excitement through
+the whole nervous system, some excite mere joyousness, some whisper love
+through every fibre of the heart, and some lead us in their holy calm
+and unbroken order to the throne of God. Why is this? We need not look
+in the region of the understanding for the philosophy of that which is
+to be found only in the living tide of basic emotions. The pleasure we
+receive from Rhythm is a feeling. Alternate accentuation and
+non-accentuation are facts in the living organism of the universe; this
+may be expressed, not explained. There is an order in the living
+succession of musical sounds or poetic emotions, which order is
+expressed by the words 'equality and proportion.' These things _are_.
+What more can be said? Do comparisons help us? the waves in the eternal
+ocean of vitality--the shuttle strokes of the ever-moving loom of
+creation! Let us take it as it is, and rejoice in it. We cannot tell you
+why we live--let us be glad that our life is music through every
+heart-throb!
+
+Rhythm is a species of natural but inarticulate language, in which the
+_thought_ is never disengaged from the _feeling_; in language its aim
+should be to awaken the _feeling_ properly attached to the thought it
+modulates; it should be the _tune_ of the thought of the Poet. To write
+a love song in alexandrines, an idyl in hexameters, would be to
+incarnate the shy spirit of a girl in the brawny frame of a Hercules, to
+incase the loving soul of a Juliet in a gauntleted Minerva. Genius and
+deep sympathy with human nature can alone guide the Poet aright in this
+delicate and difficult path; it lies too near the core of our
+unconscious being to be susceptible of the trim regularity of rule--he
+must trust his own intuitions while he studies with care what has
+already been successfully done by our best poets. We may however remark
+in passing that if the rhythm be abruptly broken without a corresponding
+break in the flow of thought or feeling, the reader will be confused,
+because the outward form has fallen into contradiction with its inner
+soul, and he discerns the opposition, and knows not with which to
+sympathize. Such contrarieties argue want of power or want of freedom in
+the poet, who should never suffer the clanking of his rhythmical chains
+to be heard. Such causeless breaks proceed from want of truth to the
+subject, and prove a lack of the careful rendering of love in the
+author. The poet must listen to the naive voice of nature as he moulds
+his rhythms, for the ingenious and elaborate constructions of the
+intellect alone will never touch the heart. Rhythm may proceed with
+regularity, yet that regularity be so relieved from monotony and so
+modified in its actual effects, that however regular may be the
+structure of parts, what is composed of them may be infinitely various.
+Milton's exquisite poem, 'Comus,' is an example of perfect rhythm with
+ceaseless intricacy and great variety. It would indeed be a fatal
+mistake to suppose that _proportion_ cannot be susceptible of great
+variety, since the whole meaning of the term has reference to the
+adjustment and proportional correspondence of _variable_ properties.
+
+The appreciation of rhythm is universal, pertaining to no region, race,
+nor era, in especial. Even those who have never _thought_ about it,
+_feel_ order to be the law of life and happiness, and in the marking of
+the _proportioned_ flow of time and the regular accentuation of its
+_determinate_ portions find a perpetual source of healthful pleasure.
+
+If we will but think of it, we will be astonished how many ideas already
+analyzed we may find exhibited through rhythm. We may have: similarity,
+variety, identity, repetition, adaptation, symmetry, proportion,
+fitness, melody, harmony, order, and unity; in addition to the varied
+feelings of which it becomes the symbolic utterance. The Greeks placed
+rhythms in the hands of a god, thus testifying to their knowledge of
+their range and power.
+
+Wordsworth asserts that
+
+     'More pathetic situations and sentiments, that is, those which have
+     a greater proportion of pain connected with them, may be endured in
+     metrical compositions than in prose.'
+
+The reason of this seems to be that the bright beams forever raying from
+the Divine Sun of unity and order, shine through the measured beat of
+the rhythm, and are always felt as life and peace, even when their
+golden light is broken by the wild and drifting clouds of human woe, or
+seen athwart the surging and blinding mists of mortal anguish.
+
+Rhythm lurks in the inmost heart of language, accenting our words that
+their enunciation may be clear and distinct; lengthening and shortening
+the time of our syllables that they may be expressive, emotional, and
+musical. Let the orator as well as the poet study its capabilities; it
+has more power over the sympathies of the masses than the most labored
+thought.
+
+Although through the quantitive arrangement and determinate accentuation
+of syllabic sound, rhythm may be exquisitely manifested through
+language, yet in music alone does it attain its full power and wonderful
+complexity. For the _tones_ are not _thoughts_, but _feelings_, and
+yield themselves implicitly to the loving hand which would reunite them
+and form them into higher unities. These passionate tones, always
+seeking for and surging into each other, are plastic pearls on the
+string of rhythm, whose proportions may be indefinitely varied at the
+will of the fond hand which would wreathe them into strands of
+symmetrical beauty; while _words_, the vehicles of antagonistic thought,
+frequently refuse to conform to the requisitions of feeling, are often
+obstinate and wilful, will not be remodelled, and hard, in their
+self-sufficiency, refuse to bear any stamp save that of their known and
+fixed value. Like irregular beads of uncut coral, they protrude their
+individualities in jagged spikes and unsightly thorns, breaking often
+the unity of the whole, and painfully wounding the sense of order.
+
+The true poet overcomes these difficulties. When, in the hands of a
+master, they are forced to bend under the onward and impetuous sweep of
+the passionate rhythm, compelled to sing the tune of the overpowering
+emotions--the chords of the spirit quiver in response. The heart
+recognizes the organic law of its own life: _the constant recurrence of
+new effort sinking but to recover itself in accurately proportioned
+rest, rising again in ever-renewed exertion, to sink again in ever-new
+repose_; feeling seems clothing itself with living form, while the
+divine attribute, Order, marks for the ear, as it links in mystic Unity,
+the flying footsteps of that forever invisible element by which all
+mortal being is conditioned and limited: TIME!
+
+  'There is no architect
+     Can build as the Muse can;
+   She is skilful to select
+     Materials for her plan.
+
+  'She lays her beams in music,
+     In music every one,
+   To the cadence of the whirling world
+     Which dances round the sun.
+
+  'That so they shall not be displaced
+     By lapses or by wars,
+   But for the love of happy souls
+     Outlive the newest stars.'
+                            EMERSON.
+
+
+
+
+'OUR ARTICLE.'
+
+'John,' said I to my husband, as he came home from business, and settled
+into an armchair for half an hour's rest before dinner, 'I think of
+writing an article for THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY.'
+
+'Humph!' said my husband.
+
+Now 'humph' bears different interpretations; it may argue assent,
+indifference, disgust, disapprobation--in all cases it is aggressive;
+but this 'humph' seemed to be a combination of at least three of the
+above-mentioned frames of mind.
+
+Natural indignation was about taking full possession of me, but
+reflection stepped in, and I preserved a discreet silence. The truth is,
+no man should be assailed by a new idea before he has dined, and I,
+having had three years' opportunity of studying man nature, met my
+deserts when the above answer was given. So I still looked amiable, and
+behaved very prettily till dinner was over, and then John, having
+subsided into dressing gown, slippers, easy chair, and good nature, I
+remarked again:
+
+'John, I think of writing an article for THE CONTINENTAL
+MONTHLY.'
+
+'How shall you begin it?' said he.
+
+'Well, I haven't exactly settled on a beginning yet, but--'
+
+'Exactly! I supposed so!' remarked this barbarian.
+
+Unfortunately, he knew my weak point, for hadn't he been allowed to see
+a desk full of magnificent middles, only wanting a beginning and an end,
+and a publisher, and some readers, to place me in the front ranks of our
+modern essayists, side by side with 'Spare Hours,' and the 'Country
+Parson,' and 'Gail Hamilton?'
+
+The fact is, I have always been brimming over with brilliant ideas on
+all sorts of subjects, which never would arrange themselves or be
+arranged under any given head, but presented a series of remarkable
+literary fragments, jotted down on stray bits of paper, in old account
+books and diaries, and even, on one or two occasions, when seized by a
+sudden inspiration, on a smooth stone, taken from the brook, a fair
+sheet of birch bark, and the front of a pew in a white-painted country
+church. Having been subject to these inspirational attacks for many
+years, I had decided to take them in hand, and, if they must come,
+derive some benefit from them. An idea suggested itself. Claude
+Lorraine, it is said, never put the figures in his landscapes, but left
+that work for some brother artist. Now I could bring together material
+for an article; the inspiration, the picturing should be mine, but John
+should put in the figures. In other words, he should polish it, write
+the introduction and the _finis_, and send it out to the public, as the
+work of 'my wife and I.'
+
+Then a question occurred: how should we divide the honors, supposing
+such an article should really find its way into print? Would there not
+be material for a standard quarrel in the fact that neither could claim
+sole proprietorship? What would be John's sensation, should any one say
+to him: 'Mr. ----, I have just been reading your wife's last article;
+capital thing!' and, _vice versa_, imagine the same thing said of me.
+Could I preserve amiability under such circumstances, and would not the
+result be, a divorce in a year, and a furious lawsuit as to the
+ownership of the copyright? John certainly is magnanimous, I thought,
+but no one cares for divided honors, and there is that middle-aged
+relation of his, with a figure like a vinegar cruet, and a voice as acid
+as its contents, who never comes here for a day without doing her best
+to set us by the ears, and who, in the beginning of our married life,
+when we did not understand each other quite so well as now, sometimes
+succeeded, to her intense satisfaction.
+
+How she would go about among all the friends and relations, pulling the
+poor articles to pieces, giving all the fine bits to John and the
+rubbish to me, and hinting generally that my pretensions to authorship
+were all very well, but that every one knew John did the work and I
+looked out for the credit.
+
+Here I paused. I had been successfully engaged in the pursuit of
+trouble, and had conjured up so irritating a picture, that actually a
+small tear had left its source, and was running over the bridge of my
+nose!
+
+'John,' I said, 'notwithstanding that I never did know how to begin
+anything in an effective way, I am still determined to write, and you
+must help me.'
+
+Then I opened my heart to him, and told him my plan, and the imagined
+tribulation it had given me in the last ten minutes.
+
+'There are too many writers already, Helen,' he said; 'every man who
+cannot see his way clear through life--every woman who fancies herself
+misunderstood and unappreciated, worries out a book or poem or a set of
+essays, to picture their individual wrongs and sufferings, and bores
+every publisher of every magazine and paper of which they have ever
+heard, till he is tormented into printing, or dies of manuscript on the
+brain. I tell you, Helen, we do our share in aggravating the people we
+meet daily, without tormenting an innocent man, 'who never did us any
+harm;' and I for one, don't want an extra sin on my conscience.
+Moreover, I am afraid it would spoil you, should you happen to succeed.
+Have you forgotten your old friend Angelina Hobbs? One article ruined
+her for life. Until that poem got into print and was favorably noticed,
+she was as sensible as ordinary girls, and never imagined herself a
+genius. Since then, there is not an 'ism' in America that she has not
+taken up and run into the ground; I have met her in every stage, from
+the coat and pantaloons of the Bloomer ten years ago to the hoopless old
+maid I saw yesterday going into Dodworth's Hall with the last spiritual
+paper and a spirit photograph in her hand. Not a literary man or woman
+do I know, who has not some crotchet in his or her brain, and who does
+not in some way violate the harmonies of life at least once an hour. Be
+content as you are: be satisfied to live without seeing yourself in
+THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY, or any other monthly under the sun!'
+
+'John,' I said, 'I am surprised, I am astonished at the view you take of
+the case. I don't desire that publishers should be tormented into their
+graves; and if they are all as fat and rosy as the two we met the other
+day, I think you can dismiss all fears on that score. Moreover, I
+believe the world to be better for every book that is written, however
+insignificant it may be. The days of the corsairs and giaours, romantic
+robbers, and devout murderers, are over: our young ladies and our
+servant girls see no fascination in the pages of 'Fatherless Fanny,'
+'The Foundling,' or 'The Mysteries of Slabtown.' Arthur's stories and
+ten thousand others of the same class have taken their place, and
+commonplace as they may often be, have brought a healthier influence
+into action. No book written with an honest heart is lost; no poem or
+essay, however poor, fails to reach some mark. The printed page that to
+you or me looks so barren and poor, may carry to some soul a message of
+healing; may to some eyes have the light of heaven about it. And to how
+many aimless lives, writing has given a purpose which otherwise never
+might have entered it! John, I believe in writing, and this baby shall
+be taught to put his ideas into shape as soon as he is taught anything!
+I never wish him to settle down in the belief that he is a genius and
+can live on the fact; but he shall write if he can, and publish too, if
+any one will do it for him. If not, we will have a private printing
+press of our own, and get up an original library for our descendants.'
+
+'A genuine woman's answer,' said John; 'only one point in it touching
+upon my argument.' Here the baby opened his blue eyes wide. 'There!'
+said John; 'just for the present your life has a purpose, and we can
+dispense with writing, at least till that fellow is asleep again. When
+you have disposed of him, we will find out how many aims it is necessary
+for one woman to have, and what arrangement of them it is best to make.'
+
+The baby stayed awake obstinately, but I was reconciled to the fact, for
+our discussion might have become hot, and the writing ended for that
+evening quite as effectually as the baby had done it.
+
+Night came again, and this time John opened the subject, by placing
+before me a large package of foolscap, and a new gold pen.
+
+'I have brought some paper for you to spoil, Helen,' he said, 'for I
+foresaw how it would end. Do your best, and I will do mine in the matter
+of beginnings. I cannot write easily, you know, but I can suggest and
+dictate, when you wish it; and you have been my amanuensis for a year
+and more, so it will all seem very natural.'
+
+He looked down, as he spoke, at the scarred right hand and its missing
+fingers, carried away eighteen months before by a rebel bullet, and a
+little shade passed over his face.
+
+'No, John,' I said, 'don't look there now; look at my two hands waiting
+to do the work of that, and tell me if two are not better than one. We
+will write an article which shall astonish the critics, and bring
+letters from all the magazines, begging us to become special
+contributors at once; and we will not quarrel as to who shall have the
+glory, but make it a joint matter. And now I am ready to begin, and
+propose to speak upon a subject which I wonder greatly no one has taken
+up in detail before. Your words last evening brought out some dormant
+ideas. 'We do our share in aggravating the people we meet daily,' you
+said, and I have been reflecting upon the matter ever since, till now I
+am prepared to give my opinions to the world.'
+
+So saying, I arranged the table properly, took out some sheets of the
+smooth, white paper, filled my pen, and waited for the dawning of an
+idea. To which it came first, I shall not tell you. The results are
+before you: which part is John's, which mine, you will never learn from
+us. It will be of no avail for you to write to the editors, for they
+don't know either, and will not be told. It will be a useful exercise
+for you to dissect the article, and set apart the masculine from the
+feminine portions. The critics will for once be quite at a loss how to
+abuse it, probably. I foresee a general distraction in the minds of our
+readers, and already hear ourselves classed as among one of the trials
+which I select as the title of 'Our Article.'
+
+
+SOME OF THE AGGRAVATIONS OF LIVING.
+
+Two thirds of life in the aggregate are made up of aggravations. They
+begin with our beginning, and only cease with our ending; perhaps, if
+good Calvinists speak the truth, not even then, for, according to their
+belief, the souls in torment look always upon the blessed in heaven, and
+this surely is the most horrible species of aggravation ever devised by
+man or fiend.
+
+From the time when the air first fills the lungs and the infant screams
+at the new sensation, to the day when fingers press down the resisting
+lids and straighten the stiffening limbs, we are forced to meet and to
+bear all manner of aggravations in nine tenths of our daily life.
+
+Has it ever occurred to any of you what an amount of unnecessary
+suffering an infant endures, and have you ever watched the operations it
+undergoes daily, with reference to the confirming of this fact? If not,
+an inexhaustible field of inquiry lies open before you, and after a
+week's observation of bandages rolled till the flesh actually
+squeaks--of pins stuck in and left, where you know they will prick--of
+smotherings in blankets and garrotings with bibs--of trottings for the
+wind and poundings for the stomach ache--of wakings up to show to
+visitors, and puttings to sleep when sleep is at the other end of the
+land of Nod, and will not be induced to come under any circumstances--of
+rockings and tossings--of boiling catnip tea and smooth horrible castor
+oil poured down the unsuspecting throat--after a week of such
+observations, I say, you will decide with me that the baby's life is
+only a series of aggravations, and feel astonished the bills of infant
+mortality do not double and treble.
+
+As years round out the little life, the hands, reaching out to the tree
+of knowledge, find themselves pushed back on all sides. The dearest
+wishes are made light of, the most earnest desires slighted, the most
+sacred thoughts ridiculed, till one marvels that men can grow up
+anything but devils. In the path where Gail Hamilton's feet have trod I
+need not follow, for she has told us what these 'Happiest Days' are, in
+better words than my pen can find. It warmed my heart as I read her
+protest against the platitudes concerning childhood and its various
+imagined delights. Mentally I shook hands, for she expressed my ideas so
+fully, that the notes I had long ago jotted down upon the subject I
+committed at once to the flames, satisfied I never could do any better,
+and might possibly do very much worse.
+
+I believe that the major part of sour-tempered, perversely wrong-headed,
+and unhappily disposed people, of hot-headed fanatics, victims to one
+idea, of once noble souls who sink themselves in sensuality, and so go
+down to death, and of all the sad cases one hears and reads of day after
+day and year after year, are made so through unceasing aggravation at
+the most impressible time of life. Do any of you who may be my readers
+know of half a dozen happy families in your circle of friends and
+acquaintance? Do you know of half a dozen where boys prefer home and
+their sisters to the streets, or where girls do not court the most
+uninviting boy in preference to their own brothers?
+
+One would almost imagine spite had been the feeling implanted in all
+homes, as they look at the private pinch exchanged between John and
+James, the face made by Mary at which Martha cries and is slapped by way
+of adjusting matters, and the general refusal of requests made to father
+and mother, whether reasonable or not. My own childhood was moderately
+happy, and yet I recall now the sense of burning indignation I sometimes
+suffered at wrongs done me, which the child's sense of justice told me
+were wrongs, and which I now know to have been so. Children are
+themselves one of the aggravations of living, but it is because we do
+not know how to treat them. I look for a time when every father shall be
+just, every mother reasonable as well as loving; when children shall
+neither be flogged up the way of life as in times past, or coaxed up
+with sugarplums as in times present, but, seeing with clear eyes the
+straight path, shall walk in it with joy, and finish their course with
+rejoicing.
+
+Another aggravation, and not a minor one either it strikes me, is the
+summary way in which youth is put down by middle-aged and aged people.
+Youthful emotions are 'bosh and twaddle,' youthful ideas, 'crude, sir,
+very crude!' and youthful attempts to be and to do something in the
+world frowned at, as if action of any sort, save inaction, before forty,
+were an outrage on humanity, and an insult to the Creator.
+
+How fares it with young professional men during the first ten years of
+their career? They hope and wait, doubt and wait, curse and wait, labor
+to wait, and in the mean time a wheezing old lawyer, with no more
+enthusiasm than a brickbat, takes the cases which Justice, if she were
+not blind, would have sent to his starving younger brethren, and pockets
+fat fees, a tenth of which would have lifted loads from many a heavy
+heart. An old family physician, an old minister, an old lawyer, are
+excellent in their way, and have a variety of pleasant associations with
+them, which it is impossible to pass over to the young aspirant who
+steps in to take their place; yet because Dr. Jones, aged sixty-eight,
+carried us safely through the measles, does it follow that Dr. Smith,
+aged twenty-eight, cannot do the same for our children?
+
+Because for thirty years the Rev. Dr. Holdfast has preached upon
+election, and justification by faith, is the Rev. Dr. Holeman to be set
+down as presumptuously progressive, because he suggests works as a test
+of the faith we profess, and ventures to speak of God, not as the stern
+Deity who commands us all to be afraid of Him, and who drops lost souls
+into the pit with a calm satisfaction, but as the loving Father of the
+world, who wills that all men should come to the knowledge of His truth.
+
+It is well for the old to give us their experience, well for the young
+to listen, but every man and every woman lives a life of their own,
+which the widest experience cannot touch at all points. No two natures
+have ever been nor ever can be exactly alike; no rules of the past can
+form the present in the same mould. Girls and boys, young men and women,
+must 'see the folly' for themselves, and all the advice and warning of
+all the ancestors under heaven cannot prevent it. Therefore, O
+middle-aged aunt, or white-haired grandparent, aggravate by unceasing
+advice, if you will, but be not aggravated if it isn't taken. Reflect as
+to how fully you availed yourself of the experience of _your_
+grandparents when you were young, and then make your demands
+accordingly. Tell the young the story of your life as a story, and they
+will listen and mayhap profit; give it as advice, and you shall see them
+keep as far off as circumstances will admit. It is my fixed belief that
+until the people in the world have learned how to hold their tongues, it
+will be entirely useless to read Dr. Cumming; believe in the Great
+Tribulation as much as you please, for it is about us all day long, but
+don't look out for the Millennium, which I think will consist entirely
+in people's minding their own business.
+
+In the inability or unwillingness of people to let other people alone,
+may be summed up all the aggravation of living. The bane of my life has
+been never being let alone. People seem to think they have come into the
+world with a special mission to give me advice, and from my babyhood up,
+I have never been allowed to carry out the best-arranged plan of
+operation, without interference. As each man and woman is the
+representative of a certain class, I conclude others have had the same
+experience with myself; and there is a gloomy satisfaction in reflecting
+that there are many who have been made as essentially uncomfortable as
+I. The result has been, I have come to the unalterable determination
+never, under any circumstances, to either advise anybody or receive it
+myself where it can be avoided. If it is ordained that I am to make a
+fool of myself, it shall be done on my own responsibility, and not with
+the assistance of meddling friends--though if they have any desire to
+take the credit of it, I shall make no objections whatever. I doubt if
+they will. The longer I live in the world, the clearer appears the fact
+that half at least of our unhappiness is unnecessary. We seem perversely
+bent on tormenting and being tormented. We visit people for whom we do
+not care one straw, because our position in society or our interests
+demand it. We sacrifice our own judgment to the whims of others as a
+matter of expediency, and almost ignore our own capacity in the
+eagerness to agree with everybody. We suffer because a rich snob snubs
+us, and agonize over unfavorable remarks made concerning our abilities
+or standing. These things ought not so to be. No man can find a
+substitute when he lies a-dying;--why should all his years be spent in
+the vain endeavor to find a substitute for living? An endless dependence
+upon the opinions, the whims, the prejudices of others, is the bane of
+living, and the mark of a weak mind, made so oftener by education than
+nature.
+
+When the young forget to abuse the old, and the old to run down the
+young; when mothers-in-law cease to hate their daughters-in-law, and to
+improve all opportunities for sowing strife; when wives take pains to
+understand their husbands, and husbands decide that woman nature is
+worth studying; when women can remember to be charitable to other women;
+when the Golden Rule can be read as it is written, and not 'Do unto
+others as ye would _not_ they should do unto you;' when justice and
+truth rule men, rather than unreason and petty spite, then the
+aggravation of living will die a natural death, and the world become as
+comfortable an abiding place as its inhabitants need desire.
+
+Till then, hope and wait. Live the life God gives us, as purely and
+truly as you know how. Have some faith in human nature, but more in God,
+and wait his own good time for the perfect life, not to be reached here,
+but hereafter.
+
+
+
+
+THE LESSON OF THE WOOD.
+
+
+  In the same soil the family of trees
+  Spring up, and, like a band of brothers, grow
+  In the same sun, while from their leafy lips
+  Comes not the faintest whisper of dissent
+  Because of various girth and grain and hue.
+  The oak flings not his acorns at the elm;
+  The white birch shrinks not from the swarthy ash;
+  The green plume of the pine nods to the shrub;
+  The loftiest monarch of the realm of wood
+  Spares not his crown in elemental storms,
+  But shares the blows with trees of humbler growth,
+  And stretches forth his arms to save their fall.
+  Wild flowers festoon the feet of all alike;
+  Green mosses grow upon the trunks of all;
+  Sweet birds pour out their songs on every bough;
+  Clouds drop baptismal showers of rain on each,
+  And the broad sun floods every leaf with light.
+  Behold them clad in Autumn's golden pomp--
+  Their rich magnificence, of different dyes,
+  More beautiful than royal robes, and crowns
+  Of emperors on coronation day.
+  But the deserted nest in silence sways
+  Like a sad heart beneath a royal scarf;
+  And the red tint upon the maple leaves
+  Is colored like the fields where fell our braves
+  In hurricanes of flame and leaden hail.
+  I love to gaze up at the grand old trees;
+  Their branches point like hope to Heaven serene;
+  Their roots point to the silent world that's dead;
+  Their grand old trunks hold towns and fleets for us,
+  And cots and coffins for the race unborn.
+  When at their feet their predecessors fell,
+  Spring covered their remains with mourning moss,
+  And wrote their epitaph in pale wood flowers,
+  And Summer gave ripe berries to the birds
+  To stay and sing their sad sweet requiem;
+  And Autumn rent the garments of the trees
+  That stood mute mourners in a field of graves,
+  And Winter wrapped them in a winding sheet.
+  They seemed like giants sleeping in their shrouds.
+
+
+
+
+DIARY OF FRANCES KRASINSKA;
+
+OR, LIFE IN POLAND DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+
+  CASTLE OF JANOWIEC,
+  Wednesday, _May 27th, 1760._
+
+I had hoped too much! He is going, and the memory of the past will
+render the days to come very sad. I knew that Monday was an unlucky day:
+since my maid gave me such a fright by announcing the approaching
+departure of the princes, all has gone from bad to worse.
+
+The huntsman who brought me the bouquet from the prince, told me, in his
+name, that he too was forced to depart. With great difficulty could he
+invent a pretext for remaining three days after his brothers left. These
+three days will not expire until to-morrow, and yet he leaves me to-day;
+he must go, and can no longer delay. The king has sent an express for
+him, with an order to return as soon as possible. He will leave in one
+half hour, and I do not know when we can meet again. Ah! how soon
+happiness passes away!...
+
+
+Sunday, _June 7th._
+
+It is now two weeks since the prince royal left me; he has sent two
+expresses, and slipped two notes for me under cover to the prince
+palatine. But what is a letter?... An unfinished thought--it soothes for
+a moment, but cannot calm. A letter can never replace even a few seconds
+of personal intercourse; he has left me his portrait; I am sure every
+one would think it like him; but for me, it is merely a shred of
+inanimate canvas. It has his features, but it is not he, and has not his
+expression.... I have him much better in my memory.
+
+All consolation is denied me, for I will not reply to his letters; this
+restraint I have imposed upon myself; I am sure that my hand would
+become motionless as the cold marble were I to write to the man I love
+without the knowledge of my aunt, my elder sister, and my parents. I
+told the prince royal that he could never have a letter from me until I
+was his wife. This is a great sacrifice, but I have promised my God that
+I will accomplish it.
+
+Since his departure, time weighs upon me as a continued torture. During
+the first few days I wandered about as if bereft of reason; I could not
+fix my thoughts, or apply myself to any occupation. The illness of the
+princess has restored some energy to my soul. The injury to her foot,
+which she at first neglected, has become very serious; during three days
+she had a burning fever, which threatened her life. My anguish was
+beyond description; I am sure I could not have been more uneasy had it
+been my sister or one of my parents. I scarcely thought of the prince
+royal during the whole of those three days; and what is most strange, I
+no longer regretted his absence; if he had been here, I could not have
+devoted myself so entirely to the princess. The idea of her death was
+terrible to me, for, notwithstanding all the arguments of the prince
+royal and of the Princes Lubomirski, I feel myself very culpable in
+having withheld my confidence from her; if she suspects the truth, she
+has every reason to accuse me of perfidy.... There is in this world but
+one inconsolable evil, and that is the torture of a bad
+conscience--remorse....
+
+I hoped one day to be able to repair my wrongs toward the princess, to
+fall at her feet and confess my fault, but when I saw her in danger, I
+felt as if hell itself were menacing me, and as if I must be forever
+crushed under the weight of an eternal remorse.... Another thought too
+has distressed me to the very bottom of my soul! My parents are advanced
+in years; if I should lose them before I have confessed my secret to
+them! It is written above that I am to know every sorrow! Heaven has
+cruelly tried me, but to-day a ray of pity seems to have fallen upon my
+miserable fate. The princess is steadily improving, and I have received
+good news from Maleszow; I breathe again.
+
+Were the king to give his consent to our marriage, I could not be
+happier than I was on hearing from the physician's own mouth that the
+princess was out of danger.... I will then be able to open my heart to
+her! Ah! my God! if this painful dissimulation weighs so heavily upon
+me, what must be the state of the prince royal, who is deceiving his
+father, his king, and offending him by a misplaced affection!
+
+Why did not these reflections present themselves to me before? Why did I
+not show him the abyss into which we were about to fall?... My happiness
+then blinded me, and now I can fancy no condition which I would not
+prefer to my own.... I feel humiliated by my imprudence. Did I not, with
+the whole strength of my wishes and desires draw upon me this very love
+so dear to my heart and so fatal to my repose? My pride has lost me; and
+that pride is an implacable enemy, which I have no longer strength to
+subdue. Oh! I must indeed blame our little Matthias! It was he who first
+awoke such ambitious dreams within my soul.
+
+Happy Barbara! If I only, like her, loved a man of rank equal to my own!
+But no, I am not of good faith with myself: the prince royal's position
+dazzled me. Ah! how merciful is heaven to cover our innermost thoughts
+with an impenetrable veil! Alas! God pardons the defects in our frail
+humanity sooner than we ourselves can!
+
+I left the princess half an hour ago, and must now return to her; she
+loves so to have me with her! And indeed, no one can wait upon her as
+well as myself. I feel happy when sitting at her bedside; I regain
+courage when I think that I am useful to her, and I feel a kind of joy
+in finding that my heart is not occupied by one sentiment to the
+exclusion of all others.
+
+
+CASTLE OF OPOLE, Thursday, _June 18th._
+
+The princess has entirely recovered, and we have been three days at
+Opole. I was sorry to leave Janowiec, for all around me bore the impress
+of his presence. In his last letter, he announces a very sad piece of
+news: he is forced to pass two months in his duchy of Courland. He will
+endeavor to see me before he goes; but will he succeed? Two months! how
+many centuries, when one must wait!
+
+We have had several visitors from Warsaw; among others, Adam Krasinski,
+Bishop of Kamieniec; he is in every way estimable, and universally
+esteemed! All speak of the change in the prince royal: he is pale and
+sad, and flies the world. The king himself is uneasy concerning his son,
+and it is I who am the cause of all this woe. Is love then a
+never-ending source of sorrow? He suffers for me, and his suffering is
+my most cruel torment.... They say too that I am changed, and believe me
+ill: the good princess attributes my pallor to the nights I have watched
+by her side. Her manifestations of interest pierce my heart! When shall
+I be at peace with my conscience?
+
+
+Saturday, _July 11th._
+
+Like a flash of lightning has a single ray of happiness shone out and
+then disappeared. He came here to see me, but could remain only two
+hours. Last Wednesday he left Warsaw, as if he were going to Courland,
+but, sending his carriages before him on the way to the north, he turned
+aside and hastened here. His court awaited him at Bialystok, and he was
+forced to travel night and day to avoid suspicion. I saw him for so
+short a time that those few happy moments seem only a dream. He was
+obliged to assume his huntsman's dress in order to gain admittance
+unknown into the castle.
+
+No one penetrated his disguise, and no one except the prince palatine
+was cognizant of our interview. He spoke to me, he gave me repeated
+assurances of his love, and restored to me my dearest hopes; had he not
+done so, I feel I should have died before the expiration of the three
+months. Three months is the very least that he can remain at Mittau. How
+many days, how many hours, how many minutes in those three months! I
+could be more resigned were I alone to suffer; but he is so unhappy at
+our separation!
+
+
+Thursday, _September 3d._
+
+I have neglected my journal during nearly two months. Good and evil, all
+passes in this world. My days have been sad and monotonous, but they are
+gone, and their flight brings me nearer to my happiness. The prince
+royal assures me in all his letters that he will return in October. I
+was crazy with joy to-day when I found the leaves were falling: I am
+charmed with this foretaste of autumn. We will leave for Warsaw in a
+very few days.
+
+A new incident has lately come to pass: a very brilliant match has been
+offered for me, and the princess, who loves me twice as well since I
+nursed her through her illness, after having concerted the marriage with
+my parents and the Bishop of Kamieniec, hoped to win my consent. I was
+forced to bear her anger and reproaches, and worse than all that, the
+bitter allusions which she made to the prince royal....
+
+To satisfy my parents, I was obliged to humiliate myself, and write a
+letter of excuse; my mother deigned to send me a reply filled with
+sorrow, but without anger. She ends her letter by saying: 'Parents who
+send their children away from them, must expect to find them rebellious
+to their will.'
+
+My poor mother! She still gives me her sacred blessing, and assures me
+of my father's forgiveness! Ah! I purchase very dearly my future
+happiness and greatness!
+
+
+WARSAW, Tuesday, _September 22d._
+
+We returned to Warsaw several days ago. Ah! with what joy did I find
+myself once more here; how beautiful this city is! Here I will often see
+the prince royal. He assures me in his last letter that he will return
+by the first of October; I have then only one week to wait; without this
+hope I should no longer have any desire to live. Nothing now gives me
+any pleasure. Dress tires and annoys me, visits and assemblies weary me
+to death; every person whom I meet seems to me a scrutinizing judge; I
+fancy that all are pitying or blaming me. Especially do I fear the women
+of my acquaintance; they are not indulgent, because they are never
+disinterested; they are no better pleased with another woman's good
+fortune than they are with her beauty and agreeability....
+
+Even yesterday, with what cruelty Madame ----, but I will not write her
+name--questioned me! She enjoyed my confusion; I was almost ready to
+weep, and she was delighted. In the presence of fifty persons, she
+revenged herself for what is called _my triumph_, but what I consider
+the most _sacred happiness_. Ah! how deeply she wounded me! I almost
+hate her.... This feeling alone was wanting to complete the torment of
+my soul. The prince palatine took pity on me, and came to my aid; may
+God reward him! In every difficult crisis he is always near with his
+active and powerful friendship. He would be quite perfect, if he only
+understood me a little better; but when I weep and show my sorrow, he
+laughs and calls me a child.... I cannot tell him everything.
+
+Thursday, _October 1st._
+
+He has come, and I have seen him; he is quite well, and yet I am not
+happy. I saw him amid a crowd of indifferent people; and when my
+feelings impelled me to run and meet him in the palace court, I was
+forced to remain by my work table and wait until he came into the
+saloon, when he of course first saluted the princess, and my only
+consolation consisted in being able to make him a formal and icy
+reverence. But he is come, and all must now go well.
+
+
+_October 12th._
+
+Great God! how sweet are the words to which I have just given utterance!
+Happy, a thousand times happy, is the woman who can promise with all her
+heart to give her hand during her whole life to him whom she loves! The
+fourth of November is the prince's birthday. He desires, he demands,
+that this may be the day of our holy union! He made me swear by my God,
+and by my parents, that I would no longer oppose his wishes; he said he
+would doubt my affection if I still hesitated. His tears and prayers
+overcame me; encouraged by the advice of the prince palatine, I promised
+all he desired, and already do I repent my weakness. But he--he was
+happy when he left me....
+
+He wished our marriage to be kept secret from my parents, as it must be
+during some time from the rest of the world; he desired that the Princes
+Lubomirski should be our only witnesses and our only confidants; but I
+opposed this project with all my strength; I even threatened him with
+becoming a nun rather than play so guilty a part toward my parents. He
+finally yielded: he is so kind to me. It was then decided that I should
+write to my parents, and that he would add a postscript to my letter.
+
+At first I felt grateful to him for his submission; but with a little
+more reflection I felt offended. Is it not he who should write to my
+parents? Is it not thus that such affairs are conducted? Alas, yes; but
+only when one weds an equal! It is a prince, a prince of the blood royal
+who _deigns_ to unite himself to me! He then does me a favor in wedding
+me.... This thought has become so bitter that I was on the point of
+retracting; but it is too late, for I have given my word.
+
+I must now write to my parents; I must confess to them the love which I
+have so long kept a secret from them. Ah! how wicked they will think me!
+I have been wanting in confidence toward the best of mothers.... My God!
+inspire me; give me courage! A criminal dragged before his judges could
+not tremble more than I do!
+
+
+Thursday, _October 22d._
+
+The prince palatine's confidential chamberlain has already left for
+Maleszow. I am very well satisfied with my letter; but the prince royal
+finds fault with it, and says it is too humble; I, in my turn, found his
+postscript altogether too royal. I was about to tell him so, when the
+prince palatine stopped me.
+
+What will my parents say? Perhaps they will refuse their consent, and,
+strange as it may appear, during the last few days, the sense of my own
+dignity has been stronger than my vanity or my desire for greatness.
+This event seems to me quite ordinary: it is true he is the prince
+royal, Duke of Courland, and will perhaps one day be King of Poland, but
+if he has not my father's consent, it is he who is not my equal.
+
+If no opposition is made to my marriage, I ardently desire that it may
+be the parish priest of Maleszow who will give us the nuptial
+benediction; the prince palatine has promised me to do all he can; at
+least, he will be the representative of my parents, and will confer a
+small degree of propriety upon the ceremony. Barbara's destiny is ever
+in my thoughts! I deemed her wishes very modest when she said to me:
+'Strive to be as happy as I am!' Alas! her happiness is immense, when I
+compare it with mine!...
+
+Wednesday, _October 28th._
+
+My parents' answer has arrived; they give us their blessing and wish me
+much happiness; but the tenderness they express toward me is not like
+that obtained and merited by Barbara. This is just; I suffer, but have
+no right to complain. The prince royal expected to receive an especial
+letter addressed to himself; but my parents have not written to him. He
+is piqued, and conversed a long time with the prince palatine on the
+pride of certain Polish nobles.
+
+I feel more tranquil since my parents know our secret; my heart is
+relieved from a most cruel torment. My parents promise not to reveal our
+marriage without the prince royal's consent; one may see in their letter
+both joy and surprise; but there is a tone of sadness in my mother's
+expressions which touches me deeply. She says:
+
+'If you are unhappy, I will not be responsible for it; if you are happy
+(and I shall never cease to beg this blessing of God in my prayers), I
+will rejoice, but at the same time regret that I had no part in
+contributing to your felicity'....
+
+These words are almost illegible, for I have nearly effaced them with my
+tears.
+
+The curate from Maleszow will arrive next week, and we will be married
+immediately after. The prince palatine has had the necessary papers
+prepared, and no one has any suspicion. I can scarcely believe that my
+marriage is so near.... No preparations will be made for me; all must be
+conducted with the greatest secrecy. When Barbara married, she had no
+reason to hide herself; all Maleszow was in commotion on her account.
+
+If I could only see the prince royal, I should feel consoled. But
+sometimes two whole days pass by without any possibility of meeting him.
+He is afraid of exciting the king's suspicions, and still more, those of
+Bruhl; he avoids me at all public assemblies, and comes less frequently
+to the prince palatine's. To all these painful necessities of my
+position must I submit.
+
+Yesterday evening, at Madame Moszynska's _soiree_, I accidentally
+overheard a conversation which pained me deeply. A gentleman whom I did
+not know, said to his neighbor: 'But the Starostine Krasinska is
+terribly changed!' The answer was: 'That is not at all astonishing, for
+the poor young girl is madly in love with the prince royal, and he is
+somewhat capricious; when he sees a pretty woman, he falls in love with
+her immediately, and now he is all devotion to Madame Potocka, and has
+eyes for no one but her.'
+
+I am sure the prince pretends to be occupied with other women that he
+may the more readily conceal his real feelings, and yet I shuddered when
+I heard this conversation. It is really frightful to be the subject of
+such improper pleasantries!
+
+If I only had a friend in whom I could confide, and whose advice I could
+ask! My maid is as stupid as an owl, and suspects nothing, but
+notwithstanding, she is to be sent to the interior of Lithuania, and in
+a few days her place will be supplied by a middle-aged married lady of
+good birth and acknowledged discretion. I have not seen her yet, and I
+have no one to consult with regard to my wedding toilette. For want of a
+better adviser, I consulted the prince palatine, and he replied: 'Dress
+as you do every day.'
+
+What a strange destiny! I am making the most brilliant marriage in the
+whole kingdom, and yet my shoemaker's daughter will have a trousseau and
+wedding festivities which I am forced to envy.
+
+
+WARSAW, Wednesday, _November 4th, 1760._
+
+My destiny is accomplished, and I am the prince royal's wife! We have
+sworn before God eternal love and fidelity; he is mine, irrevocably
+mine! Ah! how sweet, and yet how cruel was that moment! They were forced
+to hurry the ceremony, as we feared discovery.
+
+I saw nothing of the prince royal during the week preceding my marriage;
+he feigned sickness, and did not leave his room; he has refused to-day
+invitations to dinner at the prince primates, the ambassadors, and even
+one to the ball given by the grand general of the crown: his supposed
+illness was the pretext on which he freed himself from these
+obligations.
+
+My former waiting woman was sent away day before yesterday, and
+yesterday came the new one, who has sworn upon the crucifix to be silent
+upon all she may see and hear.
+
+At five o'clock this morning, the prince palatine knocked at my door; I
+had been dressed for at least two hours. We departed as noiselessly as
+possible, the prince royal and Prince Martin Lubomirski met us at the
+palace gate.... The night was dark, the wind blew, and the cold was
+intense. We went on foot to the Carmelite church, because it is the
+nearest: our good priest already stood before the altar. If the prince
+royal had not supported me, I should have fallen many times during the
+passage.
+
+And how sad and melancholy was all within the church! On all sides the
+silence and darkness of the grave! Two wax tapers burned upon the altar,
+casting a dim and uncertain light, while the sound of our own steps was
+the only sign of life heard within the solemn and sombre vault of the
+temple. The ceremony did not last ten minutes, the curate made all
+possible haste, and we fled the church as if we had committed some
+crime. The prince royal returned with us: Prince Martin wished him to go
+at once to the palace, but he would not leave me, and with great
+difficulty did he at length part from me.
+
+My dress was such as I wear every day. I had only dared to place one
+little branch of rosemary in my hair.... While I was dressing, I thought
+of Barbara's wedding, and could not refrain from weeping.... It was not
+my mother who prepared the ducat, the morsel of bread, the salt, and the
+sugar, which the betrothed should bear with her on her wedding day; and
+so, at the last moment, I forgot them.
+
+I am now alone in my chamber; not a single friendly eye will say to me:
+'Be happy!' My parents have not blessed me.... Profound silence reigns
+in every direction, all are yet asleep, and this light burns as if near
+a corpse.... Ah! my God! what a mournful festival! Were it not for this
+feverish agitation and this wedding ring, which I must soon take off and
+hide from every eye, I should believe all these events to be merely a
+dream.... But no, I am his, and God has received our vows.
+
+
+SULGOSTOW, Monday, _December 24th._
+
+I thought when I married that I would no longer have any occasion to
+write in my journal: I believed that a friend, another me, would be the
+depositary of all my thoughts. I said to myself: 'Why should I write,
+when I will tell all to the prince royal (it seems to me as if I could
+call him thus during my whole life)? He does not know enough Polish to
+read my diary, and consequently it is useless.' But everything separates
+me from my well-beloved husband; I will continue to write that I may be
+more closely bound to him, that I may preserve all the remembrances
+which come to me from him.... I am pursued by a pitiless fate! Ah! what
+despair is at my heart!... When shall I see him again?
+
+These last few days have been fearful! I thank Heaven that I am not yet
+mad! The princess palatiness has sent me from her house, driven me out
+as if I were unworthy to remain.... I have taken refuge with my sister
+at Sulgostow: when I arrived, I sent for Barbara and her husband, and
+said to them: 'Oh, have pity, have pity on me, for I am innocent; I am
+the prince royal's wife!'
+
+My poor sister, to whom the whole transaction was a mystery, thought I
+had lost my reason, and was about calling in her maids to aid me. I
+endeavored to calm her fears, and to-day I have confided to her all my
+sorrows.
+
+I will try to write down all these recent events. If God ever permits me
+to enjoy happiness and tranquillity, I will again read these pages, and
+will better appreciate the value of a quiet felicity.
+
+Six weeks passed after our marriage, and no one had the least suspicion:
+neither the king, the court, nor the watchful society surrounding me,
+had penetrated our secret; all called me as usual, the Starostine
+Krasinska. The prince royal, under the pretext of his health, went
+nowhere, and the prince palatine managed our interviews. But a week
+since the prince royal began to go out, and paid a visit to my aunt, the
+princess. I was in the saloon when he was announced; it was the first
+time since our marriage that I had seen him in presence of a third
+person, and I found it impossible to hide my confusion. I could not see
+and hear him without telling him through my eyes that I loved him.
+
+The princess observed me. When he was gone, she scolded me, and
+reproached me with what she called my coquetry and imprudence; I could
+not bear her injustice, and very rashly replied, that no one had a right
+to blame me when my own conscience absolved me. The prince royal came
+again the next day; the princess was abstracted, and a dissatisfaction,
+which she strove in vain to disguise, appeared in her whole manner. He
+was entirely occupied with me, and did not perceive the storm which was
+gathering; not having been able to speak with me alone on that day, he
+had written to me, and while pretending to play with my work basket, he
+slipped a note into it. The princess saw it, and as soon as he had gone,
+seized upon the fatal note, which was addressed to: 'My well beloved.'
+
+I can never describe her anger and indignation. How did I ever live
+through that horrible scene!...
+
+'Your _intrigues_,' she cried, 'will never succeed in my house; you are
+the horror, the shame, and the ignominy of your family, and you shall
+not disgrace my mansion. I have already taken measures to put an end to
+your infamous conduct; here is a copy of the letter sent by me this
+morning to the minister, Bruhl. I tell him that honor is dearer and more
+sacred to me than all family ties, that an ambitious hope will never
+induce me to renounce the duties which it imposes upon me, and that I
+now esteem it my duty to inform him that the prince royal loves Frances
+Krasinska. I conjure the minister to do all in his power to end this
+intrigue while there is yet time. I will prove that I have nothing to do
+with this abomination, and that if I have been in fault, it was because
+I placed such implicit confidence in my niece's virtue. Yes--the king
+himself, at this very moment, probably knows the whole extent of your
+shame and your insane pride.'
+
+'The king!' I cried, almost out of my senses, 'the king! Ah! Let no one
+tell him that I am the prince royal's wife; let no one tell him that, or
+I shall die at your feet!'
+
+Lost to all memory, all sense, except that of the fearful abyss just
+opened before me, I thus confessed the secret which no personal
+invective or humiliation could have drawn from me.
+
+'How?' she replied, 'the wife of the prince royal! You! his wife!'
+
+This word recalled me to myself, and led me to comprehend the enormity
+of my fault. I shuddered when I thought of the prince's anger, and I saw
+but one chance for safety, and that was by confessing all to the
+princess.
+
+I fell at her feet, imploring, her to forgive the past, and keep our
+secret. Whether she was offended by the tardiness of my confession, or
+whether she thought she had gone too far to retrace her steps, I know
+not, but she remained implacable, and with cold and repulsive dignity
+commanded me to rise, saying:
+
+'So great a lady should never be found at any one's feet, and I offer
+you a thousand apologies for my conduct toward you.'
+
+I attempted to kiss her hand, but she withdrew it, and ended by saying
+that her house was unworthy of a lady of my quality, of a princess
+royal, of an independent duchess, of the future Queen of Poland. She
+then made all the preparations necessary for my departure.
+
+I retained strength enough to control my feelings, for which I thank
+God: a momentary flash of anger did not cause me to forget so many
+proofs of kindness and affection, and, with the docility of a girl of
+sixteen, I prepared to depart, although I was entirely ignorant where I
+should go to, or who would offer me protection and an asylum.... I
+believe the word _Sulgostow_ was uttered either by myself or by the
+princess. The valet who came to take the princess's orders during the
+latter part of our conversation, mentioned throughout the mansion that I
+was going to Sulgostow to pass the Christmas holidays.
+
+Chance decided my fate, and, incapable of forming any resolution, I was
+happy in permitting myself to be guided by others. Before I left, I
+wrote a long letter to the prince royal, which I confided to the
+princess. In less than two hours all my arrangements were made; I came
+and went, I acted mechanically, without fixed thought or purpose; I was
+finally placed in the carriage with my lady companion, and the horses
+bore us rapidly away from Warsaw.
+
+When I beheld the walls of Sulgostow, I began to think upon how I could
+best acquaint my sister with these incredible events; but once in her
+presence, my confusion was such that I lost the power of measuring my
+words, and hence she fancied I had gone mad....
+
+Now that all has been explained, we laugh together over this strange
+mistake, but such laughter is only a momentary forgetfulness of my
+position, and a passing truce to my torment. These first two days have
+been most painful, for I have as yet heard nothing from the prince
+royal. I cannot express my grief and my anguish; my health must be very
+strong not to have suffered more from such torments.... At least, may I
+not hope that my dreams of bliss will one day be realized?
+
+
+
+
+THE GREAT STRUGGLE.
+
+
+Is it true that 'our democratic institutions are now on trial?'
+Everybody, or nearly everybody, says so. _The London Times_ says so, and
+is or has been gloating over their failure. Many of our 'able editors'
+say so, and are trying desperately to prove that they will not fail.
+Thus, while there is a wide difference in opinion as to what may be the
+result, there seems to be a quite general agreement as to the fact that
+the trial is going on. There appears to be no suspicion that the
+question is not properly stated. Doubtless the assertion will excite
+surprise, if heeded at all, that in fact the great struggle here and now
+is _not_ between aristocracy or despotism on the one hand, and democracy
+on the other. Most people in the United States have come to entertain
+the fixed idea that the only natural political antagonisms are
+democratic as opposed to despotic in any and all shapes. And this idea
+has become so ingrained in the American mind that it will be difficult
+to gain credence for the assertion that the terms constitutionalism and
+absolutism represent the forces or systems which, have really been
+antagonistic ever since Christianity began to affect and animate social
+and political relations.
+
+It may be a new idea to many readers that absolutism can be democratic,
+as well as aristocratic or autocratic. Yet such is the fact, and the
+whole history of Greece and Rome proves it. Plato, the friend of the
+people, taught the absolute power of the state--of the power holder,
+whoever that might be, whether the people, the aristocracy, the
+triumvirate, the archon, or the consul. It was not possible for Plato,
+Demosthenes, or Cicero, to conceive the idea of constitutionalism.
+
+Wherever the will of the power holder operates _directly_ upon the
+subject or object, there is absolutism. Interpose a _medium_ between the
+two, separate the law _maker_ from the law _executor_, make _both_ the
+subjects or servants of the law, and then, if the people are virtuous,
+you can harmonize private liberty with public order. The individual must
+not be absorbed by the state; individual liberty must not be merged in
+absolutism. Nor must the state go down before individualism.
+
+The problem is to render possible and reconcile the coexistence of the
+largest private liberty and the highest public authority. This implies
+the idea of _mediation_. There must be _mediatizing_ institutions
+standing between the state and the individual, insuring the safe
+transmission of power, and guaranteeing justice between the state and
+individuals, as well as between individuals in their relations with each
+other. This done, you realize or actualize the grand idea of mediation
+in the political relations of men. The distinguishing idea of
+Christianity--the God-man reconciling man with God, and thus harmonizing
+the finite with the infinite--this idea must actualize itself in the
+affairs of men, in order to harmonize perfect liberty with salutary
+authority. Animated by this idea, penetrated with profoundest belief of
+the infinite worth of the individual man because the God-man had
+wonderfully renewed his nature, the early Christian heroes and martyrs
+took hold of the hostile and disorganized elements of European
+society--the fragments of the Roman empire on the one hand, and the
+barbarians of the north on the other--and brought order out of chaos.
+They re-organized society by naturally, though slowly, developing those
+numerous intermediary institutions--guilds, corporations, trial by jury,
+the judiciary, and representation of interests, orders, guilds and
+corporations, _not of individual heads_, in Parliament--all which, as a
+living, harmonious system, constitute, or _did_ constitute, the English
+Constitution, and were essentially reproduced in the Constitution of the
+United States, and which wonderfully distinguish constitutionalism from
+absolutism.
+
+'The will of the emperor has the force of law,' was the fundamental
+maxim of the civil law. Emperor, imperator;--hence, imperialism,
+Caesarism, absolutism. That maxim obtained with pagans--civilized it may
+be, but none the less pagans--whose theory or gospel was that 'man is
+his own end.' Man's infinite moral worth as man, was not known or not
+recognized in the pagan civilization of the classic Greeks and Romans.
+Hence the state, which outlived the individual, was of more importance
+than the individual, and naturally absorbed the individual. Man being
+his own end, and existence being next to impossible without society, the
+state was the best means to obtain his end, and therefore Plato taught
+that man lives for the state, must be trained up for the state, belongs
+to the state, and is of no value outside of the state. Hence the pagan
+civilization of Greece and Rome, being intensely human, while it became
+very splendid and refined, became also, and could not help becoming
+intensely and unutterably corrupt--so corrupt that St. Paul refrained
+from finishing the disgusting catalogue of its awful sins and vices. The
+church, Christianity, could save _man_, but it could not save the
+_empire_. The principle of social harmony being lost, government and
+society fell to pieces.
+
+On a certain memorable occasion, the present Emperor of France uttered
+the mystic phrase: _The empire is peace!_ So it is. But how? I answer:
+Several centuries of Godless French statesmanship--engineered by men
+who, though nominal Christians or Catholics, discarded God in affairs of
+state, and attempted to rule without God in the world, except to use Him
+(pardon the expression) as a sort of scarecrow for the 'lower
+orders'--resulted in gradually drying up those intermediary institutions
+which had served at once to develop a manly civic life and to protect
+private liberty, and in reabsorbing and concentrating all power in the
+central government. Even in the early part of these centuries, Louis the
+Fourteenth made his boast, 'I am the state,' and thereby announced the
+substantial reinauguration of pagan imperialism or absolutism. His
+successors, aided by the ever-growing influence of the renaissance,
+which was but the revivification of classic paganism, continued his
+system, and when at last their cruel, inhuman, and unchristian
+oppressions drove men to the assertion of their rights in the fierce
+whirlwind of the French Revolution, that very assertion, 'clad in hell
+fire,' as Carlyle says, was based on the self-same fundamental principle
+that 'man is his own end.' The Revolution also ignored the divine idea,
+and failed. The subsequent revolutions, and especially that of 1848,
+were no wiser. The last was simply the triumph of democratic absolutism
+by universal suffrage, in place of autocratic or monarchic absolutism,
+as De Tocqueville clearly demonstrated in his 'Ancient Regime and the
+Revolution.' De Tocqueville had thoroughly mastered the constitutional
+system, as had also Lacordaire and Montalembert, and he, as well as
+they, joined the so-called republican movement of 1848, hoping that
+constitutionalism would triumph at last. But he soon saw that European
+Democrats or Red Republicans did not comprehend the idea;--that, in
+fact, they meant absolutism, though democratic; and he retired in
+disappointment, though calm hopefulness, to his estate, and there wrote
+his 'Ancient Regime.'
+
+True, the Red Republicans issued high-sounding phrases about liberty,
+rights of man, and the right of the people to govern. But they meant
+rights of man independent of God, and the right of the people to be
+absolute; and they continued the system of centralism, or government by
+bureaucracy, without God. The French have learned by sad experience that
+there is a thousand times more danger of change, turbulence, and
+disruption, under democratic absolutism than under autocratic
+absolutism. Louis Napoleon knows it well, and hence his significant
+phrase, 'The empire is peace.' It is the strong iron band around a mass
+of antagonistic atoms, which have lost, at least in the sphere of
+politics, the cohesive principle of harmony: union with each other by
+virtue of union with the God-man.
+
+Through all the terrific scenes of turbulence and carnage, the frequent
+dynastic changes, and the fearful scourgings of the French empire since
+the days of Louis the Fourteenth, the nation itself has not been
+destroyed, because, after all, there was and is a vast deal of virtue in
+the people as individuals. God never destroyed a nation for its public
+or national sins until the people themselves had become individually
+thoroughly corrupt. The city of Sodom itself would have been spared had
+even _five_ good men been found therein. And so the French nation does
+not go to pieces, as the Roman empire did, because, notwithstanding the
+vice of Paris, of which we hear and read so much, and the godlessness of
+French statesmanship and French literature, the great body of the
+people, even in Paris, still retain their integrity, and a wholesome
+fear of God. But because their current literature is heathenish, and
+their statesmanship has ignored honesty and the divine origin of man's
+rights, those intermediary institutions, which were developed by
+Christian charity from the idea that man's rights are sacred because
+God-given and dignified by the God-man, have been undermined or
+disanimated, and it has come to pass that the only government possible,
+where the divine idea is eliminated from politics, is one in the form of
+absolutism. How long this form will continue in France remains to be
+seen. But it is certain that European Democrats or Red Republicans, with
+their ideas--or rather lack of ideas--will never comprehend the
+constitutional system, and will never rehabilitate or reanimate those
+intermediary municipal institutions, the monuments of which De
+Tocqueville was surprised to find scattered so generally through
+continental Europe, as well as in England and in New England.
+
+Turning, now, to the United States, it is plainly evident that the whole
+tendency of our politics, intensely accelerated by the influence of
+Jefferson's French views, has been, first, to lose out of mind the true
+significance of those intermediary institutions embodied in the common
+law of England, and inherited by us from the mother country; and,
+secondly, to depreciate them as standing in the way of the people's
+will, or popular sovereignty; and, lastly, to break them down entirely,
+and substitute for them the tyranny of an irresponsible majority, or
+democratic absolutism. The persistent efforts to get rid of grand juries
+and trial by jury, to popularize the judiciary, to make senatorial terms
+dependent on changing party majorities, to reduce the representative to
+a mere deputy, and other similar schemes to bring about the direct
+_unmediatized_ operation of the popular will upon the subject, are all
+illustrations of this direful tendency.
+
+Concurrently with, and greatly aiding this tendency, there has been a
+gradual decay of the manly virtue that charactized our fathers. Men have
+become less conscientious in the performance of their public duties, and
+more regardless of private rights. A genuine manly self-respect implies
+sincere respect for the rights of others, and both inevitably decay as
+the fear of God dies out. When men continually act on the idea that man
+is his own end, and when each one is intensely engaged in seeking his
+own interest, what can result but jarring of interests, opposition,
+repulsion, disregard of law in so far as it clashes with private ends,
+and thus, finally, social and political disruption more or less
+extensive? Thus our trouble lies deeper than slavery. Remove the canker
+of slavery to-day, and yet the tendency to disruption and dissolution
+would evermore go on while prevailing ideas actuated society. The
+remorseless mill of selfishness would keep on grinding, grinding,
+grinding toward dissolution. Look at our literature, our architecture,
+our science, our political and moral theories, our social arrangements
+generally, and especially our hideous, almost diabolical arrangements or
+lack of arrangements for the care of the poor and the unfortunate, and
+what a confused jumble they present! Having no grand animating idea, no
+all-pervading principle of harmony, no universally recognized standard
+for anything, we are necessarily the most anomalous, amorphous,
+helter-skelter aggregation of independent and antagonistic
+individualities ever gathered together since nations began to exist.
+What can prevent such an agglomeration from falling to pieces? What can
+hold it together?
+
+Thus, with the frightful decay of Christian, and even manly
+virtue--alas! too plainly visible all around us--and the entire
+divorcement of morality or religious ideas from politics, what fate is
+in store for us but the inevitable triumph of anarchy, and through it of
+despotism? Herein lies our real danger. The great struggle is _not_, as
+many assert, between aristocracy, or monarchy, or despotism and
+democracy. But it is between despotism or absolutism and
+constitutionalism. It is the struggle of the pagan system (revived by
+the renaissance), based on the idea that 'man is his own end,' with the
+Christian system based on the idea of mediation, involving the idea that
+the true end of man is God. It is not true, therefore, that democratic
+institutions are now on trial in the United States. Democracy, pure and
+simple, precisely in the form it is assuming or has assumed in this
+country, was tried long ago. It was tried in ancient Greece, and found
+wanting. It was tried in Rome, and ended in the dissolution of the
+empire. And in both these trials it had, to begin with, a much more
+highly finished, fresh, robust, and whole-souled manhood to work with
+and to work upon than that of modern democracy. More recently it was
+tried in France, and for the present is blooming in the despotism of
+Napoleon III.
+
+The question, then, I repeat, is whether constitutionalism, as
+originally developed in England and embodied and reproduced by our
+fathers--who, perhaps, 'builded wiser than they knew'--can come safely
+through this crisis and triumph over the two ideas which, thus far, have
+predominated in the American mind, and driven us with fearful strides
+toward absolutism. 'Every man for himself' is the first idea. In the
+family, in church, in politics, in commerce, in all social and political
+relations, every man striving, pushing, scrambling, straining every
+nerve to advance himself, regardless of his neighbor or the public
+interest--such everywhere is the confused and hideous picture of
+American society. Selfishness predominates, and selfishness is
+repellant. So it was before the ages were, when Lucifer, in the pride of
+self, refused obedience to the Word. So it is even yet, and its
+inevitable tendency is to hostile isolation and final dissolution. Its
+logical consequence is anarchy. But anarchy is intolerable, and a
+civilized people, yea, even barbarians, will submit to anything rather
+than social and political chaos. Then comes the iron band of despotism
+to hold together the antagonistic fragments.
+
+'The supremacy of the people's will' is the second idea. _Vox Populi,
+vox Dei!_ What the people decree is right, and nothing must stand
+between their will and the subject or object upon which it operates!
+Such is the political gospel according to democracy, and fifty years'
+earnest proclamation thereof has wellnigh abolished all the barriers of
+constitutionalism--barriers, which stood like faithful guardians, stern
+but just, between the Individual and the State, which reconciled the
+harmonious coexistence of private liberty and public power--an idea
+wholly unknown in pagan or classic civilization--and which at once
+prevented the anarchy of individualism and the tyranny of absolutism.
+But true it is, whatever a people constantly assert they come to
+believe, and whatever they believe will at last crystallize itself in
+action. And thus, with the oft-repeated and ever-increasing assertion
+that 'man is his own end,' and 'is sufficient unto himself,' and with
+that other assertion that the will of the people is law and must act
+directly upon its object, we have gradually lost out of mind the true
+significance of the constitutional system. Those numberless intermediary
+institutions--which logically _grew_ out of the Christian idea of
+mediation, as the oak naturally grows out of the acorn, and which
+wonderfully reconciled liberty with authority, freedom with order, the
+finite with the infinite--have become more and more obsolete, and less
+and less understood. They have crumbled away like the stately columns of
+a magnificent but neglected cathedral. They have become dead branches
+that must be lopped off. They are rubbish that must be removed--relics
+of monarchy or aristocracy, cunningly devised inventions of priestcraft
+or kingcraft, that retard the triumph of democracy.
+
+If the will of the people is supreme, then away with your high and
+life-long judges, or at least let them be elected by the people and for
+very brief terms. Let grand juries be voted a humbug, and trial by jury
+a nuisance. Let electoral colleges be abolished as meaningless and
+cumbersome anomalies. Let the President be the direct representative of
+a mighty people, and act without let or hindrance--only let him act with
+gigantic energy and swift execution. Let senatorial terms be dependent
+upon changing legislative majorities. In fact, let the two legislative
+houses, as being wholly useless and very expensive, be reduced to one.
+Let the representative be a tongue-bound deputy, and not a free, manly,
+self-acting agent. Let county boards of supervisors give way to the one
+man power of the county judge. And, in short, let us go on, as we have
+been going on, democratizing or popularising our institutions,
+'improving,' or rather impairing and tearing down one after another of
+the venerable columns of the original system, until every safeguard of
+personal freedom is removed, and there shall be nothing left to restrain
+the giant sway of unmitigated and unmediatized public power. Then we
+shall have despotism or absolutism, pure and simple--and none the less
+so because it shall be democratic.
+
+The London _Times_ will have nothing to jubilate over if what it
+mistakenly calls our 'trial of democratic institutions' shall be
+unsuccessful. For in fact, our constitutional system was but the
+reproduction, in a broader field and on a grander scale, of the British
+Constitution, in all its essential features, differing only in what
+philosophic historians call 'accidentals.' And if that system finally
+fails here, _The Times_ may have a 'most comfortable assurance' that it
+will fail in England. True, we have more rapidly departed from and
+defaced that system than the English, chiefly because, in escaping from
+the fogs of England, we left behind us that stolid conservatism, that
+bulldog tenacity for the old because it is old, which are instinctive in
+the narrow-minded islanders. But they, just as much as we, have lost out
+of mind the significance of the Christian idea. They, just as much as
+we, have become thoroughly paganized--have become saturated with the
+central idea of pagan civilization, that man is his own end, lives for
+himself alone, and not for God, and therefore is inferior to and must be
+the mere tool of the state. If Americans hold that the state can _make_
+right, as well as enforce it, so do the English. If divine sanctions
+have no longer any significance in America, so have they not in England.
+If expediency, and not God's truth, is the universal rule of action
+here, so is it there. If every American or 'Yankee' seeks his own end in
+his own way, regardless of his neighbor, his Government, and his God, so
+does every Englishman. The Englishman has no God except his belly or his
+purse. Years ago it was said by one of themselves, 'The hell of the
+English is--_not to make money_,' If the divine principle of charity is
+a myth, and selfishness rages against selfishness here, much more so
+with a people whose only God is Mammon. And finally, if inevitable
+dissolution shall overtake us, and we rush into absolutism as a refuge
+from anarchy, we shall have the melancholy pleasure--if it can be a
+pleasure--of hailing the almost simultaneous wreck of the British
+Constitution, whose noble ruins, no less than ours, would be mournful
+monumental witnesses to the glory of ages wiser and better than our
+own.
+
+
+
+
+AMERICAN FINANCES AND RESOURCES.
+
+LETTER NO. II, FROM HON. ROBERT J. WALKER.
+
+
+  LONDON, _10 Half Moon Street, Piccadilly_,
+  October 8, 1863.
+
+In view of the fact that the people of the United Kingdom and of the
+United States are mainly of the same race, speak the same language, have
+the same literature, ancestry, and common law, with the same history for
+centuries, and a reciprocal commerce exceeding that of all the rest of
+the world, it is amazing how little is known in each country of the
+other. This condition of affairs is most unfavorable to the continuance
+of peace and good will between two great and kindred nations. It causes
+constant misapprehension by each party of the acts and motives of the
+other, arrests the development of friendly feeling, and retards the
+advance of commercial freedom. It excites almost daily rumors of
+impending war, disturbing the course of trade, causing large mercantile
+losses, and great unnecessary Government expenditures. If war has not
+ensued, it has led to angry controversy and bitter recrimination. It is
+sowing broadcast in both countries the seeds of international hatred,
+rendering England and America two hostile camps, frowning mutual
+defiance; and, if not terminating in war, must, if not arrested, end in
+embargoes and non-intercourse, or discriminating duties on imports and
+tonnage, greatly injurious to both countries. I know it has become
+fashionable in England and America to sneer at the fact of our common
+origin; but the great truth still exists, and is fraught with momentous
+consequences, for good or evil, to both nations, and to mankind. The
+United States were colonized mainly by the people of England. Ten of our
+original thirteen States bear English names, as do also nearly all their
+counties, townships, cities, and villages.
+
+Leaving to Englishmen the task of disabusing the Americans in regard to
+their own country, I will endeavor to present, in a condensed form, some
+material and authentic facts as regards the United States, for the
+consideration of the people of the United Kingdom. I read and hear every
+day here predictions of our impending bankruptcy and national
+dissolution; our wealth and resources depreciated; our cause, our
+people, our armies, and Government decried; and a war in words and in
+the press prosecuted against us with vindictive fury. All this hostility
+is fully reciprocated in America; and if the war is not confined to
+words and types, it will not be the fault of agitators in both
+countries. So far as an American can, even in part, arrest this fatal
+progress of misapprehension, by communicating information in regard to
+his own country, is the principal purpose of these essays.
+
+In answer to the daily predictions here of our impending ruin and
+national bankruptcy, I shall first discuss the question of our wealth,
+resources, and material progress.
+
+AREA.--The area of the United States, including lakes and
+rivers, is 3,250,000 square miles, being larger than all Europe. (Rep.
+Sec. of Interior and of Com. of Gen. Land Office for Dec. 1860, p. 13.)
+
+Our land surface is 3,010,370 square miles, being 1,926,636,000 acres.
+This area is compact and contiguous, divided into States and
+Territories, united by lakes, rivers, canals, and railroads. We have no
+colonies. Congress governs the nation by what the Constitution declares
+to be '_the supreme law_,' whilst local regulations are prescribed and
+administered by the several States and Territories. We front on the two
+great oceans--the Atlantic and Pacific; extending from the St. Lawrence
+and the lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, from near the 24th to the 49th
+parallel of north latitude; and in longitude, from 67 deg. 25' to 124 deg. 40'
+west of Greenwich. Our location on the globe as regards its land surface
+is central, and all within the temperate zone. No empire of contiguous
+territory possesses such a variety of climate, soil, forests and
+prairies, fruits and fisheries, animal, vegetable, mineral, and
+agricultural products. We have all those of Europe, with many in
+addition, and a climate (on the average) more salubrious, and with
+greater longevity, as shown by the international census. We have a far
+more fertile soil and genial sun, with longer and better seasons for
+crops and stock; and already, in our infancy, with our vast products,
+feed and clothe many millions in Europe and other continents. Last year
+our exports to foreign countries of breadstuffs and provisions, from the
+loyal States alone, were of the value of $108,000,000. (Table of Com.
+and Nav. 1860.)
+
+If as well cultivated as England, our country could much more than feed
+and clothe the whole population of the world. If as densely settled as
+England, our population would be more than twelve hundred millions,
+exceeding that of all the earth. If as densely settled as Massachusetts
+(among the least fertile of all our States), we would number 513,000,000
+inhabitants.
+
+We have seen that our area exceeds that of Europe, with a far more
+genial sun and fertile soil, and capable of yielding more than double
+the amount of agricultural products and of sustaining more than twice
+the number of inhabitants. We have a greater extent of mines than all
+Europe, especially of coal, iron, gold, silver, and quicksilver. Our
+coal alone, as stated by Sir William Armstrong (the highest British
+authority), is 32 times as great as that of the United Kingdom, and our
+iron will bear a similar proportion.
+
+Our maritime front is 5,120 miles; but our whole coast line, including
+bays, sounds, and rivers, up to the head of tide water, is 33,663 miles.
+(Ex. Doc. No. 7, pp. 75, 76, Official Report of Professor A. D. Bache,
+Superintendent of U. S. Coast Survey, Dec. 5th, 1848.) Our own lake
+shore line is 3,620 miles. (Top. Rep. ib. 77.)
+
+The shore line of the Mississippi river above tide water and its
+tributaries, is 35,644 (ib. 77); and of all our other rivers, above tide
+water, is 49,857 miles, making in all 122,784 miles. Of this stupendous
+water mileage, more than one half is navigable by steam, employing an
+interior steam tonnage exceeding that of all the internal steam tonnage
+of the rest of the world. No country is arterialized by such a vast
+system of navigable streams, to have constructed which as canals of
+equal capacity would have cost more than ten billions of dollars, and
+then these canals would have been subjected to large tolls, the cost of
+their annual repairs would have been enormous, and the interruption by
+lockage a serious obstacle. We may rest assured then, that, all Europe
+combined, can never have such facilities for cheap water communication
+as the United States. This is a mighty element in estimating the power
+and progress of a nation. It shows, also, why we have no such deserts as
+Sahara, so small a portion of our lands requiring manures or irrigation,
+and no general failures of crops, with so few even partial failures of
+any one crop.
+
+We have more deep, capacious, and safe harbors, accessible at _all
+tides_, than all Europe, with more than twenty capable of receiving the
+_Great Eastern_. (Charts, U. S. Coast Survey.)
+
+Our hydraulic power (including Niagara) far exceeds that of all Europe.
+We have more timber than all Europe, including most varieties, useful
+and ornamental. We have, including cotton, vastly more of the raw
+material for manufactures than all Europe. With all these vast natural
+advantages, has man, in our country, performed his duty, in availing
+himself of the bounteous gifts of Providence? We are considering now the
+question of our material progress, in regard to which, the following
+official data are presented.
+
+We have completed since 1790, 5,782 miles of canals, from 4 to 10 feet
+deep, and from 40 to 75 feet wide, costing $148,000,000, and mostly
+navigable by steam. (Census Table, 1860, No. 39.)
+
+We have constructed since 1829, 33,698 miles of railroad (more than all
+the rest of the world), costing $1,258,922,729. (Table 38, Census of
+1860, and Addenda.)
+
+We have in operation on the land, more miles of telegraph than all the
+world, a single route, from New York to San Francisco, being 3,500
+miles.
+
+Our lighthouses exceed in number those of any other country, and we have
+no light-dues, as in England.
+
+Our coast survey, executed by Professor Bache, Superintendent of the U.
+S. Coast Survey, exceeds in extent and accuracy that of any other
+country. On this subject, we have the united opinions of British and
+Continental savans.
+
+We have made since 1790, 1,505,454 linear miles of survey of the public
+lands of the United States, belonging to the Government, including
+460,000,000 of acres already divided into townships, each six miles
+square (23,040 acres), subdivided into square miles, called sections, of
+640 acres each, and each section further subdivided into 16 lots of 40
+acres each.
+
+TONNAGE.--The total tonnage of the United States was in--
+
+        1814,      1,368,127 tons.
+  June, 1851,      3,772,439  "
+  June, 1861,      5,539,812  "
+
+At the same rate of increase as from 1851 to 1861, our tonnage would be,
+in
+
+  1871,        8,134,578 tons.
+  1881,       11,952,817  "
+  1891,       17,541,514  "
+  1901,       25,758,948  "
+       (_Table of Com. and Nav._)
+
+At the close of this century our tonnage then, at this rate of increase,
+would far exceed that of all the rest of the world.
+
+GOLD AND SILVER.--The aggregate product of our gold and silver
+mines approaches now _one billion of dollars_, most of which has been
+converted into coin at our mint. Nearly all of this product has been
+obtained since the discovery of gold in California. Less than two per
+cent. of the precious metals has been the product of the seceded States.
+This gold and silver are found now in seven States, and nine
+Territories; the yield is rapidly augmenting, and new discoveries
+constantly developed.
+
+The Secretary of the Interior estimates the total product 'next year,'
+of our mines of precious metals, at '$100,000,000,' and when our
+railroad to the Pacific (traversing this region) is completed, his
+estimate of the 'annual yield' is '$150,000,000.' The mines are declared
+'inexhaustible' by the highest authority, and our Nevada silver mines
+are now admitted to be 'the richest in the world.' The completion of our
+imperial railroad, now progressing to the Pacific, will carry an immense
+population to the gold and silver regions, vastly increase the number of
+miners, diminish the cost of mining, and decrease the price of
+provisions and supplies to the laborers. When we add to this, the vast
+and increasing product of our quicksilver mines of California, so
+indispensable as an amalgam in producing gold and silver, as also the
+great and progressive improvement in processes and machinery for working
+the quartz veins, it is now believed that the estimates of our Secretary
+of the Interior, and Commissioner of the General Land Office, will be
+exceeded by the result. These mines of the precious metals are nearly
+all on the public lands of the United States; they are the _property of
+the Federal Government_, and their intrinsic value _exceeds our public
+debt_.
+
+PUBLIC LANDS.--The United States own an immense public domain,
+acquired by treaties with France, Spain, and Mexico, and by compacts
+with States and Indian tribes. This domain is thus described in the
+Report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, of November 29th,
+1860:
+
+     'Of the 3,250,000 of square miles which constitute the territorial
+     extent of the Union, the public lands embrace an area of 2,265,625
+     square miles, or 1,450,000,000 of acres, being more than two thirds
+     of our geographical extent, and nearly three times as large as the
+     United States at the ratification of the definitive treaty of peace
+     in 1783 with Great Britain. This empire domain extends from the
+     northern line of Texas, the Gulf of Mexico, reaching to the
+     Atlantic Ocean, northwesterly to the Canada line bordering upon the
+     great Lakes Erie, Huron, Michigan, and Superior, extending westward
+     to the Pacific Ocean, with Puget's Sound on the north, the
+     Mediterranean Sea of our extreme northwestern possessions.
+
+     'It includes fifteen sovereignties, known as the 'Land States,' and
+     an extent of territory sufficient for thirty-two additional, each
+     equal to the great central land State of Ohio.
+
+     'It embraces soils capable of abundant yield of the rich
+     productions of the tropics, of sugar, cotton, rice, tobacco, corn,
+     and the grape, the vintage, now a staple, particularly so of
+     California; of the great cereals, wheat and corn, in the Western,
+     Northwestern, and Pacific States, and in that vast interior region
+     from the valley of the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains;
+     and thence to the chain formed by the Sierra Nevada and Cascades,
+     the eastern wall of the Pacific slope, every variety of soil is
+     found revealing its wealth.
+
+     'Instead of dreary, inarable wastes, as supposed in earlier times,
+     the millions of buffalo, elk, deer, mountain sheep, the primitive
+     inhabitants of the soil, fed by the hand of nature, attest its
+     capacity for the abundant support of a dense population through the
+     skilful toil of the agriculturist, dealing with the earth under the
+     guidance of the science of the present age.
+
+     'Not only is the yield of food for man in this region abundant, but
+     it holds in its bosom the precious metals of gold, silver, with
+     cinnabar, the useful metals of iron, lead, copper, interspersed
+     with immense belts or strata of that propulsive element, coal, the
+     source of riches and power, and now the indispensable agent, not
+     only for domestic purposes of life, but in the machine shop, the
+     steam car, and steam vessel, quickening the advance of civilization
+     and the permanent settlement of the country, and being the agent of
+     active and constant intercommunication with every part of the
+     republic.'
+
+Kansas having been admitted since the date of this Report, our public
+domain, thus described officially, now includes the sixteen _land
+States_, and _all_ the Territories.
+
+Of this vast region (originally 1,450,000,000 acres), there was surveyed
+up to September, 1860, 441,067,915 acres, and 394,088,712 acres disposed
+of by sales, grants, etc., leaving, as the Commissioner states, 'the
+total area of unsold and unappropriated, of offered and unoffered lands
+of the public domain, 1,055,911,288 acres.' This is 'land surface,'
+exclusive of lakes, bays, rivers, etc., 1,055,911,288 acres, or
+1,649,861 square miles, and exceeds one half the area of the whole
+Union. The area of New York, being 47,000 square miles, is less than a
+thirty-fifth part of our public domain. England[3] (proper) has 50,922
+square miles, France 203,736, Prussia 107,921, and Germany 80,620 square
+miles. The area then of our public domain is more than eight times as
+large as France, more than fifteen times as large as Prussia, more than
+twenty times as large as Germany, more than thirty-two times as large as
+England, and larger (excluding Russia) than all Europe, containing more
+than 200 millions of people.
+
+As England (proper) contained in 1861, 18,949,916 inhabitants, if our
+public domain were as densely settled, its population would exceed 606
+millions; and it would be 260,497,561, if numbering as many to the
+square mile as Massachusetts. Its average fertility far exceeds that of
+Europe, as does also the extent of its mines, especially gold, silver,
+coal, and iron, with every variety of soil, climate, mineral and
+agricultural products.
+
+These lands are surveyed at the expense of the Government into townships
+of six miles square, subdivided into sections, and these into quarter
+sections (160) acres, set apart for homesteads. Our system of public
+surveys into squares, by lines running due north and south, east and
+west, is so simple as to have precluded all disputes as to boundary or
+title. This domain reaches from the 24th to the 49th parallel, from the
+lakes to the gulf, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Its isothermes
+(the lines of equal mean annual temperatures) strike on the north the
+coast of Norway midway, touch St. Petersburg in Russia, and pass through
+Manchooria on the coast of Asia, about three degrees south of the mouth
+of the Amour river. On the south, these isothermes run through Northern
+Africa, and nearly the centre of Egypt near Thebes, cross Northern
+Arabia, Persia, Northern Hindostan, and Southern China near Canton.
+
+Of this vast domain, less than two per cent. is cursed by slavery, which
+is prohibited by law in eleven of these land States, and in all the
+Territories.
+
+Now, however, within our present vast domain, not only the poor, but our
+own industrious classes and those of Europe, may not only find a home,
+but a farm for each settler, substantially as a free gift by the
+Government. Here all who would rather be owners than tenants, and wish
+to improve and cultivate their own soil, are invited. Here, too, all who
+would become equals among equals, citizens (not subjects) of a great and
+free country, enjoying the right of suffrage, and eligible to every
+office except the presidency, can come and occupy with us this great
+inheritance. Here liberty, equality, and fraternity reign supreme, not
+in theory, or in name only, but in truth and reality. This is the
+brotherhood of man, secured and protected by our organic law. Here the
+Constitution and the people are the only sovereigns, and the Government
+is administered by their elected agents, and for the benefit of the
+people. Those toiling elsewhere for wages that will scarcely support
+existence, for the education of whose children no provision is made by
+law, who are excluded from the right of suffrage, may come here and be
+voters and citizens, find a farm given as a homestead, free schools
+provided for their children at the public expense, and hold any office
+but the presidency, to which their children, born here, are eligible.
+What does Europe for any of its toiling millions who reject this
+munificent offer? He is worked and taxed there to his utmost endurance.
+He has the right to _work_, and _pay taxes_, but not to vote. Unschooled
+ignorance is his lot and that of his descendants. If a farmer, he works
+and improves the land of others, in constant terror of rent day, the
+landlord, and eviction. Indeed the annual rent of a single acre in
+England exceeds the price--$10 (L2. 2s. 8d.)--payable for the
+ownership in fee simple of the entire homestead of 160 acres, granted
+him here by the Government. For centuries that are past and for all time
+to come, there, severe toil, poverty, ignorance, the workhouse, or low
+wages, and disfranchisement, would seem to be his lot. Here, freedom,
+competence, the right of suffrage, the homestead farm, and free schools
+for his children.
+
+In selecting these homestead farms, the emigrant can have any
+temperature, from St. Petersburg to Canton. He can have a cold, a
+temperate, or a warm climate, and farming or gardening, grazing or
+vintage, varied by fishing or hunting. He can raise wheat, rye, Indian
+corn, oats, rice, indigo, cotton, tobacco, cane or maple sugar and
+molasses, sorghum, wool, peas and beans, Irish or sweet potatoes,
+barley, buckwheat, wine, butter, cheese, hay, clover, and all the
+grasses, hemp, hops, flax and flaxseed, silk, beeswax and honey, and
+poultry, in uncounted abundance. If he prefers a stock farm, he can
+raise horses, asses, and mules, camels, milch cows, working oxen, and
+other cattle, goats, sheep, and swine. In most locations, these will
+require neither housing nor feeding throughout the year. He can have
+orchards, and all the fruits and vegetables of Europe, and many in
+addition. He can have an Irish or German, Scotch, English or Welsh,
+French, Swiss, Norwegian, or American neighborhood. He can select the
+shores of oceans, lakes, or rivers; live on tide water or higher lands,
+valleys, or mountains. He can be near a church of his own denomination;
+the freedom of conscience is complete; he pays no tithes, nor church
+tax, except voluntarily. His sons and daughters, on reaching twenty-one
+years of age, or sooner, if the head of a family, are each entitled to a
+homestead of 160 acres; if he dies, the title is secured to his widow,
+children, or heirs. Our flag is his, and covers him everywhere with its
+protection. He is our brother; and he and his children will enjoy with
+us the same heritage of competence and freedom. He comes where labor is
+king, and toil is respected and rewarded. If before, or instead of
+receiving his homestead, he chooses to pursue his profession or
+business, to work at his trade, or for daily wages, he will find them
+double the European rate, and subsistence cheaper. From whatever part of
+Europe he may come, he will meet his countrymen here, and from them and
+us receive a cordial welcome. A Government which gives him a farm, the
+right to vote, and free schools for his children, must desire his
+welfare.
+
+Of this vast domain (more than thirty-two times as large as England) the
+Government of the United States grants substantially as a free gift, a
+_farm of 160 acres_ to every settler who will occupy and cultivate the
+same, the title being in fee simple, and free from all rent whatsoever.
+The settler may be _native_ or _European_, a present or future
+immigrant, including females as well as males, but must be at least
+twenty-one years of age, _or_ the head of a family. If an immigrant, the
+declaration must first be made of an _intention_ to become a citizen of
+the United States, when the grant is immediately made, without waiting
+for naturalization. When the children of the settler reach twenty-one
+years of age, or become the head of a family, they each receive from the
+Government a like donation of 160 acres. The intrinsic value of this
+public domain far exceeds the whole public debt of the United States.
+
+Our national wealth, by the last census, was $16,159,616,068, and its
+increase during the last ten years $8,925,481,011, or 126.45 per cent.
+(Census, 1860, p. 195.) Now, if, as a consequence of the Homestead Bill,
+there should be occupied, improved, and cultivated, during the next ten
+years, 100,000 additional farms by settlers, or only 10,000 per annum,
+it would make an aggregate of 16,000,000 acres. If, including houses,
+fences, barns, and other improvements, we should value each of these
+farms at ten dollars an acre, it would make an aggregate of
+$160,000,000. But if we add the product of these farms, allowing only
+one half of each (80 acres) to be cultivated, and the average annual
+value of the crops, stock included, to be only ten dollars per acre, it
+would give $80,000,000 a year, and, in ten years, $800,000,000,
+independent of the reinvestment of capital. It is clear that thus vast
+additional employment would be given to labor, freight to steamers,
+railroads, and canals, markets for manufactures, and augmented revenue.
+
+The homestead privilege will largely increase immigration. Now, beside
+the money brought here by immigrants, the census proves that the average
+annual value of the labor of Massachusetts, _per capita_, was, in 1860,
+$300 for each man, woman, and child. Assuming that of the immigrants at
+an average net annual value of only $100 each, or less than 33 cents a
+day, it would make, in ten years, at the rate of 200,000 each year, the
+following aggregate:
+
+   1st year,  200,000  =  $20,000,000
+   2d    "    400,000  "   40,000,000
+   3d    "    600,000  "   60,000,000
+   4th   "    800,000  "   80,000,000
+   5th   "  1,000,000  "  100,000,000
+   6th   "  1,200,000  "  120,000,000
+   7th   "  1,400,000  "  140,000,000
+   8th   "  1,600,000  "  160,000,000
+   9th   "  1,800,000  "  180,000,000
+  10th   "  2,000,000  "  200,000,000
+                        -------------
+                Total, $1,100,000,000
+
+In this table, the labor of all immigrants each year is properly added
+to those arriving the succeeding year, so as to make the aggregate, the
+last year, two millions. This would make the value of the labor of these
+two millions of immigrants, in ten years, $1,100,000,000, independent of
+the annual accumulation of capital, and the labor of the children of the
+immigrants after the first ten years, which, with their descendants,
+would go on constantly increasing.
+
+But, by the actual official returns (see page 14 of Census), the number
+of alien immigrants to the United States, from December, 1850, to
+December, 1860, was 2,598,216, or an annual average of 259,821, say
+260,000. The effect, then, of this immigration, on the basis of the last
+table, upon the increase of national wealth, was as follows:
+
+   1st year,   260,000  =  $26,000,000
+   2d    "     520,000  "   52,000,000
+   3d    "     780,000  "   78,000,000
+   4th   "   1,040,000  "  104,000,000
+   5th   "   1,300,000  "  130,000,000
+   6th   "   1,560,000  "  156,000,000
+   7th   "   1,820,000  "  182,000,000
+   8th   "   2,080,000  "  208,000,000
+   9th   "   2,340,000  "  234,000,000
+  10th   "   2,600,000  "  260,000,000
+                        --------------
+                 Total, $1,430,000,000
+
+Thus the value of the labor of the immigrants from 1850 to 1860 was
+fourteen hundred and thirty millions of dollars, making no allowance for
+the accumulation of capital by annual reinvestment, nor for the natural
+increase of population, amounting, by the census, in ten years, to about
+24 per cent. This addition to our wealth by the labor of the children,
+in the first ten years, would be small; but in the second, and each
+succeeding decennium, when we count children and their descendants, it
+would be large and constantly augmenting. But the census shows that our
+wealth increases each ten years at the rate of 126.45 per cent. Now,
+then, take our increase of wealth in consequence of immigration as
+before stated, and compound it at the rate of 126.45 per cent, every ten
+years, and the result is largely over three billions of dollars in 1870,
+and over seven billions of dollars in 1880, independent of the effect of
+any immigration succeeding 1860. If these results are astonishing, we
+must remember that immigration here is augmented population, and that it
+is population and labor that create wealth. Capital, indeed, is the
+accumulation of labor. Immigration, then, from 1850 to 1860, added to
+our national wealth a sum more than one third greater than our whole
+debt on the 1st of July last, and augmenting in a ratio much more rapid
+than its increase, and thus enabling us to bear the war expenses.
+
+As the homestead privilege must largely increase immigration, and add
+especially to the cultivation of our soil, it will contribute more than
+any other measure to increase our population, wealth, and power, and
+augment out revenue from duties and taxes.
+
+We have seen that, by the Census (p. 195), the total value of the real
+and personal estate in the United States was, in--
+
+  1860,     $16,159,616,068
+  1850,       7,135,780,228
+
+Increase from 1850 to 1860, 126.45 per cent.
+
+At the same rate of increase, for the four succeeding decades, the
+result would be, in--
+
+  1870,      $36,593,450,585
+  1880,       82,865,868,849
+  1890,      187,314,353,225
+  1900,      423,330,438,288
+
+If we subtract one fourth from the aggregate, we will find that our
+public debt constitutes less than _one half of one per cent._ of the
+_increase_ of our national wealth. This debt, then, does not exhaust our
+capital, but effects only a small diminution of the rate of
+augmentation.
+
+If we look at the causes of this vast increase of our national wealth,
+they will be found mainly in the enormous extent of our fertile lands,
+the vast emigration from Europe, and the constant addition of new States
+to the Union. Thus, from 1850 to 1860, four new States were added to the
+Union. These four States were almost an untrodden wilderness in 1850,
+but in 1860 were rich and flourishing States, with a population of
+638,965, and an aggregate wealth of $331,809,418. Within this decade,
+from 1860 to 1870, at least six new States will be added to the Union.
+This is evident from a reference to our present Territories, as follows:
+
+  Dacotah,        95,316,480 acres.
+  Nebraska,       48,636,800   "
+  Indian,         56,924,000   "
+  Idaho,         208,878,720   "
+  Washington,     44,796,160   "
+  Nevada,         52,184,960   "
+  Utah,           68,084,480   "
+  Arizona,        80,730,240   "
+  New Mexico,     77,568,640   "
+  Colorado,       66,880,000   "
+                 -----------
+         Total,  800,000,480 acres.
+
+Here then are Territories with an aggregate area of 800,000,480 acres,
+sufficient for twenty-six States of the size of New York. In all these
+Territories but one, the precious metals are found in great abundance,
+and the railroad to the Pacific, with numerous branches through this
+vast region, together with the greatest advantages of our new Homestead
+Bill of last year, is settling these Territories with unprecedented
+rapidity. Notwithstanding the war, immigration to the United States is
+progressing with more than its usual volume, caused by the very high
+wages for labor, the great benefits of our recent Homestead Bill, and
+the exclusion, by recent act of Congress, of slavery from all this vast
+domain.
+
+It will be observed, that, whilst the _lands_ constituting these
+Territories remain _public_ lands, no estimate is made of them as wealth
+in the national census. It is only when these public lands become farms
+and private property, that they are valued as part of the wealth of the
+nation. This remark also applies to that 255,000,000 acres of public
+lands in the sixteen _Land States_ of the Union. Hence the amazing
+increase of wealth at each decade, in the new States and Territories.
+Thus, by Table 35 of the Census of 1860, page 195, the rate of increase
+of wealth in the following States and Territories, from 1850 to 1860,
+was:
+
+_Territories._
+
+  Washington,     5,000 per cent.
+  Nebraska,       4,800    "
+  Utah,             467    "
+  New Mexico,       302    "
+
+_States._
+
+  Kansas,         8,000 per cent.
+  Iowa,             942    "
+  California,       837    "
+  Minnesota,      6,000    "
+  Michigan,         330    "
+  Oregon,      471      per cent.
+  Illinois,    457         "
+  Wisconsin,   550         "
+
+It is thus that the wave of population moves onward in our Western
+States and Territories, that the axe and the plough are the pioneers of
+civilization, that farms, cities, and villages, the schoolhouse, and the
+church, rise from the wilderness, as if by the touch of an enchanter's
+wand. That enchantment is the power of _freedom and education_, the
+effect of which (as compared with the deadly influence of slavery and
+ignorance) shall be illustrated in a succeeding letter. In that letter,
+by comparing the relative progress of our Free and Slave States, as
+demonstrated by our Census, it will be proved, incontestably, that the
+total exclusion of slavery from our Union will cause an addition to our
+national wealth vastly exceeding the whole public debt of our country,
+and soon leave us much richer than before the rebellion.
+
+                                                        R. J. WALKER.
+
+
+
+
+THE DECLINE OF ENGLAND.
+
+
+In Europe, two nations for almost a thousand years have contended for
+empire. England and France, for the greater portion of that period, have
+waged war with each other. When not engaged in actual hostilities, they
+have watched each other with jealous animosity--seeking by intrigue and
+diplomatic schemes to thwart or defeat the designs which one or the
+other had formed for national aggrandizement.
+
+No one of Anglo-Saxon descent can peruse the histories of those
+countries, and not feel pride in the valor and success which have
+distinguished his race. Twice the victorious banner of England has
+fluttered in the gaze of Paris. Until a recent age, the French flag
+visited the ocean only at the sufferance of England.
+
+Whatever may be thought of the wisdom of the continental policy of
+England since 1688--in pursuance of which she has persistently sought to
+defeat the ambition of France--no one can help admiring the ability and
+indomitable courage she has displayed in the gratification of her
+national antipathy. From the League of Augsburg, of 1687, to which she
+became a party, to the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, she put forth
+herculean efforts to compel the relinquishment of the family compact by
+Louis XIV. By that treaty, the darling project of that monarch to secure
+the crown of Spain for a Bourbon, was forever abandoned by France.
+Elated with this triumph over her adversary, throughout the eighteenth
+century England continued to pursue the same policy of checking and
+defeating all the schemes of France for territorial acquisition. It
+mattered not where; in whatever quarter of the globe France sought to
+plant her standard, she always found there an English enemy. In Asia,
+Africa, and America, as well as in Europe, all her attempts to extend
+her empire were defeated by England. Pondicherry was the only East
+Indian possession which the genius of Clive allowed her to retain. By
+the Treaty of Paris, of 1763, she was compelled to relinquish Canada in
+order to regain her West Indian islands conquered by England.[4]
+
+Vainly, under good or bad, weak or potent sovereigns, did France
+attempt the enlargement of her empire or an increase of national power.
+England, on one pretence or another, always confronted her, and by
+successful war, or unscrupulous diplomacy, baffled her designs.
+
+The English mind was cultivated throughout the eighteenth century into
+the belief that every accession to France was a menace and an injury to
+England.
+
+At last the French Revolution, inspiring with preternatural energy that
+gallant people, turned the tide of events so long adverse to French
+aggrandizement. Still true to her hereditary hostility, England combined
+all Europe to resist the aggression of republican France. But soon, from
+the raging elements of that awful convulsion, the 'Man of Destiny'
+arose, who could 'ride the whirlwind and direct the storm.' He seized
+the helm, evoked order from chaos, and smote the enemies of France
+wherever they appeared, revived the splendors of her early history, and,
+like her mediaeval Charlemagne, gave the law to Europe.
+
+England took the measure of Napoleon, and recognized in him an enemy
+whom she must subdue at any cost, or submit to be reduced in the scale
+of nations to that importance and those proportions befitting her
+diminutive territory in Europe.
+
+The battle of Marengo--the Peace of Luneville--the ascendency of
+Napoleon on the continent--the defection of the continental allies of
+England--and the preparations of Napoleon for her invasion, led to the
+Treaty of Amiens.
+
+That treaty, however, was only a brief truce, which England never
+designed to observe but temporarily. She refused to respect its
+obligations, and even to negotiate for its modification. She feared that
+peace would enable Napoleon to rebuild his shattered navy.
+
+Lord Hawkesbury's note of March 15th, 1803, assigned as her avowed
+reason for the renewal of the war--'the acquisition made by France in
+various quarters, particularly in Italy, and therefore England would be
+justified in claiming equivalents for these acquisitions as a
+counterpoise to the augmentation of the power of France.'[5]
+
+This note of Lord Hawkesbury avows distinctly the spirit of the foreign
+policy of England for the last two hundred years. She would not tolerate
+any acquisition by her rival unless she obtained 'equivalents.' In
+pursuance of this unchangeable policy, she again declared war against
+France. Mr. Pitt resumed his position of prime minister, and soon formed
+a new continental coalition to resist the mighty power and the
+aggressions of the French emperor.
+
+Thenceforward she listened to no overtures for peace, but prosecuted
+with implacable resentment the war--until she finally prostrated her
+imperial foe, and became his inglorious jailer, until death relieved her
+from all apprehensions of danger.
+
+But this triumph of a vindictive policy, so gratifying to the national
+antipathy, was purchased at a price perhaps far exceeding its value.
+
+The overthrow of Napoleon was an achievement which compelled England to
+anticipate the resources of future generations. These generations have
+come, and are coming, and they find themselves unable any longer to
+contend with French ambition.
+
+The first Napoleon, whom England fought with such relentless animosity,
+won his throne by the display of matchless ability in the field and the
+cabinet. The present Napoleon reached _his_ throne by perjury,
+assassination, and crimes of the blackest atrocity. The first Napoleon
+England pursued with her hatred to his grave. The present Napoleon,
+reeking with the blood of his unarmed fellow citizens, kisses the queen
+of England, and the _entente cordial_ with him becomes the foreign
+policy of England. Entangled in his toils, she makes war on Russia as
+his ally, stands silently while he humbles Austria and changes the map
+of Europe, and barely escapes by an afterthought being dragged into an
+attempt to destroy a free republic in America, to enable France to
+augment the area for the expansion of the Latin race at the expense of
+that of the Anglo-Saxon.
+
+What would the great Chatham and his son--who so long moulded the
+destiny of Europe--say, if they could revisit the earth and peruse the
+history of their country for the last twelve years? Would they recognize
+her as that England who in their hands smote the house of Bourbon, and
+inaugurated the policy which led to the overthrow of the greatest
+captain who ever tormented with his lust for glory the human race?
+Certainly, in all the wars which England waged against the house of
+Bourbon, France never attempted a conquest of greater value than that
+which the present Napoleon has commenced in Mexico. Certainly, no
+conquest which the first Napoleon ever threatened in Europe would have
+so strengthened France as would the annexation of Mexico to her
+dominions. But England has expended in her wars with the first Napoleon,
+to restrain him from acquisitions which could not have materially
+injured England, all her resources for war. She is not in the condition
+to wage such wars with France as she prosecuted during the last and the
+beginning of the present century. She knows that she must acquiesce in
+the ambitious acquisitions of the present Napoleon, or else encounter
+his hostility. Cherbourg and the steam navy of France render an invasion
+of the British Isles a more practicable achievement for the present
+Napoleon than ever the first Napoleon could hope for. England shrinks,
+therefore, from any effort to curb the present aggrandizement of France,
+from _fear_. She ignominiously renounces and abandons the policy of her
+monarchy, her aristocracy, and her people--pursued for two hundred years
+with unfaltering pertinacity; not because she condemns it, not because
+she does not feel 'justified' in resisting French acquisitions unless
+'equivalents for these acquisitions as a counterpoise to the
+augmentation of the power of France' are obtained; but obviously,
+because she fears to encounter the arms of the present Napoleon.
+
+When the French emperor forced upon the acceptance of Lord Aberdeen's
+cabinet 'the harsh and insulting scheme of action' (as Kinglake calls
+it) which provoked the war with Russia in 1854, England's dilemma was: a
+war with Nicholas, or a rupture with France. 'The negotiation which had
+seemed to be almost ripe for a settlement was then ruined.'[6]
+
+A war for Napoleon at that time with one of the great powers, was a
+necessity. It was necessary for the stability of his throne. It was
+necessary to prevent the thoughts of France from dwelling upon the
+assassination of the republic and her own infamy in submitting to that
+enormous villany. If it had not been Russia, it would have been England
+that the imperial usurper would have denounced as disturbing the waters
+for his provocation.
+
+Mellowed by time, and enlightened by their deplorable results, England
+now views the wars with Napoleon the First in their true light. So far
+from British power having been augmented by that tremendous struggle, it
+has compelled England to descend from the position of a first-rate to
+that of a second-rate power, so far as it concerns the politics of
+Europe. Had the first Napoleon survived to this day, she would hardly
+have consented to act with the same subserviency to him as she now
+voluntarily acts toward his ignoble counterfeit. She would never have
+stood an idle spectator of the humiliation of Austria by him. She would
+never have permitted him to betray her into the causeless and ridiculous
+war with her ancient ally Russia. It was the aid of Russia which
+enabled her to overthrow the great Napoleon, and now she permits the
+little Napoleon to bully her into a war with Russia that he may bedizen
+his name with the glory of a conflict with the conqueror of his
+illustrious kinsman.
+
+If the object of Napoleon was so ignominious, contemptible, and
+criminal, as we know it to have been, in producing the war of 1854, with
+what obloquy must England be covered for allowing herself to be beguiled
+into such a war by such a juggler?
+
+The pretended cause of the Crimean war, as alleged, was the threatened
+invasion of Turkey by Nicholas. But what injury was _that_ to England,
+compared to the seizure of Mexico by France?
+
+England had not for two hundred years made it the chief object of her
+foreign policy to resist the expansion of the Russian empire. She had
+acquiesced in the partition of Poland, and by the Treaty of Vienna made
+herself a party to that nefarious spoliation by Russia, Austria, and
+Prussia. She knew that Austria, Prussia, and the German Confederation
+were pledged to protect Turkey from Russia.[7] Her subserviency to
+France in separately with her making war on Russia, upon the pretence of
+the protection of Turkey, was supererogatory as well as needless.
+
+The truth is, and so will history make up the record, the French emperor
+desired to humiliate England, and England dare not refuse to be
+humiliated by him. It was a 'GREAT SURRENDER.'[8]
+
+It will not do for England to excuse herself for not resisting the
+French invasion of Mexico by any such allegation as that she has
+received Napoleon's assurances that he does not intend to make a French
+province of Mexico. She must know, that no confidence can be placed in
+his veracity. She must know, that such assurances are but a flimsy veil
+to deceive her and other nations. They are designed to meet the
+contingency--of Federal success in crushing rebellion.
+
+He has been willing to be fooled by those who surround him, into the
+belief that the rebels will achieve their independence.[9] In that
+event, he will never relinquish his grasp on Mexico, unless compelled to
+do so by force of arms. Should the rebellion succeed, as he professes to
+believe it will, his instrument and accomplice, Maximilian, will be
+discarded with as little ceremony as the first Napoleon discarded some
+of the puppet kings whom he saw proper to crown and discrown according
+to the exigency of his occasions.
+
+The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) terminated one of the wars of
+England with Louis XIV. The renunciation by France of the cause of the
+Pretender was the most material advantage accruing to England from that
+treaty. But the ink was hardly dry with which it was written, before
+England took umbrage at France for efforts to rebuild her navy, which
+had been seriously reduced and crippled by the events of the previous
+war, and also for the encroachments of the French in Canada on the
+English settlements. For these causes the Seven Years' War was
+commenced, and, under the auspices of the first William Pitt,
+successfully prosecuted, until France was completely humbled. Now,
+however, Napoleon the Third constructs a navy more powerful than France
+ever before possessed, and, instead of molesting some obscure English
+settlement in the interior of America, appropriates to himself a great
+country, fertile in resources, with mines of incalculable wealth, and in
+close proximity to English colonies, cherished by the most vigilant
+protection of England.
+
+The value of Mexico is thus portrayed by the British historian Alison
+(vol. iv., p. 423):
+
+     'Humboldt has told us that he was never wearied with astonishment
+     at the smallness of the portion of soil which, in Mexico and the
+     adjoining provinces, would yield sustenance to a family for a year:
+     and that the same extent of ground which in wheat would maintain
+     only two persons, would yield sustenance under the banana to fifty;
+     though in that favored region the return of wheat is never under
+     seventy, sometimes as much as a hundred fold. The return on an
+     average of Great Britain is not more than nine to one. If due
+     weight be given to these extraordinary facts, it will not appear
+     extravagant to assert that Mexico, with a territory embracing seven
+     times the whole area of France, may at some future and possibly not
+     remote period contain two hundred millions of inhabitants.'
+
+This is the magnificent empire which France now seeks to conquer,
+without a murmur of remonstrance from Great Britain, who so often
+combined Europe to resist the petty acquisition by France of territory
+less than one of the Mexican States.
+
+It is needless to say that England relies on the United States to
+prevent Mexico becoming a French province. Her statesmen have for the
+past two years professed the belief that the dismemberment of the United
+States is inevitable. In that event, they must know that the United
+States would prove no obstacle to the occupation of Mexico by France.
+No; the acquiescence of England in this gigantic acquisition of France
+can be ascribed to no such assurance of the power of the United States.
+It may be said that she has flattered herself that by letting alone
+Napoleon, he may possibly, by an alliance with the rebels, secure the
+permanent dissolution of the American Union;--that the United States, if
+successful in crushing the rebellion, would be to her a greater terror
+than Napoleon. We do not believe that she is influenced by such
+considerations. She knows that the United States, however powerful by
+the recent development of military strength, would hardly attempt the
+invasion of the British Islands. But she has no such faith in her crafty
+neighbor. She knows that France and the Bonapartes owe her a debt of
+vengeance which only the ravage and desolation of the British soil will
+ever liquidate. She remembers that the favorite scheme of Napoleon the
+First was the invasion of England; and she knows that this scheme is
+among the _Idees Napoleon_ of the nephew. She is aware, too, that
+Napoleon the Third has the means at his command which will enable him to
+place any number of troops on her shores. She is satisfied that upon the
+first provocation which she offers, he will gratify the treasured hatred
+of the French and of his family, by consummating the darling project of
+his uncle. The terror of invasion has induced her to change the nature
+of her foreign policy. She will cling to the French alliance until the
+French emperor has satiated his national craving for her degradation;
+and not until he strikes her a blow, which will resound throughout the
+world, will England be prepared to battle with the Gaul. No future
+accession of territory would make France more formidable for the
+invasion of England than she is now. Her army of five hundred thousand
+men, and her steam navy and ironclads are all-sufficient for that
+purpose, whenever the French emperor chooses so to employ them. But if
+Napoleon devotes this army and that navy to such a formidable conquest
+as that of a country seven times as large as France, three thousand
+miles from her shores, it is not probable that he will soon be able to
+spare them for the invasion of Great Britain. Spain vainly struggled for
+years to conquer her revolted provinces in America. England failed to
+conquer her rebellious colonies, with a population not exceeding three
+millions. France lost an army of thirty-five thousand men, veterans of
+Moreau's, in the vain effort to subdue the negroes of St. Domingo.
+England could desire no better scheme for the destruction of the
+military strength of Napoleon than that of the attempted conquest of
+Mexico. She will therefore rather stimulate than restrain the second
+French emperor in his desire to devote his legions to the enlargement of
+the area for the supremacy of the Latin race in America. Her motive will
+be the despicable safety of her shores from Gallic invasion. For this
+she sacrifices her prestige in the world--her hereditary policy--the
+time-honored traditions of the Anglo-Saxon. The world hereafter is free
+to the Frenchman, for robbery, spoliation, conquest, and invasion,
+wherever else than in England he chooses to prosecute the vocation of
+national crime. England is no longer the foe of French ambition or
+rapacity. So long as France will abstain from the invasion of the
+'inviolate isle,' where for almost a thousand years no foreign enemy has
+placed his foot, so long she may be free from molestation from England,
+whatever else she may attempt; and this is the inglorious policy of
+England in the year of our Lord 1862-'3.
+
+
+
+
+TEMPTATION.
+
+
+     [A literal translation of this remarkable prose-poem was kindly
+     placed in our hands by Prof. Podbielski. It is allegorical
+     throughout, every phase of its marvellous symbolism resting upon
+     dire and tragic truth.
+
+     The many times murdered Mother is of course Poland. We hope that
+     the publication of this prophetic vision of her great son, patriot,
+     poet, statesman, and sage, as he undoubtedly was, may excite a
+     vivid interest at the present hour, when that heroic but unhappy
+     country is again struggling for life and freedom.
+
+     In its present English form, 'Temptation' is reverently dedicated
+     to the patriot sons of the Mother of heroes, by MARTHA W.
+     COOK.]
+
+  Alas, crimsoned with blood and swollen with tears run our troubled
+      life-waves!
+  From the depths and whirlpools of the stormful currents sounds the
+      moan of eternal sorrow!
+  Behind roars the bottomless abyss, black with the gloomy mists rising
+      from the woes of the Past:
+  Before lies the far-off Heaven, burning and blazing with flames red
+      as of blood:
+  Around struggle the swimmers, in surges so cold, hopeless,
+      and murky,
+  That from each as he floats onward is forced the cry; 'WOE! THE
+      CURSE IS UPON ME!'
+
+Mother, many times murdered! Unhappy mother! with the long and countless
+blades of thy ever-green grasses, with the waving stems of thy grain
+fields, thou wilt bind our undying memories closely to thee, but
+henceforth must thy sons wander and suffer, as they love thee. Behind
+them, from sea to sea, is the Grave; before them, wheresoever they may
+roam, the Sun set; while monarchs and merchants curse the endless
+progression!
+
+The Living cannot understand those reared on the bosom of the
+Dead--human faces grow pale at the approach of the spectres--at the echo
+of their footsteps the home-fires glimmer and flicker low on the
+hearthstone--the mother hides her child--the wife leads away the husband
+that he may not clasp hands with the wandering exile,--the evening star
+alone, the star of graves, smiles from Heaven on them!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Was not the silence of the forests holy? When the wind swept over the
+Pines, did not the mystic murmurs, sacred as the prayers of the Priest,
+say to you: 'Nowhere there will you find your God!' The spaces are
+filled with the giant skeletons torn from the dim woods; they are
+chained and clamped with iron and fed with steam; the eagles soar not in
+the air above them, nor do the glad birds twitter in the swaying
+branches; none among you may mount the strong horse of the desert and
+fly afar over the boundless steppes, rejoicing in his arrowy
+swiftness;--you are alone in the midst of the world!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As you wander on, poor exiles, your very gratitude is half disdain! When
+they lead you into cities without castles or temples, where trade and
+commerce rule; among whitewashed houses where the spirit of Beauty is
+not, and the green window-shutters are the sole adornment--murmur ye:
+THE DEAD!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the shores of the seas when you dwell with Jews, Armenians, and
+Greeks, quarrelling forever over their vile profits; seeing not the
+heavens, nor hearing the thunder as it booms over the waves--murmur ye:
+THE DEAD!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When women in rich attire move around you, and you feel that the faint
+fluttering of the silken robe is far more spiritual than the life-breath
+of their souls--murmur ye: THE DEAD!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Float on, then, like the sacred whispers from the unhewn forests! The
+world will not know you, because you are of the race sprung from
+coffins; born and cradled in coffins; but as you rise from the grave,
+strew upon the ground beneath your feet the mouldering rags of your
+shrouds--and _he_, seated on the verge of the abyss, on the steep and
+slippery declivity; _he_, robed in the royal purple of power, will not
+survive your Resurrection--but must himself descend into the coffin!
+
+
+I saw imaged before me, as in a wondrous vision, the varied scenes and
+changes as it were of a long life--rising, progressing, and vanishing,
+as if bound in a single day, beginning with the morning and fleeting
+away with the evening shadows.
+
+It seemed to me in my vision that the morning was strangely transparent.
+No clouds dulled the ether above. Far over the wide green space rose the
+sun, and in front of the House on the Hill stood a horse already
+saddled, impatiently wounding the velvety grass with his iron hoofs, and
+snuffing with wide nostrils the fresh breeze from the valley. Near him
+stood his young master. The light in his blue eye was bright as the
+young beam of the day. He had one foot in the stirrup, and the other on
+the soft home-turf; with one hand caressing the long waving mane of the
+steed, and the other clasped in the grasp of the man from whom he was
+taking leave--they knew not for how long, but yet felt it was not
+forever. Words were pouring from the heart of the one into the heart of
+the other. The elder, he who stood on the ground and was to move on on
+foot, kept his gaze steadily fixed on the rocks and forests lying beyond
+the smooth green turf. The younger, with raised eyes, gazed into the
+sky, as if absorbing its light in the blue lustrous pupils; and when he
+spoke, his voice was like the fresh breath of spring. The elder spoke
+more slowly, almost sternly, as though advising, warning, beseeching--as
+if he loved deeply, yet doubted, feared; but the younger had no fear, no
+doubts--he pledged himself and vowed--threw himself first into the arms
+of his friend, then leaped into his saddle. He pushed his horse rapidly
+on, swift as the arrow skims the plain, or the mountain stream plunges
+below. A cloud of servants poured forth from the halls of the ancient
+House, and followed their young Lord.
+
+He who remained behind, knelt; and fragments of his prayer were brought
+me by the wind, 'O Heavenly Father! let not this blooming soul wither
+away upon this arid earth! Lead it not into the temptation of human
+servitude; remove from it all sinful stain! Let it serve Thee alone!
+Thee and the many times murdered Mother!'
+
+He continued kneeling, although sunk in silence, as if wrapped in deep
+meditation, scarcely knowing whether to indulge in the dim prophecies
+then surging his soul, or to prolong his prayers. Then I saw him start,
+clasp his hands forcibly together--and again his words were borne to me
+by the wind.
+
+'O Heavenly Father! I ask Thee not to sweeten the bitter cup of life for
+my friend; I know that all who live must suffer; but, O merciful God,
+spare him the blush of shame, the infamy of weakness!'
+
+Then I saw the Wanderer rise from his knees, descend the hill, and make
+his way on foot through the forest to the distant rocks.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+About high noon of the same day they met again before the gate of a
+great city. The young man was still on his horse, his fair brow already
+darkened by the heat of the sun; the dew from the fresh home-turf was
+quite dry upon his stirrups, and the glitter of the steel dimmed with
+rust. The horse gladly stopped, as if wearied with his rapid flight
+through the distant space, but the blue eye of the youth still sparkled
+with its early fire.
+
+The elder, gray from head to foot with the dust of the road, seated
+himself on a stone by the wayside. The youth jumped lightly to the
+earth, and threw himself into the arms of his friend. I saw him give his
+horse in charge to his servants, take the arm of his companion, enter
+the gate of the great city, and lead him to the imperial Palace. In one
+of the inner chambers they sat down together to rest. They conversed
+however in whispers, as if they feared the ear of the enemy even through
+the massive stone walls. Stretching himself on the soft Persian carpet,
+the younger raised the cup of wrought silver to his thirsty lip. But
+when he handed it to the elder, he refused to taste the wine from the
+rich goblet. Nor would he look upon the tapestried walls, or the objects
+of luxury lying profusely scattered around the room, even when pointed
+out to him by his young companion. At last he rose, and taking the hand
+of the youth, led him to a window, from which the entire city was seen
+lying below, with the moving crowds of the populous nation. The immense
+city, wonderfully monotonous in its whitewashed walls! the immense
+nation, wonderfully monotonous in its black garments! The young man
+looked on curiously; the wanderer sighed, and said: 'When they shall
+lead you into cities without castles or temples, where the spirit of
+freedom is chained, murmur ye: THE DEAD!'
+
+But the younger continued to gaze with ever-growing interest. Carriages
+filled with women dressed in brilliant hues were rapidly driving by,
+drawn by strong, fleet horses. He saw one drive aside from the throng,
+the snowy veil and white draperies of the fair one within fluttering and
+floating far on, the breeze, as if the flying chariot were borne onward
+by the outspread sails. The Wanderer sighed, and said: 'When women in
+rich attire move around you, and you feel that the faint fluttering of
+the snowy robe is more spiritual than the life-breath of their
+souls--murmur ye: THE DEAD!'
+
+The young man seemed not to hear the words of his friend. Heavy masses
+of lurid clouds gathered from every direction, and obscured the face of
+the sky. How different the hour of the gloomy noon from that of the
+fresh, transparent morning!
+
+The men before whom the People of the Black Nation kneel and prostrate
+themselves now began to move through the streets. Their short garments
+glittered with gold, and were richly embroidered in gorgeous colors.
+They wore long thin swords at their sides, and thick tufts of plumes on
+their heads. Shouting with harsh voices, they passed on in power,
+striking the children who were lingering in the road as they moved
+forward. The children cried and wept; the crowd drew back and fled; and
+they remained alone upon the Great Square. More and more of them were
+ever thronging there; more and more courteously they ever bowed to one
+another, and lower and lower grew their salutes, until at last One rode
+forward on a steed richly caparisoned--and then they all fell down with
+their faces upon the ground--as if he were the Lord of Life and Death.
+
+Then said the Wanderer: 'He is already on the verge of the abyss, on the
+slope of the steep and slippery declivity; he, robed in the purple of
+Power, must himself descend into the coffin!'
+
+But the young man riveted his gaze on the magnificence of the rider, as
+if absorbing the diamond glitter into the lustrous pupils of his eyes,
+as in the morning they had absorbed and reflected the clear blue of the
+skies. He seemed not to hear the words of his friend. When they were
+earnestly repeated to him, he covered his face with his hands, and
+tenderly uttered the holy name of the murdered Mother, as if the love of
+childhood were upon his heart. The Wanderer pressed him to his breast,
+and said: 'Look not upon them! Look not upon them!'
+
+'Never! never!' he replied, as he again threw himself down to rest upon
+the Persian carpet.
+
+As the Wanderer rose to depart, I heard the prayer again rising to God
+from his divining soul:
+
+'O Heavenly Father! even at the burning noon of this bitter trial, I
+implore Thee for him whom I love! O God! I now entreat Thee to work a
+miracle in his behalf--to sweeten the bitter cup of life for this young,
+eager, thirsting soul! Deliver it from the temptations with which Thou
+hast seen good to surround the strong on this earth, led like him into
+these snares! Let him not fall, I beseech Thee, as did even the mighty
+and beautiful angels round Thy Throne, when the thirst for power was
+upon them. Save him, O God!'
+
+The young man remained alone, utterly alone, in the midst of the great
+city, and was soon forced to seek companionship with his fellow beings.
+It was strange, meanwhile, how black the heavens grew, as if the whole
+sky were sheeted with a curtain of lead. I saw him now constantly in the
+streets, the rooms, and in the midst of the people: he fascinated my
+gaze as if I saw only him. Under the calm of a tranquil face, he
+concealed bitter torment, intense suffering. Evil thoughts are winding
+through him, like swarms of black and poisonous worms, while the good
+are also thronging near him, like clouds of bright blue fireflies. The
+worms crawl over his heart, boring and bleeding it as they writhe; the
+fireflies would burn out the black congested gore, and cure the
+festering wounds, but new swarms of reptiles are forever sliming into
+life, and ever deeper and more gangrened are the wounds they make.
+Everywhere danger, everywhere torment; there is no human being whom he
+may trust! He too must learn to deceive in turn, to betray even women
+and children; must learn to lie as the masterpiece of art. He attains
+skill in the profession, and can command looks, smiles, tears, emotions;
+but alas! the light in his clear eye, once rivalling the young beam of
+day, no longer flashes from his pupils. Pity him, O God! his very
+garments become a lie; he throws aside the costume of his nation, in
+which he once rode so freely over the boundless steppe. He mounts on his
+head the tall tufts of plumes; he girds the thin sword to his side; and
+I saw in my dream that the people began to fall back before him, and
+bow as he drew near.
+
+But I saw that the steed of the desert refused to recognize his master
+when he entered the courtyard of the Palace. In vain he pats, with his
+own hand, the wavy silken mane: no neigh of joy now answers his caress;
+he strives to leap upon him as in the morning of this eventful day, but
+the haughty charger rears, stands erect upon his hind legs, and refuses
+to be mounted. Enraged beyond control, he thrusts his long sword into
+the glossy flanks. The startled animal breaks away, spurns the
+blood-sprinkled soil, and flies thundering afar, rattling and clashing
+his iron hoofs on the pavement, marking his track with a long line of
+glittering sparks, flashing but to die in the dying light of evening!
+
+The hour of twilight is already on the earth!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Again, for the third time in that day of life, met the Wanderer and his
+friend. They stood together in a Church, which was without the gates,
+and the cross on its towers was different from those on the Basilicas
+within the walls of the city. The altar was without adornment, and, as
+well as the walls and ceilings, was shrouded in the deepest mourning.
+Three tapers only were upon it, and they struggled vainly with the
+surrounding gloom.
+
+I saw the Wanderer take one of these lights, and gaze, with a look of
+woe, upon the face of his friend. The young man was silent, he found no
+utterance, he had lost the secret of revealing, by honest words, the
+depths of the soul. But the bitter truth was expressed in the long wild
+cry which burst spasmodically from his lips. In it might be read the
+seduction and destruction of a young spirit, not consenting to its own
+shame and ruin!
+
+He laid his head on the strong shoulder of his friend, and closed his
+heavy eyelids, as if he dreamed, in this trying moment, it would be
+possible for him thus to close them forever. But the Wanderer, suddenly
+calling him back to consciousness, said: 'Follow me! follow me, that
+thou mayst remember forever the Form of the murdered Mother!'
+
+So saying, he led the young man to a low door which opened behind the
+Great Altar. A whirlwind, as if from plains of ice, blew upon them from
+the subterranean passages below, and the flame of the taper streamed
+upon the blast, swaying and torn into a line of dying sparks. And thus
+they commenced the plunge into the very bosom of night, descending ever
+lower and lower, exploring depth after depth, until at last they had
+worked their way through the narrow and winding passages, and stood in
+the sublime silence of the immensity of space.
+
+Their taper had long ago gone out, but they needed not its flickering
+light. The swamp-fires of the night, the corpse-lights, the
+will-o'-the-wisps, sometimes fell like falling stars; sometimes rose
+like rising moons. Countless cemeteries seemed moving on in this weird
+light, one solemnly following the other, and on the dark gate of each
+glittered, as if graved in frosted silver, the name of the Murdered
+Nation, and on the white crosses gleaming within, the names of her
+martyred children. Vast piles of skeletons, of bones and skulls, lay in
+the path of the young man, and as he advanced he read the glorious
+inscriptions.
+
+It now seemed to him that the ghosts of the buried were also moving on
+before him, increasing constantly in number, and all moaning as they
+sped on, until at last they seemed to condense into a murky vapor like a
+trailing storm-cloud, growing ever more and more pervading, and
+murmuring with thousands upon thousands of sad, but spirit-stirring
+national songs. The air gleamed with the flashing of sabres and wild
+waving of standards; conflagrations and flames filled the intervening
+spaces, like vivid flashes of restless lightning, now gleaming, now
+sinking into the bosom of the cloud. Faster and faster, farther and
+farther whirls the cloud of spirits. Then in my dream I saw them
+suddenly descend, driven over the earth like the withered leaves of
+autumn--beaten low upon the ground and drifting on like the summer's
+dust--while a strong cry burst from the driven shadows: 'O God, have
+mercy upon us!'
+
+The Wanderer stopped before the gate of an open sepulchre, on which was
+graven the name of the many times Murdered. The letters blazed with a
+soft lambent flame, and he fell reverently upon his knees. Penetrated
+with mystic awe, he quivered from head to foot when he arose, and wept
+tenderly as he crossed the threshold.
+
+A soft light, like that of an evening late in autumn, dimly illumined
+the space within. I saw the holy Coffin as it lay on the gentle slope of
+a hill; a giant Pine stood at its head, and in its topmost branches
+perched the Eagle, pierced to the heart and sleeping in its own blood.
+Within the coffin lay the sacred Form, with the cross on her breast, the
+veil on her face, the fetters on her hands, and the crown upon her
+forehead. I saw six such hills rising one after the other, separated
+from one another by the long grass, through which, in place of sunny
+brooks, flowed crimson streams of human gore. Hilts and shivered
+fragments of broken swords, overgrown with weeds and covered with rust,
+were lying scattered in every direction through the rank grass. On each
+of the six hills lay the same Coffin; the same Form. But always more and
+more strongly surged the streams of human blood; heavier and heavier
+grew the chains on the hands of the Dead; and paler and paler the dim
+autumnal light. At the foot of the last hill it was dark, and bitter
+cold; the currents of blood were frozen; the icicles hung from the
+branches of the Pine; the Eagle lay in his congealed gore; and in place
+of the veil, the face of the six times murdered Mother was closely
+covered with a sheet of snow.
+
+When the young man reached this spot of gloom, he fell with his face
+upon the frozen earth, and cursed his life! In the distance sounded the
+moans of the shadows left at the gate of the sepulchre; he bowed his
+head and wept. He heard them ask: 'Is the six times Murdered really
+dead? will she rise no more to deliver her faithful children from mortal
+anguish?'
+
+The Wanderer replied not, but looked with eyes of melancholy love upon
+his friend who had thrown himself upon the frozen earth, and gently
+raised him in his strong arms.
+
+Then rose the wail of all the armies of the grave; they broke the
+silence of death with loud and fearful cries: 'O Heavenly Father, Thou
+hast betrayed us! Thou hast delivered us up to Hell, for our Saint is
+really dead!'
+
+The Wanderer answered the cry, and his voice pealed like distant
+thunder. 'Blaspheme not! Our Saint yet breathes! I see her lying in her
+last coffin on the hill of ice--there is no seventh beyond it--from it
+comes the Resurrection!' The wails and sobs of the spirits suddenly
+ceased, and a murmuring chant of the Mother's was entoned, low and sweet
+as the first sigh of a germing hope.
+
+The young man now perceived, for hitherto he had not seen it, the
+illimitable space beyond the coffin. Afar over the infinite blue broke
+the growing splendor of the early dawn--the clash and clamor of battles
+yet unborn broke through the veil of Time--and above it all he heard the
+Mother's ancient hymn of victory!
+
+The young dawn shone but for a moment, the clash of battle ceased, the
+song of triumph died upon the ear--the gloomy silence of the twilight
+was again upon them, and frost and cold upon the earth. The two friends
+reverently pressed their lips upon the still feet of the fettered Form;
+together listened to the faint breathing from the icy lips, catching it
+even through the veil of snow shrouding the sacred face; together they
+ascended the frozen hill, bowing their heads in their hands to hide
+their tears.
+
+I saw them again as they were returning by the same road, and overheard
+them binding themselves with fearful oaths. The Wanderer took leave of
+the young man at the entrance of the church, saying with wonderfully
+tender and conjuring tones: 'Be not deceived by those who would fain
+ruin thy soul, and blot out thy name from the number of honorable sounds
+on earth! Remember, whatsoever the splendor of the things thou shalt
+this night see, they are but deceptions from the lowest Hell! Then
+placing his hand on the heart of the young man, he prayed: 'O Heavenly
+Father! have mercy upon him and upon me, for if he withstands not this
+terrible Temptation, Thou knowest we shall both have lived in vain, and
+our part on earth is done forever! After this they parted, and went
+their way on different routes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was already night in the great city. Innumerable throngs were
+crowding the streets, all moving in the same direction, to the palace
+lighted with a thousand lamps, sounding with music, and gay with the
+dance. Old and young, men and women thronged the brazen stairs leading
+to the upper saloons; hurrying on as eagerly, as unceasingly as if
+ascending into Heaven!
+
+The hours of the night passed slowly by, seeming longer to me than the
+whole of the preceding day. It was almost one o'clock before I again saw
+the young man, and the traces of the oaths he had taken were cunningly
+hidden under smiles. Groups of servants stood around him; he carelessly
+threw them his cloak, and climbed with the rest the brazen stairs. He
+was richly dressed; the magnificent guest was worthy of the splendor of
+the wedding feast. He entered gracefully, and gazed curiously on the
+thousands who were dancing around him. His eyes fell upon the rich and
+varied spoils overhanging the Hall; broken swords were wrought into the
+walls like mosaics; the flags of the conquered nations were draped in
+their varied hues across the vaulted ceiling; but as he looked on all
+these trophies of power, I saw him suddenly turn pale with rage, and
+bite his lips until the blood followed the pressure of his teeth; but
+then the whirling crowds caught him in their midst--violins, harps,
+flutes and horns poured the reeling air into his dizzied brain--clouds
+of incense intoxicated his senses--piled and mossy carpets luxuriously
+yielded to the pressure of his feet--rainbow hues shifted gayly before
+his dazzled eyes--until giddy, fascinated, stimulated, he sank upon a
+pile of cushions, resting his hot temples in his burning palms, dreaming
+of snowy hands and taper fingers, of azure eyes and cheeks like rose
+leaves.
+
+As he thus rested, I heard the bell heavily toll one; I felt that this
+long night was in its darkest hour!
+
+When he raised his eyes, he saw, through the long vista of the
+illuminated apartments, the Throne of the Splendor of the Sun. It stood
+above the moving sea of dancers; upon it sat the Autocrat of Life and
+Death; and above him waved the canopy of flags torn from the dying
+nations. The young man started, for he saw one among them dyed in gore,
+and tattered into rags, and from its torn streamers, drop by drop, the
+blood was ever falling; but no one saw or heeded it save himself. When
+this sight fell upon his reeling gaze, he determined to repel with all
+his force the allurements of temptation, and again his eye gleamed blue
+and pure as it had done in the early morning.
+
+A movement now began in the crowd. It dispersed, divided, and formed
+into long lines upon the right and the left, leaving a wide, open
+pathway through the whole length of the long vista of the apartments.
+The Lord of the Palace descended from his Throne, and moved through the
+living walls as if he were a God, while all prostrated themselves as he
+passed along. He turned not aside, but went directly to the spot where
+the young man was seated. Nearer and nearer he approached, wondrously
+beautiful and strong. The young man rose and looked boldly into his
+eyes. The Master of Life and Death did not frown upon him, but said
+gently: 'Come, let us take a stroll together; I will show you the
+wonders of my Palace!'
+
+The youth stood as if transfixed to the spot, but the Lord of Life and
+Death drew closer to him, stooped and pressed a kiss on his brow, and
+led him away with easy grace.
+
+Although he seemed to see the coffin of the murdered Mother ever winding
+on before him, the young man accompanied the Monarch. His arm trembled
+with the quick beating of his boiling blood as it lay on the hard one of
+the Autocrat, who, thunder as he might to the bowing throng prostrating
+themselves before him, continued to speak in soft tones and with a
+noble, courteous air to his present companion. He spoke of the past, he
+uttered without trembling even the name of the murdered Mother, as if
+her assassination did not weigh upon his conscience. He did not seem to
+have the least doubt that she was really dead, vanished forever from the
+face of the earth. He artfully pointed out to the young man another
+immense future,[10] graven, as he said, in the Book of Fate. He painted
+it in the most alluring colors, awakening his young desires for its
+attainment; he spared no promises, and as if he held himself to be one
+of God's prophets, he parodied inspiration. The unhappy young man turned
+his eyes toward the ground, away from the handsome face, as though it
+had been that of Antichrist. Each word of the Tempter fell like a drop
+of poison on his heart, engendering and hatching the worms within. They
+walked together through the long ranges of apartments, the close ranks
+of men prostrating themselves as they passed, until they struck with
+their foreheads the malachites wrought into the tessellated floor.
+
+When they arrived at the other end of the Palace, the gates of bronze
+upon the order of the Master were suddenly thrown open, while the mass
+behind, lifting their heads from the ground, looked enviously after
+them.
+
+'Behold, this is my Treasury,' said the Monarch. 'Look, and have faith
+in the extent of my power!'
+
+The young man looked before him. He was standing at the portals of deep
+mines of wealth, endlessly extended. Alas! the glowing splendor from the
+hills and valleys burned into the blue eyes of the young man; his pupils
+rapidly absorbed the molten torrents of gold and silver; circles of
+light from amethyst, opal, and emerald, bent like rainbows round the
+azure orbs. The subterranean flames roared and crackled; the hills were
+shaken to their centre; the caves were heaving in their depths, and
+fresh, glittering, golden, diamantine lumps came ever gushing from the
+fused and seething mass.
+
+But strange sounds were ever and anon heard amidst the hissing and
+sputtering of the boiling metals. Long cries came up as if from men in
+the agonies of death; a clatter as of chains sounded from the abyss;
+muttered curses; and bent and wretched human figures were seen moving
+over swards of diamonds and precious stones, like the dark stains
+passing athwart the bright face of the moon. The eye of the Monarch then
+flamed with wrath. Sometimes clanging their chains as they moved their
+fettered limbs, these melancholy figures raised to him their suppliant
+hands, begging with anguished cries for one drop of water, for one
+moment of respite to breathe the free air of heaven. He vouchsafed to
+them no answer, and with every moment the wretched and emaciated shadows
+fell from utter exhaustion into the molten metals seething in the depths
+of the mine. But what mattered that, since with every instant, new bands
+of living shadows, equally fettered, doomed, and wretched, arrived to
+fill the vacant places? The young man thought he had seen some of these
+melancholy faces before in the high places of the earth, that the noble
+traits once had been dear to him, but the flashes of lightning blinded
+him, and the features were rapidly lost in the depths of the succeeding
+gloom. The roar of the seething, fusing metals deafened the sound of the
+groans from the chained and broken-hearted miners. And as I gazed, an
+all-pervading splendor, like the golden calm of the Desert, settled over
+all, covering with glittering veil the anguish which had been revealed.
+
+As this light overflowed the scene with its brilliant haze, the gates of
+bronze clapped to with heavy clang. The Master of Life and Death took
+leave of the young man, and as he departed, said: When the great bell
+again strikes, be in the Hall of the Throne; thy seat at my Banquet is
+next my own.
+
+As the young man turned to move away, the throng greeted him with shouts
+and cheers. Many knelt to kiss his hand, because it had touched the hand
+of the Master. They asked him what music he would hear, and when his
+choice was made, the grand orchestra rolled it forth in massive waves of
+sound. They bore him luscious wines in jewelled vases, kneeling as he
+took the cup. He marvelled, and at first scorned the homage, but again I
+saw him look proudly round him, and assume an air of command.
+
+In a recess of the most exquisite beauty, veiled by groves of perfumed
+flowers, he meets resplendent groups of married women, blooming clusters
+of budding maidens. They surround him as he enters, greeting him with
+lovely smiles; and scattering rose leaves o'er him. His cheeks flame as
+with fever; his blood boils in his veins; he grows giddy, faint:--alas,
+he feels at last that he might find happiness in the Palace of the
+mortal enemy of his Mother! This feeling falls upon him like a
+thunderbolt, and scathes his heart. He turns to fly, but they pursue,
+the perfumed wind bearing onward and wafting around him the full drapery
+of their floating trains of luxury. Their long ringlets kiss his cheeks,
+and weave their nets around him.
+
+Through two long hours of this fitful night I watched him with the
+keenest interest. I saw him struggle, confused, bewildered, reeling,
+giddy, dazzled, sometimes almost yielding to temptation, sometimes
+earnestly imploring the Heavenly Father for strength to resist delusion.
+As if in despair, I saw him hurrying through the long suite of
+apartments in search of a sword to pierce his weak, vacillating heart,
+but no arms were here to be found. Sometimes I saw him rush to meet the
+alluring Circes of the Palace, as if seeking their fascinations; then,
+suddenly turning upon them, he would curse and insult the seductive
+Sirens. I saw him tear from them their veils of snow, rend them asunder,
+and trample the costly fragments under his feet. They knelt, wept, and
+humiliated themselves before him. They prayed for love, saying: 'Once,
+only once, we implore thee, confess that thou lovest!' Utter madness
+came upon him; electric flashes fired his veins; rapture tingled through
+every fibre of his young frame; and in the voluptuous delirium of the
+moment he wildly cried: 'I love! I love!'
+
+As he spake, he caught in his arms the Houri of the foreign race; he
+fastened his burning lips upon her rosebud mouth; and by the magic of
+her breath she drew him on to the Hall of the Throne!
+
+There sat the Master of Life and Death, with the flags and standards of
+the conquered nations floating around and above him. As the youth and
+maiden entered, I again heard the great bell toll the hour. Throngs of
+courtiers stood around the Throne. Slowly the curtain of inwrought
+tapestry rose from the platina door. Those who had been waiting beyond
+its threshold for admittance, were summoned by the Heralds to appear.
+Ambassadors from the Kings of the East and the Kings of the West entered
+the Presence Chamber. On they filed in long and solemn procession. They
+all bowed as they passed the Throne, each one depositing an urn of pure
+gold at the feet of the Monarch. The urns were filled with the ashes of
+those who had fallen in battle, heroes killed in holy causes, patriots
+and martyrs from different parts of the world. The Grand Duke entered
+last in the train, he was clad in the ermine only worn by Princes, and
+as he bowed his head, he placed the last urn on the floor. The young man
+started--the name of the murdered Mother was deeply graven on the
+sculptured swells. Then all grew dark before him, he saw neither the
+Throne of the Monarch, nor the fair girl still clinging to his arm. But
+his ear quickened as his eye grew dim, and the question of the Monarch
+rang loudly through his brain: 'Are they all really dead, and will they
+rise from the grave no more?'
+
+And as if with one voice answered the Ambassadors: 'They are all surely
+dead, and will rise no more forever.' At a sign from the Monarch, the
+courtiers approached, took up the urns, and solemnly deposited them upon
+the columns of black marble ranged on either side of the Hall. Flaming
+torches were then handed by the attendants, taken by those high in the
+favor of the court, and held over the open crypt of the urn. The ashes
+within kindled, and burned with a dim, bluish flame. The pale smoke rose
+from the shrine, spread through the air, and wafted the smell of Death
+to the nostrils of the Lord!
+
+It now seemed to the young man as if all he had seen at the hour of
+twilight was but a dream; he looked upon these throngs as the sole
+masters of the world, and on their Monarch as omnipotent and eternal. At
+this moment the table of festival rose in the Hall, everywhere
+surrounded by the blazing funereal urns. The maiden begged the
+bridegroom to take his seat at the banquet; the Master, descending from
+his Throne, placed his arm in his, and led him to the place of honor, at
+his side. The great bell again tolled the hour. The guests also took
+their places at the feast.
+
+Directly in front of the young man stood the column of black marble
+bearing the urn containing the ashes of his Mother. And whenever he saw
+her holy name, his long lashes veiled his sinking eyes; but his bride
+constantly recalled his attention to the blue flames of the crypt.
+
+More and more madly, fiercely, fearfully, his reeling and wretched soul
+struggled to regain its ancient faith, to return to its early hopes; but
+temptation was around him; his brain was bewildered; his understanding
+darkened; and madness within.
+
+Healths poisonous to his heart went round, and he was forced to drain
+them in honor of the Master. An inward shivering disjointed his members,
+unstrung his nerves, heart and frame fainted into weakness, a dew cold
+as death covered his temples, and his head fell wearily upon his
+breast--the walls, the floors, the ceilings, the men, the burning urns,
+danced, reeled, and tottered in wild confusion before him. The murmuring
+voices, the buzz of sound, the swell of the triumphant music, the
+strange words of the foreign bride, mingled and boomed like the roar of
+the sea in the ears of the swooning man--and so the last hours passed
+away!
+
+He still lived, if life be measured by the wild throbs of the heart.
+Like the clap of doom the last hour struck upon his ear. He opened his
+heavy eyelids, the blue flames from the urns were dying out. The Master
+of Life and Death, graciously smiling and courteously inclining toward
+him, said: 'Guest of my Banquet, the hour has struck in which thou art
+to swear to serve me; in which thou must abjure thine ancient faith and
+name.'
+
+As he spake, he threw to him across the table jewelled orders and
+diamond crosses, saying: 'Wear these in memory of me!' The Herald then
+drew near, and read to him from the Black Book the form of abjuration.
+The agonizing and swooning man mechanically repeated the words one by
+one after him, not even hearing the sound of his own voice. His head had
+fallen on the bosom of his bride, his lips still moved, but his eyes
+were glaring in the whiteness of death--and so he uttered all the
+prescribed words until the very last was said!
+
+Scarcely had he finished, when the Master of Life and Death arose and
+said: 'Servant of my servants art thou now--beware! shouldst thou prove
+false to thy oath, the rope of the hangman surely awaits thee.' Then he
+broke into a loud, coarse laugh of triumph!
+
+The unfortunate man raised his wretched head, and his first look fell
+upon the urn of his murdered Mother. In place of her name of glory
+another word was standing now: 'INFAMY!' 'Infamy,'--he looked
+again; he shrieked aloud, 'Infamy;' and started from his seat with the
+last effort of his failing strength. 'Infamy!' shouted the thousands
+from before, behind, from either side. 'Infamy' sounded from the
+ceilings of the Palace, the Hall of the Throne, the deep mines and
+limitless Treasury! Some among the crowd hastened to greet him by his
+new name, while others fastened to his garments the glittering orders
+and diamond crosses. Some commanded him to bow before them, while others
+ordered him to trample under foot the still smouldering ashes of his
+Mother!
+
+That thought sent the blood back in hot torrents to his heart. He broke
+through the surrounding throng, rushed on, fled from the Presence
+Chamber, eagerly looking for his bride. He saw her leaning on the arm of
+another, mocking and jeering with the rest. He glides on behind the
+statues, steals along the recesses, is discovered, and again flies
+before the enemy. The Palace winds before him into countless
+labyrinths--nowhere is shelter to be found sneers, menaces, insults, are
+everywhere around him--but worse than all, _the curse is now within his
+soul_!
+
+Then he suddenly turns to meet his enemies; he baffles them at first,
+but countless numbers are upon him. They hurl him to the ground, trample
+him under foot, and pass on singing a song from the land of his Mother.
+As he rises, fresh numbers assail him, he bids defiance to them all,
+struggles, advances, until foaming, bleeding, sinking, he is again
+driven back, again forced to seek an outlet from the Palace. Thus
+fighting, running, falling, fainting, he makes his way until the first
+dim dawn of day, and as it breaks, he falls heavily down the brazen
+staircase, and rolls below into the court of the Palace. Here strong
+arms seize him, and bear him rapidly away to the steps of the
+church--the same church which he had left in the evening twilight.
+
+It is the hour of the young dawn, but the sun of this earth will never
+rise for him again! Light will awake the world, but it will shine into
+his blue eyes no more!
+
+He awakes to consciousness on the steps of the church, and finds himself
+face to face alone with the Wanderer. He is mute in his despair. The
+Wanderer, regarding him sternly, says: 'In other times and scenes thou
+mightst perchance have been a hero, but the Fates doomed thee to heavy
+trial, and thou wert not strong enough to preserve thy virtue! The
+_visible reality_ prevailed with thee above the _invisible_, _holy_, and
+_eternal truth_! Alas, thou art lost!'
+
+'Give me back my horse!' cried the young man, as life again began to
+flow through his veins. 'Give me the free dress of the steppes, give me
+my arms, and thou shalt see that I know how to revenge the wrongs
+inflicted on my brethren, to redress my own infamy!'
+
+He grasped the hand of his friend, and threw himself into his arms,
+quivering with rage. Far more sadly than before, the Wanderer replied:
+
+'The hour for bold and open defiance is not yet near. It is the time for
+silent sacrifice. But even shouldst thou live until the Day of Judgment,
+the hour of Resurrection, thy brethren will always number thee among
+those who have renounced the Mother. Hark! thy enemies are in pursuit of
+thee, already near. Should they capture thee, thou must be the slave of
+their wills, the partner of their crimes, the sport and butt of all
+their bitter jests throughout the remnant of thy wretched life. One only
+refuge remains for thee!' And as he spoke, he drew his glittering sword.
+
+The young man understood his meaning. With dauntless courage he tore
+aside the covering from his breast.
+
+'Strike!' he exclaimed. 'I die as a true son of the many times murdered
+Mother--honor to her holy name forever and ever!'
+
+The Wanderer groaned from the depths of his soul. He plunged the sharp
+cold steel into the young naked heart. The unfortunate victim fell
+without a moan. He fell in the first rays of the rising sun, and in the
+same hour in which but yesterday, full of strength and hope, he had
+mounted his swift horse from the green home-turf, urging him down the
+hill to push eagerly over the broad steppe of life.
+
+He fell in silence, but his dying eye again flashed forth a light
+rivalling the young beam of Day.
+
+The Wanderer knelt beside him, and lifting his clasped hands to Heaven,
+said: 'O Heavenly Father! Thou knowest that I loved him better than
+aught else on earth! As long as it was possible, I shielded him from the
+Temptation of Hell, and in the first moment of his fall, I tore his soul
+out from the grasp of the enemy, and sent it back to Thee! Save it in
+eternity, merciful Father! Let the crimson tide poured out by me, be
+joined to that sea of innocent blood which is ever wailing and moaning
+at the foot of Thy Throne! Let it with that sea fall upon the head of
+the Tempters!'
+
+After these words I saw him, with the point of the same sword, draw
+blood from under his own heart, and write with the sharp red blade on
+the stone above the head of the dead: SENT HOME BY THE HAND OF A
+FRIEND!
+
+The echoing steps and voices of the pursuers fell loudly on the ear;
+they were close at hand. The Wanderer arose, and rapidly disappeared
+from my eyes in the sanctuary of the ancient church.
+
+
+Thus passed and ended that one day of my vision!
+
+
+O Mother, many times murdered! When thou shalt waken from thy long
+sleep, and again rest on the long grass of the home turf, again hear the
+holy whispers of thy unhewn forests green from sea to sea, again feel
+thy youth returning upon thee, thou wilt remember thy long night of
+death, the terrible phantoms of thy protracted agonies. Weep not then, O
+Mother! weep not for those who fell in glorious battle, nor for those
+who perished on alien soil--although their flesh was torn by the vulture
+and devoured by the wolf, they were still happy! Neither weep for those
+who died in the dark and silent dungeon underground by the hand of the
+executioner, though the dismal prison-lamp was their only star, and the
+harsh words of the oppressor the last farewell they heard on earth--they
+too were happy!
+
+But drop a tear, O Mother! One tear of tender pity for those who were
+deceived by thy Murderers, misled by their tissues of glittering
+falsehood, blinded by misty veils woven of specious deceptions, when the
+command of the tyrant had no power to tear their true hearts from thee!
+Alas, Mother, these victims have suffered the most of all thy martyred
+children! Deceitful hopes, born but to die, like blades of naked steel,
+forever pierced their breasts! Thousands of fierce combats, unknown to
+fame, were waging in their souls, combats fuller of bitter suffering
+than the bloody battles thundering on in the broad light of the sun,
+clashing with the gleam of steel, and booming with the roar of
+artillery. No glory shone on the dim paths of thy deceived sons; thy
+reproachful phantom walked ever beside them, as part of their own
+shadow! The glittering eye of the enemy lured them to the steep slopes
+of ice, down into the abyss of eternal snow, and at every step into the
+frozen depths, their tears fell fast for thee! They waited until their
+hearts withered in the misery of hope long deferred; until their hands
+sank in utter weariness; until they could no longer move their emaciated
+limbs in the fetters of their invisible chain; still conscious of life,
+they moved as living corpses with frozen hearts--alone amidst a hating
+People--alone even in the sanctuary of their own homes--alone forever on
+the face of the earth!
+
+My Mother! When thou shalt again live in thy olden glory, shed a tear
+over their wretched fate, over the agony of agonies, and whisper upon
+their dark and silent graves, the sublime word: PARDON!
+
+
+
+
+MADAGASCAR
+
+
+The 'Last Travels' of Ida Pfeiffer, published in London in 1861, called
+the public attention to an island which had been excluded from
+civilization for more than a quarter of a century. The great Island of
+Madagascar, situated in the path of all the commerce of Europe with the
+East, for reasons we are about to explain, has again attracted the
+notice of diplomatists, and threatens to become a second Eastern
+question. We propose to sketch the history of the island and to explain
+the cause of its sudden importance.
+
+Though discovered in 1506 by the Portuguese, and partially colonized at
+times by the Dutch, French, and English, it has, up to this time,
+preserved an independent government; or rather, the native tribes have
+been allowed to fight and enslave each other without much aid or
+hindrance from Europeans.
+
+When England, early in the present century, began the task of subduing
+the East, she found in her conquests of Mauritius and Bourbon the
+natural and important links in her chain of posts. As a recent writer
+has well pointed out, she has a succession of fortified posts,
+Gibraltar, St. Helena, the Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, and Ceylon,
+reaching from London to Calcutta and Singapore. The commerce of the
+world, as it sweeps by the Cape of Good Hope, is forced to pursue a
+track in which her strongholds are situated. But for the blindness of
+her former rulers, she would be the mistress of the Eastern seas. Two
+points, however, have been left unguarded. In some trading convention,
+some congress of nations, England made the great mistake of restoring to
+France the Island of Bourbon, surrendering one of the keys to the
+impregnable position she held. Other reasons have prevented the
+acquisition of Madagascar, and it is not yet too late to render this
+mistake fatal to her supremacy. It is true that in case of war, her
+armed steamers may start with the assurance of a secure coaling station
+at the end of every ten days' journey, but from the Cape eastward she is
+dependent upon her maintenance of Mauritius.
+
+France has made the most of the opportunity given to her, by holding
+Bourbon as a military colony, and maintaining a powerful fleet there. It
+is, however, for us to regard the interests of the United States, and to
+see if any foothold can be gained for our protection. Had war been the
+result of the _Trent_ affair, what would have become of our immense
+fleet of merchant ships which was then afloat in Indian waters? Manila
+and Batavia were the only two neutral ports to which they could have
+fled for safety; and neither Spain nor Holland would have dared to
+permit our cruisers to refit or to coal in their ports. The American
+flag would have been driven from those seas without the slightest
+difficulty.
+
+And yet the means for avoiding this disgraceful state of affairs in the
+future lie open to us now. The fertile Island of Madagascar, abounding
+in safe harbors, lies as near the track of commerce as do Mauritius and
+Bourbon. It has innumerable advantages over either of these islands, and
+it is especially adapted to our wants. Mauritius must be weak in time of
+war, because it is so entirely an artificial colony. A mere dot on the
+map, only some thirty miles in diameter, it has a population of over
+three hundred thousand, wholly devoted to the cultivation of sugar. This
+product has been the source of immense wealth to the island, but it has
+necessitated the abandonment of every other branch of agriculture. These
+three hundred thousand inhabitants are literally dependent for their
+daily food on the kindness of the elements in time of peace, and on the
+naval supremacy of England in time of war. There is not enough grain
+raised there to supply the colonists with food for twenty-four hours,
+and there is rarely a supply in reserve to last them for two months.
+Their rice is brought from India, their cattle from Madagascar. Let the
+free intercourse with these countries be suspended, and a famine is
+inevitable. The noble harbor of Port Louis, with its fortifications, its
+dockyards, and coal sheds, is a source of strength to England only so
+long as she can prevent her enemies from establishing themselves in
+Madagascar.
+
+France is striving to rival and surpass England. At Bourbon, already
+strongly fortified, immense artificial docks are projected, perhaps
+commenced. The colony has annually a deficit in its accounts to be made
+good from the national treasury, but extension rather than retrenchment
+is its policy. France has acquired the Mayotte or Comoro Islands, and
+several ports on the north of Madagascar. She has also the sympathy of
+all the creoles of Mauritius, in whose minds the English occupation of
+fifty years has been unable to stifle the instinct of nationality.
+
+Thus the two great Western powers stand, nominally allies at home,
+jealous and active enemies abroad.
+
+Circumstances have kept both powers from seizing the tempting prize
+which has so long hung before them. What are these two pitiful islands
+in comparison with the great, wealthy, and fertile island which, lies to
+the west of them? In time of peace they are convenient points in the
+great lines of commerce; here the disabled vessels of all nations find a
+resting place. In time of war they are strongly entrenched positions,
+liable to capture by any nation which can secure a base for operations
+against them. Madagascar, on the other hand, stands fifth on the list of
+islands in magnitude, is situated in the latitude most favorable for
+agriculture, and abounds in every kind of material wealth. A harbor on
+its coast, with the whole island as a depot from whence supplies can be
+drawn, would be a source of strength more than sufficient to
+counterbalance the works of half a century's growth at Mauritius. We
+have only to see, therefore, if such a concession can be obtained for
+this country.
+
+We have said that repeated and ineffectual attempts were made to subdue
+and colonize the island. Numerous tribes, of widely varying origin,
+people the island, some black as the blackest negro, others of the Malay
+or Arab type. For centuries they had been engaged in domestic wars, when
+in 1816 the English Government agreed to recognize the chief of one
+tribe as king of the island, on condition that he would suppress the
+foreign slave trade.
+
+The chief thus selected was Radama, king of the Hovas, a tribe occupying
+the centre of the island, and the one which ranked highest in the scale
+for intelligence. It is believed that this race, presenting so many
+characteristics of the Malays, is the result of some piratical colony
+here, established by chance or the desire of conquest. That the Hovas
+possess a high degree of intelligence, and are capable of as much
+culture as the Japanese or Mavris, is indisputable.
+
+Thanks to the muskets and military instructors with which England
+provided him, Radama was enabled to extend his conquests in every
+direction. He was indeed fitted to be a ruler, and, a savage Napoleon,
+he devoted as much time to improvement of his subjects as he did to the
+increase of his territories. Though not a convert, he allowed the
+missionaries to preach the gospel, to reduce the Hova language to
+writing, and to translate the Bible. He permitted them to establish
+schools, to import printing presses, to instruct his people in
+agriculture and mechanics. They rapidly availed themselves of the
+opportunity, and with mines of coal, iron, and copper in abundance, they
+became skilful artificers.
+
+Unfortunately, Radama died in 1828, in the prime of life; and, by an
+intrigue in his harem, a concubine, Ranavalo, was proclaimed Queen of
+Madagascar. The advance had been too rapid, and, as in Japan, there was
+a large party of conservatives anxious to return to the old regime. The
+new queen dissembled for a few years, but finally expelled the
+missionaries in 1835. Idolatry was again resumed, and Christianity
+stifled. A certain amount of commerce was allowed with Europeans, but
+under severe restrictions. So necessary to the existence of the
+neighboring colonists was the supply of food, that when in 1844 the
+trade was forbidden, the English Government was obliged to yield. The
+difficulty arose from the fact that an English vessel, the 'Marie
+Laure,' kidnapped some of the Malagash. The Hovas seized one of the
+crew, and then declared non-intercourse. In 1845, one English and two
+French men-of-war attacked Tamatave, but were repulsed with considerable
+losses.
+
+Finally the matter was settled by the payment of $15,000 to the queen as
+an indemnity, and this sum, raised by the contributions of the merchants
+of Port Louis, was paid with the consent of the English Government.
+
+Until 1861, there was no change in the position of affairs, except one
+incident, which Madame Pfeiffer records. In 1831, a certain M. Laborde,
+shipwrecked on the coast, was carried as a prisoner to the capital,
+where he was kept in an honorable captivity. He taught the natives the
+art of casting cannon and manufacturing gunpowder, and acquired a
+considerable property. In 1855, he was joined by M. Lambert, a
+Frenchman of wealth, and they became the favorites of the Prince Rakoto.
+This son of the queen was at the head of the liberal party, as his
+cousin, Ramboasalama, was of the conservative. The latter, nephew of the
+queen, and brother-in-law of the prince, had been designated as heir
+presumptive before the birth of Rakoto; and he had always the credit of
+a design to contest the succession.
+
+The visit of Mr. Ellis, an English missionary, in 1856, was the signal
+for the intrigues which were about to commence between the French and
+English. The prince was warmly attached to M. Lambert, but the English
+hoped to claim him as a Protestant. Finally, as Madame Pfeiffer says, M.
+Lambert attempted to create a revolution, seeking to depose the queen,
+but he was discovered and banished.
+
+In 1861, the queen died, and her son succeeded as Radama II, after a
+short contest with his cousin. Having been on the island at the time,
+and leaving it in the vessel which carried the new king's letters to the
+colonial governments, the writer can testify to the intense interest
+evinced by the French and English. It was confidently asserted at
+Bourbon that Radama had placed the island under the protection of
+France, and that French influence was to predominate. This proved
+unfounded, but the court was the centre for incessant intrigues.
+
+The new king commenced his reign under the happiest auspices. He was
+very popular, and his reputation for kindness had soon caused many of
+the surrounding tribes to acknowledge his supremacy. The Hovas had
+spread from the centre toward the coast in all directions--to the
+eastward they had subdued the Betsimarakas; to the westward, the
+Saccalaves. Yet numerous tribes had remained independent, and held large
+portions of the coast and the interior. The cruelty of the queen had
+kept alive their animosity, but now they voluntarily came forward to
+acknowledge her son and to be received into the Hova nation.
+
+The people already had acquired a taste for European luxuries, and were
+desirous of an extended commerce. As they were rich in herds and flocks,
+in grain and fruits, as their forests of ebony, rosewood, and other
+valuable woods were immense, as their mines yielded coal and iron,
+perhaps even gold, they were ready and anxious to open their ports to
+the commerce of the world. England and France both recognized the king,
+sent envoys with congratulatory letters and presents, and appointed
+resident consuls. The United States alone, unfortunately plunged in
+civil war, neglected the opportunity.
+
+The king proclaimed freedom of religion, permitted the establishment of
+schools, established freedom of imports and exports, and granted lands
+to all _bona fide_ settlers.
+
+It was with the greatest surprise, therefore, that we have learned, some
+two months since, that a revolution has taken place, and that these fair
+prospects have been darkened by the murder of the king. It seems that he
+had made such lavish grants of land to his favorite, Lambert, that his
+nobles rebelled. Lambert had been sent to France to obtain the regalia
+for the coronation, and had organized a great company to hold these
+concessions. Whether the feuds of the missionaries, Protestant English
+and Catholic French, aided this, is not yet known.
+
+It is clear, however, that the king and many of his personal friends
+were killed, and that his wife, Rabodo, is the queen. She is the sister
+of Ramboasalama, and probably represents the party of retrogression.
+
+It is not, however, too late for our Government to recognize the ruler
+of Madagascar, and to obtain those indispensable advantages resulting.
+In time of peace, we shall have safe harbors for our merchant vessels,
+and we shall open a new field for our commerce. In time of war, we shall
+have these neutral ports as a refuge, and should diplomacy go one step
+farther and secure us a coaling station, we shall be on equal terms in
+the East with the other great maritime powers.
+
+There is certainly no time to be lost. A single English steamer, flying
+the confederate flag, can pass the Cape, can coal at Mauritius, or
+rendezvous at Madagascar, and could then destroy more shipping than the
+whole fleet of pirates has yet done. It is at least probable that our
+national vessels would be refused permission to avail of Port Louis for
+repairs or supplies. It certainly does not comport with the honor of the
+nation to have to rely upon the churlish courtesy of England. Already,
+too, we see it announced that Napoleon will find in the massacre of
+French subjects a pretext to seize on the island. If our Government will
+spare a single one of the cruisers which have so uselessly sought the
+Alabama, it may, during the present year, negotiate a treaty which will
+at once advance our prosperity in peace, and increase our strength in
+any future war.
+
+It seems strange, indeed, that our statesmen cannot learn that we must
+hereafter abandon our isolated condition. England has taught us the
+folly of continuing indifferent to her aggressions in the East, in the
+hope that she will not interfere in the West. No blow can be more fatal
+to her supremacy abroad than the knowledge that we have secured a point
+where we perpetually threaten her line of communication with her
+colonies.
+
+We have written thus fully, because so few persons have had occasion to
+consider the subject. It seems probable, from the latest advices from
+Port Louis, that some envoy has visited the island, but what we require
+is a more imposing display of our power. The new queen, who has assumed
+the name of Rahoserina, is but a puppet in the hands of the council of
+nobles, of which Rainivoninahitriniony is the chief. Formerly all honors
+were held subject to the pleasure of the king, who could degrade his
+servants at pleasure; but this power is now declared to be abrogated.
+The powerful tribe of Saccalaves, always independent until the accession
+of Radama II, refuses to acknowledge his successor. It may be necessary
+to negotiate different treaties, perhaps, to protect American citizens
+in case of civil war. It is certainly most important to show the natives
+that we are really a great maritime nation. The time and position demand
+the employment of an able envoy, and the presence of such a naval force
+as may cause his mission to be respected.
+
+Our last topic is to be considered. We do not advocate the establishment
+of costly works by Government, or the acquisition of a colony. The laws
+of commerce will provide the first, if only a proper protection is given
+to enterprise. Let us obtain but a single port under the safeguard of
+the American flag, and it will become a depot as flourishing as
+Singapore. Private enterprise will speedily establish dockyards and
+machine shops; for not only will there be an immense legitimate commerce
+with the Malagash, but the port will be the great centre for repairing
+and refitting our merchant vessels and whalers. The one thing needful,
+we repeat, is prompt action by our Government, with the certainty that
+the opportunity now presented will not return.
+
+
+NOTE.--The latest advices from Madagascar, received _via_
+Mauritius, throw a little light upon the revolution which resulted in
+the death of Radama II. It seems probable that the late king had lost
+the esteem of his people by his partiality toward his favorites, by the
+concessions made to foreigners, especially to M. Lambert, and by his
+vacillating course in religious matters. His private life was such as to
+render it highly improbable that he had become a Christian; yet Mr.
+Ellis, the English missionary, exercised a great control over him.
+
+The late queen was buried at Ambohimanga, a little village where there
+was a temple devoted to the chief idol. It seems that her son had
+promised to keep this spot sacred from the intrusion of the
+missionaries. Mr. Ellis most imprudently determined to preach there, and
+though driven away once, obtained troops from the king, and succeeded in
+a second attempt.
+
+As the nobles and the population were almost unanimously in favor of
+idolatry, this course gave cause for great dissatisfaction. The more
+devout, assembling near the capital, held daily meetings, and a disease
+called ramanenra--a sort of nervous affection, such as has too often
+accompanied revivals in Christian countries--appeared among them. The
+nobles confederated under the lead of the commander-in-chief,
+Rainivoninahitriniony, and remained aloof from supporting the king.
+Finally, the king published a mysterious law, allowing individuals or
+tribes to fight in the presence of witnesses--a law supposed by the one
+party to encourage assassination, and by the other to tend to the
+extirpation of the Christians.
+
+The prime minister, in a letter written in English, explains the last
+scene thus: On the 8th May, the chief officers requested the repeal of
+these laws; the king refused; and the tenth day, a public tumult
+resulted in the slaughter of the Menamaso, or native favorites of the
+king. On the 12th May, the leaders, afraid to pause, strangled the king,
+and proclaimed Rabodo queen, under the name of Rahoserina.
+
+It is believed that no foreigner was injured; but the nobles have taken
+an important step in proclaiming the new queen as direct successor of
+Ranavalo--thereby ignoring the reign of Radama II. As the fundamental
+rule of the Hovas had been that the title to all land was in the
+sovereign and inalienable, the grants to Lambert and others are held to
+be void. We believe this has not been officially stated, but Commodore
+Dupre, who negotiated the treaty between France and Radama, says that
+the treaty was almost unanimously rejected by the great council of
+nobles, and was accepted solely by the king.
+
+The last advices, 6th September, from Port Louis, are that the French
+fleet at Tamatave maintains a semi-warlike attitude toward the Hovas,
+not landing nor recognizing the authorities. Rumors are rife of the
+intentions of the French Government to seize Tamatave, and apply other
+coercive measures, unless the former treaty is carried into effect.
+
+The case seems to stand thus: The emperor, availing of the weakness of
+Radama II for his favorite Lambert, concluded a treaty, by which the
+king was to entirely alter the laws of the kingdom, and to give the
+French a controlling influence in the Indian Ocean. The people have
+deposed their ruler, and refuse to be bound by arrangements made by his
+will alone. Under ordinary circumstances, Napoleon would hardly brave
+the anger of England in a matter in which the latter has so much at
+stake. The prize, however, is well worth the effort. Any European nation
+obtaining sole possession of Madagascar dominates the East. It is surely
+time for our Government to awake to the importance of the steps now
+being taken. It is not a time when the interests of the country can be
+intrusted to the efforts of a consul or any inferior naval officer. We
+ought to send an envoy with powers to negotiate a treaty, and with such
+a fleet as will insure a respectful attention to our demands. The number
+of American vessels which frequent the coasts of Madagascar is a
+sufficient reason for us to interfere, without regard to the vastly
+greater interests which demand that this island shall not become a
+French colony. Our prediction that the confederate pirates would soon
+sweep the Indian Ocean of our richly laden India-men seems in a fair
+way to be accomplished; and where, save by the contemptuous forbearance
+of England and France, can our cruisers find a port for supplies,
+repairs, or information?
+
+
+
+
+A VIGIL WITH ST. LOUIS.
+
+  [Greek: "Cheires men hagnai, phren d' echei miasma ti."]
+
+  EURIPIDES.
+
+
+  O Friend, thy brow is overcast; but haply for thy grief,
+  Though all untold, a spell I hold to work a swift relief,--
+  A hallowed spell;--no rites we need that shun the light,
+  Thy taper trim; for we must read some dark old words to-night.
+  For I will, shall I?--from their graves call up the holy dead,
+  More mighty than the living oft such soul as thine to aid.
+  From Fear and Woe, through fears and woes like thine, they won release,
+  And through our still confronting foes once fought their way to peace.
+  'Twixt woe and weal, a balm to heal our every wound they found,
+  An outlet for each pool of strife, that whirls us round and round.
+  And if perhaps their childish time discerned not all aright,--
+  While Fancy her stained windows reared between them and the light,--
+  That in these clearer latter days 'tis given to thee to know,
+  Then seek the spirit they received, and bid the letter go.
+  Thy heart unto its Lord unlock; and shut thy closet's door.
+  The holy water of thy tears drop on the quiet floor.
+  Unclasp the old brown tome. The walls no more are seen. The page
+  I read; and we are backward borne far in a bygone age.
+  The spell hath wrought. To take us in, a tower and bower advance
+  Where grows upon our steadfast gaze the royal saint of France.
+  The bower full well a hermit's cell--with hourglass and with skull--
+  Might seem,--the hangings woven all of rocks and mosses full.
+  The floor is thick with rushes strown. Some resting place is there
+  Worn,--as amid the rushy marsh by stag that made his lair,--
+  Worn just beneath yon carven form, that bends in pain and love,
+  As if to bless, from its high place, and almost seems to move,
+  While round it in the wind of night the arras swells and swings,--
+  The viceroy's of the universe, son of the King of kings.
+  For Louis loves to leave his court, and lay aside his crown,
+  And to a mightier Prince than he to bow in homage down.
+  In this great presence learns the king peace, truth, and lowlihead;
+  Here learns the saint the majesty no earthly power to dread.
+  But now the king's mute voice it rings, and through the shades doth call:
+  'Ho, Sire de Jonville, come to me, my doughty seneschal!'
+  The rafters feel the tramp of steel; and by the monarch stand
+  Again the feet that by him stood far in the Holy Land.
+  'O Sire de Jonville,' to his friend and servant Louis saith,
+  'Hold fast and firmly to the end the jewel of thy faith.
+  Strong faith's the key of heaven; and once an abbot taught to me,
+  If will is good, though faith is weak, shall faith accepted be.
+  This tale he told[11]:
+
+               A Master old,--Master of Sacred Lore,--
+  Of life unsmirched, once came to him in straits and travail sore,
+  'What wouldst thou, Master?--What the grief that makes thee peak
+      and pine?
+  And comest thou to me?--My soul hath often leaned on thine!'
+  'Let each co-pilgrim lean in turn on each,' in anguish meek,
+  With tongue that clave unto his mouth, the Master then did speak;
+  But when the abbot led him in and lent his pitying ears,
+  Then tears came fast instead of words; words could not come for tears.
+  'O brother, weep no more; but speak, and banish thy dismay.
+  Of man is guilt; but grace is God's, that purgeth guilt away.
+  If all our little being's bound were filled and stuffed with sin,
+  'Twere nothing to the holiness His mighty heart within;
+  And in this wilderness of life there's no such crooked road,
+  But from it may a path be found straight to the throne of God.
+  The penitent that mourns like thee, that path will surely take.
+  What needeth but to own thy sin and straight thy sin forsake?'
+  'Yet must I weep. Mine inward plight is one that stands alone.
+  The outward ill the tempted wight may do or leave undone;
+  But when I to the altar go, to eat the sacred bread
+  And gaze upon the blood divine, that for us all was shed,
+  Still Satan stirreth up in me a heart of unbelief!--
+  This guilt must sure unmeasured be, save haply by this grief!'
+  The abbot's brows were sternly bent an instant on his guest:
+  'Dost thou--thou dost not, sure!--invite this traitor to thy breast?'
+  'The livelong day, though sore assailed, true watch and ward I keep,--
+  Keep vigils long as flesh can bear,--but in my helpless sleep--
+  Thronged heaven, canst thou no angel spare, to sit by me by night
+  And drive away the hell-sent dreams, that drive me wild with fright?--
+  I seem to spill with frantic hands, and spurn the piteous blood,
+  To trample on the blessed bread, and spit upon the rood!'
+  The abbot's cheer grew calm and clear: 'Now, Master, tell me true:
+  For aught that Satan proffers thee, such trespass wouldst thou _do_?'
+  'From his poor thrall he taketh all, and offers nought instead.
+  The Father's grace,--the Son's mild face,--are all I crave,' he said.
+  'For any threat of any fate, wouldst follow his commands?'
+  'The fiery stake I'd rather make my portion at his hands!'
+  The abbot's mien was bright, I ween, as 'twere a saint's in bliss:
+  'O fiend, 'tis well to seek for hell so pure a gem as this!
+  O cunning foe, that round dost go these heavenward birds to snare,
+  When every brighter line is vain, wouldst tempt them with despair?
+  Bethink thee, Master. War doth rage 'twixt Britain's king, we know,
+  And ours. Now tell me unto whom most thanks our liege shall owe,
+  When war is o'er? To him who, oft assailed but never quelled,
+  The castle of Rochelle upon the dangerous Marches held,--
+  Whose battlements must bristle still with halberd, bow, and lance,--
+  Or Montl'hery's, that nestles safe close to the heart of France?'
+  'Unto the warden of Rochelle. Thou'rt answered easily!'
+  'That stronghold is thy heart, but mine the keep of Montl'hery,
+  For He who giveth gifts to all, hath given me to believe
+  So steadfastly, that strife like thine my wit can scarce conceive.
+  From th' Enemy God keepeth me,--He knows my weaker strength,--
+  But suffers thee assayed to be for higher meed at length.
+  Then let us at our different posts His equal mercies own;
+  But they the sharpest thorns who bear may wear the brightest crown.'
+  Beside the kneeling penitent the abbot bent his knee,
+  Sent his own praise and prayers to heaven forth on an embassy,
+  Then raised him up, and saw that God had sent him answering grace;
+  The shadow of the Enemy had left his heart and face.
+  Calmly as warily he walked his fellow men beside,
+  A good, grave man. 'Tis said, at last a happy man he died.'
+
+
+
+
+UNION NOT TO BE MAINTAINED BY FORCE.
+
+
+The enemies of our cause in Europe seem to have settled in their own
+minds the certainty of a final separation of the American States.
+Compelled though they may be, reluctantly to admit the superiority of
+our resources and the immense advantages we have recently gained over
+the conspirators, they yet adhere with singular tenacity to the belief
+that all our victories will be barren, and that all our vast
+acquisitions of Southern territory will not avail for the ultimate
+restoration of the Union. Though the domain originally usurped by the
+rebellion is already sundered by our possession of that great
+continental highway, the Mississippi river, and though no shadow of hope
+remains that the enemies of the Union will ever be able to recover it;
+though the recent boundless theatre of hostilities is gradually
+contracting, and the resources of the rebellion are rapidly melting
+away, until there remains no longer any doubt of our ultimate and even
+speedy success in crushing the wasted armies of the desperate foe; and
+though the boundaries of the boasted confederacy are uncertain,
+ever-shifting, and mystical, while whole populations of recovered
+regions of country hail the advent of our conquering flag with streaming
+eyes and shouts of joy; yet our jealous friends across the water, in the
+very act of acknowledging all this, never fail to assert, with the
+utmost vehemence, that in spite of all our military advantages, the
+Union is still irrecoverably destroyed. There is something remarkable in
+this persistent opinion, which, through all the changes of condition
+exhibited by the hostile parties in our struggling country, continues to
+possess the mind of British statesmen with unshaken firmness. If they
+undertake to justify their hasty recognition of the rebels as
+belligerents, and to vindicate their alleged impartial neutrality, they
+take apparently peculiar delight in fortifying themselves with the
+declaration that the Union is effectually broken, and can never be
+restored. It is necessary to throw the shield of this cherished
+anticipation back on the unfriendly acts they have perpetrated against
+us, in order fully to justify their conduct to themselves. If the
+rebellious States should indeed be compelled to acknowledge the
+authority of the Federal Government, and should return again to their
+position in the Union, the hostile cruisers which have been fitted out
+in England to harass our commerce, would occasion some unpleasant
+negotiations, and perhaps some costly responsibilities. To brush these
+all aside, and at the same time to get rid of a troublesome rival in
+commerce and manufactures, by the final separation of the Union, is, to
+them, on all accounts, 'a consummation most devoutly to be wished.' They
+may yet have to learn, through the experience of their Southern friends,
+that
+
+  'The ample proposition, that hope makes
+   In all designs begun on earth below,
+   Fails in the promised largeness.'
+
+But perhaps, after all, it is we, ourselves, who are the victims of
+delusive hope in reference to the destiny of our noble Union. Possibly
+our disinterested friends across the water, calmly looking on from a
+distance, may be better able to understand the tendency of events, and
+to foresee the issue of the mighty civil contest which rages around us.
+They are not at all involved in the awful passions which the war has
+engendered in our bosoms, and thus, cool and deliberate, from the great
+altitude of their assumed moral serenity and disinterestedness, they may
+in reality behold the division of our country already accomplished,
+whatever may be the result of our grand strategy and our bloody battles.
+
+Let us open our eyes fully, and look this matter dispassionately in the
+face. Let us try and ascertain whether we are in reality deceiving
+ourselves and waging a vain and fruitless war against our exasperated
+and misguided brethren of the South. We know they have instituted a
+causeless rebellion, which has brought unnumbered woes upon our common
+country. But if we cannot restore the Union, and reestablish one great
+and powerful nationality within the magnificent domain which we possess
+as it was when this unhappy war began, then surely we are wasting our
+blood and treasure--our lives and fortunes--with the most wanton and
+wicked disregard of the sufferings and sacrifices of the people. If the
+war is to accomplish nothing, then the sooner it is closed the better.
+If the Union is indeed irrevocably broken and gone forever, let us, by
+all means, hasten to arrange the terms of honorable peace, and stop the
+effusion of blood at the earliest practicable moment. Unless we can
+assure ourselves that there is some object to be gained, commensurate in
+value with all the terrible sacrifices we are daily making, it is only
+criminal stubbornness and passion which induce us to continue the awful
+conflict.
+
+Of one thing, at least, there is no shadow of doubt. The people of the
+loyal States, who, by an immense majority, have just emphasized their
+determination to sustain the war, are firmly convinced that they are not
+laboring and suffering in vain. It is no spasmodic impulse of blind
+passion, or even of useless though just resentment against wrong, which
+impels them, after nearly three years of ruinous war, to redouble their
+sublime efforts to conquer the treason that still obstinately resists
+the lawful authority of the Union. Whatever else may be truly said of
+this great conflict and its terrible results, it cannot be questioned
+that the people of the loyal States are profoundly impressed with the
+inestimable value of their free institutions and of the constitutional
+integrity and unity of the Government which shall administer them on
+this continent. They have faith in the exalted destiny of their country.
+They at least do not admit that the Union is irrecoverably lost; on the
+contrary, they believe, with a religious sincerity, which no temporary
+disaster can shake, in the certainty of its speedy restoration. This
+earnest faith is not merely the result of education and national
+prejudice. While it is to some extent an instinctive or intuitive
+insight of the American people, prophetically anticipating the future,
+it is also a matter of sober judgment, founded upon the most substantial
+and convincing reasons.
+
+In the first place, the loyal people of the United States plainly see
+that the true interests of both sections demand the restoration of their
+old connection under one free and benign Government. Having originated
+and developed a mighty republican government, until it became
+continental in its dimensions, and having through it achieved results
+unexampled in history, with the promise of future prosperity
+immeasurably grand and imposing, the lovers of the Union would hold
+themselves utterly unworthy of their lineage and of their inherited
+freedom, if they could consent, in the presence of whatever dangers and
+difficulties, to see the glorious destiny of their country defeated.
+They would justly consider themselves traitors, not only to their
+country, but also to the highest interests of humanity itself; and they
+would feel the ineffable shame of imprinting the brand of their
+degradation upon their own brows. Partakers of the noblest forms and the
+most precious blessings of liberty, under a splendid, powerful, and
+growing nationality, they are too conscious of the dignity and glory of
+the American character ever to be willing to fall from that high estate
+without a struggle which shall fully demonstrate their lofty patriotism
+and their intelligent appreciation of the priceless political and social
+structure they seek to preserve for the benefit of the whole country and
+of the world. The history of Europe, and indeed the experience of the
+entire human race, have taught them the immense value of a mighty
+continental organization, such as our Union has hitherto established.
+Solemnly impressed with this great lesson of human history, they will
+never consent to see their country broken up into discordant fragments.
+As they plainly foresee the tremendous and ever-increasing evils of such
+a national disintegration, they have deliberately come to consider the
+worst calamities of this war as mere dust in the balance when weighed
+against them. It is this awful picture of bloody conflicts, perpetuated
+through coming generations, wasting the substance and paralyzing the
+fruitful energies of this mighty nation, perhaps for centuries to
+come--it is this vista of inevitable calamities and horrors, which
+reconciles the loyal people of North America to the dreadful war in
+which they have been so earnestly engaged for the last two years and
+more. They feel the inspiration of a sacred cause, the mighty impulse of
+an idea as grand as their cherished hopes for their country, and as
+immense as the interests of all humanity. They hear the mute appeals of
+a swarming posterity, gathered from all nations in pursuit of freedom,
+progress, and happiness, and they know that these countless millions
+will justly hold them responsible for the deeds of the present momentous
+hour. Is it strange that, penetrated and nerved with the high motives to
+be derived from these solemn considerations, the American people are
+prepared to accept the responsibilities of the great occasion, and even
+to wade through blood for the realization of the grandeur of those human
+hopes which are now intrusted to their keeping? One nation--one
+government--one universal freedom within those imperial boundaries which
+have heretofore been the theatre of our glorious achievements as a
+people! This is the grand thought of the Union men of America. This is
+the principle of their organization, and this it is which gives them
+hope, and strength, and courage. What weakness, what degeneracy, what
+dwindling of power for good and retrogression of thought and aim would
+be the consequence of permanent division! What a lamentable fall in our
+position among the nations of the earth, and what a diminution of our
+capacity for progress among ourselves and for usefulness to mankind! It
+is our duty and our destiny to develop all the physical resources of the
+continent--to stimulate its agricultural capabilities--to bring to light
+its boundless mineral treasures--to pierce its mountains and level its
+valleys--to control its mighty floods--and to make it worthy to be the
+seat of human freedom and of human empire. Nor is it less our destiny to
+build up a moral and social power and a political organization, which
+shall shed abroad a new and glorious light, beaming with immortal hopes,
+and penetrating to the farthest verge of the habitable globe. Nature, in
+every form of benignant usefulness and unequalled grandeur, invites us
+to this tremendous task. The loyal people of the nation have not been
+insensible to these mystic calls and the noble anticipations growing out
+of them, fraught as they are with the happiness and progress of the
+human race. They have projected works of the most gigantic proportions,
+nor, although they are conscious that union is indispensable to their
+success, have they hesitated to begin them, with all the high confidence
+necessary to their completion. Even amid the perils and the vast
+expenditures of civil war have they embarked in the grand enterprise of
+uniting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by a continental highway, equal
+in its cost and its importance to the power and resources of a mighty
+empire. Vast internal streams and lakes call for union by canals, which
+shall typify the union of hearts and of interests destined to bind
+together millions of freemen, whose connection of brotherhood and
+national unity shall be as lasting as the perpetual flow of our mighty
+rivers, and as full of blessings as our great lakes are of their pure
+and crystal waters. The agitation of these momentous schemes, under
+existing circumstances, is a phenomenon indicating a consciousness of
+security and of vast power in the community, which, at the same time
+that it is engaged in the perilous and bloody work of preserving the
+Union, is preparing to perform the most important duties appertaining to
+the nation in the hour of its most perfectly established and permanent
+authority. It is the instinct of the national destiny working out its
+ends in spite of the difficulties and dangers of the hour. It is the
+prophetic vision of the popular mind, unconsciously preparing for a
+great future not yet visible to the natural eye, but which the
+providence of God, in its own good time, will verify to the firm and
+courageous hearts of our people.
+
+The loyal people of our country, those who are determined to restore the
+Union, are well aware that it cannot be maintained by force. That great
+political organization was voluntary in its origin, based on the consent
+of the governed; and it has been upheld through all its marvellous
+career of prosperity by the free and unconstrained will of the people,
+who rejoiced in its common benefits and blessings. The novel system on
+which it was built, not only required the largest liberty for its very
+conception and for its practical embodiment, but was also admirably
+devised to secure the complete and permanent enjoyment of that
+individual independence in thought and action, which is the first of
+human privileges. Those States of the Union which are preeminently loyal
+to it, have ever cherished the most liberal principles of civil polity,
+and have framed their constitutions in accordance with the most modern
+and advanced maxims of popular rights. So far are they from any
+disposition to usurp authority or to impose unjust or unnecessary
+restraints upon the political action of the people, that they are
+charged with the opposite fault of carrying liberty to the extreme of
+ungoverned license. Of all the American States, these are the least
+likely to interfere with the great principles of civil liberty, or to
+impose an unacceptable government on the people by force. All the
+violence, so far as any has been shown, is wholly on the other side.
+Leaving entirely out of view the exceptional irregularities arising from
+a state of civil war, and it must be acknowledged that the social and
+political system of the Southern States is one which rests on arbitrary
+force as its corner stone. It is this arbitrary and tyrannical spirit
+embodied in Southern institutions which has seized on the pretext of
+secession in order to destroy the Government of the Union. The efforts
+of the loyal States and of the Federal authority in the present war are
+antagonistic to this spirit. Their purpose is to break down and destroy
+this system of arbitrary power, which has set itself up against the
+Union; and in its stead to bring into play the great principle of
+popular assent to the fundamental principles and conditions of
+government. Annihilate the despotism which controls in the pretended
+confederacy, give the masses of the people absolute freedom of choice
+under the conditions necessary for deliberate and intelligent decision,
+and they will certainly pronounce for the restoration of the old Union,
+under which they have enjoyed such boundless prosperity. No friend of
+the Union entertains any serious thought of disregarding or destroying
+the great principle that governments are only rightly founded on the
+consent of the governed. But it is not every temporary aberration of
+thought, nor every outbreak of revolutionary violence, which may
+properly be allowed to avail in changing the forms of an established
+government. Some respect is due to obligations once assumed and long
+recognized as the basis of a permanent political organization; and when
+the minority in that organization have taken up arms against it, the
+majority, in possession of the lawful power of the nation, are bound to
+vindicate its constitutional authority. If the Union cannot be
+maintained by force, it ought not to be destroyed by force. The instinct
+of self-preservation, which is but the impulse of a solemn duty, would
+necessarily and rightfully lead it to suppress the lawless force that
+assailed it. If this assault is wholly wrong and unjustifiable, if it is
+in reality as injurious to the seceding States themselves as to those
+which remain in the Union, then it is certain that, with the suppression
+of the violence prevailing in the disaffected region, the spirit of
+disunion itself will disappear. The Federal Government cannot escape the
+necessity of performing this duty, of suppressing and destroying the
+lawless power which assails it, and permitting the Southern people to
+return to the Union. At the present moment, in the midst of a sanguinary
+conflict, they are blinded with passion and overflowing with enmity. But
+set them free from the power which now deceives and abuses them, which
+arrays them against their own best interests, and makes them the
+helpless victims of a wicked war, and they will, at no distant period,
+gladly pronounce for the unity of the great nation with which Providence
+has cast their lot. Innumerable indications of this disposition among
+the masses of the Southern people are visible in the events of every
+day; and these will multiply in proportion to the success of our arms
+and the decline of power in the rebellion. If we are mistaken in this
+view, then our argument falls to the ground. If, upon a full
+consideration of all the circumstances and with perfect freedom to act
+according to their understanding of their best interests, the people of
+the Southern States should deliberately determine upon a permanent
+separation, our noblest hopes would be sadly disappointed. But this is
+utterly impossible. In moments of frenzy, men may perpetrate deeds of
+desperation. Among the masses of all communities, some are found who,
+under various impulses, will commit suicide. But the conduct of the
+great majority everywhere is controlled by the dictates of reason and
+self-interest. Whatever folly, even to the extremity of
+self-destruction, a few madmen in the Southern States may counsel, it
+may confidently be expected that rational thoughts will prevail among
+the masses. The paths of duty and of interest are for them the same;
+and, upon the whole, are too broad and plain to be mistaken. Their
+self-constituted leaders have already overwhelmed them with calamities.
+The emancipated people will scarcely heed the advice of these, when
+their plausible schemes shall have been all baffled, and their usurped
+power utterly overthrown.
+
+It is, therefore, very far from the thoughts of loyal men, in upholding
+the Federal Government, to establish the principle of force as the bond
+of the American Union. They repel the lawless force which now assails
+it; and even while they do so, they invite the misguided people of the
+rebellious region to return again to their allegiance and to take
+shelter under the political system which is their only security for
+permanent peace and prosperity. The result of the contest in the
+restoration of the Union, so far from establishing force as the basis of
+political authority, on the contrary, will certainly destroy it, and
+give a far wider scope to the voluntary principle of consent, which is
+the only solid foundation of freedom. In the normal condition of the
+larger number of the loyal States, that is to say, in times of peace,
+liberty prevails in its broadest and most universal sense. Force nowhere
+holds a place in society, except for the protection of individual rights
+and of public order. Every man is permitted to pursue happiness in his
+own way, and to enjoy perfect freedom of thought, of speech, and of
+action, except when his published words or his overt acts are calculated
+to interfere with the acknowledged rights or interests of others. This
+is, theoretically, the consummation of the greatest possible human
+liberty. It provides only for order and justice, and leaves everything
+else to the control of individual will and social cooeperation. In the
+present war for the Union, the loyal States are by no means contending
+for the abrogation of this principle of liberty, but for its extension.
+They desire neither to abolish it with reference to the Union, when
+exercised through the forms provided in the Constitution, nor to prevent
+its operations within the limits of the Southern States themselves.
+
+It is not possible that the great civil conflict now pending could take
+place without causing, in the end, an important extension of liberal
+principles. These, when they once acquire a firm hold upon any society
+possessed of the requisite intelligence, are altogether too strong for
+the antagonistic principle of force, because the latter can be nothing
+but an authority usurped by the few and exerted against the many; while
+the former is the accumulation of the whole power of society wielded for
+the benefit of all. Obviously, this affords the only basis broad enough
+to sustain a social structure of any stability and permanence.
+
+Under the operation of this voluntary principle--the principle of
+voluntary consent and of universal freedom--the conflicting elements of
+Southern society will be compelled to adjust themselves to each other
+more wisely, and therefore more safely and profitably, than under the
+arbitrary system which has hitherto prevailed.
+
+Some of the wealthiest men and the largest slaveholders have already
+discerned the necessities of their condition, and are fully prepared to
+accept the new order of things, and to make their arrangements for
+future operations accordingly. Under the law of liberty, the races, in
+their new relations, will soon find their appropriate positions in the
+social organization, subject chiefly to the natural influences of
+intelligence, morality, industry, and property, but not without the
+inevitable pressure and disturbance of traditional prejudice to hinder
+and embarrass the operation of the principle of freedom. It is
+impossible to prevent this, so long as human nature retains its present
+tendency to selfishness and violence. The only alternative is to await
+the soothing operation of time, which gradually softens the asperities
+of prejudice, and may be expected ultimately to bring the noblest
+harmony out of the present confusion and disorder.
+
+Many good and humane men apprehend the most serious evils from the
+sudden change of relations, now certain to be effected, between the two
+races in the South. It will be a rude and violent shock to the interests
+and feelings of the whites, and will undoubtedly produce that
+inconvenience which always results from great social transformations.
+But the anticipation is doubtless worse than the reality will prove to
+be. There is a plastic capacity in human nature which enables it readily
+to adjust itself in new situations when overruling necessity compels
+submission. It remains to be seen what will be the results, immediate
+and remote, of freedom in a society composed of so nearly equal
+proportions of the two races. Whatever may be the mere temporary
+difficulties at the outset, we do not doubt that, in the long run,
+freedom will produce the best results to both. Nature is unerring in the
+wisdom of her general purposes and in the selection of the means by
+which she fulfils them, when left free to pursue her own laws. Whatever
+oscillations may take place, the mean result is always good. The
+experience of a single generation will dissipate all the delusions which
+now blind and enrage the Southern people.
+
+With the disappearance of the principle of arbitrary power now embodied
+in Southern society, the last motive for a dissolution of the American
+Union will have vanished forever. Should that principle only decline to
+a subordinate authority, with the certainty of gradual extinction, the
+interests of freedom will be in the ascendant, and their influence
+secure the restoration of the Federal authority. Here lies the whole
+problem: let despotism continue to prevail in the South, and the
+separation, with all its terrible consequences, must inevitably be
+accomplished; let freedom succeed, and from that moment, every hostile
+sentiment at once subsides, and the sundered sections, 'like kindred
+drops,' again 'mingle into one.' A free community will gravitate to the
+central orb of liberty; one that is repellent to freedom will fly off on
+its erratic course to the regions of outer darkness, and will never
+return until, having completed the cycle of its destiny of ruin, it
+shall be brought back to be regenerated at the fountain of light, and
+truth, and liberty.
+
+
+
+
+WAS HE SUCCESSFUL?
+
+_PART THE LAST._
+
+
+     'Do but grasp into the thick of human life! Every one _lives_
+     it--to not many is it _known_; and seize it where you will, it is
+     interesting.'--GOETHE.
+
+     'SUCCESSFUL.--Terminating in accomplishing what is wished
+     or intended.'--WEBSTER'S _Dictionary_.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+More than twenty-five years have elapsed since the events narrated in
+the last chapter.
+
+New York has become a great and magnificent metropolis. The avenues of
+the city extend for miles beyond the old landmarks. The adjacent farms
+have been converted into lots, and covered with handsome houses. The old
+buildings are torn down, and new and elegant ones erected in their
+place. The streets are thronged with a purely cosmopolitan class. You
+behold specimens of every nation under the heavens jostling the citizens
+on the sidewalk, or filling the omnibuses which choke the way. And from
+the commingled sounds of the tramp of horses, the rolling of vehicles,
+and the tread of human beings, there arises through the day and far into
+the night a perpetual but muffled roar from this great thoroughfare.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is a lovely October afternoon--one of those mellow days for which
+this latitude is so remarkable--possessing the softness and genial
+temperature of summer, without its scorching heat.
+
+The world of fashion has returned from the Spas, the mountains, the
+seaside. Elegant equipages pass up and down, or stop before the favorite
+resorts for shopping. The streets and sidewalks are literally crowded,
+as if it were some grand gala-time.
+
+It is nearly four o'clock. Walking slowly up Broadway is a person
+probably about fifty-five, of medium height, inclining to be stout, who
+carries his hands behind him as he proceeds thoughtfully along. His
+dress is particularly neat. His hat, while it conceals an excessive
+baldness, permits the escape of a quantity of light hair, quite unmixed
+with gray, which fringes the back of the head. At a distance, his
+complexion looks soft and fair; but, on closer observation, it has the
+appearance of smooth leather. Occasionally he raises his face to regard
+a building, as if he had a special interest in so doing; then one may
+see a light-blue eye, clear and icy as a fine December day, having an
+expression like a flint.
+
+He walks on. Two young men are just passing him. One says to his
+companion:
+
+'Do you know who that is?'
+
+'Which?'
+
+'That old fellow right by your side.'
+
+'No. Who is it?'
+
+'That's Hiram Meeker.'
+
+'You don't say so!'
+
+He pauses, and lets the individual alluded to pass, that he may take a
+good look at him.
+
+'I would like to have some of his cash, anyhow. What do you suppose he
+is worth?'
+
+'Oh, there is no telling; he is variously estimated at from five to ten
+millions, but nobody knows. Started without a penny, as clerk in a
+ship-chandler's store.'
+
+Yes, reader, that _is_ Hiram. [We shall continue our familiarity, and
+call him, when we see fit, by his first name.] That is our old
+acquaintance Hiram Meeker, who commenced at Hampton, with Benjamin
+Jessup--Hiram Meeker of Burnsville, now the great Hiram Meeker of New
+York.
+
+We have devoted a large part of this volume to Hiram's early career,
+going into the minutiae of his education, his religious training, and his
+business life. This was not without design. For the reader, once in
+possession of these circumstances, had no need to be informed in detail
+of the achievements of those years in which Hiram worked vigorously on
+through successive stages in his career, while his heart grew hard as
+the nether millstone.
+
+As you see him now, pursuing his way along the street, he has really but
+one single absorbing idea--ACQUISITION. True, he clings to his
+belief in the importance of church membership. He has long been the
+leading vestryman at St. Jude's. He is the friend and adviser of the
+Bishop.
+
+Famous is Hiram Meeker the millionaire!
+
+Famous is Hiram Meeker the Churchman!
+
+Still, I repeat, he has but one thought--one all-absorbing,
+all-engrossing passion.
+
+You have not forgotten, I am sure, the early calculating policy of
+Hiram, and to what degree he had carried it when we took leave of him.
+Imagine this developed and intensified day by day, month by month, and
+year by year, over more than a quarter of a century.
+
+Since we first made his acquaintance, he has kept on rigidly. In all his
+intercourse with his fellow beings--man to man--with high and low--with
+the sex--with his nearest relations,--he has never, no, _never_ looked
+to anything except what he considered his personal advantage. He is a
+member of the Church; he performs certain rites and formulae of our holy
+religion; he subscribes to charities: but it is to secure to himself
+personally the benefit of heaven and whatever advantages may be
+connected with it. So that, where he has acted wisely and well, the
+action has been robbed of all merit, because there was no wise or right
+intent, but simply a politic end in view.
+
+Look at him, as he pushes along in the crowd! Notwithstanding his
+millions, he is there a mere atom out of this world's creation. He has
+not a sympathy beyond himself--not a hope which does not centre in
+self--no connecting link with anything outside or beyond--no thought, no
+emotion, no sense, no feeling, which are not produced by a desire to
+advance the interests of "_H. Meeker_," here and hereafter.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We will go on in advance of Hiram, and enter his house before him.
+
+It is one of the best in the city. Not showy, but large, ample, and well
+constructed; indicating the abode of a solid man. It is situated in one
+of the finest streets far 'up town.'
+
+Before the door are two equipages. One is Mrs. Meeker's carriage, very
+handsome and in exquisite taste. The other is a stylish single-seat
+phaeton, with two horses tandem, and a rather flashy-looking servant in
+gay livery.
+
+Let us go into the house.
+
+Mrs. Meeker is just preparing for a short shopping excursion before
+dinner. At the distance from which we regard her, Time seems to have
+dealt very kindly with her. The figure is quite the same, the style the
+same, the face the same, and you see no gray hairs. In short, you behold
+our old friend Arabella, slightly exaggerated, perhaps--but it is she.
+
+She leaves her room, and prepares to descend.
+
+As she passes to the top of the staircase, a faint voice exclaims:
+
+'Mamma!'
+
+Mrs. Meeker stops with an expression of impatience, turns, and enters
+the adjoining apartment.
+
+On a sort of couch or ottoman reclines a young lady, who, you can
+perceive at a glance, is a victim of consumption.
+
+It is their oldest child, who for five years has been an invalid, and
+whose strength of late has been fast declining. One can hardly say how
+she would have looked in health, for disease is a fearful ravager.
+Still, Harriet (she is named for Mr. Meeker's mother) probably resembled
+her own mother more than any one else in personal appearance, but beyond
+that there was no resemblance whatever. Neither was she like her father,
+but more like her grandfather Meeker, of whom her uncle says she always
+reminds him. She possesses a kind and happy nature; and since she was
+stricken by the terrible malady, she has grown day by day more gentle
+and more heavenly, as her frame has been gradually weakened under its
+insidious inroads.
+
+When Mrs. Meeker came in, she demanded, in an irritated tone, 'What do
+you want, Harriet?'
+
+'I wish very much, mamma, you would send and ask Uncle Frank if he will
+not come and see me to-day.'
+
+'I think it very improper, Harriet, for you to be sending for your uncle
+when you are under Dr. Alsop's charge.'
+
+'But, mamma, Uncle Frank does not prescribe for me. I do not send for
+him as my physician.'
+
+'It looks very odd, though,' continued Mrs. Meeker, with increased
+irritation. 'I am sure Dr. Alsop would not like it if he knew it.'
+
+'Dr. Alsop met Uncle Frank here one day, and they appeared to be
+excellent friends. I am sure there can be no misunderstanding on his
+part, and papa says he is quite willing.'
+
+'Do as you like, child,' replied Mrs. Meeker. Then turning to the nurse
+she said, 'You may ring, and send Thomas with a message from Miss
+Meeker, if she desires.'
+
+'Thank you, dear mamma. If you will come to me, I will give you a kiss.'
+
+The door closed before the sentence was finished, and Mrs. Meeker
+descends the staircase, passes through the hall, and steps into the open
+air.
+
+Alas, what is revealed to you! Marks, grim and ghastly marks of those
+years of wear and tear, which the sunlight, that remorseless trier of
+woman's looks, makes quite apparent. What evidence of irritability, of
+discontent, and general disappointment and disgust with everything and
+all things, is revealed in those deep-cut lines and angles which in the
+light of day become painfully visible under the delicate layers of Baume
+d'Osman, rouge, and pearl powder!
+
+Mrs. Meeker adjusts her veil so as to hang gracefully down to the tip of
+her nose, and enters her carriage.
+
+I had nearly forgotten to point out a very genteel-looking young man in
+black, who wears a distressingly long frock coat and a white neckcloth,
+who escorts Mrs. Meeker to her carriage, and enters it after her.
+
+Arabella has not lost her _penchant_ for young clergymen, nor young
+clergymen for her.
+
+Leaving Mrs. Meeker to her excursion, we go into the parlors.
+
+On one of the sofas is a young fair girl, no more than eighteen years
+old. Her complexion, eyes, and general cast of features, exhibit a
+striking likeness to her father. She is of medium height, and her form
+is fine and well rounded. Add to these the adornments and appliances of
+dress, and you have before you a very beautiful young woman.
+
+Seated on the same sofa, and in very close proximity, is a person whose
+_status_ it will be difficult to decide from mere inspection. He is a
+tall, large, coarse-featured, but well-proportioned man, with black
+hair, inclining to curl, dark complexion, and very black eyes. His age
+is possibly thirty. He is showily dressed, with a vast expanse of cravat
+and waistcoat. Across the latter stretches a very heavy gold chain, to
+which is attached a quantity of seals and other trinkets known as
+charms. A massive ring, with coat of arms and crest carved on it,
+encircles the little finger of the right hand. Every point of the dress
+and toilet is in keeping with what I have already described. The hair
+dresser has been devoted. There has been no stint of oil and pomade in
+the arrangement of whiskers and mustache. In short, judging the
+individual by a certain standard, which passes current with a good many
+people, you would pronounce him remarkably well 'got up.'
+
+Looking at the fine and delicate-featured girl, in whose surroundings
+you behold evidences of so much taste and refinement, you could scarcely
+be made to believe that the gross organization by her side is to her
+liking. Yet I assure you she is in love with the handsome animal--'madly
+in love' with him, as she herself avows!
+
+This girl is the youngest of Hiram's three children. She is named for
+her mother, but is called by all her acquaintance, Belle. And she is
+_belle_ every way--except in temper and disposition. Resembling her
+father so closely, she inherits her mother's jealous irritability and
+tyrannical nature. She is beautiful only to look on. She is a spoiled
+child besides.
+
+I cannot avow that Hiram has any genuine parental affection. He is so
+entirely absorbed in gathering in his harvests from the golden fields at
+his command, that I think in God's providence this is denied to him.
+
+[Else he would exhibit some tenderness and love for the poor, sinking
+child who is lying in her chamber, with no companion but her nurse.]
+
+But there is that about the youngest which commends itself (I know no
+other way to express it) to his senses. She is fair and young, and
+graceful and a beauty, and she resembles him; and he loves to look at
+her and have her near him when he is at home, and to pet her, after a
+sort.
+
+Hiram is too much occupied, however, to attend at all to the well-being
+of his children, and his wife 'has no taste for anything of the kind.'
+So, as I said, Belle grows up a spoiled child. She has never been
+subject to control, and has not the slightest idea of self-restraint.
+
+This is her second season in society. She is universally
+admired--indeed, is quite 'the rage.' 'All the young men are dying for
+her'--I quote from the observations about town; but few have the
+hardihood to pay serious court to the daughter of Hiram Meeker.
+
+Yet you perceive one man has ventured--successfully ventured.
+
+Who is he? I do not wonder you inquire with some degree of curiosity. I
+shall proceed to gratify it.
+
+The large, dark, coarse-visaged, foreign-looking fellow, who 'lives but
+to adore the angel of beauty and perfection' at his side, and with whom
+the 'angel' is so blindly infatuated, is Signor Filippo Barbonne, a
+second-rate performer of the last season's opera _troupe_!
+
+It is a fact, reader, so it will be vain for me to deny it.
+
+What, meantime, can I say by way of explanation? I hardly know. This
+Signor Filippo, who is an impudent, audacious scamp, made the
+acquaintance of Belle two years ago, when she was a schoolgirl. She was
+amused at seeing him follow her persistently, and at last she permitted
+him to accost her.
+
+The cunning fellow conducted himself with the utmost deference, not to
+say humility. He pretended not to have the slightest knowledge who she
+was. He had been seized and subdued by her charms, her loveliness; and
+it was quite sufficient happiness for him to be permitted to watch for
+her and to tread in her steps day by day. He only wished to speak and
+tell her so, lest she might suppose him disrespectful.
+
+The ice once broken, arrangements for accidental meetings followed.
+
+Signer Filippo did not disclose himself, except to say his position was
+so far below hers, that he had but one hope, one aspiration, which was,
+that she would permit him to be her willing slave forever. He asked and
+expected nothing beyond the privilege of worshipping her.
+
+But how happens it that Belle Meeker is desperately in love with the
+Signor?
+
+I will endeavor to explain.
+
+Possessing not one spark of sentiment or native refinement, accustomed
+to no restraint on her temper or will, she presents an example of a
+strong sensuous nature, uncontrolled by any fine moral instincts or
+perceptions.
+
+This is why in person and appearance Signor Filippo is quite to her
+taste. The wily adventurer had made no mistake when he judged of the
+girl's nature. Understanding her arbitrary disposition, and her
+impatience of any restraint whatever, he adroitly maintained his air of
+extreme deference and respect, which was increased a thousand-fold on
+his discovering, as he pretended one day to do, who the object of his
+adoration was.
+
+What an agony he was in, lest now he should not be permitted even to
+look on her! Though assured on this point, he became reserved and shy,
+giving vent to his impassioned feelings by sighs and various mute but
+eloquent expressions.
+
+Miss Belle began to be very impatient. These sentimental meetings had
+lasted more than a year. Meantime, she was 'brought out.' This made it
+difficult for her to keep up her stolen interviews, but she could now
+ask the Signor to the house.
+
+To effect this, however, she must first bring over her mother. She
+informed her that the gentleman was a Neapolitan Count, who from
+political motives was forced to remain _perdu_ for a time, and so forth,
+and so forth, and so forth. By dint of entreaty and argument, and
+exhibition of much temper, Belle persuaded her mother to say nothing to
+her father about the visits of this Count in disguise. The truth is,
+Mrs. Meeker had sometimes to request Belle's silence about little
+matters involving some expenditures which Mr. Meeker might consider
+extravagant. So, with occasional protests on her part, the Signor was
+permitted to make his visits.
+
+Belle was too shrewd to attempt to impose on her father in such a case.
+She knew she could not succeed for a minute. So the intimacy is
+continued without his knowledge.
+
+Long before this, she has been told by the Signor who he really is. He
+admits his late position in the _troupe_, but has a long story to
+recount of adverse fortune, and so on. His respectful manner still
+continues; it is the young lady who woos.
+
+What is to be done? This state of things cannot last forever. Belle is
+more and more impatient. Her adorer still respectful and sad.
+
+After this long but necessary digression, I return to our place in the
+front parlor, where the lovers are seated.
+
+'I must leave you, oh, my angel--I must leave you! It is nearly time for
+your father to be here.'
+
+'I do not care if it is. I want you to stay.'
+
+'As you will, but--'
+
+'If you really loved me, you would not be so indifferent,' exclaims the
+young lady, passionately.
+
+Then follows a scene. The result is, that Belle vows she will endure the
+suspense no longer. She will not ask her father's permission--she will
+marry him--yes, she _will_ marry the Signor; and who dare prevent, who
+dare thwart her wishes!
+
+The Signor takes impressive leave. His little plot approaches a
+_denouement_. He walks with an 'air noble' down the steps, and, mounting
+his phaeton, he takes the ribbons from the servant in gay livery, and
+the tandem team, after some well-trained prancing, dash forward.
+
+Miss Belle is at the window, a delighted witness of the spectacle.
+
+[The Signor has got up this fine turn-out, through aid of a friend who
+is in the plot, especially to captivate her.]
+
+'What a singular man!' she exclaims to herself. 'How heroic he seems,
+controlling those wild creatures! Strange he should always be so
+diffident when in my society. There shall be an end of this; I cannot
+endure it!'
+
+Presently she sees her father mount the steps, and runs to meet him, a
+little doubtful whether or not he beheld her lover start from before the
+door.
+
+The greeting is most affectionate; Belle throws her arms caressingly
+around her father's neck.
+
+'Who is our new visitor, Belle, who indulges in a tandem?' said Hiram,
+turning his penetrating eyes on his daughter, but with no suspicious
+glance.
+
+'New visitor! What do you mean, papa?'
+
+'I thought I saw a phaeton drive from here.'
+
+'Oh, that was at Mrs. Longworth's. Such a handsome man, though, papa! I
+was at the window when he got in.'
+
+Hiram patted his daughter's cheek playfully, and passed in. Keen and
+discerning as he was, his _child_ could deceive him.
+
+'Where is your mamma?' he asked.
+
+'Out for a drive.'
+
+'Is Gus at home?'
+
+'No, papa; I have not seen him to-day.'
+
+'Give orders to have dinner served punctually. I must go out immediately
+after.'
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+I have spoken of Hiram's three children.
+
+The individual referred to in the last chapter as 'Gus' is the oldest,
+and the only son. He is, at this period, about twenty-three years of
+age.
+
+His father undertook to bring him up in a very strict manner. He could,
+however, give none of his time to the important business of starting his
+son in the right path, and aiding him to continue in it. It was enough
+for Hiram that _he_ was secure. He contented himself with laying down
+severe courses, and holding his boy to the strictest fulfilment of
+'duty.'
+
+The result can readily be imagined. The young man, as he grew up and
+understood fully his father's position, came to the conclusion that it
+was quite unnecessary for him to practise the strict habits which had
+been so despotically inculcated. So he gave loose rein to his fancies,
+and while yet in college was one of the wildest in the class. By his
+mother's interposition, he was sent abroad. He came back all the worse
+for the year's sojourn, and, young as he was, soon got to be a regular
+'man about town.' He lived at home--ostensibly; but he was seldom to be
+seen in the house. He had come to entertain very little respect for his
+father; for he had a sort of native insight into his character. He
+constantly complains of his miserly treatment, though Hiram makes his
+son a respectable allowance--more, I think, to be rid of the annoyance
+of his repeated and incessant applications, than for any other reason.
+
+'Gus' was a favorite with his mother (I forgot to say she had named him
+Augustus Myrtle Meeker, with her husband's full consent), and heavy were
+the drafts he made on her purse. This was a point of constant discussion
+between Mr. and Mrs. Meeker. It was of no use. The lady continued to
+indulge her only son, and her husband to protest against it.
+
+Of late, Gus had been in possession of pretty large sums of money, which
+he certainly had not obtained either from his father or mother. And it
+was something connected with this circumstance which takes Hiram out
+immediately after dinner.
+
+I think it is in place here to say something of Hiram Meeker's domestic
+life.
+
+Taking 'Arabella' for just what the reader knows her to be, it is
+probable he has made her a better husband than ninety-nine men of a
+hundred would have made. True, he is master, in every respect. But this
+is just what Arabella requires. She would have been the death of any
+ordinary man in a short time. There is not the slightest danger of her
+injuring Hiram's prospects of a long life, or of causing him an hour's
+uneasiness. To be sure, he is despotic, but he is neither irritable nor
+unamiable. Besides, he has a great desire for social position (it aids
+in carrying out his plans), in which his wife is of real service. Hiram,
+although close and careful in all matters, is not what would be called
+penurious. In other words, he makes liberal provision for his household,
+while he rules it with rigor; besides, in petty things he has not proved
+a tyrant.
+
+On the whole, we repeat our conviction that Arabella has been fortunate
+in her husband. To be sure, she is fretful, discontented, peevish,
+irritable, cross; but that is her normal condition. At times Hiram has
+treated her with severity, but never cruelty. He has borne quietly and
+with patience what would have set most husbands frantic; and has
+contented himself with remaining silent, when many would have been
+tempted to positive acts of violence.
+
+Toward his sick child Hiram Meeker's conduct has been exemplary--that is
+the word. He considers the affliction a direct chastening of _him_ from
+the Lord; and 'whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.' He spends some
+moments with his daughter daily, but he has no more sympathy for her
+situation than if his heart were made of leather. Yet the best care is
+provided, the best medical attendance, and everything done for the poor
+girl which is proper. Hiram even overrules his wife in many things where
+he thinks her severe toward the invalid, as in the instance of her
+wishing to see her Uncle Frank, who is our old acquaintance 'Doctor
+Frank,' as you no doubt understand--now one of the first medical men of
+New York.
+
+Although there has never been the least cordiality between the brothers
+since the Doctor came to the city, still they have kept on visiting
+terms. The Doctor has taken a deep interest in his invalid niece, and
+she is never so happy as when he is talking with her. He has told her to
+send for him at any time when she feels disposed to do so, and he is a
+frequent visitor.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was late before Mrs. Meeker returned. Something occurred to give her
+excursion a very unpleasant direction. She was engaged in turning over
+some new silks at Stewart's, while the young clerical gentleman stood
+admiringly by, when a man of very coarse appearance and vulgar aspect
+approached and placed a letter before her.
+
+Mrs. Meeker was prepared to utter a faint shriek, but it occurred to her
+that it would not appear well where she was. The young clerical
+gentleman cast a look of disgust and indignation on the intruder, who
+did not stop to resent it, but turned quickly on his heel and left the
+place.
+
+Mrs. Meeker, after waiting a moment to regain her composure, opened the
+note, and read as follows:
+
+     'DEAR MA: Come to me directly, and bring all the money you
+     can. I am in a terrible fix! GUS.'
+
+Mrs. Meeker pushed aside the rich purple silk she was examining, with so
+much suddenness, that the young clerical gentleman could not but notice
+it.
+
+'My dear madam, are you ill?' he asked, with a show of devotion
+distressing to witness.
+
+'No, oh no; but this moment I recollect I have a commission to execute
+for a friend, which I had quite forgotten. And, do you know, I am going
+to ask you to drive home, and tell Belle not to delay dinner for me.'
+
+The young clerical gentleman bowed in acquiescence. For him to hear was
+to obey. But he felt curious to know what was the cause of so abrupt a
+termination of the afternoon's shopping.
+
+'I hope there was nothing unpleasant in that letter?'
+
+It was presuming a good deal to ask such a question, but the young
+clerical gentleman could not restrain his curiosity.
+
+'That letter!' exclaimed Mrs. Meeker, now quite herself again--'no,
+indeed; it is only a word from Augustus. What a queer creature, to send
+it by such a horrid fright of a man!' And Mrs. Meeker laughed.
+
+The young clerical gentleman was thrown completely off the scent. He
+bowed and hurried to the carriage, leaving Mrs. Meeker still at the
+counter.
+
+She looked carelessly over the different patterns, and said, in a
+languid tone, 'I think I will not buy anything to-day,' to which the
+clerk obsequiously assented--he well knew whom he was serving--and Mrs.
+Meeker left the store.
+
+Her carriage was out of sight; first she assured herself of that. Then
+she called a hack, and ordered it to be driven to a distant quarter of
+the city.
+
+The carriage stopped at the number indicated in the note. Mrs. Meeker
+was met at the door by her son, who conducted her to a back room in the
+third story. It was dirty and in disorder. Bottles, wine glasses, and
+tumblers were scattered around, and the atmosphere was full of the fumes
+of whiskey and tobacco.
+
+What a spot for the son of Hiram Meeker to select, in which to receive
+his mother's visit!
+
+What a place for the fastidious Arabella to enter!
+
+
+
+
+THE GREAT AMERICAN CRISIS.
+
+_PART TWO._
+
+
+We come, in this paper, to the consideration of the possible results
+which this war might have, viewed from the beginning; of the several
+modes, in other words, in which it might terminate. The most distant
+extremes of possible eventuality were the entire conquest of the North
+by the South, and the entire conquest of the Southern rebellion by the
+North, so as to secure the continuance of the old Union upon the old
+basis; or with such modifications as the changed condition of things at
+the South might require. The supposition of the conquest of the Northern
+States by the Southern Vandals has been already glanced at and
+sufficiently considered for so remote and improbable a contingency. The
+counter supposition of the entire success of the United States
+Government in the reassertion of its own authority over the whole of its
+original domain, divided, at the commencement of the war, into two
+branches.
+
+It was the general theory at the North, at that time, that the _animus_
+of rebellion was confined at the South to comparatively few minds, and
+that the war was to be a war, not against the South as a people, but
+against a tyrannical and usurping faction at the South, and for the
+defence of the people at large residing in that region. There was a
+modicum of truth in this theory, but events have shown, and any one who
+knew the South well might safely have predicted, that the whole people
+there would soon be subdued to the authority of those few. Such was the
+terror throughout the confederacy, and still is, where the facts have
+not been already changed by the war, at the mere imputation of sympathy
+with anti-slavery sentiment in any form, that a part, hardly one tenth
+even of the whole, in numerical strength, could successfully put the
+remaining nine tenths into Coventry, and bully them out of all
+expression of adverse opinion, by simply threatening to accuse them of
+abolition tendencies. No people on earth were ever so completely _cowed_
+by the nightmare of unpopular opinion as the people of the South. Hence
+whatever was violently advocated under pretence of excessive devotion
+to, or ultra championship of the cause of slavery, was sure in the end
+to succeed. By this process, the Union party at the South has been
+gradually overawed and diminished for years past, and finally driven,
+since the outbreak of the rebellion, into a complete surrender to, and a
+full cooeperation with the rebel chiefs. Whatever may seem to be the
+reaction in behalf of Union sentiment, as the triumphant armies of the
+North march to the Gulf, it will be long before the real opinion of the
+masses will declare itself in full as it exists. The fear of the renewal
+of the old terrorism, so soon as our armies shall be withdrawn, will
+effectually prevent the free expression of the favorable sentiment which
+has heretofore existed, and still exists, as a substratum of Southern
+opinion in favor of the Union, unless the Northern conquest is made
+unquestionably final.
+
+In the event that the theory just stated should have proved true, that,
+aided by the presence of Northern troops, there should have been a loyal
+sentiment sufficiently powerful and extended to reassert itself, in the
+extreme South, and that, consequently, all the Southern States should
+have been again represented in Congress at an early day, and should
+again have taken their places as equal partners under the Constitution
+of our common country, it seemed just possible that the results of the
+war should be confined, in their immediate action, to what may be called
+its educational effects upon the Southern mind and its economical
+bearings upon the wealth and industry of the nation.
+
+As the other branch of the alternative, the South might have to be
+conquered by the force of our arms, and might remain unanimously, or in
+vast preponderance, disloyal and rebellious in spirit. In that event, it
+would be requisite, if those States were to be retained at all as part
+of the Union, that they should be reconsigned to the Territorial
+condition, or otherwise governed still by the central authority.
+
+In the former of these two latter suppositions: that of the
+reestablishment of the old _status_, it was foreseen by some, as not
+impossible, that the final result might prove disastrous to the freedom
+of the North. With the advent of peace, the suspicions of the Northern
+people with regard to the designs and real character of Southern men
+would have been allayed. A certain appeal would even have been made, by
+the suggestions of their own generosity, to the hearts of Northern men
+to lay aside all hostile and adverse action as against the South, and to
+welcome them with open arms to all the rights and privileges of the
+common country. Meantime, a horde of unscrupulous machinators would have
+been installed in the seats of power at Washington, and would have
+recommenced operations, in the consciousness of the new strength
+acquired in the field from which they had just retired, with all the
+chicanery and craft with which heretofore they had blinded the North and
+secretly controlled the destinies of our Government. Southern men and
+Southern women would again have been feasted and feted at Northern
+hotels and watering places, and again have given tone to Northern
+opinion, while new and especial reasons would have seemed to exist for
+opposing countervailing influences, as unnecessary agitation, and causes
+of the retention of acrimonious feeling between the two sections, which
+had now resolved to live in amity with each other. In a word, all the
+sources of corruption of Northern sentiment, emanating from the South,
+would have been renewed in their operation, with some circumstances
+added, tending to give to them greater potency than ever before.
+
+Undoubtedly, immense advantages were to be contemplated in the
+restoration of the United States to their primitive boundaries and
+united power. But it was not without deep apprehension of moral taint
+and ulterior evil consequences, that a wise patriot could look even then
+to any attempt of the old matrimonial partners to dwell again in a
+common household, upon the old terms, and with no real settlement of the
+dispute between them.
+
+The latter of these suppositions, the remanding of a hostile and
+rebellious tier of States, who had long and proudly enjoyed the dignity
+of State sovereignty, to a subordinate condition, had also its
+proportion of difficulty and danger. To carry out a _programme_ of this
+kind would demand a great increase of the army and navy, and would give
+to the military spirit and power a preponderance in the councils of the
+nation which has always been deemed dangerous to the liberties of the
+country. A constant drain of expenditure of the resources of the nation;
+a continuous unrest and anxiety of the whole people; a succession of
+outbreaks and partial renewals of the civil war; the installation of a
+necessary system of proconsular or viceroyal commissions; the
+appointment of men who, whether as provost-marshals, dictators, or what
+not, would be in the stated exercise of authority unmeasured by the
+theories of republican policy--all these were serious and threatening
+considerations, which must give the thoughtful mind some pause ere it
+entered upon their adoption.
+
+There were other remaining possible suppositions in respect to the
+termination of the war, of a middling character, or those lying between
+the two opposite extremes. In case, without any positive conquest or
+submission on either side, the general tenor of success throughout the
+war should be with the South, so that it finally behooved the North to
+secure the most favorable terms, but to submit, nevertheless, to great
+deductions from its confident expectations, a theory then not wholly
+impossible, we had to contemplate, as one evil of the war, a final
+disruption of the original territory of the United States into two
+nationalities, coincident, as to boundary, with the Free and the Slave
+States. Except in the way of absolute conquest, the South would be
+little inclined to insist upon the addition to itself of any territory
+absolutely free. We were not required, therefore, to make this
+supposition any less favorable to the North than the division just
+suggested; and unless, again, power had been acquired by the South to
+impose terms on the North little short of those which a conqueror
+imposes on a conquered people, the North, within its own limit of Free
+States, would be left in a condition boldly to announce and actively to
+defend its own legitimate policy in behalf of the extension of free
+institutions and their development to the supreme degree of beneficent
+truth.
+
+But again, it might have been foreseen that in case the eagle of victory
+should perch on the banners of the North; in case our arms should be
+generally victorious after a few incipient disasters; in case our armies
+should move in power southward, meeting, nevertheless, a steady and
+resisting front on the part of the South, making the prospect of
+ultimate conquest remote or hopeless; in case, in a single word, the
+North should find herself in position to dictate terms short of absolute
+submission and return to the common fold, but substantially in
+accordance with her own wishes, the question of boundary and of the
+future policy of the new North would have become one of immense
+importance.
+
+Had such considerations been forced on the attention of the country by
+the course of the war, it may not be uninteresting to speculate upon
+the nature of the possible boundary, which a drawn game in the
+contest--a possibility at least, viewed from that early point of
+observation--might have imposed upon the two future nationalities. We
+are considering the case still in which the preponderance of advantage
+should have remained with the North. It would have been, in that event,
+of the first importance that we should retain within the limits of the
+North all that portion of the South--by no means inconsiderable in
+extent--which has never been thoroughly debauched by Southern
+slaveholding opinion and theories of government; where the true American
+feeling is still extant; and where a good degree of loyalty to the
+Government of the United States has been hitherto exhibited. Such are
+especially Delaware, Maryland, Western Virginia, Kentucky, Western North
+Carolina, Eastern, and to some extent, Middle Tennessee, Northern
+Georgia, Northern Alabama, and Missouri. An important object would have
+been, had the power of the North proved inadequate to do more, to secure
+this territory within the boundary of the new North, and upon such terms
+as to give strength and new impetus to the freedom-loving sentiment
+there extant. A second object would have been the retention of
+Washington City, to be used, at least for the time being, as the capital
+of the country; avoiding the disgrace of being driven from that centre
+of national authority; and to secure it on terms in respect to
+territorial arrangement which should prevent it from being continually
+threatened from the South. To this end, it would have been necessary
+that the boundary be carried far enough south to include a portion of
+Northern and Northeastern Virginia, as thoroughly imbued at that day
+with slaveholding faith and practice, and as little loyal, perhaps, as
+any portion of the South--a region, however, which at this time has been
+so completely devastated by the operations of the war, that it would be
+readily liable to be resettled from the North, and made into an
+efficient military border.
+
+If, retaining Fortress Monroe, we should then have run with the James
+River and the line of Richmond and Lynchburg, or if, ascending higher to
+the Chesapeake Bay and the Rappahannock, we were to run with the line of
+Fredericksburg, we should reach either the Blue Ridge or the Alleghany
+Mountains, as in the case of power on our part, we might have chosen.
+With these mountains, sweeping in a southwesterly direction into
+Northern Georgia and Alabama, runs the line of division between the
+'true-blue' Southern slaveholding opinion and policy, on the south and
+east, and the semi-Free-State opinion and policy on the north and west.
+One or other of these mountain ranges, with their unfrequent and
+difficult passes, would have offered the best natural boundary between
+the two future nations, whose divergent national tendencies would not
+have ceased with the nominal termination of the war to be essentially
+hostile.
+
+Following this line till we reach the Tennessee river, thence along the
+course of that stream, turning northwardly to the Ohio, or more
+properly, perhaps, to the southern line of Kentucky, we exclude the most
+pestilent portion of Tennessee, of which Memphis is the capital, and
+retain the middle and eastern parts, along with Eastern Kentucky and
+Western Virginia. Thence passing westward with the southern line of
+Missouri to the Indian Territory, thence southward with the western line
+of Arkansas to the Red river, thence westward along that river as the
+boundary between the Indian Territory and Texas, to the one hundredth
+degree of longitude west from Greenwich, and with that meridian south,
+to the Rio Grande and the Gulf--dividing the western from the eastern
+half of Texas--we circumscribe very fairly the exact region of country
+in which the slaveholding epidemic is violent and intense, and throw
+within the limits of the great Northern Republic all of the region in
+which freedom is already established, and all that in which, as above
+stated, there was still a surviving and half vital tendency in freedom's
+behalf.
+
+In addition to a boundary so favorable to ourselves, and forced by our
+commanding position upon our unwilling adversary, we might have imposed
+upon her such other terms in relation to her foreign policy,
+custom-house regulations, and the like, as the extent of our power
+should have authorized. We might even have consigned the Southern States
+to a species of provisional and _quasi_ nationality, with the claim and
+expectation of their ultimate return within the pale of the Union, when,
+through the severe ordeal of military despotism or anarchy at home, or
+from other causes, they should have purged themselves of that
+institution, adverse to all our policy, which has been the sole cause of
+all our woes.
+
+Still more important it would have been, under the theory of this
+essentially victorious position of the Northern people, that Northern
+opinion and the purposes of Americanism on this continent--the assertion
+and defence of freedom and of free institutions of all sorts--should
+have been distinctly, peremptorily, and finally impressed upon the
+character and future career of our own Northern nationality. While those
+portions of slaveholding territory which would still have remained
+within the Union, would have had, of course, to be treated with courtesy
+and consideration, if the institution of slavery were to have been
+permitted to survive, they should have been thoroughly made to know from
+the first, that slavery among us was no longer to be regarded as a
+perpetuity; that it was only tolerated provisionally; and that we, as a
+people, had no intention of permitting its renewed influence in the
+councils of the nation. Cut off as these States would then have been
+from the possibilities of carrying on an inter-State slave trade with
+the Southern confederacy, the institution of slavery would have lost
+much of its value and potency; and allied, as those States would have
+been, as a small minority, with a country whose territorial and
+institutional preponderance would have been wholly in favor of freedom,
+we might have anticipated that, if closely watched and incidentally
+aided in its decline, the institution in these adhering slaveholding
+States would have reached its term of existence at no very distant day;
+at any rate, that it would, from the first, have been neutralized for
+any serious bad effects which it might have otherwise impressed upon our
+healthy national life. It was even worth reflection at that time
+whether, if the whole adjustment of the future were placed at our own
+disposition, there would not be less danger incurred, and more promise
+of a prompt, healthy, and powerful development on this continent of
+those grand purposes of national existence which the true American
+people have always had in view and at heart, if this plan were to be
+adopted, than if, on the contrary, the whole South were either
+quiescently, by the subsidence of the rebellion, or forcibly, to be
+reinstated within the limits of the Union, the institution of slavery
+remaining intact.
+
+Northeastern Virginia, Southern Maryland, and portions of Kentucky,
+Middle Tennessee, and Middle Missouri would still have furnished
+pestilent centres of intense slaveholding sentiment, and would have
+required, perhaps, as much exercise of vigilance in preventing their
+undue influence as our usually sleepy habits of inattention to such
+causes would have authorized us to count upon.
+
+With the gradual decline of this remnant of slavery in the Northern
+Union, and with the thousand contingencies threatening its perpetuity in
+the Southern States, after the sustaining influence of the North in its
+behalf should have been finally withdrawn, the anticipation would not
+have been without high grounds of probability, that the institution, as
+a whole, would have hastened more or less rapidly to its final
+dissolution; and that, one by one, the States of the South, ridding
+themselves of the incubus of slavery and its comcomitants--oligarchic,
+mobocratic, and military despotism--would have sought, for their own
+protection and happiness, to reenter the original Union as Free States.
+Such an issue of the conflict might at the commencement of the war have
+been looked forward to as almost fortunate, and as perhaps that which
+Providence had in store for us as a people. That larger measure of
+success, the entire destruction of slavery throughout the land, now
+rapidly coming to be a foregone conclusion in most minds, was then
+hardly hoped for by the most sanguine, although, as will appear by what
+follows, that alternative was then anticipated by the writer.
+
+Finally, in case the war should have proved a drawn game between the two
+sections, with no special advantage on either side, some middle ground
+of adjustment between the two last suppositions might have been sought
+out, and an irregular line, running anywhere between Mason and Dixon's
+line and the Ohio, on the one hand, and the Blue Ridge and the Tennessee
+river on the other, might have been forced upon us. In that event, a
+long-continued border warfare would have been to be anticipated, with
+innumerable complex difficulties from expenditure in the protection of
+the irregular and imperfect boundary, the collection of the revenues,
+and the like.
+
+The reason why we have chosen, in these glances at the possible
+outcomings of the conflict, to go back to the state of the case as it
+was at the opening of the war, and to view the subject as it would
+present itself to the mind of a thoughtful man then, is, that this very
+paper was originally written at that day, and is now only recast to
+adapt it to the altered events from the actual progress of the war. The
+boundary line above sketched, as one which the nation might possibly
+find itself compelled to accept, was sketched, as it stands above, at
+that time, nearly two and a half years ago; and the reader will hardly
+fail to be struck with the remarkable coincidence between it and the
+present state of the military lines between the Northern and Southern
+armies; except in the fact of our actual possession of the Mississippi
+river to its mouth, cutting the Southern confederacy in twain. Had the
+defences below New Orleans proved impregnable, and Vicksburg more than a
+match for the strategy of General Grant, our present position would be
+almost identical with that contemplated by the writer at that early
+period of the war, as one of the alternative positions at which the
+struggle might at least temporarily terminate; and our present military
+line would be almost the same as that indicated as the halting point of
+the war, then to be nominally but not really brought to an end. The
+pages following, and until the reader is advised to the contrary, are
+literally extracted from the original article, and should be read
+therefore as relating to the past period in question. Quotation marks
+are added to aid this understanding of the subject. They indicate, in
+this exceptional way, not literally the words of another writer, but
+those of the same writer, upon a different occasion.
+
+'We have reserved to the last the consideration of that possible
+outcoming of the war which is looked upon with most dread, both at the
+South and the North; from which both sections almost equally shrink as
+the possible issue; but which, nevertheless, may be forced on them by
+the logic of events, and that, too, at an earlier day than has been
+indicated by the expectations of either. While we write, the startling
+announcement is made from St. Louis that Major-General Fremont has been
+forced, by the threatening progress of the Southern armies, to declare
+martial law for the whole State of Missouri, coupled with the offer of
+freedom to the slaves. A military critic, writing from the Potomac and
+the lower counties of Maryland, is urging the application of the same
+policy to that region, as a means of defeating the contemplated passage
+of the river by the forces of the South. Whether the rumor so announced
+prove to be literally correct or not, it is hardly possible that the war
+can continue long, and grow desperate and earnest on any territory where
+slavery exists, without leading to this result. Tenderness and deference
+are sentiments which must soon give place to the stern struggle for life
+between hostile and desperate men. Already the South has not hesitated,
+in some instances, to muster her slaves into armed regiments, and in all
+cases to avail herself of their brawny arms as equally valuable
+assistants in the work of fortification, camp service, and all the other
+incidents of war. Still further, as a great body of laborers,
+undisturbed by the war, quietly conducting the general industry at home,
+and providing the means of sustaining immense armies in the field, the
+slaves are, in effect, an important auxiliary of the enemy's power.
+Already the Congress of the United States has passed a law for the
+confiscation of all property so used, so stringent in its terms that,
+without much strain of legal ingenuity, it might be made to cover the
+whole case. The threatened continuance of disaster to Northern arms may
+at any moment force upon our generals the military necessity of
+declaring emancipation within a given district or State, and finally, it
+may be incumbent on the Government to resort to the same policy in
+reference to the whole South. The contest is one of life and death for
+the greatest human interests ever brought face to face in hostile array.
+But a single step is wanting, and we may at any moment be forced over
+the boundary which hitherto has prevented it from being a conflict
+avowedly for the utter extinction of the institution of slavery on the
+North American continent, on the one hand, and for the triumphant
+establishment of the policy and power of that institution over the whole
+land on the other.
+
+'In case such an event as that above alluded to should occur, a new
+disappointment will probably, to some extent, break upon the Northern
+mind. It will be found that the slaves of the South are not, as a body,
+so desirous of freedom, not so consciously intent upon the attainment of
+that boon, as ardent philanthropists at the North have supposed. The
+great masses of that population are too far depressed in the scale of
+humanity to avail themselves earnestly and at once, of even the most
+favorable means which should be placed at their disposal to secure their
+own emancipation from thraldom.
+
+'To progress, even from slavery to freedom, is progression,
+nevertheless; and, as such, it is beset with all the hindrances and
+prejudices from ignorance and superstition which the advancement of the
+race meets always and at every step. Those among the slaves who fully
+appreciate the disadvantages of their position, and are earnestly intent
+upon the achievement of freedom, are a minority--the vigorous thinkers
+and reformers of the slave-population. The great masses are stupid and
+conservative, in the midst of the evil which they endure, until aroused
+by circumstances or the appeals of their more enterprising leaders. Even
+John Brown, knowing as much as he did of the South and of the negro
+character, miscalculated the readiness of the slaves of Virginia to fly
+to his standard, judging them by his knowledge of the readiness of
+Missouri slaves upon the Kansas border, who, through a few years of
+local agitation, had come to be on the alert and ready to move.
+
+'In case, therefore, of the proclamation of emancipation in any
+slaveholding districts by our military chiefs, it will not be surprising
+if, for a time, the results of that step shall seem to be feeble, and
+shall be disproportionate to the expectations based upon it.
+
+'The course of events will probably be this: The emancipation of slaves
+by the proclamation of Northern generals will be followed by a partial
+tendency on the part of the slave-population to flock to their camps in
+a way similar to what has already happened in the neighborhood of
+Fortress Monroe; and this, again, by mustering them into our service,
+arming and drilling them as part of the regular and effective force of
+our armies, after the example of General Jackson in the defence of New
+Orleans, and other Southern generals on various occasions in the South.
+A step like this will be met by a nearly or precisely similar expedient
+of desperate necessity by the military chieftains of the South. Either
+with or without the offer of emancipation, they will muster the blacks
+in great numbers into their army, arming, equipping, and drilling them
+as thoroughly as the same offices are performed for the white soldiers.
+
+'Things may seem to stand much upon this footing, and no great advantage
+have been gained by the North through emancipation, until, in the event
+of some great battle, or successively through a series of local
+contests, the blacks in the Southern army will fraternize with those of
+the North, and go over in a body to their Northern allies, so soon as
+the course of events shall have informed them somewhat of the true state
+of the case, and have given them confidence in the earnest intention of
+the Northern troops to stand by them in the assertion of their freedom.
+A defection of this kind would carry dismay and insure defeat throughout
+the whole South, especially if it were vigorously followed up by the
+same policy and by adequate military skill on the part of the North; and
+the result of a war so inaugurated could hardly fail to be the rapid and
+complete disorganization of the whole system of Southern industry and
+the total revolution and final submission of the Southern States.
+
+'No man can exactly foresee the consequences of so great a conflict, nor
+predict with any certainty the course of events through such an untried
+and tremendous pathway; but it is next to impossible to conceive that
+the Southern war-spirit could in any way long survive the disasters
+inevitably consequent upon the general prevalence of a claim to freedom
+by the slaves, upon any legal basis, suddenly diffused throughout the
+South. Should the alternative be forced upon the people of that region,
+of submission, or servile in addition to civil war, their troubles will
+thicken upon them to a degree calculated to calm their over-excited
+imaginations, and to subdue their vaulting ambition. Panic will come to
+their own doors with a new and all-pervading significance, such as the
+North hardly knows how to conceive. The North should abstain to the last
+moment from thrusting even enemies into calamity so dire. But, if the
+arrogance and madness of the South shall force on us, now or later, this
+terrific resort, the world _may_ witness, as the result of this war, the
+most tremendous retribution for national and organic sin which any
+people has ever yet been called on to endure. The Nemesis of History
+may, perhaps, impress the darkest record of her terrible sanctions on
+the page which records the termination of the great American Rebellion.
+
+'In the event last supposed, that is to say, if the war shall end in the
+entire extinction of American slavery, the state in which the Southern
+country, with its diverse populations, will find itself placed; the
+future destiny of the cotton-growing region, of the South generally; of
+our whole country, and of the continent, under this immense change of
+our condition as a nation, are subjects of sufficient importance to
+demand, on some future occasion, a distinct consideration. Enough points
+have been crowded, in this article, upon the reflections of the reader.
+History must not be too audaciously anticipated. The phases of the great
+crisis, already developed and developing, are sufficiently grave and
+numerous for the present occasion. Let the future withdraw her own veil
+from our eyes, while we reverentially await the revelation of coming
+events.
+
+'All the forbearance hitherto on the part of the North, may have had in
+it an element of wisdom. It is not the object of this paper to criticize
+or complain of the past conduct of the war, nor to urge on the
+Government to convert a war, begun for the resistance of a violent and
+fraudulent dismemberment of the Union, into a war against slavery or a
+crusade in behalf of human rights. There is no present purpose on the
+part of the writer to conduct the discussion--far less to attempt the
+decision--of so grave a question of national policy at this eventful and
+critical epoch in the affairs of our national life. No doubt the subject
+stands as yet complicated in the minds of statesmen with the
+possibilities of the early and frank submission of the South, and the
+consequent early reestablishment substantially of the _status quo ante
+bellum_; with the dread of inflicting measureless calamity upon those
+who are at heart faithful to our cause in the South; and, most of all,
+with the interests and feelings of the population of the few
+slaveholding States remaining faithful to the Union. The object of the
+present article is simply to lay open the true state of the case; to
+reveal to the Northern mind in a clearer light, if possible, the causes
+emanating from the South, which have gone and which go still to the
+formation of Northern opinion adversely to the spirit of our own
+institutions, and begetting, unconsciously in ourselves, a secret
+treasonable sympathy at the bottom of our own hearts; a sympathy which
+is the parent of that otherwise unaccountable tenderness on our part in
+respect to the patent weakness of the enemy's defences. It is not that
+we counsel, for the present, a change in the tenor of the war, but that
+we wish, as the logic of circumstances shall force this question upon
+us, that we may come to the consideration of it, in the future,
+disabused of any preconceived prejudices in favor of that which is the
+vital source of all the trouble which exists, and fully armed by a
+complete understanding of the subject.'
+
+So ended the original paper, the same, with a few changes of the
+tense-forms to adapt it to the present time, as the Part One, published
+in the last number of THE CONTINENTAL, and Part Two of this
+series up to this point. The document was written for publication at
+that time, more than two years ago, but no periodical was found then
+ready to indulge in such bold speculations on the future. What has now
+in great part become history, was deemed too audacious for the public
+ear then. Perhaps no better gauge of the progress of events and opinion
+could have happened. A magazine article, rejected so recently, as too
+radical or wild in its prognostications, now stands in danger of being
+thought tame, in the light of the changes already effected. Thrown into
+a drawer as refuse matter, it has been like the log of a ship thrown
+overboard, and remaining quiescent, while the winds, the waves, and the
+current have combined to surge the vessel onward in her course; and,
+_hauled in by the line_ at this hour, it may serve to chronicle the rate
+of our speed.
+
+Events hurry forward in this age with tremendous velocity. Great as has
+been the progress of our arms, numerous as our warlike achievements and
+advantages, the real victories we have won are, in the truest method of
+judging, the victories of opinion which have occurred and are now
+occurring. Our greatest conquest, as a people, is, and is to be, the
+conquest over our own prejudices; our highest attainment the readiness
+to be just, and to act with the boldness and vigor which justice
+requires.
+
+Taking things as they now are, let us again try to penetrate the future,
+or at least to sketch different alternatives of what may happen. Let us
+then try to catch the spirit of each alternative, and so be prepared to
+draw from the event such of good, and to guard against such of evil as
+each may involve.
+
+As a first alternative, we may now speedily conquer the South.
+Insurrection may spring up in the South, against the insurrection there,
+and in aid of our arms. New vigor and new fortune may attend our own
+military operations; and our future military task may--somewhat contrary
+to our expectations, we confess--prove easy, and its conclusion close at
+hand. In that event, dangers of another kind, dangers already alluded to
+as existing at the commencement of the war, and hardly less to be
+apprehended now than then, hardly less, indeed, than the indefinite
+continuance of war, threaten the future of our political horizon. We may
+see in a few months' time the very men who are leading the armies and
+the councils of the Southern confederacy again cracking the whip of
+their sharp and arrogant logic about the ears of the men who had
+conquered them in the field of battle; claiming to dictate every
+political measure; forcing the mould of their thought upon every form of
+opinion, and, by astute political combinations, wielding the destiny of
+the nation in behalf of slavery and despotism, and against the principle
+of freedom. Do not imagine for an instant that any considerations of
+modesty or humiliation on the one hand, nor of haughtiness or pride on
+the other, would stand in the way of the immediate participation of
+those men in our affairs. Let there be no delusions either, with regard
+to the ability of the same leading class of men to keep themselves in
+the saddle at the South, through all political changes not involving the
+absolute destruction of slavery, and the complete and consolidated
+establishment of other institutions and habits of life among the people
+at large;--the virtual creation, in fact, of a new and different
+population, by the blending of our own Northern men and manners with the
+feeble indigenous freedom-loving growth. The return of this dominant
+class of cotton lords among the common masses of a Southern population
+anywhere, on any terms short of the utter extinction of their basis of
+wealth and distinction, will be the return of an armed overseer to a
+cowering mob of insubordinate slaves. The mere assertion of their
+authority will be its instant acceptance, and the most abject submission
+by the people. They will only have to demand reelection to the National
+Congress, and to every place of power, to be reinstated in precisely
+their old position, their arrogance and self-assertion only augmented by
+their having met and survived every disaster short of the destruction of
+the source of their superiority.
+
+Already schemes to restore the old State governments are rife, in
+respect to Louisiana, Mississippi, and other of the rebel States, now
+again brought within our military lines. Let this be done upon the old
+footing at an early day, for these States and for the others, which
+under the hypothesis now under consideration, will soon be subjugated;
+let the Emancipation Proclamation fall into desuetude; let the military
+authority of our army officers be withdrawn, and there is nothing in the
+character of the Southern slaveholding aristocracy, and no other power
+on earth, to prevent their flocking in crowds and at the very first
+general election back to Washington, reuniting their forces with the old
+body of profligate political hacks at the North, and flaunting with
+increased presumption and activity the pretensions of slavery to
+dictate the whole policy of the land. In that event, a strong party,
+more distinctively proslavery and Southern than ever before, will be
+organized; more openly and shamelessly than ever devoted to the
+destruction of the last remnant of American liberty. Of course there
+will be a new reaction against the new usurpation. The conflict will be
+renewed, beginning precisely where the first war began, with the only
+exception that the issue will be then more distinctly understood, the
+conflict more desperate, and the result more definitive.
+
+It is of the utmost importance that the true nature of the case be
+understood: that this war is no accident of the hour, no merely
+political or national event even. It is a death struggle between two
+antagonist civilizations; if indeed one of them can be called a
+civilization, and not rather a conspiracy against the very idea of
+civilization. Again, the men involved in that conspiracy are not
+_hidalgos_, _ancien regime_, nor any of the proud aristocracies of the
+old world, who, when beaten, retire upon their dignity and hide their
+time. They are, on the contrary, an enterprising gang of desperadoes,
+who for the nonce may find it convenient to play the _role_ of high life
+and dignified pretension, but who, on the slightest change of
+circumstances, are ready for any shift, any seeming degradation or
+humiliation, any temporary lowering of their claims, in order to rise
+higher on the next wave. There is also enough of the savage and
+barbarous element of character remaining in the Southern bogus chivalry
+to make them, like the Chinaman or the Japanese, incapable of
+appreciating magnanimity. All conciliation or clemency will be construed
+into weakness; generosity and forbearance into poltroonery. These are
+sad truths; but being truths, the failure to know them in season may
+cost us another and a more desperate war, with more doubtful and
+dangerous results.
+
+Let us once surrender, through national verdancy, sentimental
+commiseration, misunderstanding of the nature and purposes of our enemy,
+or any or all of these causes combined with others, the dear-bought
+advantages we have won, and disasters untold involve the future of the
+land. Terrible beyond description will be, in that event, the condition
+of the Union and emancipationist party now incipiently developing itself
+at the South;--abandoned and deserted by the withdrawal of the actual
+presence and protection of Northern arms. No barbarism on earth, no
+savagism extant, is so barbarous or so savage as the ruthless vengeance
+with which this hybrid civilization of the South is ready at any time to
+visit the crime of abolitionism; and seven times hotter than usual will
+the furnace of their wrath be heated against Southern men who under the
+aegis of Northern protection shall have exhibited some sympathy with
+freedom.
+
+That a powerful Northern party will immediately arise in behalf of the
+simple readmission of the Southern States, upon precisely the old basis,
+when the war shall end by the suppression of the rebellion, is certain.
+The existence of such a party will rest, in part, upon a real sympathy
+with the South and the rebellion; partly upon interested political
+motives of a more ordinary and short-sighted character; and, in still
+greater part than either of these, upon the easy credence and
+insufficient information of the great mass of the Northern people;
+somewhat, indeed, upon a magnanimity highly creditable to their
+character as men, but unwise and dangerous in the extreme, in any
+exercise of it which should surrender a vital advantage.
+
+It does not require even that the complete reconquest of the South
+should be awaited in order that the question of the return of subdued
+States into the Union upon the old terms should be sprung upon the
+nation, and perhaps decided, by a precedent, before the attention of
+the country can be thoroughly directed to the momentous nature of the
+step proposed. The _New York Herald_ has been hitherto a steady and
+consistent advocate of this policy, and a powerful agitator in its
+behalf. The following extract from its columns indicates the imminence
+of the issue, as well as the simple and seemingly reasonable political
+machinery by which the whole thing is to be effected:
+
+     'It appears from the correspondence to which we have referred that
+     certain citizens of New Orleans, some of whose names are given
+     elsewhere, have resolved to restore Louisiana to the Union, and
+     that they intend to do this in the manner pointed out by Secretary
+     Seward in his famous reply to the intervention despatch of M.
+     Drouyn de Lhuys. That is to say, they intend to set the State
+     Government in motion, elect members of the Legislature, and send
+     loyal representatives to Congress. These gentlemen assert--and the
+     _Tribune_ does not deny--that Mr. Seward and Mr. Bates indorse this
+     idea, and that Mr. Etheridge, as Clerk of the House of
+     Representatives, has consented to receive the loyal members from
+     Louisiana, upon their own credentials, until the House is
+     organized. They also say--and the _Tribune_ does not deny--that Mr.
+     Etheridge has a perfect right to do this upon the precedent
+     established by the Broad Seal controversy, some twenty years ago.
+     Under these circumstances, the Union men propose to hold an
+     election for five members of Congress--one from each district and
+     one on the general ticket--and also for members of the State Senate
+     and Assembly. 'They are anxious,' says the _Tribune_ correspondent,
+     'that Louisiana shall take the lead in this matter, and there is no
+     doubt but Mississippi and the other States will, in due time,
+     follow.' So far, the patriotic reader will search in vain for any
+     objection to a plan which promises so much good for the Union, and
+     will be at a loss to know upon what grounds the _Tribune_ can
+     oppose it with any show of loyalty.'
+
+It is no part of the object of this writing to discuss the legality or
+the constitutionality of any course of proceeding in the premises. What
+can be done and what cannot be done under the law, as it stands, is a
+question for lawyers and judges. How far, if at all, the exigency has
+annulled or modified the law; how far the axiom, _inter arma silent
+leges_ ('in war the laws are silent'), shall be stretched to cover the
+case, is a question for statesmen and military commanders. The writer of
+these strictures speaks from none of those points of view, but as a
+social philosopher, viewing the drifts of inevitable consequence from
+one or the other grand policy in respect to the national
+destiny--irrespective of the minor measures by which it may be executed.
+A course utterly suicidal, viewed from this higher platform of
+observation, may proceed with the most unimpeachable subserviency to all
+the forms of the law; or, contrariwise, a policy replete with the
+highest prosperity and happiness of the coming ages, may chance to have
+its foundations laid in some startling deviation from all considerations
+of precedent and routine.
+
+In other words, what can be done or cannot be done under the law, or
+without violence to the law, is not now the question under
+consideration. What _must_ be done, whether under the law or above the
+law,[12] to secure certain great ends of human progression, and to avoid
+positions of utter disaster to the life of the American people of the
+future, _is so_.
+
+Whether the theory of Mr. Sumner, that the revolted States are, by the
+operation of the revolt, or should be by the action of the Government,
+remanded to the territorial condition, holds good; whether the theory of
+Mr. Owen, that the machinery of the State Governments at the South
+remains unaffected by the insurrection, but that the inhabitants, being
+traitors, are incapable of administering it, until they are purged of
+their treason by the action of the United States Government, is held to
+be the better opinion; or, whether, in fine, the easy and simple theory
+of the _Herald_ is the law of the subject--none of these points is _the_
+point of the present investigation. We seek to fix attention on the
+consequences of the act of an early readmission of the revolted States,
+and, what would be the same thing, of the old and governing set of
+slaveholding politicians, from those States, into the administration of
+our national affairs, no matter what should be the method of its
+accomplishment. In that event, the war will not be ended, but smothered
+merely, and left smouldering. It will burst out again, and all that has
+been done hitherto will have to be done over again, or fail to be
+accomplished, and the consequences of failure endured.
+
+Let no ordinary and superficial method of reasoning obfuscate the public
+mind on this subject. It is becoming popular to say and to think that
+slavery at the South is already a dead or a dying institution, by the
+operation of the war. This opinion has in it, undoubtedly, the value of
+a prophecy, provided the war be continued to its legitimate termination;
+provided all the measures against slavery hitherto adopted are firmly
+maintained; provided the incipient anti-slavery sentiment now being
+developed in the South, be wisely fostered and protected by the strong
+arm long enough, or until new institutions and new methods of thinking
+and acting have time to consolidate. But, whoever supposes that slavery
+is as yet even essentially weakened, provided, for any reason, our
+forces and the influence of Northern sentiment were suddenly withdrawn
+from the South, and the ocean waves of the old despotism were for a
+moment even permitted to surge back over those portions of the territory
+which have been partially redeemed, has no adequate idea of the
+tremendous vitality of that institution.
+
+A mistake on this subject, of the safe early return of the revolted
+States, will be one of those political blunders worse than a crime; and
+yet it is precisely this mistake which the American people are at this
+hour most likely to commit. A latent love of Southern institutions _per
+se_; the hope of personal political advantage, among politicians, by an
+alliance with Southern leaders, on the part of others who care nothing
+for the South as such; a lingering tenderness, a forgiving magnanimity
+and generosity, among the people at large, which would in this case be
+wholly misplaced; and finally an easy faith in the extent and
+irrevocable nature of the successes already accomplished--all concur to
+lead on to the commission of this error.
+
+Talk as we will of the purposes of this war, the hand of destiny is upon
+us. We must accept the _role_ of emancipators and champions of human
+freedom, or the only alternative will happen, the loss of our own
+liberties and the forfeiture of our national office as the leader of
+Progress combined with Order, on the planet. We have to deal with an
+implacable, a subtle, and a versatile enemy, wholly committed to the
+opposite cause; unscrupulous, inappreciative of magnanimity or
+concession of any kind; restrained by no considerations whatsoever short
+of the accomplishment of his absolute and tyrannical will. We have this
+enemy nearly prostrate under our feet, and we stand hesitating whether
+to avail ourselves of our advantage or to stultify ourselves at the
+tribunal of the world and of history, by allowing him to rise, to
+repossess himself of his arms, and to recommence the conflict upon terms
+of equal advantage.
+
+A glance at the remaining alternative outcomings of the war must be
+reserved for another article.
+
+
+
+
+THE ENGLISH PRESS.
+
+
+     [The article with this title is written by Mr. NICHOLAS
+     ROWE, of London. Mr. ROWE is a lineal descendant of
+     the celebrated NICHOLAS ROWE, the author of the tragedy of
+     _Jane Shore_ and other well-known poems. The author, like his
+     famous ancestor, is a man of talents and a friend of freedom. His
+     account of the old English Press is one of the most perfect ever
+     given. He intends to bring the subject down to the present period,
+     and will become a regular contributor to our Magazine.--ED.
+     CONTINENTAL.]
+
+     It is impossible to overestimate the influence of the English
+     press. It has raised itself to such a pitch of importance that it
+     has been not inaptly termed the fourth estate of the realm. But the
+     power which it wields is so enormous and so widespread that it
+     would be nearer the truth to concede to it the dignity of the first
+     estate. All classes see so clearly their interest in supporting it,
+     that the press has become, in effect, a general arbitrator, a court
+     of last appeal, to which kings, lords, and commons in turn address
+     themselves for support whenever the overwhelming force of public
+     opinion is to be conciliated or enlisted. It is in morals what a
+     multitude is in physics, and it may, without exaggeration, be said
+     that for all purposes of progress and of good the press of England
+     has in reality become something more than a single estate of the
+     realm, since it combines in itself, and exceeds the authority of
+     all. But while raised to this lofty pinnacle of greatness, it does
+     not, it dares not, it cannot from its very constitution permanently
+     abuse its power; and though isolated attempts have been, from time
+     to time, made in this direction, yet they have in the end, as was
+     to be expected, reaped nothing but disaster and disgrace. 'Great is
+     journalism,' says Carlyle. 'Is not every able editor a ruler of the
+     world, being a persuader of it?' Yes, truly a ruler of the world,
+     whose supremacy all other rulers must unhesitatingly acknowledge or
+     perish miserably and forever. Yes, truly a persuader of the world,
+     because he is the mouthpiece of the people, whose earnest, mighty
+     voice is making itself heard more and more irresistibly every day,
+     to the utter discomfiture and overthrow of the hydra-headed avatars
+     of the priestcraft and kingcraft and all the other mouldy and
+     rank-smelling relics of the dark ages. The press is the arch
+     apostle of civilization, progress, and truth--the Greatheart, whose
+     mission it is to combat and destroy the giants Pope and Pagan, Maul
+     and Despair, and all other misleaders and oppressors of men.
+     Language itself might be exhausted before all that could be said in
+     favor of the uses, benefits, and value of the press had found
+     fitting expression. The greatest and best of men have expatiated
+     upon this noble theme, but probably the truest and most eloquent
+     panegyric ever bestowed upon it is that of Sheridan:
+
+     'Give me but the liberty of the press, and I will give to the
+     minister a venal House of Peers--I will give him a corrupt and
+     servile House of Commons--I will give him the full sway of the
+     patronage of office--I will give him the whole host of ministerial
+     influence--I will give him all the power that place can confer upon
+     him to purchase up submission and overawe resistance--and yet,
+     armed with the liberty of the press, I will go forth to meet him
+     undismayed--I will attack the mighty fabric he has reared with that
+     mightier engine--I will shake down from its height corruption, and
+     bury it amidst the ruins of the abuses it was meant to shelter.'
+
+Had Sheridan never uttered or written anything besides these burning
+words, he would have merited immortal fame, and unquestionably obtained
+it.
+
+The press is not a thing of yesterday, for it is the slow growth of two
+centuries; neither did it burst upon the world armed at all points, like
+the fabled Athene. Yet in other respects the comparison holds good, for
+the press, like Athene, unites in itself the attributes of power and
+wisdom combined; it fosters and protects science, industry, and art; it
+is the patron of all useful inventions; it is the preserver of the
+state, and everything that gives strength and prosperity to the state;
+it is the champion of law, justice, and order, and extends its
+protecting aegis over the weak, the downtrodden, and the oppressed. It
+has taken two centuries, as we have already said, to make the press what
+it is; and a terrible uphill fight has it had to wage. Tyranny,
+dogmatism, and intolerance in high places, and ignorance and
+superstition in low, have ever been its sworn enemies. It has had its
+saints and martyrs, more worthy of canonization in men's hearts than
+many written high in the calendar of Rome. But though persecuted,
+crushed, and at times apparently done to death, its vitality was
+indestructible, and after every knock-down blow it rose again from the
+earth, like Antaeus, with renewed strength. It was always a vigorous
+stripling, and even so far back as the days of David Hume its future
+greatness and magnificent destiny was clearly marked out, so that he
+wrote: 'Its liberties and the liberties of the people must stand or fall
+together.' Liberty and the press in England are convertible terms, and
+this is the true reason of the success and power it enjoys. It is also
+the cause of the persecutions it has had to undergo. Tyranny and the
+press are as necessarily opposed to each other as are the principles of
+good and evil. The word 'tyranny' is not here intended to refer only to
+the despotic rulers of states and kingdoms, but to include the
+oppression practiced by the strong upon the weak, the rich upon the
+poor, the great upon the small, whether nations or individuals. The
+press, moreover, is the guardian of social, political, and religious
+morality. The greatest as well as the most trifling affairs which
+conduce to the well-being and comfort of the multitude are eagerly
+canvassed. The faults and vices which disfigure and disgrace even the
+most advanced forms of civilization are unshrinkingly laid bare, and the
+proper remedies prescribed. The political conduct of nations and of
+public men is carefully scrutinized, and every false step that they may
+make is immediately noted, commented upon, and held up to public
+reprobation. Religious questions, although, ever since the world began,
+they have been approached in a very different spirit to those of any
+other description, and have been debated with greater heat and passion
+than the bitterest political disputes, and with a lamentable disregard
+of logic and common sense, are now-a-days treated with a candor and
+fairness that has never yet characterized them. The press is, in fact,
+the great physician of the mind, whose duty it is to impart a healthy
+tone to the inner nature of man, to check the ravages of disease in it,
+and, wherever it may imagine any traces of poison to lurk, to administer
+a prompt and immediate antidote. It may not always and at once prosper
+in its endeavors. Wrong-doing may still, in some cases, prove too
+strong, vices may have become inveterate, diseases chronic, and the
+poison may have been too completely absorbed. But not, therefore, is the
+press discouraged: like Robert Bruce's spider, it returns again and
+again to its task, and--success does and must crown it in the end.
+
+But while faithfully performing these lofty duties, in the discharge of
+which it employs the trained minds and practised pens of the greatest
+literary talent of the time, the press has other functions, which, if
+not of such paramount importance, yet possess no small utility and
+value. By no means the least of these is that of merely furnishing the
+news of the day; and that this was the primary intention of the
+newspaper its very name proves. Comment, argument, and reasoning were
+after additions. There are thousands of persons at the present day even,
+who patronize a newspaper solely for its news, and who do not trouble
+their heads about any other portion of its contents. The births,
+marriages, and deaths are eagerly perused by many who expect to meet in
+that domestic chronicle with the names of their friends and
+acquaintances. The court news and the movements of royalty and the upper
+ten thousand have great charms for a large section of the community.
+Accidents and offences and sensation headings, such as 'horrible
+murder,' 'melancholy suicide,' 'terrific explosion,' 'fatal shipwreck,'
+'awful railway collision,' and the like, have powerful attractions for
+that class which is--alas for human nature!--only too numerous, and
+which likes to sup full of horrors--in print. In the same category with
+these may be placed police news, and the proceedings in the divorce
+court, the full reports of which are a blemish from which not even the
+greatest of English journals are free. There have been found able and
+honest men to defend these reports on the ground of the 'interests of
+morality,' than which there is not a more abused phrase in print. But to
+the man of ordinary common sense it would appear that more harm than
+good results from them. Where can the viciously disposed man or the
+novice in crime apply with better prospects of instruction in the
+pursuit of his evil designs than to the columns of the newspaper? It is
+perhaps not too much to say that for every two persons whom these
+reports deter from crime, there are three who have been either initiated
+or hardened in wickedness and sin by their means. This is a matter which
+calls loudly for reform; and let it, with all sorrow and humility, be
+confessed, one in which the better American journals shine vastly
+superior to their English brethren. To the general reader for
+amusement's sake only, those scraps _de omnibus rebus et quibusdam
+aliis_ with which editors fill up odd corners supply ample
+gratification. But those who read for amusement's sake only, or from
+mere idle curiosity, are by no means the majority, and a tolerable
+insight may be obtained into a man's character and bias of mind by
+observing what is the part of the paper to which he first turns when he
+unfolds it. The man who is absorbed in business pursuits turns to the
+prices of stocks and shares, the values of articles of merchandise, and
+the rates of discount and exchange. He will also probably glance at the
+'latest intelligence' and the most recent telegrams, but only with the
+view of forming an opinion as to how the world of commerce and
+speculation will be affected thereby. The politician finds matter to his
+taste in the leading articles, the Parliamentary debates and the letters
+of foreign correspondents, and, perhaps, after a careful perusal of
+them, flatters himself that he has at last mastered the intricacies of
+the Schleswig-Holstein question, or has arrived at an understanding of
+the Emperor Napoleon's policy in Rome. The scientific man and the
+literary man have their attention fixed by the reports of the meetings
+of the various learned societies, the accounts of new discoveries and
+inventions, and the reviews of new publications. This enumeration might
+be extended almost _ad infinitum_, but to sum up briefly, whatever a
+man's taste or predilections may be, he will be able to gratify them to
+his heart's content.
+
+There is, however, one portion of the newspaper which must not be passed
+over without especial notice, and which is so varied in its contents
+that it appeals to all classes. This is the advertisements. The man who
+wishes to buy may here ascertain whither he must bend his steps to
+obtain the article he desires, and the man who wishes to sell may here
+meet with a purchaser; and it is truly wonderful to observe how the two
+great requirements of demand and supply, in all their varied
+ramifications, are satisfied or seem to be satisfied in these columns.
+If one may put faith in them, it is possible to gratify every mortal
+wish and every mortal want through their instrumentality, on one
+condition, and that condition is--money. But even this condition may be
+satisfied through the same medium. Are there not untold fortunes
+invested in Government securities and unclaimed for years, only waiting
+for the lawful owners or rightful heirs to come forward and obtain them
+through the agency of those obliging gentlemen who make it their
+business to investigate such matters? Are there not also numbers of
+benevolent philanthropists eagerly longing for opportunities to lend
+money in large or small amounts, on personal security only, to such
+persons even as are not fortunate enough to be rightful owners or lawful
+heirs? The curious part of the affair, however, is that there are also
+so many people who want to borrow money upon the same terms. Do these
+two classes, we wonder, ever come together through the intervention of
+the advertisement, and does the result wished for on both sides follow,
+or does it not? If it does, why need both sets of advertisements appear
+at all? And if it does not, what is the use of repeating either of them
+day after day and week after week? The man of imagination must take
+especial delight in the advertising columns. What splendid feasts they
+afford him to banquet upon! Some of them, in a few pithy lines, contain
+the plot of a three-volume novel or the materials for a grand sensation
+melodrama. What tragedies and what comedies he may weave out of one or
+two mysterious and almost unintelligible sentences! What reveries he may
+indulge in, what castles in the air--the most harmless and inexpensive
+of building operations--he may construct, provided he start with the
+hypothesis, 'If I were to buy this,' or 'If I were to invest in that,'
+and all the time he has neither the intention nor the ability of
+purchasing the one or of investing in the other! How seductive are the
+notifications by auctioneers and land agents of the 'charming and
+valuable territorial estates, with the disposal of which they have had
+the honor of being intrusted'! The dweller in towns, who, chained to the
+one unceasing, unvarying round of official toil, still sighs for the
+country, and, like Virgil, envies the 'fortunati agricolae,' may here
+give the reins to his fancy, and indulge his rural proclivities _ad
+libitum_. When the day's labors are over, and he sits in slippered ease
+'by his own fireside,' what greater enjoyment can he have than to
+abandon himself in true Barmecidal fashion to the tempting dainties
+which the last page of the supplement to the _Times_ offers to his keen
+appetite! How he revels in the luscious descriptions of 'noble parks,'
+'swelling lawns,' 'ancestral woods,' 'silver lakes,' and 'endless
+panoramas of scenery unequalled in the world'! How proudly he lingers
+over the pictures of 'baronial castles,' and 'time-honored manorial
+residences, indissolubly linked with the proudest names and proudest
+deeds of England's history'! If he be a sportsman--and what Englishman
+is not, more or less?--how intoxicating to him is the enumeration of
+'game of all sorts, and countless myriads of wild fowl,' only waiting
+his advent to fall victims to his prowess! If he be a philanthropist,
+what visions of model farms, model cottages and model schools, of a
+happy and contented peasantry, of comely, smiling matrons, and troops of
+ruddy-cheeked children may he not conjure up! If he be ambitious, what
+dreams of greatness crowd upon him--the revered benefactor of the
+parish, the respected chairman of the bench of magistrates, nay, even
+the county member returned to Parliament without a dis-sentient voice!
+His fancy runs riot, and there is no limit to the bright future which
+the skilful hand of the cunning knight of the hammer unfolds before his
+enraptured gaze.
+
+To the energetic, enterprising man, how tempting must be those
+prospectuses of schemes for the development of the vast and in many
+cases untried natural, industrial, and commercial resources of the
+country, which, combining in an eminent degree both pleasure and profit,
+invite his cooeperation upon the joint-stock principle! How delightful to
+him must be those announcements of wonderful inventions--secured by a
+patent--and of old-established business firms, which offer a safe
+investment for his spare hundreds and thousands by way of partnership,
+with the certainty of immediate and enormous returns! To the invalid and
+the valetudinarian, how cheering must be those modest and disinterested
+encomiums upon the virtues of certain nostrums and specifics, which
+cannot but carry conviction to his mind that there is a certain cure for
+'all the ills that flesh is heir to!' And lastly, not to enlarge the
+list any further, what a glow of heartfelt pleasure and gratitude must
+the really good and benevolent man experience when he peruses the
+reports of charitable societies, with their statistics of poverty,
+misery, and privation, which afford him a channel for the dispensation
+in works of mercy of the superfluous wealth with which a bountiful
+Providence has blessed him!
+
+Such being the manifold uses and advantages of the newspaper, we are
+tempted for a moment to pause and reflect upon what would be the
+condition of the world without it. What a dreary waste it would be! Man
+is an inquisitive animal, and at the present day is just like the
+Athenians of old, going about seeking for some new thing. What would
+become of him if the provender supplied him by his newspaper were
+suddenly cut off? The consequences to society and to individuals would
+be frightful to contemplate, and the mind especially recoils with horror
+from the fate which would assuredly overtake those elderly
+club-loungers, whose sole aim and object in life appears to be the daily
+perusal of their favorite journal. How disastrous would be the effects
+of such a stoppage to those persons who are compelled to pass the
+greater portion of their lives together! They could not possibly
+contrive to get through the day, and before long life itself would
+become burdensome to them. Vast numbers of people have no ideas of their
+own, and are therefore compelled to borrow them elsewhere. How important
+is the part which the newspaper plays in that elsewhere! Paterfamilias
+comes down to breakfast--his newspaper fresh, clean, and tidily folded,
+lies invitingly on the table--he eagerly seizes it, and is forthwith
+furnished with topics of conversation with his family. When he is
+thoroughly posted up in the news of the day, he sallies forth, and is
+ready to interchange ideas at secondhand with any acquaintance he may
+meet. What would become of Paterfamilias, his family, and his friends,
+if they were deprived of this resource? The whole framework of society
+would be unhinged, business and pleasure would alike come to a
+standstill, and the world would again relapse into barbarism and chaos.
+
+But let us turn from these fanciful speculations to a sober recital of
+facts in connection with the history of the press.
+
+The derivation of the word 'newspaper' has been the subject of much
+dispute. Some learned and ingenious writers, disdaining the obvious
+'new,' have gone very far afield in their researches. Among other
+derivations which have been suggested, is one taken from the four
+cardinal points of the compass, N. E. W. S.; because the intelligence
+conveyed came from all quarters of the globe. This suggestion is
+contained in an old epigram:
+
+  'The word explains itself without the Muse,
+   And the four letters tell from whence comes News;
+   From N. E. W. S. the solution's made,
+   Each quarter gives account of war and trade.'
+
+And also, probably in jest, in the 'Wit's Recreations,' published in
+1640:
+
+  'Whence news doth come if any would discusse,
+   The letters of the word resolve it thus:
+   News is conveyed by letter, word, or mouth,
+   And comes to us from North, East, West, and South.'
+
+For the first origin of newspapers in Europe we must look to Rome, and
+there can be no reasonable doubt that the earliest germs of news sheets
+are to be found among that wonderful people, who have left such enduring
+monuments of themselves wherever they carried their victorious eagles.
+The Roman news sheets were called _Acta Diurna_, and were issued by the
+Government, and affixed to the walls in the most public places in the
+city. They were also carefully stored in a building set apart for the
+purpose, where any person could have access to them, and make copies of
+them for the benefit of their friends in distant parts of the empire. It
+is probable also that the Roman historians availed themselves of them in
+their compilations. They were not only reports of the ordinary
+occurrences in the city, but journals of the proceedings in the courts
+and town councils as well, and they contain records of trials,
+elections, punishments, buildings, deaths, sacrifices, state
+ceremonials, prodigies, etc., etc. They are alluded to in the
+correspondence between Cicero and Coelius, when the great orator was
+governor of Cilicia. Coelius had promised to send him an account of
+the news of Rome, and encloses in his first letter a journal of the
+events which had transpired in the city during his absence. Cicero, in
+reply, complains that his friend had misinterpreted his wishes, and says
+that he had not desired him to send an account of the matches of
+gladiators, the adjournments of the courts, and occurrences of that
+kind, which nobody dared to talk to him about even when he was residing
+in Rome: what he wanted was a description of the course of politics and
+but the newspaper of Chrestus. He also refers to these sheets, that is
+to say, to accounts of public affairs _in actis_ and _ex actis_, in two
+letters to Cassius and one to Brutus, written previously to the
+triumvirate. Suetonius also makes mention of them, and says that Julius
+Caesar, in his consulship, ordered the diurnal acts of the senate and the
+people to be published. Tacitus relates a speech of a courtier to Nero
+to induce him to execute Thrasea, and among other things he says:
+'Diurna populi Romani per provinciam per exercitus accuratius leguntur
+ut noscatur quid Thrasea non fecerit.' Seneca and the younger Pliny also
+allude to them. Dr. Johnson, in the preface to the tenth volume of the
+_Gentleman's Magazine_, published in 1740, enters into a disquisition
+upon these _acta diurna_, and gives an account of the discovery of some
+of them with the date of 585 A. U. C., and adds some specimens
+from them. He quotes them from the 'Annals of Rome,' by Stephen Pighius,
+who declares that he obtained them from James Susius, by whom they were
+found among the MSS. belonging to Ludovicus Vives. Their authenticity
+has, as might be expected, been hotly disputed by many learned scholars
+at various times, but sufficient grounds have not been adduced for their
+rejection. The most suspicious circumstance connected with them is their
+resemblance, _mutatis mutandis_, to a newspaper of the present day. Thus
+among other things we are told that the consul went in grand procession
+to sacrifice at the temple of Apollo, just as now a-days we might read
+that Queen Victoria went in state to St. Paul's, or attended divine
+service at the chapel royal, St. James's. Then we are favored with an
+account of the setting forth of Lucius Paulus AEmilius, the consul, for
+the war in Macedonia, and a description of the departure of the embassy
+of Popilius Lena, Caius Decimus, and Caius Hostilius to Syria and Egypt,
+with a great attendance of relations and clients, and of their offering
+up a sacrifice and libations at the temple of Castor and Pollux before
+commencing their journey. Then we hear how an oak was struck by
+lightning on the summit of Mount Palatine, which was called _Summa
+Velia_, and have the particulars given us of a fire which took place on
+Mount Coelius, together with an account of the crucifixion of a
+certain noted pirate. Dramatic intelligence is represented by a
+description of the plays acted in honor of the goddess Cybele; and under
+the head of 'fashionable intelligence,' the Jenkins of the day
+chronicles the funeral of Marcia, a noble Roman matron, and remarks that
+the attendance of images was greater than that of mourners. He also adds
+an account of the entertainment given to the people by her sons upon the
+occasion. By way of police news, we find a record of a disturbance in a
+tavern, in which the tavern keeper was severely wounded; and how
+Tertinius, the aedile, fined some butchers for selling meat which had not
+been inspected by the overseers of the market. A counterpart of this
+transaction may be met with every day in the city of London, but the
+result of the affair is much the more satisfactory in Rome, for whereas
+we do not know for certain what becomes of the money obtained from the
+penalty in London, we learn that the aedile directed it to be devoted to
+the building of an additional chapel to the temple of the goddess
+Tellus. Dr. Johnson also quotes a second series of _Acta Diurna_, with
+the date of 691 A. U. C., from the 'Camdenian Lectures' of
+Dodwell in 1688 to 1691. Dodwell says that he obtained them from his
+friend Hadrian Beoerland, who got them from Isaac Vossius, by whom they
+were copied from certain MSS. in the possession of Petavius. Among other
+things contained in this second set, we find noted certain trials, with
+the number of the votes for and against the defendant, a bargain for the
+repairs of a certain temple, an announcement by one of the praetors that
+he shall intermit his sittings for five days, in consequence of the
+marriage of his daughter, and an account of the pleading of Cicero in
+favor of Cornelius Sulla, and of his gaining his cause by a majority of
+five judges.
+
+Such are the earliest traces of newspapers to be found, and long
+centuries elapse before we again catch a glimpse of anything of the
+kind. Although it is the great Anglo-Saxon race alone which can boast of
+having developed the usefulness and liberty of the press to its fullest
+capabilities, both in England and America, yet it is not to us that the
+credit belongs of having been the first to reintroduce newspapers in
+Europe. Whether or no the Romans introduced their _Acta Diurna_ into
+Britain, and whether or no any imitations of them sprang up then or in
+after times, it is impossible to say. Some writers have asserted that
+news sheets were in circulation in England at all events so early as the
+middle of the fifteenth century, but as their assertions rest upon no
+very trustworthy basis, they must be at once thrown aside. It is to
+Italy that we must again turn for the reappearance of the newspaper. It
+was in 1536, or thereabouts, that the Venetian magistracy caused
+accounts of the progress of the war which they were waging against
+Suleiman II, in Dalmatia, to be written and read aloud to the people in
+different parts of the city. The news sheet appeared once a month, and
+was called _Gazetta_, deriving its name, probably, from a coin so
+called, of the value of something less than a cent, either because that
+was the price of the sheet, or the sum paid for reading it, or for
+having it read. There are thirty volumes of this MS. newspaper preserved
+in the Maggliabecchi Library at Florence, and there are also some in the
+British Museum, the earliest date of which is 1570. Printed news
+letters, with date and number, but not so deserving of the title of
+newspaper, began to appear about the same time in Germany. They were
+called _Relations_, and were published at Augsburg and Vienna in 1524,
+at Ratisbon in 1528, Dollingen in 1569, and Nuremberg in 1571. The first
+regular German newspaper appeared at Frankfort, and was entitled
+_Frankfurter Oberpostamtszeitung_, in 1615. The first French was brought
+out by Renaudot, a physician, in 1632. The first Russian paper came out
+under the auspices of Peter the Great, in 1703, and was styled the _St.
+Petersburg Gazette_. Spain did not enter the lists until a year later,
+and the _Gazeta de Madrid_ was born in 1704. It could not have been
+worth much as a newspaper, inasmuch as the defeat off Cape St. Vincent
+did not appear in its columns until four weeks after it had taken place.
+
+There must have been some sort of news sheets in existence in England
+about the same time as the Venetian _Gazetta_, for in the thirty-sixth
+year of King Henry VIII, the following proclamation appeared:
+
+     'The King's most excellent Majestie, understanding that certain
+     light persones, not regarding what they reported, wrote, or sett
+     forth, had caused to be ymprinted and divulged certaine newes of
+     the prosperous successes of the King's Majestie's army in Scotland,
+     wherein, although the effect of the victory was indeed true, yet
+     the circumstances in divers points were, in some parte
+     over-slenderly, in some parte untruly and amisse reported; his
+     Highness, therefore, not content to have anie such matters of so
+     greate importance sett forthe to the slaunder of his captaines and
+     ministers, nor to be otherwise reported than the truthe was,
+     straightlie chargeth and commandeth all manner of persones into
+     whose hands anie of the said printed bookes should come,
+     ymmediately after they should hear of this proclamation, to bring
+     the said bookes to the Lord Maior of London, or to the recorder or
+     some of the aldermen of the same, to the intent they might suppress
+     and burn them, upon pain that every person keeping anie of the said
+     bookes twenty-four hours after the making of this proclamation,
+     should suffer ymprisonment of his bodye, and be further punished at
+     the King's Majestie's will and pleasure.'
+
+None of these obnoxious 'printed bookes' have survived to the present
+time, and it has been contended that they were probably nothing more
+than ballads and copies of doggerel verses. But this is an hypercritical
+objection, or rather groundless guess, for it is evident that the
+proclamation points at something far more important. We may safely
+conclude that they were newspapers, and that journalism had already
+attained sufficient dimensions to alarm the powers that were, and draw
+down their hostility. And a few years later, Pope Gregory XIII
+fulminated a bull, called _Minantes_, against the news sheets, as
+spreading scandal and defamation, etc.
+
+It was long fondly believed that the British Museum counted among its
+treasures a full-blown printed English newspaper, dating so far back as
+1588. It was entitled the _English Mercurie_, and purported to be
+'published by authoritie for the suppression of false reports, ymprinted
+at London by Christopher Barker, her Highness's Printer.' Writer after
+writer exulted in the fact, and was loud in the praises of the sagacity
+and wisdom of Burleigh, under whose direction it was supposed to have
+been issued. But unfortunately for antiquaries and literati, the matter
+was carefully investigated by Mr. Watts, of the British Museum, and he
+pronounced on unquestionable evidence the copies of the _English
+Mercurie_ to be nothing but a barefaced forgery, of which he went even
+so far as to accuse, on good grounds, the second Lord Hardwicke of being
+the perpetrator. But though we must discard this fictitious account of
+the Spanish armada, etc., other news sheets did actually exist in the
+reign of Queen Elizabeth, a list of which has been compiled by Dr.
+Rimbault. The titles of some of them are: _New Newes, containing a short
+rehearsal of Stukely and Morice's Rebellion_, 1579; _Newes from
+Scotland, declaring the damnable Life of Doctor Fian, a notable
+Sorcerer, who was burned in Edenborough in January last_, 1591; _Newes
+from Spain and Holland_, 1593; _Newes from Flanders_, 1599; _Newes out
+of Cheshire of the new-found Well_, 1600; _Newes from Gravesend_, 1604.
+As time went on, these 'pamphlets of newes' increased in number. They
+treated of all kinds of intelligence; some derived their materials from
+foreign countries, and some from different parts of the kingdom at home;
+some were true, and some were false. Thus we find, among others,
+_Lamentable Newes out of Monmouthshire, in Wales, containinge the
+wonderfull and fearfull Accounts of the great overflowing of the Waters
+in the said Countye_, 1607; _Newes from Spain_, 1611; _Newes out of
+Germanie_, 1612; _Wofull Newes from the west partes of England, of the
+burning of Tiverton_, 1612; _Good Newes from Florence_, 1614; _Strange
+Newes from Lancaster, containinge an Account of a prodigious Monster,
+born in the Township of Addlington, in Lancashire, with two bodyes
+joined to one back_, 1613; _Newes from Italy_, 1618; _Newes out of
+Holland_, 1619; _Vox Populi, or Newes from Spain_, 1620. About this time
+the news sheets began to assume particular and distinctive titles, under
+which they appeared at uncertain intervals. We meet with _The Courant,
+or Weekly Newes from Foreign Parts_, 1621; _The certain Newes of this
+present Week_, 1622; _The Weekly Newes from Italy, Germany, etc._, 1622,
+a title which was shortly after exchanged for that of _Newes from most
+Parts of Christendom, London, printed for Nathaniel Butler and William
+Sheppard_. These names ought to be preserved, as being those of the
+great pioneers of regular journalism. It appears, however, that they did
+not always keep the same title for their newspaper, for sometimes it was
+called _The Last Newes_; at others, _The Weekly Newes continued_; _More
+Newes_; _Our Last Newes_, and other various renderings of the same
+theme. This great progenitor of a mighty race also adopted a system of
+numbering, and, though exposed to many dangers and vicissitudes, did not
+finally disappear until 1640. Butler and his contemporaries had to
+struggle with many obstacles, and to contend against many and powerful
+foes. In 1637, Archbishop Laud procured the passing of an ordinance
+limiting the number of master printers to twenty, and punishing with
+whipping and the pillory all such as should print without a license.
+Butler's name does not occur in this list; so we may conclude that he
+was particularly obnoxious to the haughty prelate and his party. But
+this persevering journalist, whose name had for a long time appeared
+alone as the printer of his newspaper, contrived to surmount this
+difficulty, for in a manifesto, dated January 11th, 1640, he says:
+
+     'Courteous reader! we had thought to have given over printing our
+     foreign avisoes, for that the licenser (out of a partial affection)
+     would not oftentimes let pass apparent truth, and in other things
+     (oftentimes) so crosse and alter, which made us weary of printing;
+     but he being vanished (and that office fallen upon another more
+     understanding in these forraine affaires, and as you will find more
+     candid) we are againe (by the favour of his Majestie and the state)
+     resolved to go on printing, if we shall find the world to give a
+     better acceptation of them (than of late) by their weekly buying of
+     them. It is well known these novels are well esteemed in all parts
+     of the world (but heere) by the more judicious, which we can impute
+     to no other but the discontinuance of them, and the uncertaine
+     daies of publishing them, which, if the post fail us not, we shall
+     keep a constant day everie weeke therein, whereby everie man may
+     constantly expect them, and so we take leave.'
+
+This number of his journal is entitled _The continuation of the Forraine
+Occurrents, for five Weeks past, containinge many remarkable Passages of
+Germanie, etc.; examined and licensed by a better and more impartiall
+hand than heretofore_. Another noticeable thing in this manifesto is the
+first occurrence of the autocratic editorial 'we.'
+
+Butler had also to contend with the opposition of the news writers or
+news correspondents, who doubtless found his undertaking interfere with
+their trade. These gentry covenanted for the sum of L3 or L4 a year to
+write a news letter every post day to their subscribers in the country.
+That this curious trade was thoroughly systematized is evident from the
+following passage in Ben Jonson's 'Staple of News,' published in 1635:
+
+  'This is the outer room where my clerks sit
+   And keep their sides, the register i' the midst;
+   The examiner he sits private there within--
+   And here I have my several rolls and files
+   Of news by the alphabet, and all put up
+   Under their heads.'
+
+The news writers flourished greatly at this period, but as newspapers
+began to get a footing, their credit gradually declined--and with
+reason, if we may put confidence in the following extract from the
+_Evening Post_, of September 6th, 1709:
+
+     'There must be L3 or L4 paid per annum by those gentlemen who are
+     out of town for written news, which is so far generally from having
+     any probability of matter of fact, that it is frequently stuffed up
+     with a 'we hear,' or 'an eminent Jew merchant has received a
+     letter,' being nothing more than downright fiction.'
+
+To Butler belongs the credit of having been the first to introduce
+street newsboys, with this difference, that his employes were of the
+other sex, and were styled 'Mercurie women.'
+
+Butler was a stanch royalist, and consequently suffered the vengeance of
+the Parliamentary party. He fell into great poverty, and, according to
+Anthony a Wood, died on board Prince Rupert's fleet in Kinsale harbor,
+in 1649, just as a brighter day was beginning to dawn upon journalism.
+
+The struggle between the Parliament and the king set the press free from
+the multiplied restrictions by which it had been 'cabined, cribbed,
+confined' and almost stifled in its cradle. The country became flooded
+with publications of all kinds, of which, while many were trashy,
+ridiculous, and extravagant, there still remained a considerable portion
+which materially helped forward that mighty uprising of the people to
+which England owes her freedom, her glory, and her might.
+
+And here, having introduced to the reader the first real newspaper, and
+the great ancestor of all after editors, and having attended the press
+through its obscure infancy and perilous childhood, we must pause,
+reserving for consideration in a future article the fair promise of its
+youth and the development of its still more glorious manhood.
+
+
+
+
+THE CONSCRIPTION ACT OF MARCH 3D.
+
+
+Few subjects are more difficult of legislation than that of the military
+service of a nation. The most profound wisdom, the most enlightened
+statesmanship, the most intimate knowledge of society, are requisite in
+the legislator. It is easy, indeed, to regulate the military service in
+times of peace, when the army is small and volunteers are abundant. But
+when the ordinary methods fail to fill up the ranks, decimated by actual
+war, when the honor and perpetuity of a nation depend upon a
+conscription of its citizens, then comes the tug of war, and many
+legislatures have failed in their deliberations on this subject. In the
+first place, a Conscription Act is opposed to popular prejudice.
+Compulsory service of any kind, except for punishment, is contrary to
+our ideas of personal freedom. We believe in the sovereign privilege of
+doing what we please, and declining to do what we do not please, to its
+fullest possible extent. We love to tell our neighbors that we have no
+standing army to defend our national honor, but that it reposes safely
+on the _voluntary_ patriotism of the people. We may admit the
+_necessity_ for a Conscription Act--may confess its justice and
+impartiality; but few men who are liable to fall into its pitiless
+clutches, can speak of such an act without a shrug of uneasiness or a
+wicked expression of anger. Again, it must be universal in its
+application. It must meet all classes and conditions of society; must be
+adapted to all shades of religious and political belief; must be
+inflexible as Justice on his throne, yet tender and sympathetic as a
+mother to her child. It must take into consideration different branches
+of industry, and the fields of one section must not be depleted of
+husbandmen that those of another may be filled with warriors.
+
+The act of March 3d meets these difficulties more successfully, perhaps,
+than any previous act, whether of a State or National Legislature. It is
+based upon the broad and well-admitted maxim, that every citizen owes
+his personal service to the Government which protects him. But while the
+Government impartially demands this service, the law provides for the
+exemption of those who would suffer by the unqualified enforcement of
+this demand.
+
+Many persons outside of the specified limits of age, are physically able
+to do military service. But, _as a class_, it would have been cruel and
+impolitic to have forced men into a service which would have wrecked
+health and happiness for life, or, by a short and swift passage through
+the military hospitals, have shuffled them into premature graves. Few
+men under twenty-five have the power of endurance necessary for a long
+and wearisome campaign. The muscles are not sufficiently knit and
+hardened for the service, nor the constitution sufficiently fortified to
+withstand the exposure. Men over forty-five have lost the vigor and
+elasticity necessary to long and arduous exertion, and are constantly
+liable to become a burden instead of a benefit to the service.
+
+No previous act has so equally disposed the military duty among the
+various classes affected by it. It is a well-known fact that the burdens
+of military service are wont to bear most heavily on the _laboring_
+classes. Probably no legislation can entirely remove this inequality.
+But the act of March 3d makes special provision for the indigent and
+helpless, and to a great extent relieves the suffering and inconvenience
+dependent on an enforced military conscription. Poverty is not left
+without relief, infancy without protection, old age without comfort. The
+dependent widow, the infirm parent, the homeless orphan, are adopted by
+the Government, and their support and protection provided for. And in
+order that the character and dignity of the army may comport with the
+greatness and purity of the cause for which it is fighting--that it may
+be both the power and the pride of the nation, it is expressly provided,
+that 'no person who has been guilty of any felony shall be enrolled or
+permitted to serve in said forces.' For the benefit of those whose
+peculiar business or family relations require their services at home,
+Congress wisely inserted 'the $300 clause.' In this they but followed
+the established custom in most nations since the days of feudalism. No
+part of the act has been more violently assailed than this, none more
+unjustly. It is asserted that this clause discriminates against the
+poor, in favor of the rich; that it recognizes unjust distinctions
+between the classes of society, and assigns military duty unequally
+among the citizens. No assertion could more glaringly display the
+author's ignorance and lack of judgment.
+
+The law, as originally drawn, required the service of the man drafted or
+an acceptable substitute within ten days. Had 'the $300 clause' not been
+inserted, the competition for substitutes would have been so great that
+their price would have risen far beyond the ability of men in moderate
+circumstances to pay, and many would have been forced into service who
+thus have an opportunity for exempting themselves. It has kept the price
+of substitutes at a low figure, and thus has proven itself emphatically
+the poor man's provision.
+
+Nor is the law harsh toward those who may be drafted. Abundant time is
+given for the settlement of any pressing business, the proper
+disposition of family affairs, or the procuring of a substitute. It is
+mild toward the infirm and afflicted, making ample provision for the
+exemption of those who, from any cause, are unfit for service.
+
+It assures to drafted men the same pay, bounty, clothing, and equipments
+as volunteers receive, and in all respects puts them on the same
+footing. It thus removes the unjust distinction wont to be made between
+the drafted man and volunteer, looking upon each as a true soldier of
+his country, equally interested in its honor and perpetuity. And in
+order that justice may be secured to the citizen as well as to the
+Government, the entire business of the enrolment and draft is under the
+supervision of a board of three men, generally residents of the
+district.
+
+The prevailing spirit of the act, cropping out in almost every section,
+is the tenderness with which it handles the subject. It scrupulously
+seeks to avoid all violence, injustice, and suffering, and while it
+firmly asks the service of the people, distributes that service equally
+among all. And herein is its superiority over all previous militia acts.
+State and national officers, members of Congress, custom-house
+officials, postmasters, clerks, and the favored and fortunate generally,
+were heretofore exempt, instead of those who, by misfortune or
+otherwise, were in circumstances of dependence and want.
+
+But the act of March 3d, thus general in its application, thus humane in
+its provisions, is not without omissions and imperfections. But these
+arise rather from the language of its provisions, than from its general
+design. Let us briefly examine these provisions as they are given in the
+second section of the act.
+
+Clause second exempts 'the only son liable to military duty of a widow
+dependent upon his labor for support.'
+
+The Judge Advocate General has decided, that 'a woman divorced from her
+husband who is still living, is not in the sense of the law a widow--a
+widow being defined to be a woman who has lost her husband by death.'
+Her only son, therefore, upon whom she may be dependent for her support,
+cannot be exempted. A divorced woman, whose husband is still living, may
+thus be left entirely without support, unless she have several sons
+'liable to draft,' in which case, she may elect one for exemption.
+
+Clause third exempts 'the only son of aged or infirm parent or parents
+dependent upon his labor for support.'
+
+It has been decided that a son cannot be exempted under this clause
+unless _both_ the parents are 'aged or infirm.' Thus it may happen that,
+by reason of bodily or mental infirmity, a father, with a family of
+helpless children, may be totally dependent upon the exertions of the
+mother and a draftable son. But the law pitilessly takes the son without
+possibility of exemption, throwing the entire burden of support upon the
+mother.
+
+But no clause of this section is more liable to objection than the
+_fourth_, which reads as follows: 'Where there are two or more sons of
+aged or infirm parents subject to draft, the father, or if he be dead,
+the mother, may elect which son shall be exempt.' It will be observed
+that the provision--'dependent upon his labor for support'--is omitted
+in this clause. Now, to interpret its language by the legal method of
+construction, by the context, it would seem that such dependence were
+necessary in order to secure the exemption. For the two clauses
+immediately preceding exempt 'the only son of a widow or of aged or
+infirm parent or parents _dependent upon his labor for support_. The two
+immediately following, exempt 'the brother or father of orphan children
+under twelve years of age _dependent upon his labor for support_.' That
+is, _four_ of the five clauses referring strictly to this subject, grant
+exemption to the applicant only when some one depends upon him for
+support. Hence it may be presumed, according to an admitted custom of
+legal interpretation, that in the remaining clause, standing between the
+other four, the question of dependence, though not expressly _stated_,
+is clearly _implied_.
+
+But an 'opinion,' published by the Provost-Marshal General's Bureau for
+the guidance of the boards of enrolment, declares that 'the right to
+this exemption does not rest upon the parents' dependence on the labor
+of their sons for their support. The law does not contemplate any such
+dependence.'
+
+What is the result of this decision?
+
+First, it places the wealthy and independent on the same footing with
+the indigent and needy, exacting from the one no more service than from
+the other.
+
+Second, it is more lenient toward the wealthy citizen who has several
+sons liable to draft, than toward the helpless widow who may have but
+one.
+
+Third, it makes a distinction against that family which may have
+contributed most to the military service.
+
+By the 'opinion' just quoted, the only fact to be established by parents
+electing one of several sons 'subject to draft,' is that they are 'aged
+or infirm'. When this is done, boards of enrolment must grant the
+exemption. The parents may live in affluence independent of their
+children; the sons may all be in the second class except the one
+elected; they may reside in different districts or States; they may
+belong to different households: yet, if the same parents, or some
+indigent widow adjoining them, had but _one_ son 'liable to military
+duty,' or, having _several_, had sent them all into the army save _one_,
+that one remaining could not be exempt unless it were proven that they
+actually depended on him for their support. Why should a helpless widow,
+having but _one_ son, be required to prove her dependence on him for
+support in order to have him exempted, when her wealthy neighbor, who
+has _two_ sons, can have one of them exempted without this dependence?
+
+Another published 'opinion' says: 'Election of the son to be exempted
+must be made _before_ the draft.' Now amid the chances of a draft it may
+happen that the brother or brothers of the elected son may not be drawn.
+Thus the Government loses the services of the entire family. In many
+cases no election would be necessary unless _all_ the sons were drafted,
+in which case it could be made as well _after_ as _before_ the draft.
+Besides, if there be a considerable interval between the time of
+election and the time of draft, the ground of exemption may no longer
+exist when the Government calls for the service of the man.
+
+On clause sixth an 'opinion' has been issued, stating that 'the father
+of motherless children under twelve years of age, dependent upon his
+labor for their support, is exempt, notwithstanding he may have married
+a second time and his wife be living.'
+
+A stepmother is not believed to be a 'mother' in the sense of the act.
+Another 'opinion' declares that the father of children of an insane
+mother under twelve years of age dependent on his labor for support, is
+_not_ exempt.
+
+A moment's reflection on these two 'opinions' is sufficient to establish
+their injustice. A stepmother may and should, in all important respects,
+take the place of the actual mother. Yet the father is exempt. Children
+of an insane mother, however, may be left entirely without maternal care
+and protection, and the father, upon whom may rest the burden of
+children and wife, is _not_ exempt.
+
+Clause seventh reads as follows: 'Where there are a father and sons in
+the same family and household, and two of them are in the military
+service of the United States, as non-commissioned officers, musicians,
+or privates, the residue of such family or household, not exceeding two,
+shall be exempt.'
+
+In reading this clause, the question naturally arises: Why is this
+provision made applicable only to families in which the father is still
+living? Why should not a widow, having two uncommissioned sons in the
+army, have her remaining son exempt, as well as if her husband were
+still living? Judge Holt has decided that 'a widow having four sons,
+three of whom are already in the military service, the fourth is exempt,
+_provided_ she is dependent on his labor for support.' If the father
+were living, the remaining son would be absolutely exempt.
+
+The evident design of this clause is to take into consideration the
+amount which each family may have contributed to the service. But this
+generous intention is practically ignored by another 'opinion,' which
+makes it necessary that two members of the same family must be _now_ in
+service, in order that the exempting clause may apply. Thus, by the
+calamities of war, a father and several sons may have been killed or
+rendered helpless for life, yet if there remains a son liable to draft
+in the same family, he cannot be exempted unless his mother depends on
+him for her support. It must be admitted that the parent or parents who
+have had two sons _killed_ in their country's service, have made quite
+as great a sacrifice as those who have two sons still engaged in that
+service. And if the question of support is involved, it is reasonable to
+suppose that two sons in the army would do quite as much for needy
+parents as two sons in the grave.
+
+These are some of the inconsistencies of the law, as it has been
+interpreted by authority. Other cases also may arise that seem to demand
+an exempting clause equally with those in the act. Of such are the
+following:
+
+First, the husband and father of a family depending upon his labor for
+their support.
+
+Second, the only support of an aged or infirm spinster or bachelor.
+
+It is not unusual for persons of this class to adopt the son of a
+relative or stranger. And when the infirmities of age render such
+persons unfit for toil, the youth whom they brought up, and who is now
+by his labor repaying their early attentions to him, should, not be
+taken away.
+
+Third, the only support of helpless children, having neither parents nor
+grown brothers.
+
+Orphans are often thrown upon the charity of a relative, and it seems
+right that their support should not be taken from them. In view of the
+many difficulties presented by the subject of exemptions, the many
+diverse claims that arise, and the impossibility of making a special
+provision for each, would it not be better to adopt a few general
+principles on the subject, and submit all claims to the judgment of the
+boards of enrolment? Thus, instead of clauses second to sixth, inclusive
+of the second section, there might be a single proviso that--No person
+who is dependent by reason of age, bodily, or mental infirmity, shall,
+by the operations of this act, be deprived of his or her necessary and
+accustomed support. This would include all possible cases, and would
+secure to each the necessary maintenance, as designed by the law. It
+would do away with the necessity of an unlimited issue of circulars of
+explanation from the Department at Washington, throwing each case upon
+the judgment of the board, who are to be presumed able to decide
+intelligently on proper evidence being given before them. It would avoid
+the unjust and injurious distinctions noticed under clause fourth, and
+in the end would secure more men to the Government with less liability
+of wrong to the citizen. Clause seventh also could easily be so modified
+as to avoid the objections noticed above.
+
+Another evident objection to the act of March 3d, is the limited power
+given to boards of enrolment as such. All clerks, deputy marshals, and
+special officers, are appointed by the Provost-Marshal alone. Yet a
+large--perhaps the _chief_ part of their duty is directly connected with
+the enrolment and draft. The judgment of the remaining members of the
+board would certainly be of some value in making these appointments, as
+they are always residents of the district, and hence acquainted with the
+peculiar wants of the service and the character of the applicants. The
+duties of the commissioner should also be more definitely stated.
+Special duties are assigned to the marshal and surgeon, but no further
+definition of the commissioner's labor is given than that he is a member
+of the board. Thus there is liability to a conflict of authority and a
+shirking of responsibility, which could easily be avoided by more
+explicit divisions of duty. The board system is undoubtedly a good one.
+It gives _the people_ a larger representation in the business of
+conducting a draft, tends to secure justice to all, and thus relieves
+the popular prejudice and feeling of opposition to the law itself.
+
+But why should not every board of enrolment throughout the country also
+be a board of enlistment? The time is fast approaching when the bulk of
+our present army will return home. It is important that as many of these
+men be reenlisted as can be, with any new troops that may offer
+themselves. The Government should avail itself of every opportunity for
+making voluntary enlistments. And by having a recruiting office within
+every district, convenient to every man's residence, a surgeon always at
+hand to examine applicants, offering the authorized Government bounties,
+much could still be done in this way toward keeping an army in the
+field, without any additional expense or without in the least
+interfering with the draft.
+
+The act of March 3d is a law for the present, not for the future. It is
+an act for the emergency, not for coming time.
+
+During the long years of peace and prosperity that we have enjoyed, the
+great truth that every able-bodied man owes military service to his
+country as sacredly as he owes protection to his family, has slumbered
+in the minds of the people. For half a century there was scarcely
+anything to remind us of it, and we were fast verging into that hopeless
+national condition, when
+
+  'Wealth accumulates and men decay.'
+
+This act brings duty home to the conscience of the nation. It is an
+impressive enforcement of a great political principle. But if our
+quickened sense of obligation fail to make us _act_, if we refuse to
+receive the lessons of wisdom which the developments of the hour force
+upon us, if we fail to improve our military organization and
+instruction, and render our able-bodied men effective for military
+service at a moment's call--then this act will have done us little
+permanent good. Our men of education and high social position, instead
+of aiding to make the militia system respectable by the personal
+performance of military duty and by using their influence to give tone
+and character to the service, have evaded its requirements on
+themselves, and have aided in sinking it into disrepute and contempt.
+And here is where our militia laws are imperfect. They have done but
+little toward cherishing the military spirit, developing the military
+virtues, or securing an effective military force ready at any time to
+take the field.
+
+In the future of our country we want no large standing army. It is
+contrary to the genius of our institutions and to national precedent. We
+must throw the duty of national support and defence directly on the
+people--to them commit our country's honor. The Swiss motto--'No regular
+army, but every citizen a soldier'--must be the foundation of our
+military system. The course of the present war has fully demonstrated
+the patriotism and loyalty of the people. The Government can rely upon
+its citizens in any emergency. What we want is discipline,
+organization, instruction. The act of March 3d does not secure these
+essential requisites. It has enrolled the people, but has not made them
+soldiers. We will not here attempt to describe how this can be secured.
+But we may take it for granted that there must be greater facilities for
+the military education of the young and the training of officers, a
+proper division of the country into military districts, and stated times
+for the drill and review of the citizen soldiery. Thus we shall be able
+to maintain our national existence against invasion from without and
+rebellion from within, and, being prepared for war, will be so much the
+more likely to live in peace.
+
+
+
+
+EDITOR'S TABLE.
+
+
+With the present number, THE CONTINENTAL enters upon a new
+volume. No efforts will be spared by its editors to increase its value
+to its many patrons. The high character of its political articles,
+always emanating from distinguished men and from reliable sources; its
+loyal tone and catholic spirit; the great ability with which the
+subjects of the deepest interest to the Government and community are
+discussed in its pages--entitle it to a high, if not the highest place
+among the journals of the country.
+
+It is intended to give utterance to the wants, wishes, tastes, views,
+hopes, culture of every part of our Union. Having no band of sectional
+collaborators, with local views and prejudices, narrowed horizons and
+similar cultivation, it is confined to no clique of thinkers however
+vigorous, no set of men however cultured, but receives thought and light
+from every part of our vast country, without favor or prejudice. It is
+the _Continental_, and thus represents and addresses itself to the mind
+of the continent.
+
+The contributions flowing in, in a continuous stream from every quarter,
+are subjected to but one great test--the test of real and substantial
+merit. Thoroughly Christian in the noblest sense of that noble word, it
+is never sectarian. Accepting Christianity as a _certain_ fact, it
+rejects no scientific inquiry into its bases, convinced that all true
+and thorough investigation will but lead men back to faith in a divine
+Redeemer. Shallow thought and nascent inquiry may be sceptical, but the
+deep mind is reverential and faithful. The problems of doubt torture the
+soul, and call for solution. Infinite and finite stand in strange
+relations in the mind of man; with his finite powers he would grasp the
+infinite of God. He fails to find the equation of his terms, and,
+baffled in his search, in the insanity of intellectual pride, denies his
+Maker. He puts the infinite mysteries of revelation into the narrow
+crucible of the finite, the residuum is--nothing; he calls it immutable
+laws, as if laws could exist without a lawgiver, and bows before a
+pitiless phantom, where he should love and worship the great I AM!
+
+Examine fearlessly into nature, O earnest thinker, for the created is
+but the veil of the Creator. Revelation and nature are from the same
+God, and both demand our serious attention. Revelation is indeed the
+Word of Nature; the sole key to its many wards of mystery. Truth never
+contradicts itself. Let the savant, whether in material nature or
+metaphysical realms, examine, classify, and arrange his facts--they,
+when fairly computed, thoroughly investigated, can lead but to one
+conclusion.
+
+Nor will the literary department of this magazine be permitted to
+languish. Tales, poems, and articles on art and artists, are solicited
+from all who feel they have something to say, to which the human heart
+will gladly listen. The talent of the East, West, North, and South shall
+flow through our pages. Genius shall be welcomed and acknowledged,
+though it may not as yet have registered its name on the radiant walls
+of the Temple of Fame. It is the design of THE CONTINENTAL to
+represent humanity in its different phases; to manifest to its readers
+the thoughts of their fellow beings; to hold up the mirror of our mental
+being to the complex human soul. Varied modes of thought and views of
+life will be represented in our pages, for as men, nothing that concerns
+humanity can be alien to us. We thus hope to be enabled to offer our
+readers a wide range of subjects, treated from varied standpoints,
+handled by writers widely scattered in space and severed in social
+position. May the divergent rays be blended in a bow of beauty, of peace
+and promise to the ark of truth! No personal bitterness shall find place
+among us, no immoral lessons sully our record. There may be often want
+of pruning, but even the undue luxuriance shall tell of the rich soil
+of genius, ever germing and budding into prolific growth.
+
+Meantime let our patrons continue to trust us, and have patience with
+our shortcomings. All that is human is liable to error, and the very
+width and breadth of our base increases the difficulty of the temple we
+would rear.
+
+Lend us your sympathies and moral aid, courteous reader, for many and
+complicated are the difficulties with which an editor has to contend.
+For example: 'Your review is quite too serious for success,' says the
+first; 'its subjects are too heavy and grave; our people read for
+amusement; you should give us more stories and light reading.'
+
+'Your review is too light,' says the second; 'the times are pregnant
+with great events, humanity is on its onward march, and a magazine such
+as yours ought to be, should have no space to throw away upon
+sentimental tales and modern poetry. Your articles should lead our
+statesmen on to the deeper appreciation of political truths, expose
+vital fallacies, and not strive to amuse silly women and effeminate
+men.'
+
+'You do not deal sufficiently with metaphysics,' says a third; 'you
+should reproduce in popular and intelligible form the vast thoughts of
+Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Schelling, Oken, Ronski, and Trentowski.'
+
+'Why do you give us so much metaphysics?' cries the fourth; 'modern
+philosophy is essentially infidel; you should not introduce its
+poisonous elements among our people.'
+
+'Such a review as you conduct,' remarks a fifth, 'should be the vehicle
+of the thinkers and progressives; they alone are the men to benefit and
+attract the attention of the community.'
+
+'Take great care to have nothing to do with the men calling themselves
+progressive thinkers,' remarks a sixth; 'they are full of vital errors,
+spiritualists, socialists, disorganizers. They have in reality nothing
+new to offer; they are the old-clothes men of thought, harlequins
+juggling in old Hindoo raiment, striding along in old German May-fair
+rags, long since discarded--motley's their only wear--stalking
+Cagliostros and Kings of Humbug.'
+
+'You are growing old fogy in your views,' says the seventh; 'we can bear
+sermons enough in church of Sundays; we do not buy magazines to read
+them there.'
+
+'Your journal is fast becoming an Abolition organ,' says the eighth.
+
+'Do you mean to oppose the Administration and distress the Government?'
+says the ninth.
+
+'You give us no history,' sighs the tenth.
+
+'What do you mean by your long historical disquisitions?' vociferates
+the eleventh. 'Nobody cares for the past now. Our hands are full of the
+present. We are ourselves living the most important history which this
+globe has yet seen.'
+
+Courteous reader, so it goes on forever, through all the unceasing
+changes of thought, heart, mind, soul, taste, which characterize the
+great, acting, struggling, thinking, conservative, progressive,
+believing, doubting, Young American people.
+
+Meanwhile we will earnestly strive to hold up the glass of the
+constantly shifting times before you, that you may be enabled to see the
+flitting shadows of the hour as they pass across it, grave or gay,
+portentous or hopeful, draped in solid political vesture, the toga of
+the statesman, or robed in the blue gossamer of metaphysics, in the
+drapery of sorrow or light hues of joy, in the tried armor of the
+Divine, or the dubious motley of the progressive, in the soft, floating,
+lustrous, aerial texture of the woman, or the monotonous Shanghai of the
+man--while we will forever strive to point you to the Cross of Peace,
+the Heavenly City, and the starry diadem of Eternal Truth. You may read
+in our pages of 'immutable laws,' for such is the term now in vogue, but
+you will remember that these words are but a veil used by the scientist
+to hide the Eternal and Unchangeable Will, the Personal God, the Hearer
+of Prayer, the Father of Creation. The kaleidoscope of nature, however
+rudely shaken, through all its multiplicity of fragments, forever falls
+back into the holy figure of God:
+
+  'Mirrors God maketh all atoms in space,
+   And fronteth each one with His perfect Face.'
+
+How long, lovely, and glowing has our autumn been, with its dreamy days
+and soft shadowy mists. In its surpassing beauty it is peculiar to our
+own loved land, and thus doubly dear to the hearts of Americans. Our
+mountains borrowed the rainbow, dressing themselves in its changing
+hues, holding up the great forests, like clustered bouquets, in their
+giant palms, as if offering their dying children to God in the very
+hour of their mature beauty. Crimsons and purples, oranges, golds,
+yellows, browns, greens, and scarlet dye the trees; gathered sheaves and
+golden pumpkins, marguerites, feathery golden rods, and bright blue
+gorse are on every field. Have we not, in very truth, a country for
+which a patriot should gladly die, and the devout heart never cease to
+quiver in prayer that God may vouchsafe to bless?
+
+One of our patriot poets has sent us the stirring hymn of the
+Cumberland. Let him chant it here, while we grave in our hearts the
+grateful memory of the brave crew who perished with her, martyrs in a
+holy cause:
+
+  THE CUMBERLAND.
+
+  Fast poured the traitors' shot and shell,
+  Where at their posts our gunners fell:
+  Our starboard portholes make reply--
+  Each takes his comrade's place to die;
+  All time shall yield no battle field
+      Grand as thy deck, our Cumberland!
+
+  Oh, crashing shock! our beams divide,
+  And death flows inward with the tide.
+  O'er gory decks,'mid sulphur smoke,
+  The climbing waters madly broke;
+  Our banner spread, still waved o'er head,
+      Above the sinking Cumberland.
+
+  The wounded cheer,--the dying wave,
+  While sinking to their watery grave,
+  With straining sight and grateful prayer,
+  Exultant that the Flag is there;--
+  Nor thought of life to glory's strife,
+      But of their ship, the Cumberland.
+
+  The vessel sinks;--her latest breath
+  Hurls through the cannons' mouth of death
+  Defiance at the traitor foes!
+  O'er guns the throttling waters close--
+  The hungry wave devours the brave--
+      The gallant crew of Cumberland!
+
+  No sailor yields; they gladly die;
+  Above them still the colors fly!
+  High o'er the black and surging flood,
+  That reels as drunk with patriots' blood,
+  Those glorious bars and Freedom's stars
+      Float o'er the sunken Cumberland!
+
+  Deeds like these will live forever--
+  Loyal hearts forget them never!
+  Hark! echoes from the brave and free,
+  Greet us from far Thermopylae:
+  All time shall ring while bards shall sing
+      The Martyrs of the Cumberland!
+
+  In Glory's sky, 'mid heroes bright,
+  Immortal galaxy of light,
+  Through future ages shall they be,
+  The _Color Bearers_ of the Free!
+  The sleeping brave, in ocean's wave,
+      Who manned the Frigate Cumberland.
+
+Our monthly will enter many a home during the coming holidays--the eight
+days consecrated to the memory of the most sublime record in the history
+of mankind, the union of the Divine with the human, the introduction of
+a human heart into the impenetrable but truly philosophical mystery of
+the Trinity. Do we ever sufficiently realize the duties which this
+marvellous union has enjoined upon us, the privileges with which it has
+endowed us?
+
+We shall enter many a home--some joyous with the mirth of children, the
+hopefulness of youth, the serene happiness of useful and contented men
+and women;--some shadowed by recent sorrow, where perhaps patriots, as
+in the olden time, learn to endure for the sake of a beloved
+country;--or others, perchance, where worldliness, discord, and egotism
+have severed hearts that should be united. God grant the number of the
+latter may be few! Happy should we be, could we know that our arrival
+would bring one more smile to the lips of the gay, a single ray of
+support or consolation to the souls of the sorrowing--could we cause the
+world-worn to dream of better and brighter things than mere matter can
+ever afford, give the thinker a pregnant thought, soothe earth's weary
+art-children with the hope of wider comprehension and sympathy, lead the
+rich to open upward paths to their poorer brethren, or the poor nobly to
+bear or to better their humble condition--in a word, could we offer but
+single drops of that wine of immortal life for which every human soul is
+thirsting.
+
+Frost and cold now are upon us; Christmas passing with its typal
+evergreens and mystic chants; the old year dying fast with its weird
+secrets buried until the Day of Doom; the New Year close upon us, with
+its demands and duties. May the Heavenly Father bless its fleeting
+hours, and enable us to sow them closely with the precious seeds of good
+deeds,--germs to blossom on the Eternal Shore!
+
+
+
+
+AMERICAN THANKSGIVING DAY IN LONDON.
+
+NOVEMBER 25, 1863.
+
+
+     [The following report of the proceedings at the Thanksgiving Dinner
+     in London arrived too late to be incorporated in the body of
+     THE CONTINENTAL; in consequence, however, of its immediate
+     interest to our readers, we have decided upon giving it to them,
+     even if it must appear as a supplement. It is surely a very
+     pleasant thing to know that our patriots abroad consecrated the
+     festival by grateful thanks to the Giver of all good; and that
+     public and loyal utterances were made of the great national truths
+     which, in our present crisis, it is of such vital importance to
+     make known to the men and governments of other countries.--ED.
+     CONTINENTAL.]
+
+In pursuance of the proclamation of the President of the United States,
+addressed to all citizens, at home and abroad, the loyal Americans now
+in England, to the number of several hundred, assembled at St. James
+Hall to dinner. The Hon. Robert J. Walker presided, assisted by Hon.
+Freeman H. Morse (our Consul here), and Girard Ralston, Esq. On the
+right of Mr. Walker sat the American Minister, Mr. Adams, and on the
+left, George Thompson, Esq., late M. P. from London. After the reading
+of the proclamation, the prayer, and the hymn, Mr. Walker addressed the
+company as follows:
+
+
+LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: By the request of my countrymen, I shall
+preface the toasts prepared for the occasion, by a few introductory
+remarks. This day has been set apart by the President of the United
+States for thanksgiving to Almighty God for all the blessings which he
+has vouchsafed to us as a people. Among these are abundant crops, great
+prosperity in all our industrial pursuits, and a vast addition, even
+during the war, to our material wealth. Our finances have been conducted
+with great ability and success by the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr.
+Chase, who has also succeeded in giving us, for the first time in our
+history, a uniform national currency, which, as a bond of union, and as
+an addition to our wealth and resources, is nearly equal to all the
+expenses of the great contest. During the present year, nearly
+400,000,000 of dollars of the six per cent. stock of the United States
+has been taken at home, at or above par; whilst, within the last few
+months, European capitalists, unsolicited by us, are making large
+investments in the securities of the Union. But, above all, we have to
+thank God for those great victories in the field, which are bringing
+this great contest to a successful conclusion.
+
+This rebellion is indeed the most stupendous in history. It absorbs the
+attention and affects the political institutions and material interests
+of the world. The armies engaged exceed those of Napoleon. Death never
+had such a carnival, and each week consumes millions of treasure. Great
+is the sacrifice, but the cause is peerless and sublime. (_Cheers._) If
+God has placed us in the van of the great contest for the rights and
+liberties of man, if he has assigned us the post of danger and of
+suffering, it is that of unfading glory and imperishable renown. (_Loud
+cheers._) The question with us, which is so misunderstood here, is that
+of national unity (_hear, hear_), which is the vital element of our
+existence; and any settlement which does not secure this with the entire
+integrity of the Union, and freedom throughout all its borders, will be
+treason to our country and to mankind. (_Loud cheers._) To acknowledge
+the absurd and anarchical doctrine of secession, as is demanded of us
+here, to abdicate the power of self-preservation, and permit the Union
+to be dissolved, is ruin, disgrace, and suicide. There is but one
+alternative--we must and will fight it out to the last. (_Loud and
+prolonged applause._) If need be, all who can bear arms must take the
+field, and leave to those who cannot the pursuits of industry. (_Hear,
+hear._) If we count not the cost of this contest in men and money, it is
+because all loyal Americans believe that the value of our Union cannot
+be estimated. (_Hear, hear._) If martyrs from every State, from England,
+and from nearly every nation of Christendom have fallen in our defence,
+never, in humble faith we trust, has any blood, since that of Calvary,
+been shed in a cause so holy. (_Cheers._) Most of the rebellions which
+have disturbed or overthrown governments, ave been caused by oppression
+on their part. Such rebellions have been the rising of the oppressed
+against the oppressor; but this rebellion was caused exclusively by
+slavery. (_Cheers._) To extend, and perpetuate, and nationalize slavery,
+to demand of the American Congress the direct and explicit recognition
+of the right of property in man, to cover the whole vast territory of
+the Union with chattel servitude, to keep open the interstate
+slave-trade between the Border and the Cotton States, to give the
+institution absolute mastery over the Government and people, to carry it
+into every new State by fraud, and violence, and forgery, as was
+exemplified in Kansas, and then, as a final result, to force it upon
+every Free State of the Union--these were the objects conceived by those
+who are engaged in this foul conspiracy to dissolve the American Union.
+(_Cheers._) 'I have said that the American Union never will be
+dissolved.' (_Loud and continued cheers._) This was the advice of the
+peerless Washington, the Father of his country, in his Farewell Address,
+and this was the course of the immortal Andrew Jackson, when he
+suppressed the Carolina rebellion of 1833, by coercion and a force bill.
+The American Union is the great citadel of self-government, intrusted to
+our charge by Providence; and we must defend it against all assailants,
+until our last man has fallen. This is the cause of labor and humanity,
+and the toiling and disfranchised masses of the world feel that their
+fate is involved in the result of our struggle. In England, especially,
+this feeling on the part of the working classes has been manifested in
+more than one hundred meetings, and the resolutions in favor of the
+Union, passed by the operatives of Manchester, who were the great
+sufferers from this contest, indicate a sublimity of feeling, and a
+devotion to principle on the part of these noble martyrs, which exalt
+and dignify the character of man. (_Cheers._) The working classes of
+England, of France, and of Germany, who are all with us, in case of
+foreign intervention, must have constituted the armies that would have
+been taken to our shores to make war upon the American people. The men
+who are for us would have been transported across the ocean to fight
+against us in the cause of slavery, and for the degradation of labor.
+Can there be any doubt as to the result of such a conflict? It is now
+quite certain that this rebellion will receive no foreign aid; but if
+any foreign despot or usurper had thus intervened and sent his myrmidons
+to our shores, the result, though it might have been prolonged, would
+have been equally certain--he would have lost his crown, and destroyed
+his dynasty. (_Cheers._) Our whole country would have been a camp, we
+should have risen to the magnitude of the contest, and all who could
+bear arms would have taken the field. We know, as Americans, that our
+national unity is the essential condition of our existence. Without it
+we should be disintegrated into sections, States, counties, and cities,
+and ruin and anarchy would reign supreme. (_Cheers._) No, the Lakes can
+never be separated from the Gulf, the Atlantic from the Pacific, the
+source from the mouth of the Mississippi, nor the sons of New England
+from the home of their kindred in the great West. (_Cheers._) But, above
+all, the entire valley of the Mississippi was ordained by God as the
+residence of a united people. Over every acre of its soil, and over
+every drop of its waters, must forever float the banner of the Union
+(_loud applause_), and all its waters, as they roll on together to the
+Gulf, proclaim that what 'God has joined together' man shall never 'put
+asunder.' (_Loud cheers._) The nation's life blood courses this vast
+arterial system; and to sever it is death. No line of latitude or
+longitude shall ever separate the mouth from the centre or sources of
+the Mississippi. All the waters of the imperial river, from their
+mountain springs and crystal fountains, shall ever flow in commingling
+currents to the Gulf, uniting ever more, in one undivided whole, the
+blessed homes of a free and happy people. This great valley is one vast
+plain, without an intervening mountain, and can never be separated by
+any line but that of blood, to be followed, surely, by military
+despotism. No! separation, by any line, is death; disunion is suicide.
+Slavery having made war upon the Union, the result is not doubtful.
+Slavery will die. (_Cheers._) Slavery having selected a traitor's
+position, will meet a traitor's doom. (_Loud cheers._) The Union will
+still live. It is written by the finger of God on the scroll of destiny,
+that neither principalities nor powers shall effect its overthrow, nor
+shall 'the gates of hell prevail against it.' But what as to the
+results? It is said that we have accomplished nothing, and this is
+re-echoed every morning by the proslavery press of England. We have done
+nothing! Why, we have conquered and now occupy two thirds of the entire
+territory of the South, an area far larger (and overcoming a greater
+resisting force) than that traversed by the armies of Caesar or
+Alexander. The whole of the Mississippi River, from its source to its
+mouth, with, all its tributaries, is exclusively ours. (_Cheers._) So is
+the great Chesapeake Bay. Slavery is not only abolished in the Federal
+District, containing the capital of the Union, but in all our vast
+territorial domain, comprising more than eight hundred millions of
+acres, and nearly half the size of all Europe. The four slaveholding
+States of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, are all devotedly
+loyal, and thoroughly sustaining the Union. And how as to Virginia? Why,
+all the counties of Virginia east of the Chesapeake are ours. All that
+vast portion of Eastern Virginia north of the Rappahannock is ours also;
+but still more, all that great territory of Virginia, from the mountains
+to the Ohio, is ours also, and, not only ours, but, by the overwhelming
+voice of her people, has formed a State government. By their own votes
+they have abolished slavery, and have been admitted as one of the Free
+States of the American Union. (_Loud cheers._) And where is the great
+giant State of the West--Missouri? She is not only ours, but, by an
+overwhelming majority of the popular vote, carried into effect by her
+constitutional convention, has abolished slavery, and enrolled herself
+as one of the Free States of the American Union. (_Cheers._) And now as
+to Maryland. The last steamers bring us the news of the recent elections
+in Maryland, which have not only sustained the Union, but have sent an
+overwhelming majority to Congress and to State Legislature in favor of
+immediate emancipation. (_Applause._) Tennessee also is ours. From the
+Mississippi to the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, from Knoxville, in
+the mountains of the east, to Nashville, the capital, in the centre, and
+Memphis, the commercial metropolis in the west, Tennessee is wholly
+ours. So is Arkansas; so is Louisiana, including the great city of New
+Orleans. So is North Alabama; so is two thirds of the State of
+Mississippi; and now the Union troops hold Chattanooga, the great
+impregnable fortress of Northwestern Georgia. From Chattanooga, which
+may be regarded as the great geographical central pivotal point of the
+rebellion, the armies of the republic will march down through the heart
+of Georgia, and join our troops upon the seaboard of that State, and
+thus terminate the rebellion. (_Loud cheers._) Into Georgia and the
+Carolinas nearly half a million slaves have been driven by their
+masters, in advance of the Union army. From Virginia, from Kentucky,
+Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and North
+Alabama, nearly all these slaves have been driven and huddled together
+in the two Carolinas and Georgia, because, if they had been left where
+they were, they would have joined the Northern armies. They preferred to
+be freemen rather than slaves; they preferred to be men and women,
+rather than chattels; they preferred freedom to chains and bondage; and
+just so soon as that Union army advances into the Carolinas and Georgia
+will the slaves rush to the standard of freedom, and fight as they have
+fought, with undaunted courage, for liberty and Union. (_Loud
+applause._) But how is it with the South? Why, months ago they had
+called out by a levy _en masse_, all who were capable of bearing arms.
+They have exhausted their entire military resources; they have raised
+their last army. And how as to money? Why, they are in a state of
+absolute bankruptcy. Their money, all that they have, that which they
+call money, according to their own estimation as fixed and taken by
+themselves, one dollar of gold purchases twelve dollars of confederate
+paper. The price of flour is now one hundred dollars a barrel, and other
+articles in like proportion. No revenue is collected, or can be. The
+army and the Government are supported exclusively by force, by seizing
+the crops of the farms and planters, and using them for the benefit of
+the so-called confederate government. Starvation is staring them in the
+face. The collapse is imminent; and, so far as we may venture to predict
+any future event, nothing can be more certain than that before the end
+of the coming year, the rebellion will be brought entirely to a close.
+(_Hear, hear._) We must recollect, also, that there is not a single
+State of the South in which a large majority of the population
+(including the blacks) is not now, and always has been, devoted to the
+Union. Why, in the State of South Carolina alone, the blacks, who are
+devoted to the Union, exceed the whites more than one hundred thousand
+in number. The recent elections have all gone for the Union by
+overwhelming majorities, and volunteering for the army progresses with
+renewed vigor. For all these blessings the President of the United
+States has asked us to render thanks to Almighty God. Our cause is that
+of humanity, of civilization, of Christianity. We write upon our
+banners, from the inspired words of Holy Writ: 'God has made of one
+blood all the nations of the earth.' We acknowledge all as brothers, and
+invite them to partake with us alike in the grand inheritance of
+freedom; and we repeat the divine sentiment from the Sermon on the
+Mount: 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' (_Loud
+cheers._)
+
+Nor let it be supposed that we, as Americans, are entirely selfish in
+this matter. We believe that this Union is the most sacred trust ever
+confided by God to man. We believe that this American Union is the best,
+the brightest, the last experiment of self-government; and as it shall
+be maintained and perpetuated, or broken and dissolved, the light of
+liberty shall beam upon the hopes of mankind, or be forever extinguished
+amid the scoffs of exulting tyrants, and the groans of a world in
+bondage. (_Loud applause._) Thanking you, ladies and gentlemen, for the
+kind indulgence with which you have been pleased to receive these
+remarks, I will now proceed to the toasts which have been prepared for
+the occasion. Ladies and gentlemen, the first toast will be, 'The
+President of the United States,' under whose proclamation we are this
+day convened. Before asking you to respond to that toast, I would say
+that we are honored by the presence this evening of his excellency, the
+American Minister, Mr. Adams. (_Prolonged applause._) This is a name for
+a century, and during three generations most honorably and conspicuously
+connected with the cause of our country and of human liberty. The
+grandfather and father of our American minister were each elevated to
+the presidency of the United States by the votes of the American people.
+The first, the illustrious John Adams, moved in 1776 the Declaration of
+American Independence, and supported that motion by an immortal and most
+eloquent address. He was the successor of the peerless Washington as the
+President of the United States. The second, John Quincy Adams, eminent
+for courage, for integrity, for opposition to slavery, for devotion to
+the cause of liberty, for learning, science, eloquence, diplomacy, and
+statesmanship, was the successor of President Monroe. His son, our
+honored guest, inheriting all these great qualities and noble principles
+of an illustrious ancestry, is requested to respond to the first toast,
+'The President of the United States.' (_The toast was drunk amid the
+most enthusiastic applause._)
+
+
+Order of Exercises.
+
+_I.--Reading of Thanksgiving Proclamation, R. Hunting._
+
+_II.--Prayer._
+
+_III.--Hymn_ (prepared for the occasion).
+
+TUNE--_Auld Lang Syne_.
+
+  We meet, the Sons of Freedom's Sires
+    Unchanged, where'er we roam,
+  While gather round their household fires
+    The happy bands of home;
+  And while across the far blue wave
+    Their prayers go up to God,
+  We pledge the faith our fathers gave,--
+    The land by Freemen trod!
+
+  The heroes of our Native Land
+    Their sacred trust still hold,
+  The freedom from a mighty band
+    Wrenched by the men of old.
+  That lesson to the broad earth given
+    We pledge beyond the sea,--
+  The land from dark oppression riven,
+    A blessing on the free!
+
+_IV.--Dinner._
+
+_V.--Prayer._
+
+_VI.--Address of Hon. Robert J. Walker, introducing Toasts._
+
+     1. The President of the United States.
+
+     Responded to by His Excellency Mr. Adams.
+
+     2. Her Majesty the Queen.
+
+     The Company.
+
+     3. The Day. Devoted to thanking God for our victories in the cause
+     of LIBERTY and UNION.
+
+     Responded to by George Thompson, Esq.
+
+     4. The Union. From the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Lakes to
+     the Gulf, from the Source to the Mouth of the Mississippi, forever
+     one and inseparable.
+
+     Responded to by Z. K. Pangborn.
+
+     5. The Emancipation Proclamation--Slavery's Epitaph, written by the
+     finger of God on the heart of the American President.
+
+     Responded to by Hon. Freeman H. Morse.
+
+     6. The Army and Navy--Immortal champions of freedom, who bleed that
+     our country may live.
+
+     Responded to by Capt. Mayne Reid.
+
+     7. WASHINGTON. The Man without a Peer. We follow his
+     farewell advice--NEVER TO SURRENDER THE UNION.
+
+     Responded to by Capt. J. C. Hoadley.
+
+     8. The Press. The Tyrant's foe, the People's friend--where it is
+     free, despotism must perish.
+
+     Responded to by Mr. Snow.
+
+     9. The Ladies. Our Sweethearts, Wives, Mothers, Daughters, Sisters,
+     Friends. Their holy influence will break all chains but those which
+     bind our hearts to them.
+
+     The Company.
+
+_Benediction._
+
+
+
+
+LITERARY NOTICES.
+
+
+     RUMOR. By the Author of 'Charles Anchester,'
+     'Counterparts,' etc. Boston: Published by T. O. H. P. Burnham, No.
+     143 Washington street. New York: H. Dexter Hamilton & Co., 113
+     Nassau street; O. S. Felt, 36 Walker street.
+
+'Rumor' is a book of genius, but genius of a peculiar character. Gleams
+of intuition into the most secret recesses of the heart, analyses of
+hidden feelings, flash brilliantly upon us from every leaf, and yet a
+vague mysticism broods over all. No steady light illumes the pages;
+scenes and characters float before as if shrouded in mist, or dimmed by
+distance. The shadowy forms, held only by the heart, shimmer and float
+before us, draped in starry veils and seen through hues of opal. We are
+in Dreamland, or in the fair clime of the Ideal. 'Porphyro' we know to
+be Louis Napoleon, but who are 'Rodomant and Diamid?' Adelaida and
+deafness would point to Beethoven, but other circumstances forbid the
+identification. Nor do we think Rodomant a fair type of a musical
+genius; arrogant, overbearing, and positively ill-mannered as he
+invariably is. He may be true to German nature, as he is pictured as a
+German, but he is no study of the graceful Italian or elegant and suave
+Sclavic Artist. We think the authoress unjust and cruel in her sketch of
+that ethereal child of genius and suffering, Chopin. Did she study
+exclusively in the German schools of musical art? If Beethoven is grand
+and majestic, Chopin is sublime; if Beethoven is pathetic, Chopin is
+pathos itself; if the one is broad and comprehensive, the other is high
+and deep; the one appealing to the soul through a noble intellect, the
+other reaching it through every nerve and fibre of our basic being.
+Rubens is a great artist, but does that gainsay Raphael? Are not
+Beethoven and Chopin twin stars of undying glory in the musical
+firmament, and can we not offer _true_ homage to _both_, as they blaze
+so high above us? Shall the royal purple so daze our eyes, that we
+cannot see the depths of heavenly blue?
+
+Meantime we advise the admirers of 'Charles Anchester' to read 'Rumor;'
+it is a book of wider knowledge and deeper intuitions.
+
+
+     GENERAL BUTLER IN NEW ORLEANS. History of the
+     Administration of the Department of the Gulf, in the year 1862;
+     with an account of the Capture of New Orleans, and a sketch of the
+     previous career of the General, civil and military. By JAMES
+     PARTON, Author of the 'Life and Times of Aaron Burr,' 'Life of
+     Andrew Jackson,' etc., etc. New York: Mason Brothers, 5 and 7
+     Mercer street. Boston: Mason & Hamlin. Philadelphia: J. B.
+     Lippincott & Co. London: D. Appleton &. Co., 16 Little Britain,
+     1864.
+
+Nothing is more difficult than, amid the whirl of passing events, to
+form just estimates of living men. Either our knowledge of the facts may
+be incomplete, or, if the external facts be known, we may be ignorant of
+the character and motives of the individual. No public man has made
+warmer friends or more bitter enemies than General Butler. History will
+probably, in the future, pronounce a just and impartial decision in the
+case. Meantime all that the public can learn regarding his political and
+military career will be eagerly examined.
+
+
+     TALES OF A WAY-SIDE INN. By HENRY WADSWORTH
+     LONGFELLOW. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. For sale by D. Appleton
+     & Co., New York.
+
+The mere announcement of a new book by H. W. Longfellow, is sufficient
+to secure for it the attention of all who read or love poetry. Long
+before the critic can pronounce upon its merits, it will be found in the
+hands of thousands. Longfellow is perhaps the most popular among
+American poets. His rhythm is always varied and musical, his diction in
+good taste, his treatment ever adapted to the subject he has in hand. If
+he seldom strikes the deepest chords of being, his touch is always
+true, tender, and sympathetic. 'The Birds of Killingworth' is full of
+beauty. If the 'Tale of a Poet,' it is also a song of the sage. The
+'Children's Hour' is charming in its home love and naive grace.
+'Weariness' is simple as a child's song, but full of natural and true
+pathos. Let it pleasure our poet that in this sweet, sad chant of his,
+he has the warm sympathies of his fellow men. Let him not weary thinking
+of the task yet before the 'little feet,' but rather rejoice in the
+sunshine he has himself been able to throw o'er the path in which the
+'little feet' must walk.
+
+
+     THE THOUGHTS OF THE EMPEROR M. AURELIUS ANTONINUS.
+     Translated by GEORGE LONG. Boston; Ticknor & Fields. For
+     sale by D. Appleton & Co., New York.
+
+Antoninus was born at Rome, A. D. 121, embraced the Stoic
+philosophy from conviction, and, though an emperor, lived in accordance
+with its stern spirit. This little book has been the companion of many
+of our greatest men. That it still lives, and is still read by all who
+delight in bold and vigorous thought, is sufficient proof of its
+excellence. It has been rendered into English, French, Italian, and
+Spanish. It was translated by Cardinal Francis Barberini, nephew of Pope
+Urban VIII. as he said, 'in order to diffuse among the faithful the
+fertilizing and vivifying seeds he found within it.' He dedicated this
+translation to his own soul, to make it, as he says, 'redder than purple
+at the sight of the virtues of this Gentile.' The strong pages act like
+a tonic upon the spirit, and give the reader courage to endure.
+
+
+     REVERIES OF A BACHELOR; or, A Book of the Heart. By
+     IK. MARVEL. A new edition. New York: Charles Scribner, 124
+     Grand street.
+
+     DREAM LIFE: A Fable of the Seasons. By IK. MARVEL.
+     A new edition. Charles Scribner, 124 Grand street, New York.
+
+The old type of these books has from constant use grown so worn and
+battered as to be unfit for further use, and it has been found necessary
+from the constant demand, to issue entirely new editions. And beautiful
+editions indeed we have before us. Print and paper alike excellent, and
+pleasant binding in vivid green and lustrous gold. It were surely
+useless to commend Ik. Marvel now to our readers, since no one ever
+attained to more rapid popularity. His sketches are always graceful and
+genial, his style of singular elegance. He wins his way to our heart and
+awakens our interest we scarcely know how, for he is marvellously
+unpretending and simple in his delineations of life. Our author says in
+his Preface to the new edition of the 'Reveries of a Bachelor:' 'The
+houses where I was accustomed to linger, show other faces at the
+windows; bright and cheery faces, it is true; but they are looking over
+at a young fellow upon the other side of the way.'
+
+We would whisper to him: 'Nay, not so. Humanity is ever grateful to its
+true and earnest friends, and have borne thee over in triumph to the
+fair clime of the Ideal, where undying affections await thee; and
+ever-yearning loves shall keep thee ever young. Spring flowers are
+forever blooming in our hearts as thou breathest upon them, and age is
+but a name for thy immortal youth, O friend of dreamy hours and tender
+reveries.'
+
+
+     MY FARM OF EDGEWOOD: A Country Book. By the Author of
+     'Reveries of a Bachelor.' Eighth Edition. New York: Charles
+     Scribner.
+
+A book of farm experience from Ik. Marvel cannot fail to awaken the
+interest of the community. If the author sees with the eye of the poet,
+his imagination is no ignis-fatuus fire to mislead and bewilder him when
+moving among the practical things of life. He begins with the beginning,
+the search and finding of the farm. Every page is pregnant with valuable
+hints to the farmer as well as to the gentleman and scholar. The book is
+a real picture of country life, its pains, trials, pursuits, and
+pleasures, and the most varied information is given with respect to what
+it might be made, what it should become. A single glance at the varied
+table of contents would be sufficient to convince the reader of the
+great interest of the topics so pleasantly treated in the volume before
+us. We extract a few of them: Around the House; My Bees; What to do with
+the Farm; A Sunny Frontage; Laborers; Farm Buildings; The Cattle; The
+Hill Land; The Farm Flat; Soiling; An Old Orchard; The Pears; My Garden;
+Fine Tilth makes Fine Crops; Seeding and Trenching; How a Garden should
+look; The lesser Fruits; Grapes; Plums, Apricots, and Peaches; The
+Poultry; Is it Profitable? Debit and Credit; Money-making Farmers; Does
+Farming Pay? Agricultural Chemistry; Isolation of Farmers; Dickering;
+The Bright Side; Place for Science; AEsthetics of the Business; Walks;
+Shrubbery; Rural Decoration; Flowers; L'Envoi.
+
+
+     LETTERS TO THE JONESES. By TIMOTHY TITCOMB,
+     Author of 'Letters to Young People,' 'Gold Foil,' 'Lessons in
+     Life,' etc., etc. Eighth edition. Charles Scribner, 124 Grand
+     street, New York.
+
+A work evincing strong practical common sense, and acute discrimination.
+Our author is a poet, but no mysticism or sentimentalism disfigures his
+pages; he is a clear, keen observer and analyzer of human nature,
+lashing its vices, discerning its foibles, and reading its subterfuges
+and petty vanities. He says: 'The only apologies which he offers for
+appearing as a censor and a teacher, are his love of men, his honest
+wish to do them good, and his sad consciousness that his nominal
+criticisms of others are too often actual condemnations of himself.'
+
+He addresses himself in a series of letters to the Joneses of
+Jonesville, each Jones addressed being a typal character and such as is
+of frequent occurrence in our midst. Homely and excellent advice,
+appropriate to their faults and needs, is administered to each
+individual Jones in turn, as he falls under the salutary but sharp
+scalpel of this keen dissector. There are twenty-four letters,
+consequently twenty-four studies from life, true to reality and detailed
+as a Dutch picture. We feel our own faults and foibles bared before us
+as we read. While these pages are very interesting to the general
+reader, the divine may learn from them how best in his preaching to aim
+his shafts at personal follies, and the novelist find models for his
+living portraitures and varied pictures.
+
+
+     THE WATER BABIES: a Fairy Tale for a Land Baby. By the
+     Rev. Charles Kingsley, Author of 'Two Years Ago,' 'Amyas Leigh,'
+     etc. With illustrations by J. Noel Paten, B. S. A. Boston: T. O. H.
+     P. Burnham. New York: O. S. Felt, 36 Walker St., 1864.
+
+A lively tale, dedicated to the author's youngest son, and calculated to
+entertain the elders who read aloud, as well as the children who listen.
+There are in it many tender touches, and numberless satiric blows
+administered in Mr. Kingsley's own peculiar way.
+
+
+     ADVENTURES OF DICK ONSLOW AMONG THE RED SKINS. A Book for
+     Boys. With Illustrations. Edited by William H. G. Kingston. Boston:
+     J. E. Tilton & Co. 1864.
+
+Stories of the Western wilderness, and of life among the Indians, are
+sure to meet with favor in the eyes of American boys, the descendants of
+a race of pioneers.
+
+
+     MY DAYS AND NIGHTS ON THE BATTLE FIELD. A Book for Boys.
+     By 'Carleton.' Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1864. For sale by D.
+     Appleton & Co., New York.
+
+This is a useful book, containing sundry items of military information,
+and many vivid descriptions of land and naval engagements during the
+present war--all interesting to young people.
+
+
+     LOUIE'S LAST TERM AT ST. MARY'S. By the author of
+     'Rutledge,' 'The Sutherlands,' 'Frank Warrington,' etc. New York:
+     Carleton, publisher, 413 Broadway, 1864.
+
+A book of school life, intended not less for teachers than for the
+youthful maidens whose various typal forms act, love, hate, and suffer
+through its very natural and interesting pages.
+
+
+     MILTON'S PARADISE LOST. In Twelve Books. New York: Frank
+     H. Dodd, 506 Broadway, 1863.
+
+The text is a literal reprint from Keightley's Library edition. Print,
+binding, and size all render the tasteful little book a pleasant form in
+which to possess the greatest epic in the English tongue.
+
+
+     THE GAME OF DRAUGHTS. By HENRY SPAYTH, Author of
+     'American Draught Player.' Buffalo: Printed for the Author. For
+     sale by Sinclair Tousey, New York.
+
+This book has been pronounced by the highest authorities on checkers,
+both in the Old and New World, the best work of the kind ever written.
+It is said to contain 'lucid instructions for beginners, laws of the
+game, diagrams, the score of 364 games, together with a series of novel,
+instructive, and ingenious critical positions.'
+
+
+     PECULIAR. A Tale of the Great Transition. By EPES
+     SARGENT. New York: Carleton, publisher, 413 Broadway.
+
+Mr. Sargent has given us a tale of the times--his scenes are laid in our
+midst. He grapples with the questions of the hour, handling even
+Spiritualism as he passes on. Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, George
+Saunders, Senator Wigfall, &c., are sketched in these pages. The story
+is founded on the social revelations which Gen. Butler, Gov. Shepley,
+Gen. Ullman, the Provost-Marshal, &c., authenticated in New Orleans
+after the occupation of that city by the United States forces. These
+materials have been skilfully handled by the author of 'Peculiar,' and
+the result is a novel of graphic power and sustained interest. It will
+make its own way, as it has the elements of success. We must, however,
+give a caution to our readers: 'Kunnle Delaney Hyde' and 'Carberry
+Ratcliff' are true as _individuals_ of the South, but it would not be
+fair to regard them as _typal_ characters. Let the magnanimous North be
+just, even to its enemies. Slavery is a great wrong, as well as a great
+mistake in political economy; men are by no means good enough to be
+trusted with irresponsible power; slaves have been treated with savage
+cruelty, and the institution is indeed demoralizing: all this, and a
+great deal more, we readily grant our writer; and yet we cannot help
+wishing he had shown us something to love, to hope for, in our enemy. He
+makes an earnest and able protest against a great wrong, and as such we
+gladly accept his book; but as a work of art, we think his tale would
+have held a higher rank had he given us some of the softer lights of the
+picture. In this we may be wrong, for a dread Nemesis stalks even
+through the plains of the Ideal. To stand up truly for the Right, we
+must comprehend the Wrong; meanwhile an important end is answered. We
+are taught, a lesson we should all learn, compassion for the negro, and
+enabled to understand some of his latent traits. For the ability and
+tenderness with which this has been done, we have reason to thank Mr.
+Sargent. The tale of Estelle is one of pathos and beauty, and
+'Peculiar,' the negro, shines in it like a black diamond of the purest
+water. The book cannot fail to interest all who trace the cause of the
+mighty transition through which we are passing to its true source, the
+heart of man.
+
+
+     POEMS BY JEAN INGELOW. Boston: Roberts Brothers.
+
+Many of these poems are vague and incomplete, others evince maturity of
+thought, and are of singular beauty. We are quite charmed with the
+'Songs of Seven.' It is highly original and tender. The rhythms vary
+with the chimes of the different ages, always in tune with the joys and
+sorrows sung. The poem is full of nature and simple pathos. There is a
+dewy freshness on these leaves, as if a young soul were thus pouring its
+spring carols into song, Jean Ingelow has been highly commended by the
+English critics. In regard to her poems the _London Athenaeum_ says:
+'Here is the power to fill common earthly facts with heavenly fire; a
+power to gladden wisely and to sadden nobly; to shake the heart, and
+bring moist tears into the eyes through which the spirit may catch its
+loftiest light.'
+
+
+     ALICE OF MONMOUTH, an Idyl of the Great War, with Other
+     Poems. By EDMUND C. STEDMAN. New York: Carleton,
+     publisher, 413 Broadway. London: Sampson Low, Son & Company.
+
+With the many stirring events passing around us, the heroic deeds
+enacted in our midst, it is fitting that the poet should begin to find
+his scenes in his own country. Mr. Stedman has so done in his 'Alice of
+Monmonth.' The story of the Poem leads us from the fruit fields and
+plains of New Jersey, from love scenes and songs, to the din of battle,
+and the sufferings of hospitals in Virginia. There are various changes
+rung in the rhythm, so that it never becomes monotonous; and many of the
+descriptive passages are full of beauty.
+
+
+     DEEP WATERS. A Novel. By ANNA H. DRURY, Author of
+     'Misrepresentation,' 'Friends and Fortune,' &c. Boston: Published
+     by T. O. H. P. Burnham, No. 143 Washington street. New York: H.
+     Dexter Hamilton & Co., 113 Nassau street. O. S. Felt, 36 Walker
+     street.
+
+Never having before met with a work by Miss Drury, we were quite
+surprised to find 'Deep Waters' a novel of so much power. The plot is
+original, and well managed throughout, the characters well conceived and
+sustained, the morals entirely unobjectionable, the style pure, simple,
+and unaffected, and the interest uninterrupted. The tale is indeed one
+of singular beauty.
+
+
+     IN WAR TIME, and other Poems. By JOHN GREENLEAF
+     WHITTIER. Ticknor & Fields, Boston. D. Appleton & Co., New
+     York.
+
+If bold, varied, musical rhythm; high and tender thought; hatred of
+oppression; warm sympathy with suffering; correct and flowing diction;
+intense love of nature and power to depict her in all her moods, joined
+with a glowing imagination and devout soul, entitle a man to be classed
+with the great poets, then may we justly claim that glorious rank for
+John Greenleaf Whittier. All honor to him, who, while he charms our
+fancy and warms our heart, strengthens our souls, ennobles our views,
+and bears us, on the wings of his pure imagination, to the gates of
+heaven. We are ready to accord him the highest rank among our _living_
+poets. No affectations deform his lines, no conceits his thoughts, no
+puerilities his descriptions. His 'Huskers,' should be graven on every
+American heart; his 'Andrew Rykman's Prayer' on that of every Christian.
+We regard this poem as one of the noblest of the age. Humble devotion
+and heavenly grace are in its every line. We pity the being who could
+read it unmoved. We deem 'the world within his reach' is indeed
+
+  'Somewhat the better for his living,
+    And gladder for his human speech.'
+
+It seems useless to us to commend this volume to our readers; the name
+of its author must be all-sufficient to attract due attention. Has not
+this truly national and patriotic poet a home in every American heart?
+If not, he deserves it, and we for one offer him our grateful homage.
+Not only shall the refined and cultivated in the coming ages praise the
+noble singer, but the 'dark sad millions,' whose long 'night of wrong is
+brightening into day,' shall bless him, as,
+
+  'With oar strokes timing to their song,
+     They weave in simple lays
+   The pathos of remembered wrong,
+     The hope of better days,--
+   The triumph note that Miriam sung,
+     The joy of uncaged birds:
+   Softening with Afric's mellow song
+     Their broken Saxon words.'
+
+
+     MENTAL HYGIENE. By J. RAY, M. D. Ticknor &
+     Fields, Boston.
+
+This work is not offered as a systematic treatise on Mental Hygiene. Its
+purpose is to expose the bad effects of many customs prevalent in modern
+society, and to present practical suggestions relative to the attainment
+of mental soundness and vigor. Many important facts are clearly stated,
+and sound deductions drawn from them. The law of sympathy is clearly
+traced in the propagation of tastes, aptitudes, and habits. Many curious
+and startling examples of its effects are detailed. The author traces
+the laws of mind, exhibits the consequences that flow from obeying or
+disobeying them, in a succinct and able manner. The art of preserving
+the health of the mind against incidents and influences calculated to
+deteriorate its qualities; the management of the bodily powers in regard
+to exercise, rest, food, clothing, climate; the laws of breeding, the
+government of the passions, the sympathy with current emotions and
+opinions, the discipline of the intellect--all come within the scope of
+the work. It is designed for the general reader, and will interest all
+who care for the preservation of mental or physical health.
+
+The subject is one of great importance in our excitable country, where
+so many minds are overtasked, so many brains too early stimulated, and
+insanity so rapidly on the increase. We heartily commend it to all
+readers interested in the subjects of which it treats.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     [Continuation of Literary Notices prepared for the present issue
+     unavoidably crowded out; they will however appear in our next
+     number.]
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Since the above was written, the speech of Earl Russell, in
+Scotland, indicates a disposition on the part of the British Government
+to do us justice, at least in the future; and it is to be hoped that a
+satisfactory adjustment of all differences on the whole matter may be
+peacefully made.
+
+[2] In the 'Letters to Professor Morse,' in the November number of
+THE CONTINENTAL, a sentence on page 521, relating to the
+Confiscation Law, was left incomplete. The whole sentence should have
+been as follows: 'As to the _Confiscation_ Acts--it is enough to say
+that the Constitution gives Congress power 'to declare the punishment of
+treason';--_or if the constitutionality of the Confiscation law cannot
+be concluded from the terms of that grant--about which there may be a
+doubt--it is undoubtedly contained in the war powers vested in
+Congress._'
+
+I have here put in italics the clause omitted in that article, and hope
+my readers will insert it in the proper place. The sentence, as thus
+completed, contains all I cared then to say on the point--my object
+being mainly to vindicate the justice and conformity to public law of
+the policy of confiscation. In the present article I have gone more at
+length into the question of the constitutionality of the law of
+Congress, and have come to the conclusions herein expressed.
+
+[3] Our whole area is more than sixty times as large as England.
+
+[4] One hundred years have elapsed since that treaty, and the London
+_Times_ proclaims that England will not fight for Canada now.
+
+[5] See Alison's History, chap. xxxvii, p. 269.
+
+[6] Kinglake's Crimea Invasion, p. 250.
+
+[7] Kinglake.
+
+[8] See Kinglake's remarks on the design of Louis Napoleon in making St.
+Arnaud commander-in-chief of the French army in the Crimean war, p. 321.
+
+[9] Written in August, 1863.
+
+[10] Pansclavism
+
+[11] The following story, in substance, is to be found in Joinville's
+Memoirs.
+
+[12] There may be extreme cases, few and far between, when the evil
+contained in laws may justify their overthrow by revolutionary
+force--witness our own separation from Great Britain; but the doctrine
+is one most unsafe when lightly broached, and we doubt not the
+Constitution and laws of the United States offer a basis broad enough
+for the legal as well as the most judicious mode of settlement under the
+present difficulties.--ED. CON.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Continental Monthly, Volume V.
+Issue I, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY ***
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author	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-15 04:53:23 -0700
committer	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-15 04:53:23 -0700
commit	86e03420bbb666e467e0ad17e63eb6ee2ebe1a61 (patch)
tree	79a497e635b7050e24a0e07a24e4329fca981f4d